July 21 , 2008

Clients Who Need Employees Could Make You Rich... More
on Building Wealth... Stuck Behind the Coupon Clipper -- Try
Following Their Lead... How Much Money is Enough?... and
More.

** Clients Who Need Employees Could Make You Rich
By Adrian Newman, Founder of e-Wealth Daily

If you're a "people person," there's a line of work that could guarantee you no shortage of clients or revenue. Budget cuts, industry downsizing, internal re-engineering -- the business world is awash with employment trends that you can capitalize on as the owner of a staffing services business. The demand for good talent -- whether it's for full-time, part-time, temporary, or consulting positions -- always exceeds the supply. If you can source out highly employable people with marketable skill sets, then it's time to strike while the iron is hot!

Growth in the staffing industry is continuing to show signs of strength. According to the American Staffing Association, U.S. sales of temporary and contract services totaled $13.1 billion in the first quarter of this year, denoting a third consecutively positive quarter and double-digit growth overall this year.

There is aggressive growth in this area, particularly within the segments that place individuals with professional or technical skills.

Any economist will tell you that workforce flexibility is good for the economy. It is critical to job growth and lower unemployment because adaptable work arrangements and schedules encourage higher labor force participation. Because of this, over 90% of businesses in the U.S. turn to staffing companies for temporary employees to help during unexpected increases in business, with special projects, during peak times, or to fill in for absent employees.

Your staffing business will ensure that both employers and employees can have their diverse needs met. Employers don't want the headache of hiring individuals, and you can soothe their pain by finding and placing employees that suit their needs. They will gladly pay you premium costs for a trained person who will work for a few days at a time instead of a 40-hour weekly payroll obligation.

As a staffing services specialist, you'll have three potential avenues for sourcing revenue:

1) Businesses in need. Charge your clients a finder's fee and mark up the labor you find for them.

2) Contractors in need. Develop a system for managing resumes and match employees to client companies for clerical, professional, industrial, technical, health care, or marketing positions.

3) Be an employer yourself. Hire other qualified candidates to recruit for your business and pay them a commission on the sales that they generate for you.

Long-term or "facilities" staffing means that you place employees for indefinite periods of time in long-term assignments, such as project-related assignments. While you can make money with a private employment agency, where you "broker" unemployed persons with available jobs, it's harder work than running a temporary help service.

Temporary help services account for the lion's share of the staffing industry. This gives you an opportunity to supply client companies with workers for short-term assignments. You hire people onto your payroll, contract them out at an hourly rate, and make money off the top by marking up the rates. If you build a reliable base of qualified, temporary workers within a specific industry, then you will confidently be able to supply your clients with individuals who will work on short notice in order to fill in or supplement a company's workforce. You can often have a temp-to-perm situation occur for the people you recruit, where clients try out a worker on a temporary basis and then hire them on full-time if they like them.

While markups range widely between 25% and 75%, your charge-out rates for your employees will depend on the expertise they bring to the position, the amount of competition you have, the relationship you have with your client, what industry sector you are servicing, and local standards. Today's workplace requires more skills and training, and there is a tight labor market with fewer qualified applicants to deal with. How you charge out your employees will be critical to your success, and with some homework and careful planning, it's reasonable to expect that you could make a good profit sometime within the first two years.

** More on Building Wealth
By Doug D'Anna, the "Hundred-Million-Dollar Man"

Recently, I talked about running a few businesses part-time as opposed to one business full-time. I'd like to continue with those thoughts today.

Running several businesses simultaneously can be done if you manage your time properly. Budgeting your money and organizing your time can help you to run them all smoothly. The key is to know how to prioritize essential tasks with each business and allocating time for each.

Your various businesses don't need to be the types that you have to attend to every day. There are a number of "absentee businesses" that you can run. For instance, you can purchase vending machines if you have some capital to invest. This is a business that you can leave for a week, unattended, and then collect your money and refill the machines when needed.

There are also online businesses that you can run. With e-mail and online payments, you can tend to an online business, such as eBay auctions, when you have the time to be at your computer. You can check on this business at lunch or when you get home from your other business or full-time job.

You could also choose to have a weekend business, or even a business that you run during the week. For instance, consulting businesses are becoming more and more popular these days, with the trend leaning toward outsourcing work to others.

You could do your consulting work for other businesses during a regular workweek, for example, and then have a business that you run on the weekends. If you choose to base your business on something you love, such as cooking, then you can teach other people to do this and it won't feel like you're working on the weekends.
 
By putting together cost-cutting plans and using inexpensive marketing strategies, you can run a business for very little, which allows you to run more than one at a time for maximum profit potential.

** Stuck Behind the Coupon Clipper -- Try Following Their
Lead
By John Hurd, Chief Wealth Researcher

Buying groceries is a necessary evil for many of us. Scanning the endless aisles while navigating a rickety cart isn't the best way to spend a Saturday morning ? but, until they invent a fridge that stocks itself, many of us have to make that weekly trip..

Quite possibly, the worst part of the whole experience is waiting in line at the checkout. Removing each item from your cart in order for them all to be scanned, bagged and then returned to the car seems rather redundant and is quite time-consuming. But, again, there really isn't another way to get around this.

And, finally, getting stuck behind a coupon clipper searching through a stack of odd-shaped pieces of paper to save 10 cents is certain to drive some people to insanity.

However, I'm not writing you today to complain about a trip to the grocery store. Not at all; because I'm going to share with you why you should be a little -- even a lot more -- like that coupon clipper.

Now, coupons can help you save money. Even a few pennies on the dollar add up over time, allowing you to stretch your dollars further and further. But, of course, we all know that.

What you may not know is that by scanning flyers for coupons and keeping an eye out for special deals, you develop a better relationship with money ? and, more specifically, your money.

You see, while scanning for coupons and deals, you are actively thinking about the value of each of your dollars and the products you spend them on. Rather than making quick decisions and getting what you want as soon as possible, you are beginning to evaluate your wants. And then you begin to see that what you want isn't always what you need.

Coupon clippers are also better at organizing their trips to the grocery store. They have a list of items they want and tend to stick to it. Rather than being pulled in by the items placed throughout the store to lure more cash out of our pockets, the coupon clipper often develops tunnel vision set only on the products on their list.

When dollars and cents really count, having a clear vision of what you need is always going to help you steer clear of items that are simply a waste.

Ask anyone with a lot of money. They didn't get to where they are now by blowing their paychecks at the drop of a hat.

By adopting the mindset of the coupon clipper, you could begin to plug the drain on your leaky bank account.

The other day, I was thinking about how one decides whether or not they are financially satisfied. After all, it almost seems like human nature to constantly want more and to continually grow. So, if this is the case, how can we ever be satisfied?

Of course, there is nothing wrong with wanting to accumulate more. There are always new things we desire that we think will make our lives a little bit more complete. The thing is, however, how long do we hold onto this feeling before something else comes along that makes us feel the exact same way?

When people ask the question, "How much money is enough?" there is only one way to answer. It is my belief that, if your basic human needs are paid for and you are living a lifestyle that isn't filled with debt, you have enough money. Everything else is just gravy.

You see, if you're unhappy and you're making enough money to cover your basic daily needs, no amount of money will ever make you happy. This is because you're always going to feel like you need something else to make your life complete. Perhaps it is another void that you're trying to fill.

Try to remember that your financial situation is not a competition. If you look across the street every day and see your neighbor wearing designer sunglasses, driving a brand new luxury car and taking vacations a couple of times a year, sit back and say, "Good for them. I hope they're happy," and go on with your life. You see, if you're constantly competing, you'll never be able to sit back, relax and enjoy all of the things you do have.

Not to mention, you never know another person's financial situation. Perhaps your neighbor is living far beyond their means and in a mountain of debt. Perhaps their situation is much worse than yours; it just appears as the opposite.

If you're in debt or can't afford life's basic necessities, then consider ways to get help. There are a number of counseling services that are available and a number of social programs that you can take advantage of until you get back on your feet. The key is to maintain a positive outlook and know that there is light at the end of the tunnel.