Maximizing Capital Efficiency – How the Virtual Economy Can Help you Succeed in Business

The world is your playground…. Yup,  I really mean that.  No one on this Earth is better than you..  I realize it’s cliche,  but you really can do anything you set your mind to… and it has never been easier in the history of the United States…  I truly believe we are living in revolutionary times unbeknownst to a lot of people.   Do you realize how many people are actually making a living in our virtual economy.  Did you realize you most likely participate but you are on the consumption end?   We hear all this hype (crap) of working online, get rich from home, blah blah blah.   You need to be weary of this stuff,  just as you need to be weary of anything… learn to be a critical thinker.   But anyway,  back to topic…

First off I want to  be clear on what I mean by capital ….  I am not referring to capital as a physical asset in terms of this discussion.   I am referring to the cash or goods that are used to generate income by investing in different businesses (whether physically or virtually) or even an investment in a physical asset such as a house, apartment building or commercial property.  I am defining efficiency as using our available resources (namely capital) to their maximum potential and “squeezing” every penny out of each dollar spent in an effort to maximize income.  This is not the traditional definition of capital efficiency but this is the term I’m using to explain how we can leverage the power of the virtual economy, in essence  taking advantage of the nontraditional economies of scale  that the internet provides.

I am no stranger to outsourcing sites as Elance.com and Scriptlance.com.  I have been using them for a decade now….. I have used them from everything to hire someone to ghostwrite for me to develop a windows program that I resold.   Naturally,  I use them to this day.   These sites truly take advantage of  the virtual economy.   Price is driven by supply and demand and contractors are rewarded when they do a good job… when people positively critique them their demand naturally goes up which increases the price they can ask for their services.   It is a shame that these websites did not exist when I studied economics…  I just wonder if their is a class on the “virtual economy”…  It would be so interesting because it can be studied in such grave detail.   You can extract details from companies and find out their business model with one simple keystroke…  it is so much easier to find out what a company is about than it used to be.   You can easily extrapolate  their income based on studying their social reach and keywords they rank for in the major search engines.  It is now possible to do a zillion and one case studies for any business related topic you could possibly think of.

Before I go off on a “how the virtual economy” has changed peoples’ lives and standard of living tangent,  I want to discuss how the virtual economy can help you save money and maximize the output of your capital.  I’m not going to go into the problems of excessive  overhead and complexities of starting a typical offline physical business,  I’m starting to do that for the first time actually myself… and I intend on blogging about my experiences.   I will focus on starting a virtual business from conception to inception…  meaning from  the day the idea is conceived to the day you open  for customers.

For illustrative purposes,  I will open a web hosting business…. a business that hosts websites….   if you want a definitive idea of what it entails, check out this Wikipedia link. So what are the steps you would take before you start?  You are attracted by the residual income aspects of the enterprise and awe struck by the number of websites that are out there…  Furthermore there is this new thing called mobile hosting….  so you are convinced you should start this business and possibly dive into the latter.     How would the internet and virtual economy help you in this endeavor?  How would you maximize your capital efficiency (remember my definition above) to increase your new company’s income?  Yes, you can build your company with never doing the following:

1.  Leaving your house
2.  Actually having employees in your office and or even “seeing anyone”.
3. Make sales calls
4.  Rent office space (see #1)
5.  Worry about being robbed
6.  Talk to disgruntled customers
7.  Worry about employees calling in sick

Now of course,  you can do the above,  it just depends on what you want to do and your personality…..    You can hire people to work for you all online…. and you can do it on the cheap…  but depending on your business and your level of trust,  you can scale up to have a “real” employee if you so desire.  But the cards are yours to play…. Later in the week I will discuss the  ”How, When, What and Why’s” of starting your virtual business under the radar of anyone who knows you physically.

Don’t Fall for Online Scams

First off I want to say there are a lot of legitimate secret shopper companies out there….  I have used them  in the past to get free meals and products… you don’t get rich off of them but you can get  a lot of free stuff… and if you’re cheap like me,  then that’s a good thing!  With that said,  I’m going to continue.

The internet is a haven for criminals… I’m sure this doesn’t come to any surprise to you does it?   One of my bestest  (sic)  friends was almost a victim to a money order scam. He was sent a money order with very explicit instructions on what to do and what not to do. It was sent express mail (but I have my doubts as to that even because the tracking number didn’t show up). If he did in fact cash the check and sent the money to the foreigners he would be a accomplice in crime and legally NOT a victim…. think this isn’t true, go ahead and cash it and see if you don’t get a visit from the police….  I was going to do a video of the scam and what he recieved… but the guy below did a much better job!  Watch and learn…. it’s very sad actually.  If you do business online,  you need to watch yourself and your money….

My advice to YOU:  Before you do business online,  do a search on google or youtube.com for other’s experiences…..

My big thing is this: Don’t cash any checks or other financial instruments WITHOUT some kind of recourse. The first thing I told him to do was call any numbers that were listed on the money order (or check) to confirm its validity. But before you even do that, be sure that you are calling a legit number. You really can’t trust anyone these days…. My advice to ANYONE that receives a check or money order in the mail…. CALL THE INSTITUTION IT WAS DRAWN ON to check it’s validity…. even if it does in fact check out, DO NOT SPEND THE MONEY UNTIL THE CHECK CLEARS. I can safely say though, if you are asked to cash a check or money order then instructed to send the money via western union after you “take some for yourself” ….. RUN DON’T WALK FAR FAR Away from the situation. This trick is cleverly disguised… in this case it was a secret shopper job auditing Western Union. You can bet that if you are asked to send cash to someone out of the country it’s a scam…. and you’ll be left holding the bag. I told my friend he just saved $928. Don’t be a victim, have recourse on anyone you accept a check or money order from… btw, watch for the fine print that is sometimes put on endorsement side… Store clerks have to validate money before they take it oftentimes, how easy do you think it is to create a faux check or money order? Don’t be a victim, call the numbers the check was drawn on and verify… don’t cash anything that was unsolicited.

So you’ve already cashed the check? Did you send the money overseas via Western Union? Sadly, if you did this, you can most likely expect a call from your bank or local law enforcement agency for a follow up…. Luckily though, banks are aware of this scam and will put a hold on the instrument so you can’t spend the money until it clears. If it clears then all should be good… but don’t count on it… and don’t send anyone any money until the check clears…. you can tell your victimizers that…. Cash talks, everything else walks…. Many of these scams are perpetrated on craigslist.com…. they have some good tips I wanted to share below:

If you DO cash the check, you are actually an accomplice in a crime and not technically a victim. Take the test below to discover how vulnerable you are.

If you sell on Craigslist,   look at the video below…. better yet type in “craigslist scam” or “money order scam”….

SO you’re confused? If someone approaches you with an offer to rent your house, buy your car or any property you have for sale online, run for the hills if they suggest any of the following:

1. send them money via Western Union, if Western Union is involved, BE VERY CAREFUL. Only send via Western Union if you have recourse…

2. If they are out of the country, forget it, don’t even respond… most likely it’s a scam.

3. If you have sold something… Meet people in public places (if you even have to) and NEVER go alone… DON’T let anyone in your home…. it can be very dangerous..

My Life in Berlin During the 80′s

Mein Leben in Berlin, Deutschland

I lived in Berlin close to the end of the Cold War which last roughly from 1941 to 1991.   I hailed from a small city in West Virginia,  so Berlin was magnitudes different from my hometown of Huntington.     Prior to Berlin we lived in Goppingen, which is in the state of Badden-Wurttemberg, one of Germany’s sixteen states.  Goppingen was more similar to my hometown than Berlin was… at least for me.  Berlin was a big city which seemed light years ahead of WV in technology and urban layout than my home city.  A lot of this was due in part to Berlin being rebuilt after the war.  Berlin was progressive back then and from what I can tell continues to be to this day.  You can see where I spent a lot of time during my childhood in the map below,  needless to say I was very excited to explore Sundguaer Strasse and travel the roads as I did as a child using the street view of Google maps.   Yes,  we did roam around pretty freely in the streets of Berlin and felt safe doing so.  I have dreams to this day of catching the U-bahn over to the KadeWe, eating curry wurst before we got on the train.  It was a fascinating time to grow up in Berlin during the 80′s.  I got to experience a culture and an urban life that would never have been possible if it were not for my parents being in the military.

Because of the richness of the German culture and me being directly in the center of it,  there was never a lack of something to do.  Never did I say “I’m bored”.  How could you possibly suffer from boredom in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, even at that time.  Of course it was unbeknownst to me where I was living,  I was just enjoying the way of life that the military and German culture afforded me.   Berlin during Christmas was especially magical,  and everyone thinks I’m crazy (who hasn’t experienced it that is) for wanting to visit Germany during one of the coldest months of the year…   but it really is a magical place.  I have known people that have visited that didn’t think of it as fondly as I do,  but I’m certainly coming from it differently than someone who only gets a taste…  I actually lived there for several years..  so naturally I would have a fondness that people just visiting would not.  I was actually sad when my family exited from military service to come stateside and settle in my hometown of Huntington, WV.    I think it was spending so much time in Berlin that draws me to the urban life,   something I have always felt was missing. I love to see progress and innovation,  something that certainly is not lacking in bigger cities.  They have the attitude it’s better to make a mistake an move on than to never have tried in the first place… something I have always aspired to.   The German government and their sapience for the  temporary military residents was very impressive even back then.  I developed  a respect for different religions, backgrounds and ethnicities at a very young age.  It was not uncommon to share a classroom  with Muslims, Turks, Jews and many more.  In the city I was born in  I would have not encountered this as frequently.   I always have  felt that a lot of the apathy or disrespect that minorities face is due in part to exposure.  If you are not “exposed” or socializing with people different than yourself it is much easier to hate or dislike them… anyway,  before I go off on a sociological tangent,  I want to note that   if everything else goes wrong in my life,  I will always feel eternally grateful for the gift of living in such an awesome city rich with culture, history and diversity.

In closing I would like to note some of my favorite places, foods and experiences in Berlin:

Sundgauer Strasse (the street I lived on)  Funny thing was,  I always wanted to live in Duppel  because the buildings seemed more modern and it was closer to the Wall.
T.A.R  - I always wondered what happened to the school.
Alexia Harrington – always wondered what happened to her,  she gave me her address and said that I would probably never write her and regretfully I never did.  that was the last thing she said to me… always wondered what happened to her.  She spoke perfect German and English,  I was always impressed how she could switch flawlessly between the two languages.

Brandenburg Gate

Curry Wurst (yum yum,  I’ve yet to reproduce this to my satisfaction)
German Brochen (crusty outside, soft fluffy inside,  mmmmm)
pommes frites (with mayo)
Imbissstand on the Ubahn station closest to the PX.
Doner kebabs (with shaven lamb fresh off the spit of course!)  to this day can’t find anything that tastes as good… the closest would be a gyro that i’ve had in different places)
Berlin Wall

Berlin Cathedral on the Kurfurstendamm or Ku’dam for short…
Spandau Prison (I remember this from school,  Rudolph Hess,  a famous Nazi was imprisoned there but did not get to see him… )
Peacock Island
Wannsee – Thought it was so cool to stroll in the whale looking boat down the Wannsee,  sooo cool. Wonder if they still have the whale boat?
The Snack Shop at Truman Plaza –  they had the best eclaires….  also loved eating pommes frittes with the little forks…..  By the way,  I heard they have torn Truman Plaza down…. how sad.  I remember catching the bus there after school (I stayed after school a lot to take an optional computer class)  and went to a friends house who lived in Duppel.     I remember thinking how nicer the Duppel apartment buildings were than the ones I lived in….  I believe they were newer, thus  more modern than  mine….

Plus many more,  I could go on for awhile…. but when I go back,  I will surely be visiting these once again and partaking in the awesome foods I enjoyed as a child!  Not to mention walk around my old neighborhood!

Below is the street I lived on…..  would love to hear from other people who lived or currently live on Sundguaer Strasse….  I have such fond memories.   The building in which I lived is marked below……  I lived on the 5th floor…. walk up….  I remember my mother being pregnant with my sister and having to routinely walk up 5 flights of stairs.

View larger map

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Winter Solstice  and Whatever You May be Celebrating this Season…. But Here is  my Christmas Wish List, What’s Yours??

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due:

German American Flag brought to you by Institute for German American Relations (IGAR)

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