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In the past week or so, I've had three distinct occasions to speak with others about the joy of being self-employed and working from home. The first came about as a result of being interviewed by a newspaper reporter from Berkshire (MA) Eagle. One of the questions he asked was about the earning potential of people in the Virtual Assistant industry (the interview was about the side of my business where I'm an Internet Marketing Virtual Assistant). I gave him the upper tier of earning potential of the busiest VA, and when he asked if I earned that much, I told him, "No, I don't. That would require me to work way too hard." However, he seemed to be most impressed by my intangible benefits of self-employment, in which I said: "What's cool about my business is that I don't have to commute to work. I work the hours I want and with the clients I want. I save money and time on traveling and gas. And I can work in my bathrobe."The "working in your bathrobe" theme appeared again in a conversation with a client this week, who was lamenting her early 6 AM departure to a business appointment. She said, "This (early hour) is tough, but I know people do this every day to get to work. I'm never up this early. I finally walk into my office at 9 AM in my bathrobe with a cup of coffee in hand and maybe take a shower around noon." This sounds suspiciously like my life on many days.The third occasion was with my sweetie, who told me how jealous he was that I show up to work about 9 AM, knock off between 4-5, only work 4 days per week with clients, take breaks during the day as needed, work in my bathrobe (see the recurring theme here?) and yet still manage to make a decent amount of money. He, in contrast, works 4 12-hour days (or nights, actually, as he works many graveyard shifts), is off 3 days, is bored out of his mind at his job, and has to endure the bickering and fighting and backstabbing politics that make up the workplace. He constantly refers to himself as "being owned by the man". That seems like so much fun I can't stand it.In the 7 years I've been in business (wow, it's hard to believe I've been self-employed for longer than I've ever had any job!), I have been approached by well-meaning friends, colleagues, and business associates who have cajoled, encouraged, and coached me to "grow" the business. By this they mean create an enterprise in which I go out and find clients and farm out the duties to a bevy of independent contractors. As someone who supervised both directly and indirectly 70 full-time, student, and part-time staff in my higher education career, I swore I would never be in a supervisory position again where I had to manage that many people. It just wasn't fun.I'm a firm believer in the "small is beautiful" concept of running a business. Granted, what I've done in my business is to create a job, rather than a business, but that was done purposefully. Chellie Campbell expresses similar sentiments in her new book, "Zero to Zillionaire", "There are 17.5 million of us solo-preneurs in the United States. The ads say, 'Go big or go home.' Bah. We already are home. With work we love, cash in our pockets, and family around us --happy, rich enough, and fulfilled."What's standing in your way of "going home"? Initially for me, it was fear. Fear of failing. Fear of losing my health insurance. Fear of being financially decrepit. Fear of losing respect of my former work colleagues. Fear of simply not being able to pull it off. What propelled me to follow this dream of being self-employed? Finally discovering an industry that would enable me to do what I loved to do, what I was good at, and used my natural skills and abilities. The discovery was a long time in the making, as I failed miserably in my first business venture when I followed the advice of many of the self-help business books to create a business from a hobby.Guess what? Most of my fears have been realized. I have failed in starting a business. I have lost my health insurance. I have been financially decrepit. I have lost the respect of some former colleagues (though most are jealous of my new-found freedom