SO, YOU WANT TO BE SELF-EMPLOYED?.

For some people starting a new business, or e-business, they need only to create a good "Business Plan" and/or 'Feasibility Study', present it to their banker, get their several million dollar loan and operate their new business at an expected loss for 1 year, break-even after the 2nd year and then await their business or e-business to flourish. Now that we have discussed the easy scenario for all those three or four people in the world- let's talk about the real world for the rest of us!

It is true that few people would have a 'start-up' scenario as mentioned in the previous paragraph. It is equally true that most (if not all) business consultants agree on certain basic criteria.  These criteria exist for a business 'wanna-be' prior to that person taking action on dreams of starting a business. I mean things like:

A) Knowing who/what is one's potential client/market base.; (You don't need an MBA to figure this out! But- we will help.)

B) Having adequate financial capital to fund the business 'startup' before starting-up; (Surprised? Do not be discouraged. There are creative ‘work-arounds’.)

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C) Having 1st hand expertise in the product or service. (If you wish a school for Chefs, should you not know some advance knowledge of cooking? We will discuss this more later.)

D) Acquiring your office and 'Office Automation' before starting; (Really? An Electronic-Business without, electronics! We will show some creative resources.)

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E) Oh, and of course, effective/productive 'time management'. ("... he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave...". Self-Employment means 'WORKING for yourself' both mentally and physically. We will discuss work habits- a lot!)

Have you changed your mind now about being self-employed? No? Great! In this collection of articles (and others to be added in the future), we will be examining, what these 'things' mean, their importance (or lack of) and creative solutions. Most are financially free but- will cost you time to read or do something! (Imagine that! Working for yourself means YOU must actually do something!) We will discuss using some of these concepts on a 'shoe string' startup business/e-business budget. Please note, this is not a definitive or ideal way to surpass a 'Bill Gates Income'! (When I discover the answer, I'll let you know!) More precisely, how, when and why one may wish to become a business owner, is our objective in this on-going series?

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In other words, these articles will have the explicit purpose of opening the eyes of the business naiveté. So before anyone starts flooding me with criticism of what amount of capital a starting business needs or, the importance of a professional Business Plan, or other traditional business criteria, keep in mind '2+2 = 4', '6-2 = 4', '-18+22 = 4', and so on! The object is achieving an income producing business with the resources available- mental and physical! Read other articles for Economics or Business 101.

These ongoing articles were prompted by many clients coming to me wanting ideas on e-commerce, e-business, starting ANY business, information on Home Based Businesses and even, "How to save a failing business?" Nearly as bad, after hiring a business service, the business 'wanna-be' realizes, he/she has no idea what they wish to do or how to do it! To aggravate matters, they were faced with unnecessary personal ridicule, loss of potential creditability among suppliers, prospects, etc. Just a real nasty mess!

Business 'newbies' (Self-Employment 1st timers) should know there are many excellent sources of information and guidance on the Internet. In the good ole' U.S. of A., additional great resources are found at the IRS, IRS companion sites for organizations like SCORE, (Service Core Of Retired Executives), Small Business Associations and much more. Of course, you need to find this stuff and digest it. Oh- did I mention, be creative on your own with the information that you do find?

A few truly lucky business wanna-be's stumbled upon http://www.JJplace.com, a J&J EnterPrizes web site. Whew! Thank goodness, someone's there to steady the 'ship in the ocean'! (Ok, a little 'shameless' self-promotion. Thank you!) Now...Let's discuss "Clients & Markets" for the list above. Read this topic in the JJplace NEWS BRIEF at http://www.JJplace.com/jjbnews/clients-markets or choose "Clients & Markets" article from within the JJ MEMBERSHIP Knowledge Base (KB)!

The above article may be re-published as long as: 1. The article is re-printed in it's entirety and without content change; 2. This resource box is included at the end of the article; and 3. as long as the 'live' links and URL's within this article continue to be present as 'live' links and URL's.

Article is by Larry Jackson, CIO J&J EnterPrizes. Jackson is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, with backgrounds in Securities, Retail Marketing and Management, and Entrepreneur.