Zepol Moves Ahead

Panjiva.com, Piers, importgenius.com and Zepol.com are an excellent foil against which to promote the proper way to start up or expand an international business.  I've blogged on them before. Their model is based on the erroneous premise that the way to start-up is to find out what your competitors are doing and copy that.  Find out your competitors sources (or in export, customers) and then just copy your competitors.  That is the way of failure.  The way to begin is to find out what your customers need that they are not getting.  That is building a viable business.

The difference is profound, it is the difference between success and failure.

"But everyone needs lower prices, and I will work for less, and therefore succeed."  No, you will not.  Read on.

Here is an article out of the New York Times regarding Panjiva.com.  The fellow explains the problem:

But a month came and went, and then three months, before Mr. Rosenfeld found out that the manufacturer’s paperwork just wasn’t cutting it for United States Customs. “I lost an account because I didn’t get those bags,” he said. “I decided that was the last time I’d use a company that can’t prove it’s done a lot of exporting to the U.S.”

OK, so Mr, Rosenfeld did not check references.  But that is his job.  And how is getting a list of other importers suppliers going to help?

“If I can see they’ve been shipping at least two containers a month to a company like Purina, I know they’re legitimate,” he said. 

But you still have not checked references.  As a buyer I've always had various suppliers, with a varying degree of satisfaction.  Two shipments a month to Purina does not tell you if Purina has about had it with the supplier, or the buyer is working with this supplier only for the kickback, or whatever else may be going on.  Every good supplier has a variety of customers, and only by checking references will you get a good enough picture.  So Rosenfeld is still not checking references.  He is just paying $1200 a year to get names with no particular benefit.  I bet he could just call Purina and ask the buyer where he gets his bags.  I've done such things.  I think most people would be surprised at how little "secrecy" matters in business.  In any event, nothing beats checking references from its clients around the world for verifying qualifications.

Let's give the devil his due.  From the article we can extrapolate some numbers. I can imagine someone importing $36 million first cost (if true) in plastic bags and moving from supplier to supplier, as much as Rosenthal says he does, can find $1200 value in Panjiva.  It sounds like he would need a full time person just to track down suppliers, so $1200 would be cheap.  But I focus on the start up, and the $1200 would be a waste.  (The story sounds doubtful, the shift to overseas for plastics bags started in the early 1980s, not 8 years ago.)

So the article goes on to speak glowingly of precisely the fundamental error in using such services:

An American meat-processing company shared with him the name of the distributor that provided its super-airtight bags. Mr. Rosenfeld used Panjiva to track down the Indian manufacturer supplying the distributor, and also confirmed that the manufacturer shipped to a large American supermarket. So he visited the manufacturer in India, negotiated a deal, and has been told by the meat-processing company that a big contract is, well, in the bag.

So what is the plan?  Rosenfeld will replace the meat-packer's present supplier, a distributor?  So the meat packer, presently getting a bag at one penny each from the distributor, will be offered the same bag at 3/4 pennies each from Rosenfeld?  Will the meat packer say "o goody, now our bags are 3/4 pennies each," or will they say "present distributor, can you match Rosenfelds price?"  As a buyer, I encourage people to beat my suppliers prices on commodities, so I could keep my present suppliers but at a lower price. Of course the meat company will ostensibly "helped Rosenthal out" with a tip on a supply because Rosenfeld will come back with a warrant for the distributor to lower its price to the meat packer.  Rosenfeld does not get a deal, and the meat packer gets a lower price from the present distributors.  That is how the world works.

I wish they would do follow-ups on these articles.  A deal "in the bag" does not tell us much.  Let's see how all this works out for Mr. Rosenthal in 4 years.  In one instance of a follow up, it did not look so good.

And coincidentally I get a notice from Zepol.com:

The buzz at Zepol is all about U.S. export data. Yes, that's right, Zepol is currently developing phase two of our TradeIQ™ Export database. After launching phase one in August, we are thrilled to announce that the next phase will quadruple the number of U.S. export bills of lading available.

From generating new sales leads to competitive intelligence, Zepol's export data is delivering powerful insights every day. We are eager to deliver even more. Zepol will continue to send updates on our progress and an official launch date as it becomes available.

This is not the way to start.  You must start earlier in the game, and follow the trade flows, follow the money.  The article talks about difficult trade data.  Well, it's not difficult, and I gladly send out a .pdf of instructions on how to get raw trade data, analyze it, and from there track down the best suppliers (in importing, or customers in exporting). Just email me I and I'll send it.

Now this all suggests to me yet another business opportunity.  To wit: Customs pulls the suppliers name from the "shipper/supplier" box on the bill of lading.  (this is partially why, as the article above notes, about half the data is useless). There is no legal requirement that that field name anyone in particular.  Some companies knowing they'll end up in piers or panjiva list their freight forwarder or customs broker.

This does give me an idea for a business though:  asking USA suppliers if they will name a particular source as the supplier on the BsL, so people cannot find the USA importers real supplier through panjiva.

Next, sell to overseas suppliers names of hungry start ups, or scam artists, or whoever, to be named as the shipper.  That is to say broker that field on the form to interested parties who desire to either show up in panjiva's reports, or not show up.

Now USCustoms does need a real entity named in that box, but  in most places on earth a real entity can be a sheet of paper in a file folder.  "Bob's Discount Heart Regulators."  Should be some good money in that.  

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Pho In Seattle

I snatched this from a daughter's website, she being parochial and into good food and music.  It's good to see such young and creative people.


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Hointer Takes Amazon Ethic to Brick & Mortar

An ex-Amazon exec has taken her expertise to a brick and mortar start-up, and there is much to admire.

Nadia Shouraboura is standing nearby, listening closely, smiling big. This scene in front of her is exactly why she decided to leave her comfortable job as an Amazon exec. It’s why she invested $5 million of her own money. And it’s why she thinks — no, she knows — that her innovative apparel store will revolutionize the way we buy clothes.

For a total of $10 million.  I think that is too much to test what is a hypothesis.  It is dangerous to think we "know" anything.  We can only form hypotheses and test them.

The focus on men is based on the simple fact that shopping is an arduous chore for most guys. They’d rather be efficient with their shopping, and Hointer gives them that with a tech twist. 

Retail is theatre.  This may be enough theatre to sustain the model.  A minimalist, hi-tech performance.  Maybe so... but on-the-spot checkout has been done.

“It is strange how little the traditional shopping experience changed over time,” Shouraboura said. “With all the technology innovations, we still dig through piles of clothes, search for the right size, lug stuff to fitting rooms located in the back of the store, wait in lines at checkout counters. Why?”

For the same reason we pump our own gas now.  To save corporations the cost of serving the customers.  Make customers serve themselves.  It wasn't always thus, I can remember when retail was entertaining, the sales clerks professionals and the service enjoyable.  Walmart started in the 1950s, so that model I do not think is "traditional" unless one thinks the universe began the year one was born.

If you don’t like the jeans or they don’t fit, simply throw them into a bin and they will automatically be removed from your shopping cart. You can request a new size or new style directly from the dressing room as well. It’s unlike online shopping, where a customer would have to re-package an item, send it back to the retailer, then wait even longer for a replacement.

OK, so it is self-service, and it beats the Amazon.com experience of inbound freight on a pair of pants, send back for right pair, outbound freight, and then more inbound freight.  Hointer will save that time, trouble and cost.  Or not.  What if customers simply use Hointer for showrooming?  Get the exact right size at Hointer, then go online and order the cheapest price?  Hointer may beat the price of the uncertainty of buying jeans online, but next they have to beat the price of buying jeans online with no uncertainty.  It seems to me Hointer is going after a market where ecommerce is strongest.  Admirable!

Hointer brings advantages for both the customer and the brands. Shoppers can either buy a pair of jeans within minutes, or discover new apparel for hours with the easy-to-use Hointer app. The design of the store requires less floorspace and fewer salespeople, which in turn allows Hointer to offer low prices and carry more stock. The app allows Hointer to track everything in the store in real-time and lets customers rate clothing. Brands can then access that data via Hointer’s portal to see which apparel people tend to try on and not buy.

Feedback to vendors is gold and Safeway sells this to its vendors.  I hope Hointer is doing the same.  I wonder, when you add in backstock space, how much less floor space is needed.  And competing on price I guess is necessary, since they are up against the online option.

All mass merchandising may go this way in time, since electrons are cheaper than people.  But after the novelty wears off, this will have all of the charm of pumping your own gas.

This makes the old-fashioned tailoring shop all the more valuable.  I've been watching one such shop in San Francisco thrive over the last decade or so.  You don't need $10 million to start up.  Just customers.

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How Much Design Is Enough?

Dear John.

As an importer/exporter. How many times have you redesign your products (on average) before selling it successfully?

For instance... How many times did you redesign your glass candles before start importing them successfully to the USA?

a Critical point, this...

Look at the first Apple Computer.  Would you call that ready for the market?



Look at the present one.



What happened?

The strategy is to design your product just well enough, no better, than is required to get enough orders from customers to cover the suppliers minimum production requirement, in a workable amount of time, profitably.

If you design beyond that, you deny yourself an iteration of your item in the market, an exposure that will give you massive amounts of feedback as to what will make the next iteration sell even better.

If you design beyond that, you may be paying for features and benefits to be designed in the product  that the market would tell you are not necessary.

"Enough orders" may be from one customer, or 500 customers, to cover the supplier's minimum requirement.  Getting there is a matter of working on samples until your item is good enough to achieve enough orders from customers to cover the suppliers minimum production requirement, in a workable amount of time, profitably.

Workable amount of time gets to the question of "how much times does it take to gather orders and make the goods, and ship them to customers, in regards to how long customers will wait?"  But keep in mind, people pre-order books not yet released on Amazon.com, and the world is still waiting for a version of Microsoft Windows that is not a net deficit.  You probably underestimate buyers willingness to await new.  In any event, the sourcing and marketing process includes determines timeframes and testing viability thereof with all parties concerned.

Profitably refers to each and every transaction, including the first.  The transaction must be profitable so every subsequent one is profitable.  Now, all of the time, talent and treasure devoted to getting to enough orders from customers to cover the suppliers minimum production requirement, in a workable amount of time, profitably, is sunk cost.  But you are in control of this, it is your education, it is a write-off, and it is what you invest in yourself.  But note, it is not a lot of cost, anymore than that first Apple above represents much in the way of time, talent and treasure.  (The logo was oxy-torched on a piece of metal!)

So you redesign to some extent every shipment.  If not redesigning the actual item, you are coming up with allied products (hats to go with sweaters) or redesigning something in logistics.

And whatever your suppliers minimum is, you never look to economies of scale, you always reorder the minimums.  This may mean at some point you have one shipment in your warehouse, one on a truck heading from the docks, one on the docks, one on an inbound ship, one on the docks overseas, another in the factory ready to ship, one being produced in the factory, and another on order.

But but but, what about volume discounts and the savings?  Great for big business, a disaster a small business.  Email me for a .pdf of a tutorial on that.  In essence, you lose too much in risk-management saving a few bucks on freight.

What you will do, is as you add other items, is also ship those in the same containers, so eventually one container has goods from several suppliers, and you pick up some efficiencies there.

So to answer your question, design is a continuous process.

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I, Importer.

I take money from rich people, and I give it to poor people.  No, I am not in government.  People in government use violence to take from one group and give to another.  Both the rich and the poor are unhappy.

As a merchant, when I am done, the rich and the poor are happy.

As an exporter, I do the same thing, at the small business level.  At the big business level, one takes from the poor and gives it to the rich.  Sometimes everyone is happy, but when subsidies are involved, some one not party to the transaction, he who is mulcted is unhappy

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When Germany Had No Copyrights

Peace, prosperity, education and wealth for writers exploded.

London's most prominent publishers made very good money with this system, some driving around the city in gilt carriages. Their customers were the wealthy and the nobility, and their books regarded as pure luxury goods. In the few libraries that did exist, the valuable volumes were chained to the shelves to protect them from potential thieves.

In Germany during the same period, publishers had plagiarizers -- who could reprint each new publication and sell it cheaply without fear of punishment -- breathing down their necks. Successful publishers were the ones who took a sophisticated approach in reaction to these copycats and devised a form of publication still common today, issuing fancy editions for their wealthy customers and low-priced paperbacks for the masses.

Then came the Nazis.  Read the whole article and see yet again how freedom brings prosperity and how the prison of intellectual property rights kills progress.

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Michigan Considers Secededing Detroit

The politicians in Michigan are considering secededing the city of Detroit.  They would simply liquidate it, and let it dissolve into Wayne county.  A curious event needs a curious word: secededing.

LANSING (CBS Detroit) - It would no doubt be controversial, but the idea of dissolving the fiscally struggling city of Detroit and absorbing it into Wayne County is being tossed around in Lansing.

Now dissolving the legal fiction that is Detroit will not make it go away. There will still be people, roads, buildings and bridges.  Just the claim on those asset by city pensioners will be dissolved, just as a state seceding would no doubt repudiate any ersatz claims the feds would place on it.

This is wonderful!  The very politicians who we'd expect to keep a political entity alive anre talking about dissolving it and making it go away.

So the people of Detroit need only sit tight, repudiate all the debts, declare a free trade zone called New Detroit, and start over.  The situation is excellent in Detroit.

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Does An Education Guarantee Unemployment?

For many this is true.

Mish has an good article on college graduates going delinquent on their student loans.  Employers as a matter of insurance requirements check the credit history of prospective employees.  To note that someone is delinquent on a student loan is to disqualify them for employment.  That is scenario one in which an education results in employment disqualification.

Another scenario is say you "invested" $50,000 in an education.  The cost of the education, as financed, must be amortized over the life of the worker, in this case at 5% (I know, too low) at 30 years working, is $268.41 every month.  And not so fast, that is after tax.  Before tax dollars, that with which you are nominally paid, is more like $400 a month you must command.  In many instances, the $400 extra you require is too much for the employer, or in any event, there are similarly qualified people who do not need the extra $400.  And note, the more you make the more taxes you drain off, so paying you an extra $400 costs your employer at least an extra $30 in SS contributions every month!  It just doesn't quit.

Now normally if you malinvest the problem is solved by bankruptcy.  If you discharge the debt, then you do not have the sunk cost to amortize.  But welcome to capitalism, you cannot discharge student loans in a bankruptcy.

Now, I disagree with Mish that a English degree is pointless.  Mish is a raw talent, but he does not have the whole picture.  My three daughters are happily employed at what best challenges their minds largely because I forbid they get a "voch-tech" education at college.  So one has a comparative religion degree, another is graduating in Latin (she snuck in an apparel AA while in high school, the rebel) and the last in English. What more could a parent hope for? An education is about developing the human mind so it can see alternatives and be a lifelong learning machine.  Any parents who advise their kids to get a business, pre-law or pre-medicine BA should be criticized, and ratted out to child-protective services.  Let the master's degree be the voc-tech degree. Never waste an opportunity to get an education!

An education does not cost as much as they charge, they just charge that much because there are "loans" disguised as free money to be sopped up.  I know from kids in college all that money is not going into the classroom, it is going to admin triple dipping in wages and pensions and gold-plating smoothie machines.  I see a new student dorm with exercise machines.  "What?! You want exercise?!  I'll show you exercise...!?  Today we are going to learn to dig a latrine. Start swinging that pick and you will not notice the cold. Meet my teaching assistant, associate professor Bull Whip."

IN any event, it is not necessary to take a loan to get an education.  Another requirement I gave my daughters was "no loans."  Loans do not make an education possible, they just make it easier at the front end, but at a cost that society cannot bear.

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Cuba Misses the Boat

As Cuba struggles to achieve peace and prosperity, it is studying systems in other countries.

"The experiences of China, Vietnam, Venezuela, Brazil, Spain and Mexico were taken into account, but they were refined to the particularities and conditions of the island," the new agency said.

Can you see who is not on that list?  OK, hint: Deng Xiaoping studied it closely for how to reform China's economy.  Yes, Hong Kong.  Cuba is not studying the one place that has an ideal system for Cuba.

Reuters offers this delusional point:

The recently published code constitutes the first comprehensive taxation in Cuba since the 1959 revolution abolished just about all taxes.

Hang on, when all enterprise gives all proceeds to the state to redistribute, is that not a 100% tax, as opposed to no taxes?

The government also envisions replacing subsidies for all with targeted welfare, meaning that the largely tax-free life under a paternalistic government is on its way out.

...

A sliding scale income tax - from 15 percent for earnings of more than 10,000 pesos (about $400) annually, to 50 percent for earnings of over 50,000 pesos, (about $2,000) - adopted in 1994, remains in the new code for the self-employed, small businesses and farms, but it also includes a series of new deductions to stimulate their work.

Wheeeee! More errant nonsense.  Is not a drop from 100% to 50% a tax cut?  In his book on Flight or Fight of Fraud Charles Adams recount Moslem victors who granted Jews tax-exempt status.  The Jewish elders begged to be taxed, because if not, soon enough, they'd be killed.    Protection money is baked into safety, even if there is no protection.  50% of something is a whole lot better than 100% of nothing.



Now this is headed in the right direction:

A labor tax of 20 percent will gradually be reduced to 5 percent by 2017, and small businesses with five employees or less are exempt.

But wait, if 20 down to five is good, how about even better by going to zero?  If it is good for biz with five or less employees, how about for all businesses?

Cuba has 11 million people on 110,000 square kilometers.

Hong Kong has 7 million people and 1000 square kilometers.  Since people make your country rich, automatically Cuba has the advantage.  There is real estate too, so Cuba could easily become one of the most peaceful and prosperous countries on earth if it were to adopt the Hong Kong government system.

And hey, since in Hong Kong there is no private ownership of land (except for one church), El Jefe Castro and his crew can control real estate and claim to be doing so in compliance with Communist Governance, while all the while maintaining control the good old fashioned capitalist way.

We need a Hong Kong in the Caribbean.  Go Cuba!

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No References No Business

Since I am happy with my suppliers, when I get offers to supply from other companies I get straight to the point and ask for references.  A printer contacted me about doing work for me, unbidden, and so I asked for references in reply.  In reply to my request for references, I received this note back:

As for the customer reference, could we just send you a series of samples we printed for our clients? Our company name and information were printed in the samples, which improves that we are responsible for the jobs. And the series of samples also can speak for us that it’s because our services are good that our clients are willing to offer us all their printing jobs. You know, some of our clients clearly stated that we should keep their information well. So I hope you understand.

As you can see, no references.  You'll also note the contradiction, their name is on the books they printed for others, yet for whomever they printed is to be kept confidential?  Won't the title and author tell me that?  If the name of the printery is printed on (or in) the book it was either after the fact, and thus pointless, or before the fact and then, what is the problem?

Bottom line, no references.  No references, no business.

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While Holiday Shopping, Start Up Your Business

The power went out so I did what every self-employed person should do, I went shopping for my next product.  I have a pretty good idea what it is, so I am trying to find out if it already exists, and of course if it does, then I can go on to something else.  No point in reinventing the wheel.

I also want to find out, if it does not exist, do the retailers think it is a good idea?  If I can pull together enough feedback from enough stores to warrant getting samples, then I will.  What is "enough?"  Well, the more the merrier.  I will leverage named retailer feedback regarding my idea into supplier interest in risking the time and efforts to make samples of my idea, with the proviso I will take the samples back to those very stores to see if I can get enough orders to cover the suppliers minimum requirement.  But I get ahead of myself.

The very process of first walking straight into the stores I would expect to buy from me gives me all sorts of insights.  The item in this case is a sweater.  I've already gone through Nordstrom, talked to a top producing salesperson for about 20 minutes as we looked for options.  He argued I was not going to find such a sweater as I was trying to find.  Also, 30 years in the biz and he had never heard of such a sweater.    So far so good.  And he signed off with "if you find such a sweater, let me know..."  Very good.  I spent some time looking at the labels on various sweaters to get the RN numbers, in order that I might track back where various sweater vendors to Nordstrom get their sweaters.

So yesterday I went a-shopping. Brooks Brothers is not the market for this sweater, at least I did not think so.  Since I have my suits and shirts tailored, which is more economical, I have not been in a Brooks Brothers for years.  I was surprised at the range of clothes and the quality of the materials.  The salesman eventually recommended REI to me (very good) but not before I got the RN numbers for Brooks Brothers suppliers.  I did buy a calendar there, and as he was ringing me up he complimented me on my sweater.  I looked at it, and realized how close my design was to the sweater I was wearing.  this thing is 25 years old with patches.  MY mother bought it for my father while in Ireland and I snatched it before he could get it, just like dinner time.  I had not made the connection between my design and this sweater.  Funny how associations form.

Next out the door I spied a new shop, selling cashmere sportswear.  The wool is New Zealand, but the manufactury is China (mostly) and no go on the specifics of my request.  Now this store would never buy from me, because everything is offers is their own brand.  (Private label oppty?)

Lastly I went into Pendleton, which is USA's top brand for wool items.  Some one needs to be fired at Pendleton.  Although the wool is still the great USA stuff, they are assemblying in Mexico, no doubt one of the maquiladoras.    The selling point of the maquiladora is cheap labor,  and that they have.  They also have poor quality, which shows up in the sewing.  Anyone who bases a decision on cheap labor can expect disaster.  China and Bengla Desh and India are farther and labor is as cheap, but China in particular wins the garment wars because of their cheap management.  Pendleton would not be a customer (I thought they might) and I got RN numbers there too, if nothing else for factories to avoid.

I then went to Chinatown where I had an artisan create a gift for one of my kids. So I actually went shopping to buy something.  Wow.  So, if you ever had the idea you wanted to be "customer-employed" then take this opportunity while shopping this  holiday season to start up your company where you must begin anyway: customers.

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Correct definition for the self-employed.

Our language gets distorted by the very assumption inherent in the idea of the state.  Because our legalist system requires forms be constantly filled out, I never really challenged the idea of being "self-employed."  But self-employed, freelancer, independent contractor are all terms that contradict what I do.  They in no way describe me or anyone else who usually falls into such categories.  But the state in it's role of god to people in a democracy, wants to mediate all human interaction.  The state is inimicable to being customer-employed, because the state has no role there.  since it cannot come up with a term that is accurate, it comes up with an epithet: self-employed, freelancer, independent contractor.

People "employed" by others work to make someone else's hopes and dreams come true, in return for not having to fight one's own battles, for say a steady paycheck, health care, status, etc.  So "employee" works there.  And ask any employer, to take on an employee is to marry the government.

Now people in my situation are called "self-employed, freelancer, independent contractor."   We are no such thing.   I am customer-employed, not self-employed.  My lance is in the service of customers, and it sure ain't free. I have contracts with others, so I can hardly be an independent contractor; without another party to a contract, one cannot achieve contractor status. the term independent contractor suffers an internal contradiction.

The state not only distorts the economy beyond recognition, it does so when it gets involved in language.  It distorts understanding by using badly chosen terms, or even malicious terms.  What will I do about it?  When I am obliged to sign state forms that denigrate my status, I will add "under protest."  I am free to do this, and it has no effect, but it does leave open a challenge to anything I sign.    That'll show 'em for messing with the language.

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Eileen Fisher and Business Start-up

I was sent a link on an unrelated topic which took me to a background site for the retailer Eileen Fisher.  What a beautifully laid out presentation of the company.  While I am most interested in how a company does what it does, there is some reference there to the company's charitable acts, which center on "empowering women and girls," which I am not sure what that means.  In the Eileen Fisher case, it is grants to worthy projects, no doubt all perspicacious choices.

At the same time, I have a I received a missive from Rabbi Daniel Lapin.  You can too.  But to wit:

A poor, impoverished widow approached the prophet Elisha for help. (II Kings 4:1) He asked her what she had in her house.  Ancient Jewish wisdom indicates that he sent her to search her house several times until she finally discovered a previously overlooked tiny bottle of oil.

The next requirement necessary for a miracle to occur, said Elisha, was that she should borrow many containers, which she did.  He directed her to pour oil from her small bottle into the large drums. 

Miraculously, the oil continued to pour from the miniature bottle until all the borrowed containers were filled with oil.

We know that Elisha wanted to help the widow and that he could summon Divine aid--a miracle.  So why did he force her to search her home repeatedly until she found the tiny bottle of oil?  Once he was going to use a miracle, why didn’t he just make oil flow from a tree or other source?

 Furthermore, why make her borrow containers?  Couldn’t the same God who supplied plenty oil also have supplied many containers?

We study Scripture to extract specific life-lessons we must learn from each story.  These seven verses teach us two things about miracles. 

First, in order to trigger a miracle that can transform your life you have to find within your ‘house’ which is to say, within yourself, some small reserve of resources.  Maybe it is one last bit of energy and optimism.  Perhaps it is the last bit of capital you still possess.  You have to search until you find your tiny bottle of oil.

Second, you must have ‘containers’ into which the blessings brought by the miracle can flow. 

Imagine a man praying to meet a woman with whom to share his life.  But other than prayer, he takes no steps to trigger an encounter.  Furthermore, he has no job and no home and is nowhere near ready to get married.  He has violated the rules of Elisha.  He has failed to find within himself even a small catalyst for transformation.  Even if God brings him the woman of his dreams, he isn’t ready to do anything about it.  He has failed to have ready ‘containers’ for the blessing.

We want so many things: love, financial security, health, abundance, fulfillment and more. Yet, too often, we fail to reach deep enough inside ourselves and offer even more than we think we possibly can. Sometimes, we forget to ready enough containers so that our blessings don’t go to waste.

Now, this story has me thinking too.  Here again, a woman is the subject.  This woman is afraid.  She has reckoned her material wealth accurately, and decided this was all there was to reality.  Yikes, down to a small bottle of oil!  And the creditors will enslave my kids. (Since women could not form debts, her late husband left her in this situation. How often do women find their families threatened by the failure of men in our society which has abandoned women in law and culture?)

I see the tiny bottle of oil as the one thing the woman has.  She has decided it is not enough and implored Elisha for help.  Elisha goes straight to the one thing she has, the oil.  He tells her to borrow vessels.  Now think about that.  She is in such dire straights that she is about to lose her sons (and her future) and she is supposed to borrow from others?  Loans at this time carried no interest (usury) but they were voluntary.  Containers were hand made.  Loaning vessels to this woman may result in loss of vessels.  She is in a jam, she must be even more vulnerable.

Here is a hard lesson: being self-employed is also personal transformation.  Yes, you may go bust, but the failure has meaning.  Not some trite "learning from mistakes" but changing because you failed to use your talents properly, in particular, to serve others with your talents.  It is scary, and even harder to do when the system you are in makes you money.  Why change?

In our epoch men have abandoned women and children in law and culture.  "Empowering" women and girls is a response.  Eileen Fisher is empowering women and girls.  Elisha empowered (by the grace of God) a desperate widow.  

In capitalism power, and the illusion thereof, is ever concentrated into ever fewer hands.  This power, or sense thereof, corrupts.  The first bonds to loosen are family relationship bonds.  Perceive yourself powerful, and perceive yourself entitled. Women and kids find themselves on their own.  E. Fisher and Elisha do what they can, by the grace of God.  Men can stop seeking power, stop supporting illegitimate regimes, and get to work providing a value in the marketplace.  Then the normal act of women in business would not be mischaracterized as an act of empowerment, in the face of economic disadvantage.

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USA Choptstick Export To China

In labor rates don't matter, case 193.435.583, USA is exporting chopsticks to China. An immigrant, of course, saves a Georgia town.  Sigh.  350 million Americans and no one here could figure out "sell chopsticks to the Chinese?"

Get rid of welfare (both Romney and Obama versions) and we'll be selling Egg Foo Yung to the Chinese, along with anything and everything else.  We are not competitive because of our economic policies.

IN January our decisions will be made for us, and a pretty good one: gun it out over the fiscal cliff.  it's a good start.  Get taxes and interest rates up to 91%, for a week or so, and clear out the derivatives markets and wipe out the pretensions of wealth.    Then there will be more opportunity than we can imagine.

But war is easier to start, because in a democracy it takes extremely few people to get one going.

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Terzidis On Design

Defining terms is crucial to discussion, and scholars have much to contribute.  Kostas Terzidis has a paper on the etymology of design, as in the word "design."  Naturally, as one who advocates that start-ups compete on design, I am interested in the etymology of the word design.

Let me quote Terzidis:

"While planning is the act of devising a scheme, program, or method worked out beforehand for the accomplishment of an objective, design is a conceptual activity involving formulating an idea intended to be expressed in a visible form or carried into action.  Design is about conceptualization, imagination, and interpretation.  In contrast, planning is about realization, organization and execution."

My goodness, lots there.  I think people tend to skip the design phase.  In start-up people go strait to the plan phase.  Instead of testing a hypothesis, the try to execute a given:  "coffee sells well, I will import coffee and do well."  "This shoe is popular in Paris.  It will sell well in USA."  "All my friends like my jewelry, so I'll import it and sell it."  The product is presumed. Therefore, in the mind of the beginner, they just want to know how to form a plan and execute it.

Well, the design phase was skipped.  Where is the design?  Implicit in the product?  In the instances above there is no conceptualization, imagination or interpretation.   The idea misses your personal contribution. By mixing your conceptualization, imagination or interpretation with say "coffee" you are able to come up with something that contributes to the commonweal.  If not, it is unlikely you'll find any market.

People who get ahead of themselves are easily reined back in.  I simply tell them to reformulate their assumption as a hypothesis, and test it.  Where to test?  With the people they imagine will be their customers.  I've blogged here on this in the case of a fellow developing a line of imported coffee.  In almost all instances, once tested, the entrepreneur finds out there is no market for the idea.  Having saved months and thousands of dollars by not importing that for which the would have later discovered there is not market, we return to what matters: design.

The act of testing smokes out failure early enough to avoid disaster.  But the very act is sobering and informing.  Having been told a definitive "no" as to their earlier presumption, the entrepreneur now has feedback upon which he may begin to create something, that is, design.

Now it is this mixing, in the design process, of your own labor with that which is homesteadable that seems analogous to real estate and property rights.  Mixing labor (creativity in design) with ideas creates a property right in the minds of IPR-queens. The analogy breaks down on two points:  1. Ideas are not limited, like a plot of land.  Although two people cannot work one piece of land at cross purposes, two people certainly can do so with an idea.  2. For land to be worthwhile, it must be worked by the person who owns it.  With intellectual property rights, you are forbidden to exploit an imaginary piece of property.  Intellectual property claims assert that you are growing crops on my land, therefore you can only do so under what conditions I set.  The whole construct is absurd.

Terzidis then continues with his paper, and says

"Translating the etymological context into English, it can be said that design is about something we once had, but have no longer."

Terzidis goes for 2/3rds of his paper talking about design and innovation, which is edifying.  His last third lost this inferior mind, but that is OK...  I often get lost when reading scholars.  There is more than enough.

But reading on, although Terzidis does not make this point, it dawns on me that Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) contradicts what our very language symbolizes.   As Terzidis goes back in time with the word "design" we see design necessarily draws on recall and association, innovation, memory and creativity and its need for recall and even the role of that which is forgotten.

We have words for what we do.  IPR whips words into submission to a regime that is contrary to human expression and need.  Our word for design, and the process it represents among humans, is crushed by IPR laws.

The sooner we get rid of the IPR regime, the sooner we can get back to a productive society.

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