Watch John help another hard-working entrepreneur get her dog grooming business up and running in a new spot on CNN! The spot will air on CNN Newsroom through the weekend and is available to watch embedded in this post, or at CNN’s website. cf2nkge7t6

In the video, John and Dani Babb help retired Air Force veteran Lori Lawrence reduce start-up costs for her new dog grooming business, My Pampered Pooch, in order to make the business a reality.

In a few short days, John and Dani helped Lori cut her start-up costs from $147,000 to only $35,000 by securing better prices on labor and equipment due to the recession, negotiating a better lease to take advantage of the weak commercial real estate market, and giving her advice on which services to pay professionals for and which ones can be done on her own with free online alternatives.

Watch the clip and see how you can take control of your own life by starting a small business, or find out how you can help support My Pampered Pooch. You can also read CNN’s full article on the story here.

 

China’s energy supplies are heavily concentrated in coal, which is one reason so much effort is being expended to clean up the air and water and devise cleaner energy sources. The Chart below, taken from a McKinsey report, China’s green opportunity, suggests that China’s policies can do a lot to mitigate the problems in coming years. Very optimistic report.

Which reminds me. On Forbes on Fox tomorrow morning (10:20 EST) we have a spirited debate about the impact of green policies on the economy. I take the position that the proposed cap and trade legislation is a massive tax on working people and would have a very negative impact on growth. At the end of the day our living standard will be exactly as high as the amount of work that is performed int he economy. That includes work done by people, work done by current sunlight (agriculture and solar power), and work done by transforming stored solar energy (oil, gas, coal, uranium) into goods and services.

JR

(May 16, 2009) Yesterday I woke up a lot earlier than I like (that would be noon) to do the Fox Business 8AM Money for Breakfast show with Alexis Glick. Our assignment was to review the impact of recent government policies on the economy. It was set up as a debate with me squaring off against Christie Hefner (yes, that Hefner). Fun stuff. Here are a couple of the things we discussed.

JOBS- Government policies are destroying jobs, not creating them. The Treasury alphabet programs (TARP, TARF, BARF, TALF, ALPO, WALDO, DILDO,…) should have been titled the Hedge Fund Relief Act. They have set up a situation where banks can make tons of money by selling bales of certain kinds of paper to hedge funds who will make 30% returns on the paper. Banks have responded by ordering their troops to shut down all other activities, including small business loans, personal credit lines, home equity lines and jumbo mortgages.

Memo to Geithner (the Doogie Howser of finance): ALL JOBS come from small businesses. The shutdown of business credit lines is forcing small businesses to fire people. We get heart-breaking calls from these people every Saturday noon-2PM on our FBN entrepreneur show. You can measure the impact of the working capital shutdown in the weekly new unemployment claims reports (+637,000 last week) and the monthly job reports (-539,000 in April). You can also measure the loan activity directly in the chart below.

Noon-2PM today (Saturday) Dani and I will take live call-ins and emails from viewers on our Fox Business show. Our show is to help people who have decided to stop waiting for the government to bail them out or a big company to offer them a job. They want to take back control of their lives and start their own business. We are there as their champions to help them with all the resources they need. Today’s guests include 2 venture capital investors who will tell people what projects investors are willing to back, and entrepreneur Kathy Ireland (yes, THAT Kathy Ireland) to talk about how she started her company.
Come join the other entrepreneurs in our ‘Blue Flame Nation’.
JR

Tomorrow I will guest host the Fox Business noon show with Cheryl Casone and Tom Sullivan.

I will join Rebecca, Cody and Erik on Happy Hour tomorrow to talk about the stock market, China and North Korea.

Tomorrow I will join Cheryl Casone and Tom Sullivan on the Fox Business noon show for the full hour to try and make sense out of the tsunami of weird stuff coming out of Washington this week. Be there, or else!

Our new Fox Business entrepreneur hour will be on 1-2PM EST. We will tell you the story of our young (4 year old) viewer who got a patent on his idea after watching last week’s show. Hope to have him on the show live.

This weekend I will be on Forbes on Fox 11AM EST Saturday.

And will be on Fox Business Huckabee show too. Hoping to play in the band at the end of the show if I can get to Sam Ash and buy a ukulele before then.

JR

I will be on Fox Business Happy Hour tomorrow (Friday) 5-6PM EST with Rebecca, Cody and Erik.

We have a new Fox Business show for entrepreneurs. It airs LIVE every Saturday from 1-2PM EST (10-11 PST for the mathematically challenged). I would love to have you and everyone you know join us every week. Dani Babb and I kick butt and take names every Saturday with live call-ins, emails and twitters from viewers who want to take back control of their own lives.

I don’t mean entrepreneurs like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett. they are already wealthy. I mean REAL entrepreneurs that start companies in their kitchen and struggle every day to survive.

Our message is simple. We need to stop waiting for the government to bail us out or some big company to offer us a job. We need to get off the couch, light the blue flame, and do it ourselves by starting and growing our own businesses.

Yesterday we had a ton of calls from people fighting to survive in the tough economy. It breaks my heart to talk with a man running a shower door company, like we did yesterday, who is trying to decide who to fire because he can’t make next week’s payroll or pay the rent. But I admire these people so much that we have to try–and sometimes we can find a way to help.

Every week there is some person on the show that really gets to me. These are my heros. So far my all time champion is Terry–tell you about him later. This week my hero is Mary from Arkansas.

Mary called in to ask us if we thought she was crazy that she is thinking about starting a business.

Mary is 70 years old and has no business experience. But she has developed a dipping sauce in her kitchen that her friends all say is so good that she ought to be selling it. She had 2 questions. Was she crazy at her age to think she and her family could do this in their own kitchen? And how can she get started?

Crazy? Are you kidding, Mary? It is you, and people who have even half your energy, that built this country in the first place. I am humbled by your example. Go get ‘em girl.

Mary’s questions were good ones. Does she need any special equipment? (No) Can she start it in her own kitchen with her family? (Yes. That’s the best way.) Does she need a bigger pan to get started? (she only has a 5 quart pan) (No. Buy a bigger pan when you make some money.) Should she start selling the first (5 quart) batch or wait until she has made a lot more of it? (Waiting is for tourists. Start NOW.) And how can she find customers (lots of ideas including using local restaurants and gift shops, a card table by the road, going on local (free) radio and TV, and friends and family.) I told Mary I would take a jar of her sauce with me next trip to China.

Later in the day I got emails from people all over the country who were inspired by Mary to get their businesses going too. Working on a way to connect the mini entrepreneurs into a virtual marketing network they can each help the other sell into their local markets.

I may be a simp, but Mary gives me hope. I hear so many people whining every week about what they don’t have that I am uplifted to talk with a 70 year old woman in Arkansas who is ready to kick some butt.

Mary, you are my hero.

JR