Thursday, July 31, 2008

Shoes

I was chatting with my daughter this morning and noticed a pair of "Steve Madden" shoes and wondered aloud why a football commentator would get into women's shoes. She gently pointed out I was thinking of John Madden. Too late! My mind had already raced to the idea of how easy it is to get a business going... in any field. We must compete on design, it does not take much to do so, as you can see from Steve Madden's website. he points out he started with $1100. Finance is never the issue when starting a business.

The hard part of the shoe is done, and awaiting your design in every shoe factory in the world. In essence, you walk in with your designs, and ask them to but adapted to the three best selling "shapes" or "blanks" or "moulds" in the factory. You spec materials and visuals... it's how ralph lauren started... I developed a glassware line that was based on Libby Glass 2 best selling shapes.


Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Bush Signs Massive Bailouts

Both Wallstreet and banking got massive bailouts today, although they are called loans and "help for families." When in 1998 the Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) speculators bet wrong and lost big, the US government stepped in to bail LTCM out. In economics it is called "moral hazard."

At that moment all thieves, speculators, criminals and good people that just could not help themselves understood you could steal from taxpayers and the government would protect you.

A very small group is protecting themselves by causing you to work for less, forcing you to cut back on quality and quantity of everything you pay for, but mostly you and your children will do with much less opportunity.

It does'nt matter who you vote for (except enjoying a protest vote) but it is possible to run parallel to the system, that is be self-employed.


Tuesday, July 29, 2008

WTO Talks Collapse

And small farmers breathe a sigh of relief. US policy, which favors an extreme few, is being rejected around the world. If there are enough of these failures, perhaps we can try free trade some day.


Starbucks Going Down, Down Under

As companies and chains such as these go under without notice, the reason will be they were trapped by debt.

Be suspicious of any business that grew well in the last 10-20 years. If so, just look at their financials to see how much debt they carry. If they cannot handle the debt, the business will go under. Starbucks Australia is going under for this reason.

Fully equipped restaurants will go cheap at auction, making a new business in the same space viable. Think about this as you build your business.


Why A Designer

Although the idea for the product we develop comes from the milestone # 1 event of us finding ourselves saying "why don't they just...?" We still need a designer to put pen to paper to get something to hand to the supplier and say "this is what we would sell, this is of what we need samples..."

Working on a royalty basis, the designer addresses all aspects of the product from look and feel to function to material to packaging, and makes it something the factory can work with as well as something the consumer can appreciate.

As the sample is presented in the markets, if it is not quite right, the designer has an interest in tweaking the samples in order that the sales my be better, and his royalties more, as the designer makes changes based on customer feedback.

We tend to miss an important element in the make up of designers... they tend to gravitate toward material as well as function... engine designers like metal and force. Furniture designers like wood and aesthetics. Food designers like proteins and carbohydrates and flavors. For this reason they also spec materials.

And finally, importers need to have the product designed in the country they intend ot sell it... in my case anything I want to import into USA must be designed here in USA by Americans.

The last bit of this is the designer and importer contract each other per the royalty agreement I've offered elsewhere. In this way, whether or not the designer takes "intellectual Property rights" (we at the small business level NEVER desire such rights) if and when there are any claims as to IP infringement, under agency law you have no liability, it all rests with the designer.

You merely redesign and move on to what next your customers desire.


Monday, July 28, 2008

We Can, But You Cannot

Of course I prefer a free market in security, but I find it tedious when the govt press critizes China for exactly what we do when it is our turn. Police sweeps of the homeless and undesirable is a prelude to Olympics hosted in USA too. People prosecuted on trumped-up terror charges is not just China, and not just Bush, but Clinton USA, as in the case of the innocent Richard Jewell. Nine years later the FBI managed to get their man, and Jewell died a young man shortly after he got his apology.


USA Blaming India and China for Declining Slavery

The WTO is a set of rules by which everyone except USA must abide. As China and India emerge, they are less inclined to agree to such deals. The Hamiltonian Scheme where the elites of those countries enslave their citizens to provide relative material benefit to USA consumers is falling apart. The event is the Doha Round of the WTO negotiations.

Of course, the proper way to gain the benefits of free trade worldwide is for the USA to withdraw from all trade agreements and drop all tariffs and restrictions on imports. If so we would return to world economic domination within weeks.


Short Squeeze Over?

It is socialist policy failure, not market failure, that causes the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. Recently, the United States government began action to punish anyone who would short sale to defend their savings from loss due to FED policy.

The short squeeze seems to be over now, and the stocks will resume the downward spiral. My guess is the Chinese government is doing the buying and selling necessary to effect short squeezes on the US government behalf, but when the Olympics are finished, the Chinese will no longer help out, at which time the markets will tumble.


Sunday, July 27, 2008

Don't Do What We Do

This is funny: Condeleeza Rice is telling the Chinese to not do what we do: crack down on legitimate dissent under the guise of anti-terror.

By MATTHEW LEE,Associated Press Writer AP - Saturday, July 26

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned China on Saturday not to use its massive Olympic security apparatus to crack down on legitimate dissent.

Beijing officials maintain the Olympics are threatened by terrorists and other extremists and some fear Chinese authorities could use that as an excuse to move against political opponents. Rice and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said any such action could mar the games.

"Security threats have to be dealt with and that is fully understood by everybody, but security should not become in any way a cover to try and deal with dissent," said Rice who will head the U.S. delegation to the Olympic closing ceremonies. "That would be unfortunate."

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Perhaps we should do so first in USA before suggesting the idea to others.