I am self-employed and on the whole, I love it — I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  There are distinct pros and cons of owning your own business, however.  Here are a few to consider before you start your own business.

Pros:

• Being your own boss.  Well, you probably guessed this already.  Many people work best when they are self-regulating, and of course there is always the flexibility that being self-employed offers — in many cases, if you need to rearrange your schedule to make time for a doctor’s appointment or an event at your child’s school, you can!
• Having greater income opportunities.  When you own your own business, you don’t have to wait for a penny-pinching manager to decide to give you a raise.  In general, your income is a direct result of how hard you work to grow your business!
• Working from home…or wherever you please!  Not all small business owners can work from home, but many can.  If you can, count yourself lucky — this is one of the best advantages of being self-employed!

Cons:

• Long hours.  Most startup businesses require a lot of work before they become established.  During this initial stage, many small business owners don’t have the money to outsource certain tasks, and end up putting a lot of long hours in.  If you can make it through this, however, the result is usually quite rewarding!
• Lack of flexibility.  Yes, I know I listed flexibility as a pro — but sometimes small business owners find that there’s a lack of flexibility.  If you have a store, for instance, you will be bound to store hours.  You should keep this in mind when looking at franchise opportunities.  Are the store hours something you can commit to?
• Vulnerability to the market ups and downs.  As an employee, you have to worry about layoffs during periods where the market is slow — but at least then you get unemployment benefits.  As a small business owner, you will need to be able to ride the slow times as well as the busy periods.  For instance, people who run eBay stores face periods where everything sells really well, as well as periods where sales grind almost to a halt.  This requires the ability to plan ahead and always keep some emergency funds in the bank.

I love being self-employed, but realistically it’s not for everyone.  Consider the pros and cons carefully before making a decision!

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There are people who go to the office every day from nine to five and then go home and follow the same daily routine each day. Then there are people who do everything that they can to get breaks from the monotony of the every day life. Most people fall somewhere in the middle - they hold down steady jobs at the office but do what they can to keep things interesting in their time off.

These activities that offer a reprieve from monotony are more important than you might imagine. People who do the same thing day in and day out are people who are usually bored. Boredom doesn’t lend itself well to creativity. And a lack of creativity generally means that the individual isn’t doing his work up to the best potential he has.

Get a hobby! It doesn’t really matter what it is. Perhaps you like the game of airsoft and want to spend your time on the weekends immersing yourself in the game. You may even bring this to the office with you. Instead of going on a coffee break, use the short break to figure out whether you’re more interested in the echo1 airsoft gun or the tokyo marui.

By offering yourself a chance to get away from the every day monotony of the office, you will actually bring a better self to the work that you are doing. Don’t let yourself be bored by life. Get active!

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One of the most important things that you can learn for making your ecommerce storefront profitable is that there are a number of tax write-offs available for the online business.

Here are some of the things to remember to include as expenses when you’re operating an e-commerce business:

• Domain registration and ongoing costs. Whatever it costs you to keep the website up and running is something you can include in your expenses for your taxes.
• Cost of office or home office. Whether you lease an office space or use a home office, the space and the utilities for the space are costs of the business.
• Ecommerce software. If you use online shopping cart software to set up your site, you can write it off at tax time.
• Computers, phones and other hardware. Whatever equipment you’re using to keep your online business running is equipment that costs the business something.
• Labor that you hire. If you get a graphic designer to help with the site or you pay a PR person to promote it, you need to include that in your expenses each year.

Keep good receipts for every kind of purchase that you make for the business and then remember to include all of these expenses on your taxes at the end of the year.

Technorati Tags: ecommerce storefront, e-commerce, online shopping cart software