Tweet

Business Ownership - The Ultimate Benefit Program

Guest post by: Nelson Davis

Article Overview: The horrific wrangling, finger pointing and just plain denial that has been going on in Washington DC during recent weeks isn’t really about raising the debt ceiling. Beyond the ever present politics, it’s about spending future generations’ financial heritage on today’s entitlement benefits programs.

Business Ownership - The Ultimate Benefit Program

The horrific wrangling, finger pointing and just plain denial that has been going on in Washington DC during recent weeks isn’t really about raising the debt ceiling. Beyond the ever present politics, it’s about spending future generations’ financial heritage on today’s entitlement benefits programs. I believe the underlying money crunch means that some modern “American Life” perks will almost certainly be gone with the wind during the next few years. The reality in my view is that you’ll have to create your own benefit programs by learning to be self employed and taking control of your own destiny.

It was during and after World War II that our elected representatives including the White House began to create a fluffy pillow of entitlement programs. For decades, Americans have expected pensions, employer supported medical insurance and long term employment. After a few years, people began to view these earned privileges as non-negotiable rights. Politicians got elected by promising to provide these “social apps” and now a figurative lynch mob is forming against people who dare to articulate a harsh reality; we as a nation can’t afford tax payer funding of many of the broad benefit swaths of this entitlement paradise.

I believe that if you want to have most of those desirable items on the “American Life” menu, you’d better begin thinking and acting like a person who is self employed, in other words, a business owner. Very few other people will take better care of you. So you can start now or wait until your choices are severely limited. The first principle is to reinvest in you. Workshops and courses to help evolve your skill set, an exercise and nourishing food regimen for healthy care and saving ten percent or more of what you earn. Its about good health and financial resources. Discipline is an important key since Washington doesn’t seem to have enough of that even to go around Capitol Hill. Where do you find the time you ask? You can actually skip some of those NFL or NBA broadcasts and instead devote two hours per week to learning something about business or money management. Of course if one of those sports leagues is paying you a pension for the rest of your life, please do support their telecasts!

The good intentions of thousands of politicians, past and present were fine. But they were making promises using someone else’s money. Our country has taken on about $14 Trillion in debt to fund the promises of a good life for all without regard to the laws of financial gravity. If you are thinking and acting like a self employed person, you know that the only balance sheet you can live with long term is one with a black bottom line. If you know how to achieve that, your future is assured in ways that politicians cannot guarantee. Even our Caribbean neighbor that island bastion of Soviet style communism, Cuba has been encouraging their freedom starved population to see self employment as an alternative to their form of socialism.

People of a certain age seem to be having a closer look at how to get more control over their destinies via starting or buying their own enterprises. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, people over the age of 35 made up 80 percent of the total entrepreneurship activity in 2009. That same year, the Kauffman Foundation conducted a survey of 549 startups operating in "high-growth" industries -- including aerospace, defense, health care, and, computer and electronics -- and found that people over 55 are nearly twice as likely to launch startups in these industries.

I live in California where the unemployment rate is hugging 12% which is about three points higher than the national average. As politicians chatter about job programs, there is scant mention of our diverse small business community that is taking up the slack in the wake of larger companies that have had enough of the once golden state. We have perhaps the most vigorous statewide community of small businesses in the country. A small business if defined by having less than 500 employees and the latest numbers available indicate that California has over 700,000 small businesses but just over 5,000 large enterprises! While South Dakota is often voted the best state to start a business because of tax structures, the “X” factor in small business development is more about entrepreneurial attitudes, desire and resourcefulness. That is what you need to build your own benefits program and to have the desired control over your financial life and future. You may not land on the front page of the newspaper’s business section but you won’t have to pay attention to the political wrestling matches that simply ignore the real life facts of how to promote a healthy economic climate.

Related Articles
  Choose a Structure
  BRAC - Linking Food and Training with Microfinance
  Benefits and Responsibilities of Franchise Ownership
  The Ultimate Journey
  Internet Home Businesses - Email Marketing
  Choosing an Affiliate Program - What You Need to Consider
  Ready to Own Your Own Home Business? 3 Things You Must Know.
  The Ultimate Sales Training Tip
  Captivate Buyers in 5 Words
  Financing a Franchise in Canada
  Jenny Craig Food
  Employee Trusts
  Commit to a Solid CRM Strategy
  All ya need is Attitude and Ownership to have selling success
  Single Parent Online Network Marketers – Controlling Your Time – The Basics – Part Two
  What are the Benefits of a Coffee Franchise?
  To Have a Successful Internet Marketing Business Choose Your Affiliate Programs Carefully
  Selling Is All About The Whys
  “Twelve Major Benefits For Being Well Organized, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  What is A Mind Map

Article Tags: debt ceiling, entitlement programs, entrepreneurship, money crunch, small business



Related Forum Posts
Re: How to develop sales contacts? - Everyone has the right idea here. Depending on your business, there are different techniques that you could use. For consultants and sales heavy businesses, there are three tactics that I have found especially useful in my business: 1. Attend Networking Events 2. Cold Calling 3. Referral Program 4. Affiliate Program (most successful) The affiliate program was successful for me, as I hooked up with a franchise consultant, and he gave multiple unit businesses that needed my credit card processing services. I highly suggest you hook up with a sales partner, and give him a cut of the monthly revenue.
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: Bye Bye Vista - [quote="RussellWebb":3q55cgov]I've been cleaning house...Finally rid myself of this atrocious operating system called Windows Vista. Eeeegads! It's good to have a nice clean computer again - all reformatted and shiny new! Windows XP has been reinstalled and Vista is in the trash can. Vista is a bomb... plain and simple. ..[/quote:3q55cgov] Where do I begin... I love Vista Ultimate on my personal laptop, but when I tried to integrate my Vista Ultimate laptop into the local area network here at work... Let's just say Vista couldn't quite take on the challenge of a network log-on and killed itself. I have since formatted Vista and vowed to keep my Vista at home, XP here at work. I have an XP desktop and I'm having an older laptop of mine reformatted into an XP Pro laptop for when I need to VPN in to work (as it turns out, Vista and my office network don't really like to VPN, as it is currently.) Vista is a lot of fun for personal use, but it's an abysmal atrocity for work use.
Good Adwords Books? - I've just purchased "Ultimate Guide to Pay-Per-Click Advertising" by Richard Stokes. Has anyone read it, and if so what do you think? Does anyone have any other recommendations for books relating to Adwords? Thanks,
Re: What or Who Sparks Your Business Interest - It's interesting to see what the different motivations are by Age Category. I've noticed this around me: 20 to 29yr olds: Motivator: Money 30 to 39yr olds: Motivator: Success/Ambition 40 to 49yr olds: Motivator: Family comes first 50 to 59yr olds: Motivator: Leaving a legacy i've only gone that far in my analysis. Of course this is a braid generalization but I find that it helps direct my marketing to individuals in different age brackets. The product/service can be the same but the Marketing message (Benefit Statement) to a 20 year will revolve around "Money" vs. a 30-something would be on their "Self Image"


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Promoting your company and self with verve

Purchasing Real Estate using the SBA 504 Loan

Smart & Simple Internet Techniques

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.