Message-ID: <3575F060.1979@tmn.com> Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 19:54:56 -0500 From: tom abeles <mailto:tabeles@tmn.com> Subject: feed mill To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Andrew Shadrake wrote, in part: >
> Hello
> I am looking for a design or supplier of a small-scale animal feed mill...
> I want to include the reference to the mill in a donor-funded book of
> small business ideas for the Pacific.
------------------I would be reluctant to suggest any alternatives in your book that you do not have concrete examples to show folks. That is an operating business which works from a technical perspective and you can show the operating costs from both an economic and technical perspective.
As a person who has worked with entrepreneurs for over 30 years and looked at technologies from hand held devices to electro-optical systems, I find the world is full of great ideas- they are a dime a dozen or even cheaper.
In the big bad world of venture capital you are playing with folks who can afford to loose their investment in time and money. In the development world, the fiscal and personal resources are so thin that a loss can be catastrophic.
I have been through large parts of the developing world and talk with folks in the AT game- the villages are littered with projects of well intentioned development "experts". When it is the money and energy of the consultants and donor agencies, losses can be mitigated and hope of recovery and success is better because pockets are deeper
Please do not include ideas which have not had a thorough evaluation and for which you might stand ready to say "hey folks, this is a great idea, I am so sure that it will work that if you fail, I will make things right"
cheers
tom abeles
Ps if you are being paid to do this book, consider your obligation if you have taken the kings shilling- not to the king but to those who will read and believe
tpa