How I Will Be Rich

Archive for the ‘Entrepreneurial’ Category

I wrote about how to get some momentum going in a new business. Joe and I have some ideas for some start up companies and we are so close to getting them rolling. One thing we need to do is get organized. We don’t plan on jumping on too many projects all at once but what we need is some business plans. There are a couple reasons why it is important to have a business plan when starting out. The first, and most important, is so that you can map out every step you are going to take along the way to reach your goal. I want to have every little detail preconceived before we ever spend a cent. I want to know before hand, the places that we are going to need to spend money so I can plan a budget to get started. I want to have backup plans if one idea doesn’t quite work out. The other reason to have a business plan is so that you can convince people to lend you money. It makes it very difficult to borrow money and obtain startup capital if people have no idea what your plan is. Investors want to see a plan of action so that they, themselves, can determine whether it sounds feasible and profitable.

Here are some things that are important to include in your business plan:

1. A Summary – Explain real quickly what kind of company you are starting, what you are selling, who’s going to manage it and how much money you’re going to need.
2. An Organized Table of Contents – This is pretty self explanatory. This will help you keep all the pages of your plan organized and help future readers jump around if they need to.
3. A Description of your Product – This is where you want to get detailed about your product. Explain everything your product can do, all possible alternative uses, what it will look like, how it will feel and any other relevant piece of information about the product you are pitching.
4. Analysis of your Market – This is where you lay out all of your research. Explain who your competition will be, who your target market is and what territories you will cater to. This is also where you give sales projections. Figure out how much you anticipate making and what the trends in this industry have been.
5. Marketing Strategy – What is your grand strategy to make it to the top. What steps are you going to take to market yourself? You are probably jumping in to an industry that is already occupied with competition. What are you going to do to stand out and rise above as the superior competitor in your industry? Explain it.
6. An Operations Plan – This is where you explain how you are going to run a company. What are your customer service philosophies? Who is going to do what? Explain how you are going to run this company.
7. A Financial Plan – Talk about the numbers. How much will things cost, how much are you going to sell for and how will you take care of accounting?
8. A Management Plan – Really dig deep and define the roles of the management. This is a very important step because you will need some sort of structure when you are first starting out. People will need to be accountable and it needs to be clearly defined in the beginning who will be accountable for what.

As you can see, writing a business plan is no easy task. There are a lot of steps and a lot of research must go in to them to do them properly. Once done correctly, however, you will have a clear set map of what’s to come. You’ll have something to show for your company and, hopefully, investors will want to take a chance on your little start up.

-M

Joe and I were having this discussion yesterday about how powerful the momentum of something can be. I’m talking about in business, in blogging, in pretty much anything in life. Think about it in terms of blogging. When you have a blog and you are real small and no one knows about you, that’s when you can use the most help. That is when you want people back linking to you and talking about your blog and your posts. Once your blog sees some success and things are already really rolling, that’s when people want to back link you and talk about you. So when you can really use the help the most, it’s the hardest to get and when you really don’t need the help anymore, it’s when it’s most abundant. It’s funny how things work that way.

Think about the rich and famous. When they go to a restaurant, they probably don’t even have to pay. The restaurant wants them to be seen there. Now if a homeless person who is starving walks in to the same restaurant, what do you think is going to happen? They are going to get kicked out because they can’t pay. The person that needs the most help, can’t get it and the person who needs absolutely no help eats for free.

This same concept can be applied to business as well. Joe and I are in the process of setting up a powder coating business (A process for finishing metals) and we are struggling to find resources for the material and the equipment that we need. We can’t get favorable pricing, it’s hard to source the equipment that we need, and who would want to do business with a little start up like us? We’re not proven yet. The shutter company that we work for, on the other hand, has been in business for over ten years. All of our vendors give us favorable pricing, we basically do business on nothing but word of mouth now and everyone wants a piece of it now that things are cruising along.

So we’ve got this upstart business that no one knows about. We are the low men on the totem pole for our vendors, we’ve got to prove ourselves to customers and we’ve got to get some momentum going behind this company to really succeed. How do we do this?

Here’s some ideas to really get things rolling in a new, unproven company:

1. Write a business plan. I think this is one of the most important things you can do. It is also one of the most overlooked things. If you have a business plan, then you’ve already mapped out the whole process of how you will succeed.
2. Set up a website. Create a simple website that includes pictures and a description of what you do, some personal info about yourself, contact information and possibly pricing (Depending on the business).
3. Send a letter of introduction to as many potential customers as you can. In a powder coating business, this means custom motorcycle shops, custom truck shops, trailer shops, commercial builders and any other companies that have a need for painted metal that we could potentially land long term contracts with.
4. Fake it until you make it. This is a term I hear Joe use all the time. It may be a psychological or a self fulfilling prophecy type thing. Think of yourself as bigger than you are. Pretend you are the Donald Trump of your industry. When you talk to people, you want them to think you are a somebody who is already successful. If they think you are successful, they will probably also think that you are good at what you are doing.
5. Make business cards. This is a simple and cheap way to get your name out there. I think Joe found a place where we can get something like 1,000 business cards for $5.00. You can’t beat that. Once you have them, hand them out to everyone. Hand them out to people who may not even be in need of your services. If someone asks them if they know someone that provides the service, maybe your name will come up.
6. Become an expert in your field. This is very important, not only when people start asking you about what you do but for promotion reasons as well. Just like in blogging, you can write articles on your area of expertise for other sites and then throw in a link or contact information. This will send people to the web’s expert on subject.
7. Use Craigslist or other free classifieds. This is easy enough and it’s free. Post your services or products on a free classified website. It’s probably not the best marketing but it will generate some business.

Let the effects of these various ideas all generate a buzz. Once some business starts coming your way and you get a reputation for good quality and good service, word of mouth will come in to play. From then on, it’s a snowball effect. Starting a company and generating a buzz can be easy and cheap. Hopefully some of these ideas will get you pointed in the right direction.

-M

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Since the beginning of this blog, Matt and I have been swimming with ideas for future business plans and directions we would like to travel. By starting and writing this blog, we have been given an opportunity to discuss some of the ideas we’ve had while considering various strategies to achieve them. Matt has written posts How to start a Business in California (Pt.1) and (Pt.2) that have showed the preliminary steps that we have been starting to take. These posts only show the tiniest pieces of the pie that’ll need to be taken care of while starting a business. These are very important and necessary steps to complete, but an equally required point to cover is the planning and strategic side of the equation.

A vital tool to figuring out the strategic side of any business idea is knowing and understanding the acronym: SWOT. First, after fully planning and figuring out what will go into your business idea on paper, the next step is to analyze the company’s SWOT. While going through this process you’ll be able to focus on the strengths and realize weaknesses early so the business plan can be amended. With this well-rounded business plan and a completely understood approach, you’ll be able to safely move towards getting the ball rolling.

The acronym SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This is an analysis of the business plan that covers both internal and external factors. By using this tool, you’ll be able to see the pros and cons before even putting any money into a project.

The Strengths and Weaknesses categories are both internal factors. These are pretty self-explanatory, but they are the aspects of your business that you would be directly in control of. Some of these would include the proper management of staff, managing cash flow, knowing the company’s capacity of supply and demand, and the overall efficiency of your operations.

The Opportunities and Threats portion are external factors. These two are influences outside of your control and are normally external environmental factors. By pointing out these aspects of the business, you’ll be able to try and cradle the Opportunities to make the most of them and, hopefully, avoid the Threats before they occur. A few examples of these are changes in the economy, new technologies, outsourcing, industry/customer needs, and weather issues.

All in all, after using the SWOT analysis on your business plan, you’ll have a much better understanding before contributing a large start-up financial investment.

I’ve decided to compile a list of blogs that I like. This is a list of sites that if read and followed may make you wealthier, healthier and happier. I know it seems like a lot but if you have a good blog reader, you can subscribe to them and then once a day browse through the titles and just come back to the posts that grab your interests. Originally I was going to make a list of sites to make you wealthy but due to the fact that we’ve launched a new site about health, I thought it would be appropriate to give you some blogs that I read regarding health and happiness as well.

Wealthy

1. Andy Beard -Search Engine Performance, Wordpress, Niche Marketing and Affiliate Marketing Tips
2. Blogging Away Debt – A great site about making money and reducing debt
3. Blue Hat SEO – Tips for marketing and Search Engine Optimization.
4. Blueprint for Financial Prosperity – Earn More, Save More, Live More
5. Boston Girl’s Open Wallet – A single 30-something Bostonian who is seeking enlightenment and control of her Net Worth.
6. Calvin Warr – Fun marketing ideas
7. Clever Dude – Personal finance advice.
8. Consumerism Commentary – More personal finance advice.
9. Copyblogger – Copywriting tips for online marketing success
10. Daily Blog Tips – Another great site that will help you make money blogging.
11. DoshDosh – Helping You Make Money Online
12. Entrepreneurs Journey – Another great site about building wealth through blogging.
13. Finance is Personal – Finance advice posting about 3 times a day. Always fresh material.
14. FiveCentNickel – More personal finance advice.
15. FreeMoneyFinance – Another great site for personal finance advice.
16. Frugal For Life – A site about frugality and spending wisely.
17. Get Rich Slowly – Some more great business and finance advice from a fellow business owner.
18. Hannes Johnson Dot Com – Make money online marketing on the internet.
19. Home Based Business – Online home based business opportunities. Free home business ideas.
20. I Will Teach You To Be Rich – Follow his advice and he may make you rich. (The first finance blog I started reading)
21. It’s Your Money – A Site about wealth building and personal finance.
22. John Chow – This guy wants to teach you how monetize your blog (By any means necessary).
23. Kyle’s Cove – Technology, blogging, WordPress, SEO, and making money online
24. Lazy Man and Money – Another great site for more personal finance advice.
25. Make Money Online The Quick and Easy Way – Watch the journey of one women going from stay at home mom to internet millionaire.
26. Matt Cuts – Great SEO information
27. Mighty Bargain Hunter – A site about being frugal.
28. Money, Matters and More Musings – Another great site about wealth building and personal finance.
29. MsDanielle – Internet Marketing, PPC, and Online Social Networking
30. My Affiliate Journey – Affiliate marketing
31. My Money Blog – A great site about wealth building and personal finance.
32. My Personal Finance Journey – Another really good site about wealth building and personal finance.
33. My Two Dollars – A place to discuss money for the rest of us.
34. North x East – A site with a lot of blogging tips.
35. Not Made of Money -A Site about saving money and frugality.
36. One Man’s Goal – Watch one man make the journey to become a full time blogger.
37. Online Marketing Blog – A blog about online marketing.
38. Personal Finance Advice – The name says it all.
39. ProBlogger – Want to make money blogging? This site can teach you how.
40. Pronet Advertising – Read about one man’s experiences in online marketing.
41. QuickSprout – Tips for marketing and Search Engine Optimization.
42. Search Engine Land – Learn about Search Engines.
43. ShoeMoney – Another site with ideas on making money on the internet.
44. Simply Thrifty – A site about being frugal.
45. StockTradingToGo – A great resources for investing tips.
46. The Digerati Life – Personal finance advice from a great writer.
47. The Simple Dollar – All sorts of personal finance advice.
48. Young and Broke – More personal finance advice.

Healthy

49. DietHack – A great site for health related articles.
50. FatBlokeThin – Losing weight the Buddhist way.
51. HealthMad – More tips to live healthy by many authors.
52. Healthy, Fast and Cheap – A site about cooking foods that are healthy, fast and cheap.
53. Her Active Life – A great site about eating healthy and excersize (great tips for men and women).
54. He’s Fit – A great site about eating healthy and excersize (great tips for men and women).
55. Live Live… Organics & Your Health – A great site with tips on healthy living.
56. Nurture Your Life – Another great site with tips on healthy living
57. Raising a Healthy Family – The name says it all.
58. Ririan Project – Tons of great tips to live a healthier lifestyle.
59. Sexual Health Buzz – A site about staying healthy while being sexually active.
60. Spine-Health – For those people who suffer from neck and back pain (Like I often do).
61. The Diet Pulpit – Eat healthy.
62. The Final Sprint – A great health site with a major focus on running.
63. Total Wellbeing – Healthy living for the body and mind.

Happy

64. 43 Folders – Personal productivity and ways to make your life better.
65. Brip Blap – A blog about life, family, career, personal finance, career, productivity, health and the environment.
66. Dumb Little Man – A group blog of people giving tips for anything and everything.
67. Genius Types – Creative Life and Money.
68. LifeHack – Another Site about pretty litterally, everything.
69. LifeHacker – Literally, A site about everything.
70. Pick the Brain – A great site about self improvement.
71. Scott H. Young – Another great site about self improvement.
72. Steve Pavlina – Personal development for smart people.
73. The Blog of Author Tim Ferris – A great site with tons of advice about everything.
74. The Consumerist – A Site about everything to make life better.
75. The Happiness Project – The name says it all.
76. The Positivity Blog – Be happy and be positive. Great Advice.
77. The Thinking Blog – Expand Your Mind.
78. ZenHabits – A site about organizing your life and becoming a happier person.

That’s my long, comprehensive reading list. As you can see, I read a lot of blogs. Feel free to comment on who else deserves to be on the list and what not. Check out these blogs and enjoy!

-M

This is part of my ongoing theme “The 8 Step Process to Being Rich“.

I’ve always wanted my own business. Right now I’m in the process of setting one up. Some people might say, “Matt, you work for your family business, why do you need your own company?” To those people I say, “It’s not the same” and then I stomp my feet and run away. You see, the truth of the matter is, I still have a boss, I still can’t set my own hours, and I still don’t have the number one benefit of owning my own business. “What’s that?”, you might ask. Well I’ll tell you. The number one benefit to owning your own business is that the amount of income that you make is solely up to you. It’s bound by the amount of work you put in to it and your own ability to make it succeed. I believe I have the ability to make a business successful. I’ve studied it in school, I’ve read all the books on it and I’ve practiced it. Unfortunately in the family business, I don’t get a fat pay raise every time I do something to increase the profitability or the productivity of the company. Maybe one day I will if I take over the company but right now, I still feel a little held back on my true potential.

I wrote about the process of starting my own business and I’m currently right in the middle of that process. Joe and I are setting up a general partnership and opening a bank account so that any income earned off this site or future sites will get banked and reinvested in to future endeavors. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not making much off this site right now. The business plan that we are in the process of forming, however, is designed to be very profitable.

Those are my thoughts on starting a business.
The final step to be rich is Step 8: Buy a Home.

-M