Buyer Beware


The Internet has allowed each of us to have a tremendous amount of information at our fingertips. We are also bombarded with opportunities to make money: working from home, be an Internet marketer, do nothing and get paid, etc. While each of these might be true, buried in all of the real legitimate opportunities lies some traps.

Here are five ways to recognize the traps in the midst of legitimate opportunities. Beware of:

(a) The company requests your resume and a picture – what does your picture have to do with anything?

(b) The company has success stories but when you Google the companies name you can’t find any other information about them – people normally blog about great companies, so you should be able to find some information out there about a given company.

(c) The company doesn’t have a website – if they are making that much of a difference shouldn’t they have a website?

(d) The company says “we want you to collect the money for us” – these are usually illegal operations, be careful.

(e) The company promises that you will make a truck load of money but never discloses its product or service – a business with no product or service is usually a scam, beware! Remember good companies always under promise and over deliver.

In searching for income opportunities please do some due diligence by checking to see if any of these five concepts are true.

The Jobs Creation Act


Many of us credit former President Bush for the Jobs Creation Act. I guess he does deserve some credit for this. But have you taken advantage of the Jobs Creation Act? Well if you haven’t, there is still time and I will share with you how you can take advantage of this Act.

The Jobs Creation Act has three elements: identify, fulfill and retain.

First, identify a business opportunity or an unfulfilled need of people. Second, develop a means whereby to fulfill the need or take advantage of the business opportunity. Third, execute the fulfillment process and then retain the client or advantage received from the business opportunity.

This process used to be the advice given to people who had a job and needed a little more money to make their “ends meet”. Now this process can apply to many more people; especially for those who are currently unemployed or in danger of losing their jobs. Everyone should take advantage of the Jobs Creation Act.

Creating Culture Within Your Business
There are tangible things that are needed in business like equipment, labor and supplies but then there are also some intangibles that can make or break your business. In many cases it is the intangible aspects of business that actually become more important than the tangible items. One such intangible aspect of a business is the culture within it.

Culture is defined as the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization. Culture is everything to a business. It is the culture of the business that your customers will experience. If the culture of your organization is professional, then your customers will have an experience that imposes rigorous rules and regulations. The culture in your business should be people friendly, free flowing and orderly.

I could go on all week about creating culture within your business but I will sum it up in four principles:

Cast the vision – In order to create culture within an organization the vision must be cast or articulated to those who are to participate within the organization. Make certain that the vision is communicated in its simplest form even if it is complex.

Sell the vision – It is easier to sell the members of the organization the vision when the leader is also sold on it. The leader must believe that this is the vision for the organization and push through the difficulties that will be encountered while managing the voice of the naysayer.

Resell the vision – From time to time the leader will need to recast the vision. It is important to find different methods to resell the vision. Some suggestions include: having people within the organization read a book regarding the topic, a weekend trip, social gatherings, internal slogans that support the vision, incentives that promote the vision and meetings.

Clarify the vision – Please know that along the way the vision my have to be clarified or adjusted slightly. Therefore, it is important to allow the organization’s members to ask questions so that everyone is clear. Clarity of vision will also come through reselling the vision.

If you want to create a certain culture within your organization follow these four fundamental steps and overtime people will either buy into the vision or they will leave the organization.

Decisions

Life is full of opportunities to make decisions.  Should I go right or left, forward or back, take this job or that job?  Each decision we make shapes our experiences and path of life. Therefore it is important to make the correct decisions.

One of the decisions some must make is whether to pay down or invest their money, especially with tax refund time upon us. Which one should you choose? I would say, do both.  There is a win-win situation if you have the ability to do both. Let’s take a look at a scenario for a moment.

Aaron has $400.00 left over each month after all of his monthly obligations have been met.  He has an outstanding credit card balance of $5,000.00, which is also part of his monthly obligations.  If Aaron uses the $400 each month to pay down his debt, he would retire his debt faster but two things work against him: (1) while paying down the debt there is no money to invest and (2) he might be missing a golden opportunity to take advantage of investments as they materialize. 

But if Aaron were to split the $400.00 reserve evenly between investment and paying down his debt he would enjoy the benefit of retiring the debt a little faster and investing.  Suppose his $200.00 monthly investment generated $500.00 per month, what type of position would Aaron find himself in? Aaron could use the profits from the investment to retire the debt even faster. 

So think about the dual benefit in your next financial decision!

Money on The Table

This year put your money to work for you more efficiently than you have done in the past. This is one of the best things you can do. We consistently work for money. However, for many of us, money never works for us.  It doesn’t matter how much or how little money you have, invest it wisely and watch it work for you.

With the unemployment rate reaching record highs, the stock market seemingly on a recovery run and a little fear in the market, it is a great time to invest.  Invest what do you mean?  Try some alternate investments with the cash you have laying around. 

Who has cash lying around?  More then likely you do! If you have been separated from an employer that offered a retirement plan that you were apart of, then you have money lying around.  Let me show you how to move some of those funds from simply lying around to working for you.  You have the power and opportunity to do some great things this year with the money you have on the table.  Contact me at info@frederickotowles.com. 

The Key to Investing

There are some things that professional investors know that many of us don’t because of their experience, education and instinct.  But there is something that places us all on the same playing field, and it’s not a huge secret – its cash.  The key to investing is having cash available.

Cash is the key because it gives us options.  Take a look at your portfolio and determine how much you have invested in the market.  Are you investing more than 75% of your disposable income?  If so, that might be a mistake. Maybe you should think about only investing 50% of your disposable income in the market. 

In 2010, keep cash on hand in order to take advantage of great investment opportunities as they present themselves.

Are You an Entrepreneur or Entrepreneurial?

Typically we have been led to believe that being an entrepreneur is the first step in financial freedom. While reading Robert Kiyosaki’s Cash Flow Quadrants, I realized that this is not the case at all. Please don’t get me wrong. Becoming an entrepreneur is a very bold move that should be commended. However, we must also understand that being an entrepreneur today many times means that you are a free worker with many more responsibilities to handle.

This post is designed to make us aware of what an entrepreneur is and to identify someone who is an entrepreneurial.

A person who is entrepreneurial is one who has a vision which reaches a little further than an entrepreneur. He or she is able to organize and manage the business. This person is also able to assume the risk of the business. Someone who is entrepreneurial does not allow the business to manage or dictate to them. An entrepreneurial mindset is one that looks to expand the business while building organizational leaders to manage the day to day operations.

It is important to decide which of these you are. Although the functions of both are similar, there is a distinct difference in the time and energy expended for each one. The entrepreneurial person will spend a lot of time developing the business model, structure and culture in the beginning of building their business. However, this person will seek to expand and identify leaders within the organization or from the outside who can manage the day to day operations, thus lightening their load a bit later on in the life of the business. The entrepreneur will always do what he or she knows best, handle to the day to day operations. Sometimes entrepreneurs can suffer from health issues as they put in very long hours, deal with consumer pressure and get very little rest or down time.