Desolate shops have been among the reality calls emphasizing the depth of this recession, I've often felt. I can only imagine how scenes of empty stores and posted eviction notices on storefronts have impacted a struggling business owner. However, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out in a recent report, some small business owners are quietly taking on second jobs to bring in extra money and to keep their businesses afloat. They are making connections with people in their network.
Nearly twenty percent of the owners surveyed by the American Express Open Small Business Monitor said they were hunting for an additional job. Some owners have admitted to even nixing their salary in order to pay business expenses.
Here's what Martin Lehman, spokesman for SCORE in New York City and a small business veteran suggest for those owners contemplating an additional job:
- Be careful. Hiding your job hunt isn't going to work. "Word gets out."
- Take a noncompeting job. Find a job for which you have other talents.
- Sit down and have an honest talk with your employees.
- If customers happen to find out, Lehman says to use this statement: "I need my income and I am helping people on the side."
Comments
I BELIEAVE THE ONLY WAY TO GET THIS ECONOMY GOING IS TO GIVE THE TAX PAYERS BACK THEIR MONEY THAT WAS TAKEN OUT OF THEIR PAY CHECKS! AND DO AWAY WITH THE INCOME TAX SYSTEM AND GO WITH SALES TAX SYSTEM YEA IT WILL MAKE SOME STUFF A LITTLE MORE EXPENSIVE , BUT ARE NOT TARRIFS A FORM OF SALES TAX WE DO NOT REALIZE WE ARE PAYING ANYWAY !!
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outside employment to even have benefits.
Don't have the answer but working on it through our local
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You bet! Although it may no longer be legal in some states. When I once had a small business loan the loaning bank offered me a spot on the bank employee's Blue Shield Insurance Group Policy. I snapped it up.
Warm regards, MoTown
I agree with the previous poster and would challenge the downtown property owners in the various neighborhoods to go one step further.
Be open to the possibility of creating their own small business incubator(s) in order to promote more entrepreneurship among the various suburban communities that make up the greater Detroit area, this might also work in cities such as New Orleans still reeling from Katrina's after effects.
Mom and Pop businesses make up the backbone of local downtown areas, but this new healthscare reform would destroy what remains due to the high cost of insurance. Our own downtown business district is made up of primary owners or spouses who must take outside employment to even have benefits.
Don't have the answer but working on it through our local "Main Street" program for the last 5 years.
I think that Detroit still has a million people but few chain stores, few franchises. Many Mom & Pop stores, vendors, and concessions could easily merge to reduce competition, reduce oversupply then raise prices to survive. Duplication of effort could be eliminated in some neighborhoods using economy of scale to increase efficiency for improvement of customer satisfaction. Banks have merged on this same paradigm for centuries. Hopefully it is a rare moment in Detroit and other sad but still magnificent landmarks.
Did Darwin say that it was only the adaptable species that would be allowed to continue its evolution? I think Detroit people are adaptable. Perhaps not forever, but for the moment, consolidation of many small businesses in some cities would be successful evolution. Would a stronger business be better than two dead end jobs?
First major league game I ever saw was Tigers.