This and That on Making Money

The number of people wanting to start a business is higher then ever. They are just looking for a little help, some money and encouragement. There is a lot of opportunity out in the market place so if you are one of the fence sitters, thinking about it and dreaming, get going, the time is ripe.
I own an office building so I run across business looking for office space, I can attest that there are businesses that are expanding in this recession.

Real Estate: If you are a real estate investor your local real estate investor club is a good source for net working. “Personal real estate investor magazine” is great for ideas and info on what is happening nation wide. Now is the best time to buy rental properties in the last twenty years. Www.personalrealestateinvestormag.com

Don't have the money to be a real estate investor read the articles on this site and the rest of my blog post. Yes, there are low-money ways to get started.

Stocks: How to pick stocks? I use VectorVest an on-line software for picking stocks. They have a free trial. I also read Forbes and watch the PBS business news. A word of caution, October is normally a down month in the market so buyer be ware.

On line retail: The consumer in general is making a fundamental shift to less debt and more conservatism. That means you will need more customers to maintain your sales volume and if you cut prices, you will need even more customers. As a rule of thumb, if you cut prices 10%, you need a 25% to 40% increase in sales volume to achieve the same gross profit dollars. So cut prices very carefully and cut operating expenses even more.

Commodities: Yes those boring things like aluminum and oil. Prices have declined over the last year, and prices are starting to decline at the product level. Aluminum products like patio furniture, and aluminum home improvement products are down 10% to 20%. Other then food and shipping cost, we have deflation going on. Shipping cost went down last year as transport companies scrambled to replace declining shipments of construction and retail goods. Now that a thousand or so trucking companies are out of business, the trucking companies still operating are trying to make up margins.

After the first of the year?: Clunker stimulus to the car industry is gone, home sales will decline starting November when first time buyers find they can not close on a purchase by December 1st. to get the free $8,000 from our uncle Sam. Those where two multi-billion dollar programs, and that makes me wonder about early next year's economy. Counting on the banks lending? Not on your life they are being told to lend by the politicians and don't lend by the regulators. Besides the big banks are to busy screwing the consumer to worry about making business loans to help the economy. Screwing? Oh! yes, borrow from you and me for say 2% and from uncle Sam (Oh! That's you and I again) for .05% and charging 28% on credit card loans, and 8% plus on business loans, if that is not usury I don't know what is. What would be fare? Prime plus 10% on credit cards and prime plus 5% on secured loans. That is the way it was in the 70s and 80s when bankers where bankers, and growing their businesses and making money hand over fist. So if you need to borrow money think outside of the box, be creative and stay away from banks.

You: I only have one question?...what did you do today to make some money? Don't say you when to work, that's what you did to make a living. Have a great day...and more money to you!