Many of you do not know how to invest, which is the reason why I decided to work on a step by step guide to walk you through the typical process of investing. Since there are thousands of investments available to for you to invest in, it can become a daunting task if you do know what to do or where to start. Grab a cup of tea, relax, sit back, and learn how to take control of your financial life because nobody else cares about your money as much as you do!
1. Conduct Research
It’s vital to research the potential investments available to you, but most importantly…
If you pay off your mortgage and own your home free and clear you will accomplish the dream that many Americans have in common. Yes, having a mortgage can be a huge burden, but to think that paying it off is the best alternative is unwise. Why? Because of the opportunity cost, which means you chose to engage in one endeavor or action you cannot do something else. For example, if you watch channel one’s show XYZ at 8 p.m. tonight means you cannot watch channel two’s show LMN at 8 p.m. tonight. In your situation, if you pay off your mortgage early with the extra cash you will not be able to use that cash to save for your child’s college education, invest for retirement, acquire a business, or some other goal. Investing your extra cash toward one of these goals means sacrificing your other dreams. So which one do you choose?
Most people are poor because of the lack of knowledge and lack of education about creating wealth.
How much time are you devoting to understanding accounting, tax laws, and investment concepts?
When it comes to getting rich, the rich get richer because they have knowledge about money. They understand how money works. They understand finance. They understand tax laws. They understand what drives profitability. They know how to spot lucrative opportunities.
The rich get richer because of their habits. It is the outcome of their actions that leads to higher earnings because they understand how to make money and how to grow it. Reality is that we become what we repeatedly do. If you want to become rich, start learning how to invest, start learning how to read financial statements, start learning about how other people have made fortunes with their businesses and replicate their steps. It’s simply a matter of investing the time to learn about the concepts and then tacking action immediately.
So stop blaming your parents. Stop blaming your friends and co-workers. Stop blaming Congress. Stop blaming the President. Stop blaming the super rich. The rich will always get richer because they make different decisions than people who are not rich. They invest the time to study money, they think about making money, and they work towards making money.
If you are currently struggling to get ahead, devote a specified amount of time on a daily basis to learn a competitive skill to earn higher wages or start a business that will help you and your family become financial independent. Think BIG.
One of the best ways to make more money, or increase your productivity, is to know exactly what you will be doing every single day when you get up in the morning. The secret to being extremely productive lies in how you structure your daily schedule. Each night, right down a specific schedule for the next day. The schedule must balance your life between work, exercise, hobbies, and other engaging activities.
One day’s example in the following order:
Jogging (45 minutes)
Breakfast (45 minutes)
Work (4 hours — If self-employed you dictate my own schedule)
Lunch with a friend outside of home (1 hour)
Work (2 hours)
Fun Activities (2 hours; a movie, or the ballet, a simple walk, a museum, a business seminar, research potential industries for new investments, etc)
Dinner (1 hour)
Work (3 hours)
Prepare for next day (15 minutes)
Working out or jogging makes you more productive and energized to attack intense work during the day. Personally, I always make the time to enjoy myself and have fun EVERY single day. This makes me more productive and I also feel happier. An interesting discovery a while back was that I’m much more productive and energetic when I’m wearing a button down dress shirt, nice trousers and dressy designer shoes. Find out what works for you and arrange a daily schedule in advance to become more productive while enjoying the things you are most passionate about.
As you can see, it’s not only about work, it’s about creating a healthy balance in your life that will lead you to greater happiness and income.
The more experience I gain from starting my businesses, the more convinced I become that financial success and making money is much easier to gain when you spend your time doing what you love. For instance, I once launched a business that I thought I loved. It was three months later that the business did not take off as planned that I realized it was something I was not passionate at all. I was just chasing some quick dough. It was a lost investment of money, time, and energy; nevertheless, I was an invaluable lesson because learned to focus only on what I truly love. It’s a cliché but it’s true.
On the other hand, if you are passionate about your job and you take pride in doing the work and get very excited to get up in the morning to show up at the office you are more likely to stick with it and work more intensely than your competitors. This is what will lead to to become extremely successful and financially wealthy. It’s inevitable.
A great lesson I learned when I was starting out building companies is that most of my companies that failed was due do the fact that I was not really in love with the industry I was in. I was only doing it for the money and the interest and desire to continue with the business quickly disappeared. It was until I started a business that I was passionate about that my income started to grow as I enjoyed working at it every single day.
Some advice: You need to figure out how to monetize your passion. THE best example I can give you is Lauren Luke. Many women love to sit around in front of a mirror and try new make-up on but Lauren Luke monetized her passion by making tutorial videos on youtube and getting a total of about 122 million views worldwide. She soon started making money with advertising on her videos that lead her to bigger opportunities. It is rumored that she is now a millionaire running her own make up line and other beauty accessories. Not bad for doing something she loves, right?
Ray Kroc wasn’t the first person to make a cheeseburger but he was so passionate about it that he turned a local hamburger joint into the world’s biggest fast food franchise.
Maybe you want to start a clothing line, maybe you want to start a consulting firm, a film company or a beauty salon. Only you know what your passion is. But find a way to monetize it so you can provide a better standard of living for your family.
Observation over the years has led me to conclude that the single biggest challenge most people face when it comes to achieving financial independence is the interest expense they pay on credit cards, student loan debt, home mortgages, consumer debt, and other debt that does not make you money.
For example; If you have $20,000, the problem is not so much about the debt itself, it is about the $4,000 per year in interest expense you owe the bank if you had a 20% APR. That is $333 per month in interest expense that you must pay toward your credit card debt WITHOUT EVER PAYING OFF A PENNY TO THE PRINCIPAL. That is money you could have been using to buy quality stocks, bonds, mutual funds, precious metals, currencies or as a down payment toward the acquisition of a business, or even to treat yourself and your family to a vacation every year.
Credit card debt is so dangerous and poisonous that you should do everything you can to avoid it. Do not spend your entire life being a slave to the money you owe because once you have credit card debt, it’s challenging to get out the hole. The first step is to stop using all credit cards, cut on your unnecessary spending until you pay off all debts that are you earning you money.
It all comes down to your choices and priorities you make on a daily basis. Never go out shopping spending your money to please people you don’t even know or like. Never be concerned with what other people say or think about the clothes you wear, the car you drive, or the location you live in. The only thing that should matter to you is investing your money and building an investment portfolio that will be sufficient to cover your expenses and travel during retirement and passing on you wealth to your children and grandchildren so they never have to worry about money and instead they can pursue their passions and live the life of their dreams.
All business ideas are born mainly from personal experiences. The following case is not an exception.
Tonny Shin, founder of lapdawg.com, developed the “LapDawg,” a portable laptop table, after being injured and realizing there was a demand for a more comfortable alternative to placing your computer on your lap while on the couch or in bed.
Tonny’s monthly revenue on average in $15,000 per month. You will be shocked to know that it will took 6 months for Tonny to reach that level of revenue.
When asked, if you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
Tonny: Make sure that you have your business basics down first. Proper business bank account(s), incorporate earlier, record expenses properly, keep receipts, and get your accounting straight. It’s very hard to switch things over later, so invest some time at the outset and get it right.
Although obvious in practice, it’s hard to do as it is detail-oriented work and requires patience. It takes away from the “real” work that needs to be done but come tax time, you will absolutely regret that you did not do this from the start. It becomes much more error prone and harder to do everything at the end of the corporate year.
Tonny is currently developing more products, improving current products, creating more product videos, trying affiliate marketing, and experimenting more with social media. “There is a whole world of exposure methods online,” he states.
Thus, it is safe to assume Tonny is bringing in about $180,000 per year in revenue from his business. After business expenses and taxes, he might take home between $90,000 and $100,000. After living expenses of $50,000 he can invest the remaining $40,000-$50,000. Let’s assume that for the next 25 years Tonny continues to earn the same income. Thus, Tonny spends $50,000 per year and invests the remaining $50,000 for 25 years at a 10% interest rate, compounded (principal plus accrued interest) annually. That means twenty-five years from now, Tonny will have an investment portfolio of $8,224,701!
Please note, that with $50,000 per year in spendable income, Tonny is living and enjoying a great lifestyle. Plus, there’s no financial stress about the future during retirement years, or when Tonny is no longer able to work.
Do you feel you can replicate a similar venture as Tonny’s and generate $15,000+ per month? Absolutely. Think creatively. Brainstorm and focus on your talents, strengths, and personal experiences.
What are you doing TODAY to ensure you have similar revenue from your new business six months from now?
When you think long term, you see how spending $20 here and $40 there can make a huge difference in your personal finances. Since money has the ability to work in your place, the more of it you employ now, the faster it will grow and the more you will accumulate at the end. Along with more money comes more freedom; the freedom to stay home with your kids, the freedom to travel around the world, the freedom to quit your job, the freedom to dine at the best restaurants, the freedom to shop at the best boutiques in Paris and Milan, the freedom to do what you choose to with your time. If you already have a source of income, it is possible for you to start building wealth today. It may only be $20 or $50 at a time, but each of those investments is a seed in the foundation of your financial freedom.
Start saving money you can use in the future to buy assets that will increase in value and make you more money in return. Assets such as real estate, private businesses, stocks, bonds, patents, copyrights, etc. Making the habit of starting to save right now will ensure you become financially independent in the future. If you have extra cash at the end of the week avoid the temptation of going out and spending it all. Learn to make smart financial decisions. Sign up for my free newsletter to educate yourself about managing money and creating long-term wealth for yourself and your family. The key is not only saving your cash but also investing it in the projects that will yield the highest rate of return. The key is saving enough money to redeploy to other cash generating activities.
I know a person who saved almost everything he earned from his job as a mechanic. He lived frugally and only spent money on things necessary for survival. He started investing a few dollars at a time than it became a habit. Today, his portfolio is worth millions of dollars, all of which was built upon small investment amounts.
Get in the habit of setting aside small amounts to be used to invest in assets that will increase in value over time or that have the potential to pay you dividends during the lifetime of the asset. The sooner you start the brighter your financial future will be. No one will do it for you. You are responsible of creating your own fortune. The most difficult task is getting started. Take baby steps and save, save, save, save, save, save… Start now!
Every entrepreneur, business owner, or employee whose job is to sale services must understand how his/her customers think and act in order create effective marketing campaigns to increase clients and revenue. The author, Harry Beckwith, does a great job going into specific detail how this is done. Although it’s an old book , it will definitely help you implement some strategies that still apply today. What did I learn?
Phew. Took me 2 hours to write this post so enjoy!
-Samuel
Business planning is about results. You need to make the contents of your plan match your purpose. Never accept a standard template just because it’s there.
So, what is a business plan?
A business plan is any plan that works for a business to look ahead, allocate resources, focus on key points, and prepare for problems and opportunities. They are also vital for running a business, whether or not the business needs funding, loans, or new investments. Business owners need business plans to optimize growth and develop their business according to priorities, trends, specific goals.
What’s a start-up plan?
A simple start-up plan includes a summary, mission statement, keys to success, market analysis, and break-even analysis. This kind of plan is good for deciding whether or not to proceed with a plan, to tell if there is a business worth pursuing, but it is not enough to run a business with.
Is there a standard business plan?
A normal business plan (one that follows the advice of business experts) includes a standard set of elements, as shown below. Plan formats and outlines vary, but generally a plan will include components such as descriptions of the company, product or service, market, forecasts, management team, and financial analysis.
Your plan will depend on your specific situation. For example, description of the management team is very important for investors while financial history is most important for banks. However, if you’re developing a plan for internal use only, you may not need to include all the background details that you already know. Make your plan match its purpose.
What is most important in a plan?
It depends on the case, but usually it’s the cash flow analysis and specific implementation details.
Cash flow is both vital to a company and hard to follow. Cash is usually misunderstood as profits, and they are different. Profits don’t guarantee cash in the bank. Lots of profitable companies go under because of cash flow problems. It just isn’t intuitive.
Implementation details are what make things happen. Your brilliant strategies and beautifully formatted planning documents are just theory unless you assign responsibilities, with dates and budgets, follow up with those responsible, and track results. Business plans are really about getting results and improving your company.
What is a standard outline?
The following is a standard outline:
1. Executive Summary: Write this last. It’s just a page or two of highlights.
2. Company Description: Legal establishment, history, start-up plans, etc.
3. Product or Service: Describe what you’re selling. Focus on customer benefits.
4. Market Analysis: You need to know your market, customer needs, where they are, how to reach them, etc.
5. Strategy and Implementation: Be specific. Include management responsibilities with dates and budget.
6. Management Team: Include backgrounds of key members of the team, personnel strategy, and details.
7. Financial Plan: Include profit and loss, cash flow, balance sheet, break-even analysis, assumptions, and business ratios.
Writing a business plan is not easy, especially if you have never written one before. Hire an expert who has done it before to save yourself headaches, wasted time, money….