It is a sign of the times. Given the current economic woes, many people are turning to a second job to make extra income.  Things are bad everywhere with no sign of improvement on the horizon.  The temporary boost in employment statistics generated by the thousands of part-time census jobs has evaporated.  The numbers just keep getting worse. Here in Florida we had a .1% jump, which wouldn't seem so awful if we weren't already at record unemployment levels.  Now unemployed job seekers have to face off against not just their unemployed brethren, but also the employed (and therefore...

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MOSAIC may not be a household name, but they are the world’s largest phosphate mining company. They provide the raw materials that go into the fertilizer that grows the fruit and vegetable products that you consume every day. Last week, they announced plans to lay off over 200 workers from their plant in rural Polk County, FL. You read the headline that a company resorted to layoffs and your logical response is “it’s the economy, stupid.” Good answer, but wrong. It isn’t the economy. It isn’t a lack of demand or resources and it isn’t...

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All small business owners and new entrepreneurs set out to strike it rich and live the American dream.  Then, reality sets in and we see there is a lot more to making a business work than having a good idea.  It takes hard work, determination, self-control and passion to make it all come together. I have chased down many ventures that I have been luke warm about over the years.  For example, I looked into a couple of Multi-Level Marketing ventures and tested the waters.  None of them took off for me because I never had the passion to be...

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I have been watching a couple of stocks very closely the past couple of weeks and am waiting to pounce.  They are both technology related, but one is online sales and the other is computer bits and bytes.  Overstock.com and Cirrus are my picks for this week. I am going to start with my favorite, Overstock.com or NASDAQ: OSTK.  At the time of this article it is trading around $22.94 and is riding the price roller coaster between $22 and $23 with change.  The 52-week high is at $26.50 and I expect it to take off to the low $30...

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There was much hullabaloo this week over Apple’s decision to ban all pornographic applications from their app store. Porn-addicts around the nation huddled in Internet chat rooms and decried Apple for abridging their first amendment rights. Over and over again, in all form of media, the cry went up: “1st Amendment, 1st Amendment”. So, as a public service, I’d like to provide here the unabridged text of the first amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the...

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