It is almost becoming a stereotypical statement these days; we are in tough economic times. Stereotypical or not however, the statement is true.

A total of 2.6 million jobs disappeared in 2008, the most since World War II, and the pain of the recession is only getting worse as 11 million Americans search for work.

Unemployment hit a 16-year high of 7.2 percent in December, the government reported Friday, and could be headed for 10 percent by the end of 2009.

There is a lot of doom and gloom everywhere you turn and even being an eternal optimist is difficult right now. While the news may be true it is also a field day, a veritable gluttony, for the media who unfortunately thrives on bad news. Why not …misery loves company, the old saying goes and doesn’t it make us all feel better to hear we are not the only ones who may be suffering financially and emotionally if the crises have reached the level of losing one’s home and all their worldly possessions?

If you get laid off right now, God help your soul. You better hope you’ve got savings or someone backing you. Many have no faith in this system any longer and seeing companies like GM, Chrysler ET AL, get giant handouts from the government yet still continue to hold lavish corporate retreats and fly around in Lear Jets certainly does not help keep the faith.

The recession, which just entered its second year, is the longest in a quarter-century. The fact that the country is battling a housing collapse, a lockup in lending, rising unemployment, shrinking consumer spending and the worst financial crisis since the 1930s makes the downturn especially dangerous.

SO many are at the mercy of “The Man” and the man ain’t coming through. Where there was once solace in a long time job it is often found that when the going gets tough the security and stability of that job gets a back seat to the survival instinct of the owner who now begins to cut loses to save his own skin. The team and all that spirit which goes along with it now give way to the lone wolf syndrome.

What can you do about it? Stop being a victim of the economy. Become the hunter and take back control of your life! Create your own bailout plan and seriously consider becoming your own economic stimulus by starting a small business at home.

There is a quiet revolution going on in America in the extra bedrooms that have now become ME, Inc. as home offices. According to IDC, a top national research firm, there are between 34.3 million and 36.6 million home office households in the United States alone. Nationwide, the number of home-based businesses may range from 18 million to 38 million, depending on who is doing the counting.

If you have ever considered the possibility of being your own boss, having a 30 foot commute instead of a two hour commute, spending more quality time with your family and declaring independence from corporate America and the economy, now may be that time.

Don’t wait too long, however. If you feel your job may be on the upcoming chopping block start now. If you have savings and or a 401k plan you may want to begin planning an exit strategy.

If you have the luxury, begin part time in the evenings and create a business plan on what you could do using your strengths to work for yourself. A good start would be to use a basic business strategy called S.W.O.T which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to establish what you have to bring to your home business table.

The biggest mistake you can make is to take a shotgun approach and start buying and trying every make money quick scheme out there. You will rapidly eat up any money you have set aside. Use common sense and do your research.

There are many good resources on the Internet but beware of the so called “gurus”. If it sounds too good to be true nowhere is this statement more accurate that in the Internet make money realm… IT IS.

I am sure you have heard the old saying “No man is an island unto himself”. It was written by John Donne, a 17th century English poet, by the way. This is never more true than in the world of Internet Marketing. As much as you may want to be an island, sitting all by yourself working away on your success story, it is nearly impossible to do.

In another life, about 15 years ago, give or take a year, I was a loan officer at a mortgage company in Northern California. I struggled along in this position for almost two years until a rogue band of us left and started our own mortgage company and I went on to other things like starting the IT and Marketing departments for the new company that went on to become one of the largest, most successful mortgage companies in Northern California at the time.

I hated being a loan officer for one primary reason; my very future and success depended on far too many other people or entities to suit me. You had to depend on appraisers to make an intelligent and unbiased valuation of the property you were trying to arrange a loan on so you would have enough room to make the loan your client needed. You had to depend on title companies to get title reports on the property in a timely fashion so you could beat your competition who was probably trying to get the same loan for the same client at the same time. Not the least dependence was on your very client who you had worked your butt off to get them the best loan you could who would sell your soul to the devil for a mere 1/8 of a point loan fee less than I was offering them (and the devil probably could not really deliver the discount anyway) and snatch the business right out from under your nose. It was a dog eat dog world back then in that business.

I did not like having my income potential in the hands of so many and I often felt like I had no control over my own destiny. While I did not do bad, making upwards of $100,000 a year in 1992, the stress was not worth the money. The difference between this and the mortgage business is I own this business and I have more choices as to whom I do business with, thus more control.

The world of Internet Marketing has some similarities, although not nearly as bad, and I was reminded of that late Friday night or early Saturday morning when during the migration of servers that one of my primary web sites, Menstrual Cramps Help, sits on, from one location to another, had a hiccup and I lost my online store for untold hours and lost untold business. The problem was eventually resolved and all is well now but there I was again anything but an island unto myself. Fortunately putting in an emergency request ticket to the help desk kept me from being down far longer I am certain.

Could I have done anything to prevent this? Maybe if I had unlimited funds and owned my own servers in a completely controlled environment complete with redundancy upon redundancy accounting for everything that could go wrong and probably would. That however would not be practical and even some of the biggest players in our world do not host their own servers, in fact many using the same company that I employ for this domain and numerous others I have hosted with them.

The point is you have to weigh the chances and consequences of this type of thing occurring and make the best decision you can to protect your business. I know that this migration in the long run will only make my hosting company better and the chances of this occurring even less likely. The moral of the story is you cannot be an island and you do have to depend on others for much of your success. You just need to build good, lasting relationships, do your due diligence when choosing other businesses you will depend on and trust your instincts and your island will be a place that is inhabited by friendly natives.

Now Ladies Pay Attention...

I Can't Let The Other Girls Get An Edge!

You would expect to hear a clatter on your rooftop on Christmas but the clatter I heard today turned out to be a visit from four giant turkeys; a big Tom and his three hens! I ran outside and they were running around our tiny court.

When I tried to approach them cautiously, they headed for the neighbors rooftop. Seems they were just roof hopping and mine happened to be the first one. All I needed were some Pilgrims and a few friendly Native Americans and I would have had my own early celebration.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving…Early

I took several days off here recently from our Health & Wellness business to put the finishing touches on a pet project of mine; my new web site dedicated to the mighty Ford Powerstroke 7.3L Turbo Diesel Truck. Why you may ask? The answer is because I am the proud owner of a 2002 Ford F250 Super Duty which I purchased brand new in 2002. In fact it was not only the first vehicle (and I have owned lots) that I ordered over the Internet via Fords web site, but the first vehicle I completely customized from scratch on the options and choices I wanted.

I do not believe, save for a front winch, that I left anything off this truck that you could get and it was thrilling to not only be able to have such complete control, rather than have to take what the showroom gives you, but to be able to pay cash for this monster.The truck is a long bed and when it is hooked up to my 25′ RV the length from truck bumper to RV bumper is 52′!

The cashiers check was for $41,854.97 out the door, a lot of money in 2002, but I had received a huge executive bonus and three quarters of it went to buy my baby! In later years I have added a full custom shell over the bed as I would sleep in the back on my AeroBed when I went competitive horseback endurance riding, towing my horse and trailer behind.

The arguments go on forever about what truck is best Ford, Chevy, Dodge, GMC…uh Toyota? which I personally do not count as a truck no matter how good “they” say they are because to me a pick-up truck is American made, American branded, period. We invented the pick-up truck and anything less than American is not a real truck. Well now I got that off my chest…I prefer Ford, again, period. I owned a 1986 full size Ford Bronco before the pick-up.

I love my Ford Truck as you can tell so in my mind I kept wanting to create a web site dedicated to it. The result; a site with a lot of dynamic content almost ALL Ford Truck (save for diesel engine specific content). I am proud of the site and it will continue to be “my baby” health and wellness or not. I made it from scratch; concept to HTML, another fact I am proud of. Is it a money maker? Hopefully it will provide some income stream but that was not my mission. My mission was to showcase this modern marvel of diesel engineering and I feel I have accomplished that.

Visit the site at http://7pt3powerstrokediesel.com

Technorati Profile