Work At Home Business Opportunities Weblog
I don’t know if you know this, but you can get up to 8 GB of FREE Lifetime Storage at Dropbox, not the measley 2 GB they advertise.
How is that?
Simple…
Whenever you refer a friend who
1. Signs up
2. Downloads and installs the Dropbox software
Both YOU and THEY receive an extra 250 MB for life!
So for every 4 friends you invite to Dropbox (who join), you get an extra 1 GB of lifetime storage.
It’s a pretty good deal.
Now, here’s my thinking on it…
1. I think you should have MULTIPLE FREE “cloud storage” accounts.
2. I have iCloud for my iPhone, iPad apps and such. I have Google Docs for documents I write online. Now I have Dropbox for other storage I may want to do, usually short term… what would go in a USB drive. Research items go in a free Evernote account.
3. Personally I wouldn’t keep things on the cloud like personal financial information… I don’t trust them. Here’s why. But otherwise they are extremely helpful.
4. And personally I don’t trust any one of these cloud storage providers with all my stuff… I divide it up.
Maybe you will want to adopt this strategy too… or maybe not. Your decision.
If you would like to get up to 8GB of free lifetime storage, would you help me out too and use my link to sign up for Dropbox?
If you do, we’ll both get an extra 250 MB of storage. With just a little bit of effort, I’m up to several more GB! I’d like the whole 8 GB if you’d care to help!
Thank you… getting 8GB of free Dropbox storage is easier than you think… just SIGN UP!
This is just something free that caught my eye. It’s something I thought I might try and wanted to mention it.
I don’t “know these people from Adam” as the saying goes and can’t vouch for it. I’m just saying it LOOKS interesting.
If you want your Facebook fan page to actually do something USEFUL in interacting with potential clients, here’s a possible tool:
Lujure.com
It has a free plan and then month to month plans for professionals.
If you’re non-profit (and can prove it!) you get a 50% discount.
Here’s a video if you’d like to see more.
StartUpBritain.org is a resource for aspiring entrepreneurs in the UK.
It’s created by people who are succeeding in their own businesses and want to help YOU get going.
StartUp Britain is a new campaign by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, launched on 28th March 2011. Designed to celebrate, inspire and accelerate enterprise in the UK, it has the full backing of the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and HM Government.
This is a response from the private sector to the Government’s call for an ‘enterprise-led’ recovery.
We used to say “you have to play to win”. In social media they say ‘you have to play to play’… in other words interactivity and humor beat stodgy pronouncements all the time. Social media can level the playing field … if we use it.
These are pretty good tips on being purposeful about it.
Anyone can just post random comments, but using social media like Facebook to build an inhouse contact list, etc. can really work well.
At least use these ideas to get started…
6 Ways Small Business Can Win With Social Media
Every time Google tweaks their algorithms, marketers lose money – even “honest” ones.
Just last week, another Algorithm change “hit”… some people have lost lots of traffic and money.
What can you do?
Markus Allen has some ideas. Here’s what he’s talking about today…
Exactly a week ago, Google quietly rolled out its Panda update 2.5.2 -
Google’s propaganda minister (er, I mean public relations’ spokesman Matt Cutts) called it a “minor algorithmic update.”
Yeah right. I’d hate to see a major update…
… Because even the most legitimate website owners are screaming about this “Google Whack.”
Some are reporting an 80% drop in traffic.
And these sites are pure content – no spam.
But the good news is I got my greedy little hands on a PDF that Google doesn’t want me to see.
It’s the same exact PDF that Google gives to its employees to manually rank our sites.
And I’m going to reverse engineer it and show you how to slap Google back on today’s teleseminar…
… We start today at 12 p.m. (NY time).
If you’re a private member of my Marketing Junkies’ Club, get the access code here:
Check out Stump Markus Live!
As the “Occupy Wall Street” crowd denounces “capitalism”, its supporters are selling hundreds of goods on ebay already to profit from the movement!
1,200 ‘Occupy Wall St.’ Products For Sale On eBay – To Help You Fight Capitalism
How ironic!
If you look around enough, you can find them on Cafe Press too!
Hey, it was bound to happen.
When something like “Occupy Wall Street” (or any event) gets this much publicity in the international media … entrepreneurs are going to sell things in hopes of making money!
Even if they might be communists at heart!
As one wag said, “do these count as jobs created or saved under Obama?”
Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any time of the year when businesses and business people aren’t forced, however, reluctantly to think about paying taxes… Even if you file an extension before April 15th in the US the extension is about up!
As you make plans for your business and personal tax situation next year, now might be the time to obtain some business tax advice so you’re not paying more than your “fair share”.
As I make my budget for the coming year, I’m considering a number of things…
1. A new retirement plan and how that affects overall taxes and Social Security “self employment taxes” (if there’s an investment I trust to put it in that is!)
2. Changing or tweaking my cell phone plan to reduce costs while keeping my ability to serve customers “up to par”
3. Making sure I’m being properly reimbursed for actual business expenses … In my case that means reviewing, choosing and USING some new smart phone apps so I can track real expenditures as I make them and get proper credit. There’s no sense counting as “income” money that I really used on a legitimate business expense.
4. I’m also reviewing the new fees being charged by banks for debit cards and considering switching to a credit union that doesn’t nickel and dime me to death!
I’m sure my list will expand as I think about it. I always review with a proper accounting “expert” the latest lists of all possible deductions just so that I’m not missing something.
As strange as it may seem, more and more home business people are doing INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS. I have several friends in Network Marketing whose businesses now span the globe. One routinely travels through Latin America and the Dominican Republic. Another goes to the Orient. Yet another traverses Europe continually. Who would have believed a small “home business” could result in that? Yet it’s quite likely that some readers will find themselves generating income from several sources world wide. In that case, one may need the services of an International Chartered Accountant.
It’s not just network marketers though (though those seem to be the ones I know). Anyone doing importing or exporting may have some factors to consider as they do business. The corner tax preparation shop won’t likely be as familiar as you need if your international business booms!
I have to run… I just realized my accountant hasn’t called me back about some work I dropped off. Remember to do YOUR work now so you can get the most from your visit with your accounting professionals!
Thanks to Moore Stephens for reminding us about this important topic and sponsoring the post today…
If you’ve heard about how Starbucks is going to try to promote the creation of jobs, you heard right.
Here’s the info from “Create Jobs For USA”:
Starbucks is teaming up with the Opportunity Finance Network® (OFN) to help create and sustain jobs. This new initiative is called Create Jobs for USA., and will provide capital grants to select Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). The CDFIs will provide loans to underserved community businesses, which include small businesses, microenterprises, nonprofit organizations, commercial real estate, and affordable housing. The goal of Create Jobs for USA is to bring people and communities together to create and sustain jobs throughout America.
So how do you see if you can get a loan?
Well, first you want to make sure you don’t qualify for “conventional funding”, i.e. a bank loan. If you don’t, take the next step.
You have to go to Opportunity Finance Network and locate a “Community Development Finance Institution” that serves your geographical area.
They specialize in working with small and start up businesses that don’t qualify for conventional financing… and may provide training and support services in the bargain to help you create more jobs and prosperity in the USA!
The reason most people want to work at home is so that they can own their own business or own their “job” in a way that being a typical employee doesn’t allow. After all, do we really want just a “job” or to have some ownership?
One option is to be part of an Employer Owned Company. Unfortunately for most of us that conjures up mental images of hippies operating looms or baking bread and living in a commune.
In reality, the article A Direct Stake in Economic Life: Worker-Owned Firms demonstrates that some huge, “household name” enterprises are, indeed, based on this model such as “Land O’ Lakes” and “Sunkist” and the makers of “Gore-Tex”!
While many want their own business and the “American Dream” in that regard, we all don’t have the skills to run all of a business. There are marketing, administrative and other components it’s sometimes hard for anyone person or family to master.
But in an employee owned enterprise, the employee on the “production floor” can have an ownership interest in the company as much as any “Big wig”… people with any employable skill set have the opportunity to own and build equity in that setting when creating their own solo business may not be realistic for many reasons.
The interesting point of the article is how large this sector is.
Usually such articles though have a romantic flaw one should be aware of. They forget how solo entrepreneurs usually are required to create the foundation of such businesses and then pass the ownership of the established concern to the rest of the crew.
Employee ownership usually happens only AFTER an entrepreneur has done his or her work… they don’t emerge spontaneously in my understanding of them.
Here’s the book by the author of this article. I don’t think I’d agree with all of it, but in some parts of Europe vast parts of the regional economies are “employee owned”. Perhaps we need more here…
It’s about time that online degrees started getting the respect they deserve. You knew that the big Ivy covered colleges would sniff their nose at online competition… they had lots to lose after all. But now people are recognizing you don’t have to pay for the college’s real estate, lawn maintenance, and outrageous tuition to get a working degree!
For example, there are online degree programs that specialize in helping LPN’s get the education they need to become Registered Nurses! I referred a relative of mine to one of these programs. Here’s why: In my part of the country, the pay increase for that is at least a $20 per hour increase in pay – not to mention benefits in most cases! Some colleges – depending on the program – do not even charge “tuition per hour”. It is not uncommon to be able to test out for a fee that is much less than the cost of a “class”. In some cases the cost of testing is about a third of the class cost. Some online colleges even offer scholarships just as traditional “brick and mortar” schools do. In fact some of the best online colleges are connected to traditional colleges and universities who are extending their services online to reach a new breed of student. Just because your degree was “online” does not mean you went to an inferior school anymore!
I routinely tell folks getting into college that unless they have a full scholarship, they really need to consider every option available for reducing their costs. Online classes and “testing out” of particular classes through an online college are definitely the way to go in this regard.
Where do you start though, in finding top online colleges? The biggest mistake is confining your research to the one or two online colleges that advertise the most. There are DOZENS of schools you should consider offering many different degrees… most of them will NEVER advertise on major TV networks because it’s not effective, but they do offer solid training, accreditation, and everything a student needs to succeed.
If you’re completely new to this, perhaps a good place to start is DegreeJungle.com ‘s latest rankings of the “Best Online Colleges of 2011″. I considered myself fairly well informed about online degree options, but I learned a thing or two about options I never knew were available. In fact, some of their best rated schools this year are educational institutions I was well aware of – like Abilene Christian University – but whose “online degree programs” were “news” to me.
If you’re planning on upgrading your education in this economy, it pays to know all your options. This list may be a good start for you…
Thanks to Degree Jungle for letting our readers know about this information and sponsoring our blog today…
