State one — starting
Eleven live projects. Nine tabs of good intentions. Every one of them still open, still costing you something each week.
- Do more
- Faster
- Add a system
- Batch it
- Wake earlier
State two — stopping
One deliberate ending. Nothing added.
A business book by Debbie Jenkins
Stop Starting,Start Stopping
Everyone is telling you to do more. This book asks what you should stop — a story about the quiet superpower of stopping, and how one deliberate ending frees more room than any new system ever will.
Launch day
Wed 28 October 2026
The problem, named
There is a drawer somewhere with all of it in.
The half-built course. The rebrand you paused. The newsletter that ran for six issues. The partnership that never quite began.
None of them are finished, so none of them are gone. They sit there, quietly taking a little attention each week, and you pay for all of them at once.
Meanwhile the advice keeps arriving: get up earlier, batch your tasks, add a system. Do more, faster, with the same one of you.
You do not have a productivity problem. You have a stopping problem.
Every system you added to cope became another thing to maintain.
While you were busy not finishing yours
new books about starting a business published this year
Based on Amazon's "Starting a Business" category, which averaged 1,600+ new titles in the last 30 days alone. That's roughly 53 per day — in just one subcategory. We're being conservative.
This is the one that tells you to stop.
Another one just published. Probably called "Start Something."
Meet Steve
On a Tuesday in March, Steve started something new. It was the eleventh thing.
Steve runs a small business that looks successful from the outside. Eleven live projects. A calendar with no white space. A quiet, permanent sense of being one week behind everyone he admires.
Then someone asks him a question no one has asked before — not what he plans to start next, but what he is prepared to stop. He does not have an answer. He is not sure he is allowed to have one.
What Steve does over the following ninety days costs him a client, a favourite idea, and something he had been protecting for years.
It is the best trade he has ever made.
The why wall
Six reasons to read it
- 01
Your problem isn't time management — it's a stopping problem, and no one taught you how
- 02
You'll actually finish the book (it's a story, not a lecture)
- 03
“Just do more” has a ceiling, and you've hit it
- 04
The things draining you are the things you keep almost-quitting
- 05
Steve is you — you'll want to know how it ends
- 06
One deliberate stop frees more than ten productivity apps
Control and letting go
Holding every string is not the same as being in control
The more you try to keep upright at once, the less any of it can move on its own. Letting a string go is a decision, not a defeat.
What you take away
Outcomes, not chapter summaries
A clear list of what to stop
You leave with named projects, habits and commitments marked for closure — not a vague intention to focus more.
Permission you were waiting for
Quitting the wrong thing stops feeling like failure and starts feeling like judgement.
A way to stop cleanly
Endings handled properly, so nothing you close comes back to haunt your calendar or your reputation.
Room you can actually feel
Space in the week and the head, made by subtraction rather than by another system.
Calm competence
A compass beats another engine
Knowing where you are going makes most of the work optional. That is what stopping buys you.
Start here
Take the first chapter, or find out what to stop
Choose the opening of Steve's story, or the “What Should You Stop?” mini-diagnostic — ten questions and a straight answer.
Evidence
What beta readers said
I read it in two sittings and closed three projects the following Monday. Steve got under my skin.
The first business book in years that I finished. It reads like a novel and lands like a consultation.
I recognised my own drawer of half-started things on page four. Uncomfortable, in the best way.
Endorsements
Space reserved for named endorsements — replace with author and industry quotes as they arrive.
As featured on
A note from the book itself
Stop Reading This Sales Page.
Start Buying This Book.
You've scrolled past the description. You've read the endorsements. You've checked the price. You already know whether you want it.
Everything after this point is procrastination with better lighting.
Or keep scrolling. We both know what you'll do.
The supporting crew
Everyone at the table wants to add one more thing
Admin, Tech and Editor each have a reasonable case. The calm hero asks the only question that changes the week: what comes off the table.
Formats
Choose your format
Launch-week pricing holds until Wednesday 28 October 2026
Hardback gift edition
€24.99
Cloth bound with foiled cover, ribbon marker.
Pre-order the hardbackBulk and team packs
Stopping works better when the whole team does it
Three packs, built for launch week. Numbers are capped so every workshop and lunch stays small enough to be useful.
The Reader
1 copy
€16.99
- A signed paperback
- The “What Should You Stop?” digital diagnostic
- The first chapter instantly, before shipping
- A seat at the live launch webinar
Available throughout launch week
The Stop Squad
10 copies
€149Save around 12%
- 10 signed copies with personalised bookplates
- 10 digital copies to share instantly
- A live 60-minute team workshop with Debbie on Zoom: “What Should Your Team Stop?”
- A team discussion guide PDF
- 10 seats to the launch event
Total value €900+
Only 25 packs available
Stop Everything
100 copies · Organisation
€1,190Save around 30%
- 100 copies delivered wherever you need them
- A private in-person or Zoom keynote or workshop for your organisation
- A custom bookplate or foreword note
- An intimate author lunch with Debbie for you and your guests
- Named recognition as a launch sponsor
- Quarterly “what to stop” accountability meetups
Total value €6,000+
Only 10 available — by application
Something in between, or a quantity of your own? We will build it around you.
About
Debbie Jenkins
Debbie began as an engineer, which is a useful way to learn that most problems are load problems long before they are effort problems.
She now runs Intellectual Perspective Press, where she has spent two decades helping business owners turn what they know into books people finish. She has watched hundreds of smart, capable people drown in their own good ideas.
This is the book she wrote for them — the logical mind behind a very human story.
One deliberate stop, before the year asks anything else of you
Paperback €14.99 on pre-order, ebook €2.99, hardback gift edition €24.99. Shipping from Wednesday 28 October 2026.
Or start with the free chapter