Henricks, Mark

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HENRICKS, Mark

PERSONAL: Male. Education: University of Texas at Austin, B.A.

ADDRESSES: Home and offıce—Austin, TX. Agent— c/o Author Mail, Perseus Books Group, 5500 Central Ave., Boulder, CO 80301. E-mail—mark@notjust aliving.net; [email protected].

CAREER: Freelance journalist since early 1980s, columnist, author, public speaker and adviser on lifestyle entrepreneurship.

WRITINGS:

(With Clinton L. Crownover) Selling to Uncle Sam:How to Win Choice Government Contracts for Your Business, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1993.

Business Plans Made Easy: It's Not As Hard As YouThink!, Entrepreneur Media (Irvine, CA), 1999, 2nd edition, with John Riddle, Entrepreneur Press (Irvine, CA), 2002.

Mastering Home Networking, Sybex (San Francisco, CA), 2000.

Grow Your Business, Entrepreneur Press (Irvine, CA), 2001.

Not Just a Living: The Complete Guide to Creating aBusiness That Gives You a Life, Perseus Publishing (Cambridge, MA), 2002.

Contributor to magazines and newspapers, including Entrepreneur, American Way, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Popular Science, National Geographic World, PC World, Men's Health, and Kiplinger's Personal Finance, and to Web sites, including StartupJournal.com and CNET.com.

SIDELIGHTS: Freelance journalist and author Mark Henricks has written about a wide range of subjects, including computer technology, science, health, and business. Henricks is an advocate of "lifestyle entrepreneurship," or building self-employment around work the individual loves in a place he or she loves, and with people who are enjoyable to work with—instead of working merely for financial reward.

Building on his background as a columnist and business journalist, Henricks has written Selling to Uncle Sam: How to Win Choice Government Contracts for Your Business, Business Plans Made Easy: It's Not As Hard As You Think!, and Mastering Home Networking. His most recent book is Not Just a Living: The Complete Guide to Creating a Business That GivesYou a Life, in which he discusses why this new type of self-employment is becoming so popular in the early twenty-first century, whether it is right for the reader, and how to break into this lifestyle. Through his own knowledge as well as dozens of interviews with people who have succeeded, Henricks shows how to choose an entrepreneurial business, how to set up and run a home office, how to buy an existing business or purchase a franchise, how to fund a new business, and how to build a client list for freelancing. He also discusses ways of handling problems, finding capital, choosing suppliers, and setting up office technology. Henricks paints a brighter picture of self-employment and small-business ownership than do many writers nowadays, but he still includes a section on selling out if the business just isn't working.

David Siegfried, of Booklist, found that Henricks offers "excellent advice on how to keep feeding your stomach while following your heart." Stacey Marien, in Library Journal, called the book "a useful and clearly written manual." Hope Cristol, of the Futurist, enjoyed the "start-up stories and experience-driven advice" that Henricks offers.

Henricks's book Grow Your Business helps readers who have already made the commitment to operate their own business. The next major step is to assess its strengths and set and achieve goals for future growth. The book covers the psychological aspects of business growth, asking the reader to be sure he or she is ready for the added stress, possible lifestyle changes, and financial costs and rewards. It also delves into the practical aspects of growth, including marketing, personnel, new technology, relocation, and expansion to overseas markets. As in Not Just a Living, Henricks includes a word about selling the business when the time comes.

Mary Whaley, of Booklist, found Grow Your Business useful "for various stages of the expansion process." A Publishers Weekly contributor remarked that the book was "well timed." Lucy Heckman, in Library Journal, commended Henricks on the book's checklists and thorough coverage of every facet of growing a small business, as well as a section including names and addresses of agencies that can help. She concluded that the book "offers readers a unique perspective on managing a small business."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 2001, Mary Whaley, review of Grow Your Business, p. 889; September 15, 2002, David Siegfried, review of Not Just a Living: The Complete Guide to Creating a Business That Gives You a Life, p. 186.

Library Journal, January 1, 2001, Lucy Heckman, review of Grow Your Business, p. 127; September 15, 2002, Stacey Marien, review of Not Just a Living, p. 74.

Publishers Weekly, January 22, 2001, "Work It with Passion," review of Grow Your Business, p. 320; July 22, 2002, "Business Direction," review of Not Just a Living, p. 169.