Surviving These Tough Times!
I will start with a brief introduction since this is my first major article. My name is Mark LaBelle, I am married and have 2 grown children (29 and 25 years old). My oldest is an IT Manage and my youngest an Air Force Staff Sergeant. I retired from the Air Force after 22 years in October of 2000. I have traveled extensively and have friends and acquaintances around the globe. I was born in Peabody, Massachusetts and started life with all the prejudices and political believes that most people from Mass. have. I have grown tremendously since then and now have a strong conservative believe system.
Enough about me... I am writing this article in response to what the politicians are attempting to do to this country and what I think we should do about it. This article is not meant to cause anger or hate, I am simply relaying to my thoughts which are based on years of experience. I will also give you some simple guidelines to help you survive these tough economic times.
The so called stimulus bill now heading back into the Senate is layered with pork projects once again and I do not believe will provide relieve any time soon. Unfortunately there is not much we can do about this other than to write to our representatives and make sure they understand that if they do this and it does not work, or if it makes it worse, they will be looking for work elsewhere.
So, what do we do in the mean time. We DO NOT sit around and sulk if we lose our jobs tomorrow. There are ten things we must do now in order to protect ourselves in this economy:
1.If you are still working then take some time everyday learning how to market on the internet. Internet marketing can be very complex, so if you start learning now, you will be ahead of the game should this become your only potential source of income.
2.Find something your good at and develop ideas of how you can use your talents to help others in the form of consulting or contracting.
3.Tighten your belt now and build your savings, it may be too late if you wait.
4.If you lose your job, get into the unemployment office right away. This safety net is a life safer for most and the President has promised to extend the benefits.
5.Take a week or two to clear up the honey do list and get some relaxation time in (take a vacation). Even if you get another job quickly, fewer and fewer companies are giving any vacation time in the first year so it may be a while before you get any quality family time.
6.After your two week break, get back into the habit of waking early and get ready for work. A huge mistake most people make when they first lose a job is to stay up longer and wake up later. This trap is also the death knell for several work at home entrepreneurs and is very easy to fall into and one of the most difficult habits to break.
7.Since you are getting up early you will need something to do to occupy your time and keep you from going stir crazy. Go to at least two job sites, set up three job searches in each using slightly different criteria and have the results sent to your email inbox daily. This will save you from having to sign into them daily and instead only sign in and manually search once a week. Before you did this step, if you did not update your resume' then shame on you. Your resume' is the one thing you should update every six months throughout your life. It only takes a few minutes if you stick with it.
8.Start learning the "secrets" of internet marketing right away. Stay away from any program that requires money to teach you. There are so many free sources and people willing to share their knowledge that spending money at first is not necessary. You must be careful and approach internet marketing with a critical not a curious eye. There are marketers on the internet that can sell ice cubes to Eskimos, so you have to always remember that most of what you see is a sales pitch. Pick one marketing approach (adwords, traffic exchanges, article writing, etc.) and study it well. It will take a week or so to get a good understanding of each. Learn at least two of them and get ready to market.
9. When I said stay away from any method that requires money I meant it. It is not necessary at first, and you could end up chasing rabbits and losing serious money. Once you understand the different mediums of marketing on the internet you can then decide which one is best for you. This is where you will spend some money.
10. Once you chose which way you want to go, research the people that are most successful in that market. Once identified, join their program and study study study. Understand that marketing on the internet is very complex and there is a lot of competition, so your education is vital and you must never stop learning. Also understand that instant success is not very common. It will take some persistence and anyone can do it if they stick with it and learn. If you are working, then spend two hours a day at it, if you are not working then spend your whole day doing it.
At the same time, learn how to set up your home office and do so. Your work environment is critical to your success. You have my best wishes and I will write again soon.
Till then,
Mark LaBelle
The LaBelle Group, Inc.
Enough about me... I am writing this article in response to what the politicians are attempting to do to this country and what I think we should do about it. This article is not meant to cause anger or hate, I am simply relaying to my thoughts which are based on years of experience. I will also give you some simple guidelines to help you survive these tough economic times.
The so called stimulus bill now heading back into the Senate is layered with pork projects once again and I do not believe will provide relieve any time soon. Unfortunately there is not much we can do about this other than to write to our representatives and make sure they understand that if they do this and it does not work, or if it makes it worse, they will be looking for work elsewhere.
So, what do we do in the mean time. We DO NOT sit around and sulk if we lose our jobs tomorrow. There are ten things we must do now in order to protect ourselves in this economy:
1.If you are still working then take some time everyday learning how to market on the internet. Internet marketing can be very complex, so if you start learning now, you will be ahead of the game should this become your only potential source of income.
2.Find something your good at and develop ideas of how you can use your talents to help others in the form of consulting or contracting.
3.Tighten your belt now and build your savings, it may be too late if you wait.
4.If you lose your job, get into the unemployment office right away. This safety net is a life safer for most and the President has promised to extend the benefits.
5.Take a week or two to clear up the honey do list and get some relaxation time in (take a vacation). Even if you get another job quickly, fewer and fewer companies are giving any vacation time in the first year so it may be a while before you get any quality family time.
6.After your two week break, get back into the habit of waking early and get ready for work. A huge mistake most people make when they first lose a job is to stay up longer and wake up later. This trap is also the death knell for several work at home entrepreneurs and is very easy to fall into and one of the most difficult habits to break.
7.Since you are getting up early you will need something to do to occupy your time and keep you from going stir crazy. Go to at least two job sites, set up three job searches in each using slightly different criteria and have the results sent to your email inbox daily. This will save you from having to sign into them daily and instead only sign in and manually search once a week. Before you did this step, if you did not update your resume' then shame on you. Your resume' is the one thing you should update every six months throughout your life. It only takes a few minutes if you stick with it.
8.Start learning the "secrets" of internet marketing right away. Stay away from any program that requires money to teach you. There are so many free sources and people willing to share their knowledge that spending money at first is not necessary. You must be careful and approach internet marketing with a critical not a curious eye. There are marketers on the internet that can sell ice cubes to Eskimos, so you have to always remember that most of what you see is a sales pitch. Pick one marketing approach (adwords, traffic exchanges, article writing, etc.) and study it well. It will take a week or so to get a good understanding of each. Learn at least two of them and get ready to market.
9. When I said stay away from any method that requires money I meant it. It is not necessary at first, and you could end up chasing rabbits and losing serious money. Once you understand the different mediums of marketing on the internet you can then decide which one is best for you. This is where you will spend some money.
10. Once you chose which way you want to go, research the people that are most successful in that market. Once identified, join their program and study study study. Understand that marketing on the internet is very complex and there is a lot of competition, so your education is vital and you must never stop learning. Also understand that instant success is not very common. It will take some persistence and anyone can do it if they stick with it and learn. If you are working, then spend two hours a day at it, if you are not working then spend your whole day doing it.
At the same time, learn how to set up your home office and do so. Your work environment is critical to your success. You have my best wishes and I will write again soon.
Till then,
Mark LaBelle
The LaBelle Group, Inc.