how to start a small business

These days, too many people lay awake for much of night worrying about losing their jobs.

Do you worry about how you will make money to support your family, if you lose your job?

You are very right to be concerned about loss of your job and how you will support your family, if that happens.

An increasing number of people have lost their jobs in each of the last few months.

Those who remain in their jobs are rightfully worried about losing their jobs because job losses are predicted to rise over the next year.

At this very moment, hundreds of thousands of people are worried about losing their jobs and the financial consequences of such.

Last month there were:

3 million searches for manager jobs
1 million searches for director jobs
1 million searches for management jobs
3.3 million searches for sales jobs
1.5 million searches for retail jobs
1.2 million searches for accounting jobs
1.2 million searches for engineering jobs
1.2 million searches for customer service jobs
820,000 searches for finance jobs
673,000 searches for banking jobs
600,000 searches for media jobs
550,000 searches for insurance jobs

Is this just a sign of the difficult economic time we are facing now?

Will the job situation return to the way it was before this recession?

I think not.

In 1994 a top management consultant published a landmark book entitled "Jobshift: How To Prosper In A Workplace". The author is William Bridges. He had been a college professor prior to becoming a management consultant

In his book, Bridges explained that the concept of a job is a relatively new concept in the history of man.

Prior to 200 years ago, the concept of a job did not exist. People did many different tasks to earn money.

It was only with the advent of the industrial revolution, that the concept of a job emerged. People were needed to perform fixed functions in a manufacturing assembly line. Following that came office jobs and management jobs to support and oversee the work on the assembly line.

Bridges argues that with the end of the industrial revolution era will come the end of jobs as we know them. We will go back to doing different roles to earn money.

In short, this means you will need to start your own small business when the industrial era comes to an end.

However the industrial era is over; we are now in the knowledge era.

Over the last 15 years, we have seen companies eliminate many of their support function jobs in HR, IT, Accounts, Travel Arrangements etc in favor of contracting with providers of these services on an outsourcing basis.

The US Department of Labor predicts that today's students will have held 14 jobs by the age of 38.

You decide for yourself if Bridge's predictions have been accurate thusfar.

I certainly think that the jobshift he wrote about has been occurring.

If you agree, you need to act now and go into business for yourself
- if you want to eliminate your worry over job insecurity now and in the future, and
- if you want to create financial stability for you and yours in the future.

When considering how to start a small business, there are two questions that arise very early on.

They are:

1. What type of business should I start?
2. How will I support myself (and my family) from the time I leave my job until the
time the business can support me?

Let me deal with the matter of finance first.

Did you know that you are eligible to receive a free government grant to start your own small business? Every American citizen is eligible - no matter your financial circumstances.

Did you know that every year 2 million Americans receive free business grants from the American government to start a business or grow their existing business?

Did you know that the American government gives away trillions of grant dollars to American citizens every year? (grants are not just provided to start a business. They are provided for education, building a home extension and many other things.)

Here is the best thing of all about starting your own business with a grant:
A grant is not a loan. It never has to be repaid!

You may now be asking yourself "As an American taxpayer, how do I get my share of this grant money? In the next section you will find a recommendation of a site that provides this information.

Too few American citizens know about the availabilty of free government grants. It is the best way that I know of to fund the start of your own business.

And now for.....What type of business could you start?

Broadly speaking, there are 3 types of businesses

1. A purely internet based business (all business is transacted on line)
2. A "face to face" business (ie- a restaurant , supermarket or car repair
business)
3. A business that conducts business "face to face" as well as on line (ie - travel,
entertainment, toys, etc).

My recommendation to you is to consider starting an internet based business for the following reasons:

-it can cost no or little money to begin such a business.
-it offers you the opportunity to start earning much sooner than a "face to face"
business.
-it offers you the flexibility to work where you want, when you want and how many
hours you want to work.
-It offers you the biggest long term upside. The volume of business conducted on
the internet has been growing by leaps and bounds for each of the past 5
years. It is predicted that this growth will continue indefinitely. In the last year,
amidst our current recession, global internet business has grown by more than
10%.

You do not need to be technological nerd to start and run a successful internet based business. All you need is the basic technological skill sets that you most likely already possess from the work that you have done since entering the job market.

What are some of the key questions to answer when choosing a particular business to start?

1. Would I enjoy this business? Am I interested in the subject matter of this
business?

2. How much capital will I need to start my business?

3. How long will it take for me to begin earning money from the business?

4. How long will it take for the business to support me at my current standard of
living?

5. Does this business have the potential to provide me with the quality of life
I aspire to within a time frame that is acceptable to me?

What specific internet based businesses should you consider?

The number 1 thing is to choose a business that you will enjoy - something that you are really interested in.

Too many people spend their lives working at jobs that they dislike - if not hate. This is your opportunity to choose the work that you will do for the rest of your working life. Make it something that you will really enjoy - something that you really want to do.

I do not know what specific kind of work would be best for you.

For some it may be a business related to stocks and shares. (Experts agree that this is a good time for this because many stock prices are currently depressed below their real value and their prices will begin to rise this year).

For others it could be commodity or Forex(currency) trading.

It could be buying and selling on E-bay.

It could be affiliate marketing.

It could be information marketing.

It could be technology related- building websites, SEO (website optimization), or providing domain names.

It could be publishing - writing articles for magazines and ezines.

It could be advertizing - providing copy for on line and off line ads.

It could be on line retailing of a product you love and think is valuable.

Any product or service that does not require a "face to face" relationship (like a restaurant) can become a business for you online.

Below, you will find some sites you can visit to obtain information about these various kinds of businesses