2-13-06

So many people say that it takes money to make money.

Is this correct? Yeah, in some ways. But if you don’t have money and want a better life, there is hope.

Everybody who is well off didn’t come up with a silver spoon in his or her mouth.

There are a lot of people doing better than all right who didn’t have a nice trust fund or wealthy parents.

Every day, there are people who start businesses or have ideas that will eventually pay off, provided they do it the right way.

First off, a person has to either have an idea or improve on an idea already out there. Find out what is wrong with something or a need and go after fixing it or meeting somebody’s needs.

You need to educate yourself on whatever you plan to do. Research whatever you are interested in and after you are at the point where you think you know everything, do some more research.

Then you have to come up with a business plan. There is no guarantee that you will succeed, but if you study the topic and have a good plan, that is a good start.

Everybody always harps on how nine out of 10 businesses fail. I don’t have any reason to argue with this statistic, but I would wager a bet that out of those nine businesses that do fail, the person who started the business didn’t have what it took to succeed.

Plus, even if you start 10 businesses and nine do fail, with proper planning, maybe your ship won’t be sunk. But if that one business does proper, you have a better chance of being well off than anybody working 8-5 for somebody else.

Over the years, I have seen many businesses succeed and a lot fail. The ones that do well are the ones where the owner knows what he or she wants to do and manages the ‘p’s’ and ‘q’s’.

They pore over every little detail and know whenever something is going south and automatically fix it.

For the businesses that fail, there are many reasons. First, the owner does not have a clue what it takes to succeed. They either don’t want to put in the time or don’t track their income and expenses.

All the little side businesses that I have feature a couple of things in common that I think it takes to succeed. The first is not having any inventory. Having too much inventory or not managing your inventory kills the business. So does a lot of debt.

Second, the owners take all the money out of the business and try to live high on the hog instead of putting the money back into the business to pay off debt or get needed equipment.

The best way to get rich is through real estate. That is how more wealth is built than any other way. But I also feel an idea can bring riches that real estate can’t even touch.

Look at Bill Gates and Michael Dell. They didn’t get rich by buying real estate and reselling it or renting the property out. They had an idea and built upon it. That’s why they are some of the wealthiest men in the United States and the world.

You might not reach the status of these two men, but there’s no reason why you can’t. It’s not like there’s some law against any of us getting rich, although the odds are stacked.