Small Business Boomers

Give credit where it is due.  The Feds seem to have jawboned some major players into a broad response to the problems generated by the sub-prime mortgage bubble.   Originally, Paulson at the Treasury was willing to let the markets work things out, but he eventually saw that this was impractical based on the volume of loans involved. 
The big hurddle appears to have been the holders of the securitized mortgages.  They wanted all the interest they signed for.  However, they seem to be coming to the realization that there is now substantial risk of getting no interest at all.  On top of …read more

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I was Stumbling around and found a site called BoomJ which bills itself as a “Lifestyle” site for Baby Boomers and Generation Jones. Generation Jones? I had never heard of it. So of course I had to check it out.
Wikipedia says Generation Jones describes people in the second half of the Baby Boom generation. According to marketing demographic experts, the Baby Boom generation includes people born from the mid 1950s to the mid 1960’s.  The connotation is that they are a “lost” generation somewhere between the Boomers and the Gen X’ers.   Don’t you just love …read more

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Something is wrong with MicroSoft.  Latest tests of its Vista operating system show that it is not as productive as the old MicroSoft operating system XP.  That’s not to say that it does not have the level of productivity that Apple’s new operating system, Leopard, has, it doesn’t even match up well with its own old one.  This does say whole bunches about MicroSoft as a company.
It says that Apple has learned how to apply the lessons of the iPod to other parts of its business.  It is able to produce products in other areas of its business that offer more productivity to the market place …read more

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As we wrap up the year 2007, and in the midst of a busy holiday season, small business owners need to be thinking about what they can do to minimize taxes and maximize profits. Over the next few weeks, we’ll talk about what steps you can take to wrap up your financial year.
Here is the first idea, courtesy of a comment from Duke Adams at Crest Capital.
You might be considering the purchase of equipment for your business. I’ve been looking at a new laptop, since mine is a couple of years old. The IRS just recently increased …read more

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Recently, the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council released its rating of the various states by what it measures as the best environment for small businesses and entrepreneurs.  http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/16/smbusiness/SBE_states_lists.fsb/index.htm  Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council’s Unfortunately the big criteria is low business taxes. 
The major criteria I would use is the mass of highly educated and trained people.  The critical mass of entrepreneurial thinking and the availability of high class talent is related to the people in a location not taxes.  As a matter of fact 2 of the states most successful in generating entrepreneurial businesses are listed in the 10 worst states in …read more

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From now until December 25, most of us spend way too much time thinking about (1) what we’d like to get for Christmas, and (2) what to get for those people we care about and/or need to get something for.
Speaking as a baby boomer, I can tell you what we would like:
1) Something for our hobby addiction.  Baby boomers have more disposable time and more disposable income than we ever did before.  And we enjoy spending time with hobbies.  Think multiple hobbies, for many of us.  Mine is quilting, which should serve as an example. While we probably already have …read more

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Maybe you have heard of the $100 laptop for developing countries.  It was the brainchild of Prof. Nicholas Negroponte of MIT.  His earth-satering  idea is to provide laptops to kids in developing countries for $100 each.   He started all this in’05.  He started at the UN and got tremendous response.  He was set to sell millions of these devices around the world.  The hardware is designed by MIT using Advanced Micro Devices processors.  The operating system is Linux.  The office software is shareware.
Intel and MicroSoft saw the threat.  There are billions more people out there without computers. than there are people …read more

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For those of you who thought the sub-prime mortgage mess was worse than we knew Banc of America has just put some numbers on it and it’s bad.  When it comes to sub-prime mortgages we ain’t seen nothing yet.  The current rate of foreclosures due to mortgage resets is low compared to the next two that will hit in ‘o8 and about the same as the one that will hit in min-’09.  The flippers and the speculators have been cleaned out.   Next up are the actual homeowners.  It adds up to over $1 trillion in mortgages when you add in …read more

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You may remember a post I did about a month ago about how the best place to invest in real estate was in improving your own home.  I still think that is true, but …  You know all those home improvement shows, Design on a Dime, Curb Appeal and the like.  They show you how you can add value and functionality to your home.  They concentrate on the  improvements that are being made and how that all happens.  There is another side to that process that you never see on TV.
There are really two parts that nobody ever shows you, let …read more

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Here is an article from Forbes Magazine Online that details several types of businesses for Baby Boomers. Note that you will need to watch a PowerPoint (which changes pages with each new slide) to see more details on the businesses. Before you decide to start a business like one of these, take the time to explore and study and get as much information as possible. Also, if you’re looking at a franchise, like “Smooth Transitions,” check it out on Franchise Pick.
Some of these were interesting to me (like the organizing business) and some weren’t (like the limo thing). …read more

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