Inventors and Funding?

I have been asked to write an article about inventors and funding. This will not be a hard article for me to write because there are many funding opportunities for inventors. Right now President Bush is talking about finding alternative methods for oil and this is just one of the paths that is open to inventors. Another avenue is the military. The government is always looking for inventions that will help make the miltary better. This can be anything from designing new kinds of weapons to designing better durable uniforms! The government spends a lot of money on this and they will continue to do so!

The government is not the only source of funding for inventors. Most notably I'm thinking about if you can make a product better then you stand a good chance of receiving funding for it.

However one thing I want to repeat about getting funding - be it for inventors or anyone - and that is there is a process to it. In more cases than not you have to go through the application process. A grant is not guarenteed! You have to apply for it. Now I have been involved with some funding that requires nothing more than submitting a simple proposal but they are not all like this.

There is a lot of untapped potential out there (waiting to be tapped!)

The Need For More Grants For The New Orleans Area

There is a proposal for a number of new grant programs in the areas that were hard hit by Katrina. One such program would bring in over $1 Million Dollars in grant moneies for those small businesses in the area that were affected. While this is good news for those that want to continue to do their business in the area, the proposal has to be approved first. Of course there is much dissappointment at the number of grant programs that were and are still available for those in the area. While there are still a number of loan programs available the people affected by hurricane Katrina don't want to incur more debt because they have so much that they have to pay for now. There are still grant programs available for both individuals and businesses in the affected areas and some of these programs have been started by entities other than the governemt because of the need to bring back the businesses to the area.

Sex & Mrs. X - Movie Review!

I just got finished reading a post from a woman whose husband left her for a younger woman and it reminded me of this movie. In the post the woman said that she had no job skills but she also mentioned that she would be able to do "light" work for donations/money.

"Sex & Mrs. X" is a movie about a woman whose husband left her for a younger woman. So she decides to throw herself into her work - which is reporting. She interviews a woman who provides a service to women to help them find men to marry. On the surface it seems kind of sleazy but once you find out more about it you find out that it really isn't. What I found fascinating was the story behind why the woman got into that kind of business in the first place. She explained that she had been in love with a man and he left her and she wanted to know why and she began to learn and thats how her business started. I won't give away the ending but I will say that it has a happy ending and if you'd like to find out more about the movie here is a link

Sex & Mrs. X

That is really a good example of taking a negative and turning it into a positive - even if it is only a movie.

You may think that its a crazy idea but just look at all the escort services that are around. There is a woman whose career it is to teach women how to find their inner godess! Another woman teaches bellydancing and what about the books that teach things like how to be a better lover, etc., You may think that "hey nobody's asking me to write a book" but how about you write an article? Circulate it. Let it be seen. Put it on a webpage so others can see it. When you garner enough interest in it opportunities will come.

It's Never Too Late To Start (or maintain) Your Career!

A very popular soap opera actress recently died. She kept working well into her senior years. This kind of dispels the myth that you have to be young in Hollywood to have and sustain a successful career.

I also belong to this mailing list that has to do with acting as a career. One of my most favorite actresses is Tyne Daly. She's probably best known for being in "Cagney and Lacy" series a while back. She is always working and she is definitely not in her 20's. Again this dispels the myth of having to be in your 20's to have a successful acting career.

I get a lot of email from people who dream to be actors and singers and I don't see any reason why they can't pursue this. Eddie Murphy said that the best piece of advice that he could give aspirees is to not take any advice!

It's NEVER too late to start your career (or dream job)!

For Inventors Seeking Angel Investors!

I saw yet another message post by an inventor who posted that he was seeking an Angel Investor. I didn't know whether or not I should have replied to this post but when I saw the amount of $25 Million Dollars needed from an angel investor it just struck me as to how that is a LOT of money! I'm sure other inventors seeking angel investors would like to know whether or not the original poster got any kind of response - whether it be good or bad.

I have seen so many people posting looking for investors and they think that it ends with just them posting a request. I'm a firm believer in "never say never" and "nothing's impossible" and there have been instances where an inventor will post a request and receive a response (both good and bad) and it's not impossible to get a respnse this way but it does give me pause for concern. I'm sure that a lot of inventors don't know of any other way of finding (potential) investors other than posting their request on a message board.

One of the best ways to find an angel investor is to find someone who had an angel investor and find out how they did it. There have been instances where an angel investor found the inventor instead of it being the other way around so again - never say never. But there is more that the inventor should be doing than just that. It would be great if you could just invent something and then by some magic you automatically get an investor. But it just doesn't always work out that way.

I Have An Internet Radio Station!

Number one - there is nothing wrong with "tooting your own horn". It's something that I would advise everyone to do!

Number 2 - While I didn't start this radio station with the intention of making money at it I have had a chance to read posts from others that have their own Internet Stations and one of the topics that has come up is how they can make money at it. That's when my "professional" vibe kicked in. Now why would I want to have an Internet Radio station? Well the most important reason is that I used to be a DJ for a lot of years back in the 80's and 90's and to be quite honest I miss it! When I was working as a DJ it wasn't just "DJ" work that I did. I did a lot of production work like making commercials and I was even the producer for a talk show! But besides that I did sales and I even worked on and repaired the equipment. All of this experience has just added to my skills and it brings back memories when someone posts and asks how they can make money with their Internet Radio station. Now there are a lot of seasoned pros that have their own Internet Radio stations and they have offered their tips and examples of how they are making money with their Internet stations. The most often cited way is that they have advertising on their web pages that relate to their Internet Radio stations. Now take note here because I said they have advertising on their webpages and not on their station broadcasts. To make a long story short it isn't allowed if you have a certain kind of station.

But for me this started out as a pleasure kind of thing - something I love to do - and since I'm always talking about taking something that you love to do and turn it into a career then I should go on to say how you can turn it into a successful business.

• Number one - if you haven't done this kind of thing before it may be quite frustrating for you. Most of the people that have their own Internet station has had experience relating to it in one way or another. I should also add that this is not a free service! There is a monthly/yearly fee involved. (By the way my station is on Live365.com).
  

  Basically you first have to decide what kind of format your station will be. Personally mine is a "community" station for my local area with music filling in the gaps. The basic technique is picking out your music and uploading to your space so that it can be added to the playlist. Since the music that I play originates from various forms (ie vinyl, cds, tapes) I simply have to convert it to the right format before I add it to my playlist. The same thing applies to the "spoken" stuff that you want to add. For me I record it and then upload it to my playlist. Now since I have a radio background I can do some creative producing to the stuff that I add to my playlist. This kind of skill can be used to form your own production company where you can do things like produce jingles and professional recordings for others.
  

• Like I mentioned above a lot of the broadcasters rent out advertising space on their webpages - another good source of income.
  

• While it's not "money-making" a lot of the broadcasters also receive free music - BUT you can turn this into a moneymaking thing. I'm not talking about accepting money for playing certain music (I think that's payola and I think that is illegal) I'm talking about building up a reputation as a legitmate radio station where you will come under the radar of those in the business - people who are anxious to get their music played. You can turn that into your advantage by creating a newsletter for your station - accepting advertising and the like!

There are many ways that you can take this and turn it into a money-making career!

A Career As A Graphics Artisit? Is It Still Possible?

The answer, of course, is YES! There are many, many people that want to have a career as a graphics artist and you would think that with so many people wanting to do so that the market for this type of work would be flooded. In a way it is. But compare it to the many people that want to have a show business career. Even though there are so many of them there are still those that manage to have a career at it.

I guess it would be perfect for someone that wanted to have their own career as a graphic artist to be able to have their own business as one and be able to work from home doing it. Guess what? There are people that are doing it successfully from home. For example just watching a program recently I saw an example of a graphic artist that has his own business from home. How did he get started? He got an idea for his art by watching a movie. He started designing his art - yes, from his computer at home - and then he started advertising his art in as many places as he could find. Interest in his art grew and then he started getting PAYING jobs for his work. For example his work was shown in galleries, he was commissioned to do work for buildings (meaning his art was painted on the buildings including walls and such). He even got commissioned work from individuals.

Now this all didn't happen in a day! It takes time to build up any new business or career. But he decided that it was something that he wanted so badly (and in his words it was a "passion" of his) that he took the necessary time and effort. Now he has the career of his "dreams" working as a graphics artist from home in his own business.

Yes there are many out there that want to have a career as a graphics artist and there are people who are actually doing it! (and successfully too!) Just think about how "perfect" it would be to be able to work from home doing something you love and being paid for it! Yes it is possible!