Arlene Wright-Correll

How to Put Beans on the Table©



Posted: Wednesday, July 30, 2008

by
http://www.learn-america.com

"What do you do to put beans on the table?" was a question that was asked of me once a very long time ago. It came from a fellow who has been a friend and mentor of mine for almost 30 years now.

The question is a good one as opposed to asking, "What do you do for a living?" It brings it down to earth. Many people do many things to make a living, but people who put "beans on the table" usually do it really well because they are usually self employed folk!

I had been one of them for about 60 years and being an entrepreneur gets in one's blood whether one does the same one thing for 60 years or 6 or 60 different things over a span of 60 years. Basically the rules are the same.

Know what it is you want to do. What does it cost? Are you willing to pay the price? I do not mean dollar wise, I mean working harder, missing one of your kids little league game once in awhile, working longer hours, giving up special times that other family's might be enjoying simply because you have to do what has to be done to "put beans on the table".

Once you know what it is you want to do and then learn everything you can about it remember in the beginning you may have to be chief, cook and bottle washer. However, as soon as you can start outsourcing by contacting for payroll, legal work, accounting, office administration, security, maintenance and other tasks.

Try to use contract labor in all these fields as it will usually be cheaper and more productive than employees. They can usually do a lot of your work from their home or office as opposed to you providing them office space and all the other expenses that come with employees. Some times it is cheaper to take a good worker and pay to make them a one person c-corporation and give them 100 business cards than to employ them. This starts them on their own road to entrepreneurship.

If your business is a service that they can use, then consider asking them to barter a dollar amount of your service for a dollar amount of their services.

Make use of temp services in your business and you will avoid a tremendous amount of paper work and employee expenses. There are temp services for everything from clerical help to engineers, doctors, nurses and assembly-line supervisors. Big businesses use all these tactics and if it is good enough for their bottom line then it will work for yours.

About the Author & Artist. Arlene Wright-Correll (1935- ___), popular American award winning Artist, published author, columnist, & is the resident art instructor for Avalon Stained Glass School, at the age of 68, decided to pick up her paint brushes again after 54 years and paint.  She is a cancer and stroke survivor who is able to strive forward each and everyday to welcome the beauty of this small planet.  She also is a China & Porcelain painter, Sandblasting & Etching, Stained Glass & fused glass Artisan. She is one of the six KY Artists who worked 6 months to create the dolls for Journey Jots in 2006 and a Smithsonian Institute art exhibit in 2008. Her published books can be found here . She is also a featured writer for GreenThumbArticles.com and teaches Art Vacation Holidays at Avalon Stained Glass School and Creativity Center.

This Article has been viewed 407 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.