A person or group who deals in labor is known by the genteel name of "employer." Employers are a cutthroat lot, on the whole. Besides their niggardly treatment of their employees on the whole they will not hesitate for one minute to reduce their com­petitors to the status of paupers if they could—and they often can and do. They continually wage economic war with each other. This is called competition.

This battle is won as a rule with those who command the greatest capital resources. A big competitor can suffer a loss leader for years until he commands the field. He can spend unlimited amounts on new and better capital equipment. He can spend a fortune in re­search developing more efficient production techniques, better sys­tems and better utilization of that one commodity which is his ace in the hole—LABOR. You can never hope to compete with big­ger capital. Your best enterprise may best be compared with that which the flea practices upon the elephant. You are insignificant but you can exist comfortably in your sphere. And, in principle, you can take advantage of certain situations just as much as the big fellow. One of the big secrets for the little fellow is how to deal in labor without owning the capital equipment normally required to employ labor. This boils down to, HOW TO BE AN EMPLOYER WITHOUT CAPITAL. This is a rare category but there does exist such a one. If you are adept at borrowing your capital requirements or of persuading others to invest the necessary capital in a venture of yours you will not actually have to have any capital of your own but, as easy as this may often be, it is not what I want to portray to you. There are many situations where you can employ labor without having to own tools or capital equipment of any significance. For example, I mentioned a short way back that, as a teenager, I employed help. Yet I had no capital. I merely had an agreement to perform cer­tain harvesting services. I employed others for the most part to perform those services. As the middleman between the buyer of these services and those who performed them I acquired a nice stake, in fact, a share exceeding the combined proceeds of those who actually worked for me. There are many little businesses which require less tool and equipment capitalization than $1000. Many contractors are in this category. Most, however, own a lot of heavy equipment.

Let's take an example. Cesspools are a necessity in many parts of this country. Suppose you put a big ad in the telephone directory or list yourself in the service directory of your local newspaper. The advertising cost is cheap enough. You get calls from people who are interested in having a cesspool built. You, being knowledgeable in this field, look over the project, make recommendations or quote on the job. Many customers never bother to get more than one quote. So you have a job. And do you have a job on your hands! Or need it be? If you get a lot of jobs, more that you can handle, what will you do? The obvious thing to do if you had too many jobs would be what you would do if you had only a few too —that is, if you would consider this field from the retirement angle. Let's say I am sitting here in my home and I own a cesspool con­tracting business—which I don't. But assume so.

I'm the sort of guy that doesn't like to be bothered. I may be out on a golf course or down in Florida. But I'm smart, see. My ads are placed in appropriate places and opportunities for business are going to come my way. I hire a telephone answering service to answer my phone if I have a peanut business. If I am larger I hire a girl Friday. Say I am larger. My girl Friday takes and notes calls for service. I have a cracker jack of a young fellow in this cesspool business. He follows up service calls, estimates the requirements and cost of the project in hand. He makes the bid in my behalf according to a carefully gone over cost and price formula. A goodly number of prospects accept the bids and always there are jobs to be done. My crackerjack arranges a deposit from the cus­tomer, arranges for a digging machine and equipment as needed from contractors, calls upon steady or part time laborers to perform the manual labor the job requires. He arranges for gravel, rocks or cement blocks or whatever is being used and it is duly delivered to the job by those who deal in it. In a couple or three days a cesspool job might look like this costwise:

200 Cement Blocks @ $.20 each $40

One Load of Gravel or Rock        $15

Two laborers for total of 30 hours @

$1.50 per hour    $45

Cost of administration, overhead, adver­tising, on an average per job basis $30 Salary of Crackerjack, per job basis $25 Ten sections of pipe      $20 Services of digging machine & dump truck to haul away surplus dirt         $50

TOTAL COST OF JOB $225

Let's say my crackerjack bid this job in at $300. My total cost of getting the job completed in good order was as above detailed, only $225.1 am getting $75 for a job. I am really putting out little capital, only that required for organizational setup. Let's say I get eight or ten jobs like this a week. I get paid for most jobs almost immediately upon completion. If not, I will ask the customer for notes which I can promptly have discounted at my bank. I buy all my requirements either on credit or on such a basis that I really will not have to pay for it until I have collected. This is the way that most of our businessmen conduct business. Why can't you?

Now there are hundreds of business opportunities open every day that really do not require any capital on your part. Look in all the classified ads of your newspapers, the classifieds of your tele­phone directory, better yet, the classifieds of a telephone directory of another city much larger than yours. Do these give you any ideas for starting your own business? Think! What is really required for most of these businesses except the determination to go into them? What have you to lose? Especially, if you haven't anything to start with. The main ingredients in many cases are a lot of nerve and a good imaginative approach. Here is what I mean.

I have before me an issue of my local newspaper. I am looking over the classifieds. The first section is Automobiles, used, for sale. Here are dealers and individuals competing for space in the newspaper for the attention of prospective buyers. All have a car or cars to sell. What ideas can I hatch from this? Well, let's think a moment. A lot of prospective customers are reading these ads. They are looking for a car. Why not attract the attention of these customers with an ad or two of your own? Why not "Buy your used car wholesale?" Lots of people like to save money. Sure some will call and you outline it to them like this. "I have a dealer's license (You can easily acquire a dealer's license upon proper application in most states). I go to the wholesale dealer's auction two days a week. Cars are sold here for what they're worth, often for less than their bank loan value. I'll take you down, you can pick out the car you want. You'll buy it at a price that will amaze you. In fact I bet you can get a bank loan on it for more if you must finance your purchase. Minimum charge for my service is $25.00 and I won't charge you more than $50.00 no matter how expensive a car you buy." You will get a certain number of cus­tomers who will take you up on the deal. And, thinking about it, I would put in such an ad "No down payment" and "Buy any Car of your Choice at Wholesale Prices," etc. This deal can work out for you if it suits your abilities and inclinations. You might scare up as many as five or six customers weekly, perhaps more. Capital requirements should be upwards of $3,000 but you need not have this. You can insist that the customer put up the necessary cash price, at least until he can get a loan on the car. This may drive away customers—and may not, depending on how skillfully you manipulate the transaction. And, in taking your customers to the auction you can take them as extra "drivers" for cars you intend to buy. It would be wise to combine an auto "selling" deal along with this auto buying deal. It could be arranged. There are many "distressed" cars whose owners cannot afford to keep up the payments.

You will note that I have recommended rather consistently retirement in the southerly latitudes of the world. If you retire in the U.S., and I am certain most of my readers will want to keep their feet anchored in home soil for numerous reasons, many of them personal, I am going to recommend that you consider most seriously retirement in the sunshine belt of the U.S.A. Hence, any retirement situations and ideas you entertain should be workable and applicable in the Southern U.S. from the East Coast to the West Coast.

Let's go further along in our newspaper. Newspapers are rich in potential and present many avenues through which you can market a service or product at not too great an expense, that is, your selling costs can be comparatively small via use of newspaper ads appropriately placed and classified. This is, incidentally, also true of Classified advertising in the telephone directory. The next heading goes "Business Opportunities." Here we must be cautious. Most business opportunities aren't, not really. But again there may be some genuine business opportunities. Here is a tempting one which advertises "small capital investment nets 25% annually." It offers to set you up in a coin-metered Westinghouse Laundromat, one that need not be attended. Open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Ideal for chain operation and absentee ownership. Offer cus­tomers use of laundering machines at up to 50% less than regular laundromats. Attractive tax situation—fast depreciation factor. Aid and assistance given. Will finance you up to 80% of investment costs. For information write ALD, INC., 3545 N. Clark St., Chicago 13, 111. Does this ad present any interesting possibilities? Dream a moment. Then whale the tar out of your dreams. Do you have anything left of a practical nature? On the surface this looks good, even to me. I have seen laundromats all over and some are gold mines in their present mode of operation.

Let's look further! Hey, I am beginning to see a hand here. Several businesses are being offered for sale by one individual, several different businesses. Can this guy possibly own them all? I doubt it. I'll bet he is in the business of selling businesses. What's his pitch? I am inclined to call him up tomorrow and find out.

But as I was saying, there is not necessarily a lot to be gleaned from most offerings in businesses. Many people are trying to dump a headache. Some are not. Some must sell. Most are small busines­ses. Oh boy, here's a bargain! "Jewelry Store. Sell complete stock, assets and good will. $8,000 inventory and $1,500 in fixtures. Asking $3,000. Owner must retire due to ill health." What's the catch here? This is too good a bargain to miss! The owner must have had a heart attack or worse yet—some sort of mental aberra­tion to want to dump at this price. Maybe that's all his business is really worth. Maybe there are other drawbacks. Could this be an opportunity for you? I doubt it. Jewelry stores require a lot of drudging attendance. This ad is up North anyway. Wouldn't advise it. But if the ad is honest it would pay to grab this business, build it up a bit and try to get $10,000 for it. Might pay to check into it. A loan for $3,000 should be easy to scrape up if you didn't have that much.

Here is another ad. "CASH available for new or established businesses." I'll bet there is a loan shark behind this ad. He wants to commit usury. He'll probably give you money when a bank wouldn't though. Better watch out if you answer this ad.

Another ad! A floor waxing business. How would this go in a Florida town. Might do very well in a Southern City. Work your­self? No, need not. You can garner the jobs, hire that valuable commodity, labor, to perform the jobs. You sell the service and collect for it. Furnish the equipment—you should be able to put two or three shows on the road for a $1000 investment—and ad­vertise for jobs. Hey, this might be a genuine opportunity. But I bet this ad is by a guy who is doing the work himself and doesn't like moving things around in stores, etc. Or bet he builds up a clientele and sells the business, mostly good will. Could be a lot of reasons for this ad.

In this particular column, "Business Opportunities," are a lot of attractive situations. Most you would not consider. They take money, prohibitively so in many cases, and they take time—your time—time you wouldn't think of spending on something like this while retired. But I'll bet, anything that is good here, you, yourself, can build up on your own without too much trouble.

Let's skip to another column. "Dogs, Cats and Pets." Oh boy, does this present opportunities for home businesses! Can you sell dogs? Cats? Mynah birds? Canaries? Parakeets? Parrots? Can you sell these from a retirement area? Better yet, can you raise these in a retirement area? You can always sell to dealers. This gives me an idea. I take up a late copy of "Field and Stream." I turn to its classified pages. Whew! What's this! More hound dog dealers than you can shake a stick at. Bird Dogs, geez! Can the bird dog market be this big? Here are ads from all over the U.S.A. offering bird dogs. What kind of ideas does this give us? The pet market must be tremendous. From my experience I would say that pet raising would be one of the most interesting, most absorbing re­tirement businesses going! And it need not be too demanding of your time and responsibilities. Remember that valuable commodity, labor, is always at your disposal—at a price—invariably a bargain price! Especially is it bargain priced in the Southern U.S.A.!

This magazine Field and Stream intrigues me. What, land in Arkansas for $15 per acre? I wouldn't believe it if I didn't happen to know it was true. A square mile of this land for $9,000! You can start a good "Coon dog estate" on a wooded section at that price. Quail Farm? What is involved here? $3.00 per pair? Wild birds from Florida. Talking Mynah birds! $1000 each! What a price to ask for a bird. Baby Mynah birds—$25 each! What op­portunities. I would buy a dozen. Record a few records to repeat over and over the commercial message desired. Deliver bird in one year. Reminds me of that strange bird I met the other day. "Hello! How do you do? Welcome to American Shops." That coming from a bird almost set me off my rocker. There must be a lot of op­portunity training these birds. I have a friend training one. She has a V-M record changer which she puts on play with the record hold arm open for loading. It repeats endlessly, for days on end. It will play till it wears out the record. If this doesn't make the poor bird talk in his sleep I don't know what it would take. But just think of it! $25 for a little baby Mynah bird. A big turkey will not bring that much—and I bet he costs more to raise. Take it from me. Investi­gate this field as a retirement business. It sets me to thinking. This field is a good business, retirement or not. Pedigree stock! Wow, what you can't charge for a pup with a title! And he eats the same food a mongrel eats—no greater in cost. I perceive a tremendous field of opportunity here.

Well, let's go on with our newspaper ads. What potential re­tirement opportunities can we smell here? Real Estate! Half of this newspaper must be devoted to ads of homes and property for sale. Could you sell Real Estate? Is a license required to sell Real Estate? Can you get one? There is a 5% to 1% commission in it. Investment! No stock. No investment except for necessary advertising. Sales ability required. Why not hire salesmen—on a produce the sale or no pay basis? You set up an office? Not neces­sary. Operate from a telephone number or an address—even a home. Leads! People want places to live, places to build. Sales run way up in the big figures. Commissions should be handsome. A sale a month should keep you in fine shape if you're selling your­self. Can you sell Real Estate? Southern Real Estate should be the easiest thing in the world to sell. It seems everyone is now getting a hankering to "Live in the sun." Consider this field. It can be an ideal retirement occupation.

What else do we see? Nursing Homes, Children Boarded, Em­ployment Opportunities! How about that one. Employment Op­portunities. Get in the business of merchandising labor. Someone comes to you seeking a job. Some employer has entrusted to you the opportunity to refer job seekers to him. Could this be an op­portunity for you? You get one week's salary from the job seeker for all seekers you refer to an employer and who are hired. You are a labor merchant. Somebody is looking for skills, for talent. You can turn it up for them. You can make it your business! Em­ployment Bureaus do not necessarily require your time and efforts on a full time basis. Why should some poor boob come to you looking for work when the U.S. Employment Service will refer him for free? Don't ask me. Maybe it's because you get listings of job opportunities that the employment service cannot turn up. Perhaps it's because you can make an arrangement with a potential employer of some sort. Who knows! Employment bureaus exist. That's all. And one can be an opportunity for a retirement business the way I see it. Would you consider this?

Here is another interesting column. Boats & Accessories. How many frustrated boat owners are there? Would-be playboys have found out that boats can be an expensive item with which to bol­ster their pride. How many are tucking their tail under and trying, meekly and furtively, to dump the liability. And how many more hanker to have a boat—for the same reason or other reasons? Can you place yourself in between? You can buy advertising space you know. Really, that's about all that is required. It's sort of like sell­ing Real Estate, different field. Could you do this? Does this field interest you? I pick up the classified telephone directory of Miami, Florida, This is probably not a good area for you to retire in. Too com­mercial, too much bustle, too many tourists—in short, too much ulcer potential. But I see Employment Agencies are here by the hundreds, especially those who refer domestics. Gardeners: Lots of gardening services here. Lawn Maintenance: Landscaping: In fact this telephone directory reveals thousands and thousands of service businesses in that area, most requiring little, if any capital, all open to operation without too much involvement on your part. Dig up a telephone directory of a large city. Does it give you any ideas? Go to your local telephone office and look over some of the big city classifieds.

I have tried here to give you a smattering of how you can find ideas and spot interesting situations. A book could be devoted to this subject alone. You must come up with something that will re­ward you for your efforts while you are retired—something which satisfies you, leaves you with ample leisure and assures you of the security which you seek.

During all my chapters on foreign countries you found that you could make a lot of money by catering to tourists primarily. Tour­ists usually have money. And as a rule, that precious commodity, labor, is dirt cheap, extraordinarily so. You have seen hundreds of instances where others have successfully exploited an idea. It would pay to train your eyes for situations—NOW! Learn how to spot them. Use your imagination literally—let it run rampant. Never mind that it's a ridiculous dream. Boil it down with practical con­siderations. You will be surprised that you'll come up with some­thing worthwhile on many occasions. Try it for yourself and see.

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