Bexhill Author Celebrates Launch of Latest Book

BEXHILL based author Antonia Chitty, is celebrating the launch of her latest book which promises to be an inspiration for all stay at home parents.

The book, entitled 'Family Friendly Working', follows hot on the heals of Antonia's, 'A Guide to Promoting Your Own Business' which she published last year.

Antonia, herself a working parent, is an expert on the subjects which both these books cover, having had first hand experience of how to juggle parenthood whilst starting up and running a successful business.

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Drawing on her wealth of experience from her background in PR, the ideas and techniques she describes make both books invaluable to anyone who is contemplating starting their own business, or for those wondering how to combine being a parent and working.

Antonia said it was thanks to other like-minded people and their encouragement that gave her the motivation to write 'A Guide to Promoting Your Own Business'.

She said: "I've had a really good community of people, who are women like me, starting their own business. A lot of them started around the same time and we've supported each other. I had somebody do my web-site; somebody else did the graphic design."

It was one of her client's who had received some of the PR fact sheets that Antonia had written who initially suggested turning them into a book.

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Antonia said: "She herself had written a book and I was helping her promote that, so she knew what she was talking about and I started looking into it. Then a second person who was a colleague, and who had also done some PR and writing, said the same thing and because I was already giving some talks to the local enterprise agency and things like that I knew that I had lots more material that I'd developed and so I sat down and wrote the book."

Antonia, who had just had a baby and was on maternity leave at the time (or, as she put it, "as much as you can be when you run your own business") said the style the of the book was an important element as she had previously bought many business books but had not, "managed to get past the first chapter", because they were all theory.

With that in mind, she has written and designed her book to be entirely practical based with the intention that this will encourage people to find the time and the motivation to see their business ideas blossom.

The book sets users a daily routine of simple, easy to follow short exercises, providing support and advice whilst actively encouraging participation which, Antonia said, "will hopefully take people that one step closer to promoting their own business."

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Offering support and guidance for people who may feel they can't find the time to promote their business or simply can't afford it, she said: "The person I had in mind when I was writing it is possibly a mother or a father who is trying to run their business and promote it and do all the sales and look after the family and, is only going to have a few minutes each day to do some promotion. Everything is written in small chunks - you can work through one section and stop."

She added: "My book is dead straight forward; you don't have to have a big budget, you don't have to have degrees in marketing, its stuff that any business earner can do with a little bit of time and a little bit of money."

After writing the book Antonia proceeded to publish and promote it herself. All her hard work has clearly reaped rewards as she said the book "has been incredibly successful for me."

She is hoping this success will continue with the publication of 'Family Friendly Working."

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Offering advice on the pros and cons of working around kids and packed with real life case studies, the first chapter asks parents to consider; 'why do you want to work?' and, 'do you desperately need something that involves adult conversation? Or the sting in the tail question, 'will one more episodes of Teletubbies tip you over the edge?'

For those who identify with any of these thought provoking questions this book, which states it offers, 'inspiring ideas for making money when you have kids', may be just what is needed.

It provides guidance on how to turn an idea, hobby or skill into a business venture and how to combine it with life as a working parent.

For more information visit www.whiteladderpress.com or www.prbasics.co.uk.

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