Bring back Capitalism to America and create JOBS!!

Wall Street has certainly made a HUGE mistake in undermining Americans.  We are a nation of do-ers, based on the principals of revolution.  We do not go away quietly nor sit down and lie dead waiting for others to revive us. America is changing - all by ourselves....We've had enough of lies and manipulations and we're taking the bull by the horns.


"Taking our future into our hands" should be our national anthem. America has to exchange places with China and go back to manufacturing.  We have to bring manufacturing back to the United States.  We're the nation that created the Assembly Line (developed by the Ford Motor Company).  We were the first nation to walk on the moon (Apollo 11 - July 20, 1969). Why is our credit rating as a nation downgrading?  Really?  We've been the best at everything because we put capitalism, innovation and business FIRST!  We're a nation of free-thinkers!


Giving businesses the tax incentives to do so would be a great start.  For instance, according to CNBC, the NUMBER 1 State in the United States to do business in is Virginia.  Virginia is a business - friendly state. Texas is 2nd.  These 2 states regularly battle for first and second place.  Ever wonder why nationally Texans live better than the rest of us?  The state has better business incentives and policies.  Texans aren't suffering the recession like the rest of us.  There's way less unemployment in Texas than the national average (8.4% in July '11 compared to 9.1% nationally).  Texas Governor Rick Perry’s claim that “40 percent … of all the jobs in America were created in Texas” since June 2009 is accurate.


I've been investigating the best business friendly states for my clients quite a bit lately.  The cost of doing business overseas and shipping goods to the United States has risen.  I've been assigned the task of discovering new ways of bringing manufacturing plants back to the United States AND keep them cost effective!!  I'll keep you all posted in my new discoveries....

How most businesses should start to avoid failure

The art of entrepenuership requires real creativity.  This is not just in whatever business venture you choose to start, but in every aspect, including how to live your life while you grow your business.  In my last blog I spoke about using creative self funding solutions.  This entails a few different methods.  All these methods require that you at a minimum gather between $10,000.00 and $20,000.00 on your own.  There's really no way around it, in this day and age, you can't sell a dream and expect everyone to jump on to your bandwagon.  You have to gather funds. We're going to refer to this as the "initial deposit on your future business" or IDFB. There are costs that you need to foot - no one else.  We'll go into depth on this in another blog topic, but you must be prepared to pay for business related costs. 

These factors have to be adhered to:

1. The best way to gather your initial capital is to work for someone else - in other words - have that dreaded job.  It's important.  You need to self sustain your living costs while saving money for your business venture. 
2. Important:  You need to lower your cost of living expenses to save for your business.  Think logically:  Given current economic conditions - whose job is secure?? Primarily the President/CEO/Business Owner of the company you're working for - not yours. 
3. Never give up your dream of owning your own business.  Keep your eye on the ball.  Whatever difficulties you are living in at the moment, remind yourself that they are short-term. Your goal is to make your business venture happen.  Don't let nay-sayers dissuade you.

Let's work on getting your IDFB.  There are various methods to raise your capital. 

• You can work and with your earnings save the money.
• You can gather friends and/or family and make them your partners/investors. (show good faith by depositing their money in a bank account, and give them the bank and account number information)
• Take the money from your 401K.
• If you're eligible to get a refund on your tax return, take that refund and add it to your IDFB. 

There's one thing that I will always advise NOT doing, and that's getting into debt initially to start your business.  Saving is essential to proper entrepeneurial ethics. It looks great on your Business Plan.  We'll address the need for a Business Plan in another topic.  If you need to get more capital to fund your business - NO ONE, I repeat, NO ONE will give you money if they haven't seen that you've sacrificed your own money for your business. 

Why is $10,000 to $20,000 the magic number you need to have?  Because you have to save 10% of what you will need in total to start your business. Most small businesses need $100K to $200K to start.  If you're business plan calls for more than that, you need to gather 10% to start.

Once you've attained your IDFB, then we can talk about how you can effectively make that money grow to self-fund your business.  There are very reputible businesses in the United States that will allow you to invest in their growth and get excellent returns.  We're going to explore in more detail, each one of those business opportunities you can profit from.  Keep tuned for our next blog.

Creative Opportunities to self fund your business AND not lose your shirt

We've all heard the old adage:  It takes money to make money.  Then there's the average rule of thumb that states that a business needs to be functioning for at least 3 years to fully support itself and grow.  In the meantime, an entrepeneur needs to be able to either:
a) Have enough funds available to support the business for the first 3 years until the business starts producing
b) Get enough financing to get the business through the first 3 years before it produces

What if your business doesn't produce in the first 3 years? What if you need more years to produce? What if your estimates were wrong and you need more money than you originally thought?  What if you lose all the money you've put into it?  Worse yet - what if you obtained a loan to finance your business venture?

Going the traditional route to start a business doesn't suit every entrepeneur.  The traditional route involves saving money, applying for a loan, and hoping that all of creation will be on your side as you grow your business.  On the upside, if you have previous business experience, you are more likely to prevail.  Newbie entrepeneurs have to tread very carefully to not mis-spend the loan funds.  You must have extremely good credit, and cash reserves to hold you over for the first two to three years of business to help ensure your success.

This scenario does not apply to the majority of entrepeneurs these days.  Creative procedures need to prevail here.  As a budding entrepenuer, it is imperative that other routes of raising capital be found.  Here's where thinking "outside the box" comes into place.

Music Concerts have always been a great form of entertainment.  However, the larger concert producers have hit a snag in this economy.  Bigger isn't always better.  Live Nation is a huge conglomerate in the music business.  With big arenas no longer filling up to a satisfactory capacity, LiveNation's profits have dropped for the 3rd quarter of 2010 (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118026955).  AEG Live owns and operates all of their facilities and swallows up contractually their artists.  The average human being believes they cannot invest to profit from music concerts - or can they?

There are investment opportunities with smaller music concerts.  There are legitimate smaller concert promoters that organize and promote musical acts and smaller venues.  It is possible to invest with these promoters in their concert acts.  The amount can be as small as $10K to 100K, depending on several factors which include the cost of the act, and the venue.  The value is the short time you need to invest and the return on investment.  You can invest for as short a time as 3 months to 6 months and get excellent returns.

Oil and Gas has ALWAYS been a lucrative investment.  To get the most return on your investment you need to invest early on in the company - before the stock splits, and before they go public.  Getting in on the ground floor is key.  There are legitimate Oil and Gas ventures that during their nascent phase will offer what is referred to in the industry as "mailbox money" returns.  This means that for your initial investment, which can be as low as $16K (depending on the company), you will receive monthly checks as long as the oil and gas wells produce - that could virtually be as long as 50 years. 

Short term/high yield unconventional investing can work.  Just as long term investment in a market that is sure to be around for decades. Doing your homework and knowing who the leaders are is an absolute must. Using these investments while you are raising the money to start your business operations can save you from having loads of financial headaches down the line. These are a few of the great ways you can self-fund your business venture and NOT lose your shirt. 

Tune in next week while we further explore business start-up self funding.