Starting a New Business (Part One)

Blocking the Sidewalk

In the past I ran my own business for several decades (can't remember how long). Then I slowly drifted into retirement and finally quit the small league collecting checks from customers 15 years ago. I use the Bank of America for some unknown reason probably because they were everywhere in California. Never used them for business just personal crap.

LA River

When I go online to my bank account to see negative numbers (remember math in school when they told you a negative time a negative gives positive results, not so) the bank is always trying to have me start a new business account. So maybe I should start one but what?

LA County

Too late for the dot.com stuff, my days in computers are really old school, insurance or car theft (auto dealers) doesn't fit my ideas. A few months back I got interested in birding and read various books on the subject. Never thought you could make a living watching birds or counting them. So that niche has been taken.

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New businesses need an expanding market place where items are plentiful. So I looked around where I reside and thought what is there here that they are plenty of? Well ecotourism is a really big business, world wide people spend thousands to travel around the world to see species that are in danger of being eliminated.

Los Angeles Harbor

Then Shazam, the light bulb blinked in my sailboat cabin, only have one 80 watt bulb but a single flash in the darkness can be very bright. I could start a ecotourism scheme where we tour the world  observing the Homeless.

My idea sorted of copies bird watching. You start by buying one of my to be published books or follow me on the web at "Homeless Watching.com" The fun and enjoyment of this sport is quite remarkable

Now you must realize that this is in a prenatal development stage, a work in progress. If you have ever scored baseball you would know you need a score sheet to record all the items of play, balls, strikes, hits and outs (all that shit that baseball nuts love). My homeless score sheet allows you to record location of sighting including GPS data and value points plus bonus points for added descriptions.

San Pedro Pacific Street

For those without throw away income simple observation can be a simple starting point. Lots of expensive equipment can be purchased later such as hidden microscopes and cameras or video. I personally try to look like a bewildered bird watcher carring my binoculars and a Nikon with telephoto lens.

Old School Pedro


I am currently trying to develop a scoring system takes in the difficulty of the sport and how rare the sighting is.

For example a simple homeless sitting on the curb is less points that one at a city bus stop bench but if the homeless is asleep the score is higher during daylight. Homeless on a skateboard is a higher score that one on a normal bicycle.  One must be careful with wheelchair scoring. For example is person just using it as a chair or he/she really needs it. If you try scoring the wheel chair and later find the device was later loaded in to a white land Rover you loose one thousand points. Bicycles get one point no matter what the size. Please multiply score with each addition bike if complete. Extra loose wheels and frames only get half points.

If is hard to score personal cell phones and bling watches and for now I will leave those for later.

Some dumpster divers appear to be homeless but may not be. Also the size of the backpack can also be misleading.

Trailers and shopping carts are also hard to score correctly. same goes with tents and sleeping bags. With shopping carts the farther the distance from the store removal the higher the score. Trader Joe's is a higher point value that the 99 cent store/dollar tree store.

Old City Hall

Plastic bags, suit cases and cardboard boxes scoring will come later.

Distance traveled and expenses involved while building your homeless life list is weighted. If you are on a business trip and see a homeless person pissing in front of your hotel your score would be less that if you traveled to that destination just to add to your life list. We want to promote travel for the sake of seeing more homeless not just traveling.

Camping at the Post Office

Homeless signs can be homeless made as opposed to home made or printed at the local library. If the homeless has a ink jet printer he or she may be an impostor. Pets also can be tear jerking but remember he/she may be renting the dog.  A person with a well fed pit bull is borderline. One dog is one extra point, each additional dog is two points, cats are 3 points each. Birds should not be included for points as these maybe just pigeons looking for their own handout.

                  This will be a first edition so you might what to collect this rare item.

        The Next Blog (LIFE SCORING FOR HOMELESS WATCHING) IS UP NOW

    All Photos in this Blog were taken by my self the Author