The First and Surest Step in Starting Your Own Small Business
By Syd Stewart

Workers all throughout the United States and Europe are witnessing the transformation of the entire economic landscape due to globalization. Forget about retiring with a healthy pension from your former employer. Nowadays, you are lucky if you have a fully-funded 401k plan to count on--and even that may not be enough! You then have corporations using outsourcing and cheap labor sources from half-way around the world to help them keep profit margins at record levels.

Abundant supplies of cheap but highly skilled labor in Asia and other parts of the world have helped eliminate real income growth throughout much of the West. With little to no job security and globalization leading to both lower wages and the loss of our good jobs, how can one survive or even thrive in such a hostile environment? The answer is to take control of your own financial destiny by starting a small business.

Corporations won't be handing out any significant wage increases for Western workers again until they no longer have any cheaper sources of labor to exploit. As the intensity of globalization increases, the living standards for millions of Western workers will slowly diminish. With the availability of skilled workers increasing in low-wage nations, so too is the competition for every single job out there.

This makes it easier and easier for the corporations to pay lower wages via outsourcing or even relocating entire facilities. Inflation may very well outpace income growth for many years to come. The best way and perhaps the only way, to significantly enhance income and lifestyle in this age of globalization is to capitalize on a work from home business opportunity.

Owning a small business in a competitive environment is actually a good idea because smaller, more specialized, businesses do very well in the world market. Companies are now in a mad rush to merge or acquire other companies in a bid to become dominant in the new global market. This, along with outsourcing itself, has created a ton of work from home business opportunities for dedicated individuals.

Small businesses account for the largest percentage of new job creation in the U.S. and many Western European nations. A company may try to cut expenses by eliminating a position internally, but the work still needs to be performed, creating unprecedented opportunities for small business owners. Small business owners with a solid foundation and the ability to adapt will be one of the few groups to benefit from globalization.

An infusion of capital is necessary to both start and operate a new business venture. It is common for interest rates to be lowered during bad economic times in order to stimulate investment. 2008 should be a good year for anyone with a sound business plan, decent credit, and some initiative to go out there and secure the capital they need to start a work from home business.

The Internet is helping to create millions of new business opportunities and will continue to do so until reaching an anticipated saturation point in the next 3-5 years. Ideally, you want to locate and exploit the opportunities while avoiding the scams like the plague. This is certainly easier said than done. Sure, they may be difficult to find with so many scam artists out there too-- but there are still more opportunities to start a legitimate and profitable small business than ever before.

Having your own small business may soon be the only way to avoid seeing your lifestyle diminish due to stagnant wages and runaway inflation. Outsourcing will continue to force millions of people to choose between lower paying service industry positions or unlimited income potential with a small business.

Like all things, however, all small business will either succeed or fail. Work from home businesses only succeed when their owners are willing to invest the time, effort, and patience necessary to grow and develop properly. Failure is still a possibility even when owners give it their best.

Sometimes, it just boils down to the idea and timing. But by identifying the legitimate opportunities from the cons, one takes the first and surest step towards creating a successful and thriving work from home small business.

Hello, my name is Syd Stewart and I have been running my own business for nearly twenty five years. I have authored 'How to Build a Great Small Business', a evolutionary handbook for budding and existing small business owners. See Smiling Owner

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