"After you've had that fed-up moment when you're finally ready to be your own boss, take a look at Robert Wise's new history-memoir, Standing Alone; The Independent Retailer in America.
     Wise offers a valuable roadmap to any would-be retailer who want to own his or her business. It comes complete with six absorbing case histories covering money, family, partners, and work challenges ranging from being boss to sweeping up.
    Written in logical, readable prose, Wise's book provides what's overlooked by how-to writers: context. Tracking retailers who range from artists to pharmacists, Wise interviews the quirky and the hopeful, allowing his subjects to reveal the attitudes and decisions that create success not just for years, but for generations.
    Such perspective may be a retailer's most bankable asset, especially if he's eyeing Florida, the nation's third-most populous state and a favorite destination for retailing hopefuls.
   Before you sign for that franchise or negotiate that lease, take a stroll with a survivor who doesn't mind sharing secrets; Robert Wise's Standing Alone could be just the silent partner you need."
     George Meyer reviews books for the Tampa Tribune. A writer and critic, Meyer has taught non-fiction writing and editing at the Universities of Florida, Iowa, Tennessee and South Florida.

"Very interesting..the case studies of individual retailers are especially valuable..Captures well the pros and cons, the ups and downs, of being an independent retailer in modern America."
Prof. Mansel Blackford, Author of A History of Small Business in America