Archive for June, 2009

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Keep Depression Start Up Costs Low

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Longtime readers of my books and blogs know that you don’t have to spend a lot of money for a lot of business start ups.  This is especially true in the Financial Depression that we are in right now.

Another reason that I get so much mail is because search engines only work if you know the write phrases or questions to ask.  Without learning how to think critically a lot of people get stumped or swept into the “me too” posts that confirm that spending money is the only way to get started with a business and the crazy thinking that goes along with that.

Don’t get started in crazy thinking when it comes to getting your business going.  You want to make sure that your costs are low unless you are anticipating (and think that part through really clearly) making buckets of cash in your second year.  Depending on your type of business, that may work out for you.  Then again, you really should be careful in this economy with whatever it is you are doing or planning on doing.

Readers write in and are always asking me to help them save money and I end up reminding them that that most business people (or at least the ones I’ve dealt with their taxes) spend too much money on things that don’t need for their business.

Let me give you an example from back when I was starting up my comic book delivery business. I had saved money and was ready to buy a cash register for a swap meet, a credit card acceptance machine and the wiring for it, stock up an inventory of every comic book, poster and pog I could think of. After calming down and realizing that I would go broke in trying to get everything – not to mention to pay monthly fees for the credit card processing service AND a service charge for each transaction, I settled on the following:

1. Preorder of comic books of about $600 of merchandise, trading cards and posters at the retail level so my initial cost with a 50% discount (if it was that high) would be $300.
2. Licenses for selling comic books and working swap meets (my initial source of looking for clients who wanted me to deliver comic books to) – free.
3. Site fees to set up at each week at either Pierce College or the old Winnetka Drive-In swap meets – $10-20 a week for a table so in a month maybe $80.
4. A cash register – $250.

I mentioned this to a family friend and he said, “Why do you need a cash register? What’s wrong with a metal box or even a cigar box?”

He was right! I ended up saving another $250 which I could turn into trading cards which I ended up selling.

I ended up getting clients from the swap meets. Unlike a lot of other people who had jumped into the comic book business to make money, I did not go broke from over-spending with my start-up costs.

In your business, do you really need a plush office?  You may have already had to move to a home office because you can’t afford to pay for an external office anymore.   Is image important to what you are selling? If you are an attorney or in marketing, you might need something for potential clients to see that you are serious. You don’t have to go overboard like some Century City attorneys use to and have marble flown in from Italy and placed in your building!  A lot of attorneys are working from home so that they aren’t spending money that they don’t have and need to borrow to make ends meet.  Not such a bad idea these days, huh?

Think of ways to start up or continue your business that don’t cost money. Be creative. There are plenty of one dollar, 99 cents and inexpensive stores where you can find goods to fill the gap that expensive stores sell. A lot of times the products are the same and you are just paying more for the name recognition from buying it from that particular store.  Lots of people are finding joy in generics these days and if something is generic and works for your business your customers don’t need to know that you aren’t using the “name brand” that they might be expecting.  Let’s face it though, people would probably respect you more if you do business showing that you are saving money and not blowing cash on labels for clothes that don’t matter if you are running a car wash or discount shoe sales business.

Little things like that may sound cheap but if you are starting up from scratch, trying to take care of a family of four, have a special needs daughter or any or all of the above, you want to make every penny count. It will pay off down the line as well because other business people will respect you for watching your money. Potential investors will see that you can be trusted with money and won’t blow it all for things that won’t help your business.  If you can find people with cash to invest in your business these days they are worth their weight in gold.  Don’t kid yourself, there is plenty of investment money – it is just on the sidelines waiting to see where they should put it.

One last point. Nothing beats natural “word of mouth” advertising. The internet allows people to voice their opinion and tell you about goods and services. Sometimes some of the feedback systems can be manipulated but if you read between the lines, take the time to e-mail people or just ask your friends, you will see that honesty in business is rewarded with repeat business!

If you make a good product or offer a good service, people will come back (if they have the money). Not only is it a great and profitable idea (like the great and powerful Oz?), it will happen without you spending a cent (or euro, etc)!

For something that costs more than free, please check out one of my books from my site! 

And before I forget – Happy Birthday, Edy!

June 18 2009

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Keep Depression Start Up Costs Low

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Posted in Business | 5 Comments »

Ask the L.A. Lakers For A Business Loan

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Question for Kim:”I need start up cash.  How can I get money in this environment to get my business off the ground?  Thanks.”

My answer is you may want to consider approaching the L.A. Lakers.  The players just won the whole deal and they will be flush with commercial offers, endorsement money and barring any addiction problems should have plenty of cash to investment in businesses.  Maybe—yours.

Naw, I am kidding.  They probably won’t and they have layers of managers who generally prevent people from pitching them ideas day and night or if they were smart, they should have people like that filtering deals for them.  So how do you go about getting money to start your business?

If you are planning on starting a business, or running one already, you know that you may need extra money to start up or expand.  That is where having credit comes in.  Credit is basically where a bank, a credit card company or some lending institution (or person) gives you money with the promise that you will pay it back with a fixed interest rate.

The factors that creditors look for are similar and they boil down to the following (thanks to the Federal Government and the Consumer Handbook for Credit Protection Laws for the source of this information):
*
“What Creditors Look For
The Three Cs. Creditors look for an ability to repay debt and a willingness to do so–and sometimes for a little extra security to protect their loans. They speak of the three Cs of credit: capacity, character, and collateral.

Capacity. Can you repay the debt? Creditors ask for employment information: your occupation, how long you’ve worked, and how much you earn. They also want to know your expenses: how many dependents you have, whether you pay alimony or child support, and the amount of your other obligations.  Figure to have three to five years of tax returns and supporting documentation if you already are running a small business in any capacity.  You will want to be able to provide bank statements as well if you are shopping between lenders for your financing for your gig.

Character. Will you repay the debt? Creditors will look at your credit history (see section on Credit Histories and Records): how much you owe, how often you borrow, whether you pay bills on time, and whether you live within your means. They also look for signs of stability: how long you’ve lived at your present address, whether you own or rent your home, and the length of your present employment.  If you have moved around a lot that may not be a red flag in of itself depending the reasons – say, if you were stationed in the military and had to uproot every couple of years because of marching or station orders.

Collateral. Is the creditor fully protected if you fail to repay? Creditors want to know what you may have that could be used to back up or secure your loan and other resources you have for repaying debt other than income, such as savings, investments, or property.  If you own a home, you better be the right side of the mortgage.  If you are upside down and are fighting to make your monthly payments, you may want to seek private funding but be aware that if it is out there that people will want the sun, moon and stars from you and expect you to give up ownership in your business and future profits (or large chunks of it) in exchange for their seed capital.  Fair is fair and if you are anticipating your venture to take off like crazy (good luck with that though stranger things have happened) that may be something you can live with and sleep with at night.

Creditors use different combinations of these facts to reach their decisions. Some set unusually high standards; others simply do not make certain kinds of loans. Creditors also use different rating systems. Some rely strictly on their own instinct and experience. Others use a “credit-scoring” or statistical system to predict whether you’re a good credit risk. They assign a certain number of points to each of the various characteristics that have proved to be reliable signs that a borrower will repay. Then they rate you on this scale.

Different creditors may reach different conclusions based on the same set of facts. One may find you an acceptable risk, whereas another may deny you a loan.”
*
Basically, you need to have your financial act together when you are applying for credit. Now more than ever because of the economy and it is kind of silly because a lot of banks have more cash now than they know what to do with and they are still sitting on it.  The consumer handbook offers information and the protections that are out there but you need to show that you can be trusted with other people’s money.

The weird thing is that the more you can be trusted and the more that you don’t need the money, the more that the financial institutions will try to loan you – or at least that was the case prior to the meltdown in the housing markets.  Judging from the offers that I see some people who have money are getting, their is credit available out there and you can get it, you just have to present yourself in a very positive light and it doesn’t hurt to show that you have the ability to repay it.

It is also a good idea to watch how much credit you need and read very carefully what the terms are of the lines of credit, the loans, etc. You need to know what would happen if they call the loan due immediately. You need to know when and where to go into your credit.

If you are starting a business, make sure that you have this in your business plan. If you are already in business, make sure that you research carefully what you will need to have.

June 17 2009 Mid Day

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime. Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Ask the L.A. Lakers For A Business Loan

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Posted in Business | 5 Comments »

What If Your Business Burns Down?

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

You’ve gotten your business going and all is going well.  What happens if you have an earthquake similar to the one that just hit California?  How about if you have flooding like Louisiana, or parts of Asia?  What about fires?  As unlikely as it sounds, what about a terrorist attack?

 If you don’t have one, you need a solid contingency recovery or disaster plan.  A contingency recovery plan is how to recover, keep the continuation of business and avoid a loss of your income stream.  It can also be how you and your loved ones should react when you have a disaster.  Having been trained in contingency planning, I have seen and been part of the implementation of a lot of systems.  Talk about a lot of details!  The gist of it is, it is better to be prepared and not have a disaster then not to be ready and something goes wrong.  What could go wrong?

 How about the 1992 Chicago Flood by the Chicago River?  How about the World Trade Center terrorist attacks?

 Remember that disasters don’t have to be a catastrophe to be annoying.  Smaller ones could be utility company failures, bad weather, or equipment just breaking down or failing.  The reason that the Year 2000 programming bug (the fear that computer programs couldn’t handle dates after the year 2000 accurately)  was a non-event was that companies spent millions retrofitting, upgrading and reviewing their computer software and firmware to see if any date changes would cause any problems.  If they had not done that, it probably wouldn’t have been the end of the world however you can bet that a lot of companies would get a lot of complaints from their clients if their bank interest statements showed they owed interest calculated back to 1900 on their loans.  The firms would have felt a lot worse if you came in with a bank statement showing that you were entitled to receive savings interest calculated from 1902!

 Your contingency plan should be tailor made for specific actions you need to take if certain things happen.  One a larger scale, certain levels of destruction have to occur before the Federal or state government support agencies are triggered into action.  That explains why sometimes Governors, Presidents and the military are slow to offer aid.

 You should have a contingency plan for your family as well.   If you don’t have one there is some free information further down in the article.

 How do you begin in forming a plan?

 First, get all the stakeholders together and decide what should be kept running or restored into operation if the business (or your family) gets disrupted. 

 What do you need in your disaster or contingency plan?

 1.  Establish a training plan and practice that you and your staff are safe and they are away from harm’s way if something happens.  Think fire drills, flood drills, earthquake drills.

2.  Determine the extent of the damage and who to notify that there has been a disaster or problem (it could be as simple as the power going out in a thunderstorm and your backup generator has failed-don’t laugh, it has happened).

3.  Bring in the recovery team members to get the systems up and running.

 If you are in a customer oriented sales business and have people in your store, make sure that you have an evacuation plan in place and test it periodically.

 Do you have emergency lighting?  Make sure that you have some way to see where you are going if the power goes out.  Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t the disaster that hurts people but things like people walking barefoot in cut glass or tripping in the dark afterwards.

 How about if you get a heart attack?  What if you get a stroke?  Are you the only person who knows how to make the secret sauce at your restaurant?  Are you the only one who knows the passwords to get to the accounts to pay the creditors when you take care of bills each month?

 These are the back-up procedures that you need to have in place to have a sense of depth in your business as well.  You need to have something set up so that no one person (or team) is totally indispensable.    It isn’t good business sense.  Too many firms are depending enough on outsourcing their work and what happens if that particular vendor bites the dust.  Don’t forget to go to the specific vendor and pin them down to ask them what they do in the event of a natural disaster or financial disaster.

 How much cash do you have in reserves as well?  Do you have enough liquid assets to cover emergencies?  What about the restaurant where the man had his men and women workers serve food without their tops on?  Allegedly, he had not insurance.  His restaurant was burned down and now he is working out of a tent and trying to rebuild.  He may be okay with that because he has popularity on his side though a lot of people in his town don’t like what he is doing.  That is an extreme example but you are getting what I mean, right?

 If you can, take steps get what insurance coverages you need now.  Once a minor event like a small flood happens, people start trying to get coverage and rates go up (if they haven’t already with all the flooding going on worldwide in the last few years).

 There are a lot of other issues to take into consideration and if you want specific information, check with the link below or post your questions in the comments section. 

 If nothing else, please take away information that you should have a contingency plan in place for you, your family and business if nothing else so that if all goes well, you will never ever have to use it.

 For information about what to have for your own disaster planning, you might want to check out the free information at FEMA.   They have some great stuff about planning there.

 For more information and if you want to read any of my books, check out the home page or look on Amazon and type in my name.

Be safe!

June 17 2009

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

What If Your Business Burns Down?

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Rather Than Blog, I Would Rather Eat a Bag of Rats

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Seriously.  Even though I am a brilliant and creative writer.  It really is overall a bad way to spend one’s time.

Besides catching your eye with this snappy posting title, most blogging does suck.  It is very hard to monetize, most people don’t really want to read that you woke up, took a shower, brushed your teeth, had breakfast, washed the dishes, blogged everything you just did, went to work, had a danish, blogged about it and wrote “I hate/love Obama/McCain and hate/love puppies.”  Some people just do it because they were told it is a way to socially network and get business. 

Horsefeathers and poppycock! 

The way you get traffic and readers, like I do for my books is to produce content that people find interesting (or at least amusing) on the web.

How does this relate to bad business deals you ask? Sometimes you are in a partnership that you are uncomfortable with because you are making money with it. Sometimes you are in a job you hate because you are making money from it. That is fine and the way of the world but you can do something about it like blogging. You can change what you are doing or at least start on the path to doing what you really want to do.

One client I had use to always complain when we met that she hated her business partner because she was always complaining. They never agreed on anything. I finally asked, “Why don’t you dissolve the partnership?” She said, “I’m making a lot of money and I am lazy.”

Blogging is boring most of the time. Most business deals are pretty boring too. They spell out cut and dry what you are suppose to do and what the other party is suppose to do, what consideration is changing hands, how long will the deal last, and things like that. Both blogging and bad business deals have to be done because it is part of the process of well, doing business.

Eventually, most bloggers fall down and stop blogging or cut back their frequency because they have nothing to say anymore. Or they bored. The honeymoon is over.

The same is true with most jobs or businesses. You hit a wall and things get boring or downright yucky. Well, lucky reader, that is where giving the love comes in. If you want to blog or be a hit in business that is where you have to rise to the situation and start coming up with either:

1. New ideas
2. Greater Energy
3. Different Point-of-View
4. A Bit of Gratitude

There are no shortage of ideas or things to talk or write about. In fact, judging by the internet traffic that is out there, you can find anybody to talk about anything. Just write something and make it original!!!

You may be burnt out and just need some time to recharge. Fine, take it and return to business after a week or two.

You may need to look at things from a different perspective and that will help you with your business.

You also may have to thank your lucky stars that you aren’t starving and as slow as things are, at least you have something going on.

It is true for business as much as blogging. We are going through in the United States a period of change and uncertainty. Money has gotten tighter but there is still money out there for investing and spending.

You just have to come up with the right combination of ideas, energy and perspective to get or keep something going that doesn’t suck and isn’t too boring.

If you put the excitement into what you are doing, others will find it exciting as well. Do what you can to turn around whatever business situation you are in to make it a win-win situation.

 

June 16 2009 Later In the Day

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Rather Than Blog, I Would Rather Eat a Bag of Rats

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How do I read a government letter?

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Question from a reader:”Hi Kim, I got a letter from the IRS and I can’t understand it.  How do I read it?  Thanks!”

My answer is that you could bring it in to me and I would be happy to help you for a fee and it might come down to that.  For now, my suggestion is to take advantage of your ability to do RTL.  What is RTL?  Read the Letter.  Go through the letter very slowly and take your time.  Read and re-read the items and don’t get scared by things that you might be seeing that are saying “We have recalculated your tax liability as $10,000″ or things like that until you’ve ascertained if that is really what they are showing or they are going through to ask for supporting documentation for a deduction to indicate that you really don’t owe them that $10,000 extra money unless you ignore the letter.

Remember my suggestions right?

First, take a look at the tax year on the letter that this is pertaining to.  Go look for your tax return – you still have a copy of it you can get to, right? – and then get your receipts that supported it ready to review and possibly copy.  Go through the letter and see if maybe there is a form that you didn’t get filed.

If it was something you paid a tax professional to do, call him, his company or whoever and go in and get the person or firm to take care of it for you getting whatever else that the IRS may need to support that position that you are taking (or have already taken and is being questioned).

If you’ve ever had to fill out government forms for applications for Social Security benefits, in home support, etc you will know that you are entering a very confusing series of papers and the penalty for not doing them correctly is that you may not get the funding, support or medical benefits that you need to take care of yourself or your loved ones.  The same holds true for letters from the IRS or any other state taxing authority.  Generally the clock starts ticking for whatever the date deadline is once they have generated the letter.  They usually give you 60 days to respond because sometimes people are on vacation, people are ill, they need to get from their financial institutions or business suppliers certain records, etc, you get the idea.

You don’t want to miss the deadline though or their ruling will stand.  So in the previous example if they compute that according to their records you owe them an extra $10,000, it will stick.  Now if you haven’t had enough taxes withheld through the year and haven’t paid any quarterly taxes you may be owing the government money. If that is the case, you need to talk with your tax professional and if you don’t have one, drop me a post and I can tell you during tax season (and now) how we can work together to try and prevent this from happening again.

The best plan of attack in responding to the letter to respond to the forms quietly when others in the house are asleep or somewhere else playing.  If you need your spouse or significant other, make it a time when the pair of you are relaxed.  Yes, I know, you may never be relaxed but that is still something that has to be taken care of because the clock is ticking.  For this one, just try to make time for when the two of you can answer questions.

If the forms response require photocopies of personal information such as cancelled checks, bank statemenbts, social security cards, birth certificates or paychecks/stubs, check on the Internet to see if you can get electronic copies to download and print off if you don’t have the actual records in your house.  One of the benefits of paperless records is that supposedly you should be able to get your information online for several years as backup. 

Always make copies of everything that you send in.  If need be, send in the information by registered mail or courier so you can have a receipt that it was received, especially if you have a time deadline.  If you need to go down to the tax agency office yourself to drop things off by all means please do so.

Don’t hesitate to telephone the agency and ask for more specifics or clarification if something in the letter is vague. 

This same information holds true if you are applying for government services and were denied coverage, etc.  The important thing to note is to read specifically what the situation is and to address it as best as you can.  If you need to contact an advocate, look to see if there are any local free services that could help you at first or if you can, a support group that has experience with this situation before.

Back to taxes:

Remind yourself that you should never ever take a position that is adversarial to the overall tax system.  The positions that I am talking about are the ones where you claim that you aren’t required to pay taxes and that you aren’t liable because you didn’t earn money in the US, you only earned money outside of the US or anything else like that which is clearly illegal.  We all have to pay taxes if you live in the United States on all worldwide income that is earned and the same holds true with some states where there is a state tax and their laws follow the Fed.

You might be able to get international, national or state level credits to help address taxes that were paid to other countries, states or apply to your specific situation.  Those cases are a far cry though from the baloney stances that some bogus attornies, accountants or groups have tried to take over the years to avoid paying taxes.

So the takeaway is read your letters, don’t worry and be able to patiently read what it is that the agency is looking for.  And the parting shot is keep the information short, sweet and just answer the questions that they are asking.

Have a great day!

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

How do I read a government letter?

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Kim, what is supporting information?

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Question from a reader:”Just in case I am audited, what kind of supporting information will I need?  I don’t think my accountant is giving me the straight answer I need.”

My answer is that you might need anywhere from none of it to all of it.  I also will be more than happy to have a shot at doing your taxes for you for next year and on an ongoing basis if you like.   What the IRS or State Franchise Tax Board or any state agency look for are records that were generated from your business transactions.  Depending on what kind of business you are conducting that may be:

1. Sales slips if you are in merchandising or retail.

2. Paid bills if you need to pay wholesalers, contract workers or employees.

3. Invoices (to show that you are requesting payment for goods and services and if receiving these, you yourself are paying).

4.  Receipts that clearly show who you purchased materials from with date (possibly time), name, address, cost and notes somewhere to indicate the purpose of the purchase receipts.

5.  Deposit slips and receipts to show that money that was received actually went into business accounts.

6.  Bank statements and cancelled checks to show that the purchases were made and showed up on a specific business account and you either have the cancelled check photocopies from your statement or credit card entries to indicate the reference number, date and amount to support whatever transaction that might be questioned in an audit.

7.  Excel spreadsheets that you can use with your supporting documents or Quickbooks print outs that may have more of the specifics of your business and how you handle your bookkeeping.

The IRS and the respective state agencies are looking for substantiation that you actually are carrying yourself professionally as a business and you aren’t running a hobby that you are trying to pass off as a business. 

I  talk extensively about Hobby Vs Business in my book, Good Tax Idea, Bad Tax Idea.  The IRS is scrutinizing Schedule C returns very closely because, let’s face it, people have abused them over the years.  There have been a lot of bad ideas in the form of starting a business for the purpose of losing money to just claim expenses, starting a gig to justify spending money on personal things and just plain bad advice.  The US government needs money and they will be looking to the IRS to help generate more revenue by looking at things that are abusive.

The flip side is that if you run your business professionally and are in it for making money and do make money, you will be okay.  In case you may not have read some of my other stuff on taxes, I love paying taxes on income because that shows that I am making money.  Granted, I don’t think some of the tax brackets may be fair but that is coming under scrutiny and a lot of people are hurting and out of work.  The IRS consists of human beings and they do work with people to help them.  I also like driving on paved highways, having giant hydroelectric dams that work and other public works that are built from Federal taxes.

The IRS has been generating a lot more letters for line item audits and there is a very strong chance that you will be asked to substantiate perhaps something small on either medical expenses, a Schedule A item or maybe a business expense, a Schedule C item.

Just go to your records, make photocopies of whatever it is they are looking for and if you need to attach a note, keep the note specifically on topic and stick to business.  Government agencies want their information directly and cleanly and aren’t interested in the fru fru stuff, “I was really thirsty when I put five cans of soda that afternoon”.  If the items are reasonable the chances are that they will be allowed.  If they are excessive – “Five cans of soda?  What?  Do you have dehydration or are you a fly?”  those are the kind of responses you might expect to hear and expect to get the expense disallowed.

When in doubt with receipts and documentation, it is best to err on the side of conservatism and hold onto the receipts for at least three years and if they are small or electronically scanned, hold them for five years and if it involves something that is being depreciated, hang onto it for the life of the item that is being written down.

As I have also stated before, when you are tracking mileage for work or charity, keep the logs consistant and date and time stamp them, use to/from notes, vehicle used, and purpose for the trips.  Good recordkeeping is one of the number one things that I harp on – take a look at the pages on the side of my blog for more Good and Bad Tax Idea suggestions and if you like those, go buy a copy of my book.

If you are in a position where you have most of your documentation but are missing one or two small items for something $5 or like that, the IRS may be in a merciful mood as long as you have all the other receipts and the particular agent that you are dealing with is in a good mood and his or her girl or boy friend didn’t give them a bad time at the breakfast table in the morning.

For big ticket items that aren’t part of your normal business (and even for those that are), you really want to keep track of the large receipts and put them somewhere in a folder or binder that you can get to if you are audited or if you have a warranty on the thing, to prove that you purchased the coverage to get the large item replaced or serviced if something goes wrong with it.  That is the case with some emergency generators, other electronic items for the office and the countless other things that are specific to different people’s types of business.

Hope that helps.

June 15 2009

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Kim, what is supporting information?

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Uninvited Guests and Bees-nes Talk

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

Yesterday after I was digging holes for my California Natives that I was planting in my front yard I saw a bee.  I was happy because with all the talk of bees dying out and in turn plants dying etc I thought “Great, our local ecosystem is recovering!”.    I walked over to the side of the house and when I looked at where I had stored my worm bin (back when I had successfully composted for about two years before the worms died -- primarily from neglect on my end I am sorry to say) I saw that my bin had become bee central. 

 

 

 

My uninvited guests were invited by the enclosed, covered bins that were covered by a tarp to stay cool and the entrance was large enough for them to fly in.  I am sure they have NO trouble moving between levels in the boxes since they can squish through small cracks in houses just the same. 

I’ve called a natural bee rescue and keeper person and for a small fee he will relocate the bees to somebody’s place where they can grow the hive and hopefully not have it all fall out and fly away.  It turns out that Southern California is a great place to raise bees naturally and there are dozens of species that are out here.

I really want to go ahead and try my hand at raising bees but I don’t want to risk stings for Sharren and the kids because at this point, I have no clue how much of the swarm (if any) is Africanized.  There isn’t a way to tell if bees are hostile or not until the hive builds up and they are defending it.  That would take maybe a few months to a year and I have no intention of subjecting myself or neighbors to bad bees-nes decisions like that.

I could move the worm bins to the back of the house and I am seriously thinking about it but it isn’t a good idea because of my previous statements.  I am sure the bees will have a good home.

The take away in terms of business for this is that you can find uses for things (worm bins) that others may not have thought of and that should inspire you to look for new ways to get money.  How many times have you slapped yourself on the head when somebody came up with a simple idea that he or she executed that was something that you could do? 

There wasn’t any magic there -- well, unless you count being open to inspiration and looking at a situation differently magic.  It does seem like it is supernatural once you look at it and realize that it was something there all along that nobody else could see.  The mystics call it insight and it is a wonderful thing to develop.  I pride myself on my insight but I didn’t see the bee hotel hive coming because I thought that bees were pretty much gone this time of the year.  I was very wrong.  There are lots of different species and they are active at different parts of the year.

The same holds true for business.  There are lots of different markets and even though spending is tight and money is tighter, people will still find ways to spend for things that they really need (getting shelter, food or clothing) or really want (their coffee, chocolate or whatever addiction of choice they haven’t been able to kick because it is their one link of indulgence to staying sane).

The trick is to do it successfully so you don’t get stung and you can create a lot of honey for yourself.

I may one day raise bees -- the start up costs seem rather small in relation to the reward of helping the environment -- but I don’t have the time to clean the hive, harvest honey, etc early in the morning or late at night.  Such is the price I already am paying for burning my candle at not only both ends but at the middle and through the wick as well.

The other take away from the bees is that they are industrious and when focused are sticking to one task at a time.  Sure it may not be fun to be a drone but if you are the drone that is doing the same successful thing over and over again and you don’t end up losing your stinger, there is nothing wrong with that.  So that means you may not like being a plumber and repairing the same types of pipes or working as an automobile battery replacer on the road but for now, it is a steady source of income and something that if you are good at, allows you (unlike the bees) to try your hand and skills at something else in the hive.

We all aspire to be Queen or King bee but that particular lifestyle has it’s own issues to deal with.  I don’t think I would want to be cranking out kids all day long and I definitely wouldn’t want my head bitten off by my wife or stung to death as other insects might do.  There is nothing wrong with being a steady worker because the ones that are doing the same thing day in and day out are also the ones that earn enough to make honey for their own hive.

I am going to sit by the phone just a while more and see if the bee guy is going to call otherwise I may be tempted to to remove the bees myself through some self-creative ways.  I would need to find a smoker, a bee suit and build myself a bee box.  Hmm.  Maybe I will wait a little longer to see if I get that call.

Good luck to the Los Angeles Lakers today, by the way.  Tonight is the last (I hope) game of the series if the Lakers manage to win with it.

Have a great Sunday.

June 14 2009

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Uninvited Guests and Bees-nes Talk

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More on the California Digital Initiative for Schools

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

I have some more information as a follow-up to the California Digital Initiative that I commented on from a few days ago here.  I have signed up as a publisher for the program but unfortunately, I am swamped with other work and I need to get information from some writers if they want to continue with interest in developing data for the program.  The deadline for the submissions is June 15 2009 which means by the time you are reading this, it will be past the deadline or there will be other deadlines.  There are (or were at least) monthly deadlines for publishers to present their programs.

Each program has to fit one of their open categories and the primary ones are in math and science.  I looked at some of the offerings and they are okay.  To be approved for the program you have to read and download the course requirements and match specifically what you are teaching with the specific category or topic.  If for example you are showing a video on explaining polynomials, that would be marked off as the appropriate item in the specific box for that topic for (or within) that course.

My take on this is that it is at least a great start and at the very least can be used as a supplement to teaching.  I have seen at the university level instructors using bulletin board type systems for posts, testing and papers.  The problem with some interactive or online tests is that there isn’t room for objection over objective answers that are marked wrong.  For example, on some tests I have seen where the answer to the question about  “What island nation did Germany bomb during World War II and try to invade but never did?”  The answer would be England but the “correct” answer would be “Great Britain” so neither  “England”, “Britain”, or “United Kingdom” or even “U.K.” would be marked as a right answer.  You would have to go to the teacher and see if he would give you credit for it.

Having talked with some people who have tested this way, having taken some of those tests and had to administer tests myself that way, it makes it really tough without the wiggle room that a human being or human instructor at least can give.  That also in a subconscious way forces people to only accept one correct answer to a question which is great if we are training computers or robots (or even the rare android) but not so great when we are talking to dealing with human beings.

Have you read text messages lately?  How about e-mails?  Between hyper-abbreviations and slang, it is a wonder that anybody will get any test answers correctly unless they really read the material, the instructor helps them by emphasizing the correct answer and they get lucky as well.

Maybe I am worrying too much about it but to tie that in with the digital initiative processes, instructors will still need to interact and be a very important part of the teaching process.  Videos are great but somebody afterwards still needs to help the student understand the presentations and in a lot of cases open up the discussions and even moderate them to make sure that everybody gets involved.

From a lot of bulletin board schooling I have seen a lot of posts that are “Me too” and “Yeah, you are right” and that is another reason why I don’t post or participate in a lot of social networks because at a certain point, there isn’t much more I can add (nor others) to a discussion.  Okay, people are allowed to vent but in a school setting I would rather people talk and interactively participate and we haven’t gotten to video classrooms at an acceptable level yet for that to work out.

One quote from Governor Arnold   Schwarzenegger  “…. So that’s a lot of money. And I think that I want to stress here that you can take advantage of this program—schools don’t really need to have computers and laptops. It is better when you have it, but if you don’t have it, you can print out this information and it still costs only a fraction of what
textbooks cost. ”

There will be opportunities for instructors to download courses, etc but for students you better have a computer or Kindle or some reader because just having a flash drive isn’t enough.  If you have to print off the books or large chunks of information for testing, etc, you are defeating the purpose – part of it at any rate – of this program.

If you are interested in having your work published for the Digital Initiative please note that it is free.  You should be aware that you have to take the time to go through the presentation and review process and get that going to be accepted into the school’s curriculum.  It may very well be worth the time for the exposure because I have seen some sites, one from an Australian company of all places that has submitted material.  We need more American and specifically California submissions to get going.  So if you are interested, drop me a post for more information. 

 Hope you are having a great weekend.

June 14 2009

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime. Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

More on the California Digital Initiative for Schools

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Baby Coyotes Are Hungry

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

Have you ever been outside of your home in some parts of California very early in the morning?  In getting ready for work, people have  telephoned or texted each other to let them know not to let the dog out because as they were driving, they saw a small coyote (a baby?) outside of their house.  This happened this morning.  The critter evidently scurried away but this isn’t the first time that we have had coyotes come down from the hills looking for food.  We have had big ones at times as well as small packs during the fires.  I am sure this is the case in other parts of the country s well.

With the fires we have had in recent years, overdevelopment of land and general encrouchment on their territory (and they were here first), it isn’t shocking that the coyotes are moving into other land to look for food.  I liken this analogy to how the stock market works.  When investors are seeing that a particular sector has been eaten up with profits and it looks like there isn’t a lot to short with, the coyotes move on to other places.

Everybody seems to be looking for the next big sector to place one’s money in and they are expecting to short the financial sector.  They may be right on this one only because the market has been pretty positive when the news should be that there isn’t a lot of food for the coyotes to eat.  Actually, if we are going with the analogy it is the opposite in my opinion – we have too much food in the form of cash that has been introduced into the American economy and not a lot of it has been getting into the hands of the average man or woman.  You don’t see us running from house to house looking for cash – at least not as much I am hoping.

There have been more incidents of smaller crimes like breaking and entry or it just seems that way because people are out to try and survive.  Cutting programs that are helping people will only create more coyotes who will come down from the mountains and hills looking to snag the unwary puppy or cat for a snack. 

Coyotes also build packs of stray dogs.  We shouldn’t be creating packs of stray dogs in the form of hate, ignorance and fear. People who appeal to those emotions for people who are out of work and scared can generate followers and we don’t need any more cults or hate groups than we already have, thank you very much.

We can always try to capture or kill the coyotes but they are animals who are just trying to be true to their nature.

So where does that leave us as a civilization?  Welp, unlike the coyotes we have brains and I would hope a little more compassion than the pack mentality.  That may be tested if the Lakers win another game.  The last game in the playoffs resulted in people getting rocked in cars in the streets and the police are ramping up to take care of rowdy fans in case the cinch it this weekend (go Lakers). 

Keep teaching your kids patience and educate them so they have the opportunity to break away from the pack mind, folks.  Take a second and relax and get things in perspective.  We still are living in one of the better places on the planet and even though things aren’t perfect it is a lot better than some places where you can’t even get access to read articles like this or even learn what a coyote is.

So, like the coyotes, we can learn to work together and instead of going after a stray pet that has escaped the house we can work at rebuilding bridges, highways, dams and building trains.  There have been commercials on television indicating that we are coming to regroup and rebuild into a leaner, meaner country.  Leaner sounds good but I don’t think we need to get meaner though I would suggest tightening up our priorities when it comes to helping nations that don’t respect the United States or want to repay debts.

Rather than ramble too much farther let me get back to the main points of this particular story:  We can make it out of the situation we are in like the coyotes.  We have the brains and ability to do anything we want to do.  Let’s work on getting things going so that everybody can make their lives better.

We are a nation of people and not animals and we don’t want things to break down that it won’t be safe to go out early in the morning to get to work or to walk the dog.  Yes, I know that some neighborhoods are like that and I sincerely hope that we can turn our considerable energies into recharging and rebuilding our nation into the powerhouse that it once was where people can walk without fear of becoming canine meat. 

June 13 2009  Morning/Mid Day

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime. Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Baby Coyotes Are Hungry

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What’s Killing American Business and the World

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

Want to know what is killing American Business and by extension throwing the rest of the World into business chaos (at least for the short term)?

There are lopsided markets of consumers and producers in this country.  We have done such a great job of kidding ourselves that we don’t need manufacturing that we pretty much have left the only main resource that we have is consumerism and we are lousy at that if our credit is cut off and we are out of work.  Considering that international markets are looking at us to buy their goods and services I think we have a double problem here.

The first one is that we are cutting back on spending and continuing the cycle of contraction and destruction of resources that started last year.  Despite what people are saying I don’t see anything to indicate that things are overall better.  I am a realistic optimist but that is the cloth I am cut of.  I also don’t tolerate nonsense in explanations of business.  Government is not doing anything to promote local American hiring as fast as it should be.  People will cut back their spending and in turn, taxes won’t be collected and then government will whine and say our collection revenues are down.  No surprise should be there.

The second problem is that without a manufacturing base, even with robotic labor, we don’t have anything to build into local communities and rebuild our infra-commerce structure up from the ground up.  We need more and more incentives to get businesses to move into the State and not away from it.  When I hear legislatures (and California’s especially) complain that their hands are tied, they haven’t been keeping the pulse of their constituency at heart as their first and primary interest.

Folks, write and demand that our legislatures – and this applies to other states as well – start creating jobs, manufacturing incentives and other revenue generating streams.  I’ve talked about it before and I talk about it in my book Practical Money Making.  You, the government, – EVERYBODY – needs a stream of income or wealth in order to keep things going.  If we look at each of us as cells in the international body of commerce, if cells start dying, the organs and ultimately the system goes bellyup.  Think of the cells as us, the organs are cities, and the systems as the State and National levels of our government.

We need to get production going to get money into the hands of people that can keep the flow of currency and commerce going at the local levels before we can get things going at the national level.  This business of top down, trickle down hasn’t worked before and I don’t see anything to indicate that it is going to work now unless there are waterways of cash causing the money to flow down to the people who really need it.  People who are at the base of the financial pyramid are the ones that have been taught to spend, spend and spend and without them we aren’t going to have the grease to keep the wheels spinning.  People in other nations don’t have the income to buy goods and that is why in China they are replacing goods for free as “upgrades” to make room in their factories and warehouses so that they can keep making more product.  This is similar to what happened with Detroit and the car manufacturing but you will notice that nobody gave away any free automobile upgrades to their previous customers (thought that would be one spiffy incentive to get me to stick with a car brand).

While we are at it, how about we go back to educating our kids and getting money back into the school systems instead of blocking it, channeling against it and treating our children as liabilities instead of assets who will be responsible for caring for our future.

Before I get any posts or e-mails, I practice what I preach.  My publishing business is here in the United States and even though my books can be printed internationally, they are handled here in America and the books are written in California.  I am open to writing and publishing elsewhere but I live here, work here and I want to support commerce here.  If you are living in the United States, you should too!

Wow, some rant, huh?

Please try and take some of the above to heart and do what you can to get business going at the local level in your city, county, State and above.  Do what you can to get people employed and working as well.  If you are working, please count your blessings and thank you for keeping the cycle of commerce spinning.

Have a good, safe weekend folks.

 

May 13 2009

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime. Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

What’s Killing American Business and the World

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Business | 1 Comment »

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