Self-employment Support?

[Zoebird]

had a pretty extreme week with the accountant. it was fine. the money is good and things are improving and our business plan is fine. but she kept going "but that's not what this business IS, your business IS THIS." and then kept recommending that we go and get business loans. I finally just told her that i was happy to invest my time/money, that i am debt adverse, and that it's not up to her to define for me what my business is or isn't. I'm well aware of what my business is and how to get it where I want it.

[rose]

Yes, health insurance is worrisome, but people do make it work. I found this article a while back when doing a little research to help out my sister. It helped me feel a little better about the whole thing. And this year, DH and I are going on a family plan with a VEBA account.

The way I see it, no matter how good your insurance, if you get sick enough, you will be ruined regardless.

I retired at age 53. I'm now 62 and have carried individual insurance for the last nine years. The article you link to is right on. My cobra was much more expensive than individual insurance. As prices have gone up I've increased my deductible/out of pocket. When I started it was $92 per month with $1500 out of pocket. It is now $329 with $1500 deductible/$5000 out of pocket. I have travel money in my annual budget and I look at it like this: if I need the $5000 out of pocket, I will not travel that year. I did NOT set up the HSA account. I have an HSA eligible plan but the HSA fees are high and I didn't like giving more fees to banks. Also the tax benefit wasn't really that important to me.

Her point about reduction in price even when under deductible is right. I see a doctor for my thyroid a couple times a year; his fee is run through my insurance company so I get it at reduced price. Also my high-deductible-plan pays for my annual maintenance. I have good health and don't use doctor much. I did break my hand cross-country skiing and that cost me about $1700 before my insurance kicked in. But I'm covered for anything catastrophic. To keep myself anchored to my job and my desk for the insurance is wacky. I'm always amazed at how many people won't leave a job because of health insurance. We pay car payments, visa payments, house payments ----why are we so afraid of paying for health insurance? I see employer-paid health insurance as part of a conspiracy by the government powers to keep us all behind the desk and anchored to jobs so we aren't out in the world causing trouble from 8 - 5 pm.

[rose]

I am enjoying this thread. I've been retired from paid employment for nine years. My bucket list had 109 things when I retired and one of them was to start my own business. Time gets away from me and I've been doing volunteer work and social justice activism which I thoroughly enjoy, after a work life as a tax accountant. This year I have to have some dental implants and the estimate is $14,000. So I was thinking it might be a good time to start my little business and make a little money towards that project as I'm not very happy about giving my travel budget over to dental bills. I have files of idea, I love Barbara Winter's "Making a living without a job", I like the idea of streams of income. I think it sounds like so much fun to try and get a business up and running. I have ideas but nothing "sticks" with me for long. I'm inspired by listening to all of you.

[Zoebird]

it is great to live in a place with socialized health care.

we can also buy insurance as well -- and that is in our budget for next year. the cost for our whole family is $250/annum, and it's awesome. We get two dental check ups for each of us, up to 10 osteopathic/alternative medicine/massage of various sorts treatments as part of our care plan with a doctor which would then flip to a "$5 copay" for every visit after that; eye exams each year; and we can get moved up for surgeries and any other special needs that we might have (as opposed to having to 'wait in line' for non-emergent surgeries); and they offer additional prenatal care if we would want it (e.g., cover acupuncture, massages, or lactation consultants, etc).

I don't think we would have been able to start the business in the US like this because we would not have had health care, and likely would not have qualified for state care (other than for DS).

Another reason why we moved to NZ in fact. The opportunity was here, but the other two reasons are 1. we didn't have to worry about health care; and 2. we are able to afford our son's schooling because all schools are subsidized by the government, have fundraising for additional stuff, AND private schools have "special consideration fees" which are donations to the school.

[iris lily]

"How that social action will generate income isn't clear to me. "

Three words: video poker machines.

now THAT is an idea!

[puglogic]

Rob, read this today and thought of your blogging venture: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/97/
He's a very smart guy, and has some really good insights here on how to create something successful.

[gimmethesimplelife]

Rob, read this today and thought of your blogging venture: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/97/
He's a very smart guy, and has some really good insights here on how to create something successful.

Thanks Puglogic, read through it and it does sound good. I like the humble aspect of it, there's far too little of this in today's world IMHO. Rob

[frugalone]

I started an Etsy shop a couple of months ago, in the hope that it would contribute to the household income.

Aside from a couple of sales to friends, it hasn't done very well. I know I need to put more items into it, and more work, though.

If anyone out there is successful on Etsy, please feel free to jump in and comment!

[HKPassey]

I always worked for "the man" but yesterday I had an interesting experience that I think could be helpful to people here.

Yesterday I called a local petsitting service because I will be out of town for a few weeks when the new grandchild comes. I wanted to have someone in place that will come to my house to care for my cats. Of course, cats only need a visit every day or two not like dogs.
I called a woman who had advertised in the paper. She told me she relocated here in May and once she put some ads out she has been absolutely so busy. There was no-one anywhere near here who was insured, bonded and licenced to do this service. She gets calls from people who are twenty and thirty miles away, but her limit is 15 miles round trip, and she has more than enough business to make a full time living. She also will take in your mail and paper, and put your garbage to the curb if you want. Price is $15 per half hour which includes litter boxes, food and petting and visiting with the cats (I live in a low cost area where you can get a decent house for less than $125,000). With two cats boarding it would be three times that per day and I don't think they would get personal attention.
I have no idea how you would break into this but I thought was a great way to make a living if you are an animal lover.

One more thing, sicne I only work on call I have slowly built up a sewing business. I am very far from making any kind of decent wage but you would be surprised how many people are looking to have hems done, buttons sewn on etc. Not my favorite thing to do but I make a little money here and there. I am currently making placemats out of fabric to match someones drapes they had made. Not a lot of money but some.

Hmmm... I bet if you specialized in exotics like birds and reptiles, that would be an even bigger plus. I always worry about finding a sitter for my bird who will understand the socialization needs of an uppity parrot (one reason I haven't gone anywhere in years), and if I had snakes I'd really need to find someone who didn't mind dealing with them and their live foods. I've actually thought of doing that, but my chemical sensitivity makes going into other people's homes pretty dicey. There's a website or two where you can list petsitting services based on location, might be useful.

Great thread, Kelli. I'm trying to get established in self-employment as well. My biggest challenges are marketing my services/products, and trying to work around multiple crises and health problems. I do back-of-the-book indexing (not bad pay but the deadlines are killer), freelance writing, beaded jewelry, and photography/digital artwork. I'm probably going too broad, but I have quite a sense of floundering around. I didn't leave regular employment in an orderly fashion (lost my job when my employer got impatient with some disability needs), so it's been quite the maelstrom.


Helen

[Bastelmutti]

In case this helps anyone - I recently joined a MeetUp for entrepreneurs. You can find these groups on Meetup.com. We are going to set goals and have accountability partners to check in on us about steps taken to meet them. This particular one is for moms, but looking at MeetUp, there is a group for everyone.