self employment

SELF EMPLOYMENT

A guest article was posted earlier.  Scroll down.
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Having picked and re-picked on just about every minion, every blog competitor, the fairer sex, our foreign President and just about everyone else I could think of lately except old people because now that they are getting reamed by the very administration that promised them untold riches, it simply isn’t as fun as before to nag them about things ( okay, I might have hinted at their failing bowel control but they have to expect that if they go out in public wearing diapers- dude! Stay home and fall apart on your own time,mkay? ), so my target has shifted to Backasswards Home Magazine. Sure, it has it’s uses and it never pretended to be a doomer rag, but still, it does preach Yuppie Scum homesteading so I simply must give them their ration of crap. Whenever they talk about self employment, I get that weird “we are hurdling through time and space” feeling and think I’m back in the mid to late nineties when oil was ten bucks a barrel, silver was five bucks an ounce as was a fifty pound sack of wheat ( and that was at the high end of retail pricing ), Russian bolt guns were $49 and my beloved Precious the Lee-Enfield was $125 for a refurbished, reconditioned like new rifle and you could buy a box of S&B ammo for $6 ( think about this. Everything tripled in price, but oil went up eight to ten times. After every efficiency is realized, after every surplus part or supply has been used up, prices are due to continue up, even before inflation ).

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The days when you could get into debt for a homestead and work a casual job self employed are long over. Today, the only way to become self employed is to be out of debt, be able to live on diddly squat and provide a service that is many times better than the competition. If you are in debt, you are not able to cut your prices. I’m aware that you think shoeing a horse is worth 2x, and since you have a truck payment, a horse trailer payment and a mortgage, you really aren’t asking too much money for your services. You are earning far below minimum wage after expenses. Well, guess what? You are now living in a contracting economy. It will never stop contracting. There will be less and less free money around to pay for necessities. Your position self employed is precarious. You must go into it thinking that your customer base will shrink, not expand. If you are in debt, someone is going to come along and offer the horse shoeing for 1x cost, half of what you are able. His truck is paid for and he lives in a paid for trailer on junk land ( which is insulated with sandbags, so he only needs to buy half the winter heat ). He might not even offer as good of a service, but he will still get your customers ( until they sell or let loose the horse ). Now, even that isn’t the end of it. Not only is the guy in debt guaranteed bankruptcy and unemployment, even cutting your cost isn’t enough. You need to go even further than that and provide sterling, one of a kind, brilliant service. Because, basically, services can be eliminated. Almost no service is absolutely vital ( this is consumer services, not monopoly services such as banking or car insurance or government ). Think you can sell eggs? Your neighbor can buy chicks for the cost of two dozen eggs. They can raise their own. Think you can split wood? So can the retard living in a shack without a wife to support. He can undersell you. Lawn service? Weak grandma will eventually pay someone to salt the yard so no more grass grows. She can’t afford food, let alone lawn service.

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See how hard it is to find an essential service? Now, after finding one and charging far less than what you should, comes customer service. The only thing I can suggest is to only do what you love. Here is my reasoning on why you should be picky even in an economic depression. You have prepared, most other have not. The majority of the population will eventually be forced to work for slave wages. They will hate what they are doing, and they will be pricing at cut throat levels. But you are not desperate. You have gotten to where you can live on just a casual income. Then, because you are relaxed and easy to get along with, a pleasure to be around, you automatically are at the top of the list of eligible workers. But the most important thing is you enjoy, and love, what you are doing. You can afford to work cheap, and are doing it with a song in your heart AND, you are better than anybody else. You are better because this activity is what makes you smile. Everybody has to work, but those that get paid for their passion are far better at it. A craftsman rather than a worker. I’ll use myself as an example. I love to write. I could write about anything, but I really enjoy survivalism. Because it goes way beyond guns and such. It involves all the social studies that I love. History, sociology, anthropology, economics. I used to worry I could only teach college to get paid for those passions. Now, I get to do this. So, because I not only love writing but writing about survivalism, in my humble opinion I’m far better than anyone else. Not because I’m a good businessman ( I’m not ), or really intelligent ( I’m not ) like other blog owners are, but because I’m passionate. Plus, I can really work cheap. This gig won’t last long, I survive off of consumerism. It isn’t like I’m repairing bikes or creating chemicals out of crushed rock and chicken feces, but it will take me to the end of the line just fine. Because it is a labor of love ( in case you are wondering, I used to write boring and non-insulting in style. It bored the crap out of me, and embarrassed me and did nothing to release my captive muse ).

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Be out of debt and somewhat self-sufficient so you can live on very little. And only work at what you love, because it will show through to your customers, as well as make your life so much more enjoyable. Do not just work because it makes the money your wife needs. That will shine through too.

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