#8. Real You Incorporated: 8 Essentials for Women Entrepreneurs – Kaira Sturdivant Rouda

As a guide to developing your own 'real' brand as an entrepreneur, this was very practical and would be really handy if you were just starting out in business. As you work through the eight 'essentials', you build up a chart summing up you, your passions, your brand, positioning, culture and customers, which gives a comprehensive picture of how you see yourself and your business. There was much more to this book though, with 25 other 'life lessons', as well as stories from other female entrepreneurs, other books to read, questions to think about and action steps - and I think if you were going to get the most from it, you would really have to spend quite a bit of time working through all these questions.
It did come from that very American corporate marketing perspective, which grated on me a bit, and sometimes it didn't seem clear whether it was targeted at smaller businesses or women starting out, or women leading large corporate entities - in particular, the chapter on designing your premises really wouldn't be relevant for most new businesses! But generally, I found the message of following your own passions and being authentic in the way you run your business to be quite inspiring.