Social Enterprise? Profit still required!

1. Didn't say I want anyone to read my blog, just said it exists. I try and keep a low profile.
2. worldwide, we have local (TASE), and we're very convenient to Europe, and there a fair amount of Israeli companies on the NASDAQ. I have a portfolio strategy but it's not the anchor of my growth.

Thanks, I will have to check it out. I just figure there has to be a way to make extra $$$ other than my day job..to get money to pay down debt and to invest on my journey.

A few short answers to your questions:

Nobody is ever far from an English conversation school in Japan. There are schools in every town.

All kids have to study English from junior high school onwards in Japan and most of them hate it because English is taught in Japanese for passing the tests. No spoken English is necessary for passing those tests.

Shakespeare English for Japanese kids? You've got to be kidding!

I don't have the space, the patience and the desire to teach pre-schoolers or kiddies. This market is also pretty saturated.

The market for Japan - Australian exchanges and also New Zealand is pretty well saturated as well. Lots of conversation schools and middle-men provide those services already

So let's not continue this English teaching conversation because it would take me a lot of time to explain all the details of the English teaching situation in Japan and I don't want to spend my time on this.

Thanks for your message. It's obvious that you know little of the market for English teaching in Japan because there are plenty of web sites already with tons of free information about teaching English in Japan. I don't think I can add anything too that that has not been written yet. I don't know how I could make any money from knowledge that is freely available on the web. Google gives you 7,840,000 websites on this topic, go figure. My personal style of teaching is just that, personal, and my students seem to like it.
The competition among English language schools in Japan is fierce. There are three big language schools right in front of the station with huge advertising budgets, several other ones also quite large, and as the smallest fish in town, I have to work hard to get new students.

Yes, it's confusing to me that charities would need to "invest" the money they are given - why aren't they spending it on the charity's interest? If you yourself were making a loan to someone else and they paid it back, you could do it to the highest risk person you want and not have to charge break-my-arms-and-take-my-first-born rates, too. Those are options each of us have.
Sounds a bit more like the charities are only wanting to be big business themselves (perhaps for the tax breaks they get)? How's that for depressing?

Sorry, I can't find your latest comment.

Thanks for logging with Technorati, KC.

KC - your life's purpose seems to suggest a solution to the world's problem by throwing money toward the poor, yet in a way where you are interested in perhaps providing small loans they can repay. You might be interested in a book called Influence: The Power to Change Anything (authors: Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan, Switzler - so you won't confuse it with others of similar titles) that talks about such loans in India and how people help each other. One entrepreneur was making loans of $25 or less, which was a lot of money for those he was loaning the money to - and had good results. The man was actually a Nobel Laureate named Mahammud Yunus, so maybe you can read about this online as well (rather than find the book). Very inspirational and like what you are thinking about, too, I think.