Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 658.041 EAN: 9781555714062 ISBN: 1555714064 Label: PSI Research Manufacturer: PSI Research Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 209 Publication Date: 1997-10 Publisher: PSI Research Studio: PSI Research
Editorial Reviews:
Moonlighting examines your dreams and helps you determine what type of home business will work best for you based on your interests, schedule, and enjoyment. Written for the person who is starting a part-time home-based business, this book leads the reader through every aspect of business startup with special emphasis given to the difficulties associated with operating a business in addition to a full-time job. The author helps the reader assess personal experiences, hobbies, and hidden talents and convert them into marketable skills. This book is especially easy to read and employs a conversational style as well as worksheets, tables and charts to painlessly impart a wealth of information.
Moonlighting grew out of the realization that there is virtually nothing on the market today that specifically addresses starting a part-time home-based business as a second income. There are more than 25 million home-based businesses today with thousands of new startups each year. Many of these businesses will endure as commerce increasingly migrates to micro-businesses.
Moonlighting: Earn A Second Income At Home speaks directly to this growing niche of home-workers and guides them step-by-step through the process of establishing a part-time business at home without quitting their full-time jobs. The author has keenly identified a growing trend and provided the definitive guide to successfully enter the field of home-based moonlighting. This book will help you choose everything from the form your business can take to how to pursue funding and maintain bookkeeping records.
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: Wonderful info, but a bit dated Comment: I picked this book up at my local bookstore the other day. I have been very frustrated with the lack of books that address the challenges of moonlighting. Most books that deal with home- based business assume that you will be working full- time, not doing side work to supplement your income from a primary job. For me, this book has been a valuable resource that speaks to my need to hold on to my full time job while branching out and starting another business (that hopefully will become my full- time job).
My impressions about the book, taken part by part:
Part One: Selecting the Right Business
This section (in particular, chapter 2) can be skimmed over if you already have a type of business already in mind. Having said that, I am going into freelance writing, and I was VERY thrilled to see that Jo- Frohbieter- Mueller addressed this career in her book. Her advice on promoting your work as a writer gave me some additional information that I haven't even read in other books on freelancing. And her advice on visually mapping out how many hours of each day in the week you'll want to devote to your moonlighting work was helpful.
Part Two: Now is the Time To Ask Questions.
This is a short section, and for readers with little knowledge of partnerships, sole proprietorships, or S corporations, this will give a good overview of what the different types of organizations for businesses. I especially found Chapter 5 "Determine Goals and Write a Business Plan" to be helpful in organizing my business and putting it down on paper.
Part 3: Money Matters
This section leads you through the ways to establish credit for yourself and your potential clients. Chapter 7, "Pricing for Profit" provided me with a good formula to determine how much to charge my clients.
Part 4: Getting Started
Mueller provides a checklist for the typical workspace and equipment needed for home businesses. I found her suggestions on getting an 800 number to be helpful. Chapter 11, "Simple Bookkeeping Procedures" has invaluable advice, but I wish it were longer.
Part 5: Getting and Keeping Customers
This section of the book was most helpful to me. In this section, I got advice from Mueller that I haven't gotten from other sources. I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't even think of joining my local Chamber of Commerce until reading this book! I also got valuable advice on advertising via print, TV and radio ads. This section is where the book is most dated, however. Mueller, writing at the beginning of the e-mail era, briefly touches on the usefulness of e-mail and gives no advice on the value of running your own website. And with the recent anti- spam laws, readers should be careful to "cold call" via e-mail and be seen as spam messages.
I really wish the publisher would provide an updated edition of this book, one that incorporates the usefulness of the Internet as a marketing tool. If anything, this omission is the only weakness in the book. A simple updated version would clear up this problem.
Part 6: Tending to Taxes, Insurance, and Benefits
I've found the advice that Mueller gives here to be sound and in line with anything else I've learned in dealing with the IRS and deductions for home- based businesses. Of course, readers should be sure to check up on the latest IRS laws concerning taxes and follow them.
Part 7: Taking Control of Your Life and Business
This final section offers tips on maintaining a healthy balance between your primary job, home, family and friends. It is short and easily read through. The Appendix that follows offers about 500 occupations that can be developed into home businesses (especially good for the undecided) and short bibliographies for readers wanting to know more about each occupation.
Overall, I think that this is a wonderful guide to anyone who is considering a move to moonlighting to supplement income or change jobs. My only criticism is that the book is dated without information that addresses the Internet and its importance in self- promotion.
