The fastest growing segment of the self-employed market in Canada today is composed of women. Female entrepreneurs are at the leading edge of our economy’s knowledge workers and are launching their own businesses in record numbers. Ellie Rubin is one such entrepreneur.

Rubin is the founder of The Bulldog Group Inc., an international media asset management company, and she is a well-known speaker on the seminar circuit. Her book is based on her own experiences and offers advice on career development. Among the topics dealt with are building up a business and how to profit from the personal struggles an entrepreneur inevitably faces.

Bulldog’s message is simple: the new entrepreneur needs to be open to change. Change is a given in today’s economy, and more than ever it’s important to be flexible and open to the novel says Rubin. Rubin aims to help the reader manage change by “entrepreneuring,” which in her world view means to welcome change and challenge with the “angels of advantage – obsession, intuition, and sacrifice.” With its rambling style, stories ranging from psychics to boardroom epiphanies, multiple references to books and movies, and bullets of wisdom in the margins, Bulldog is clearly meant to be an inspirational self-help book. It is not a practical guide for those establishing a business who will need such key information as how to write a business plan and deal with banks. Indeed, it’s difficult to fathom to whom this book is targetted – probably women who have always dreamed of opening their own business. I can’t see a serious businesswoman reading the book for information or anything more than entertainment. Cutesy titles such as “The Professional Eclectic,” “The Chaos Pilot,” and “The F(e-mail) Factor” are annoying and give the book the feel of a feature in a women’s magazine. The market is flooded with guides for the entrepreneur, and although this one is slightly different in approach, it still comes down to fluff in the end.