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The professional edition of Kamus Lengkap, the very popular easy to use and complete mobile dictionaries. It supports English - Indonesian, Indonesian - English, words, phrases, US and UK locale voice and text pronunciations, regular and irregular verb features including infinitive, simple past, past participle and the meaning in Indonesian. This application supports English and Indonesian user interface, US and UK locale voice pronunciations that you can switch under the Options menu. Features: - English - Indonesian. - Indonesian - English. - Words and phrases. - Regular and irregular verbs (infinitive, simple past, past participle, and the meaning). - Voice and text pronunciation of English words. - Voice and text pronunciation of Indonesian words. - Fast search-engine. - Advanced searching options (Contain and Match). - Latest dictionary data. - English or Indonesian user interface option. - Could work either online or offline (No internet connection required). Search keywords: new Kamus Lengkap Pro free download download Kamus Lengkap Pro mobile download Kamus Lengkap Pro full free download Kamus Lengkap Pro Download Kamus Lengkap Pro APK Install Kamus Lengkap Pro APK download Kamus Lengkap Pro android apk download Kamus Lengkap Pro.apk. Sep 28, 2014. The professional edition of Kamus Lengkap, the very popular easy to use and complete mobile dictionaries. It supports English - Indonesian, Indonesian. Oboe reeds are extremely fragile and need to be. I cannot find that number listed loree oboe serial number anywhere on a Loree Loree Paris. Tech Blog Oboe serial loree number! Idope.se:: 152 Mb Jun 18, 2007 Cabart Oboe Serial Numbers (Page 1) — Double Reed – General topics — IDRS forum (TM). Comments about F. Loree Paris Professional Oboe: I have a Loree Ak bore, serial number OR94, and I find the intonation great, and the tone excellent. It is very resonant and warm sounding. (11 of 16 customers found this review helpful). Was this review helpful? - You may also flag this review. Displaying reviews. Adams Musical Instruments, Concert percussion, slagwerk, schlagzeug, are the choice of world-class soloists, orchestras, composers, and educators alike because the craftsmanship, sound quality, and technical innovations are the highest quality specifications in the world making them truly world-class instruments. Based on the Lars Kirmser website for proprietary serial numbers of musical instruments, I am guessing thru extrapolation that the JJ series may have been the EH lot made in 1918, if PP equals those EH's made in 1925. Suggest you write to Anne de Gourdon in Paris & pose your question to her. ||||||| Re: F.Loree Oboe.Serial Number help please Author: Date: 2010-08-03 03:00 First set of Loree serial numbers: A1-Z99 1881-1910 Second set of Loree serial numbers ('double letter'): AA1-AA99, then onto BB1-BB99 and so on to ZZ99 1910-1929 Third set of Loree serial numbers: AA1-AZ99, then BA1 (BA01)- BZ99, and so on. 1929 to present So, two Loree oboes exist with a 'DD' at the beginning of the serial number stamp, though the later (modern) DD oboe will most likely have TWO numbers after the DD, such as: DD05. The keywork patterns of the oboes from the 1910s and the modern series - distinctly different. The oboe in the photographs is a THUMBPLATE system only. C and Bb can be actuated only by the thumbplate OR the single right hand side key. No connection exists between the lower joint and the upper joint, no connection from the F# key to the riser vents for C (B#) and Bb (A#). A complete pain to try to play in my experience. However, this antique DD5 oboe has a left F AND a long left C#- this keywork (in my estimation) should be standard keywork on all high end oboes. For all the effort the goes into making the 'banana key,' I surmise that a long C# could be made instead for just a tiny bit more effort. I have recently heard of an audition for an oboe position at a major symphony orchestra where the pieceto be played for the sight reading test was impossible to play without the benefit of a left C# key. With best wishes, Peter oboes.us Oboes.us||| Topics Author Date new weston 2010-08-02 23:14 new Chris P 2010-08-02 23:25 new weston 2010-08-02 23:33 new weston 2010-08-02 23:42 new Chris P 2010-08-03 00:03 Re: F.Loree Oboe.Serial Number help please new heckelmaniac 2010-08-03 03:00 new weston 2010-08-03 09:12 new weston 2010-08-03 09:05 new jhoyla 2010-08-03 06:06 new heckelmaniac 2010-08-03 07:50 new Chris P 2010-08-03 09:43 new Chris P 2010-08-03 12:42 new Chris P 2010-08-15 11:09 new weston 2010-08-15 12:03. Table of Contents Level setting: While connected to a VPN, these tests test the VPN server, not your router. Same for Tor. Also, may ISPs hand out devices that serve as both modems and routers. If you start with such a device, then buy your own router, you should disable the router features in the combination device. This is not life and death, things will work fine, by and large, if you do nothing. But, with the combination device fully functional, the firewall tests will report on the firewall in the combination device, not the firewall in the router. DNS Server Tests A very common thing that bad guys do when they attack a router is change the DNS servers. UDP Ports UDP 0 Reserved UDP 1 Port Service Multiplexer UDP 2 Management Utility UDP 3 Compression Process UDP 4 Unassigned UDP 5 Remote Job Entry UDP 6. May 15, 2017. Important: Make sure the firmware you are going to use is the correct type for your router. Tomato will accept WRT54G/GL, WRT54GS, WRT54GSv4, WRTSL54GS, WR850G and. Port(s) Protocol Service Details Source; 53: tcp,udp: DNS: DNS (Domain Name Service) is used for domain name resolution. Apr 19, 2017. Hi guys, i have an issue with my config and probably not understand the whole thing right. Perhaps someone is able to open my eyes. Thanks in advance: So what is exactly the issue? I have a router 2821 and firewall active. Also i have an acl for. There are many reasons for this, one is that almost no one will detect the change. A great defense is knowing what the DNS servers in a router should be. Checking up on your DNS servers is also a great thing to do when using a VPN - check before and after connecting to a VPN service to verify that afterwards you are using DNS servers from the VPN provider. • The reports more details about your DNS servers than anywhere else that I know of. That said, it has a CPU looping issue so look quickly, then close its tab. • is sponsored by VPN provider IVPN. It offers a quick standard test and a slower extended test. Both report the Hostname, ISP and Country for each detected DNS server (no city). • At you need to scroll down to see your DNS servers. It reports the Hostname, ISP, city and country. The page also shows lots of other useful information such as your public IP address, host name, location and ISP. • is from VPN provider VPN.ac. Click the big orange bottom at the bottom of the page to see the IP address, country and ISP of detected DNS servers. • from VPN provider ExpressVPN reports the Country and 'Provider' for each detected DNS server. It does not report a hostname or city. Note that it always warns that 'Your DNS is exposed!' Which really means you are not connected to ExpressVPN. • is sponsored and operated by London Trust Media, the company behind VPN provider Private Internet Access. It reports the hostname, city and country for each detected DNS server, but not the ISP. • VPN provider Perfect Privacy reports. For each server it shows the IP address, computer name, ISP and host country. • is from VPN provider AirVPN. It reports lots of things, including DNS servers. It is only available via HTTP, not HTTPS. It is also available on ports 8000 and 62222. • The does not really check routers, it simply reports on a DNS server. All the other DNS server checkers report on multiple detected DNS servers, F-Secure only reports on one. The company says their goal is to insure that your router is using an 'authorized DNS server' but there is no such thing and they don't define it. The service disappeared from roughly Feb. 2016 through Aug. 2016) but, it's back online. • If you are using OpenDNS, you can verify this. • Some known BAD DNS servers: 91.194.254.105 (I lost track of the source). From a: 5.104.175.150 and 5.104.175.151 (). From a 46.17.102.10-24, 5.39.220.117-126, 217.12.218.114-121 and 93.115.31.194-244. In May 2017,, that I had not previously considered. 'Unfortunately, website-based tests may not be reliable once a home router has been compromised.' With that in mind, it makes sense to check with the router directly, be it with a web interface or an app, to double check the DNS servers. On a totally different plane, is Steve Gibson's. While working a, Gibson accidentally discovered that he crashed some routers just by sending them legit DNS requests. This is a bit dated (Gibson has no creation dates on the pages of his site) but it takes only a few seconds to verify that your router does not fall prey to this attack. At the bottom of the page look for a gray 'Initiate Router Crash Test' button. Firewall Testers Port Status: An 'open' port responds to unsolicited incoming requests. A 'closed' port (a.k.a. 'refused' in Nmap lingo) is accessible, but there is no application listening on it. A status of 'stealth' (a.k.a. 'filtered' to Nmap) means data sent to the port generates no response at all. This is the most secure status. • To see what Shodan knows about your router, replace the Xs in this link with your public IP address. A result of 'Not Found' is best. Among the many sites that report your public IP address are: ipchicken.com, checkip.dyndns.com and www.unix.com/what-is-my-ip.php • Steve Gibsons is an oldie but goodie. Stealth is the best status. Closed is OK. Open is bad news. Start with the 'Common Ports' test which tests ports: 0, 21, 22, 23, 25, 79, 80, 110, 113, 119, 135, 139, 143, 389, 443, 445 1002, 1024, 1025, 1026, 1027, 1028, 1029, 1030, 1720 and 5000. Then, move on to the 'All Service Ports' which tests all the ports from zero to 1055 and takes about 70 seconds to run. If all is well, it will say 'Passed' in green and the status of every port will be 'stealth'. The passing grade also means that the router does not reply to Ping commands on the WAN port. A perfect report. () • The tests 85 ports out of the box. If you register and create an account, then it scans. It does not tell you which 85 ports it scans. It will report some of the ports are filtered and others are 'open|filtered' without explaining the terms. Click the small blue 'START' button. If all is well, it will say 'Our Security Scan found NO open ports.' • Shields UP! Can also test a single port, a feature called portprobe. There is no GUI interface though, you have to make your own URL. This example,, tests port 999 and changing it to test another port is self-explanatory. Gibson does not address TCP vs. UDP, so I have to assume the test is TCP only. • at ipfingerprints.com lets you test an arbitrary range of ports, both for TCP and UDP. Also has some advanced features. • The is a free demo of a paid service. Give it an IP address or domain name and it scans ports: 21(FTP), 22 (SSH), 23 Telnet, 25 Mail (SMTP), 80 Web (HTTP), 110 Mail (POP3), 143 Mail (IMAP), 443 SSL/TLS (HTTPS), 445 Microsoft (SMB) and 3389 Remote (RDP). It uses nmap with version detection enabled. • An option on the lets you scan any port for TCP, UDP or both. Or, you can make a link such as which scans port 999 for both TCP and UDP. • The website offers two port scanners based on nmap. One is for, the other is for. See their (PDF) • The at mxtoolbox.com scans 25 TCP (no UDP) ports: 21 ftp, 22 ssh, 23 telnet, 25 smtp, 53 dns, 80 http, 110 pop3, 111 portmapper, rpcbind, 135 Microsoft RPC services, 139 netbios, 143 imap, 389 ldap, 443 https, 445 SMB over IP, 587 msa-outlook, 1025 IIS, NFS, or listener RFS remote_file_sharing, 1352 lotus notes, 1433 sql server, 1723 PPTP, 3306 my sql, 3389 MS remote desktop, 5060 SIP, 5900 VNC, 6001 X Window server and 8080 webcache. Port status is reported using Nmap naming conventions ( refused is the same as closed and filtered is the same as stealth). • The page at WhatsMyIP.org can scan a single port or four different groups of common ports. They don't say if the scans are TCP, UDP or both. A port that does not respond is said to time out. This does not differentiate between closed and stealthed ports, making it relatively useless. • Security company using by Krk Ouimet. But, it only scans one port at a time, does not say anything about TCP vs. UDP and does not differentiate between Closed and Stealthed ports. TCP Ports to Test Note that while connected to a VPN, these tests test the VPN server, not your router. Same for Tor. An 'open' port responds to unsolicited incoming requests. A 'closed' port (a.k.a. 'refused' in Nmap lingo) is accessible, but there is no application listening on it. A status of 'stealth' (a.k.a. 'filtered' to Nmap) means data sent to the port generates no response at all. This is the most secure status. This list is extremely incomplete. • Dec 2017: If you have a Huawei router/gateway, then. Also, in March 2017, an said 'This port has been detected to be the most vulnerable aspect of the Huawei router as it does not validate any of the data packets sent to it whatsoever.' Then, in Dec 2017, 360 netlab warned about the. To test port 52869,. • Sept 2017: If AT&T is your ISP then as per by security firm Nomotion. Also, check if. • July 2017: If AT&T is your ISP then. According to Nomotion, in, the port is only open from outside of the AT&T U-verse network. • March 2017: If you own a video camera, then you may want to read about. In terms of routers, one of the flaws lets anyone watch the camera. Anyone who connects to TCP port 10554 that is.. () •, some IoT devices use port 2323 as an alternate port for Telnet. The Mirai botnet scans for IoT devices on both ports 23 and 2323. • UPnP and SSDP use and do not belong on the Internet. They were intended for LAN use only. This is only supposed to use UDP but its so important, testing TCP too can't hurt. • Windows remote desktop uses and bad guys probe it often. • Port 7547 is used by a remote management protocol known as either TR-069 or CWMP (Customer Premises Equipment WAN Management Protocol). Some ISPs use this protocol to re-configure your router/gateway/modem. In November 2016, the protocol was abused. A device infected in this attack, will have its port 7547 closed by the malware to prevent new firmware from being installed. In April 2017 Wordfence reported that and they attributed the router hacking to port 7547 being open. They said that Shodan reports over 41 million devices are listening on port 7547. • Some D-Link routers expose port 8181 for a unknown service that that let remote unauthenticated attackers run commands on the router. D-Link said they fixed this with firmware released in August 2016. Still, can't hurt to test. • In December 2016 Cybereason. They made an for people to check if their cameras are vulnerable. The test page says the vulnerable cameras use port 81. • Printers can use multiple ports. Is used for RAW output with TCP, is used for (IPP) with TCP and UDP, and is used for with TCP. 2017 a hacker claiming he wanted to raise awareness about the risks of leaving printers exposed to the Internet, to spew out rogue messages. This was and it was inspired by published Jan 2017. More and and. For TCP, and, •. This is sometimes used.. This is used by the Lenovo Solution Center and was found to in December 2015. More about this and.. This is used by Dell System Detect which is part of Dell Foundation Services and was found to be a security issue in December 2015. • If you are not using an L2TP VPN then should not be open.. • A left port 8083 open even if their web interface said that remote management was disabled. You can by browsing to where 1.2.3.4 is your public IP address. Vulnerable routers will put you into their admin console, without even asking for a password. • Port 32764 was made infamous in Jan. 2014 when Eloi Vanderbecken found that his Linksys WAG 200G. Other Linksys, Netgear and Cisco routers did the same. See my blog on this:. But, then it got worse, when in April 2014, the 'fix' merely. If your router has version 2 of the backdoor, you can't test for it. But, we can test for version 1 and internally by pointing a web browser to HTTP://1.2.3.4:32764 where 1.2.3.4 is the LAN side IP address of the router. • SNMP normally uses UDP, but it has been seen in the wild using TCP. So, what the heck, test and. • LDAP port 389 uses both TCP and UDP. See the UDP section below for links to test each. UDP Ports to Test Note that while connected to a VPN, these tests test the VPN server, not your router. Same for Tor. This list is extremely incomplete. • As per (by Lucian Constantin Oct 26, 2016) Connectionless LDAP (CLDAP), a variant of LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) that uses UDP, is being abused in DDoS attacks. LDAP is used in corporate networks and 'its use directly on the internet is considered risky and is highly discouraged.' Yet, SHODAN reports over 140,000 systems using it. • UPnP and SSDP use and do not belong on the Internet. They were intended for LAN use only. • NAT-PMP, like UPnP, lets a LAN-resident device poke a hole in the router firewall. It was designed by Apple who uses it for Back to My Mac. It listens on UDP port 5351. In 2014 it was discovered that over a million devices, connected to the Internet, had this port. Some companies making devices with this flaw were Belkin, Netgear, Technicolor, Ubiquiti and ZyXEL. The Shadowserver Foundation. 11, 2016 they found 1.2 million devices exposing NAT-PMP. • If you are not using SNMP, and most people are not, then UDP ports 161 and 162 should be closed. A device running SNMP can be abused in SNMP amplification attacks, a type of DDoS attack. The Shadowserver Foundation scans the Internet for on UDP port 161. In mid-November 2016, they found 3,490,417 such devices. The Toshiba Service Station application receives commands via this port and was found to be a security issue in December 2015. • If you are not using an L2TP VPN then port 1701 should not be open. Not sure if this uses UDP, better safe than sorry. • A bug in and Netcore routers could be exploited on port 53413. Read more and. According to a mid-November 2016, there are 20,320 vulnerable routers online, the vast majority of which are in China. Netis routers are sold in the US. • In September 2016, a backdoor was. Sending 'HELODBG' to UDP port 39889 would cause the router to run Telnet, letting a bad guy login without a password. • Port 631 is used for Internet Printing Protocol with both TCP and UDP. More about this is in the above section on TCP ports UPD Port testers The links above, that test individual UDP ports, look like this This example would test port 999. SpeedGuide can also test individual ports at their where you can enter any port number and chose to test UPD and/or TCP. Another website offering UDP port tests is the page at PentTest-Tools.com. It can test a range of UDP ports, a list of UDP ports or individual ports. TCP/IP Port Information • The most for both TCP and UDP from SpeedGuide.net • at WikiPedia • A of port assignments from Iana. Its a huge list, use the search function rather than paging through it. • If you have a Synology NAS, then see • Windows users: undated • Also from Microsoft, dating back to Windows 2000 • Ports blocked by Comcast:. 2017, they block: TCP 0 down, TCP 25 both ways, UDP 67 down, 135-139 in both directions for both TCP and UDP, UDP 161 in both directions, TCP 445 up and down, UDP 520 up and down, UDP 547 down, TCP 1080 down and UDP 1900 in both directions. LAN side port testing TELNET: Individual LAN side ports can be tested from a computer on the LAN with Telnet. Windows 7 and 8.1 users will have to first install the Telnet client using: Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> click on 'Turn Windows features on or off' in the left side column -> Turn on the checkbox for Telnet Client -> Click OK. To use telnet on Windows, open a Command Prompt window, type 'telnet ipaddress portnumber'. For example: 'telnet 192.168.1.1 80'. There needs to be a space on both sides of the IP address. If the port is closed, Windows will complain that it 'could not open connection to the host on port 80: connect failed'. If the port is open, the responses vary, you may just see a blank screen. You can also telnet to a computer by name, such as 'telnet somewhere.com 8080' ID Serve: is a small, portable, Internet Server Identification Utility for Windows, created by Steve Gibson. It was written in 2003 and has not been updated since. The initial screen explains its purpose, the Server Query tab is where it does its work. You can query a computer by name (www.amazon.com) or by IP address. It defaults to port 80, but you can force a different port by adding a colon and the port number after the computer name or IP address (no spaces). If data comes back from the query, ID Serve displays it all. This data may identify the server software. If data does not come back, the message, in my experience, will either be 'The port is closed, so our connection attempt was refused' or 'No response was received from the machine and port at that IP. The machine may be offline or the connection port may be stealthed'. ID Serve is limited to TCP (no UDP) and does not support HTTPS. BROWSER: You can also test a port with a web browser. For example, would test TCP port 999 (of course, modify the IP address as necessary for your router). I don't think a browser can test a UDP port, it is limited to TCP. NMAP: Perhaps the best option is nmap. HNAP Testing The Home Network Administration Protocol is a network device management protocol dating back to 2007. There are four problems with HNAP. One, is that it has a long history of. It can also tell bad guys technical details of a router making it easier for them to find an appropriate vulnerability to attack. The fact that a router supports HNAP may not be visible in its administrative interface. Worst of all, HNAP often can not be disabled. Four strikes, you're out. You can test if a router supports HNAP by typing where 1.2.3.4 is the IP address of your router. Of course, every router has two IP addresses one on the public side and one on the private side. I suggest testing for HNAP on each. You can learn your public IP address at many websites, such as ipchicken.com and checkip.dyndns.com. For the LAN side of a router, see my Sept. If HNAP is enabled, this test displays basic device information about your router in an XML file. If it fails, there will be some type of error about the web page not being able to be displayed, perhaps a 404 Not Found error. If HNAP is enabled, try to turn it off in the router administrative interface and then test again. You may not be able to turn it off. For more, see the page. URLs to try from your LAN In these examples, 1.2.3.4 represents the of the router. As per Scott Helme's 2014, try the URL below, where 1.2.3.4 is the IP address of your router. A good result returns nothing but an error message. Here is a of a bad result. In December 2016, Pedro Ribeiro reported on router. If you own a Netgear router, it can't hurt to check for information leakage with the URL below. It may leak the device serial number. Many Netgear routers had a security flaw in December 2016 (see and for more). The command below tests a Netgear router. If this results in a web page with the word 'Vulnerable', then the. Netgear has issued fixes for all vulnerable routers. This issue with port 32764 is explained above in the section. In September 2017, security firm Embedi found port 19541. It responds to commands such as one to reboot the router. They did not find any way to close the port. The default IP address is 192.168.0.1 but the router may also respond to dlinkrouter.local. UPnP Testers UPnP is dangerous because it lets computing devices (typically IoT devices) punch a hole in the routers firewall. This exposes them to the Internet where their poor security, such as default passwords, can be abused. This danger involves UPnP being enabled on the LAN side of the router. I am still looking for a LAN side tester. UPnP on the WAN/Internet side of a router is a totally different problem. UPnP was never meant to be exposed on the Internet. The online tester below insures that your router does not respond to UPnP requests sent to it over the Internet. For more on why UPnP from the Internet side of a router is an issue at all, see my Jan. UPnP is relatively hard to test for as there are two components to the protocol. Discovering UPnP enabled devices is done with the Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) which listens on UDP port 1900. The actual communication between devices is done via HTTP on varying ports. SSDP tells clients which port to use for HTTP communication., the TCP port number varies by vendor and is often chosen at random. Their report notes that some Broadcom, D-Link and TP-Link routers use TCP port 5431, some devices use port 80 and still others use 2869. • Steve Gibson added UPnP testing to his service in January 2013. On the first page, click on the gray Proceed button. On the next page, click on the yellow/orange button for GRC's Instant UPnP Exposure Test. • Rapid7 used to offer an online but they discontinued it. • Rapid7 also discontinued their installable program that scanned a LAN for UPnP enabled devices and reported if the devices were running buggy versions of UPnP software. This was useful to insure that your router was also not responding to UPnP on the LAN side. The program only ran on Windows and required 32 bit versions of either Java 6 or Java 7. As for why they abandoned ScanNow see Modem Tests A modem is a computer and it too, can have bugs. Chances are the modem as an IP address such as 192.168.100.1. If nothing else, you should try to access the modem by its IP address so that technical information about your Internet connection is available to you. Also, you want to see what information is available without a password, some modems expose too much. If there is a password, then change it from the default. As per try to view the page below. An error viewing the page is the good result. See of this hack. As per you should try to view the URL below. Again, an error is the good result. For better security, a router may be able to block access to the modem by blocking its IP address. I blogged about modem access from the LAN side of a router in February 2015. While it can be helpful to directly access the modem, it can also be dangerous. Some routers can do this, some can not. Dumbed down routers, such as the consumer mesh systems (eero, Google Wifi, Ubiquiti AmpliFi, etc) can not do this. A great way to see if a modem is accessible from the LAN side is to ping it using the command below. Hopefully, the command fails. Ping 192.168.100.1 If it is pingable, then test Telnet access to the modem with the command below. Failure is the secure outcome. Telnet 192.168.100.1 An other good test is nmap. The simplest command is nmap 192.168.100.1 For a much more comprehensive look at the LAN side of the modem use the below: nmap -v -A -p 1-65535 192.168.100.1 IP Version 6 Testers I know of no reason for IPv6 to be enabled on a home router. If it is enabled on yours, try to disable it then verify that it's really off. All the sites below are only available via HTTP. • Test for the existence of IP version 6. Click on the 'IPv6 only Test' or go directly to. It is a good thing if ipv6.whatismyv6.com fails to load in your browser. • Another site, is from London Trust Media, Inc. I don't know who they are, but the site is linked to by VPN provider PrivateInternetAccess. • is from Jason Fesler. It offers many technical details and is open source (). The point of view here is that IP v6 is good, which I don't agree with. • from VPN provider Perfect Privacy reports connection details (IP address, DNS server, City and Country) for both IPv4 and IPv6. If it doesn't find any IPv6, the message is: 'You do not seem to have IPv6 connectivity.' • From Wireshark.org: Android Apps • According to the company, 'is the first consumer tool for protecting your home router. RouterCheck is like an anti-virus system for your router. It protects your router from hackers.' I have not tried it. • The can do a network scan to show all devices connected to the network. It also claims to offer a Wi-Fi Security Scan that finds potential security holes and issues on the network. WebRTC Note: Blocking WebRTC is a web browser thing. If you use more than one browser, you should run a WebRTC test in each one. • A from VPN provider Perfect Privacy • is from VPN provider AirVPN. • One of the first tests: • From WebRTC samples. Click on the red Gather candidates button • There is a at BrowserLeaks.com. Ads Here Some routers are hacked to generate income from showing ads. This website has no ads. If you see any ads while viewing this web page, then either the router you are connected to has been hacked or your computer has. Honorable mention goes to the Shadowserver Foundation that scans the Internet for all sorts of things that should not be there. Abusing the one open port on a network to get things done Have you ever read about a trick and then thought it was ridiculous because you're too dignified to use something that dirty? Have you then found yourself in a situation where you have to go back to that trick and use it anyway, because you really are that desperate? When it comes to technology, you don't get to keep your hands clean for very long. Not too long ago, I found myself in a quasi-coworking place where you get office space, a markerboard and all of that stuff. It's the sort of thing where you can bring a client and hash out a big project. They provide the bathrooms and drinking fountain and all of this. One thing they supposedly had was wireless Internet. I assumed it would work, but hadn't actually tested it. While waiting on my client to arrive, I tried using it. I found that it would just sit there and spin forever before finally yielding something ridiculous like '5 0 0 S e r v e r e r r o r'. Yes, it actually stretched the letters out like that. I knew it had to be one of these dumb 'walled garden' things, and really just wanted it to get out of my way. All I needed was enough connectivity to fling my VPN packets to my tunnel host. Usually that means starting up a sacrificial browser session and clicking through their annoying page to get unfettered access. This time, it wasn't happening. All I got was that stupid error page. One thing I noticed during all of this was that I was actually able to resolve hostnames. Not only that, but I could bounce queries off specific servers. Apparently UDP port 53 would get through. I confirmed this by logging into my tunneling host and using tcpdump to watch for traffic. Sure enough, I could emit some stuff on my laptop and see it back on my host. As for how I got on my tunneling host, well, that was also a stretch. I barely had a cell signal in this weird office place, and was just able to ssh from my phone and kick off tcpdump. It's the sort of thing I only use when absolutely necessary since it's such a pain: the tiny keys, limited terminal space, and horrible packet loss leading to laggy sessions. It was just enough connectivity to let me add an iptables rule. This is where it gets really dirty. I basically did this: iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING -s external.ip.of.office.network -p udp -j REDIRECT --to-ports port_of_tunnel_server_daemon Basically, I took *ALL* UDP from that office and shoved it into the program which runs the VPN/tunnel. That way, if I'm able to find so much as a single port which will pass traffic unmolested, I can get on. It just so happens that port 53 works. Some of the time, at least. It was just enough of a pipe to let me do things like git sync operations. Trying to look at web pages was asking too much of this laggy, lossy connection. It was shades of my 4800 bps cellular modem only far worse. When I say it's possible to be in the middle of Silicon Valley and have miserable Internet access, I mean it. If I end up working at this site again, I'm going to have to buy my own little cellular hotspot and find a place with decent cell reception. There's just no way around it. Tunneling over port 53. What a horrible hack. The best way to fix your PC to run at peak performance is to update your drivers. Below is a list of our most popular Frontech support software and device drivers. First select the Model Name or Number of your device. Next click the Download button. 82 - Frontech card download tv jil tuner driver free 0606.audio driver for windows xp dell inspiron 1545.Reality, he envisions himself. Windows 7 64 bit.dell gx260 lan drivers for xp.intel gma 950 video driver windows xp.hp intel hd graphics 4000 driver windows 7 64 bit. Compaq presario f700 drivers windows. If you do not find the right match, type the model in the search box below to. You may see different versions. 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You only need to have an Android Device with an Android version of 1.7 or above. Metal Slug 3 is not a heavy game; it has a size of only 65 MBs. There are some features and options in the game; we are going to discuss some of them below: Metal Slug 3 Features: Features of game include: • Arcade Mode: In this mode of the game you will start from level 1 with the given tools and weapons and will go on getting into next levels stepwise. With every rising level, new weapons and tools will be unlocked. • Mission Mode: In mission mode, you will get a choose to select between different levels. Aug 20, 2015. METAL SLUG 3 v1.7 Free Download APK+OBB - 'Metal Slug 3' is headed to Android! The use of various weapons and slugs NeoGeo legendary 2D action shooting masterpiece 'Metal Slug 3' head to Android devices! The use of various weapons and slugs to fight your way through and survive on the. 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To avoid unnecessary calculations that can waste your time and slow down your computer, Microsoft Excel automatically recalculates formulas only when the cells that the formula depends on have changed. Unfortunately if calculation is set to Automatic when a workbook containing this code is opened, Excel will start the recalculation process before the Open event is executed. The only way I know of to avoid this is to open a dummy workbook with a Workbook open event which sets calculation to manual and then opens the. If the macro ends prematurely before this command is processed, you will need to manually reset calculation to automatic in EXCEL. In the following code the variable Issue_Age is read in only once from the worksheet and traffic between VBA and Excel is minimized. The code below is more than. This is the default behavior when you first open a workbook and when you are editing a workbook. However, you can control when and how Excel recalculates formulas. Iteration is the repeated recalculation of a worksheet until a specific numeric condition is met. Excel cannot automatically calculate a formula that refers to the cell — either directly or indirectly — that contains the formula. This is called a circular reference. If a formula refers back to one of its own cells, you must determine how many times the formula should recalculate. Circular references can iterate indefinitely. However, you can control the maximum number of iterations and the amount of acceptable change. Precision is a measure of the degree of accuracy for a calculation. Excel stores and calculates with 15 significant digits of precision. However, you can change the precision of calculations so that Excel uses the displayed value instead of the stored value when it recalculates formulas. As calculation proceeds, you can choose commands or perform actions such as entering numbers or formulas. Excel temporarily interrupts calculation to carry out the other commands or actions and then resumes calculation. The calculation process may take more time if the workbook contains a large number of formulas, or if the worksheets contain data tables or functions that automatically recalculate every time the workbook is recalculated. Also, the calculation process may take more time if the worksheets contain links to other worksheets or workbooks. You can control when calculation occurs by changing the calculation process to manual calculation. Important: Changing any of the options affects all open workbooks. • Click the File tab, click Options, and then click the Formulas category. In Excel 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, click Excel Options, and then click the Formulas category • Do one of the following: • To recalculate all dependent formulas every time you make a change to a value, formula, or name, in the Calculation options section, under Workbook Calculation, click Automatic. This is the default calculation setting. • To recalculate all dependent formulas — except data tables — every time you make a change to a value, formula, or name, in the Calculation options section, under Workbook Calculation, click Automatic except for data tables. • To turn off automatic recalculation and recalculate open workbooks only when you explicitly do so (by pressing F9), in the Calculation options section, under Workbook Calculation, click Manual. Note: When you click Manual, Excel automatically selects the Recalculate workbook before saving check box. If saving a workbook takes a long time, clearing the Recalculate workbook before saving check box may improve the save time. • To manually recalculate all open worksheets, including data tables, and update all open chart sheets, on the Formulas tab, in the Calculation group, click the Calculate Now button. • To manually recalculate the active worksheet and any charts and chart sheets linked to this worksheet, on the Formulas tab, in the Calculation group, click the Calculate Sheet button. To Press Recalculate formulas that have changed since the last calculation, and formulas dependent on them, in all open workbooks. If a workbook is set for automatic recalculation, you do not need to press F9 for recalculation. F9 Recalculate formulas that have changed since the last calculation, and formulas dependent on them, in the active worksheet. Shift+F9 Recalculate all formulas in all open workbooks, regardless of whether they have changed since the last recalculation. Ctrl+Alt+F9 Check dependent formulas, and then recalculate all formulas in all open workbooks, regardless of whether they have changed since the last recalculation. • Click the File tab, click Options, and then click the Formulas category. In Excel 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, click Excel Options, and then click the Formulas category • In the Calculation options section, select the Enable iterative calculation check box. • To set the maximum number of times Excel will recalculate, type the number of iterations in the Maximum Iterations box. The higher the number of iterations, the more time Excel will need to recalculate a worksheet. • To set the maximum amount of change you will accept between recalculation results, type the amount in the Maximum Change box. The smaller the number, the more accurate the result and the more time Excel needs to recalculate a worksheet. Note: Solver and Goal Seek are part of a suite of commands sometimes called what-if analysis tools. Both commands use iteration in a controlled way to obtain desired results. You can use Solver when you need to find the optimum value for a particular cell by adjusting the values of several cells or when you want to apply specific limitations to one or more of the values in the calculation. You can use Goal Seek when you know the desired result of a single formula but not the input value the formula needs to determine the result. Before you change the precision of calculations, keep in mind the following important points: By default, Excel calculates stored, not displayed, values The displayed and printed value depends on how you choose to format and display the stored value. For example, a cell that displays a date as '6/22/2008' also contains a serial number that is the stored value for the date in the cell. You can change the display of the date to another format (for example, to '22-Jun-2008'), but changing the display of a value on a worksheet does not change the stored value. Use caution when changing the precision of calculations When a formula performs calculations, Excel usually uses the values stored in cells referenced by the formula. For example, if two cells each contain the value 10.005 and the cells are formatted to display values in currency format, the value $10.01 is displayed in each cell. If you add the two cells together, the result is $20.01 because Excel adds the stored values 10.005 and 10.005, not the displayed values. When you change the precision of the calculations in a workbook by using the displayed (formatted) values, Excel permanently changes stored values in cells from full precision (15 digits) to whatever format, including decimal places, is displayed. If you later choose to calculate with full precision, the original underlying values cannot be restored. • Click the File tab, click Options, and then click the Advanced category. In Excel 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, click Excel Options, and then click the Advanced category • In the When calculating this workbook section, select the workbook you want and then select the Set precision as displayed check box. Although Excel limits precision to 15 digits, that doesn't mean that 15 digits is the limit of the size of a number you can store in Excel. The limit is 9.9999E+307 for positive numbers, and -9.9999E+307 for negative numbers. This is approximately the same as 1 or -1 followed by 308 zeros. Precision in Excel means that any number exceeding 15 digits is stored and shown with only 15 digits of precision. Those digits can be in any combination before or after the decimal point. Any digits to the right of the 15th digit will be zeros. For example, 1223456 has 16 digits (7 digits before and 9 digits after the decimal point). In Excel, it's stored and shown as 122345 (this is shown in the formula bar and in the cell). If you set the cell to a number format so that all digits are shown (instead of a scientific format, such as 1.23457E+06), you'll see that the number is displayed as 1223450. The 6 at the end (the 16th digit) is dropped and replaced by a 0. The precision stops at the 15th digit, so any following digits are zeros. A computer can have more than one processor (it contains multiple physical processors) or can be hyperthreaded (it contains multiple logical processors). On these computers, you can improve or control the time it takes to recalculate workbooks that contain many formulas by setting the number of processors to use for recalculation. In many cases, portions of a recalculation workload can be performed simultaneously. Splitting this workload across multiple processors can reduce the overall time it takes complete the recalculation. • Click the File tab, click Options, and then click the Advanced category. In Excel 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, click Excel Options, and then click the Advanced category. • To enable or disable the use of multiple processors during calculation, in the Formulas section, select or clear the Enable multi-threaded calculation check box. Note This check box is enabled by default, and all processors are used during calculation. The number of processors on your computer is automatically detected and displayed next to the Use all processors on this computer option. • Optionally, if you select Enable multi-threaded calculation, you can control the number of processors to use on your computer. For example, you might want to limit the number of processors used during recalculation if you have other programs running on your computer that require dedicated processing time. • To control the number of processors, under Number of calculation threads, click Manual. Enter the number of processors to use (the maximum number is 1024). To ensure that older workbooks are calculated correctly, Excel behaves differently when you first open a workbook saved in an earlier version of Excel than when you open a workbook created in the current version. • When you open a workbook created in the current version, Excel recalculates only the formulas that depend on cells that have changed. • When you use open a workbook that was created in an earlier version of Excel, all the formulas in the workbook — those that depend on cells that have changed and those that do not — are recalculated. This ensures that the workbook is fully optimized for the current Excel version. The exception is when the workbook is in a different calculation mode, such as Manual. • Because complete recalculation can take longer than partial recalculation, opening a workbook that was not previously saved in the current Excel version can take longer than usual. After you save the workbook in the current version of Excel, it will open faster. Need more help? 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In economics, physical capital or just capital is a factor of production (or input into the process of production), consisting of machinery, buildings, computers, and the like. The production function takes the general form Y=f(K, L), where Y is the amount of output produced, K is the amount of capital stock used and L is the amount of labor used. In economic theory, physical capital is one of the three primary factors of production, also known as inputs in the production function. The others are natural resources (including land), and labor — the stock of competences embodied in the labor force. 'Physical' is used to distinguish physical capital from human capital (a result of investment in the human agent)), circulating capital, and financial capital.[1][2] 'Physical capital' is fixed capital, any kind of real physical asset that is not used up in the production of a product. Usually the value of land is not included in physical capital as it is not a reproducible product of human activity. Its easy to write about what the government or other people should do with our/their money. It’s harder to come up with a course of action that I can undertake on my own that possibly, somehow could make a difference. My first inclination is always to try to look “for the next big thing”. But the next big thing is just that, next. Its Venture Capital. Its not self funding, renewal capital. Rather than trying to be a Venture Capitalist, I was looking for an idea that hopefully could inspire people to create businesses that could quickly become self funding. Businesses that just needed a jump start to get the ball rolling and create jobs. Im a big believer that entrepreneurs will lead us out of this mess. I just needed a way to help. So here it is. United Dirt Sim Racing Association Victory Lane Racing (TeamVLR) World Racing Series ZRF Motorsports Latest DLM2 Skins DLMS Swartz Paint Helper. Dirt Late Model Sim Download Dirt Late Model Simulator Dirt Late Model Sim Game Dirt Late Model SIM 16 Online Dirt Racing Simulator rFactor Dirt. Some people will love it, some will hate it. It is what it is. You must post your business plan here on my blog where I expect other people can and will comment on it. I also expect that other people will steal the idea and use it elsewhere. That is the idea. Call this an open source funding environment. If its a good idea and worth funding, we want it replicated elsewhere. The idea is not just to help you, but to figure out how to help the economy through hard work and ingenuity. If you come up with the idea and get funding, you have a head start. If you execute better than others, you could possibly make money at it. As you will see from the rules below, these are going to be businesses that are mostly driven by sweat equity. I will invest money in businesses presented here on this blog. No minimum, no maximum, but a very specific set of rules. Here they are: 1. It can be an existing business or a start up. It can not be a business that generates any revenue from advertising. Because I want this to be a business where you sell something and get paid for it. Thats the only way to get and stay profitable in such a short period of time. It MUST BE CASH FLOW BREAK EVEN within 60 days 4. It must be profitable within 90 days. Funding will be on a monthly basis. If you dont make your numbers, the funding stops 6. You must demonstrate as part of your plan that you sell your product or service for more than what it costs you to produce, fully encumbered 7. Everyone must work. The organization is completely flat. There are no employees reporting to managers. There is the founder/owners and everyone else 8. You must post your business plan here, or you can post it on slideshare.com, scribd.com or google docs, all completely public for anyone to see and/or download 9. I make no promises that if your business is profitable, that I will invest more money. Once you get the initial funding you are on your own 10. I will make no promises that I will be available to offer help. If I want to, I will. If not, I wont. If you do get money, it goes into a bank that I specify, and I have the ability to watch the funds flow and the opportunity to require that I cosign any outflows. In your business plan, make sure to specify how much equity I will receive or how I will get a return on my money. No mult-level marketing programs (added 2/10/09 1pm) Im sure I will come up with more rules as I see what comes along, if anything. As I find businesses I like, I will use the email address you provide before you post to get in contact with you. There will be a standard agreement, you can take it or leave it. Once I have done the standard agreement, I will post it here for all to see. This will definitely be a work in progress. Maybe it leads to great things, maybe it leads to nothing. We will find out. Im not going to claim a minimum or maximum amount or total I will invest. Im not promising I will definitely invest anything. If nothing comes along that I think is viable, thats the way it goes. Hopefully I will invest in quite a few businesses that will lead to something more. 2,155 thoughts on “ The Mark Cuban Stimulus Plan – Open Source Funding” • I have the architectural design copyright with the Library of Congress for the Capstone Vortex Design.(March 22, 1994)The Design amplifies the Healing & Regeneration process(architectural healing) so can be applied to spas, healing centers and hospitals. It also enhances Memory & Concentration so can be applied to all Educational Environments.It also has Imax like Entertainment applications. I would like to build a small Prototype for $250,000.Once it is up and running I can return funding in 90 days.I have Dr. Norm Shealy PhD ready to do an NIH Clinical Study.LOOK AT THE WEB SITE. Regards, Ted Munda, Chairman. Comment by - • Start a vineyard/winery in Newberg/Dundee Oregon. I know your rules state that the business must break even in 60 days, profit in 90.but these guys are making a killing! Initial investments are going to be around $1M and you wont see return for 4-5 years, but when you do.$$$JACKPOT$$$.there is plenty of land waiting to be bought, and plenty of rich yuppies waiting to buy your wine for outrageous amounts of money. The owners of a few of the SMALLER vineyards take there Ferrari’s (5 of them) and Lambo’s (total of 2) for joy rides every friday afternoon right past my dorm room, while i sit here and try to figure out how I can someday join their little club lol. Comment by Alex Overton - • Dear Mr. Comment by Courtney Hunt - • Mark, We have come along way since our first post on this blog a month or so ago. We are in full gear and now filling orders and received one this wekk from the U of Fl who has done community studies and such on our product it is also proven that we reduce particulate inhalation and reduce sneezing while filtering the air and contain sneezing droplets which is crucial in containing the Swine Flu. Take a second look I think you will be glad you did. We no longer need big money only fifty to a couple of hundred k to buy more media time. We would like to advt in New York and also increase our stock for shipping to delay lead time as we are talking to the airlines and several fast food chains for employees and customers. Comment by - • A small operation could help bring electronic health records to small doctor’s operations much more effectively than a company like IBM or one of the other big companies could. All it would take is creating a secure server, providing doctors with tablet PCs with a program that would allow them to quickly jot notes and save them to the corresponding record, and then providing training so that they can do so. Once the initial set up is created, it’ll take no time to implement and really help streamline the US health care system. Comment by Aaron Woods - • Hi, No SMU yet but here is the basics of what we are looking to do: SnuggleBall – The Ultimate Security Blanket for the little sports fan! Product Description: SnuggleBall is a plush sports ball with an attached satin edged security blank in your team’s favorite color. The blanket is 18 in. By 14 in., the ball is 4.5 in. For football, and about 5 in. In diameter for baseball, basketball, hockey puck and the soccer ball. Demographics: There are roughly 11,000 children born in the US everyday to families that are sports fans or have relatives that are sports fan. Company History: Started in 2001 by my wife and me on a day our car broke down and we started thinking there must be a better way to succeed. We have five US patents; one for each sport and a registered trademark on the name SnuggleBall. We currently own 100% of the company. In 2002, we started selling generic footballs and soccer balls to local stores and had sales of about 1,000 units a year. Spring 2005 we were granted access to use licensed sport teams Wrote up in Earnshaws Magazine in May 2005 Made it into the 2007 LTD Christmas catalog Sales History: We have sold about 30,000 units a year with our current distributor for the last 4 years without any marketing. Current situation: We and our distributor are parting ways. Looking for investor or loan to help us: Purchase remaining inventory from distributor Reorder teams that have sold-out Implement a real marketing plan Funding needed: We need about $120,000 to start the transition process and we are looking for someone to work with us to make this product the big success that everyone tells us and we know it can be. For more information, please email or call 603-686-0156. Sincerely, Stephen and Jean Long Long Time Toys LLC. Comment by - • **MC, if you want to contribute to a more direct stimulus plan to inject some life into a lifeless economy, I cannot think of a better way to do it – this is it!** National Equipment Finance for the Golf Industry (fleets of cars, utility vehicles and course turf equipment; leases/loans) Upfront funding needed – $18-$30 million Financial opportunity – Golf car and utility vehicle manufacturing industry total revenue was about $1.7 billion in 2008. Anticipate loan volume over the next few years is significant: $30-$40 million. Performance of loans in this industry has historically been outperforming the entire equipment finance industry (low default risk). ROE for the financing companies on these loans is generally in the 10-15% range. Business opportunity – Supply financing for the customers of 3 major golf car manufactures. The largest financing provider to this market has exited the business completely due to funding issues. The second largest provider of financing to this market is nearing exit. These developments have led to only 3 to 4 players in the market, so barrier to entry is low. Differentiation – customer service, faster response time. The market is not responding well to service levels of existing lenders. Slow application turnarounds that have taken weeks for decisions, often with no response at all. Staff – 3 owners, all with substantial business contacts, golf course owner relationships, and golf industry experience. Will need an accountant to run the books while 2 bring in business and one processes credit. Issue: Obviously cannot be profitable in 60-90 days. Needs a stronger capital commitment, with breakeven by 36th month with the remarketing of equipment coming off of leases. MC’s Return: 13% return on invested capital ($3.9 million). Ownership percentage if required. There is long-term potential for a huge gain on sale to a major player (10%-20% premium over a $100+ million portfolio). Comment by golfindustryexperts - • Hello Mr. Cuban, I love your terms and think what I have fits perfectly. If you believe as I do that at some point ordering items such as groceries online will be commonplace read on. I’m sure you’ve heard of famed companies that attempted Internet grocery delivery before with great failure like Webvan and Kozmo. They made many mistakes indeed. I once heard you say that you become more motivated if someone says you can’t do a thing, and that’s what I’m reminded of with this, because it’s a tough problem. However, I believe I have the solution and right model. Please see my proposal at the link below. Comment by Gerome - • I want to start off by saying thanks Inc. Magazine (April issue page 20) and Mark Cuban who I like to refer to as Mr. Maverick for the opportunity. Allow me to tell you a little about our business. Private Video Network LLC is a startup Video Conferencing business located in Suwanee, GA. We are targeting a specific portion of the Healthcare Industry. We have been in the research phase since 2003 and started the company in January of 2009. Private video Network is currently operating by way of its two founders, Benjamin Carr of and Christopher Bettis of. We are in search of $500k in startup business funding so that we can grow our new Technology and deliver it to our targeted industries. Right now, Private Video Network currently has no annual revenue due to us being in a start up phase but project our annual gross sales in the amount of above $250k + after second year with a 10-12% growth each year after up to the fifth year. Here are some additional details below relating to what we will provide the U.S jobs and green energy saving and self assurance of well being. In the U.S, we plan to hire 1-3 new account representatives per county, with over 3.007 counties being estimated by U.S. Geological Survey “USGS” we can then estimate anywhere from 3000 to 9000 new AMERICAN jobs. Our product will be sustained by a subscription base with revenue sharing. If you would like to know more about our investment opportunity, please follow the link.. Comment by - • Greetings Mr.Cuban, I am a proud member of the first American Minority Owned Energy Company. The company’s named is Mur Energy,Inc., established 2009, registered with the SOS of North Carolina. Our headquarters is located in Charlotte, NC. Our Purpose is to utilize Natural Resources more efficiently to produce maximum power and energy through Alternative means. Our Mission is to provide clean and efficient energy now and into the future, for the good of the human race. Our Vision is to operate and grow the largest most productive Minority Owned Energy Company in the World. Nearly everything in our lives is made from oil, including machinery and systems dependent on oil, and transported by Oil as either Gas or Diesel fuel. Some of these products include Artificial Turf, Aspirin,Auto Parts, Ballpoint pens, Bandages, Candles, Carpets, Credit Cards, Disposable Diapers, Shaving cream, Shoes, Shampoo and the list goes on. With the oil consumption being at an all time high, it is safe to say that investing in the Energy/Oil industry is a smart way to go. Wouldn’t you agree Mr. We are currently offering Limited Partnership opportunities for anyone who is interested in high guaranteed returns. If interested and want more details please send email to:. Thank you for time in advance. Regards, Brian. Comment by - • CLEAN BREAK – SERVICE THAT ALLOWS YOU TO HAVE A HASSLE FREE BREAK-UP Have you ever been in a relationship where you are dating a girl, she spends the night with you often, then as girls do, she starts leaving things there for convenience? First it starts with a toothbrush, pajamas or a change of clothes to leave there, make-up and before you know it, she’s halfway moved in and you’re feeling stuck. And if she hasn’t begun to pressure you to move in, it’s only a matter of time, trust me. Maybe she’s not the only one you are dating so now it’s a real inconvenience because you have to hide all of that stuff when you bring another girl over, or maybe you just don’t want her moving her things in because you don’t want this to go any further. You don’t want to say anything because you don’t want to deal with that hassle, but at the same time, you want to get out of this situation without having to deal with the headache. Here’s your solution: Clean Break. Clean Break is somewhat of a courier service catering to guys (and girls) who want to get out of the relationship as painlessly as possible. What you do is gather all of his or her things and call us. We’ll come pick it up from you, and deliver all of their belongings to them for you so that you never have to face them. With their belongings, we will also deliver a hand written note from you saying whatever you like. It can be an explanation of why you no longer want to see them, or it could be as simple as a note that says “don’t ever call me again”. If you don’t want to hand write a note, you also have the option of sending an email to them through our email account, we can send them a text for you, or you can request the driver to record a video message or audio message which will be burned onto a DVD and delivered with their things. The driver can also personally deliver a verbal message to the recipient. For those of you who have given their house keys out, we can also arrange to have a locksmith come and change your locks at the same time we pick up the package, so that your ex-lover can’t get into your place after they get the notice. The price for a box is $125, up to 18″x18″x30″. Price is the same whether a shoe box or the full size and there is a 50 lbs. Pick up and delivery have to be within 25 miles from pickup, $1.50 for each additional mile. Each additional box is $25, and it has to be during the same delivery/trip. If your box weighs more than 50 lbs. You have to pay for an additional box. Larger/oversized items such as skis or surfboard or small animals are have custom pricing per basis. You can schedule pickup online, and payment is through Paypal only, for both our services and to our couriers. None of the revenue is generated through advertising, but I’d like a small part of the budget to provide for a website and for us to be able to do some low budget online and guerrilla advertising. You’d get a 25% equity in exchange for $20,000, which breaks out to $6,000 for website/advertising, and $14,000 total for 2 months salary for myself and a full-time web guru. Everyday we will spend the day building a web presence on website and targeting people we know, friends and friends of friends. We will also have stickers made and pepper public places with them, and we will do the deliveries here, and in other cities, we will do all of the scheduling, coordination and verification. Your money is recouped on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis and it is 25% of the business’ profits paid in the form of a check or wire transfer, however you want it. Obviously, the books are always open to you. Let me know what you think. There are a LOT of people out there who are more than happy to pay for the convenience of not dealing with this headache and we can do it for them. Thanks for the consideration, Mark. Comment by Edward - • That is a personal website above. I had a dream of running a concierge service in a tourist town in Tennessee. It is a very faminly oriented town with over 25000 hotel rooms within a ten mile radius. The number 2 place to get married in the world behind vegas. I tried to start the business a few years ago with mixed results I just didnt have enough capital to continue while working 2 full time jobs to support it and a family. I offered discount tickets to shows and attractions, restaurant reservations, hotel reservations, flower deliver, food delivery (more then just pizza), vacation planning, phone rental, and bicycle rentals. Working in the area I always knew the best places and when someone comes into town after a long drive they stop at the first place with a vacancy sign sometimes good but mostly bad. Dont make your vacation suck because you just dont know where to go thats where I came in. I knew where you can get the best service, rooms, flowers, attractions, and everything else so you didnt have to make that mistake. Forget flowers for your anniversary one call to me and I can have them delivered. Never miss that occasion again. I had it all worked out I just didnt have the cash or time really to make it happen. Anyone want to help???? Comment by - • All right Mark, I don’t know if you are still reading ideas, as I see you haven’t commented in a while, but here we go just in case: The Supertanker Defense Corporation. The name says it all, but it’s not just a bunch of guys from Blackwater positioned on a ship with guns and it’s all doable. Before you tell me to piss off because the idea won’t work, just read with an open mind and know that I used to work for the Department of Defense. This company relies primarily on remote and wireless components and technology to protect supertakers from pirates. The first set of components used for protection is autonomous remote surveillance aircraft that are small (often hand held) and can be easily operated off of the deck of the ship. These small aircraft that weigh less than 40 pounds but can carry payloads of more than 50 pounds. They can be equipped with surveillance and infrared cameras that remotely transmit video back to the home base (the ship). They can be set to take off, fly patterns and return completely autonomously. So there are two of these flying patterns around a ship 15-20 miles out either 24/7 or when a ship detects an approaching vessel within 30 miles. Once the video is relayed back, if it is in fact pirates, a small unmanned surface vessel (USV) is then deployed to intercept the ship and warn it to turn around or change course. These USV are also available through a number of domestic and foreign defense and robotics corporations that also sell then for commercial use. On these USVs, they are armed with speakers to verbally warn incoming vessels, mics so they can relay audio, warning stop/lights, cameras, and can be outfitted with weapons (remote controlled machine guns, though you may not want to go there just yet). If the USV’s fail to deter the pirates, then you deploy second set of remote aircraft which are armed with machine guns or a much less explosive but equally as lethal set of shot guns that shoot round of 90 small balls (similar to BBs) each shot. They can puncture rubber inflatable boats, blow holes in the side of metal and fiberglass boats, and netrualize human targets. Obviously it can be somewhat of a legal slippery slope if engaging with pirates and there are casualties, but operation is in international waters that aren’t governed and everything you do would be documented electronically with via your video footage. Price and ROI structure: The first company to hire us pays for all of the equipment up front (they own the equipment). All of costs are done on a cost + 10% basis, which is paid every two weeks – salaries, travel expenses, cell phone bills, everything business related. In order to get immediately cash flow positive and profitable and stay that way, they give us a $100k retainer to start the job. We never put out more than we take in and stay ahead of the curve that way, so we are always cash CF+ and profitable. The remote aircraft with complete systems are about $150,000 per unit. I would suggest 3 surveillance and 3 armed (2 and 2 for regular use and on backup each). I’d suggest a crew of 4 on each tanker to handle the system, both flying and maintenance. They each get paid $75,000 per trip, with a $25,000 at the end for successful travel (there are plenty of mechanically proficient young guys who grew up playing video games who would be great at this and willing to do it for the pay). The boats equipped are $500,000 each, and I’d suggest 2, one for regular use and one for backup. To set up everything, I’d start out pay myself and my other partner at the same pay as the system operators ($75,000 salary with $25k bonus upon mission completion). Again, we charge 10% on top of everything so for salaries the company pays $75k but receives $82.5 per. We pay $25k bonuses, but receive $27.5 etc. We make a profit, though not a lot on the first, perhaps even second or third go around, but it allows us to to R&D and develop a system that works. For the first company or two that hire us, they will have our rate of cost+10% locked in exchange for helping us get off the ground. Other companies will have to pay a much higher premium, which we can figure out as we work the system out, but we will be making money figuring out the system in the meantime. From you, most valuable would be your name and involvement, as it would give the venture credibility. I’d ask you for $30Kthat would give $500 a day for exactly 60 days to scramble, put together the info I need, convince a shipping company on the idea and get them to make the deposit for our first trial run so that we’d be cash flow positive within your time line. Comment by Clay - • This is fantastic. My husband and I own several businesses and still owe on several businesses that no longer exist. Our 17 yr old son just opened a paintball field. Our guidelines for him before we would “invest” were almost identical to yours. Our most successful ideas and most solid business did not need hundreds of thousands to start up and create profit. The paintball field will meet your criteria and it doesn’t need you, a bank, or even much more mom money. It’s amusing that anyone has pitched anything to you. Even more amusing is the people that whine about publicly posting their ideas. DOING takes more effort than most people are willing to give. We are transparent about how we run our business, anyone could duplicate what we do. It never happens. Kudos to you, Mark. The most interesting stories are the ones that will never be on this blog – the people you inspired to start moving and making it happen. Comment by - • Yes, I do have reservations posting an idea open to the public with the thought someone will steal it. However, the reality is I work hard and have little time to devote to the things in which I would really dream of doing. I have two daughters, one in college and another in kindergarten. It should never be this hard to send a child to school. Yet, my oldest just got a fellowship to Yale, taking some or the pressure off. At least that answers your question as to if I would really work. So posting an idea on line in the hopes that someone will take notice doesn’t really count- at least in my thoughts. So here it is. I hope you like it. On another topic, “Thank You!” for at least giving some of us out there in the world a little hope in our daily lives. Comment by - • I love the idea Mark. However, I can`t possibly look through all of the comments as there are too many. This limitation prevents the true nature of the open source aspect to succeed. Which made me think. I propose that someone develop a more efficient platform for reading, ranking/rating, collaborating and ultimately funding these ideas. This way the best ideas will surface as “most read” or “highest ranked” and you can facilitate threads of suggestions to develop these ideas further. Then, the ideas that surface to the top can be funded by you, or even others who may find ideas that suit their interests. In essence, an open-source funding web community. Comment by - • Mark, Here are the details of my business, which I launched in January 2009: Business Concept: By June 2008, the number of Internet users in the United States had reached over 220 million (approximately 72.5% of the nation’s population), and the user growth rate had increased by nearly 131% since the year 2000. As of December 2008, the number of mobile phone users in the United States had surpassed 270 million, which represented an increase of nearly 15 million subscribers since the previous year. As the use of the Internet and mobile phones continues to rise among Americans, it has become necessary for small business owners to establish a presence online and incorporate Internet and/or mobile marketing strategies into their marketing efforts in order to find new customers and sell more products or services to current ones. Many small business owners, however, simply do not understand how to properly utilize the power of the Internet and/or mobile phones to market their products or services. The Small Business MBA is a marketing consultancy that implements customized Internet and mobile marketing solutions for small business owners in order to help them grow their businesses. Through the implementation of these powerful marketing strategies, The Small Business MBA will help its clients gain more exposure to a wider audience, brand themselves, generate targeted leads, collect lead information, communicate more effectively with leads and customers, and increase sales. The Small Business MBA securing its first client, a custom framing shop owner in Los Angeles, CA, and providing multiple Internet marketing solutions for the client, validates this business concept. Target Customers: Small business owners (more specifically, high-end professionals like doctors, lawyers, accountants, photographers, etc.) who either have no online presence whatsoever, need help in optimizing their website (SEO, long-tail keywords, etc.), and/or require assistance in the development and implementation of their Internet and mobile marketing plans. These target customers also waste thousands of dollars a month on ineffective advertising methods, such as placing ads in newspapers or mailing out coupons, that do not allow them to track advertising ROI. Business Model: The Small Business MBA generates revenue from the following sources: • Internet Marketing Solutions. Clients will be charged for each of the Internet marketing services that The Small Business MBA provides for them. • Mobile Marketing Solutions. Mobile marketing solutions consist of mobile site development and design as well as short message service (SMS) marketing. • Joint Venture Opportunities. Joint venture revenues will be split in half between The Small Business MBA and the other party. • Affiliate Products. The Small Business MBA will sell affiliate products that can help small businesses. Competitive Advantages: • Offers its clients both Internet and mobile marketing solutions. • Creates joint ventures with its clients to produce new products. • Provides its clients with individual attention and outstanding customer service. • Provides potential clients with two free consultations and a customized Internet and mobile marketing blueprint prior to establishing any official business relationships with them. Financial Projections: Just to give you a quick overview of the financials (I have detailed Pro Forma statements if you would like to see them), our projected revenues for Years 1-3 are: Year 1: $354,900 Year 2: $1, 241,060 Year 3: $2,772,420 Founding Team Experience: The founding team (consists of my brother and me) has experience in building a start-up company, consulting for a variety of clients, offline marketing, sales, and financial analysis. Specifically relating to the services that The Small Business MBA provide, the founding team has experience in building web properties, e-mail marketing, article marketing, social media, information product creation, traffic generation, and selling affiliate products online. Your Requirements: As far as your requirements go, the business should be profitable as soon as I secure 4-5 clients because my start-up costs are so low (roughly $2500) — which can definitely occur within the next 60 days. Regarding costs, I plan to offer customized solutions for each of my clients, but let’s just say that a client just wants a simple website and a monthly e-mail marketing campaign. I will outsource the website development and content writing for the e-mail campaign, and I will charge the client roughly 2-3 times the amount I will pay the outsourcers. I will be the one that is managing the client projects, but I plan on establishing a strong network of people who I can outsource to based on their specific skill sets. For your investment, I am willing to give you 20-30% of the company’s equity. Your investment would mostly go towards helping me establish a strong team of people for marketing, sales, and project implementation. I hope this overview gives you a good idea of what I’m looking to do. I have already written an entire business plan for this business and can forward it along to you if you like. Please feel free to contact me with any questions and/or comments. Definitely looking forward to your feedback. Comment by - • Hello Mr. Cuban, I am a resident of Atlanta, Ga and am trying to open up an entertainment facility in a VERY profitable and UPCOMING area. It actually has one of the fastest growth rates in population for the last couple of years. I have shopped my plan around to the limited sources I do have. Moreover, I am still pushing forward. The owner of the property is even working with me as he thinks my idea is phenomenal (his words). Nevertheless, GOD willing, I look forward to working with you! Comment by Che' - • Mr. Cuban, We are a small group of guys with highly developed and specialized skills each supporting and building on each other. We have located an existing hydraulic repair shop for sale at a bargain price. This shop current produces between 90,000 and 120,000 gross per year as a husband and wife team with no employees. We intend to start expanding on the current revenue by hiring an office administrator to organize the work load. We paln to use 2 well qualified Mechanics and 3 helpers. Each mechanic will have 1 helper at all times, and the remaining helper will be roving between the 2. We will have one mechanic that specializes in farm and heavy equipement, and one mechanic that specializes in trucks. Our helpers will spend time in each side of the business in order to cross train our next generation of mechanics. The farm and heavy equipment side of the business is supported by the existing hydraulic repair shop. This business is the only hydraulic repair shop within a 150 mile radius in the heart of farming and ranching country. It is also on the outskirts of the barnett shale. I understand drilling has slowed down, but maintenance will have to continue for the next 20 years. They use heavy equipment and big trucks for those operations. We will be aggressive in marketing this business to local business in the farming, ranching, trucking, dairy, and industrial businesses. We are also going implement a preventive maintance program for big businesses. We will put them on a schedule and change filters, fluids, belts, and hoses on equipement at their location. This is a revolutionary concept. We intend to educate these people on the value of PM in extending the life, function, and performance of their equipment. It seems fundamental, but it is rarely done. These machines are expensive, as are repairs on these machines. The Diesel repair and performance shop will build upon this because there are many other trucks within these communities. They are used both within these businesses, and many of the employees of these businesses drive diesel pick-ups. We will also target the rodeo and college communities also. We have the best diesel mechanic in the area on our team. He currently works on trucks that go to pulling shows. He has extensive knowledge on how to get trucks performing better than new, and is also able to get these vehicles to get better fuel mileage. This appeals to everyone these days. We have also located a CNC machine that is a great value. We intend to use the Machine to manufacture some of our own parts, and repair some of the parts that come in. This service is currently not available in the area. In short, we will be a one stop shop for farmers and ranchers in the area. Our Texas climate is hard on this equipment, and these businesses are under supported to begin with. We will complete repairs on time with great focus on quality in repairs. We will also be fair in our pricing. Our basic philosophy in business is we will be authorities in our market place and value integrity above all else. Our country was founded on integrity and business dynasties that grew after the Great Depression used those values, and if companies are going to survive today’s enviroment they should try getting back to basics. Comment by - • I live in Ashland Oregon, it’s right by Medford Oregon in Southern Oregon. Our economy relies on our world renown shakespeare festival, great dining and Marijuana. Medical laws have been passed and I’ve hear number like 1 out 5 houses our growing for personal medical reasons. I just moved home from southern california, I ran and massaged at two massage clinics with 30 employees. Obviously now is not the time for me to start a new practice. So my mind is grinding away for something I can do for a business that helps people and my community. A garden supply store with indoor and outdoor growing supplies. The Valley here could easily have 5-10 more of these types of stores. I’d call it Stimuli Garden supply. Fitting seeing the economic shit hole were in! I’d have everything one needs to grow food all summer long. As well as lighting and equipment for indoor growth for the winter. I’d also have classes and places people can come and learn how to do it right! Have pre made packages costing around $1000.00 ready to go to your land/home and produce at least $2000.00 in food! This would easily provide hundreds of jobs in our valley and help feed people nutritious food. There’s a hole lot more I’ve thought of but it falls into place after a couple years. I’ve been in business since I was in High school. Everything from importing exotic butterfly’s to massage therapy for the Olympic athletes. To working with Autistic children as a contractor. I love to work hard and have that work affect people in positive ways. I’m ready to help my community in major ways. I just need that financial back to make it happen. Kind regards, Emile G. Comment by Emile Garcia - • Mr. Cuban, My first posting did not paste the full document. Here is a free typed document for your endeavor. My partners and I have formed a company, Advanced Food Safety International (AFSI), to provide an answer to the multitude of food borne illness and contamination of produce, nuts and meat products. We have developed patented equipment and a patent pending process utilizing Ozone that will eliminate all bacteria, pathogens, virus’ and pesticides from food products. This process also extends the shelf life of the food products by an additional 8 to 40 days. Considering that over 25 to 35% of a grower’s fresh fruits, vegetables and produce never reach an end-user, the extension of the life cycle of a perishable product is extremely beneficial and profitable to all parties, including the consumer or any end-user. The Company’s food-safe programs and systems will provide multiple, value-added services superior to its current competitors. The value of providing a safe food source to the consumer will drive the retail grocery chains to demand that their products be certified as Food Safe and uncontaminated. We have that ability and have already begun conversations with numerous small to medium grocery chains. The level of interest is very high. Due to the credit crunch, the availability of Venture Funding is almost non-existent. Therefore, we have down scoped our initial objective and now have a business plan that will require substantially less capital ($90K) to get started and will rapidly maximize our profits without any fixed overhead. At the present time there are numerous food distribution centers in California that have very large areas of unutilized space. With our new business model we will enter into a joint use agreement with an existing distribution center to use approximately 20,000 sq, ft. Of this unused space as well as their employees on a “per unit” basis. Using this format the distribution center owner will receive income for the unused portion of the center as well as for his current employees that will provide the service. This provides a positive benefit to the center owner and without any investment, which is what makes the arrangement attractive. This means we have no fixed overhead. When a truck comes into the facility, the distribution center will provide an employee to use one of our Ozone Air units to sanitize/disinfect the products as they are unloaded. These products are then provided with a Certificate that they have been disinfected/sanitize and are certified as “Food Safe” and reloaded onto other trucks for delivery to the retail stores. The distribution center will receive a negotiated rate “per unit” (box, crate, bag, etc) that their employee sanitized with our process and equipment. This will be approximately $0.25 to $0.50 per unit. We will charge the vendor that owns the load a “per unit” fee based on the current market value as a “Value-Added” item, approximately $1.00 to $2.50 per unit. This cost is passed on to the consumer at the retail level as the “price” for a completely Food-Safe product. The cost increase will be less than 3% to 5% of non-food safe products. The average truck load consists of approximately 2,000 “units”. This means that each truck load serviced provides a revenue stream of $1,000 to $5,000 depending on the market price for that day. This income is divided between the facility owner and AFSI according to the prearranged agreement. Using the lower end of the scale this would translate into $500 for the facility and $1,500 for AFSI. At this scale if the facility processes 3 trucks per week, AFSI would realize $18,000 per month. Our breakeven point is 2.5 trucks per week. Based on our ongoing talks with potential customers, we have projected a minimum of 3 trucks per day for the first week (based on a 7 day work week); 5 trucks per day for the second week; 10 trucks per day for the third week, and 15+ trucks per day for the fourth week. This translates to 231 trucks per month. Using an average of 2,000 units per truck at $0.75 per unit; this will produce $346,500 in gross income for the month. Even using a minimum number of 5 trucks per week our gross income would be $39,925 per month. Our fixed overhead is projected at $15,500 per month, leaving a net profit before taxes of $24,425. This will be sufficient to generate the self sustained growth necessary to implement our long range plan of opening our own distribution centers. It also will allow sufficient income to provide a fair ROI to our investor and/or investors. We anticipate providing a full ROI on the initial investment after 6 months. Comment by Ricardo - • Mr. Cuban, I saw that someone already posted something similar to my proposal, but my team has over a decade experience in indoor cultivation of medical marijuana and his numbers are nowhere near the truth. This is the business plan I am working on and I am in the process of updating it and adding more content. As far as numbers, our initial start-up cost and total operating capital needed for the first 90 days is just $20,000. Most of this is needed up front. I mention this because you said the money will be dispersed in monthly increments and if goals are not met, funding will cease. We will not generate any revenue until sometime in month 2 of operation, but revenue generated in that month will be at least $30,000 and will we instantly become profitable, meeting your deadline of profitable with 90 days. After we have established ourselves, we will designate a generous percentage of our crop to be donated to terminally ill patients who cannot afford to pay for their medication. After we have several productions sites operating and significant income is being generated, we will buy warehouses and setup up large indoor growing centers where patients who want to grow their own can. It will be like a large indoor community garden that is just for medical marijuana. For terminally ill patients who wish to grow themselves, we will donate a percentage of the rooms in our warehouses for them. For your return, you could either choose a return of $50,000 in 6 months, or we could work out an equity stake if you were more interested in that. We haven’t discussed equity stakes with potential investors as of now but it is something that we are open to. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The purpose of this business plan is to seek the start up capital to setup and operate a facility to cultivate and produce medicinal marijuana & its products year round without the use of pesticides and other harmful agents. The facility will house state of the art cultivation pods that are built to be the perfect controlled environment to cultivate the maximum amount of product utilizing the minimum amount of space, power and other resources. Tests have proven that cultivating within these pods produces 160% more product than those of other cultivation methods, while also being of better quality. With the increase in production, we will be able to offer products at a discounted price compared to other suppliers, while possibly offering products to terminally ill patients for free. Many states are now passing new medicinal marijuana laws, greatly increasing the demand. These states however will experience similar issues with finding a trustworthy and steady supply for which we believe the answer will be to petition each city to build facilities such as these to keep production under control. In March, President Obama spoke in support of medical marijuana stating that the DEA will no longer persecute medicinal marijuana businesses so long as they are functioning within state laws. The attorney general backed up this statement by stating that this is now American policy. Launching just one production site with a start up cost of $20,000 will generate revenue of $930,000 its first year and $1.5 million in its second. We will begin with one grow room and after each harvest, we will slowly add more rooms. We plan to have 10 rooms built and operating by the end of our first year. This does not include revenue made from the recycled waste, such as extracts and edibles. Profits will continue to rise considerably as we develop new methods of cultivation and in turn increase our yields even further. THE PRODUCT Cannabis is versatile medication that treats hundreds of illnesses and is recommended by a multitude of patient groups. It is a miracle treatment for people suffering from MRSA, cancer, AIDS, nausea, migraines, anxiety, chronic pain, inflammation and other illnesses that continue to be added as more research is done. Recent studies have verified that it will fight sick cancer cells while protecting healthy ones and even safely ease the pains of pregnancy as long as it is administered without harmful smoke. THE MARKET The United States of America has the largest percentage of marijuana use by country and it has become our #1 cash crop. There is currently a shortage of high quality marijuana products in California and other medicinal states. The California marijuana market is estimated to be $3-5 billion a year, with about a third of that being sold as medical marijuana and the demand keeps growing as more patients are seeking treatment. The Office of National Drug Control Policy estimated that the total marijuana market for the US is $113 billion a year. The price of medicinal marijuana has risen far beyond that of its street value and it is causing problems for seriously ill patients that cannot afford the extremely high prices. PRODUCTION Our research is directed toward the efficiency of our cultivation methods, utilizing the least amount of power, space, & other valuable resources while producing the largest possible harvest. Our state of the art pods are strictly controlled environments that mimic mother nature at its best producing the highest quality marijuana. These pods can grow even the most difficult of agricultural products with ease, such as fresh fruits and vegetables that are never exposed to the dangers that would come of growing outdoors. Finding the perfect balance requires many more years of research but with every milestone, profits and production efficiency have increased. In the future, we hope to cut our costs further by automating feeding schedules and monitoring our revolutionary vertical rooms remotely from a central system. This will give us the ability to control numerous production sites located anywhere. This will also give us an almost unlimited profit potential by being able to set up production sites anywhere and having to physically visit the sites very rarely. After harvesting, buds are then dried and cured to perfect the taste, smell and quality of smoke. The remaining leaves can be stripped of their medicinal content by many methods to create hash, oils and edibles, just as cookies or brownies. THE FUTURE The next phase in our plan is to build larger facilities that will be used to grow food for surrounding areas, produce will be of much higher quality and possibly for lower prices then today. These self sustaining facilities will purify rain water and generate electricity so that they may be built in 3rd world countries to provide food and work to very needy people, bringing the world closer to ending world hunger. It is also known that we will one day deplete our farm lands of nutrients and be in need of new methods of producing crops. These facilities will make it possible to grow local fresh produce that will be of higher quality and for lower prices then the produce of today. Specialty supermarkets will be located on the first floor to sell the produce that is grown in the above floors. Once again providing more food and work to surrounding areas. Comment by - • Mr Cuban, 26,000 teachers in California received lay off notices for the coming school year. Detroit has laid off 600. I believe this is the tip of the iceburg and far more will follow. I am a writer and teacher. I’ve developed the files for an online education website that will make learning math, 2nd grade to algebra 2, far simpler and more effective. I am asking for $20,000. Half of this will pay for the website to be developed in Dallas and the other half will pay to edit, extend and develop the product. I hope to have calculus done by the end of October. Currently, I live in Cleveland as I finish all the teaching files, but all my stuff sits in Austin in a storage unit. Why does it work? I took the current math curriculum and I concentrated on the most basic concepts. I put them into highly memorable form and wrote story problems that really make sense. This is very important in algebra, as most of the textbook problems seem very abstract. How it is marketed August is the key in the school year. News and talk shows are looking for stories to fill their human interest angle. This is free advertising for me. I’ve worked almost 6 years on this, 13,000 hours, and I’ve created a very smooth product that can find student weaknesses and bolster their skills. I approach math like a coach approaches a sport. It is not enough to get a C on a test. I expect you to know the concept and be able to use it with a high level of proficiency. What do logarithms do? How does the quadratic formula use the axis of symmetry? How do you use percent of a multiple? All my students knew a 1 line answer that showed how each of these concepts works and could answer a problem without using a calculator. My product has high standards. How the money works I want to keep these prices low. I have 8 products, from add/subtract to algebra 2 topics. I’m thinking $5 a course. This is adjustable, but I want it to be affordable for anyone or any school system. When I have an entire curriculum of science, history, etc, a parent can spend $25 for all the courses for a quarter. There are add ons, such as online tutoring, workbooks, etc. Once the website goes public in August, you will receive 25% of all revenue until the $20,000 is paid off. After that, you’ll receive 10% of revenue. I realize this is just past your 90 day rule, but it will take several months to make this happen. There are 4 to 5 million home school students. I have talked to parents and teachers and the online school sites are often no more than a textbook online. Could this product be huge? A product that is so simple, it takes the place of a tutor. Think in terms of public schools with finance problems. My product can be used in whole class environments. I hosted a pilot project this past summer where the product taught 8th to 11th graders to logarithms without calculators. Half of them had never had algebra 2 before, so it was their first taste of higher math. It lasted an hour a day for 2 days. They learned base 10 logs, adding, power logs, and subtraction. All the students received a B or above. One 11th grader missed a problem, not because she didn’t know the logs, but because she hadn’t multiplied without a calculator since 5th grade. She couldn’t multiply 6 x 8 without punching buttons. I’ve contacted several website designers in Dallas and there is alot of interest in creating it. If you want your representative to see the product before you fund it, I’ll be glad to travel to Dallas. I need to pick up my stuff. The monthly fees are starting to stack up. Mr David Eastwood Whole Brain Education. Comment by dave eastwood - • Live Now in BETA: DontFart.com – Search Tool – Don’t Fart Around – Find It Fast! GamesGamesGames.com – 3200+ Online Games Concepts: JustFart.com – Entertainment / Fun links (Time to just fart Around!) isSINGLE.com – Personalize Dating Site as people can set-up their name within the domain name (MarkC.isSingle.com) SELLitPRIVATE.com – Real Estate site and automotive site sales MyNetPass.com – Secured login system MEcircle.com – Personalized internet experience. With the main idea to serve local products and services with the intergration of personalized information. BeCasted.com – Contest site for actors/singers/models iLOVE2Shop.com – Shopping portal site ShoppingPilot.com – Shopping Service Click4Jobs.com – Career site NetPostings – General Classifieds Ads CrazyGiveaways.com & Crazy4Money.com – Contest sites BecauseIsaid.com – Feedback / Review Blog 247Friends – Friends Network AmazingAds.com – Ad Network – selling ads Contact me for a detailed business plan. Comment by Andrew M - • Mr. Cuban, My partners and I have formed a company, Advanced Food Safety International, to provide an answer to the multitude of food borne illness and contamination of produce, nuts and meat products. We have developed patented equipment and a patent pending process that will eliminate all bacteria, pathogens, virus’ and pesticides from food products. This process also extends the shelf life of the food products by an additional 8 to 40 days. Considering that over 25 to 35% of a grower’s fresh fruits, vegetables and produce never reach an end-user, the extension of the life cycle of a perishable product is extremely beneficial and profitable to all parties, including the consumer or any end-user. The Company’s food-safe programs and systems will provide multiple, value-added services superior to its current competitors. The value of a safe food source to the consumer will drive the retail grocery chains to demand that their products be certified as Food Safe and uncontaminated. We have that ability and have already begun conversations with numerous small to medium grocery chains. The level of interest is very high. Due to the credit crunch, the availability of Venture Funding is almost non-existent. Therefore, we have down scoped our initial objective and now have a business plan that will require substantially less capital ($90K) to get started and will rapidly maximize our profits without any fixed overhead. At the present time there are numerous food distribution centers in California that have very large areas of unutilized space. With our new business model we will enter into a joint use agreement with an existing distribution center to use approximately 20,000 sq, ft. Of this unused space as well as their employees on a “per unit” basis. This means we have no fixed overhead. When a truck comes into the facility, the distribution center will provide an employee to use one of our Ozone Air units to sanitize/disinfect the products as they are unloaded. These products are then provided with a Certificate that they have been disinfected/sanitize and are certified as “Food Safe” and reloaded onto other trucks for delivery to the retail stores. The distribution center will receive a negotiated rate “per unit” (box, crate, bag, etc) that their employee sanitized with our process and equipment. This will be approximately $0.25 to $0.50 per unit. We will charge the vendor that owns the load a “per unit” fee based on the current market value as a “Value-Added” item, approximately $1.00 to $2.50 per unit. This cost is passed on to the consumer at the retail level as the “price” for a completely Food-Safe product. The cost increase will be less that 3% to 5% of non-food safe products. Since the President has stated that safe food is a priority in his administration and the consumer is demanding food safe products, Advanced Food Safety International, with its programs, systems and equipment, considers itself at the forefront and well prepared to meet and capitalize on these expected demands and governmental pressures and has positioned itself by offering several value-added services not present in the marketplace today. I would appreciate your reviewing our plan and welcome your comments and feed-back. Comment by - • MC, Here it is the One you’ve been waiting for. Anybody can do this, and the best thing is you only need $1 and time. A few years ago I stumbled across a way to make money from stuff. Understand this The difference between rich people and poor people is how they spend the money they have. On payday poor people buy “stuff”. They convince themselves they deserve it. So the go scouting at yard sales, flea markets, swap meets, bargain centers etc. Until they find “stuff”. It can be anything, they don’t care. Have you ever went over to someones house, and the entire house is loaded with stuff, figurines,and trinkets. This might even be you. Well you can change you just have to be aware of your habits. Middle class people are too busy trying to appear rich. On payday the purchase Liabilities. That new bimmer, which is going to cost them more with insurance and up keep so they can never break free to wealth. Rich people will invest in assets. This means anything that will bring income back to them. Not just a house or property, something that adds to there bottom line. If you can grasp what I am saying you can be wealth in you life. I took a simple method and made money now I am ready to take it to the next level. You can go to your local Self storage Auctions and buy forfeited property for penny s on the dollar. Get a flea market space, post on craigslist, sell on eBay,or host a yard sale and make $1000 per week. I’ve done it and it works. The only draw back is: it is work. Don’t be greedy work on doubling your investment and you won’t accumulate a lot of stuff. Storage can be a problem and generally, if you aren’t willing to pay a certain amount for stuff neither will I. The future will be bright for all those who use this. I have more money making ideas I will post that will make billions of dollars, I just need more time to perfect them. Good luck, happy hunting! Make some money this week and lets jump start this economy. Sincerely, Bargainhunterbh@Yahoo. Comment by Cathy Hauptstueck - • Dear Mr. Cuban, Here is the poop. My business is called The Backyard Butler. I started it about 3 years ago. My main purpose is to pick up and remove dog waste form residential yards. Currently I am a sole proprietor and am the only employee. With the world being so environmentally conscience these days it is important to find new ways to produce energy. With the amount of dog waste I collect each year and properly dispose of. It would make better sense to actually use it for energy and recycle it for fertilizer or compost. Rather than have dog waste contaminating our ground water and being a health hazard, it is my goal to create a system where the waste is put into methane tanks and use its gases as energy similar to leaves and grass clippings. I feel this would be a tremendous opportunity and would appreciate hearing back from you. Comment by - • Mark, I came up with an idea to have a short run, quick turn around box making business. My daughter married a guy who’s father sold box making equipment. He sold to companies that would then make there own boxes. I had been in the office equipment business and thought that this could be much like a quick printer (Minuteman,Kinko’s,etc.)concept but with boxes. I did research to find that you can buy standard boxes most anywhere. However, if you want a specific size or uncommon type box you would have to order large quantities to make it cost effective for a large box maker. I also found that this concept has been done in England on a wide scale. They have small box sheet plants all over the country. I also found a person in Phoenix who has done the same concept for years that has been successful. I felt confident this would work. I then approached some investors, one of which I had known for years. I put together a business plan which you can see. They gave me funding, we found a site and bought the equipment. After many struggles we opened on November 3, 2008. We had issues with power requirements, electricians and equipment that was damaged in shipment that delayed us. November started out okay but as the holidays neared, our business dropped off to a crawl. In January things started to pick up again. Toward the end of January we had a meeting to see how much longer before BoxWerkz would be able to stand on it’s own and not require any more money. We started it with 75K and then added funds to bring it to a total of 140K. With this we bought the box making equipment, truck, forklift, etc. And we self funded these purchases. At that time, I thought we would need another 6 months. Our original plan was to sell BoxWerkz franchises, or joint ventures. We would take the deposit money from the franchises and use that money to pay down the debit with the investors. One of the investors I have known for years desided he wanted to be our outside rep to sell the franchise concept. He traveled all over and found many people who had a big interest in our concept. Another investor found someone in Fort Worth that was interested in starting a BoxWerkz right away. It was a husband and wife that had a long background in the box making business. I thought things were going great. It was decided in the January investors meeting that they would form a new corporation called BoxWerkz International. This company would be totally dedicated to selling the franchises and leasing box making equipment. I was not made part of this corporation. They also informed me that they would not be funding me anymore. As a matter of fact, they expected me to shut down and sent me a bill for all the moneys they had given to BoxWerkz. In all the agreements that were signed between BoxWerkz and the investment group we were given until September of 09 to start making payments. I told them I was going to stick to the original agreement. What they were doing was getting me out with my 48% of BoxWerkz and wanted me to pay them off even though they were planning to lease my equipment to the people in Fort Worth who wanted to open. They would become a lease company and be out of the box making business. They could use the Fort Worth franchise as their proof of concept and all they would have to do is sit back and collect lease payments and franchise fees. They would give the startups a form of my business plan as the playbook. They only problem they had was that I am too hard headed just to give up. I decided to keep going. I have been now open until April of 09 on my own. I have tried many new things like advertizing on the Ticket Radio station, exploring new vendors, finding new opportunities on the web and re-thinking the original plan. I have also just added box brokers (sales people) who work on straight comission. I would do many things the same as the the first time if I were to do this all over again. I would also learn much from my mistakes and change many things. I also now know that I need some form of printing equipment to print on boxes. There is new technology out that would do this with a low startup investment and give good results. I have talked to several financial people who have told me that they would not be able to help me because of the current situation with the investors. I am only 48% of BoxWerkz and they are 52% (and I don’t have any stock certificates to back this up). They have told me that even if I agree to pay them off that chances are that they would not want to give up the stock. Why should they? I could sue them but they have many more resources than I do. I think the best thing is to start over and walk away from BoxWerkz. I have no compete agreement and I wrote the plan. I would like to start over with this concept, new and improved. I would like to help others to do the same thing in other parts of the country. I have talked with the Pheonix business like BoxWerkz and he will help me and support me. He will also join with me to help and support anyone else who would join us to start a box making business. I have posted the original BoxWerkz plan on Slideshare for anyone to see for free. BoxWerkz International will try to sell this for thousands of dollars and try to take a percentage of the gross profit. We also have sources for equipment, new and used. The most rewarding part of this box making experince had been to meet all the people in the area that are now starting new businesses. There is a new Vodka maker starting up in Lewisville that will be made with all Texas companies as suppliers. There is a company in central Texas that is coming up with a new way to insulate your home and we will be making corrugated trays to use as molds for this process. There is a man who will be importing toys from Japan that he will re-package and sell here. There is a company with small portable storage units made of plastic that needs boxes made that fit exactly into the containers. The list goes on and on. Businesses don’t design a product to fit a box. They want a box designed to fit the product. This business helps people who want to start and run a new business. There are thousands of opportunities out there waiting. They just have to know we are here. Comment by - • Hey Mark – I actually met you a few years back at my buddies frat house at Pitt very cool of you to swing. Here is my business: I invested in a franchise called Moe’s Southwest Grill (www.moes.com), with the intention of bringing quick-fresh Mexican cuisine to the Greater Philadelphia region (the idea of a fresh burrito joint is still an up-and-coming market segment in much of the north-eastern part of the country). We have secured a great first location and have invested nearly $100K to this point on the project. However, we have been getting jerked around by the SBA for nearly 9 months now and we are at a point where we may have to cut our losses if we cannot secure the remainder of necessary funding in the very near future. My 2 partners and I do not have the necessary assets for a conventional business loan, but we are all committed to working full-time at the location once open and are currently all committed full-time to seeing this project through. We need an additional $500K for equipment, build-out costs, and some working cap. I have very detailed financial projections in my business plan for the first 4 years, based on historical data collected from other franchise owners. Mark- If you agreed to make an appearance at the store location at any point in our first month of business, we would be in an excellent position to be very profitable almost immediately. The payback period for the loan would be about 2 years, and we would be willing to negotiate with you to become an equity partner in the company. The ultimate goal of the company is to own and operate multiple franchise locations over the next 5-7 years, and sell the locations at the appropriate stage of its business life cycle. Please shoot me an email for our actual business plan, which is much to long to post here. Comment by Eddie - • Mark I have a small subcontractor business in the fire alarm/security trade.Been in business for myself for 4 years.Also have 15 years in the electrical trade.I want to provide service and installs for commercial buildings in the dfw area.We have 4 employees and including myself have over 35 years experiance installing all differant types of alarm/security/electrical systems.What I want to do is provide service,inspections,installs for fire alarm,security,monitor,electrical,telephone,network, systems. Currenty have been doing around 16000.00 per month as a sub. I know i have the contacts and knowledge to make this work.We have all the proper insurance and licence in place.Just need some funding to take this thing to another level.Also looking into providing fire watch at arena and high buildings. Have TX fire license and electrical license.Just thought since you are doing this would run it by you.thank you for your time and consideration steve GO MAVS. Comment by stanner - • Good Afternoon Mr. Cuban, Thanks for taking a look at our products’ incredible potential, I will go over the many uses and the biggest positive is the cost which will drop significantly when compared to the many products companies and the consumer are using now. There is not another product on the market that claims it simplifies the cleaning process, Poly’s does just that. This product makes cleaning a vehicle easier with each use. It owns the North American auto show circuit – meaning every vehicle is cleaned with Poly’s (by far it’s the best dry wash product on the market) which leaves the vehicles looking better than wax with a simple wash. Poly’s CTS replaced Meguiars in the auto show circuit due to the results, the cost savings came with it. GM actually won an award for their vehicles in the auto shows which were detailed with the product at a time when the other vehicles were waxed. This is a Product you can really get behind because it works! It is 100% Biodegradable and it saves water. It is a one-product-does-all, eliminating multiple other products (soap, wheel cleaner, window cleaner, degreasor, upholstery cleaner/shampoo safe on every material, wax, clay glide, super concentrate towel soap). I can furnish you many contacts who are presently using Poly’s that do not have the need for the other products mentioned above – which translates into huge savings! We have spent years improving our product, to the point it almost cleans without agitation. A bucket wash with one cap full of this product per gallon leaves the vehicle detailed (no wax is needed) – this is the way the Chinese consumers wash their vehicles. Our product adheres itself to the clear coat leaving a protective coat with each wash. When used in a pressure washer it leaves even a thicker coat due to the heating of the product (again very high dilution even 8K to 1 you see the same mind blowing results), this is really the future of car washing when you see the results in person not to mention the cost is pennies. I have spent 7 years doing Logistics for auto shows and special events, every person or company I’ve introduced it to is figuring a way to get it into their system because they’ve never used anything like it. The company I presently am a contractor for has saved huge percentages not buying wax for special events or auto shows! My previous company I worked for totally eliminated wax from their operation due to a couple reasons, we received a better finished product easier for less money. Some car wash owners have told me it’s too good, which brings me to something those owners don’t want to get out (the fact the chemicals being used are not good on a finish and cause reclaim issues), can you imagine if that news got out? When you High Speed polish a vehicle with the product its a one step process (clean, fast and very impressive), there is no wiping wax off the clear coat or cracks/molding. Porter Cable or Orbital is much cleaner and faster as well, all leave a thick glossy protective coat. In these tough economic times we all need to look into the best possible ways to save money especially if it could produce better, easier results. We have very low overhead, this product will go crazy with a marketing push and or a big name person endorsing! Can’t wait to Demo in person! THANKS FOR YOUR TIME/I can send you a DVD of the auto show cleaning and the pressure washing but seeing in person is Huge Dallas Trippy 949-309-7525. Comment by - • Mr. Cuban I am an internet marketer that has a great idea I am starting to implement right now and this idea meets all of your requirements. I am taking online marketing offline. What I mean is I am going to offer internet marketing services to local offline businesses. It’s a fact that more and more people are using search engines for local search. There are several business models included in this offline idea and all of them can be systemized and scalable easily. 1) Offer lawyers, cosmetic dentist, used car dealers and other highly profitable businesses an internet marketing package that will make them the authority in their local market and as a result create many more leads for them. We will do this with an advanced SEO strategy that allows me to get local businesses several (5-8) first page listings on the google SERP’s for their main local keywords like Dallas dentist for example. This will easily sell for 1k-5k per month depending on market size and search volume. The best part is the other web properties besides their own site will only be licensed and if they fail to pay these web properties can easily be transfered to their competition within a few hours. They will be signed up for reaccuring billing from the begining until they cancel. We will make them the authority in their market by dominating the online conversation in their market with their site, videos, press releases, and web 2.0 properties all on the first page for their keyword. Note: I can do this for non local search phrases also – at a higher cost of course. 2) I am going to offer a free workshop at the SBA to show business owners how to make the sites that they have, that they paid good money for, actually work for them instead of just sitting there doing nothing like most do. And as you know most people are too lazy or too busy running their business to implement these great new effective ideas. So they will pay me, the authority, to do it for them instead after they are educated on what needs to be done and why. A lot of them will want to implement these strategies but will be to overwhelmed with all the information to do it themselves and they have no clue who to go to, to actually get theses services done as most web designers have no knowledge of effective internet marketing tactics. 3) I will hold paid seminars/workshops for $997 per person for local business owners and the result will be the same as the free SBA workshops where I have shown that I am the authority and they will line up to buy my services after they are educated on what needs to be done and why to make their site work for them to generate revenue. 4) Run ads offline offering FREE websites that are totally custom to their wants and charge a $297 a month management fee for a 12 month contract and a $497 per month upsell option. The initial $297 will cover the cost of the site and the rest will be profit. They will receive a monthly newsletter(so will all of the people in the other business models) that educates them on internet marketing with the purpose of educating them enough to want to buy internet marketing services from me. The best part is that their free site will be hosted and managed by me so if they fail to pay their site will disappear. I have several more tricks and more details on these business plans worked out. I just need to see if you have any interest in knowing more before I spend more time on the business plan for you because I’m actually working on the business models and systems right now. Comment by - • Idea 2 Traffic lights have been proiven to be less effective than roundabouts. Most of Europe has switched from the use of traffic lights to widespread use of roundabouts. Comment by - • Hi Mark, If you continue to read past the next few paragraphs, you will see that this opportunity does not conform to all of your rules. However, it is the kind of deal that you might like anyway, it is the beginning of a trend that will become the new standard in the future. If we get the right financial partner and do our job, the ROI will be remarkable. Our patented technologies control hard water scale and bacteria in process water (HVAC, boilers, etc) better than chemicals and other Physical Water Treatment (non-chemical) methods. If installed on every cooling tower (not including boilers and other process water systems) in North America, our technology has the potential to reduce energy consumption by 57 billion kilowatt hours, water consumption by 160 billion gallons, water treatment chemical use by 60 million gallons and prevent millions of metric tons of emissions (C02) from going in to the environment, annually. The company has sold several million dollars of its patented products into a $3.5 billion annual sales industry without having a sales or marketing person on staff. However, in spite of that, we have managed to get our products to be the standard water treatment method at customer’s like United States Postal Service (district level), New York City Housing Authority, Washington DC Metro System and many other large accounts that buy our products because they work and are better than the competition. We received conformation this week that a very large new customer will install our water treatment equipment in all of their 20 worldwide plants to treat process water and HVAC system water. They installed the first system in one of their plants 2 months ago and are so pleased with its performance that they have already committed to making our Physical Water Treatment system the standard for their entire international company. The point is, with USPS, NYCHA and Wash DC Metro a 2 year test of our product was necessary to become the standardthis decision was made in 60 days from the first installation. This could turn into a $500,000 account. As far as representation / distribution goes, Johnson Controls (the largest cooling tower / chiller supplier in the world) has been successfully using 2 of our systems in their plants for 2 years and has just recently ordered the first system for one of their customers. We are in discussions with Johnson Controls and Trane about being part of our distribution network. Mark, if you got this far thanks for your time and I hope this has sparked enough interest that we get a chance to tell the rest of the storythere is a lot more to tell. Our office is in Plano. I would be happy to meet with you in person if you are interested in knowing more about what we are doing. Respectfully, Jerry Additional technical info and installation and product pictures here __________________________________________________________________ I will invest money in businesses presented here on this blog. No minimum, no maximum, but a very specific set of rules. Here they are: 1. It can be an existing business or a start up. It can not be a business that generates any revenue from advertising. Because I want this to be a business where you sell something and get paid for it. Thats the only way to get and stay profitable in such a short period of time. No revenue from advertisingwe make and sell patented products 3. It MUST BE CASH FLOW BREAK EVEN within 60 days Break even can’t happen that fast 4. It must be profitable within 90 days. Profitability can’t happen that fast, the sale cycle is too long 5. Funding will be on a monthly basis. If you dont make your numbers, the funding stops We would have to have more than a month at a time commitment. Although we have minimal sales now, it will take some sustained effort and financing to reach the point where additional financing is not neededyou will understand why if you get all of the details. You must demonstrate as part of your plan that you sell your product or service for more than what it costs you to produce, fully encumbered Profit margins are good, typically from 30% to 200% + 7. Everyone must work. The organization is completely flat. There are no employees reporting to managers. There is the founder/owners and everyone else Everyone does workwe will need to hire additional employees soon after funding 8. You must post your business plan here, or you can post it on slideshare.com, scribd.com or google docs, all completely public for anyone to see and/or download If you are interested after this phase, I will be happy to share our business plan and any and all other information that you desire. One of our competiters was just purchased for an estimated $50 million by a major chemical company, I’m not interested in showing the competition our plans 9. I make no promises that if your business is profitable, that I will invest more money. Once you get the initial funding you are on your own Understood. When we become profitable, additional growth funds will be much easier to get from conventional sources 10. I will make no promises that I will be available to offer help. If I want to, I will. If not, I wont. Understood 11. If you do get money, it goes into a bank that I specify, and I have the ability to watch the funds flow and the opportunity to require that I cosign any outflows. No problem as long as we have agreed to a budget that will be funded while we build sales/profits 12. In your business plan, make sure to specify how much equity I will receive or how I will get a return on my money. This is negotiable depending on your commitment i.e. Full funding or partial funding, etc. No mult-level marketing programs (added 2/10/09 1pm) None. Comment by - • Mark, Being a sports owner, sports fanatic, and now movie entertainment company owner, you might be interested in a new sports project that could use your support and energy proposed for the city of Las Vegas. The ‘GREATEST” project. It is already receiving backing form major “fighting sports figures” as it is for “All fighters. All champions, for all time in all fighting sports”. THE GREATEST LAS VEGAS PROJECT: “All fighters, all champions, for all time” in Las Vegas. The Greatest Las Vegas project is five major global elements, which will bring together al fighting sports disciplines, from Boxing to martial arts, from fencing to karate under one organization, covering all in great detail. The Greatest is first made up of the world’s largest sports monument, “The Statue of Liberty of sports”, standing 80 feet tall, cast in bronze and stainless, two boxing gloves face to face, would rise vertically in the desert sky. Thus the a major sculptural iconographic monument for the 21st century would be born. Coupled with the monument is a “living” memorial “Championship Fighters Wall” emblazoned with cast stainless plaques, each baring “imprints of championship fighters fist, signature, weight class and championship years”. Next a digital archive interactive museum, using the latest animation technology, thus enabling it, to present life size interactive viewer experiences in all fighting forms and disciplines. Along with these digital worlds, all information, background, champions in all fight sports would be available at the touch of a finger to a touch screen pad. Thus, every facet of any fighting sport, hero, pro fighter could be explored down to the ring men, trainers, doctors, and even the very sciences of sports fighting. Considering and drawing on the vast film and TV recordings of most major fighting sports, this archive could present thousands of hours of past, present and future fighters, with added insightful commentary, newspaper articles and more. Next would come the retail operations, and on-line museum, capable of delivering custom merchandising on demand for any fighter or champion, sponsoring on line live interviews with fans weekly, thus building on our internet success on myspace reaching over 300,000 plus fighting sports fans in all disciplines. The Greatest Las Vegas song will reach millions, as the entire iconographic project goes global. “All fighters, all champions, for all time”. I’d love to send over the full illustrated package, which shows the entire range of merchandising, museum development, architectural designs, sculpture monument and living memorial wall project. The greatest would be a “living” past present and future five part project, a theme entertainment and attraction center. Hope you enjoy our site, and the song you hear on the site will be on local radio in Las Vegas and Los Angeles by the end of this month, thus promoting the project to vast numbers. Paul-Felix Montez Las Vegas BIG Art LLC. Comment by Brad Wilburn - • Mark, First, thank you for the open proposal. I am sure you will receive lots of offers. I have an idea I would like to share. We all know about the real estate market right now. I am trying to start a Real Estate Investment Trust, that purchases troubled properties, and leases back to the current owners who just want out. There are specific rules related to REIT’s, which are flexible upfront, but I feel I can meet your specifications outlined here and return significant upside potential as the real estate market recovers. As well, my goal is to help viable troubled homeowners stay in their own homes and get troubled assets off the books of the banks. I am not a real estate agent or a broker, however, my wife and I own an advertising agency, a hosting company, and I have a full time job as an executive at a major phone company. I see the turmoil going on around us, and at the root of the problem is the real estate markets. I endeavor to simply be a small part of the solution based on sound real estate investment strategies. Your investment will be backed by the real estate itself. Please review my basic powerpoint at: I have much more detail to share if there is further interest. Thanks for consideration, Ken Carter. Comment by Ken Carter - • Hello, my name is Kelly and this is my project. I have been working on this clothing line for close to a year now. I had another clothing line before and had moderate success. However, due to lack of funding, I wasn’t able to move forward. I know, whoopidy doo, another clothing line. But, I truly believe that this one could really catch fire and become another Hurley or Volcom. Even with our economy being in its negative state, consumers still want to be a part of the “next big thing”. The name of the company is s.e.c.s. I have a trademark for the name and the logo. The website (www.secsshop.com) is up, but I have no actual product to sell. There are several designs on there for both men and women. Before the site is fully operational, the pictures will be updated and the options will be narrowed down significantly. To start, 6 – 10 designs for men and the same for women. The site will have a window which will preview future designs. It will be set up as an online poll, allowing the consumer to choose the next design(s). Right now there are only t-shirts and tank tops. I will have embroidered hats for men and other silk-screened items for women right away. However, I don’t want to be pegged as just a t-shirt site. In the future I want to offer swimwear, casual clothing, and accessories. For every t-shirt sold, there is a profit of 300%. In order to break even, 1,250 shirts would have to be sold. In 60 days, that’s an average of 21 shirts per day. More realistic numbers would be 14 shirts average for 90 days or 10 shirts average for 120 days. However, due to my location in Orange County, CA and the time of year, I could reach and surpass numbers meeting your terms just by hitting Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. In order to drive traffic to the website, I will distribute flyers at colleges, concerts, sporting events and any other event that would hold a heavy percentage of my demographic. I have created a MySpace page for s.e.c.s. Apparel and I hope that it will be a powerful means to spread the word about the site. There will also be t-shirts made specifically to be given away as another way to promote the website. Thank you for taking the time to read through everything. Any feedback regarding this or comments about the designs on the website are encouraged and appreciated. Contact information: Below is my full business proposal. 1.0 Executive Summary S.E.C.S. Apparel is a new clothing line that caters to anyone with a pulse between 15 and 45 living anywhere in the U.S. As our name is a simple play on words (or one in particular), we want to offer something that most people are already looking for. Does not stand for anything x-rated nor is it affiliated with anything x-rated. Apparel will focus our attention on men and women between the ages of 18 and 30. We aim to position ourselves at the top of any retail store carrying our product. We are a company whose products can be worn by men and women of any color, from any ethnic background, of any age, and with any sexual orientation. We don’t want to be another “surf” clothing line. We are going to be the casual apparel line everyone wants to wear, and one that is easily recognized by our logo and our clever play on words. Our intentions are to be the household name that is already a household name. Apparel will be located in Costa Mesa, CA. This central location will allow us to become a fixture in Orange County. It also provides a convenient location to attend many promotional events from Los Angeles to San Diego, as well as Riverside and San Bernardino counties. 1.1 Objectives 1.To create an apparel line that anyone could wear and would want to wear. 2.To become completely self-sufficient within one to two years. 3.To sell a minimum of 500 units/month through the website. 4.To have a customer base of 7500 by the end of the first operating year. 5.To have our product in at least 15 “Ma & Pa” shops within 3 months. 6.To have our product in a nationwide chain within our first year. 7.To be a fun company where everyone loves their job. 1.2 Mission S.E.C.S. Apparel’s mission is to offer quality, fun and comfortable clothing in an assortment of sizes and styles to accommodate our extremely wide demographic. 1.3 Keys to Success In order to succeed in the casual apparel industry S.E.C.S. Must: 1.Carry an assortment of designs and offer new products every three months to accommodate for season and style. 2.Provide customers and clients with top notch personalized customer service in an atmosphere of courtesy that doesn’t exist anymore. 3.Advertise and promote in areas that our target customer base will continue to grow at an alarming rate. 4.Continuously review our inventory and sales and adjust our inventory levels accordingly. 2.0 Company Summary As of now, S.E.C.S. Apparel is a sole proprietorship, owned by Kelly Boyle. There are plans to incorporate in the near future. The licenses needed to establish a business in Costa Mesa have been obtained. The seller’s permit has been acquired through the California State Board of Equalization. Trademarks for the name and logo have been approved and awarded. We own the rights to both for eight years. We own the domain and have paid for hosting of the website. It has been built and is ready for operation. The bank accounts and merchant accounts have been established and are connected to the website. We currently accept Visa, MasterCard, and have also created a PayPal account. The hours of operation will be Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. All website purchases will be shipped the day of the order, as long as it is done within our business hours. Any order after 5pm Monday through Thursday will be shipped the following day. Any order made over the weekend will be shipped on Monday. We will honor all of our nation’s holidays. 2.1 Start-up Summary The purpose of this business plan is to secure a $25,000 investment. Apparel’s start-up costs are listed below. The company will start with 1500 t-shirts. This supplemental financing is required to work on site preparation, inventory, and operational expenses. Other financing will include an owner’s investment of $10,000. Successful operation and building a loyal customer base will allow S.E.C.S. Apparel to be self-sufficient and profitable within the first year. Start-up Overhead $4,000 T-shirts and Screening $10,000 Embroidery $1,200 Business Insurance & Inc. $1,000 Advertising & Promotion $2,600 Custom Labels $1,500 Computer/Website $1,600 Photography $2,200 Business Supplies $1,000 TOTAL $25,100 3.0 Products S.E.C.S. Apparel will open with 20 t-shirt designs; ten for men and ten for women. We will carry embroidered hats and other screened items yet to be determined. We will also be making promotional items such as t-shirts with special designs that will not be sold via the website or wholesaled to any future distributors. These promotional items will be given away and are covered within the Advertising and Promotion budget. 3.1 Product Description S.E.C.S. Apparel will provide a variety of styles and designs to fulfill our mission statement. Our goal is to offer a selection of apparel that is ever growing. Starting out with t-shirts and other screened items allows us to make a name for ourselves. Our plan is to design our own beachwear, such as board shorts and bikinis. We’d also like to create casual clothing including, but not limited to, button-down shirts, shorts, pants, dresses, etc. 3.2 Competitive Comparison S.E.C.S. Apparel has a number of advantages that will allow us to build our brand identity, add value to our merchandise, and build a loyal customer base while standing apart from our competitors. We will be using Gildan blank tees for men, and all of our women’s blank tees will be from American Apparel. We will offer clothing that can be worn by anyone from any area of our country. We will maintain a detailed record on each customer, logging addresses, their purchases, size, and brand for customer follow-up and in-house promotional purposes. We have a name that everybody already knows, a logo that is very recognizable, and designs that are fun and timeless. 3.3 Sales Literature S.E.C.S. Apparel will use a targeted advertising and sales program to generate publicity and build a customer base. 7,500 full-color postcard flyers with a 10% coupon will be distributed throughout the Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, and Huntington Beach areas. 5,000 business cards with a special offer coupon on the reverse side, entitling the customer to a free promotional item with a purchase from the website, will also be handed out. Both postcard flyers and business cards will have detailed information on how to contact S.E.C.S. Apparel, as well as the special offers. 3.4 Future Products As we achieve and exceed our sales and profitability goals, S.E.C.S. Apparel will add seasonally appropriate clothing for both men and women. For summer, we will offer women’s swimwear, board shorts, and casual shorts for men and women. For winter, we will offer hoodies, pants, and jackets. Accessories such as backpacks, handbags, belts, and wallets will be just a few of the items that will adorn our name and logo in the future. We see ourselves growing rapidly. There are already over 40 t-shirt designs ready to print and new ideas develop daily. We look forward to hiring a professional designer. We do not see ourselves being just a t-shirt line for very long. 4.0 Market Analysis Summary The primary target customer of S.E.C.S. Apparel will be 18 to 30 year old males within Orange County. We conducted a small survey amongst friends and family, and our research determined that there was a 91% probability rate of purchase among men and a 70% probability rate of purchase among women. The women also added that they would be more likely to buy our product if they had heard of the name beforehand. Even though we are targeting our immediate area first, with word of mouth and proper advertising, we can reach consumers far beyond Orange County. The secondary target customers are females between the ages of 18 and 30. As the aforementioned survey reflects, women like our designs almost as much as the men. To grow rapidly in this business we must satisfy both our male and female customers. We know that women will continue to buy a product they like or one that fits them well, as they are very loyal to particular brands. The last target customers of S.E.C.S. Are the ones that fall just out of our target; Men and women under 18 and those over 30. Even though we are not pushing to sell to the under 18 market, we know that they will contribute highly to sales. Those over 30 are definitely not excluded from our target; they are just not our primary focus. As popularity about the line increases we expect to see an assortment of curiosity seekers; curiosity seekers that will soon become customers. We naturally believe that sales will skyrocket during Christmas season. 4.1 Target Market Segment Strategy A goal of S.E.C.S. Apparel is to serve the local community. They will be our closest and most consistent clients. However, we plan to give the same top notch service to a neighbor as to someone who lives across the country, or even further. Focusing on a local customer base will help to spread the word about our new company. It will also allow us to see it being worn in and around the surrounding communities. This will help guide us in the future so as to stay current with what our customers and clients want. 4.2 Market Needs There are several important needs in the apparel business that are being either underserved or not met at all. Focus and attention to customer’s personal preferences and customer retention will be given high priority. Because of the high rate of employee turnover at major mass retailers, customer service and personal detail has been lost. Apparel plans to meet and exceed the expectations of service in these areas. 4.3 Market Trends Millions of people around the world instantly recognize and identify with brand names and their logos. We believe that S.E.C.S. Apparel and its logo will receive the same recognition. As far as trends go, sex has never gone out of style. Plans to parallel that trend. Many clothing lines don’t even get a chance to succeed because they never get off the ground. Many more fail because they only target a small window. Apparel has no window. There isn’t even a wall. Our demographic is wide open. 4.4 Market Growth Market growth is in an upward motion, despite some of the latest economic downturns in the United States. According to an article recently in The Los Angeles Times, t-shirts with simple sayings on them are more popular now than ever. They gross in the billions every year. 4.5 Industry Analysis Where you will find our products: Small Specialty Stores: A large number of youthfully trendy apparel is sold through small family-run specialty stores that are located in or near neighborhood communities. Large Corporate Retailers: These large, well known stores mass market and sell to hardcore enthusiasts as well as the local shopper. Our Website: Naturally, consumers will be able to buy directly from the website. Without the internet, our road ahead would be very rough. 5.0 Marketing Strategy Our marketing strategy will focus heavily on promotion, niche positioning in the market, and customer service with loyalty and retention in sales. Having customers wearing our product is like having walking billboards. Anyone that wears a shirt or puts a sticker on their car window expands our promotion without having to spend more on actual advertising. 5.1 Pricing Strategy S.E.C.S. Apparel will maintain a flexible pricing strategy. We base our product line’s prices on those of our competitors. Our wholesale prices to retailers will be significantly lower than our retail price, allowing the retailer to make their own mark-ups. Women’s shirts will be sold at a higher price than men’s shirts to compensate for the higher piece price that we pay. This keeps the profit margin for men’s and women’s relatively the same. 5.2 Promotion Strategy S.E.C.S. Apparel will follow an aggressive yet creative promotional plan. This will allow us to focus directly on our target customer while still being conservative with our advertising dollars. 5.3 Distribution Strategy Our location will be the foundation of building our customer base. We will also manage a direct mail program that will focus on our top 50% customers spotlighting any in-house sales and promotions. 5.4 Marketing Programs Social networks on the internet, i.e., MySpace and Facebook, can allow us to reach millions in a matter of days (all without spending a dime to do it). We will distribute 7,500 color flyers on college campuses and to local hot spots prior to our “grand opening.” 5.5 Sales Strategy We will utilize tracking software with every sales transaction. With each purchase the software will record and maintain in its database the customer’s name, address, and purchases. This information will be used with our direct mailing program to focus on our most frequent customers. We will offer a 14 day return/exchange policy to build trust with our customers and maintain retention and loyalty. 5.6 Sales Forecast It will take roughly thirty days to allow for lead time for our production. It is within that time that all screening and embroidery will be done. The photography, stickers and promotional flyers will also be made in this time frame. To meet our monthly overhead, we only need to sell 4 units per day. We expect sales to be between 10 to 20 units per day, right away. In order to break even in 2 months, 21 units per day would have to be sold. With proper advertising, promoting, and connections, we believe 30 to 40 units per day to be reasonable goals. The Christmas season looks to be even more promising and profitable. 5.7 Milestones We know that the first milestone will happen when we are in production. The most important milestone after that is the first sale. Having our product carried in retail outlets is another milestone. Growing into a larger company and acquiring office and warehouse space to accommodate our growth is highly anticipated. 6.0 Management Summary Employees will be encouraged to work within their creative, physical, and intellectual boundaries. All duties will be divided and delegated according to strengths and weaknesses. We will expect a high degree of customer service skills and personality, as this is essential to our success. 6.1 Organizational Structure S.E.C.S. Apparel is a small business for now, and therefore requires simple organizational structure. Kelly Boyle will act as general manager. All decisions are made in-line with the company objectives. Our Webmaster will be compensated but will work as an independent contractor. We will be hiring designers very soon. We will grow fast. It is exciting to be able to create jobs. We will be very selective on who comes to work for us. The pieces must fit; otherwise we will continue to look for the right match. 6.2 Personnel Plan We are excited about growing quickly and equally excited about creating jobs in our community. Any full-time employee will be paid at a competitive rate for his or her position. Our part-time employees will be paid at a rate significantly higher than the minimum wage. All employees will benefit from a one day paid holiday on their respective birthdays, paid time for nationally observed holidays, and one week of paid vacation after twelve months of employment. At this time medical benefits will not be offered to employees. As profits increase in the future, medical benefits will be offered to all full-time employees. 7.0 Financial Plan The growth of S.E.C.S. Apparel will be quick, and the cash balance will always be positive. Being a retail environment, we will not be selling on credit. We will accept all major credit cards. Marketing and advertising will remain at or below 5% of sales. We will continue to reinvest residual profits into company expansion and personnel. 7.1 Important Assumptions S.E.C.S. Apparel does not sell on credit nor do we offer layaways at this time. We accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express. All sales paid via credit cards will be deposited in our business checking account immediately. Our business checking account is with Union Bank of California. 7.3 Break-even Analysis A break-even analysis has been completed on the basis of our sales forecast. Keeping in mind that profit must be returned back into the business to allow for inventory, payroll and expansion, we feel S.E.C.S. Apparel will break even between six months to one year and will have the ability to repay any and all debts, including interest, and become completely self sufficient. 7.4 Compensation For the $25,000 I am seeking, I will give in return 10% of the business. Investments above $25,000 will receive a larger return. All terms for investment, return, percentages and/or profit sharing are all up for negotiation. Comment by - • Hi Mark, I am a young hispanic woman living in San Antonio that decided that instead of working hard for others – I would work really hard for myself. I formed my company in September of ’08 – I love managing my own business and in this economy it is miraculously floating. It is a very small social web development company (sweb development) that began developing regular websites, graduated to CMS sites and have now began to develop mobile applications. I came up with and developed an application for a large “niche” market that I have sold to quite a few places. I am afraid to post openly at this time – but I would like to give you numbers without posting the idea: 1. I have already sold 5 applications in less than 3 weeks (with no one practically knowing who i am) – Each application costs $15k. The market I am targeting has over 640,000 businesses all over the US. If we were to reach at least 10% of the market – it would leave me at 64,000 apps at 15k each. I have a licensing agreement with all clients charging $25 monthly licensing fee. The company is already off the ground – all i need is a push to hire more people to fill my orders. I would need 75k investment to float a larger staff and move into a larger space. With 3 programmers I could produce 10 apps a month at least. 150k a month plus licensing fees. I would definitely make your 3 month mark. I hope you are interested! I really feel this is going to take off – but i am looking to be prepared! Thank you for your consideration. Comment by - • Mr. Cuban Just for the record, I never played for the Falcons and I love dogs. Now, could you answer a few questions for me before I submit a business proposal. First, would paper fliers printed up with information about the opening of a newly renovated shop posted on bulletin boards, utility poles, windows, etc. Classify as “advertising”? Second, how much equity do you expect in return for your investment? You stated that we were to specify how much you were to receive, but it will be difficult to project an exact figure until the business is able to track profits made in the period the first three months. Maybe you have a certain percentage in mind. Along that line, how long would the business be required to pay you equity? As the business is continuing to make profits, are we looking at a span of time like one year? Or will it just be based on the amount of funds that was initially given? Comment by Ono - • STARTUP COMPANY: HEALTHCHIP DIAGNOSTICS COMMUNICATIONS (TM) The Future HealthCare Diagnostic Platform Point-Of-Care BIOMEMS Lab-On-A-Chip Broadband Real-Time Proteomic Signature Disease Precursor Detection / Remediation using Cell Signal Transduction Pathways. PRODUCT: An I-Pod Nano Sized Arm Velcro Mounted Sports Platform that utilizes BIOMEMS Technology and Real-Time MicroAssay Proteomic Signature Signal Acquisition to realize a new paradigm in Wireless, Real-Time, Broadband Access HealthCare/Wellness/Nutrition Provisioning. Wireless Blood Test HealthCare Medical Device that maps proteomic signatures to precursor proteomic signatures of chronic disease formation and also maps proteomic signatures to nutrition recommendations. FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION: An I-Pod Nano Sized Arm Velcro Mounted Sports Platform that utilizes BIOMEMS Technology and Real-Time MicroAssay Proteomic Signature Signal Acquisition to realize a new paradigm in Wireless, Real-Time, Broadband Access HealthCare / Wellness / Nutrition Provisioning by implementing a Wireless Blood Test HealthCare Medical Device that maps proteomic signatures to precursor proteomic signatures of chronic disease formation and also maps proteomic signatures to nutrition recommendations. TECHNOLOGY: BIOMEMS, IN VITRO DIAGNOSTICS, PROTEOMICS, MICROFLUIDICS, MICROASSAYS, WIRELESS STANDARDS PROTOCOLS, MOBILE DEVICE OS, MOBILE DEVICE PLATFORM, CELL SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION PATHWAYS, PROTEOMIC SIGNATURE ANALYSIS DSP, FPGA PLATFORM, etc. I study mathematics, Cell Signal Transduction Pathways, molecular motors, proteomics, and real-time microassay platform architectures, some of which are being defined here: Sincerely, Michael Hughes April 9th, 2009 RESUME: LINKEDIN: BROADBAND ACCESS MEDICAL DEVICE PLATFORM / ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT MICHAEL HUGHES CEO, CTO, CFO, and FOUNDER HEALTHCHIP DIAGNOSTICS COMMUNICATIONS (TM) PLATFORM TECHNOLOGY ARCHITECTURES (TM) REALIZING YOUR ENTERPRISE VISION (TM). Comment by - • Mr. Cuban I know my idea is not as grand as some of the other ideas posted on here, but I truly believe in the product and the long term potential. I would like to produce my own Hip-Hop album. The music will be a cross between LL, Rakim, and Jay-Z. The music will not be about selling drugs, violence, or going to jail. The music will be more inspirational, about not letting your past dictate your future and about what you can accomplish if you work hard and have a positive attitude. Growing up on the Eastside of Detroit Michigan has given me plenty to rap about! For your investment you will receive 10% equity in the first two albums and 12% return on your initial investment. The process from start to finish will cost between $40,000 – $50,000 for a product that’s ready to be played to the radio and go on the shelf. Step 1 – Build a winning team. Find a producer to take the tracks we have and make them better or make new tracks. We will also need an engineer with a recording studio, and a graphic artist. Step 2 – Start recording. Step 3 – Once we get all the songs for the album recorded we will start the copyright process. Step 4 – Get the artwork for the album. Step 5 – Get the album professional mixed & mastered. Step 6 – Get the album duplicated for mass distribution. Step 7 – Now we have a duplicated mixed and mastered album, complete with artwork and barcode. Now we have to do promotions. We will do promotions by contacting radio stations, internet, posters, flyers, MySpace page, billboards, bus benches, and trying to get on undercards. There are a lot of ways to promote and sell an album, but we will be very creative and very aggressive! Comment by Terence Johnson - • Mark, I NEED A MAVERICK,A VISIONARY TO HELP ME GET ACCESS TO THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION TO PRESENT THEM MY PLAN. I DO HAVE THE NEXT BIG THING, THAT WILL FIX THE ECONOMY I HAVE “THE MOTHER OF ALL PROJECTS” NOTE:I DON’T NEED YOU TO INVEST MONEY IN THIS PROJECT Mark, I sent you this message before but I don’t see it posted. At the beginning of your Stimulus Plan you said the following: “Its easy to write about what the government or other people should do with our/their money”. Mark, what you said is so true. You also said:” It’s harder to come up with a course of action that I can undertake on my own that possibly, somehow could make a difference”. But I have good news: I HAVE THE PLAN THAT WILL FIX THE AMERICAN ECONOMY, AND THE WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS. I have this idea for almost two decades, and with the way things are going lately, it became more and more clear to me that there is only one solution to this crisis: MY PLAN. IT IS A MAJOR PLAN THAT WILL REPLACE ALL THE LOST MANUFACTURING AND INDUSTRIAL BASE WITH A NEW TYPE OF “INDUSTRY” OR “PROJECT”,(I apologize for not fully disclosing my plan here, but of course, that’s for obvious reasons) THAT IS LARGER AND MORE MODERN THAN WHAT WE LOST, AND THAT WILL RENDER ALL THE OTHER COUNTRIES’ ECONOMIES OBSOLETE. Let me say it one more time, becouse this is essential: BY IMPLEMENTING MY PLAN IN THE USA, THE AMERICAN ECONOMY WILL REPLACE ALL THE LOST INDUSTRIAL AND MANUFACTURING BASE WITH SOMETHING NEW, LARGER THAN THAT, LARGER THAN LIFE, THAT WILL RENDER ALL THE OTHER COUNTRIES’ ECONOMIES AS OBSOLETE. That will bring all the action back to the US, GUARANTEEING ANOTHER NEW CENTURY OF U.S. ECONOMIC SUPREMACY AROUND THE WORLD. So Mark, if you get involved, we can start the most impressive venture ever started, that can turn into the largest and strongest corporation that has ever operated anywhere. You also said: “My first inclination is always to try to look “for the next big thing”. But the next big thing is just that, next. Its not now”. Mark, good news again: THE NEXT BIG THING is FINALLY HERE and, it is NOW. And I’m begging you to get involved and contact me, so we can start THIS immediately. As we speak, there are meetings going on, from Washington to London, to Paris, to Moscow, to Beijing, to Tokyo, trying to find the solution to the World Economic Crisis. Mark, join me please in my endeavor to let everybody know that THE SOLUTION TO THIS CRISIS IS NOT THERE, THOSE PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE THE ANSWER, I HAVE THE SOLUTION. My only fear is that you are not going to pay enough attention to what I’m saying in here, and not take this seriously. That would be a disaster. But I strongly hope that that won’t happen. Mark, I know you are a VISIONARY. From that perspective, I want you to know that my plan IS THE ONE PLAN EVERYBODY IS WAITING FOR. AND, INDEED, IT DOES TAKE A MAVERICK TO TRANSFORM MY PLAN INTO REALITY. So, YOU’D BE THE PERFECT MAN FOR THE JOB. YOU’LL BECOME LARGER THAN LIFE,(and richer than BILL GATES) FOR HAVING THE VISION TO GET ASSOCIATED AND IMPLEMENT THE ONE PLAN THAT WILL FIX THE WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS. NOTE:YOU DON’T NEED TO INVEST YOUR OWN MONEY IN THIS PLAN, EVEN THOUGH IT WILL BE THE MOST RECOMMENDED INVESTMENT FOR THE DECADES TO COME. ALL YOU NEED TO INVEST IS YOUR NAME AND INFLUENCE. INVESTMENTS WILL COME FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, FROM THE LARGEST INVESTMENT HOUSES, BECAUSE MY PROJECT, ONCE REVEALED, WILL BE THE LARGEST PROJECT EVER IMPLEMENTED, IS SELF EXPLANATORY AND SELLS ITSELF. And that’s exactly what we want. WE WANT A WAY FOR ALL THE OVERSEAS CAPITAL TO MAKE ITS WAY BACK HERE, IN THE USA. Before I close, following are a few other facts about my plan: –such a “project” is a shovel ready project, it can be started immediately, it will actually produce real things that can be sold to the rest of the world, yield enough revenue to the government instead of spending its money, so it can pay for all the social programs, create millions of well paying jobs while fixing the economy. –on the short term, it will bring in over $4 TRILLION DOLLARS of new cash in private investments from around the world. Comment by Scott - • Pingback: • Just an Idea, create a website for entrepreneurs that is basically a place for investors/entrepreneurs to invest in others ideas. Create 2 sections, 1 for ideas or (unstarted companies), and a 2nd section for companies already in place. The investors can bid/fund ideas/companies for “stocks” in them. Each investor/entrepreneur will have their own profile page, etc. Investor will essentially be able to buy stock in small businesses before they are big enough for market production. This will also be a way for entrepreneurs to partner up and create funds for their ideas. Their are a lot of concepts of this that need to be shored up but since its an idea i am throwing it out there. 2 unsure things: 1. Is this 100% legal 2. Is there anything exactly like this already out there? (I havent found anything). Comment by - • Hello Mr. Cuban, This is the Text of our Business Plan and Model Concept Vision and Business Summary Are you ready for the “Next Generation” of On-demand Interactive Magazines? If not, with a “TOUCH ON YOUR SCREEN”, magazines, advertisers and shopping will soon pass you! As innovative thinkers our initial goal is to develop and deploy new Interactive Magazines On-demand programming to millions of subscribers via digital content platforms. This content is made available to individuals who pay a monthly subscription to access interactive magazine content. This content offers a new interactive format for the “Next Generation Magazine Readers”, who are currently viewing more than 50 hours of entertainment weekly. On-demand subscribers want what they want when they want it. Our research indicates that there is a substantial market of people who love to read magazines and want instant access to their magazines. Our solution is perfect for the family or individual who likes a variety of magazines but does not want the clutter, storage or disposal concerns of what to do with old magazines. Our research also indicates consumers are concerned with conserving our environment more than ever before. The Paper Elimination Act serves notice that we are changing from a paper intensive society to a society that is eager to lessen negative effects on the environment. This greatly reduces the need for paper, printing costs, recycling concerns and postage costs. Page 6 of 20 Nykel is offering magazine publishers and advertisers a new vehicle to engage potential magazine subscribers like never before via Magazines On-demand. We’re also offering publishers a familiar layout format plus the enhancements of a new digital format that adds increased ad creativity not available in current print media form. As subscribers become more acceptable to digital on-line magazines, we’re anticipating a natural progression of subscribers to our service. Take note, digital cable and digital broadcast satellite companies are not switching from analog signals to digital signals simply because the picture will be sharper, the true reason is that there are new applications that can be brought to your television or handheld device using digital technology. Remember magazine publications and television shows have two things in common, which are content and advertisers. Our vision has been to create entertaining and engaging non- linear on-demand content that will become one of the first niche players to capitalize on the efficiencies and interactivity offered through digital content platforms. Business Objectives Nykel is an interactive digital publishing & deployment company whose business objectives are: 1. To offer a new interactive format for magazine producers that reduce production and distribution costs by deploying content via digital content platform infrastructures – which is a substantially lower cost than Internet content distribution. To increase the number of new subscribers by offering an interactive digital newsstand environment – content selection is as simple as selecting a song from a jukebox. To increase targeted advertising revenue by offering new interactive magazine content to next generation subscribers – similar to selecting magazines and newspapers from a newsstand except Nykel’s newsstand is interactive and digitally created. To create an interactive platform for existing magazines to be viewed by their loyal subscriber base. Magazines already have an established subscriber base; our objective is to convert those current subscribers and to attract new subscribers by offering the next generation interactive magazine platform. To eliminate the waste and negative effects paper magazines place on the environment by distributing content in an environmental friendly manner – to become the home of environmentally friendly magazines. Page 7 of 20 Products Nykel’s development team will create two (2) revolutionary products that will enhance interactive content and engage the “next generation” content subscriber across multiple telecommunication platforms. Reader/Viewer Interface- The GUI, “skin” is the focal point of subscriber interactions. The interface provides the subscriber the ability to tailor his/her viewer by selecting from a library of themes. This active “skin” allows the interactive magazine or future content to interact with the existing digital platform output devices to control: • Select menu options • Parental controls • Scroll left/right • Scroll up/down • Zoom in/out • Select viewing preferences (single or split page view) • Auto-page flip • Digital Bookmark • Select narrative preferences (male or female voice speaking in English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Latin, Russian, Greek and Hindi etc.) • Audio • Video (commercial ad insertion) • Interact with advertisers 2. Interactive Digital Magazine- Our Digital Magazines will enable print media and future content to be transformed into a dynamic and interactive 3D game format for deployment. It will consist of 3D software, which uses Linux an open-source program language. This open-source programming offers compatibility across multiple interactive platforms and enhances our ability to patent Nykel created applications. The application will transform print magazines into our interactive game format; our solution gives subscribers the same content and improved graphics while enhancing the look and interactivity of the print magazines they currently enjoy. Nykel’s digital magazines offers you something new — an interactive experience that lets you actually get involved with your magazine and advertisers in an exciting new way, by allowing you to interact and purchase advertised merchandise through each digital magazine page. Page 8 of 20 Intellectual Property and Patent Materials With the accelerated growth in technological advances during the past decade, nowhere has the growth been more noticed than in the digital software and digital arts. We have potential patent materials in interactive software, digital networking systems infrastructure, telecommunications interactive technology, digital template processing, and interface design. Intellectual property attorneys has been consulted with by the founders in regards to proprietary assets, intellectual property and how best to secure and protect these assets long term. To date, Nykel has not applied for a patent nor executed a patent search, registered trademarks or received patent pending status. The seven (7) potential items are: Status Description Type of Intellectual Property 3 Logo designs and business names Trademark Created Company slogan Trademark Created Business Model Copyright Created Reader/Viewer User Interface Copyright, Patent Developing Direct advertisement process flow Copyright Developing Interactive magazine templates Copyright, Patent Developing Interactive magazine data flow design Copyright, Patent Developing Portable Handheld Device Patent Developing Page 9 of 20 Revenue Generators There are five (5) revenue generators in our current business model. Our solution offers magazines, advertisers, Telecommunication Companies a new and innovative distribution model never before realized for magazine digital content. The five (5) revenue generators are: 1. Revenue Generator FEE Description Magazine Fee Table This is a one-time set-up fee that entitles See (Publishers pay this fee for magazines conversion from print, to Magazine each magazine that is set-up wireless, telecommunications on-demand to utilize Nykel’s platform) Setup platforms. Licensing of Nykel’s Reader/Viewer Reader/Viewer is the User Interface that See allows magazine content to be viewed on (Publishers pay a licensing fee Licensing Handheld Devices based upon the number of Table subscribers viewing their magazine content) Non-Direct Advertisement See Non- Advertiser can deploy static or dynamic ad Fee insertions to magazine content. 3.Audio and Direct Fee video advertisements are now offered. On- Table (Advertisers pay a fee to be demand platform allows the magazines to seen in the magazine.) be viewed by subscribers and also monitors & tracks view through rates. Direct Advertisement Fee See Direct Same as Non-direct advertisements with a Fee table (Advertisers pay a fee to be gateway to purchase items direct from the seen and interacted with in the advertisement via the digital output device. Magazine.) 5. Content Subscription Fee See The fee allows access to the magazine (Subscribers to the content pay Subscription content “jukebox” via an on-demand this fee monthly to view Fee table platform. Magazines) Page 10 of 20 Subscriber Market Potential We have identified four (4) market segments. Our goal is to obtain a 5% share of the total digital magazine market by initiating an aggressive market penetration plan targeting strategic partners in the magazine publishing and Telecommunication markets. In 2003, the size of the market was estimated at $39.4 billion in revenue with an expected annual growth rate of 5%. It should be noted, our financial projections use a conservative 1% market penetration. The first identified market segment consists of 350 million magazine subscribers totaling $10 billion in total circulation revenue. (Refer to MPA Handbook pages 11-12, 16.) • $7 billion Subscription Revenue • $3 billion Single-Copy Revenue 2. In 2003, magazine advertisement revenue generated $18 billion. (Refer to MPA Handbook pages 27, 29-30) • 226,000 advertisement pages • 12 advertiser category classifications 3. There are over 6,234 magazines being published by 205 publishers. (Refer to MPA Handbook page 06.) • Hearst Magazines • Time Inc. • Conde Nast Publications, Inc. • North American Media Group • Meredith Corporation A young and culturally diverse demographics will comprise the “Next Generation” 4. We believe the below referenced demographics are mutually exclusive and offer an intriguing upside for subscription growth. • Magazine plublisher subscribers • Caucasian, African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic • Men, women, children and teens • Visually impaired • Current subscribers to digital magazines available via the Internet • Individuals who prefer increased interactivity not available with paper magazines. Page 11 of 20 Marketing Strategy Plan Our primary target markets are the magazine publishers, advertisers and digital content providers. Also included in our target markets are magazine subscribers and telecommunications subscribers. Our primary access to potential subscribers is via handheld device users on telecommunications networks by securing distribution contracts with these entities, the magazines and advertisers exposure to subscribers will greatly increase. In addition Nykel will participate in Telecommunication and media publishing trade shows throughout the U.S. Our marketing plan closely resembles the approach Video On-demand and Pay-Per Use content companies used when launching their premium services, to advertise the interactive content through local, regional and national television ad campaigns targeting existing and next generation magazine subscribers. Promotional efforts directed towards magazine subscribers include newsstands, advertisements in newspapers, magazines and comics. Nykel will also market to subscribers of magazines via publisher web sites and printed editions to offer an innovative alternative. One important aspect of the plan calls for establishing working revenue-focused relationships with several partners related to the telecommunications industry magazine publishing and direct advertisement. Thus, our marketing strategy includes establishing several strategic relationships concurrent with product development during the first nine (9) months of development. We are identifying and building these relationships to ensure long-term alliances. During the second nine (9) months of start up the strategic partners would play an important role in linear marketing campaigns these same strategic partners would receive a share of revenue generated throughout the partnership. Telecommunication providers will enter into a joint marketing venture with us providing advertising time-space. This venture is a win-win proposition due to the fact that advertising revenue generated will be shared based on agreed upon contractual advertising revenue payout. This gives Telecommunication providers an incentive to advertise our content to their digital subscribers as well as magazine publishers who offer Nykel ad space in print editions. In today’s on-demand environment, advertisers are not present therefore revenue models are heavily based upon subscription sales. With our solution, the introduction of advertisers to on-demand content opens the door for new advertising revenue sharing models not present with current content. Page 12 of 20 Risk Factors We have identified five (5) key risk factors. These risks need to be addressed but each can be overcome with sound business planning and aggressive yet obtainable milestones. Funding: Inadequate funding would be our most critical factor in developing a new digital product scheduled for an aggressive customer launch 3Q of year one (1). We have a three-tiered capital raising strategy. These funds are critical for: Tier 1 $500K to $1million • Business plan • Consultant fees (Legal, C.P.A, P.R. Comment by nykeltechnsolutionsllc - • Keeping things simple, the concept is a college bar. This college bar caters to frats and sororities just like every other bar in town but we have buses that pick the college students up at their front door for free, every half hour, and return them home safely when the bar closes. Every night is a different gig for each frat/sorority as well as music, dj’s, and bands. The bar would host events such as volleyball tournaments, flag football, and other games at public parks or a reserved facility which a title will be given from the bar to the frat/sorority winners. The big picture, to have this as a franchise business to where the franchisee’s are competing with other franchisee’s for sales but also having the colleges enter the annual tournaments with volleyball, flag football and other events. This could be in the DFW area, Texas or even the nation. Summer college tournaments? I would be the only owner, you would have 20% of the business which includes all franchisee business. Startup cost would be $250,000 which includes the space, renovations (I own my own startup construction company as of last month), two busses, insurance, TABC fees, and a staff of roughly 25 people per bar(this would create good jobs for college students to pay for school as well as a few manager/event coordinator positions). I have a golf clothing deal I am working on at the moment which I could email you about. I have a new construction company that could use startup funds to take a few steps out of the bottom growing process. I have many contacts but do not have the funds to hire anyone right off the bat. Thank you for your time and good luck, LRG. Comment by LRG - • Hello Mr Cuban, I am an independent affiliate member of a ten year old nutrition company that promotes health, wellness and wealth for your life purposes. This is my number one reason for joining with a company such as this. A person can build a business and have immediate income monthly because of the unique business model the company offers. On March 26th the company launched a new product line and a Share and Earn program. With the launch of this new product line, Sonoran Bloom, It is the first time in ten years of business to promote internationally offering people a way to earn a good solid long term income in this economy.They did not offer a business income before for affiliates. With our economy being what it is today, it is a perfect time to introduce it. Is it set up as multilevel marketing? Multilevel marketing companies typically rely on the distributor to share the company’s message through one-to-one marketing and usually do not provide corporate co op systems that attract customers. I am able to buy my customers through the companies 38 year old media company through television and radio infomercials to online marketing and more which brings in thousands of customers and contacts every week. The full rights to these responders can be purchased, which has helped affiliate members grow their business to become 6 figure income earners. Once you purchase a customer, a percentage of that customers purchases are yours for life. Set up as an independent affiliate business, yet it is profit sharing of the companies sales. Some even call it a franchise. The newest product line is one where they turned to the Nopal Cactus in the Sonoran Desert for its remarkable healing properties. It is packed with extremely rare and powerful antioxidants, called Betalains. It keeps cells healthy and your body happy. Many affiliates are already feeling the affects. An up and coming problem when looking at the baby boomers statistics. This may be the next billion dollar product.The next biggest thing. For the next 90 days starting today an affiliate member can earn 70% commission on this new product, Sonoran Bloom. Yes seventy percent profit for 90 days. A 70% profit is paid as they join my business and become an independent affiliate member. This will meet the criteria of CASH FLOW BREAK EVEN within 60 days and in profit within 90. There is no limit to the number of people you can sell to. There is a limit to the number of customers you can purchase monthly.You can purchase 100 Media Acquisition Customers or MAPS monthly to grow a business. Cost of each MAP is $50.00, or $5,000.00 a month per business affiliate. Cost of one bottle of Sonoran Bloom Nopalea is $39.95 @ 70% profit for 90 days. Then, affiliate members receive 21% commission on all product member purchases for life. We have experienced business men and celebrities who are now affiliate members with the company. It is an established money making business for people that I feel is the best business you will find to fund for those you want to help get set up in starting a business that will not fail tomorrow. This business is easily duplicated especially with the funding you can supply. In the report received from people who has been in Trivita for years, Trivita returns from between 25-40% per annum.With the launch of the new line and adding in a 70% profit margin for 90 days, that percentage will be much higher. I am in need of funding for my business and other members are interested in a joint venture. If you are interested in Health, Wellness and more Wealth please contact me. Comment by - • Mr Cuban: My company is The OM Bamboo Company. We are in the business of developing clothing lines that are made of Bamboo Fiber. Bamboo is a fiber that has the following characteristics, it is 100% anti-microbial, anti-fungal, softer than cotton, absorbs moisture better than cotton. Our first product will be Hospital clothing made of Bamboo by using bamboo we are diminishing the possibility of have cross contamination due to the transfer of bacteria on employees clothing. We have the interest of the nations top retailers. We will partner with large consumer products companies that have green initiatives to be able to diminish our marketing spend by piggy backing on their products marketing efforts. Our clothes are certified to use with brand X that is a green laundry detergent) After this product has become successful we plan to develop a full family clothing line to ensure that consumers understands the benefits of Bamboo for them and for the environment. Bamboo is the fastest growing plant and is fully renewable. Our Brand will be Bad Panda Clothing and will become a household name as one of the first “green” brands. We are creating a ecological company that is focused on getting the best products to the market for the benefit of our shareholders, the public in general and the environment. We believe that being environmentally friendly is not reserved for a small elite but should include the general population and seek to expand the use of Ecological friendly materials in our products for the benefit of our customers. We will donate 5% of our net sales to charities that champion the environment. I meet all of the requirements stated in your rules. I will offer up to 40% of the company for investment. My funding requirement is $150,000. Thanks Mario. Comment by Seth McGuinness - • What about a new way restaurants etc. Can do deliveries? Instead of having to staff a full time or many full time delivery men, they can outsource all their deliveries to a delivery company. Different than a courier. This can save the companies loads of money and we can make those loads of money which they are saving. Start off in a small area and expand. This idea as well- Almost everyone is concerned with weight loss and being fit and healthy, however it seems that nobody really wants to stop eating. Let’s start the world’s first fast food chain like McDonalds that happens to be low fat, healthy food. We can make it compatible with all of the diets by putting the amount of points etc. On the menus. Perhaps we can start a Weight Watchers franchise restaurant. Mark are you still checking and giving feedback? I wrote one yesterday, A really good idea. Comment by David M - • Here you go guys. Totally open source. This business plan/idea came to me from my beautiful wife when she was ordering eyeglasses. She spent hours and hours agonizing over which frame looked the best instead of which was most comfortable or functional which lead me to wonder if people would want to wear glasses as an accessory — for looks — even if they didn’t need them. Apparently so. I have done some research and there are many women who would if they could find fashion glasses at a reasonable price. For examples of searching women just search “non prescription glasses” on any engine. If you are interested you can download my 18 page business plan at the following URL:. Based on my business plan this business meets all of Mark’s criteria. I know this business can and will be a success once someone comes around with the necessary capital to invest. I am an experienced businessperson with the skills to make this business work, but I lack the capital (student loans) to get it going. I have been searching for venture capital for about 6 months now to no avail — poor time to have a good idea I guess. Anyways I guess this plan is available to anyone now. I would love to be the one to make this business plan a succeess, but if you think you can make it. My only hope is that the business is a success and you stay in touch. Comment by - • Mark, Being you have an expertise in tech and software I know you will love this idea. It is a no fail idea! It’s time to revolutionize online shopping. If you have done the research which I have done on online shopping then you will see that online shopping has skyrocketed, and will continue to skyrocket. People love shopping online because it’s convenient, offers a larger selection, and a list of other reasons. Second Life- A very intricate online, animated, sim-based avatar world combined with the fantastic idea of social networking. We are going to combine conventional online shopping with the Second Life world. Yup, it will be done. The question is who is going to take advantage of it. Here is how it will work- we will develop a Second Life-like platform/s in which a virtual mall will be created. This mall will look like Second Life in regards to graphic. Inside it will look like you are walking through an actual mall, except it’s online. The most fun thing about this is that it will be a social networking experience. You will be able to shop with you friends. Walk into the same store with your friends. Try on clothing with friends. And get their opinions. You will be able to pick up clothing, zoom in and even fit it to your body size. How bout putting your face on the avatar. Why not make it more fun and personal? How we make money? Well very simple, we will be the only of its kind. We will charge rent for a store to be apart of our mall. Since it’s online, we can fit plenty of stores. Who knows, maybe we can take rake on each purchase. Charge huge amounts for billboards and mall advertising. We can have virtual bands playing in the mall, and perhaps a movie theater linked into surfthechannel or youtube. Possibilities are endless. Let me assure you Mark, this idea will take far more time than your stimulus plan requires. However this idea will change the world in which we live in, be more profitable than anything on this blog and let me assure you, this will create an unbelievable amount of jobs, from tech to sales to marketing to management etc. Looking forward to hearing your feedback. Comment by - • Mark, please forgive me for never having heard of you or the Dallas Mavericks before comming to this blog. We don’t really play basketball in Africa. The good news is that I really like your idea. Run with this, or let me do it myself. “ no one possesses the less because everyone possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me receives it without lessening me, as he who lights his candle at mine receives light without darkening me.” – Thomas Jeffersen. Seems to me reading this blog that the best idea is the one that you started yourself, namely that putting the idea down in the public domain is the best way of hatching it. If clones hatch – they enhance your idea they don’t detract from it. The basic problem with this site is that the architecture sucks. I suggest that you redo the site in a CMS system like Joomla. Here – see an example of how I run an open Source project. Well deesigned architecture allows me to connect 1 to 100 000 users. The trick is to get the community to empower themselves. I really like this idea of yours. What you need to do is stop pretending that you will have the time to micromanage these discussions. Put up $ 20 000 to cover the development costs and I will turn this into a self funding site for you. There are a few tricks for handling collaborative work that will simply go nowhere under the current architecture. Also stop prentending that you have the time to get involved with start up businesses. Use this site as a means of connecting ideas to other peoples money. The best poeple to put the money into these ideas is not benevolent billionaires (The hardest hit sector of the current recession). The best people to put up the money into these ventures is the poeple who actually help formulate them! The revenue model is that we will take a 2% share of the deals closed. (Maybe more – I will need to look at the numbers) The equity model is that I will share it with you 50-50 with your $20 000 starting it. We will keep diluting to the community. Comment by - • Good Morning Mark, I see I am a little late to the post but I hope you will still consider my idea. The company is named Medext and it uses text messaging technology to help people adhere to their perscription drug regimens. One of the biggest problems for drug companies and doctors is that patients often forget to take their medicine. However, many of these patients also have cell phones. I propose creating a text messaging service that alerts patients when they need to take their various pills. So, for instance, if you get a perscription that you must take 3 times a day, evry 8 hours you would get a text message reminding you to take your pill. The technology would not be marketed directly to consumers, but rather to either pharma companies or pharmacies as a value added for their customers. The start-up costs are relatively low. We need to build a secure web-based platform where the cutomers can input customer text numbers and medication times. A negotiated SMS rate also needs to be negotiated. I’m ready to hustle and make this happen and think it could be up and running in 60 days and profitable in 90 by locking in early customers at a discounted rate with a small non-refundable deposit. Comment by - • Mark, Thanks for the opportunity, and I hope we’ll have a chance to exchange information. The Company: The Financial-Quest Group is a startup that’ll be incorporated within 12-18 months. Through a network of consultants, the business will provide personal financial planning, small business planning and Direct Public Offering (DPO) services. A virtual office format will be employed, and an executive suite lease provides a national network of offices. Review the business profile on the website:. Proposed Steps to Realize Business Potential 1. Form advisory board(s) for The Financial-Quest Group 2. Incorporate for multi-million dollar plan (100 million shares) 3. Mark Cuban Proposal: $0.50/share (up to 30% equity available) 4. Grow and train network of consultants on a regional schedule 5. Market DPO services and orientation process to small businesses 6. Introduce LEAP! Through local ground-game plans and campaigns 7. Plan The Financial-Quest Group DPO to occur within 2 – 3 years 8. Plan The Financial-Quest Group IPO to occur within 3 – 5 years (Exit Strategy) Services and Program Description: The primary service is raising money for small businesses through Direct Public Offerings (DPO). However, we’ve developed a package of services that can help communities realize their economic potential. Local Economic Advancement Plans (LEAP!) educate and organize communities to utilize services that promote economic growth. The following is an outline of program components: • Financial Education and Literacy Program • E-course and Personal Financial Planning Services • E-course and Investment Club Services Clubs organize and educate investors. Members reduce investment risks by pooling their money. E-courses enrollees become members of Local and Online Investment Clubs Community. • Family Small Business Plans (certification every two years) The following components may be included in a family plan: o National family e-mail alert system o Family website and common-interest networks o Family genealogy and Halls of Fame o Annual family reunion (incorporated non-profit) In 2002 more than 200,000 family reunions occurred nationally. Also, 37% of adults attended a family reunion in 2002. Since 90% of U.S. Businesses are family-owned, the reunion format should be used to encourage family business development. O Education plans and student recognition (K-12) o Personal financial planning and investment clubs o Small business finance through DPO o National alliance of families that may support DPO’s • Small Business Finance • Direct Public Offerings (DPO) Regulated plans allow small businesses (0 – $15 million in annual sales) to raise money ($250,000 – $5 million) by selling ownership shares directly to the public. Theses company-controlled plans bring businesses and investors together at a significant savings for both parties. Shareholders may earn a profit on their investment if or when they sell their shares. • Joint-Ventures and Alliances • Traditional finance (loans, friends, angel investors, etc.) • Enterprise Zone Tax Credits and Refund Services • Local and Online Investment Clubs Community LEAP! Will help strengthen the U.S. Economy by addressing the lack of credit available for small businesses. These businesses deliver valuable products or services and create the majority of U.S. If an unusually large number fail it could erode entrepreneurial motivation and our competitiveness in a global economy. State regulators have understood for a longtime the problem small businesses face trying to raise money. They’ve also been aware of the discretionary income that individuals have to invest. To bring small businesses and investors together, regulators created the Direct Public Offering (DPO). (Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has shown that a large pool of small donors can generate a lot of money.) LEAP! Also promote financial literacy to address the projected retirement crisis for Baby-Boomers and future generations. Family Small Business Plans, personal financial planning and investment club services may prepare retirees to bridge gaps in their retirement income. The Market and Marketing Strategy: Traditional means for raising money have not worked well for most small businesses. Banks are reluctant to take the risk, venture capitalists want to almost take full control and major brokerage houses make larger profits through bigger deals that close faster. Selling ownership shares directly to the public appears to offer the best option for most small businesses to raise money to meet their financial needs. However, most business owners lack the skills to manage these offerings; and there are not many experienced advisors. While small businesses are looking for money, there’s a large pool of potential investors who’d be receptive to purchasing ownership shares (just ask Barack Obama). However, most of them are not familiar with the investment process; and until recently there hasn’t been a process in place to facilitate direct investments. Our program educates investors about investing and offers a way to invest in equity shares before a company may begin to trade on major exchanges. Would immediately offer another option for financing small businesses through Direct Public Offerings. As it becomes more difficult to secure traditional financing, businesses could take their cases directly to the public. These offerings could build support in urban, suburban and rural communities because stable businesses usually mean a stable local economy. Also introduces personal financial planning and investment club services. These services would help educate and organize a company’s affinity group to support their DPO’s. Our continuing education plans will promote financial literacy through webinars and local seminars. Program services may also be introduced through Family Small Business Plans. These plans build on the emotional ties of relatives and promote a culture of intra-family support. All relatives are encouraged to participate, including seniors and elementary school age students. Business and Service Goals: The Financial-Quest Group will be a profitable multi-million dollar financial services corporation. Through its LEAP! Small businesses could install a permanent and efficient DPO management process. By educating and organizing a national network, most offerings should achieve their financial objective. Businesses will grow, create jobs and help stabilize local economies. The plan may incorporate the following scheme: Phase I: Educating and Organizing Affinity Groups – prospects enroll in a (5) lessons e-course ($19.95) for an overview of the (DPO) organizing process and investment clubs. Course must be competed by business officers, employees, personal financial planning clients, investment clubs’ members and other affinity group members. Phase II: Business Planning and (DPO) Preparation – DPO-Action Plan fees are based on ¾ of 1% of gross revenues (min: $4,950; max: $15,000). Payment schedule is based on the amount of the fee. Offset and Defer Fee calculations may apply to make services affordable. Phase III: DPO Marketing and Management – fees based on hourly rates and totals average 6 – 8% of offering’s goal. These fees are budgeted and paid from DPO proceeds. To sustain a successful LEAP! Financial literacy must be a priority; especially for participating poor and minority communities. Personal financial planning and investment club services would promote financial education. This is also an important part of the plan to educate and organize potential DPO investors. E-courses enrollees will earn membership in our Local and Online Investment Clubs Community. This national interstate network will include entrepreneurs, personal financial planning clients and investment clubs. It’ll schedule financial education events, and businesses can e-market their DPO propositions directly to the community. Approximately 35-40% of DPO investors should come from these local and online communities. Financial Needs: I’ve taken risks and sacrificed to develop a model that could make a difference in this dire economy. The plan wasn’t developed for this economy, but it’s an example of “luck is when preparation meets opportunity”. The key components are in place and have been tested for effectiveness. I’m now seeking a financial package that’ll support my last $1,500 and an aggressive marketing plan. The support could be based on any one or combination of the following proposals: • Equity investments that support a state, regional and national implementation schedule. • Equity investments and alliance relationships that will provide market credibility. • Equity investments based on scheduled Direct Public Offerings (DPO). Investments would build investors’ confidence and support implementation plan. Exit Strategy: The Financial-Quest Group’s business plan is based on an objective to grow into a publicly traded company through Direct Public Offerings (DPO). These offerings could also provide an important option for investors’ exit strategy. Other options may include a buy-back plan or an Initial Public Offering (IPO). Howard Ware, CFP Business and DPO Advisor. Comment by - • Simple proposal, small investment and significant ROI. Develop “Dallas Mavericks” and “NBA” branded Sweat GUTR sweatbands and distribute with other Mavericks apparel. FYI – We hold 2 utility patents. You pay for and help with NBA licensing and we produce here in Dallas! Develop other NBA team branded sweatbands for their shops and distribute accordingly. Players wear sweatbands during games to obtain exposure. Your equity in the company is contingent upon final investment amount and participation. Headband revolution complete. Comment by - • What is your growth strategy? Our weakness is that because we have low revenue we are not able to engage in proactive marketing activities. However the upside of this is that we do allow our channel to profit form distribution and integration of our software. Hundred of consultants already make TurboCASH their full time business. We also have a strong internet presence – Google Free Accounting Software, Open Source Accounting Software, TurboCASH. Many people find us through search engines and blogs. Want us to make revenue? Take 100 000 free users and turn them into 5000 users paying you $200 per year – bingo – $ 1 M per year profit! The opportunity for revenue is always there – gough the users. The is not my mission, my mission is to grow rapidly with as little cost as possible. Bringing a funder on board will enable that to happen at a faster rate. We leverage the Open Source industry and there are no foreseeable scalability issues. I do not see this business growing – personnel wise. I have owned and managed businesses with a hundred people employed. This is much simpler. If you are looking to invest in businesses with offices and board rooms for meetings – this is not it. In an open Source project the freedom to redistribute the software and the zero cost of connecting to it is our most powerful tool. We have only this and the quality of our product to take on the marketing campaigns of our competitors. Comment by - • Clarify why you lead this industry? What are the barriers to entry? Barrier to entry in the mainstream Accounting Software market is enormous. It is not just the cash cost of entry. In the last 15 years there has not been a single case of a significant entrant in the market. This includes numerous attempts by Microsoft to gain a foothold. TurboCASH is protected, because our cost of delivery is significantly lower than our competitors. In the Open Source business, it is very difficult to dislodge a market leader. Currently we can deliver the software at zero cost. We can deliver simultaneously in over 80 markets. Our logistic chain is significantly shorter than our competitors. Coming from our early history of bilingual software, I have always kept local language as a priority. Whereas Inuit has multiple versions of Quick books and Sage is even worse with multiple brands, we have one product that compiles once and is delivered instantly to different markets in over 25 languages and over 80 tax regimes. It is not only the cost of entry- it is the time it takes a competitor to enter- minimum period would be 5 years – in the Open Source market, there is no one else in sight. All our competitors are large public companies. We sell at Zero cost. How would they fight back? What are they going to do – as a public listed company, give up making profit? What is your target market? Overall market is 20 Million users. I can explain this in detail if we get to due diligence. It is based on the units in the field and our ability to get a share of those units. We target SME businesses with from 1 accountants to 10 accountants. The accounts can be a part time job carried out by the owner. It seems very wide, but the Accounting market is clearly defined. Below us we have spreadsheets like Open Office and Microsoft Excel as well as personal financial managers like Quicken and GNU CASH. Above us we have ERP packages like Accpac and Pastel Evolution. All the myriad of POS systems and ordering systems are all incomplete – they all need GL backends, which forces double entry accounting and batch processing and are complex to develop. It is in this shadowy world that we thrive. So the range of business that we target is narrow ($30 000 per year to $ 3 Million Turnover), but we are prepared to make it work in a very wide geographical sense. Comment by - • Give us a brief description of your business proposition? I am the project leader of the worlds leading Open Source Accounting software for SMEs. We provide Open Source Accounting solution for Small businesses. I am looking for funding to help accelerate the growth of our user base of 100 000 to 500 000 Plus. I have a business worth a minimum of $ 8 Million and I am willing to warrant this value as part of the transaction. The return to the funder will be a minimum of 5 times and I am able to offer security guarantees if required. I am looking for funding of between $ 1 M and 4 $. Below $1 M, I would rather carry on with my self funded approach, which has a great deal of flexibility. Above $ 4 would require me giving up control of the business, this would not be in either my own or the funders interest. Its not out of the question, but it starts to get complicated. I would be more comfortable with a deal of between $1-2 M, with protections for the funder. I am certainly looking for advice here, I see that there are some really good brains here. My proposal violates some of Marks rules, so I am unlikely to raise funding from him. However those of you that are also close to the VC market may consider getting involved with me. Considering on how you take your commissions (Cash or stock ) I would be prepared to give up to 20% of the funding raised to any party that materially assists me in putting together this transaction. Depending on your country of origin, there are some exceptional tax benefits for investing in this type of project. The target country of where we expand, makes significant gains for its small business sector. This is not a commitment to anyone here or an offer for you to make 2 blogs and claim a share of the deal, but is an opening offer to anyone that has suggestions – that stay inside the Open Source concept. To be paid by me, you will need a formal offer from me, which I will do through this site. Until then it is all just “talk”. It is a big step for me to put my data down here – I believe in the Open Source process and I will ride it out to the end here. If the funding source starts out on this site, we keep it here. No private discussions! I am based in Cape Town South Africa. I am firmly committed to living here and developing my business from “The other side of the world”. Any discussions I have had with US VC companies require me to relocate. This not an option for me. See my article Why VC is as American as Apple Pie. Comment by - • Mark: Here is my submission. I hope I am able to recreate my vision in this short synopsis of an business plan.I am confident there is a viable business here, one that needs fairly significant funds at the beginning to ensure a successful launch. With that said, it also believe that it can be sustaining very quickly. As far as your equity position is concerned, I am sure that you will present a take it or leave it offer, but I will answer the question anyway. In consideration for your capital injection you will own 25% of the company. IPod trade-in, used and New iPods for sale This is very simple e-business with the primary goal of controlling the secondary iPod market. There are a couple small players that I would venture to guess most have not heard of at this point. They have poor marketing and poor inventory. I amazingly enough there seems to be a very large market for you iPods, mostly sold via Amazon and EBay. The thing is that most of these sellers are obtaining there inventory from the same place The inventory is mostly derived from liquidation.com and other liquidation sites is very small lots of 10 to 20 units. The resellers then place there small mark up of 20-50% and compete against one another. First Source of Inventory The idea would to begin by controlling the market on the liquidation sites by purchasing all of the inventory (mostly store returns) driving out the small garage players. Then cut out the middlemen at the liquidation sites by going directly to the retailers that are receiving the returns. Once you control the inventory you can begin to control the pricing. Second Source of Inventory Accepting used iPods from individuals. A value is placed on the iPod based on a product detail questionnaire. Upon completion the customer is offered a cash value and a trade in value for the item. Sales Channels Sales will be primarily on the internet, via our website easy and quick to set up generating revenue very quickly. A secondary channel maybe retail. The best application of this could be at mall kiosks. This would also be a great source of brand awareness. There maybe a franchise looming in this secondary channel Marketing & Communication We will keep marketing simple and efficient focusing on the market most likely to be an early adopter of the concept. College campuses should be a hotbed of potential customers. College students are usually strapped for funds, but want the latest technology, especially when in comes to music. They will trade and upgrade, buy used and without a doubt trade in their iPod cheap for cash. It should be relatively inexpensive to advertise in local college papers and to sponsor local events to build awareness. As we grow and refine the business our marketing will become more sophisticated and the target market much larger. Of course we will employ all current SEO strategies and an aggressive adwords campaign. Distribution A small warehouse should suffice at first utilizing USPS of UPS for delivery. I expect the need for a larger space to occur fairly quickly. Also, the potential for regional distribution may be more cost effective and timely. A bar-coding system should be employed to track each iPod through the process. The website and inventory software will have to easily scalable to handle rapid growth. Ancillary Ideas • The obvious sale of iPod accessories and speaker systems. • Free registration of all iPods (serial numbers) even those that are not even customers yet. This will help control the theft and promote the recovery of iPods. This is an area that Apple does a poor job. This idea alone will create an immense data base of potential customers. This will show us what they own, how old it is and when they may need a replacement • Warranty programs. • iPod Repair and data recovery Preliminary Capital Inventory: $150K to $250K IT: $100K to $150K Operating: $100K Initial Investment: $350K to $500K Closing This is without a doubt a viable market and timely since we are in a recession. People do not want to give up there toys, they just want to pay less for them. As a matter of fact it is actually en vogue to be cheap these days. The secondary market of a proven brand like Apple iPod is extremely fragmented at best and ripe to be consolidated by one dominate player. Comment by Tom Cannon - • Real-world Education for Kids & Young Adults Problem: Conventional schooling does little to prepare children for the real world. Kids are not taught how to develop their strengths & passions. The math doesn’t teach them how to save, or use basic tenets such as compounding to their advantage. You don’t learn entrepreneurial or job skills. Worst of all, many children don’t love to read or ever develop the drive to better themselves through engaged schooling because, in my opinion, the rewards are disconnected from the actions. Solution: A subscription-based model of learning modules, using user-created content, and a social network to foster collaboration between the students and the parents, finally, the graduates can use the network for ventures and job searching when they reach employment age. Less fortunate families would be offered the service for free. Parents could even withhold or give allowances based on module completions. Funding needs and equity offeredto be discussed. Eaw112@ gmail.com. Comment by - • Mr. Cuban, I did forget to mention one small detail in my Brand.com idea, the part part about your equity stake if you chose to invest. Here is what I propose, you would buy the lucrative Brand.com domain name from the current owner and let me build my concept on it. As the site grows in popularity and profitability, I would buy the Brand.com domain from you and return all of your investments with a very handsome profit. 90 days to profitability is very ambitious but I think that I could achieve that by first focusing on very large local businesses for the first Brand.com pages. There is a very large Toyota dealership here (Priority Toyota) that is family owned. I had priority.brand.com in mind to be the first member. One of my good friend’s wife works for a large Nissan dealership and she was telling me that car dealerships waste an enormous amount of money moving cars from dealership to dealership to dealership to avoid paying a state tax for a car that remains on a lot >30 days. An auction at priority.brand.com would be a great way to move cars prior to them going over 30 days on a lot (Priority is a family owned business that owners a Toyota, a Chevy, and a couple of other dealerships.) I have a lot of friends in this dealership, including one that goes on vacation with the CEO/owner every year because he is one of their top sales men. If I come up with a good presentation, he can get it to the Owner. Once the other businesses saw the success of this first member, they would be clamoring to get onboard. Brand.com would then explode the same way Twitter, Myspace,and Facebook did. The difference is that Brand.com would have a non-advertising revenue stream right a way in the form of commissions from items sold. The current revenue breakdown that I propose for Brand.com would be something similar to this: 90% of the revenue for am item sold goes to the originating seller (e.g. Prince in the example that I gave in the original post), 5% would be reserved for a secondary contributor if one existed (e.g. Warner Brothers records produced a lot of Prince’s albums), the remaining 5% would be kept by Brand.com as a commission. This would be a great incentive to everyone to abandon Ebay and come to Brand.com as a seller. Prince would get 90% of the revenue including 90% of the revenue raised from Prince cds, lps, posters etc. Sold at prince.brand.com. And other secondary companies would get revenue from the resale of 20 and 30 year old records that they have never imagined earning revenue from again. This would create a frenzy amongst all of these companies to join brand.com to get a part of this revenue stream. Comment by Rex D. - • Marc, Although this seems like a crazy idea, (and you seem like a crazy guy) this is my plan: Hispanic market is first minority in the country, Printed Yellow pages business has been proven to be inefective as business and big hispanoc yellow pages have gone bankruptcy already (the only big one standing now is seccion amarilla own by CARLOS SLIM). I have an alternative: To create a service that is a combination of yellow pages and 411 type of service for hispanics in the US OVER THE PHONE(GREAT IDEA!!!!!!!). Google has something like that already called 1800 GOOG 411. But not directed to the hispanic users I called it guiaportelefono.com (website is running already, check it out) The process is very simple and it works like this: 1. PEOPLE THAT NEED ANY SERVICE OR BUSINESS a toll free number 2. USERS State location and type of business desired (i.e. Lawyers in Beverly hillls CA) 3. WE provides USERS with FREE information 4. Customer service Connect Dialer with Business at no cost 5. EVERYBODY HAPPY!!! Business will be profitable from month 2 or 3. Business will make money 3 ways: – Business will subscribe to be in our database. _ Before a transfer is made, we will have SPONSORS _ Website advertising.: banners, sponsors, etc. The concepts is simple, the idea is new (in the hispanic market USA), and is profitable very quickly. How do you guys like it:? Comment by - • I have an idea for a business that I believe would be killer:. Brand.com would be the “Myspace” of brand names. It would combine the best features of Youtube, Myspace, and Ebay into one website. How would it work? Brand members of Brand.com would be by invitation only. An initial group of “inviters” would invite brands that are: a. Well-respected b. Known for high quality c. Offer exclusive content The invited brands would get their own subdomain on brand.com, for example Toyota might get Toyota.brand.com, musician Prince might get prince.brand.com, and Saxophonist David Sanborn might get Sanborn.brand.com. Well let us first use Prince as an example. Prince could sell cds, mp3s, guitars; any thing that he wishes at prince.brand.com. Brand.com woud get a small commission on each item sold. Brand.com could host video, audio, pictures etc. Just like Youtube. Prince would upload his content directly to his Brand.com page. He would not have to pay any hosting fees etc., Brand.com would host everything for him. Prince.brand.com would auction capabilities built in. So Prince could auction off exclusive items if he wished such as signed cds, dvds, music lead sheets etc. This is where my plan differs greatly from Ebay: PRINCE COULD MAKE MONEY OFF OF PEOPLE SELLING HIS OLD CDS. How would this work? Brand.com would have members the same way that Ebay does. However, anything sold on Brand.com would have a brand associated with it. Items sold on Brand.com could only appear on the page of the brand holder. For example, any used Prince CD sold on Brand.com would only appear at prince.brand.com. Prince would get a small commission from EVERY Prince CD sold on Brand.com. Can you imagine if Prince got a cut of every used Prince cd sold on Ebay? How would this work with a non-musical brand like Toyota? Toyota is sitting on an untapped goldmine in its stories. For example, let us say that Toyota uploads an exclusive video interview with the guy that designed the 2010 Toyota Prius to toyota.brand.com. He talks about his education, his passions, and some of the things that inspired him to design the Prius the way he did. Immediately following the auction, Toyota puts the following items up for auction at Toyota.brand.com: 1.)100 Blue Ray disks of the interview, no reserve, highest bidder wins, all signed by the Prius designer. 2.)100 2010 “Designer Edition”Toyota Priuses, each with a placard signed by the designer. So Brand.com would sell exclusive items by top brands? Yes, the thing that would make Brand.com attractive would be that people that love a particular brand would come to see Brand.com as being synonymous with exclusive items from that brand. Why would brands do this when they could just do it on their own website? Centrality, the same reason they now have Myspace pages. People want to be seen where all of the action is. Within a few months of opening up, Brand.com would explode and become the “go-to” place for selling your wares. However, their would be exclusivity by the fact that Brands would have to be invited. Only the best brands would get in, no junk allowed. Brand.com would come to be known as the “center” of commerce, so every brand would want to have a brand webpage their. Brand.com could even earn additional revenue by having a Brand submission application with a small fee. For example, let us say that Sony loves what Brand.com is doing and wants in. Well Sony fills out an online Brand.com application form and pays a $50 submission fee. For the fee, Brand.com quality auditors will take a close look at Sony’s brand and either accept or reject their admission to Brand.com. If they reject, they will explain to Sony why they were rejected and make recommendations for improvement to maximize the chance of future acceptance. The $50 fee would be non-refundable since the Brand.com staff took time and effort in reviewing the application. This sounds like a great idea. Why haven’t you set it up yet? I don’t own the Brand.com domain name and the current owner won’t sell it to me (yet). Other than that, I have a team of people who could do all of the technical details of building the site. I would host the site at Rackspace.com because they have the technical ability to handle the traffic that I suspect the site would receive. Comment by - • Mark – Thanks for inspiring so many of us to share our ideas. Here’s mine: Too many companies in the US need talent they can’t afford, and too many good people are out of work. People need to be productive, companies need help to survive and to grow in a tough economy. Professional Interns matches hard-working professionals with the companies that need them for unpaid, part-time internships. The interns refine new skills while continuing to search for paying jobs. Some will end up with the companies for which they intern, others will gain the confidence they need to interview well and get a job with another employer. Is it needed? Is it a viable business? I think so, and here’s my plan: and the numbers to support it: Let’s get to work! Comment by - • Mr. Cuban, I have a question regarding disclosure. With the “green” movement, I have always been interested in alternative energy sources. I have developed a way of creating mechanical energy using gravity/kinetic energy. Unlike solar or wind power, it had no dependency on outside energy sources; it only requires gravity, which is always available. This is basically a machine that does not plug in, that can produce electricity from thin air with zero pollution. Since it produces mechanical energy, it can be used in a variety of applications, not just to produce electricity. My question is, am I able to post without providing specifics on how this concept works until it is patented, I have put thousands of hours of my time into developing this technology and now I am poised to seek funding for a start up as my concept has been proven. I look forward to your answer and will be happy to send you the specifics if you have any interest. I think the possibilities are limitless and our dependency on fossil fuels is troubling. Thank you in advance for your thoughts, A. Mackey PS, also, do I have to become a Mavs fan? Comment by Andrew Mackey - • Well, I might as well give it my best attempt. My name is Austin Cushing, and I want to start a business. In fact, I plan on trying to make it work regardless of whether I get help in it or not. Many local stores in our area discard of books and other media that doesn’t sell quickly enough, sending them into landfills, and it bothers me. I got into the practice of picking up some here and there and reselling them – I make profits on the transaction and break even on shipping costs, someone gets a book they wanted without having to spend bookstore prices for it, and the book ends up in the hands of a reader rather than a landfill. My initial foray into this as a form of business was effective, generating higher revenues each week as my inventory began to grow, but collapsed due to one primary reason: space. Or rather, the lack of it. Easily acquired inventory does you little good if you have nowhere to put it, or have to little space to manage it effectively and efficiently. I have considered various options for storage, from on-site solutions such as a shed to rentable storage facilities or even a full storefront. I have even dabbled with the thought of making a full-fledged bookstore and cafe environment – our area has very little in the way of poetry or musical venues, and my wife and I would like to attract more culture to our neighborhood. However, I know that in order to succeed, you have to start small and work your way up. I want to start with the basics that have already proven to work – a setup run out of the home through various online channels – and expand upon it to bigger and better things as I become more experienced and have more capital available to make considerations about property acquisition without having to invest food money in the venture. I have weighed the merits of storage options — a rented 10′ by 10′ space for storing inventory would cost approximately $60 per month, while a permanent storage space would cost roughly $1,500 to $2,000 to get installed. However, the costs offset by having said storage space installed on site (a shed or similar building) instead of having to transport inventory to and from the storage location would include transportation and time. It simply makes no sense to store everything offsite until sales are significant enough to justify making the trip. My employees, as it were, would consist of my wife and myself for the time being. We want this to work in the long term, and we will attempt to make it work — but a strong financial backer would facilitate much faster developments and get things rolling more quickly and efficiently. Assuming that funding has been provided, the money would be used in the following manner: 1) To obtain an on-site storage solution, 8′ by 10′ or larger as local zoning codes allow, for the storage of inventory. Approximate cost: $2,000, including delivery and installation. 2) Obtaining bookshelves to store initial inventory in reasonable good order. Approximate cost: $500. 3) Obtaining shipping supplies to maintain initial readiness for a wide variety of shipping requirements. Approximate cost: $200. 4) Obtaining initial inventory. While I already have some inventory ready to sell, I would like to make a serious investment in acquisitions to fill my shelves, so that clients have a wide variety of material to choose from. Approximate cost: $1,000. 5) Obtaining postage solutions. I would like to reduce shipping costs by purchasing postage online and printing labels from home; this will have a direct impact on shipping costs, and in turn improve profitability while reducing time spent on the task. Approximate cost: $150 for printer and labels. This is the extent I can afford to plan for at the moment; investment capital would improve the sustainability of the business venture and ensure that things come together in a matter of weeks rather than months. As for ROI, profits would be tracked and organized into reports, with trend marketing used to improve our future selections of books and other media to save and sell, so that inventory-to-profit is maximized (ideally.) Of money earned from sales after shipping expenses, followup expenditures would focus first on replacing sold goods and supplies to maintain a stable amount of on-hand inventory; remaining money would be considered profits and would be divided between the investor (to repay and improve upon their initial investment up to a specified maximum) and myself. I think it’s perfectly fair that if someone chooses to invest money in my business and I am profiting from it, then they should certainly regain the money they invested and then some. I hope you will consider my plan, or follow up with me if you are interested and have further questions. Thank you for your consideration. Comment by - • Recycling Dead Walmarts First, this idea is not anti-Walmart; it’s just trying to recycle abandoned stores. Walmart works fast–when it sees a location it goes after it, builds a store, and generates revenue. Unfortunately, not all stores survive as predicted. Walmart acknowledges failure quickly and abandons stores that don’t turn a profit. When a Walmart dies it usually leaves behind an empty store front, an empty parking lot, and an empty strip mall. But it also leaves behind infrastructure and potential. In Lake Highlands, there is an abandoned Walmart. Across the street, there is a thriving Mexican deli. Surrounding both are enough apartment buildings and middle-class houses to support a neighborhood store. But if they can, then why did walmart fail? I’ll tell you and here’s the plan: Partition the abandoned walmart into a number of sections, such as a neighborhood market-anyone can set up a stand for a price; a day-care center; a job/tax stand; a good-will clothing area. Make it a community co-op and hire a few supervisors/managers to oversee the whole thing. Think ALDI + local comminity. Comment by - • Mr. Cuban My name is Christa. I have a company along with my partner Laurie called Christa Creations. We are a small company that specializes in scented stuff animals. Our business plan is attached.. We work from our homes to keep costs down and over the past few months have seen a profit. Unfortunately we don’t have the necessary funds to expand our operation. We are a minority owned business and take great pride in our creations. We don’t worry about having anyone imitate our work for the formula of creating our products, advertising, leg work involved and keeping the costs down took many months and trials and tribulations. We are not asking for much, but rather a jump start to really get our business off the ground. We have had rave reviews and even have a membership list currently being setup. We have never did a business plan, but we did research and did our best creating this one. Any suggestions would be appreciated. If you are interested, please feel free to contact me with any questions. Thank you for your time. Comment by - • Mark, Here’s our submission. I look forward to hearing something positive from you. Problem: Banks are losing their shirts on bad loans. For each loan that goes delinquent, one of the first things the bank does is get a value on it. Once they know what it’s worth they can decide whether to modify a loan, approve a short sale, foreclose or sell the note to a private investor. They don’t call a realtor or appraiser themselves, they contract with a valuation provider who handles all the details. We are that provider. Market: Estimates are as high as $10 Billion in 09. Portfolio valuations account for a large portion of those sales. Only sites that can handle batch orders get that part of the pie. Only 3 of our competitors offer the level of automation and systemization that we’ve implemented. Opportunity: Precise Values is innovative in that we focus on increasing the banks’ collections and recovery rather than just providing an accurate valuation. We provide an accurate valuation, but we also have products to help them reach the customer (the main goal of collectors) and liquidate inventory they wind up with (wholesale selling of notes and REOs). Banks make money on loans, not on houses. The more inventory they have, the fewer loans they can make which is definitely a contributing factor in the credit crunch. We are early stage/ start-up that has a bootstrapped a working website system, vendors are currently signing up to provide the valuations and we are actively marketing for our first client. Revenue: small lenders spend $20k to $50k a mo on valuations. Our over head is 50% of each order plus monthly salaries, internet costs, continued web development. Cashflow/ break even: On first client we’re break-even. We’ve kept overhead low, and plan to use profits to grow. We’ve gotten some warm reviews, but no contract yet. We’ve got some marketing material out there and are hitting the pavement. So why don’t we just get a client? We’ve run out of funding and credit for everything. My partner just quit his job to be full-time, and I’m already full-time plus. It’s now or never. Funding Request: We’d love $100k, but we can continue to bootstrap on $50k which will be used for marketing, hiring an asst. And salaries and webdevelopment. How Mark gets paid: We’re offering up to 10% equity or debt financing at 15%, but you’d be crazy to not take the equity. Thanks for your time. I look forward to your comments. Comment by - • 9139 Boulevard 26 Suite 540, North Richland Hills, TX. 78180 Click here to skip directly to our product information Click here to skip directly to the team Click here to skip directly to the numbers BiiCast is the holding company founded and equipped for the development of life changing GPS enabled LBS mobile applications and solutions all designed with the purpose of making everyday life a little easier on everyone who uses our products. We look to identify, engineer, and market multiple brands, but focus on each creation one at a time to increase our earnings through longevity and/or sale of that brand. BiiCast is a start-up in its development stage. The board is composed of experienced professionals in various areas of expertise. As a team, they represent a strong and cohesive board, linked together by shared beliefs and the BiiCast vision of changing lives for the better on both sides of the coin. Hail the taxi of your choice, by rating, from your smart phone in seconds! For Consumers: People always roll the dice when they order or hail a taxi. They never know what they are going to get when it comes to safety, service, personal hygiene, language, etc. What if you could use your smart phone to view the closest GPS enabled taxis to your current location on a map, browse them by rating, view their name and picture, view an interactive driver profile for more information, and secure service directly with the driver of your choice, while coming down the elevator in your office, standing comfortably inside, or just as you walk out the door, in seconds. The interactive driver profile expands to show you other consumer comments on the driver, allow you to pay by credit card, allow someone else to pay your fare remotely, or let the driver know after your ride that you left something in the taxi, and get immediate resolution. Allowing you to directly deal with the driver of your choice, in less time than it takes to call dispatch and get someone on the phone to take your order. All of that and you also get to immediately help the drivers that you like with a tip, a great rating, a comment, or choose them as your favorite which gives them search priority. You can help improve those that need it with comments and ratings, or help ensure that those that don’t belong find something else to do. Don’t worry about bad input because of a bad day for a driver will not affect a good driver’s rating, only those that are consistently poor in customer service and safety, which is good for the industry. What if rain, snow, sleet, wind, and cold weather could be avoided every time you needed a cab? Would you use it? What if the application was free and you only paid when you use it with no extra billing? Would you download it, just in case you need it one day? Why use a directory style application that only lets you search for cabs from specific companies? Wouldn’t it be better if you could see all cabs from all companies that were relevant to your search because of their location, not their branding? For Drivers and controlling entities: Dispatch groups and medallion controlling entities are adopting GPS at record rates after years of being slow to adopt almost any technology upgrades. But, all of this money is being spent and the drivers have no choice, so the devices are being received with mixed reviews and protest. Drivers see them as just tracking devices. The companies want to adopt more efficient means of dispatch and help the drivers earn more, but even automatic GPS dispatch doesn’t guarantee that, and despite their best efforts they cannot get the drivers to understand or accept that the GPS is there for efficiency and safety, not tracking. What about a system designed to allow the driver to view and use the GPS fleet tracking equipment as a tool to earn more money? What about a system that rewards hard work and great customer service with real results, gives the driver hands on interaction with the system that psychologically transfers responsibility solely to them, and starves bad drivers into submission or retirement, saving the industry and company face which helps the city image and fights an age-old problem of no accountability? Also, our solution provides an alternative to credit card processing equipment, or a backup plan to existing equipment which reduces the chances of drivers driving away thinking they got paid when they did not. Remote payments being accepted will reduce the amount of time it takes to resolve issues of inability to pay and an alternative to involving law enforcement. All of this is done from a secured iPhone cradled in plain view of the driver to allow them to log in, view fare prompts for service (location/destination), and respond and view information on the fare without distraction, talking, or cumbersome controls associated with most all dispatch devices which allows greater concentration and safety. Using the iPhone’s touch screen capability allows fares to be accepted or denied in a one touch sequence that does not distract the driver. Drivers can also log into their account via the iPhone and view their statistics. A Mobile application supported by an intricate, patent pending back end arrangement that reports the location of the nearest taxis equipped with GPS tracking devices to consumers, upon scrolling over the icon for the driver on the map the patron sees a short driver profile that shows rating, picture, and name. Once the consumer chooses a driver specifically a full page interactive driver profile is displayed that allows the user to view the driver’s picture, see their name, pay by credit card, rate the driver, enter comments or notify them that they left a bag. The driver logs in via his profile on the in-car iPhone provided by BiiCast as an interaction medium to reduce distractions and increase safety through simple button displays for interaction that is not based on speech or texting. Business Summary: For CabDaddy: What we can and aim to do is to provide a total solution to the Taxi Industry, those who consume their services, and the businesses that support both of them. The ONLY solution that offers increased earnings, reduced costs to do so, and as a result allowing taxis, limo’s, mini vans et al to perform better in a reduced timestamp, all the while reducing the amount of time that these vehicles must be driving and limits aimless driving to reduce the carbon footprint of these vehicles dramatically. No other solution offers the key to fixing all of the problems in the taxi industry which is the allowing these drivers to earn more money truly based on their merit. Taxi drives work more and earn less than most professions in the U.S., all the while, exposing themselves to danger. Comment by - • Hello, everybody! First, THANK YOU Mr. Mark Cuban for this exciting and wonderful opportunity. I welcome any and all thoughts. I think I may have caused the whole thing to crumble to begin with as I let a car go back to Ford Motor Credit Dec.07. But I’m ready to help fix just a little corner of our economy. The name of my company will be: Squeezepenny Sustainable Farm Producing fresh, high quality, “Certified Organic” Hydroponically grown fresh vegetables in a Controlled Environment. Delivering locally (50 mile radius) from our 50 acre 24/7 sustainable farm. Our first crops solely of Organic Hydro Bibb Lettuce. We would be in the U.S.Dept. Of Agriculture’s “Specialty Vegetables” classification. The consumer driven demand in our niche market is looking for a quality, pesticide-free, soil-free, eco-friendly carbon footprint reducing product. They are at present willing to pay a 10-30% premium. The numbers used will have to be reworked with the true and exact figures after the decisions are made on systems and models for the greenhouses, the electricity generating windmill(s), etc. I have already dove into the fine, very fine print of the manuals. The mark up is expected to be at least 100%. Cost to raise per head approx. $1.00 Selling price per head approx. $2.00 Ten(10) greenhouses that produce approx. 6000 heads each per crop. A crop takes a approx.thirty-two (32) days to harvest resulting in only eleven (11) harvests per year. That’s 660,000 heads per year. If Funding were available mid-April, the first planting would be mid-July with a harvest of mid-August. Allowing us to sneak up and be established before the normal harvest season ends in our area(by the end of Oct).At that time WE STILL GET TO PRODUCE YEAR ROUND. We are located in Collin Couty, TX. The closest commercial Hydro producer in our D/FW market is located approx. 145 miles away. Their product is marked as Hydro (If you are NOT certified by the USDA you can’t put “Organic” on the label). I found them at Brookshire’s with a retail price $3.99. Today at a Super WalMart (they carry another brand) retail price was $4.99 a week ago) they are out of stock (no clue if that is due to the demand or lack thereof with the harvests arriving at the markets currently). BUT NOT TO FEAR, we are NOT going to the chain grocery stores (or at least not yet). Our fail-forward idea would be a Produce Broker ) our market niche is already is place. EVERY “LOCAL” “Organic” Farmers Market (Frisco, Plano, Allen, etc) And the regular well establihed Dallas Farmers Market and a local McKinney Farmers Market only open Apr.-Oct each year. Chains that are PROUD (and adverstising about it) to commit to buy X% of their produce locally. The USDA sponsored “Farm to School” program is another possibility. I understand that we may help to drive down the premium now paid by providing a lower priced product to the consumer, making the need to diversify into the other types of lettuce and herbs. The Bibb (Boston or Butterhead) has the most profit potential. The local rest. Chain that wants 25% local grown uses Romaine. At that point we will add more greenhouses (with 1/2 of them alloted for the increase of the current type and the other 1/2 for the new product). I would be seeking a loan in the amount of $700,000.00 for 5 years. I fully expect to take advantage of the US Gov./SBA/7a federally backed Small Business Loan Program for the land deal. That would be the first approx. $65,000.00 out of your loan. First month 2 full-time jobs created, second 2 more and by the third 1-3 other part-time jobs added. 15 contracted workers to build buildings. And my first re-distribution of your stimulus would be back to the LOCAL gov., ie. Fees, permits, site tests. I thought Agri-Tourism would come in later but since the liabil. Has to be in place prior to the Electric Coop working on site -we may as well go ahead. I have been thinking of nothing else (forgot to eat dinner tonight) since reading your original post. Consumed to say the least, my family says I won’t shut up about the details. I have the available data from the lastest 2007 USDA Reports. They publish ONLY every 5 years. I also have details on the land to be purchased. With a $120,000.00 cash payment to be exchanged at time of purchase. I would get it in advance on leasing out the house also on the land. I’m not trying to get rich quick, instead I look forward to working the farm and this business for the next 20 years. My personal financial goals would be to pay my outstanding debt to FMCC and you and your investors. I could take the cash-method one step further and not seek any additional credit. You remember a company that pays as it goes for costs of goods sold. I look forward to helping you help myself and the others it could benefit. Comment by Kim - • I see that your number 2. Rule states that “It can not be a business that generates any revenue from advertising.” I have a unique marketing company headquartered here in Dallas that has been in operation for a little over a year; one I wouldn’t necessarily classify as advertising. In fact, I often refer to what we do as manufacturing, that is, we take raw data and develop clients from it. Additionally, we now have products to sell to the clients we develop. With that being said, I guess you could say we have created a way to market our products in-house. What I began doing sheds light on how my company evolved to what I am attempting to do now. I had a referral service, referring consumers around the country to financial advisors licensed in their respective states for a free financial review. This is done via direct mail and recipients of the mailers dial a toll free number which is answered by our call center personnel who qualify the call and set the appointments. We are paid for appointment packages and the demand for our services is literally unimaginable. There are hundreds of thousands of agents throughout the nation looking for tried and true marketing programs. Initially I was exclusive with one client; a subsidiary of Allianz Life Insurance Co. Of North America. The ole adage — “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!” – is something I learned the hard way. On April 13th, 2008, Chris Hansen did an NBC Dateline Investigative Report on Allianz. This report showed the improper sale of annuity products to seniors. After agreeing to refund consumers billions of dollars they ordered the company I was contracted with to cut their overhead by a third and I was the first branch trimmed off the tree. I restructured as an FMO (field marketing organization), and became the first and only FMO in the life settlement industry, which is where my focus now lies. I have several financial products available for sale; for small investors (minimum $25k) to large institutional investors (I currently have a $711 million buy box available and $500 million to $1 billion of fresh paper available each month through my sources). I am also in the process of becoming a state licensed broker which will allow me to orchestrate the purchase of life insurance policies from individuals and I have several large buyers available at all times. One of our products has been producing mid-level double digit annual returns (see Wall Street Journal article; February 4th, 2009; “Life-Settlement Business Gets a Boost Amid Crisis”). 60 Minutes also called it the perfect no risk investment of the future! These vehicles are not affected by market fluctuations or economic downturns. In fact, the worse the economy is, the better our business does. There are over $14 trillion of these policies available to the secondary market. As the annuity market continues to diminish over the next few years, while the L/S market continues to grow almost exponentially – estimated annual sales to be in the neighborhood of $160 – $180 billion in the next few years –agents who have been making their living from annuities are looking for an alternative products to sell. This presents an extraordinary opportunity for us and for an investor to coming in now as we have an incredible, custom designed, technical infrastructure in place and the know-how, based on past experience, to make this fly to great heights. I would love to recruit 5000 agents nationwide within 24 months. The talismanic key though, is our in-house tried and true ability to get them in front of prospective buyers of our products. I just need some water to prime the pump! Comment by - • I have been involved in computer science academics for 16 years. I have been running a computer business for over 14 years. I have recently sold most of my assets to a company by the name of T-Mobile. I reside in Europe but am currently enjoying the fruits of my previous efforts while skiing here in Utah, which I can highly recommend (despite this year apparently being a bad season). I have about 2 years of grace period which I’m using to start a new business (which I would like to start in the U.S., or maybe even Australia) while I continue to look at other developments in the computer industry. What I’ve been both actively and passively following (on and off) for the last 8 years is the upcoming 3D market. Gartner research predicts a 100 fold increase in the 3D printing market in 2011 in comparison to 2006. That’s somewhat obvious and doesn’t require an expensive consulting firm to predict. I’ve been tracking a predominately one man (currently two men other than myself) company that has been a) acquiring (one should say inventing) intellectual property pertaining to the 3D market and b) has been selling his/their product for over 2 years now. This company is receiving a lot of interest from a whole score of industries; museums, military and law enforcment, industrial design and manufacturing, to name but a few. Things are changing. Very soon we won’t be having a classic two picture mug shot anymore, to name one of the things that’s changing due to the maturing of this industry. I never look at what is profitable, I always look at developments that generate a “wow” factor for myself. If it looks profitable, then someone else has already seen that. “You have to have an elevator pitch” is one of the biggest lies I’ve (repeatedly) come across in the entrepreneurial climate, although don’t let that statement stop you from coming up with one. Apple didn’t look profitable to Hewlett Packard. Google didn’t look profitable to most people while everybody thought that paid ranking (remember AltaVista?) would be profitable. “The world is round” didn’t look profitable to the church. It’s not that people (or the reigning power) didn’t want to recognize these highly profitable changes. The reigning logic and methods of reasoning of the time simply prevented them from inferring these changes which ultimately changed the reigning logic. My peers call me an imaginative maverick and I’d like to get in touch with this other maverick for which his adjective has apparently not yet been assigned. I live in a part of the world that has the highest natural air pressure on the globe. I’m currently vacationing in a somewhat lower pressure area (the locals appropriately call it “Life Elevated”) till the 29th of March after which I’m returning to the high pressure area. I’d like for you to visit my (other) home country and show you around the country while expanding your horizon on this industry and this particular business. Even if you don’t get involved, we can still have a good time, I never waste my or others time. Comment by Imaginative Maverick - • Hi – Yesterday I posted a test comment as I was having trouble uploading. It did get posted. Then I posted my plan. It got posted and the test disappeared. Today I go to your site to read comments – the test post has appeared and the plan post has disappeared Help! Cutting to the chase – The link below shows the product line I developed with Sweat Equity – Energy – PASSION and Bootstrap Capital. I still have the Sweat Equity – Energy – PASSION – but not the Bootstrap Capital. After trying several Business Models – A learning curve. I found what works best to sell my products. It is not Wholesale. It is not Retail on my own branded E-commerce Web Site. It is selling Retail on an E-commerce Portal – Namely Amazon.com My plan/proposal is to focus on one product for now- my International Award Winning Jerk BBQ Seasoning which is the most likely to hit 60 Day Break Even – 90 Day Profits – given an early May Roll Out to capitalize on The Memorial Day to Labor Day Prime BBQ Season. The link to my slide show is below. No new jobs are created but equally important – JOBS ARE RETAINED. If my post was dropped for some non computer glitch – please advise – I like the idea that the plan can be seen world wide – I hope it is your cup of tea – but if not – perhaps it is for someone else. Thank you for your consideration. Rod Valentine – Phoenix, AZ. Comment by Matt R - • Oh my dear Mark, do you ever respond to anyone. I know you are a busy man and so I am a busy woman too. Business is hard to run as it stand, so please take a minute out of your hectic schedule to let me know if my plan interest you. I am a small business woman taking over a large business. I have the loyal customers to service. Investment is 50,000 of your money with a 20,000 return in 6 months, along with your 50,000. Other private lenders are considered, 100% money back guranteed, no risk. All sales based on orders. Comment by - • EquityLock Financial offers Home Price Protection the first product offered nationaly to a homeowner which enables them to protect their home equity against market downturns. Founders spent 2 1/2 years on the concept and launched in late 2008 with an initial focus on Builders and Developers. To date we are working with real estate companies, mortgage brokerages, PMI and MI carriers and homeowners who purchase to help sell their home using it as an incentive or for their own peace of mind. We have support from Robert Shiller, well known economist and Yale professor. We have had a heck of time raising capital for a national campaign given market conditions but have been fortunate to write business in many states with many different types of markets. Full BP, ES, Financials and anything you would ever need to evaluate risk, underwriting etc available on request. We are a Texas based company. Thanks David Camp. Comment by - • I post this with mixed emotions, as I don’t like it when people promote their stuff in my blog comments. However, many of the ideas I’ve seen written here might not exactly fit the guidelines as described, but they may fit our startup incubator in Austin, Texas. CapitalFactory provides cash, services, and mentorship from 20 talented entrepreneurs. Applications due April 3, 2009. I wish you all luck in getting Mark (or anyone who might read this and like your idea) to fund your company! Comment by - • @Steve: Yeah, I understand that most recycling projects are government subsidized. For example, I’m forced to pay my city every month for the “privilege” of having recycling. In protest, I put everything in the regular can. It irritates me to no end that they are charging me to sell my stuff. Now if I were a real greenie (and this is where the Teton deal has potential trouble), I’d save all the cans and give ’em to the Boy Scouts. The other stuff I’d take to the free recycling dumpsters at the local hippie grocery store. Why pay when I can just dump it there? Comment by Matt R. - • @Grace Cruz: I’m sorry to hear about your situation – it is very unfortunate. I’m not sure but I sort of doubt that is the type of business Mark is looking to invest in. Have you considered talking to the guys at lifestylesunlimited.com? They are a mentoring organization that helps people do exactly the types of real estate deals you mentioned. Among other things, they help pair people that have the time to find houses with the people who have the money to invest, the skills to rehab the houses and accountants and lawyers who can oversee the transaction. Just a thought. Comment by Matt R. I have read many of the comments on this site and is it true that you are looking to make even more money for yourself? I thought I finally found a kind hearted billionaire that had his heart in the right place. I am a senior citizen who is about to lose my home of twenty eight years and yes I am looking for help. I want to start a Real estate business with my brother who is already in the real estate business. What I need is capital. That is what I am asking for. We will find the homes that are in very bad condition and hire plumbers,painters and gardeners and who ever I need to put the house back on the market. Let me explain why I need your help. In 1994 My husband was in a terrible truck accident. He was on the very top of his load and the fork lift driver pushed one of the pallets and it knocked my husband to the pavement below. He crushed his back and One foot. The doctors did the best they could for him. He has steel screws and metal pins holding his foot together and they also had to take bones from other parts of his body to replace all the bones that were crushed. He has never been the same. I could not work myself because in 1986 I found out I have a disease called Fibromyalgia that disease attacks all my muscles, tendons and nerves through out my whole body. I am in pain 24/7. I cannot afford health insurance and should I have a flair up and my body starts to attack my vital organs I will not be able to go to any hospital or see a doctor. Since 1994 We have been living off our funds from our savings account which at this time is almost depleted. We earn eleven hundred and fifty dollar a month and our house payment is almost one thousand dollars a month. As you see we are not able to pay all our bills. We have no one and no where to turn. That is why I asking you for help. I know you have rules and I have to be honest with you right up front I will not show income in six months. I would first find the property and then hire all the workers to put the house on the market place. This all takes time and money. I am so desperate for help and a better life style then I have had all these years. I know we will be able to start this business. Please give me a way to save my home and a new start out of this misery, that I am in now. I cannot say much more it is up to you to decide to help me or not. I need a God send. I hope you are willing to help me. Comment by Rod Valentine - • The short answer is, it cost more to recycle than you can make from it. Any Municipality with a recycling program has to subsidize it. I think the accepted line of thought that it is desirable to recycle items designed to be disposed of should be re-examined. There are multiple reasons to doubt the assumed negative macro enviromental impact of NOT recycling these types of items. There are some things that are not economically viable which the government should subsidize. The military comes to mind! (Even though you could make an arguement for the peace dividend from that investment.) However, I believe that such an approach should be extremely rare. Auto salvage yards exist because it is economical to recycle car parts. I think the ultimate solution is to find a way through better processes, etc. To make recycling disposables economically feasablein the free market. Comment by - • To Matt R – Teton Valley Recycling is not my business plan, but I can answer that one pretty easily having seen the downside of a business that depended on the market value of recyclables. Simply put, the value is subject to extreme and untenable fluctuations. Supply and demand is not only subject to the usual economic considerations, but also the ever changing cost effectiveness of reprocessing vs new raw materials. In addition, recycling is mostly an international industry, so frequent changes in laws, supplies and processing capabilities anywhere in the world can have an impact. There is value to recycling beyond the free market economy, so it would be reasonable for governments to provide price supports. Unless that ever happens, any recyclable collection business plan dependent on market prices is an invitation to eventual failure. I think the bigger failure in the Teton Valley plan is that there are probably not enough people willing to pay extra to recycle instead of just throw it in the trash. If the recycling was part of a more comprehensive trash pickup plan – for example replace their only competitor’s $70 month for trash only with $70 for trash collection and recycling – they would have a chance. Then again, the competitor would be easily able to match the offer and have the benefit of an established infrastructure. It’s tough to compete with a defacto monopoly, even with some of the advantages of reduced overhead. Without local political will due to the lure of reduced landfill and a desire to be green, this kind of plan is tough to accomplish. I think the best way for Teton Valley to try to become viable is to sell the service before creating the infrastructure, and if they get enough takers for critical mass, than execute on the rest of the plan. In this way the plan could also be mostly self-financing. An additional lure that would also create tremendous customer loyalty would be to give a very small amount of stock to customers that commit up-front. Maybe they could even raise additional real equity capital that way. Think of the free publicity attendant to that offer, which could also be another factor in achieving success. Comment by - • Hi Mark This is an amazing idea. And I sincerely hope it works. Here is what I am heading towards doing. I am in the process of opening a bakery/coffee shop in downtown Chicago. I was offered an extraordinary opportunity to get into a space. The shop is in a community that has been looking for what I can offer. 2 blocks down is a fire station, across the street is a hospital and a high school. The consumers are there, and at the moment have very few places where they can go to get coffee and something amazing on their way to work. The competition is there, but serving very different things then what I have to offer. I have been doing craft fairs and did my first year at Renegade Craft Fair this year. I have been testing my products for the past 6 months and my product has met with praise at every turn. I am looking for $30k to fund renovations in the space, fund payroll, purchase supplies, purchase a work vehicle for deliveries, as well as rent for the first month or so. The cost to run the business for 1 month with 1-3 employees is $8k. The Posh Bake Shoppe will assist in revitalizing a community, the area has seen several business close down, one of which was a small convenience store. I will also be providing jobs. The bakery will be around the corner from Wicker Park area, and hopefully will draw in customers from that side of town, as well as encourage other boutiques and businesses to open on this street. I believe I will turn a profit in 90 days, with aggressive marketing and going out into the neighborhood to make our presence known. I would like Friday nights to be open to local Dj’s providing a place for them to spin for friends and fans, it would be BYOB, with coffee and my products available for purchasing. When I have the funding, the Landlord will allow me to take over the space in the back to renovate for meetings, cake tastings, or small events. I ran an Event Planning business for 5 years and would like to bring that back in and merge the two. Eventually hiring on an Event Planner to run that side of the business. I am offering any investor a 15% stake in the company, open for negotiations, or I am willing to discuss profit sharing. I would like the option to buy back the stake in 5 years. Also in 3-5 years I would like to see a second Posh Bake Shoppe open. Which could lead to a longer investment relationship and higher profits for all involved. If you have any further questions please email me at I have almost completed my business plan, there are a few numbers I need to work on. But would be willing to email you a copy if needed. Thank you for your time and I hope I will be hearing from you soon! Comment by tetonvalleyrecycling - • Mark, my plan is simple. Find an undeserved market (nuclear power) with a fast growing need that scales – additional services, international sales, and provide it with exceptional service and a great return for client investment in time and money. Cool Hand Nuke has been designed and is being developed to do just that. It will be a proof of concept which will allow for expansion into other under served markets when and where appropriate. Short version 50% of current U.S. Nuclear workforce is retirement eligible within 10 years. 30 licenses for new plant construction submitted to the NRC. International growth opportunity is exceptional. Cool Hand Nuke will be the premier online destination for the engaged nuclear professional. A true Web 2.0 community where they will be able to connect with like minded professionals while having all the latest and greatest in industry news, articles, scuttlebutt, jobs and conversation. We are taking the 20th century concept of the job board and pushing it into the 21st century world of twitter, facebook and linkedin. We are going to provide our users a premium in experience and content. In return we will develop a loyal base which we will charge employers to access via licenses for job postings, resume database access and targeted advert opportunities amongst other things. Our most recent valuation projection has us with at 3.5M come October 2011 and we believe this to be a fairly conservative estimate. You will make money via a% return on your investment over a period of time, both to be negotiated. However, I would suggest the 5-7 year time frame as we are based in New Orleans and you would be able to take advantage of the Zero Percent Capital Gains for Renewal Communities as well as the New Markets Tax Credit. Note you should consult with your tax people on this as I am by no means anything near a tax professional. If you’re interested in exploring this further please let me know & thanks for your time. Comment by - • My husband, his friends, my friends, my friends children and my coworkers’ addiction to XBOX Live has inspired my idea. I would like to open up a online Gaming Place. I would charge a each person fee of $10/per game to enter. I would have a refreshment stand selling pizza/by the slice, sodas, chips, hot dogs, popcorn, and fried cheese sticks. The waiter/waitress would be accessed via intercom. I will have two rooms/per game. Each player would have his/her own gaming chair (IF THE VIBRATION FROM THE CONTROLLER COULD BE HOOKED UP TO THAT>>>THAT would be great!) and table. Each room will have large plasma televisions. Each player will have the choice to use their own online id or one that I WILL provide. If I have to provide an online id their will be an additional fee of $5.00. I plan on being opened Monday through Friday from 5PM-11PM and Saturday and Sundays from 10AM to 11PM. Comment by Vicki - • I just poured my heart out to you for MY FAMILY and my Plan for them. Clearly you didn’t like it. I noticed my posts were up momentarily, then removed. You were my last shot! Do you understand that my request was not about getting something for nothing!!! It was about SURVIVAL!! We are NOT a family of Leakers! We work hard! We’ve, my mother, have more than paid her dues as a single mother. I am not some punk. I worked my entire HS Enrollment to earn and receive a FULL SCHOLARSHIP to play Division 1 FCS BALL! What is happening to us, is happening to millions of Americans everyday!! THAT IS THE REAL BUSINESS PLAN!! Why would you not want to invest in a WI family who is the face of our failed economy and Government Services. My mother blew every dime she had saved over the last 2 years – NEVER REQUESTING ANYTHING FROM ANYONE!! We lost well over 1 million in assets. 90% of this country would have been lining up to Apply for SSID benefits the next day! Not my mother – NOT OUR FAMILY!!! Isn’t it ironic how America works?? I am ashamed of our country!! How is it that a self sufficient single woman who always paid her dues and provided for her children independent is now punished and forced into a HOMELESS SHELTER because too many un-honest corrupt people have drained our SYSTEM DRY!!! People who rarely if ever contributed to the SSI FUND!! Regardless of your political affiliation – this is a TRUE STORY and places a FACE TO the others that possessed too much dignity to ask for help – Why is it that the tax paying – consistent/productive contributors end up in a Shelter in Brown County, WI??? Maybe I’m not making myself clear enough – THERE IS NO ONE ELSE IN THE SHELTER!!! The county and State funds are consumed by LAZY LOSERS who are in it for a FREE RIDE!!! I will make this a PLAN – in fact, I am so disgusted and appalled by my personal experience that I vow I WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!! I will see to it that this “wealthy” discrimination is put to an end! SHAME ON AMERICA!!! Don’t worry MY FAMILY WILL RECOVER!!! I would like to challenge your audience to consider a PLAN that will assist Americans – Open their eyes to what is really happening in our country. Our middle class and upper middle class is falling down and it is gaining more speed everyday! God Bless America! Comment by - • Services Teton Valley Recycling, LLC is a service-based company that offers curbside recycling pickup in both the residential and commercial sectors of Teton County, Idaho. Contracts for service will be setup and the services will be delivered on a routine basis. Service Description Teton Valley Recycling, LLC will provide bins to new customers who are willing to return our brochure to the company for reuse. It will also make it easier for them to organize recyclable materials. We will also sell more bins to customers who are willing to recycle more materials. The materials will be scheduled for routine pickups twice a month. Materials available for monthly pickup include the following: • Aluminum • Plastic-Milk jugs, grocery bags, and bottles #1-7 • Glass-mixed/colors • Newspaper • Paper-Grey board, white board, mixed office stock/phonebooks, sorted magazines • Corrugated Cardboard • Tin cans Basic monthly residential pickup of 100 pounds of recycling materials will cost the customer $19.99/mo with a one year contract. If customers are willing to sign up for a two year plan, then the price will drop down to $15.99/mo ($50 a year in savings). Customers also have the option of signing up for a VIP plan that will allow for the pickup of 200 pounds of recyclables per month, two free recycling bins, and free backdoor pickup service for $34.99/mo. Commercial and group rates will cost $29.99/mo for the pickup of 200 pounds of recycling per month. $5/mo will be added on to the charge for every additional 100 pounds of recyclable materials. For example, if a neighborhood or a business wants to put all their recycling together and pay to have 400 pounds of materials hauled away per month, then the cost to them will be $39.99/mo. This does not include any backdoor service or free recycling bins. The commercial service is subject to further analysis and may require billing after services have been rendered as the weight of the materials being collected could change drastically with larger accounts. Materials available for special/one-time pickup service include all of the above listed as well as the following: • Metal-barbed wire, chain-link fence, cables, braided wires • Large batteries-car, boat, etc. • Electronic waste-computers, monitors, televisions • Propane tanks • Grass and yard trimmings (no wood) • Brush and woody materials-stumps (clean of dirt and rocks) • Dimensional lumber (clean) • Appliances-washers, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers • Fill material-rock and sod The cost of picking up these materials is $25 per every 100 pounds. Competitive Comparison Teton Valley Recycling LLC is the only curbside recycling pickup service in Teton County, Idaho. In today’s world, many people are becoming more green-minded. We offer responsible solutions for reducing the amount of waste materials being deposited into landfills. Our basic annual service will cost $19.99/mo.with the opportunity to reduce that number by referring other paying customers, or by signing up for a longer service plan. Our main competition is Vorhees Sanitation LLC, which charges $70.00 a month for trash removal. They do not offer recycling services and therefore deposit all waste into Idaho landfills. With the growing unpopularity of landfills due to adverse environmental effects directly related to them, we offer alternative services to help the local residents become part of the green movement. Teton county residents also have the option to drive to the waste transfer station themselves and pay per pound to sort and dispose of their own recyclable materials. The transfer station is only open to the public on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. In turn, we offer the convenience to our customers of never having to leave their home while contributing to the green movement. Fulfillment TVR LLC will line up driving routes to make pickup of recycling materials as efficient as possible. A truck and trailer will be used to pickup and haul the loads. Operating costs for each month will include the following: • Gasoline-$500 (will be subject to change) • Insurance-$600 • Equipment/Maintenance-$300 • Office (Computer/Internet/Phone)-$120 • Cell phones-$100 • Transfer Cost-$30 per ton (100 accounts will cost $150/mo) Total: $1,770.00/mo (based on 100 accounts) More detailed information is available in the Financial Plan. Technology The company will employ the help of modern technology to streamline the business and facilitate efficiency of its operations. Customer Benefits of Technology • Internet webpage and email will allow for potential customers to easily find information about the company and sign up for services. • The internet will also allow for current customers to have a direct line of communication for suggestions, complaints, and pickup schedules, and will allow for us to disseminate emergency information (inclement weather conditions). • Office LAN phone line will provide a central location for customer service and sales. Company Benefits of Technology • Computer with QuickBooks software will provide accounting service to the company. • Cell phones with two-way, push-to-talk radios will keep communications simple and efficient amongst company workers. • Office LAN phone line will provide a central location for customer service, sales, and voice mail to be reached by customers. • Mapping software and GPS for locating new customers and tracking routes. • Scale will weigh recycling to keep customers within limits and assist in tracking inventory. • Yellow caution warning light on vehicle will assist in keeping employees safe while picking up recycling materials. • Microsoft Word and Publisher will be used to produce an informational brochure • Microsoft Office Access will be used to log sales reports, customer services, expense reports, billing reports, time cards, etc. Future Services It is our intention to grow into a community fixture that provides quality services and creates jobs. Some future services may include the placement of aluminum can disposal bins in various spots throughout the community. This will be a free service that will provide a place for used cans and will pay dividends to the company through advertising as well as collecting money from selling the aluminum to material collectors. TVR will keep an open mind and awareness to the needs of the community as they arise. Comment by Emmanuel - • I have an idea for the backup/security market. Intent is to partner with a RAID card manufacturer to re-write device drivers to allow nesting of RAID groups in a way that facilitates specific parts of a logical drive to be derived from separate RAID groups. A typical windows workstation organizes files into four areas that really matter- windows directory (OS), documents and settings (user), program files (software) and the C: root. The idea is cause the root and windows directory to be drawn from a separate drive or RAID group. At the driver level you assemble these drives/RAID groups into a single, logical system disk, making the backup system OS transparent. In the event of any sort of operating system failure, you merely cold boot to a backup of the drive/RAID group supplying your root and windows directory. One could cause the program files directory to also be swapped at the same time, effectively replacing every executable that matters in the entire machine in the length of time required by a shutdown and cold boot. As we are still using the original user settings in the docs and settings directory, the workstation user’s files, internet history, e-mail, etc would be intact after such a backup is utilized. Suddenly, critical computer systems experiencing any sort of virus or OS failure are able to be restored almost instantly by the USER, allowing IT to get to the failure at it’s leisure. Swapping of drives on a cold boot is simply a matter of throwing a switch that will remove power from the problem disk/RAID group, and apply it to the backup. A simple circuit requiring the machine to be powered off to affect the change in state to the power connections on your hard drives and a re-worked device driver would both be elegantly simple to design and produce. Many mission critical operations- law enforcement, military, medical, fire-rescue, homeland security, etc- would greatly benefit from enhanced security and increased uptime for a minimal per-workstation cost- Say a four drive RAID card and a couple of additional hard disk drives. A little more effort in driver design would likely produce a similar system that would work with drive partitions instead of physical disks, although this allows for the possibility of a boot sector virus. Imagine a large network with this system installed on 1,000 workstations infected with a serious virus- locate the vector and close it, and you are back to productivity in the amount of time it takes to cold boot. Very marketable, IMHO. Also, very fast to market, as implementing this on existing hardware is very easily accomplished. I have an engineering lead available to me for this project with twenty years of open source experience, most of which is centered around storage systems. Im told the modifications of which I speak are not prohibitively difficult to accomplish. The real trick is producing a board partner, the rest is easy. Comment by Scott - • TourAlign is a golf alignment tool that is simple and effective to use. It is currently being used by many Tour Pros worldwide. We have the product in place already and we are currently selling TourAlign on the internet. We are seeking funding to run a 30 second commercial on the golfing channels and sports channels, to attend and present TourAlign at golf shows nationwide (PGA golf show in Las Vegas and many others that anticipate attendance to be in the thousands), to put together a complete marketing kit for buyers of big box retail stores, and to put together a marketing kit for high school and college golf teams. We know that with funding, we can make TourAlign sales increase exponentially. We also would like to increase our inventory to meet the demands that our increased marketing and advertising will generate. By being able to manufacture in greater quantities, we will be able to lower our cost per unit and increase profits. We also realize the need for expansion of product lines and have several other golf aids currently being researched and developed. Funding would assist with product expansion also. At this point we are the only true retailer and wholesaler of this product. I believe that this project meets all the criteria for funding in the following ways: 1. It can be an existing business or a start up. This is an existing business. It can not be a business that generates any revenue from advertising. Because I want this to be a business where you sell something and get paid for it. Thats the only way to get and stay profitable in such a short period of time. This is a real product that is sold for profit. It MUST BE CASH FLOW BREAK EVEN within 60 days It is currently cash flowing. We have product sales. It must be profitable within 90 days. With more market exposures, TourAlign will be profitable shortly. Funding will be on a monthly basis. If you dont make your numbers, the funding stops I understand the program rules. You must demonstrate as part of your plan that you sell your product or service for more than what it costs you to produce, fully encumbered I have all the cost breakdown of manufacturing, packaging, shipping, etc and we are profitable per unit sale now. Everyone must work. The organization is completely flat. There are no employees reporting to managers. There is the founder/owners and everyone else We are all working to generate sales and revenue at TourAlign. You must post your business plan here, or you can post it on slideshare.com, scribd.com or google docs, all completely public for anyone to see and/or download Posted summary here. I have more detailed information on golfers’ statistics, importance of proper alignment, competitors’ products, cost of manufacturing and delivery, wholesale and distributor pricing levels, etc. I make no promises that if your business is profitable, that I will invest more money. Once you get the initial funding you are on your own We anticipate only needing funding an initial time. I will make no promises that I will be available to offer help. If I want to, I will. If not, I wont. Your involvement would definitely be more exposure for TourAlign but it is understood that it is not part of the program offering. If you do get money, it goes into a bank that I specify, and I have the ability to watch the funds flow and the opportunity to require that I cosign any outflows. We understand the need for our accountability of any funds you designate to us. We will do everything to be in compliance. In your business plan, make sure to specify how much equity I will receive or how I will get a return on my money. We proposed a ROI of 15%. We seek an investment of 40,000. No mult-level marketing programs (added 2/10/09 1pm) NO MLM marketing involved in our marketing campaign. Comment by - • Hi Mark,I am 24 years old and I have recently launched my own website that is called Swapish.com. It has been in development for about 8 months previous. I had a professional team of developers work on it and finally the final product has emerged. The whole just of the site is to allow users to sign onto the site and trade any items they may have lying around the house for anything else they see on the site. It incorporates the ability to social network and put a face to the person they are dealing with. The site’s idea I feel is a great site for todays economic crunch. I feel people are still a little scared to go out and spend money with fears of today’s insecurities! This is a way in which people can use their existing stuff they already own to maybe bargain/barter with another! The only cost involved would be the shipping and handling but other than that their is not cost for signing up or even using the site! I even created what is called a freebox because this way people could even donate or give stuff away they don’t need or want anymore to others than may want or need! Check out the site Mark! I feel it is a great time for this and hopefully this is a new revolutionary idea for the economy. By the way, users have the ability to blog, IM and chat, email, upload videos, upload pics of their items, and we made the site really user friendly as well as fun! PS- I met you recently at a Spurs vs Mavs game and it was a pleasure meeting you! You are truly a genuine man!Thanxs again. Comment by - • Emmanuel Guapo: I don’t mean to be a kill-joy, but how do you plan to get people to want to drive to downtown to get to your site? USC is not too far away, but UCLA and Cal State LA are across town (in opposite directions), and, in any event, all three colleges require a car-ride, usually on a crowded freeway, to get to where you are. That means you will be competing with other entertainment venues (especially for people coming from the West Side). Even the people who work downtown will need to go out of their way if they want to get to the Convention Center, since it is on the south west edge of the central business district. What do you plan to do about parking? Downtown LA is a pain to find parking in unless you are willing to pay a lot of money, especially around the convention center. It is also hard to get from the Convention Center to just about anywhere, including across the street. If you are there and can see it, you will see why — it’s surrounded by a big (pay) parking lot and is hard to get to by foot from all directions. So people are going to have to plan if they want to go to your site. It’s not something one can just do spontaneously. Comment by Gerald R. Lampton - • Dear Mark Cuban: I have a friend who recently bought a building across from Staples Center (on the corner of Figueroa and Pico), it has a great roof top view of Staples, Nokia, LA Live and the beautiful skyscrapers of downtown. There is a 48 license to the building. What I’d like to do is have an interactive pool area for daytime and night time parties. Not the typical ‘walk around’ the pool with the suit and tie LA crowd, but have fun and get into the pool ala Hard Rock-Las Vegas style – great msuic, fun people and a lot of drinks, you are not coming into the place if you are not getting into the pool, especially during the daytime. If people would like to order food for delivery from the restaurant(s) in the same building or the surrounding areas, it is all very doable, we do not want to be in the food business. Flatscreen TV’s will be at the bars and we will screen local LA region sports games and popular boxing, UFC – matches. We will be catering to 21 and over college students, USC, UCLA, Cal State LA, and Northridge and the 20-40 year old young business professionals who want to let loose on the weekend or on their day off and take advantage of the California sun without having to travel to the beach. Downtown LA hotel guests, LA convention center guests (we are just across the street) and San Fernando Valley visitors on the weekends will be a big plus also any of those guests can travel on the dash to the front of our location for only 25 cents. Please contact me at if this is of interest to you. Thank you for your time to read this, and continued good fortune. Cheers, Emmanuel Guapo. Comment by Emmanuel - • Mark, I have a Wide Format printing Sign Business I started almost 6 years ago. I started it out of a 10’x20′ Portable building for three years. I made and saved enough money to build a new house where I moved and setup my business in a 20″x46″ building in my house. I currently have 2 employees not including myself. I’m in the process to move my business into a full size retail building. I located a building I’m interested in. The building is $160k 5400Sqft built along the frontage road in a rapidly expanding city just 25 south of Dallas. This building is 4 times as large as are current building. I will average $180k a year at my current rate of sales. I do very little advertising due to my limited space and current situation. We are at 70% profit margins mainly because of the extremely low overhead. I have $0.00 business dept and all equipment is paid in full. With a retail location I believe we would need to hire 2 more employees (1) artist and (1) production worker as well as an increase in advertising. I also believe that we will generate $360K+ in the first full year at the new location. Are profit margins would decrease by approx 6% due to the increase in overhead. In 1 to 2 years we would need to invest 65K in a new UV Flatbed wide format printer as well. Mark, I’m a quadriplegic with very little finger movement. I was injured in a motocross accident in 1994 after racing a Pro Supercross event in Cali. I stopped on way home to Texas to ride on sand dunes where crashed I broke my neck. I’m currently in perfect health other than being paralyzed. I have built a profitable business with vast room for growth. If you are interested in helping with funding we can talk in more detail. I also way an awesome idea for an Iphone app that would be a interactive Guided travel Tour while driving to different towns. It would use the GPS location to detail pin points along the way as you drive. It would also display the Historical markers and allow for extremely detailed information about the town your driving through. Thank you for the opportunity to write you. Comment by - • Mark, I posted last night and my post either never showed up or was deleted (for no reason I can think of). I am very interested in Gloria P’s Disney character idea. I am a software developer experienced with inbound and outbound telephony apps and would love to help her get this done in exchange for an equity stake in the venture. As I said in my other post, I wouldn’t be too quick to decide it can’t be done without a license. IP law leaves lots of room for doing this as long as there is no visual representation of the character. Do you think Elvis impersonators have to pay royalties to Graceland? This needs a lawyer, not speculation. Please pass my e-mail address to her. If she doesn’t contact me, I might just do this one myself. What a terrific idea! Comment by Matt R - • Hi Mark, I’ve got a business that I’m starting and while capital would be a big help, I’m simply not willing to share the details on such an open forum. I do appreciate what you’re doing here, though, and I hope you help some people get started and make some money doing it. I hope you’ll read my additional comment below. “Gloria P” above had the idea of having Disney and other characters “call” children to persuade them to do their chores, eat their food, etc You said the characters would have to be licensed but I’m not certain this is the case. Certainly the visible likeness of a character is copyrightable, but I don’t think a mere voice claiming to be Cinderella is. On another front, trademarks protect names, but only when associated with specific classes of goods and services. That is why, for example, there is a “Cinderella Shoe Company” that can exist with no permission or license from Disney. Disney doesn’t make shoes and doesn’t hold a trademark on the name for that class of goods. I might be wrong but I’d have an attorney look at this idea before concluding too quickly that a licensing deal would be necessary. I am a software developer for a Fortune-500 and my background is in inbound and outbound telephony applications. What Gloria P has proposed is VERY doable in a short timeframe. Could you please pass my e-mail address along to her? I would be very interested in helping her with the technical aspects of this project in return for an equity stake. I even have several thousands of dollars worth of outbound dialing equipment gathering dust in my office closet – it could be put to work on a project like this. Gosh, talk about an idea. This thing could just sit in a computer rack and generate cash. Comment by Matt R. - • Mark, I love the idea and have spent some time looking over the various proposals here. I might submit my own at some point but meanwhile I can’t help but take issue with this rule: “It can not be a business that generates any revenue from advertising. Because I want this to be a business where you sell something and get paid for it. Thats the only way to get and stay profitable in such a short period of time.” You are of course entitled to your opinions and to set the rules for your investments but that last sentence is patently false. I have started a number of websites that were profitable in the first month and have remained so ever since. If you ever want to chat about this I’m game – otherwise, I’d love to see you go into more detail on this in a future blog post. Comment by Kurt K - • Video Improvement and Bandwidth Reduction Signal Processing: Video Bandwidth Reduction: Abstract: Small, Sweat Equity Based Technology Start-Up has developed a video bandwidth reduction technology: – Compaction Technology: Video Signal Processing Technology that allows for 20% to 70% improvement in bandwidth reduction as seen on the network(MPEG-X, etc). Utilizes non-compression techniques and is lossless. Results with ‘proof of’ hardware show significant improvements on the network, after encoding, with MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 traffic being monitored. Requires ‘Compaction’ module on FrontEnd (or HeadEnd) and “de”-Compaction module, or “software” module on Subscriber side. Project Status: both proof of concept and proto size circuit boards are fully functional at a discrete circuit level, capable of packaging at the semiconductor level or small, sealed module level. Hardware solution has a latency of 1/2uS per side, totalling 1uS for an end to end solution. Goal: find commercialization partners who will integrate into their products, solving significant bandwidth deployment and cost issues. Markets: Video Transmission in the Consumer, Medical, Military and Surveillance Space. Schedule: A 60-90 day to profit schedule is reasonable if commercialization partners are found assuming goal is to sign licensing agreements with such partners. Integration into commercially available 3rd Party equipment will take standard New Product Introduction deployment times. If goal is to produce saleable product, via OEM or 3rd Party, schedules vary. Video Improvement: Abstract: Small, Sweat Equity Based Technology Start-Up has developed a video improvement technology which will improve 15 key areas of interest, including Colors, Blacks, Whites, Contrast, Detail, Resolution and others. Core is ability to resolve significantly more information in a video signal, thus allowing the following High-Level features: – Consumer: ability to create a Standard Definition video experience that rivals Blue-Ray 1080p – Medical: ability to resolve and clarify medical images and video allowing more information to be seen in X-Rays, Scopes, Microscopy, etc – Surveillance: all of above AND the ability to resolve information lost in Dark Zones and Shadows, in otherwise highly lighted areas. Finding cars, people, etc in the shadows of building, doorways, etc. Also improves all night vision images and video as well. Project Status: both proof of concept and proto size circuit boards are fully functional at a discrete circuit level, capable of packaging at the semiconductor level or small, sealed module level. Hardware solution has a latency of 2uS. Goal: find commercialization partners who will integrate into their products. Markets: Consumer, Military, Medical and Surveillance. Schedule: A 60-90 day to profit schedule is reasonable if commercialization partners are found assuming goal is to sign licensing agreements with such partners. Integration into commercially available 3rd Party equipment will take standard New Product Introduction deployment times. If goal is to produce saleable product, via OEM or 3rd Party, schedules vary. Many other R&D based projects in development, centered signal processing techniques. However, all are well outside of 6+ months before ‘poof-of’ can demo’d. These projects are probably outside the scope of this initiative, however its worth posting in such difficult economic times. Percentage of ownership and other details are all negotiable. Several detailed discussions were underway with companies who are now focused on ‘right-sizing’ their organizations and cutting R&D budgets. Comment by - • I inherited a small business on my last semester in college. It’s a small hobby & gaming store in Bangor, Maine that I had worked for previously years before. The first two years went well and we used the extra funds to fix up the business space which had problems like old paint jobs, bad lighting, torn-up rugs, rats and things such as that. The store is now something I look on and am proud of. However, since about September, things have been getting more difficult and tighter economically. The only people that use money from the account are me and my co-owner who’ve been doing all the work by ourselves these past years. We really do want the money to expand our business into more trades. We currently have the space to do such, but not the money. Current business: Hobby gaming store that sells collectible card game, trading card games, collectible miniature cards, board games, role playing books such as Dungeons & Dragons for an example, and merchandise for those games such as case, sleeves, binders, etc. We also carry of import and geek-themed merchandise such as geek and video game clothing, figures, DVD, plush, and other similar items. We hold officially ranked tournaments for games hosted by Wizards of the Coast, Upper Deck Entertainment, Bandai Entertainment, and will be hosting official events for the HeroClix miniature game. We offer customers free table space to play games and involve other customers to play with them. Our backroom has been modified and is now a projector room with surround sound where customers can rent out time to watch movies or play online with the store’s XBox 360 or Nintendo Wii consoles. EXPANSION: I would like to expand the business in a number of ways. We have a great space for our business and a backroom that isn’t used to its fullest extent. I would like to see the store start to carry new and used video games and to better expand into our anime and imports as our area has no store that carries those goods aside from the DVD selection at Best Buy. The store could also benefit from a video game station, renting time on one of a number of XBox 360s, each hooked to a TV and connected together. That space would bring in additional traffic by running tournaments on those systems. Another mark that we’ve only begun to go into but only have the money to break even on is EBay. I currently pay someone around $150 a week to picture, post and mail out EBay orders through the store. Expanding the available funds to that, I know we would almost double what is put into it. A booster box of a card game at cost runs about $40-50 a piece. Even if you open a ‘bad’ box, you will always come out at least $10-20 ahead of your cost. The ‘good’ boxes will net $75-100 dependent on what the current game demands. I have other ideas and I know my partner does, but the ideas stated above are those that I know will be the most profitable. Video game tournaments or stations have initial start-up costs to them with no upkeep aside from extended warranties. EBay costs can recycle back in from the profit made. This business has become an important part of me and my partner’s life, and while I have a college degree to fall back on, she does not and I worry about her. If we can really give the store the severe kick in the pants it needs, then I’ll be content. Comment by - • Proposal Summary: RE: DIGITAL IMAGING and SHREDDING SERVICE Inclusive Solutions is proposing a digital imaging and shredding service for local businesses. This would meet a need in the business community as well as give people with severe disabilities the training, experience, real pay and self-esteem that will result from this work. This will not be charity work but a real work experience in the community. It meets the requirements you have outlined and I hope you will consider it. If funded, each contract would be filled by a Work Team. Each Work Team consists of at least one Job Coach to provide direct support and quality control for an estimated 4-5 people with severe disabilities. Job Coaches work side-by-side with the people with disabilities. This is not a hierarchical system–just a team where people with different levels of skills and abilities complete a job. Some members may need assistance with accommodations, modifications, as well as direct care in the bathrooms, eating lunch, staying on task. Numbers of employees will increase as we generate new business and become profitable. By the end of 90 days, there could be 10-20 people working depending on the size of the contracts. We are asking for: 1. The purchase/rental of one piece of digital imaging equipment and two commercial shredders; the cost varies depending on the type of business contract secured—medical, insurance, government agencies all have different requirements for record security, copying and disposal and this impacts the type of digital imaging machine required. (Bids will be secured if you are interested in this project, range rental/purchase from $3,000- 50,000); 2. Funding for 2-4 critical staff to go to Minnesota for two days to learn directly from the experts who have demonstrated this type of work can be profitable and successful for people with autism and other severe disabilities. 3. Salaries for the 2 Job Coaches and 8 people with severe disabilities who will be using the first 30 days for training. Job Coaches will make $18.00 – $20.00 an hour plus benefits, the 8 people with disabilities will be paid a “training wage” for this 30 day period based on their individual capabilities and production as allowed by federal and state law. $ 12,000) TOTAL: $18,000 (including rental equipment) to $65,000 (including equipment purchase) Day 1 – 30 would consist of: 1. We purchase/rent equipment and train the employees with severe disabilities using records from our company. 2. 2 Job Coaches and 2 Critical Staff visit the successful program in Minnesota to learn the modifications and accommodations as well as review their business model and sample contracts. See Minnesota with the Governor’s Developmental Disabilities Planning council “Digital Imaging: The Changing Face of Technology”. The Minnesota experts are willing to continue as mentors and answer questions that may arise. 3. Hire 2 Job Coaches who will make approx. $18.00 – $20.00 an hour plus benefits based on experience, we have several people who are available for these positions and are threatened to be cut due to state budget constraints. 4. We find and sign contracts with local businesses/companies for our service. (Inclusive Solutions would provide an administrative person to secure the contracts at no cost to this project). 5. The employees with disabilities would be paid a “training wage” for the first 30 day period based on their individual production as allowed by federal and state law. 6. All administrative, facility, and transportation costs for the people with disabilities would be covered by Inclusive Solutions. Day 31 – 60 we begin work on a contract with a local employer, either in their facility or use our own facility: 1. The first Work Team is trained. They begin the contract job and the people with severe disabilities are now paid at least minimum wage. 2. We work with this first business, meet the contract, and resolve any problems. 3. We begin looking for a second company and a second contract. 4. We train another Work Team to use the digital imaging and scanning equipment. (This will be accomplished using the profits from the first Work Team). Day 61-90 the second Work Team begins a second business contract. We begin looking for a new contract for the first Work Team. We should now be making a profit and able to start repaying you for your investment. Inclusive Solutions will document the progress of the start-up, write up a program evaluation each month, and give guidance to others who would want to replicate the business. Thank you for your help on this important project. If we could get the initial start-up funds, this service would become profitable. Comment by Mary E. - • Hello Mark, Thanks for this opportunity.Here is my business plan: Road Trip Commodity Buying Business Model “Road Trip Commodity Buying” is the working name selected for the purpose of detailing the proposed business model. It is a simple concept as old as business itself. Buy Low and Sell High. In today’s business and personal finance worlds, possessions are becoming less important than liquidity. There are many contributing factors: 25 year stock market lows, record unemployment, savings and net worth incur massive losses, national debt at all time high and growing, to mention a few. Simply stated, individuals from all walks of life are finding themselves in a personal cash crunch. Banks are not lending, jobs are being lost at all levels, and economists are painting a dark picture for a slow recovery that will last for 24 to 48 months. Some economists are even predicting a depression. People from all walks of life are finding themselves in a personal financial cash shortage that has been sudden and unexpected. The result of this is a mass selling off of personal assets such as jewelry, coin collections, watches, scrap gold, silver, and platinum. This will continue and increase in numbers over the next 2 to 4 years. Many companies are cashing in on this by advertising through expensive National TV and Radio ads for consumers to mail in their valuables and receive a check in the mail in a couple of weeks. “Cash 4 Gold” ran an ad, doing this, in the Super Bowl. It is remarkable to me that anyone would ship his or her valuables to an unknown company and wait for an unknown amount of money. People are desperate and doing it. The company “Cash 4 Gold “ is sending out 15,000+ packages a day. Logic tells you there are 1000’s to 1 that will sell their items in person for immediate money, versus those who would trust to mail their items to an unknown source and wait for their unknown amount of money. The facts stated above have led to “Road Trip Commodity Buying “. The plan is to visit towns with a population of 100,000 to 200,000 and buy. “Road Trip Commodity Buying” will run ads in the local newspapers, radio stations, flyers, and other media. This will blanket a community in the fact that “Road Trip Commodity Buying” is buying at a local hotel, in their community. People that have items to sell will come. The average individual has no idea where to sell their valuables to maximize their dollars. Small communities have few resources for those needing immediate funds. Many people have large collections of coins, watches, jewelry, and other items are too large or costly to mail to one of the mail-in buyers or sell to a local dealer. Therefore, in today’s economy, when given an opportunity, people will line up to sell their items. The two principles involved in “Road Trip Commodity Buying” are seasoned professionals with a combined knowledge of over 75 years in the coin, gemstone, and jewelry business. Buying with knowledge will keep the average profit margin above 50% on every dollar spent. Existing contacts in the bulking and refining industry will allow an immediate return, within 24 hours, on all items purchased. The time for this is now. The wealthy have gotten wealthier, throughout history, doing this very thing. For an Investor to have a further understanding of this project, structure of this venture, and the cash flow, it is best discussed in an interactive conversation.A spreadsheet and Powerpoint are also available. We are seeking $115,000 in funding and are negotiable on the package and exit stategy for the investor. Thank You for your consideration. Comment by Steven Parker - • Mark, My idea is to start a sit-down and/or take-out restaurant here in Manhattan called “Ramen Shop”. The idea is to provide an entire menu of ONLY ramen noodles, at an extremely inexpensive price. The menu will have as many as 50 proprietary delicious organic spicy flavorings representing cultures all over the world, mixed in with fresh, basic hot steaming ramen noodles. For example, there will be spicy Mexican flavors represented, Indian curry variations, classic beef and chicken flavors, Asian, Russian, French, etc. Gourmet variations. I intend to develop these flavor formulas by reaching out to top NYC area chefs and my own experimentation and adaptations from traditionally popular recipes and flavors. The key here is to take advantage of the current recession by selling these dishes VERY cheaply – a gourmet Ramen dish will be on the menu for a flat price of $2.99 regardless of flavor. People in NYC love to eat out and be social, but even in the least expensive restaurants it’s very difficult to eat out without spending a lot of money. Ramen Shop will provide a fun, even a romantic atmosphere for people that want an inexpensive and unconventional date. One serving will be enough for a snack but many people who want a big meal or want to sample multiple flavors can order several in a sitting. Beef, chicken, and steak add-ons will be available for an additional $2.99 per serving. Take-out will be served in tall styrofoam drink cups filled to the brim with steaming flavored ramen. This will make it easy for people to eat and *slurp* their meal on the go without even requiring the use of utensils, which fits with the busy New York lifestyle. Future expansion opportunities include mobile carts/traileres that only serve the to-go cups, which can be placed around the city at strategic locations (or at sporting and music events, street fairs, etc., and future additional sit-down locations, and ultimately franchise-driven expansion into other cities and eventually other markets. Because this keys into the current recession, it should be very easy to get a lot of free advertising from local newspapers and television shows, maybe even Good Morning America (it’s an interesting twist and ready-made news item). This business could be launched very quickly with a $75,000 initial investment from you, the proceeds of which would be used to lease an appropriate location in downtown Manhattan, pay for restaurant equipment and furnishings, develop the flavoring menus, negotiate contract for importing high quality noodles in bulk from Japan, develop a simple but effective website, set up the necessary corporate and legal arrangements, and other setup expenses. By way of background, I have several years of experience in the restaurant business as both a cook and a waiter (from in my college days), both jobs I really enjoyed, and also have an extensive finance, accounting and legal background. I plan to run the daily operations myself and hire one server to start, with further hires as the business expands and traffic increases. In exchange for your $75,000 investment, I would offer you a 50% equity interest in the business. Because the variable costs are so low, I expect operational profitability almost immediately, and definitely within 2 months. I’m very excited about getting this off the ground and would love to discuss it with you further. Here’s a cool link about the cultural background of ramen and a glimpse of the potential “ramen craze” that could happen here; ramen could go from being a college student’s survival ration to a trendy cultural phenomenon overnight! Unlike the pricier ramen restaurants mentioned in this article, however, I intend to stay laser-focused on the frugal consumer and keeping the price low and taste high, while keeping the environment trendy and avoiding a “fast-food” feel in the restaurant (think Chipotle). Comment by Sam R. - • U-Paper What: Personalize wrapping paper through an interactive template on the web. Continuous support directly to the consumer. Photos, texts, animations, and default art can be uploaded to this website. End product will be printed on semi-gloss, but, high quality paper that will accommodate consumer expectations. This will increase the value of purchased items given to loved ones as gifts. (A great way to follow the economic curve) Demand ensues all year-round (Birthdays, Anniversaries, Valentines, and the upcoming Mother’s Day for starters). Technology will play an integral part in the successful growth and expansion of our model. Additional products will emerge from within the company walls upon maturity of our business. How: Startup will include the acquisition of a large wide-format printer, packaging supplies, ink replacements, paper goods, and shipping cost. These would be sought out through energy, or, Eco-friendly sources. (This will raise the bar for our company right from the jump) In addition, there would be pre-controlled products leading to increased profitability by researching variable dimensions of box-sizes. (IE., After the product arrives to the consumer, an illustration displaying a how to wrap the object is supplied based on dimensions set by the consumer on the interactive website) Where: Test market will be right here in Dallas, TX. When: Immediate Mark Cuban’s equity percentile is 40%.:O. Comment by Larry Vulpo - • Almost 10 years ago I became ill with a form of Muscular Dystrophy (MD). After spending thousands seeing doctors and universities I left with no hope for a cure. I have a wife and 5 children so I could not give up. If I was going to die I might as well use my own body as a guinea pig to seek a cure. But after 3 years I was getting very bad off, then I stumbled on to the cause of the illness. Knowing the cause was half the battle because with MD the reason they have not found a cure is because they do not know the cause. I need funding to put together a research team to verify what I found, concerning the disease and cure, holds true for all terminal MD patients or at least a percentage. Then I need the funding to commercialize the cure (testing, trials, FDA verification and approval). This is estimated to save over 50,000 lives a year. I feel, with the knowledge I have, I can get to a cure in less than a year and FDA approval in 3 years. I realize this may be outside the arena you were expecting, but if I can get this going I think I can take this business to the next level and research other areas of medicine along the same lines (muscle & Nerve damage and perhaps arthritis). Comment by Les Tarlton - • Enterprise software start-up, with exit potential > $68M revenue in 2013, seeks $2.25M funding. Executive Summary: Overview: Having now spoken with many other entrepreneurs who have “applied” to the Mark Cuban Stimulus Plan, I understand much of the value can come from interested parties who respond to this posting. We absolutely are seeking investors and Mr. Cuban is invited to respond, but help in the form of potential sales partners, talented software developers, and venture-principals are welcome. As a former MicroSolutions customer, I’ve been an enterprise information technology consumer here in Dallas for over 20 years now. In 1999, I recognized a software product opportunity which I began proto-typing in 2001. Still seeing no good alternative solutions in 2003, I struck-out full-time as Founder of Net Watch Solutions. Beginning in 2004, we sought funding and had limited success with Brent Dunn of the Todd Wagner Foundation, the North Dallas Investment Group, STARTech and the Southwest Venture Forum. Being a novice and extremely unconnected to the start-up venture community, funding easily eluded us. So, I’ve done it the hard way – working extremely long hours and successfully bootstrapping our software company into reality. By January 2005, we launched our enterprise software product and have closed customers like: The City of Plano, MetroPCS, The Staubach Company, Hunt Petroleum, Interstate Batteries, Shands Jacksonville Florida and DFW Airport. To date, we’ve generated $1.2M in revenue, while not the stellar revenue success that many service-oriented businesses show, it demonstrates my heritage of a break-even mentality. We’ve attracted help from people like Brandon Cotter, but as we grew with little forward-operating cash in the bank, our team grew and contracted chaotically. As we closed more customers, we had months of profitability but became bandwidth constrained from the resulting obligations for user training, courseware development, account management, product support, and customer requests for additional products. Regretfully, we’d stop selling being so focused on delivering, and as you’d suspect, we’d be in a frenzy a few months later to obtain new customers. In 2008, we succeeded in raising $500,000 from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, a laudable feat. This program has a follow-on requirement to obtain at least $500,000 from another investor in a Series A valuation round. We are currently seeking $2.25M in equity funding, $750,000 over 2009, and $1,500,000 in 2010. Over the last years I’ve worked hard to “get connected”, having now been the immediate past president of the DFW Chapter of TeXchange, a member of SIM, TENG, and an option donor of the Entrepreneur’s Foundation of North Texas. I’ve had recent success pitching at Rice’s I.T. & Web 2.0 Venture Forum in November, and was invited in February as 1 of 16 start-up companies by the Texas Governor’s office to a private investment forum. It feels like we now have meaningful investor traction. As for the market for our product, it materialized too as our company matured and is now recognized by Gartner as being a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) product. This market is 3 years old, is growing at 7% – 10% annually, but is 95% underserved. Being a technology play, I have no qualms posting our business plan as it has an inherent barrier to entry – many people other than potential customers don’t understand the products value. We now have direct competitors which are helping to mature the market, and I’m sure others will appear too. We have an innovative product that can’t be replicated overnight, pending patents and a head-start over anyone who would read this plan and decide to get started. I expect good than harm from this posting. Cuban’s Stimulus Plan is ideal for Net Watch Solutions. We are cash flow positive, and with our low burn rate can remain profitable and can accept funding monthly. With funding of $750,000, we will create $1.2M in revenue and create 8 jobs in 2009. An overview of our business is posted. We anticipate an M&A exit in 2013 when revenues will be over $68M. Cuban equity on par with his investment to our pre-money valuation. Rather than making his investment all up front, Mr. Cuban suggests he would stop his monthly funding if sales / expense projections are not met; certainly a penalty. If however, Mr. Cuban decides to continue funding the deal after missing an objective, our plan provides an accelerator in valuation to his favor. Conversely, if revenue goals are exceeded, we propose the venture obtains a higher valuation and Mr. Cuban’s equity has a downward pro rata share. As it stands now, we are currently ahead of plan! Peter Beasley, Founder & CEO Net Watch Solutions, Inc. Comment by Muki - • Hello my name is Michael Bush, I have a business ideal called Watch This. I was wondering if you could possibly help me get this started. Its uploading your resume through the television and applying for jobs at the same time. I will work with all the cable companies so we can store people’s information thru their receiver/satelite dish. I would have to buy a channel like 01 that would be funded by advertisements and customer’s who got hired thru Watch This. Much more on customer’s getting hired not ads. People looking for a job will contact Watch This so we can get all their information to send to their receiver/satelite. From there they can go to the channel and start their job hunt city,state,and job postings in their area. Employers would have an ID number to seek employees that may have apply at their business. I have everything mapped out, if you have any questions or concerns please do ask. Comment by Mike Bush - • Investment not needed, but all questions answered. Something to consider as you proceed with Naked Pizza franchising investment, or any other investment with leased real estate. Management of critical dates, lease and property data and documents, franchise agreements, liquor licenses and other permits, facilities maintenance and more so dates or opportunities are not missed and dollars are paid per the terms of a lease, and not a dollar more results in an improved bottom line. It can be an existing business or a start up: It is existing business. Can’t be advertising: It is not. It MUST BE CASH FLOW BREAK EVEN within 60 days: Done. It must be profitable within 90 days: It is. Funding will be on a monthly basis: Investment not needed. Sell your product or service for more than what it costs: We do. Everyone must work: We all work hard and there are no “titles” assigned to include the founder/owners. We are a nationally certified women’s owned business enterprise. You must post your business plan here: Lease management services and web-based software for restaurant and retail tenants and multi-unit franchisees. Solutions are specifically designed to offer small to mid sized companies the tools and resources traditionally available only by the largest companies — industry leading lease management technology and a complete team of real estate professionals. Current client list includes over 42 different national brands, and management of over 5,500 properties globally. I make no promises: Got it. I will make no promises: Got it. If you do get money, it goes into a bank that I specify: Got it. Specify how I get money: Occupancy cost reductions and lowered corporate G&A for Naked Pizza franchise locations and any other retail or restaurant multi-unit tenants in which you invest. Lease administration impacts bottom line results. Our software and services protect profits. The tangible savings generated significantly offsets the cost of the services making the outsource program at the least very low cost, and at it’s best, a self-funding program. Comment by - • Hello Mr. Cuban and all others, What I have in mind I will try to start in my community regardless of this competition. It is something everyone should do anyway. It strengthens communities and leaves virtually NO carbon footprint. Neighborhood farming. It may seem a little tree huggy and dorky. But just think about it in real, applied form. You grow tomatoes. Your neighbor grows corn, another grows broccoli, another asparagus, eggplant, celery, cauliflower. Or, each person involved grows 2 or 3 or 4 things. Once you pool your harvest no one has to go to the grocery store, ever again, for vegetables. Greenhouses can make some types of food available all year. Think of the backyard cookouts with your own home-grown food! This would not take very much money at all. It would, typically, have a harvest within 3 months or so and would be self-sustaining for ever. All production would go back into the community and any food left over could be sold and put back into the cost of upkeep or donated. I would say, conservatively, $200 per household involved to start, 20 households per community: $4000. Then, if each household could sell their produce (even to each other at first!) within the 60-90 day parameter, it would have gotten off the ground within your time limit. After you get good at it, you can get chickens! Anyone anywhere can run with this and do it themselves. Now that it’s on your board they can anyway, and, hopefully do! Thanks for the opportunity to express our ideas, Mr. Comment by Gerald P. Cole - • Becoming a mom not only changed my life but it is impacting education and raising awareness on an outrageous glitch in early education. I created my company at age 40 when my girls were ages 3 and 1 and I was trying to find something to help them get ready for school. I am not a teacher or educator, and yet I created a book used by schools. I didn’t create the alphabet, numbers, colors or shapes but found a way to repackage it for parents, kids and teachers. With a telephone and a computer, I created. 10% of all profits are donated back to literacy foundations and schools. I am the author and publisher of Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten! & Let’s Get Ready For First Grade! Both books are award-winning, state-approved and used inside homes and schools across the nation. They are currently used in over 400 school districts from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon and in libraries and head start programs all across the country. Parents, kids and grandparents all love them because they are not storybooks or workbooks; they are books meant to be read over and over that cover the curriculum for Kindergarten and First Grade. I just released the highly anticipated Spanish/English edition of Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten! IA Prepararse Para Kindergarten! My kids think it is absolutely hilarious that I released a Spanish book without being able to read or write the language. As my 7 year-old says, “just hire a translator, duh, anyone can do anything.” I am a mom inspired by Oprah to change education. This has become my passion! My mantra is if two brothers from Ohio can change the face of aviation, that why can’t a mom, inspired by Oprah change education at the core! Thirty-eight states are discussing all day 4 year-old Kindergarten because kids are not coming to school prepared. But where are the public service announcements telling parents the 7 things they need to know for Kindergarten testing: the alphabet all mixed up, numbers to 10 all mixed up, basic shapes, colors, coins, counting objects to 10 and how far they can count to 100? Schools purchase my books in bulk to help get parents, kids and teachers all get on the same page for Kindergarten and First Grade! After a television segment aired in Madison, WI a local college called and asked it I could create a workshop for parents, kids and teachers. Now I have a national platform speaking to educators, schools, parents and kids! But along the way, I have uncovered an alarming trend in my preschool and head start workshops nationwide: the majority of preschool and head start teachers that come to my workshops do not know what children are tested on in the first Kindergarten assessment test, so if they don’t know this information, how are parents and children suppose to know this information? In fact I recently tested my teachers at 3 conferences and the result: only 12 of 630 teachers got it correct!!! They failed!!! So when parents come to that first parent teacher conference and they are told that their child only knew 5 of 26 letters all mixed up or was only able to count to 35 on the way to 100; parents feel frustrated and at that point many feel if they can’t help their child in Kindergarten how are they suppose to help in First Grade, Second Grade and beyond! At that point, many opt out and let the “teachers” teach their children and become disengaged in the educational process. I am on a word-of-mouth grassroots mission to help us all come together and get on the same page starting at the core, Kindergarten! I am in need of additional funding to translate and print Let’s Get Ready For First Grade into Spanish and release Let’s Get Ready For Second Grade! The long term dream is to also release my book series into 10 minute video blocks for schools to use during down time that reinforces counting objects, basic shapes and colors, etc. These 10 minute videos could easily become a 30 minute television series geared toward preschoolers!! I am building a brand with the Cedar Valley Kids to become the Good Night Moon of Kindergarten! Thank you for you time! Comment by - • Hi Mark. Using $150,000 of our own money, friends and family we opened up our membership based salon/spa almost 3 years ago (3/27/09 is our birthday!). The first month we tested selling memberships to our salon/spa we had 40 new subscriptions. We paused it immediately. I decided to invest ahead of our growth curve and invest the money into our infrastructure, accounting and point of sale to handle our goals of having 1000 members at our store. I needed to make sure we could provide quality service without having a breakdown in our payment systems, staffing, etc We don’t need extra capital, but heck, you’re offering so why not? We would consider allowing you to invest with us to scale, hire additional staffing and aggressively advertise for membership sales. We can achieve break even within 60 days because we are in the beauty industry. Despite the bad economy, Women and Men spend a ton of cash on waxing, manicures & pedicures, and short clean haircuts. We’ve been quietly testing and refining our systems and we are ready to take it to the next level. Our internal focus will be a source of sustainable competitive advantage. You took over the Dallas Mavericks and said it was stupid not to invest in your players. Well, we all know the benefits of feeling good and getting pampered and the direct effects it has on corporate culture. This is why our concept is capturing everyones imagination. It’s simple to understand, profitable and relatively recession proof. So here, is our investment opportunity for youWe hope it will be a good fit for both of us =] go here: Good luck! -Robert Luu PS “Biters will be eaten” -jabbawockeez. Comment by - • Mark: I’ll get right to it – Service Product: CSI Squared (but imagine a superscript 2) – a revolutionary Outplacement solution I’ve just launched this month to augment my firm’s retained search services. Opportunity: The last mile of Outplacement and Transition Serviceswarm, qualified Networking introductions to hiring authorities in the displaced jobseeker’s target companies. This is the one element of most successful job searches which large Outplacement firms talk a lot about but stop short of providing. Facts and Indicators: – “Given that 65 to 85 percent of jobs are found through networking, it should be the focus of about 80 percent of your allotted search time.” – Harvar. RFactor courtesy ectsimracing.com If you’d known my brothers and I while we were growing up, you might say we were obsessed. If we had a free minute from homework or chores around the house (or in the race shop), there was one place we could always be found: gathered around the computer trying to beat each other’s lap times. In the early 2000’s, my brother Garrett got the first licensed dirt racing game for pc, called “Dirt Track Racing,” for Christmas, and the obsession began. After my two brothers and I mastered this game, we moved onto more realistic games with more life-like steering wheel and pedal configurations, even to the point where we were using an old racing seat for our chair and had our race car’s removable steering wheel zip-tied to the computer steering wheel. (OK, obsessed may be a bit of an understatement.) My brothers and I have a short list of racing games that we consider to be good-quality dirt racing simulators, and almost all of them share the same quality; they were made before 2004. In fact, the game we used most when practicing for real racing was actually a NASCAR game called NASCAR Racing 2003 Season. Compared to all of the other games out there, this pavement game actually best simulates the feeling of driving on a dry-slick dirt track. The only newer dirt games that compare with the realism of the NASCAR game are dirt late model add-ons for rFactor, a game made in 2007 which was originally built for road course racing. Even so, these Dirt Late Model “mods” don’t quite capture the feeling of driving a real race car for some reason. Here is the list of games that I would recommend if you’re looking for a way to get your dirt racing fix away from the track. Obviously, while the console games are more fun when playing with friends, the computer games offer a much more realistic feel, and are much better for training for the real thing. Console Games (Ps2, Xbox 360, etc.) • NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona–Playstation 2 Made in 2002, this game probably has the best Street Stock racing of any game, and it also boasts fun, diverse tracks to race at (although, all of the dirt tracks are fictional). If you’re looking for a game to race your buddies on split-screen, I would very highly recommend this game. I wouldn’t want to begin to imagine the amount of hours my brothers and I have spent racing Street Stocks against each other on this game. • World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars (2010)–Xbox 360 I haven’t spent much time with this game, but from what I’ve seen and the reviews I’ve read, it seems like a fun game to satisfy your craving for dirt racing. The graphics, sounds and racing physics aren’t entirely realistic, but it’s good if you want to throw down some laps for fun. Computer Games • World of Outlaws: Sprint Car (2002) This game offers fun, semi-realistic sprint car racing at real tracks around the country including Eldora, Knoxville, Bloomington, Terra Haute, and more. One of the coolest parts of this game is the career mode. You start out with hardly any money, racing in local races, and work your way up to World of Outlaws races. The only difference between the game and real life is that all you have to do to repair your wrecked race car is click a button. If only it were always that easy. • Saturday Night Speedway Made in 2004 by the same company as World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars (2002), you can race Pro Stocks, Midgets, and Late Models in this game. While the cars may not drive entirely realistic, this game definitely helps you get the feel for dirt track racing. • NASCAR Racing 2003 Season As mentioned before, this isn’t a dirt game. However, this game is regarded among many racers as the most realistic racing simulator ever. My brothers and I have all found that practicing on this game’s short tracks directly improved our skills on dry-slick race tracks. If you’re looking for a way to improve your throttle control and better maintain high corner speed, NASCAR 2003 is the way to go. Beware, though, as this game may be hard to find these days. The most likely place to buy it is through eBay. THQ’s World of Outlaws game. • rFactor Made in 2007, this game was initially designed for road course racing, but there are several different dirt racing add-ons available online, such as SBS Late Models/Modifieds and Dirt Late Model Sim. One of the coolest parts of this game is that you can download dozens of different dirt tracks and race against people all over the world in online multiplayer. While this game offers the best simulator for Dirt Late Models and Modifieds, I think a purpose-built dirt racing game would be better as the physics for this game were modeled for road course racing. Growing up with this lifestyle of racing, both at the track and on the computer, has given me great experience with nearly every dirt-oriented game that’s out there, and I recently realized this: Dirt racing fans need a better game! I have read countless posts on different internet forums of people begging software companies to produce a high-quality, dirt racing-only game. Even fans of the highly popular iRacing have expressed interest in dirt racing add-ons, but there is still no progress being made towards a modern dirt track racing simulator (to my knowledge, at least.) I believe that a good quality dirt racing simulator would not only provide a great place for racers to hone their skills, but it could also potentially boost the interest of Dirt Late Model, Modified, and Sprint Car racing among the younger generation. What do you think? Is there a big enough audience for software companies to consider such a game, or is this wishful thinking? Post your comments below! May 28, 2014 at 1:40 pm I completely agree. We defiantly need a good dirt track only game. But i also feel that it should include some sort of stock class for those who just want to sit back AND burn some laps and have a lil fun. Like you and your brother I burned many many laps running street stocks on Dirt to daytona. I would certainly sign a petition to have a good quality dirt track game produced. As far as rFactor Bruce Carroll has some of the nicest looking stocks around, and I my self. Im more partial to DWD LM and mods, and BOZ has the sprints hands down. May 29, 2014 at 4:58 am Back in the Day racing DTR 1 DTR SC. Then DTR 2 and DTRSC2.nothing topped the feel of the Ratbag games after that in my opinion. Loved editing and spending time on making new addons for them all All the branded chassis’ back then to the cut panel outlaw version of the same chassis to big block dirt mods and so on. I dont think they will ever see another game release that is near as good, and sadly i dont think the market could sustain a game that is aimmed at the realistic side of speedway in terms of sales hence the rubbish they released with ice tracks and jumps on road courses in the later sprintcar games afterwards. AngryAussie •. |
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