10 Secrets The Uber Wealthy Know And Keep To Themselves About Money

Wealthy people become financially successful because they have learned an array of tricks along the way. In this post, I shared with you 10 secrets the uber wealthy know and keep to themselves about money.

Everybody wants to be wealthy, but it’s a lot easier said than done. It takes a lot of effort and intelligence usually to get really rich. A lot of the wealthiest individuals in the world today started from humble beginnings, but with significant determination and talent, they ended up becoming very wealthy.

There is no secret recipe to becoming rich. You need to develop a specific mindset and approach to everything you do, but truly perseverance may be the only tangible quality that may really make you wealthy.

Here are 10 secrets the uber wealthy know and keep to themselves about money:

1. They Don’t Waste Money Trying To Impress Others

Rich people don’t spend their money trying to impress other people. The idea of spending your money to gain something from someone else is not only a waste of time, but it’s a really bad investment. You are the ultimate loser in the situation.

Wealthy people don’t care about what others think. Your opinion of them doesn’t change their financial or social situation in any way. The fact is, many wealthy people wouldn’t have become rich if they spent their money trying to impress and keeping up with others. They became wealthy by living below their means, making wise investments and avoiding the extravagant lifestyle.

2. Their Spending Aligns With Their Goals

Wealthy people are sometimes referred to as stingy or cheap, but rich people know when, where and how they plan to spend their hard earned money. Many of them don’t often times find the lavish life valuable so they don’t spend on it.

Wealthy people are usually very mindful of their resources. Rich people spend their money on things they care about, and most of them they consider it as an investment and align their spending with their own individual or business goals.

3. They Know The Value of Time

For the rich and wealthy, time is a valuable commodity. Once you reach a certain level of wealth, you realize that the only thing you can’t get more of is time. They value time as much as they value their other resources, if not more.

They hire people to delegate basic tasks that they shouldn’t spend time doing and they do whatever they can to make the best use of their time. The middle class is stuck where they are because they can’t delegate their own tasks. Instead, they’re forced to trade their time in exchange for money which stunts their financial growth.

4. They Rid Themselves of The Poor Mindset

Having a poor mindset can often times drag a person down. If you think like you are poor, you’re probably going to end up poor. However, if you think like a wealthy individual and you’re constantly setting lofty financial goals for yourself, you have a better chance of achieving financial freedom.

Rich people are firm with their goals and mindset. Not only that, but they are extremely disciplined and they are willing to follow through with their ideas to chase success. They don’t wait, they act as soon as they can. Most people usually procrastinate and push things off, but the wealthy are trying to get things done as quickly as possible.

5. They Create Multiple Income Streams

Did you know that the average millionaire has 7 sources of income? Yup, you heard that right. They are wise in not putting all their eggs into one basket. Rich people are not satisfied with just one source of income and they create multiple streams of income. They don’t rely on paycheck to paycheck.

They go well beyond the paycheck. Rich people often have other income streams that come through active streams and passive streams. The super successful are such because they use their cash as an investment or substitute for time and are thus able to generate more income from it.

6. They Surround Themselves With Other Millionaires

Your net worth is your network. If you haven’t heard that, engrave that in your mind. Rich people hang out with other rich people. Wealthy people know that growing their wealth can be done by associating with those who are wealthier than them.

When they associate with other uber successful people, they adapt the strategies and emulate them to their advantage. What do they read? How do they invest? How do they stay motivated and excited? These are questions they ask themselves all the time and they often times study other successful people.

7. They Invest Instead of Spend

People love being consumers, very few love being investors. We have a 1% wealth class in the United States of America because we have so few producers/investors. The wealthy understand that spending money doesn’t really have any tangible benefits for their wealth.

Rich people invest and don’t spend. In US tax laws, investing is favored over spending. Rich people would rather invest in properties that produce cash flow and gain revenue. They would invest in stocks and growing companies to see if they can get a short term return. The wealthy aren’t thinking of the next pair of sneakers to buy, they’re focused on their next big return.

8. They Work Like A Millionaire

Don’t get one thing wrong, everyone who is successful or wealthy works their ass off. This idea of working like a millionaire is often times is misconstruted in the media. All the millionaires and super successful people I know still get up at 6 AM and prioritize their work over everything else.

Wealthy people work by leveraging their time and they try to always be productive. Even if they are super rich and don’t need to work another day in their lives, they are focused on changing the world or disrupting an industry. Financially successful people are consumed by their hunt for success and are willing to put in as much effort as it will take to achieve their goals.

9. They Aren’t Scared To Take Risks

Often times, the wealthy person you know probably wouldn’t be as financially successful as they are today unless they took a massive risk. Was that risk terrifying? Sure, it was. However, to be really successful you have to get out of your comfort zone and take risks.

With business and making money, every move can be a risk. You have to weigh the risks and the rewards of each decision before trying to figure out what the best option for you is. Never be fearful of taking risks because they are extremely important to make the jump.

10. They Never Give Up

My favorite thing to tell struggling young entrepreneurs is this. In business, you don’t have to be right every single day. You just have to be right once. You get one thing right, you can use that to make millions and millions of dollars.

If you knew you just had to be right about something once, how many times would you be willing to give it a shot? The wealthy understand this concept and this is what enabled them to be successful. Many of them will tell you stories of failures they experienced for years until finally one day it clicked. Rich and successful people never give up. They meet failure, learn from it, bounce back and come back even stronger the next time around.

Conclusion

Wealthy people become financially successful because they have learned an array of tricks along the way. In this post, I shared with you 10 secrets the uber wealthy know and keep to themselves about money.

5 Tips For Building Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty is one of the most important metrics that a business can focus on. If they have strong brand loyalty, they will get repeat customers and brand advocates that will help a business generate more revenue. In this post, I share with you 5 tips for building brand loyalty.

Brand loyalty is often times misunderstood by business owners in regards to what it exactly means. To build brand loyalty, an entrepreneur must understand their customers and consistently deliver a great experience.

Brand loyalty is a term used to describe the commitment of a customer towards a business or brand. Would the customer recommend their friends to buy your products and services? Would the customer be willing to stand up for you and promote you on their own? Each action that your potential customers take shows how strongly they are connected with your brand.

Here are 5 tips for building brand loyalty:

1. Make A Positive First Impression

Everyone wants to leave a good impression, especially business owners of a big brand. The first experience will always stick strongly in the mind of the customers so it’s crucial to win them over early on in the sales process.

The worst thing that can happen is to have a negative first impression on your customer, which will most likely cause them to lose loyalty to your brand forever. Setting a good first impression is crucial in building long-term relationships with your customers.

2. Listen To Your Consumers

To reach out to your customer, it is extremely helpful in knowing what they want. This is often forgotten by many companies that cause them to have a disconnected relationship with their customers. Good feedback and customer reviews are useful in building brand loyalty.

This insight and feedback from your consumer base is an essential part of understanding whether or not your marketing ploys and customer service strategies are effectively working. If the ‘voice of the customer’ is made to be an essential part of the decision-making process, it will automatically align the entrepreneur with the customer.

3. Have Great Customer Service

This is important for every customer and entrepreneur. Customer service representatives are often the only human point of contact between the customer and a brand. It is extremely vital for proper brand loyalty to be developed that the customers get great support when they need help.

When a customer likes the service of the company or the brand, he or she would most likely promote your brand. But if they have a negative experience, customers are even more likely to share their poor experience with others. Great customer service doesn’t require a lot of effort, but it goes a long ways.

4. Stay Relevant

For a business to remain popular amongst their customers, they have to really stay relevant. It’s not the strongest or the smartest entrepreneurs that survive, it’s the ones who can adapt to change quick.

Another way to create good brand loyalty is to give your customers something to talk about. Stay on top of trends and keep your eyes open for popular happenings that are taking place. Implement those trends into your business and marketing, which will excite your customers.

5. Promote Your Values And Share Customer Success

Every business has a set of values and code of ethics that they operate by. What are your values and what is the culture that your business is setting? Find a way to implement that in your branding and to share that in your sales processes.

Loyalty is strictly an emotional connection for most. If you can emotionally connect with your customers through your marketing, sales process and support, they are more likely to be loyal to you and your brand. Building and promoting brand values can help a business become more than a product with a logo.

Conclusion

Brand loyalty is one of the most important metrics that a business can focus on. If they have strong brand loyalty, they will get repeat customers and brand advocates that will help a business generate more revenue. In this post, I shared with you 5 tips for building brand loyalty.

8 Successful Women Who Broke Gender Barriers In Entrepreneurship

Regardless of what your gender is, you should not let that hold you back from achieving massive success. In this post, I shared with you 8 successful women who broke gender barriers in entrepreneurship.

They often said that entrepreneurship was a man’s world, but a lot of women have accomplished a ton of great things in the business world as of late. Today, a ton of influential women are powerful leaders or media moguls putting these gender stereotypes to rest.

Here are 8 successful women who broke gender barriers in entrepreneurship:

1. Cher Wang

One of the most successful female entrepreneurs in the field of technology goes by the name of Cher Wang. She is well-known for producing and manufacturing smartphones for other people and eventually ended up launching her own company.

She launched a mobile company that is currently competing against well-known companies such as Apple or Samsung. Her company is called HTC and they produce HTC smartphones that have gained popularity since its first release in 2010.

2. Oprah Winfrey

A philanthropist and of the most famous names in the entertainment industry is Oprah. She is not only a successful talk show host, but she is also one of the most influential and powerful businesswomen in the world.

Her success has reached new peaks in recent years as she was given her own network, The Oprah Winfrey Network. She is considered as the voice of African American women for being an influential person and she has done a lot to empower women everywhere to achieve their wildest dreams.

3. Sheryl Sandberg

They say in every man’s success, there is a woman behind them. This is also true for the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. Sheryl Sandberg isn’t romantically involved to Mark, but she was a valuable member of the Facebook team.

During the early years, she helped exceed the expectations of shareholders and investors. Her main focus was to help Facebook generate revenue and become profitable. Since being assigned that role, she has done a fantastic job allowing the company to be valued nearly $100 billion dollars.

4. Folorunsho Alakija

Folorunsho Alakija is the wealthiest female entrepreneur in the country of Nigeria. She isn’t well known in comparison to others such as Beyonce or Oprah, but her net worth totals around $2.5 billion.

Her first company was a tailoring company, which became very successful after just a few years of hard work. After that, she expanded into various other industries such as the oil and print industry allowing her to expand her wealth in the last decade.

5. Arianna Huffington

Most everyone has definitely heard of the company, The Huffington Post. However, very few people realize that the very successful female entrepreneur Arianna Huffington is the founder of this highly successful publication.

Not only did she build the company herself, she was able to successfully sell the company to AOL for around $315 million. Even after selling the company, she is still playing a big role in the daily operations of the company.

6. Debbi Fields

Debbi Fields is more popular known for her delicious sweets company known as Mrs. Fields Bakeries. She launched this company in 1977 as the founder with one goal in mind. She wanted to be the biggest retailer of fresh cookies in the world.

Since founding her business, Debbi managed to expand her company into 11 different companies and there are over 700 bakeries spread across the world. Her net worth currently is listed at $65 million.

7. Sara Blakely

Sara is the founder of a multi-million dollar undergarment company known as Spanx. She didn’t have very much money to invest when she founded Spanx, but she is a great example of a woman who broke every barrier possible to become successful.

Her idea was rejected over and over again from potential investors when she needed seed funding. It took a ton of hustle and persistence for her to find outlier ways to grow her business. She is currently valued at $1 billion now.

8. Sophia Amoruso

Sophia is the founder of Nasty Gal, an online clothing retailer with an edge and forward-thinking style that is just as unique as the founder. Amoruso is hailed as “Fashion’s New Phenom” by Forbes.

Her company, Nasty Gal, is an iconic brand despite the ups and downs the company has dealt with along the way. She has also released a bestseller called #GIRLBOSS, which contains her memoir, management guide, and girl manifesto.

Conclusion

Regardless of what your gender is, you should not let that hold you back from achieving massive success. In this post, I shared with you 8 successful women who broke gender barriers in entrepreneurship.

Passive Income Streams That Can Set You Up For Retirement

There are a variety of passive incomes streams that you can create, which will allow you to be financially free so that you can travel and do whatever you please with your time. In this post, I share passive income streams that can set you up for retirement.

Passive income streams are sources of revenue that you can benefit from without too much effort – the money just flows in. Passive income that is genuine is considered the holy grail of personal finance. Not all passive incomes are the same, and some take more effort than others to start. But once started, it’s usually a consistent funnel of income every month.

Everything that is passive takes active energy to get it started. The best and only time to put in effort is when we are still young. Creating a sustainable passive income will be beneficial for you when you retire. There are a variety of passive incomes streams that you can create, which will allow you to be financially free so that you can travel and do whatever you please with your time.

Here are the passive income streams that can set you up for retirement:

1. Rental Real Estate

Investing in real estate is an excellent source of passive income. It is also considered a a great way to build wealth even after retirement. There are several options you can consider when you want to embark in your real estate business.

You can start buying rental properties such as commercial buildings where you rent out your space and collect a monthly income without doing much work. You just have to make sure that the monthly rent can cover the mortgage. Another option is to invest in real estate funds. If you do not have enough money to buy a property, invest part of the money to a Real Estate Investment Trust. It is a type of security that you can buy and trade like a stock and earn interest from.

2. Fixed Income Investment

Bonds and CDs are not the most exciting way to generate extra income because of low-interest rates. However, these types of investments can provide the ability to generate passive investment income and may start looking more appealing as interest rates gradually climb.

Not only that, but if you have a lot of money that you’re able to save up, then a fixed income investment might make sense. If you can generate a few thousand dollars a month with your investment, that might be more than enough for you to live.

3. Dividend Stock Investment

Dividend stocks can provide current income and have the potential to generate capital gains . Dividend income is entirely passive and has a low tax rate, which often times makes it appealing for many people.

You just need to have a compelling portfolio, and it will help you to generate revenue even in retirement. Dividend stocks are great because as the company releases earnings, you also get paid. Depending on how much you invest, dividend stocks can be extremely beneficial.

4. Franchises

If you are not yet quite ready to build a business from scratch, but you have the money to invest in an existing business concept, you can find a franchise. Franchises are nice because you don’t have to develop a business strategy from scratch since the business already exists.

By obtaining a franchise, you really just follow a manual or handbook that the corporate office gives you. Most of the time, the franchise will be a well known brand and people will already know what you offer. Just find a good location, hire people to run the business and collect the profits from the sidelines.

5. Peer To Peer Lending

A new radical way to invest money is through something known as peer to peer lending. Peer to peer lending involves you acting as the bank and giving someone money in exchange for interest that you collect. You can lend to others through lending cooperatives, tons of online platforms that exist nowadays.

With this type of a loan, you take the majority of the risk, but if the individual does come through and pay you back, you’ll collect a nice return on interest. The interest rates you can charge are higher than what you are likely to receive from a bond or certificate of deposit. You will also get your return on investment more quickly than you would with anything else.

6. Annuity

An annuity is an ultimate passive income generator. With the annuity, you have to invest a lump-sum amount to an insurance company and they pay you a set amount of money every month for the rest of your life.

For those of you who are really looking for an easy passive income stream for retirement, this is the ideal one. There is literally no work involved and it’s extremely passive.

Conclusion

Passive income streams should be started at an early stage. These income streams can give you financial independence even after you retired. In this post, I shared with you passive income streams that can set you up for retirement.

6 Content Marketing Strategies Most Businesses Overlook

When content marketing is done properly, it can have a significant impact on your business. In this post, I share 6 content marketing strategies most businesses overlook.

Content marketing strategies are a crucial part of modern businesses succeeding in the online landscape nowadays. Solid content marketing strategies will enable you to attract attention, generate leads, create or increase online sales, expand your customer base, increase brand awareness, and engage with your users.

Many businesses often ignore various types of content marketing strategies because they think it’s too difficult or too complicated. Not only that, but many business owners also feel that content marketing doesn’t work that well so they decide to skip out on it. However, now more than ever, you need to do whatever you can to stand out in the digital world.

Here are 6 content marketing strategies most businesses overlook:

1. Infographics

Infographics are an innovative method to convert common pieces of information into an attractive and more visually appealing image. It is easier to understand, people would much rather share this friends and it’s an extremely useful tool to communicate concepts with others.

Infographics can significantly benefit your business by increasing brand awareness, making your content go viral, increasing search marketing results and having your business buzz on social media. In this highly competitive and information-flooded global marketplace, you don’t have a lot of time to capture your audiences attention. Visual is the way to go because it’s a lot better at converting people than text.

2. Blog Articles

Blogging has been known as one of the best content marketing strategy for years now. However, I was shocked to find out that many businesses think that blogging is going to die out eventually. As of right now, blogging is still a VERY successful content marketing strategy.

Blogs will not only increase your website’s SEO, but it will give your brand more authority, create better customer relationships and drive more traffic to your website. You have nothing to lose with blogging for your business. Not only that, but inviting other influential bloggers to guest post on your site can generate you even more eyeballs on your website.

3. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. Influencer marketing just involves asking or paying an influencer to share or promote your content with their networks.

Content promotion with the use of influencers has become wildly popular within the last few years. This is a growing industry for content promotion, especially on social networks and is particularly valuable for brand awareness. The next time you have a new product you wish to launch, getting in touch with a handful of influencers might be a great idea.

4. Storytelling

Stories are interesting and they do a great job to gain trust. Publishing an engaging story on your site, either your own or someone else’s point of view will help you become closer to your target audience.

Storytelling can be done in any form. You can share stories on your blog in the format of words. You can leverage your video channels such as YouTube to release videos while telling stories. Not only that, but you can even use the power of images for infographics or slides to tell a story as well.

5. Surveys

Surveys are a great way to get actionable feedback from your audience. This feedbacks will help you improve your business and find better ways to target your audience.

Survey’s are a useful tool to evaluate and refine the content of a core marketing funnel. It will give you insights about broad questions that will support the content. These broad questions include the following:

– Reach – Is my content attracting the right customers?

– Reputation – Is my content positioning my brand in the way I intended?

– Results – Is my content influencing the decisions people make?

These questions can be answered by conducting a survey. All you have to do is hold a sweepstakes or a giveaway in exchange for people giving you information about your business.

6. Shareable Information

The main reason why businesses use content marketing is to reach out to their target audience or clients. Your goal is to always create content that is easily shareable amongst your potential customers.

Find ways to take the most important pieces of information to your business and create a viral strategy out of it. Success in content marketing is all about creating content that people care about and are willing to share with others.

Conclusion

When content marketing is done properly, it can have a significant impact on your business. In this post, I shared with you 6 content marketing strategies most businesses overlook.

How To Create Multiple Streams Of Income

It’s never good to have all your eggs in one basket. I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying and this is why having multiple streams of income is extremely crucial. In this post, I share my tips and strategies on how to create multiple streams of income.

Whether you’re an employee or an entrepreneur, you don’t ever want to be limited to just one source of income. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

When creating multiple streams of income, you want to include a combination of passive and active incomes. Having multiple income streams is extremely beneficial for protecting yourself during any crisis. Not only that, but diversifying your income streams will also allow you to earn more than someone who just has one stream of income.

Here are a few advantages of having multiple streams of income:

Advantages Of Multiple Streams Of Income

– When one part of the business hits a sales slump, the secondary revenue source can help make up for the loss.

– Creates a steadier income picture throughout the year and helps avoid borrowing for regularly occurring expenses.

– Can open up various types of opportunities and doors for you as an individual since your immersed in multiple revenue generating projects.

– Peace of mind when going to sleep every night knowing that if something were to happen to your primary source of income, you still have a backup plan.

Here’s how to create multiple streams of income:

1. Start A Mindmap

If you want to start a new stream of income, create a mind map. Indicate your primary business, product or service that you want to expand or branch off of to generate additional income.

2. Categorize Your Income

In starting a new stream of income, classify the types of income you can generate from your existing businesses. You can offer new products, services, or you can start affiliate marketing or advertising to generate new income sources. Also indicate other possible types, those that you think are less likely to generate income, but just a possible option.

3. Generate Ideas From Categories

Within the categories that you have created, you can come up with possible earning sources. You can start creating a book, coaching, offer courses, freelance services, training, advertising and affiliate marketing services. The possibilities are endless. Not all business will be able to develop ideas, but you as an individual can come up with multiple ideas even if they are outside of your existing business.

4. Focus On Creating A Passive Income Stream

Passive income type of businesses may take a while to generate income, but once created, the income generated will be continuous and your time involvement within the project will be minimal. There are a plethora of ways to create a passive income stream, it just depends on where your connections, expertise and passion lies.

5. Invest Rather Than Save

Many people make the mistake of giving the bank all their liquid cash so that they can earn pennies on the thousands of dollars they keep in their savings account. Don’t fall for that trap! What does the bank do with your money? They take your liquid cash, invest it and get strong returns while paying you pennies on the dollar. If you have cash available that you don’t need immediately, find ways to invest it!

6. Create One Stream At A Time

Don’t be hasty in creating a ton of income streams at once. Take one step at a time and create one at a time. Multiple income streams are often time consuming and confusing. Focus on creating one income stream so that your time and concentration is undivided. Avoid jumping into several ideas all at once.

7. Wait Before You Start Another Income Stream

When you have created an additional stream, wait until it’s up and running before starting another stream of income. You need to ensure that your first stream is systematized and fully running before you start working on your next one.

8. Drop What Isn’t Working

The toughest part of being successful with having numerous income streams is knowing what isn’t worth your time. If you’re spending too much time on an income stream and the return isn’t worth it, drop it. On the same token, if you’re spending a ton of time and you can’t get an income stream off the ground, that’s another reason to drop it. You do not need to keep around non-working income streams. You need your time and effort to be focused on the income streams that generate actual income.

Conclusion

Adding income streams may take time, but when you create them strategically, you can set yourself up for the rest of your life. In this post, I shared how to create multiple streams of income.

8 Signs You Need To Start Your Own Business

Starting a business is a risk on its own. Possessing the skills and knowledge in business is critical if you want to start your own company and if you want it to succeed. In this article, I share 8 signs you need to start your own business.

Just do it.

It’s that simple. For anyone who wants to start a business, the first thing to do is to initiate the process.

“Quit Talking, and Start Doing.”

This is probably the motto of every successful entrepreneur. For aspiring entrepreneurs, they often times get stuck between wanting to start and the level of doubt that clouds their mind. So what is stopping them? Sometimes lack of finance, sometimes the lack of knowledge and other times it’s the free of trying something new.

If you want to be a successful entrepreneurs, you can’t simply wait for forever to start. There is no such thing as “too young” or “too old” in business.

Here are 8 signs you need to start your own business:

1. You Can Explain Your Idea Succinctly

If you can explain your idea with confidence over and over again that means that you have enough understanding to start taking action. If you fully understand the ins and outs of your idea, then most probably, you know how to build it, execute it and monetize it.

The entrepreneurial journey may be long and sometimes lonely, but you will get there faster if you figure out which direction you should move in. Lock in on an idea and don’t worry about improving before you start, improve as you go along.

2. You Have Emotional Maturity

Every entrepreneur who started a business has asked themselves if they are mature enough to run a business. As a business owner, you have to be ready to lead others and take accountability for the results of your own actions. That alone requires a level of maturity.

If you are confident that you can handle the responsibilities of launching your own business, that’s a great sign. If you are unsure, don’t worry about it and work on that specific area and improve yourself before you take action.

3. You Have A History of Getting Results

Ever since I can remember, if I put my mind to something, I always delivered. Whether it was trying to be the best handball player in elementary school or trying to learn to build a website at the age of 8, I got it done.

Doers are usually succeeders. If you have a long history of being the best at what you do and figuring things out when it’s tough, starting a business is right for you. Entrepreneurship is just about being more persistent than everyone else.

4. You Were Entrepreneurial As A Kid

If you have displayed entrepreneurial spirit, even as a kid, then, there is a good chance that you were meant to be an entrepreneur all along. Some of the successful entrepreneurs today have shown their entrepreneurial skills many years before they ever launched their company.

Think back to your childhood and think of all the times that you took the initiative on your own hands and made magic happen. That’s a really positive sign that your brain has been wired from a young age to pursue your own venture.

5. You Have Great People Skills

Being an entrepreneur will require you to frequently interact with other people. Whether it’s employees, potential customers, press contacts or partnership opportunities, you’re going to constantly be engaged in conversations with other.

Part of that battle of being successful as an entrepreneur is being able to convince people to do what you want. If you want to start your business, you need to have an excellent understanding of other people’s intents and efficiently communicating your ideas with them.

6. You Are A Visionary

A visionary is someone who can take an idea and see what the end looks like while taking it there. Visionaries are rare talents to find, but if you feel like that is something you’re great at, starting your own business is a phenomenal idea.

Some of the most successful visionaries in our time have been able to build game changing business. Steve Jobs for example was the leading visionary behind Apple, which is one of the largest corporations in the world.

7. You Are Creative

Creativity is a key skill that many successful entrepreneurs share. While this isn’t a vital skill to become a business owner, every business needs a creative at the forefront of it. Successful entrepreneurs can create new things and find unique solutions to existing problems in a marketplace.

This is a pre-requisite for those who are aspiring to have their own business. For your business to stand out and succeed, you need to have something special that you can offer that others fail to. Entrepreneurship is all about doing things in a way that hasn’t been done already.

8. You Despise Authority

When I was 15 years old, I was working various minimum wage jobs after school. Within 2 years, I had worked 10+ jobs. I was either quitting or getting fired from every job that I was taking on. What was my problem?

I didn’t realize it then, but now I know why. I hated authority. I wasn’t one to take orders and have my freedom limited by someone else. If you feel the same way or have felt the same way at some point in your life, entrepreneurship is the right path for you.

Conclusion

Starting a business is a risk on its own. Possessing the skills and knowledge in business is critical if you want to start your own company and if you want it to succeed. In this post, I shared with you 8 signs you need to start your own business.

7 Actionable Tips For Selling A Business In 60 Days Or Less

From selling 2 companies in the last 5 years, I’ve learned a lot about the process of buying and selling companies. In this post, I share 7 actionable tips for selling a business in 60 days or less.

While selling your business shouldn’t be the reason why you start a company, you should build a company that can be sold if necessary. Your business will become more efficient by making some changes needed to get it ready for sale.

Many people wonder why they should sell a business if it is profitable or successful. There are many answers that go into it, but I’ll share a personal experience with you guys. When I launched StatFuse, I had no intention of selling the business. In fact, I thought I’d be working on changing the educational world for the next 10 years with this company.

However as time went by, I realized that there were certain hurdles that we were struggling to overcome within the business. We had a glorified plan of what we wanted to accomplish, but getting there wasn’t easy. We didn’t have the experience or the connections to make it happen in education. Thus, it was time to sell the business to someone who did have the resources to make it possible. When it comes to selling a business, there are tons of different things that can justify a sale.

Here are 7 actionable tips for selling a business in 60 days or less:

1. Become A Planning Geek

If you want to sell your business, it is best to have an exit strategy. Most investors and business plans require you to create an exit strategy for the business from the early days of inception. It is key that you outline the goals of the business, list your firm’s assets, give a brief description of your compensation plan to reward your key team members and have an overall understanding of how you want this transaction to work.

The more prepared you are before you actually seek to sell the business, the faster you’ll be able to get a deal done. Create a really solid plan for how the transition between the older ownership team and the new ownership team will work and share details on how you want to be involved in the business in the future. These are all extremely crucial factors that will determine the value of your business.

2. Get Your Business Buzzing

If you want to sell your business, you need to first get as much attention and hype towards it as you possibly can. Create a marketing campaign or something that glorifies your business and outlines how successful it is. When I had made the decision to sell StatFuse, we did this by launching a massive PR campaign.

We started getting featured on various tech blogs primarily because we knew people who would understand our business were reading about it. Find a way to get your business in the spotlight where potential buyers might see you. If you don’t find your buyer just by doing this, it’s still great because you can showcase your buzz to other buyers you find down the line.

3. Create A Short & Sweet Pitch

Any potential buyer is going to ask for information about your business. It can get extremely tiring taking hundreds of phone calls only to find yourself without a buyer. Instead, create a short and sweet pitch deck that outlines the most common questions that others will have.

For example, people will probably want to the following things about a business if they’re going to be remotely interested in purchasing it:

– Yearly Revenue Numbers

– Yearly Profit Numbers

– Who, What, Why, When (Inception of Business)

– Year To Year Growth Numbers

– The Team

– What Exactly Is Included In The Purchase

– Anything Else Noteworthy

Once you create a pitch deck that answers all these questions, instead of spending hours explaining your business to each potential buyer, you can email them a pitch deck. After they review the pitch deck, they can give you a call with any questions. This reduced the time we spent on the phone by almost 75%!

4. Seek Help From Brokers

Note: Brokers should only make money if they sell your company only. The normal rate that I have seen in the market has been $10,000 or 10% (whichever is greater) as their fee for finding you a buyer. Brokers are a great place to start if you don’t know how to sell your business.

They’ll do the majority of the prospecting, chatting and research as they find you pre-qualified buyers. The key to finding success with a broker is finding a broker that has contacts in the same industry as your business. If you’re trying to sell an online business to a retail broker, you’re not going to get very many prospects out of it.

5. Reach Out To Competitors

People called me crazy when I began reaching out to my competitors to buy StatFuse. However, when I sold my first company which was a multimedia agency, I did the exact same thing. Now you’re probably wondering, why the heck would a competitor want to buy your business?

Think about it. If you can sell your competitors on two things, you’re in a really good spot. First, you tell your competitors by them buying you out, they’re limiting the competition and they have one less person to worry about in the marketplace. Second, if you have a competitive advantage that has set you ahead of the competition to begin with, pitch that to them and show them how acquiring you will make them more successful. Never hesitate to reach out to your competition to see how you can swing a deal!

6. Be Open-Minded

Over the years, I’ve gone through the process of selling a business a few times. I’ll be honest with you, it’s not always easy dealing with others who want to purchase your company. However, the one thing that I’ve learned from my experiences is to always keep an open mind.

By keeping an open mind, I mean that you’re going to get offered interesting deals. Most people go in with the mindset that they want 100% of their deal to be worth cash. I used to be like that too, but by not keeping an open mind I lost out on a lot. The first company I ended up selling, the buyer was offering me stock in his existing along with cash. I declined it, but if I had taken the stock, it would have been worth 250% more than what I got in cash. I would just have to wait a couple years to reap the bonus. Keep an open mind and hear everyones offer out because you’ll be surprised with what you get.

7. Minimize Surprises

Deals fall through because big surprises come from the buyer or seller sides. As the seller, you want to make sure that your entire purchase plan is extremely rock-solid so nothing falls out last minute. One of the biggest surprises usually comes in the form of accounting. If your books aren’t crystal clear or well-done, you’re going to have a tough time selling your business.

I highly recommend hiring a professional accountant who can clear up your books and make sure everything is audited before the buyers team comes in and looks at it. All in all, you want to be transparent and honest about everything. Don’t hide things or create lies hoping that you’ll be able to get away with it. More often than not, you won’t and you’ll be stuck not selling your business.

Conclusion

If you want to sell your business, you should have a strong plan prepared ahead of time. In this post, I shared with you 7 actionable tips for selling a business in 60 days or less.

50 Highly Profitable Small Business Ideas You Can Launch In 30 Days Or Less

Small businesses can be profitable if you know your market and you know what type of business you have the proper expertise for. In this post, I shared with you 50 highly profitable small business ideas you can launch in 30 days or less.

When starting a business, one should evaluate the target market, level of competition, and how quickly you can launch your business. In these modern times, having to launch your business in a short period of time is more possible than ever, with the help of the internet. You don’t have to wait very long to start a business or invest a ton of money.

When starting a business, you need to look for a niche that you are comfortable with, passionate about and knowledgable in. With a little creativity, logic and knowledge in a certain domain, you can become an entrepreneur in no time.

Here are 50 highly profitable small business ideas you can launch in 30 days or less:

1. eBay Seller

If you have a set of products that you can make yourself or can buy for cheap, you can sell them on eBay for a nice profit. If not, you can try sourcing products from a site such as Aliexpress or Alibaba and also sell them on eBay for a nice profit. If you have products you would want to sell, be an eBay seller. This is a highly profitable business that you can launch in just a day or two.

2. Restoration

If you have a talent in being able to restore old items and make them look new and unique, then you can turn it into a business. Restoring different kinds of furniture, electrical items, vehicles and other things is becoming extremely popular today, and very profitable. People want their prized items restored and brought back to new. This is a business you can start as a hobby and flourish as a big restoration company.

3. Sourcing Service

Believe it or not, some local businesses actual hire sourcing services. Your job as a sourcing service is fairly easy as you’re in charge of finding services of products that are needed and can be resold for a profit. This is a simple business you can launch and gain profit with immediately with really no overhead.

4. Personal Trainer

If you love the gym and fitness, you can turn it into a profitable business. I’ve had many friends who went from fitness enthusiasts to fitness trainers and they’ve been very successful with it. Start by marketing your services at the local gym you work at and find a client you can charge monthly. Help them become fit, motivate them, monitor them and give them workout/diet routines that they can follow. This is another small business that you can start with really no overhead.

5. Interior Decorator

If you have a talent in interior decorating, then you can start your own business. You don’t have to be a professional to do this, you can start by offering the service to your your friends and relatives. This kind of business can easily spread through word of mouth and as business picks up, you can create a marketing budget and target bigger clients.

6. Jewelry Making

When we say jewelry, it’s not always about selling gold or diamonds,. You can make a jewelry out of beads, nylon thread and lots of creativity. You can create customized jewelry for kids and other clients while selling your goods through social media sites or an ecommerce platform.

7. Sewing and Alterations

Today, sewing is almost out of trend amongst the millennials, but if you have talent in sewing and making alterations, you can turn your hobby into a business. This is a noble business you can do full-time or part-time to gain decent profit.

8. Advertising Campaign Manager

If you have a talent in online advertising, you can start a business as an advertising campaign manager. Many companies need this kind of service to promote their products or services through social media, videos, etc. Create a case study outlining your success and market your services to businesses everywhere.

9. Blogging

Blogging isn’t just a place for you to share your thoughts anymore. There are tons of bloggers all over the world that are making 6 figures + yearly. Blogs can be used as a platform where you can channel your knowledge and leverage that to monetize it for yourself.

10. Photographer

I’ve had many friends of mine that have been extremely successful in photography and videography. Your only overhead cost with something like this is just obtaining the video and photo equipment necessary to shoot your clients. Niche down and focus on a specific category that you’re passionate about.

11. Copywriting

This is a freelance job you can do at your home, and later on, you can develop it into a business where you can hire additional copywriters to help with your clients. This is another business where you’ll earn a good amount profit with zero investment.

12. Ebook Writing

Ebook writing can become a business, especially for those who work from home. You can write a book on a variety of topics and self-publish it on platforms such as Amazon, iBooks and Lulu. You can earn a passive income from writing eBooks.

13. Fashion Designing

Women aren’t the only ones into fashion nowadays, even men are valuing their fashion sense. You can start your own fashion designing business by designing clothes by focusing on a specific niche. After you create your first products, advertise yourself in social media and wait for customers. This is another highly profitable business that you can start in just a few weeks.

14. Graphic Design

If you are an expert graphic designer, you turn your expertise as a business. Many companies would enlist the service of a graphic designer for their products. Having a good eye for modern design and a creative mind can make you extremely successful when launching a graphic design firm.

15. Human Resource Consulting

Human resource consulting is now a growing field and it can be the start of a new business. Companies are seeking the services of HR professionals to help them with training, compliance, administration and payrolls. So if you have what it take to become an HR consultant, this could be a highly profitable business for you.

16. Online Grocery Delivery

Online grocery shopping is becoming the big new trend today. Sign up with your local grocery in the form of a partnership and create advertisements online. Take your customers’ orders and deliver it to them while earning a profit without any upfront investment, except for the local store.

17. Tutoring

If you have the patience and expertise in a particular subject or series of subjects, you can start tutoring. This can be done online or offline, whichever you prefer, and earn a profit. Over time, you can get more clients and customers from just referrals.

18. Proofreading

Publishing houses are seeking to outsource proofreading to those who can do this task even at home. Some self-published authors also hire proofreaders to help with the editing of their books before they publish it. This can be a great platform for a business to earn money with no investment.

19. Teach Music

To launch your own music business, you do not have to be a professional musician or a maestro. Some young adults who play instruments well can teach others who are just starting out to play music as well. You can do this on your spare time and with a little start-up cost, advertise and soon, you will have your own music studio where you teach others to play musical instruments.

20. Pet Grooming

If you love animals and have knowledge in grooming pets, you can start a pet grooming business at your house. You can begin by grooming your friend’s pet and advertise through social media to promote your new business.

21. Social Media Marketing

Social Media networks are great for small businesses to take advantage, but not everyone knows about it or has the time and skills necessary to keep their businesses active on social media. If you think you have the talent, you can do this for clients clients and charge them for this service. This is another business you can start immediately with very low start up costs.

22. Cleaning Business

This is another simple business anyone can start, even for teenagers who are seeking additional money during their summer vacation. You render your services to those who wants to have the cleaning done, especially the lawns and the gutter and the roof of a house.

23. Virtual Assistant

If you have tried working as an online virtual assistant, you probably know that this niche is continuing to grow. You can capitalize on it and start your own virtual assistant business, offering your service to businesses who need your talent.

24. Dog Walking

This can become a start up business for teens who wants to earn in their spare times. Some dog owners do not have the time to walk their pets because of busy schedules, but you can give this service to them in exchange for payment, of course. This is a simple business that can be highly profitable.

25. Sell Homemade Products

Some successful businesses started at home. Homemade products such as muffins, cupcakes, accessories, and trending items can get you good profits. You can promote them via social media or through word of mouth from your satisfied customers.

26. Content Producer

Almost every business nowadays needs a ton of content if they want to be successful. If they don’t have an in-house team pro ducting their content for them, they hire individuals or companies to do this for them. You can launch your own content production company while hiring more employees to scale it out fully.

27. Sell Plants Online

A lot of people want to look for plants to add to their landscapes, gardens or even the insides of their homes. If you have a green thumb, you can start planting and sell them online through social media or advertising it in your local community. This business is a growing niche and can give you tons of profits.

28. Become An Affiliate

Affiliate marketing is a growing business that you can start yourself. Other businesses will want you to promote their products and encourage sales. You can start this business anytime you want and expand. The benefits of this business is that you don’t have any overhead costs and you don’t even have to create any products yourself.

29. Presentation Maker

This is a very simple business that even young teenagers can do in their spare time. You can make beautiful slideshows for your relatives friends and even businesses seeking your help. Build attractive presentations and offer this as an ongoing service for companies of all sizes.

30. Personal Chef

Many households are seeking the services of a personal chef. Whether you come in and make the food one day out of the week or you create the food at home and deliver it, personal chef services have become wildly popular.

31. Babysitting

If you have been a babysitter yourself, you probably know that babysitting can be a profitable business. You can start this business with your family or friends, where you manage your business and provide clients with babysitters (friends or cousins who want to babysit). It’s like a babysitting agency and this is a business that can be highly profitable.

32. Cake Decorating

If you have the talent and expertise in baking cakes and cupcakes, and the creativity to decorate them, you may want to look into launching a business like this. You can sell your creations via social media or your neighbors and earn a profit from it.

33. Create Custom Clothing

If you have the eye for fashion and designing clothing, this business is for you. You can accept orders from friends and relatives or neighbors to design their clothing to how they want it to be. This is a good business that will help you earn fantastic profits.

34. Pet Sitting

Who said only babies need to be looked after? Pets also need to be taken care of if their owners are going away on a trip and they cannot bring with them their pets. This business can give you solid profits and you’ll get to spend a ton of time with new pets.

35. Gardening Services

Not every homeowner can tend to their garden and many look for a service provider to come in and take care of their needs. A landscaping service is a great idea for your next business. You may have to go out and handle the jobs initially, but after the business grows, you can hire employees to do it.

36. Handyman Service

If you have basic skills for home repairs, you can start your handyman service business. You can do small repair jobs like plumbing or fixing things around the house. Handymen can often charge upwards of $50 an hour for their expertise.

37. Knitting

If you have a talent for knitting, you can start to make this your own business. You can start knitting table cloths, sweaters or other ornaments for people’s houses. You can knit sweaters for people who wants customized knitted sweaters for their everyday use and sell it with a really nice mark up.

38. Translation Service

This service is a fast growing industry online and it can be a business you can start anytime. If you are bilingual or trilingual or happen to speak many languages, you can make this your business and profit greatly from it.

39. Produce Videos

If you have the talent to produce videos, you can start this business almost immediately. Companies want various types of promotional videos to build their brand. These organizations are constantly seeking professionals who can get this job done and this is something you can often times do from the comfort of your home. This business can be highly profitable and it can be launched in a short time.

40. Errand Service

Since most people do not have time to do their own errands, you can start your own errand service and do other people’s errand on their behalf. This type of business has a growing demand and it can be launched in a short time.

41. IT Maintenance

Computers, tablets, smartphones and other tech devices are wildly popular nowadays. With all that technology, many people are faced with technical issues that they don’t have the solution for. You can create your own IT maintenance business where you help individuals with cleanups, downloads, software installation and repair services.

42. Electronics Repair

This is another highly profitable business where you can render your repair services for various electronics. People usually don’t want to throw away their televisions, refrigerators and other electronics when they face issues. If you can offer affordable solutions to their problems, you’ll have an extremely successful business.

43. Household Organizers

For those who have just purchased a home, they often seek the help from various organizers to tidy up their new house. If you can work rapidly and organize a large space rapidly, becoming a household organizer might be a great idea. Though you’ll mainly be working as a freelancer, this business is highly profitable and you don’t need months of preparation to start this business.

44. Massage Therapist

If you are great at giving massages, you may want to consider becoming a massage therapist. You can start your own massage therapy business by giving an in-home service. You will be your own boss and in control of your own schedule.

45. Resume/Cover Letter Writing

This is a writing business that you can start immediately without having to invest a considerable amount of money. You’re in charge of writing resumes or cover letters for your clients in exchange for payment.

46. Dating Consultant

This is a modern specialization that has garnered a ton of popularity in recent years. If many of your friends call you ‘Hitch’, this is a great business for you to start. You help those looking for love by offering them tips, strategies and action plans in order to find dates and successfully have positive dates.

47. Direct Sales Consultant

If you want a really profitable business idea, you can start with direct sales for a company like Avon, Tupperware, etc. These companies give you the opportunity to have your own business by selling their products and gaining profits. This business does not need much time to start, but after some training, you’ll be able to make money by selling direct to your customers.

48. Domain Name Purchaser

This is a really simple business that you can start from anywhere in the world. Look for profitable domains that you can buy and later sell for a profit. You can even take it a step further and start optimizing the websites for the search engines and selling them for an even larger profit.

49. Window Cleaning Service

Window cleaning isn’t easy, but that’s good because it allows you to charge a higher price for it. Many stores and houses are not able to have their windows cleaned so they hire a window cleaning service to do it for them.

50. Travel Planner

I always tell everyone how much I hate dealing with my travel plans. I would love to pay someone to tell them where I want to go and when I want to go with them finding me the lowest rate possible. As a travel planner, your job is to plan out the flights, accommodations and travels in an area for a client.

Conclusion

Small businesses can be profitable if you know your market and you know what type of business you have the proper expertise for. In this post, I shared with you 50 highly profitable small business ideas you can launch in 30 days or less.

10 Teen Entrepreneurs Who Made Millions Before Turning 18

There is no age limit or restriction on when you can launch your own business. In this blog post, I share 10 teen entrepreneurs who made millions before turning 18.

Believe it or not, there is no age limit or restriction on when you can become an entrepreneur. While most people tend to think that they can’t start their own business until a certain age, that’s absolutely not true. When I launched my first business and jumped into the entrepreneurial path, I was 17 years old and still in high school!

It’s never too early or too late to become a successful entrepreneur and become a millionaire. Anyone has the ability to achieve anything as long as they find a problem to solve.

Here are the 10 teen entrepreneurs who made millions before turning 18:

1. Adam Hildreth

Adam Hildreth was only 16 years old when he earned his first million. How did he achieve such a feat? He created a popular social network in the UK known as Dubit, and he marketed it to teenagers. It became a popular website among teenagers in the UK and gained a ton of traction after he launched it. After that, it began reaching major companies such as Coca Cola who began setting up focus groups with members on their site to better market their products to a younger audience.

He was impressed with the success of his first website that he wanted to do more. His aim was to help his peers and he decided to create Crisp. This website aims to protect children from online predators. Today, Adam is one of the most successful digital entrepreneurs in the UK.

2. John Magennis

John Magennis earned his first million when he was 16 years old. He started a web design business in his bedroom with a small investment. This millionaire is a self-taught web developer and web designer.

At a young age, a lot of other entrepreneurs began seeing his professionalism in his work and he became well known in the industry. He went from charging $20 a website all the way up to $30,000 a site as his business grew.

3. Farrah Gray

This young man faced numerous challenges growing up and that is what made him the man he is now. Farrah Gray became an entrepreneur at a very young age of 6 years old. He sold body lotion and hand-painted rocks as bookends. When he was 7, he had a big vision of himself and his business card reads “21st Century CEO”.

At the age of 8, he became a co-founder of Urban Neighborhood Enterprise Economic Club (UNEEC). When he was 13, he established his own business called Farr-Out-Food and that earned him millions in his first year in business. He was one of the youngest self-made millionaires at age 14 and the youngest person to receive an honorary doctorate. Not only that, but he was also one of the youngest individuals to have an office in Wall Street.

4. Nick D’Aloisio

Nick was a self made mobile entrepreneur before the age of 18. He created a smartphone app that was bought by Yahoo for a whopping $30 million. He launched the mobile application called Summly, which was responsible for summarizing various articles that became extremely popular over time.

He self-taught himself coding when he was 12 years old and made a news app during his spare time. This app caught the attention of Yahoo and they bought it from him when he was 17 years old for a nice $30 million. Today, Nick D’ Aloisio is also working for Yahoo as part of the acquisition terms.

5. Jon Koon

Jon Koon was called the fashion financier and he earned his first million before he turned 16 years old. At a very young age, he opened an after-market auto parts store called Extreme Performance and provided parts exclusively for the MTV program known as Pimp My Ride. He expanded his business overseas and began distributing to 20 countries.

He wanted to explore his entrepreneurial drive more and he launched a clothing company with a rapper known as Young Jeezy and earned more millions in the process. Today, his business has expanded and reaching more people, earning him more millions.

6. Tyler Dikman

Tyler Dikman started showing his entrepreneurial spirit when he was 5 years old and selling lemonade in his neighborhood. At the age of 10, he did magic shows at birthday parties and started investing in stocks. He was 15 when he started CoolTronics.com, a computer supply business. The website provides online safety lessons to computer and internet users with tutorials in removing viruses or upgrading a PC.

His business branched out into selling and setting up computers and delivering to his customers. When he was 17 and still in high school, he earned his first million dollar in sales from his company that generated revenue from subscriptions and advertising.

7. Ashley Qualls

Ashley Qualls is the owner and developer of the website, Whateverlife.com. It started as a hobby as she used the website to post various pictures and graphic designs that she created.

The website eventually became popular and provided free layouts for a social network called MySpace. The website received tons of visitors, and it solely relied on advertisement revenue since the layouts and tutorials posted were free. When she was 17, she earned her first million dollars. Today, many companies want to acquire her business, but she turned them all down to continue working on her vision.

8. Juliette Brindak

Juliet Brindak created the Miss O and Friends, characters based on a series of drawing-based characters that she also developed. This venture is known as “Cool Girls” whose aim is to be a role model for young girls and teenagers.

She launched Miss O and Friends online and it instantly became a hit with the girls, where they could seek advice from a supportive community and play flash games designed for girls. She earned her first million before she was 18 after Procter and Gamble invested in Miss O and Friends.

9. Cameron Johnson

Cameron Johnson started his career when his parents ask him to design invitations for an upcoming party. His neighbors were impressed by the results of his work and they began offering him money for designing jobs.

When he was 11, he started Cheers and Tears, his own greeting card company. He then later on developed an advertisement service called Surfingprizes.com and it also became a success. When he was 15, he earned his first million dollar year of sales.

10. Robert Nay

Robert Nay was considered a child prodigy at the young age of 14. He self-taught himself in code writing the old fashioned way by reading up at his local library. After a month of writing various codes, he sold 4,000 lines of code for his game Bubble Ball and put the app online for free.

Within just two weeks, the game became wildly popular and dethroned Angry Birds. In just two weeks, he had earned his first $2 million from his wildly successful app.

Conclusion

It’s never too young to start something, and no such thing as too young to earn a million. In this post, we have shared you the 10 teen entrepreneurs who made millions before turning 18.