Introduction: "10 Questions you MUST Ask and Answer if you have or are thinking

about starting a business in the 21st Century!

          My husband and I were the first of our friends to be hit what is now euphemistically referred to as the New Economy.  Starting in 2006 with a series of unpaid invoices, the loss of major clients, the closing of a business we had worked on for almost 7 years, business contracts that never came to fruition and with the final blow, the loss of my husband’s job, we were left as poor and unsuccessful as we had ever been by the beginning of 2008.

         With no one buying what we were selling, we decided we had to find jobs. Having been a successful business owner, I hadn’t had to look for a job in 11 years.  Yet we searched, applied, interviewed and still could not find the kind of work we were usually well-paid to do and good at. 

          One of my friends who owns a staffing firm said there were usually 300 job openings on a regular basis from a major employer was now down to 3.   Starting to feel a little panic we began applying for any job open.  My husband, sharp, and well-educated, got turned down for $10 an hour jobs because he was too well dressed and made the hiring manager uncomfortable.
 My brother, now my competition, applied for a night job stocking shelves at a grocery store and they asked him to sign an 18-month contract so he wouldn’t leave when a better job came up. My brother responded to them, “It’s bad enough that I am going to be wasting my talents stocking shelves, but could you at least leave me hope that I can find a job I would enjoy?  Please could you at least leave me my dignity?”
       
This fruitless, thankless, self-esteem job search went on like this for us, my brother and many of my friends for months while we used up more of our savings, turned to our credit cards, and lost business momentum and hope.

         I read every “power of positive thinking” book out there and some twice while trying to convince myself that there was a silver lining. I kept asking myself why I had failed.  All comparisons to Edison’s 6,000+ light bulb tries failed to cheer me up.  I was supposed to be successful.  I had watched others succeed and had confidentially joked with them that I would invite them to my castle in Ireland someday. Now, my hopes for someday seemed to be “never-ever day.”  What had I missed?

          I did what a lot of people do when they need to think.  I asked my husband if he wanted to go for a drive – something we had never done during the work week.
 
           We were coming off the exit ramp of the freeway when I noticed the sign “Need Work” being waved at the car in front of us.  A man with a family beside him was holding the sign hoping for donations.  I watched as the car in front of us rolled down their window and handed over $10 bucks.  “We should try that,” I half-jokingly said to my husband.  We needed work too.  I could see myself standing on the corner dressed in one of my business suits, waving a sign hoping for a lead on a job or $10 to help me survive until I found one.  I could not stop thinking about how close I was coming to holding that sign on a street corner.

          I then asked my husband a question that changed my life. “Why do some people work like we do, out of the garage, basement or dining room, and end up million billionaires, and some end up losing their house and holding a sign that says “Need Work”?

          My husband said, “That’s the million dollar question but right now I’d settle for $10 to get a pizza!”  When you have no income pizza goes from being a staple to a luxury.  I wondered what kind of solution that man would get from $10.

          Right then I decided that although I didn’t have all the answers I’d settle for the answer to that one question.

“Why do some people work like we do, out of the garage, basement or dining room, and end up million billionaires, and some end up losing their house and holding a sign that says ‘Need Work’?”  

          From that day, with little business and no job to claim my time, I went on a quest and what I found on my search to stop myself from joining the man on the corner was a surprise.  Rather than finding what I expected, that small business success was dire, difficult and too expensive for most of us, I actually discovered that right now is easiest and least expensive time in the history of the world to make money, become famous and achieve success.

         The difference between being a successful million billionaire and standing on a street corner was in the answer to 10 Questions. 

         If you are thinking about starting a business or have a business the difference between success and failure may be knowing the answer to these10 questions and exercising a little existing knowledge in your favor. 

          For us the questions and the way we implemented the answers has already made the difference of NOT holding a “need work” sign on the corner.  Now we provide work for others because we are making money again.  We work less hours and make more money doing it.  For the same amount of money you might hand out the window or pay for lunch, we will share my 18 months of research and the answers it provided.  If you want an outcome different than holding a sign on a street corner, you MUST consider these questions if you have or before you start a small business. 

         If you try it and end up on the street corner I will hand you back your $10 bucks, otherwise the $10 minus costs goes to my husband’s law school fund.  You see after learning what we have while being out of work, he decided to go back to school.  You never know what will happen after you read this . . . I can promise you that the information is worth $10 and hope it will be worth thousands to you, so what do you have to lose?

      To start you will read all 10 Question Sections and complete the associated 10 Assignments. These 10 questions and assignments may make the difference between creating your own work and experiencing 21st Century success and holding a sign on the street that says “Need Work!”  
Back to the $10 buck solution