In my last blog, I described the dangerous circumstances created by outsourcing America’s great manufacturing industries and choosing easy profit over long-term financial stability. It seems we’ve become a nation that imports more than it exports and borrows more than it lends. We arrived in this predicament by allowing government and big business to sell out our economy on the promise that free trade and the global economy would allow us to continue to prosper. Admittedly, some have prospered though not who we believed it would be. How can anyone believe that shipping electronics and software jobs, manufacturing and industrial production, and a whole host of other revenue-rich concerns to other parts of the world would help us? How could anyone believe that we could import $500 billion worth of oil and then burn it without producing hardly anything of value in exchange be good for our economy? This is what we let happen. We sold out or wore out our best divisions of the best businesses that we call American and now we have little left over to sell. So we have but one choice — restructure!

That is what our new leadership in Washington is talking about. I have voted Republican most of my life and when I hear my Republican friends complaining about the debt we are incurring, I ask “What’s the alternative?” Continue reading Selling Southern Oregon, Restructuring America, and a Return to Economic Prosperity, Part II

I’ve been selling Southern Oregon real estate now for nearly 30 years. Over that span of time I’ve been asked to list and sell many businesses and companies here in the Grants Pass and Medford areas. The first question I inevitably ask is “Are you making money?”

If a company is for sale and it is not turning a profit the next questions are always “Then what are we selling and why should anyone buy it?” Consider the obvious —-everyone wants to sell their business when it’s not profitable. That’s a lot easier choice than staying in it and restructuring to get it in the black. I always tell my clients that If you have a business enterprise that is not turning a profit or if it is making a profit that is about what you would be paid if you had a job doing the same thing then forget about selling it —- Liquidate it! That’s tough advice but the truth is a lot easier than giving someone the false hope of an entitlement to money that they’re never going to receive.

No matter where you live, if you ever find yourself in such a situation then you’ll have the same easy choice to liquidate, take your losses and go do something else, or the more difficult choice of staying in and restructuring. That may mean borrowing some money and then reinventing your company to make it profitable. I’ve seen the previous scenario play itself out dozens of times over the years in my Grants Pass real estate business, and with my social conscience I find it a lot easier to tell someone that their business is really no more than a pool of assets costing them money to run every month.

I always recommend that they go back to the basics and get their flawed business model repaired and made profitable. It then becomes very simple to sell a business that’s making money. At that point most don’t want to sell except for retirement. I want to draw a comparison here between unsuccessful businesses with flawed or outdated business models and our current economic situation here in America.

Not so long ago, we were the economic engine of the world. We were the envy of all other countries for our modern business practices, our progressive labor laws, and our tax structure. In short, we did almost everything right and as a result Continue reading Selling Southern Oregon, Restructering America, and a Return to Economic Prosperity, Part I