Instrapanuer

OK, this is a "draft" article in progress with the content from the latest issue of "Wired" magazine.


From the rise in instant manufacturing to the growth of open-source business models, these trends show that innovation can bloom even in a grim economic climate.

Vote!: The Most Effective Self-Promoters of All Time Jeffrey Wegesin is a furniture maker. His most popular creation is a curvaceous side table, and even though he has sold only two copies of it, he has already turned a profit. He did it without so much as setting foot in a wood shop. And he is not alone. Wegesin is one of 5,000 merchants who have established accounts with Ponoko, a year-old on-demand manufacturing service in New Zealand. Designers upload their blueprints to Ponoko's servers; when a customer places an order, Ponoko's laser cutters automatically trim wood and plastic to create the product on the spot. Wegesin, a Web designer, sells the tables through the site for $250, not including shipping. He then pays Ponoko $124 for each table to cover the cost of materials and cutting fees. The $252 he's brought in so far may not be much, but because he incurred no up-front costs it comes as pure profit.

Welcome to the age of the instapreneur. With nothing more than a design, amateurs can manufacture jewelry, robots, T-shirts, furniture — anything. No warehouses. No minimum orders. And no money down. The digital economy isn't just digital; the same market forces that allowed midlist musicians to make a living distributing their songs online now give amateur clothiers the chance to sell their wares without having to persuade Barney's buyers to carry them.

Thousands are launching instant businesses. Zazzle, of Redwood City, California, offers a dizzying array of user-designed products from posters to tennis shoes. StyleShake, a custom-clothing site in London, received 25,000 dress designs in its first three months. Spreadshirt, founded in Leipzig, Germany, hosts 500,000 individual T-shirt shops. "These companies significantly lower the threshold for someone to bring anything to market," says Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms. "There's an industrial-age bias that you need volume to support a factory; but with this, much-more-creative low-volume businesses become viable."

These are not just CaféPress-style in-jokes — T-shirts and mugs meant to appeal to a small circle of friends. According to Spreadshirt CEO Jana Eggers, her site saw a 30 percent increase last year in the number of North American shop partners that sold more than 1,000 shirts annually. Even CaféPress has become a bona fide business platform. Jim Gamble, a Bay Area entrepreneur, uses the site to sell 50,000 of his T-shirts and bumper stickers — all emblazoned with conservative political slogans — every year, giving him an income "well into the six figures," he says.

Large brands are starting to see the appeal of manufacturing-as-a-service, too. Lexus recently used Blurb, an on-demand publisher, to print 1,800 copies of a book promoting the automaker's green practices. Franchises from Dilbert to the Discovery Channel sell licensed merchandise on CaféPress. Disney has uploaded more than 3,500 of its designs to Zazzle, allowing the company to sell a wider range of products than just the blockbuster Mickey Mouse T-shirts favored by conventional retailers. The service also gives the Disney machine unprecedented agility. "Here, I can see that Hannah Montana is taking off, we can upload a design right into Zazzle's system, and in a day or two it's a product," says Patrick Haley, senior manager of customization for DisneyShopping.com.

As everyone gains the ability to create and sell anything, the long tail will apply to making things as well as to selling them. Amazon.com may be able to offer near-infinite inventory, but only as long as the products exist. On-demand manufacturing could eliminate that constraint, leading to a world where products are always available, nothing ever gets discontinued, and the virtual shelves are always stocked.

Related Topics:

http://www.wired.com/wired/

http://www.intrapreneur.com/

http://www.ponoko.com/

http://www.zazzle.com/

Green Marketing, A NW Business Ploy?

Green marketing is wearing out it's label as far as I can see here in the Pacific NW. Having been involved in the solar energy market since 1976 and a Design /Builder of solar structures and heating systems in the mid-1980's, I think its been taken to the extreme here in Portland.

I mean the sun actually shines in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. My passive solar homes build in Upstate NY are still functioning right along , after 25 years. At the time I utilized "local, natural materials", conservation, and design vs hardware.

The NW and this Liberal viewpoint of a "Lower Carbon Footprint" pervades almost every aspect of commerce. Clothing (natural fibers), retail malls(vegan stores, food markets), coffee (Starbucks?), cars ($25,000 electric and hybrid cars), small "footprint" 550 Sq ft "earth friendly" $250,000 condos, and blah, blah, blah.

This marketing ploy is aimed at the young urban hipster(YUPPIES) who have high incomes and no kids (DINKS). Who need $1500 folding bikes, kayaks parked at the Marina they take the Street car to, spend $1500+ to go camping with REI, Columbia, or Northface Equipment. Everything is green in Portland.....and expensive. I think it is a ploy.

Yes, it works!


Some web sites to review:

http://www.greenbuilding.com/

http://www.green-living.com/

http://lighterfootstep.com/

Borders Tanks, or Why I Can't Get Rehired!

Gee, this explains a lot...can you say "hiring freeze"? If i remeber correctly, this company had a 34% profit in 2005 0r 2006. Hmmmmmmmm, Barnes and Nobel sounding good!

Borders shares slide after news of strategic review

Bookseller swings to profit but cancels dividend to conserve capital

By Robert Daniel & Michelle Donley, MarketWatch
Last Update: 10:54 AM ET Mar 20, 2008

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Borders Group Inc. plunged more than 20% in early trading Thursday after the bookseller said it would review alternatives for its business, including a possible sale of part or all of the company.

Borders (BGP: news) also said Pershing Square Capital Management LP, its largest shareholder, proposed a financing plan to ease what might have become a liquidity problem.

The Ann Arbor, Mich., bookseller determined that it needed additional capital for 2008, and the difficult credit markets rendered some financing alternatives unavailable, Chief Executive George Jones said in a statement.

Absent a financing deal, "liquidity issues may otherwise have arisen in the next few months," the executive said.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs see the news as a sign that Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS: news) could step in to buy the company.

"We believe that BGP's financial distress diminishes the impact of antitrust considerations, though we presume that BKS remains averse to taking on leases that would increase store overlap," they wrote in a note Thursday morning. "A bankruptcy filing for BGP, not likely given Pershing's investment, would enable BKS to break its leases."

Borders reported early Thursday that it swung to a fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $1.10 a share from a year-earlier loss of $1.22 a share. It also said it was omitting its quarterly dividend to conserve capital. Borders retained J.P. Morgan and Merrill Lynch for financial advice as it reviews its options.

Jones said 2008 will be a "challenging year for retailers." By resolving its funding needs for 2008, he said, Borders believes it can meet its 2009 financial goals, albeit later than it had hoped.

Three-part financing proposal

Pershing Square Capital Management LP, the New York investment firm and Borders's largest holder, has committed to a three-part plan, which the independent directors of Borders have approved.

First is a $42.5 million secured term loan to Borders at a 12.5% annual interest rate; the loan matures Jan. 15, 2009.

Second, Pershing committed to a "backstop purchase offer." This gives Borders the option until Jan. 15, 2009, to sell its Paperchase, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore units and its 17% interest in Borders U.K. to Pershing for $125 million, "after the company has pursued a sale process to maximize the value of those assets."

In the third point of Pershing's plan, Borders would issue to Pershing 14.7 million warrants to buy shares at $7 each. That would be just under a 20% stake in Borders. The stake would be protected against dilution if Borders were to issue more equity, except in the case of shares issued for employee stock options.

The three-part proposal is binding on Pershing Square until April 4, until which, Borders has the right to seek better financing deals. If Borders finds a better deal, it can end the Pershing agreement with no break-up fee, although Pershing can request reimbursement of reasonable expenses, Borders said.

Dividend omitted, profitability up

Borders, which operates more than 1,100 stores worldwide and employs more than 30,000 people, last paid out a dividend of 11 cents a share on Feb. 10 to holders of record Jan. 2.

For the quarter ended Feb. 2, Borders reported net income of $64.7 million compared with a loss of $73.6 million in the year-earlier period. Adjusted earnings from continuing operations were $1.44 a share compared with $1.45.

Revenue fell 2% to $1.35 billion from $1.37 billion. Sales fell 2.2% to $1.32 billion from $1.35 billion.

At the U.S. Borders Superstores division, comparable-store sales rose 2.1%, the third consecutive quarter of positive sales on this basis, which excludes the effects of acquisitions and divestitures.

At the U.S. unit, same-store book sales rose 3.2% while "music continued its steep sales decline," with comparable sales off 14%, Borders said. The company is reducing music inventories to better present merchandise and to make room for offerings with fatter profit margins.

Comparable-store sales in the international segment rose 9.3% in the quarter as Asia-Pacific stores performed strongly, Borders reported. Total international sales rose 35%; excluding the impact of currency translations, overseas sales rose 24%.

Same-store sales at Waldenbooks rose 1.2% in the quarter. Borders said it closed 75 stores in this chain in 2007 and will continue to close stores that aren't meeting financial targets.


Robert Daniel is MarketWatch's Middle East bureau chief, based in Tel Aviv.
Michelle Donley is a MarketWatch news editor based in New York.

The Coming Recession

by AaronHoos

Date Submitted: 3/14/2008

Is your small business or ebusiness ready for the coming recession? Aaron Hoos shows you how you can strengthen your business' foundation to help you weather the economic storm.

Economies fluctuate. They experience waves of growth and decline. And businesses, like boats, ride those waves. When the economy is good, businesses prosper; when the economy is bad, businesses are at risk. Recent signs suggest that we’re facing an imminent recession. Will your business be at risk? In this article, we will look at the coming recession and outline 7 ways that you can reduce the risk to your small business.

In its simplest terms, a recession is a lack of money in the economy. When people hear that there could be a recession, they spend less. And guess what happens! Demand for goods drops. As a result, demand for manufacturing drops. Then, demand drops for employees to do the job. And because of the threat of job-loss, people spend less. It’s a vicious cycle; a self-fulfilling prophecy. The secret to ending a recession is to get people to spend. That’s why the Federal Reserve (and similar central banks in each country) increase and decrease interest rates: Lower interest rates lead to more loans and more spending. Higher interest rates lead to fewer loans and less spending.

A recession is merely part of the economic cycle. We may not like it, and the central banks are effective at minimizing its severity, but a recession is bound to happen. And because it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, the more we hear about job cuts and recessions and stock exchange losses, the more likely we are to put our money under the mattress instead of spending it... which is exactly what fuels a recession!

Increasingly, news reports indicate that a recession is imminent. Even if you choose to spend your money instead of bury it in the backyard, you can be sure that there are millions of other people out there right now who are digging holes in their lawn or tucking an envelope under their mattress or reworking their budget to exclude frivolous spending. So, we can be sure that a recession is coming. Is your small business ready for the recession?

Here are 7 ways that you can prepare your small business:

1. Rework your sales material: It’s time to dust off those brochures and breathe new life into your website. Each sales piece will need to work extra hard to generate the same amount of sales. That could mean freshening up the content, sharpening the pitch, or clarifying the benefits. This is one reason to welcome a recession: if your revived sales collateral can sell in a recession, chances are that it will sell even more effectively in a period of economic growth.

2. Reposition your offering: Remember that people avoid spending their money in recessions, unless they have to. And there are some recession-proof industries which sell products that people need, no matter what the economic condition. Food and shelter are two examples. But what if your small business serves a need outside of the most basic needs that people willingly spend on during a recession? What then? One option is to align your business with one of the necessary industries. For example, you could rewrite your website content to show the importance of your product or service right now; to demonstrate why your product is, in fact, a necessary industry. For example, if you sell car tires, you could show how tires are an excellent investment because they keep families safe and ensure that people get to their jobs on time.

3. Offer additional products and services: With fewer people buying, and with consumers needing a greater reason to buy, this might be a good time to test a handful of ancillary products. One example for e-businesses might be a free bonus ebook. Create 3 or 4 bonus ebooks and allow a customer to select one as a free gift. Keep track of which ones are selected most frequently. Then, when sales pick up again, be sure to include that ebook as a sale-inducing bonus all the time.

4. Explore partnering opportunities: When the economy is smoking hot, businesses don’t always have time to brainstorm ideas with other businesses. But if your small business is looking to stay afloat, there’s probably another one in a similar situation that would be willing to talk. To find that business, forget what you offer. Instead, think about who your customer is. Identify small businesses that market a different product or service to the same customer. Approach them and talk about doubling up on advertising or perhaps selling the other’s products on consignment.

5. Reach out to previous customers: Your happy customers are a resource to you. It’s easier to convince them to buy from you again and they act as evangelists for your business to their family and friends. Even if you don’t normally reach out to this group, consider changing your habit for the next few months. Create a promotional letter, ezine, or special website where you can thank them for their previous business, offer them another product at a discount, and encourage them (with an incentive) to send you more business.

6. Relax; it won’t last forever: The recessions experienced in North America in the past 50 years have all lasted, on average, about 12 months. Maybe a few months more, maybe a few months less, but generally about that amount of time. While those months can be devastating to some small businesses, it is unfortunate that many small businesses adopt the incorrect notion that the downturn will continue on indefinitely and they take drastic measures based on that line of thinking. However, economies are cyclical and they do move through recessions back into periods of growth. So businesses that tighten up moderately -- not drastically -- will weather the recession much more effectively and will be better positioned at the end of it.

7. Get ready for growth: During a recession, people buy less so companies are often more flexible and willing to make a deal. Think long-term and buy your raw materials and equipment in advance. As long as your negotiated bulk discount is more than the cost of storage, you’ll come out ahead because you’ll be able to produce finished products faster (and at an overall lower price) than your competition, once the market heats up again.

It would be great if the prediction of a recession turned out to be wrong and you didn’t need this information. It would be great if small business owners could adopt a "business-as-usual" approach without any worry that their customer-base might suddenly disappear in the coming months. But there’s a good chance that there will be a recession shortly. If you take action now, your business will be better prepared for it.

The Sky is Falling!

The sky is falling, the sky is falling!

I stood near a Shell gas station this morning while they raised the price on Diesel to $2.859 gallon! The DIA lost another 150 points today. What's next?

Here is my prediction. One I have maintained was coming since 9/11.

DIA 5,000

NASDAQ 500

Unemployment 20%+ in Europe and the USA

Home prices decreasing by 50% of current 2006 prices!

Gasoline $6.49 - $8.47 gallon; Diesel $9 gallon

Add a vicious weather pattern (Climate Change), a few major wars (invasion of Iran), terrorism, and a pandemic or two and you have the basis for the "Global Depression of 2010"

I found out on 3/11/08, that my opinions are not mine alone! Please listen to Coast to Coast AM Talk Radio
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/

Marketing opportunity or should we stick our heads in the sand for a few years?

blogvertising

Top 5 Causes of the Great Depression

Filed In:Eras of American History > Great Depression
What caused the Great Depression, the worst economic depression in US history? It was not just one factor, but instead a combination of domestic and worldwide conditions that led to the Great Depression. As such, there is no agreed upon list of all the causes of the Great Depression. Here instead is a list of the top reasons that historians and economists have cited as causing the Great Depression.

The effects of the Great Depression was huge across the world. Not only did it lead to the New Deal in America but more significantly, it was a direct cause of the rise of extremism in Germany leading to World War II.

1. Stock Market Crash of 1929
Many believe erroneously that the stock market crash that occurred on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929 is one and the same with the Great Depression. In fact, it was one of the major causes that led to the Great Depression. Two months after the original crash in October, stockholders had lost more than $40 billion dollars. Even though the stock market began to regain some of its losses, by the end of 1930, it just was not enough and America truly entered what is called the Great Depression.

2. Bank Failures
Throughout the 1930s over 9,000 banks failed. Bank deposits were uninsured and thus as banks failed people simply lost their savings. Surviving banks, unsure of the economic situation and concerned for their own survival, stopped being as willing to create new loans. This exasperated the situation leading to less and less expenditures.

3. Reduction in Purchasing Across the Board
With the stock market crash and the fears of further economic woes, individuals from all classes stopped purchasing items. This then led to a reduction in the number of items produced and thus a reduction in the workforce. As people lost their jobs, they were unable to keep up with paying for items they had bought through installment plans and their items were repossessed. More and more inventory began to accumulate. The unemployment rate rose above 25% which meant, of course, even less spending to help alleviate the economic situation.

4. American Economic Policy with Europe
As businesses began failing, the government created the Hawley-Smoot Tariff in 1930 to help protect American companies. This charged a high tax for imports thereby leading to less trade between America and foreign countries along with some economic retaliation.

5. Drought Conditions
While not a direct cause of the Great Depression, the drought that occurred in the Mississippi Valley in 1930 was of such proportions that many could not even pay their taxes or other debts and had to sell their farms for no profit to themselves. This was the topic of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

By Martin Kelly, About.com
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/greatdepression/tp/greatdepression.htm

Tax Rebates May Find Uses Other Than Spending

(NewsUSA) - The government's efforts to stimulate the U.S. economy by sending out checks to workers could backfire, suggests a survey asking consumers what they will do with their checks.

Nearly three-quarters of those asked said they will either pay down debt or save the money that's being sent to them as part of an economic stimulus package. The goal of the program is to have the people spend the money, which only about a quarter said they would do.

The survey, conducted by the International Council of Shopping Centers, found that 46 percent of respondents said they would pay off debt, 28 percent said they would save the money and 26 percent said they would spend the money. This means only about $37.5 billion out of the proposed $150 billion stimulus package will be used for its intended purpose.

In case you are one of those who want to save your rebate, what is a good road to take?

"Overspending is the problem, not the solution," says Eric Solis, a certified financial planner and chief executive officer of SAVE252. "A sound, long-term savings program like an IRA will help you reach your financial goals sooner."

Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) offer huge tax breaks. Even if you contribute to your company's 401(k), it is still possible to put additional earnings aside. If you are under 50, you can put up to $5,000 in your IRA account every year tax-free. For those over 50, there's a catch-up provision that allows you to put in an extra $1,000 tax-free.

For those who like the idea of an IRA, but would like to apply their money over time, there are programs, like SAVE252, designed to allow individuals to fund IRAs in increments throughout the year. Taking advantage of such programs can help provide some discipline into saving more money while allowing you to be in complete control of your savings.

For example, putting $19.92 away 252 times a year with the SAVE252 program will allow you to have your maximum IRA contribution in by the end of the year and save $1,600 on your taxes, depending on your tax bracket. If you are in a lower tax bracket, you can opt for a more flexible program that allows you to put as little as $1 a day into savings for your future.

For more information and more money-saving options, go to www.save252.com