Monthly Archives: March 2011

Mar 11 2011

Richard Branson on Winning Customers’ Trust

The British billionaire on how his publicity stunts helped build the Virgin brand.

Editor’s Note: Entrepreneur Richard Branson regularly shares his business experience and advice with readers. What follows is the latest edited round of insightful responses. Ask him a question and your query might be the inspiration for a future column.

Q: I recently became my own boss, joining forces with my brother, who has an established operation. I am very much enjoying this experience, but the challenges of finding ways to draw attention to our business and earn customers’ trust are extremely tough.

Drawing a distinction between a businessman (who usually has money as his goal) and an entrepreneur (whose goal is to create), if you had to choose one element, or perhaps strategy, that defined your success as an entrepreneur, what would it be? — Randall De Freitas, Trinidad & Tobago

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Mar 11 2011

Ready, Set, Launch

Five steps for getting your business up and running successfully.

If you’re reading this, it means you’re interested about starting a business. Now it’s time to focus your entrepreneurial spirit using the following five steps.

1. Look for that “aha” moment
Sometimes the inspiration for business ventures comes from what’s around you–or from what isn’t. Take Entrepreneur magazine’s home base of Irvine, Calif. The lack of fast-food restaurants in the business area meant treks across town for lunch, prompting two young men to ponder, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could get some good food delivered?”

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Mar 10 2011

The World’s Billionaires

It’s been a tough year for the richest people in the world. Last year there were 1,125 billionaires. This year there are just 793 people rich enough to make our list.

The world has become a wealth wasteland. Like the rest of us, the richest people in the world have endured a financial disaster over the past year. Today there are 793 people on our list of the World’s Billionaires, a 30% decline from a year ago.

Of the 1,125 billionaires who made last year’s ranking, 373 fell off the list–355 from declining fortunes and 18 who died. There are 38 newcomers, plus three moguls who returned to the list after regaining their 10-figure fortunes. It is the first time since 2003 that the world has had a net loss in the number of billionaires.

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Mar 7 2011

Re-Evaluating The Perception of Success

My whole life my family and friends all told me that if I focused on financial security then I’d be able to live ‘comfortably’. By comfortably I mean being able to afford a typical house, to send my children off to a good college, to drive a descent car and to occasionally enjoy a nice meal out. For the most part, ‘living comfortably’ means to live an average lifestyle with little worry about going broke.

Well, as we advance more and more into the digital age, we are finding that our collective mission isn’t to ‘live comfortably’. That is not enough anymore. We want much more than an moderate level of comfort. We now aspire for financial freedom over financial security.

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Mar 7 2011

5 Tips to Manage Your Money Better

An Inside Look At Investing

There is always an imminent reason not to invest in the stock and bond markets; everyone has one. Rates are too low; rates are too high; Israel may bomb Iran; another terrorist attack may occur; my portfolio has gone down over the last 10 years. I have no confidence. Following the herd and having no confidence seems to be in vogue right now, but those who continue to pay themselves first each month in their 401k’s, SEP/IRA’s, Roth IRA’s, mutual fund accounts, savings accounts, etc., and ignore the media seem to still come out ahead at retirement. Those who asset allocate to achieve the proper risk/reward mix for their situation also tend to come out ahead in the end.

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Mar 7 2011

Wealth-Building Strategies That Work

Wealth-building is NOT rocket science. It can readily be thought of as being a very logical step-by-step process. Continuity and persistence are the keys!

Starting Early:

Giving yourself plenty of time is the surest way to end up in the top rankings of folks who are actually ready for the ‘de-cumulation’ years. That is the time when people transition from the years of ACCUMULATING to the retirement/spending years.

Mathematics:

If people in their mid-twenties would begin a savings and investing program BEFORE spending habits become entrenched look at what can happen:

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Mar 2 2011

Warren Buffets 10 Ways to Get Rich

With an estimated fortune of $62 billion, Warren Buffett is the richest man in the entire world. In 1962, when he began buying stock in Berkshire Hathaway, a share cost $7.50. Today, Warren Buffett, 78, is Berkshire’s chairman and CEO, and one share of the company’s class A stock worth close to $119,000. He credits his astonishing success to several key strategies, which he has shared with writer Alice Schroeder. She spend hundreds of hours interviewing the Sage of Omaha for the new authorized biography The Snowball. Here are some of Warren Buffett’s money-making secrets — and how they could work for you.

1. Reinvest Your Profits: When you first make money, you may be tempted to spend it. Don’t. Instead, reinvest the profits. Warren Buffett learned this early on. In high school, he and a pal bought a pinball machine to pun in a barbershop. With the money they earned, they bought more machines until they had eight in different shops. When the friends sold the venture, Warren Buffett used the proceeds to buy stocks and to start another small business. By age 26, he’d amassed $174,000 — or $1.4 million in today’s money. Even a small sum can turn into great wealth.
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Mar 2 2011

12 Steps to Become a Millionaire

A number of the people profiled in “Millionaires tell how they did it” made their millions as entrepreneurs. But working for the Man doesn’t mean you have to be a wage slave or resort to buying lottery tickets to strike it rich. The trick is to maximize your income on the job (and know when to move on), make the most of your employee benefits and tax breaks and use that extra money to start investing.

1. Keep your eyes peeled for better ways to do your job. Streamline a procedure, shave costs, create a new profit center, become an expert on a specific topic, volunteer for a company committee — anything that will make you stand out as a prime candidate for a promotion or a pay boost.

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Mar 1 2011

Copy Writing For The Web: 6 Facts That Will Help You Write Web Copy that Sells

Do you buy your products and services from a trusted source? These 6 facts will help you build a better online brand and forge effective marketing connections.Do you buy your products and services from a trusted source? These 6 facts will help you build a better online brand and forge effective marketing connections.

Think about where you buy your groceries, your clothing and your electronics. Do you trust these stores, these brands and these products?

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