Starting My Own Business? Why Do It?
By Tim Bruxvoort

Before I talk about finding the right business for you, perhaps I need to talk about why you even want your own business. Perhaps you’re not yet convinced you do. After all, with your current job you don’t need to worry about anything. You just do your job, get paid, and go home. No worries, right?

That’s the way I thought once too. And after I got laid off, I paid dearly for that thinking.

There are two main reasons why you must start your own business:

Times are changing and you can no longer count on your job being there for you anymore. If you have a desire to become financially free, having your own business is about the best way for the average person to get there. Let’s talk about the uncertainty of the job market first.

If you live in a developed country like the United States or most parts of Europe, you’ve probably heard a lot about jobs moving to less developed countries.

I’m sure you know that manufacturing jobs have been moving. The manufacturing sector in the U.S. alone lost nearly 2.8 million manufacturing jobs since January 2001. This trend probably started 10 to 20 years ago and shows no signs of slowing.

But there’s a new trend that started to become obvious around 1998. Now entry-level "knowledge worker" jobs such as tech support, accounting, programming, and customer service are moving as well. These jobs are going to countries such as India where they speak polite and perfect English.

The countries gaining the jobs also have excellent educational systems to train their workers. They’re so good that even extremely high skill, high tech jobs like circuit designers are moving to India, China, and Taiwan. So instead of projects going to Silicon Valley workers, they’re now moving to these countries since the cost of labor and cost of health-care is so much lower (they may not even have it).

This trend is just getting started so you can expect to hear more about it or even feel the impact over the next several years.

Not only do we have to worry about jobs moving over seas, but also increasing productivity is totally eliminating jobs. Productivity has been growing at better than double the historical average. Companies are doing much more with fewer people. When a job is eliminated by higher productivity, it never comes back.

Want evidence? Consider the facts from the book, “The State of Working America 2004/2005” by Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, and Sylvia Allegretto:

Unemployment rates for computer programmers climbed over the past three years to 7.6% for the first half of 2004. From 2000 to 2003, long-term unemployment increased 198%. For those with a Bachelor’s degree or more, the increase was 299%. The largest percentage increases in long-term unemployment from 2000 to 2003 came in the sectors of information (354%), professional and business services (285%), and manufacturing (259%). Another issue is that the Internet has opened up competition from places we just haven’t seen before. No longer does a business just have to worry about the guy around the corner. Now competition comes from around the world. The Internet had become the great equalizer.

A competitor could now be someone in a tiny village in a third-world country. He or she can use the Internet and a wireless phone and conduct business anywhere in the world. These people are not used to having what the majority of us in developed countries have. They’re hungry and willing to work long and hard hours to provide better service.

In fact, in China being an entrepreneur is now the choice of the new generation. More Chinese youths are choosing to become entrepreneurs instead of becoming a doctor or lawyer. Being an entrepreneur is perceived as a “cool” career, especially in the field of computers and e-commerce.

So if you work for a business that isn’t keeping up with the new competition, you’re job will be at risk.

But worrying about losing you job is not the primary reason you should start your own business. Creating wealth is the reason.

Rober Kiyosaki of the number one best selling book Rich Dad Poor Dad says, “A job is only a short-term solution to a long-term problem.” A job will solve your short-term problem of paying the bills but it does little to build long-term wealth. Kiyosaki says, “Financial struggle is often directly the result of people working all their life for someone else. Many people will have nothing at the end of their working days.”

Having your own business is just about the best way to create financial freedom for the average person. There are many different business opportunities that people can get into that don’t require full-time effort and that will fit your personality. Whether it is real estate investment, buying tax-lien certificates, direct marketing, network marketing, or dozens of other opportunities.

You don’t have to start a traditional business where you pour your life savings into it and work 80 hours a week to make it work. There are lots of different options for part-time businesses you can get in with little investment.

If you want to create wealth in your life you need to start thinking like wealthy people. Wealthy people spend their money on assets.

If you haven’t read Rich Dad Poor Dad, I highly recommend that you do so you understand what an asset is. It’s probably not what you think it is. It’s not what accountants say it is. Cars, boats, or even the house you live in are not assets in terms of the way wealthy people think.

An asset is something that produces an income for you. So your house cannot be classified as an asset since you spend money on it. It doesn’t make you any money until you sell it, but then you still need a place to live so that doesn’t do you much good.

Kiyosaki says “Rich people acquire assets. The poor and middle class acquire liabilities, but they think they are assets”

You’re probably thinking that your just scraping buy to pay the bills now so how can you afford to buy assets? You can buy an income-producing asset for as little as a few hundred dollars. And then you take the income from that asset to buy another and so on.

The key is to get started. If you have to take on another part-time job to get the few hundred dollars to get started, then do it. More than likely you could just quit buying so many liabilities and put that money in savings until you have enough to get started.

There’s no need to quit your current job to get started. In fact, Kiyosaki recommends that you “Keep your daytime job, but start buying real assets, not liabilities or personal effects that have no real value once you get them home.”

But when you have enough income coming in from your assets wouldn’t it be nice to know that you could quit your job if you wanted to? Wouldn’t it be nice to have the flexibility of setting your own hours, and more importantly to become the master of your destiny? Wouldn’t it be nice to have enough money to pay for your children’s college education, to pay off bills, to buy a house, or whatever else you want? Once you have wealth, that’s when you can buy those liabilities. But they also become less important to you.

So now the question is, “What kind of business is best for you?”.

About the Author:

Tim Bruxvoort is the Internet’s Foremost Home-Based Business and Success Coach who helps people create successful and profitable lives in their own home-based businesses. You can visit his website at www.homebasedriches.com . If you are interested in discovering how you can be successful in anything you do, go to www.thinktorich.com for a free report.