Why Not Start - Redux

Re: [spiers] Why Not Start - Redux

Paul,

Thank you for your kind words... back in the 70's there were many small
importers aroound, and we all helped each other. When there were questions, we
could call each other and ask. That changed over time.

I started writing down questions and answers, and "how to". As I started my own
business, I decided I'd write a book to answer those questions, but I needed to
test out the material, hence the teaching. The topic was importing, because
that is what I know and what the question was, to me anyway.

But you are right, importing is NOT a business. You can import canned peaches
and stack them in your basement. That is not a business. You can preserve
peaches in your basement, that is not a business. When you sell the imported
peaches, or the preserved peaches, then you are in business. So importing is
just a function that many concern themselves, probably rightly perceiving any
small biz is likely to have an int'l component.

It took 16 years of teaching and writing, as a sort of sideline, to produce the
book. (and as a side note, in the last 20 years, the teaching has brought in
about $500,000, working 20 or so saturdays a year, not to mention all sorts of
write-offs...)

So the business has always been important, with the importing mechanics getting
easier and less critical. With the book written, the next question was how come
people don't actually start busiensses as often as I think think they should...
interesting problem.

I think it has to do with polikcy and leadership, and peoples reaction to all
that... so now it is interesting to keep applying the principles in new and
different areas, and study more of the how come and the whyfor.

As to teaching the "existential and practical aspects of self-employment" I
think that will end up in the next book, since I'll need to link being self
employed and int'l policy, which may be a bit of a stretch.

But first I think I'll try to bang out a book called "How Writers Now Drive a
Truck Through a Loophole Amazon & Google Offers: Book Song Film" In essence it
will be a "how to" leapfrog over Print On Demand publishing and become your own
publisher, essentially recapping what I did with my book, sort of a small biz
int'l trade case study. Amazon allows its suppliers to offer books for presale
not yet written. Talk about getting orders before you buy the goods! I'll be
just like Microsoft!

John

John, this kind of discussion is perfect grist for folks like us. I
need to ask you what you believe you are teaching - is it importing, or
is it self-employment? Of course, we know that you teach both, but
aren't they separate concepts?

I wonder if you would be more effective teaching first (I.e., in earlier
chapters), the existential and practical aspects of self-employment.
That is the primary subject of the thread, below. The concept that you
discuss is radical and unique, and therefore valuable and could be a
course by itself.

The importing part of it is the "mechanism" for achieving your ends. As
a matter of fact, it is only one of several mechanisms that one could
use.

The reason I originally found you, was that I had decided that I wanted
to "import" and set out to learn the mechanics. I backed into it, as it
were. And you turned me around.

So maybe your book should be "Zen and the Lifestyle of Self-Employment"
with a byline of "Importing as a Small Business".


On Tue, 7 Nov 2006 11:12, John Spiers wrote:
> Folks,
>
> Enrollments are way down all over in continuing education, and over the
> 20 plus years I’ve
> been teaching that has meant we are either at the top or the bottom of
> an economic cycle. I
> suspect it now means a top (we are headed downward) since the other big
> recession
> indicator, the inverted yield curve, is signaling recession next year.
> Well, it’s about time I
> slimmed down.
>
> Enrollments jump up to their normal levels as the economy is going down
> or up.
>
> Last Saturday I taught in Marin to six people, a tiny group, so we had
> time to develop some
> arguments. One woman presented her case: she has done well in mortgage
> banking, she
> wants to get out, she considers Marin the best place on earth to live
> (I tend to agree), she is
> approximately 40 years old with a hefty mortgage. She wants $6,000 net
> per month, as a
> start and minimum.
>
> She grasped my standard argument, that as a practical matter once
> you’ve decided your
> passion, you then work out what the net profit is in the industry she
> has chosen. Say the net
> was 10%, then to yield the $72,000 yearly income she wants, she’d
> have to have sales of
> $720,000.
>
> We further covered how it is not so much a question of income, as a
> question of lifestyle, that
> working closely with your CPA, the business pays for much, as a
> write-off, in effect cutting
> many expenses by 1/3rd. Also, such anomalous events as pursuing a
> degree can become a
> business expense. (“Salary�? in a small business is rather
> problematical - the more you pay
> yourself, the more you lose to taxes, what any significant other may
> earn could affect tax
> strategies; such issues may relegate “what you take out�? to a minor
> consideration).
>
> The $720,000 struck her as too high to be reasonable, and I showed her
> how in a multi-
> trillion dollar economy it was likely, not unreasonable. We also
> covered how if was
> unreasonable for her, then perhaps it would not be too difficult for
> her and a partner to gross
> 2 times $720,000, or $1.4 million, since partnerships thrive better,
> faster than sole
> proprietors.
>
> She claimed to have a “passion for making money�? (I’ve heard
> this counter-argument many
> times) and she could not see how a “lifestyle�? come what may, could
> trump the security of
> $72,000 net.
>
> Another person chimed in that she had followed her passion, and skied
> for 10 years, and now
> she was poor, no job, no prospects, so she moved to San Francisco to
> make enough money to
> start a company that did fair trade with Guatemala.
>
> We got to the point of the seminar where I point out “we decide what
> field we will enter, but
> our customers decide what we will sell�? when we developed this point
> further.
>
> Yes, it is critical that we love what we do... passion has to be there,
> but it is the “serving
> others�? that is the heart of the alternative lifestyle, not the
> passion, not the money. When
> you take a salaried job with a conservator company, you are exchanging
> your best 40 hours
> per week to further other peoples goals, and you buy as much
> “lifestyle�? as you can with what
> money you get from working, with what time you have left over. In
> self-employment, the
> first moment is lifestyle, your entire life is your “work,�? you are
> still serving others, but you
> are serving up “you�? and a “you�? with your energy and
> creativity unleashed.
>
> The skier demonstrated why passion is not enough. In the ten years she
> was a ski bum, she
> never acted on any of the problems her ski-bum peers acted on, and in
> so doing she never
> helped others. Her plan to help the Guatamalans may be more of the
> same. She envisions a
> very small business selling things made by Guatemalans, organic
> materials and fair trade. I
> wonder if the Guatemalans want the work, or they would prefer making
> silk ball gowns for
> the super wealthy and living in air-conditioned comfort? Do the
> Guatemalans have a say in
> the future she envisions for them?
>
> The important difference is working for others is the world does not
> benefit from your
> creativity, energy, intelligence as it would if you were more open to
> the world as in self-
> employment. The freedom from the restrictions of employment is at the
> same time the
> freedom to answer another calling. Our creativity is tempered by
> interaction with the “other.�?
> The root of the word “obey�? is “to listen, to hear.�? The
> difference is this: in working for
> others, you obey the boss. In self-employment, you obey the world.
>
> She said she understood she was resisting the “Zen�? of my argument
> (people talk like that in
> Marin) She wished she had started the business when she was twenty.
> That when it occurred
> to me another aspect of the problem of starting a business.
>
> There is no knowing what self-employment will look like in advance. One
> of the problems of
> free market economics is it can explain how come government provision
> of roads leads to
> traffic jams, unconscionably high death and maiming rates, and other
> messes, but it cannot
> predict what would happen if there is a free market. We can only say
> with confidence born of
> experience, it will be more, better, cheaper and faster (with “ zero
> emissions cleaner�? and
> “safer�? defining “better�? in the case of roads).
>
> There is no knowing if $72,000 per year will matter, whether living in
> Marin will be important,
> or any other aspect. Self-employment is an alternative universe, and
> there is no way to
> properly pack for that trip since you have no idea what landscape will
> look like. Anchorage
> may prove to be the ideal home after she gets going serving others in a
> field she is
> passionate about. You cannot “know�? unless you “do.�? And
> whether you do this at 20 or 60
> makes no difference at all, since lifestyle is not about age. There is
> the existential angst, or
> where the leap of faith is required.
>
> A stream of stories as to how life might look if you move to
> self-employment might help, and
> of course I recommend Forbes magazine ( http://tinyurl.com/yhr4dz ) for
> a constant flow of
> those stories. I am keeping you apprised of anything I do that may be
> interesting or useful
> for my part as encouragement. There is one piece left to address, and
> that is the fear of
> failure.
>
> John
>
>
>
> Compete on Design!
>
> www.johnspiers.com

Bookmark this post --- Email this post