As an independent business owner, if you want health care coverage, you have to pay for it yourself. In recognition of this fact, there is a special deduction for health insurance premiums paid by self-employed people. This deduction is on the front on the 1040 as an adjustment to income. It's not an itemized deduction [...]
more
Posted by: Mariette Knoblauch, August 5, 2010
Comments: 5
I just got back from a week in Kauai, HI. It was perfect. No work. No emails. No phone calls. Just me and my wife relaxing.
Here are my keys to making sure we entrepreneurs stay sane by taking a successful break from our work.
1. Book a trip.
Sounds obvious, right? But it’s the toughest step in [...]
more
Posted by: Mark Faggiano, May 11, 2010
Comments: 4
Site traffic. It's the very bane of many site-owners' existence. When building our online presence as a means of converting site visitors to clients, there is a constant "Info Seek" mode in which we as self-employed site owners find ourselves. So many sources of information—many of whom are considered the go-to guys and gals [...]
more
Posted by: Akilah Richards, April 23, 2010
Comments: 1
Sometimes family, friends or even my Basics of Selling on eBay students will ask me if I will sell some high-ticket item for them on eBay – handbags, jewelry, gift cards, etc. They know that with more than 5000 feedback scores and a 100% positive feedback score, I get a lot of traffic to my [...]
more
Posted by: Linda Sanchez, April 22, 2010
Comments: 2
While the small business community waits to enjoy the same credit card protections recently extended to individual consumers, some banks already have beat the law to the punch. In an effort to streamline operations, these companies are already following the new provisions outlined in the recently passed Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD).
Where’s the [...]
more
Posted by: Sarah Snyder, April 21, 2010
Comments: 2
I have a friend who’s completely gung-ho about getting started as a home based business. It reminds me of a time when I was getting started (10 short months ago). The excitement, the nervousness and the sleepless nights are all too familiar.
Here are some of the questions she’s been asking, and maybe they can help [...]
more
Posted by: Sarah Snyder, April 15, 2010
Comments: 1
Today I had the singular experience of being told I had positively affected somebody’s life. A woman I had known when I was much younger - fresh out of the Peace Corps and long before the thought of running a small business even entered my mind – recently found my profile on FaceBook. After an [...]
more
Posted by: Linda Sanchez, April 13, 2010
Comments: 1
One would think that with the success of women in the workplace over the past few years, not to mention the Oprah, Forbes.com, and other note-worthy media coverage earned by mega-mom bloggers such as Dooce.com, who reportedly makes $40,000 per month from ad placement on her blog, and recently signed a development deal with HGTV, people would get the idea. Well, let’s just say the ones who are merely tinkering with a business idea, as opposed to fully immersed in entrepreneurship can make the roads a bit hostile for their more serious counterparts.
more
Posted by: Akilah Richards, April 9, 2010
Comments: 4
Film can be such a strong and evocative medium. It inspires us to think, to feel, to imagine, to emote. But can it even help us grow our small businesses? At a recent small business conference one of the speakers recommended Sunshine Cleaning as a must-see movie for entrepreneurs. The star-studded cast – Amy Adams, [...]
more
Posted by: Linda Sanchez, April 7, 2010
Comments: 3
For entrepreneurs, being a bona fide dreamer is seldom a bad thing. See, we use synonyms for the word dreamer. One in particular—Visionary – is often bandied about, and sometimes with justifiable reason. Certainly, the Walt Disneys, George Washington Carvers, Steve Jobs, and Wangari Maathises of the world, started out with grandiose ideas, unseen in [...]
more
Posted by: Akilah Richards, March 31, 2010
Comments: 4