Thinking about buying a small business

I would love to own my own business.  Be my own boss.  But starting a business from scratch has been difficult for me.  Trying to figure out what kind of business will do well, creating a business plan, diving into it without much of a safety net.

So I got thinking maybe buying an existing business would work.  The biggest problem with this idea is coming up with the funding.  I've found a couple of businesses that look good but the price tag is over $500,000. 

So I thought perhaps the seller would finance the deal.  Sadly the broker shot me down.  The broker was quite rude which surprised me.

So I'm back to looking for another opportunity.

Good bye to free checking accounts?

Last year Congress added an amendment to the financial reform bill that would reduce the amount of interchange fees merchants have to pay financial institutions to process debit card transactions.  What this amounts to is a transfer of wealth from the financial institutions [banks, ect] to the merchants [Wal-mart, Target, ect].

Even though the reasoning behind the amendment to have the merchants reduce prices on the merchandise they sell because their interchange expense would be reduced the likelyhood that this will actually occur will be minimal, at best.

The financial institutions will be collecting less in fees from these merchants making checking accounts less profitable.  So how are financial institutions going to make up this income shortfall?  Easy...start adding fees and restrictions to checking accounts.  So the transfer of wealth will ultimately be from us, the consumer, to the merchants. 

Yes, you might be able to find free checking accounts if you look hard enough.  So a total extinction of free checking accounts, like the total extinction of the fabulous hooked billed Dodo bird is probably not going to happen.  But I'd bet that in a lot of cases your bank will no longer offer a truely free checking account, an account without fees or restrictions.

Beach Bum Apparel additions

New t-shirts and mugs added to my online apparel store.  Check them out.  I hope to have some more by the end of the year.  I don't make a bunch on them but I have no overhead.  So it is a quick and easy way to set up an online t-shirt store.

My CentSports winnings are over $50

After several nice long winning streaks I've finally broke $50 on CentSports.  My plan is to keep accumulating my winnings until I reach $100 and then cash out $20.  I'll repeat this every time I reach a balance of $100.

Now all I need to win my way to $100.  If you would like to try your luck, click the link and become my crony.  Thanks!

Signed up for AdBrite

Many months ago I was kicked out of Google's Adsense because they claim that I had invalid clicks.  I tried to convince them that what ever had happened was not of my doing.  They rejected this and I lost that revenue source.  I was pretty unhappy.

So over the weekend I signed up with Adbrite to try to replace the Adsense revenue stream.  So far no earnings but I expect that to come over time.  I may have to tweak where the ads are on the web page in order to get the maximum effect.  I will leave the ads where they are for about a week before trying new locations.

The recent gas line explosion made me think

In reading about the explosion due to a gas line break in California, a thought occurred to me.  Most people don't have an action plan to turn to if they are in a crisis.  Part of the story was about a woman who returned home to discover it on fire and didn't know where to look for her father and husband. 

Of course the moral of the story is to have a place where you and your family can rendezvous. Multiple locations would be ideal.  Depending on the situation the type of crisis would dictate the location.  A very localized crisis could mean that you meet at a nearby restaurant.  While a larger disaster might mean you meet at a motel in a different state or maybe a relative's house out of state.

These are just a few ideas to get you started on a crisis action plan.  Happy disaster preparation.   

The benefits of Boost Mobile

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.

Boost Mobile, although I don't personally use it, seems to be a cost effective way to own and operate a mobile phone.  Instead of a two year contract that most people end up getting when they purchase a new phone with Boost Mobile you can pay month to month and won't be surprised by overage charges when your bill comes in the mail.  You even have the option of monthly unlimited plans.  I'm not sure if they have family plans.  I'd be interested in finding that out.
With the Re-Boost option you can add funds to your account either on line, in person or pay by phone.  You can even setup recurring payment to your Boost Mobile account.

Boost Mobile has a wide variety of phones available.  One phone manufacturer that Boost Moble offers is Blackberry.  The Blackberry Curve is a beautiful phone with a full QWERTY keyboard and an enhanced web browser.  The browser teamed with Boost Mobile's unlimited connectivity to Facebook [at a special monthly price] shows why Boost Mobile is a powerful network for people interested in social networking.  With Boost Mobile you can keep your social networks up to date even on the go. 

Lazy summer coming to a close

I have not work very hard this summer.  And now I'm paying the price of having to work harder this fall to meet expenses.  So expect to see more SocialSpark posts in the coming weeks.  At least I hope to have the opportunity to create more SocialSpark posts.  Quite often this blog does not qualify to take an opportunity which is annoying.  I am also going to try to do more surveys.  Again I don't always qualify for a survey.  But I'll keep trying.

I also have a couple of other ideas that I'm starting to work on.  One will be a dynamic web site that just might keep you alive.  I'm pretty excited about it.  More on that when I get ready to launch it.

Thinking about dropping cable

Previously I mentioned that I was dropping the movie channels from my cable service.  I've enjoyed the lower monthly bill.  The next step would be to drop cable TV all together.  My newest TV picks up the local broadcast channels just fine.  And it has a PC port so I can plug a computer into the back so I can watch some of the cable channels from their websites. 

What I will probably do is get everything setup and test it for a weekor two before calling the cable company and dropping the TV service.

Here is a thought...use the library

Stunning thought I know.  I had just reread the first three books of the Pelbar Cycle series.  I've owned them for a number of years and just decided to read them again.  But after finishing the third one I decided that I wanted to finish the series.  My first thought was to use my Mturk earnings to purchase the books on Amazon.  But I've been saving that money for a power washer.  It then occurred to me that I might be able to find them at the local library.

I jumped on the Internet and navigated to the library's website and searched the catalog for Pelbar.  I did get a hit for the first book in the series.  But not the rest.  I noticed that they offered inter-library loans.  After clicking that link and doing another search I found book four at a university library that I could request it sent to my local library.  Very cool...now all I needed was a library card.  

I stopped by on my way to the grocery store and signed up for the card.  While I was there I browsed the stacks and found a Tom Clancy book that I had not read.  I checked it out and requested book four from the Pelbar Cycle.  It may be a while before I spend money on my reading habit again.