This Month at Cato Unbound
Posted by Jason Kuznicki
This month at Cato Unbound we’re debating campaign finance regulation, with a panel of notable contributors and a big, new idea.
That idea is semi-disclosure, in which information about campaign funding is collected and disseminated, but, much like the census, personal names and addresses aren’t attached. Political scientist Bruce Cain suggests semi-disclosure might break the impasse between privacy and the right to know. Others? Well… you’ll just have to wait and see. Joining us will be Nikki Willoughby of Common Cause, election law scholar Richard Hasen of Loyola Law School, and the Cato Institute’s own John Samples. Discussion will run through the rest of the month on this vital issue to our nation’s democracy.
The latest jobs report came out on Friday. Overall, another 95,000 jobs were lost in September. Maybe they should start calling it the no-jobs report. Ezra Klein crunches the numbers to explain why the addition of 64,000 private sector jobs is pitifully inadequate:
That's about 35,000 less than the 100,000 or so jobs needed to keep up with population growth. It's about 180,000 less than the number of jobs needed to get back to 5 percent unemployment in the next 10 years. It's about 257,000 less than the 320,000 jobs needed to get back to 5 percent unemployment in five years.
In other words, the economy is not bouncing back any time soon. Even worse, it's clear that Washington is not up to the task of creating the conditions for the job growth the country so desperately needs. And as we find ourselves in the silliest stretch of the electoral silly season, it doesn't inspire confidence that the government that emerges on November 2nd will do any better.
A deep-seated cynicism is not an unreasonable response. But I'm pleased to report that hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country are choosing to react by taking action. As a result, a parallel economy is being created by people who, finding there are no jobs, have decided to create their own.
Of course, this burgeoning parallel economy doesn't mean the government is off the hook. But while millions of Americans are waiting for the government to do the right thing in terms of bold infrastructure spending, a payroll tax holiday, etc, etc, many have decided to stop waiting.
Through the creative use of technology, social media, and a focus on community, this new wave of small businesses is making its mark in a true convergence of left and right. At the moment, our government may be can't-do, but more and more of our citizens are solidly can-do -- and irrepressibly American.
To turn a spotlight on this nascent movement and encourage its continued growth, HuffPost is launching Small Business America, a new blog sponsored by FedEx where entrepreneurs can exchange ideas, get advice, and keep up with the latest small business news. Small Business America's contributors will run the gamut from CEOs to mom-and-pop business owners to policy-makers, business writers, professors, and social media experts.
Some of those we'll be featuring in our first week include:
- Aaron Patzer, founder of the online personal finance site Mint.
William Aulet, Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center.
Karen Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration.
Tim Westergren, Founder of the online radio site Pandora.
Christopher Hytry Derrington, whose company helps firms outsource their work to rural America instead of overseas.
Small Business America will also feature the first-person accounts of people who have already jumped in and started their own business -- as well as those thinking of taking the leap.
One of those forced by circumstances into creating her own business is Brenda Carter, whose story is featured in Third World America. A grandmother living in Marietta, Georgia, Carter had worked as a manager of information systems at the same company for thirteen years. Then, in 2007, she was suddenly laid off. "Imagine getting up every day for 13 years and suddenly that part of your life just ceased," she wrote. "I cried and cried and cried. I just could not believe it."
She didn't know what she was going to do, but then had an idea. Her mother, to help pay the bills as a single mother in New Orleans, had sold pralines door-to-door. "People would knock on our doors at all times of night asking to purchase these pralines," she said. "So as I was sitting at home I thought 'Hey I can do this too! This is something I can do and am comfortable doing.'"
And now she's the proud operator of a growing praline operation -- except instead of selling door-to-door, she's doing it computer-to-computer. Her online store can be found here. "Times are changing and so must we," Carter says. "We need to be supporters of ourselves, otherwise we will not survive."
Americans have a lot of passion and ingenuity, and there is a clear market in helping bring them to market. Enter Etsy.com and Cafe Press, which have now grown large enough to have a multiplier effect rippling across the country.
Etsy was founded in 2005 by Robert Kalin. Then 25, he was an aspiring furniture designer feeling frustrated by his attempts to sell his work online. So he created a streamlined platform for handmade goods of all kinds, and launched it from his apartment.
The site's mission? "To enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers. Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice." Which is exactly what Etsy.com is doing. And along with creating jobs, this new economy is creating connections, and caring, and community. As Kalin said in a 2009 interview:
One of the most important things anyone can do right now is create jobs. What's important is to empower people to make a living, and I support renting and running a 9,000-square-foot workspace in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that provides other small businesses with affordable studio space. And we have big community dinners there once a week for networking and sharing our ideas.
Etsy's effect is being felt far beyond Brooklyn. Colleen Fields, 54, lives in a remote town in the mountains of North Carolina. Two years ago, she was laid off from her job as a newspaper subscriptions manager. "I must have sent out a thousand or more resumés and applications," she told The Huffington Post. "I applied for a job at a convenience store, and they said they had over 200 applicants. It's just crazy. There are no jobs around this area."
A friend suggested she look into Etsy. Not exactly computer literate, she nevertheless gave it a try. In December 2009 she opened her online store, Gemstones and Wire, selling necklaces, earrings and handmade clay vases. She wrote about how some women pay all their family bills with small businesses started through Etsy. "I'm just not one of them yet. I would love to be one of them," she added.
Several other successful sites have followed in Etsy's footsteps. Among them is Bonanza, which, with its "friendliest social community online," aims to put the human element back into e-commerce, "making people relevant again."
Then there is ArtFire, which started two years ago in Tucson, Arizona. It provides a platform for "handmade goods, fine art, vintage, designed items, supplies and media," and aims to "celebrate the unique individuality of artists and crafters around the globe."
Cafe Press was started in 1999. Based in San Mateo, California, the company provides on-demand printing for mugs, t-shirts and products designed by users, "uniting and rewarding self-expression." It now gets 11 million unique visits a month and, with its 6.5 million users, adds around 2,000 new, independent shops and 45,000 new products every day.
Another great example of making a business out of helping people make a business is Recession Wire. Begun in February 2009 by Sara Clemence and Laura Rich, who were laid off when Portfolio magazine folded, and partner Lynn Parramore, the site aims to "chronicle the 'upside of the downturn' through personal stories, helpful advice and reportage on the changes underway in these hard times."
In its small business section, the site features articles like: "How to Bootstrap Your New Business Wisely," "Don't Close Your Business, Change It," and "A Cool, Free Way to Figure Out a Business Idea's Potential."
At Inc.com, the website of Inc. Magazine, the editors aim to provide "advice, tools, and services, to help business owners and CEOs start, run, and grow their businesses more successfully." Its start-up section includes advice on writing a business plan, running a home-based business, naming a business, how to incorporate, and financing.
StartupNation bills itself as a "free service founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs." Headed by Jeff and Rich Sloan, two experienced entrepreneurs, who started the site to share their "years of in-the-trenches experience," the site features blogs, forums, advice, and networking tools.
Micro-financing, another entrepreneurship model greatly enhanced by the web, has been around for awhile. But the founders of InVenture Fund wanted to take the model to the next step. It was launched in October 2009 because, as the site says, "traditional microfinance models weren't doing enough to lift communities out of poverty." The problem was that the 75 million or so borrowers around the world were locked into loans they had to repay, sometimes at interest rates of 30 percent. InVenture finds microloan recipients who have good track records and gives them the financing to expand, with no fixed repayment schedule. "Give entrepreneurs an opportunity for real financial and social growth," the site says, "and they'll lift not just themselves but their communities out of poverty." A portion of the site's profits is then invested in responsible community programs, like clean water and education.
Indeed, one of the hallmarks of this entrepreneurial movement is community -- including an emphasis on local food, local agriculture, and sustainable business practices. One of the ironies of this new wave of small businesses is how the global reach of the web has been so pivotal in connecting people to their own communities.
Judy Wicks, the owner of the famed White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia, founded the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), which now has 80 local chapters in the U.S. and Canada. To spread the local food gospel of the White Dog, Wicks also founded Fair Food, which connects local family farms with city dwellers.
In Lexington, Kentucky, Fresh Stop is an attempt to bring the benefits of community-supported agriculture to those who couldn't normally afford it. Forming partnerships with churches, Fresh Stop asks those who can afford it to pay a bit more for what they buy, which subsidizes those for whom the fresh -- and healthy -- food would otherwise be out of reach.
Whether you're directly involved in a small business or not, I hope you'll check out Small Business America. After all, we're all affected by the well-being of the communities we live in. At least for the time being, real solutions are less likely to come from politicians than from the thousands of people in thousands of communities taking the initiative to connect, share, and create.
I love how human this movement is. It's fueled by technology, but at its core is a real person connecting to another real person. As Twitter founder Biz Stone said of his company: "Twitter is not a triumph of tech. It's a triumph of humanity."
Technology is what will allow this very American movement to scale up and begin to have a real impact. But it's in our backyards and basements that it begins. "To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections," wrote Edmund Burke. "It is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country, and to mankind."
Click here to check out Small Business America... and let us know what you think.
eric seigerGreat news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, signaling an interest in the education sector, has hired Joel Klein, the New York City schools chancellor. News Corporation announced Mr. Klein's hiring shortly after it was reported that he was ...
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seiger This Month at Cato Unbound
Posted by Jason Kuznicki
This month at Cato Unbound we’re debating campaign finance regulation, with a panel of notable contributors and a big, new idea.
That idea is semi-disclosure, in which information about campaign funding is collected and disseminated, but, much like the census, personal names and addresses aren’t attached. Political scientist Bruce Cain suggests semi-disclosure might break the impasse between privacy and the right to know. Others? Well… you’ll just have to wait and see. Joining us will be Nikki Willoughby of Common Cause, election law scholar Richard Hasen of Loyola Law School, and the Cato Institute’s own John Samples. Discussion will run through the rest of the month on this vital issue to our nation’s democracy.
The latest jobs report came out on Friday. Overall, another 95,000 jobs were lost in September. Maybe they should start calling it the no-jobs report. Ezra Klein crunches the numbers to explain why the addition of 64,000 private sector jobs is pitifully inadequate:
That's about 35,000 less than the 100,000 or so jobs needed to keep up with population growth. It's about 180,000 less than the number of jobs needed to get back to 5 percent unemployment in the next 10 years. It's about 257,000 less than the 320,000 jobs needed to get back to 5 percent unemployment in five years.
In other words, the economy is not bouncing back any time soon. Even worse, it's clear that Washington is not up to the task of creating the conditions for the job growth the country so desperately needs. And as we find ourselves in the silliest stretch of the electoral silly season, it doesn't inspire confidence that the government that emerges on November 2nd will do any better.
A deep-seated cynicism is not an unreasonable response. But I'm pleased to report that hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country are choosing to react by taking action. As a result, a parallel economy is being created by people who, finding there are no jobs, have decided to create their own.
Of course, this burgeoning parallel economy doesn't mean the government is off the hook. But while millions of Americans are waiting for the government to do the right thing in terms of bold infrastructure spending, a payroll tax holiday, etc, etc, many have decided to stop waiting.
Through the creative use of technology, social media, and a focus on community, this new wave of small businesses is making its mark in a true convergence of left and right. At the moment, our government may be can't-do, but more and more of our citizens are solidly can-do -- and irrepressibly American.
To turn a spotlight on this nascent movement and encourage its continued growth, HuffPost is launching Small Business America, a new blog sponsored by FedEx where entrepreneurs can exchange ideas, get advice, and keep up with the latest small business news. Small Business America's contributors will run the gamut from CEOs to mom-and-pop business owners to policy-makers, business writers, professors, and social media experts.
Some of those we'll be featuring in our first week include:
- Aaron Patzer, founder of the online personal finance site Mint.
William Aulet, Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center.
Karen Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration.
Tim Westergren, Founder of the online radio site Pandora.
Christopher Hytry Derrington, whose company helps firms outsource their work to rural America instead of overseas.
Small Business America will also feature the first-person accounts of people who have already jumped in and started their own business -- as well as those thinking of taking the leap.
One of those forced by circumstances into creating her own business is Brenda Carter, whose story is featured in Third World America. A grandmother living in Marietta, Georgia, Carter had worked as a manager of information systems at the same company for thirteen years. Then, in 2007, she was suddenly laid off. "Imagine getting up every day for 13 years and suddenly that part of your life just ceased," she wrote. "I cried and cried and cried. I just could not believe it."
She didn't know what she was going to do, but then had an idea. Her mother, to help pay the bills as a single mother in New Orleans, had sold pralines door-to-door. "People would knock on our doors at all times of night asking to purchase these pralines," she said. "So as I was sitting at home I thought 'Hey I can do this too! This is something I can do and am comfortable doing.'"
And now she's the proud operator of a growing praline operation -- except instead of selling door-to-door, she's doing it computer-to-computer. Her online store can be found here. "Times are changing and so must we," Carter says. "We need to be supporters of ourselves, otherwise we will not survive."
Americans have a lot of passion and ingenuity, and there is a clear market in helping bring them to market. Enter Etsy.com and Cafe Press, which have now grown large enough to have a multiplier effect rippling across the country.
Etsy was founded in 2005 by Robert Kalin. Then 25, he was an aspiring furniture designer feeling frustrated by his attempts to sell his work online. So he created a streamlined platform for handmade goods of all kinds, and launched it from his apartment.
The site's mission? "To enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers. Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice." Which is exactly what Etsy.com is doing. And along with creating jobs, this new economy is creating connections, and caring, and community. As Kalin said in a 2009 interview:
One of the most important things anyone can do right now is create jobs. What's important is to empower people to make a living, and I support renting and running a 9,000-square-foot workspace in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that provides other small businesses with affordable studio space. And we have big community dinners there once a week for networking and sharing our ideas.
Etsy's effect is being felt far beyond Brooklyn. Colleen Fields, 54, lives in a remote town in the mountains of North Carolina. Two years ago, she was laid off from her job as a newspaper subscriptions manager. "I must have sent out a thousand or more resumés and applications," she told The Huffington Post. "I applied for a job at a convenience store, and they said they had over 200 applicants. It's just crazy. There are no jobs around this area."
A friend suggested she look into Etsy. Not exactly computer literate, she nevertheless gave it a try. In December 2009 she opened her online store, Gemstones and Wire, selling necklaces, earrings and handmade clay vases. She wrote about how some women pay all their family bills with small businesses started through Etsy. "I'm just not one of them yet. I would love to be one of them," she added.
Several other successful sites have followed in Etsy's footsteps. Among them is Bonanza, which, with its "friendliest social community online," aims to put the human element back into e-commerce, "making people relevant again."
Then there is ArtFire, which started two years ago in Tucson, Arizona. It provides a platform for "handmade goods, fine art, vintage, designed items, supplies and media," and aims to "celebrate the unique individuality of artists and crafters around the globe."
Cafe Press was started in 1999. Based in San Mateo, California, the company provides on-demand printing for mugs, t-shirts and products designed by users, "uniting and rewarding self-expression." It now gets 11 million unique visits a month and, with its 6.5 million users, adds around 2,000 new, independent shops and 45,000 new products every day.
Another great example of making a business out of helping people make a business is Recession Wire. Begun in February 2009 by Sara Clemence and Laura Rich, who were laid off when Portfolio magazine folded, and partner Lynn Parramore, the site aims to "chronicle the 'upside of the downturn' through personal stories, helpful advice and reportage on the changes underway in these hard times."
In its small business section, the site features articles like: "How to Bootstrap Your New Business Wisely," "Don't Close Your Business, Change It," and "A Cool, Free Way to Figure Out a Business Idea's Potential."
At Inc.com, the website of Inc. Magazine, the editors aim to provide "advice, tools, and services, to help business owners and CEOs start, run, and grow their businesses more successfully." Its start-up section includes advice on writing a business plan, running a home-based business, naming a business, how to incorporate, and financing.
StartupNation bills itself as a "free service founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs." Headed by Jeff and Rich Sloan, two experienced entrepreneurs, who started the site to share their "years of in-the-trenches experience," the site features blogs, forums, advice, and networking tools.
Micro-financing, another entrepreneurship model greatly enhanced by the web, has been around for awhile. But the founders of InVenture Fund wanted to take the model to the next step. It was launched in October 2009 because, as the site says, "traditional microfinance models weren't doing enough to lift communities out of poverty." The problem was that the 75 million or so borrowers around the world were locked into loans they had to repay, sometimes at interest rates of 30 percent. InVenture finds microloan recipients who have good track records and gives them the financing to expand, with no fixed repayment schedule. "Give entrepreneurs an opportunity for real financial and social growth," the site says, "and they'll lift not just themselves but their communities out of poverty." A portion of the site's profits is then invested in responsible community programs, like clean water and education.
Indeed, one of the hallmarks of this entrepreneurial movement is community -- including an emphasis on local food, local agriculture, and sustainable business practices. One of the ironies of this new wave of small businesses is how the global reach of the web has been so pivotal in connecting people to their own communities.
Judy Wicks, the owner of the famed White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia, founded the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), which now has 80 local chapters in the U.S. and Canada. To spread the local food gospel of the White Dog, Wicks also founded Fair Food, which connects local family farms with city dwellers.
In Lexington, Kentucky, Fresh Stop is an attempt to bring the benefits of community-supported agriculture to those who couldn't normally afford it. Forming partnerships with churches, Fresh Stop asks those who can afford it to pay a bit more for what they buy, which subsidizes those for whom the fresh -- and healthy -- food would otherwise be out of reach.
Whether you're directly involved in a small business or not, I hope you'll check out Small Business America. After all, we're all affected by the well-being of the communities we live in. At least for the time being, real solutions are less likely to come from politicians than from the thousands of people in thousands of communities taking the initiative to connect, share, and create.
I love how human this movement is. It's fueled by technology, but at its core is a real person connecting to another real person. As Twitter founder Biz Stone said of his company: "Twitter is not a triumph of tech. It's a triumph of humanity."
Technology is what will allow this very American movement to scale up and begin to have a real impact. But it's in our backyards and basements that it begins. "To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections," wrote Edmund Burke. "It is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country, and to mankind."
Click here to check out Small Business America... and let us know what you think.
eric seigerGreat news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, signaling an interest in the education sector, has hired Joel Klein, the New York City schools chancellor. News Corporation announced Mr. Klein's hiring shortly after it was reported that he was ...
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seigereric seiger
eric seigerGreat news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, signaling an interest in the education sector, has hired Joel Klein, the New York City schools chancellor. News Corporation announced Mr. Klein's hiring shortly after it was reported that he was ...
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seiger This Month at Cato Unbound
Posted by Jason Kuznicki
This month at Cato Unbound we’re debating campaign finance regulation, with a panel of notable contributors and a big, new idea.
That idea is semi-disclosure, in which information about campaign funding is collected and disseminated, but, much like the census, personal names and addresses aren’t attached. Political scientist Bruce Cain suggests semi-disclosure might break the impasse between privacy and the right to know. Others? Well… you’ll just have to wait and see. Joining us will be Nikki Willoughby of Common Cause, election law scholar Richard Hasen of Loyola Law School, and the Cato Institute’s own John Samples. Discussion will run through the rest of the month on this vital issue to our nation’s democracy.
The latest jobs report came out on Friday. Overall, another 95,000 jobs were lost in September. Maybe they should start calling it the no-jobs report. Ezra Klein crunches the numbers to explain why the addition of 64,000 private sector jobs is pitifully inadequate:
That's about 35,000 less than the 100,000 or so jobs needed to keep up with population growth. It's about 180,000 less than the number of jobs needed to get back to 5 percent unemployment in the next 10 years. It's about 257,000 less than the 320,000 jobs needed to get back to 5 percent unemployment in five years.
In other words, the economy is not bouncing back any time soon. Even worse, it's clear that Washington is not up to the task of creating the conditions for the job growth the country so desperately needs. And as we find ourselves in the silliest stretch of the electoral silly season, it doesn't inspire confidence that the government that emerges on November 2nd will do any better.
A deep-seated cynicism is not an unreasonable response. But I'm pleased to report that hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country are choosing to react by taking action. As a result, a parallel economy is being created by people who, finding there are no jobs, have decided to create their own.
Of course, this burgeoning parallel economy doesn't mean the government is off the hook. But while millions of Americans are waiting for the government to do the right thing in terms of bold infrastructure spending, a payroll tax holiday, etc, etc, many have decided to stop waiting.
Through the creative use of technology, social media, and a focus on community, this new wave of small businesses is making its mark in a true convergence of left and right. At the moment, our government may be can't-do, but more and more of our citizens are solidly can-do -- and irrepressibly American.
To turn a spotlight on this nascent movement and encourage its continued growth, HuffPost is launching Small Business America, a new blog sponsored by FedEx where entrepreneurs can exchange ideas, get advice, and keep up with the latest small business news. Small Business America's contributors will run the gamut from CEOs to mom-and-pop business owners to policy-makers, business writers, professors, and social media experts.
Some of those we'll be featuring in our first week include:
- Aaron Patzer, founder of the online personal finance site Mint.
William Aulet, Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center.
Karen Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration.
Tim Westergren, Founder of the online radio site Pandora.
Christopher Hytry Derrington, whose company helps firms outsource their work to rural America instead of overseas.
Small Business America will also feature the first-person accounts of people who have already jumped in and started their own business -- as well as those thinking of taking the leap.
One of those forced by circumstances into creating her own business is Brenda Carter, whose story is featured in Third World America. A grandmother living in Marietta, Georgia, Carter had worked as a manager of information systems at the same company for thirteen years. Then, in 2007, she was suddenly laid off. "Imagine getting up every day for 13 years and suddenly that part of your life just ceased," she wrote. "I cried and cried and cried. I just could not believe it."
She didn't know what she was going to do, but then had an idea. Her mother, to help pay the bills as a single mother in New Orleans, had sold pralines door-to-door. "People would knock on our doors at all times of night asking to purchase these pralines," she said. "So as I was sitting at home I thought 'Hey I can do this too! This is something I can do and am comfortable doing.'"
And now she's the proud operator of a growing praline operation -- except instead of selling door-to-door, she's doing it computer-to-computer. Her online store can be found here. "Times are changing and so must we," Carter says. "We need to be supporters of ourselves, otherwise we will not survive."
Americans have a lot of passion and ingenuity, and there is a clear market in helping bring them to market. Enter Etsy.com and Cafe Press, which have now grown large enough to have a multiplier effect rippling across the country.
Etsy was founded in 2005 by Robert Kalin. Then 25, he was an aspiring furniture designer feeling frustrated by his attempts to sell his work online. So he created a streamlined platform for handmade goods of all kinds, and launched it from his apartment.
The site's mission? "To enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers. Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice." Which is exactly what Etsy.com is doing. And along with creating jobs, this new economy is creating connections, and caring, and community. As Kalin said in a 2009 interview:
One of the most important things anyone can do right now is create jobs. What's important is to empower people to make a living, and I support renting and running a 9,000-square-foot workspace in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that provides other small businesses with affordable studio space. And we have big community dinners there once a week for networking and sharing our ideas.
Etsy's effect is being felt far beyond Brooklyn. Colleen Fields, 54, lives in a remote town in the mountains of North Carolina. Two years ago, she was laid off from her job as a newspaper subscriptions manager. "I must have sent out a thousand or more resumés and applications," she told The Huffington Post. "I applied for a job at a convenience store, and they said they had over 200 applicants. It's just crazy. There are no jobs around this area."
A friend suggested she look into Etsy. Not exactly computer literate, she nevertheless gave it a try. In December 2009 she opened her online store, Gemstones and Wire, selling necklaces, earrings and handmade clay vases. She wrote about how some women pay all their family bills with small businesses started through Etsy. "I'm just not one of them yet. I would love to be one of them," she added.
Several other successful sites have followed in Etsy's footsteps. Among them is Bonanza, which, with its "friendliest social community online," aims to put the human element back into e-commerce, "making people relevant again."
Then there is ArtFire, which started two years ago in Tucson, Arizona. It provides a platform for "handmade goods, fine art, vintage, designed items, supplies and media," and aims to "celebrate the unique individuality of artists and crafters around the globe."
Cafe Press was started in 1999. Based in San Mateo, California, the company provides on-demand printing for mugs, t-shirts and products designed by users, "uniting and rewarding self-expression." It now gets 11 million unique visits a month and, with its 6.5 million users, adds around 2,000 new, independent shops and 45,000 new products every day.
Another great example of making a business out of helping people make a business is Recession Wire. Begun in February 2009 by Sara Clemence and Laura Rich, who were laid off when Portfolio magazine folded, and partner Lynn Parramore, the site aims to "chronicle the 'upside of the downturn' through personal stories, helpful advice and reportage on the changes underway in these hard times."
In its small business section, the site features articles like: "How to Bootstrap Your New Business Wisely," "Don't Close Your Business, Change It," and "A Cool, Free Way to Figure Out a Business Idea's Potential."
At Inc.com, the website of Inc. Magazine, the editors aim to provide "advice, tools, and services, to help business owners and CEOs start, run, and grow their businesses more successfully." Its start-up section includes advice on writing a business plan, running a home-based business, naming a business, how to incorporate, and financing.
StartupNation bills itself as a "free service founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs." Headed by Jeff and Rich Sloan, two experienced entrepreneurs, who started the site to share their "years of in-the-trenches experience," the site features blogs, forums, advice, and networking tools.
Micro-financing, another entrepreneurship model greatly enhanced by the web, has been around for awhile. But the founders of InVenture Fund wanted to take the model to the next step. It was launched in October 2009 because, as the site says, "traditional microfinance models weren't doing enough to lift communities out of poverty." The problem was that the 75 million or so borrowers around the world were locked into loans they had to repay, sometimes at interest rates of 30 percent. InVenture finds microloan recipients who have good track records and gives them the financing to expand, with no fixed repayment schedule. "Give entrepreneurs an opportunity for real financial and social growth," the site says, "and they'll lift not just themselves but their communities out of poverty." A portion of the site's profits is then invested in responsible community programs, like clean water and education.
Indeed, one of the hallmarks of this entrepreneurial movement is community -- including an emphasis on local food, local agriculture, and sustainable business practices. One of the ironies of this new wave of small businesses is how the global reach of the web has been so pivotal in connecting people to their own communities.
Judy Wicks, the owner of the famed White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia, founded the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), which now has 80 local chapters in the U.S. and Canada. To spread the local food gospel of the White Dog, Wicks also founded Fair Food, which connects local family farms with city dwellers.
In Lexington, Kentucky, Fresh Stop is an attempt to bring the benefits of community-supported agriculture to those who couldn't normally afford it. Forming partnerships with churches, Fresh Stop asks those who can afford it to pay a bit more for what they buy, which subsidizes those for whom the fresh -- and healthy -- food would otherwise be out of reach.
Whether you're directly involved in a small business or not, I hope you'll check out Small Business America. After all, we're all affected by the well-being of the communities we live in. At least for the time being, real solutions are less likely to come from politicians than from the thousands of people in thousands of communities taking the initiative to connect, share, and create.
I love how human this movement is. It's fueled by technology, but at its core is a real person connecting to another real person. As Twitter founder Biz Stone said of his company: "Twitter is not a triumph of tech. It's a triumph of humanity."
Technology is what will allow this very American movement to scale up and begin to have a real impact. But it's in our backyards and basements that it begins. "To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections," wrote Edmund Burke. "It is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country, and to mankind."
Click here to check out Small Business America... and let us know what you think.
eric seiger
eric seigerGreat news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, signaling an interest in the education sector, has hired Joel Klein, the New York City schools chancellor. News Corporation announced Mr. Klein's hiring shortly after it was reported that he was ...
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seiger
eric seigerGreat news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, signaling an interest in the education sector, has hired Joel Klein, the New York City schools chancellor. News Corporation announced Mr. Klein's hiring shortly after it was reported that he was ...
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seigerGreat news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, signaling an interest in the education sector, has hired Joel Klein, the New York City schools chancellor. News Corporation announced Mr. Klein's hiring shortly after it was reported that he was ...
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seigerGreat news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, signaling an interest in the education sector, has hired Joel Klein, the New York City schools chancellor. News Corporation announced Mr. Klein's hiring shortly after it was reported that he was ...
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seiger eric seiger eric seiger
eric seiger eric seigerGreat news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, signaling an interest in the education sector, has hired Joel Klein, the New York City schools chancellor. News Corporation announced Mr. Klein's hiring shortly after it was reported that he was ...
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
We have web browsers that let us tab through 10 different websites in seconds. You can kick off your TPS reports processing, while you skim through your email. You can do all this as you listen to your favorite tunes on your cell phone, and driving down the highway, while your cellphone also hollers out GPS directions to that favorite restaurant and politely pauses while you receive a call! Ok, that would be a seriously dangerous driver, but I doubt it's far from the truth for some current road warriors.
Technology seems to encourage us and our children to multitask-everything. I've always experienced the greatest personal strides in life, when I've reduced the clutter and focused my thoughts and efforts. Kind of reminds me of my limited understanding of just a few of the principles of Zen. Perhaps the learning's from Zen can be applied towards personal finance. I've always been intrigued by the various Art of Zen books and haven't seen one on the topic of personal finance, yet. So, let's take a high level journey as to what one of these books 'might' cover. This isn't considered a how to of personal finance, as much as it is an exploration of some alternative methods of how we might learn about and practice our lessons in personal finance.
Step 1: Zen What?
Quite simply Zen is a flavor of Buddhism, where learning from experience is favored over that of any religious texts. In it's depth, Buddhist monks can spend a lifetime achieving the wisdom of it's highest teachings.
Westerners have westernized our perspective of Zen in various pieces of literature like: Zen in the Art of Archery, The Dharma Bums, Zen and the Birds of Appetite, and the bestselling Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Now, many Zen and the Art of ... topics follow this framework. Which is to subtlety introduce the Zen mentality to contemporary subjects. Even more simply the basic steps to performing any activity (i.e. Zen and the Art of Personal Finance).
Like Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, this post doesn't seek to enlighten on aspects of Zen Budhhism. As an excerpt from the book on wikipedia points out:
He explains that, despite its title, "it should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It's not very factual on motorcycles, either."
So, the focus of Zen that I'll follow in this post is the subtle application of some of the principles of Zen to benefit our personal finance learning. Namely Zen's principles of understanding of oneself, kind thoughts, right action, and right effort.
Step 2: Zen of Your Finances
One of the principles of Zen is to understand oneself. Look into your self and see what methods have been best for you to learn new information in the past. Do you need repetition? Do you like analogies? Do you just like to digest the straight facts? Are you a logical person, and you must see the how and why before it becomes organic to you?
Never be to quick to make personal finance decisions. Sometimes taking some time to sleep on it is better advice than we realize. Allow yourself to meditate on new decisions, information, and problems. Zen is based on the ability for the practitioner to learn from their inward meditations on a problem. Some Tibetan monks even beleive that dreams are the key enlightenment. Great figures in history have practiced the art of lucid dreaming to unravel some of the greatest discoveries.
"Albert Einstein claimed the inspiration for his Theory of Relativity came to him while in a dreamlike state, and Dmitri Mendeleyev, a 19th century Russian chemist, reportedly fell asleep at his desk and awoke after conceiving the Periodic Table of Elements in a dream."
Personally, I've discovered about myself, that I learn best when I chunk down the information into bite-sized pieces. I like to digest it so that it logically makes sense to me. Once that's done, I'll go further. This way it's organic in my way of thinking about that information I've learned. Now, this isn't saying that I've learned the right info or the best info, just that I've digested the information so that it makes sense to me.
Now, this is different then the way I learned information in college. In college, the pace was fast and I didn't digest or make things organic. I'm sure there are some folks that did and retained a higher percentage of the information. But, I wasn't that lucky. A new method of learning for me has been these blog posts. A recap of lessons I've learned and how my opinion and views change as I read some of the great personal finance blog posts and articles out there.
To recap, do a self assessment of how what methods have been best for you to educate yourself with new personal finance topics and information.
Step 3: Zen of the Kind Thought and Right Action
Two more of the principles of Zen are those of Right (or Kind) Thought and Right Action. I would translate these to personal finance education as to think and take action that is kind and just. Hopefully this will keep us away from the get rich quick scams and paths.
If we aim at educating ourselves with personal finance topics that opposed to ill will and are mindful of the rights of others, then we will be doing good in the world. This is obviously going to be a to each their own type of topic.
I'll take an example of a method of real estate transactions that I read in several different books. The methods talked about lease-option transactions for buying and selling. Some books and information addressed this topic rather coldly without a real regard for the well being of those that are in a financial bind. Whereas other books discussed how you can use these methods to help folks that would otherwise not be able to get a conventional loan right now (but, put them in a position to qualify in a year or two). This was revelation with lease options, that finally had me thinking of them as viable tools. Otherwise, I just wasn't seeing myself profiting by putting together any transaction I could.
To recap, look for the silver lining in a learning or piece of education. How can this be used in good way or a win win way. If it seems too good to be true and not considerate of all parties involved, then it probably isn't a very good tool or learning.
Step 4: Zen of Right Effort:
Another of the principles of Zen is that of Right Effort. Right Effort basically means once you've learned, you must put it into practice. At the ZenGuide, they put it this way:
"Effort is the root of all achievement. If one wants to get to the top of a mountain, just sitting at the foot thinking about it will not bring one there. It is by making the effort of climbing up the mountain, step by step, that eventually the summit is reached."
This is by far my favorite principle. It puts everything together and can be practiced at any point in our personal finance lives to achieve goals. We're always learning new tactics and strategies. Let's face it, when someone tells you I have the secret to making 1 million dollars, we drool until we get the information. But, once they give us the book, or the url to the information, we get a little complacent. It's a basic instinct to feel at ease, because now we know where the information is when we feel like we want it.
Same can be thought of when we actually learn these cool ideas we find no all the great personal finance blogs out here. I mean, geeze, did you know you can immediately get double-digit returns on your money? Yea, start paying off your credit cards that have double digit interest, wallah! Did you know that you have free money from your company and Uncle Sam every year to save for your retirement? Yea, just add to your companies 401k and you can see 50% returns in some cases when they match 25% or 50% immediately. Not to mention the extra 25% that Uncle Sam gives you in the way of tax deductions to retirement savings.
Now these and many more tips can save or earn us thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands over a lifetime. BUT THEY WON'T, unless we decide to put them into action. Every day we procrastinate to start up our 401k, pay off our high interest credit cards with our savings, etc. is savings and money lost.
eric seigerGreat news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, signaling an interest in the education sector, has hired Joel Klein, the New York City schools chancellor. News Corporation announced Mr. Klein's hiring shortly after it was reported that he was ...
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seigerGreat news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, signaling an interest in the education sector, has hired Joel Klein, the New York City schools chancellor. News Corporation announced Mr. Klein's hiring shortly after it was reported that he was ...
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seiger
