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Out of This World Small Business Opportunity

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I recently had the opportunity of meeting with Lynn Taylor, Owner and Operator of the Utah County M.A.R.S. (Miracle Appearance Reconditioning Specialist) — mobile detailing company. I was impressed by his genuine character and also his reasons for being involved in the franchise.

I spoke with him about why he chose to be involved with MARS when there are hundreds of different opportunities–many of which have reportedly higher margins. He said the company and people involved were trustworthy and it provided him with the flexibility he preferred to grow and coast. The price of the franchise plus materials were close to 100K. Not a small amount, but certainly not the end of the world if things go sour.

I wish Lynn the best of luck in his venture and any other entrepreneur looking to get things on track.

I would be very interested in looking at the success rates of first time franchisees across a spectrum of different opportunities… If anyone knows where to get info on that, please let me know.

Business and Government and Senator Bob Bennett

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Most business owners or managers can verify the importance of being involved at the local level. It was after the advice from a very insightful mentor that I decided to take the jump and join. My experience thus far has been positive and I have only seen benefit from my participation.

At a recent business chambers meeting I had the opportunity of Listening to Senator Bob Bennett. There were a lot of things said, (what else can we expect from a Senator?) But the format was pretty much a question and answer period.

I took the notes from my blackberry, so it’s a little condensed. But I still believe there are some interesting things there…

Senator Bob Bennett

Bob_Bennett_official_portrait,_2009

Brief history of the electoral college. It was originally installed because the founding fathers thought the country was so large, no one person could be known by everyone, so a group of people were elected to nominate the top three candidates… Clearly outdated here in the information age, but still, we have it. Learn how to learn from it. :)

Q What can do for our part to help the nation heal more?

A We [Senators] say it a lot, “We want to Change. We want to Heal.” What you need to do is thoughfully write your reps. Please lower your voices. Let’s use less venom. Do not overwhelm the senate. –The recent bill for immigration is a perfect example of burning our the senate to prevent a real solution from being found. It got so bad that Senator Bennett was recieving death threats.

Q As a small business owner, I’m concerned about the national tax code. I’m in favor of a Fair Tax. Is it possible?

A Our tax code is perverse. Our taxes were developed under depressed and industrial cirmcumstances. We now live in an International economy in the information age. I believe Taxes should be to raise money to run government. Now decided government measure percentage of GDP

Ground rules change every 18 months. No one understands the code. Used to be 18.5 – 19.5 percent of GDP. Starting 2008 retied people will double. I would abolish payroll and income tax. We should go to a 20% of GDP rate. Consumption tax for 10 percent. Flat tax for other 10 percent. No more winners and losers. Q What does it take to make a difference?

A Senators are not bought and paid for. Money is given to people who already agree. Integrity now is higher than ever. Problems will be dealt. The question is when. Usually

Q Small business problems and some senators have backed down? Why?

A some times honorbound prevents somethings from happening. Things hurt. Wounds take time to heal. Just look at the example of Adams and Jefferson!

Q What do you think about American ignorance?

A America is founded on an ideal not a tribe. It is vitally important that we preserve the idea. The idea is found in three main documents, the Declaration of Independence, The Consititution and the Ghetty’s Burg Address. This is Winning our freedom, Ordering our freedom and Keeping our freedom. If allowed to split into tribes America wouldn’t make it. It may take many generations but eventually the idea gets everyone who lives here.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Reducing Debt Accelerates Investment Opportunities

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The most fundamental aspect of personal finances may be the simple “Rich Dad” addage, “Make sure your assets outweigh your liabilities.” Okay, simple enough.

I also like this little Saturday Night Live skit on eliminating debt that Steve Martin so accurately portrays.

 

Obiviously there are some things that do require debt. A modest home, a good education, transportation in some cases, and emergency circumstances. I’ll also admit that as an entrepreneur I sometimes find myself stretching the envelope for a start-up business… (I generally chalk it up to the “good education” category.)

There’s an interesting company based in Utah that guarantees to help people payoff their mortgage fast. This company, United First Financial offers a Money Merge account. From what I can gather, it is an investment group where people invest their mortgage money and pay off their principal faster with the returns.

This concept is great, but does offer some concerns. What about the security of that money? What happens if investments don’t pay off, or we suffer another strong recession? Participants in these programs need to make sure that their mortgage money will go towards paying off their principle every month. Some programs may entail a “float”, a period of delay in payments.

There is no question however that proper mortgage finance, such as making an extra yearly payment or carefully participating in mortgage investment opportunities can quickly reduce your debt and accelerate your ability to invest in your own assets. At least you can get some answers to questions you might have at the United First website.

Happy Independence Day!

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Today was a fun little adventure. I had the opportunity of volunteering in the Utah, Provo, Freedom Festival as an Announcer for KSTAR 96.7 FM and KSTAR 1400 AM. It was a great opportunity to see the Grand Parade and also drive around in a brand-new 2007 Toyota Tundra double cab truck. (Perhaps not the greatest symbol of American patriotism :) but an excellent truck none the less.)

The Tundra was extremely light weight, but still packed an impressive amount of torque off the line. I understand the decision to make things lighter weight was in large response due to the number of women and baby boomers purchasing full-sized trucks, but looking for something a little easier to handle.

Brent Brown donated 10 trucks to be used for Announcing in the Parade and nearly a dozen more that filed through the parade. A great little stunt for additional publicity on the part of Brent Brown Toyota in Provo.

There were about 3,500 people attending my section of the parade. Coordinating commercials, announcing floats and working with audiences and changes in the scheduling was challenging, but also a lot of fun. It is always impressive to see and feel the immense energy that comes from these types of assemblies.

Great Blog Tools for Beginning or Advanced Internet Entrepreneurs

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I attended a fun opening meeting for a blog incubator group called, Incublogger. It was a lot of fun to meet energetic and excited internet entrepreneurs. I really enjoy being surrounded by talented, ambitious and community minded people.

In addition to learning about the basics of how to blog, there were some very helpful hints for more advanced bloggers. I would certainly recommend that beginning or advanced bloggers, or just readers interested in blogging should check it out.

One of the fun tools they discussed was Blog Desk. It is a free and fun tool to improve your website and simplify some of the more difficult aspects of design and content setting.  (like inserting this image :) )

Mortgage and Real Estate Entrepreneurship…

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A friend recently asked me to evaluate an interesting Utah Business Opportunity. Like many proclaimed self employment opportunities in Utah, this business is perhaps a little vague at first glance, offers incredible returns, but requires that you sign up and speak with a representative to get more information.

Although it is difficult to really see the entire model from the website, my initial research leads me to understand that this is a multi-level marketing company that sells a promotion package to refinance mortgages my making minimum payments and investing the remainder in their sales packages. It should be noted that I have signed up for their online seminar, but until I get cleared/contacted for the link, this review needs a follow-up…

Anyone who knows me, also understands that I will defend multi-level-marketing as a legitimate, if not more specifically, an effective form of marketing sales and distribution. There are however some basic economics of this utah mortgage business opportunity which a person should be made aware of when making decisions about his or her involvement.

From an economic stand point of this business opportunity a few key indicators should be noted:

First the upside: Mortgages are pre-assigned money and offer big marginal returns for Distributors. Just about everyone has a mortgage. These people are all making scheduled payments on their mortgages. The money is already cut out of their checks budgets and this means that a single sale or sign-up can make a significant difference in your bottom line.

Now some downside: Low barriers to entry in a very regulated industry. Finance can be complicated and involve a large percentage of an individual or family income. I this circumstance low barriers to entry may not be a good thing. This means means fierce competition from relatively inexperienced distributors and significant potential for unprofessionalism. A business that says, no experience required, anyone can do it, means most often that people without experience can and will get involved. This can lead to people skewing the information they recieved to assist in closing a sale. In terms of a basic product and product information that can sell itself this is generally not an issue, family and friends cant get too angry if they don’t lose the desired weight or their hair doesn’t grow back–however, when dealing with something that can be as complicated as home mortgages and investment financing, regulation, professionalism and transparancy are a must. Low barriers to entry should raise some red flags to the consumer themself.

Futureopp is certainly not the first company to undertake something of this nature. Another similar model, may be found in the World Financial Group or WFG. They also “empower people from all walks of life” to purchase and invest in financial management tools.

So there you have it, but really check it out yourself and let me know what you think.

China Recalls… Conspiracy or Conciousness?

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Toy trains covered in lead based paint. Tires missing important radial gum safety precautions. Are these really some sort of elaborate conspiracy to put stress on China in times of abrasive trade with the US? Or simply a case of American QC keeping better track of what’s coming from China. In a recent nytimes article I just read, Chinese seafood has also been banned.

While working in commodities plastics for a number of years, I ordered a lot of product from Thailand and China. My Asian partners warned me to be very careful with Chinese goods, indicating the sigma of Chinese qc was very large—Especially in subsequent shipments after the first 2 or 3 orders. Of course I also ran into some significant problems with Thai materials suggesting that China is not alone in its problems.

I think anyone who has traded from overseas would agree that monitoring product quality can be very difficult. (Anyone who is seriously considering starting some sort of import business from China or any part of the world for that matter needs to pay special attention to QC–and even include frequent QC confirmation trips in their budget). Chinese, Thai or otherwise, it requires management and exercised controls. While there very likely could be a hint of bias against the steady trade giant, I won’t deny that claiming some shipments or recalling the items is a necessary step to improving the products from China… It will also lead to higher prices and more fierce competition among other developed nations…

Blog Literate… A must for aspiring entrepreneurs…

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Although I seriously considered Information Systems as a major in college, I am far from a programming or network engineer. And while programming or sorting through lines of code is absolutely not something I enjoy doing, every now and again I find myself trying to tweak my various websites to make them work better.

Blogging is important for entrepreneurs and business leaders. It provides a platform for an extended portfolio, and perhaps even more importantly offers a chance to participate in an aspect of our modern culture which is quickly filling the anals of internet content.

It’s not always a peaceful process unfortunately.

I just changed the permalink format on this page to assist in more key-word relavent searching, but it unfortunately erased all of my 301 redirects and everything else in my .htaccess file. Yeah. Frustrating. So I’ll dig it out and fix my newly created problem as soon as I get the chance.

It needs fixed. It’s a good thing to learn. Ahhh yes… The wonderful steep grade of more learning curves :)

Murdoch and China News…

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I have always been fascinated by news and mass communication agencies. I’ve felt that if I were to try to develop a media company that the news, or a book store, (newspaper distribution) might be an angle to get in.

I read an article in the New York Times today that talked about how media giant Rupert Murdoch had been working for years to get into China and it finally looked like he was making headway.

The article makes brief mention about how much schmoozing needed to take place for Murdoch to even begin making headway in China. The brief mention of his Mainland China wife leads to even bigger allusions to the steps taken behind the scenes to make things happen in the Middle Kingdom.

Rupert Murdoch has built such an incredible media enterprise. (Here’s a brief summary to give more background to the Murdoch Family History. He’s really beat the odds to get as far as he has and I wouldn’t at all put it past him that he’ll be able to take it another step further… Even all the way to the Middle Kingdom.

Clean Water–Profitable Technology

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I remember a discussion I had with a friend a while ago where he was convinced that if he was ever going to start a business, or invest in a commodity, he would invest in water. “It’s the biggest thing next to energy!” He cheered.

About two weeks ago I had an interesting meeting with a gentlemen by the name of Hugh Bradley. We had a number of telephone conversations and he told me about the interesting technology he had developed for water-softening / water-purification. It is a powerful mono-pole ceramic magnet that filters water with astonishing efficiency. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that is manufactured in Payson, Utah. The names of the contracts Hugh professed were very significant, and the technology he touted was very interesting. His product is marketed and distributed through an independent contractor network.

It is a new product line and I couldn’t find anything about his company online. He prefers to keep it that way, as a product which he believes will absolutely sell itself.

I personally could not help him distribute his product, not only for time constraints, but also because I felt that as a business investment his proposal was too much emotionally/religiously based. It was fascinating conversation, none-the-less, and I would encourage anyone to look up Hugh Bradley and his Bioengineering Solutions for water purification to learn more about his opportunity.

My family has magnets and I also spoke with another mentor who runs magnets on a number of different properties. Magnets are great, but they do lose power over time. There are also a number of restrictions with the type of pipe on which you can place them. I would definitely look into it first the company and technology and reviews before either buying or selling magnets for water softening.

Water purification however is an incredibly fascinating and lucrative industry, especially in areas where water is a scarce resource. Magnets, chemical or mechanical each has its advantages and disadvantages.

Checkout the website for this arizona water softener company. This company offers a salt-free solution that still provides the benefits of softwater system. Here’s a list of the benefits they offer with their water softener installation in Arizona. If you are planning on going with a mechanical system rather than a magentic system, I have heard they are reliable. Honestly though, I don’t know much more than that. In any case, you don’t need to take my word for it, but if you are around the Pheonix or Arizona area you could call the owners of the company and they’ll be happy to answer any questions you have.

Good Luck!