Last Saturday evening I settled on my big, comfy couch, Piglet snoozing to my left and ice packs clamped to my chipmunk cheeks to start reading Creative Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business. Four hours later and two pages of notes later I had finished the entire book. Yes, it was that good.

Creative Inc. covers everything from turning that little wisp of an idea into a plan, building your brand, and billing clients, to marketing, working with an agent and how to keep your work and personal life balanced. There are multiple case studies / interviews with successful freelancers working in animation, illustration, graphic & furniture design. It gave practical, easy to consume information and gave me a little boost of confidence I could actually make the escape from the cube work.

I really loved this book, will keep it on my shelf for future reference and absolutely recommend it to anyone thinking of taking the leap. I was really motivated when I flipped the last page and thrilled to have a long list of to-dos, some of them I’d thought of previously, but had been putting off and some of them that had never even crossed my mind.

Next on my reading list…Small Business for Dummies…this one scares me a little more >_<

Have you read any inspiring design or business books lately?