Work from Home Stories & Tips

I was born during the Great Depression. Over the last century, my relatives and I have served in the U.S. Armed Forces to protect the American way of life.

My great uncles served in Europe during World War I. In 1942, my father, the father of three young sons, was drafted. He took basic training in Fort Dix New Jersey, and was sent to Europe until VE day. He was on his way to the Pacific when VJ day arrived, and spent the next several months 2500 miles away from home on the other side of the continent, before being discharged.

Ten years after my father’s basic training, my oldest brother was drafted in 1952, and took his basic training in Fort Dix. He was sent to Korea until he was discharged. Ten years after my brother’s basic training, I entered the service in 1962, and took my basic training in Fort Dix. (Although I am a Vietnam Era Veteran, I was fortunate and was stationed in Europe and did not have to serve in Vietnam.) I have nephews now serving in the military.

 My family has given many years of their lives to protect the freedoms and our capitalistic way of life. We defeated the socialists in hot and cold wars. This was to allow me, and others, to do what I wanted, when I wanted, the way I wanted. Now everything we sought to protect our country from is being served up by a socialist-leaning government.

The government is in the process of telling me, and others, what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Neither my family, nor the families of millions of others, gave up so much and risked their lives for such a result. We did not serve and fight for socialism, we fought against it! Please, let our president and leaders in Congress read and understand the Constitution of the United States, and the Declaration of Independence.

I was distressed recently to hear the results of a poll that resulted in the statement that the majority of Americans favored socialism, big government and government control of the economy. The saddest part of this is that the majority of younger citizens felt this way, while the majority of older citizens were against it. Is this the result of schools not teaching history?

Socialism DOES NOT WORK! This has been proven many times over, not only by the collapse of the Soviet Union, but from the experience of many European nations.

Sometime in the past 8-10 years, in accordance with Federal directives, the small town I live in spent a lot of money installing handicapped curbs at the crosswalks across the street from my house. I have no objection to handicapped curbs; this is not the point. These curbs were installed according to Federal “standards” for such things. Guess what? The Feds have changed there collective minds about the “standards” for such curbs, and are now demanding that my town replace these with their “new and improved standard curbs”. This represents an example of waste at all levels of government. We have these “geniuses” who have a degree in something or other from a college or university, and get into government with no experience in real life. They sit behind desks in their job security and dream up theoretical solutions to non-existent problems.   If these people did not keep coming up with new and revised regulations their jobs might be in jeopardy of becoming unnecessary. The main goal of most of these people (I won’t say all, because some are undoubtedly dedicated) is to preserve their jobs, not help the public they are supposed to be serving. A goodly percentage of our taxes are spent paying the salaries, benefits and retirement of government employees. I don’t know what the percentage is, but it’s only going to grow as our current socialist government rapidly expands the size of government. 

As a side note about government employee’s salaries: I briefly worked for the government, and paid close attention to pay grades, salaries, etc. The government sets their employee’s compensation at “comparable private salaries and benefits”. The problem is, they set the compensation at the very highest level in the private sector!

Oh, I could go on with this kind of thing forever, but I’ll knock it off for this time.

 I just saw a news story dated April 16, 2009, that the US Congress is once again considering a law making online merchants collect sales tax no matter where the purchaser lives. At present, only sales tax has to be collected from purchasers living in a state where the seller has a physical presence.

If Congress succeeds this time-they’ve been trying for at least 15 years to pass this law-a lot of Internet businesses will be closing. Because of the current serious recession, and all levels of government trying to figure out how to raise more taxes, this nefarious scheme has a better chance of passing.

Raising taxes during a recession is a really bad idea! This would have the same effect as raising prices while customers’ incomes are either diminishing or disappearing. During the recession of the late 1980’s, my state increased the number of things subject to sales tax. My sales were already down, and that actually put me out of business in my brick and mortar store. Wiser heads prevailed a couple of years later, and the tax reverted to what it had been previously, but it was already too late to help me.

The problem with out-of-state sales taxes is that it would be a nightmare trying to figure out how much tax to collect, prepare all the myriad of reports, and pay all the jurisdictions. A few states have no sales tax. Other states have a general sales tax applicable to the entire state. Many states not only have a state sales tax, but cities, counties and other local  jurisdictions can tack on additional sales taxes. Whew! Can you imagine?

At the moment I have two online businesses. One is services, which is generally not subject to sales taxes and there are relatively few clients in any case. However, the other business is sales of merchandise. Due to the nature of my sales, and the cost of sophisticated shopping carts, I use a simple PayPal shopping cart (which costs nothing), but have much code on each merchandise page to make the sale and, if the purchaser is located in my state, collect sales tax. I have something over a thousand pages online. I would have to revise every one of those pages to collect taxes for other states; and, the page would have to have 50+ tax buttons to collect the right state’s tax! Similarly, even if that tax law is not enacted my state is considering raising its tax rate. I’d have to revise every one of those pages simply to comply with the new tax rate.

The crux of the matter is that if either tax change happens my business is closed! I simply have neither the time nor the money to make those changes. (It’s a big enough challenge changing the S&H every time the post office raises postage rates!)

I haven’t posted anything for several days, partly because I had to spend a good bit of time assembling records and preparing income tax returns.  It was also end-of-month and end-of-quarter time, meaning assembling and compiling more records for tax reporting. 

My plans for posting on my blog have gone by the wayside.  With our country rapidly slipping down the slippery slope towards full socialism, I’m thinking of closing my business.  Prior to the last election, the government—at all levels; federal, state and local—already were too intrusive into everyone’s personal and business lives.    I had changed the focus of my blog from running a home-based business to pointing out our federal government’s stupid actions, and the dangers of its actions.  I’ve now realized that my opinions aren’t going to help anything.   

My income in 2008 was down 25% below 2007’s.  The first quarter of 2009 is down at least 30% below the first quarter of 2008.  Our new socialist government has decided to run businesses because these people with no business experience know more than the management of businesses. And these same socialists are going to pay mortgages for people who can’t pay them and will soon be selling cars, etc., as well as taking care of all of our needs.  Why should I struggle running a business?

I may or may not post more in the future.

In an article by James Abourezk, former Democrat Senator from South Dakota, for Playboy magazine in March 1979 he stated the eight Laws of Politics. Abourezk’s laws are these: 

1. Anybody who really would change things for the better in this country could never be elected President anyway.
2. Don’t worry about your enemies, it’s your allies who will do you in.
3. In politics, people will do whatever is necessary to get their way.
4. The bigger the appropriations bill, the shorter the debate.
5. If a politician has a choice between listening and talking, guess which one he will choose?
6. When voting on the confirmation of a Presidential appointment, it’s always safer to vote against the son of a bitch, because if he’s confirmed, it won’t be long before he proves how wise you were.
7. If you want to curry favor with a politician, give him credit for something that someone else did.
8. Don’t blame me, I voted for McGovern [name your own favorite here].

The article is well worth reading in its entirety. Like the reference I made to Will Rogers the other day, this proves that nothing gets better in government, it only gets worse.

 I would add a couple of more laws to the list above: 9. If a bill you voted in favor of leads to problems, do not admit that you voted for it and especially that you didn’t read it before the vote, but be sure to point the finger of blame at someone else; 10. Pontificate about anything that you think will help you in the next election, but be sure not to say anything substantive, and; 11. Promise the electorate the most outrageous benefits that will accrue to them, they’ll fall all over themselves voting for you, thinking they’ll get something for nothing.    

The majority of the electorate does not realize that the government earns no money—it’s the individuals’ money that pays taxes to support these freebies. We are nearing the point where there will not be enough wage earners earning enough money to pay all the taxes required to support the government’s “entitlements”. 

Note No. 4, above. This is particularly pertinent in the current climate of ramming huge stimulus bills through Congress without time for legislators to read or debate them. 

In future posts I may discuss the Declaration of Independence, and I will discuss the U.S. Constitution. When I was in high school these were seriously studied. From what I can tell, our education system no longer teaches either of these documents, nor does it teach history.

It dawned on me today as I was listening to and reading reports about our so-called representatives in Congress that they are good at something. There are none better than they at blaming everyone else for their screw-ups! No matter how clearly it can be shown that they are responsible for something happening due to legislation they passed, they will point the finger every which way but at themselves.

The law of unintended consequences is working overtime in the current Congress. That is just one thing that’s working overtime there.

I just finished reading a fiction, written about and set in Moscow, Russia before the Soviet Union collapsed. As I was reading it, I thought about how horrible the politburo acted to get rid of dissidents and people who had fallen out of favor (not to mention all their anti-citizen and pro-ruling class laws). What I finally realized is that we have our own politburo called Congress and they are every bit as bad, except they have not yet resorted to executing their detractors (yet).

Apparently it is now a crime against the state to be a capitalist. While I still do not think anyone is worth a million or more dollars a year, IT IS NOT A CRIME TO GET THAT KIND OF COMPENSATION. Congress, led by Barney Frank, is demanding to know the names of the people in AIG who had LEGAL contracts, and were authorized BY CONGRESSIONAL LAW, to receive hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in bonuses.

The House of Representatives today passed a special law to confiscate most of those bonuses. Not only does the US Constitution not permit such laws, IT EXPRESSELY FORBIDS THEM! But then when did Congress let a little thing like the Constitution get in their way?

If you want to see where our country is headed under our new socialist government, read some books about the Soviet Union. Once the Communists took power, it took 70 long years to get rid of them.

Our government meddles too deep in our lives now. Do we really want them meddling and digging ever deeper and deeper into our lives?

Elected government officials are pointing the finger at private companies’ executives as being greedy. One representative has gone so far as to call for the AIG execs, who are receiving millions of dollars in bonuses, to commit suicide. Of course, an aide later said he really didn’t mean it.

I’m not going to defend anyone’s right to command million dollar plus incomes and bonuses, and that includes business execs, sports figures, actors, singers and congressional representatives.

All the blame is being heaped on former President Bush for what’s happening now. While I’m certainly not going to try to claim he was our most illustrious president, I will claim that he was better than former Presidents Carter and Clinton. Having said that, Congress must take a lot of the blame for what the government has screwed up. They have dozens of oversight committees that are supposed to be keeping an eye on what the regulators are doing, and what the companies they regulate are up to. Where was Congress these past many years? And, to keep the record straight, Congress has been controlled by the Democrats for the last two years. Why is all the blame put on the Republicans? Both parties are to blame, and neither is getting any better.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the government is not the solution, it is the problem. Look at Nancy Pelosi trying to cram multi-billion dollar proposals through Congress without adequate hearings! I forget his name, but 30 years ago or so, a retired senator (from Minnesota, I think) stated the 10 laws of Congress. One of them was the larger the bill the quicker it goes the Congress.

Where’s Will Rogers when we need him? If you find Rogers’ comments—do a Google search for Will Rogers quotes—you’ll see that not only were things bad back in the early part of the 20th century, but they’re even worse now. For example, Rogers said “Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate; what’s going to happen to us with both a Senate and a House?” Another of his witticisms was “Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.”

Our elected officials’ main goal is to get re-elected to stay in power and receive all the perks of that go with their offices. Most of them have no idea how to run a business, but they all think they can tell our businesses how they should be run. These are the same people who exempt themselves from many of the laws they pass.

We must get back to the roots of our Constitution! The government should not be regulating all the things and passing the laws that they lack the Constitutional authority to do. Remember, each law they pass strips more freedom from you!

If our current socialist federal government has its way and passes the Employee “Free” Choice act, free enterprise will be dead.

Presently employers have 90 days before a vote of its employees whether to form a union or not in which to offer alternative solutions to work conditions. If the proposed legislation passes, and 50% of employees sign a card favoring a union, the government will force the employer to form a union, and employees will NOT have the right to even hold a vote on the subject.

Once formed, the government then compels the employer to negotiate with the union. If no agreement is reached [length of time not clear] the government will determine wages, benefits and work conditions at the place of employment.

The government screws up everything it touches, and most federal elected officials and employees have never held a private sector job. Do we really want the government running our businesses too? I think not, and many people who may be thinking of starting a business will not, and others who already have a business will close.

Unions have their place, but employees being forced into a union, and employers being forced to provide salaries, benefits and work conditions per government mandate is not appropriate in a free society.

Not taking my own advice, as posted recently about making time for breaks and vacations, I’ve suffered some burnout the last couple of days. Normally I take two days a week off; one full day and another if not full then at least half of it. Mainly it’s the winter weather that’s got me down. I do not take the days off when it’s too cold or snowy to go out. In the lousy winter we’ve been having, I’ve only taken a few days off over the past three months.

The last couple of days, I just haven’t felt like doing anything. Normally I’d say fortunately, but unfortunately the work keeps coming in and I have to get busy whether I feel like it or not and do the work.

You really have to psyche yourself up to do your work when you don’t feel like it. More to the point, you have to be extra careful to do good work in this situation.

I’m writing this at 1:15 a.m. Thursday, having just finished my Wednesday work because I didn’t feel like doing it during the day. Proper breaks and planning would have precluded putting myself into this predicament. Thursday is supposed to have milder weather than recent days, so I’m planning on taking the day off.

TIP: If you don’t feel like it, make sure you have some method of priming yourself to do the job, and do it right. Go back and read my post “The Trap” about planning and taking breaks and vacations

We live at a time where almost everything is constantly changing, and many are becoming motion-oriented. Most of the changes and flash-type productions are absolutely unnecessary, and can only lead to confusion. Just because you can change or do something does not mean you should change or do it.

Before you change your method of presenting your business, consider whether it is necessary or even if it is desirable to make the change. Try to look at your proposed change from your current and potential clients’ point of view. The kinds of changes I’m addressing here are the “look and feel” of your business, not changes in products, services or prices, which require other considerations.

Some examples of unnecessary changes may help to highlight this situation.

* My Internet Service Provider (ISP) had a great online email program. I always look at my email online before downloading it to my computer so I can eliminate the junk first. I have been with this ISP for several years, but over the past year or more they’ve kept “improving” the operation of their online email service. Even when they do not announce changes I find that from one time to the next when I log in it’s a different method. Once I do get logged in, accessing or even finding the link to my inbox and other boxes is different. I use another service, which includes online applications and email. This service, too, keeps announcing “improvements” and changing the way the service operates. By the time I get used to the most recent changes, they’re changing it again.

* Software updates: Wow, do “they” ever make a lot of stupid changes to software! If you have automatic updates turned on for programs, many update without you knowing it. Even those that alert you can lead to unpredictable operations on your computer. For instance, I don’t know which software update caused this problem, but my computer will now not remember which printer is the default printer. If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll remember I installed a new printer more than a month ago. I still want my old printer accessible (although I’d have to physically reconnect it to use it), but want the new one to be the default. Every day I have to remember to go into the computer’s control panel and reset the default printer to the new one. I updated to Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1, now every time I start my browser I get the message your last session unexpectedly ended, do you want to restart it or go to your home page? How did it unexpectedly end when I shut it down normally? Adobe Reader is another example; Adobe seems to want to update that danged program every other day! Why?

* Logos: For some reason, some organizations want to change their logos frequently. A logo is for quick and lasting identification. You should not change your logo just because you’ve used your existing one for a few months or years, or because you’re tired of it. I have a client who had a beautiful and well recognized logo for 10 years. They decided that they’d used it for too long, and had a new, more modern one designed. The new one is hardly legible, and does not really reflect well on their organization or its purpose. A legitimate logo change might be because of a change in ownership, or because the service has been expanded and a new logo is required to help encompass the additional services.

* Graphical introductions: On TV shows and opening pages of Web sites, many “cutesy” graphical CGI introductions are being employed. On TV, you’re stuck with it, and frequently the producers get so carried away with what they can do graphically you have to sit through several minutes of useless stuff. At least on most Web sites they’ll give you the opportunity to skip the introduction, but not all do this. If an animated introduction also includes navigation links, it is sometimes difficult to find the link you may want, and even when you find it, it may jump around and you have to chase it! I don’t bother with sites like that, I simply browse away to a competitor’s site.

The preceding examples are simply that, examples, and should not be considered comprehensive. There are many other things of a similar nature that could be discussed, but that should not be necessary to get this point across.

TIP: Just because you can change something or can do something, ask yourself “should I?” In other words, is the change necessary to the operation of your business, or is it because you’re tired of the old look? Don’t drive current or potential clients away simply because you’re bored!