I got into a conversation with a friend while I was in France. We were planning our next day’s activities and without any strong plans, I thought we should put up a lemonade stand out in front of the house. He said we couldn’t do that. I found that a bit odd.

That led into a hour-long conversation about business in France and US. The idea of the lemonade stand or the neighborhood kid mowing someone’s lawn is completely foreign. That really made me wonder what was so different.

Here are a couple of things:

• All businesses need to go through some 20+ step governmental process before you can begin operating.
• The average person doesn’t have the means of starting their own enterprise. That leaves banks as a main source of capital. Banks show a similar rigor in the approval process as those in the States.
  
• There isn’t bankruptcy protection in France. If your business fails, the owner is personally responsible for the debt and will spend the rest of their life repaying it, if need be.

So, its hard to set-up, it is difficult to raise capital, and failure means a lifetime of repayment.

Laws and regulations do make a difference. I think we take for granted the entrepreneurial climate that exists in the U.S.

I am finally back and somewhat settled. The next week is going continue to be busy and posting might be a little light.

I thought I would throw out a bunch of random thoughts that have been bouncing around my head.

• There is a front page article in the WSJ today about Tupperware and the disasterous effect their partnership with Target has had on the mainstay independent sales reps.
• I really liked the New Economy cover article in this month’s Fast Company. The article looks at a number of boom-created myths and revises them for the post-boom world.
• This issue of FC also highlights the winners of the Fast 50 competition. There were two winners from WI. The first was Rick Terrien of Universal Separators in Madison. The second is Father Bernard McCoy of Lasermonks.com in Sparta, WI. We had Father Bernard at a Company of Friends meeting in Milwaukee last month. Check out their Fast 50 entry and I strongly encourage checking out their site. The pricing for ink cartridges is 30% to 50% below retail and all the profits go to charities.
• With about two weeks left at the family business, I got a call from a company today that we did some work for last summer. They wanted us to make some more of the same parts and quote some other things. The total amount of business we did with them was about $1000 and we just received the fourth payment of $250. It took nine months to collect $1000. Do you think we are going to continue that relationship?
• My son turns one next Thursday
• My grandfather died last Wednesday. That added to the craziness of the past few days. He had been in very poor health over the last 18 months. For me, it was a blessing that he finally passed on. He was one of the nicest men you have ever met. He searched and found my first car for me – a 1978 sky blue Mercury Marquis. It is things like that which I will remember most about him.
• I still have to watch the two episodes of the Apprentice that I missed.
• My friends Cindy and Thibault are engaged to be married. They surprised us with the news during our trip to France. They had been holding out, so they could tell us in person. This means another trip back to France in August or September.
• I am going to make a concerted effort to learn French over the next six months.

A little about a lot…more on Friday.