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Home » Business And Finance Articles » Penny Wise And Pound Foolish

"Penny Wise and Pound Foolish"

This saying came to mind when reading my Icop newsletter. JL was discussing things that Chuck and I talk about all the time. A couple of weeks ago while listening to Jim Edwards' audio newsletter he ranted about the "psycho freebie seekers" (love that name). Jim rants almost as well as Dennis Miller.

Anyway these two newsletters and what they had to say have been rolling around in my head for a couple of days now. What came to mind is that people who run Internet businesses from their home are no different than those who ran businesses out of their home in the 80's.....they don't want to pay for anything. You would think with all the failed businesses they've had it would dawn on them that it is because they have done no research, no business plan, no determination on whether or not there is a market for their business in their vicinity. They don't do mission statements. I could go on and on.

Unfortunately, too many people still think all they need is a computer, fax, and some business cards. In fact, they don't even give out the business cards, they leave those in their office in nice little card files. A lot of good that's doing them.

They will spend money on all the trappings but not on education, mentoring or consulting. As Chuck once said to me when I started my first business, and didn't do any marketing "You will be the most organized business in bankruptcy court". It was a wake up call.

As Jim and JL discussed, and Chuck and I run into every day, people want to pick our brains for information and answers. After all, they have been conditioned that IT'S FREE. They feel it is their right to do so.

The Internet especially has made people think that information is FREE. Yes, it is, but those of us who have niches, and have written books all put in a lot of time, effort, and energy in researching, writing and marketing our products. SO NO IT IS NOT FREE. We worked very hard to put together excellent products to the best of our ability and WE EXPECT TO GET PAID FOR THEM.

These individuals also have over inflated egos. "Who me, ask someone for help, and what pay for it. Oh, no I'm sure my way is the right way. People just don't appreciate my great product (service or fill in the blank). I'm just as good, if not better than he/she is."

It would never occur to them to pay someone to show them what is wrong. Or take a class, or purchase a book that might help. Nope, they say, it's not that, it must be something else. It's always some one else's' fault or some things' fault, never theirs.

Unfortunately, the impetus for this behavior was fostered starting back in the 80's when home based businesses were just starting to come into their own. Many of the magazines and publications of the 80's (and now the Internet) fostered the idea that ANYONE can run a home based business. Remember those magazines that had little kits for Word Processing businesses, basket making, medical records, etc. People bought them, followed them. Some did well, but others couldn't figure out why they didn't succeed.

They didn't succeed for several reasons. First, none of them did the basics, the grunt work. Checking first to ascertain whether or not this business was even a viable one in their area. If it was, checking out the competition, making up a business plan, a mission statement. Setting up goals for themselves for daily, weekly, monthly, short and long term. Setting up a publicity campaign, working with the different media, setting up a marketing plan, networking.

All of the things that those of us that have been in business did so that we can stay in business. We were not "penny wise and pound foolish! " We succeeded, through a great deal of hard work, effort and hard knocks that we plan to get compensated for. We are not going to give it away for "free".

Copyright 2003 DeFiore Enterprises

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Nursing Career - A Smart Choice

If you have been considering entering into the healthcare industry as a professional nurse, here are some points to consider....

Nursing careers encompass a wide range of activities related to the field of delivering healthcare. As pure healthcare professionals employed in hospitals and similar other healthcare units, people in nursing careers cater to treatment, safety and recovery of acutely or chronically ill or injured people, health maintenance of the healthy, and treatment of life-threatening emergencies in a wide range of health care settings.

Additionally, nursing careers also span many non-clinical functions, such as medical and nursing research, forensic research, nursing education, medical insurance, serving medical, pharmaceutical and healthcare companies and so on.

In the United States, it is estimated that nursing careers of about 50 percent of nurses start at hospitals of all hues. Indeed, hospitals remain the largest employers of registered nurses. But there are other avenues for promising nursing careers, some of which are enumerated below:

• Working in specialized healthcare units and long-term care facilities (hospice nursing, standalone nursing homes, patient rehabilitation, etc.).

• Assisting medical specialists like surgeons, ophthalmologists, obstetricians and others.

• Nursing-on-call on private duty for home patients (home health agencies).

• Serving in outdoor community health clinics.

• Educating aspiring nurses as teachers.

• Engaging in medical, nursing and forensic research, either self or as assistants.

• Independent nursing careers like legal nurse consultants, medical writers, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists and so on.

• Serving international organizations, like United Nations, Red Cross, etc.

• Serving insurance companies and managed care centers.

• Serving in statutory bodies responsible for hospital regulations.

• Serving companies engaged in healthcare and medical business.

Job consultants have long noted an increasing uptrend for nursing careers. By all accounts, the employment opportunity for registered nurses is expected to grow at a much faster pace through 2014 compared to all other occupations. Since the occupation is very large and in view of rising median age of registered nurse population, the requirement of registered nurses is likely to create the second largest of new jobs among all occupations.

Even though nursing careers are on an upswing, there are not enough facilities, competent to meet the growing demand. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) reports that the shortage of faculty in nursing schools has reached an alarming proportion. This is happening because on one hand the present faculty workforce is fast approaching retirement, and on the other, the pool of younger replacement faculty is decreasing.

This has thrown a unique opportunity for experienced registered nurses to pursue nursing careers of teaching and counseling new students. Among other considerations in favor of teaching profession, higher emolument is surely a big motivating factor. Since teaching requires higher education in nursing (masters degree or higher), experienced nurses who already have bachelor degrees, may consider enrolling for higher education in order to enhance their nursing careers. At the same time, as the nursing institutes re-organize their teaching facilities, school-level graduates may find nursing careers lucrative to pursue and excel.

Many institutes of repute offering nursing courses, for example University of Northern Colorado, Duke University School of Nursing in Durham and SDSU College of Nursing to name a few, are offering accelerated BSN programs (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) as a direct response to shortage in nursing. These programs allow students, who already have a degree in another discipline, to earn a BSN degree in only 16 to 20 months instead of traditional 4-year program.

Often people in mid professional career feel that nursing careers are more suitable for them. Accelerated BSN programs aim to hasten their journey back to their heart's desire. In order to sweeten the things for them, many hospitals in fact sponsor students for these programs to assist their nursing careers. They pay tuition fees in lieu of their working for them after graduation. Hospital authorities are effusive in their praise for second-career nursing students. They say that students, who opt for nursing careers after having spent early life in other fields, often make terrific nurses. They come as matured persons, broadly educated and knowing how to conduct themselves in the workplace.

Nursing careers have several tales. The ability to serve mankind is certainly one of them. Bravo to that.

Copyright 2006 Linda Raye