Business Ideas USA

Hello,
I am an expat (US decent) and I am living in Athens, Greece at the moment. My husband works here and I am for the moment a stay at home mom. I wanted to see if either of you had any ideas for jobs or ideas of self-employment that can keep me busy and productive. I will be here for the next three years. I enjoy planning events, making beaded jewelry and writing. I thought about starting a blog could this be a lucrative idea? And if so does anyone have any tips on beginning a blog?

you can search for writing jobs and so it doesn’t matter were you live, search google

Hi im just starting out on the road of self employment, have no imcome generated as yet but would like to set up a business website to start my venture.. can anyone give me any idea where the best place to start would be?

thanks

I like Yahoo Small Business… start small, think big. Once you know the software and have "hits," you can upgrade and consider more features. Get yourself a business license and Tax ID as soon as possible. As startup costs, the licenses as well as your web costs, internet costs, advertising costs, etc are all deductible business expenses. Why pay them out of pocket? There’s a good book at the library called "Marketing without Money" by Nicholas E Bade that will help you get free or very low cost ideas on getting the word out about your business. The first step is to have a business before you start spreading the news about it so start with your county for a business license and then get expert help from organizations like Score and SBA. See the website links below for free entrepreneural advice:

I cleaned an office for part of 2006 and all of 2007. I know I worked more than $600 worth in 2006, so I asked the office manager how I should file. (I got a check every week with NO paystub attached. She told me not to…"if you make under a certain amount…" etc. ) WELL, I just got a 1099-MISC the other day for 2007 for $3060! I was never asked to fill out any information..again paid in checks only, no pay stub info at all. I know zero about self employment. (The 1099 box says "nonemployee.") So, what do I pay?? A tax guy said I SHOULD have been given a W-9. I have no idea what that is. Online info is too vague, as I mentioned I know nada about SE Taxes. I also clean my church but they give me a W4 and W2. Anyone’s help would be appreciated. No rude comments, please…(also, I guess they got my SSN from my patient records, as I never gave them that for work purposes.)

you will need to use a schedule se, which is for self employment tax do determine your tax, also you will need a schedule c for profit or loss from business. filling out the w9 would have given you a tin, which would give your ”business” a tin, used for tax purposes, which is mainly for business that have to pay estimated tax. the church gave you a w4 because they treated you as an employee. .

I certainly get that impression around here.

There are several different definitions of socialism and an idea can be socialist under one definition and something else under another definition. I strongly favor one definition and use it everywhere, but if people switch between two definitions in the middle of an argument, they fall into the fallacy of equivocation.

Some economic definitions:

1. Workers’ control of the means of production. This is my preferred definition. Note that self-employment meets this definition but not necessarily the following definitions.

2. Cooperative or community control of the means of production. This includes participatory economics.

3. Free access to the means of production. This includes various forms of stateless communism.

4. Partial or complete state control of the economy, with or without central planning. This includes everything from modern mixed-economy capitalism, to the Five-Year Plans, to the state bailing out Wall Street. Now I’m an anarchist, and I’m rather hostile to this idea, and I think most anarchists still consider ourselves socialists.

One historical definition:

5. A transitional phase in Marxist theory between capitalism and communism. I think most Marxists envision state regulation during the transition (definition 4 above), then the withering away of the state, and stateless communism after that (definition 3 above).

Some political definitions:

6. The viewpoints of the various socialist movements. The 1st International included everyone from individualist anarchists to social anarchists to state-socialists; the 2nd and following internationals mostly excluded the various libertarian socialists.

7. The policies of the 2nd Socialist International (Social-Democracy).

8. The policies of the 3rd & following Communist Internationals (Marxism-Leninism).

How do you think people can avoid this confusion between different definitions?

I think you are quite correct about this confusion. I have a column at Nolan Chart that tries to explain things and help matters:

http://www.nolanchart.com/article4246.html

I used to own my own lawn care business but sold it a few years ago. I want to work for myself again, but dont know what kind of unskilled self employment opportunities are out there. I have Management experience and a lot of retail experience but dont want to fight with the big dog WalMart. Does anyone know of any?? Needing some experienced answers.
Also, I really dont want to do Lawn Care anymore. Just to demanding physically. If someone can be a dog poop scooper then surely there is something out there I can do

In my town, the best are wall painters, gardeners and window washers.

It’s not completely unskilled, but it keeps some people fully employed with a minimum of learning involved.

You could sell helmets to hells angels at a flea market or something like that.

It’s getting closer to summer. I will be 15 this summer. I would love a job, but one with more flexible hours because I will have practices about 3 times a week and then a band camp, and I will be going on vacation. I need a job just for the summer. I am a responsible, smart girl. Any real ideas for just a summer job for a 15 year old girl? Also I am not looking for a self-employment job such as babysitting since I already do that, and nothing like mowing lawns. I mean like a real job. Thank you in advance for the help!

Try some online jobs, where you don’t have to pay upfront money. Online data entry is an excellent career to consider if you want to work at home. The equipment needed for this type of job is very minimal. You only need a computer with an Internet connection, a table and a comfortable chair. Data entry duties include the inputting of correspondence, reports, and spreadsheets into a home computer and then transmitting that data using the Internet. Work at home data entry personnel may also proofread text, edit information, and maintain databases. Data entry jobs usually offer flexible scheduling, allowing people to work when they want to and as little or as much as they want to. Some of the growing fields for work at home data entry include medical and legal transcription, medical coding and litigation coding.

This type of work is becoming so popular that many fraudulent websites have emerged offering data entry jobs, which promise huge profits. The best way to find a legitimate data entry job is visit a reputable career website. You are more likely to find a genuine work at home job using these websites.

There are several freelance websites that post freelance data entry jobs. Avoid responding to ads that do not list a company name or contact information. There are many reputable freelance work forums that can provide you with work at home data entry job listings. The forums are usually free to join and provide trustworthy information. Once you have found an advertisement for a work at home data entry job, check out the company by visiting their website. You can also do an online search using the company name and visit the Better Business Bureau website to see if they have been listed as a fraudulent company.

http://internet-jobs.50webs.org/

http://internet–jobs.blogspot.com/

http://workathome-sa.blogspot.com/

currently does not pay self employment taxes cause business shows loss, would like to have W2 to pay into to social security and in case have to get personal loans, currently have 2 employees and equipment assets. How do we form the s-corp so he gets a salary and transfer all the assets to the corp? Is this a good idea or not.
My husband is 41 and the business income is around $150000.00 but with the depreciation and expenses it shows a loss

First, you’re a little late for this year. Not that you can’t do it but you’ll have to file two tax returns for this year – one as a sole proprietor and one as an "S" Corp. (You have to change your election of type of filing within 75 days after the end of your fiscal year. That means by about March 15th.)

At any rate, incorporating is a good idea. You don’t indicate how old your husband is and that will play into the decision about salary. He will need to take some salary but should not overlook the tax benefit (avoiding payroll tax) of taking some money as a s corp dividend.

I would suggest you talk to your CPA rather than an attorney. A CPA will charge around $500 to file the papers (a really simple process that you could do yourself) while a lawyer will nail you for at least three times that amount and take weeks or months to do it.

Can you be employed by company X and company Y at the same time if there is no conflict of interest between them? like say you’re working for part time for McDonalds and part time for TFL driving buses. Any legal problem?
If not, what do you do if you work part time for two companies.
Of course you don’t want to establish a Limited Company and pay several hundreds for accounting.
Maybe self employment is the answer?
but then again if you work like employment rules (set ours etc), seems like self-employment is not an option. Any ideas?

Yes you can, but you cite a poor example.

EU driving hours regulations limit not only the amount of time you can drive a bus, but also the amount of ANY work you can do (9 hours per day,( up to 11 hours on 2 days) average 45 hours per week, and a break every 4 1/2 hours).

All work counts towards your driving time. But other than that, there is no law against working 2 jobs. Your total income is taxable at the same rates.

My husband and I recently moved to a new city so he could possibly make money as he is self employed most of the time. Her said it would be better here. Now that he is here he can’t find a self employment idea or a business willing to hire him to work from home. I work full time outside the home. He stays home and watches the baby all day and had become depressed, although he will say he is not….Recently he stated that it is the marriage that he is not happy with as well and wants to move back home with his parent and not even get a place here so that he can be near our daughter. I may be pregnant again and am so distressed. I am soon to be in school working on my masters and my mom moved down. I don’t know what to do. I can understand him not wanting to b married, but not wanting to support himself confuses me. What will I do. Now that my mom is here, I am sure there is pressure on him to do something. I have been the consistent income, although he has made good income in the past sporadically. He has not cheated, but stays in the room all day when not keeping my daughter. Help what should I do , I have tried counciling and he refuses, ive also tried writing him a note. He definately doent want more kids. OMG I’m in my 30’s as is he advice please. Any single moms or anyone been through this. Or anyone have advice…

I had a friend who was like that: He REFUSED to work for anyone but himself. He finally got himself out of his funk by landing himself in jail and then being forced into a work-furlow program. He learned that there are WAY worse things in life than to be an unemployed entrepreneur…like having a rap sheet.

Maybe your husband needs to hit that sort of rock-bottom before he can pull himself up by his bootstraps and figure out what he wants to do with his life.
If he wants to move back home with mommy & daddy, well so be it. But do NOT allow him to shirk his responsibility to his kid(s).

You may need to consider the fact that you’re just going to have to work full-time to support your daughter (and maybe your other child) and yourself, and put school on the back burner for a while.

I wish you luck … you’re going to need it.

Im presently a single mom with one teenage boy at home…but a new baby is on the way on a month or so. Ive walked that single parent road and know its hard.

I thought that if/when I ever had another child, it would be within a mature relationship. For a number of reasons, I was forced to leave the relationship…but the baby we planned together had been conceived…and Im back facing single parenting …again

For the last several years I have been doing good careerwise and was finally at the point where I was self supporting doing administrative work, management, ect. I have some university but no degree. I always do well at employment and rise up quicky in any job I apply myself to. I am wondering how I will manage juggling a carreer and a baby.

One of the things I am considering is self employment because a gov’t program is available to help me. Writing a business plan would be easy for me…but I have no ideas- How can I get ideas for viable home based businessess?

Why am i not surprised that most of the answers are trying to sell you something or another.

If you are thinking of being self employed and run your own business, but do not know what direction to aim for, the typical answer is….. to follow your passions.

don’t ask me what that means, but if you read the books that many business owners have written they will say that you must be passionate about your business, for it to work.

My question to you then is, what are you passionate about, or asked in a different manner.

If you had an opportunity to receive a very impressive award and be recognized by your peers and society, in what field would you like it to be in.

For example, if you said, "helping single mothers to succeed in life, parenting and business" then your focuss would then follow that path, by deciding,
who do you need to know, to help single mother to succeed……
what do you need to know, to help……………
what do you need to do,…. to …….
and how would I need to sell it.

read books like the emyth by michael gerber, and anything you can get your hands on about starting your own business.

The web is great as a resource, but I caution you for all the sales pitches with their own agenda and products.

Many years ago, my decision was real estate, after owning a book business, now I also am a part owner in a craft business, train realtors, and manage a real estate office, and invest in real estate. so there are many ways and roads that you can follow, and combine.

In answering your question, my own light went on, I think I am passionate about making other achieve their dreams, cool…..

By the way, I am not selling anything to you, other than the concept, that what ever it is that you want to be proud to known for, is a great way to decide where you want to focuss on.

Good Luck, although luck has little to do with it, hard work, good support (surround yourself with those with the talents you require to succeed), and a great plan.