Work

Should You Quit Your Job and Start a Business?

July 17, 2020 By Kathryn Vercillo Leave a Comment

You want to quit your job to start a business. Nobody can blame you. There are many wonderful things about being your own boss. However, it’s a risky endeavor. It’s not all sunshine and roses. Moreover, you can lose a lot of income at the beginning of starting a business. Should you really quit your job? Or should you perhaps scale back on your regular work as you first start your business? There are a lot of things to take into consideration when you make this decision. Let’s explore the pros and cons a little bit.

Why Do You Want to Quit Your Job and Start a Business?

This is the most important question to answer before you actually quit your job and start a business. And, in fact, you should answer it as two separate questions:

Why do you want to quit your job?
Why do you want to start your own business?

Many people consider it to be one question. However, if you are honest about the answers to both parts of the question then you’ll be a lot clearer whether or not this is the right step for you.

For example, let’s say that you answer part one: “I hate my boss.” As you dig into part two, you may realize that you don’t actually want to start your own business at all. In contrast, you simply don’t want to work for that same boss anymore. Realizing this early on will go a long way towards making sure that you’re taking the next right step in your career.

Alternatively, let’s say that you don’t have a clear answer to part one. You know that you want to start your own business because there’s a particular cause that you’re passionate about. Could you keep your day job and just volunteer in a capacity that fills that need?

If you are very clear about why you both want to quit your job and why you want to start a business then you’re well on your way to making smart choices as you move forward.

Benefits When You Quit Your Job to Start a Business

When you quit your job and start a business, you do reap some benefits:

You immediately begin to work for yourself. This gives you a huge feeling of freedom. However, don’t discount how much responsibility it requires.
You have plenty of time to devote to your new business. After all, if you regularly work 40+ hours per week and then you quit, that’s 40+ hours per week to devote to your new passion project.
You avoid any conflict of interest. If you want to start a job that’s similar to what you do now then there might be a conflict of interest that would prevent you from staying at your current job. Review any non-compete agreements and related terms of your contract.

If you are the type of person who works best under pressure then you might find that it’s worth it quit your job to start a business. You could thrive under the stress of trying to make a go of it when you don’t have another income to fall back on. The time you free up by quitting your job, and the freedom you get from working your own schedule, could be worth it. But don’t fail to take into consideration that there are drawbacks when you quit your job to start a business.

Drawbacks When You Quit Your Job to Start a Business

Research indicates that entrepreneurs do better if they stay at their job when first starting a business. There are some big risks and drawbacks to the decision to quit your job and start a business. Those drawbacks include:

You’re obviously no longer drawing an income. Therefore, there’s a lot of pressure on your new business to succeed dramatically and right away. You aren’t giving it enough time to scale up.
It could be harder to get loans for your business. If you can’t show that you’ve got an income coming in then getting credit for your new business could be more difficult.
If the business doesn’t do well, you might not be able to get your old job back. After all, the economy isn’t thriving right now. If you’re lucky enough to have full-time employment then you might not want to sacrifice that to start your own business.

Starting a Business: What to Do First

If you decide that you do want to quit your job to start a business, then you have to take that decision very seriously. You have to put your all into this new endeavor if you want to make it work. Here are some of the things that you need to do before you even quit your job:

Create a business plan. It’s imperative that you know exactly what you plan to do and how you plan to do it. You need goals, milestones, and timelines. Of course, those may shift with time but try to get a solid plan in place.
Crunch the numbers. Figure out what it’s going to cost you to start a business. Consider the initial costs, your own paycheck for the first year, and all other first-year expenses. Figure out how to make that work before you quit your job to start a business.
Start working. Don’t delay getting your first clients or customers. You might want to get the first few clients lined up before you quit your regular job.
Network. Just because you’re working for yourself doesn’t mean that you don’t need other people. Build your team. This might mean hiring people, working with consultants, or simply networking with other entrepreneurs. Make sure that you have a group of people in your corner.

Weigh the pros and cons before you quit a job to start a business. Does it make sense for you, considering the economy, where you are in your career, and what you truly want from starting your own business? The more thought that you put into the process ahead of time, the better chances you are to get the results that you desire.

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How to Get Paid by Giving Your Opinion

July 10, 2020 By Kathryn Vercillo Leave a Comment

They say that everyone has opinions. It’s usually meant as a derogatory comment. However, in today’s social media / consumer age, your opinion matters a lot to businesses and brands. In fact, you can get paid for your opinion. There are many different surveys and tools that will pay you to share your thoughts and experiences.

Why Would You Get Paid for Opinion?

From the consumer’s side of things, it seems almost silly to get paid for opinion. After all, if you keep buying a product then you probably like it. Doesn’t that say it all? No. It doesn’t say nearly enough to the businesses that are creating the products and services you’re using (or opting not to use.)

Companies improve their products and services all of the time. They constantly tweak what they have to offer. The better they do, the more money they make. That’s why they conduct market research. And when you get paid for opinion surveys, that’s a form of a market research.

What Happens When You Give Your Opinion?

When you get paid for opinion surveys, that information goes into a databank. The responses that you give are combined with hundreds or even thousands of other responses from people just like you who got paid for opinion giving. The company then uses a variety of tools and algorithms to analyze those opinions.

In other words, it’s not as if the company looks at the data and says, “oh, Susan A. feels this way about the product.” It’s not a way to track you and your specific opinions. Instead, it’s a way to say, “overly, people are feeling this way about the product.” And also to say, “but then there are some people who would prefer this.”

Companies use that information to make changes to their products. They improve products. They change their marketing. Additionally, they may discontinue products or add new ones to suit the changing needs of their market base. They can’t know what people want unless they ask. Therefore, they will pay for your opinion.

Google Opinion Rewards

One of the quickest and easiest ways to get paid for your opinion is to start completing online surveys. Google Opinion Rewards is one of the best places that you can do that.

When you visit the link above, you’ll see that this is a an app for download. It’s available for Apple and Android users. You can download it to your phone or tablet.

Once you’ve downloaded the tool, you’ll set up your profile. Then you’re ready to start giving your opinion. There are a variety of different surveys available through this tool. When a new one becomes available, the app notifies you (presuming that you’ve set your notification alerts accordingly). Then you fill it out. And that is all: you get paid for your opinion.

You can get paid in one of two ways:

Google Play Credit
PayPal

How Much You’ll Get Paid for Opinion Surveys

Google Opinion Rewards pays up to $1 per survey. It takes less than one minute to complete each survey. In fact, many are just a few questions long and take less than twenty seconds to complete. If there are a lot of surveys available, then you can add a nice little bonus income to your life just by taking the surveys.

You won’t get rich off of giving your opinion. There are only so many surveys available. Moreover, the companies are always trying to hear from specific demographics, so you might not always qualify to get paid for your opinion.

That said, you can easily boost your income this way. After all, you can complete these surveys on your phone when you would otherwise be playing a game or posting on social media. Use your time to earn a little bit of money instead. You can take that money and set it aside in a special savings or investment account and grow it there.

Other Ways to Get Paid for Your Opinion

Google Opinion Rewards its one of the top apps out there to get paid for opinion surveys. It has more than 98, 000 reviews and has 4.7 stars out of 5 in the App Store. However, it’s not the only way to get paid for your opinion. Here are some other options:

American Consumer Opinion

Most survey apps, including Google Opinion Rewards, are filled with short surveys. American Consumer Opinion is different in that the surveys can take up to half an hour to complete. The nice thing about this is that you really get to give a more in-depth opinion. If you like to get paid for opinion surveys not just for the money but also because you’re shaping products then this is a good option to check out.

Survey Junkie

The Survey Junkie app is another app where you get paid for your opinion. On this one, you earn points. In addition to earning points per survey, you earn points for other actions on the app – such as setting up your profile. Points can be redeemed for gift cards.

Surveys on the Go

Each of these survey apps has similarities and differences. Reviewers say that Surveys on the Go tends to pay more per survey than many of the other options do. You can earn between $1 and $10 per survey. Once you reach $10 in your account, you can cash out. You can cash out with Amazon or Starbucks credit. Alternatively, you can get paid through PayPal or a Visa gift card.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks consistently makes top lists for money-earning apps. You can get paid in points, redeemable for gift cards, or via PayPal payment. People like this one because not only do you get paid for opinion surveys but you can also make money watching videos and performing other online tasks.

5 Ways Artists Are Making Money During Quarantine

May 14, 2020 By Kathryn Vercillo Leave a Comment

Artists have always been innovators. While there are certainly established paths for making a living as an artist, more often that not, artists have to work hard to cobble together a solid income. Therefore, it’s no surprise that many artists are making money during quarantine by getting creative.

In particular, many artists are pushing the boundaries of the online digital platform as a means of earning money while stuck at home during shelter-in-place orders. It is fascinating to see the direction art is taking right now, particularly where it intersects with small business and commerce. We could all learn by watching how artists are making money during quarantine.

Here are five key approaches I’ve seen so far:

1. Patreon

Patreon is one of the key platforms that artists use to earn money directly from their fan base. It’s been popular for several years now. I have an account, and although I only earn a little bit from it each month, it really helps my bottom line. I’ve noticed that more and more artists are taking advantage of Patreon as a means of making money during quarantine.

Of course, Patreon isn’t the only way that people drum up financial support from the people who know and love them. Some artists have turned to Go Fund Me or Kickstarter. The difference between the two is that supporters on Patreon commit to continued, ongoing monthly support whereas the other platforms are one-off means of generating a sum of money.

2. Online Performance Art

The means of making money during quarantine that I’m most fascinated by is the growing art of performing online for pay. Many of us have been more active on our screens lately, participating in meetings and celebrations via Zoom, House Party, Facebook Live, and Facetime. While we used these tools in the past, use exploded now that people are stuck at home. The way that artists are innovating in this digital space is fascinating to watch.

Increasingly, performers who can’t do their work in person are figuring out ways of making money during quarantine by performing online for ticket sales and/or tips. I’ve personally bought tickets to several online events and “attended” others that were offered free. For example, I recently went to a multi-room performance art event hosted by Vau de Vire Society, a group that puts on circus, burlesque, steampunk-inspired interactive performance art events in San Francisco. They took their skills online, and I was happy to pay for a ticket to check out the performances.

I also just watched a digital symposium hosted by SOMArts in which a number of different performers spoke about how they are taking their work online. For example, The Stud (a bar and artist collective in San Francisco that typically hosts in-person nightlife events) has begun hosting digital performance art through Twitch. Digital Drag also uses Twitch to create curated “live” streaming drag shows. Attendees pay for tickets, the performers get paid, and it’s also possible to tip any of the performers through their Venmo, Zelle, and other direct-pay accounts.

Seeing a performance on a screen is different from seeing one in person. Performing via screen is certainly different than performing for a live audience. But different doesn’t mean one is better and the other worse. Artists are innovating in very creative ways, making use of the digital space and the tools available for it to do new things that they couldn’t do on stage with their art. It’s not just a way of making money during quarantine; it’s a way to push creative boundaries that might extend into new forms of art in the future, even when COVID restrictions are completely lifted.

3. Hustling Up New Work

Working artists are good at the hustle. In other words, they are driven to create and in order to make enough money to create, they also work hard. Artists continue to do that today. Sometimes it’s in the same way as before, sometimes it’s in new ways. Some of the ways that artists I know are hustling up new work online include:

Opening up new online stores and/or refreshing stock in existing online stores
Refreshing blog content and working on getting ad revenue from their artist websites
Refreshing their resumes and coming up with new material to showcase on their websites as they look for new online freelance art opportunities
Freelance writing about their experiences as artists trying to make money during quarantine
Developing classes (or applying for existing work as art teachers) to teach others their skills
Self-publishing art and writing materials

4. Artist Grants/ Emergency Funding

Despite the fact that artists are innovating and hustling, many do find themselves without enough income right now. Luckily there are a lot of artist grants and emergency funding sources that people can apply for. Low-income artists, artists facing immediate emergencies, and artists in minority groups often get first priority. However, many of these grants are open to any working artist in need.

A few examples of some of the emergency grants and COVID-era funds for artists include:

Safety Net Fund for supporting artists in the San Francisco Bay Area
Artist Relief, funded by a coalition of grant makers
FCA Emergency Grants for experimental artists
Entertainment Assistance Program for actors
Craft Emergency Relief Fund for artists infected with COVID-19

5. Street Art and Mural-Making

While many of the ways that artists are making money during quarantine do take place in the digital sphere, I wanted to emphasize that there are still other options. For example, I live on a busy street in San Francisco. All of the retail stores have been boarded up for about two months since the shelter-in-place orders went into effect. Graffiti / street art cover many of those storefronts. While that doesn’t pay the artist’s bills, they do include their Instagram handles on the art images so that they can generate a following online which can translate to money down the line.

Moreover, some stores hired independent artists to professional paint the boarded-up windows. I particularly love seeing these pieces. They are big and bold. They add beauty to the street. More than anything, they are a nice collaboration between small businesses, local artists, and the community. Plus people pay the artists to do the work, which they can do while maintaining proper social distancing protocols. It’s a win-win way that artists are making money during quarantine.

What do you see as the most innovative ways for artists to make money during quarantine?

3 Cheap Hobbies That Can Also Bring in Cash

January 28, 2020 By Trey LaRocca Leave a Comment

When it comes to the monthly budget, wiggle room is hard to come by for most people. Whenever a new expense comes up, we are always looking for what we have to go without to compensate. Well, what if you didn’t have to sacrifice anything to have an extra date night? What if that new yoga membership didn’t mean you have to give up post-work drinks on Friday? All this is possible, and you may be able to pull it off with your own cheap hobbies! To show you how this is possible, here are some cheap hobbies that can make you money.

Driving Around

DO you have a comfortable car, and enjoy cruising around your area? Uber and Lyft have become mainstays for side-hustlers. Sign up for an account, grab some snacks and drinks for the back seat, and earn that extra dough! Be careful about this one, and make sure you have the right vehicle. Certain higher-end vehicles depreciate heavily with mileage, and the loss you’ll take on that can compound with premium gas expenses to rapidly make this one not worth it. Older reliable cars that just barely make the year/make/model requirements for the apps are the best option. these have already depreciated, and are probably cheaper to fix. Bonus points if you have a hybrid!

Cooking

Got some skill in the kitchen, and need some extra fun-money? Not only can being a good cook save you cash on eating out, it can also be monetized by selling the food you make! You can sell homemade snacks to coworkers, cater for parties, or even work on the side as a private cook. There are options here for all skill levels, as dealing some easy pastries at work doesn’t take too much expertise and will make you an office favorite. The more you can make, the more money you can bring in, and this one is very easy to work around your own schedule.

Tutoring

Do you have a degree in a high-demand field, and love to teach? Tutors can make great money on the side using online sites like Varsity Tutors or even Craigslist. You can also become a part-time staffed tutor at local educational institutions for a more reliable workload. Usually a degree is required, which elevates the pay past your usual side hustle. Tutoring holds an extra special spot on this list, as you are earning money by helping educate your community. Not only are you providing better for yourself or your family, you’re also giving back to those around you. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Sorry! You Can’t Actually Start a Business for Free

September 26, 2019 By Flanice Lewis 1 Comment

If you have dreams of entrepreneurship, don’t quit your day job just yet. As lovely as it would be, you can’t start a business for free. Here are only a handful of the fees you’ll incur to get started.

Federal Requirements

The Employer Identification Number (EIN) is one of your first steps to starting a business. To request a number for your business, you will fill out an SS-4 on paper or online at the Internal Revenue Services website. Completing the process online takes a few minutes and is free. You will receive an email with an official letter providing your EIN, which you need to keep in a safe place. You need this number to file your federal income taxes whether you’re a sole proprietor or larger entity. This number is also essential when you open a business bank account. Your financial institution will need your EIN to report any income, such as interest earned, to the IRS.

Trademarks and patents are additional costs you have to consider. They can be extremely expensive, primarily because you will more than likely need legal advice. Make sure you factor all of your needs while registering to protect your intellectual property.

State Requirements

Your next step is to register the name of your business with your state. Each state has different requirements, but a good number of them allow online filing. There are fees to register your business name, your tax status, and your trade name – “Doing Business As.” In some states, you need to register with your county for taxes too. If you plan to incorporate as a limited liability corporation, there may be additional fees. Prepare to spend two to three hundred dollars upfront, and around one hundred dollars every year to keep your business active.

You may have additional conditions based on your type of business. For example, if you plan to work in real estate in Florida, you have several requirements. You must apply, get fingerprinted, take the required courses, and pass the licensing exam within two years. These can add on over two hundred dollars, depending on your class format.

Other Costs

Keep in mind that all of these costs are before you started working in your business. We haven’t gotten to the intangibles yet. In our technology-driven world, you will need a website. Domains can run from $3 to $12 per year, depending on the site. Namecheap.com tends to have the best prices over GoDaddy and others. If someone else owns the web address you want, it could cost you hundreds or thousands to buy your specific domain.

Luckily, you can use a template to build your website. When you build your website through Wix or Squarespace, you may end up paying more because you’re purchasing through a third party. However, it is far less time consuming because coding can take a long time. Plus, the templates you can choose are attractive and come formatted for different devices.

Some other intangible costs to consider are marketing and branding. Do you want to have sponsored posts on Instagram? Are you selling insurance by having your face on a bench at a bus stop? Perhaps you want custom t-shirts or polo shirts with your logo and slogan? Your budget and preferred method will determine how much you spend.

I know this sounds like a lot, and it is. However, if you want to own your own business, think of it as an investment. Plus, all of the fees incurred that are directly related to your business are now tax writeoffs. Does that change your perspective?

How to Expedite your Business Loan Application?

How Much Money Do I Need to Start a Business?

Side Businesses You Can Start With Little Cash

How Mindfulness at Work Helps Your Health … and Maybe Even Your Bank Account

July 8, 2019 By Kathryn Vercillo Leave a Comment

Mindful working encompasses a variety of different practices. It includes ways to practice mindfulness throughout your work day. This allows you to stay present, centered, and calm regardless of what’s going on around you. Mindful working also means that you approach your career path with intention even as you stay grounded in the moment.

Mindfulness at work has a variety of health benefits. We see those benefits when practicing mindful working. Moreover, you might think that slowing down at work would negatively impact your career. However, mindful working can actually lead to a better work life and possibly even more money in your bank account.

What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a really trendy term. In fact, it’s become quite controversial. Mindfulness is one form of meditation practice. There is certainly a whole art to meditation. Therefore, if you want to dig deep into mindfulness, then you may wish to take courses and learn more.

That said, the concept of mindfulness is really a very simple one. It’s the practice of staying aware of all things happening inside of you and outside of you in the present moment. It’s awareness without judgment.

In other words, you may never stop having random thoughts, but with mindfulness, you become aware of those thoughts. Over time, the thoughts hold less power. You can watch them occur without reacting.

What Is Mindfulness at Work?

Mindful working simply means taking the concept of mindfulness and apply it to your work life. There are two key aspects to this:

Practicing mindfulness in your day-to-day work life
Taking a mindful, intentional approach to career planning

Daily Practices in Mindful Working

If this is something that interests you, then the majority of your effort will be in the first aspect: practicing mindful awareness every day at work. Additionally, you’ll practice mindfulness when you’re outside of work but find thoughts of work intruding on your mind.

When You’re At The Office

Examples of this at work mean that you:

Set a daily intention upon arrival to remain as present as possible throughout the day.
Single task instead of trying (and failing) to multitask.
Take breaks to breathe, focus on what’s around you, and clear your mind.
Practice gratitude throughout the workday.
Tune in to your body to check for stress and reactivity, pausing to ground yourself accordingly.

You also implement a variety of different techniques to limit distractions. You turn off all of the notifications on your devices so that they aren’t constantly pinging at you. Perhaps you have a “closed-door” time each day at the office when coworkers aren’t to interrupt you. As much as possible, you create a schedule and setting that enhances your ability to do one thing at a time with complete focus.

When You’re At Home

These days, work doesn’t take place from 9-5. Maybe you work from home. Or perhaps you work from an office, but your job calls upon you to answer emails at all hours. Mindful working means that you find a way to delineate “work time” and “rest time” even though that’s a challenge.

If you never turn off, then you’re stressing your body and mind. This isn’t healthy, and it isn’t productive. People need downtime to replenish their internal resources. Without that time, you end up running on empty. You’re not giving your best self to the job or the other things in your life.

Therefore, you find ways to be completely present at home or with friends when that’s where you are. You limit contact with work during out-of-office hours. If you work for yourself, you still create “out of office” hours when you can wind down. You practice meditative and centering exercises to train your brain that it doesn’t constantly have to think about what’s going on at work.

Planning Your Career Intentionally

Mindfulness is about staying in the present moment. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t apply it to planning out your career. In fact, approaching your career trajectory with mindfulness can greatly improve your job satisfaction as well as your overall quality of life.

This simply means that you actively schedule times to think about your work plans. For example, you might do a monthly review of your goals for the year and an annual review of your long-term goals. During those times, you focus intensively and intentionally on planning out your next steps.

Outside of those times, you practice just being in the moment, knowing that you’ve got a plan in place, so you don’t have to worry. People worry about their jobs constantly. They worry about what’s next, how the economy will affect their job security, whether or not they’re moving up in their work, how to get more business … This distracted mind isn’t healthy, and it isn’t productive.

Benefits of Mindful Working

Mindful working offers a vast array of benefits. More than anything else, you should see a better state of mind, which in turn leads to some terrific physical health benefits. But you may also find that working more mindfully improves your career, too, which allows you to earn more money over time.

Mental and Physical Health Benefits

Research has shown that mindfulness offers benefits that include:

Better concentration and working memory
Better sleep
Faster, more effective task completion
Fewer headaches, GI problems, and physical aches
Increased self-awareness
Less preoccupation with regrets or worries
Less reactivity
Lower blood pressure
More capacity for joy in daily life
Reduced conflict with others
Reduced stress
Symptom relief for depression and anxiety

Career and Financial Benefits

Benefits of mindful working may include:

Better work-life balance
Decreased likelihood of burnout
Doing your job better because you’re more focused
Improve co-worker relations
More job satisfaction
New, fresh ideas for problem-solving
Renewed sense of appreciation for your work
You run your job; your job doesn’t run you

Mindful working means that you’ll make choices that are right for you. This improves your relationship with your career. In turn, this can mean better career advancement, which could mean earning more money.

Moreover, it also means that you are happier with what you have. Therefore, even if you don’t technically earn more, you may be happier with your earnings. If you’re happy at work, then you’re less likely to engage in spending to “make up for” not enjoying your job.