KC Morgan's Blog
Posted by KC Morgan
When you get back to work after a few days off, especially during the holiday season, you might feel slow, sluggish, and uninspired. Too much ham and holiday hooplah has that effect on people, so you aren’t the only one. It’s hard to get back into a humdrum work routine after holiday enjoyment. So, how do you kick-start yourself after the vacation that is the holiday season?
Make a list. Making to-do lists is often the salvation of the self-employed professional. Keeping thoughts organized, and keeping yourself on track, is much easier when you have a point-by-point list to follow. This will help you get right back into the swing of working.
Start small. Don’t overwhelm yourself with lots of projects right after enjoying a few days off. Giving yourself too much to do will make you feel tired, overworked, and will lower your productivity. Start with little projects, complete them, and work your way up. Get back into self-employed goals slowly.
Posted by KC Morgan
For the best in gift-giving holiday self-help, check out the technology section, which provides info on all those gizmos and gadgets that everyone wants. Stuffing stockings always seems like the hardest part of Christmas, until it’s all said and done. Then, you get a great feeling of accomplishment as you watch lights dance off packages of red and green.
But then come the holiday get-togethers. Getting through the holiday season unscathed seems almost impossible when family get-togethers are on the horizon. Spending time with your family, spending time with your spouse’s family, the office parties and the traffic – holiday self-help is definitely in order to get through these traumas. To learn how to deal with the best in holiday hoop-lah (and your in-laws), check out the partners and parents section.
It’s hard getting through the holidays alone. Learn the tips, tricks, and devious schemes that will help you get through the season unscathed.
Posted by KC Morgan
The Internet, which seems to make everything possible, has opened up a whole new world of freelance work to those wishing to start a work from home career. If you’ve ever wanted to become a freelance writer, now is the time. Internet content is highly in demand, and that means good writers are a valuable commodity.
If you can research a topic and write concise, clear statements about it, then you might be able to start a work from home career and become a freelance writer, too. Self employment as a freelancer means making your own hours and choosing your own jobs. If you don’t know where to start, start here. Suite101 is always hiring freelance writers, and it’s a great way to get started with a work from home career.
Learn how to write for 101, or learn more about freelance writing in general with the Freelance Writers section. Write for us at Home and Garden, Social Issues, Technology, Sports, or Travel and Culture. Read Christmas Survival Tips for holiday season career advice.
Starting a work from home career is all about finding the work. The sooner you start looking, the sooner you can become a freelance writer and enjoy self employment.
Posted by KC Morgan
Knowing when to take the plunge and become totally reliant upon your own self employed efforts is the hardest decision to make. Self employment is not something you should jump into, but plan for. Is it one of those things that “you just know”?
Usually, no, it’s not. Some of us may tend to be more cautious, holding off on taking the plunge into self employment. Others will be ready to jump in, feet first, without thinking twice. There’s no specific guideline for when to start your self employment fully.
The trick is in knowing how to evaluate yourself. Making self employment goals means making realistic goals that you know you can meet, and one of your most important goals will be becoming fully self employed. Evaluating yourself for self employment means realistically evaluating how much you spend and how much you make through self employed efforts. One should be higher than the other – you know which.
Don’t do it if you can’t afford it. Evaluating yourself and your spending habits can be very difficult to do, but it’s something you have to face before you take the big step into total self employment. Check out these free business e-books to get some free tools, and know When to Quit.
Posted by KC Morgan
No matter how successful your self employment may be, every holiday season your family somehow makes you feel inferior because you have the luxury of working from home. Bolder family members may even ask you how much you make, and other invasive questions.
They’re your family – so what do you do? The holidays would seem a little less bright if you told them off or primly said, “It’s not really any of your business.” You don’t want to reduce the discussion at the table to “pass the green beans” and “ready for dessert?” So you bite your tongue, you smile, and you patiently explain – again – the nature of your self employment.
Answering all their holiday season questions usually lasts through at least the first hour of the family holiday get-together. When you feel like you’re being put on the spot and you’re wishing the holidays were over so you could escape, your family and your self employment aren’t seeing each other eye-to-eye.
How do you get them on the same page? Or at least, get them off your back so you can enjoy your turkey? Every time they ask you an invasive question, smile, take another bite, and turn the tables on them. They’ll get the hint, and you won’t have to go out of your way to put them in their place. If they try to press you, just shrug, smile, and say “that would be telling, now, wouldn’t it?” And wink.
Let them wonder what you mean for the rest of the evening.
Posted by KC Morgan
“I can always do that later.” “I’ll get back to it after this movie’s over.” “I’ll look into it right after dinner.” Sometimes, self employment is too relaxed. And when you get too relaxed, you get lax. What does that mean?
That the work doesn’t get done. When you notice yourself falling behind, or working extra hard two or three days out of the week and doing much less on other days, you may have self employmentitis. This is a condition that results in having too much freedom with your time.
When it comes to making your own hours, it’s a little too tempting to go astray. So what if you slack off? You’re the boss, after all.
The only trouble is, when you have trouble making your own hours work for self employment, then you’re having trouble making self employment work for you. In order to make money, you have to get the work done.
For tips on how making your own hours can get a whole lot easier, learn how to Get Organized at Work.
Sometimes, you’re not having trouble making you own hours or finding time. Sometimes, you can get into a self employment slump and your creative juices stop flowing. Read the Creative Writing discussion for tips on getting your gears back into motion.
Posted by KC Morgan
When you start looking at self employment as a job instead of what you love, you’re not having enough fun with it. Put some play in your work day.
You get up, you go to the office. You grouse about the junk in your e-mail inbox and you start thinking about the projects you have to do that day. If you start looking at the clock and thinking about quitting time, you’ve got a problem. After all, self employment is supposed to be fun. It’s what you love to do, right?
Here’s one of the perks of self employment: you don’t have to work like you’d work for someone else. You can take hour long lunches, thirty minute breaks, you can pause what you’re doing and surf the ‘Net. If you really need to take a break, you can even play a game. After all, you are your own boss.
And no one is a more strict taskmaster. So take a break every now and then and simply enjoy the fact that you’re self employed. You can slack off, but don’t fall too far behind. For more on-the-job fun (whether you’re self employed or otherwise), check out Workplace Culture, where you can learn Creative Ways to Get Fired, among other things. For more resources for the self employed, take a look at Entrepreneurs.
Posted by KC Morgan
Though self employment can seem a little lonely, it’s actually one of the hot career paths to pursue. As the Internet opens up whole new worlds, self employment rises. In fact, you may be surprised to learn just how many other self employed professionals there are out there.
According to some of the most recent reports done by the US Census Bureau (an organization that does nothing but compile statistics so that people like me can talk about them), self employment experienced a huge growth rate (5.7%) between 2002 and 2003. This brought the number of self employed professionals up to 18.6 million – and that’s a lot.
You definitely aren’t alone when you’re working alone, if the job is self employment. As more and more explore the world of self employment and the numbers continue to rise, more possibilities open to self employed professionals. Internet and real estate markets are especially hot for those wishing to pursue the path of the self employed.
Does geography play a factor? It’s true that self employment, no matter what the field, can be done pretty much anywhere. But if you’re wondering which state leads the pack for self employed persons, in 2003 it was Nevada (which one assumes is due to the high level of professional gamblers in the area), followed closely by Arizona as the fastest-growing state in terms of the number of self employed persons.
After crunching the numbers, it’s evident that there’s a whole lot of us out there.
Posted by KC Morgan
“Send cover letter and resume” is commonly included at the end of every single advertisement for employment, even jobs that are primarily used for self-employment. If the query letter isn’t good, no one’s going to bother reading the self-employed resume you’ve worked so hard on. Getting your resume out there depends on the strength of the query letter that you attach it to.
The first rule of the query letter is the one that most people ignore: short and sweet is better. Never forget this. No one, least of all a potential employer who is likely combing through dozens of emails like yours, has the time to read a two-page letter about how great you are. Keep it short.
Start with an introduction and a brief explanation of why you’re writing (i.e. I saw your ad on the Internet). Briefly highlight your experience in the job you’re applying to, then finish up with a good closing. For example, “I’m interested in learning more about this project. You will find my current resume attached, and my contact information has been listed below.” Always thank your reader at the end of the query letter. They’ve taken the time to read it, so say thank you.
Read Don’ts for Query Letters and learn to avoid common mistakes. And remember, the query letter is only a small part of self-employment marketing. Read this blog to learn more.
Posted by KC Morgan
Mom wakes up promptly at dawn every day. Dad is getting ready for another day at the office with his customary good cheer (meaning he’s grumbling under his breath and any second will start complaining about the weather). The baby’s crying, and the two-year-old already has the TV turned on in the next room.
After Dad’s off to work, Mom spends her day at the usual pursuits of keeping the toddler under control (a task that seems better suited to an entire team of professionals, not just one tired woman) and feeding the baby every four hours…or else. In-between feedings, changings, and answering endless questions (“Because I said so!”), Mom tries to get some of the laundry done and almost forgets to unthaw the hamburger for dinner. By the time she gets the chance to sit down (for the first time that day), Dad is already coming up the front walk and looking like he’s had another rough day at the office.
At what point, in all of this, does Mom have the chance to surf the Internet for work at home job opportunities? Being a stay at home Mom is very often a full-time job already, nevermind taking care of additional work responsibilities. If you’re a Mom that truly feels she does have some extra time, though, think about how much of a workload you can realistically handle. The key to finding success as a work at home mom is in not biting off more than you can chew.
Posted by KC Morgan
When you want to be self-employed, and make yourself a good income doing so, at some point you will have to find freelance gigs. Many companies will not need your services and/or products all of the time, and periodically search for freelancers to take on some of their work load. For the self employed professional, freelance work can be very lucrative and sometimes, necessary.
Doing freelance gigs can be fun, too. It's a good way to do something different, take on new assignments that you wouldn't otherwise be working on. Freelance work that you perform can also be added to your self employed resume as a way to highlight your versatility. Freelance work can help you make money, expand your expertise, and give you something fun and different to work on (even self employment can become tedious in time when you do the same things over and over again).
The only trouble is, where do you find these freelance gigs? Check out some of the articles and information for writers at Reading and Writing to learn where to find freelance gigs and new customers.
Major job boards contain listings for freelance professionals literally every day. Whether you're a freelance writer, graphic designer, consultant, or another type of freelance professional, check out major job boards for freelance gigs. Make sure to include "freelance" in the search string to return the results that will apply to you.
There are a huge variety of freelance-specific job boards on the Internet. For writing, transcription, graphic design, even typing gigs, check out Freelance Jobs. Some of these job boards will require you to “bid” on projects. I do not recommend these boards. There are many, completely free, job boards for self employed professionals that do not require you to sign up for anything or bid on jobs you’d like to have. This is where your focus should lie.
Posted by KC Morgan
A resume for a self employed person is no different than any other resume in the business world. When you know how to self evaluate, you can write an attention-grabbing resume that will look great to potential customers and clients. Even when you’re self employed, you need a good resume to help further your business goals.
The question is, how to self evaluate? Think about your past educational and job experiences. Did you take a typing class in school, shop, or computer lab? Did you work with office equipment in past employment endeavors? Do you know how to work with computers, fax machines, the Internet? All of these are salable skills, and all will look good on your self employed resume.
When you’re working on a self evaluation, it’s important to think about your future business and self employment goals. Cite your objectives on your resume, and list any special qualifications or skills you may have. What are your strengths? Find a way to highlight them. What are your weaknesses? Know what they are and if necessary, mention that you are working on improving yourself in these areas – and work toward that goal. When you know how to improve yourself in weaker areas, your entire self employed resume becomes stronger.
Know how to self evaluate and learn your own strengths and weaknesses. Once you know what they are, you can highlight strengths and turn weak areas into strong ones.
Posted by KC Morgan
Everyone handles stress differently, and being stressed because of work concerns is familiar territory. Even when you work from home or work for yourself, work can still be stressful. When you’re self employed and still stressful, how do you handle it?
Because your finances and your self employment are all one, stress happens. Some deals fall through; others are just not what you thought. Money matters and financial concerns stress a lot of us out, and this is one facet of self employment that isn’t all fun and games. The key to dealing with self employment stress is through maintaining a healthy attitude.
Understand where your stress is coming from. Are you worried about finding work, making money, the possibility of going back to working for someone else? Knowing what is stressing you out is important – how else can you make that stress go away? Then, you can re-adjust your thinking and reduce stress. If you need to find more work, get on Internet job boards. Find new job boards through search engines. There are many freelancing opportunities available for those wishing to pursue self employment. Spend some time and look for new work every day, or every other day. You <b>will</b> find something. Having more work means more money, which will help to greatly reduce stress. Find how to change what stresses you, and change it. Confront your stress and deal with it, and it will go away.
To learn more about stress, read What is Stress?.
Posted by KC Morgan
A new laptop. Office furniture. A cell phone with all the gadgets. A digital camera. Sometimes, you get to the point in your self employment when it's time for an upgrade. Things are going well, you've started to turn a profit, but you're sure you just can't go further without some new self employment tools.
But can you justify the big purchase that you want to make? Because I can always learn how to justify spending any amount of money, I can help you with this aspect of self employment as well. For starters, anything specific you buy for your business (the business of being self employed) can become a tax write-off. The new laptop, the furniture, even some of your electric bill can all be written off as business expenses, because you're self employed and an independent contractor.
Isn't self employment grand? But it's not as easy as it sounds! First, you have to have the money to buy the new tools you crave. Then, you have to be able to afford that purchase until next Spring. Listen, you can't get a tax break until you've turned in your taxes. So be frugal, but don't be afraid to buy yourself things that you think you need. If you know it will help your business and you can afford it, make the upgrade. You'll get a tax break, eventually, and in the meantime you can improve your business.
Consider it another perk of being self employed.
Posted by KC Morgan
Sometimes, self employment stings. You decide to take the plunge into self employment, and it starts to go well. Money comes in, bills go out. You pay for the expenses of living, you continue to eat well, you laugh your way to the bank and tell everyone what a cool job you've got. Then...things go downhill. You lose a big client. You can't find new work. Your bank account runs on empty. Gas prices just get higher. Your computer breaks down. The roof leaks. You break a tooth. What do you do when self employment stings?
The first rule of self employment is to live within your means. You can't always go on living the way you lived before self employment. The road to financial success never runs smooth, and self employment isn't always easy. You may need to cut back. You only have as much money as you made on your last self employment job. Tomorrow, your biggest buyer could disappear. Always be on the lookout for new work, and always be ready for the rug to be pulled out from under you.
This way, you won't be at all surprised if this is what happens. Self employment can be insecure. Always market yourself, always find new work, always try to keep customers happy. Be ready to do some cutting back and scaling down, so you'll always live within your means. Read more at Personal Budgeting.
Posted by KC Morgan
In self employment, your efforts directly reflect your income. Having an "off day" might result in a serious loss of money. And let's face it: none of us wants to lose any income. Staying mentally sharp helps you keep your focus, so that you won't slack off when it comes to self employment. Remember, when you're the boss milking the clock is just a bad idea.
Learn how to exercise your mental fitness, which will help you with staying mentally sharp. After all, being unsuccessful at self employment means you may have to go back to working for someone else - and you definitely don't want that. Mental Exercise, Mental Fitness offers lots of great advice.
Posted by KC Morgan
So, Friday afternoon, after a lazy morning, I decided it was finally time to get some work done. A very organized person, I keep daily check lists so that I can be sure to get everything done, all assignments turned in on time. The secret to my self employment is in writing everything down.
I settled myself before my computer and turned it on.
Nothing. A clicking. No life on the screen.
Unfortunately for me, my computer had gone through a meltdown - and right before a holiday weekend. When it comes to self employment and your computer, you simply can't have one without the other - not in this day and age. I was terrified. I was frantic!
I was in a whole lot of trouble. I've learned, quite by accident, that it's a good idea to have an emergency plan in place. Technology fails, computers go kaput, and self employment waits for no machine. Know where you can access a computer to complete self employment goals, know what you're going to do if a piece of equipment fails. Know how to get through a problem like mine.
Trust me, you'll be glad you did.
Posted by KC Morgan
When budgets fail, self employment can get a little scary. Even those with the best-laid plans can find themselves in a financial struggle from time to time. Money transfers take longer than expected, clients don't pay on time, and unexpected expenses come out of nowhere. When you need to make a quick buck because the bills are due, one of the best things you can do to make some extra cash is to hold a yard sale.
It isn't as easy as it sounds. You want to use your yard sale to generate a good bit of money, so plan carefully and arrange salable items attractively. De-junking Your House is filled with tips and information about where to find stuff to sell, and is a pre-yard sale must-read.
Yard sales are a great way to generate a little bit of money while you wait for you self employment checks to start rolling in, but yard sales cannot be relied upon all the time to pick you up out of a financial rut. If your budget repeatedly fails and your incoming payments are habitually late, think about setting aside some money into a savings account. This will give you something to fall back on when money is lean.
Posted by KC Morgan
Self employment can be a very rewarding career path to pursue. However, self employment is also a road filled with ups and downs. There are times when business is down, when people don't pay on time, when you struggle. But there will also be times when business is booming. How can you prepare for the ups, the downs, and everything in-between?
To learn more about keeping a tight self employment budget, which will help you make ends meet even when the money isn't flowing in, read more at Personal Budgeting. Using the information you gather here, you'll learn all you need to know when it comes to budgeting and keeping finances on track.
When you're self employed, you are essentially running a business. You have to maintain your bottom line and keep the money flowing in to cover the expenses going out. To learn more about the ins and outs of every day business, check the out Business Management section.
As a self employed professional, you will become an independent contractor, an entrepreneur, for tax purposes. You'll have to keep track of your business expenses and purchases, and records of your income. To learn the details of being a self employed professional, read tips at the Entrepreneurs section.
Posted by KC Morgan
When you work in an office, taking a day off means that some things might not get filed, a deposit doesn't get made, a meeting goes unattended. When you work from home and you take a day off, it means work piles up.
When you get back to working again, the pile can be so huge that suddenly, you're overwhelmed. Even when you work from home, even when you're self-employed, you can't escape stress. Learn how to make time budgeting work for you so that work doesn't threaten to overtake you.
If you need a day off, then take one - but prepared to work twice as hard the next day around. Keep lists of things to do, so that you can check off completed tasks and visibly see yourself making a dent in your workload. Focusing on one small task at a time gives you a sense of accomplishment, and keeps you from looking at the big picture that seems filled with work.
Work from home can be enjoyable as long as you maintain some sort of schedule and budget your time. Give yourself some quiet time to work when you can, and you'll find that you get a lot more accomplished. Focus not on the big picture, but break your day down into several smaller tasks that are easy to complete. Take things slowly, and soon you'll find that you've finished your day's work early.
Learn how to use time budgeting to make work from home, work for you.
Posted by KC Morgan
The fact of self employment is, if you have a bad day or something goes wrong, then you're completely on your own. There's no one else to talk to about it, and no one to ask for help. Self employment can get very lonely and at times, very hectic. Working alone also means that there's no help, and self employment can put a lot of pressure on your shoulders.
How do you manage stress when you work from home as a self employed professional? Sometimes, the best thing to do is simply take a break and walk away for a little while. Self employment and working from home also means there's no boss hanging over your shoulder, so you get to decide when it's time to take a rest. Do something to get your mind off work, even if it's only for fifteen minutes.
And every so often, treat yourself so that self employment stress doesn't weight you down. Take a midday break and go shopping, go out to eat, do something extra special. After all, you work alone, so why not take an extended lunch every once in a while?
To manage stress, simply give yourself a break. Turn off the computer, turn off the phone, and turn off your mind. Just relax. When you go back to your work, you'll have fresher eyes and a clear head. That goes a long way toward fixing any problems you may be having in work.
Posted by KC Morgan
In self-employment, 90% of the time your income is going to come to you in a gross amount, with no taxes taken out. Even for work at home positions, companies will often hire employees on an "independent contractor" basis.
An independent contractor is someone who works with a company but who really works for themselves, meaning that the company does not put the person on the payroll or give them a regular paycheck with taxes taken out.
In self-employment, work from home jobs, or being an independent contractor, it all means the same thing: you have to claim all income taxes yourself. You will have to claim all of your income with the federal government, as per the law. Because you will not have taxes taken out of your checks as you receive them, you will no doubt end up owing money for taxes when Spring comes.
This is a gruesome fact of self-employment. There are ways to keep yourself from going broke paying out taxes, however. If you work from home, you can get a tax break on the electricity you use, your phone bill, the cost of office supplies, etc. Anything you have to pay our for your business, save the receipt. This will make tax time a lot easier.
And most importantly, consult with a tax professional when it comes to doing your self-employment, or independent contractor, taxes. They will help you pay the smallest amount back to Uncle Sam.
Posted by KC Morgan
Web sites can be used to generate a lot of money, through online selling and even ad revenue. But in order to make those profits, you have to learn how to rope in visitors. When it comes to the Internet, word of mouth and search engines have to be your best friends if you want high traffic. To learn more about all matters technical, check out the Technical section.
Creating your own web site is not the only way to bring in income from the Internet. Online auction sites, like E-bay, can also be used to bring money for your pockets. Internet buying, selling, and trading is huge right now, and more popular than ever. If you've got the gift of commerce, you can learn how to use auction sites to trade items you no longer need for much-needed cash, or items that you can re-sell for a fine profit.
You don't have to be a technical whiz to make money from the Internet. It's a skill that anyone can learn, but the best way to learn is to dive right in. Surf around a little, familiarize yourself with the Internet, and find out what sites get the best rankings with the search engines. The only way to learn more about the Internet is to check it out, for yourself.
Posted by KC Morgan
The poll results are in, and most of our readers are interested in work from home jobs that focus on writing skills. For work from home writing jobs, you are definitely in the right place - because this happens to be my obsession.
Writing to generate a good income while working from home sounds great, but in truth this requires a lot of hard work and commitment. Get acquainted with writing job boards, and learn how to use them. For some helpful tips, check out Job Hunting Tips.
The most important aspect of writing is to get your name out there. Submit, submit, and submit again - because eventually, you will get a positive reply. All writers, however, do have to deal with their fair share of rejection. To learn more, read further at Dealing With Rejection.
It's true that anyone can work from home, but not everyone can keep up the amount of work and pure perseverance required to make their work from endeavor a success. To learn more about work from home and the latest poll conducted in this section, read the latest self employment article.
Posted by KC Morgan
Though they're much harder to find than the sites that are nothing more than Internet scams, anyone can find real work from home opportunities with a little hard work and effort. Once you know what not to look for, your odds of success at finding work from home begin to look much better.
To learn how to avoid Internet scams, read Internet Scams to Avoid in this section. Those interested in self employment and real work from home opportunities can find a good level of success in the field of academic writing. You don't have to have a degree to do academic writing, just a flair for research and a good ability to follow strict formatting rules.
Work from home opportunities often come in the form of typing, transcription, and making calls to clients. There are many web sites that look for professionals in these fields. Look for "work from home" and "data entry" or "research" or whatever you think your strengths are, and you'll find opportunities. Some of these will be scams!
But some of them, will not.
Posted by KC Morgan
When you reach the point in your self employment where the work load demands that you hire staff to help you with your work, congratulate yourself. Your home based business is booming, you are expanding, and you are definitely firmly established as a self employed professional.
Which means you have to start paying like one. Most employees will not work for free, and even friends and family members will no doubt want special breaks or deals. Being self employed means taking care of your own financial needs without the help of others, but it can also mean caring for others' financial needs.
As if working for yourself wasn't hard enough already! But paying your employees doesn't have to break you, or be the ruination of your home based business. Keeping a careful eye on your budget, and knowing what you can afford to pay, will help safeguard you against draining your self employment resources. Know what you can afford, and keep a steady eye on your income flow. If you reach a point where you are paying out more money than what is coming in, it may be time to re-evaluate your home based business and the cost of your staff.
For tips, tools, and advice on budgeting, check out the Personal Budgeting section.
Posted by KC Morgan
Today, it seems like everyone is online. You can buy, sell, trade, research, and find almost anything you could name by using the Internet. So how can you use the Internet to bring in business for yourself?
If customers can't find you online, you're in a pretty bad position. You want your web site to get a high ranking in the search engines, or else you won't get visitors. Search engines look for the following things:
- Keywords within content
- Links
- Relevancy of content with keywords
The keywords that you use are very important. Think about what customers might type in a search engine to find your business. Make a list of all these words, and then write content using these words. The content you have on your site is very important, because search engines won't be fooled by keywords that are nonsensically repeated in text strings. You want good content, because not only will your site rank better with the search engines, but it will impress your potential customers more. To learn more about the Internet, check out the Internet section.
Be sure to display information about you and your business, as well as product and services information. Graphics and bright colors that are pleasing to viewers are much needed, as well. You want your site to have a great design, to stand up against (and outdo) the competition. To learn more about web site design, read Web Design Made Easy.
Posted by KC Morgan
Risking it all to become self-employed can be a very good experience. Self-employed professionals learn a lot about themselves within the first year of self-employment - and not all of it is positive.
Self-employment is scary because you have nothing but yourself and your own resources to fall back on. When the money doesn't come in, you may not get to eat. Even with a great budget, self-employment can bring periods where you see no money coming in at all.
Should you save up for your self-employment before you ever take the big step and become a self-employed professional?
In most cases, it is probably a good idea to have a little bit of money to fall back on in case of times of lean, if nothing else than for peace of mind. However, if this simply isn't possible then don't assume that you're doomed to failure. If it makes you feel better, then save up. It's a little safer this way and will help you out when the money doesn't roll in.
To read more about budgeting for self-employment, read Your Self-Employment Budget.
Posted by KC Morgan
When day-to-day hassles and responsibilities get in the way, it's hard to work on plans and ideas for the future. You can't expand your business if you barely have enough time to take care of the business matters you already have. And you thought self employment would give you more time!
How do you make time when you seem to have no time? First, figure out your routine. What do you have to do every day, what do you end up doing every day anyway, and what do you spend the most time on? Try to set aside one "errand" day, if you can, to take care of all chores that need to be done away from your home office. When you work from home, being at home is important - so try to get as much "away from home" things taken care of during the weekends or on "free" days you give yourself.
Learn how to juggle your time between work and chores, this is the key to time-management. Once it's all in front of you in black and white what you need to do and you know roughly how much of your day those things might take, you can shift and bend your schedule to best suit your needs. For time-management tips, read Prioritize Your Workload.
Posted by KC Morgan
Today, there are many choices for your potential customer to make. You want consumers to feel that they can get something from your business that they can get nowhere else.
No customer wants to think that they're just another sale, someone without a face or a name, a credit card with no body. Treat your customers like treasured friends. Know who they are, what services or products they're purchasing. Even if your business is strictly online, you can get to know a little something about the people shopping around on your site simply through their purchases.
If you want them to come back for more, then encourage it. Send out coupons, ads, and notices. Be friendly to customers and let them know who you are, so that they are no longer dealing with a company but with a person. It will make a lot of difference to people who are buying from you if they feel they have a true human connection - and it will make you and your business much more attractive.
If a customer feels they have a personal connection, they will come back. Everyone is trying to offer great products and good customer service to your customers. Personalize the experience. This will set you apart from the others in your field, it will make customers feel good, and it will definitely bring repeat and future business. To read more about satisfying customers (even difficult ones), check out The Customer Still Isn't Right.
Posted by KC Morgan
Self employment can be very scary and insecure at times, but in most cases the benefits outweigh the risk. The joy of working for yourself and being your own boss cannot be compared to any other feeling - expect perhaps owning your own business. However, self-employment and owning a business are two sides of the same coin, and one pretty much goes with the other. Suppose you have everything you need for self-employment...except that great business idea. What do you do?
You have drive. You have determination. You have ambition. You have dreams, and you even have some money saved up, all in the hopes of beginning your self-employment in the near future. When you have everything else, how important is that big business idea?
Ideas can make, and break, business. However, if you don't even have an idea to begin with, you don't have much of a beginning. But being self employed can be about many things that don't require you to have creative genius. Sometimes, that big idea just doesn't hit - but that doesn't mean that you can't still be self-employed.
Anyone with talent or skill can become self employed with a little bit of drive, determination, and ambition. Good at typing? You can become self-employed by using that skill. Sewing, cooking, even organizing - anything that you do well can be your springboard into self-employment. Chances are, you've already got many skills that would be valuable to someone else. Read A Salary for Stay-at-Home Moms for more ideas and information.
Posted by KC Morgan
The most recent self-employment poll conducted in our section shows that readers work best only as their already busy schedules allow. Many readers feel most comfortable working when the house is quiet and they are alone. Many readers have the most trouble with managing their time.
It's important to have a schedule, or a plan, in mind when it comes to your self-employed career. Know what your daily routine is, or try to work into a daily routine, to have more time to devote to your self-employment pursuits.
You are the only one who knows how you work best, so work out a schedule to maximize the time that you have. You know your strengths and weaknesses, and you know what sort of working environment you prefer. Only you can make it happen.
To read about facing your fears and taking the plunge into self-employment, read Facing Your Fears.
Posted by KC Morgan
Gaining the support of your family and friends is essential to the self-employed professional. Being self-employed is a big step, and it can be pretty scary. Without support of family and friends, being self-employed is even more difficult. So how do you convince them that your ideas are great, and get the much-needed encouragement you need?
Involve them. Involving your friends in your self-employment decisions is actually a big help. Your friends are the only ones who are going to tell you the truth about most things, anyway, and just hearing them say that your ideas are good is a big help. In fact, involve them as much as possible. Get them to put up flyers, to spread the word, to use their contacts. If they feel that they're somehow involved in your business future, they're going to lend a lot more support to your self-employment goals.
Talk to your friends. Tell them what your long-term plans are, what you want your self-employment to be like, how you're going to make it all happen. They will not only be able to point out any faults in your plan, which can help you, but they will also be able to tell you what's good about your plan. Getting feedback from another person is invaluable when you're self-employed, because we aren't always the best judges of ourselves.
To learn more about gaining the support of family, read Involving Family.
Posted by KC Morgan
The self employment section's recent poll suggests that most of our readers are either already self-employed or interested in becoming self employed very soon. This shows that even those who live the dream of self-employment are interested in learning more about the day-to-day aspects of employing themselves.
Another recent poll conducted by the Business & Finance section suggests that you're most interested in learning about how to get support from family/friends on becoming an entrepreneur, how to face fear and take the plunge into starting self-employment, and how to come up with/evaluate a business idea.
Because of the latest poll results, the above are the next topics we'll discuss in the self-employment section. Please feel free to contribute to our Discussions to talk about these topics more in-depth. The latest article in self-employment focuses on the importance of confidence in self-employment.
Posted by KC Morgan
Becoming self employed isn't as dangerous or as scary as it sounds. The Internet, the best friend of the self-employed professional, can be your key to becoming your own boss. Literally thousands of web sites offer work-from-home opportunities that will allow you to bring in some much-needed revenue, the first step to becoming self employed. Until you're making money, you just aren't working. If you're bringing in some income, then you are officially a self-employed professional.
While there are plenty of opportunities to work at home by using the Internet, there are also plenty of ways to make residual income using the 'Net. To learn more about residuals, read The Secret of Residuals. Residual income is money that can be earned through little to no work. And yes, it is as easy as it sounds.
If you have your own web site, you can use it to make money for yourself. Banner exchanges are bigger than ever before, and not only increase traffic to your site but also help put money in your pocket. Affiliate programs are offered by thousands of sites on the Internet, and these programs are a great way to earn extra cash. Learn more at the Internet blog.
Posted by KC Morgan
Being a stay-at-home mom is an incredibly difficult task that requires tolerance, patience, and skills in a variety of fields. Every stay-at-home mom is an experienced nurse, counselor, and manager - to name just a few of the things that they do every day. Even harder than being a stay-at-home mom is the job of being a work at home mom, or WAHM.
While it is not impossible, it is hard to do (perhaps not as hard as motherhood). There is a huge support system in the online community for work at home moms. Any Internet search will produce hundreds of web sites offering links, chat, and information about business opportunities and jobs for work at home moms.
Moms might find opportunities that are as simple as surfing the web or talking on the phone. Even writing about experiences as a mother can bring in extra income, as many sites are looking for first-person accounts of working motherhood. Professional writers can hardly compete with work at home moms in their own field.
Many sites are dedicated to the purpose of the work at home mom, and moms can gather information about job opportunities and read stories of other women who have succeeded. Any mom who can create crafts or foodstuffs could reasonably start her very own online business, instead of going through another company, and there are many online resources to help moms get started if that's a goal. For more information about running an online business, check out the small/home business section.
Posted by KC Morgan
Anyone who has ever come up with a creation or invention has pondered the necessity of copyrighting their materials. Copyrights apply to writing of all kinds - slogans, songs, poems, short stories, greeting cards. Every single copyright that is taken out by any individual is on file with the Library of Congress. And yes, they are extremely important.
Without a copyright, your writing isn't yours. Even if you are published, no matter what your material may be, nine times out of ten the copyrighting expense will fall on your shoulders. You created it, you pay to copyright it, and that's probably as it should be. The process is simple and forms can be printed out, courtesy of the Library of Congress, on your home computer. A fee is paid, a copy of the work given, and six weeks later you've got the copyright in your legal name. The rules aren't so hard and fast in an Internet medium, not all the time, but if you want to have complete legal control over your writing then take out a copyright. Any company or publisher you sell your writing to will usually have their own information and standards that apply to the copyright in their contracts. A logo, an image, a design, trademarks generally apply to artwork, and the same is true for trademarks.
It is important, especially when it comes to earning residual income, that you protect your rights. To be sure you earn all that you deserve, protect your materials legally.
Posted by KC Morgan
Only forty percent of family owned businesses survive to the second generation (Boston Globe, May 4, 2003), and the numbers only get smaller for succeeding generations. Just spending the holidays with your family can seem like an unbearable pain, so why would anybody want to work with their family every day?
Actually, there is no better resource than family to the entrepreneur. Once you've tried self-employment and found out you can make it a real success, there will come a point in time when you need a little extra help to get the job done. It's preferred that business pick up and that you have so many demands you can hardly fill them all, but it does mean you might have to take on some help. The closest people at hand are literally going to be your immediate family, then your extended family and friends.
It only makes sense that you would go to them first. In most cases, it is a lot easier to trust family than strangers - especially if your business is in your home. Also, your immediate family is already going to have a personal stake invested in your business, because your success is their success. A close family member will work hard with you towards a shared goal. To learn more stats and information about this topic, read A Working Family?
Posted by KC Morgan
Wouldn't it be fantastic to walk out of your job tomorrow? To tell your boss "see you later" and smile as you wave good-bye on your way out of the door? It sounds great, and it's a fantasy that many of us have entertained, but unless you win the lottery tonight that probably isn't going to happen.
When early retirement isn't really a realistic option, the next best thing is self-employment. Employing yourself sounds great when you think about it, but making that goal a reality requires no small amount of effort and planning. Being your own boss is a dream come true, but for many it ends up as a dream-come-not.
How do you become self-employed? Moreover, what is it? To be self-employed, you must first decide what it is you have to offer to the world, what skills and talents you have that you could use to earn an honest wage. If creating and selling a product isn't your thing, the Internet can become a great tool for work-from-home opportunities. Find out more about working from home on the discussions page.
Self-employment isn't Easy Street, and it can be very stressful when you have no one but yourself to reply upon. But when you can make it work, there is no job that could ever be as rewarding or fulfilling.