Granted, there are some businesses with heavy machinery and some aircraft that are made here but those tend to be few and they don’t employ as many people as we need to get working again.

People, you need to get your Congressional leaders going to start opening up funds to create work locally in the cities and states here in the country.  Unemployment is going to run out for people sooner and later and rather than the slow death of people running out of work and money, how about we start turning the beast that is our economy around now and start getting people employed.

More incentives for US citizens need to be employed and work that is in-shore and not off-shored.  Don’t get me wrong, I think internationally but for the long term survival of our nation we need to rebuild nationally.

Tax time is here and the season is over in about five or so weeks.  If there is anything you need worked on, I am still taking clients.

If you are interested in starting a manufacturing company, please drop me a line and let’s talk.

Thanks for your continued support for my Curio & Relics book.  It is going well and for all of you who are interested in more firearm books, please drop me a line because I am taking requests from my readers (since they are ultimately my audience and critics) of what you want me to publish next.

Be safe, sane and have a great time everybody.

Mar 08 2010

Kim Greenblatt

Manufacturing Is Needed In US Now

I have been saying for years that people need to invest in themselves, here in the U.S.  and start their own businesses if they can. 

You can also get some financial survival ideas from by book here.

Be safe people and remember it is tax time and drop me a note if you have questions or want somebody to do your return for you.  I am here to help.

Kim Greenblatt

To Build Up Local Manufacturing

Using shoes as our example, let us say that you got laces made from vinyl and the vinyl was a poor quality or if it were plastic it would start to wear down in weeks.  Do you think that people would want to continue to buy your shoes?  Of course not!  You need to make sure that the initial materials, the raw materials or goods, going into the process are of sufficiently high tolerances that they will make it through and then last in the shoe.

How the soles of the shoes?  Any person (including you) ever have shoes fall apart within months of buying them?  The glue wears off of the shoe sometimes, the material is of hopelessly poor quality and it disintegrates, you get the idea. For ladies, how about high heels that break?  As of this entry, there are new high heels on the market with a foot high heel (though the shoe looks like it has more support).  Can you imagine if the hit of the fashion world broke down in a week?  The designer and his line of shoes would be out of business in a no time at all.

In getting your supply line set, look for back ups in case the source materials dry up, laws in the countries change or the seller decides to jack up the price to the point that you can’t afford to pass it on to your customer anymore or absorb the cost yourself.

Keep your thinking caps on with this and remember to learn as much as you can with the process of getting the materials.  For example if you needed to use potash, you would need to learn how it is found, made, the materials for storing it, how it is shipped and the info that goes with it to make proper informed decisions as to the raw material costs.

Here is hoping that you come up with some great manufacturing ideas and get them implemented.  We are counting on each other to work our way as a nation out of the Depression!

Be safe and healthy, gang.

Oct 11 2009

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Raw Materials

First decide whether it is something for you or not and then start researching what machinery you will need, what raw materials, can you make the item at a decent price and make a decent mark up on a quality product.  Take note of local rules and regulations and note for employment and see if you can get started.

I would love to get a shoe business going.  Something like shoes has no local health requirements like a restaurant where one would have to be inspected on a regular basis (you know, like getting a rating of “A” if the place is clean or a “C” if you have rats taking sponge baths in your soup).  There is plenty of red tape with organizations like OSHA etc but if you get some small manufacturing machines, get them loaned to start with or get old ones and have a knack for repairs you can give it a try.

Think about this – in Japan, people have small robotic manufacturing plants in their homes.  Mom, grandma, and the kids get to work in the development of the product.  In Chinese countries there is a lot of physical labor but there is manufacturing going on to keep people working.  We need to do something similar here to get goods made that we can buy here instead of having them imported and in some cases having them dangerous.

Making something that you can sell and take pride in is a wonderful thing.  Consider all the great and popular products that are now foreign owned that were originated here in the United States.  Things like Levi jeans or Miller beer.  The parent companies are international ones and the brilliant goods started out here in America.  It is true in every country there is innovation but America is famous for it.  There is also the satisfaction of contributing to the economic recovery something tangible versus intangible.  Sure, intangibles like advice are good for lawyers, tax people and others but that isn’t quite the same as a tangible shoe, motorcycle or can of alcohol.  Remember how we use to make things out of paper, clay or shoe boxes?  We still can do that with that spirit of innovation and fun at a higher level if we are willing to work at it.

Sure, the shape of the world may be changing but there is time and room to make money in it even in small, impoverished nations like the United States of America.

Have a great weekend gang.

Oct 10 2009

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Local Manufacturing

1.  Positive Government Environment – That means that we need tax incentives to jumpstart the battery of our local economies.  Don’t be fooled, we have plenty of talent and creative souls who are waiting to start, or in some cases jump back in, to their respective businesses but for them to be profitable, they will need to have the support of the state and local governments.  As of now, I see that sporadically in some states and sadly, California is lagging behind like the zebra that is falling away from the herd.  That means that lions and predators in the form of unemployment and continued financial Depression can gnaw deeply into our delicate bones.  Internally, some cities like San Diego are making a play to get more motion picture industry business into their area.   We are dropping the ball in the Los Angeles area and we need to not only pass legislation to keep whatever entertainment industry is left but to also get other businesses to start opening shop here in Los Angeles.  I get it that the city is underfunded but we need to get people to stay in the city and county and work legally so they can be taxed at a reasonable rate and they can grow.  At the current time of this entry, businesses are fleeing the Southland and even the US.    Folks, please write our Congressional leaders, the President, the Governors and get them to cut our local laws some slack to encourage business to stay and not flee.  I am not saying that we give away the farm in terms of tax breaks because I love paved highways, clean waterways and running water as much as the next person.  I am saying that we shouldn’t tax the poor businessman or woman to death just to raise revenues.  There are other ways of getting money and we really need to float more bond issues.
2. Limited Robotics and Local Labor Employment – Most of manufacturing on a large scale, like the automotive business, is done with robots.  That does not employ a heck of a lot of humans so the type of work that we need to generate has to be a mixture of machines and men.  We may not have to go the pure Chinese model route, where you employ only human beings to hand make goods though that is an excellent way of working towards full employment.  The downside is that it isn’t efficient and employers would go broke with salary and hourly payrolls that they wouldn’t need if they had automated production for some of their work.  Pure robotics doesn’t work because they won’t get the average person working and making money.  Another factor when it comes to robotics is that they need servicing and you are going to need to have some local support in case your machines break down.  You will need to invest in local mechanics or have your staff trained so that they can be in a position to handle programming upgrades, repair robotic arms, fix wiring breakdowns and all of the little things that can and do go wrong with repetitive motion.
3. Remember basic economics, gang.  You need people to make money so they will have it to spend.  That in turn will get people to start hiring and create even more jobs and create an upward spiral instead of the downward one that we are in right now.  Size doesn’t matter in what you are producing – Whether you are making socks by hand, pencils, or high tech circuit boards, the important thing in my mind and heart is for you to be manufacturing something.   Manufacturing of goods produces something in a very physical sense that cannot be stolen virtually and if it is something that people need and can afford at a decent price, you will be set.  There are plenty of companies who have been making pens and pencils for generations and they will continue to do so even though foreign competition has tried to undercut them.  If something is made of good quality, people will pay a little more for it.  In this case, it is worth spending fifty cents apiece for a pen rather than five cents if the pen will last a few months versus crapping out and drying out within two days of usage.  One of the biggest issues with a lot of Chinese made goods is that they were falling apart.  It was profitable to go ahead and buy them only until you realized that you lost money because you had to replace them sooner.  It never is a good idea to go with the lowest bidder if you constantly have to replace products.  It just doesn’t make good financial or common sense.
4. Good relations with your business community and any chambers of commerce- It pays to make friends with the people in your community.  That is an important part in working with people to get them employed, getting permits to start your business and having the local climate work for you in getting your manufacturing business going rather than have it slog along and having to deal with committees trying to approve this and that for your gig.  You also can’t buy go word of mouth relations with your business because that kind of response spreads and helps the community and the world see what kind of great guy or gal you are in terms of doing business with, working for or buying goods from.  Even though the book value of good will tends to be over-valued, the real life value of the situation is that it makes life easier for you, your clients and the world at large if you are a decent, fair businessperson.
5. Limited liability insurance if need be with your product.  In today’s society,  people are stupid and greedy.  They will spill a hot cup of coffee on themselves and try to sue the restaurant they bought it at because they scalded their privates.  You will need to protect yourself as best as you can with insurance.  The good news is that policies for certain things run cheap and as long as you have good training, good safety skills – especially if you have heavy machinery, you will be okay.  Take a tip from old factories and post signs that show how many days you had without any accidents.  Encourage and reward good business practices.  You can always punish the people who don’t practice safety by firing them or let them cut their own fingers off.  I am just kidding about the second half of that last sentence.  Seriously, don’t let your staff lose digits or limbs. 
6. Make sure that you have a clear direction and a business plan for your product.  This should be the number one thing that you should be working on prior to spending a dime on your plans.  Have you looked at all the licensing and reporting requirements?  If there are food packaging issues, have you contacted the appropriate certification agencies or boards?  The last thing you want is to start up a great food manufacturing plant and have it shut down because you didn’t get the appropriate form filled out.  That sucks. 
7. Hire and train people of all ages.  If people are in good shape, willing to work, don’t discriminate against them because they are too old or too young.  You get experience with older workers who will work without giving you grief and you will get energy and enthusiasm from younger workers who are trying to make a buck to buy their cars and houses.  Well, you probably have older employee candidates who are trying to do the same thing but you know what I am yapping about.  It makes for a better workplace than keeping it cliquish.   There is also a great benefit for getting people across multi-generations and groups excited about your business and your product.  There is a reason you see so many ethnically balanced web sites with people of many colors and religions.  We are all different and want to be respected.  If you can get a person’s respect, they will want to do business with you and purchase your stuff.
8. Look for places to open up your factory where you can run all night if you have to.  You may have extensive automated machinery that needs to keep running all night with a skeleton crew.  If some of it is a little on the noisy side, look for parts of the community where you won’t hear the echoes of commerce at 3 am.  Where I live it is so quiet we sometimes hear the trains that run literally miles away.  Canyons and valleys echo like crazy.
9. Use local manpower.  There is a lot of talent in every community.  I may be yakking too much on this but there is no shortage of trained and willing workers here in the United States, here in your state and here in your local city.  Get them working.  They will reward you with good, productive efforts and they will have the money to spend to keep things going in your neighborhoods.
10. Scream to the world with press releases, Internet entries, celebrity parties, etc that you are doing business.  Get people to know that you are out there and you will make sales.  Your local chambers of commerce should help you get the word out and if you can get local celebrities or sports people to come by (especially for free or if they owe you a favor because you loaned them money when they were first starting out) you can create buzz.  Make sure whatever it is that you are selling works.  If you are making shoes, make sure that they don’t fall apart or off of your feet.  There isn’t a profitable thing about watching an attractive celebrity have her shoes fall apart for your business though the hilarity and Internet Youtube hits will make your company infamous for a few weeks.

So get busy.  Keep me posted as to how things are going and we can do this.  Approach your local banks for money with your successfully written business plan and start going with your gig.

Hey, don’t go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

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

 Make Small or Make Big?  It Doesn’t Matter Just Make Something

 My answer is if you don’t have any pressing health, family or other issues other than disgust, my motto is when in doubt, gut it out.   Your question was a unique enough one to get posted because I don’t generally get a lot of ones where people are making money and are asking if they should stop making it. 

 One of the first things I will ask is have you made sure that your lifestyle can adapt to the new changes in getting less money?  People always think they can live on less but one of the first things that happens when people are out of work is that they use all the free time they have and start spending.  Or they start to travel to all the places they wanted to go to.  Remember that travel costs money and if you are denying yourself the flow from the faucet of your business you may not be able to continue to live in the life style that you have grown accustomed to be use to.

Other questions you need to ask yourself are:

Is this feeling of disgust a temporary thing because of the economy or have the years, nay, decades finally increased their toll and you want to stop spinning your feet in the rat race?

How profitable in terms of income  are you in your business that you are willing to walk away from it?  Is there anything that you can do to maybe sell off a portion of it or have a relative help for awhile while you take a break?  If something is a success and you are tired from working on it, that isn’t always a good reason to want to dump it.

Have you ever taken a vacation from work?  If not, re-read my question above and seriously think about taking a break before you sever the cord with your income stream completely.  There are countless people who are basically workaholics and that is another serious problem with the Depression we are in.  These people have had to change gears and for some of them upon being laid off it has added years to their lives but they gotcha is that they still need to have money to take care of themselves and their families.  Mortgages generally don’t pay themselves unless you have paid for the emergency insurance thingies that they sell if you get laid off.

Do you have a list of hobbies or things that you have been dying to do?  If so, that is great and that can be something to keep you busy especially if you are a type A personality – you know, a go-go type of person who has to be doing something all the time.

Once an income stream is shut off, it may be very hard in this current economic Depression to get it back flowing.  You stated that your income that you aren’t making isn’t that great but it is still something and not knowing how much you have in retirement, I have no way of knowing how that is in relation to the rest of your finances.

For example, if you are making $100,000 a year with your business, that may not be great for somebody like Donald Trump or the late Michael Jackson because of the cash burn that they go through but that certainly sounds like good money (unless your expenses are $120,000 a year)  in relation to me.  That leads to the next few questions – and these are the same questions I would have anybody who is ready to retire or get rid of a business think about:

How are you in terms for saving and assets?  Are all your debts paid off or under control?  Are you able to hit your monthly bills or are they at a minimum and your savings and social security can cover it?

How are your loved ones, specifically your spouse or wife if you have one reacting to this?  Is she on board or will she want to tear your throat out after the two of you are home together for more than three days?  The general rule is that after three days with relatives or friends you need to separate for at least a few minutes to regain your center and sense of self.  The theory is also known as the Bad Fish Theory.  It means relationships, as loving and profitable as they are, tend to become stinky like bad halibut after three days so you need to go air yourself (or them) out.  When I took a vacation years ago with my sister to Italy we actually lasted five days in close proximity before we had to take a brief time out to get our batteries recharged.  Don’t get me wrong, some people and couples work super together 24/7.  I am not one of those people normally and most people I know aren’t either.

Now we come to some questions closer to the liquidation or distribution of your business:

Have you talked with a tax professional about what it would take to shut your gig down?

Is your business complicated enough where you still may need to plan a year or two in advance to cover license renewals, tax liability questions and any other issues that managed to keep you in the green for the years and in good graces with the IRS and any respective state, county or city taxing authorities?  A friend of mine discovered to his chagrin when he was trying to close his bagel store that because he was in a corporate entity he needed to keep the corporation open another year to completely insure that he clear his books and close out cleanly.  By staying open the extra year he was on the hook at the time for the California State minimum Corporation tax at that time and that was $800 among other expenses he was still having to deal with.

Make sure that you are going to recapture any depreciation that is outstanding and that you haven’t completely taken.  Remember all those great things in the business you were legally depreciating that helped keep you profitable by lowering your taxable liability down?  Well, you need to account for them when you shut down your business.  Have your accountant or tax guy/gal go through the items especially if you have a lot of items that you were depreciating.  You can expect the IRS and state taxing authorities to look through everything as well when you are closing your business.

Even though it goes without saying, you should tell your suppliers that you are closing the doors.  That is, unless you aren’t selling the business.  If you are selling the business, make sure that the contract states exactly and specifically what gets transferred over and what kind of support you will plan to do and for how long.  A lot of people (some of my tax clients in fact) have sold businesses and gone back on board as employees for their previous company because they still wanted to keep their hand in the business, wanted an income stream and realized that they would be bored in their retirement.

That is another point that I can’t stress enough.  Make sure you are busy.  Some people have tons of hobbies and there aren’t enough hours in the day.  The late television celebrity and former host of the Tonight Show, Steve Allen was a musician, writer and entertainer and he was still cranking out books even after he had “retired”.  Because of medical advances and overall good living conditions, you can expect to have a longer time alive so you will need more money to survive and need to keep busy for many more days.  As sweet as your grandchildren are, they may not want to be around you all the time as they get older and want to start dating..

The expectation for the future in terms of interest rates should be, based on what we have right now, that eventually, they will go up and that we should have some nasty inflation.  For the short term to intermediate term, my humble opinion is that for at least a few years, rates will be low because we have too much unemployment and any more slabs of concrete on the American worker’s back will pretty much bury our financial economy.  I wouldn’t count on high interest rates any more than a lot of millionaires who were living off their interest payments who are now finding that they are needing to dip into their principal to survive.

Make sure that you are adjusting your lifestyle to handle the loss of the income stream.  I cannot stress that enough.  Seriously.  I see too many clients who are back in the credit card trap or have maxed out their lines of credit in order to live a lifestyle that they can’t and shouldn’t be living because they felt that they were denying themselves their entire lives.  You can still live some of your dreams, just go about realizing them prudently.  Take some time and look for ways to cut costs and scale back some of the things that you wanted to do.  You can still scale the Alps or go paragliding through the Amazon but you probably don’t want to do both in the same year and you may want to space out the trips so that you can check your savings in between in case you end up needing the money.

Let us also remember to make sure that our medical insurance and any other policies are set up and in force before we stop working.  The worst thing that can happen is if, God Forbid, you get in an accident and are in trouble that you don’t have enough money in savings to cover your medical bills.  A stay alone in the hospital overnight can run into thousands of dollars and a lot more depending on the kinds of tests that need to be performed.  As we age we normally are not getting healthier and the chances are that sooner or later you may need a doctor visit on an emergency basis, if nothing else to take the shark off your foot from scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef.

Have I hammered home enough information and questions that you should be asking

Whatever you decide, I wish you the best and I am sure there are a lot of my readers who are envious of your situation.  Take care everybody and keep those questions coming in.  Remember that the search engines can get you an answer but it might not be the right one for you.

For those of you who have been curious as well, I am working on my next book.  It is coming along a lot slower than I would have hoped but I have been pretty busy with things lately. 

Remember my bees?  I still have some stragglers and I have moved the worm bins off to the side of the house, sprayed the bins and hopefully that will keep the few remaining stragglers (like 30 of them still) from hanging around.  There must be something in the air or the pollen that makes my property Bee Boulevard (no bee trucks allowed).

Getting back to the book.  This particular one, without going into too much detail yet is in response to readers who want me to get more into gaming again.  This time around I will touch a little on video gaming and board types of recreation.  In this current economy, people are turning to escapism more than ever to things that can completely make them forget their financial woes.  There is a resurgence in board games, home card games and of course, there hasn’t been a slow down in video games.  The lower end games and apps seem to be doing well (think iPod and iTouch downloads as well as the shareware versions of small, tightly written puzzle games and different twists on the FPS (first person shooter) games. 

For college age (or even high school age) readers, if you have the programming chops, you may want to get some development (dev) kits and try your hand at writing video games or apps.  It is a great way to make some passive income stream money and a fantastic calling card to have out there when you are looking for a job. 

I am still also on my manufacturing bandwagon.  If anybody has any manufacturing ideas or cash they want to get started in the Southern California area, please give me a call or drop me a note.  There is plenty of opportunity that is out here.  You don’t have to go to Asia or out of the United States to find places to make quality products inexpensively. 

 July 13, 2009

 Hey, don’t go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

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

When In Doubt, Gut It Out

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

I ordered a few days ago a new washer and dryer.  It wasn’t as simple looking as the one pictured here.  I had to get with the units two podiums for the machines to rest on so that Sharren and I won’t break our backs.  After all,  the new machines are front loaders and they are big.  I was able to order them from Sears and they matched prices with Best Buy.  There are rebates to be mailed in and so far so good.   Like most Americans, I looked for bargains and figured after the holidays that this would be the ideal time to check things out.  The upside was making me feel pretty good about myself and my decision to get the goods now.

The downside was the sticker shock.  Yes, our previous washer and dryer were over 6 years old but the motors sounded like they were twenty years old.  That is funny because our fridge is about 20 years old and that is still running great though I want to get around in half a year’s time to replace it with a more energy efficient model.  To get a nice washer and dryer that are energy efficient, manage water correctly and efficiently, dry quickly, etc has run me almost three thousand dollars.  I had to swallow hard when I made the purchase but the hope is that the machines will save me money, energy and time over at least 7 years.  I broke down and got the warranty on the machines only because I have experience with the electronics in machines these days and even though there aren’t any moving parts, fuses, bulbs and sensors blow.  I also didn’t buy the top of the line models which would have set me back another $800 or so for a slightly faster rpm cycle machine and an LCD monitor (something else to break or get scratched).  Thanks to my friend, Debbie, for going along and helping me do the legwork and research in getting the new machines which was almost as hard as looking to buy a new automobile.

In the current economic environment, as people have machinery break down, the first thing they will do is try to fix the machine.  I am all for that.  In the case of my washer and dryer, it wouldn’t have been cost efficient.  The same holds true for automobiles.  On a used car, at what point do you decide, okay, I don’t want to spend three thousand dollars to repair the engine and I will put that money towards a new car.  The plus side is you will get a new car, generally no major repairs for about five years, etc.  The downside is that you are now a little deeper in debt trying to pay off the balance on that new car.  My answer is that sometimes you need to bite the bullet and buy what you need.  Trust me, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea and have scrambled as to where the money is coming from in the budget to cover the unexpected expense.

What price can I put on Sharren and I having to wait hours for clothes to dry or washing things?  Do we want to spend our entire weekends just washing clothes?  Those of you with kids (or wardrobe animals) know what I am talking about.  To be able to have clothes ready in an hour or two is a modern industrial society miracle. 

People know that and that is why they pay for the higher end machines, new machines and last year’s models if they go on sale to replace their old machines.  That tells me that despite the bad news, doom and gloom, people are basically people (like the old song) and if they need to replace something, they will go ahead and do it.  Yes, people will do without but at a certain point, if you are trying to take care of your family and can save time by having a washing machine and dryer that work and can get the laundry done while you are changing diapers, going grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, cooking, etc, it is worth the expense.

Most of the machinery is not made in America any more.  Ah.  So my suggestion is that we seriously look into getting back on track on producing products here in the United States.  America needs to get back on track with manufacturing, creating goods as well as services inside the country.  In the long run it will be a win-win situation for everybody.

The machines will be delivered later today, so by the time you are reading this,  the should be installed.  I will write more about the perils of buying new machinery later on if something comes up with them.

 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. If you like poker, Heroes (the TV series), comic books, Watchmen, etc, there may be some fast links to get you to what you are looking for.

 If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book listed below.  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.

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

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

New Washer Dryer Economics

With the initiatives coming on the table to promote “green” businesses and to get cash into the infrastructure, how about doing something that will benefit states for years to come after the roads, dams and buildings have been retrofitted or rebuilt? 

Put some incentives in place to get green manufacturing going so people can make a decent wage, hire people, and make something that isn’t dependent on other nations to provide us for.  Yes, people will pay for something going the cheapest they can.

But that is usually once if the product they are buying turns out to be crappy.  They realize the old adage of “You get what you paid for” and they generally “buy up” the second time around or return the original product and rebuy a higher end product even if it costs more.

U.S. manufacturing use to mean something and yes, a lot of manufacturing can be done by robots now but there has to be something that still requires the personal touch.  Manufacturing requires some skill sets other than basic high school English and Math and hopefully that will keep people’s brains going as well. Manufacturing can bring a lot of people into the workplace and those people will spend their paychecks right back into the workplace keeping the circle of money-life going and the economy buzzing.

People, once employed,  will be available for qualifying for home loans because they will have steady jobs.  The housing market can regain some of the ground that it lost.  We realize this won’t happen overnight but please, let us get started with something to help out local state and city economies now! Our schools need to hire teachers that will help parents bring home the fact that they need to work to make a living.  We’ve had overall a good quality of life on the whole.  We need to do what we can to raise the quality of life of those who are suffering and sustain the level that we’ve worked hard to get.

Manufacturing helped bring that quality of life to America. 

Local manufacturing bring moneys to local economies.  Make the tax breaks decent but not completely free and companies will stick around.  Other companies are investing in America – land is cheap right now in a lot of places and the government should do what it can to help us get more people investing and working here.  I still think this is one of the best places in the world to live in, Mr. President, don’t you?

Don’t let our nation become a follower instead of a leader as we move forward in the century, Mr. President.

Thanks for your time and good luck with your new job!

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Mr. President, don’t forget manufacturing.

Open offer to anybody who has money and wants to invest.  I am willing to apply my expertise on business if somebody will put up the money to start a shoe manufacturing or any other type of business here in Los Angeles County.  The reason I am picking on shoes as a business is because my friend Debbie and I had a conversation where several things became apparent:

1.  Shoes that are made inexpensively these days break down in 6 months to a year instead of lasting 3 – 5 years (if cared for).

2.  Some of the dyes that are in shoes (as other garments) when manufactured overseas have come back and caused allergic reactions with people.  This is true with clothing and food in general these days.  One only has to read the news to see reports of products being defective or toxic.  People are starting to cut back on goods made in China or places they perceive that the worksmanship is poor at best or deadly in the worse case scenarios.

3.  People in America should start buying American made products where they can and American politicans and business people should do what they can to stop outsourcing. 

This is no different than what the American unions have been saying for years but the difference this time is we need to get a grassroots movement going because we have become too dependent on other nations for our goods and lately, our services.

Right now, resources are getting scarce and with the international community enjoying the benefits of capitalism, there is a strong incentive to make a profit by cutting corners.  To me that equates to shoddy workmanship.  Taking something simple as a shoe – it would be a great way to start a grassroots movement to get people to buy and start manufacturing American again.

We need our state and local governments to start introducing business incentives to make it worthwhile to hire local people at a living wage so they can start manufacturing.  I am willing to step up to the plate to help get a shoe manufacturing business going here in Los Angeles.

Think about it.  People spend a lot of time on their feet and how many times have you noticed when you buy cheap shoes that they behave exactly like what they are – cheap shoes.  The material falls apart, glue dissolves and your nice covered shoe looks like it is in a torn sandal.

If somebody is willing to bring cash to the table, I will work with them getting a shoe business going.  People realize at a certain point that you really get what you pay for.  If you are paying pennies for a pair of shoes, you get a pair of shoes that was made less than pennies.  How well do you think something like that will last?

The flip side is that you shouldn’t have to spend $120 for a pair of tennis shoes or designer sneakers and have them fall apart in under a year.  Back in the prehistoric days, you bought a pair of shoes (once your feet stopped growing) and they were expected to last a couple of years. 

Like a car.

Like a washing machine.

I am open to advising on other types of business as well.  If there is any other type of business that somebody with money wants to approach me with, if you are looking to make it in America, I am available for consulting.

There are people here who are good workers, can make quality products at a reasonable wage, and you can make a profitable return on your investment.

A win-win situation for these economic times!

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

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Looking for investors to manufacture shoes or anything else.