Carol Haffke, proud shoe shop owner and author of In My Shoes: What it’s really like to start your own business, knows a thing or two about starting and growing a passion business.

It took her only four hours to decide to open her niche shoe shop – The Shoe Garden — for women with longer feet. And this from a woman whose only experience of small business was watching her parents operate theirs.

In a revealingly honest and open account of what it takes to be a small business owner, Haffke opens the doors of her business and her personal journey of solo entrepreneurship.

She says, “This book is about how I left a successful 23-year career in journalism, PR and fundraising to open my own longer sized, women’s shoe shop, and my first four years of being a proud solo business woman. I have no experience in shoes or in business; I have completed no degrees, subjects or courses in business; I have never worked in a shoe shop; and I have no flair for finances (words were my thing, numbers terrified me). Looking back, the things I didn’t know were vast and astounding.”

In My Shoes: What it’s really like to start your own business is the real story of what it takes to operate your own passion small business and is a must read for anyone contemplating going into business for themselves or for anyone looking for reassurance on their entrepreneurial journey.

“This is the book I wish I could have read before I started my own business… I want to explain the emotional journey of taking a giant leap into the unknown from the relative safety of being an employee to the rollercoaster of being self-employed. Few people talk about that, but it was much more of an adjustment than I ever thought,” said Haffke.

In My Shoes: What it’s really like to start your own business is now available in ebook and paperback at http://blog.shoegarden.com.au/in-my-shoes-book/.