Very comprehensive, very thorough, 17 April 1999

In terms of content, this book is jam packed with highly tailored and specific information crucial to sustaining a successful and profitable web development business. Although the book's focus is on web development business start-ups, anyone who is looking to strike out on their own in any field would find this book useful. Furthermore, potential clients of web development firms may find much of the information in the book useful when dealing with internet businesses and negotiating the creation of their own site.

The writing style of the book is very clear and concise and Schmidt leaves no room for misunderstanding in his prose. There is absolutely no internet hype or marketing spin in this book, nor are you treated to a dry, textbook or computer manual treatment of how to run a business. Personally, I found Schmidt's geek humor (there is one remark at the end of each chapter) to be well, in a word, geeky.

From an organizational standpoint, Schmidt gets you in the right frame of mind to run your own business by the end of the first chapter. Whereas most home-business books would devote all of their chapters to Freudian self-analysis (ridiculous intropspective and self-assessment questions), finding a good location for a business, and choosing the best form of business, Schmidt takes you through all of that in one balanced chapter. You will also get some very good ideas on how to build a good, winning, effective, and professional team.

His second chapter tells you in brutal realism just how your customers will look at you, and how you should carry yourself around them (still another chapter tells you exactly how to deal with your client's misconceptions and false expectations of the internet to your advantage). Four more chapters are devoted to making that all important, life-sustaining sale- from finding customers, planning and making the sales pitch, closing the sale and ultimately to writing up a contract. He wraps up the book with a chapter on growing the business and attaches a modest business plan in an appendix.

Schmidt earns my respect because he tells you upfront to obtain good legal and accounting help long before you launch your venture. Yet, the real value in this book is the way Schmidt lays out setting your rates and making certain that you get paid in two understandable chapters. If you are looking to get on the web with your own business in a big way, forget all of those other books and start reading this one today!

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