A Federal Election is underway in Canada and one of the political parties involved, the Tories, is hoping to capture the vote of the countries thousands of self employed workers but promising to expand government benefits such as parental leave (employees get a year off with pay) and employment insurance. The new program would be optional and any self employed person wanting to join would have to wait 6 months to make a claim.

I think the Tories may be on to something. Wouldn't it be nice if the candidates in our current Presidential election would reach out to us in the same way?

Hello readers! For this post I want to talk about the upcoming presidential election and ask you what you think about the candidates. Which one do you think will do the most for those of us who own home based businesses, telecommute, work at home or freelance? We are a popular and rapidly growing segment of the workforce and issues surrounding taxes, health insurance and the economy are especially important to us. So please, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on which candidate you feel is the best choice for us!

Hello everyone! Due to Tropical Storm Hanna,posting has been delayed this week. We got hammered pretty hard with heavy rain and wind and my electricity was off and on. Apologies for the delay-posting will resume on Sunday. It looks like the stormy weather won't be leaving for awhile-Hurricane Ike is roaring toward Cuba and Josephine isn't far behind, although it's not a hurricane yet. Our prayers are with anyone in Hurricane Ike's path!

The MagicJack is advertised as a money saving solution for both businesses and consumers. It works by plugging into your USB port and allowing you to make local and long distancce calls over your high speed internet connection for free. It costs $39.95 and then just $19 a year after that. Sound to good to be true? I've ordered one and will post a review as soon as I get it! If it is as advertised it would make a great second line for a home business because it comes with it's own phone number, voicemail and call forwarding! Stay tuned for my review!

Anyone who watches TV has probably seen at least one infomercial promising an amazing home business opportunity. Just about all of them are scams and the only one making the huge amounts of money they promise is the company behind the scam. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of regulation in the infomercial industry. It seems like anyone with a scam and enough money to make an infomercial to promote it can get themselves on TV. So how do you protect yourself? The Internet is a great resource. Here's a terrific website where you can find reviews and complaints about just about every home business infomercial out there. Take a look!

If you're a night owl you've probably seen an infomercial about a home based business "opportunity" called "Winning in the Cash Flow Business". It's hosted by a man named Russ Dalbey who claims you can make huge amounts of money simply by finding "notes" and helping people sell them. The infomercial is purposely vague about what exactly notes are and how to find/sell them. It spends most of it's time showing glowing testimonials from Mr. Dalbey's "students" and hawking a "kit" that will show you how to get started for just $39.95. Now here is what they DON'T tell you:

1. When you call you'll be heavily pressured to purchase an "upgrade" for just $300 more.
2. After you order the kit you'll be inundated with phone calls inviting you to be a "protégé". All you have to do is pay an additional fee which is anywhere from $2,000-$10,000 more! The sales tactics they use are extremely high pressure.
3. Russ Dalbey has not made a dime "flipping notes", but he does make over $100 million a year ripping people off through his infomercial.
4. Russ Dalbey has changed his business name several times due to investigations by the Better Business Bureau and the U.S. Attorney General's office.

So needless to say, this is just another scam designed to target people desperate to own their own business. Stay far far away! Still need convincing? Check out this site that has over 200 complaints from folks who fell for the infomercial.

Here is a great presentation on setting up a home office-there are a lot of grreat tips here!