Lynne Franks is an incredible woman. Clocking in at just over 50, she's borne and raised three highly-successful businesses in both the United States and England, and has risen to the top five in marketing for fashion and style circles. She's just embarked on a new enterprise, GlobalFusion, which is a marketing firm in Los Angeles that seeks to aid women in creating sustainable, feminine business practices.

It's from GlobalFusion and the ideas behind it that this book, The SEED Handbook: the feminine way to create business, is grown.

There are several main points to the book, and not all of them have to do with the traditional idea of creating a business. It integrates concepts such as "believe in myself and others will, too" and "never let go of the big vision" with more stolid business practices of finding an accountant and writing a business plan, finding your target market and launching your ideas. It occasionally diverges into a more esoteric view of the world that can be hard for some to swallow, but brings those things full-circle for the reader willing to take some of the more "out there" ideas with the practical.

SEED stands for "sustainable enterprise and empowerment dynamics," a lofty-sounding concept that could lose some readers. In plain english, it means that your business should focus on a small footprint in space, but a large footprint in social dynamics. It should empower your employees and your clientele, instead of keeping them subordinate, as most of the more "masculine"-archetype businesses seem to. She does diverge into some rants about the environment, some notes on recycling and self-sufficiency, as well as some notes on the voluntary simplicity movement. Be warned: if you think that environmentalists are a bunch of left-wing liberals, you might want to skip this book and get the Harvard MBA guide instead.

That said, the book was very beneficial to me, as someone who knows quite literally nothing about running a business the "right" way. I've always just been the one to dive in with enthusiasm and hope the details work themselves out. For someone like me, who is pretty much business-clueless, this is a fantastic, human way to learn.

She begins with finding the ideas for your business, researching those ideas and finding a target market. She discusses networking and bartering, as well as how to budget effectively. As the book progresses, punctuated by meditations and prayers to help center yourself, she moves into the harder stuff -- values and ethics, marketing strategies and learning lessons from failures. By the end of the book, you should have a working draft of your business plan, and know how you could launch it.

It's an incredibly comprehensive book, though at times, I felt that she could have elaborated more. Her friendly, warm writing style made it seem like I was getting advice from a friend that may just not have understood that I was lost here and there, choosing instead to go ahead, figuring I'd catch up. Luckily, it's in plain English for the most part, and I was able to catch up ... sometimes limpingly.

I would definitely recommend The SEED Handbook for women of any age that are even considering going into business for themselves, but not as a primary source of information. As a supplement, it's fantastic. Like a rich dessert, it may not make a good meal -- find yourself some steak and enjoy this on the side.