Starting a small or micro-business should be at or near the top of the list of career goals for many bloggers.
Perhaps, I should say small business ownership and the entrepreneurial ethic is part and parcel for almost every blogger writing in the blogosphere today.
Maybe, that's going a bit too far overboard, but I know you get my point.
The harsh reality of life for many people is that career opportunities, for one reason or another have been reduced. In many cases, due to the skyrocketing cost of education and its accompanying crippling debt load, post-secondary education is a mere pipe dream.
At the same time, many traditional high paying blue collar manufacturing jobs have disappeared with the new realities of globalization and competition.
For those people facing a difficult economic future, things don't look too promising. Regardless of the political party in power, the forces of economic change march on. In fact, looking to government of any stripe to solve any problems with the economy are likely to be ineffective at best, and downright harmful at worst.
We must, by necessity, look to ourselves to take care of the economy.
One solution, that is open to all members of the blogging community, is starting your own small business.
The business could be service oriented, where you market your skills and expertise to various other businesses or individuals. Services range from readily identifiable personal services like lawn and home care to business services including virtual assistant and business constultant.
The services offered can be everywhere in between.
You could also offer products for sale over the internet. The items offered could be your own arts, crafts, and books. On the other hand, you could be a reseller for products developed by other people. The internet marketplace makes both product marketing options a profitable reality.
In fact there is no limit on the possibilities, and many require very minimal startup cash. Your knowledge, a website, a blog, and some low cost tools of the trade, and you are in business. Many necessary business items can be acquired cheaply in the secondhand market or through barter.
Note that I said blog.
As bloggers, you already possess expertise in perhaps the single most powerful business building tool that exists today.
The business blog.
As bloggers, you know the reasons for establishing a business blog.
You already understand about how the fresh keyword rich content and abundant incoming links ranks your blog high in the search engines.
You fully understand how the business blog personalizes your business, by placing a real and interesting person behind the keyboard.
By being accessible and open, your potential clients and customers already know you, and they trust you. They are naturals for doing business with you, as people prefer to buy products and services from people who they know and trust.
As a blogger, you are disciplined to post regularly on your blog, whether it's a personal blog, or one geared more towards business, politics, sports, law, or some other issue.
You simply apply that already developed work ethic to your own business.
No one said that starting a business would be easy. I sure don't.
What I do say is that with the hard work and dedication that you as a blogger, put into writing your blog posts, you can definitely succeed in business.
I believe in the power of small business and entrepreneurship to change people's lives for the better.
That change is not only financial, but also evident in the person themselves.
You can proudly attend functions and tell people about your business. Many will want to conduct business with you, if you provide an interesting personality along with a professional approach.
People will see you as a resource to solve their business problems or take care of some of their personal needs.
In any case, the sky is the limit for entrepreneurship.
Start writing down some small business startup ideas today.
Tomorrow, you will be on your way to owning your own business.
