http://www.jailtojob.com Helpful advice for ex-offenders and felons who want to start a business or get a job


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Hi! This is Eric with more help for Ex-offender and Felons looking for jobs. Today we are going to talk about the pros and cons of starting your own business. Starting a business it's a dream of many people or which is better for Ex-Offenders and Felons getting a job or starting a business. Recently, one of my students posted an interesting question to me “Why should I go through the hassle of trying to get a job when I can start my own business?” This is a very good question so I sat down with him to look at the positives and negatives of starting a business versus getting a job and this is what we came up with. Starting a business is a very exciting idea with a lot of advantages and disadvantages. First we are going to look at the pros. First, you have no boss, a lot of people simply don't like people telling them what to do. If you don't like the idea of answering to someone else then starting your own business is for you. You also have a complete control over creativity and everything else so if you don't like to answer to anyone else may be you should start you own business. No politics, you never have to worry about who likes you or doesn't like you. Do you have to please certain people in order to get ahead or even keep your job, you don't have to please anyone. You can set your own hours, you can start when you want to, you can stop when you want to. You have unlimited income potential, unlike a job where you are stuck in a set income you can make as much money as you are willing to invest with your own time and energy. Starting your own business, a criminal record won't matter. That's unless you try to get a special certification or something your criminal record won't matter if you are running your own business. Now let's look at the cons, start up cost it takes money to start and run a business. Do you have enough money to get a business of the ground? Do you have enough to keep it running until you can turn a profit? That's something which really takes a lot of consideration. If you don't have the money to do it properly then don't do it at all. Long hours, one of the drawbacks to having your own business is that it actually may result in longer and more difficult work hours. It's not unusual for business owner to work at least 60 hours and possibly as many as 80 hours a week, seven days a week for the first year. Which create a lot of stress for yourself and for your family. Legal responsibilities, you are responsible for things like paying the taxes on your earnings. You will also be responsible for legal claims against you and your business and as lawsuit happy society you really have to protect against lawsuit so you’re responsible for any legal ramifications of running your business. No guaranteed income, you may make money one week but later on none and next. A string of bad weeks could mean financial ruin. You really need income for lot of things you have to pay for may be running your own business may not be the thing. No benefits, no medical, dental, disability or retirement. This is a big consideration if you have a family, but even if you don't just having medical and dental coverage is really important. If you get sick how you are going to take care of it? Medical bills are expensive and not having medical or dental insurance can be catastrophic. Also if you get sick and can't work you will have no income. So disability insurance is really important and you won't have that running your own business and you really have to plan for your retirement. If you are working on a job of course retirement in a form self security is taken from your wages and running your own business you will have to set up your individual retirement account. Are you prepared to do that and still have money to live? Starting a business may be a dream come true but be prepared for everything that comes with business ownership.