Starting Up on Your Own: How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant or Freelance.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Brief article - Book review

Starting Up on Your Own: How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant or Freelance.

By Mike Johnson. FT Prentice Hall, 243 pages. $32.16.

Give Mike Johnson an "A" for forthrightness: In his introduction, he warns readers that if they lack real enthusiasm or energy, they shouldn't go out on their own. In fact, he offers a self-test at the outset that includes key attributes for success, like motivation, perseverance and good business and professional networks. Those who don't get a passing grade, he writes, "should put the book back and go out and seek a different career path."

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Such refreshing candor permeates. Johnson, a successful former journalist and corporate communications consultant-turned author of books such as Winning the People Wars and Talent Magnet, aims his books at people with modest goals. (He also writes for Financial Executive.) If you want to be a wildly successful entrepreneur, he writes, you won't make it as an independent consultant. The latter "want to stay small and stay in the background"--and will let the client take the credit.

That doesn't mean they can't be...