Chapter IX
Go Well Armed
When you earn your living from your own home, on your personal computer that is connected to the Internet, you think of yourself as being in a safe place. The bad guys are all out there in the real world waiting to mug you on your way to a job in the brick and mortar world, right? Wrong.
When you connect your personal computer to the Internet, you will have just walked into a jungle that is fraught with dangerous animals and even more dangerous natives.
In order to successfully hold an online job or run your own online business, you need to be aware of the dangers that await you. That is what we have tried to do in this book.
However, staying safe, staying on the right side of the law and keeping your job
or staying in business is really up to you. You know there are lions and tigers and bears, oh my. You know there are sneaky snakes, poisonous plants, cannibals and unfriendly natives. You know that there are many traps that can set, bait that can be used to entice you and shortcuts that aren't really shortcuts that will lead you to where you want to be.
8o....as 'they' say, "The best offense is a good defense!" Your good defense consists of being well armed, well prepared and having a plan for success.
Arm Yourself with Knowledge
Zoning Laws
Before you even apply for your online job or start your online business, you need to know if you can legally work from your own home. The odds are, that if you are going to be working alone, you will most likely not be affected by zoning laws, restrictions of an owners association or a tenant agreement unless you plan to stock and ship merchandise or unless you plan to have employees working for you at your home.
If your job or your business plan is to simply work all by yourself using your home computer, you will not likely be violating any body else's space.
On the other hand, if you do plan to store inventory and ship merchandise or if you do plan on having employees working with you from your home, then you need to know what the local zoning laws are. You need to know if there are restrictions placed on you by an owner's association agreement that you signed or on a tenant agreement or lease that you signed.
You need to gather this information and educate yourself before you step into the Internet jungle. You don't want to get shut down before you even get started.
Tax Laws
You don't want the tax man to get you. There may well be local taxes that you will be responsible for and reports that you will need to file when you are working from or running a business from your home.
There could be state taxes, as well. If you are selling merchandise, even electronic merchandise, you may well be responsible for collecting and reporting sales tax. You need to know this before you sell your first item.
Sales tax is supposed to be collected from the buyer of the merchandise by the seller of the merchandise and then reported and paid by the seller to the state and/or local tax entities.
You WILL owe the sales tax whether you collected it or not. Your tax bill will include not only the tax you should have collected from your customers but additional fines and penalties as well.
When you are employed online, you most often work as a contractor. That is...you are self-employed. Your employer will not be paying in part of your FICA. You are working for yourself and you are responsible for reporting your income and paying your taxes.
Your employer will supply you with a W-9 form at the end of the tax year. This form will show you the total amount the employer paid you. A copy of this form is sent to the IRS. It will include your social security number. There will have been no deductions made from the wages that you were paid so you will have to file a self-employment form with your income tax returns and pay all of your own social security tax yourself.
This percentage is at 15.3% now. You will be responsible for filing quarterly reports for estimated earnings and making deposits based on those estimates.
It is a very wise thing to keep good records of your earnings, as well as, your expenditures. You don't want to wait until it is time to file your taxes and find out that you need a lot more information than you have and you most certainly do not want to find yourself sitting across a desk from the dreaded tax man without being well armed with detailed and provable records.
Ignorance of the law has never been and never will be an acceptable excuse. Penalties and fine can be really stiff. Keep good records.
Hire or Buy Some Protection
You need to be sure that you have some protection in place....remember that good defense? Some new Internet employees and new Internet entrepreneurs got so involved in just getting a job or starting a business that they forget to hire or buy some protection.
You need good records. Good records are the very best defense for many situations that come up when you are working online or running an online business enterprise of any kind,
You certainly do need financial records. If you have no bookkeeping or accounting knowledge yourself, you will need to hire someone to keep financial records for you. The earlier you do this, the better off you will be. Don't wait until January to hire a bookkeeper or start your own bookkeeping records.
If you have any bookkeeping or accounting knowledge, you might be able to keep your own records by using Quickbooks or a similar online or downloadable accounting program. There are free ones and Microsoft Money usually is included when you purchase a new computer.
There are many different accounting programs out there. Some of them are lacking in features while others are overloaded with features that you don't need now and will most likely never need. Too much of a good thing just slows your computer down and drains the resources. Get as much as you need for your job or your online business but don't buy more than you need.
If you are not comfortable keeping your own financial records, you can hire others to do that task for you. You can hire a bookkeeper or an accountant in the real brick and mortar world in close proximity to your home or you can hire a bookkeeper or an accountant that lives and works on the Internet.
Besides financial records, there are other records that you need. You will need to set up files on your computer to store information and make it easy for you to find.
There are many other files that you will need to set up and maintain on your computer according to the work you are doing or the business that you are engaged in.
If you use an instant message program, be sure that you save all business related conversations. This is an option that you must choose on most instant messaging programs.
You need a work scheduling program. If you are to succeed in the online jungle you must have a plan or attack. If you just haphazardly do whatever comes to mind next, you will find yourself unorganized and unproductive. There are many such work scheduling programs available on the Internet. Some of them are even free.
You may think that because you aren't required to punch a clock that it isn't necessary for you to have a schedule but you are wrong. The very fact that you don't have to punch a clock or answer to a boss is the very reason that making a schedule for yourself is doubly important.
You need a starting time, you need scheduled breaks and you need a quitting time. It's true that you can't always stick to a schedule but you need to have one and do the very best you can to keep yourself on it.
Many of these work scheduling programs come with a built-in 'to-do' list option. You do want that and you do want to use it. It is so very easy to get side-tracked when you are working at home. Staying focused and staying 'on-point' will make success come much easier and much faster.
Make Your Own Rules
Sometimes when you are making your way through the Internet jungle, it will appear to others that you are doing nothing more than sitting in front of your computer or talking on the telephone.
These other people are not the enemy....or at least they really don't mean to be the enemy. They are your family and your friends. They don't mean any harm but they can't see where you have a real job.
After all, you don't get up, get dressed, leave home, drive to a job and return home in the evening. They assume that you are unemployed and just amusing yourself on your computer.
This leads them to believe that you obviously have time on your hands and should be available to run errands for others, talk to them on the telephone or have a pot of coffee ready and be yearning for their company at any time of the day.
This is a problem that is closely related to scheduling your work except that is scheduling your working DAY. You need to lay down specific rules, make them perfectly clear to your family and friends and provide visual clues to them.
By 'visual clues' I mean that you need a specific work space....a separate room that is your home office would be the best...one with a door that can be closed and a separate telephone line that is only for business. If that isn't possible, then a corner of a room that is used for other things but that has a door that can be closed can work. Have that business telephone line installed just as soon as you can swing it financially.
Your work day schedule should have:
When you are working your way through the internet jungle, you need to be totally focused on not only surviving but on thriving.
Each evening when you have yet again outwitted the lions, tigers, bears, etc, you should have your full attention focused on your family, your friends, your hobbies, etc.
We can all get put into positions where one world must overlap the other. Those things happen but you need to keep the two worlds as separate as you can. You will also need to put a lid on your guilt complex if you have one. You are NOT a terrible person because you can't take 3 hours out of your day to take old Aunt Mae to her beauty shop appointment. Everybody else is working? So are you. Get over it....other arrangements can be made.
You might need to stand in front of a mirror and practice saying, "No" and saying it effectively.
Recognize Real Opportunity
It's easy to get so aware of the dangers out in the internet business jungle that you fail to recognize real opportunities when they present themselves.
Remember this....all of the natives are not UNFRIENDLY and there are some cannibals that feed on the bad guys only. Along with lions, tigers, bears and snakes there are also helpful creatures. There are plants that are medicinal, too.
Danger and opportunity live side by side in the Internet business jungle. You just need to be able to tell the difference between the two. You don't want to fall into a trap or get eaten alive but neither do you want to miss out on the real and vibrant opportunities that also abound.
To help yourself recognize opportunity and avoid danger in the internet business jungle, ask yourself these questions:
Is it legal? In order to answer this question about any situation you are presented with, whether it be entering into a business agreement or buying a piece of software, you need to know what the laws are and what the rules and regulations are that govern the specific situation. Knowing the laws, rules and regulations makes you strong and able to recognize a real opportunity when it happens.....they DO happen.
Is it real? There is so much hype out there that is sometimes very difficult to get past the hype and down to the bear facts of an offer. Ignore the super duper salesmen and look hard and long at the product, service or offer itself. Only you can determine what is real and what is just fluff, hype and a polished sales spiel.
Will it help me? Whether you are thinking about taking a seminar, teleseminar or webinar or buying a piece of software, agreeing to a business arrangement or hiring a bookkeeper or a consultant, ask yourself if it will really help you get to where you are going.
Educate Yourself
Everybody knows something that you don't know. It might be what TO do or it might be what NOT to do....but everybody knows something. It's been said, 'Get and education'. You have probably had that preached to you since you were knee high to a duck. It's good advice but what nobody tells you is that you ARE getting an education....of some kind. We all get an education just by living in this world.
Of course, you were being told to get a formal education...go to school....go to college....get advanced degrees. It's not bad advice but that isn't the only way to become educated.
When you make your plans for either getting an online job or starting an online business, you need to start educating yourself. You need to set aside a certain amount of time each and every day to learn something that you need to know....something that will help you reach your goals...something about the niche that you are concentrating on.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge makes surviving and thriving in the Internet jungle possible.
Plan Your Jungle Adventure
There is an anonymous quote that is frequently used. "Those who fail to plan, plan to fail." It sounds trite but it is very accurate.
A business plan is not important...it is vital to achieving any measure of success. It is much like a road map. You wouldn't think about taking off on a cross country road trip without a road map.
The first thing that you need to determine when you are making your business plan is where you are now, what your assets are, and what your ultimate destination is. If you don't know where you are going, how will you know when you get there? This ultimate destination is your long range goal. Write it down.
Then you take that information and you plan the small steps that will be required to get from Point A to Point B. The journey will not be accomplished with a few giant steps but rather with many baby steps. Write them down, too.
Find a Jungle Guide
Having a map is great...having a guide is better. Having both a map AND a guide will almost guarantee that you will arrive at your destination without taking a lot of detours and side trips.
A jungle guide....a mentor....can be your strongest asset. If you know where you are and where you want to be, a mentor can show you the quickest and most direct path by which to get there.
Often times well-seasoned and well established Internet marketers, gurus and experts will take a newbie under their wing, so to speak, and guide them in making good business decisions....lead then down the right path.
You would do well to actively look for such a guide...a mentor. Ask questions and then listen for the answers. Take the advice of those who have already made all of the mistakes and are willing to help you avoid the same pitfalls and prevent you from falling into the same traps.