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First we all must understand that our goal as a small business is to not to let the national chains take over the power control of the world.
We must grow together as a team and work on getting one rule in America changed, because the people spoke. Try to to get a 100 things changed at once, we have no chance. As an outside sales person for LED Action moving signs, I see business all over America that are in towns that are not small business friendly. In fact they are working to kill the small business by not letting them have signs letting the customers driving by their store have an action moving sign on their store or sign pole outside. National chains can run TV ads, it does not matter to them where the ads run, they have locations everywhere and money to spend on the ads, even if it only gets them a 2% return they are happy.
Will everyone in America, just stand there and let the major chains and the Government make rules to help the national chains destroy the small business?
Wait until you are on the national chain black list and cannot get a JOB and small business are a thing of the past, then we will see where you stand.

Scott

I must also add that its not all about America, all about usa, its all about the world, it all about the entire human family, seeing that we are all connected, what we do effects china, what Africa does effects France, what Russia does effects Iceland, we are all one. we are all tied into the earth and her supplies, we must stop segregating ourselves out of pride and see that its about joining hearts and hands with everyone. its also about personal responsibility - stop waiting for someone else to fix it (aka the government) you are your OWN government, your OWN president. YOU are the answers to your prayers - so roll up your sleeves and get to work. aloha! KD

I have been in startup mode for 6 years! Why? Because I quit my job with one large contract, and it wasn't enough to sustain all the costs I ran into. Plus I went into an unwise real estate investment with an entrepreneur friend - big mistake, but at least we can collect rent.

The point here, though, is that someone (Chuck) pointed out that we have to have more than complaints here. We need solutions. Anyone willing to tabulate all of the "issues" so that we can put them into a coherent white paper, what needs to be fixed in Entrepreneurship America? My problem is that I don't have enough to show to qualify for a loan that isn't secured against my home, which I won't do. There are so many costs small businesses bear, such as (at least in my state) having to pay a $100 annual fee just to have your business name remain on the business register, double Social Security payments, even if just for one employee. I did manage to get around the employee health insurance issue by establishing a collaborative business model. I provide a create integrated public relations/communication service, so I have assembled a team of independent entrepreneurs who come together on a project-team basis as required. I would love to hire employees, but the tax advantages offered right now aren't enough to offset the costs, not to mention the constant fear of making payroll every week.

At any rate, if someone wants to note the problems noted here, and any solutions suggested, I'd be happy to put it into a white paper format. That's one of the things I do as a writer.

Hi, Good to have received the invitation to be part of this group. I have also pledged my support. I guess we can have a larger theme and support Entrepreneurs in general so that any economic activity in South America will trigger Fin Markets in North America and new opportunities there can impact India and growth in India can be huge opportunity for UK / US .. So, today we are in a real flat world. Thought will share this. Best Regards on your initiative. Sridhar, Entrepreneur

In contemporary society, entrepreneurs are the only leaders pushing forth a new and visionary economic success. As the industrial age of our nation comes to a close through means of outsourcing to nations which can produce products and/or services for a lower cost, we must look to the information age which began in the 1980's and the transition to a new American workforce, planted heavily in service industries and intellectual property. For example, as Americans, we must realize that we cannot rely on manufacturing cheaper products, or providing services in which the international market can produce for a lower price; instead, we must pride ourselves on our ability to create new markets through an intellectual process. Because America has always been based on freedom and rewards those who take risks, we have created a culture envied and copied by other countries, from our movie stars, to our lifestyles, even to the horrible fast-food we have created. Ultimately, all the envy for our highly successful nation may fade without the consistent creation of new intellectual property, innovation, and business leadership in the form of entrepreneurship. In fact, if one were to look to the exact definition of economy, it states, "economy is made up of land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship." A country may have land, a country may have labor, and a country may even have large sums of capital, but without entrepreneurship to tie all of the resources together, a country has no ability to lead, but simply an ability to follow.

I agree with Chuck Johnson - I believe the founders of this incredible place created this area to unite people to do something productive - not just free form dumpt thoughts to complain or comment.

The only way we are going to build this stronger america is if we start stating ideas, offering ways to implement them, or establishing a voting system so we can vote on which ones we would all like to see happen - and then form small miniteams to start taking action to make them happen. This should be a productive place. It seems like it's not going anywhere. There needs more structure.

I am an entrepreneur who likes to make things happen. I liken Chuck Johnson is too - so let's see if we can switch this tone around a bit here - so potential new joiners stick around and rally behind us for the long run.

I also don't think this place was meant as an 'open solicitation to tell us about your business' forum. There are a zillion other forums and free places on the internet to do that.

So the person sharing about their olive oil business - it's a bit pushy and I didn't join this group to read about your business. Just state the suggestion and sans all the details of your business.

I joined so that I could make an impact and present ideas backed with a potential plan or forward action. It would be great to see all that happening on here. That's how my colleagues and I work anyway.

So let's sift through what has been presented so far and see if any of us want to move forward to take action on them - or flush the ideas out a bit more to see if they are feasible and viable to spend time on.

I have a few of my own - but mine as well start with what we have and take it from there. No point adding more to the list if what people have offered might get overlooked b/c it goes too far down the thread.

Not trying to be harsh here - but my time is valuable - and if I am going to dedicate time to this because I really believe in this -it's to do something - make an impact, create the change. Otherwise, I will just pursue my own missions and not participate on here - and be doing that anyway.

After 8 years of hard work, taking care of family responsibilities, I am ready for my dream...BYOB entrepreneur which is in my family blood:

However, the situation is so unique hopeless, daunting, killing... everybody is against my project: my daughters, wife, friends the hole world! I say here I am either I will die or win the the world I am going ahead..."Spartan don't ak where are the Romans THEY LOOK FOR THEM." I alone am responsible and all risks, hardship and calamities I challenge to come my way I will melt them!

Here is the beginiing and all can join sharing knowledge and experience is the fundamental strenght of our country we don't hide....

Every state can have this project: Green Bubble School field Trip Center create a field trip centre for every two or three counties there are thousnads of counties what traditionally schools have been doing is taking students to the same place for school field trip for the last 50 years...Give athem an opportunity to visit or experience a totally new opportunity and all will be benefitted take my word

Long live America and her entrepreur spirit here i come.

I am $19 000.00 in debt but ready to start my own world watch me! my fellow Americans! And this is just the small beginning! a first step!

GARY PANCHOLI CARY NC 3-24-2010

Asdrubal Sossa-Robles of Newport Beach, California stated that China does not have rules and it is easier to do business there than in the USA… he is wrong.

To suggest that China has no rules is ridicules. Actually their bureaucracy makes ours look good ..and their rules are harsh, for instance, the Chinese government has uncovered thousands cases involving the production or sale of sub-standard food products. China executed the former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, for the Melamine incident. Another senior official from the State Food and Drug Administration, Cao Wenzhuang, was given a suspended death sentence for taking bribes. Geng Jinping and Zhang Yujun were executed with a bullet to the back of the neck for manufacturing tainted milk. Firing squads are routinely used for dishonest entrepreneurs. Not only do they have rules but it seems their enforcement is a bit harsh.

A salmonella outbreak in the United States sickened 700 and killed 9 people. Stewart Parnell and the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), the head of the FDA are all dam lucky this is not China.

The only way out of this recession is through the growth of small business. They are the one's who create jobs in this country. I have been an entrepreneur for over 25 years and have the scars to prove it. The last 10 years I have been working with start ups and small business as a marketing consultant. Two years ago I came to the conclusion that were missing the boat big time in the way we help entrepreneurs succeed. We all know they need money. That is a given. But what a lot of them also need is engineering help, marketing help, management help and so on. Well today location is no longer a problem. Therefore a new medical device start up in Idaho could use the help of a medical device engineer in South Florida. The problem is they don't know each other. The facts are it's not what you know sometimes it's who you know. I hear it all time time from my clients. They ask me if I know someone in their business who could help them out. America is great at helping out other countries and people and that is great. We have a huge resource of people in this country who could help our entrepreneurs succeed including the 75 million baby boomers with over 30 years experience.

People helping people is what it's all about. When that happens you get back ten fold and all kinds of opportunities open up. It is my passion to help Grow America by connecting up experienced professionals who can help our entrepreneurs succeed.

As most of you that are reading this we were brought up with Pledging Elegance to the flag every morning in school. I don't know, if it still assists? For some of us it probably meant more than others. I was the last born into a family of 6 children. My family at emigrated from the beautiful Inlands of Azores, Portugal and I was born here in the States. When I was a youngster and my father would introduce me to someone, he would say this is my son Henry he is my youngest and he is an America Born and that meant something to him because he loved this country. Not, that it was more beautiful than his but because of it's ideas. Portugal at the time was ran with a dictator. So when I Pledged Elegance to the Flag it had allot of meaning. One Nation Under God with Freedom and Justice For All.
I don't see it today and the little that is left is slipping away right a front of our eyes. I see allot of talk but no one ever gets close to the core of the real problems in our country. We are control by Fear (Hitlers best weapon of control) and Cooperate Monies. I believe if surveyed 90 percent of us that don't work for Big Pharm will say Pharmaceutical Commercial are ridiculous, we have doctors that go to school to learn what drugs to prescribe, why are they spending billions of they customer's dollars advertising to people that can't prescribe drugs to themselves. They do it to control the media, They are the main principles of all the major media in our country and in doing so they are in control of our country where not even the President of The United State listens very carefully when they talk, or we may have a Health Bill with their approval which is the biggest problem with our Health System. Now, if we really would to help our country lets start at he root of the problem and take our country back. We are boomers we were leaders and warriors but today we are talkers. By the way I had A.D.D.H.D. as a child and I am glad Big Pharm wasn't in control back then because I would of drugged.

It would be a great idea if the powers that be wake up and see that we can put America Back To Work. We can create jobs. We have a simple solution. Let the entrepreneurs do what they do best. Circulate the flow of money, and get the economy flowing again. We have the programs ready to go, How much longer do we have to wait to get the financial support that we need?

Do you know that US eliminate the use of paint containing lead since 1978? Well, but China is using paint containing lead right now and exporting goods(Toys, Furniture, Tools, Appliances, etc) to US, Why? Because China don't have rules.

Do you know that in the California State, for example, an Entrepreneur to starting a business want to get 19 Federal,State and City Permits, meanwhile in China not need nothing? US want to go to World Trade Organization with an intelligent proposal to fit equal rules to Trade with China.

We want to avoid the flood of goods of China. Some years ago I worked in an The Home Depot Store and I verified that 90 of each 100 items in stock for sale has been imported from China....How the small,medium of big American Companies can survive in this scenario?

To avoid from roots the current economic crisis The White House and The Congress must be understand that the first priority is to define an Competitivity Index to be applied to China imports.The small, medium o big America Corporation can not to compete with Slave salaries in an economic, politic and social totalitary sysstem like China.

My Dear Luke Craig,
May I take issue with your comment:

Philosophy needs to be taught to the young for it will establish a matrix of propensity/possibility/potential. The economy of the United States of America must have such a matrix to in-turn proportionately re-align "The Land Of The Free And The Home Of The Brave". True it be that evolution does play a role (miniscule) although all in all the most powerful sense of reality restith in thy consciousness. First of All I have no idea of what you mean - Please compare it with such simplicity as my statement below. People need jobs! Not some gibberish that no one can understand; I think we would be best by taking things a small bit at a time...."a thousand mile trip begins with one step in the right direction" so goes a Chinese proverb. Brian Tracy also mentioned this in one of his lectures.

Our economy has reached the point where it cannot sustain itself without the support of venture capital and entrepreneurs to create new industry. Unfortunately however, the banking industry is not legally allowed to supply venture capital to create the necessary innovation. Rather than dumping the vast quantities of money managed by the banking industry into mortgages and creating situations such as sub-prime mortgages, that money needs to be funneled into creating new industry, something for which debt funding alone is incapable of. The truth is, without removing this de facto ban on innovation, our economy will continue to deteriorate indefinitely. It is the responsibility of every individual to make sure this does not happen. We need to make sure that innovation is possible. We need to make sure that the American dream is possible and for everyone.

Philosophy needs to be taught to the young for it will establish a matrix of propensity/possibility/potential. The economy of the United States of America must have such a matrix to in-turn proportionately re-align "The Land Of The Free And The Home Of The Brave". True it be that evolution does play a role (miniscule) although all in all the most powerful sense of reality restith in thy consciousness.

Many attributes of the education that is given to the young innately does not become useful. Education should concentrate predominately on the Here And Now as-well as In The Future.

The citizens' of America can and will can and Shall Rock This Nation but before that happen's they/we must become aware of propensity, as-well as consc-iousness. This theory (so to speak) is Quantum Sapience and as proclaimed, it is a meta-oriented theory that is fundamentally structured throughout the Emot-ional, Mental, Physical and Spiritual entities which to pertain to reality.

@Thompson New York...very interesting remarks. You must be unfamiliar with Socrates who made plain that the state is the only way private property can exist. It alone can employ police forces to protect private property, and run courts to mediate harm, and taxes have to be paid to maintain that protection. Under your scenario, the only people who will keep their property are the ones who can hire their own private police forces. Are you one of those?

So was Callicles, who was instrumental in getting Socrates put to death. He didn't like the idea that this "state" would curtail his personal liberties to be a thug against those physically weaker than him. Although quite possibly not mentally weaker!

Good luck in Thompson's America! Not good for entrepreneurs who want to devote their lives to creating livelihood and chances of wealth for themselves.
That was also part of Socrates' argument. You'll never get people to do their most productive work when they can be robbed blind anytime by a Thug force!

And there are plenty of others who have allowed themselves to be indoctrinated with this idea over the last decades since Goldwater. Goldwater's boys definitely have the private security on their ranches. And jets. And helicopters.

Too bad it won't hold up very long against the tides of history! And very bad for getting people to be self-determinist and creative!

The Jobs Plan We'd Get If Leading Innovation Scholars And Growth Economists Weren't Being Volckerized (i.e., Ignored As Volcker Was Until Recently) would leverage America's advantages to make America the Silicon Valley of the global market for customized education (CE).

Understanding why we'd get this plan starts with knowing that popular online markets for CE can be expected to catalyze the creation of many jobs.

The United State's of America is a nation that with-hold's a touch of everyth- ing. It is one of the goal's of Diverse Design to establish a nation of one through interactive and inter-dimensional philosophy. This philosophy is know- ledge intermixed with sentience which in-turn becomes a form of sapience or the use of that extra sense. A way to allow others' to become aware of this sixth sense is through digital imagery. In the end this shall be considered a sense of education, media, philanthropy, or sentience through sapience. America shall prevail and dominate by transcending the immaterial phenomina.

What I do not understand is ...while we promote building America the following is a handicap

America doing a lot of relief work in Haiti, labor intensive products may have to be imported from elsewhere at the moment. Other items could be manufactured in the US. Donors money getting wasted on freight often higher than the value of goods!.

The other thing I see is : payment up front is expected by US vendor they have never heard of such a thing called "Letter of credit" widely used in Europe. The far eastern suppliers having to trust the US vendor to part with payment upfront on purchases in good faith where as vise versa is not entertained by the US vendor to work along together to complement each other on large tenders.
Misconception about LC's (Letter of credit) driving away business opportunities back to the far east to incur freight charges and delay instead the manufacturers of US and foreign could work as partners
to complement high value tenders.
Another thing that comes to mind retailers should be encouraged to have a section for "Made in America" there are people who will pay extra to trigger local production, they need to go miles & miles searching for local products & supplies.

A major contributor to America's debt is our consumption of fossil based fuels. If we were able to not only curtail the amounts used each year but start mass producing electric cars that are fueled by renewable energy such as wind, geothermal, solar etc.. we would not only be cleaning up our environment in the U.S but reducing our dependence on the import of oil as well. If America is able to emulate what China, of all places, is starting to do with their investing in Green energy, then our citizens would have more jobs producing the power, building the vehicles and batteries, and probably lessening our health costs at the same time. The new electric Tesla vehicle goes from 0 to 60 MPH in 4 seconds. That is similar to a Corvette so loss of power should not be an issue. I am pursuing the mining of rare earth metals that are required for Green Energy. Small part in a big play.

Mr. Schramm focused his comments on the individual as the entrepreneurs. Secretary Locke focused on institutions as a source. But likely the "Ford" entrepreneur will not come from an institution. Secretary Locke didn't mention how we are to spur on these entrepreneurs, Mr. Schramm did, and he's on the money. As entrepreneurs we need to be able to show spectacular returns to interest risk takers. Any way the spreadsheet can be enhanced with a spectacular tax break to place more of the income to the bottom line, the more likely is a risky idea to be funded. But as long as people like Mr. Schramm and Secretary Locke work together, we get the multiplier effect of that team, and it takes a team to execute.

As an mechanical and chemical engineer for over 40 years and an inventor nearly all that time, I have never seen a product that can't be improved, even my own (ahem), some very significantly with only a simple change. Considering we are importing some $400 in oil a year (70% of use), obviously there is unlimited opportunities in energy. That's where I'm focused because that will help America get back on its feet in a big way. We have to pay our bills somehow, and it's going to take a lot of "Fords" to do it, and energy can create them.

Communicating the big idea is a problem, however. The web sites that cater to inventions for nominal consumer products are not going to help. A Web site is needed that just caters to several $billion sales ideas because there is no better way for them to get attention if these ideas are by individual entrepreneurs. Again, as Mr. Schramm says, it is individual entrepreneur that will be starting the businesses that matter to job growth. The reason is corporations just fear for their existing order books, entrepreneurs create the order books with the potential for hyper growth.