Self-employment in Rockford, Illinois

Did you see the Rockford Register Star today, Sunday April 19th, 2009? The Local and State section discusses in great detail the 2010 budget issues for local schools and park districts because of the crumbling economy, as they look at short falls all the way out to 2011. I know that the folks at Winnebago County Adult Probation are telling me that they need me to e-mail my attendance records for my domestic violence classes to save paper.

Folks, that is about 8 sheets of paper per month. And I know the Winnebago County Board has had to slash jobs and the folks at Adult Probation are looking at loosing hours and jobs, so every sheet of paper will be important to them.

And the Register Star Business Section goes on to talk about how the recession impacts the Black community more so than any other minority segment of our county's population.

I first noticed my clients struggling to make payments to me in the summer of 2007. Many of them were looking at a stay in the county jail as their only option, as they had no funds for Court ordered counseling.

I know that at age 61, if I had to go into the job market, I would struggle to find a job in the traditional way, so I have been developing my expertise online. Even if talented and energetic, what employer struggling to build online will hire someone much closer to retirement than a mortgage? Luckily for me business is going online. (Tell the truth, when was the last time you looked for anything in the Yellow Pages?)

The very first tool I used about four years ago, to get me started, was the Super Affiliate Handbook by Rosalind Gardner.

Her book is a great place to get started.

One of the products she mentioned was SBI or Site Build It, which is the platform I use for my websites now, and I teach a class at Rock Vally College now called Building a Successful Online Business Using the Internet which covers the ten day action guide for SBI.

Of course, I am now an affiliate for a huge number of products and companies, primarily related to counseling and personal growth, and I am working to make this tool available to underserved in Winnebago County.

In the meantime, check out the RockValley College Continuing Education catalog for the summer session of my class. You can get started there, or just get the Super Affiliate Handbook.

More soon, Mike Logan