Small Business Boomers

When my daughter, who is now 26, was 17, my wife took her to work with her.  She actually hired her to be a class room assistant during a summer program for 1st through 3rd graders.  It was a morning program for reading.  My daughter quit after the first week.  Her main complaint was that you had to be nice to them.  Them being the gradeschoolers.  So ended any thoughts that my daughter would follow my wife into elementary education.  Later my daughter worked in a day care center.  That cured her of wanting a large family.
As my son says, there …read more

2 Comments

Recently I have seen a number of TV shows and articles concerning physical fitness and longevity of Boomers and the retired.  I’ve been thinking that it is all very good to live longer and be healthier during that time, but to what purpose?  My chances to live a healthy life well into my 90’s is highly probable, but what are you going to do with the time?  Certainly, the U.S. economy cannot support a high population of retired people.
Barbara Walters had a show on recently where scientists predicted amazing progress with stem cells to preserve our bodies well past a …read more

1 Comment

At my last physical my doctor said “Yoga is great for flexibility, but what are you doing for cartio?”  I said, “Doc, you don’t know much about yoga.”
In a few minutes I begin a hour workout with yoga exercises.  This is one of my 3 extended workouts I try and get in weekly.  I do some sort of yoga exercise everyday and have for the past 11 years.
I started yoga to alleviate the severe pain I suffered.  At 52 I was in such debilitating pain that I was lucky to get 3 hours sleep in a row.  I downed as …read more

4 Comments

Recently a web site,  roommates.com got slapped down by the courts for discriminatory practices, see  http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1207219563829for a discussion of the decision.  People are all in a snit about the liability of the hosting website.  People need to get their heads on straight.  You cannot do something on the Internet that is illegal in the real world and expect that activity to be exempt on the Internet.
What this site did was ask questions about a potential roommates/renter that a landlord could not do in person (race, sexual orientation, etc.).  When they were taken to court they cried immunity because they were merely hosting the site.  Users …read more

No Comments

Last week a big name finance guy, whom I never heard of, said that the financial markets are like a thirsty man with ten bottles of water, but one is poisoned and he doesn’t know which one.  Good analogy.  Now, it is clear how to make some money off the current financial crisis.  Find the poisoned bottle.
When anyone says something like the financial market, it means that you are looking at something that is big, slow and sloppy.  When it gets it’s momentum going it is powerful, but at rest you can eat its lunch.  What is lunch?  Making private …read more

No Comments

Are you the job?  If you are then what are you going to be without a job?  If you define yourself by work, well then that’s another thing all together.
My wife has an 86 year old aunt who works for the Social Security System.  Without that job she’d be dead.  Remember Woody Hayes, legendary football coach of Ohio State.  I don’t think he lasted a month after he retired.  Died of a heart attack as I remember.  Off hand, I don’t think those situations are healthy.
When I talk about a job, I mean something you do for pay for someone …read more

1 Comment

I have a programmable thermostat in my house.  It’s just outside my bedroom door.  In the morning, when I get up I turn the temperature up (or down depending on the time of the year).  I do the opposite when I go to bed or leave the house.  It is more difficult to do that simple manual function on my automated thermostat than it is on an old analog style with a twisty knob.  Programmable things are overrated.  I know I’ve been in Information Technology for 32 years.
I had one of the first cell phones in the country.  It was …read more

1 Comment

I’ve recently come across a number of people who talk about starting a business.  They want to know the steps to starting a business.  I could write down the dozen or so broad topics someone should think about before starting a business, but they would be better off reading any of the score or more of the books on the subject at their local independent bookseller. 
You need to be a student of business and particularly the business you want to get into.  A few words from a blogger or some random advice from a magazine is just enough information to …read more

1 Comment

Someone recently asked about shifting operations out of the United States.  They wanted to know if it was good idea.  For a small business in these times I say, no.  Keep your manufacturing and service operations close to you.  The big advantage small businesses have over large ones is that they provide higher quality products and better customer service.
If you are getting beat up by a foreign competitor on price, that price advantage is evaporating. 
 First, transportation costs are going up.  By definition a foreign made product has more transportation cost in it.  If the customer is paying the shipping remind …read more

No Comments

Finance is survival.  Bear Stearns sold for $2 last night.  Eighteen months ago they were selling for over $170.  The reasons they have lost out are wide and varied, but the final straw was that they did not have enough cash liquidity to answer the demands of their obligations.
These are times when risk and poor financial management will do you and your business in.  Now is the time to do the basics right.  Cut costs.  Collect what is owed you quickly.  Get after notorious slow payers immediately.  Pay what you owe slowly.  Meet all you financial obligations to the letter.  …read more

2 Comments