Learn How to Write a Busiess Plan
Writing a business plan can be a daunting task the first time you do it. So many would be great entrepreneurs have a great idea and need funding for it, some even self fund or boot strap their business and they all have big plans. They will tell you how big their company will be some day or why you should invest your money but most do not have a formal business plan.
Just this last week I was presented with a new idea that I really thought was excellent and the entrepreneur was clearly working hard and committed to getting the product to market. She was excited, smart and full of enthusiasm and of course wanted me to invest in her idea.
Now here is the reality the venture could be huge or a huge flop and that risk is always present so the risk is not why I turned her down. Nope it was the lack of a business plan that did it. She even had great packaging and was lined up to do trade shows and meet some perspective buyers from major retail chains. The risk is still there so I must make a risk assessment as an investor.
How I make a risk assessment
This is pretty simple I know the results if the product totally flops that is a 100% loss right? Yet what a business plan will tell me is what I can expect to see in gross sales and return of investment at various levels of success. How can an entrepreneur expect investment if they can’t even tell me the return I will get and in how long if things go right, mostly right or moderately successful. I need the numbers for all those out comes to weigh the risk reward, without that I can’t even get started.
I also may not understand the market, the supply chain, the competition and the total market cap and opportunity in a new niche. I need it spelled out and I need to understand the marketing that the company will use to communicate its message to the world. Additionally if I am to put my money or even just partner with assistance/consulting with a company need to know their vision. More importantly I need to know they understand their own vision. All of these things are addressed with a proper business plan. Even if you don’t want investors you need a business plan to be sure you have your own vision right, your own risk/reward ratio strait and to help you make the right decisions.
How do you do it? Easy turn to one of my heroes in business, Donald Trump for some free assistance. Trump University offers a free How to Write a Business Plan course you can sign up for and lean a ton from. I also recommend the excellent free business templates available from Score. They have templates for business plans, financial work sheets and other needs.
Filed under Business & Marketing | Comment (0)Protected: The easiest way to make money online
Establish your expertise by self publishing
If you are in business today, especially if you are in the online information business, doing public presentations or perhaps consulting then being seen as an expert can really increase your chances of success. One thing that can really help you be seen as an expert in your industry is to be an author of a book. Now I mean a real honest book that you can touch and feel not an eBook. eBooks are great for selling information but they certainly don’t carry the clout you get from publishing a hard copy book.
The problem in the past is to self publish was expensive and quite risky. Often you had to order 1000 copies or more and this led many early self publishers to end up with a closet full of books that never sold. All that has changed today with something called “print on demand” technology. Just as it sounds basically every time an book is order it is individually printed and shipped. This makes publishing low cost, low risk and open to anyone that want to take the time and effort to write a book.
One of the best Book Publishers for the would be self publishing author is called Author House. They offer a exceptional array of services to help new authors get started and with just a bit of effort anyone can become a published author today. It definitely takes some effort to write a book but the reward is usually well worth it. Thanks to new services like Author House it is an option for more people today then ever. For move information visit their website for more information at www.authorhouse.com
Filed under Business & Marketing | Comment (1)Native Americans are responsible for the US Constitution
Well not completely but on some levels it appears to be so. Let’s take a trip back to grade school and remember what we were taught about Native Americans or “American Indians” (though some consider that term politically incorrect). The short answer was that the Americas were sparsely populated with many tribes and they where not a very advanced civilization. This is just yet another example of our school system teaching dogma rather then facts, and you would think liberals would be all over this one?
The reality is when Europeans first came to the Americas they were heavily populated and very advanced in many ways. Recent archaeological evidence is that both continents were heavily settled and the Indians, in both North and South America, had, for millennia, shaped the land to fit their needs and desires. This includes even the rain forest that lies in Amazonia. It was the diseases that the first visitors that decimated the populations and left them in the sparse state that we pushed onto reservations a few centuries later.
Despite this they may have had more to do with our Constitution then the Magna Carta or Greek Influence and by a large margin. Apparently people known as the Haudenosaunee (ho-dee-no-SHO-nee) or Iroquois as we leaned to call them in school and were made up of six tribes that inhabitated the area in and around today’s upstate New York had a “Great Law of Peace” that specified among other things,
- A council would rule the tribes and their business between each other but power was granted to the council and could be with drawn and the council only made decisions on external matters like peace treaties
- The council had no power over the inner functions of tribes
- The council could not declare war with out a referendum from the people
- Every man was considered free and would never subject himself to the will of any other man
Does this sound familiar? It should and in fact one of the biggest issues that Europeans had with American Indians is that they had no respect for any “class structure”, they believed no man was better then any other man simply due to a birth right, possessed wealth or title. For this they were both feared and despised. Much of the revolutionary idealism that spawned the American Revolution came directly from colonists interaction with Native Americans.
This is yet another sacrifice that went into creating what was once the most free nation on the planet. Today many of the constitutional freedoms our founders died and risked all for are either gone or may soon be.
To learn more about these true roots of America’s freedom I recommend the book - 1491, - New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus - by Charles C. Mann.
Filed under Business & Marketing | Comment (0)Trust Deed Investing a Creative Investment Strategy
Right now the mortgage industry seems to be in melt down but real estate investing has a proven track record of making great returns even during recessions, that is when properly leveraged. In short trust deed investing is basically when private investors loan money that has real estate offered as collateral against the loan. Trust Deed Investing is nothing new; banks and private individuals have been loaning money against hard assets like land and other real estate for centuries.
In essence trust deed investing is like taking the position of being the bank in a mortgage vs being the slep paying interest for 30 years.
I recently asked to review a website for Diamond Bay Investments who specialize in trust deed investing. They are currently advertising returns of 12%. Investments like these are not with out risks and you should of course consult with your financial advisers before investing with any company or investment.
That said trust deed investing has a high potential rate of return and it is protected by a hard asset (land, property, buildings) so it is worth considering. It is not a place I would advise anyone to put all their money but it is one underutilized investment option that is a great part of a long term balanced investment portfolio.
Filed under Wealth & Investing | Comment (0)What are you doing now that 2008 is here?
Don’t worry this isn’t one of my “get your financial butt in line” posts, well mostly not. I am just wondering what everyone is up to in general, like what you are watching on TV, etc. Personally I have been enjoying Celebrity Apprentice quite a bit. Check out this video showing what a snake that Omarosa is. Got to be one of the biggest sleezes known to man in my book. To me this is why so many people are looking to build a business of their own, to buy a business or just to find some way to be independently employed. I mean who really wants to deal with a corporate environment that has far more then its’ fare share of Omarosas.
I have also started out on a diet. Last year I elected to not go Elk hunting because honestly I was afraid I might die somewhere alone on the mountain. The last time I went I had a great but tough time. I came home with blistered and even bloody feet and was sore for a week. Back then old CostCutter was in much better shape. This year going out into the unforgiving wilderness alone seemed like a big risk. Since I am way to young to give up that type of life I am getting back in shape. Who knows, perhaps when I loose my weight I will come clean and say who I am.
Additionally I am breathing some new life into a few of my businesses with some creative ideas and looking to hire a few new creative and talented people. The search for talent is really tough right now, I just listened to this podcast on the shortage of talent in the market today and I have to really agree with the guest speaker. While real estate investing today seems to be a buyers market there is no question that in the talented and skilled employee market it is a sellers market. If you are good, have a proven track record and can deliver then today you call the shots. If you are in the market for a new position and are not finding a lot of opportunities I recommend you get in touch with a good executive recruiting firm.
On another note all together I really think the 2008 presidential race is off to an interesting spin. Ron Paul still seems to be shunned by the media despite basicly finishing in a three way tie with 10% of the vote while Rudy was at only 4%. Typical!
Today we focus on New Hampshire, I predict the following for the republicans.
1. Rudy does aweful and everyone says it doesn’t matter.
2. John McCain wins and his national numbers rock because people are lemmings.
3. Mitt Romney does OK and comes in second and they say it is over for him.
4. Ron Paul does far better then the 8% the polls say he can expect. Comes in third and gets ignored again.
Such is the stupidity of our media and the political process.
Moving on the the Democrats - Hillary has had a break down practically coming to tears because she was asked how her day was mostly because Barock Obama is now surging in New Hampshire and she is on track to loose again. Of course the news is making a huge deal of Barock’s massive support. His followers indeed love him, they laud his speeches and vision yet the news people can’t seem to find a single supporter that actually knows his position on any of the big issues. America, please wake up, support who you want but for the love of God know why you support them.
My personal view I think Hillary is a disaster for this country as our President, her health care plan, tax hikes and some other policies will only serve to make worse a recession that is flat out coming to hit us hard over the next few years. That said Barock is worse, he want to tax more, spend more and make government even bigger and more intrusive then Hillary. However he can speak very well, avoids the issues and is very likable. This is why Hillary is in trouble, even her supporters realize Barock is going to be harder for any Republican to beat and are picking the best candidate to win in November.
I personally think Hillary is unelectable and if she looses the primary (which I predict) Barock is probably a 2 to 1 favorite just in odds to win the presidency. In other words a Hillary loss in the primaries is bad for the republicans while her victory would be very good indeed for them.
My predictions for the Democrats in New Hampshire are as follows.
1. Barock wins by at least 10% of the vote and we hear all the liberal papers cheer how it is finally time, “for an African American president”. When the country has been “ready” for a long time and we are all really tired of being called racists in subversive ways by the communists running our press.
2. Hillary gets slammed, perhaps even damn near ties with Edwards. This is spun as the “end of Hillary by the right” and some how a “right wing conspiracy” or “anti women” thing by the left. The left leaning media will hold out all hope for Hillary and talk about how New Hampshire and Iowa “don’t really matter”. Of course they really don’t it is just that the media just spent the last 30 days convincing us how much they do indeed matter.
3. Edwards does ok in 3rd but the media talks about how that is “hope for his campaign” even though there are only four Democrats in the race. Idiots.
4. Bill Richards gets a clue and drops out.
So what are you up to in 2008? What do you think of our coming elections?
Filed under Politics | Comment (0)More on investing in copper pennies
Heck why not one more post about pennies. Yesterday I did a pretty long post extolling the virtues of pre 82 pennies as a simple and small investment. Again I want to restate this isn’t a “way to get rich” but it is a really cool and fun little inflation hedge and about as risk free and low cost as any form of investing has a right to be.
Anyway I found a really cool little resource that reinforces my point that 95% copper pennies that are still in circulation are a pretty hot little item to set aside right now.
The site is called CoinFlation and I have put it into my book marks so I can always find it in the future. One of the coolest tools is a coin melt value calculator that tells you the exact value of coins when you melt them down. They have two calculators one for silver coins (pre 65 dimes, quarters, halves, etc) and one for coins currently in circulation. To give you an idea of how “valuable” pennies made prior to 1982 are. I decided to run all the comparisons at a 100 dollar face value. So lets look at some of the out of circulation silver coins that you can’t find today out side of a coin shop, some of today’s other coins and their “real value” and then compare them to the humble copper penny. Of course this is “raw
- 100 dollars face value of silver dimes, silver quarters or silver half dollars is worth $1017.81 at today’s current metal prices. They are all the same because each represented a fraction of an ounce of silver as in 1/10th, 1/4th, 1/2 ounce etc. So these coins represent about a 917% return of investment just in metal value for those who had the forsight to pull them from circulation in the 60s, 70s and for a bit of the 80s when they were still around.
- Now if you took 100 dollars worth of today’s quarters you end up with about $18.33 in raw metal value or an 81.7% “instant loss”.
- How about 100 dollars worth of today’s pennies (anything minted after 1982) you get a whopping $58.80 in raw value or a 41.2% “instant loss”.
- What about 100 dollars worth of Kennedy Half Dollars? Everyone loves those right? Same formula as the modern quarter. Melt em down and you get $18.33 in raw metal value or an 81.7% “instant loss”.
- What about the nickel? There is a lot of copper in a nickel and it is a thick coin so it does ok. Try a raw value of $113.75 or an instant return on investment of 13.7% Perhaps storing nickels ain’t a bad idea either?
So how does our humble penny add up against all this? Today’s metal prices for copper and zinc put the value of 100 dollars in pre 82 pennies in raw metal at $193.61. That is easy math an instant ROI of 93.61%! Sure the penny isn’t currently holding pace with those old silver coins and it will never catch up to them. As copper goes up you can bet silver will to. Yet that is my point you can’t just go around picking up a dozen silver dimes a day any more but you can pick up a good amount of pennies from prior to 82.
Sure even with copper at say 5 - 6 dollars a pound you would need a lot of pennies to be worth even say 10,000 dollars. Yet just think about it, each day you sort and toss some into a jar. Painless and foolproof, what do you have to loose other then a bit of space?
Filed under Business & Marketing | Comment (1)The reason I invest in silver coins
I have already written a bit about my affinity in my post, What I Blow Money On, but today as a follow up to my article on investing in gold it seems like a good time to talk a bit more about precious metals before we move on. In addition I am going to provide you some of my own rules on buying silver coins.
First let me lay out my case for why silver is a good investment. Simply put all metal commodities are doing very well right now and will continue to do so. Heck even copper is getting rather expensive. Back in the 80s I remember copper going for about 70 cents a pound. Today it is hovering in the range of 2.80-3.00!
Many people see silver as a “poor man’s gold” and I think that is rather short sighted. First I don’t care if silver is ounce for ounce far cheaper then gold if you have 1000 dollars worth of gold or 1000 dollars worth of silver you are holding the same value. Now silver and gold are true brothers in my opinion and the price of one is indeed tied to the price of the other. While they are not completely pinned to one another and the Hunt Brothers debacle will skew numbers from the 80s and early 90s there is a strong correlation (precentage wise) to movements between the two. To get an idea of the correlation look at the two graphs below which cover 1997-2007…
As you can see again while not lock step with each other the two metals perform very closely to each other on the open market.
So why not just buy gold? Understand I am not saying to not buy gold it is just that I truly “invest in gold” I buy through my broker and I buy both actual gold, gold funds and stock in gold companies. I have nothing against doing the same with silver but I prefer to actually buy, hold, touch and own my silver mostly in the form of coins.
Why? Two answers….
First, because I love silver coins, they are history, they are beautiful and they are something material to me that I can look at and appreciate. In this way Silver Coins offer me something that 95% of my other investments can’t. Sure I can look at my stock certificates but there isn’t much fun in that. Most of my other investments are just numbers on paper then don’t have the feel, look and glitter of my coins.
Second, because investing in many different things and in many different methods creates diversity. The beauty of silver coins (at least of the type I purchase) have most of their value in the silver basis price. I can “cash in” anytime I want and do so with no paper work or government red tape. I can literally walk into a shop, sell my coins and walk out. Holding silver coins is like holding cash money with out the cancer of inflation upon it.
So what rules to I have for investing in silver? Here they are but understand these are no ones rules but my own. A few you really should follow but others are more about your risk tolerance and your personal view about numismatic values.
1. I do not belong to nor do I buy my silver in any kind of “club” or any highly advertised coin supplier. In particular Littleton Coins is among the worse places of all to buy coins. Their prices are generally 40-90% higher then local coin shops in my area. I buy from local merchants or only via mail order if the price is as good or better then local pricing.
2. Directly related to the above, I am not on any type of auto shipping or monthly arranged purchases. I buy what I want as I find it and as I want it. My silver investments are truely incremental investments outside of my conventional portfolio.
3. I never buy “junk silver coins” which are large unknown lots of mostly 1960s and older dimes and quarters. Most are worn so badly you can scarcely read the dates.
4. While I don’t buy junk coins I also don’t buy highly numismatic valued coins. In other words I never buy a coin where the bulk of the coins value is based on how “collectible” or “rare” it is. Such values are highly subjective and only represent a “real value” if you can find a buyer. Try buying a 200 dollar silver dollar this week and see what the same shop will pay you for it (with out a big jump in price) the following week. This is the one rule that I understand when others break, this is my personal preference but I have my reasons.
5. What I do buy are Silver American eagles as they are priced right about bullion prices. I also buy high quality but common Franklin, Kennedy and Walking Liberty Half dollars which are still quite affordable and made of 90% pure silver. My other big favorites are the more common Morgan and Peace dollars. These coins to me represent a nice mix and all are very affordable and most importantly highly tied in value to the silver basis.
So what is my advice? Well I think it makes a lot of sense to buy some silver over the years and just have it as a hedge against inflation not to mention an investment that remain liquid in both the best and worst of times. The beauty is you can buy say a 10-20 dollar coin just once or twice a month if you don’t have a lot of extra money to invest. Even that over the years can build a nice collection and a lot of real value. I personally buy between 20-150 dollars a month of silver and have been doing so since 1995. As you can see by the graphs in this article that has been a very good move.
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