Online Tutor Ideal Virtual Business

The success of the two giants in the tutoring industry --Kumon and Sylvan -- attest to the demand for after-school teaching skills. 

Clients of the two primary tutor franchises seek assistance for their children for a variety of reasons.  For some, it is to enable their child to keep pace with classmates.  For others, it is to ensure that their child is best equipped for advanced education.  In several instances, these parents are opting for private schools for their children in the middle and high school years, rather than throughout the child’s entire school life.  Others are looking to explore and stimulate specific skills and interests of the child, to provide that child with a stimulating learning environment.

The Kumon and Sylvan tutoring programs, though, place the urban client at a distinct advantage over rural students. Whether the rural student requires remedial tutoring or specific, focused one-on-one mentoring, distance becomes problematic.  In essence, rural students do not have access to the quality of extra-curricular training that is available to urban students.

That disadvantage is an opportunity, however, for rural educators and advanced students.

Most jurisdictions, from states to provinces in North America, have specific licence requirements and certification processes for teachers and special education instructors.  In spite of that requirement, an apparent gap exists in the licensing process that allows online tutors to be exempt from those criteria, in most areas.  That means that anyone can become a tutor!

Recognizing the dearth of one-on-one personal education support for rural youth, a creative rural entrepreneur could easily set up an online mentoring program that allows youth in need to tap into the resource at the click of a mouse or touch of a pad. While, ideally, the tutors employed in this system should be teachers and education students in a university program, the opportunity is available for retired teachers, top-achieving students and even laypersons with specific skills and knowledge.

The program could allow for video conferencing, text interaction, self-guided training and teaching regimens and email interaction with the student.  By setting specific times each day, the mentor can work with a range of students throughout his available free time, and the student can pick and choose the most appropriate time in which to engage with the instructor.  This makes for a very personalized approach, and an actual advantage over bricks-and-mortar institutions.

The online tutoring business can offer limited curriculum and subjects, or a broad range, utilizing the talents of educators that are available world-wide, instead of in a specific geographic area, as is required for conventional tutoring businesses.

The degree of flexibility that an online tutoring program offers is significant.  Clients can be recruited face-to-face, locally, regionally, or across the country, continent and globe.  This opens up a wider range of open time slots, greater student base and greater pool of qualified educators.  Yet, it can be established, simply and inexpensively, in the basement of a rural business person in any part of the world. 

Online tutoring offers a real competitive edge over conventional tutor programs, at a fraction of the cost of conventional programming.

Live Work and Travel the Pioneer Way

While rural communities struggle to drum up interest in tourism to their regions with festivals and fairs, museums and local icons, the big-money tourists are flocking to rural towns and municipalities to experience an authentic western, First Nations, pioneer or eco-experience.

The disconnect seems to be caused because rural residents are reluctant to believe that someone might be interested in what those residents se as an everyday experience.  If that were true, no resident of Hawaii, Paris, Mexico or Wyoming would ever recognize the value of sandy beaches, the cafes  along the Seine, the arid air, or Old Faithful.

Much of what we in rural North America is precisely how we live and who we are.  It is not just the Americans who are intrigued by history.  Since the days when the wild west was being opened up, Europeans have been fascinated with everything about that rustic environment, snapping up the dime novels that glorified commonplace tramps and hoodlums of the west.  That interest has not waned, but, instead, has burgeoned, growing to include China’s and even the North American eastern cities’ interest in participating in an authentic western experience.

The pioneer encounter is an extension of that fascination with our ancestors of the west.  While we who live every day in that milieu generally are disinterested in such out-dated modes of living, those that have never been part of its routines cannot get enough of the romance of the era.  German and Slavic tourists form the bulk of that influx of visitors.  No doubt, Kenyans are mildly amused at our own interest in their everyday pests, such as lions, or nuisance wildlife such as the wildebeest.

What others see as intriguing often baffles locals.  Yet, it is these idiosyncratic events and experiences that provide a glimpse into a world that others, from other regions and countries, find as a counterpoint to their own lives.

So where does that leave rural communities, who invest heavily, in terms of volunteer labour and money, in museums and community fairs that often are duplicates of the museum down the road?

Those museums and festivals may actually offer the jumping off point for your thrust into the activities that are more in demand by paying customers.  The “Live, Work & Travel The Pioneer Way” program integrates those existing venues and events into a more holistic experience.

Local people who have access to old buckboards, wagons, sleighs, York boats, vintage cars and so on should be digging them out of the tall grass in the field, refurbishing them, and offering rides to visitors.  Museum organizers should look to reconstructing and repairing old sod shanties, log cabins, tepees, and Dirty 30s clapboard homes, so that tourists can visit or spend a night in an authentic pioneer or First Nations dwelling.  Empty former blacksmith shops, Bombardier snow planes, fixed-position threshing machines and old fishing boats should be restored, and tourists invited to take part in a day of work with those that know the routines.  First Nations should be spending days in the field, showing interested visitors how to harvest from the wild, and have them experience the 1800s way of life.

Involve your potential tourist in your life, and discover the enthusiasm with which they embrace an experience that is unique to them, pedantic to you.  Work with adjacent communities, expand your programs, and turn farm life into a financial windfall.  

Best Price Program Offers Best Deal For Rural Entrepreneurs

The Internet has opened doors for rural development that had remained locked for many years.  Historically, one of the impediments to rural business growth has been the lack of access to competitive markets and supply lines.  Distance from distribution networks has limited the ability to obtain the lowest prices on supplies, or demand the typical urban prices on products and services.

High speed Internet access has  reversed that situation, though.  Now, suppliers and manufacturers in rural settings can produce many goods for less than city businesses, due to lower wages, lower facility costs and competitive energy rates.  These savings are not offset by transportation costs.

While, until the 1990s, the level of technological skill has lagged, that gap is closing, with more rural youth obtaining advanced skills and education that can be applied to rural business opportunities.

Location, location, location as a mantra has lost much of its lustre for new developments.  While many of the emerging rural businesses rely on local raw materials for their innovative products, others must source suppliers from out of the region to be truly competitive.  Similarly, marketing of goods no longer is limited to the immediate region of production.  Markets and suppliers can readily be located, worldwide.

One of the most obvious examples of global reach is alibaba.com. A website that lists thousands of suppliers from China and the far east, it does not limit itself to one or two product lines, but is inclusive of any product or service that is available from that region.  Its clients are found worldwide, with a huge base in North America.  Biodiesel operations in the prairies, alongside architects from Quebec or electronics manufacturers from Newark source suppliers on the Alibaba website.

This access to low-cost supply lines, available to anyone and everyone, means that cost of goods is more uniform, regardless of the location of manufacture.  Similarly, a wealth of global distribution sites are available to market goods.  Alternatively, a rural producer, supplier or manufacturer can reach into worldwide markets at the click of a button.  One western Canada grower markets oats to Ogilvie in South America!

But the cornucopia of supply line resources and markets comes with a huge drawback: the size and variety of available sources.  The time to evaluate and access each of these suppliers can be overwhelming.  Therein lies an opportunity for an enterprising entrepreneur, who might well be a rural businessman rather than an urban one.

By compiling and filtering a variety of suppliers, one could, with modest effort, develop a very substantial database of products, listed by reliability, cost, customer service, shipping time and so on.  Customers who are looking for a specific product, service or raw material could pay a nominal fee to this database operator, who would provide a number of competitive price and product quotes, establish the connection to the supplier, and even facilitate purchases.

To enter the marketplace by offering “best price quotes” on a vast array of items would be prohibitively time consuming and labour intensive.  However, by focusing on regional business needs and developing a database of suppliers for a few hundred products and then expanding that list by a hundred or so  each week, an operator could easily compile a catalogue of almost half a million items within a year.  The potential to offer this service globally  is, like the research required to asset up the competitive network, only a few clicks away, relying on a website with the reach similar to Alibaba.

While a concept such as this is easily established, without disadvantage, in a rural environment, it is not limited to any geographic location, since not product physically is filtered through that operation. 

To obtain, at no charge, additional information and guidance on establishing such an undertaking.  Contact us via our blog contact form.

Cross-Docking Business Opportunities

In the 1990s, cross-dock facilities proliferated in larger centres, as wholesalers sought cost-effective distribution outlets that would reduce payroll and shipping costs to the small retailers dotting the retail world.

As larger retailers either swallowed smaller mom-and-pops or overwhelmed them into closing their doors, the need for cross-docking appeared to diminish.

In the Canadian food services industry, any one region of the country is dominated by, at best, three large distributors.  In smaller regions, such as the Manitoba/Saskatchewan/Northern Ontario market, those distributors also manage more than 88% of the retail grocery trade.  In that same market, two primary distributors dominate the restaurant sector, with two others sharing about one third of the market of the larger two. In that mix, dozens of small suppliers and distributors attempt to compete.  This scenario is replicated across other parts of the country.

Several independent cross-dock outlets have closed their doors in the past dozen years, as the suppliers and the dominant distributors turned their attention from retailers to independent distributors.  Caught in that war has been the trucking industry.

Two years ago, Walmart refocused their distribution mechanism toward in-house shipping, as opposed to their long-standing practice of using independent trucking firms to haul goods across the nation.  The ultimate effect will be to squeeze the independent truckers out of the picture, even though the consumer possibly will see a reduction in prices.

The confluence of this series of recent events seems to be leading to an inevitable result: the elimination of local warehousing and shipping opportunities.  That, in fact, is not either inevitable or even probable.

While cross docking traditionally has been focused on urban locations, a major opportunity has opened for rural facilities.

Many suppliers to rural grocers and restaurants currently charge a levy, or delivery charge that runs from a base of $35 within a 50 kilometre radius to $100 or more, per delivery.  That fee is significant to a small town retailer, and often stimulates that retailer to take one day each week to journey to the nearby city to purchase supplies.  But that, in turn, require that the merchant arrange for employees to work in his or her stead for that day.  Thus, the $35 saving may be lost, unless the owner is able to offset that loss by finding competitive prices that result in savings.  This conundrum has led to most rural buyers turning to major wholesalers or distributors for their entire supply, which, consequently results in higher inventory costs.

The higher inventory costs force higher prices onto the consumer, who often responds by redirecting his buying dollars into the larger city.  The local retailer is now in an even poorer position to be competitive.  Local restaurants, though, tend to emerge from the increased food cost problem unscathed, as locals remain loyal to local restaurants.

In order to compensate for the increased costs, rural food merchants need to be able to capitalize on competitive pricing.  This is only possible if the distribution network offers the full range of competing products.  Therefore, the optimum arrangement would be to establish cross-dock locations at the margins of the base-rate radius provided by the supplier.  Typically, that is 50 kilometres. 

By setting up a depot at the perimeter of the distribution line, that depot can order a significant quantity of goods, thus sharing the one-time delivery fee over a much larger quantity of goods.  Instead of a $35 charge on a $1,000 purchase, for instance, the depot may be able to purchase $20,000, with the delivery fee spread over that amount.

By purchasing bulk quantities, the cross-dock depot also is able to capitalize on bulk buying deals, further reducing the costs.  Now, the depot can operate profitably, while offering lower costs to the remote rural retailers.

A second business opportunity opens itself through this cross-dock system: the ability to provide bulk-buy deals directly to the consumer.  This concept was tested in the Whiteshell resort region of Manitoba a few years ago, and proved to be very successful.

By providing a low-cost (3% of gross) delivery service (along with a share of the bulk-buy savings) directly to resort restaurants, the single-truck operator was able to generate net (not gross) revenues of $350 per day.  Later in that summer, he added direct-to-consumer deliveries, as well.  Individuals and families would attend at one location in each community at a specified time, to pick up the orders that they had placed.  This expanded his net revenues to $475 per day, by using two trucks. 

While the cross-docking concept requires some warehouse and cooler/freezer space, the start-up costs are very modest, and the cash flow immediate.

If you would like further details (at no charge) on setting up a cross-dock business in your region, contact us through our blog site listed in the resource box below.

Bartering is Just What You Bargained For

Bartering conjures up images of trading chickens for a house call by the rural family doctor.  Yet, barter networks have emerged as vehicles for a reported transaction value of more than $8 billion per year, plus the billions more swap and trade transactions that go unreported.  From personal to corporate transactions, from in-person to online exchanges, the barter infrastructure offers significant opportunities to move goods outside the realm of cash and credit contracts.

For the most part, trade exchanges flourish where there is a diversity of products or services being offered and, consequently, are focused mainly upon urban networking. Bartering may have begun as a mechanism to allow businesses, countries and individuals with limited cash flow but access to desired goods or services to participate in and benefit from a capitalistic market, but has evolved as a valued way of moving surplus inventory or capabilities stock expeditiously.  It is estimated that more than 350,000 businesses in the USA alone participate in trade exchanges.  The International Reciprocal Trade Association boasts membership of more than 80 corporate barter networks around the world, the National association of Trade Exchanges lists 60 more, with Gigafree.com claiming to have identified over 700 personal and business networks.

The ease with which a barter network can be set up makes it attractive for neophytes to the process.  Guided packages that detail the steps involved are readily available online.

In addition to ease of setup, linking of these myriad exchanges through formal and informal agreements mean that small groups can access a much broader array of goods and services.  Local operations easily can tap into the national and international exchanges, often paying only a nominal amount to participate.

Because of the ability to expand the reach of modular exchanges, the very nominal start-up costs and efforts and the appeal of cashless transactions, barter networks are ideally suited to rural economies.  However, it is ironic that, with the variety of unique products and services available and the propensity to turn to community for support, rural entrepreneurs have been reluctant to establish their own unique brand of barter. 

Perhaps it is the misperception that the only goods that they have to offer to each other are farm goods.  Yet, aside from the rural retailers and service providers that have inventory and services to trade, individuals and farmers also have a wealth of goods that may be exchanged.  Equipment and personal assets are only a few of the valued goods that could be bartered, while produce of varying grades, livestock, and even leases and rentals on production equipment make excellent offerings.

To set up a network involves little more than a good bookkeeping software package, an Internet connection, a website and a coordinator to arrange and list the items to be bartered.  In some instances, organizers may require a refundable deposit, to allow for a credit account to be set up for each exchange member.

Similar to the eager online entrepreneur who traded a giant paperclip upwards and laterally sixteen times in order to acquire a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan, bartering offers latent potential to generate profits and benefits where none were previously seen.  Realistically, an old tractor may become a holiday excursion to the Caribbean, or a few hours of babysitting nurtured into a substantial discount on a vehicle.  The possibilities are endless for the trader, but invaluable for the rural communities who are seeking ways to stimulate enterprise in their regions.

Barter Networks Provide Link to Rural Economic Development

Bartering conjures up images of trading chickens for a house call by the rural family doctor.  Yet, barter networks have emerged as vehicles for a reported transaction value of more than $8 billion per year, plus the billions more swap and trade transactions that go unreported.  From personal to corporate transactions, from in-person to online exchanges, the barter infrastructure offers significant opportunities to move goods outside the realm of cash and credit contracts.

For the most part, trade exchanges flourish where there is a diversity of products or services being offered and, consequently, are focused mainly upon urban networking. Bartering may have begun as a mechanism to allow businesses, countries and individuals with limited cash flow but access to desired goods or services to participate in and benefit from a capitalistic market, but has evolved as a valued way of moving surplus inventory or capabilities stock expeditiously.  It is estimated that more than 350,000 businesses in the USA alone participate in trade exchanges.  The International Reciprocal Trade Association boasts membership of more than 80 corporate barter networks around the world, the National association of Trade Exchanges lists 60 more, with Gigafree.com claiming to have identified over 700 personal and business networks.

The ease with which a barter network can be set up makes it attractive for neophytes to the process.  Guided packages that detail the steps involved are readily available online.

In addition to ease of setup, linking of these myriad exchanges through formal and informal agreements mean that small groups can access a much broader array of goods and services.  Local operations easily can tap into the national and international exchanges, often paying only a nominal amount to participate.

Because of the ability to expand the reach of modular exchanges, the very nominal start-up costs and efforts and the appeal of cashless transactions, barter networks are ideally suited to rural economies.  However, it is ironic that, with the variety of unique products and services available and the propensity to turn to community for support, rural entrepreneurs have been reluctant to establish their own unique brand of barter. 

Perhaps it is the misperception that the only goods that they have to offer to each other are farm goods.  Yet, aside from the rural retailers and service providers that have inventory and services to trade, individuals and farmers also have a wealth of goods that may be exchanged.  Equipment and personal assets are only a few of the valued goods that could be bartered, while produce of varying grades, livestock, and even leases and rentals on production equipment make excellent offerings.

To set up a network involves little more than a good bookkeeping software package, an Internet connection, a website and a coordinator to arrange and list the items to be bartered.  In some instances, organizers may require a refundable deposit, to allow for a credit account to be set up for each exchange member.

Similar to the eager online entrepreneur who traded a giant paperclip upwards and laterally sixteen times in order to acquire a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan, bartering offers latent potential to generate profits and benefits where none were previously seen.  Realistically, an old tractor may become a holiday excursion to the Caribbean, or a few hours of babysitting nurtured into a substantial discount on a vehicle.  The possibilities are endless for the trader, but invaluable for the rural communities who are seeking ways to stimulate enterprise in their regions.

Communities Cash in on Geocaching

The explosion in popularity of global positioning systems since the early 2000s, combined with the ease of use of these systems and the rising interest in eco-tourism  has opened the door to a wildly popular new outdoor gaming experience known as geocaching.

Geocaching combines the skill and dedication of analysing  latitude and longitude readings to decipher geographic locations with the fun of scavenger and treasure hunting.  At this moment, there are in excess of 1,270,000 “treasure caches” hidden around the world, awaiting intrepid  high-tech treasure hunters.

In its simplest form, a geocache is a small container with a log book and a few memorabilia or “treasures,” generally of nominal value.  A geocache is hidden in a specific location, then the originator posts the geographic location (latitude and longitude) online, at any of hundreds of geocache hunting sites. 

Hunters choose the cache that they wish to search out, based on the general description, approximate location and difficulty of search. Once they pinpoint the site and uncover the cache, these seekers record their “find” both in the log and online, along with the date of location.  They may then take one of the “treasures” within the cache, so long as they replace it with something of equal or greater value.  This leaves an opportunity for discovery for the next explorer.

To date, many communities have capitalized on the intrinsic capacity of geocaching to draw in tourist visitors to their villages and towns.  That minor foray into eco-tourism offers opportunities for exposure to outsiders of a town’s other treasures.

However, for the most part, the most significant opportunities offered through geocaching remain relatively unexplored. Those opportunities center mainly around the natural and historical attractions of a rural community.  By working with adjacent communities, your town, it or village could develop a network of geocache locations of interest to specific seekers. 

For example, historic sites could harbour caches across a large territory, providing a treasure hunt capable of filling weeks of searches by eager explorers. Working individually, those communities would be less likely to attract dedicated geocachers than if there is a wealth of exploration chances.

Other caching collections could include geographic points of interest, monuments & community statues, structural oddities and interesting buildings, natural features, recreation locales, and so on.  There is a limitless capacity to attract a diverse array of visitors.

By pooling resources and attractions, and relying on local volunteers to maintain the caches and webpages, financial investment is minimal.

Added impact can be generated if a regional partnership is able to set up a sufficiently popular geocache website to attract lots of online visitors, and increase web rankings.  Coupled with that geocache website, local businesses are able to promote their own individual attractions.

Within the cache itself, treasures can be placed that include minor local artefacts, as well as specific coupons or prizes that draw in those geocache hunters to local restaurants or retailers.  A skilled hunting family, for example, may be able to “cash in” on free or nearly free meals, discounted accommodations, tickets to events, and so on.

While setting up such a web package and physical presence may take some forethought and effort, ongoing maintenance becomes relatively easy.

A few years ago, an enterprising online fellow created a unique trading experience that led from him offering a giant paper clip in barter for some other item of value.  After less than two dozen trades, his paper clip had been bartered upward and sometimes laterally, culminating in acquisition of a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan.  This unique approach to barter offers similar, if less lucrative, prospects for diligent rural developers and community leaders. 

Geocaching is an opportunity for treasure hunters, today.  Properly orchestrated and organized, it offers a valuable chance to invite strangers into your rural homes, and increase the potential for economic success.

SIPs Offer Rural Growth Potential

In spite of being originally conceived and incorporated into a durable home as far back as 1937, stressed skin and structural insulated panels only gained significant attention in the 1970s.  Even then, widespread acceptance of this building design component did not occur, and remains more of an anomaly than a conventional, commonplace technology.

In part, the higher materials cost for SIPs versus stick frame construction deters many builders, much like the higher capital cost of energy-efficient homes and alternative energy systems deters homeowners from converting their old natural gas furnaces, hot water systems and electric power sources into cutting edge systems. 

However, capital cost versus ongoing operating expense analyses consistently show that there is a considerable saving achieved through using EPS/OSB structural panels.  Offsetting initial materials cost is a general reduction in construction and assembly costs by onsite labourers.  The more airtight format of the SIPs means greater energy savings.  SIP construction also provides greater axial strength than stick frame building.

Several successful building concepts and projects, however, have been developed using SIPs as the core of the design innovations.  One company – Britco – has a huge array of building options, from hotels & motels to seniors housing, offices, residences and schools that they have built using SIP technology.  In 2010, Britco’s modular unit system that comprised the Whistler Athlete’s Lodge during the Olympics was presented with the top award for design excellence in North America.  Build to LEED standards, it provided optimum energy efficiency, versatility and comfort for the athletes.

In 2004, a Northern Village modular building that was constructed with SIP panelling was tested in the harsh Nunavut environment (far north Arctic), and was so airtight that an opening had to be temporarily provided so that the airflow tests would register.

In spite of the significant performance record of SIP construction, relatively few firms have been established that focus on SIP production.  This opens a huge door for many rural communities, strategically situated within striking distance of lumber mills and forestry operations.  Whether the emphasis simply is on engineered SIPs for resale to the construction industry, or on finished products such as pre-manufactured homes, apartment complex modules, restaurants & kiosks or even temporary shelters, the array of available products for sale is substantial. 

There are several advantages to constructing SIPs and SIP-integrated buildings in the rural communities near logging plants.  EPS and rigid foam insulation is light, with reduced transportation costs.  Moving the OSB or plywood panelling to another site would still require shipping EPS to that assembly area, as well, meaning that there is no significant advantage to outsourcing SIP assembly away from the nearby mills.  Sip panels can be constructed to template requirements, including window & door openings and electrical & plumbing channels cut into place, and then shipped flat to the job site, where they would be assembled.  Modules could be assembled at the mill site, then shipped on flatbeds to the construction site, more economically than building from scratch on site.  By assembling components and modules in a temperature-controlled factory, the impact of seasonal weather is eliminated.

Probably, however, the greatest advantage is to the local economy, with value-added manufacturing creating local jobs.  Thus, primary processing is tandemed with secondary processing of the local raw materials.

One small rural company in western Canada assembles prepared components for small cabins, with 100 sq.ft. of floor space.  These cabins have been used as storage buildings, farm outbuildings, construction site offices and even “quickie” summer cabins.  A few have been joined by breezeways to form a network of buildings for a small fishing lodge.  The small footprint means that these buildings “fly beneath the radar” of many municipal and urban zoning bylaws, that commonly require permits for buildings larger than 10 square meters.  This, in turn, opens the builder’s market to a larger range of buyers.  Such a concept would form an excellent micro-business model for rural communities across the continent, whether they are located adjacent to forestry operations or not.

SIP construction offers a wealth of ideas and gateways to small business development in a variety of other areas, as well.  In fact, such small businesses could help to stimulate economical and efficient local development of housing complexes for seniors and low income families, or upscale homes, expansion of local schools and medical facilities in a cost-efficient manner, and development of tourism micro-sites to attract visitors to local icons and points of interest.  The possibilities are vast.