Leap!: Ditch Your Job, Start Your Own Business and Set Yourself Free

Acknowledgements.

Introduction.

What this isn’t.

Who do you think you are?

Part One: ATTITUDE.

1 Starting out.

2 Make sure you’re hungry.

3 Passion wins.

4 Get known for being a safe pair of hands.

5 Be distinctive.

6 Don’t bullshit.

7 Perception is everything.

8 Soaking it up.

9 Warning: steep incline ahead.

10 Get involved and get visible.

11 Don’t listen to anyone who says ‘no’ to your ambition.

12 Be real!

13 Follow your gut feeling.

14 Leverage what you’ve learnt.

15 Get out of the classroom.

16 Knock down the barriers.

17 A focal point.

18 Why failure’s OK.

19 You’d better believe it …

20 From city trader to sole trader.

21 Conformity sucks.

22 Why catalysts count.

23 It’s a risky business.

24 ‘Easy’??!

25 Go for it …

Part Two: ENTERPRISE.

1 The bare basics.

2 Having the idea.

3 Do it yourself.

4 Making something (anything) out of nothing.

5 Wrapping up your know-how.

6 ‘Sell’ is not an expletive.

7 Expressing yourself.

8 Learn to juggle … well.

9 Turning a contact into a client.

10 Charge them!

11 Make sure you are valued.

12 Doing the deal.

13 Enterprise is the only way.

14 Why being a chameleon can be a good thing.

15 A toe in the water.

16 Funding ain’t often fun.

17 The power of collaboration.

18 Introduction time.

19 Know how to make money.

20 Counting your money.

21 On the cheap.

22 Different kinds of profit.

23 What is ‘core business’ anyway?

24 Get a reward.

25 Doing the sell.

26 Keep in touch.

27 Quick and ready.

28 Brand power.

29 Reinvent yourself.

30 Living off your latest gig.

31 Picking your team.

32 Get some personalities.

33 Going naked.

Part Three: SUCCESS.

1 Starting up and fi nishing up.

2 Do you have what it takes?

3 You don’t need big tools.

4 Business doesn’t come in a flat pack.

5 The six-point business plan.

6 It’s who you know (of course).

7 Getting connected.

8 Get yourself a mentor.

9 Polymaths have all the fun.

10 What do you do again?

11 Lucky breaks.

12 Facing up.

13 Don’t waste time.

14 Ideas, ideas, ideas.

15 The importance of scribbles on little scraps of paper.

16 Learn to say ‘no’.

17 Know when to shut up!

18 Value + value.

19 Don’t do mediocrity.

20 Consume the world of your client.

21 Here’s to a damn good lunch!

22 Think ahead.

23 Burnt fi ngers.

24 Just like that.

25 When to walk away.

26 Details.

27 Get it right online.

28 Don’t hide from the customer.

29 Getting regular gigs.

30 Bloody obvious management.

31 Small is best.

32 Get your hands dirty.

33 Don’t give too much away.

34 Think ‘entrepreneur’, not ‘freelance’.

35 Avoid those faux pas.

36 Making a difference.

Part Four: WORKLIFE.

1 If you don’t want to know the score, look away now.

2 It’s a life thing.

3 Nostalgia trips.

4 Do you love stress?

5 A space to work.

6 Somewhere else.

7 Motivation.

8 Get stimulated.

9 Benchmarks that really count.

10 A secret.

11 There is always an alternative.

12 A love of speed.

13 From feast to famine.

14 What is ‘the working day’?

15 Budgets, business plans and babies.

16 Trying to switch off.

17 Home time …

18 Taking time out.

19 No rungs on the ladder.

20 Who wanted a job for life anyway?

21 The importance of self-sufficiency.

22 Where is everybody?

23 Making it up as you go along.

24 Getting a return.

25 What you do, not where you are.

26 Giving up.

27 Is there any going back?

28 A new way of being.

29 Now, the end (or, actually, the beginning).

Appendix: Tales from the frontline of the scrambled up world of work.

Index.