Online or Offline, Everyone Needs a Sideline Business!
Someone said in a forum recently...
or maybe it was an ad headline...
"Everyone needs an online income these days!" It's a matter of personal financial security...
self-preservation.
With 1 out of 6 members of the US work force out of work at this writing, and US companies not hiring, it would seem that everyone does need at least a sideline business to fall back on, whether online or offline.
Back during the depression of the 1930s, not only were there lines at the doors or gates of companies of people desperate for a job; there was an increase in the number of people who accepted sales jobs just to have a chance at economic survival.
Thirty-some years later that segment of the population, again in order to survive, had developed a straight-commission work ethic that still exists, at least in part, today.
It is an ethic that says, "a person's economic worth depends, not on how many hours he puts in, but on how productive his work has been; i.
e.
, how many sales and/or how much profit he has made for the company.
There is a certain pride that comes with being able to face the uncertainty of a straight commission income.
This uncertainty must be overcome in order for the straight-commission worker to survive economically.
It is a mentality that understands the even greater uncertainty one must overcome in order to start his own small or home-based business.
In fact, often the straight-commission worker feels a kinship to the entrepreneur or small business owner, in that both are, in effect, self employed.
At one time, unions were an absolute necessity to overcome such things as sweat shops and near-slave labor in what was supposed to be a free-market economy.
Unions filled the gap caused by a lack of fair-labor laws.
Now, however, unions serve only to price cost-of-labor in the US out of the global labor market, and price US-made goods out of their markets in the global market place.
The effect is that companies are going overseas to obtain at lower cost-of-labor what would have been prohibitive in the US.
Unions and the "entitlement mentality" they have spawned have also damaged the entrepreneurial spirit in the US.
Workers now feel they are "entitled" to a job.
They feel they are "entitled" to the highest wages and pension plans they can "negotiate" by threatening to shut down a company if they don't get their way.
They have traded their votes (as a block) on election day for favorable laws from the legislature.
This has resulted in labor contracts in both the public and private sectors that are unsustainable.
It has resulted in an economic model that is unsustainable.
The US has worked itself into an unsustainable economic model, and an unsupportable economic ethic and mentality; one that says, "I'm entitled to an income.
If I can't find a job, it's up to the government to support me" even if it has to print money to do it.
Fortunately, not only in the US, but globally, people are looking to self-employment once again to provide security where the government is failing to provide.
Some are even coming around to the view that it is not the government's role to provide economic security on a personal level.
Rather it is the responsibility of the individual to contribute not only to his own and his family's economic security, but also to that of his Church, his city/county, state and country.
Opportunities exist today as they have never existed in the history of Mankind, largely due to the internet.
Major broadcast television shows are devoting entire shows to the phenomenon of online entrepreneurship and self-employment.
If the government has a responsibility to the people, it is to ascertain the continued existence, and even continued ongoing improvement of the free-market business environment (within the bounds of fair-labor laws), that environment to include the internet.
The "self-employment ethic" mentioned earlier was brought about largely thanks to such sales training and motivational legends as Elmer Wheeler, Napoleon Hill, W.
Clement Stone, Earl Nightengale, Paul Harvey, Zig Ziglar, Cavett Robert, and many others, some lesser-known.
Napoleon Hill started in the mid-1930s along with Elmer Wheeler.
Zig and friends came along in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The public sales and motivational seminar industry was still being "pioneered" in the late 1960s.
All sales were door-to-door, and just getting into sales meetings to deliver a group sales presentation was a hard-sell.
Today, the climate in the marketplace is much more accepting in some respects.
Today, the online version of a "cold call" is called "spam" is illegal and carries a curse.
But there exist so many ways to reach a waiting audience for virtually any product or service that are not only acceptable, but sought out.
Unfortunately, the person who is not computer and internet literate is severely handicapped.
But that handicap is curable with education.
And the person who is computer and internet literate is positioned amazingly well to take advantage of heretofore unprecedented opportunities.
The toughest part of earning one's way on the internet is making the decision of which opportunity to take advantage.
Opportunities are not limited to internet marketing, however.
Offline (brick and mortar) businesses, largely due to the advent of the internet, present entrepreneurial and self-employment opportunities as well.
People still need products and services, many of which are not provided by large companies.
The big three dominant buying motives of any business are productivity, cash flow, and profits.
There now exist so many ways of addressing those motives, that virtually anyone should be able to find a way into that market.
Many people already have specialty knowledge or skills for which businesses are hungry.
If not, either a college education or a little old fashioned research and development could remedy their situation.
Then, there is the even more vast marketplace of private individuals.
Big companies may own huge chunks of this market in any given industry, but there is almost always a niche being overlooked or under served by big business.
People need products.
They need services.
They, more every day, need information.
Each person should ask, "What are my greatest areas of interest or competence?" And write them down.
Each person should take inventory of his personal strengths and weaknesses.
Focus on strengths, but shore up the weaknesses, especially where they may get in the way of strengths.
Is the person more suited for internet marketing?...
for working with the hands?...
for working with people?...
for working with numbers?...
for working with information and ideas? Then that person should look for needs to fill in the marketplace.
What does the market want? How would be best to satisfy that want.
What would be the best delivery/fulfillment system? Then he or she should have the heart to embark on that journey.
Copyright © 2011 by Gene Shambaugh
or maybe it was an ad headline...
"Everyone needs an online income these days!" It's a matter of personal financial security...
self-preservation.
With 1 out of 6 members of the US work force out of work at this writing, and US companies not hiring, it would seem that everyone does need at least a sideline business to fall back on, whether online or offline.
Back during the depression of the 1930s, not only were there lines at the doors or gates of companies of people desperate for a job; there was an increase in the number of people who accepted sales jobs just to have a chance at economic survival.
Thirty-some years later that segment of the population, again in order to survive, had developed a straight-commission work ethic that still exists, at least in part, today.
It is an ethic that says, "a person's economic worth depends, not on how many hours he puts in, but on how productive his work has been; i.
e.
, how many sales and/or how much profit he has made for the company.
There is a certain pride that comes with being able to face the uncertainty of a straight commission income.
This uncertainty must be overcome in order for the straight-commission worker to survive economically.
It is a mentality that understands the even greater uncertainty one must overcome in order to start his own small or home-based business.
In fact, often the straight-commission worker feels a kinship to the entrepreneur or small business owner, in that both are, in effect, self employed.
At one time, unions were an absolute necessity to overcome such things as sweat shops and near-slave labor in what was supposed to be a free-market economy.
Unions filled the gap caused by a lack of fair-labor laws.
Now, however, unions serve only to price cost-of-labor in the US out of the global labor market, and price US-made goods out of their markets in the global market place.
The effect is that companies are going overseas to obtain at lower cost-of-labor what would have been prohibitive in the US.
Unions and the "entitlement mentality" they have spawned have also damaged the entrepreneurial spirit in the US.
Workers now feel they are "entitled" to a job.
They feel they are "entitled" to the highest wages and pension plans they can "negotiate" by threatening to shut down a company if they don't get their way.
They have traded their votes (as a block) on election day for favorable laws from the legislature.
This has resulted in labor contracts in both the public and private sectors that are unsustainable.
It has resulted in an economic model that is unsustainable.
The US has worked itself into an unsustainable economic model, and an unsupportable economic ethic and mentality; one that says, "I'm entitled to an income.
If I can't find a job, it's up to the government to support me" even if it has to print money to do it.
Fortunately, not only in the US, but globally, people are looking to self-employment once again to provide security where the government is failing to provide.
Some are even coming around to the view that it is not the government's role to provide economic security on a personal level.
Rather it is the responsibility of the individual to contribute not only to his own and his family's economic security, but also to that of his Church, his city/county, state and country.
Opportunities exist today as they have never existed in the history of Mankind, largely due to the internet.
Major broadcast television shows are devoting entire shows to the phenomenon of online entrepreneurship and self-employment.
If the government has a responsibility to the people, it is to ascertain the continued existence, and even continued ongoing improvement of the free-market business environment (within the bounds of fair-labor laws), that environment to include the internet.
The "self-employment ethic" mentioned earlier was brought about largely thanks to such sales training and motivational legends as Elmer Wheeler, Napoleon Hill, W.
Clement Stone, Earl Nightengale, Paul Harvey, Zig Ziglar, Cavett Robert, and many others, some lesser-known.
Napoleon Hill started in the mid-1930s along with Elmer Wheeler.
Zig and friends came along in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The public sales and motivational seminar industry was still being "pioneered" in the late 1960s.
All sales were door-to-door, and just getting into sales meetings to deliver a group sales presentation was a hard-sell.
Today, the climate in the marketplace is much more accepting in some respects.
Today, the online version of a "cold call" is called "spam" is illegal and carries a curse.
But there exist so many ways to reach a waiting audience for virtually any product or service that are not only acceptable, but sought out.
Unfortunately, the person who is not computer and internet literate is severely handicapped.
But that handicap is curable with education.
And the person who is computer and internet literate is positioned amazingly well to take advantage of heretofore unprecedented opportunities.
The toughest part of earning one's way on the internet is making the decision of which opportunity to take advantage.
Opportunities are not limited to internet marketing, however.
Offline (brick and mortar) businesses, largely due to the advent of the internet, present entrepreneurial and self-employment opportunities as well.
People still need products and services, many of which are not provided by large companies.
The big three dominant buying motives of any business are productivity, cash flow, and profits.
There now exist so many ways of addressing those motives, that virtually anyone should be able to find a way into that market.
Many people already have specialty knowledge or skills for which businesses are hungry.
If not, either a college education or a little old fashioned research and development could remedy their situation.
Then, there is the even more vast marketplace of private individuals.
Big companies may own huge chunks of this market in any given industry, but there is almost always a niche being overlooked or under served by big business.
People need products.
They need services.
They, more every day, need information.
Each person should ask, "What are my greatest areas of interest or competence?" And write them down.
Each person should take inventory of his personal strengths and weaknesses.
Focus on strengths, but shore up the weaknesses, especially where they may get in the way of strengths.
Is the person more suited for internet marketing?...
for working with the hands?...
for working with people?...
for working with numbers?...
for working with information and ideas? Then that person should look for needs to fill in the marketplace.
What does the market want? How would be best to satisfy that want.
What would be the best delivery/fulfillment system? Then he or she should have the heart to embark on that journey.
Copyright © 2011 by Gene Shambaugh
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