As I'm sure we've all noticed by now, the quality of products and services available these days is dropping at an alarming rate. Extremely expensive consumer electronics appear engineered to break, call centers where clients expect competent and timeless conflict resolution are instead outsourced to countries where the Customer Service Representatives barely speak English and read almost everything from a script. And when was the last time you heard about...
As I've become so fond of saying on this blog, there's an old saying. "When it rains, it pours." Anyone who's ever, well, lived, knows this is true. When things go wrong, things tend to go really wrong. Often multiple things at once. In the most extreme of cases, this can lead to the flat out failure of your business. But that doesn't always have to be the case, and...
A very wise man once said, "With great power comes great responsibility." Most of you may recognize this quote from the Spider-Man film series as spoken by the character Ben Parker, but it was originally written in 1962 by Stanley Martin Lieber. You will probably know him better by his pen name Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man and most of Marvel Comics' other major characters, and the most recognizable...
If you’re the kind of person who is interested in running your own business, there’s no doubt you’re a proactive, motivated self-starter. After all, here you are putting in the time to do your own research and get a better understanding of the nature of the business. It is a hallmark of the self-starter mindset to be willing to work hard for a long time – as long as it...
You’ve probably noticed that we’re big on self-employment around these parts. We know from experience that there is no surer or swifter path to true financial security and independence than securing your own Personal Independent Income, and we’re passionate about sharing that freedom and security with the world at large. However, it is perfectly natural to have doubts. You might think that self-employment is too much work. You might think...
As we're so fond of saying around here, there's an old saying. "Time is money." And it is. Time is definitely money. Time you spend doing other things, is time you could be spending making money. As we've discussed previously, self-employed people are generally the hardest workers, with the longest hours. That doesn't mean spend your every waking moment working. Far from it. But your time is valuable, no matter how you...
For a business blog, that title sounds somewhat immature. Not exactly the kind of thing you'd expect to read around here, is it? But there's really no better way to say it, and it is 100% fact. Interviews, specifically job interviews, are simply terrible. The whole process is hugely flawed. Answer me this. As an interviewer, it's your job to get a feel for a person's personality, behavior, work ethic,...
By now most people should be familiar with Google's infamous semi-informal company motto, "Don't Be Evil." This is a wonderful standard which every company, large or small, should try and hold itself to. That goes for all of you self-employed folks on the path to PIE too. As you no doubt learned at some point during school, reputation is important. People talk, and almost as often, people listen. It doesn't...
I'm going to be blunt here. I dislike the term "employees." I would even go so far as to say I hate it. The term employees implies a corporate structure. That of a boss, supervisors, etc. And while a lot of the same responsibilities that come with those positions may fall to you, for maximum success you want to build a good solid support team. Like the old saying goes,...
Now that Canada and the US are finished with their respective national celebrations, it's time for us to get back on track. So let's not waste any time and get to it, shall we? In a previous post, we talked about social networking for the self-employed, and how it can be a huge boon to your business. Today we're going to extrapolate on that a little further, and show you...