On several occasions I’ve written about the things I’ve tried in order to make a few extra bucks. I guess it’s safe to say that at the moment, I’m not doing any of them.
As you know, I left my part-time job at Sears because it wasn’t worth the $7.25 an hour. Sure, I was supposed to get commissions on major sales, but the only items we sold in my department that earned a fair commission were riding mowers and treadmills. Well, I’m here to tell you that most people do not buy riding mowers and treadmills between the hours of 6-9 pm Monday through Thursday. Normal folks make major purchase on the weekends when they have time to look around. What they buy Monday thru Thursday is mower blades, oil, workout gloves and dumbbells or what some call accessories. There is no commission on accessories.
Since quitting my part-time gig at Sears, I’ve looked into a several new opportunities. What I can’t understand about the people who run some of these “opportunities” is why they are not in jail. A while back I subscribed to a newsletter that gave suggestions for starting a business at home. I mostly ignored the things they wrote about because they start off with things like “Make $10,000 a week from your kitchen table”. Well I go by the adage that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, so I ignored most of the ideas.
Every now and then I would see something interesting and would research it to see what other people thought about it. It seems funny that a couple of times I found a lot of good reviews before I ordered it and then a lot of bad after I started having problems. I ordered a certain “assemble products at home” program and then waited for the promised email confirmation of my order. By the second day I received nothing and called the companies number (not 800). I got an answering machine that time and the next. I sent two emails asking if they received my order and got nothing. I then sent an email requesting a refund and they responded asking for my correct address and the name of the kit (they had several) I had ordered. I figured that at least I would get my refund. Five days later the kit arrived in the mail. It had been mailed the day after I sent my refund request. I sent the kit back unopened and sent an email telling them “nice try but I had lost confidence in the company” I also told them they had ten business days to get my refund to me. After eight days I sent a reminder email, telling them I would contact the Better Business Bureau on the tenth day. Nothing! So I processed an online complaint to their local BBB in Austin, TX on a Friday and the BBB sent me an email on Monday saying they had forwarded the complaint. While on the BBB site I noticed that there had been 36 complaints in the last three years, most of them unresolved. On Friday I received the first of two checks, it seems they had sent the wrong amount the first time. I also got a call from the owner of the company saying that he apologized for the mix up but he had some new people working for him. I told him that since there had been two phone calls and four emails ignored, he might want to look at replacing the new people as well.
The last two opportunities came by US mail delivered, unsolicited, to my house. Both of them sounded like real opportunities to make money and I could see where they could really work. This time I checked them both on line by searching by the owners name and then the word “review”. It turns out that there was a class action lawsuit against one for false advertising although you really could make money from it, if they would just pay you as agreed, which they seemed to have a hard time doing. The other could have worked as well if their prices were more competitive and they didn’t provide shoddy work.
Anyway, I’m still looking and am hoping to take advantage of some of my 94 web sites to do it. What do you think? Have you ever had a similar experience? Let me know by posting a comment and hopefully a recommendation. Just remember I will check it out and hold it against you forever, if it’s not real.
Our Vice President has done it again. In case you didn’t notice, Joe Biden was again on the front page. This time he called a shop owner a “smartass”. From what I read it was all very innocent and a little comical. Apparently, Mr. Biden bought some custard from the shop and asked how much he owed. The shop owner said something like “Don’t worry, it’s on us, lower our taxes and we’ll call it even”, prompting the remark by the VP.
Now I can see that happening myself. I may even have made a comment like that, had I been in a similar situation. The problem is that he is the Vice President and frankly I expect more professional behavior. But that’s not why I’m upset.
What is making me angry is something else that was in the same news article. Apparently, a few days earlier Mr. Biden was stumping for Senator Russ Feingold, in Wisconsin. He was speaking at a fund raising event and told the crowd “there’s no possibility to restore the 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession”.
What? Then what was the stimulus and TARP all about. Didn’t our government tell us that we had to spend all that money to save and create jobs? Did we really believe it? Not ME!!
I personally wanted companies to fail. I don’t think we should have bailed out anybody. I don’t think we should have saved the auto manufacturers (Fords are best anyway) or the banks or anyone else. What about all of the jobs that would have been lost? Well, I feel for the people who would have lost their jobs, and by the way millions lost them anyway. I know what’s it’s like to be unemployed for long periods and it’s a terrible feeling. However, I believe that other companies would have picked up the slack, bought out the problem companies, changed business strategies and become profitable. We may not have a Chrysler or GM but someone would have started producing vehicles to fill the gaps. Maybe it would have been Ford, and why not? At least they proved that they could manage their own business without getting the government involved. Maybe local banks would have had an opportunity to grow and become even more competitive. Maybe small businesses would have had a chance to expand their lines, but we’ll never know.
In my position of Business Development, I have the opportunity to talk to companies small and large everyday. They are learning to do business differently. They understand that there was a lot of waste in production and manufacturing. They figured out that although it was nice to have plenty of backups (people and parts) for when things went wrong, it was also a waste when things are going smooth.
Almost everywhere I go, people are multi-tasking like never before. I have seen the head of the IT department out cutting the grass and the plant manger filling in on the production line because someone called in sick. And that’s OK!! I think it’s great that some of the managers and other mucky-mucks be brought down a notch and mingle with the riff-raff.
I still feel bad about all of the people out of work and unfortunately, unless we bring some industry back to the states, it will continue for a long time. We have to encourage companies small and large to want to keep their businesses here in the United States. Our governments policies are forcing them overseas where labor is cheaper. I know that’s a bit over simplified, but you get the point. We need to get back to a form of “Buy American”, especially, when it concerns a government contract. A good example is the new A-35 Tanker. Although it now looks like Boeing is going to win the $35 billion contract, our government was actually considering having it built in France or the UK. This is just the kind of thing we need to stop. Our government should only buy from US companies when the items are available here.
So just like many of us knew from the start, all that money we spent is not going to save or create jobs. Once again, we have Joe Biden, intentionally or not, telling us the truth about what is going on.
In November, we can make huge changes. I think we should replace anyone who has been in the congress or senate for more than eight years and get some fresh blood in there. While we’re at it, let’s start at the bottom (local government) and work our way up.
Well, my income taxes are done for another year. I finished it all last night, filed electronically using TaxCut and every penny is spent. As usual I was disappointed with the amount of return considering I pay taxes from two jobs and a military pension. I can’t seem to catch a break.
Something is better than nothing and at least I feel like I’m getting a little gift around this time each year. Fortunately we will be able to take care of a couple of things that we have been putting off for awhile. If you are like me, the economy has taken a bite out of your resources. Pay cuts and lack of cost of living raises have hit hard. The price of everything we need continues to go up and services become more expensive with less and less benefit. Maybe I’ll look for a third job so I can go out to eat once in awhile or go to a movie.
I’m sure you are in the same boat and I feel for you. However, if you do manage to get a small (or large) refund, make sure you take care of your needs before your wants. One thing you NEED to do is start preparing for continued economic struggles. So part paying yourself a little each week in the form of savings and then take care of the necessities.
Once you have all that taken care of go to the links on the right of this post and check out some of my shopping sites. There are all kinds of electronics, furniture, carpets, health items and others that you may find useful. If you don’t see what you want immediately, use the Google search bar at the top right of the page to look for other sources.
OK!! Since I have some time before the refund is in the bank, I’m going to start organizing my folders and files for next years income taxes. Good luck with your taxes this year, for most of us there aren’t many changes. I checked the top ten software products including Turbo Tax, H&R Block, TaxSlayer and narrowed it down to TaxCut just like last year. It was based on ease of use, information provided, import of last years information and of course price. There the research is done for you. Good Luck!!
