Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

Today is Blog Action Day and this year’s topic is “Poverty”. Last year during Blog Action Day I covered What If The Water Runs Out?, a decidedly dire possibility, which thankfully improved a little in my hometown since I wrote that article (although the problem is far from gone).

This year I want to focus on something positive we can all do as entrepreneurs - we can give something back - in this case, to help people help themselves rise above the poverty line.

I remember clearly the first time I did exactly this, although to be honest I wasn’t doing it because my business was succeeding, I did it because I had just closed a business that failed because I made a mistake.

Very long time readers of this blog will know one of my very first forays into online business was a community website focused on the Magic: The Gathering card game. On my Magic website I opened up a small e-commerce extension, where I sold the cards individually and in sealed cases.

After enjoying moderate success with my online store I made a tragic mistake. I received an order from someone in Thailand for a full case of cards, with a value of about $600. I took the order through an offline credit card processor (called a “click-clack”), but before I did this I phoned the card fraud hotline to make sure the card wasn’t reported as stolen, as per the standard procedures provided by the bank.

The card checked out fine, I charged it for the case and shipped off the product.

Fast forward a few months and I had sent off over $15,000 worth of product to Thailand, when I received a letter in the mail, telling me the very first order had received a charge back request. Basically, the owner of the card had said they had not made the purchase and wanted their money back.

Over the course of the next few weeks over $12,000 was charged back. It was clear my Thai customers were fraudsters, using a stolen credit card, and I had lost a ton of money.

I recovered from that instance after putting in ALL my savings and some money from my father to cover the dept. I was so heartbroken about the situation that I closed the online store shortly after and went into a depression that took several weeks to recover from.

A Bad Situation Inspires A Positive Action

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Today is the first annual Blog Action Day, the day bloggers unite to help raise awareness for the environment. Here is Entrepreneurs-Journey.com’s contribution to the cause.

You may have heard that Australia is running out of water. Brisbane, were I was born and currently live, is one of the largest cities, the capital of Queensland and the capital city with the lowest percentage of water left in its dams. As I type this we have 21% in our dams.

Water, as we all realize is damn important, no pun intended.

Currently here in Brisbane we are not allowed to water our gardens except with buckets, showers are capped at a maximum of four minutes long and one day soon having a swimming pool in your backyard will be a thing of the past or only for the rich who buy in water from other areas outside of Brisbane.

The target “per household” goal we were set by our local government was 140 litres per day. After much publicity the people of Brisbane brought the average down and met and surpassed the target, making us the most water saving city in the world. That’s pretty impressive stuff, unfortunately it doesn’t mean squat if it doesn’t rain.

All of the current water saving initiatives are meant to help keep things going for as long as necessary for it to rain. If the environment doesn’t step in and bail us out, then no amount of water savings will help.

I have a friend here in Brisbane who works for the state government and is in charge of buying up local government dams so that the one state government can control the water and when necessary, divert it to Brisbane.

I asked him what’s it really like with the water and what the plan is if the rain doesn’t come.

Now I’m not one to deal in fear, but I have to admit what he said made me pretty scared.

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