National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship.  Mentioned before, the NDE is a newsletter of the Public Forum Institute. Their newsletter is a great source on innovation and entrepreneurship. Such as, "A new report from an Experts Group charted by the European Commission provides a useful state of play for how European universities are faring in this mission. The report finds that most European nations lack a         sufficient base of well-trained entrepreneurship instructors, and they  also fail to find ways to engage current or former entrepreneurs as nstructors or trainers. In general, universities need to move away from traditional teaching methods and embrace experience-based approaches that more effectively teach entrepreneurial skills and mindsets."  Source: http://www.ec.europa.eu/enterprise/entrepreneurship/support_measures/training_education/

Growthology.  The National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship newsletter introduced me to the Growthology blog on economics and entrepreneurship. I like the comments on the future of rural agriculture, entrepreneurial nation-states, eBay employment, Plaxo vs. LinkedIn, and the distinction between invention and entrepreneurship.

 Housing Valuation Analysis.  This overview of the USA housing market was presented by NationalCity, and was shared with me by Sandra Nickel of Hatteam in Montgomery, AL.   Compared against April 2007, sold listings were down 37% in midtown Montgomery.  The report and dataset from the 4th quarter of 2007 can be downloaded.  Montgomery real estate is still portrayed as being undervalued at this point in time, with a median home value at $109,300.

I just updated my profile on the International Network of Social Entrepreneurs.

INSE provides a global platform for Social Entrepreneurs to connect, share and collaborate on a series of key sustainable projects contributing to the complete eradication of extreme poverty by 2015 and the restoration of peace on Earth.  INSE members are working in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) signed by 191 U.N nations back in 2002. INSE is actively promoting Social Entrepreneurship around the world with a series of events planned for Q3 of 2008. INSE's vision is to have different stakeholders combining their expertise, skills, talents and passion, working in a highly collaborative fashion toward the betterment of humanity and an increased protection of planet Earth."   Nice tools.

YouPublish.  I just opened an account at YouPublish.  This is (will be) an online publishing system for many types of communications.  "Whatever your passion (author, musician, video producer, photographer, programmer, speaker, or life coach), YouPublish will get you published in a matter of minutes, and help you share your creations with the whole world. Because YouPublish accepts any file format, you can upload books, poems, songs, videos, photos, seminar packages, and even spreadsheets and software. And you can easily sell your creations—or share them for free!"

Very interesting and  very easy to use.  I uploaded a sample chapter of my eBook, "Civil War or Famiy Feud: Iraq's Ethnic Groups."  It took about six minutes to complete all the setup and uploading.  The YouPublish system is free at present, but will may require payment after all the bugs are worked out by us free users!  I do like the interface.  I think it will be great for sharing short eBooks or other free articles that could use some publicity on the internet.  Try YouPublish! 

 Twitter.  I installed Twitter in my right-column menu.  What is Twitter?  I can stay notified about what some of my favorite people are doing.  There is not much real benefit to this right now, but as a business communications model, it may have some use in my future. 

A friend just hit me with an email about a special
report he just released call "Breakthrough Fitness
How  to Destroy ALL your fitness struggles forever."

I don't recommend much out of the stream that comes across my
desk, but when Phil sent this to me he said to send it out to
my friends. He said, "It's a Free Gift for your friends; I'm giving it to you to give away," he said.  "And I'll be following it up with some cool audios and videos for as well..all free!"   At least, that's what he promised. 
I'll get the info posted here or on another page if worthwhile.

BreakThrough Fitness    (I hope it is so....)

 Discount Eyeglasses.  My son sent a link to online eyeglass stores.  Eyeglasses for $39.00?  Judging from the number of positive (internet?) reviews, they are worth checking out.  I just submitted a request for quote from Global Eyeglasses.  What convinced me to try them is that they can re-glass old frames.  I look forward to seeing what they can do with mine.

Phone calls on Rent-to-Own.  I am over 400 phone calls received about Rent-to-Own (Lease-Purchase) housing.  My phone bill indicates that I pay about $1.00 for each call.  I have received three application forms so far, and, unfortunately, was unable to accomodate the applicants in any of my houses.  I have met a lot of really nice people, have done my best to introduce them to other investor/realtor friends who might be able to handle their special needs where I can not, and am still eager to place quality tenant-owners in houses that they will enjoy owning.  With 800 houses in foreclosure in this county at present, it seems a shame that I have 400 callers who want to own a home, and there are at least another 800 (former) owners who are now needing to rent or stay with family instead of being able to continue owning their own home.  I can understand how much of it happens:  many of my callers want to spend 50% of their monthly income on housing.  I counsel them to not plan on spending more than 30% of their income so that they have margin for when illness or loss of work happens.  Unfortunately, most of them do not keep any financial margin, and many of them do not have a bank account or savings account.  I need to find or write some basic financial training material to give to callers to help them regularize their spending patterns.  Suggestions?

 Pleasant Surprise.  Tile installer (below) did return, did correct a mistake on a shower drain, and did promise to install the soap dish. 

Note to Self:  Always make a written log of all decisions made when hiring contractors and sub-contractors.  Always get details of work to be done written down and signed by each contractor before they begin work.

Example:  I forgot to write down the promise by a tile installer to build a soap dish in my new shower.  He "forgot" to install it.  I paid him before I realized that the soap dish was not installed. Since he was paid, he will not be back to correct "our" mistake, even if I pay him extra to redo the work.

Note to Self:  Never pay a contractor before thoroughly examing the work to be sure that everything agreed to was completed properly.  Once they are paid, they may be finished, even if they are not finished.

Aviary: web-based creation tools.   I use a lot of different programs on my computer.  Graphics editing, audio editing, desktop publishing, webpage design, databases, and a lot of other stuff that has me spending a lot of time and money keeping the tools updated.  Now, that can change.  With Aviary.  Aviary puts a plethora of creation and editing tools on the internet, as web-based toolkits.  One of my boys is excited because he was able to do some very interesting graphics on his new Macbook Pro, with Phoenix (the first of the tools) without having to upgrade his license to Photoshop.  I liked his work, and I like what Aviary is accomplishing. 

Anonymity.  A webcorrespondent attempted to live in obscurity and anonymity, and found that most of life in the internet world cannot be hidden.  This story is very interesting, showing how little we know about how much others can know about us.

FREE BOOKS at MyFreeBooks.biz.  I learned today of a free book site that has audio books.  You do have to pay for getting many books at the same time, but the basic idea is good:  you sign up for their newsletter and you get access to some of their books for downloading.  I'm curious about what this version of "free' actually means.

Distance Learning.  I take at least one seminar or workshop or lecture each week, on a variety of subjects.  And, all of them are online.  Some are traditional classroom courses moved onto the internet, but most are learning systems created, optimized, and delivered via computer, or computer + telephone.  And, for telephone-based deliveries, I even use Skype from my computer.  So, I operate almost completely via my computer for ongoing education in my many different areas of interest.  

The outcome?  I am becoming adept at quickly perceiving the quality of content provided in a "teleseminar" based on the introduction of the speaker and my reaction to the competence of the host.  Knowing a bit about the marketing and delivery of teleseminars, I can guess from the promotional blurb and the introduction as to the probability of my sticking with the presenter throughout the whole presentation.  If the introduction seems pretty slow and boring, I may record the talk to listen at my leisure on my iPod, and will keep a webinar presentation open so that I can pull it up later on to review any slides at my own speed instead of waiting for a presenter to tell me what I want to know.

In any case, internet-delivery is used for my convenience, and my learning, and I am not subjected to the delivery quality or speed of any presenter.  I can learn as it suits me.  I have done consulting, problem-solving, and remote diagnostics via computer and telephone for more than twenty years.  I hope that my own distance learning presentations and projects will continue to improve as I take notes on how I perceive the best-of-the-best internet trainers meet my needs.

Resources for distance learning instructors

DistanceEducator.com

Applications and Hesitations.  Shortly after I wrote the previous post, my first paper-based application for Rent-to-Own arrived.  The second arrived the next day.  Both of these applicants downloaded the (online) form from the website, completed the form with a pen, and then mailed the applications to me.  The forms can be emailed to me, yet these two applicants used the internet to download the form and then went to the trouble of writing the answers by hand, and then putting the three pages into an envelope and mailing them to me.  Personally, I prefer to send anything possible by email or fax, instead of on paper via the postal system.  I look forward to seeing how future applications will be sent to me.  Is this another social norm phenomena?

Rent to Own.  I posted recently about being deluged with phone calls after putting one small ad in the local paper mentioning that I do "Rent to own" housing.  I have now received more than 250 phone calls, and have noticed two very interesting statistics:  1.  90% of the callers do have access to the internet to view properties and download application forms;  2. NONE of the callers have yet to submit an application form.    Could this be a class-based phenomenon? 

 FreeCycle.  I just found out about FreeCycle, an internet-based site where members can post items wanted or items that they want to give away.  What did I find today?  Bicycles, furnaces, clothes, animals, furniture, puzzles, car parts, computers, radios, televisions, washing machines, and games.  It was fun to browse and see what people listed.  There are groups in many major cities of the world.  I like the idea and will be posting some of my own surplus items soon.  In my city, Montgomery Alabama, the group is hosted at Yahoo.com, so users here seem to be required to have a Yahoo account to access the listings.

Am I still doing research on ethnic relations in Iraq? The answer is "not at the moment."  I had hoped to re-engage this fall season and jump back into writing and collecting data.  But, I need to be in Alabama for the foreseeable future, and stay close to home for family reasons.  I am in-between grants to collect data and write reports, so I am devoting my time to family, to renovating old houses, and consulting on cross-cultural training programs.  And reading a lot.  But, all this does seem to fall under the category of "Civil Society,"  so I keep the name for now.

After studying many of the real estate investor websites that I could find, I've finally found a third site that has great content with much wisdom.  The first site was the National Real Estate Investor.  The second was Creative Real Estate Investor Online.  This one is HowtoRenovateHouses.com.  Brand new, it offers good tips for those renovating or rehabbing houses, either for themselves or for others.  Russ Parker just gave a teleseminar on rehabbing houses and pointed me to this site.  I look forward to learning more, and doing more to get my own houses into better condition for my tenants.

Two weeks ago I put an advertisement in the local paper, TheBulletinBoard.com, that said, "Why Rent when you can own?  Rent-to-Own!"  I have had over 200 phone calls since then, asking about joining the program. 

The idea is simple:  people without good enough credit to get a loan themselves will rent from me for eighteen months and then their credit should be upgraded enough to where they can get a loan to buy a house--my house that they have been renting.  I've learned to ask more qualifying questions to find out which applicants have some credit capability, earn enough money steadily to rent and/or buy, and are able to make the upfront payments necessary to rent-to-own.  I hope that I have given most of the callers some useful information, and that some of them will follow through to get into a good house as future owners. 

Unexpected info?  That many callers are willing to give considerable personal information on the grief that they have suffered that brought them into the realm of poor credit.  Almost all of them blame it others who took advantage of them.  A few admitted that they had made poor decisions.

Regrets?  Only that the advertising service  would not let me insert my webpage link, Heart of Dixie Real Estate,  in the ad to give curious readers an online way to immediately find out if they qualify without having to call me.  The next step might be to purchase a voicemail service that will answer the most common questions.  And give my phone number a rest.

This has been a very learning month.  I bought a house, had to begin eviction proceedings against a tenant who was 2 months behind on his rent payments, learned to hang and tape and mud and skim sheetrock, and I toured the residual catrosphe of Hurricane Katrina (2007).  My head is full of learning that I have not yet processed.  I did have the great pleasure of training some of my kids how to remove wallpaper and then to sand and prime and paint house walls. 

Edmund Loh posted a funny, but thoughtful comic. It certainly did lighten up my mood.
It doesn’t just stop at the laughs though; there’s a strong message behind it and it has to do with how you can make Year 2008 YOUR YEAR.
Whether you’re young or old.
Whether you juggle a full-time job or you’re unemployed.
Whether you have superior technical skills or just basic computer literacy.
And number of years of experience under your belt is NO longer a requirement to succeed online.


Click here to see the rest of the comic in full.
May your new year bring peace.

Rent-to-Own House.  The latest house is a fun project to clean up and make useful.  It is a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom home in Capitol Heights, in Montgomery, AL.  It is liveable as-is, but will be much better next week after a deep cleaning of inside and outside.  Rent-to-Own means that a portion of on-time rent payments count towards the purchase price.  For example, this house will rent at $750 per month.  When the tenant pays the rent on time or earlier, a portion of that rent money will be credited towards the purchase price of the home, depending on how much the tenant pays as part of the deposit on the house. For the same amount of money as paying rent in an apartment or smaller house, the tenant can become the owner of a very nice home.  This is the latest adventure of Heart of Dixie Real Estate!

Merging the two worlds, I took a dozen photos of an old house that I am buying in Montgomery.  Photos of a house that is structurally sound, no serious problems, but that is really ugly from dirt and weeds and overgrown brush and dog evidence inside the house.  Legally, documenting everything, ethically, keeping my word and not overpromising, patiently, not overcommitting myself or my family, frugally, not spending what I do not have.  Finding a good deal on a house to buy is not difficult at this time in the USA; finding a really, good deal with an adequate financial safety margin in it is a bit more challenging.  But I get a bit of an endorphin rush from solving problems and having opportunity to help someone who needs to sell a house or rent a house is a great challenge.  And, to never promise what I cannot deliver.  My project this week:  the old house that will be a great home for someone.  My job is to get the house attractive enough so that the right buyer or renter can be found at a fair price.  I have two choices: I can do more work on it and seek to find a renter or lease-to-own person (longer time frame and more financial risk to me); or, do less work on it and try to "wholesale" it very quickly to an investor who is willing to put money and time into it in order to sell to an "end-user" or resident owner.  I don't really care which way the house goes, only that it gets into the hands of someone who likes it and is willing to pay for finding it for them.  Fair enough.

Question of the day:  How can I work "On" my business instead of only "In" my business?

What are the higher-level tasks that only I can/should do, and which ones can I be learning to buy/sell/outsource/recruit others to do with me?  This is my quandry for the evening. 

Where are the affiliate marketing nodes who are supposed to be contacting me to buy some of our team products and services?  We are definitely building capacity to do serious and significant work, but are avoiding the "get rich quick" scams to focus on things we do best:  motivating, mobilizing, encouraging, challenging, learning, mastering new skills, challenging assumptions, and changing the world.

What a great adventure!!!

NewsFeed Today!

 In parallel to our real world businesses, the family is expanding influence into the realm of internet-based businesses.  We are building websites, designing logos, handling email correspondance systems, buying and selling things like Lego and farmland and houses and antiques, and doing transcription, and book editing, and writing a lot of content for speciality newsletters and websites. 

Real Learnings.  I've taken a break from some of my socio-research to explore the world of real property management.  That has included starting a real estate investors' association for eastern Alabama (Heart of Dixie Real Estate Investors), meeting a lot of investors and real estate agents and brokers and lenders  and construction people.  That, naturally, led to buying a rental house for myself to learn how to care for both house and tenant.  That led to exploring the world of lawyers and accountants and financial advisors and government paperwork systems that keep everyone employed.  I have a much deeper appreciation for the many, many landlords that I have dealt with over the years as a tenant, and feel good that I have always left a house in better condition than when I moved in.  I understand why owners will hire a property manager to take over the "control of the tenants" so that personal contact with tenants will not influence business decisions about properties.  This is now a family business, and I do enjoy having my kids involved in the systems with me, also learning new ways that the world operates, and trying out different jobs that they may or may not want to pursue in the future. 

Kindle is finally (almost) here.  The portable digital document reader "wirelessly downloads books, newspapers, magazines and blogs to a crisp, high-resolution electronic paper display that looks and reads like real paper, even in bright sunlight."  I had opportunity to play with an HP IQ 5900 the other day and was almost persuaded to join into the super-phone/submicronotebook device club.  I have come to like my Motorola e805 phone, but the screen is not much for reading anything more than a 2-line text message.  Spending a lot of time this past summer using a GPS system kept me from getting lost as long as I could read the small display.  So, where are these devices going to converge? 

A way to talk, a way to write and read and send and receive anything and any time, play and record music and video, small enough to not feel heavy on my body, large enough to read without glasses even in the dark or in the bright sun, and will go for days without needing to plug in to an electric charger.

The Kindle is (predictably) in short supply, and sells on Amazon for about $400, including the wireless connectivity package that does not need wifi or roaming charges. 

Timberland Refuge.  I am selling a 40 acre timber reserve surrounded on all four sides by national forest.  Planted in timber in 1997, it has not yet been thinned and has a marvelous stand of trees inside the fence, and old growth timber in the forest surrounding.  Take a look at this wonderful natureland on the Alabama-Florida state line.

CounterJihad: the conference focused on the current and projected impact of Islam on the culture(s) of Europe.  Not alarmist, but factual statements that reflect how the status quo is being challenged through intentional, occupation of geographic and ideological realms.  The presentation by Patrick Sookhdeo, "From Dawa to Jihad," gives insight that may represent other village-level strategies for Islamization.

Associative mindmap of the research: a MindMap-type exploration of the architecture-like effect of East Asian migration into Hungrary.  This is a fantastic display of how interconnected the social, educational, financial, and other aspects of a community are changed by those who enter it. They use thousands of toy-like elements to emulate the ebb and flow of ideas and change.

CSIS Report on a final solution in Iraq.  "If the US is to win any meaningful kind of "victory" in  Iraq, it cannot consist of simply defeating Al Qaida in Iraq and the  worst elements of the Shi'ite militias....This report has no simple bottom line. All of the real-world options present agonizing trade-offs and are almost certain to resulting some degree of added separation and displacement."

Netflix has top ratings for customer service, based on surveys from Booz Allen and Duke University.  Why?  This New York Times article suggests that   "Netflix took an unusual step for a Web-based company: it eliminated e-mail-based customer service inquiries. Now all questions, complaints and suggestions go to the Hillsboro call center, which is open 24 hours a day."  Live operators in the USA for American customers;  what a great idea!  See the Netflix Blog for even more great ideas on how to humanize the mass marketing of consumer entertainment. 

Check out the new book on business branding:  The Brand that Called Wolf by Scott Deming.  "Great branding begins and ends with exceptional, innovative customer service. Great companies are those that
not only deliver on their promises to customers, but also transcend those promises to create one-of-a-kind emotional experiences."

Thanks to them for also mentioning how David Waldman of Arizona State University's Center for Responsible Leadership  is leading a project to map the neuroscience of how brains of exceptional leaders and visionaries work. "Successful leadership occurs where heart and mind, feeling and thought meet."   See the fascinating color map of the brain, showing which areas of the brain are engaged with which leadership functions!  Research shows that visionary leaders have more efficient left brains (logic and reasoning patterns) and better connected right brains (social skills patterns).
Thanks to Church of the Customer blog for these news pieces.

Neilson Survey reports that, worldwide, customers still believe word of mouth over all other types of advertising.  Read more on fascinating regional and cultural differences in purchase decision-making.

Real Estate Listings in eastern Alabama.  These listings are not with the MLS system, but are provided by owners eager to sell their houses quickly.  List is courtesy of Heart of Dixie Real Estate.

Janet Switzer's How Experts Build Empires marketing plan.  This is a fascinating document showing how building a mailing list is the first step in the process of growing an online business.  It is easy to read, and easy to understand.

Another Real Estate marketing tool.  Click Here!      I will be testing this and similar tools this week.

Video Blog. Video blogs are fun to watch (sometimes). This site gives a search engine.

http://protopage.com/v2
A very easy to use web place to keep links, sticky-notes, feeds, and other dashboard-type events, and where friends can also add links.

EducationPhilanthropy
Rene Bekkers has published many article on the connections between educational background and charitable giving. Very interesting. On this separate page are some of his documents.

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