Some businesses succeed and others fail. It would be great if there was a specific formula that could guarantee success. But given the number of variables surrounding starting and running a business, the best we can ever do is to improve the odds. Many of the basic factors that determine why some bu… Continue Reading

Starting a business should be thought of as a long term plan and not a get-rich-quick scheme. Continue Reading

Even if your job seems secure at the moment there are a number of reasons you should be interested in having your own side business. Its a way to deal with the increasing unreliability of permanent, full-time, benefited jobs... Continue Reading

I spend a lot of time on this website hawking the virtues of self-employment. I even see self-employment as the ultimate career solution. But in the interest of full disclosure, I also have to lay out the dark sides of self-employment. They?re real. The purpose of this article is to make you aware o… Continue Reading

Reader Tim K. and I were having an email exchange a couple of weeks ago on the topic of universal basic income, or UBI. UBI is an idea advocated by some who see it as the solution to the problems in the job market. As technology increasingly displaces human labor, both unemployment and underemployme… Continue Reading

If you have been trained to provide a specific service that people need, consider using that skill to make extra money on the side. There are many people who are able to do transcription, data entry, or even accounting for additional income. When you start working for yourself part-time, you need to… Continue Reading

This past weekend my wife, my daughter and myself got a lesson on how not to run a business. Not that logic and common sense wouldn't make certain things obvious, but sometimes you have to see a certified bad example play out in real time to truly appreciate what it means. We went to a local … Continue Reading

In the race to create jobs ? or at least to state the intention of doing so ? most politicians are long on promises, and short on delivery. But nowhere is this more obvious than when it comes to the creation of small businesses. But since he is not a career politician, do we dare speculate that the … Continue Reading

A lot of people stay on jobs - even if they don't like them - because they believe that doing so will be the shortest route to financial independence. That can be true in some situations, particularly if you like the work that you do. But you're more likely to reach financial independence through se… Continue Reading

The election season has created a blizzard of political ads, overwhelming us with cheery messages on how Candidate A will lead us to the promised land, while the evil Candidate B (always shown in black and white) will take us straight into Hell. No one ever says exactly what they will do, but instea… Continue Reading