We have many names. Some call us entrepreneurs. Some call us freelancers, or contractors, or consultants, or WAHMs and WAHDs, or sole proprietors … well, you get the idea. The fact is that no one has yet created a really good, standard definition that works well for all of us. The latest term is either microbusiness or microenterprise, and even it does not yet have a standard definition. Because the definition of who we are is so loose, it’s next to impossible to pull reliable stats about us, but here are a few items I’ve managed to uncover.

• The Census Bureau said a few years ago that about three quarters of all U.S. business firms have no payroll, with most being self-employed persons operating unincorporated businesses. I’d guess, that number is higher now.
• The AEO (Association of Enterprise Opportunities) estimates that there are “more than 24 million microenterprises in the U.S., representing 18% of all private employment and 87% of all businesses. One out of six U.S. private sector employees works for a microenterprise. Historically, microenterprises have been considered the backbone of the U.S. economy”, and that “in the United States, a microenterprise is usually defined as a business with five or fewer employees, small enough to require initial capital of $35,000 or less; the average microloan is about $7000″.
• A blog post at Business.gov agrees by starting out the post with this statement, “Nine out of every ten firms in the United States is a microbusiness – who knew?!”
• Small Business Trends predicts we’ll see a 4-6% more microbusinesses due to the current recession.

Although the most common definition of a microbusiness is 5 employees or less (some say 10, some say 20), like Lloyd Lemons, I tend to think of microbusinesses as even smaller than that. He defines a microbusiness as “a very small business; in fact, it’s the smallest of all businesses” … “often has no employees” … and is “often operated from the owner’s home”.

That’s me, and very likely you too. It appears that we make up somewhere between 70-90% of the entire workforce in the U.S. Even if we doubt the stats, and slash all the numbers listed above in half, we would still make up a huge portion of the workforce, and yet we tend to be overlooked quite often. We aren’t given access to the same benefits that others have, such as affordable health insurance for example. Nevertheless, we are strong contributors to the health and well-being of our entire economic structure, and we should be taken more seriously because of that.

I don’t have solutions for us, unfortunately. But I do have a few resources that may help us as we struggle to be noticed. Perhaps if we register with our local or state community groups, or join microbusiness-focused organizations, we can effect change that we cannot as individuals. Here are a few links to start. If you know of more, please add them in the comments.

Association for Enterprise Opportunity – The Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) is the national leadership organization and the voice of microenterprise development. By providing cutting edge training, knowledge sharing, Federal and State public policy and advocacy, and communications, AEO empowers a community of nearly 500 member organizations to be uniquely effective in serving the needs of microentrepreneurs who do not have access to traditional sources of business education or capital.

SBA Small Business Association Micro-loan Program

Business.gov Loans and Grants Tool

Finally, our government is more open than ever before. Let them know who you are, what you do, and how you believe you are being overlooked (assuming you do, of course). Go to the White House’s official contact page to let your voice be heard. Or contact House Small Business Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) or Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chairwoman Mary Landrieu (D-LA). Let them know that our collective group needs to be considered when decisions affecting business and the economy are made.

Individually, our voices whisper; Together, our voices thunder.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Association for Enterprise Opportunity, Association of Enterprise Opportunities, Bureau of the Census, Chairwoman, health insurance, House Small Business Committee, Lloyd Lemons, Mary Landrieu, national leadership organization, Nydia Velazquez, Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, United States, White House
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I want to help 12 of you in 2009, by giving you a mini-stimulus package to jump start your idea. Read on to find out more and make sure to read to the very end, because there’s lots of wonderful “new” news at the end.

The Reason I Thought Of This:

I’ve participated as a lender at kiva.org a few times in the past. I like being able to do a little something to help someone in the world create or grow their own little business. The great thing about Kiva is that a lender can lend just $25 and still be able to make a big difference in someone’s life. Although I make my living online, I’m not rich – far from it. So although I’d love to be able to give lots and lots of money to help others start their own businesses, I’m not able to do that. But the more I thought about the $25 that I’ve lent to Kiva entrepreneurs, the more I realized that I could do additional things with just $25 – things that could help some of you, maybe. Indulge me as I tell you a little story, and forgive me if it’s kind of long, but it’s important that you get the full story, so here it is.

The BackStory:

A few years ago, I was laid off from my job. The company I worked for wasn’t doing well, and although I’d made it through the first 3 rounds of layoffs, I was finally cut in the 4th round. I tried hard to get a new job, but the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months. It was tough times in the area I lived in and jobs were scarce. I did have a skill. I could write web programs. So late at night, and early every morning, I sat at my old home computer and worked on creating a little online calendar program. It was pretty hard because I’d never attempted to calculate recurring events that could happen on a daily, weekly, monthly, bi-weekly, bi-monthly, yearly basis – and so on. And then I had to throw in leap years for more fun. I pulled my hair out and said a few choice words now and then, but eventually, through trial and error, I had a working program. My big idea was to sell it online!

Of course, there were problems to be solved. First of all, by that time, I was flat broke. I had managed to do enough odd jobs now and then to be able to pay the mortgage each month, but all the rest of the bills were being juggled – a lot! I was behind on most of them, so there was absolutely no way I could afford to spend $8 for a domain name and $20/month on hosting. (Hosting cost more back then – especially for the type of hosting I had to have). There was no way I could justify spending that money when I didn’t know if I would just be throwing it away or not.

But I knew deep down that I really didn’t have a choice. I had to spend it, even if it meant juggling yet another bill for yet another month. So I did. I’d like to say that a miracle occurred and that first $28 changed my financial life – but I’d be lying. It didn’t. I did manage to sell my program – occasionally. I was selling it for $50. Obviously, I’d need to sell quite a few to pay my bills each month. That didn’t happen. I did sell 2 or 3 a month usually. So, yes, my little investment paid off…or at least earned a profit each month.

But of course, it wasn’t enough. As the months went on, I managed to find more odd jobs and did some online freelancing work – enough to get me through each month, but I was basically dirt poor. It was always a struggle. But the more money I managed to squeeze out of my work from home jobs, the more determined I was to make it work well. That meant coming up with ideas and trying them out. That ALSO meant more money for more domains, and more hosting. (Back then you had to get a whole new hosting plan for every domain – you couldn’t use one plan for multiple domains). Now I’m an idea kinda gal, so I was coming up with ideas all the time – but I certainly didn’t have the money to act on each of those ideas. I’d sweat over whether or not I should pay for a domain name and hosting plan with each idea I had. Most of the time, there was just no way I could gamble on an idea. Most of the time, I just had to say no to myself, and I remember thinking so many times, “If I had just enough money to get a domain name and hosting plan, I could…”. Every now and then, though, I’d hold my breath, take a chance, and use what little money I had. Luckily, none of the ideas were horrible. They all managed to pay for themselves, and earn me a little extra. And each of those little extras added up. One day, I realized that I was paying all my bills – on time! Granted, I still considered myself to be poor. There wasn’t anything extra at the end of month. But I was making a living!

The Project:

Now let’s jump back to the present time. I’m not rich, but I make a living that allows me to buy domains any time I want to try out a new idea. It’s no longer an insane internal struggle to decide if I should pay a bill or try out an idea. I can do both and I’m grateful for that. But I know that there are people who are not so lucky. There are people who just really don’t have the few bucks it takes to try out their big idea, especially in these tough economic times. I know what it feels like to not even have a few bucks to start a site. So I want to help.

Just like $25 is all it takes to help someone live their dream via kiva.org, I’m going to hand $25 (US) to one of you, and each and every month for the entire year of 2009, someone else will get $25. I want to help one person per month start their dream idea online. With $25 cash paid into a Paypal account, someone can purchase a domain name and 3 months of hosting. That should be enough time to get a new site going. In addition, I’m going to throw in a free copy of my ebook, In Your Pajamas, as well as a free copy of my online press kit template package (to be used only by you, and not to be shared, please). That’s an added value of $80 ($5 for the ebook and $75 for the template) to go along with the $25 cash.

On the 25th day of every month of 2009, I’m going to choose someone as that month’s Project Jump Start ’09 Recipient. I’ll randomly choose someone who has either subscribed to my newsletter, subscribed to the feed via email, or who has asked to be considered in the comments of a post. If you aren’t chosen one month, you’ll still be in the running each month after that. If you’re already subscribed, you don’t need to do anything new. You’re already in the running.

I know $25 doesn’t sound like much, and it isn’t. But it is enough to begin a dream, and I want to help someone take that first step. In fact, if all you have is $25, you may just put a little more thought into your idea, and spend a little more time making sure you get it just right. And that goes a long way to making an idea work! I hope at least one of you ends up writing a post similar to this one a few years from now, and can look back on the $25 that began it all for you.

If you don’t need the $25 but think you know someone who might, I urge you to let others know about this. Tweet it. Blog about it. Email it to your friends or family. I hope to make a difference in a few people’s lives, but people have to know about it or else I won’t know about them! (And for the cynical amongst you, no, I’m not doing this for linkbait. Nofollow any links to this post if you want to. That’s fine. I just hope you’ll tell people who could use the help, that’s all).

If your name is chosen, and you decide you don’t want it, I would appreciate you either passing it on to someone who does, or asking me to choose someone else. But of course, that’s up to you.

The Rules:

So, that’s it. To be considered, simply do one of the following (only 1 is needed):

1. Join my private list by filling out the form near the top right of this site.
2. Sign up for the RSS feed via email.
3. Comment here, saying “I want a Jump Start!” or something similar.

Make sure to use an email address where I can reach you if you are chosen. If I can’t reach you, I’ll choose someone else.

You WILL need a Paypal account for me to be able to send you the $25 if you are chosen. It’s the only way I will pay, so it’s a requirement that you have an account there to receive the money. If for some reason you can’t have a Paypal account, then I won’t be able to consider you. Sorry.

Unlike Kiva, this is NOT a loan. This is yours to keep, period.

You can, of course, use the $25 any way you wish. I do sincerely hope, however, that you use it to purchase a domain name and hosting for your idea. It is the purpose of the project after all. And of course, you are free to choose any registrar you wish to purchase your domain name, and any hosting company you wish to purchase your hosting plan. I can make recommendations of course, but you are under no obligation of any sort to use them.

My Recommendations:

I use Godaddy to register all my domains, but if you don’t want to use them for some reason, then I would recommend Moniker as well. I currently divide my hosting up between HostGator and MediaTemple, about half on one and half on the other. However, HostGator is a better choice for this particular project, because you can definitely get 3 months worth of hosting with them for a little less than $15, which leaves enough left over for a domain name. *

P.S.

I’ve got $300 set aside for this. Like the rest of you, I don’t know what the economy will look like a year from now. I may be really poor again by then, who knows? But I’m hoping that by putting that money aside right now, that no matter how bad things get, I’ll still be able to make this happen every month in 2009. That’s my goal, and I’m going to do my best to make it happen. With luck, one of you will be able to accomplish a goal as well.

P.P.S.

It’s my birthday today, so that’s why I chose today to make this announcement. Just seemed appropriate somehow.

P.P.P.S.

I’ll still be lending to Kiva entrepreneurs, btw, and I always encourage others to do so as well. This isn’t a replacement for Kiva lending. This is just one more thing I want to do.

But wait there’s more!
A week after I posted this, a bunch of wonderful people decided to join me and offer even more, so below is a running tally of everything that will be included.

Samir Balwani
$25

So far, that’s $175 cash and over $1000 value in extras. Wow. I don’t know about you, but that just blows me away. I can’t thank the people who’ve decided to jump in on this enough. Y’all rock.

*

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 48 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Glenn Murray, Kay Frenzer, little online calendar program, online freelancing work, registrar, site audit, Tweet, United States, web programs
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Publishers Note: Volume 1 Issue 4 ends the first full volume of Personal Branding Magazine. As personal branding becomes the differentiator for career development, many new channels have opened up and the internet is a recruiting stomping ground for all those who leverage it’s power. Between hiring candidates websites, and even job aggregators, the times have changed and we must be ready. Human resources is rapidly evolving by branding their companies as the employer of choice and there is a sudden war for talent, despite an economic recession in the United States. In this issue, we interview all the thought leaders who are entering the online recruiting and branding space, as well as take a closer look as to how networking plays a role in bridging recruiters with interested applicants. Only the strongest employers and candidates will survive. By reading this issue, you will have the knowledge needed in order to confront the recruitment process and be victorious…Dan Schawbel, Publisher, Personal Branding Magazine

As you may know, I’m a staff columnist for Personal Branding Magazine, and I’m always happy to get my hands on the latest issue. Personal branding is an important aspect of the ebusinesses that we all manage, and it affects so many areas that we may not have even considered. The magazine takes a look at each of those areas, and gives thoughts and ideas on how we can best use personal branding in those arenas. This issue’s focus on recruitment really brings home the point that how we brand ourselves in one area can spill over and effect our chances at being hired in another area. In keeping with the focus of this issue, my article is entitled “Utilize SEO and Personal Branding In Your Next Job Search”. Hope you like it.

Click here to get the free sample issue.

The full issue will be available here as of May 1, 2008.
(An annual subscription costs $12.95 for 4 issues, and 50% of the proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society)

I’m always interested in hearing your thoughts and would love to get some discussion going on personal branding. Feel free to throw those ideas around here any time.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: American Cancer Society, Careerbuilder.com, Dan Schawbel, Founder, Indeed founder, Jobfox.com, Joel Cheesman, online recruiting, Paul Forster, Personal Branding Magazine, Robert McGovern, staff columnist, United States
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.

One of the programs I’ve belonged to for years is the one from LinkShare.com. I’m late to the news, but I just learned that a few months ago, they’ve started a new payment plan, in which the payment threshold is only $1. In addition, they are now paying weekly. Weekly payments with a super-low threshold can be very encouraging to a newbie. You can really see your efforts pay off before you have a chance to get discouraged. (Note that international affiliates might not like getting small payments due to bad conversion rates, but for US affiliates that won’t matter).

Linkshare has tons of niches available, able to accomodate almost any niche you might be passionate about. Many of the programs offer more than simple text links or banner ads. Some allow you to link directly to specific products, some offer coupon codes, and some have dynamic rich, interactive multimedia ads. Some even offer storefronts, which are premade pages of hot products for that program. You can get really creative and stand out in a crowd by utilizing some of these advanced techniques.

Getting creative is a key to doing well with affiliate programs. You really need to put some work into it. Don’t just throw a few links around and think you’ll get rich. Well, you might, but it’ll be pure luck. In general, you need to create original, compelling content. That content needs to draw traffic, and once there, give solid reasons for clicking through to the affiliate product you are promoting. Because Linkshare has so many options for creatively promoting products and programs, you stand a better chance at being able to provide original content that brings in traffic and leads to sales. Once you make those sales, you can now look forward to quick payment. Gotta love that!!

Sign up with LinkShare.com.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: affiliate, affiliate product, linkshare, payment threshold, United States, weekly payments
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.

This is a perfect time to discuss your plans to work from home. Of course, if the idea is news to everyone, you’ll probably get some resistance, but that’s ok. Constructive feedback is great. You do need to have a little bit of realism surrounding you. Just make sure you let everyone know that you understand the risks and that you are preparing wisely for them. (You are, right?). Explain that you plan to work from home just on a part time basis until you start to see enough progress to justify moving to full time. That will ease some of the worry that your family will undoubtedly have. Once you’ve gotten the major objections out of the way, you can begin to solicit thoughts and ideas from them.

The people closest to you understand you the most. They know your strengths and weaknesses. They can give advice to help you make the most of your plans. Keep the conversations civil and friendly. Don’t let differences of opinions turn into arguments or fights. Thanksgiving is a time for being thankful and enjoying time with our loved ones. Don’t let arguments ruin that. But do take any and all advice into consideration. If someone tells you something you don’t like, let them know you’ll consider it, and move along to something else.

Each member of your family has a unique history to draw upon, and each person can likely give you very good advice. Once you are all gathered together in one place, you have a wonderful opportunity to learn a little from each person. Use that opportunity wisely. The lessons learned may be extremely useful in the future. Share your news, get some advice, and then let it go. After all, you don’t want to dominate the day’s conversations. The rest of the family deserves their time too.

If you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, you might want to consider holding a special seasonal celebration with your family so that you can all catch up with one another. Make your own “thanks-giving” holiday. Why not?

Now it’s time to figure out what groceries are needed for next week. Have a great weekend, everyone.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: business discussions, constructive feedback, family, Thanksgiving, United States
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.