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Seven reasons why it’s better to be your own boss!

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 02:26:43 +0000

I’ve been a freelancer for many years. I much prefer being my own boss to working as an employee.

Here are my reasons why I think it’s better to be self-employed than to be an employee.

1. More freedom

Running your own business rather than working for somebody else’s gives you more control over your working activities. You can exercise more responsibility. You have more freedom and you aren’t beholden to management.

It’s true that “even the bosses have bosses”. Even if you’re the CEO of a large corporation you have to answer to the shareholders. But if you are running your own small enterprise, then you’re less likely to have to pander to shareholders. Provided that is that you don’t have “angel investors”, venture capital involvement and all that stuff.

You’re still ultimately answerable to your customers, but you have much more freedom in how to operate and serve your market than the employees of a large company have.

2. You can be more creative

When people hear the word creativity, they often think of people in the artistic fields. But creativity isn’t just something for artists or designers. Creativity is possible in pretty well all sectors and businesses. Even professions such as hairdressing, plumbing, or even accountancy can be creative – and in the case of the latter I’m not talking about “fiddling the accounts”!

There are plenty of ways we can be innovative in serving our customers. We can also create interesting, stimulating and enjoyable working environments for ourselves and our staff.

Unfortunately, many businesses don’t consider this or have a dislike of all but the most minimal of innovation that they can get away with. And their employees find themselves trapped carrying out unimaginative routines to provide unimaginative services that have been the same for years.

“We’ve always done it like this – why should we change?” is the usual mantra.

When you are your own boss, you have the freedom to be creative and do things differently that employees don’t often have.

3. More varied and interesting work

Through having more freedom in your work and the chance to be more creative, your working time will be much more interesting. You’ll be able to carry out many different tasks instead of being restricted to a small subset. You’ll enjoy more variety and feel more alive – and that’s good for mind, body and soul.

4. You have more control over your time

Some new business owners will laugh at that. Being self-employed they will tell you, means the freedom to work a 60, 70 or 80 hour week, instead of a 40 hour one.

During the starting up phase it will be necessary to invest large amounts of your time way beyond what you would work as an employee. You need to invest considerable “time equity” in your business to get it going.

But once you get past the start-up phase, you’ll have more freedom to organize your time. If you learn to work smartly, if you learn to recognise what is important and what yields the greatest return in terms of results, and if you can delegate and outsource, then there’s no reason why you should not be able to work LESS hours than the average 9-to-5 er.

A lot of self employed business people also suffer from 9-5 thinking even though they have escaped the office cubicle setting. They think that they must be continually rushing around from dawn til dusk. 6 or 7 days a week in some cases. Otherwise they think they are not being productive.

But productivity actually means getting MORE done in LESS time. There’s a limit to the “effort + time = productivity” equation which many overlook.

You should be able to free yourself from the rigid “working time” vs “leisure time/free time” approach. Take “free time” during Monday to Friday as you wish, take an afternoon or morning off, work on weekends – or part of weekends – if you wish.

When you are your own boss, you don’t need to apply these rigid restrictions to your life any more. It makes more sense to jetison this kind of thinking straightaway and change the way you order your time.

5. Having your own business is less risky

This might seem like a strange one. But consider for a moment. Just how secure is employment in practice? Firms can and do rationalize, reorganize, downsize, get taken over, even go bust. All the time. And it’s the staff who take the blows. Many people know this only too well. Permanent employment is never really permanent.

It’s true when you’re starting a business, it’s a risky situation. Business commentators (and negative people) never cease telling us that the statistics show that the majority of businesses fail within the first 12 months.

But a new job, like a new business, is also a risky venture. Of course, we are conditioned by society to believe that it’s bad form to start your new job thinking that way.

In a new job, you have a trial period to get through. And it’s not just a matter of your performance. Ultimately it’s down to your boss or manager – and your colleagues. If they don’t like you – or consider, from their point of view that for whatever reason, you just don’t “fit in”- then it’s goodbye.

Even when you are in, time and again employers renege on their employment contracts. This happens to many people, sometimes more than once. It’s happened to me and other people I know many a time. With changes such as globalization and new technology being applied in the world economy, it’s happening ever more.

Permanent employment contracts are in practice hardly worth the paper they are printed on. Employers can wheedle out of them practically whenever they like. Being an employee is a risky business.

Just like a new business enterprise.

But once you get past the start-up phase, unlike being an employee, you have less risk with a new business because you are yourself the boss.

6. More money

I think money is actually a poor motivator for most people. If you’re living in poverty right now you might disagree – and I’d agree with you on that. But for most people in the western world, money isn’t that much of a motivator in reality. Sure, you may be hungry for a high income, to build up your business and to buy that big house, luxury car, yacht, holiday home or whatever.

I think the other advantages of being your own boss to be more of a motivator.I’d wager that the majority of people in the western developed countries who quit paid employment and become self employed, don’t do it primarily for the money.

But it’s true that having your own business gives you the opportunity to earn much more in the medium to long term than you would as an average employee.

7. The chance to make things happen and develop through your actions

There’s a directly traceable cause and effect which is very gratifying. Many employees working in large corporations just don’t get to enjoy this.

When you have your own enterprise, you can build something that is tangible which has clearly recognizable value and is useful to others. Something that you can point to and be proud of and say “that’s mine”, “that’s all my work!”.

So that’s my list of reasons for being your own boss. What do you think of these reasons? Do you agree with them – or disagree, or would you add anything to them?

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Top Ten Tips For Living Your Life

admin — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:07:28 +0000

1. Be authentic and true to yourself in all that you do. Know what you want – and what you don’t want. Only do what you really love and are passionate about.

2. Know your purpose and mission in life. Have a vision of what you want to change in your life, for others, and the world.

3. Contribute to the world and the world will contribute to you.

4. Value time. Don’t get stuck standing still. Life is too short to do the same things, the same job or live in the same place for all of your life. Standing still numbs your awareness of the passing of time.

5. Get out of your cabbage patch. The world is bigger than your native country and native town. Always learn more about the world, learn and try new things.

6. Take calculated risks: nothing new happens without taking risks.

7. Problems and “crises” are challenges and opportunities; they are the time when things change. You can benefit from them by also changing.

8. The only constant is change. The universe knows no permanence, only change. Don’t fight against it, go with it and utilize it.

9. Accept being different. To be above average you have to reject the mentality of the majority.

10. And finally, beware of people and situations that try to hinder you from following these guidelines!

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Some More Pics From Antwerp, Belgium

admin — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 03:07:30 +0000

Here’s some more pics I took of Antwerp…

Not every bakery has a statue outside like this…

A “booze-bike”: Street scene near the university, students on a drinking binge at start of term.

Old tram in Antwerp. The “booze-bike” veering off to the right in the background…

Long “bendy bus” turning into the Antwerp centeral bus station.

The Antwerp Cathedral. Statues of stonemasons.

Crucifix shrine in the old town area of Antwerp

Quiet weekday morning in the old town of Antwerp. Catering workers taking a break…

Tourist Information Office at Groenplaats. Building reminds me of Prague…

The Politie (Police) on their bikes.

Elaborate interior of the Stadfeestzaal or City Festival Hall. Now serves as a shopping mall with restaurants and a champaigne bar in the middle.

Street sculpture in Antwerp. This one’s called “de Neus” or “the Nose”.

A street scene repeated many times in Antwerp. A line of buildings with a house missing in between, held up by scaffolding. Often indicates where a V1 or V2 rocket bomb fell in Antwerp towards the end of World War Two.

Street scene in the Diamond District near the Central Station. Orthodox Jew crossing the road…

Figurine up on the wall of a building

That’s all for now!

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Latest Posts from BreakingOut.NET – 18 April 2012

admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:14:47 +0000

Here’s a summary of the latest posts from BreakingOut.NET up to 18 April 2012.

Not a great deal for the last two weeks – but I did get to read a really good business book…

The Go-Giver

A short story about how the secret to business success is to switch over from being a “go-getter” to become a “go-giver”. Recommended reading!

http://www.breakingout.net/business-ideas/gogiver/

Why You Should Switch Off The News

- or why news is bad for you…

http://www.breakingout.net/kevs-diary/stop-consuming-news/

That’s all for now.

Kevin at BreakingOut.NET

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Why You Should Switch Off The News

kevin — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 03:37:03 +0000

+++ News Just In…Breaking News..Top Headlines…Top Story…All The News…All The Time…Up Next…+++

Do you watch or read the news? Have you considered whether you really need to know the “news”?

Is “news” actually useful to you? Does it really “add value” to your life or to your business?

I suspect not!

When I was a boy, the “news” was to me the most boring programme of all on the tv. I still often think it is today.

Now to say this might be running the risk of ridicule. After all, grown adults aren’t supposed to say such things. We are expected to be serious. There are serious things going on in the world.

But serious things have always gone on, they are still going on, and they always will go on. Regardless of whether I know about them or not.

I used to consume “news” avidly, seeing it almost as a duty as an educated person with the good fortune to have been born and brought up in a developed Western country.

Yet I gradually came to realize something. I was basically being a passive consumer of whatever the news media chose to dish out, publish or broadcast.

This feeling intensified with the coming of the Internet, and even more with the development of blogging, Web 2.0 and so on.

But there’s more to it than that.

Most News is Bad News!

The fact is that most news is bad. News professionals know that “bad news sells best”. And this means death, crime, wars and bad economic events.

Economic news is generally bad news, even in boom times. Bad news is bad for you. And if you are starting and running your own business, then bad economic news is especially bad for you.

You don’t need this sort of negativity. Even in “bad” times, there are always opportunities. The online media and marketing sector is seeing massive growth like never before, with enormous opportunities opening up, but you’d hardly think it if you listen to the nightly tv news put out by the old media institutions.

Another reason not to consume news is that most of it is just so remote. Remote from us ordinary people that is. It’s mostly not relevant to our lives.

Of course, we should have a sense of compassion and concern. We should have some idea of “what is going on”. But we don’t need to let ourselves be fed on a regular basis with this stuff.

The “News” is Stiff, Formal, Plastic and Remote

A further reason I avoid news, is that it’s based on an agenda set by newsmen presented in a formal fashion in a phoney environment. It’s stilted, plastic and extremely false. News about “finance”, “financial markets”, politicians in suits shaking hands. The same thing every day.

Compare this with the spontaneity of bloggers with their text and video clips on the net. Ordinary people talking naturally to the video camera in their homes. Bloggers, forums, websites run by ordinary people, talking, discussing and describing the things that they themselves do in their own lives.

Your Time is Limited and Valuable – So Don’t Waste it Consuming “News”!

Another valid reason for not consuming news is that it’s a waste of one’s own valuable time.

I work in online media. I have a great deal of media work to do every day. Yes, I have to “consume” some online media, but above all, I’m busy producing my own.

There is so much information competing for our attention, that you just have to be selective.

Thanks to the Internet, digitization, and new methods of news content presentation, we’re now starting to be able to decide for ourselves now and in the future what is news to us and what isn’t.

So stop passively consuming news. News is bad for you.

No news is good news!

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The Go-Giver

kevin — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:56:56 +0000

So how was your Easter?

For me, this Easter I read a new book I’d just bought.

It was a business book recommended by Internet Marketing specialist James Schramko.

I tend to be wary of business books. I find they’re too often just a re-hash of what you’ve already come across elsewhere. I’m also wary of gimmicky business philosophy and “success” books.

But this book sounded like it could be different. For one thing it’s very short. As less is definitely more to my mind, I decided to give this one a chance and so I ordered it on Amazon.

The book was called “The Go-Giver”. It’s by two authors: Bob Burg and John David Mann. The subtitle of the book is “A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea”.

“The Go-Giver” is written in the form of a short story and it sets out the basic approach that all successful people need to follow in their career, in business and also for that matter in life itself in your dealings with others.

The title of the book is a word play on “go-getter”. The basic idea is that instead of seeing yourself as a “me-first-get-ahead-over-the-others-go-getter”, you put other people first. In other words: you give first – instead of taking first.

To explain this, the authors use a short story about a young salesman who’s finding the going tough and turns for advice from an older and wiser “business guru” type. Over the course of one week, he learns from the guru, day by day, how the secret to business success is to switch over to become a “go-giver” rather than striving to be a “go-getter”.

It’s kind of paradoxical, but it’s simple and very easy to follow and understand. Through the story, you get to discover the “Five Laws of Stratospheric Success” that are the key to true success in business, career and life in general.

Basically it comes down to the old saying of “Give and you shall receive”. But there’s more to it than that…

The full message “The Go-Giver” contains isn’t really anything unique, but it’s set out in a way which is simple to grasp and the message is brilliant. I won’t reveal all the Five Laws here. But if you’re looking to find the key to becoming more successful in business then I’d strongly recommend that you read this book.

“The Go-Giver” is very short, just 120-odd pages and it’s an easy and enjoyable read. Once I’d started it, I couldn’t put it down til I’d finished it. I read it from front to back in one day. In my opinion, well worth getting a copy.

To find out more about “The Go-Giver” click on the link below.

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Latest Posts from BreakingOut.NET – 1 April 2012

kevin — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 21:52:08 +0000

Here’s a quick summary of the latest posts from BreakingOut.NET for the last fortnight up to 1 April 2012

Some Pics From Antwerp, Belgium

Here are some photos I took of Antwerp in Belgium

http://www.breakingout.net/mobile-lifestyle/some-pics-from-antwerp-belgium/

How to Secure Your Laptop

If you use your laptop for your business or your profession, then it’s vital to make sure that your data is kept as secure as possible.

http://www.breakingout.net/mobile-lifestyle/how-to-secure-your-laptop/

The Watermelons – Shooting Star

Indie rock band from Sussex, England called The Watermelons…

http://www.breakingout.net/kevs-diary/the-watermelons-shooting-star/

That’s it for now!

Kevin at BreakingOut.NET

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The Watermelons – Shooting Star

kevin — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:10:00 +0000

Indie Pop band from Sussex, England called The Watermelons.

This is the acoustic guitar version of a song called “Shooting Star”…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvT62Q05jJs

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How to Secure Your Laptop

kevin — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:09:21 +0000

If you use your laptop for your business or your profession, then it’s vital to make sure that your business data – and for that matter your personal data – is kept as secure as possible.

This is especially important for people who are digital nomads or location independent.

Laptops are small devices and this makes them easy to steal.

First things first: get a lock for your laptop!

So the first thing you need to do is make sure you use a good laptop lock. I know these locks aren’t infallible; a determined thief can still cut through them with strong enough cutters, but they will at least deter opportunistic thefts.

But you need to do a lot more than this. You need to prevent unauthorized access to your laptop and you need to protect the data contained on it. As in real life, it’s possible for a determined thief to crack even the most secure safe or break and enter into the most highly secured building, but the more difficult you make it, the less chance there is of this happening.

The best way therefore to approach computer security is to consider it as a series of hurdles that you set up to deter intruders and thieves.

There are a number of things you can do. What follows below is the procedure I use for my own laptop.

Secure the BIOS

First you should set the BIOS password on your laptop. The BIOS (Basic Input Output System) is the lowest level part of the computer. It’s the first thing that flashes up on the screen when you switch it on. Usually it’s accessed by pressing one of the function keys. Exactly which function key varies from laptop to laptop.

You need to check the messages that appear at the very beginning when you power up your laptop to find out which key you need to press to get access to the BIOS on your particular laptop.

If you set the BIOS boot-up password, then no-one will be able to start Windows, Linux or whatever operating system you have installed on your laptop without first entering this password correctly.

You should also disable external booting in your BIOS system. This will prevent people from getting round your security by trying to install a fresh version of Windows or Linux.

Just make sure you know what you set your BIOS password to – and don’t forget it either. Without this no-one can access your laptop, including you. There are ways round this, but they involve resetting the BIOS chip one way or another, which involves a lot of hassle.

Secure Access to the Operating System

So, having secured the BIOS, the next thing you should do is to secure the access to your operating system.

Be it Windows or Linux, you should make sure you have set a user password as well as an administrator or root password. Anyone trying to start up Windows or Linux will then first have to enter the appropriate password.

Again: don’t forget what you entered for the password or you’ll find youself locked out as well and things can get complicated!

Install a Device-Tracking System

Next you should install a software program called Prey.

This is a small piece of software known as a device tracker. It sits on your computer waiting to be activated by you by remote control if your laptop is stolen. You wake up Prey by sending a message via the web or by SMS. Prey then responds by sending you the information about where the laptop is currently located (provided the thief connects the laptop to the Internet – which most of them do sooner or later).

All this happens without the thief knowing. You can then use the information to assist in taking action to recover the laptop.

Prey is available in both free as well as paid-for versions with more functionality. You need to make sure you install it on every operating system on your laptop. So if like me your laptop runs both Windows and Linux, then you need to install it on both.

Read the installation instructions carefully at the Prey site first at preyproject.com

Bear in mind though that Prey will only be able to do it’s work if the thief is able to get past your Windows or Linux user/root passwords to actually start the system.

Install a Data Encryption Program

Now you need to think about your data. If your laptop gets stolen, then a thief would have access to whatever you have stored on your hard drive. Credit card and bank details, other financial and business information, passwords etc. So you need to make sure this data is secure.

The best way to do this is to use a data encryption program. There are a number of such programs and the best one to my mind is a freely available Open Source system called Truecrypt. It’s available for both Windows and Linux.

Truecrypt allows you to encrypt your data – both individual folders or directories as well as whole disk partitions. It’s a very versatile and powerful system which is well worth installing on your laptop. Even if you access your data both from Windows and Linux using a common data partition you can still encrypt it with Truecrypt.

It can also encrypt external USB drives and USB flash thumb drives. You can even use Truecrypt to hide a partition or folder from public view. Don’t forget to encrypt external USB drives – they are even easier than laptops to steal!

Truecrypt is a little complicated at first and the website looks a bit on the geeky side and old fashioned, but the program really is worth it. The best thing to do is to check out the official website and learn a little about it first: www.truecrypt.org

A few other things you should do…

Backup Your Data in the Cloud

Keep a backup of your important data in the cloud. There are now a whole heap of cloud storage systems online. Many of these provide a couple of gigabytes worth of data free of charge. They vary in ease of use, but the most widely known ones right now are Amazon S3, iDrive, Dropbox, Mozy, Carbonite and SugarSync. Most of these give you a couple of GB at least free of charge.

As I use Linux Ubuntu, I can use Ubuntu’s cloud storage system which provides 5 GB free to every Linux Ubuntu user.

Otherwise, Amazon S3 is practically the quasi industry standard right now. It has a good reputation for reliability. Amazon S3 doesnt provide any free storage, you pay on a monthly basis for the storage that you use, but there is no limit and the fees are reasonable.

Unfortunately, Amazon S3′s user interface isn’t the easiest to use. The service is targeted primarily at the commercial business to business sector and professional IT users rather than the consumer or domestic user market. Fortunately though there are plenty of other providers who are often resellers of Amazon S3′s service, who package up access to the service into more user-friendly interfaces.

You should use at least two different providers for your most important data, in case there is a problem with data loss or access with the one or the other. Even if nothing else, there’s also always the possibility that one or the other could one day go bust and go out of business!

For myself I currently use Amazon S3, Dropbox, Ubuntu Cloud and Sugar Sync, so that should be enough to be going on with.

A Warning About USB Thumb Drives

Finally, a word about USB thumb drives. These are neat little devices, a great invention for transferring data from one computer to another when they aren’t networked. Unfortunately though, their small size whilst on the one hand an advantage, is also their biggest disadvantage. They’re all too easy to lose, go astray or get stolen.

For that reason I don’t put valuable business or personal data on a USB drive. In any case I can’t see the point. The cloud is far safer than a USB thumb drive can ever be. It’s possible to encrypt a USB thumb drive using Truecrypt. But in practice it’s a complex matter eg it requires you to have root or admin access to the PC or laptop you want to connect up the USB thumb drive to. This isn’t always possible in practice.

The best advice in my opinion is not to use USB thumb drives for storing or backing up important data. Always use the cloud and your encrypted hard drive.

So, that’s about it for this look at laptop security. If you implement the measures that I described above, then you will be doing more to secure your laptop and it’s data than a lot of large corporate computer users out there. In my experience a lot of them don’t even take the trouble to configure anywhere near that amount of security for their laptops and their data.

Good luck – and keep your laptop and your data secure!

Image: Laptop – courtesy of Madalin Matica

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Some Pics from Antwerp, Belgium

kevin — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 03:35:56 +0000

Here are some photos I took of Antwerp in Belgium which is where I’ve been spending some time on and off.

You can enlarge the pics by clicking on them.

So, kicking off with the old centre of town, here’s the Grote Markt or Main Square.

It’s lined with beautiful old Flemish-style merchant houses. Most of them nowadays are restaurants and bars. The statue in the middle is Brabo who’s the kind of mascot of Antwerp!

He’s throwing the hand he cut off a giant who according to legend, used to lie in wait at the river Schelde in Antwerp to demand tolls from passing ships. It’s said that the name Antwerp means “hand throw” or “hand werpen” in Dutch.

Another pic of Grote Markt…

Front of the church on Hendrik Conscience Plein

Inside the Antwerp Central Station. It’s a bit like a cathedral inside, grand 19th century style. They really went to town on designing this building!

This is the roof of the station!

Below is a shot of the new station platform area. The station has been given a major modification and expansion. It used to be a terminus, but it’s now a through station with a tunnel for the high speed trains from Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam to pass through without having to reverse.

To do this they created this deep platform area which reaches down to the tunnels, with the lines and platforms now stacked on either side like shelves above each other.

On either side at ground level there is a shopping mall and a new diamond mall for jewellery shops. Antwerp is a world-famous diamond centre and the station is located in the middle of the diamond trading district.

The renovation has been successful in retaining the beautiful old Antwerp station and at the same time expanding the station to meet modern day needs.

Entrance to Chinatown in Antwerp. There’s now a beautiful red and gold classical Chinese gate next to the lions.

Just to the right you can just see my favourite Chinese noodle soup shop, they do excellent Wan Tun noodle soup.

Another shot of Chinatown.

The university area. One of the many cartoon murals you see on buildings in Antwerp. This one is from a cartoon series about a Belgian called Kiekeboe (which is Dutch for peek-a-boo!).

A close up pic of the Kiekeboe mural, with the Virgin Mary on the corner. You see a lot of those in the old town district in Antwerp.

Beautiful old mediaeval Flemish building next to the apartment hotel where I stayed. The building houses a temping agency. Tram lines run past the building along the fork junction where the building is situated.

My apartment hotel is the red brick building next to the pub with the red sign. The caretaker couple of the hotel used to spend a lot of their time drinking in the pub next door!

View from my apartment window…

Another view with a tram going by.

Inside of my apartment…

My working area in my apartment…

That’s all for now.

I have loads more pics of Antwerp. I’ll try and assemble some more for later on.

All images copyright Kevin Wells

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