Book Review
In her book, Tiny Business, Big Money: Strategies for Creating a High-Revenue Microbusiness, small business specialist and author, Elaine Pofeldt, has written the entrepreneur’s complete guide to making it big while keeping things small. She offers her blueprint for getting a running start with your microbusiness―that is, a business with no more than 20 employees, including yourself.
Following her previous book, The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business, Elaine Pofeldt helps entrepreneurs to take things to the next level. She gives readers the next steps they need to take toward growing their next entrepreneurial venture. This includes testing an idea’s market viability while limiting risk, finding cash without giving up control, protecting your personal time and avoiding burn out, and knowing when it is time to start micro-scaling. Elaine’s focus is always on staying lean financially so that you can achieve your personal goals on a limited budget.
In this book, Elaine profiles nearly 60 microbusinesses that have all reached $1 million in annual revenue without losing control or selling out. Tiny Business, Big Money also includes the results of a survey with the founders of 50 seven-figure microbusinesses that got to $1 million with no payroll or very small teams, which provides deeper visibility into their shared principles of success that you can apply to your own small business.
Author Quotes
“Uncovering an idea that you will enjoy thinking about every day - whether that is when you are writing copy for your website or answering a customer's question about it - is the secret. Of course, you need to do your market research to make sure there are other people interested in buying what you plan to sell.”
“You can't build a million-dollar, one-person business around a passion that only ten people on the planet share, unless you have achieved such elite status in your niche that people will be willing to pay you very high prices.”
About the author
Elaine Pofeldt is an independent journalist who specializes in small business, entrepreneurship and careers. She is the author of "Tiny Business, Big Money" (W.W. Norton & Co, Feb. 15, 2022), a crash course on the best practices of entrepreneurs who are running seven-figure businesses with tiny teams, and "The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business," a look at how entrepreneurs are hitting $1 million in revenue in businesses where they are the only employees (Random House, updated 2021). Her work has appeared in FORTUNE, Money, CNBC, Inc., Forbes, Crain’s New York Business, Millie, and many other business publications and she has contributed to the Economist Intelligence Unit. As a senior editor at FORTUNE Small Business, where she worked for eight years, Elaine was twice nominated for the National Magazine Award for her features and ran the magazine’s annual business plan completion. During her time at FSB, she ran the magazine’s website, fsb.com, for four years, building its traffic to two to five million page views a month. Elaine graduated from Yale University with a BA in English. She lives in in New Jersey with her husband and their four children and in her free time enjoys taekwondo, yoga and running.
Why LoA loves it….
Most small business owners are driven not just by passion for what they do, but also by their drive to build a successful business that can go the distance and keep growing. But the challenge is always to take that vision and turn it into profit making growth. That’s where Elaine Pofeldt and her book Tiny Business, Big Money comes in. Elaine knows how to help micro-entrepreneurs to increase their revenues and start really making those all important sales at scale. If you have growth on your mind for your own business, then Elaine’s book is a must-read! — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo, Lionesses of Africa