Are You Cut Out to Be a Landlord? by Candace Bahr, CEA, CDFA and Ginita Wall, CPA, CFPreg; www.WIFE.org www.MoneyClubs.com There are many benefits to investing in rental property: the rental income, the tax write-offs, and the increase in value over the years. But there are drawbacks as well. Being a landlord involves more than simply buying property, finding a tenant, and letting the cash flow in. Some people are very comfortable with the kinds of activities that landlords face almost daily. Others find them very difficult. Answer the questions below with a "YES" or "NO" to see if you have what it takes to be a landlord: Do you deal well with people on a regular basis? Do you deal well with risk? Do you enjoy taking care of your own home? Are real estate prices appreciating in your area (or do you expect them to in the future)? Do you have spare cash (or home equity) to invest? Are you good at keeping records and completing paperwork? Do you have free time to spend on real estate investing? Do you have any small business experience? Can you juggle several tasks at the same time? Are you willing to do repairs and maintenance yourself or are you willing to pay someone to have them done? If the monthly expenses are greater than the rents, do you have the financial staying power to cover those expenses, year after year? If the property becomes vacant for a month or more, do you have the resources to cover the mortgage payment? Will you be able to manage the property on your own? Have you talked with other local landlords about their experiences and challenges? Will you treat this like a business, raising rents when market conditions allow? Would you feel comfortable evicting a family with five hungry children if they didn't pay the rent? If you can answer #147;Yes!#148; to more than five of the above questions, then you may have the personality and skills needed to be a successful landlord. Real estate investment, over the long haul, can be a very rewarding activity, but it takes work and time. Cofounders of the nonprofit Women#146;s Institute for Financial Education ( www.WIFE.org ) and the new Money Club for women ( www.MoneyClubs.com ), Candace Bahr, CEA, CDFA and Ginita Wall, CPA, CFPreg; are trusted financial guides for millions of women. Both authors are nationally-recognized experts on women and money and regularly appear on CNN and CNBC and in national financial and women#146;s publications. This article is excerpted from their book It#146;s More Than Money#151;It#146;s Your Life! The New Money Club for Women (John Wiley, 2004). Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com. More >>

Once An Employee, Now A Partner by Cliff Ennico www.creators.com . This article deals with the delicate subject of how to make an employee your business partner. #147;I run a small hardware store in the Midwest. For years I have employed a young fellow as a clerk-slash-assistant manager. Last year I became suddenly ill, and couldn#146;t work for several months. My employee really took charge and ran every aspect of the business so well our profits actually increased during my absence! Needless to say, I#146;m very grateful to this employee, and I really want to marry the guy. We have agreed to form a limited liability company (LLC) for the business, and that we split everything 50-50 from day one. My accountant had a conniption, however, when I told him about our agreement. How can I do the right thing by this employee, to whom I owe an awful lot?#148; Well, your accountant shouldn#146;t have freaked out, but I understand his concern. The problem is our wonderful Tax Code, which will require your employee-slash-partner to pay something for his 50% interest in the LLC with money he presumably does not have. Let#146;s say your business is worth $100,000 right now. You form your LLC, contribute your $100,000 in assets to the LLC capital, and take back a 50% interest. That means your employee, in order to justify a 50% ownership stake, has to contribute $100,000 to the LLC capital as well. If he doesn#146;t, he will be considered to have received a $100,000 #147;gift#148; from you, and he will have to pay taxes on that. Unfortunately, the IRS puts a zero value on his past (admittedly wonderful) services to your business, since you already paid him for those when he was an employee. Likewise, his future services to the LLC won#146;t count towards the $100,000 value of his 50% stake. There is a way to do what you want to do, if your employee is willing to go along. You can form the LLC, contribute your $100,000 in business assets to the LLC capital, and split the ownership 50/50 with your employee, but include a #147;preferred distribution#148; clause in your LLC Operating Agreement (that#146;s like a partnership agreement between you and the employee). A #147;preferred distribution#148; clause says that notwithstanding your agreement to split everything 50/50 with the employee, for a limited time you will be entitled to take out 75% or 80% of the LLC profits until such time as these #147;excess cash distributions#148; total $100,000 plus interest at a reasonable rate (5% or 6% per annum at the time this article is being written). By doing this, you and the employee will be 50/50 owners from day one, and the employee will #147;buy#148; his way into the business by giving you the #147;preferred distributions#148;. Once your 25% or 30% #147;preferred distributions#148; total $100,000 plus interest, the #147;preferred distributions#148; will cease and each of you will be entitled to take 50% out of the business#146; profits each year. It#146;s the same as if you had loaned the employee $100,000 to buy his 50% of the business, and he is repaying the loan with interest out of his 50% share of the LLC profits. Of course, you need to make sure your employee can live on the 20% to 25% of the LLC profits remaining after your #147;preferred distributions#148;. You should also check with your accountant to make sure each of you will be taxed on only the income you actually receive from the LLC -- in other words, that your employee will be taxed only on the 20% to 25% of the LLC profits he actually receives during the first few years, not the full 50% to which he is entitled under the LLC Operating Agreement. If that#146;s a problem, you will have to come up with a creative way to get money back into the employee#146;s hands so he can pay taxes on the #147;phantom income#148; (the difference between his 50% share and the 20% to 25% he actually receives). Don#146;t forget to have your lawyer draw up a Buy-Sell Agreement between you and your new partner #150; this will protect both of you in the event one of you dies, becomes disabled, retires or otherwise ceases to become actively involved in the business at an inconvenient time. If you#146;re new partner is significantly younger than you (as I suspect from your e-mail), I would also take out a policy of life insurance on him, naming yourself as beneficiary. That way, if something bad happens to him, you can use the proceeds of the policy to buy back his 50% interest in the LLC without having to dip into the LLC#146;s operating capital. Cliff Ennico ( cennico@legalcareer.com ) is a syndicated columnist, author and host of the PBS television series 'Money Hunt'. This column is no substitute for legal, tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our Web page at www.creators.com . COPYRIGHT 2005 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO. DISTRIBUTED By: Creators Syndicate. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com More >>

Succeeding In The Face Of Terror www.creators.com When you write a weekly column for business owners, you get lots of business books in the mail. Most fall into two broad categories: #147;how to#148; books designed to teach you specific business skills in a user-friendly way (examples: #147;Step by Step Guide to Project Management#148;, #147;Selling Internationally on eBay#148;); and #147;entertainment#148; books designed to package well-worn material in a colorful way, for those of us (and we know who we are) who have little patience for fiction and want to actually learn something while lounging on the beach in Barbados (examples: #147;Leadership Secrets of Some Obscure Historical Figure or Literary Character You Vaguely Remember Reading About in High School#148;, #147;What Being a Pro Squash Player Teaches You About Your Management Style#148;). Every so often, though, a book comes along that is truly important, and says something compelling about the business world that isn#146;t being said in the more #147;popular#148; business literature. When such a book comes along #150; and it#146;s a rare occasion -- I feel the need to write about it. If today#146;s headlines worry you, and you wonder how terrorism will affect our world in the coming decades, then you need to pick up a copy of #147;Business Under Fire#148; by Dan Carrison (AMACOM Books, $24.95 hardcover). The book#146;s subtitle says it all: #147;How Israeli Companies Are Succeeding in the Face of Terror #150; and What We Can Learn From Them.#148; If there#146;s one place in the world where terrorism is a daily threat to everyday life, it#146;s Israel. In a tiny nation the size of New Jersey (not even), just about everyone knows someone who has lost a loved one to a Molotov cocktail or a suicide bomber. Still, day in and day out, Israelis go to work and run successful, sometimes world-class, businesses. How do they do it? Carrison#146;s book contains exhaustive interviews with prominent business leaders, managers and employees in a variety of Israeli industries, and offers a powerful, pragmatic and urgent guide for American business owners, even if (as we all hope) terror never strikes the United States with the punishing regularity experienced in Israel. Some of Carrison#146;s advice for coping with terror threats in the business world: #147;Plan for flexibility#148;. Make terrorism planning a part of every business decision. When flexibility becomes part of each business plan, change is less likely to be seen, by customers or employees, as an uncontrollable response to outside forces. #147;Be driven and defiant#148;. A business does not have to be located in a war zone to benefit from the passions of its employees. Managers should not shy away from promoting a healthy defiance, a hunger to prove that wary investors and fair-weather customers are wrong. #147;Develop a contingency plan#148;. Decide exactly what will happen if a terrorist attack wipes out a key location, or kills a key employee, and share it with your investors, employees and customers. #147;Focus on today#148;. In the midst of a terror crisis, the future is often assured by successive victories in the here-and-now. By continually achieving short-term results, you inspire confidence in those that otherwise would balk at dealing with you. #147;Let security speak for itself#148;. Forget hidden cameras and undercover officers. Get security out of the closet, and keep it in the open. When obvious security procedures are established, the word gets around to terrorists as well as customers. #147;Memorialize the victims.#148; When an act of violence claims lives, a memorial performs a public service, reminding all customers and passers-by to remain vigilant. It also reinforces the company#146;s stand against terrorism and respect for individuals. As in other areas of the business world, the best defense against terrorist threats is a good offense. Surprise is a terrorist#146;s most effective weapon #150; doing whatever you can to take the element of surprise out of terror activities sends a strong message to the bad guys that they won#146;t win, that you are not willing to live in fear. Or as someone famous once said, #147;the coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave person dies just once.#148; . Cliff Ennico ( cennico@legalcareer.com ) is a syndicated columnist, author and host of the PBS television series 'Money Hunt'. This column is no substitute for legal, tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our Web page at www.creators.com . COPYRIGHT 2005 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com. More >>

New Year's Resolutions For 2005 Here are six New Year#146;s Resolutions for business owners www.creators.com For eBay Businesses, Get More High-Quality Stuff from Estates . If your business is selling stuff on eBayreg;, one of your biggest challenges is finding high quality stuff to sell at a profit. Here#146;s a tip #150; get to know your local #147;trusts and estates#148; attorneys. These are the lawyers who draw up people#146;s wills and probate their estates when they die. Very often, these lawyers are approached by grieving relatives who need help #147;disposing of Mom#146;s stuff#148;, but the estate is too small to justify hiring a big estate auction firm like Sotheby#146;s or Christie#146;s. Why not let these attorneys know that you are available to help them sell their clients#146; small estates on eBay, for a consignment fee of course? I almost guarantee your competition hasn#146;t thought of that (unless they read this column), and that you will find a warm welcome here if you make the effort. For a listing of your local #147;trusts and estates#148; lawyers, call you#146;re local or state bar association. Renew Your Web Address. If your business is dependent on the Internet, make sure you check Network Solutions ( www.networksolutions.com ) at least once each year to make sure your Web address hasn#146;t expired. They do send you renewal notices, but often these get picked up as #147;spam#148; by your antispam software, so you never see them, your Web address expires and gets grabbed by someone else. Pick a date that#146;s easy to remember #150; like your birthday #150; and renew each of your important Web addresses on that day. Update Your Software Twice a Year . Just about every software program gets updated at least once or twice a year, but not every software developer sends you an e-mail announcing the latest updates. Make it a point to visit the Website #147;home page#148;, of each software company whose products you license, and look for a button that says #147;check for updates#148; or something like that. It just may save your PC. Sheath Your Cell Phone . Make 2005 the year you stop being a #147;cell phone slave#148;. Make some rules about when you will use your cell phone, and when you won#146;t, and stick to them. Among those I highly recommend: do not use your cell phone while driving a motor vehicle; use your cell phone only for outgoing business calls; do not use your cell phone in public places where your conversation may be overhead by total strangers with evil on their minds. Get Some Free Local Publicity . Do at least one thing this year that gets your business written up in the local news media (in a positive way, that is!). Donate something to charity, sponsor a local contest for school kids, run for local political office if you have the stomach for it, and make sure your local news media know about it. Anything that a news reporter will find newsworthy, and that gets you quoted as #147;Joe Blow, owner of Joe#146;s Deli on Main Street#148;. Get Involved in Government . Whatever your political views, if you don#146;t like taxes or government regulations that stifle your business, complaining about them and voting against them just isn#146;t enough. If you don#146;t have time to attend board meetings or hearings, find the time. Join the same organizations (like your local Rotary or Kiwanis) that your local #147;politicos#148; join, and make sure they know you are there. As my Dad used to say, you are only as good as the nonsense you tolerate in life. If government nonsense just #147;burns your breakfast#148;, stop tolerating it, become an activist, and help government come up with better solutions that will benefit, not harm, your business. Cliff Ennico ( cennico@legalcareer.com ) is a syndicated columnist, author and host of the PBS television series 'Money Hunt'. This column is no substitute for legal, tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our Web page at www.creators.com . COPYRIGHT 2005 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com. More >>

Do You Really Need A Business Plan? www.creators.com #147;I am new to this country, and am taking a class in the evenings on how to start my own business. I understand that you need a tax ID number and that it#146;s a good idea to form a corporation or limited liability company (LLC) to protect myself from lawsuits. At what point in the process, though, should I prepare the business plan? Do I have to file that document anywhere?#148; Please don#146;t laugh at this fellow #150; go to the #147;small business#148; section of any major bookstore and you will see dozens, if not hundreds, of different books on how to prepare a business plan. You can#146;t blame anyone #150; not just recent immigrants, either -- for thinking that a business plan is a legal requirement in this country, and that you shouldn#146;t even consider starting a business without first preparing a 100-page treatise with numbered sections, index tabs, and the whole she-bang. Of course, business plans are not a legal requirement, and they don#146;t have to be filed with any government agency. There are two kinds #150; an #147;operating#148; business plan and a #147;financial#148; business plan. The operating business plan is a very informal document #150; it doesn#146;t even have to be in writing, although I suggest that writing it down is good discipline and forces you to think about things you otherwise would overlook. Basically, the operating business plan has four parts: A Marketing Plan, that answers the questions: who are my customers? What fears, passions and other emotions motivate them to buy anything? How do my products or services key in to those fears, passions and other emotions (in other words, to use an MBA phrase, #147;what is the value proposition?#148;). How do I get the message across to my customers? This part always comes first, because without customers, you don#146;t have a business. You have a hobby. A Competitive Strategy Plan, that answers the questions: Who (or what) are my competitors? How are my products or services better, faster, cheaper, more convenient than theirs #150; in other words, where am I stronger than they are? If you can#146;t beat the competition, your only choice is to join them, or quit. A Financial Plan, that answers the questions: What are the costs of running this business, and how many sales at what prices must I make in order to cover those costs and make a profit? What must I need to take out of the business in order to survive in the style to which I have become accustomed, and how long will it take me to get there? Will I have to borrow money to grow this business, and if so, when and how much? Finally, a Risk Assessment Plan, that answers the questions: What are the risks of this business? Can I cover them with insurance? Will I need to form a legal entity to protect myself against my creditors? What legal documents will I need to use in this business to make sure people don#146;t try to cheat me? The time to prepare an #147;operating#148; business plan is after you get the idea for the business, and well before you launch the business. You should keep it to yourself (and your business partners, if you have any), because the stuff in here can do you real damage if it gets into the wrong hands. Unlike the #147;operating#148; business plan, the #147;financial#148; business plan is a formal document that must be in writing. This is the business plan you will show to prospective investors, banks and other people when you are out looking for money to grow your business. This is the business plan all of the #147;business plan#148; books in your local bookstore are about, and make no mistake #150; it has to look a certain way, or else these people will not take you or your business seriously. Here#146;s a tip: if you are thinking about taking out a business loan from a local bank and need to write a #147;financial#148; business plan, don#146;t buy a book and try to figure it out yourself. Instead, visit your local chapter of the Service Corps of Retired Executives, or SCORE (check out www.score.org to find the chapter nearest you). This is a volunteer organization of retired business people who provide free advice to local small businesses. Cliff Ennico ( cennico@legalcareer.com ) is a syndicated columnist, author and host of the PBS television series 'Money Hunt'. This column is no substitute for legal, tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our Web page at www.creators.com . COPYRIGHT 2004 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com. More >>

Get a Website Get a website and grow your home business! In order to build your home based business online, you must get a website. Ok, so that seems obvious...but some things aren't so obvious. At least not at first. If you're in direct sales or network marketing, you may have a company provided "replicator" website, meaning that yours is just like everyone else's. That's no good. Why? There are several reasons why you need to get a website of your own. Get a website so that you can get free traffic. If you get a website of your own, you can optimize if for search engines and get totally free traffic. You typically cannot change a replicated website, and if you can, the changes you can make are extremely limited. If you're serious about taking your home business online, this is a bad thing, because you will need to be able to make changes to your site in order to optimize it for search engines. (That's not as hard as it sounds, and there are resources here to help you.) What good is having a website if no one can find you? Get a website so that you can be unique Honestly, no matter how impressive the company website is, most people's eyes just glaze over when they get there. There is usually too much information, the product and opportunity are all running together, and it's difficult to contact anyone real if you have questions. It's intimidating. If you are sending traffic to a company replicated website with classified ads and business cards, you are losing money. You want your customers going to your site so that they can get a feel for who you are, and why they should be doing business with you. You can let your personality shine through! If you get a website of your own, you can have a newsletter to keep in touch with your website visitors, run specials of your own, have contests, etc. You can get creative with your marketing. Get a website and get publicity for your home business When you have a website you can create a powerful free publicity campaign with press releases. You will have a place to publish your press releases, wow your site visitors with your media attention, and also give the media a place to easily get information about your business. Get a website and the world is your market Why limit yourself to just one geographical area when you can get a website and market to the world? If you have young children, you can do more business from home instead of spending so much time doing the "grip and grin" around town. Of course, there is no replacement for the old fashioned, high touch feel of home parties and the like, but more and more people are searching online for the products and services they need. Why not market to those people too? Get a website...a real one One mistake a lot of work at home moms make is that of using the free web space that they can get from their Internet Service Provider. Big mistake. Why? Because if a woman in business is unwilling to spend a few dollars a month on paid hosting, it screams "not a real business" to the customer. You want the world to take you and your business seriously, so act like a business person and shell out for decent web hosting. Free hosting usually puts ads on your website that you cannot control, or annoying pop ups. At the very least, they limit what you're able to accomplish by offering cheap looking templates and cheesy stock photos. You can get a beautiful, professional looking site going in just an afternoon with the Easy Site Builder , and for less than $13 a month. Plus, it has all these great features that you would normally have to pay extra for: >Newsletter, auto responder and mailing list capabilities so you can stay in touch with your customers and build the relationship with them that leads to repeat sales and increased sign ups. Attractive, quality images and photos to add to your site to catch the visitor's eye. Hundreds of beautiful templates to choose from...no more copycat websites! Shopping cart for e-commerce. Sell directly from your site! Message boards, multimedia, feedback forms, coupons, 5 free emails, and much more. No html knowledge required. You can choose from the basic editor if you like to stretch your html muscles, or the Word style or ActivEditor if you haven't the least bit of web design knowledge. If you can write an email, you can get a website with this Builder! There is even a 10 day free trial. By the time the trial period is up you could have a gorgeous site that's making you money already. Check it out today. Get a website so that you can earn money while you sleep That may sound farfetched, but your website can "sell" for you, educate your customers and train your distributors, while you play with the kids, nap or clean the house. Isn't that what we're trying to accomplish with our home based business? More life and less work? What are you waiting for? Get a website today! Carrie Lauth is a work from home Mom of 3 - home businesses for moms . Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com More >>

Is it Time for a Priorities Check Up? by Lesley Spencer, MSc; Founder Director: www.HomeBasedWorkingMoms.com Working from home is a dream to many people. And its true, it comes with many benefits. Working from home enables moms to plan their day around children's needs and schedule. Having the freedom and flexibility to attend school functions, play paper dolls at 11:00 a.m. or have an afternoon tea party in the middle of the living floor are all luxuries of working from home. Working at home is great, but be aware, priorities can get blurred. Our society admires successful people. Many people are driven to make a lot of money or to be well known in their industry so they can be considered successful and worthy in people's eyes. However, it may be more accurate to believe we are truly successful when we are happy and content right where we are. The constant pursuit of more or envying others' possessions does not bring contentment. It brings depression and envy. If you've ever seen celebrities, who are rich and have "everything", you've probably noticed many seem empty and unhappy. Having it all isn't about money or possessions. It's about people and the relationships you build in your life. Happiness is also about being content with what we have. A home business can consume you. If you have your own home business, you have to use caution not to let that desire for success or money consume you or make you lose focus of your priorities and the people in your life. The thought of success or making a ton of money can cause us to forget what's really important. Thinking ahead five years, will you be most proud that you made a certain amount of money or that you enjoyed your children while they were young? Will you think back to all the rushing around and quick meals and wish you'd spent more time enjoying life? Will you have spent time together with your spouse building a strong marriage? We know good marriages don't just happen. They take work just like everything else. Will your family life be healthy or will everything be on the back burner while you make millions and become "successful"? We must take a look at our lives and how we are living often. It is so easy to let day-to-day life consume us. Are you happy? If not, why? Are your priorities in line? Are you placing a priority on your faith and your family or is your business consuming your life? Is it time to re-prioritize things? Don't put your happiness and your family on the back burner. Family and our time together are too precious to waste. Lesley Spencer is founder and director of the HBWM.com, Inc. Network which includes: the national association of Home-Based Working Moms ( www.HBWM.com ), Mom#146;s Work-at-Home Kit ( www.WorkAtHomeKit.com ), the eDirectory of Home Based Careers ( edirectoryofhomebasedcareers.com ), Mom's Work-at-Home Site ( www.momsworkathomesite.com ) and HBWM Canada ( www.hbwmcanada.com ). She has a Master's Degree in Public Relations and has been featured in numerous publications including Forbes, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Home Office Computing, Parenting, Business Start-Ups, Family PC and many others. She has been working from home for over 9 years and has two children ages 9 and 7. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com. More >>

10 Tips for Avoiding Home Business Scams by Lesley Spencer, MSc; Founder Director: www.HomeBasedWorkingMoms.com Starting a home business has become a wonderful and attractive alternative for parents across the country. With the advent of the Internet, email and cell phones, working at home has been a very viable option. No other alternative allows parents the opportunity to create their own hours and work around their children#146;s schedules while earning an income. But before investing in any home business opportunity, it is wise to take appropriate steps to research the opportunity and the company. Unfortunately, there are deceitful businesses ready to take advantage of parent#146;s deep desire to be at home with their children. Research the company and always check them out with the Better Business Bureau ( http://search.bbb.org/search.html ) located in their city. Ask for at least three references of people they have worked with. Call each person and ask about his or her experiences with the company. Be cautious of any company that asks for money for a work-at-home job (such as money for registration, applications or instructions). Don't be fooled by ads claiming you can make large amounts of money in short periods of time. And be cautious of companies that require you to sign up immediately. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Get specific information in writing from the company such as how long they have been in business, where they are located (not just a P.O. Box), how many customers they have, what their refund policy is (read it thoroughly), how long it takes to get paid and if there are any restrictions on payments, etc. If you do invest in a business opportunity, use your credit card instead of cash. It may be easier to dispute the charges with your credit card company rather than trying to get your money back from a fraudulent company. Research current scams on web sites such as ScamBusters at: www.scambusters.com . Call the National Fraud Information Center at (800) 876-7060 for information or visit their web site at: www.fraud.org . Report any scams or fraudulent companies to the Federal Trade Commission www.ftc.gov , your state's Attorney General and the National Fraud Information Center, PO Box 65868, Washington, DC 20035, (800) 876-7060. Don't invest in any opportunity that you are not sure about. Instead, find something that you are interested in and will enjoy doing. (Do what you love, and the money will follow.) Lesley Spencer is founder and director of the HBWM.com, Inc. Network which includes: the national association of Home-Based Working Moms ( www.HBWM.com ), Mom#146;s Work-at-Home Kit ( www.WorkAtHomeKit.com ), the eDirectory of Home Based Careers ( edirectoryofhomebasedcareers.com ), Mom's Work-at-Home Site ( www.momsworkathomesite.com ) and HBWM Canada ( www.hbwmcanada.com ). She has a Master's Degree in Public Relations and has been featured in numerous publications including Forbes, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Home Office Computing, Parenting, Business Start-Ups, Family PC and many others. She has been working from home for over 9 years and has two children ages 9 and 7. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com. More >>

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The Biggest "Hidden Cost" In Any Business www.creators.com #147;My husband and I both retired last year, and were looking to supplement our income by buying and selling things on eBay. We have been working at it about 30 hours a week for the past 10 months, but looking at our year-end results, we seem to have made only about $30,000 after expenses. Do you have any tips to help us get a better result out of this business?#148; Boy, do I. But first I have to lay some bad news on you #150; if what you#146;ve just told me in your e-mail is true, you haven#146;t made $30,000. You have actually lost money. The biggest #147;hidden cost#148; in any business #150; not just an eBay business #150; is the cost of your time. Time is extremely precious stuff, and is actually more valuable than money, because no one gives you any more of it once it#146;s spent. Looking at your results, I see that you and your husband have spent 30 hours a week (that#146;s 60 hours for the both of you) for the past 10 months. Assuming an average of 4 weeks in any calendar month, that comes to a total of 2,400 hours (60 x 4 x 10). You have made only $30,000 during this 10-month period. This means each of you has been working for only $12.50 an hour ($30,000 divided by 2,400). A little bit better than minimum wage, and of course you have all of the joys and pleasures of running your own business rather than slaving for someone else, but based solely on numbers you#146;d both be better off signing on as shift managers for McDonalds. Sure, the work at McDonalds isn#146;t very fulfilling and will not make full use of your superior education, intelligence and training, but the hours are a lot more predictable, you go home at the end of your shift (whereas when you run your own business it#146;s with you 100% of the time, all the time), and you get some basic benefits to boot. Don#146;t get me wrong #150; I#146;m not saying you shouldn#146;t be running an eBay business out of your home. For a lot of retired folks and other #147;stay at home#148; types, eBay is an absolute God-send for making some extra bucks in your spare time (full disclosure #150; I am on the faculty of eBay University and travel the country teaching people how to do just that). But running an eBay business is extremely #147;labor intensive#148;. That means you need to put in a lot of person-hours. Think of all the individual, separate activities you have to do to make an eBay business successful. Here are some examples, and I#146;m sure you can think of more: going to flea markets, tag sales, garage sales, estate sales, liquidation sales, police auctions and Heaven-only-knows-why sales to find affordable stuff you can sell on eBay; photographing each item; researching the price of each item on eBay; finding out enough about each item so you can write a halfway-decent description in your auction page; keeping records of your inventory, so you know just what you#146;ve got in stock at all times; creating your auction pages, one at a time; packaging each item; weighing each item and determining the postage and insurance costs; sending customized e-mail messages to the successful bidders; entering each successful auction on QuickBooksreg; or your favorite accounting program; standing on line at the Post Office, or your neighborhood UPS Store, making sure the stuff gets shipped out the right way. Man, I#146;m getting tired just writing all that! If you#146;re going to be a success on eBay, you#146;ve got to learn to make the most of your time, which means doing things in such a way that you can put up the maximum number of auctions in the minimum amount of time. Marsha Collier, who writes the #147;eBay for Dummies#148; series of how-to books ( www.coolebaytools.com ), has a few tips, among many others: make sure you#146;re selling stuff that gives you big profits #150; if you#146;re only making $1.00 profit on each item, you#146;re going to have to post hundreds of individual auctions before you see a real return on your investment of time; if you#146;re posting a lot of auctions, use #147;auction management#148; software programs such as www.auctionhelper.com , www.auctionworks.com and www.manageauctions.com , to save time and #147;standardize#148; the process of posting auctions so you can #150; forgive me #150; grind them out like sausages; use a standardized auction page #150; call your local community college#146;s Graphic Design department and have one of their seniors (preferably an #147;honors#148; student) design a standard template for you, and use it in each of your eBay auctions so you only have to #147;fill in the blanks#148; with each new auction (this will also give your auctions a distinctive #147;look and feel#148; which can set you apart from your competitors); use eBay#146;s #147;relist#148; option when an item doesn#146;t sell so you can get it back in circulation fast with only a few changes (such as a better photo or a lower reserve price). Remember that your time is the biggest #147;hidden cost#148; in any business. None of us is getting any younger, folks, and I don#146;t want to spend my Golden Years pouring plastic peanuts into cardboard boxes, no matter how much fun it may be the first couple of hundred times. Cliff Ennico ( cennico@legalcareer.com ) is a syndicated columnist, author and host of the PBS television series 'Money Hunt'. This column is no substitute for legal, tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our Web page at www.creators.com . COPYRIGHT 2004 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com. More >>