I recently saw a millionaire marketer’s post that said:
My friend has this great saying:
“The time you want the map … is before you enter the woods.”
The lesson is basic:
Before you embark on any journey, know in advance how to get where you want to go.
I don’t think so.
When you start your own business, you keep your costs down so as to ensure you have enough capital to make it for the long haul. If you have had Angel investors or Venture Capitalists, you still look out for keeping your costs in line with your growth so that you can get your product into a larger market.
In my post last week What do the rich pay for? about what the rich really do pay for I shared that they pay for the expensive stuff which leads to investments to reduce the price of the product so that others can afford it. Now let’s look at the other end of the money spectrum, the poor.
When you think of the poor what brings to mind most of the time his children in Africa or other Third World country with distended bellies and flies surrounding their eyes and mouth. You also think of running around barefoot on a dirt road next to a shack that with pieces of cardboard, metal, plastic, or scraps of wood put together to create a shelter from the elements. You also get the vision of mountains of trash with kids digging through trash to look for food to eat or other things to sell turn enough money to buy food. You’re also reminded of the devastating aftermath of Japan’s recent earthquake and tsunami. This post is not about lessening these problems or that we should not help, we should and as human beings we should take responsibility to provide help. But this post is about a different poor.
Let’s start with watching this, it’s only four minutes long.
Image via Wikipedia
When you hear about entrepreneurs who start up new companies, you may not realize that our US history has stories to tell of entrepreneurs and what they went through. Below is an hour long speech about the supposed “Robber Barons” regarding steamships and railroads and both the US government’s subsidies of them and what it cost the US taxpayers. In some cases Congress STILL considered that some companies were “too big to fail” and kept using taxpayer money to keep thing afloat, but in the end, entrepreneurs won out.
If you want to read about Vanderbilt or Rockefeller, read the books “The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbit” and Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller.” On page 200 in the biography about Vanderbilt you see how investing in steam engine technology called the “walking beam engine” affected both fuel consumption and hull design, and with a smaller engine he was able to save valuable operating expenses and thus lower is costs thereby make more profit and/or lower prices to gain more market share.
What most people do not realize is that to start a business can be easy, but a government with laws and regulations can hinder and even prevent you from following your dream. It’s called the barrier to entry. How much does it cost, in time and money, for you just to get started selling your products and services, let alone sell and profit from your first sales?
Dozens of new criminal laws pass Congress every year. Many include prison time and heavy fines for conduct that most citizens would never guess is prohibited.
Here is a great infographic of our nations laws.
Startup entrepreneurs have a unique history in the US compared with other nations. While our Native Americans had their way of life, the pilgrims brought with them a new idea on how to start a nation. They wanted to reengineer how a government works for the people. While we finally got it right with our Constitution and Bill of Rights, during the middle 1800s this new entrepreneurship took hold and gave us an enormous opportunity for growth.
What type of economic environment helps entrepreneurs and improves their quality of life? It’s economic freedom which enhances our quality of life. Watch this short video and you’ll see what it takes to better your life, so get involved.
Image via Wikipedia
Is this the new economy reality? Read this article post from Impact Labs entitled Jobs of the Future Will Not Support Basic Standard of Living in U.S., it’ll make you think.
As the economy limps along and long term prospects of finding a job gets slimmer, people are being pressed into entrepreneurship. The Kauffman Foundation has a post that outlines the numbers, ‘Jobless Entrepreneurship’ Tarnishes Steady Rate of U.S. Startup Activity, Kauffman Study Shows. Here’s a quote:
According to the “Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity,” a leading indicator of new business creation in the United States, 0.34 percent of American adults created a business per month in 2010, or 565,000 new businesses, a rate that remained consistent with 2009 and represents the highest level of entrepreneurship over the past decade and a half.
