Making Money Tristan on 30 Dec 2008 12:36 pm
Worried About Redundancy? Start An Internet Home Based Business
There’s lots of gloomy news about the recession and rising unemployment, I read on a website that 600,000 Jobs To Go In 2009, which is on top of 150,000 that have already gone in 2008. As the article rightly puts it, that’s 1,600 people per day being made redundant, that’s a lot!
There’s some good advice in the article about cutting costs, saving some money for a rainy day, updating your CV and registering with job sites and recruitment consultants. I think this is all very good general advice, and will certainly help you get through this current recession. But is this just a sticking plaster, a solution to cure the sympton rather than tackling the root cause of the problem?
Certainly by following the advice put forward you will be better prepared to handle a redundancy. It certainly makes sense to cut your spending, especially things like utilities, food shopping, petrol etc - these everyday costs may as well be as trimmed as much as possible. Also, saving money for a rainy day is great advice in a booming economy just as it is in a bust economy.
But is clinging onto the false notion that job security exists a good idea? I know you can insure against redundancy, but this only protects employees who have been with their current employer for a minimum of twelve months, and it won’t protect you if you get fired. I have a friend who is an employment lawyer, and he tells me that employers will look at finding creative ways of getting rid of employees who would otherwise cost a fortune in a redundancy payment. So even if you have insurance, you’re not necessarily protected.
In my mind it makes sense to start a home based internet business, even if you don’t get made redundant, you can make some extra money in your spare time, and know that you have a safety net should you get made redundant in years to come. It could even become so successful that you quit your job and join the scores of new rich internet entrepreneurs.
I’ve read some really interesting books recently about this subject, both written by successful internet entrepreneurs, who far from thinking that the internet bubble has burst, they both think that things are still booming, and will be for years to come. In short, there are plenty of opportunities out there, some are bigger than others, but the underlying theme is that there are enough small opportunities that you can easily replace your existing employed income with a self-employed internet business income.
To read more about this, see Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris and Internet Riches by Scott Fox. You should be able to buy the books from their website or from Amazon or any other online bookstore.
on 30 Dec 2008 at 3:55 pm 1.Rob Lewis said …
Thanks for the link, and you’re right, the ideas put forward in the article are really only a sticking plaster to the wider problem.
I really like the idea of people making money from their hobbies, and you only need to think a little creatively in order to do just that. A friend of mine has just turned her photography hobby into a stream of income by becoming a wedding photographer - I did a quick website for her and she’s got listed on Google, so she’s already generating leads from little extra outlay. She’ll need some more photography kit, but that can be built up gradually from her extra earnings.
Some ideas are less straight forward than that example, but I’m sure if people talk it over with their friends and family (or shoot us finance bloggers an email!) then they can get some ideas on generating a side income from their pastimes.
The internet may be killing off high-street businesses left right and center but it’s a real enabler when it comes to starting home-based enterprises.
on 31 Dec 2008 at 11:09 am 2.Tristan said …
I too had a client when I was doing mortgages who had a full time job working for the university, but her passion was photography, so her plan was to build that up alongside her day job until she felt ready to take the plunge and go it alone full time.
I think the great thing about the internet is that it does allow the little man to compete and sometimes beat the high street. You only have to look at businesses like Woolworths to see how big stores are being affected by competition from the internet.
Where I think the little man does really well though, is the niche areas of the internet where the returns are too small for big business to bother with, but very nice for a small one man band or husband and wife team.