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 31 Jul 2005 @ 17:13, by freo7. Entrepreneurs, Money Making
I am so totally smitten by this book that I THOUGHT I ALREADY KNEW and was CONSISTANTLY DOING!! BUT... "Excuse Me YOUR Life is Waiting" by Lynn Grabhorn ~ By the Law of Attraction, "It takes only sixteen seconds of focused thought/with feeling = vibrational frequency to begin a manifestation." HAS NOT ONLY broken it all down into FEELING STEPS!! It has shown me HOW to TURN EVERY ONE OF MY 'DON'T WANTS'....INTO the vibrational frequencies of what I DO WANT in and as MY LIFE!!!!!!
Skip to your own chase and click this link for FULL AND COMPLETE INFORMATION!! article
*BUT FIRST SEE THIS QUOTE from top of page 102!!
"Don't forget that the universe gives us - not what we think, not what we ! speak, or what we deserve or think/feel we are destined to have...
The universe gives us PRECISELY - AND ONLY - what we are vibrating (as) in every EVERY moment of every EVERY day. NOTHING MORE & NOTHING LESS!" More >
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18 Jul 2005 @ 11:16, by swanny. Entrepreneurs, Money Making
The Costs of Consumption
The costs of consumption, thats an odd phrase, almost an oxymoron,
almost but perhaps not quite. Yet what does it really mean?
What are the costs of consumption?
I suppose it means that the current status quo is not a "free ride" and that
there are "expenditures" to the standards and qualities of life we now enjoy
and perhaps take for granted.
Yet exactly what are these costs then?
I suppose the problem is that we don't really know.
We don't really know or appreciate the full cost and consequences of
our consumptive life style. Why? Perhaps because we are only beginning
to wonder where this "free ride" is coming from and maybe where is it
taking us and we perhaps are wondering and questioning
whether that is some where we want to go.
Its kind of the "fly now, pay later" plan and the "bills" and invoices are slowly starting to find us. Find us in the form of little quirks and oddities in the environment and that out of control feeling of.... well....
I don't think we can "control" things to that degree any way but we should try to
manage and "order" our consumption more logically and responsibly.
Money has been growin on trees but we're running out of trees and well whatever.
So then how are we going to calculate the costs of consumption.
It is a very complex situation it would seem. To many factors and variables.
Yet if we don't do this sort of full cost accounting then should we be surprised when the environment starts sending us bills or signs in the form of global warming and early hurricanes and arctic ice cap melts and vanishing species and etc etc.
Is there a correlation? duh Homer what do you think? Well more or less. I suppose it goes back to that law of physics. You know the "chickens are coming home to roost" or maybe its just common sense or reality like you don't usually get much for nothin or you get what you pay for and if we're not paying the full or hidden costs of consumption then walla.
So these costs are somewhat hidden then which doesn't quite go with our take the money and run mentality. Hidden costs? Well let someone else pay them like....? These hidden costs make consumption somewhat problematic.
Why are these costs hidden but perhaps because they are part of the whole and we don't usually think in terms of wholes but only our own particular part at the time.
So doing full cost or whole cost accounting would therefore take some time and effort to determine if there are any hidden costs and what they might be, sort of looking for the environmental fine print. I suppose that is just due diligence if we want to be good stewards of this planet.
Anyway here are some links if you want to investigate further.
and have a "whole" day.
sir
[link]
http://www.free-eco.org/
[link]
http://www.greenatworkmag.com/magazine/between/04janfeb.html
[link]
http://www.greentaxes.org/
[link]
http://unpac.ca/economy/consumers.html
[link]
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 26 Dec 2004 @ 17:52, by ming. Entrepreneurs, Money Making
Hm, I haven't written much here the last month.
Mostly because I've been a bit occupied. With trying to make a living mostly. Yet another time my main contract that was paying the rent ran out, last month. And that's the time when I belatedly realize that I don't have much of a working plan. I usually live from paycheck to paycheck, whether it is big or small, which is first of all stupid. And when it has been coming in every month I tend to get complacent, forgetting that it could end any time. You know, I usually don't even have a real contract. Just a few companies who pay me something every month while there's something useful for me to do. And sometimes their situation changes and they don't need me any more. And it is always "Thank you so much for your great work. If there's ever anything we can do for you, just let us know." Well, keep paying me, for starters. But it doesn't really work that way. A business isn't a charity.
The answer is either that I do something on an ongoing basis to have projects and acquire new projects before the old ones run out, or that I start thinking more entrepreneurially building up business of my own, or that I go get a JOB. The latter being my worstcase scenario. I'd rather not. Jobs are rather badly paid here in France, and, well, you've gotta be somewhere all day. Oh, it would be less work than the hours I normally keep, but I just can't bring myself to put that option anywhere else than near the bottom of the list. Not to mention the difficulties of getting a job where I am, where one ought to speak perfect French and one's list of diplomas is all important.
So, short term we're talking about that I need projects. I do programming in PHP (or Python or C if I have to). Website database stuff on Linux. And I administer servers. I have a lot of experience and I'm very good at what I do. Shouldn't be hard, should it? But where does one actually get projects that aren't just 9-5 jobs? Usually people have somehow found me by themselves, and I haven't done much to actively seek business.
I previously mentioned rentacoder.com which is a site where people put up projects and coders bid on them. Well, last I looked I thought it was ridiculous. People put up large projects with outrageously small maximum amounts. You know $50 or $100 for something I would have thought of bidding $5000 for. And programmers in Romania and India actually take those jobs and apparently do them successfully. Anyway, I now took a second look. And have actually spent the last few weeks doing interesting jobs. At ridiculous prices. But I'm learning a good deal. For one thing I made several pieces I actually needed myself, but didn't get around to making. And then there's the clarity and discipline needed to do a specific job at a relatively low price. It actually often is quite possible if one analyzes it well enough and one does exactly what is asked for. Oh and then there's all the good business ideas. People often lay out their whole business plan and ask for a bid for somebody who can do the whole thing. Anyway, I'd wear myself out very quickly making a living on rentacoder, but I think it will be a very useful experience, and some useful contacts. I probably did more real work in the past month than in the year before that.
But, really, I'd much rather figure out how to be an entrepreneur. And it is not like I haven't talked about that before, but what exactly do I do? And, now, how does it work to actually put great focus into making businesses that make money? I mean, that's what successful business people generally do. Most of their actions relate to increasing what comes in and lessening what goes out. Not that that is complicated, but my priorities have never really looked like that. I find it sort of blasphemous to make profits the primary focus of one's activities. But, ironically, that usually ends up meaning that I spend an extraordinary amount of effort making up for the fact that I didn't make wise long-term business decisions. By avoiding thinking of money other than in the abstract, I easily end up having to think about it all the time, because there are things that need to be paid.
I might be boring you. Most people have it figured out quite well, and don't think it is hard. I.e. having a routine that keeps you having an income most of the time, and making sure you have reserves set aside for slow periods, and investments for your retirement and that kind of thing. It isn't rocket science, to plan for being able to pay the electricity bill next month. But maybe I'm too dumb, or rather, my mind has mostly been elsewhere.
Anyway, so I'm making an attempt of being a money-motivated, success-oriented internet business entrepreneur. Greed is good. Buy low, sell high. Well, at least I'm exploring some things I normally wouldn't explore, and changing my focus. Chances are that I can't be somebody who makes profits the primary focus on my life. But there should be some happy medium where I stay true to my principles and still can be successful and prosperous. By my own design, and not just some of the time, by luck. No reason not to.
I started a second blog last month. I had sort of vowed that I'd never have any reason for having several blogs, but I guess I can change my mind. You know, I need a place where I can talk about making money more directly. And, hm, somehow I find many aspects of that a bit embarrassing to mention. And I had in mind exploring various things I normally would have a bad opinion about, like MLM and internet money-making schemes and marketing. Well, to try some of it on for size, and see if I'd feel like changing my mind. And since my tone in this blog here is mostly quite anti-commercial, there was a bit of a conflict. Wouldn't really fit here if I asked all of you to join my MLM downline or something. I'm not sure that works for me anywhere else either, but, hey, I'm looking in a few different places. Anyway, it actually seems that I'm finding that what I'd write when talking about making money isn't all that different from what I'd otherwise write. I don't think I'll end up writing up a lot of hype with lots of underlines and superlatives and exclamation marks to get stupid, but motivated, people to sign up for some worthless money-making scheme somebody has cooked up. But then again, there might be sensible and valuable things out there, or I can invent some, which can be explained in plain terms to smart people, and which also happen to make money. Of course there is. Happens all the time. Business of any kind doesn't have to be based on lies.
OK, enough qualifiers. My other blog is called Escape Velocity, so take a look. For some people it will probably sound pretty much the same as this blog, but other people might find something here and there to be offended about. Whatever. For me, I put on a different hat when I step over there, so it has to be a different place at this point.
I have several of my own projects that are beginning to take form. More on those later. In the meantime, if any of you have programming projects or server management jobs you need a little help on, you know where to find me. More >
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17 Nov 2004 @ 01:12, by jmarc. Entrepreneurs, Money Making
Did anyone else ever try this one? More >
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 24 Jun 2004 @ 15:17, by ming. Entrepreneurs, Money Making
I still haven't figured out how to be an entrepreneur. It is really what I ought to be. I don't really want to be anybody's employee, at least not unless they pay me a lot of money and let me do what I feel like doing. As it is now, I'm indeed independent, but I tend to be extremely passive about it. I.e. I wait around for people who show up to insist on paying me money for doing something for them. Which sometimes works well, but when it doesn't, I don't have anything very organized to do about it. I'd really like to change that, and be a lot more proactive about it.
Yesterday, at an event for entrepeneurship and franchising, I met a guy who had paid 50,000 euros for a web consultant franchise. It essentially set him up to market himself as somebody who could sell people websites, and then either find people to pay for doing the work, or existing packages he could use for standard functions like e-commerce or help centers, or whatever. And the company provides some infra-structure for that, and provides an image one can borrow, with logos, etc. Duh, he could do the same thing without being anybody's franchise of course. As could I. You create an image for your company, and promote and network, and give people quotes, and then you either do the work yourself, find some software that will do it, or you pay somebody for creating it. Anyway, he was quite happy with his arrangement, and, apparently, having a company behind him made him feel much more confident in doing it, even if it in principle was an unnecessary waste of money. A great business for the franchise company, obviously.
At the same event I spent some time sampling educational CDs and videos about how to form a new small company. Establishing a focus, making business plans, getting financing, choosing a company form, incorporated or not, getting good advice and help, finding offices, marketing, keeping track of the numbers, etc. Nothing big I didn't know. But some of these things are pretty complex here in France, such as the zillion different social taxes one needs to pay in different directions, so it is not very straightforward to choose the proper format. For me it pretty much comes down to that I have to make at least twice as much money as I need to pay myself in order to be able to afford any of the formats, to be able to afford all the social security charges and taxes. Before even getting around to personal taxes. And I don't. It is a bit of a puzzle.
Anyway, on the subject of the proper MBA recommended way of starting and running a business, it is refreshing to then read Dave Pollard's "A Heretical Approach to Entrepreneurship". He's talking about what Charles Handy calls Existential Enterprise and what he himself calls New Collaborative Enterprise. It is a more sensible and centered, but, yes, maybe heretical approach, if we compare it to the MBA way. Do stuff that really is needed, rather than trying to market stuff that nobody really wants. Don't borrow money to do it. Do it with people you really trust and care about. Don't bother incorporating. Make a flat organizational structure without titles, and let things get done organically and collaboratively. Work out between you what each person really needs and wants to get from the business. Create the goals for the enterprise together, and choose the roles that come most natural. Spend quality time time with people. Network effectively with customers and potential customers, and with allies and potential allies, and with coaches and experts that can help you. Keep your own needs and happiness as a priority. Then try to keep the customers happy. Then pay attention to the community around you. You are the guys that make it happen, and it is important that it works for you. There are no absentee owners or share holders or creditors.
I like it a lot. For that matter, I can hardly imagine another way of doing it. But I have to take a hard look at what I'm missing, of course. A clear focus on what I'd want to do, for one thing. And what problems it actually will solve for somebody. And who exactly I'm doing it with. And I'm not really proactively networking and having quality conversations with potential customers, partners and allies. Not that I'm hiding. But I'm not building business. I work on what happens to come my way. Which usually means too much scattered work for too little result, and not much control over making it any different. I know most of the answers, of course, but it is not easy to change one's own patterns. More >
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 22 Jan 2004 @ 11:11, by ming. Entrepreneurs, Money Making
I'm struggling with how to start thinking more like an entrepreneur. Like somebody who continuously sees opportunities and acts on them. Somebody who plays with ideas and resources and puts them together in new ways, and sticks with them until viable systems and organizations have been put in place. That could mean being a skilled business person who starts and runs businesses, but it doesn't have to. Has never worked very well for me to focus on money first, for one thing. Seems to be my lot to do good things that need doing and that leaves the world a little better, and then monetary resources and monetary rewards are a side-issue to that. Shouldn't stop me from being an entrepreneur, though. But it would be more in the social entrepreneur direction. Creating things that makes the world work a little better for people. I'm certainly not going to be the MLM type who pushes products I don't care about. Can't do that. But I wouldn't mind becoming comfortably wealthy.
And, now, there are some ways that successful entrepreneurs, business people and social change activists would tend to think differently from your average 9-5 employee/worker person. The employee thinking is that you need to look good and do good work, and improve your skills and image so that you'll be more acceptable, and to always jockey for position so that you will look acceptable for a job higher in the hierarchy. Whereas the successful entrepreneur is more likely to look at what resources could be available and what one might do with them. And he'll have some kind of drive that will get him to keep at it until something works. Which might include changing strategies or environment or positioning or resources along the way, until it works. Whereas the employee person tends towards trying to keep things stable within a set environment.
Many successful business people and self-made millionaires seem surprisingly to be not as smart as one might expect. Their initial idea might be mediocre. Like "sell my homemade cookies in the mall". But somehow they commit themselves to making it work, persuade others to go along with it, solve the problems that come up, adjust some details along the way. And once you're a 100 million dollar company everybody will think it was a brilliant idea. But what made it happen often isn't really the brilliance of the idea. Rather that it is a good idea, and somebody figures out how to make it happen and sticks with it. Often somebody who doesn't know that it isn't a brilliant idea, or who doesn't know it is impossible.
I have done quite a few things that could have been the basis for a viable business or other type of viable organization. And I've been quite successful in several different arenas. And it is not like I haven't started good things that people sometimes were very happy with. But in a weird way I've always tended towards doing it more as a worker than as an entrepreneur. I do have certain leadership qualities, but usually in the sense that I inspire something to happen, and maybe take charge in solving a particular problem, but then I usually expect to sort of disappear and go back to work. Which gets me in trouble once in a while. I'll have to figure out how to apply my own particular style and skills towards successful ventures.
An entrepreneur type of person is of course not just sitting waiting to be discovered, or just trying to do whatever is thrown his way. He'll go out and find opportunities, try to make them work, and if he keeps at it, some of them might actually work. But he's creating something new, bringing together the resources for making it happen, and testing it on the universe.
I'm sort of trying to convince myself. Really, I'd much rather that I could just sit around and do my own thing, and the universe would just support me. And sometimes jobs feel like that. You just show up and the paycheck arrives every two weeks, no matter what you actually accomplish, within certain limits. So, I'm trying to overcome my own inertia and think differently. Trying not to be a perfectionist would probably be a good start. More >
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 13 May 2003 @ 17:17, by ming. Entrepreneurs, Money Making
For a while I figured I would change my business card to read something like this:
Flemming Funch
Looking for signs of life
Well, in part because I tend to put cool but puzzling titles and bylines on my business card. Puzzling because some people (practical people) have a hard time figuring out how I possibly could make any kind of a living on that. Right now my business card says "Connecting the people who change the world". I don't know if that's something I do, but it sounds like a good thing. And, yes, nobody's paying me for doing that.
So, as to the 'signs of life'. Well, most things I'm interested in concern making life more full and interesting. More life. And I'm interested in understanding better how life works. What is life? Is the universe alive? I think so, but I'd like to understand it better.
You can also say I'm looking for the signal. In most any kind of communication, the information is found in those parts that stand out from the background. If I say:0000000000000000000000000100000000000000 then the information is found in the different part. The 1 in this case. That's the signal.
Likewise in life. If you're just doing the same thing as everybody else, you're not providing any signal. You're not showing signs of being alive. You're wasting God's time, if you want to put it that way.
I'm interested in the stuff that's different and alive with energy. The people who start a green hair culture when everybody else thinks one has to have black hair. The people who think up something entirely different that actually works. The people who feel a different beat and who actually dance to it. I'm interested in patterns that hadn't been noticed before. And the meeting of different patterns. Life is diverse.
There's something free about life, so I'm looking for freedom. People who manage to tap into something fundamental, but yet express it in ways that aren't restrained by old patterns of thinking or unnecessary norms for behavior. Changing the rules. Exploring your range of motion.
And then I'm interested in how it all fits together. Ecosystems are diverse and synergetic. Diversity is life. Monoculture is death. But it is not that simple. It is not enough to just make things different. It is not enough to just break the rules. The magic is in the synergy. How different things work together, and support each other, in sometimes surprising ways. Finding patterns that make diversity work. Self-regenerating systems that thrive on diversified experimentation. Autopoiesis. Self-creation. Life.
I'm looking for small signs, and I'm looking for some bigger signs. Signs that humanity is alive and becoming more alive. More >
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26 Jun 2002 @ 01:50, by alchemist. Entrepreneurs, Money Making
On July 5th 1932, in the middle of the Great Depression, the Austrian town of Wörgl made economic history by introducing a remarkable complimentary currency. Wörgl was in trouble, and was prepared to try anything. Of its population of 4,500, a total of 1,500 people were without a job, and 200 families were penniless. More >
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 8 May 2002 @ 17:06, by ming. Entrepreneurs, Money Making
I've noticed that most people who appear to have monetary success are not at all sharing how it happened. People who have an abundance of money are usually extremely vague when you question them on how that came about.
You know, I'd like most everybody to be successful and abundant and confortable in their lives. So, I figure, if we just shared widely the most workable methods of arriving there, we could all just use those methods.
Unfortunately I don't think it works that way when we're talking about money. Most people who are very financially comfortable can't give you a formula you can follow. Either because they don't know, or because they arrived there by some coincidence or one-shot opportunity that can't be duplicated, or they arrived there through some shady transactions that they would rather not share. More >
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