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Finding business partners who can provide investment and or sweat equity - intercultural & labor

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posted on Mar, 26 2019 @ 11:17 AM
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I'm in a situation where I have a bunch of ideas that are not only really interesting but can also be highly lucrative - many of the business ideas are in high demand with the government offering grants and maybe loans for companies who can come up with solutions to the problems.

The thing about these businesses being lucrative comes down to whether the systems can be designed and built in-house vs buying a pre-made solution which are outrageously expensive (think large medical equipment type costs). I've looked over the plans for these solutions and only a handful utilize techniques or equipment which is righteously expensive because it is very specialized and rare.

It seems that the reason the prices are so high is that many of the manufacturers must have stake in the market, so if you want their equipment ( and market share) then you are going to pay through the nose for the equipment (and exorbitant proprietary maintenance costs - often needing an on-site maintenance tech to be paid from the buyer of the equipment).

An example of the difference is using a 3-4KW laser (complete with all the cooling, gas recycling & replacement) to cut something where a simple angle grinder would be sufficient b/c accuracy isn't of too much concern and with computer controlled tools (basically robotic) the grinder method can be largely automated. Now I'm not suggesting a standard angle grinder, I'm talking about a custom made grinder for the process - with a cost difference of about $2.9-4.1 million in cost for the setup. The company that uses the laser manufacturers lasers as well, so for them, the cost is probably factored into R&D and testing. Any I can guarantee not one person would be able to tell the difference if a laser or grinder was used for the end product.

So I'm stuck trying to figure out how to find people who are willing to put in the sweat equity in engineering, design, programming and fabrication - much of which I have already done a large part of, designing the production line, methods to use, waste management, etc. I'm also capable of much of the fabrication except for some of the difficult tasks on a lathe, mill or CNC.

I don't know how much time and effort others would be willing to sink into a new business that has huge growth potential and actually the more you expand the more doors will open full of possibilities.

Has anyone ever approached a business like this? i've heard horror stories about things like this and also great success stories, even if the people end up hating each other personally, they work well together.

So how would you go about trying to find people like this or are they like the mythical unicorn?


On a side note, I think one of these businesses would be a non-for-profit which has it's own headaches, but it is more in line with the mission of the company and it has a lot of benefits to go along with it. I'm not looking forward to dealing with attorneys and I'm wondering how good sites like "legal zoom" are for people to get a basic understanding of what is needed before going in and talking to an attorney. Has anyone used this site or similar site?



posted on Mar, 26 2019 @ 12:18 PM
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a reply to: DigginFoTroof

The way to make a million dollars is to start a company with two million dollars of investment money.


edit on 26-3-2019 by dfnj2015 because: (no reason given)



posted on Mar, 26 2019 @ 12:18 PM
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It's been my experience when dealing with venture capitalist of all flavors; have your legal team in place first with iron clad contracts and plenty of insurance. Non disclosure, Errors and omission, to keep from having the intellectual property stolen from under your nose...... Then start the money chase.

Good Luck!!

Perhaps starting the non profit with foundation backing would be the most prudent beginning. There is plenty of foundation money available if you want to jump thru their hoops. I find hiring a professional grant writer to do all the hoop jumping is money well spent!!
edit on 26-3-2019 by olaru12 because: (no reason given)

edit on 26-3-2019 by olaru12 because: oralje....



posted on Mar, 26 2019 @ 01:13 PM
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originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: DigginFoTroof

The way to make a million dollars is to start a company with two million dollars of investment money.



I get the feeling you are/were a big fan of "the big lebowski". So often I read your posts and I picture "the dude" saying the words that are written on the screen. Do you know the movie? If you don't, I highly suggest you watch it. It's not for everyone but most anyone can enjoy it at least to some degree, some LOVE it.

And yes, I hear you about the loss of $, which is why I'm looking for "hungry" people who will work with me to build the business and equipment from the ground up. I've spend about 10 years (well more like 20 if you factor in business and computer/IT background) learning what I need to know to put this endeavor together, and if done correctly (meaning with help from others - their work/expertise and small capital $) things should fit together like a nice puzzle, coplement each other, waste from one stream is used in a different process and so on. It was A LOT of research and studying to figure out why most of the businesses fail.

When you have a business where 40-50% of your revenue goes to disposal costs, wasted material, mismanaged material and similar issues,there's little chance of success. But when you have a couple or 3 or 4 businesses that are synergystic and complement each other, then much of the expenses disappear and profits are much higher.

I need another good hand-on engineer/mechanic/fabricator and maybe a personal assistant (to help with office work, calls, emails, etc) and it would make all the difference in the world IMO. Problem is most people can't work for free up front, unless they have a job with flexible hours and good pay.



posted on Mar, 26 2019 @ 01:16 PM
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originally posted by: olaru12
It's been my experience when dealing with venture capitalist of all flavors; have your legal team in place first with iron clad contracts and plenty of insurance. Non disclosure, Errors and omission, to keep from having the intellectual property stolen from under your nose...... Then start the money chase.

Good Luck!!

Perhaps starting the non profit with foundation backing would be the most prudent beginning. There is plenty of foundation money available if you want to jump thru their hoops. I find hiring a professional grant writer to do all the hoop jumping is money well spent!!


I just spent some time talking to a grant writer yesterday for about an hour. She was really excited about the idea b/c the grants have been available for years but there have been no takers (IDK if that is a bad sign or not), but you have to be NFP, so there is that. I am worried about protecting IP and having ideas stolen, it's happened to me a couple times and it really sucks. Costs way more than I had to fight it so what can you do.



posted on Mar, 26 2019 @ 01:48 PM
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Seeking business advice on ATS is like hiring the Captain of the Titanic to head up your water safety program.



posted on Mar, 26 2019 @ 01:51 PM
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originally posted by: DigginFoTroof

originally posted by: olaru12
It's been my experience when dealing with venture capitalist of all flavors; have your legal team in place first with iron clad contracts and plenty of insurance. Non disclosure, Errors and omission, to keep from having the intellectual property stolen from under your nose...... Then start the money chase.

Good Luck!!

Perhaps starting the non profit with foundation backing would be the most prudent beginning. There is plenty of foundation money available if you want to jump thru their hoops. I find hiring a professional grant writer to do all the hoop jumping is money well spent!!


I just spent some time talking to a grant writer yesterday for about an hour. She was really excited about the idea b/c the grants have been available for years but there have been no takers (IDK if that is a bad sign or not), but you have to be NFP, so there is that. I am worried about protecting IP and having ideas stolen, it's happened to me a couple times and it really sucks. Costs way more than I had to fight it so what can you do.


Yes, it's astonishing the amount of grant money out there and actually that's a very good sign. There is also PLENTY of off shore venture capital available if you want to deal with the nightmare legalities. Honestly, I have no experience with technical oriented business but protecting IP is one of my paramount concerns.
It sounds like you have a good grasp of what you need to do to be successful.



posted on Mar, 26 2019 @ 03:13 PM
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originally posted by: schuyler

Seeking business advice on ATS is like hiring the Captain of the Titanic to head up your water safety program.


Ahoy, Schuyler, Captain Smith reporting for duty.



posted on Mar, 26 2019 @ 04:41 PM
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My family is in manufacturing and owns a few plants.

The medical industry is full of regulations making even simple things like a vaccine fridge not even worth making imo.

Dealing with gov contracts is another pita.

Building from the ground up with manufacturing isn't very smart imo.

If you want into manufacturing, I would suggest buying a plant that is already operating.

There are some great deals out there if you hunt businesses and mfgrs for sale.

I'm saving for a hobby/biz right now for example...

400k sale price. Boat manufacturer...Includes building, tooling, 11 employees, 1.2mill in contracts.

I would come in and modernize their designs and blow up sales.

A lot of these companies have a balance issue. Not balancing sales/marketing and finances. That's what you bring to the table. You save jobs and turn them around. "Flipping factories"

Ground-up mfg is not very cash smart imo.



posted on Mar, 26 2019 @ 09:04 PM
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See... that is the thing about ideas for businesses. They are a dime a dozen. They only have value when is work put into them, and even then most don't turn a profit. Now there are some people that specialize and are fantastic at taking over businesses at certain stages of their growth but the hardest one is probably breaking out of the being both the boss and the manager stage.

It sounds like a fantastic idea imho, however mass production is probably the absolute most painful stage from what I have read (aka I havn't had a business get there yet) as the step up from having hands on work for every thing made to automation and setting tolerances is absolutely painstaking and expensive.

This video isn't directly related, however there is a great parallel for getting a general understanding of what putting together a factory could entail, from the perspective of the firearms industry and manufacturing.
www.youtube.com...




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