Posts Tagged ‘ small business ’

Income Security VS Job Security – Does it Matter?

By Kevin M

My friend Jay and I were talking about jobs this past weekend and he pointed out something that I hadn’t thought about: There are no astronauts any more! That may not mean too much if you’re under 30, but when he and I were growing up being an astronaut was the ultimate “hero career”. It was, as the kids say today, “the shit” among careers.

Back then it seemed that all of humanity would eventually be going to space—to find resources, to conquer new worlds or at least to alleviate overpopulation here on earth—and astronauts would lead us there. High minded and exciting, yes, except that it never happened!

If a career as cutting edge as astronauts is no longer secure, what can we say about the far more ordinary fields most of us regular folks work in?

You’ve heard it and read it before, and perhaps you’ve even been a casualty of one of the biggest phenomena of our time–the end of job security.

We have to do something about that, but what? Individually, there’s little any of us can do to create job security, but we can gravitate toward it’s close cousin, income security. If we have income security we might not even notice or care that we no longer have job security.
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Self-employment in the Internet Age

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

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How to Keep a Steady Paycheck while Starting a Business

By Kevin M

Quick—you want to start a new business—what’s your biggest fear?

If you said “failure” you’re close, but you’re confusing cause and effect. It’s the inability to make money—also known as the loss of a steady paycheck— that would be the cause of the failure that’s at the root of your deepest fears. Failure will merely be the result—or the effect—of the inability to make money.

But there’s a way to reduce this fear, by breaking the income process down into smaller steps. The point of breaking it down is so that we can approach the income hurdle that all small businesses face into a series of manageable blocks. What we want to do is to convert the self-employed income hurdle from an obstacle to a transition process.

You want to try to engineer the transition in four steps:
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Saving and Investing Tips for the Self-Employed

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.
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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.
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Charting Your Own Course with a Side Business

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?
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Marketing Mistakes to Avoid Like the Plague

By William Eve

As a business owner, you should pay attention to every detail and, on top of all, avoid making some basic mistakes because it can cost you more than you expected. In this article you will be presented with some very common marketing mistakes and some possible ways to avoid them.

Not Having a Marketing Plan

As you probably already know, having a strongly developed marketing plan is vital for the survival of every company, especially for smaller ones. However, there are a great number of business owners who realize that they do not have such a plan when they would have needed it and are desperately trying to save their company from a total failure.

There are others who believe that marketing plans should only be developed by big corporations. This is completely false, as it is also very important for smaller companies in order to achieve success. In fact, it is even more important because mistakes can be fixed more easily for big companies, while the small ones are not always able to handle certain situations.

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How to Make Money by Spending Money

“You have to spend money to make money” is a popular business adage but the wisdom of this advice can be applied to your personal finances as well.

Spending money in business is all about assessing risks, taking chances which will grow your brand, and looking for opportunities. These are all attitudes you should take toward your personal finances in order to make your money work even harder, and to have the skills and knowledge to make the best investments.

Successfully making money by spending it will mean following these four tips to ensure you choose the right spending options which will make you money.

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Buy a Business OR Build One From the Ground Up?

By Kevin M

You’re over it, all of it—the job, your career, the nine-to-five routine, the morning commute, the cubicle in the corner—you want to ditch it all and finally start your own business.

You’ve already decided what that business will be, and now you’re setting down to consider the details of how you’ll get it off the ground. There’s a major choice to be made: buy an existing business, or build your own from scratch.

Which route will you choose?
 
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Why Most New Businesses Fail – And How Not to Become One of Them

By Kevin M

Are you thinking about starting your own business? If so, you have a lot of company. According to the Department of Labor, more than one million new businesses are formed each year. Depending on the source quoted, somewhere between 50% and 90% will fail, usually in the first year.

Why do so many businesses fail? And if you’re planning to start a new business, how can you avoid becoming one of them?

Some business ventures fail for bad luck, but probably far more fail for causes that were not only known up front, but could have been prepared for in advance.

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