StudentDC Interactive

A new (2008) book titled The One Minute Entrepreneur by Ken Blanchard, Don Hutson, and Ethan Willis  (Doubleday) includes a link to a website for the book.  On the website is a test you can take to see if you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur.  The link is www.estrengths.com.

Now, when I took the test, I found the questions pretty silly.  For example (answers are on a scale of “never” to “always”:

11. I marshall additional resources when overwhelmed with work rather than turn it away.

15. Competition does not disturb me because it helps me understand what I need to do better.

See what I mean?  How would you answer these questions?  “Never?”  Particularly if you have never been in a business before, seems to me you would have no idea how you would perform in these situations.  I suggest you take it to get an idea of what characteristics would be necessary for success in practice. In other words, don’t take it too seriously.

Let me know what you think of the test and how you did.

Chiropractors aren’t the only business owners who haven’t figured out the difference between independent contractors and employees. FedEx was classifying their drivers as independent contractors, but they wanted control over them (which means ‘employee’). The company is now the subject of a class action suit by drivers. Read this blog from my friend Kelly at TaxGirl.com to get a better understanding about this issue.

There is not a week that goes by that I don’t get at least one contract that shows a basic misunderstanding of the “independent contrator” status. If you have a contract you want me to look at, I would be happy to do that. Note that I’m not an attorney, and I’m not giving legal advice; I’m just giving you my opinion and pointing out issues that need clarified.