July 1, 2010

Turkey: America's New Armorer?

By Steve Boggs
I just downloaded three "notices of unsuccessful bid" to manufacture defense materiel. Two went to Turkey. Anybody ever heard of Devrezi Plastik Makina, Tarim Gida, or Faymer Makina Imalat Ihracat, Ltd.? No? Wish I could say the same!I started my business in 1986, breaking the most important rule by being grossly undercapitalized. Given that it was to be a viable manufacturing operation, this was a bit tricky. I cajoled my brother into loaning me $2,000 and cried to my momma for some help (she scraped together $4,000). With a wife and two kids, this constituted living expenses for three months. Before the credit card companies figured out what was going on, I had about ten of them adding up to around $30,000 in credit. With these I paid back mom and bro. Here we are, close to our 25th year in business, with six employees (not counting me and my wife) -- three machinists, two welders/fabricators, and one painter/packager/shipper. (Three of...(Read Full Article)