By Kevin M

“Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”—Motto of The Christophers

I mostly make my living on the internet these days but I have a confession. I never worked much with computers until three years ago, least of which the internet. Sure, in the preceding 25 years that I worked in mortgages and accounting I used computer applications, lots of them, but most of us understand the not so subtle difference between that and working in an environment in which your primary means of support is coming directly from working on/in computers or somewhere out in cyberspace.

My career as a paper pusher ended unceremoniously at the end of 2008, a time when recycled paper pushers weren’t in very big demand. Where to go, what to do? Damn computers–#%&*@$g internet—they’ll be the end of the world, you watch!

That last line is a fiction (OK, it was a deeply suppressed thought), but I chose to intentionally avoid dwelling on it. Every one who’s ever seen their career crash and burn can point to one or more big picture factors that directly or indirectly greased the wheels of their departure. We can either poison ourselves with bitterness, or find some way to benefit from prevailing changes (hence the Christopher’s quote above). Which route we take will mostly determine our future direction.

Job VS Opportunity

Here’s the thing about computers and the internet—yes, they have been responsible for the permanent elimination of millions of jobs around the world (and almost certainly more to come), but they’ve also created a sea change of opportunity. We should work to take advantage of that opportunity.

Now notice I said “opportunity”, rather than jobs—computers and the internet have created many, many jobs, most of them high paying. But they’ve destroyed more jobs than they’ve created on balance. And let’s face it, unless you’re a highly trained “techie”, getting a high paying job in the computer field is tough.

The opportunities I’m describing won’t be found in a job, but in having your own business.

Scared? Don’t be. I think it’s the wave of the future. Most people who have held jobs all their lives tend to think “job” when it comes to earning a living, but the onslaught of computers and the internet have changed that arrangement. I think that computers and the internet are the 21st Century equivalent of the return to the family farm and shop that provided income for the majority of humanity since the beginning of civilization.

What are some of the ways that computers and the internet are making self-employment more doable?

The entire world is our market

Because of the internet we’re no longer limited to the local community as a business base. Business can be developed throughout the world. The obvious advantage here is a much bigger market, but probably more significant is the niche factor. There are more niches globally than locally, and that heightens the chance of finding business success.

For example, let’s say you’re an art dealer; you can only drum up so much business in your immediate local community. But by selling on the web, you can reach hundreds of larger markets around the world, and many of them may buy proportionately more art than people on your home turf do. Even as a blogger, a significant amount of my income is derived from non-US sources. That’s the nature of the web—a market without borders.

Free and cheap marketing

Every business needs to market, otherwise there is no business. But marketing can be the mortal enemy of a small business, especially a start up. Advertising in the traditional media (TV, radio, mailers and print) is expensive. The big players can and do play this game, and play it well.

Marketing on the internet is far cheaper (and often free) than it is in the traditional media. You can place ads on large websites for less than the cost of advertising in a local newspaper, or you can market for free on the social media, like Facebook and Twitter. Just having and growing your website or blog is a form of advertising.

Networking gets larger—and more important

Networking opportunities are wide open–people are helping people on the web. Most web businesses are small, often one-man or woman shops, so you can market your products through another online business while they market their product through yours. You can also swap business strategies and gain access to valuable information. Networking is the life’s blood of the internet—which is why it’s called the “web”.

More product lines

Product lines are available to us that once were known only to “insiders”. Everything is being sold on the web and that presents some opportunities. Many companies will offer affiliate sales arrangements, in which you get paid a commission to sell their products. And since it’s what they do, the process of signing up and is usually pretty simple. It goes without saying that any sort of import/export business will be easier to build, since it’s all done online.

Online sales are on the rise

Online sales of nearly every product or service you can imagine are rising steadily. What this means is that the resistance to buying online is much lower than it was just a few years ago. More people being more willing to transact business online is a win for the small business. Where you once needed an attractive storefront or office suite to get people to do business with you, now all you need is a good website.

Free, online training

Information on any business you can think of is no farther away than a Google search (YouTube is another excellent source). Most businesses are “seat-of-the-pants” affairs—you learn by trial and error. If you’re tooling along in your business and you hit on a snag, you can usually find the answer somewhere on the web. It’s been said that because of the internet, the average person today has access to more information than kings and business tycoons had 50 or 100 years ago. Use that to your advantage.

Inexpensive staffing

Next to marketing, staffing is usually the most expensive outlay for a small business, but the web can even help you with that. You can find inexpensive outsourcing help with virtual assistants (VAs)—no need to have formal employees. VAs can perform everything from simple administrative tasks to complicated computer applications, and they usually cost no more than a few dollars an hour. There are talented people in less developed countries who are willing to take on some of your work for not a lot of money. That means no W2s, no employee benefits and no employee lawsuits. There out there on the web, waiting for work.

Building a portfolio of businesses

If you can start one business on the web, you can add a second, a third, or as many as you want. You can enter one business and move seamlessly to another—everything just works faster on the web. Web entrepreneurs are a growing phenomenon—once you overcome your apprehension about the web, the sky is truly the limit. This adds an income diversification that a traditional job can never provide. I’d take that over employee benefits and a loose promise of job security any day!

Servicing the online “establishment”

As more businesses develop on the web, so do the opportunities to provide support services for them. If you have computer-, social media-, marketing-, writing- or administrative-skills, there are internet businesses and blogs who could use your services. For example, blogs often use outside services to write articles, manage content, social media marketing and technical support. Any such niche could be the beginning of a new online career if you have such skills.

Start small, grow large

Here’s one of the best parts of working on the web: you can start as a side business until you grow into full-time. That means you can plunge into an internet business without having to quit your job, and you can continue doing so until you’re ready to take it up to full time. This lowers the risk of starting an internet business substantially. This is possible in large part because internet businesses are talent driven, not capital driven as so many bricks and mortar ventures are. You don’t need inventory, employees or even office space, and as discussed above, marketing is incredibly cheap.

All of these advantages make a strong case for the unemployed, under-employed, disenfranchised (that was me three years ago) or even the currently employed to consider some sort of internet-related income generating venture. And because doing it doesn’t require much money, you can try, fail and try again all you like—until you get it right.

This is after all, a new age—the Internet Age.

Have you thought about starting some sort of internet based business?

Related Posts:

7 Reasons to be Self-Employed
Why Most New Businesses Fail – And How Not to Become One of Them
5 Tips to Go From a Job to Self-Employment
The Self-Employed Health Insurance Dilemma
7 Ways to Improve the Success of Your New Business
7 Reasons Why Self-Employment is More Secure than a Job

By Kevin M

Last night my wife learned something disturbing—not for herself but for some of her coworkers. She has a part time job with a company that just announced that fulltime employees are losing their benefits and being converted to part time status.

Now the optimist may say, “it could have been worse—at least they didn’t lose their jobs”. And while there may be a grain of truth to that assumption, the bad news outweighs the good here, and I’d say by a wide margin. First of all, part time isn’t full time—it’s part time. That means even if you keep your hourly rate of pay, there’s no guarantee of 40 hours a week, or even of 30 or 20. That looks an awful lot like a pay cut to me.

Second is suddenly going from a job with benefits to one without—that includes health insurance. Charles Hugh Smith has made a strong case that the middle class isn’t middle class without health insurance coverage, and I think that point is beyond debate. What we’re looking at here, in addition to the pay cut, is the loss of socio-economic class status. They’ve been demoted to “the working poor” without ever losing their jobs. That’s pretty radical.

There ain’t no more job security

The example on my wife’s job isn’t isolated either. More employers are moving toward some variation of this all the time. Here’s the bottom line: from day to day, you can never tell what will happen with your job. A full-time job can turn into semi-employment with a single policy decision by people you don’t even know. It isn’t just layoffs anymore; its hours and schedule, pay cuts, job re-classification, job stagnation, loss of benefits—you name it. I’d even argue that the unemployment rate issued by the government is now mostly irrelevant.

Employment Realty #1 is that employers are figuring out ways to eliminate people and payrolls through a relentless shift to cheaper workers offshore, the latest computer technology or a combination of both. Translation: as much as we want to buy into the economy-is-recovering projections, it’s becoming painfully obvious that if that is happening, it’s fully capable of doing so without employees. The stagnant employment picture has less to do with the state of the economy than it does with the progression of options available to employers.

At least since World War II job security and benefits have always been major reasons why most people prefer to work for someone else rather than for themselves. Job security means insulation from the ups and downs of both the economy and the employers business, and benefits provided the safety net protecting against many of life’s uncertainties. Who wouldn’t want that if they could get it?

Now that neither job security nor benefits are guaranteed through employment, has the playing field been leveled, is there now less risk in being self-employed than there has been in the recent past? I think so.

Job security and self-employment

Here’s why I think that the case for self-employment is growing all the time, and why it may be the ultimate solution to the employment meltdown of the 21st Century:

1. As discussed above, jobs no longer carry the promise of stability or benefits
2. Self-employment was the primary income source of most people for thousands of years prior to the 20th Century—it is entirely possible that after nearly 100 years of large scale employment by large organizations, conditions are now returning to the historic norm of the family farm or shop (though it won’t look that way)
3. The same computer technology that’s putting people out of jobs is also making it easier to start your own business—we’ll spend a bit of time on this one in a minute
4. As the number of people who are self-employed expands, so will networking opportunities. The way you used to job network with people at other companies coverts to networking with those in the same or related businesses
5. The same instability that is making the job market less secure also opens up opportunities for part time, seasonal or contract work that can be used to supplement self-employment income—in the start up phase and later on an “as needed” basis
6. Employers who are reducing staff are often subbing out the work once done by employees—that’s an opportunity for a small business
7. Because you’re smaller and have much greater freedom in a small business you may be in a better position to react to changes in the economy, such as the ones we’re seeing now

This really is a “glass half full” situation—if we recognize what’s really happening and learn to use it to our advantage. Reality is going where reality is going; we can either embrace change as an opportunity, or let it roll over us while we look to the past for answers.

How the internet helps the self-employed

Many might curse computers and the internet for the negative affect they’re having on employment, but that’s the wrong approach.

In #3 above we touched on how computers are making it easier to be self-employed and that’s absolutely true. I’m an example of this. Earlier this week, in How Blogging Solved My Mid-Life Career Crisis, I spilled my guts about being disenfranchised at the age of 50. I was a textbook case of an economic casualty. But I chose to embrace the change rather than fight it.

Here’s the thing…people are making money working from home on their computers, and I decided that I needed to join them. Difficult? Most certainly. Impossible? No way!

Yes, there is more than enough get-rich-quick-on-the-internet snake oil being peddled out there, but beneath the phony claims, thousands of people are making a living (or better) on the internet.

I’m not saying that everyone could or should blog like I and many others are doing. But at a minimum you can use the internet to grow a local “bricks and mortar” business, in a way that wasn’t available even ten years ago. One of my best friends is running a very successful trash hauling business here in my neck of the woods and gets nearly all his business from the web. I believe that’s increasingly possible for most businesses.

If you have any idea for a business, fully investigate how you can use the internet to make it work. And if you don’t have any, look closely into ways you can make money on the web. Some ideas include blogging (my favorite!), freelance blog writing for other sites, and providing marketing, technical and administrative support to the many commercial websites and blogs that are out there on the web.

Because of the internet, nearly any skill you have or can acquire can be converted into some form of self-employment, if only as a side business. And these days, that’s looking a lot more secure than the average job.

Have you considered starting some sort of internet business? If not, what’s stopping you?

Monday’s post: Self-employment in the Internet Age

Related Posts:

7 Reasons to be Self-Employed
Why Most New Businesses Fail – And How Not to Become One of Them
5 Tips to Go From a Job to Self-Employment
The Self-Employed Health Insurance Dilemma
7 Ways to Improve the Success of Your New Business
Starting a Side Business – Why Now is the Time

By Kevin M

50% of the “secret” to a successful business is having a great idea, product, service or concept—one you can bring to the market profitably. That often takes time and staying power, and that’s where the other 50%—your finances–comes in.

You’ll need a certain amount of financial strength in order to weather the storms you’ll face in order to turn your business idea into a business success. Fortunately there are steps you can take in advance to get your finances ready for self-employment.

Managing the income transition

Self-employment is often viewed as a plunge—as in a deep dive into the unknown. Though there are certain benefits to giving 100% of your time and attention to your business, it isn’t usually necessary. If you can engineer the transition into smaller, more manageable steps (which we’ll cover in more detail in a future post) that will make the change less risky:

1. Start with a full-time job and run the business as a part-time venture for as long as you need to—this will reduce the need for start-up capital and buy time to make mistakes.

2. As your business income grows and you can clearly see how to expand it even more, reduce your job to less than full time. Even cutting from 40 hours to 32 could make a difference. A cost cutting employer might even welcome the suggestion—if not you might have to find one who will.

3. When you reach the point that your business income is substantial but not quite a “living wage” you’re about to turn the corner to where your business is your primary income and a job is only a secondary source. A part-time job or a contract arrangement may cover the income shortfall while freeing up your time to expand your business.

4. You’ve arrived. Your business has finally grown to the point that you’re making enough to pay your bills and there’s some left over for savings and some luxuries. You can say good-bye to jobs (full- and part-time) and contract assignments–but don’t burn your bridges behind you! You never know who you’re going to need and when!

Prepare your budget for self-employment

One of the reasons people stay on at jobs they don’t like is because of a steady paycheck. If you’re self-employed, you won’t have one! Self-employment income is business income and that tends to ebb and flow with the business cycles, the economy and even the seasons. Will you be ready for an income that looks more like a roller coater than a passenger train?

There are ways to prepare for the up and down nature of self-employment income:

• Cut your living expenses down to the bone before beginning your business venture—the less you spend the less you’ll need and the more you’ll have to expand your business.

• Get rid of any costly toys, expensive hobbies or memberships—you’ll have neither the time nor the money to carry them.

• Lower your major expenses—housing and cars—as much as you’re able. Trade down if need be, but do what you can here. It’ll take a lot of cuts in small expenses to equal the impact of lowering just one of these.

• Lower your lifestyle expectations for the job-to-self-employment transition period

Building a nest egg

If you don’t have an emergency fund, you’ll need to have one. A reserve equal to three months living expenses may be adequate while you still have a full time paycheck coming in. But six months will be the minimum for the day when you’ll say goodbye to your employer and go full throttle on your business.

How do you get a nest egg if you don’t already have one?

• Start funding it with cash from the sale of some of the toys you sell to cut your budget.

• If you start your business as a side venture, any money you earn from it (while you’re still working full time) should go into the emergency fund.

• Eliminate retirement plan contributions and redirect the additional income into savings—short term liquidity will be more important than a retirement plan while your business is in an upstart status.

• Even when you reach your emergency fund goal—or your business becomes self-sustaining—continue to save money! A fat bankroll is the best remedy to an up and down cash flow.

Getting control of your credit

One thing you absolutely don’t want to do is go into self-employment carrying a bunch of debt. It’ll be like burdening your new venture with old obligations. And while it may not be possible to wipe your credit slate completely clean, the more debt you can eliminate beforehand the better your chances of success as an entrepreneur.

• Stop using credit from this point forward. Pay cash or don’t buy.

• Start paying off your smallest debts, and payoff as many as you can.

• If your car has a large payment on it, pay it off as soon as you’re able, or consider trading down to a beater paid with cash. If you have a home based business you probably don’t need anything more than a car that will get you from Point A to Point B.

• We covered this under preparing your budget, but if your carrying an out-size house payment, trading down to less expensive quarters will open up a whole lot of options. A mortgage is, after all, the biggest debt payment most people have. I won’t beat this point to death since it’s a deeply personal decision for most people.

Health Insurance

If having a steady paycheck is the main reason people stay on at jobs they don’t like, having an employer sponsored health plan is probably not to far behind. Let’s face it, if you’re going to have your own business, you’re going to have to do something about health insurance coverage. It’ll be best to take steps to deal with it before going solo.

• Start taking care of your health now and make it part of who you are—good health is the first, best kind of health insurance.

• Look into catastrophic health insurance that will cover major expenses only. It can be substantially cheaper than full coverage, and if you’re healthy you probably don’t need more comprehensive coverage anyway.

• Get a part time job that offers health insurance coverage. Many common employers do, including Starbucks, Barnes & Noble and Wal-Mart, as well as many banks, department stores and various government agencies.

• If you plan on taking advantage of your employers COBRA coverage, it might be a good idea to lower the coverage level while you’re still employed, that way the cost of the plan will be lower when you leave. Generally speaking, COBRA will lock you into the level of coverage you select while you’re employed with the company.

Can you think of any other plans and preparations that might be needed to get ready to move from a job to self-employment?

If you’d like to start a business of your own, but don’t know which to go into, check out my post, The Freelance Blog Writer Side Hustle. Blog writing is a chance to start a business small and to grow it–risk free.

Related Posts:

7 Reasons to be Self-Employed
The Self-Employed Heath Insurance Dilemma
Debt IS Different For the Self-Employed
Steady Paycheck VS Self-Employment; Which is Right For You?
7 Ways to Improve the Success of Your New Business
Savings and Investing Tips for the Self-Employed

By Kevin M

Does anyone work a 40 hour work week anymore? You know, the comfortable, predictable “9 to 5” that we often complained about during more certain times? Apparently fewer employees than ever still have this luxury, and if current trends continue, fewer still will have it in the future.

An article by Seth Fiegerman on Yahoo Finance earlier this month, The End of the 40-Hour Work Week confirms these changes in work schedules and the forces behind them:

“Higher-level workers are increasingly being asked to put in 50 hours or more a week…while lower income workers are often forced to work fewer hours but at jobs with irregular schedules, according to a comprehensive report from the Center for American Progress…Driving these changes…are companies turning lower-level full-time jobs into part-time employment to cut costs, savings that come at the expense of workers — and their families — losing the traditional schedules and financial benefits that come with full-time employment.”

The typical work schedule has become more erratic and the neat, predictable 40 hour work week is fast fading into the dustbin of history.

Two camps with very different issues

As the Yahoo article outlined, there are two very distinct groups impacted by irregular work schedules, but in completely opposite directions.

40 hour PLUS workers. There was a time not long ago when this group was mainly comprised of executives and managers. They were expected to work longer hours as a result of greater pay and responsibilities. That’s still true, but today it seems that nearly anyone can fall into this category. If you want to keep your job in this economy, you need to do the work of two people and something will have to give—usually your schedule. Some people are paid for the extra time, others not.

The problem with this arrangement is that there’s little room for anything but work and that leaves festering voids. The employee spends so much time working that there’s no time to develop new skills, maintain business and networking contacts or search for a job, should that become necessary. In the event the job is lost, the worker will need to make a radical shift from an employee completely consumed with his job to an unemployed person suddenly needing to launch a job search from the ground up.

Making it worse is that an overburdened work schedule can lull the employee into thinking he’s irreplaceable—after all, since his employer needs him to work so many hours, he must be too important to fire. Not so–no matter how important you may be at any given moment you could still loose your job for no reason that’s apparent to you! That’s the paradox of the 21st Century job market.

Less than full time employees. This group has the opposite problem—they’re being marginalized. Less than full time means less than full time pay and, more often than not, no benefits. That’s the whole cost cutting angle for employers in the arrangement. It’s not a stretch to say that people in this category have probably (or are in acute danger of- ) losing their middle class status. It’s difficult to buy or maintain a home, put a child through college or fund retirement on less than full time pay.

While the 40 hour plus crowd may be laboring under the delusion of being irreplaceable, the less than full time employee faces a dilemma that’s radically opposite: he isn’t certain of anything. Not of keeping his job, having a chance at a promotion, or even how many hours he’ll work or how much money he’ll earn in any given week. That means planning for the future is a non-starter. A type of limbo is created in which the worker is locked into a less than perfect employment situation with little prospect that his circumstances will improve anytime soon.

How should we respond to this

Erratic work schedules—and all that they imply—are fast becoming the new normal. Wishing them away is pointless; finding ways to deal with them is the critical take away. Like globalization, technology and the off-shoring of jobs to areas with lower labor costs, our only constructive course of action is to adjust and find ways to move forward.

Recognize that the career you’re in may be a dead end. If working 50 or 60 hours a week, or being downgraded to less than full time status have become common in your field, it may be a sign that the industry is in a long term decline. That’s the time to begin taking steps to move into another field or industry. If you have to get out, it’s best to do it early in the cycle, rather than waiting until the exits get crowded and competition for alternative careers becomes even greater.

Work toward self-employment. Perpetually extended work schedules and reduction to part time status are signs of instability. We all need a certain amount of stability in order to make plans and get on with our lives. If the system no longer provides that stability we have to look to ourselves to find it, and that means some form of self-employment.

Get some kind of business started in an area where you have either the skills or the passion—preferably both—then prepare to dig in and advance it for as long as it takes. I’m doing that right now with freelance blog writing. I’m working it as a side venture while building it into something more substantial over time. Love it or hate it, the world wide web has become a treasure trove of opportunity—find your niche somewhere within it and then run with it.

Find ways to make the trend your friend. We all want to get back to something that looks like normal as quickly as possible, but we’re probably in a time where that won’t be practical or even desirable. For example, now might be an excellent time to move into a less than full time job that will give you the time you need to either develop new career skills or to start a business.

Also, consider what kind of opportunities are coming about as a result of current changes. For example, is the internet killing the print media? Sure, but that means that there are opportunities building in the internet—from an employment standpoint, that’s more important and productive then mourning the death of the print media. It’s important to gravitate toward the areas of growth, even if you don’t have much understanding of how those businesses work. The upside is that there are few “veterans” in new and growing industries, so most of what you need to do is to a) decide to participate, b) learn all you can about the field, and c) commit and never give up.

Or, you can continue on either the path of certain burnout (too many hours) or ongoing under-employment.

Has your work week been either seriously increased or decreased in the last few years? Has it been a problem for you in any way? What ideas do you have for dealing with it?

Related Posts:

Charting Your Own Course with a Side Business

A 7 Point Unemployment Action Plan

Why Skills Are More Important than a Job

Preparing for SEMI-Retirement

A View From the Economic Cliff

The Perfect Side Hustle: Freelance Blog Writer

By Kevin M

All the talk in the media and business world these days is about the recovery. The GDP is up, sales are up, profits are up, and executive bonuses are up. While that’s all good for some people somewhere, for many in the rank-and-file middle class it still looks and feels an awful lot like we’re still in a recession. With the unemployment rate hovering just north of 9%, for practical purposes we still are.

Millions are still unemployed—some chronically—while many others are dangling precariously close to that status in what’s become a full blown employment revolving door. If you’re unemployed, or about to be, you need to have a concrete plan of action—preferably a written one—to keep you moving forward either toward a new job or into something completely different.

And even if you do have a job and don’t think you will lose it anytime soon you might still need a plan to deal with a layoff that could come out of nowhere. These days, a missed budget or just the hint that the company’s five year plan might not pan out just six months into it is all it takes for the layoff ax to be sharpened.

An action plan has to be customized to fit your circumstances, but if you’re looking for a starting point—or a few new ideas to jump start what you have—try adding some of these to your agenda.

Set and keep a schedule

One of the unexpected complications of unemployment is the nothingness. When you have a job, you have a schedule that you’re entire life’s routine is wrapped around. But when the job is gone, so is the schedule and the regimentation it creates. There are times we all rebel against regimentation, as if it’s the ogre that’s controlling our lives. But closer to the truth is that it provides the structure that enables us to move forward.

If you’re jobless, you’ll have to find a way to create a new form of regimentation, otherwise you’ll find your days wasting away with little to show for them. A written schedule is best, one that includes daily activities. Some could be focused activities, like the job search. Others could be more generic, like networking and researching opportunities. Just make sure you’re doing something constructive each day.

Get serious about those networks you put off while you were employed

We all know about the importance of networking, but during the normal course of life we tend to talk about them more than participate. If you’re unemployed, networking becomes a high priority and should be part of the scheduling we just talked about. Face to face meetings are much better than online, if you can make it happen. If not, the phone is always a good second choice.

One thought here though, most of us tend to network with others who are looking for similar jobs—that has value, but probably limited at best. What you’re really doing with that is networking with your competitors and it’s hard to see where that’s any kind of advantage. Better to seek out networks of potential employers, or even people in parallel fields who might know of a job opening in your field. Sometimes it’s better to come in through the back door where there’s less traffic.

Reposition yourself as a Problem Solver

You need a job, right? But your need won’t impress an employer. With so many prospects seeking out every job, the only way to get noticed is to position yourself as an answer to the employer’s biggest problems. Few employers are looking for generalists anymore.

What are the biggest problems common to most businesses? What are the biggest problems in your industry? What are the biggest problems for a specific employer? If you can identify what these are, and establish your ability to solve them, you’ll be carving out a niche that can get you a job. It isn’t easy, in fact it might require reinventing yourself. But once you do, a few doors should open up.

Start an exercise plan

If you already have one, you can skip this step. But if you don’t, this is the perfect time to start. When you’re unemployed it’s critical that you keep moving–and that’s both figurative and literal. Physical activity makes you feel better about yourself and everything else. If you’re jobless, you’ll need to be intentional about making that happen on a regular basis.

Being unemployed can make you feel useless and sluggish, and exercise can reverse both feelings. No, it probably won’t help you land a job, but it will get you moving in an entirely different direction and that will make you feel better about being you. And THAT just might help you find a job.

Do something new everyday

Unemployment is a time to experiment, to try things you didn’t have time for when you were working. Think self-discovery. This isn’t a flight of fancy either, but part of the attempt to reinvent yourself for another charge up the mountain of life. It’s often during these “free periods” that we find that we have hidden talents and interests that can take us in entirely different directions.

Investment advisor and best selling author Douglas Casey recommends facing an uncertain future with “courage, confidence and curiosity”. If you’re unemployed, you have nothing to lose by adopting this attitude. Try something new each day, even if it’s something small and see where it leads.

Get a part time job

Yes, this will reduce your unemployment benefits, but it isn’t all about money. Sometimes you need to be actively engaged in an income generating activity for emotional purposes, and a part time job can help. You’ll be doing something that you’re getting paid to do! It’s also another way to keep moving.

You might also be able to find part time work that will help you to learn a new skill or two. Many times you can get hired on a part time basis for a job you wouldn’t be considered qualified for as a full timer.

Start a side business that you’ll keep even if you get a new job

Are there any businesses you’ve contemplated going into? Now might be the time to give it a try. You can use your unemployment benefits to help with living expenses while you’re getting started, and you’ll certainly have the time to do what’s needed. It’s a way of 1) keeping busy, 2) doing something new, 3) reinventing yourself, 4) working part time, and perhaps even 5) building a new future in which a new job will no longer be the objective.

If you’re looking for an idea for a business you can start while unemployed, check out my post, The Freelance Blog Writer Side Hustle. Blog writing is a chance to start a business small and to grow it–risk free. Once you get a new full time job you can keep doing it as a side business. And if you ever lose your job again, it won’t feel nearly as bad because you’ll already have a an income generating business in place.

If you’re unemployed or have been in the past, what have you done to keep yourself active and engaged or to prepare yourself for the next job or business venture?

By Kevin M

A few weeks ago I did a post on retirement from a different direction. In Preparing for Semi-Retirement I made the case that due to economic conditions, many people would be forced to accept a modified version of retirement, and that such a retirement should be fully anticipated and prepared for. I believe most people will do no better than some form of semi-retirement.

Today I want to take that idea a step farther, and suggest that for many people, non-retirement is more than a remote possibility. And I’m not just referring to people in the lower income ranges either. Economic conditions are changing rapidly, and no one has been more affected than people over 50. No matter how well prepared you might be up to that point, if your economic future is threatened in the last decade and a half of your working years all of your retirement assumptions will be subject to change.

Here’s a critical point: you won’t be exempt from this outcome just because you’re in your 20s or 30s now. One day you will be over 50 and you’ll be facing all of the problems older workers are dealing with now and maybe even a few more.

In fact, many younger people entirely dismiss challenges to the golden retirement assumption, preferring to place something close to religious faith in the rich retirement plan projections that are the staple of the financial world.

But let’s put the happy projections aside for a moment and consider the following from the real world:

• Companies are shedding their most expensive workers and people over 50 are often at the top of the income rung at the same time they represent the greatest liability to group health insurance plans. This trend shows no sign of reversing.

• The loss of a job by a person over 50 often means the end of a career, even a once lucrative one.

• The loss of a job often translates into the loss of health insurance, creating the possibility of a medical financial crisis. Private plans are too expensive for the unemployed and underemployed, and the combination of age and health conditions can make a person uninsurable.

• The loss of a job not only means the end of contributions to retirement plans, but also the beginning of premature withdrawals. Money set aside to fund retirement is needed to survive in the present. A well funded retirement plan can be drawn down in a lot less time than it took to build up.

• Two stock market crashes in a decade have dashed the retirement plans of many workers. Older workers, closer to retirement, have less time to recover losses and are understandably shell shocked.

• Social Security and Medicare will probably be there in the future, but the nation’s budget problems are highly likely to cause major downgrades in the generosity of both programs. Full retirement ages have already been extended.

• Traditional defined-benefit pension plans have largely faded into the dustbin of history.

• Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the unions that once protected the lion’s share of middle class workers jobs and paychecks are practically non-existent outside the public sector.

I don’t think that it’s a stretch to say that the current crop of retirees are probably the last of the “golden retirement class” stretching back to World War II. Getting to that hallowed status required the type of career and income stability that doesn’t exist in today’s economy, and especially for those in the critical years leading up to retirement age.

The million dollar retirement question

OK, enough bad news; I don’t think I’ve disclosed anything here that hasn’t been trumpeted elsewhere on the web, though it is instructive to assemble the different challenges in one place. What strategies can we implement to deal with disrupted or even canceled retirement plans?

1. Get real about your retirement plan. Real life seldom works within the cozy boundaries of optimistic financial projections. Continue to save and fund your retirement, but view it as only one component of a larger plan and don’t assume it will—or even can—guarantee you anything.

2. No matter what your age, live well beneath your means. Don’t assume that you’ll be able to downshift your lifestyle preferences after 20, 30 or 40 years of reckless abandon. This will not only help you to accumulate savings more rapidly, but it will also keep lifestyle inflation tendencies in check.

3. Have money saved in both retirement plans and non-retirement plans. Uncle Sam’s budget problems are in the trillions–don’t ignore the possibility that plans which are currently tax sheltered might be fair game in the next budget crunch. You’ll also need money to deal with your own budget problems between now and retirement.

4. Expect at least one more stock market crash before you retire. We’ve had two in the past decade—any investment strategy that ignores this fact is beyond naïve.

5. Invest in stocks–sometimes. Rob Bennett has written over 40 articles on this site championing the importance of stock valuations and I couldn’t agree more. That means not being over-invested at market tops, but it also means buying in at market bottoms when everyone else is running scared. What’s a top and what’s a bottom? Take a look at the performance of the market over the past 20 years for some valuable clues, but don’t assume that stocks are an “all weather” investment. The people who did over the past ten years have been burned by that assumption—twice!

6. Be prepared for a health insurance shock at any time. Private coverage can be hard to get and very expensive as you get older or have chronic health conditions. Look into group coverage from unconventional sources. I wrote a post on another site listing 11 part time jobs that offer health insurance. One of them is Starbucks—and they have a store in nearly every neighborhood in America. That could be a viable option in a pinch.

7. Plan to get on the Social Security gravy train as soon as possible. There’s a school of thought that has you delaying collecting benefits to maximize them, but you may need Social Security to cover less than expected income from other sources. It can be close to impossible to get private health coverage by age 65 and Medicare may not only be the cheapest option, but the ONLY one.

8. Keep basic living costs as low as possible. Keep housing, cars, and most of all, debt, to a minimum. Flexibility is invaluable in facing crisis or diminished options, and you’ll sacrifice it if you have too many possessions, and even more so if they’re encumbered with debt.

9. Plan on having some form of self-employment. Though you may be highly employable in your younger years, don’t assume that will be the case forever. At some point in your life, self-employment may be the only alternative to unemployment! Get a business started before you need it. I’m doing that right now with freelance blog writing. It’s the kind of business you can run as side venture, escalate it to something more if your career runs aground, and carry it right into retirement if need be. Try this or find something similar that will provide you with income options come what may. The stable employment, defined benefit pensions and generous Social Security income that the current group of retirees are enjoying are quickly disappearing—probably forever.

 
Have you considered the possibility that your retirement savings may not be as generous as hoped, or that instability in your employment may not allow you to amass enough funds for a golden retirement—or even any retirement at all? We sometimes say such things tongue-in-cheek, but what “Plan B” provisions have you implemented or considered?

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Radical Self-Reliance in the New Economy

By Jessica Wagner

Saving, whether it’s for retirement purposes or otherwise, is tough enough without having that added difficulty of being self-employed. Many people have found the benefits of being their own boss and making their own hours but putting money away isn’t as easy when you don’t have a company with good retirement plans.

It’s important to know that you can do this even if you are self-employed. Small business owners and online entrepreneurs alike have found ways to build up their retirement and savings funds. There are many ways to do this and there isn’t just one savings plan that you can invest in and IRAs have long been one of the most popular avenues for retirement savings.

Tax deferred retirement plans

An IRA is an account held by a custodial institution such as a bank or brokerage firm. Generally, IRA’s are designed for middle-income investors. There are no income restrictions for most middle class taxpayers and an IRA is available to everyone.

With a traditional IRA, you can contribute up to $5,000 per year ($6,000 if you’re over age 50) and the tax deduction of the investment is determined by your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). Depending on your filing status (single, joint, etc.) your contributions can range from fully deductible to completely non-deductible. If you withdraw before 59 ½ then you will be subject to a 10 percent penalty fee. This is subject to exceptions so consult the IRS web site to see if this applies to you.

Traditionally, 401(k)’s are available to those who work for a company that has a plan set in place for their employees, but there are also Self-Employment 401(k)’s available. These plans allow self-employed individuals or business owners to contribute to this plan while receiving tax breaks for the money they put away.

This plan generally allows the participant to contribute up to $16,500 per year, which not only represents a large contribution to retirement savings, but also a substantial tax benefit. Contributions to both and IRA and a 401k are deductible not only for federal income tax, but also for state income taxes. (Neither however results in a deduction for FICA taxes however.)

Creating income streams to fund your savings plans

If you do have your own business and you don’t have the available income to invest larger sums, you might want to consider making extra cash through different opportunities. And some of the best income earning opportunities can be found online so you don’t even need to leave your home or your place of business to make them happen.

Some of these options in fact can prove to be quite lucrative and range anywhere from freelance writing to taking market research surveys. Such opportunities can provide the steady additional cash flow needed to fund savings, and do it in less time than you might think.

Be sure that any income earned from side ventures will in fact be targeted for savings, and not blended with your regular budget. If the extra money is put into retirement savings, there will be little or no income tax on it, which should make your portfolio grow even faster.

Other savings options

You can also choose to set up a savings account or even certificates of deposit (CDs). In this way you can either save money until you’re ready to commit it to long term retirement plans, or build it up separately as a savings source in addition to your retirement investments. It’s always best to have some money in retirement plans and some outside since you never know what can happen between now and the time you retire.

If done wisely, you can start saving for your later years with very little effort. Set aside the extra cash you make and place it directly in various investment alternatives. It doesn’t have to be a savings account or CD. You can choose to invest in the stock market but this option comes with some risk in addition to a return that can be much greater than low interest accounts.

There are many savings choices available for those who are self-employed and these are just a few options. While searching for additional income and investment opportunities—on the internet or elsewhere—be careful of any offers promising huge returns for a nominal investment. There are many scams out there so make sure that any savings plan you invest in and any business opportunity you take on is legitimate.

If you’re self-employed, what are you doing to fund your savings and retirement plans?

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7 Reasons to be Self-Employed

Kevin M

There’s probably never been a better time to have your own business. I know that sounds downright loony to some, but it’s the reality of our time. On the plus side, the internet has opened up opportunities for small business ventures because it provides incredible leverage and it can make the little guy look like a big guy. On the negative side, employment has never been less certain or less satisfying, at least not in the past several decades.

Not convinced? Consider the following reasons—you can probably come up with a few more.

A sense of control

When you’re on someone else’s payroll, you’re also beholden to them. Your employer can change your work assignments, your seating assignment, your title, your pay, or even eliminate your job. In any of these instances, you may have little or no say in the decision making process—especially if you’re about to be fired or laid off.

Being self-employed gives you a strong measure of control over all of that. Many people are willing to make less money working for themselves precisely because it provides a greater sense of control over their careers, and by extension, their lives.

Unlike a job, self-employment isn’t “either/or”

Jobs are very much either/or arrangements; either you have a job and all is well, or you have no job and desperation is a constant traveling companion. In most instances, self-employment doesn’t put you in that position, especially if you have income streams coming from different sources.

In the worst of times you’ll probably have an income, even if a reduced one. What’s more, self-employment can give you the flexibility to pursue other income sources as needed. With jobs, you often don’t have the time, and some jobs even restrict your ability to earn money apart from your job.

The self-employed mindset

Back when I was in the mortgage business, an attorney I did a lot of business with made an astute comment over lunch one day. We were complaining about how clients often asked us to perform extra services without additional compensation, and he said “People who are in salaried jobs don’t understand; they get paid no matter what. We only eat what we can kill.”

If you’re a salaried person that comment might sound harsh, but if you are or ever have been self-employed you know exactly what he meant. The last sentence is an obvious reference to predatory animals and while graphically extreme, it serves to highlight the vastly different mindsets between people on salaries and those who are either self-employed or on commission. When you’re self-employed, there’s nothing “automatic” about your income—you have to earn it everyday.

On the surface, that sounds like an obstacle and I suppose it is. But once you grasp the concept that your paycheck is somewhere “out there”—in the community, on the web, on the phone or where ever the client base happens to be—and you learn that getting it is actually doable, then the whole process becomes liberating!

Once you learn how to make this happen, and that it can be repeated, you’ve crossed the line into self-employment. You begin to realize that anything is possible and you see opportunity all around you. There’s no security—but there are no limits either. That’s the self-employed mindset; you’re no longer looking for a job—you’re seeking opportunities. That’s a mindset that can be learned only by doing it, and once you have, it changes everything.

Retirement income

A lot of people fret over having enough money to retire comfortably, but here’s the reality for most people: you’ll never have enough money, so get over it! The rising cost of living will just about guarantee that the vast majority of people—outside the richest 5-10% of the population—will ever be able to enjoy a full retirement with no financial worries.

The best remedy to that problem is to have a business of your own, one you can work at for as long as you live, with no threat of being “put out to pasture”—as is the case with jobs. If it’s your business, you won’t ever need to retire from it and it can provide for you for many years past traditional retirement age.

Potential for unlimited income

Ever wonder why you reach an income ceiling on a job? It’s not your imagination—most jobs are “static” (I read that in a how-to-get-a-job book by an HR guy). An employer—any employer—will only pay so much for a given job, even if you’re doing the best work possible. Worse, once you reach the top earnings threshold, you’re trapped in the job because a move to another employer may mean a decrease in pay.

When you’re self-employed, you can earn as much as your time, talent, and effort will allow. In theory at least, there is no limit as long as you continue to grow and expand your business and your abilities.

You don’t have to quit your day job

One of the great aspects about starting your own business is that you don’t need to quit your job to do it—as we discussed above, self-employment isn’t either/or, and often involves the pursuit of multiple income streams.

You can start and build your business as a side venture until you’re ready to go full time. Maybe you never go full time, but you’ll have it as a second income and as a place to do the things you never could on your full time job. Sometimes having a side business makes your full time job more tolerable because it gives you what your job can’t.

One thing to keep in mind though; when filing taxes each year, working with a single employer and W2 forms, you can use a simple free IRS efile and do your own taxes online. Being self employed often opens up the possibility for significant deductions, and with multiple revenue streams, it may be in your best interest to consult a tax professional if you don’t feel comfortable doing it on your own.

Advance preparation for a job loss

This reason almost makes a necessity of being self-employed. This isn’t your grand-father’s economy—it isn’t even your father’s economy—the rules have changed and are still evolving. The past ten years have been very unstable and the future doesn’t look any better if “stable” is your definition of normal times.

Every one of us needs to have a plan (or better yet, plans) for a job that won’t be there in the future. Just because you kept your job through the last recession doesn’t mean you’ll have it until you retire. No job is safe any more, and the worst part is that if you do lose your job it will probably come at a time when thousands of people in the same line of work are losing theirs. That means there will be long lines of candidates applying for any job available.

In your own business, you can (and should) develop multiple income streams that will provide you with at least some income, plus the ability to find new ones. You can even take a part time job to help in a pinch.

There are businesses and industries that grow even in recessions. I’m doing freelance blog writing, and that business has actually grown substantially during the recession. There are opportunities for growth all around and having your own business can help you find them. If you’re doing it right—meaning you’re always searching out opportunity rather than a job—you have a good chance of surviving and even thriving, what ever happens in the economy.

If you’d like to start a business of your own, but don’t know which to go into, check out my post, The Freelance Blog Writer Side Hustle. Blog writing is a chance to start a business small and to grow it–risk free. Even if you’ve never written professionally in the past, this post can get you started.

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By Kevin M

Even in the face of an apparent economic recovery, many millions of people are stagnating in their jobs, unable to get a promotion or to move to a more promising position with a competing company. Many more are still unemployed or even under-employed. That may be the reality of our time, but should we sit still and wait for better times? Is that even a strategy?

Cutting living expenses is one way to deal with a comatose employment situation, but I’ve argued in the past that frugality has its limits. When all is said and done, you can only cut your expenses so much before finding new income sources becomes an absolute necessity.

If you aren’t content to continue to just muddle through, and want to make things happen in your life, increasing the number of income streams will be the most constructive way forward. And starting a side business is the single best way to do this.

How can starting a side business build a better future?

Moving forward in an uncertain job market

Job security is a thing of the past. We could write books about how that’s playing out but it’s completely unnecessary. The more important issue is how we deal with that reality?

If jobs are uncertain, the best thing we can do is to prepare ourselves for self-employment. Since most people have never been self-employed, the lowest risk way to do this is to begin a business as a side venture while you’re still employed by your company. You’ll have the cash flow from your job, and that will give you as much time as you need to get your business up and make it profitable.

If you haven’t been promoted in a long time, and there’s little prospect of getting a better job elsewhere, it’s time to get started with a side business now. In time, your business can grow into a full time venture. And even if it doesn’t, and it merely functions as a part time business, it can either supplement your income or be one source among several income streams in the event you lose your primary job entirely.

Coping with the rising cost of living

Despite official declarations of an inflation rate sitting reliably within the 1-4% range, the cost of goods and services that we need—food, energy, utilities, healthcare and education have soared. If you aren’t being promoted, and the raises you get are only of the token variety, you’ll have to increase your income outside your job. A side business is a logical way to do this.

Retirement planning

Will Social Security be there when our turn to retire comes around? I think so, but it will almost certainly be at a level well below what today’s retirees are enjoying. Maybe it will be pushed out to age 70, or maybe it will be means-tested—we can’t know. And as pretty as self-directed retirement plan projections are, none can adequately account for the effects of one or more stock market crashes, or of a prolonged period of unemployment.

A successful side business can provide a workable Plan B against these possibilities. It can be a much needed income stream to supplement a reduced Social Security check and a less than expected return on a 401k. This is real life—even in retirement we’ll need options.

Building up savings and investments

It’s tough enough stretching a paycheck to cover necessary living expenses and—hopefully—a little bit for extras. But savings and investing can be lost in the course of just surviving! There always seems to be yet another bill to pay, another unexpected expense soaking up every extra dollar.

Often, the only way to develop a serious savings and investment plan is to create another income stream to fund it. A side business can provide the source not only for building savings, but also to pay down and pay off debt, and to increase investments for retirement.

Bringing out your “inner entrepreneur”

Do you ever dare to ask yourself ”what do I truly want to do with my life?” It can be a lot of fun, but it often gets short-circuited on the but-I-have-bills-to-pay issue. And yet despite this cold dose of reality, most of us are fascinated by the possibilities. Deep inside, we all sense that we could be more than we are–if only…

Why is it important to be an entrepreneur? If we can’t rely on jobs to provide for our futures, then we need to rely on ourselves! That almost certainly means some form of self-employment. But beyond the question of earning a living, self-actualization is a very real human need. We all want to be the captains of our own ships “some day”, to create our own unique paintings of our lives.

If you don’t feel that that’s happening through your main occupation, a side business gives you another shot. Who do you want to be in your life and your occupation? Maybe the answer to that question is closer than you think. A side business may provide that answer—and a whole bunch of other good things along the way.

If you think that building a side business may be the right path for you, but you don’t know what kind of business to go into, check out my post, The Freelance Blog Writer Side Hustle. Blog writing is one of the most promising side ventures you can enter because it’s growing rapidly and has excellent potential to lead to still more opportunities. Even if you’ve never written professionally in the past, this post can help you get started.

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The Perfect Side Hustle: Freelance Blog Writer

By Kevin M

What are you doing to make extra money these days? I’ll tell you what I’m doing—and it’s working! Freelance blog writing. I’ve often thought that the best way to make money—from a full time business or a side business—is to find something you’re good at, something you’re already doing, and then monetize it. I’ve been writing on my own blog for over two years, so why not take what I’m doing here and “sell” it somewhere else for extra income? The best ideas are the simplest ones–that’s why this is working.

I’m of the opinion that most everyone could or should have a side business—some type of additional income stream that isn’t dependent on a traditional job. The way the job market has deteriorated in the past few years, having a side hustle (or two) may be the best insurance against a career crash-and-burn. Put another way, multiple income streams are fast becoming the wave of the future. It’s mostly a matter of deciding which ones you’ll use.

Could you be a freelance blog writer?

OK, I’m biased, but I think the answer is a big, fat YES. And I feel that way because a little over two years ago I wasn’t even blogging, let alone making money at it. Not on my site, not on anyone else’s. And now I’m making money on both. I’ve always liked to write, but nothing in my previous careers (accounting and mortgages) prepared me to make a living from a writing career in any direct fashion. That’s why there’s hope for anyone who might want to take a serious shot at it.

What are the qualifications?

Decent writing ability is a given, but don’t get hung up on that. Blog writing is more conversational in tone and presentation, so you don’t need to be able to write high prose or even encyclopedia articles. The ability to make your point concisely is by far the most important mechanical skill.

Passions and areas of expertise. Every one of us is better than most people at one or more things–and that’s the thing you can write about. We all have areas of expertise, passions and interests that make us natural “authorities” on a subject. If you write about what you naturally love, a freelance blog writing business can be your perfect side business.

Why not just get a part time job to make extra money?

I’ll wager that this is what most people think about when they’re looking to make some extra money. After all, once you get a part time job, the money starts coming in almost immediately and when you’ve had enough of it, you can just quit and move on. But here are just a few reasons why a part time job may not fit the bill—you can probably add to this list with very little thought:

• You have to keep hours—which typically means nights, weekends and holidays
• You will almost certainly have to work outside your home, which will really suck if that’s what you already do on your full time job
• You will probably be paid minimum wage or slightly above–and you KNOW you’re worth more than that!
• You will have a boss—I mean in addition to the one you have on your full time job
• The job probably won’t take you anywhere, like to a promotion or a new skill set
• It almost certainly won’t give you a chance to tap your hidden creative talents
• It will be temporary, that is, until you burnout—or they get tired of you

In most situations, a part time job is a pure money play—and not a very good one at that. Rarely will it ever be anything more. If you’re looking to beef up your revenue stream, you’ll almost certainly have to look to do something more substantial.

Why freelance blog writing is the perfect second income source

Freelance blog writing is by far a superior way to earn extra money, and here are 12 reasons why:

1. You don’t have to leave your home

2. You can work as much—or as little—as you like

3. There are no barriers to entry—no specific credentials are needed

4. You don’t have to worry about what you don’t know—it’s all about what you DO know

5. Blog writing has grown through the recession—there are no “job security” issues

6. There are NO geographic restrictions—you can even do it while you’re away on vacation

7. Work around YOUR schedule—there are no hours to keep

8. It’s a business, not a job, and you can take it as far as you’re willing and able

9. You’ll be paid to create—and you can create content that you believe in

10. It pays better than most part time jobs (more on that below)

11. It will cost you nothing to enter

12. It will blend better with your personal and professional life than just about any other side venture you can think of.

And here’s a bonus: if you like, you can even go for that look of the laptop literary legions who populate places like Starbucks during regular business hours, dressed in their who-cares-about-the-business-world khaki’s and sandals, nursing a latte while crafting their latest creation. Yes, that could be you—I’m just sayin’.

You’ll be self-employed, which is to say that you can work when you want, where you want and for whom you want. All of which opens up incredible options.

How much money can you make as a blog writer?

Easily $500 to $1,000 a month or more. Pay for blog posts typically ranges from $15 to $50 per post and you can easily average $25 per post—or more. If you can write five posts per week—20 per month—you’ll earn $500. If you can write 10 per week you’ll be up to $1,000 per month.

If you can write a typical 600-800 word post in about an hour—and many blog writers can—you’ll earn about $25 per hour, working from home in your PJs and furry slippers. As you get better at blog writing you should be able to write one in about an hour.

If you’d like to try blog writing, order a copy of my new e-book, The Freelance Blog Writer Side Hustle. It will show you how to write blog articles quickly and completely, how to find ongoing sources of topics, how to find blogs to write for, and just about everything else you’ll need to make it work. Even if you’ve never written professionally in the past, this book will give you a step by step course to guide you into it.

Take the plunge and see if freelance blog writing can be the perfect side hustle for you!

What do you think about freelance blog writing as a side business?

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