Build Your Asset Base

Article Summary

John S Veitch
The Network Ambassador

What are our real assets?
In a general way they are:
An organized "clean" environment
Organized people
Organized money
Organized ideas
Organized real objects

Building your asset base is creating a foundation for future activity.
In the USA politicians have talked about building an "ownership society". The list above gives you a good indication what it really means.
In a depression while you may personally be constrained in many ways, you may still find ways to develop some of your asset bases.
Your Personal Asset Base
If your income is cut, one alternative is to make greater use of the useful common. You might work with others to substitute community production for income.
Think of your home as an economic unit. What essential goods and services can you produce for yourself. Make use of your time.
To what extent can you build the asset bases of your household, and to what extent can you make that foundation productive?
In the same way if you need to build a business income, first you need to develop a foundation on which the business can rest.
That foundation consists of skills or products, premises, and essential equipment. In my experience the hardest task is to clearly define what your product is.
Find one or two real customers. Serve them well, and grow slowly in the beginning. Build the base first.
If you decide to invest in business development, in a depressed market, the funds you spend will buy more impact for the same cost. Conserve funds.
I'm expecting the depression to last for several years, so while new business expansion is possible, consider it as preparation for a return to normal business.
Conserve your resources and keep your home base lean.
When people lose their source of income, or lose a home, or overburdened with debt, access to the useful common is a way to keep the future partly open.

If you need the original article it's here.