Saturday, January 31, 2009

Sell your handcrafted items for free at ArtFire.com

I found a site for selling handcrafted items where I am going to list some of the many craft projects that I create. I am hoping that this site will help me to begin selling my projects and building up a fund toward saving my parents' house.

You can Register on ArtFire.com for a free account to sell up to 10 individual items at a time, or for just $7 a month you can sell unlimited items and even create your own personalized store.

I want to upgrade to the store level membership when I can afford it, but for now I am happy to find a site that will allow me to sell my handcrafted items.

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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Wait, Mr. President.... I work too!

The goal of democrats in congress is to get the stimulus package to President Obama's desk by President's Day, however, I am a little concerned about this stimulus package and what it will mean for those of us who work for ourselves.

Last year I, and several other people that I know, did not qualify for any help from the stimulus package because while we earned money and paid taxes - we did not get a W2 from some company. I was not too concerned about it because the way I understood it was that anyone that did not get a stimulus check in 2008 would get one in 2009. Now it seems that is not the case?

From what I have been hearing the checks are being sent out to go into people's paychecks... i.e. it is going to people that work at companies and get W2s from an employer. I will once again be passed over, as will the others who were passed over last year, because I work for myself and do not get a W2 from anyone.

This means that the stimulus is going to people that do not need it and to people who had already got checks last year. I hope I am wrong and that there is a plan in there for how people like me can get the same help that everyone else is getting, but it certainly looks like if you are trying to make your own way in the world and building a small business that will help make more jobs in the future that you are being left out of the stimulus package because you don't have a job in the eyes of the President.

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Saturday, January 10, 2009

Porn industry asking for $5 billion bailout

Okay, if the porn industry is getting a bailout, how about the home based business owners of America? I mean, come on! The porn industry? Larry Flynt (Hustler Magazine) and Joe Francis (Girls Gone Wild).

Don Lemon at CNN did some looking and he says that Flynt has had sales this past year in excess of $300 million, Francis had sales in excess of $100 million. He also cornered Francis on if the guy or Flynt had laid off anyone and got mostly stammers and a few "no"s in answer.

I think a case could be made for small home based businesses needing to have a bailout - particularly those who are at risk of losing their homes in the mortgage crisis. There would go not only a place to live, but a business. Double blow to the small business owner and home buyer.

So come on, Congress, bail out the people that really need it. Forget giving a $5 billion dollar bailout to the Porn industry, instead give say $100,000 to 50,000 home based business owners. I suggest that they have to be ones that have filed business taxes for at least a year to prevent a sudden flare of home based businesses, but I think if we gave a bailout to 50,000 home based business owners we would see a significant boost to the American economy. Don't you?

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Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Presidential Elect Obama's Stimulus Package

I was watching the news a little while ago and they were talking about the stimulus package that is apparently in the works by Presidential Elect Obama. What they were saying was that the idea was to give everyone a bonus in their paychecks immediately to help boost the economy now rather than having a check later on like the last stimulus package.

What does this mean for people like me who work for themselves? Last year I was unable to get any of the stimulus payments stuff because I did not have a W2. I was not very concerned, since the way I understood it had been that anyone that did not qualify last year would get one this year, however, it now seems to be something that will once again bypass me (and many others) because I don't get a paycheck from an employer?

It is the people like me that need the help the most, and yet it looks like we are once again going to be passed over by a stimulus package that targets everyone but those who need it the most.

I am going to be looking into this more and trying to sort it out, but I would love to hear comments from anyone that might know something about this or have input on it.

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Lost work for the new year

It has been a while since I posted here, but there is a reason... my poor computer caught a virus just before the new year, so as I was getting back into work after Christmas, my computer was being gutted by a virus. I lost a lot of work, including the last four chapters of the book I was writing, the only copy I can find of the first 18 chapters of that book, and multiple articles and story starts that I had not yet backed up off the computer.

I was annoyed to say the least.

Finally, with advertisements due to be written for several people and a transcription job that I needed to get done, I had no other choice, I had to get my laptop working, so... ::cringe:: I reset it to the factory specifications and began the long task of reloading my programs and the much longer task of recreating my work that was lost.
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