But you are a rural resident, you don't have to subordinate YOUR needs
to anyone elses---get on the stick and crank up YOUR rural enterprise,
get off the employee hamster-wheel.
Self-employment is a mindset, hard to break because the emphasis has
been on being a good, docile, loyal (hah!) wage-slave. But the mindset
is breakable and all the tools needed to become self-employed are now
the most numerous and effective the world has ever seen---you may and
probably will take a job as a quickfix to a very thin wallet, that's all
right, but plan to get out of Dodge as quickly as possible on your
self-employment horse---try to double-dip, take home some kind of
paycheck and at the same time learn something useful in your own business).
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Industry/FreeFall/ (manufcturing
decline in the U.S. affects ALL sectors---who cares about the
biggies---you aren't going to manufacture 747's in your backyard anyway,
imagineer your home manufacturing business---get there fustest with the
mostest.
(OK, there is a countercurrent of people moving to to rural and
small-town areas---you know all about that, you are part of it. furn it
to your advantage with a rural manufacturing activity---something you
don't have to feed and currycomb, and that can be made just-in-time---as
soon as you have the credit-card payment safely in hand.)
http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:XMjBZ9Auf9QJ:www.kc.frb.org/spch%26bio/IntnlConfAgCredit.pdf+trend+in+rural+manufacturing&hl=en
(yeah, the bankers want to get in the act---screw 'em, their only use is
to handle Letters of Credit and transferring the money from their
foreign affiliate banks to you if you are exporting your product (as you
certainly should) Be sure your banker knows what the hell he is doing
in handling export papers---most of them don't and to keep your pockets
from being picked, YOU will have to educate them---DON'T ever depend on
someone else to do what is really YOUR job or you will lose your tuppy.)
http://www.oycf.org/Perspectives/2_110299/dogmatism.htm (interesting
historical aside---you know my passion for history---Stalins fixation on
giantism instead of bfoad-based small, priately-owned, privately run
small business.) We still have Stalin's fixation on giantism in the
U.S.---stupid in the Soviet Union and stupid in the Oval Office.
http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/000748.html (outsourcing will
kill you, but only if you let it. Your rural location is a gem for more
than one reason---not just a better way to live, but a better way to
make a living---if you give it serious thought and DO something about it)
http://www.agmconnect.org/libserv/sample_cover_letter.html (OK, OK, I
know it is unfamiliar territory, and the time expended might be a waste
compared to expending that time in other directions, but let me tell you
a story. My excessively smart and resourceful oldest daughter created
her very large income and, until graduation, permanent employment at the
University of Wisconsin (I won't even mention the Athetic Dept. paying
her $30 an hour for tutoring footboll and basketball players to keep
them eligible to play.)
However her main source of revenue was as a grant-rainmaker. Arch
Haller was head of the Brazil section of the Sociology
Department---budgetless of course until my daughter brought in grant
funds from the Brazilian Government, after which Arch could wallow in
money---a good share of which was diverted to care and feeding of my
daughter. Go thou and do likewise.---you simply can't believe how much
grant money is out there for the little effort expended in finding and
harvesting it---think about a good use for it, and study grantwriting
techniques and illustrations)
http://www.keysheets.org/red_14_non_farm_income.html (hell, get a grant
for your spin-off rural manufacturing business(they won't know about
until ex post facto anyway). Get a grant for lowering the cost of farm
and small town utility buildings, even residences by using my
previously-suggested concrete/foam/fiber/acrylic/pozzolan bolt-together
sectional panels. It doesn't even have to be a success (you can make it
so), merely offer the prospects of success. Change the external
appearance of a foam/fiber residence (no big deal, change the plug),
where esthetic appeal is as important as maximum economy.)
http://www.cityofwheaton.com/thewallstreetjournal.htm (The Wall Street
Journal is heavily under the heel of the National Association of
Manufacturers and biased beyond belief---but as any kind of businessman,
you absolutely must read it.---this time they've got it right for you,
the rural entrepreneur.)
[Homestead] Home Manufacturing Busiiness, recent Post #4,
Tvoivozhd, 09/21/2004