So, this week pretty much sucked:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday.......

That about sums it up!

Yep, a great week all around.

What can I say, you need a union job!

Nah....work for yourself you'll think a little different about busting things....then again if you break something buy something new and get a tax write off.

I agree. Having your own business is a much better choice than a union job. However, many in our society just don't have what it takes to run their own business.

Yeah, they don't have access to health care that makes any sense.

I would run my own gig in a minute, if I didn't have to have insurance in place for other family members.

So, it's work for somebody, go broke and don't work for somebody, or watch somebody die. Lovely set of choices we have there.

Owning your own business even if you have had business successes in the past is no guarantee of squat in an economy so inverted that the majority of transactions and money changing hands is happening at the largest corporate levels. Not only do CEO's make a bundle while their own workers get laid off, but even shareholders in the company may lose money. At the small business end, every cost imaginable has increased far beyond any other trackable number. To survive the Bush economy, you need to have huge cash resources at your disposal. Huge relative to your balance sheet. All my number graphs had a positive slope (increasing for the math challenged) until Bush came along. Since then the number graphs are all sloped negative. After several years of introspection and self blame, I recognize there are some factors that I can't control, and I can't wait until he and his cronies are gone. If you don't think that Bushenomics hasn't hurt your own bottom line, employee or business owner, you're not fully aware. And who's getting bailed out ... everyone at the top of the chain where all that money has been circulating all along. It's outrageous.

I certainly miss those Teamster benefits I had when I was married, and have seriously considered keeping my business AND going back to Starbucks for 20 hours a week, just for the medical. I'm a workaholic anyway and could easily fit SBUX in without missing time from my store.

Yeah, lovely. But if not now, when I'm still in fairly good health and and have no pre-exising conditions, when?

No doubt you have to have the right mindset to be self-employed. I didn't have it but my wife did. I learned it.

We have had our own company since 1990 and have been on our own since 1993. We have gone long without health benefits and have paid out of pocket for our health care.

We are looking into health insurance for catastrophic coverage to protect what we have worked so hard for. We recently signed up with the NASE “The National Association for the Self-Employed.” We looked at this organization 12-15 years ago and it wasn't a good fit for us then. It is now.

Also I believe it's WHO you do work for that is also important. All of our work is mainly for locally owned businesses. They treat their employees well, offer good benefits and don't panic during bad economic downturns.

My wife and I went through a rough working patch from 1991-1992. It was our benchmark years. From that we formed our bare bones budget mentality.

My wife and I are also creative people and we looked at our finances and business opportunities with some rather non-traditional thinking. It's paying off now.

Also it’s about being responsible with what you have. Yesterday my wife was part of a stuff swap where people brought in stuff they don't need and took things they did. All for free. No money exchanged. She has been doing women's clothes swap for several years now and has gotten some wonderful clothes.FREE!!

And lastly a positive attitude is the key ingredient for working for yourself. Thankfully my wife and I have plenty of it. The lows aren't too low the highs aren't too high. We are grateful for what we have and share what we have in abundance. It's not earth shaking by any stretch, but it is effective.

Andy states: " At the small business end, every cost imaginable has increased far beyond any other trackable number. "

My comment to this is don't over spend. If you don't have the money don't buy it.

And I will end with this. It's not about working harder folks....it's about working smarter.

Being in retail, I am certainly seeing my cost of goods sold rising consistently. It's harder to control than labor, at this point. We have 2 stores and employ 8 people (including we 2 partners), and keeping those people happily employed is my mission. They are the face of our business, and we value every day with them. Working hard to keep the stores open is part of my comittment to them, and we get it back from them.

I would love to offer them some kind of medical, but we aren't allowed to pool our two groups together (they'd all have to be on the same payroll, rather than separated by location) and the two groups are too small...below minimums for decent cost/benefit. We can get single coverage for ourselves as owners, but that doesn't help the group.

I am hopeful that if I'm diligent and keep after it (in my spare time LOL) I'll find something.