Careers Articles

Incorporation is one of any number of ways to structure a business. These include a limited liability company, an S-corporation and a C-corporation. Each structure has benefits and drawbacks, and it is important to decide which type of corporation works best for your situation, or if it makes sense to consider other options like operating without a corporation or working through an umbrella company.

Many businesses can benefit from incorporation. The main benefit of incorporation for most businesses is that it shields the business owner from lawsuits and protects their assets in the event that the company is the target of a lawsuit. Because the company is established as a separate entity from the partners, the assets of the partners are not affected by a judgment against the company. While the risk of a lawsuit may seem remote, it is actually a major concern for small businesses.

One challenge with freelancing and independent consultant work that you may not have considered is securing business insurance. Business insurance will protect you and your business against unfortunate mistakes and mishaps. There are a number of different types of insurance coverage that you should carry as an independent consultant or independent contractor, each of them designed to protect you from a different type of happenstance or error.

There are some reasons an individual would choose self-employment over working for someone else, but not everyone is willing to take on the problems and stress of owning a business. For some, the notion of running every aspect of a company is more than overwhelming. Those who are employed by a company have many advantages over those who are self-employed. Many of these benefits involve salary and taxes.

Over the years, I have worked with hundreds of key executives - CEOs, Partners, COOs, Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents, and so on. Top business professionals like these present unique challenges to the Career Consultant, because they face unique challenges in their own transitions!

If you have a home business, getting yourself organized should be a priority. Lack of planning and organization reduces productivity, increases stress, and strains working and personal relationships. Precious work time can be lost while searching for things you have misplaced and need. Missing deadlines and important meetings with contacts, forgetting critical details, confusion, trouble making necessary decisions, and business failure, are common problems for those working from home that are not organized.

The term "freelance" comes from the works of Sir Walter Scott and refers to traveling knights offering their services in battle to noblemen for a fee. This colorful designation is now used for independent contractors who offer their services to companies but are not officially employed by them. The freelancer is free to work in whatever manner they would like in order to accomplish the task given to them.

Being your own boss is certainly rewarding, but few people think about the extra work of preparing invoices and tax forms. Independent contractors need to be aware that being independent of the client company is a special tax situation, and they will need to file differently with Internal Revenue Service than they might have in the past.

If you are considering an advanced education in the nursing field, you probably have a lot of questions about where this occupation could take you. Not all nurses are the same, and choosing just one area for a specialty can be extremely difficult. From long-term care to emergency room nursing and everything in between, learning about different options available is crucial to your search for the nursing specialty that is best suited to your strengths.

The nursing shortage in the United States is estimated between 340,000 to over a million nurses. Many of the nurses that are leaving the field are management and faculty nurses needed by nursing schools for training the new crop of nursing graduates.