Moonlighting (PSI Successful Business Library) [Paperback]

Jo Frohbieter-Mueller (Author), Frohbieter-M (Author)

Book Description

Series: PSI Successful Business Library | Publication Date: January 1997

Moonlighting examines your dreams and helps you determine what type of home business will work best for you based on your interests, schedule, and enjoyment. Written for the person who is starting a part-time home-based business, this book leads the reader through every aspect of business startup with special emphasis given to the difficulties associated with operating a business in addition to a full-time job. The author helps the reader assess personal experiences, hobbies, and hidden talents and convert them into marketable skills. This book is especially easy to read and employs a conversational style as well as worksheets, tables and charts to painlessly impart a wealth of information.

Moonlighting grew out of the realization that there is virtually nothing on the market today that specifically addresses starting a part-time home-based business as a second income. There are more than 25 million home-based businesses today with thousands of new startups each year. Many of these businesses will endure as commerce increasingly migrates to micro-businesses.

Moonlighting: Earn A Second Income At Home speaks directly to this growing niche of home-workers and guides them step-by-step through the process of establishing a part-time business at home without quitting their full-time jobs. The author has keenly identified a growing trend and provided the definitive guide to successfully enter the field of home-based moonlighting. This book will help you choose everything from the form your business can take to how to pursue funding and maintain bookkeeping records.

Editorial Reviews

Review

It is projected that half of the homes in America are expected to house some type of business by the year 2000. Jo Frohbieter-Mueller has had more than 1,000 articles published in newspapers, journals, and magazines covering a wide range of subjects. She has had a syndicated readership of more than 500,000 and has authored other books on home business issues. -- From the publisher

From the Publisher

It is projected that half of the homes in America are expected to house some type of business by the year 2000. Moonlighting takes the idea of starting your own home-based business a step further. It will show you, in realistic and achievable steps, how you can initially pursue your small business dream part-time, instead of quitting your job and trying your new business idea without a financial safety net. This confidence-building guide will help motivate you by showing you the best steps toward setting your plan in motion.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 209 pages
• Publisher: PSI Research (January 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555714064
• ISBN-13: 978-1555714062
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,901,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful info, but a bit dated, September 30, 2004

By 

Petite Writer "Freelance writer" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moonlighting (PSI Successful Business Library) (Paperback)

I picked this book up at my local bookstore the other day. I have been very frustrated with the lack of books that address the challenges of moonlighting. Most books that deal with home- based business assume that you will be working full- time, not doing side work to supplement your income from a primary job. For me, this book has been a valuable resource that speaks to my need to hold on to my full time job while branching out and starting another business (that hopefully will become my full- time job).

My impressions about the book, taken part by part:

Part One: Selecting the Right Business

This section (in particular, chapter 2) can be skimmed over if you already have a type of business already in mind. Having said that, I am going into freelance writing, and I was VERY thrilled to see that Jo- Frohbieter- Mueller addressed this career in her book. Her advice on promoting your work as a writer gave me some additional information that I haven't even read in other books on freelancing. And her advice on visually mapping out how many hours of each day in the week you'll want to devote to your moonlighting work was helpful.

Part Two: Now is the Time To Ask Questions.

This is a short section, and for readers with little knowledge of partnerships, sole proprietorships, or S corporations, this will give a good overview of what the different types of organizations for businesses. I especially found Chapter 5 "Determine Goals and Write a Business Plan" to be helpful in organizing my business and putting it down on paper.

Part 3: Money Matters

This section leads you through the ways to establish credit for yourself and your potential clients. Chapter 7, "Pricing for Profit" provided me with a good formula to determine how much to charge my clients.

Part 4: Getting Started

Mueller provides a checklist for the typical workspace and equipment needed for home businesses. I found her suggestions on getting an 800 number to be helpful. Chapter 11, "Simple Bookkeeping Procedures" has invaluable advice, but I wish it were longer.

Part 5: Getting and Keeping Customers

This section of the book was most helpful to me. In this section, I got advice from Mueller that I haven't gotten from other sources. I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't even think of joining my local Chamber of Commerce until reading this book! I also got valuable advice on advertising via print, TV and radio ads. This section is where the book is most dated, however. Mueller, writing at the beginning of the e-mail era, briefly touches on the usefulness of e-mail and gives no advice on the value of running your own website. And with the recent anti- spam laws, readers should be careful to "cold call" via e-mail and be seen as spam messages.

I really wish the publisher would provide an updated edition of this book, one that incorporates the usefulness of the Internet as a marketing tool. If anything, this omission is the only weakness in the book. A simple updated version would clear up this problem.

Part 6: Tending to Taxes, Insurance, and Benefits

I've found the advice that Mueller gives here to be sound and in line with anything else I've learned in dealing with the IRS and deductions for home- based businesses. Of course, readers should be sure to check up on the latest IRS laws concerning taxes and follow them.


Part 7: Taking Control of Your Life and Business

This final section offers tips on maintaining a healthy balance between your primary job, home, family and friends. It is short and easily read through. The Appendix that follows offers about 500 occupations that can be developed into home businesses (especially good for the undecided) and short bibliographies for readers wanting to know more about each occupation.

Overall, I think that this is a wonderful guide to anyone who is considering a move to moonlighting to supplement income or change jobs. My only criticism is that the book is dated without information that addresses the Internet and its importance in self- promotion.