Sarah Deveau, owner of Cater Tot Consignment, (featured in our Mompreneur issue), is an expert at being frugal which, combined with her entrepreneurial spirit, lead to her writing her first book, Sink or Swim: Get Your Degree Without Drowning in Debt, while in university.

Sarah noticed that many of her fellow students seemed to always have money for partying on the weekends and travelling to fun places on Spring Break. Curious, she started asking questions and was surprised to discover how many classmates were using student loan money to fund not only their tuition, but also their fun. They were going into further debt for entertainment!

She, on the other hand, avoided going into debt by working part-time during the school year and full-time in the summer. She used her bargain-hunting ingenuity to find ways to make her money stretch, and her husband, (they married during university), shared her money philosophy.

“We didn't come from families where we had lines of credit and a lot of debt,” she says.

While she found it difficult to understand why people were choosing to live off of loans, her fellow students were just as confounded by her: how could she possibly not have a student loan? How was she paying for university? Where did she find the money to buy things without a loan? She told them her money-saving tips, like renting a cheap, basement apartment, buying used instead of new, and finding things to do that didn't cost money.

It occurred to her that people weren't thinking of researching other options, they'd just go to the bar for entertainment and spend a tonne of cash in one night instead of seeing if there were fun things to do that were free. They assumed they had to have a car, and spent a small fortune on gas, insurance, and car payments, instead of searching for an apartment and job closer to the university.

Sarah realized if she wrote a book, her money-saving tips could help students avoid graduating with a crushing debt load over their head. At the same time, it could become a source of income for her. She researched what she needed to do: write a book proposal and find a publisher. Her book proposal included the first three chapters of her book, an outline of the other chapters, and information on who she was going to market it to, who she thought would buy her book, and how she planned to promote it.

She then went to a writers' conference and pitched her idea to non-fiction publishers. It sold! Now a fresh graduate, she finished writing her book while working at her first career job. She spent her days working for someone else, and her evenings writing her book.

“I didn't have kids then, so I was able to finish it in three months,” she says.

Sarah enjoyed working with a publisher on her first book, which hit the stands in 2003. She says it was good experience and she learned a lot. However, with her next book, Money Smart Mom: Financially Fit Parenting (an idea she got when she and her husband began discussing children), she realized she wanted more control.

She attributes this to being a type-A personality. Looking at the options, she decided her best route would be to self-publish. Taking what she learned from her own publisher, she hired industry professionals to ensure she created a top-notch product.

For example, she hired a manager to lead her through the project, and to help her navigate the publishing process so she could spend her money wisely. She hired a graphic designer, an editor, an indexer and a proofreader. Her goal was to have a book that was so well-written and presented that people could pick her book up in any bookstore and be unable to tell if it was published through a company or self-published.

“It was crucial to me to put out a product that was just as good as, if not better than, what my publisher did the first time,” says Sarah, “but now I'm the one to reap all the benefits, financially and otherwise.”

She's also fully responsible for all the work that's involved, like marketing, promotion and sales. The success, or lack it, rests fully on her shoulders every step of the way.

This can be a bit scary. In spite of her focus on quality, she's well aware of the prejudice that exists against self-published books. She attributes it mainly to 'vanity presses,' companies that offer to publish your book but don't edit it or give you honest feedback as to whether it's any good or not, nor do they help sell or promote it. As a result, many people put a lot of effort and money into a book no one wants to buy.

Vanity presses do have their uses, however. If you're looking for a way to raise funds for your school, or you want to publish something like a family history or favourite recipes to give away to friends and family, you can take advantage of the small press runs offered by vanity presses. If, on the other hand, you want to get your book into the bookstores, you need a publishing professional (someone not connected to you or a vanity press) to tell you whether your book is good, needs work, or is downright awful. This is why most people go through a publisher, at least for their first book. Publishers have the experience to know what sells, and the connections to make it happen.

Sarah covered all those bases by working with publishing professionals and getting the feedback she needed, and by working with a distributor. Several independent businesses, including kids' boutique and consignment stores, have already pre-ordered the book.

Representatives from Chapters want to see her book in print form before making any decisions, but Sarah is confident they'll end up carrying it because, she says, they did really well with her first book.

Sarah's books are:

	Sink or Swim: Get Your Degree Without Drowning in Debt Written while in university and finished just after graduation, she gives real-life examples of how to save money and avoid debt.
	Money Smart Mom: Financially Fit Parenting When she and her husband started talking about having children, Sarah went looking for a book to help her understand the financial impact of having kids. She couldn't find one, so she decided to write her own. She had three children in the four years it took to research and write this book.

SARAH'S TIPS FOR ENTREPRENEURS:

1. Put yourself first. You are no good to your children or your business if you are not performing to the best of you abilities, which means eating right, exercising, and taking time to relax in activities that rejuvenate you.

2. Find a friend who will play devil’s advocate for you – don’t surround yourself with people who tell you all of your ideas are great. That friend who challenges you will save you from making poor decisions, and can firm up your resolve to move forward with great ones.

3. Do it for the money, too. Many female entrepreneurs say they’re not in it to make money. You should be! When the hours are long and the stress high, at least you’ll be making money. If you’re losing it, life gets hard quick.

4. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Define your market and go after it.

5. Be open to change. Your thriving business may be nothing like what you originally envisioned. Don’t be afraid to redefine your vision as needed.