Henderson, NV – When it comes to shopping for corporate holiday gifts this year, successful business managers can finally kick those trite pen-and-paperweight catalogs to the curb.

Instead, employers now have a more meaningful way to show appreciation for their direct reports. Copies of author/speaker Debra Snider’s career-themed novel, A Merger of Equals, are being offered at special holiday prices, including free shipping.

Set in the business world, the book – hailed as a “can’t-put-it-down story” that’s “densely packed with practical, valuable business advice” – follows the careers and lives of two characters, Jane and Charlie, who are determined to succeed. Surrounded by friends and colleagues, some of whom ease the climb and some of whom decidedly do not, Jane and Charlie defy the constrictions of the status quo to create a new model of professional and personal success. A Merger of Equals tackles universal professional concerns, such as work-life balance and gender issues in the workplace, as it tells its fun, fast-paced and ultimately inspiring story.

Snider’s holiday discounts, below, make A Merger of Equals a gift that’s not only relevant to the career-minded, but cheap.

•    Buy 1 copy for $14.50 (9% off the retail price of $15.95)
•    Buy 5 copies for $65.00 (18% discount)
•    Buy 10 copies for $110.00 (31% discount)

Orders placed on or before December 18, 2009, qualify for the special pricing and free shipping offer. Orders must be placed through the author’s website: www.debrasnider.com.

About A Merger of Equals

A Merger of Equals is a captivating, incisive story set against the backdrop of the business world. It’s told in the first person by its two main characters: Jane is ambitious, brilliant and sure she’s going to meet resistance at every turn; Charlie is successful, hardwired with the rules of the game and determined to make a difference. They meet in a mentoring program at a big-time investment bank. Over the next 10 years, first as colleagues, then as friends, then as partners, Jane and Charlie propel each other up the corporate ladder, learning along the way that quite a few so-called truths about work, life and love are not even close to true and that half a life is no life at all.

The novel has been called “one of the most enlightening and true works of fiction about corporate life and love” and “a stunning, can’t-talk-to-you-now-honey-I’m-reading, book.” People who work in the business world will appreciate its astute insider feel; everyone will appreciate its understanding of human relationships, both personal and professional, its perceptive take on gender issues in the workplace, and its inspiring outlook. From its provocative opening sentence to its touching final pages, A Merger of Equals is an intelligent, insightful story for readers who want a fun, thought-provoking and ultimately stirring read.

About Debra Snider

Debra Snider is a Nevada-based author and speaker. A married mother of two grown children, Snider enjoyed a successful 20-year legal and business career in her native Chicago. She is also the author of Working Easier: A Toolkit for Staff and Board Members of Nonprofit Arts Organizations (Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation, 2005) and The Productive Culture Blueprint For Corporate Law Departments and Their Outside Counsel (American Bar Association Career Resource Center, 2003), as well as numerous articles and essays.

Snider has been a featured speaker in the United States and Europe on topics including strategic productivity, client development, change facilitation, leadership, law department management, time management, and success strategies for professional and business women. She has also consulted on these topics for corporate, legal services and nonprofit clients.

Snider is the featured expert on law, productivity and work-life balance for the “Ask Debra” Q&A on The Corporate Legal Standard, Inc. website, and a double contributor to Heart of a Woman in Business (Sparkle Press, 2008). For more information on her books and her background, please visit her website.

###

She’s written two books on the subject (one of them commissioned by the American Bar Association), in addition to an excellent series of “Suit Yourself” essays that are available – for free – in the Forum section of her website. “I believe – and I was able to build a very successful legal and business career based on my belief – that we must do a better job of suiting ourselves,” says Debra. “We must develop self-awareness, articulate our priorities, stop mistaking outcomes for goals, and focus our time and energy on what matters most.”

In perusing her writings today with my own small business in mind, I was struck by the following passage from the essay titled, “It’s About Priorities, Not Time”:

Personal control is … a luxury that steals your time away from the high value-added tasks. The goal is to do and control personally only what cannot be done without the value you add, and to design and implement process and system to do and control the rest.  The fact that you can do something or even that you like to do it doesn’t mean you should do it. You’re looking to create time, and the way to do that is to stick to your highest and best use.

This makes me think about some of the small business owners I know — and how they can get caught up in the details of a routine task that doesn’t really require their particular skill set. Perhaps you know someone like this. Because they are owners (and they understandably take their work very seriously), they feel they must be intimately involved in everything that goes on in the business. I’ve seen the trickle-down effect of this behavior, too — how it robs others of the joy of doing their own jobs well, without someone peering over their shoulders all the time, questioning their every move.

More to the point: it drives employees CRAZY.

Not the best way to create a fulfilling, energizing work environment. Or inspire legions of raving employee-fans. Uh, how’s your employee turnover rate?

So… what do you think is your “highest and best use” as a small business owner? How much of your day is taken up by those tasks that simply can’t get done without your specific expertise? You’d hope that’s a fairly high number, of course — but in fact, the Small Business Administration reports that the average small business owner spends up to 40% of their time on routine administrative tasks.

Good food for thought.

Here’s where I, the ever-ready freelance copywriter and undisputed owner of this blog, get to swoop in (wearing my virtual hero cape) and say:

Hey, if writing for your business isn’t YOUR highest and best use — or if it just takes you too darn much time — give me a call.

I’d be happy to dive in and be part of your team.

Photo Credit: Stebbi/NateSteiner via Creative Commons