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Good Business Advice™
Services for Small, Micro and One-Person Businesses
From Free Agents to Entrepreneurs
We are Gail Terry Grimes and Claude Whitmyer, long-time members of Briarpatch, the international business support network. Since its inception in 1974 the Briarpatch has uncovered and promoted sustainable business practices including social and environmental responsibility, employee participation in decision making, open books management, and fun in business. In addition to our selves, we are pleased to enjoy the support and collaboration of this network and to be able to refer our clients to its members when appropriate. For more information, please send an email.
We have served hundreds of clients ranging from departments within corporate, government, healthcare or higher-ed organizations to manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers with under 100 employees to hundreds of one-person businesses including, but not limited to, Accountants, Acupuncturists, Archivists, Artists, Body Workers, Bookkeepers, Consultants, Dancers, Doctors, Editors, Financial Planners, Floor Finishers, Historians, Lawyers, Martial Arts Instructors, Musicians, Painters, Plumbers, Photographers, Publishers, Stock Brokers, Teachers, and Writers. To learn more visit What is Good Business Advice? or Who has used Good Business Advice?
Quick jump to:Online Business Advice
Couples in Business
Online Learning for Enterprise Builders
Books on Free Agentry and Entrepreneurship
Books on Free Agentry and Entrepreneurship.
Browse or buy in our affiliate FutureU's Bookstore, where you will find descriptions of dozens of books and tapes that can help you make meaningful choices about your career and life.
Of special interest are three books written by Claude Whitmyer, co-founder of meaningfulWork.com:
If you have your own business or wish you did, read Running A One-Person Business (Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1994, 2nd edition).
If you wish your work had greater meaning, read Mindfulness and Meaningful Work: Explorations in Right Livelihood (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1994).
If you are looking for ways to be in community, to collaborate, or work in a team, read In the Company of Others: Making Community in the Modern World (Tarcher/Putnam, 1993).
Online Business Advice.
We have identified the tools needed to hold online consulting sessions for individuals and entrepreneurial teams. Our approach to online consulting is based on the same methods we and our associates have pioneered with hundreds of socially and environmentally responsible businesses in regular face-to-face consultations. If this interests you, please let us know. For information about the online consulting tools we use, please visit here.
Couples In Business: Planning To Stay Together™.
The Mom and Pop shop and the SOHO (small office/home office) are thriving as more couples than ever before are finding ways to work together. Such couple-owned businesses have their share of rewards--and challenges--as we (meaningfulWork.com co-founders Gail Terry Grimes and Claude Whitmyer) well know. To help others meet the challenges and make the most of the rewards, we have created a 3-day planning retreat for couples in business together, or who would like to be. We call it "Planning to Stay Together." Learn more here.
Online Learning for Enterprise Builders.
Longtime associate Paul Terry was named Inc. Magazine's Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year in 1995. Now he is helping meaningfulWork.com to create a series of online training courses for entrepreneurs. These courses are based on the methods and materials developed by Mr. Terry and our co-founder Claude Whitmyer over many years. They each and together have presented these ideas and approaches successfully to thousands of small business owners. Here are some courses on the development list, based on topics already successfully delivered in face-to-face classrooms:
- Do You Have What it Takes to Start Your Own Business?
- Running a One-Person Business
- Finding Money for Your Business
- Developing and Understanding Financial Statements
- Grass Roots Marketing
- Selling by Building Relationships
- "Doing" a Trade Show
- Writing Your Own Business Plan
- Writing Your Own Marketing Plan
- Writing Your Own Strategic Plan
- Growing Your Business
- Managing Your Business As If People Matter
- Building a Professional Service Business
If you're looking for a learning experience that is more effective than reading a book but takes less time than going to an evening class, you may want to enroll in one of the forthcoming online programs for entrepreneurs, based on our unique values-based approach to business.
Receive the study materials by mail or online, with optional online discussion groups. Proceed at your own pace. Enroll for the entire program at once or each of eight courses sequentially. To learn more or put your name on the waiting list, write to us.