If I were starting a business today, the first thing I'd do is call Peggy Duncan of Atlanta and sign up for a consultation or workshop, whichever I could get to first.

A solopreneur and personal productivity expert, Duncan teaches people how to work smarter. She leads workshops and keynotes events, writes books, and gets her website on the first page of major search engines.

Her latest e-book, Shameless Self Promotion: Do It Yourself, is getting a lot of attention. Duncan's been asked to speak all over the country, including at the American Bar Association TECHSHOW Conference in Chicago. She also leads face-to-face and online workshops throughout the world.

After 12 years at IBM managing a variety of projects for the company and becoming accomplished in technology, Duncan developed a first-class set of management skills and a good sense of operations and technology. Before she opened her business, she developed her plans and tested herself by responding to a friend's work complaints: His staff couldn't keep up; they were slow and didn't work very hard.

She gave him several suggestions that helped and, after a few weeks, he asked her to consult with him on major productivity issues in his business. As a result, the company revamped procedures to make them more efficient, morale went up and excessive overtime went down. Duncan knew she was ready to go out on her own, but first she asked a SCORE counselor to look over her financials and business and marketing plans. The SCORE rep congratulated her on having done her homework so well--then recruited her as a SCORE counselor.

Duncan wanted to be her own boss. "I don't want anybody telling me what to do ever again," she says. "I have my own way; it works for me, it works for my clients and I keep learning something new every day that I put to use to help those I work with."

Determined to run her business economically, she has no employees, just a virtual staff. "Technology is wonderful," she says. "You can get so much done by using technical systems and software."

A soft Atlanta drawl accompanies her fierce determination to succeed.

"I still have a lot to learn, as we all do," she tells me early in our conversation, "but I've also learned a lot through starting my own business myself, without any help."

The list of people who helped her along the way is short: "Honey, I had to do it myself," she says with a smile even while delivering the hard truth. "Nobody was there to help me." No family. No venture capitalists. No SBA loan.

"I've had to work hard. People may think they know 'hard.' I'm telling you, starting and growing this business has been hard. For example, I'm Southern and we're taught not to bother people. So it took a lot for me to strike up conversations and network with people I don't know."

She also admits that bookkeeping is the one thing about which she procrastinates: "I hate it. You're not creating anything and just crunching numbers. I've streamlined everything and it's easy, but I still don't like to do it.

"All in all, however, I wouldn't have it any other way. Being a solopreneur suits me," she says.

I wonder aloud what keeps her going in tough times. "I don't have to ask permission from anyone," she says. "I'm probably unemployable: I like to see that things are done right, and I think my ideas are the good ones."

Though speaking is something she's undertaken only recently, she has quite a few speaking engagements on her calendar. "I do enjoy speaking to groups," Duncan says, "but it requires learning a new business model. So I'm off on a new learning curve." Anticipating that she'll double last year's earnings, she's set her sights on achieving the $200,000 level for her business in 2009.

A lover of Twitter, Facebook and microblogging, this solopreneur has no intention of letting technology get the best of her. "It's an exciting world out there. You just need to believe you can accomplish whatever you're willing to work hard for."