Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Times are tough in Michigan with the Big 3 layoffs.  People often ask me about good startup ideas.  If you have suggestions for those Michiganders (yes, that`s a word) who are trying to bounce back and want to avoid depending on the instability of corporate America, please post them in the forum! 

Well... since they used to work for the big three nothing like putting their experience to work.

This was introduced as a CONCEPT in June of last year, they started taking pre-orders in  July 24 (I think) by August 1st they were SOLD OUT and the product is not scheduled to be delivered until July of this year. If that is not a market screaming to be fulfilled, I don`t know what is.

you can check out the video of a prototype here
http://news.com.com/1606-2-6102127.html

I just watched the `Who Killed the Electric Car?` movie so my mind is on
board with the manufacture of electric automobiles. But with an industry
town like Detroit, I don`t know what Michiganders think of that.

Regardless, any kind of manufacturing could take advantage of the wide
range of experienced workers.

I was just talking with Kathy about that quest for a "safe" job, as opposed to a steady-income startup. Only a decade ago, various industries were considered safe, in that they were likely to be around forever. Think about doctors, airplane pilots, or even lawyers.

Nowadays, nothing is "safe." We`re in a time of massive change, historically, culturally, and even geologically. So it comes down to having personal control over whatever variables we can control. I think the small business (microbusiness) arena is going to be the only "safe haven" left.

These folks know a lot about machinery, metal-working, plastics, production-line management, right? Those are the conceptual foundations. The problem is to extract the very-high-level, global concept and re-apply it to something each person likes to do or make.

If you look at yourself conceptually, you`re likely good at getting people to talk about themselves. Join the two problems, and you could start a business of "brainstorming." For a fee, you could have 1-on-1 or group sessions with unemployed factory workers, bring in a flipchart, and "facilitate" discussions about what to do for a startup business.

In other words, it seems to me the problem with so many folks is they end up with a sort of tunnel vision. They understand only the very detailed specifics of their individual job. They`ve forgotten the way that job fits into skills, economy, society, culture, history, and so forth.

The Merchant Services industry has been great for me. When the economy is good, people use more credit cards. When the economy is slow business owners want to save money on their credit card processing, so they switch to a company like mine. The merchant services industry is recession proof.

Everytime, someone uses a debit/ATM/check card, credit card, gift card, direct deposit, ACH, electronic check or paper check, I get paid for every single transaction. What could be better than that? I also work as little or as much as I like and earn lifetime residuals. I can never be fired or laid off!

My suggestion for all of the people who have been laid off in Michigan  is to get into the merchant services industry.

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Thanks and have a blessed day!
Sincerely,
Dennis Thomas, Jr.
President
dennis@AlphaCardServices.net
www.AutomaticResidual.com
www.AlphaCardServices.net
Inc. Magazine # 99 Fastest Growing Private Company in America
817.232.8300
Alpha Card Services
4040 Fossil Creek Blvd. Suite 210 Ft. Worth, TX 76137

Hello Alison, the buz work no pun intended is ethenol fuel.

Corn is the answer.  highest yield .

The Saskatumwan government accross the border is looking at letting farmers in canada produce their own Bio diesel for trackors

The technology exsists

regards

City boy

Toronto, Canada

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Daniel Stewart Bilsi 4050A Sladeview Cres. Mississauga,Ontario L5L 5Y5 www.bilsi.com

History is filled with examples of how an industry begins a radical change, people are thrown around, and a few people make the transition.

The bottom line for anyone, production-line workers or otherwise, is vision and imagination. What`s coming in the near future? We can see a lot of it, read the thoughts of others, and generally it isn`t a mystery.

In the automobile industry people are back to where we were during the Carter aministration, with high gas prices, OPEC issues, blah blah blah. At that time, big cars went away and the overseas compacts that got good mileage turned into a big thing. Detroit almost went away at that time.

Now, 20+ years later, Detroit has continued with the SUVs, lost a lot of manufacturing to Japan and Asia, while Honda and Toyata are perhaps more recognized than Ford and Chrysler.

Why? How come? And who`s decision is it to stay closely involved with Detroit?

If electric hybrids are selling as quickly as they are, wouldn`t that be a market indicator? I`m not so sure ethanol will be any different than diesel, and there are collateral costs associated with corn that people don`t discuss alot. It isn`t a way to keep the cars of today running. It`s about what will people use for transportation in the coming 25 years. Then to figure out what jobs will be associated with those cars.

Reading some threads on CR4 I ran into this one, here we have some folks retrofitting cars with electric motors, or at least trying to figure out how to do it. It occurs to me that if there was a relatively cheap place that would do this to one of my cars and give me a 200 mile range on one charge I would hire their services. Think this is a field that will soon have tons of people offering this type of service, although Detroit wont acknowledge it the market is ready for the electric car, and as always, it will be the little innovators that lead the way. I`m sure some will make a penny or two along the way.