End the ExIm Bank

When there is a call to get rid of the harmful Ex-Im Bank, that is not enough.  There needs to be a trap door: when out never back.

Conservative senators, including Mike Lee (R., Utah) and Pat Toomey (R., Pa.), are going to oppose reauthorization this summer, and they’re already asking useful questions about the bank’s opaque accounting. Senator Lee is pushing for a debate within the GOP about crony capitalism more generally — he recognizes the corruption it represents within the party and our government. Of course, tearing down corporate privilege is far from a sufficient answer — or even a primary one — to the problems that plague America’s economy. To win the trust of American voters, the GOP needs more ideas on how to boost middle-class wages and restore economic growth and security. But winning that battle won’t be easy when Americans have an ample number of reasons to believe that Republicans favor big business over the working class. It’s time to end one of them.

And here is the best part... no sooner does national review editorialize on getting rid of Ex-Im bank than the Ex-Im bank lights up the PR Wires with Tales of Great Things.  None of which will stand scrutiny.

Time to eliminate the ExIm Bank, and once an agency is eliminated, enough with the "government service" of those who work there.  Let them find work in the real world, and like Lazarus, report back what a hell those who are working inside the state are creating for those who support the state.

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The Sales Process - Part 2

This is taking longer than I thought, but here is the second step, plus a graph.

When you have a qualified buyer, you move on to AGREEMENT ON NEED.

It is important that your product, as mentioned elsewhere, is the simplest necessary to gain enough orders from customers to cover the supplier’s minimum in a workable amount of time profitably.

If you overshoot design, then you ran ahead of the customers, but you also make the “test market” too complicated to analyze. If you have Gluten Free, non GMO cake mixes, you are probably fine in a test market.  If you add on “kosher” then you are not sure what feedback is telling you.  Regardless of the sales, good or bad, you have no idea what role “kosher” is playing in customer feedback.  So introduce your value in its basic form, and then add other values.  (Of course if your market is strictly kosher, then “kosher” is not an add-on.)

Not only are you constantly testing, the buyer is also testing, you may have very well have convinced him to test Gluten Free NonGMO cake mixes, but he sees “kosher” adding a variable for which he does not want to control (statistics talk).  So you sold him on gluten free, but he will buy from somewhere else.

“Here is the ice cream scoop.  As you see it has these benefits, and has not only won these awards, but has ever increasing sales.  It allows for delivery of one scoop per second of ice cream to 25% fat content frozen to 12 degrees F at three pounds of pressure.”

They buyer may at this point say, not enough benefit to interest me, “If I am to take yours and dump another, you have to get that down to 5 degrees F. “  At that point you received valuable feedback, and you go back to the drawing board.

Or, the buyer agrees he needs this scoop.

At any point the person with whom you are talking very well may bail out.  If so, they were never a customer.  At any point they do bail out, the process is organic enough for you to know why, in terms of information upon which you can act to improve your product or company or both.  In any event, we are also keen on running off anyone who is not a legitimate buyer, while arriving at the agreement on need.

And note something else, up to this point, there was never any reason to introduce yourself.  if you did, you may have out of politeness, but it was not necessary.  Most likely you were wasting time if you introduced yourself and discovered that you were not speaking to a buyer.  As a matter of efficiency, you should tend not to introduce yourself or anything about your company until you are at the point of “sell the company.”  Not out of any sense of secrecy, just cold, blooded efficiency.  There is an old protocol, you only give a business card to someone with whom you will do business. If you have not agreed to do business together, then why exchange cards?  Respect other’s time...  if they are not going to be a customer, don’t waste their time.  If they cannot be a customer, extricate yourself.

Since the buyers job is to find new products that will advance their mission, you need to make your offer the easiest, most stripped down as possible.  The entire MOQ FOB tactic and tool is devoted to this.  With an offer no legitimate buyer can refuse, you move on, one way of another.

When you have worked out what is being sold and that the buyer needs it at the stipulated price, then you move on to SELL THE COMPANY.

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Wealth

Another one of the people who gets it consistently right is Marc Faber.  He is quoted here saying...

But according to Faber, consumption doesn’t create a strong economy. ‘Wealth doesn’t come from consumerism, it comes from capital spending,‘ he said.

Well, yes... but to clarify...  capital spending is on capital goods, the jet airliner, the pizza oven, the lawnmower.  Wealth is not the capital good, but what it produces: movement of someone from San Francisco to Shanghai, a pizza, a cut lawn.  Without small business both using up excess production and calling into creation new capital equipement, the economy is all about ripping people off.  That is what we have today, a largely false economy, risible balance sheets, massive misallocation and malinvestment where capital equipment does exist.

The process to achieve this unbalance is called usury, and I guess I will remain the only person pointing this out.  No, although the evil is great, I don't think it should be ooutlawed, because I don't think the state should exist, let alone outlaw anything.  If we in business simply do not recognize loans as anything more than a charitable event, and interest as somethign nonbinding, like a gambling debt, then usury will die.

Faber also knows words, so when he says consumerism, he is speaking in contradistinction to materialism.  USA is consumeristic, while Europe is materialistic.  This is why we have thrift stores and Europe generally does not.  We buy a sweater thinking it is for a season, in Europe they tend to think of a sweater as a long term investment.

Wealth is the array of goods and services which are available to people with their own money.  The more people can afford with their own money, the wealthier the society.  Achieving this can only be through a free market. I do understand that some people think wealth is to what degree few can claim much.  But neither etymology nor common sense is on their side.

And then Faber notes -

China’s massive growth triggered massive commodity export booms in emerging economies. China’s real success was exporting the products it produced back to emerging economies. This has created a significant shift in the global economy: exports from China to emerging countries are higher than exports to the US or Europe.

Just so. As our access to goods and services with our own money dwindles, the rest of the world is emerging under China's aegis, since China offers a better deal than USA to emerging economies.  Privatize the profits, socialize the costs, if it's new tax it, if it keeps moving regulate it, when it stops moving subsidize is.

The most revolutionary act you can make is start a business.

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Sharia Compliant Business Loans In Seattle!

Along with Bill Gates, I believe Mohammend Yunis does incalculable evil to the poor and marginal worldwide with their evil programs inflicted on the defenseless.  Giving away mosquito nets wipes out the mosquito net dealers, microfinance traps countless people in loans they cannot repay and covenants that destroy their communities.  Is there no end to the assaults on the poor by the rich?

Lending money at interest (usury) is a crime in Islam and Christianity.  Defying Church teaching is not remarkable, something like 94% of Catholics reject the Church teaching on artificial birth control, so if 99% reject the teaching on usury (interest), no big deal.

So my head spins when I see a group form and spontaneously offers loans that are Sharia-compliant and Catholic-compliant.  I suppose what is good and true and beautiful cannot be forever discounted by Church leaders, at some point good will come forth.  It is just too bad no Catholics presented this.  Perhaps when your theology is reduced to Sola Obamacare other matters of faith and morals take a back seat.

The astonishing good thing is here.  I'll be kicking in a "section" for a usury-free loan.  For what?  To whom? Who cares!  Here is a chance to be ethical in business in USA.  Rare!

Now I am pretty sure these lenders will suffer IRS problems since we'll have to declare imputed income  from interest on the loans since the IRS forbids usury free loans, or be liable for failure to declare taxable income.  (And the recipients will be in trouble for undeclared income in the measure they did not pay imputed usury.) My daughters gained scholarships at college and were obliged to pay taxes on the scholarships, since the IRS views scholarships as taxable income. (Imagine a poor family getting a full ride scholarship at Harvard for $60,000 per year, and owe the IRS $20,000 per year for it. In this way we make sure smart poor kids can never get a break in USA, or if they take it, we break their families.)  Under capitalism, even imaginary income is taxed, because capitalism is relentlessly evil in practice.

The economy of the United States has already failed, it is just a matter of time before enough people realize it, and the system collapses.  http://www.communitysourcedcapital.com/grow-your-business/  is an example of things done right, and I hope that enough of this makes it so we can grow something good out of the coming ashes.

Francis Cardinal George of Chicago says he expects to die in bed, his successor die in prison, and his successor executed in the public square.  Sounds about right, but for what?  Will they understand it was for failure to teach the immorality of usury?  And how the acceptance of capitalism, with its heart of usury, brought down the country?  Probably not.  Do you think the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had any idea what they had done wrong?

Cardinal George said he expects a renaissance after that last Cardinal is executed to cheering crowds in Soldier Field.  Renaissance of what?  Resurgent usury-based economy?  Romney/Obamacare? Capitalism?

The free market is essentially ethical.  Usury is unethical.  Out of nowhere comes an ethical capital provider, in essence a bank like what has not been seen for 250 years.  Astonishing.

http://www.communitysourcedcapital.com/grow-your-business/

Encouraging.  ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός!

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The Horrors of IPR Invade Malawi

Here is a PRI story on the music business in Malawi, where the horrors of “Intellectual” “Property” “Rights”  (IPR) crush small artists trying to make a living.

Like many aspiring artists, they were unable to get a professional recording contract, in part because the recording industry in Malawi is small and has been hurt by piracy. So Frank and Miriam paid for studio time and produced two albums on their own. Frank soon began selling the CDs on the street.

Prove "piracy" hurts.  As Patry has pointed out, there is zero evidence in the history of mankind that ”copyright piracy’ hurts anyone.  Further, the term “piracy” applied to people who sell copies of existing works is an outrageous distortion of the circumstances.  To equate rape and murder with selling copies of works is fomenting moral panic where there is none.

IPR is just another rent-seeking scam, and an anagram for PRI.

And Anders Kelto, ace reporter, brings up the topic in an article in which selling copies is not even an issue.  But it is important for regime writers to work every article they are subsidized to write in a way that supports the regime.  (And the article is in essence a rehash of a VOA article from six months earlier.  Funny that a regime writer promoting corporate cronyism and decrying "piracy" is rather unoriginal, to say the least.  But he who pays the piper calls the tune, and what better way to meet PRIs editorial standards than rehash VOA stories.)

So what happens in Malawi when you create your own work, record your own work, and then offer it for sale?

“One day, the police came and said, ‘No, you should leave this place, or else we will confiscate your music,’” Kuseni said.The problem was that his CDs didn’t have a silver hologram — the official insignia that proves they aren’t counterfeit. Kuseni was taken aback. “I said [to the police,] ‘I am the musician, I produced it, why should I have a hologram?’”But the police officers insisted that he stop selling on the street. So he complied.

Western capitalism destroys you.  A hologram proves nothing, since knocking off holograms is no trouble at all.  The problem is some Malawian graduate of Harvard Business School has a sinecure making 15 cents a pop on every hologram required.  In this way USA extends the horrors of capitalism to the farthest reaches of the world.

One of the benefits to being in the 3rd world was IPR fascists did not bother extending their "rights" into such countries, so as is always the case, IPR-free regimes could enjoy free market economic development.  Not any more.  Time to run down every penny possible, no matter who gets crushed.

You can see why Pol Pot resorted to killing all Western trained Cambodians.  I don’t agree with the tactic, but one can understand how such extreme pressure from the West provokes such extreme responses.

Kamanga said he has great sympathy for struggling artists like the Kusenis.“To sell his own music, there’s nothing wrong with that,” Kamanga said. “But to sell it without the hologram — the law says it’s illegal.”

As they say, if the law says that, then the law is an ass.

To understand why, Kamanga said, look at it from a law enforcement standpoint. How do the police know that the person selling music on the street is actually the artist?

Pity the poor law enforcement officers.  The fascist paramount concern is what is best for law enforcement.  Never mind what works for the artist.  As the USGovt said in Vietnam, we must destroy the village to save it.

There are just too many ways to cheat artists out of profits, Kamanga said. So the solution is for everyone who sells music to register and pay for the hologram.

Well Kamaga would say that, wouldn't he?  The solution is he gets paid! It is a huge mistake to believe your own PR.  There is no possible way to cheat artists out of profits, except by violating terms in a contract.  No contracts, no cheating.  Listen to artists in Malawi who have contracts with hologram-compliant peddlers.  They are being cheated.  Even the VOA article claims piracy is the problem in spite of the fact the problem is with the hologram peddlers:

Fingers have long been pointed at music distributors - middle men who sell the music on behalf of the artists. The musicians accuse the distributors of making copies for personal gain, an allegation distributors have persistently denied.

Frank Zappa talks about this in his autobiography, getting cheated by the record companies.  The things your best and brightest learn when taxpayers send them from Malawi to Harvard Business School!  The solution to artists being ripped off by the hologram scam is to enforce the hologram scam.  

So if you do not want to be cheated, and just sell for yourself, no, not allowed.

So Frank and his wife decided on another strategy. Every Sunday, they perform gospel music at one of the many churches in Lilongwe. After the service, they sell their CDs — without the hologram.Frank said sales have been good. And, so far, the authorities haven’t confronted them. “The city officials don’t go [on church grounds] to chase us,” he said. “I think that those places are out of bounds.”

Until freedom begins to hurt the fascists. As usual, productive members of society are obliged to work around the parastical rent-seekers.  All over the world people are pushing back.  As things break down in Greece and the Ukraine and Wenzhou and Nevada, they'll break down all at once.  We need to know what freedom is like so we can install that, and not what is worse than we have now.

http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-03-18/malawis-campaign-against-music-piracy-trapping-its-own-musicians

Law-breaking Gospel Artists. Malawi - where to sell your own recordings you have to comply with rules from USA, or you are criminal.

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How About Neither?

Why should anyone be prevented from buying stocks on another exchange? Finally Hong Kong and Shanghai have reciprocal agreements.

Those are good reasons to applaud the mutual recognition agreement, as it is more properly called. There is a potential downside, however, to what is essentially a back-door listing of the entire Shanghai market in Hong Kong. It's a question asked in many spheres beside finance: Will Hong Kong pull Chinese standards up, or will China drag Hong Kong down?

False dilemma.  It will be neither.  You can buy both Prada shoes or handmade shoes in Hong Kong.  Neither effects the others standards.

The only change is now consumers have a choice.  Good for Hong Kong,

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World Trade Trends

Take a look at the last twelve months...  looks like the previous twelve months... pretty steady.



















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U C Berkeley Import Start Up Seminar

Folks,

This is the seminar to put in the "educational benefit request" at work and fly into San Francisco for an all-day start-up boot camp.  You fly in Sunday which shows the boss how sincere you are about bringing new market penetration tactics into the business. The one day course earns UCBerkeley CEUs,  and you get a certificate with a UCBerkeley Logo.  Put that cert on your wall at work. Of course it is open to everyone, and I stick around after class to answer questions.

Date/Time:	Mon 8:30AM - 5:00PM 12 May 2014
Building:	UC Berkeley Extension Downtown Center
Room:	Classroom 817
Location:	San Francisco

As an alternative, the course fee is tax deductible since it advances you self-employment efforts.  Either way, this course is very hands on.  People who complete the one-day course have access to me as they proceed.  Sign up now, space is limited.

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Burke On Change

This television series greatly influenced me as to competing on design....  this episode in particular was a revelation.  When you have 50 minutes, give it a view



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Closing Stores

A previous post on retail sales in USA prompted the observation that if so many stores are closing, why are sales dropping?

As of 2005 annual store sales in the range of $300 per square foot ($3,000/m²) is considered a respectable result in the United States as the national average for regional malls is $341 per square foot,^[1] but the target number depends on the location, the type of store and other factors. For example, the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas sets a precedent for Las Vegas stores. The location has the highest sales per square foot of any mall in the nation at approximately $1,300 per square foot.^[1] The average for specialty apparel retailers, for instance, is $400 per square foot ($3,000/m²), and according to Baseline Magazine the retailer Hot Topic achieves an annual $619 per square foot ($6,660/m²).
According to industry research firm RetailSails, Apple has the highest sales per square foot, with average in all their stores of $6,050 per square foot annually.^[2]

So,  if an average is $300, an Apple store at $6000 can equal 20 other similar sized stores closing.  The first Apple store opened in 2001, and now there are 408 total, with over 250 in USA.  So 20 time 250 means Apple would make up for 5000 other stores closing.

This is just a shift in consumer preference.  Whereas once people enjoyed nice clothes, housewares, paper, rugs, and other soft goods, they now prefer to stare into an iPhone screen.

If the internet goes down, on some sort of Target/Heartbleed thing, whole lotta bored people will start looking around their drab surroundings and see they need a tailor.

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Start-up Seminar Portland Community College

If you are in the Portland, Oregon area I have an all-day importing start-up as follows...  get it all in one day in this intense seminar.

27386	Sylvania Campus / HT / 322	09:00 AM-04:50 PM	Sa	26-Apr-2014 thru 26-Apr-2014
	Instructor: John W Spiers Notes: One hour lunch break. Tuition: $79.00 Fees: $0.00

Click here for more information...


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Truth Commissions Called For In Venezuela

So it is not such a crazy idea...

He and others agreed to talks after promises that thorny issues such as the release of jailed protesters and the establishment of a truth commission, amid allegations of human rights abuses, would be on the table. They also demanded action on Venezuela’s frighteningly high murder rate – the second-highest in the world behind that of Honduras, according to a recent UN report.

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The Sales Process - Part 1

I am writing a piece on sales process that is getting large, so I'll start feeding it out in parts, and dwell on one particular step in the coming days:


***

There is a point in the sales process, well into it, where you need to “sell” your company, in the sense of establishing yourself as the source of the product (not literally put the company up for sale to someone else.) In the classic sales process there is approach, qualification, agreement on need, sell the company, fill the need, closing.

Note how far down the line “sell the company” is.  In effect, you sell your product or service first, then the real work begins, selling your company as the source.  Think about it:  just because you have a good idea does not mean you are also the best place in the world to get it.

You have had plenty of opportunity to find out if the product is right by speaking to customers before you develop the product.  So you may have some business going, but when it comes to expanding, you are offering your product to new customers.  who knows what new customers bring in the way of feedback.

But at this “second sell” in this sales process, selling the company, you are learning not only about wider market reaction to your product, but also market opinion as to your company. Just as with the product, if you get objections to working with you, you can know what those are and work on them too.  Some objections can be overcome with what you have got, other objections require redesign.

Some salespeople in a desperate effort to divert attention away from the buyer’s question: why should I buy from you?  Try diversion to get past the question.  

Buyers are free to buy from whomever they wish.    So let’s take a look at one scenario...

As mentioned, the first step in the sales pricess is APPROACH.  Now there are countless means of approach,   But two crucial elements in APPROAC are to answer “who says?’ and “so what?”  Usually you need ot initiate the topic, and initiation always includes the word “you” within the first three words.

You: “Do you have an award winning ice cream scoop in your housewares offering”

You listen to the response.  Is it authoritative?

Non-authoritative “Dude, what are housewares?”

Authoritative “Ice cream scoops are 2/10ths of 1% of our sales, and 4/10ths of profits.”

“Our customers are getting 1/10th of 1% but 5/10ths profits.”  the bold part is “who says” and the rest is the “so what.”

The reason I put in a non-authoritative response is to remind you usually you are not talking to a buyer.  As a simple matter of professionalism,  if you are not talking to a buyer, stop selling.  Your work is not to sell everyone, but to find the buyer and sell to the buyer.

Your approach may also invite a shut-down:  

Do you offer gluten free bread in your bakery?

I’ll never offer gluten free in my bakery>

Now you can either start a fight with the custoemr  “You should...”

or you can embrace in preparation to extend the conversation where you want it to go.

“Of course, not self0respecting bakery sells gluten free bread....”

Let is sink in....

“Unless of course the sales is greater and at beter profits than you lest selling item...

Now you have agreed, but extended the coversation to a rational place.  if he listens, you’ve succeeded in aproach...

There are countless other permuations...

***

Once you are speaking to someone authoritative, a buyer, you go for QUALIFICATION.

You: If  I can get that  5/10ths of 1 percent, would you place an order?

non-qualified “I’d have to ask my boss”

You are arriving at whether the person you are speaking to is qualified to place an order.

qualified: “I’d order and increase my allocation by 7%.”

You: “Here is our MOQ FOB, will this work within your program?

non-buyer: What’s a program?”

Buyer: “I’d need at least 12% off that price.”

You probing buyer: “if I get you that price, will you pay by credit card or open account?”

You may also simply ask: “are you a buyer?”

Nothing gets settled yet, since you have not decided on what is being traded.

****

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Odd Locution

He who has the black box can say what is on it.  This from China Daily:

"The attorney general is in the UK discussing with relevant authorities such as ICAO and experts involved, based on international and domestic laws, who actually does have custody of the black box," he said at a press conference after visiting the Defense Services Asia exhibition site here. However, the focus was always on locating the plane first, he added.

Surely they mean to say "if and when a black box is found, into whose custody does it go?"

So far a jet is missing, and some 240 people.  Apart from the jet, are many words.  The words may have no relation to the circumstances of the jet.

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Why We Need Prices

And free market prices, including gouging.




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Truth Commission

This is from a current review of a thirty year old scandal:

 “If the White House knew that Casey was there, they certainly should have shared it with us,” Hamilton said, adding that “you have to rely on people” in authority to comply with information requests.

OK... we have a very long article, among many articles, on the topic of many scandals.  In every one of them, as we see today with Lerner in the IRS, Holder on Fast and Furious, Clinton on Benghazi, the people you have to rely simply refuse to cooperate.

Then what?

No one ever asks what is next?  Because there is no "next".  It is wrongdoing, and then shut up, it goes away.  There is too much dirt in intel files on anyone and everyone.

When Henry Hyde began impeachment of Clinton for adultery, it was revealed Henry Hyde was a world class adulterer himself while in office.  Typical republican "it's OK when I do it."   But then an of us with that power would do the same thing  What is wrong is giving others that power.

Since there will be no sanctions on wrongdoing anyway, why not open truth commissions?

Outsource them to the Chinese, who execute public officials who engage in wrongdoing.   Anyone who admits all wrongdoing can escape justice as outsourced to the Chinese.

Whole lotta self-criticism would follow.

And then we would know.  And stop believing our own PR.

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