The economic trends of moving to an Internet economy are making a serious impact on brick and mortar businesses. It seems every newspaper in the nation reports the jumping surge of e-commerce. Last Christmas (06) a report was given that almost 50% of Christmas shopping was done online.
The change in shopping habits is creating a boom in Internet retailers like Amazon, E-bay and Mydotbiz.biz. But for regular retailers like Costco, K-mart and many others who are staying the course, they are beginning to rush towards decline.
So what are companies doing to cut fat and run leaner just to stay in business?
Companies are reducing or eliminating medical benefits. The biggest expense every company faces is employee wages. The greatest aspect of employees that can be cut is medical benefits. As an industry, companies are expected within the next 2 – 7 years to cut medical benefits from their employee offerings. As far as I know, there will be no financial compensation in return.
What does this mean to the common employee?
Well, base-rate medical insurance for a family of four is around $800 per month. For good medical insurance it costs around $1200 per month. For exceptional insurance the layout could be as much as $2500 every month. I understand the prospect of making an additional $10 - $20,000 a year in raises is not likely for most employees.
What is happening is people are looking to build a home-based business for both tax advantages and generating a niche on the Internet for residual income. If you are interested in becoming a defensive entrepreneur because of the attacks that are coming, feel free to email me your contact information at scott@coombe.biz and I can help mentor you free of charge in building a safety net against the big bad world caving in around us.