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Ideas and Opinions from Donald Trump and The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative Instructors.
How to Write a Business Plan - Bootstrapping Edition
Ever since writing my first business plan I've had misgivings about the traditional business plan writing process. It took awhile to realize why, but eventually it dawned on me. As an entrepreneur I wanted to write action plans, not presentation pieces.
Whether in business school or in business books, the goal of most how to write a business plan training is to raise funds from investors or bankers. For example, today's tech startup culture is completely geared toward attracting capital from outfits like Madrona Venture Group or Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. This is fine if you desire to create the next
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Staying on Top
One way I stay on top of things is to realize there’s a flip side to everything. It keeps me circumspect in both good and bad times. This produces a learning curve, which is a smart way to look at problems or the curveballs that come your way. There are highs and lows in everyone’s life. Whether you’ve reached your goals or not, staying on top of things requires momentum on a daily basis.
If you’re riding high or having tough times, it applies to both situations. It’s a sound base from which to operate. There is the saying “courage is grace
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New Creativity
One reason entrepreneurs are important is because they find ways to create jobs. How ideas are generated is sometimes a mysterious process, but one way to look at it is to envision giving the world what you wish had been given to you. That opens the door to the philanthropic side of great endeavors, and can greatly increase your mind power when touching on the imaginative side of business.
Walt Disney, for example, created an enormous business largely from using and believing in his imagination. Steven Spielberg followed his passion, as did Bill Gates, and they’ve wound up being great givers in
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Five Websites Every Entrepreneur Should Use
LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com
LinkedIn helps local businesses become global. LinkedIn is the largest professional networking site on the Internet. It's a place to connect with colleagues from around the world. You can share what you do, promote yourself and find work. LinkedIn gives a small business in Nebraska the power to have a major client in New York.
Digging and follow-up are the keys to success on LinkedIn. Ask all of your associates and colleagues if they are on LinkedIn. If they are, add them to your contact list and use LinkedIn to message them. Make LinkedIn a part of your networking routine
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Synergy
Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success.
--Henry Ford
Synergy is a word that implies that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s a coming together of energies that is made clear by the Greek roots of the word: syn + ergos = ‘together working’ which is what Henry Ford was saying in his quote. It has a scientific application but is a great word for business aptitude, as in, combining forces to create a greater momentum, a greater whole.
We all know about the great teams that have worked together to make history
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Entrepreneurialism
Last week in the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal there was an article on James Gutierrez. Gutierrez is the co-founder of Progreso Financiero, which he started in 2005. His company has brought in $26 million in venture funding, has partnered with Sears and has made 20,000 loans from 24 locations throughout California.
He mentions that his success had early beginnings when he would look through business books while in grade school. He came across one of my books, and that’s the first time he had seen the word ‘entrepreneur’--and he decided that’s what he wanted to be.
His first venture was selling pens
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Moving Forward in Tough Times
Innovation is the key to finding successful opportunities in a recession. While no one wants to build success on the misfortune of others, opportunities to improve a process, start a new trend or re-invent the wheel are everywhere. In fact, some of the most well known brands in the globe were founded during hard times. Read how these five determined business owners were able to turn instability into profitability and make themselves recession-proof:
Related Training
The No-Money Down CEO
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Searching For Success
As an entrepreneur, I’ve experienced the up’s and down’s of running my own shop in the best of times and the worst of times, but certainly without some of the current economic hardships that entrepreneurs are now facing.
Because small business owners are fast becoming the backbone of the economy, our success is critical to rebuilding our weakened business state. Can it be done and are there any new ideas that will work? Check out how four entrepreneurs are finding opportunities despite the hard times:
Related Training
The No-Money Down CEO
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Create Business Credibility by Becoming a Teacher
Ever notice how when you attend a class or seminar, you automatically place the lecturer on a “pedestal” and give him/her credit for being more knowledgeable than you on that particular subject?
So, it only makes sense in your business, to find strategic ways to get in front of your target audience (prospects) and teach them things from your unique prospective. When you “lecture” to your prospects, you have instant credibility with them and become the “expert” in their eyes. You are able to “slant” your class toward your company, product or philosophy all while gaining their trust.
I host 3 monthly
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Guidelines
The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative came out with a book last year called Entrepreneurship 101: How to Turn Your Idea into a Money Machine. I wrote the foreword and first chapter, and entrusted the very knowledgeable Michael E. Gordon, PhD, with writing the rest. I was reviewing it again recently and realized how valuable a guide it is for today.
There’s not a specific college degree for being a great entrepreneur, but this book will set you up and on your way in a very comprehensive way. In my introduction, I mention that entrepreneurship starts with vision. Without a vision, nothing of consequence will happen
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Holiday Greetings
Giving back is not only a great and time-honored holiday tradition but also a key component of success. As entrepreneurs we owe a debt to the many people that have supported us in our own endeavors....our mentors, family members, and associates. We can pay that debt by helping empower a new generation of entrepreneurs.
The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative members hail from over 50 countries around the world. From young students who dream of becoming entrepreneurs, to retirees who are launching second or even third careers. This diverse group shares one important ideal.....that entrepreneurship has the power to transform lives and elevate entire communities.
So as
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In Business, Think Big and Succeed Big
Being different is what has made our country great. We have the freedom to think, believe and achieve whatever we set our minds to do. For that reason, we should set our sights on the big dreams we have for our careers.
With “golden parachutes” failing to open for much of corporate America these days, entrepreneurship remains a growing trend. It’s important that we keep finding ways to explore our ideas to the fullest and not dismiss them just because they may seem too grandiose.
Right now, the timing could be right for your brilliant idea and be just what your community, city,
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Going Green Should Save Money and Environment
I have been taking notice that many companies in many industries are promoting themselves as “green” or “eco-friendly”. These are other words that one may associate with being environmentally conscious while using recycled products etc. I have come to the conclusion that those words are synonymous with greed and profit.
Allow me to explain. I find that anytime the “green” title is attached to a product, I have to pay more for it. Why? If the product is made using recycled materials, doesn’t that mean the company didn’t have to buy new components to manufacture it? If they are using recycled materials,
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Creative Entrepreneurialism
From difficult times, evolve great ideas and opportunities. There are many reasons why you should be cautious in this kind of unprecedented market cycle. But sometimes, if you are creative, you can find a way to fill a void or find a new opportunity while others are retreating. Just think about the very money managers and hedge fund managers that predicted the sub-prime crisis. You too could capitalize on a great idea if you put your mind to it even in this market.
To do this, you must first clearly have an understanding of how business in a particular sector works. For instance, if you wanted to
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Tennis Lesson
A big part of being successful is performance. We all know about preparation, doing your homework or groundwork, covering our bases and so on, but it all boils down to the bottom line. Sometimes there is only one winner.
I’ve been lucky enough to watch quite a bit of the U.S. Open this year. I love to watch these champions go at it. I was there to watch the match between Serena and Venus Williams, and when I left I was thinking about what fighters they are. Both of them are great athletes, and to see them battle it out left quite
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Smarter Than A 5th Grader?
I have a friend in Dallas whose children attend a private school and I recently learned of an exciting annual project worth noting. The school begins with pre-kindergarten and ends with 4th grader’s graduating with a celebration akin to a high school’s. Now this school has several wonderfully unique endeavor’s it teaches it’s pupils such as a real live opera fully staffed and produced by the kids in 4th grade but the most amazing to me was the business the children create themselves to teach them about how to run a company.
It all starts in 3rd grade where the children research chickens, decide
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Our 3 Year Anniversary
Today is The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative’s three year anniversary. Three years ago the Trump U. site went live and our doors opened for business with a few online and audio products. Today we continue to expand our offerings to meet your needs and requests for new content and delivery methods. In the last year we have launched a series of live events and innovative real estate investment training to keep up with your investment and educational goals.
Now let’s take a quick look forward. We have a few new exciting product launches planned for the next few months including topics covering: Tax Liens, Commercial Real Estate,
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Be your future...
Do you love your job, your boss, and all of your co-workers? If not, you are probably not among the ranks of the self-employed.
Self-employed individuals are passionate about their business and work tirelessly to make it a success. When you work for yourself you are not concerned with the time clock and could care less about how many hours per week you are at the office. You do this because you are expending time to grow YOUR business. Make no mistake, you WILL be working more, not less, than you were before. When you aren’t working “in” the business, you will find yourself working “on” the
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Buying a Franchise Is a Good Idea? Richard Parker Responds to Member 1711781 (Part Two)
On January 17, The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative Instructor Richard Parker wrote a post on this blog, entitled, “Seven Reasons Why Buying a New Franchise Business Is a Disastrous Mistake.” It triggered a strong response from The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative Member 1711781, who offered arguments in support of franchise ownership.
Mr. Parker has now responded to member 1711781. The result is an exchange that contains a lot of valuable information for anyone contemplating business ownership. So much good information, we decided to publish it on this blog. The first installment has appeared on this blog. Today, we publish the second and final installment.
Put on your thinking cap and
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Buying a Franchise Is a Good Idea? Richard Parker Responds to Member 1711781 (Part One)
On January 17, The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative instructor Richard Parker wrote a post on this blog, entitled Seven Reasons Why Buying a New Franchise Business Is a Disastrous Mistake. It triggered a strong response from The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative Member 1711781, who offered arguments in support of franchise ownership.
Mr. Parker has now responded to member 1711781. The result is an exchange that contains a lot of valuable information for anyone contemplating business ownership. So much good information, we are publishing it today on this blog.
Due to the length of this post, the post will appear in two installments: the first half today, and the second half
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Seven Reasons Why Buying a New Franchise Business Is a Disastrous Mistake
Jeff Elgin’s recent article in Entrepreneur, “Top 10 Reasons for Buying a Franchise,” takes my breath away. Sure, there is logic behind some of the reasons he spells out for buying a franchise - you’re also buying a recognized brand, he writes, plus receiving promises of training and advertising. But I have heard them all before and my experience tells me that buying a non-franchised business is a vastly wiser business decision every time. Further, reality dictates that not all franchisors come close to living up to the representations they make when “selling” you the concept.
In fact, I put together a
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Put a Great Plan Behind Your Great Business!
As we finish up 2007 and roll into 2008, it is time to adapt a new kind of business planning, which I call "plan-as-you-go" business planning. I laid out some of the essentials in an earlier post on the Trump Blog. But since a new year is the time to put the power of good planning behind your enterprise, I’d like to revisit the basics of PAYG planning from a slightly different angle.
As you plan your business . . .
Start anywhere. The plan is a matter of interlocking blocks, so some people start with a numbers task, like a sales
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Put the Power of the 90/10 Rule behind Your Potential for Wealth Creation
In their new book Why We Want You to Be Rich, Donald J. Trump and Robert T. Kiyosaki discuss the 90/10 Rule, a simple principle that can get you started on the road to riches today.
What is the 90/10 Rule? Here’s your chance to find out now from two incredibly successful men.
Robert T. Kiyosaki’s Advice on the 90/10 Rule . . .
The 90/10 Rule of Money is something that my rich dad taught me about. I have written about it in Rich Dad, Poor Dad and my other books.
Simply put, in the game of money and the game of life too,
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Buying a Business? Don't Count on Income You Can't Verify
It happens often when people are buying a business - and generally quite early in the negotiating process. The seller takes the prospective buyer aside and quietly makes a statement that goes something like this:
“Well there is the income you will see in the books. But you also need to know that we also get a substantial amount of unreported cash income too (wink, wink). When you buy the business, you can count on that too, so make sure you figure that into your valuation.”
All I can say is that if the seller has been taking unreported cash from the business,
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Santa Brings Success . . . Scott and Jalisa Schafer Buy their First Business!
Just one year ago, Scott and Jalisa Schafer were planning to become entrepreneurs. Knowing they needed guidance to make the right business investment, they selected The Art of Buying a Business, a premier course developed by instructor Richard Parker for The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative.
“Trump stands for quality,” Scott explains. “It is one of the best brands out there. We knew we would get information we could trust to succeed.”
They found the resources in The Art of Buying a Business to be top-notch - particularly, they say, the Buyer Toolbox part of the course, which clearly explained what to do when researching a business
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Protect Your Intellectual Property
Is your company protecting its most valuable asset - its intellectual property?
Does your enterprise have intellectual property? You might not think so, but it probably does. Intellectual property is made up of copyrights (books, software or music), patents (inventions) and trademarks (symbols or logos).
Why does intellectual property deserve special protection? Let me tell you a story that illustrates the point.
Suppose someone walks into a small one-room office of a company that has no apparent assets: no vehicles, minimal office equipment, small inventory and so forth. Let’s also say that individual slips and falls when heading out the door. Chances are that
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Cultivate Customer Culture in Your Organization!
Once when I was the first person getting on an airplane, I heard one of the attendants exclaim, "Here come the animals." For that attendant, passengers were a nuisance and it is very likely that that attitude carried over into how the attendant dealt with passengers during the flight.
You don’t have a problem like that in your company, do you? I hope not, because in order for your enterprise to succeed, members of your organization must show respect for customers -- not thinly disguised contempt (TDC).
When customer orientation grows, profits grow too. Consider Sanity Music, a chain in Australia, which doubled
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Don't Be Scared on Halloween - Or Any Other Day
When you turn on your TV this week, you're going to find lots of scary movies. When you travel around your neighborhood, you'll find cobwebs, skulls and lots of other decorations designed to give you those fun goosebumps that go with the holiday.
Yes, it's fun to scared on Halloween. But let me ask you a more serious question . . .
Are you scared during the rest of the year too?
When you go to work, are you scared that you might get fired? Are you scared of your boss? Or scared that a crooked colleague of yours is going to steal your ideas? Are you scared that you aren't earning enough to pay your
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Your Silly Business Idea Could Be Worth Millions
Think your business idea is sillier than Silly Putty? These days, I think it’s safe to say David Ogilvy’s contention that “it only takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers” no longer applies. The proof, my friends, is in the seemingly silly ideas that have managed to make these entrepreneurs extremely wealthy.
Christie Rein. In 2004, Christie Rein was over carrying her baby’s diapers around in a freezer bag. So, the 34-year-old mother decided to do something about it. She and her husband designed a custom diaper bag that was big enough to hold a travel pack of wipes
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Buying a Business? Don't Buy Garbage
A business is a living, breathing entity, and it is subject to certain life cycles, which I describe as “Three G’s to the Top of the Hill.” The bottom of the hill is Garbage, the middle of the hill is Good and the top of the hill is Great.
For the purposes of this explanation, I want you to think of Garbage in two ways. First, every new business starts out as Garbage. Second, it’s where every business will wind up if it falls backwards.
You may be saying that if a business is Garbage, it represents opportunity because there’s only one way
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Fit: The Core of Entrepreneurial Success
Stephen was anxious to own a company close to where he lived. He became excited when he realized there were no fish supply stores in the area, so he began to pursue the idea of opening one.
He borrowed money from family and friends and tapped his own personal finances and credit cards for a total of $18,000 to cover start-up expenses. He found a location, signed a lease, stocked the store with tanks, supplies, accessories and exotic fish of all kinds. He opened the doors for business. Stephen was feeling really exhilarated. But one year later, his business had to close
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Make More Money from the Customers You Already Have
If you ask a group of entrepreneurs how their enterprises could make more money, nearly all of them will give you the same answer:
“We need more customers.”
That is a smart answer. The broader your customer base, the greater your profit potential. Yet smart entrepreneurs can also increase profits by targeting their current customers more effectively.
Growing with current customers has two main advantages over finding new ones:
1. You already know your current customers and what their needs and priorities are.
2. You are already in contact with them, so you have opportunities to persuade them to purchase more.
The key to making more from your current customers is to
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The Insider's Way to Own a Business with Little or Nothing Down
If you visit this blog often, you already have read my many posts about the advantages of buying a business. You know that buying a business, in nearly all cases, is far wiser than starting one. (On the first day you own a business, a customer will call. You can’t say that about a new business you just started.)
But did you know that there is a low-cost way to enjoy all the benefits of buying a business at a fraction of the cost?
There is, and it all starts when you ask a very simple question about the business you are considering
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Five Customers You Need to Know
If you’re a new entrepreneur, your daily to-do list is already a mile long. You’re hiring, managing your managers, getting your systems in place, bookkeeping and all the rest.
But how much time to you spend thinking about your customers?
If you’ve been too busy to think about them, you’re making a serious mistake. All business failures can be traced to a lack of knowledge about customers’ identities, wants and needs.
Here are five groups of customers you need to meet and get to know.
Current Customers
They could be past customers who are following you into your new enterprise, or the historical customers of a business you have
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My Keys to Personal and Business Success
I’m known as the “Buy a Business Guy” at The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative. And with good reason. I’m the instructor who developed Trump U’s premier course, The Art of Buying a Business. I’ve also bought and sold many businesses over the years.
But between the purchase and the sale of the businesses I've owned, I’ve also run those enterprises - and I have run them well, too. I’ve also cultivated the habit of writing down my thoughts over the years - thoughts that I believe can help you run your business better and maybe even grasp that golden ring known as “success.”
I’d like to share some
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Launching a Successful New Business: Lessons from a multinational business mind
Ricardo Bellino’s new international enterprise is vast in scope. Here’s how to apply his thinking to your next success.
If you are a regular reader of The Trump Blog, you already know Ricardo Bellino. He is the gentleman who needed only three minutes to convince Donald J. Trump to partner with him on a major real estate project in Brazil.
Ricardo recently sent us news about his newest business venture, Casas Brasileiras. He also agreed to let the Trump Blog explain the thinking behind the enterprise. We’re sharing the news here because we believe that all the members of The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative can
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Buying a Business: Can You Make a Great Recipe from the Ingredients?
Imagine you are given a huge list of ingredients and asked to use them in any way you want to prepare an elaborate dish. What do you think your chances would be of completing it successfully without a recipe or any guidance whatsoever?
Or let’s say that someone laid out 300 nuts, bolts, and assorted metal pieces and told you to “put it together” without even telling you what “it” is. Without any instructions, do you think you would wind up building the right thing?
Those situations are a lot like what many people do when they buy a business. They have ingredients
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Choosing Partners: A Decision of Paramount Importance
I can't stress enough the importance of choosing partners wisely. I've had eight business partners over the course of my various professional ventures, some of whom I brought to the table and some of whom others brought to the table. Every partner was a friend of an existing partner. Everyone was a known quantity.
Nevertheless, not everyone worked out. Sometimes people didn't pull their weight; in a few instances, partners didn't bring in contract opportunities when they had an equity stake in the company that required them to land new business. At other times, individuals had other priorities and were unable to
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To the 5,992 Vacuum Cleaner Engineers I've Never Heard Of
I have to admit that I made up that number of vacuum cleaner engineers that I have never heard of - 5,992 is just a figure I invented.
But then there’s the one vacuum cleaner engineer I have heard of. And you know about him too. He’s James Dyson, the guy who decided that working for someone else’s vacuum cleaner company wasn’t going to get him the kind of life, or the kind of success, that he wanted. So he started his own company, because that is what people do when they decide it is time to stop giving their best ideas away
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You Are Your Brand and Your Brand Is You
Brand-Building Wisdeom from Bud Bilanich, The Common Sense Guy
As a small business owner whose brand is me, I recognize the importance of personal branding. I am a keynote speaker, executive coach, organization effectiveness consultant, and author. I am my business; therefore, my brand needs to speak for me.
When I decided to brand myself, I began by asking everybody I know a simple question. “When you think of me, what is the first thing that comes to mind?” An overwhelming number of people said, “Your common sense approach to business and life.” My first reaction was, “Uh oh, common sense doesn’t make for much
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The Seven Critical Traits of Top Entrepreneurs
As President of The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, I meet often with our Chairman, Donald J. Trump. I never forget that just about every businessperson in the world would envy that opportunity. Who wouldn’t want to sit down with Donald J. Trump to get his expert advice on building an enterprise?
This morning, I’d like to share some of the insights I have gained in those meetings. I’ll call them the Seven Critical Traits of Entrepreneurs, because they are business-building themes that Mr. Trump stresses often and energetically.
1. Have passion - Mr. Trump has never said to me, “Be passionate!” Yet it’s at the core
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Layoffs at Dell: Another Reminder that It's Better to Work for Yourself
If ever there was a case to convince you that job security only happens when you own the business, you need only look to Dell Computer. They recently announced results that "blew away" Wall Street expectations. They made $759 million for the quarter and thanked their employees by announcing a planned layoff of 8,000 people, roughly 10% of their workforce.
There's no question they have been taking a beating recently and margins continue to erode in their space but that's what makes my blood boil about big business - you have no control of your future cash flow or career when you
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Essential Steps to Protect Your Business Assets
Vital information from the new book The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative Wealth Building 101: Your First 90 Days on the Path to Prosperity
You spend years building a company and then one day a visitor falls in your parking lot, breaks her hip and sues you. Is it a problem you can settle out of court, a problem that your insurance policy will cover - or a problem that will cost you your business?
The answer to that question is really up to you. Protecting your assets depends upon the strength of the “asset security system” you design and install. Recognize this, and take these five
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Five Ways Entrepreneurs Can Increase Wealth Creation
Cash flow is the number one headache for entrepreneurs. If more money is flowing out of your company than is flowing in, you could take a loan to temporarily correct the problem. But since borrowing can dig your enterprise into a deep hole, I would urge you to apply these wealth creation remedies listed below. They will help you address the underlying problems instead of avoiding them:
Collect money up front. Depending on your industry, it might be customary for you to deliver your goods or services without being paid up front. But why shouldn’t you secure money from clients ahead of time,
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Introducing the Four-Hour Work Week
For years, I’ve been preaching that when you own your own business, you can structure it to make your life easier and a lot more pleasurable. To give you an example, when I went into my first business, I made it a goal to go fishing every Wednesday throughout the summer. I did it. It was wonderful. I also had that goal to leave the office by 3:00 on Fridays. That was wonderful too. I have since stopped working on Friday altogether.
Now, there’s no way you could ever do that working for someone else.
However, I might have come across someone who
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Why a Poorly Run Business Can Be Your Wisest Buy
If I told you that I know someone who bought a business nine years ago and just sold it for an 80% loss, you would probably think I was describing an individual who doesn’t have one iota of business sense.
But you’d be wrong, because that is exactly what Mercedes-Benz did a few days ago when they unloaded Chrysler. Here’s what happened, as reported by Mark Landler on May 14th in “A Corporate Divorce on the Cheap,” his article in The New York Times:
“The price of freedom for the soon-to-be-renamed Daimler A.G. is $677 million in cash - its out-of-pocket outlay in
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Seven Ways to Tell if Starting a Business Will Work for You
Contrary to what you might think, most successful entrepreneurs enjoy a sense of calm control over their own lives. Compared with people who spend their lives working for other people, subject to whims not remotely under their control, entrepreneurs have a much better shot at happiness and inner peace.
But starting a company doesn’t always work out so well. It’s rare to find much joy in a business that fails, exhausts you, or makes you a stranger to your family.
Everyone has their own unique interests and objectives, but it makes sense to identify the common ground. Over the years, the happiest entrepreneurs
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The Benefits of Taking Your Small Business Green
An interview with Patricia Gaylor
During the last 25 years, interior designer Patricia Gaylor has achieved just about everything that anyone in her profession could want - prominent exposure at showcases and industry events and a steady stream of well-to-do clients who can afford to invest in her innovative ideas.
So why did she decide to transform her business to “green” by specializing in environmentally responsible interior designs? So much so that she was selected to create environmentally responsible interiors for BASF’s Near Zero Energy House, a state-of-the art green building in Paterson, New Jersey.
When we saw Ms. Gaylor present her interiors
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Create Wealth By Grabing the Golden Ring
"Don’t Let Other People Live Your Dreams" - Michael Sexton
There is really only one thing that billionaires have in common - the Warren Buffetts, Richard Bransons, Donald J. Trumps and Oprah Winfreys of the world. At some point in their lives, they realized that they could never reach their dreams by working for other people, so they all started companies of their own.
So what about you? Where do you stand on this issue? Are you ready to start your own company? Are you ready to create wealth?
If not, I have a The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative class assignment for you. I want to give you
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Bootstrap Your Way to Startup Success
Bootstrapping is the process of conserving financial resources to the extreme during a business’s startup phase. It means pulling yourself up by your bootstraps by doing most of the work yourself.
Because you want to go into any new business enterprise with your eyes wide open, let’s take a look at some of the pluses and minuses of bootstrapping:
Upside: You can get started, even when you lack the money to hire others to handle the tough work.
Downside: You run the risk of making the wrong decisions and wasting time on tasks that could actually have been done more cheaply by specialists.
Upside:
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The Trump Dynasty
“Tenacity is absolutely necessary for success” - Meredith McIver
Don Trump Jr. started at the Trump Organization the same month I did, which was September of 2001. I remember being impressed by how unassuming he was as well as how diligent he was. Not that I should be surprised, because he has his father’s work ethic to the core. He’s a serious businessman who takes on a lot of responsibility and doesn’t expect any breaks because of his family heritage. If anything, he has more responsibility, which he handles with aplomb. He is mature beyond his years.
A few years later, Ivanka Trump
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Millionaires, Millionaires Everywhere!
The movie Field of Dreams taught us, “If you build it, they will come.”
Well we did build it - a powerful, free, three-day program on how to become rich - and boy, did they come! They came from across the country to hear The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative’s star wealth guru, Greg Warr. (That's a picture of Greg to the right.)
Greg didn’t only promise to “deliver the goods” by telling people how to amass wealth fast. He actually took ideas like these from the realm of fantasy and translated them into step-by-step advice:
Buy a house with no money down and instantly put $25,000 in
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Do You Have the Capital to Start a Business of Your Own?
It takes capital to start a new enterprise. Yet capital is more than just money. It comes in several other important varieties too:
Intellectual capital is made up of the experience, knowledge and skills that reside in your startup team. Groups with rich intellectual capital have tremendous collective energy. They can accomplish far more than the same individuals ever could on their own.
Social capital embodies all the professional, personal and social contacts that serve as resources to you and to your team. As the old saying goes, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Even though that saying
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Is Your Business Green?
This past Sunday was Earth Day. All the major media covered some aspect of the day. Here in NY the Mayor outlined a major 127 point plan to help the environment. Big business and government are talking about the environment. That got me thinking about all the potential being green/ECO-friendly/conservationist offers to business owners, aspiring entrepreneurs, people buying business, selling products/services and real estate investors. Will a solar power upgrade add value over time? Will eco friendly construction make a difference in your project? Where will these products come from? Who is developing the next solution to our energy problem?
The answer could be you.
There is
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The Small Business Administration Honors Entrepreneurs
To highlight the great contribution that small businesses make to the U.S. economy, the United States Small Business Administration has proclaimed this week Small Business Week. The SBA is hosting awards ceremonies and other events to honor America’s entrepreneurs.
What benefits can Small Business Week offer to you, our entrepreneurial members of The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative? Here are two useful resources we found on the SBA’s Small Business Week page:
The Small Business Administration’s List of Top Lenders is short, with only seven lending institutions named. But it is worth a look anyway. We all need to be on the lookout for lenders that are
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What Is It Worth? Secret Strategies for Evaluating a Business
Richard Parker, instructor of our Art of Buying a Business course, tells me that getting a realistic estimate of a business’s value can be a much simpler process than many professional valuators would like the rest of us to believe.
The challenge for you, the buyer, is to formulate a price that will provide you with an acceptable return on your investment and also allow you to service any debt, pay yourself and build the business.
To give you an overview of how that is done, let me crack open the door of Parker’s virtual classroom and give you a glimpse of the different approaches
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Do You Need a Professional Valuation Before Buying a Business?
For most small businesses, hiring a professional to perform a valuation is not necessary. First of all it is expensive, and more often than not, it simply does not reflect reality.
For example, I recently read a valuation on a local company handling specialized telecom components in a very restricted marketplace. This company was doing $700,000 a year in sales and netting $100,000. The valuation started off:
“The company is focused upon the B2B telephony segment which is a $42 billion industry in North America.”
I threw out the entire report after reading that one sentence. Why? How on earth can you possibly compare
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Change Your Life in Three Days
The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative Takes Live Learning a Level Higher
Since the day The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative opened its doors, students have been asking us to add more live instruction. We are starting now, with a new program of three-day seminars that we are calling Immersive Retreats.
These live retreats have been under development for months. We have worked with the The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative instructors, with educational consultants and with Mr. Trump himself. As a result, our Immersive Retreats are something quite unique:
You have to set aside three days to attend them. That’s right, three days. They’re only for people who are willing to make a genuine commitment
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Build Your Personal Brand
Your brand is how people think of you. Tom Peters says that “a brand is a trust mark, it’s shorthand, it’s a sorting device.” Think of the well-known brands that you know - Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dell computers, iPods - all of them are shorthand for a product. When you think cola, you probably think Coke or Pepsi. When you think computers, Dell probably comes to mind. When you think portable music players, iPod is probably at the top of the list. Some brands are so strong that they have become a generic name for a type of product - think Aspirin, the
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Two Marketing Mistakes that Kill New Businesses
What are the most disastrous marketing mistakes that new entrepreneurs make? Now that our Marketing Mastery Program is entering its second successful year and we have worked with hundreds of students, we can answer that question with some certainty.
The two marketing problems that most new entrepreneurs need to overcome are cockiness and laziness. Let’s take a closer look.
Cockiness - You can hear this attitude in the words of one student who told instructor Don Sexton, “I don’t need to worry about marketing. People would be crazy not to buy my product.” That’s backwards thinking - or worse. People will never be
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When to Listen
I always ask other people what they think. Whether it’s in my real-life boardroom when I’m making a multi-million dollar business decision or whether it’s on the set of The Apprentice in my famous boardroom, I like to know what people think. After all, I surround myself with talented advisors for that very reason. I value their opinions and want to hear them. But that doesn’t mean I always do what they say.
Even more frequently, I get loads of unsolicited advice. Everyone has an opinion on what you should do and how you should do it. Although most people mean well,
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Nine Simple Secrets of Great Advertising
The television show I was watching last night was punctuated by some pretty crazy ads. I saw flying cars and a talking toilet.
To judge from those ads, you might think that you need to be a creative advertising genius to get your customers to buy anything from you. Not so. These classic approaches can get your message across simply, without breaking your advertising budget:
Target the competition by giving facts about why your product or service works better, costs less, or has other basic advantages.
Just show your product attractively. (This doesn’t work if you have an ugly product.)
Showcase your brand. Just
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A Georgetown Eatery that's a Marketing Masterpiece Too
I’m writing from Washington, DC. Two nights ago, my family and I had dinner at a terrific Georgetown eatery called Martin’s Tavern. This morning, we went back for breakfast. And if we were staying another day - you guessed it - we’d be going back for lunch.
It has been a long time since I’ve come across a restaurant with that much “pull,” as marketers like to say. In part, it’s due to the fact that Martin’s delivers great food, attentive service, spotlessness and all the other make-or-break restaurant essentials. But that’s only part of what has kept Martin’s going strong since
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The Second Time Is the Most Critical
A success strategy you need today from The Wealth Builder’s Blueprint
You meet with a venture capitalist to obtain funding for your new company, and you get shot down. Or a loan officer shreds your mortgage application before your eyes.
Those are the times when you are very likely to just give up on your dream. It can be nearly impossible to try again. But the second attempt is the most critical. It represents the time when you begin to learn significant information about what you are doing - information you need to succeed.
Part of the problem is that we are
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Cast Your BR!CK Awards Vote to Support Young Entrepreneurs
If you read this blog often, you know that The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative supports student entrepreneurs.
I’d like to offer you an opportunity to support them too, by clicking here now to cast your vote for one of the finalists in this year’s BR!CK Awards competition. All the contestants are young leaders whose ideas have the potential to improve the world. The winner you select will receive financial backing, legal assistance and other benefits. The winner will be announced in the BR!CK AWARDS ceremony that will be telecast live on The CW on April 10 from 9:00 - 10:00 PM ET.
I don’t want to
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Stay Grounded in the Numbers
“Should” is a dangerous word. If you use it in sentences like these, it could be doing you a lot of harm:
“The house I’m renovating should sell for $450,000.”
“My new product should make me $50 million a year after I bring it to market.”
When you start to use “should” that way, you’ve probably fallen victim to false optimism. It’s highly seductive. You want so much for that house to sell for $450,000 that you start to believe it really will. Or you want your new company to generate $50 million in annual sales, so you start to count on that happening.
It’s
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Your Chance to Connect to Apprentice Winners One-on-One
If you’d like to connect directly with Apprentice winners Randal Pinkett, Kendra Todd and Sean Yazbeck, your wishes have just come true, thanks to The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative’s new Apprentice Winners Speakers Series. Space is limited for these free phone-in teleseminars, so click here now to register.
On March 22, Sean will tell you how to sell successfully.
On March 29, Kendra will explain how she built riches in real estate - and how you can too.
On April 19, Randal will share powerful advice about becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Again, these events are free. I wanted to get the news out today via this special post
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Your Small Company Can Market as Effectively as the Big Boys
If you're a small business owner, the word “marketing” can be scary. How can you compete with the big companies in your line of business? How can you catch up with competitors who have a head start in the race for customers?
The good news is, you don’t have to compete with them. You can set your own course and outdistance them.
In fact, there is a secret of marketing success that will actually give you an advantage if you are a small, new business. And that secret is focus. If you focus on your customer and focus your marketing efforts, you
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The Earlier, the Better
If you’re an ambitious student or if you know one, the time to start a business is now!
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the three winners of the first Most Promising Campus CEO Contest. They are Catherine Cook (first place), Corey Kossack (second) and Seth Flowerman (third). Catherine, a high school senior, is founder of myYearbook.com. With 1.7 million members only two years after going live, myYearbook.com is one of the fastest-growing sites on the Internet. You can read more about Catherine and all the finalists by clicking here.
Why did I put so much effort behind the contest?
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What Public Relations Gives You that Advertising Never Can
A post on this blog a few weeks ago described the marketing traction that small businesses can develop by sending out press releases to local media. Today, I would like to add to that strategy.
The first step is to have your company contribute to the quality of life in your community. You could buy a new piece of medical equipment for a local hospital, offer jobs to local retirees, or sponsor a new playground. Once you have done your good deeds, send out press releases about your activities to local media - newspapers, radio stations, regional cable networks. They will be
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Don't Leave Your Customers Stuck on the Runway
Customer service lessons from the JetBlue disaster
JetBlue is still recovering from its February fiasco at JFK Airport in New York. You remember - snow and extreme cold brought air travel to a standstill, but JetBlue decided to keep flying anyway. Its planes rolled out onto the tarmac and got stuck there, stranding passengers within view of the terminal. It was 11 hours until the airline figured out a way to get them back indoors. Then things got even worse the next day, when flight cancellations inconvenienced 100,000 more JetBlue customers.
Afterwards, JetBlue took steps to rebuild its customer relationships. The CEO, David Neeleman,
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Entrepreneurship Is Your Road to Riches
When you think of becoming an entrepreneur, you probably think about all the hard work it will take. Hopefully you also envision all the benefits, such as wealth, freedom, and a sense of personal accomplishment and significance that comes along with owning your own business.
But have you also thought about how efficient an entrepreneurship really is? If not, think about these benefits.
Time leveraging. All the time you invest in your business is directed at building your own wealth and resources. No more sitting in meetings working on projects that have nothing to do with your own goals. No more killing yourself
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Entrepreneurial DNA: Do you have what it takes to succeed?
Michael Sexton interviews Thomas L. Harrison, author of Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals
Thomas L. Harrison might be America’s most unusual CEO. He began his career as a research scientist and cell biologist. As the pull of entrepreneurship became stronger and stronger for him, he finally hung up his lab coat and plunged into the world of business. Today, he is Chairman and CEO of Omnicom Group’s Diversified Agency Services, the world’s largest holding group of marketing services companies.
Harrison’s deep insight into parallel disciplines - genetics, psychology, and management, to name just a few -
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You Are Your Brand and Your Brand Is You
Insights from Bud Bilanich, The Common Sense Guy
As a small business owner whose brand is me, I recognize the importance of personal branding. I am a keynote speaker, executive coach, organization effectiveness consultant, and author. I am my business; therefore, my brand needs to speak for me.
When I decided to brand myself, I began by asking everybody I know a simple question. “When you think of me, what is the first thing that comes to mind?” An overwhelming number of people said, “Your common sense approach to business and life.” My first reaction was, “Uh oh, common sense doesn’t make for much
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You Need to Stop Selling
After you’ve launched your business, the day will come when it is time to start knocking on doors and selling.
When that day comes, your first inclination will probably be to dash out to buy every book you can find about selling. If you can absorb all the powerful advice they contain from their powerful-looking authors, you will be moving your product quickly, right? Well maybe yes. But probably not.
You see, attempting to identify the traits of the perfect salesperson is a waste of time. All you need is to understand your own strengths and perfect them. I’ve been the top
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It's EntrepreneurshipWeek USA and of Course, The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative is There
Welcome to EntrepreneurshipWeek USA, a week-long celebration of entrepreneurial vitality in America.
When you want to encourage the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, the place to start is with kids. That’s why on the morning of Friday, March 2nd, members of the The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative staff and instructors will join me to present a special program about entrepreneurship for elementary-school students at Brooklyn College’s Community Partnership Campus in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
The students will get some first-hand advice about how to start their own companies. There will be presents and prizes for every kid in the audience - and even the possibility that a celebrity or two
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Make Mark and Rick's Real Estate Adventures Part of Your Daily Routine
The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative is launching a new blog, Mark and Rick’s Real Estate Adventures. I’d encourage you to visit this new blog today, and every day, because it is going to offer a wild and educational ride through the world of real estate.
Let me fill you in about how the blog came to be. Mark Covais and Rick Meadows, the young men behind it, met when they started working as admissions counselors at The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative. Rick was already a successful entrepreneur who had owned several businesses. Mark had led college and university admissions teams for six years and before that, he was
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The Only Risk-Free Way to Become an Entrepreneur
Do a simple experiment this morning. Go to the search engine of your choice and search for the term “businesses for sale.”
You are going to be astonished by what you find. Businesses are changing hands at an amazing rate in virtually every area of the United States, and thousands of attractive businesses are available. There are publishing companies, bicycle shops, Internet service providers, restaurants and just about any other kind of enterprise you can name. Many of them are available at very attractive prices.
But let me give you a word of caution. Before you pick up the phone and
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State the Obvious: What I Learned from The Apprentice this Week
People engaged in some truly bizarre behavior on The Apprentice this week.
Both teams toured the malls where they would stage their Priceline.com promotions. Both teams noticed that many of the consumers in those malls were Spanish-speaking. But not one person on either team took the obvious step of saying, “Look, we need Spanish-speaking presenters here. Let’s hire some!”
Everybody saw the challenge, but nobody spoke up - not one person. That is incredible to me. And by the time Aimee’s team got to the boardroom firing, team behavior had become even more bizarre. Aimee said that she noticed that many of
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Learning from Lonely Farmers
It’s no big news that there are a lot of single people in the world hoping to hook up with that special someone. Some of them join dating services. Some go online. Some ask friends to fix them up on blind dates.
A group of lonely Welsh farmers came up with an interesting idea. They put singles ads on milk cartons with their photos and the slogan, “Fancy a farmer?”
The single farmers say that they don’t meet many people of the opposite sex. It’s no wonder. They spend their days out in the countryside feeding, milking and cleaning up after cows.
I hope
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The Best Gift You Can Ever Buy for Yourself: A Business of Your Own!
If you have any desire to be in business for yourself, then now’s the time to make your move! In fact, there has never been a better time to take that step. So this year, buy yourself the greatest gift of all - a business of your own!
Over the past year, I’ve met and spoken with thousands of people worldwide who have reached the point where they’ve said, “enough is enough!” Most hate their jobs. They are terribly uncertain about the future. They’re tired of busting their butts with little or no thanks and they’ve finally realized that controlling their own
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Does Your Enterprise Have the Business Plan for Success?
Is your company healthy or unhealthy?
One of the easiest, most effective ways to answer that question is to create a classic balance sheet for your company’s business plan. It is a simple document to put together, yet it can reveal small “illnesses” in your business that will lead to larger problems later on.
A balance sheet is really a snapshot that shows the financial condition of your company, as expressed by its net worth:
The net worth of your business = Assets - Liabilities
Assets are everything that is owned by your business, plus everything that is owed to you. Assets include property owned,
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Avoid the Entrepreneurial Mistakes that Sink Start-Ups
A The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative student told me that ten years ago, she started a business that failed after four years. Now she is with us, acquiring the knowledge she needs to be a successful entrepreneur the second time around.
Just a few hours into the course, she learned an important lesson. “Even though my business lasted four years,” she says, “I made mistakes that killed it before I even opened my doors.”
The right kind of planning during the earliest stages can make or break a business. This morning I’d like to lay bare some of the mistakes that kill new businesses fast.
Mistake #1: Failing to
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What You Can Learn from Last Night's Apprentice
With this blog post, The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative welcomes Sean Yazbeck, winner of The Apprentice Season Five, as a new The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative instructor. Let’s hear Sean’s views on last night’s episode.
The leaders of both teams faced a deceptively simple task last night. What could be more straightforward than putting honey in bottles and selling it? Yet both Aaron and Aimee, leaders of the Arrow and Kinetic teams, proved too weak to lead their teams to achieve optimal results.
Here are the lessons that you and I can take away and apply in our own careers.
Great leaders exert firm control ... but flexibly
Aaron was just
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An Apprentice Lesson in Leadership
Recently on The Apprentice, I had to ask a member of the winning team Kinetic to volunteer to go to the losing team, Arrow.
I was mildly surprised when I saw how many people were willing to risk making the move. Instead of staying on the safe winning team, they offered to move to the other team which was, pretty much, a wreck.
I think it showed how many people were good leaders and wanted to show off their abilities. As long as they were on the winning team they couldn’t take a leadership role. On the losing team, there was more of
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What the Heck Is Stopping You?
Lessons from Anson Hall, entrepreneur
When Anson Hall sold his successful GM dealership in Massachusetts and tried to retire, it didn’t work. After building his business from the ground up and adding Pontiac and Cadillac to his original Buick line in the process, relaxation just didn’t agree with him. Anson had already stretched the limits with GM by starting a company-within-a-company that offered one of the first extended-care warranty programs anywhere. With that kind of experience under his belt, he decided that it was time to start the kind of business where he could call the shots.
“Rest is rust,” he says. And who would
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How to Make Banks Want to Loan You Money
A power strategy from the pages of George H. Ross’s book, Trump Strategies for Real Estate
George Ross, Senior Counsel for The Trump Organization, is a formidable negotiator and businessman. In his book Trump Strategies for Real Estate, he sets out this simple strategy that can actually make banks eager to lend you money, whether you are buying a building or funding a business.
Entrepreneurs and real estate investors usually don’t apply for loans until they are already involved in a deal of some kind. Since they need funding fast, they walk into a bank, meet with a loan officer they have never
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Only Those Who Do It Can Teach You How
Donald Trump is back with a new book. In Trump 101, The Way to Success, the real estate magnate who became a legendary figure in the business world pulled yet more advice and hints from his hat for those who dream of professional success, and who knows, maybe accumulate a few $million, or $billion along the way. And as always happens when a book of this nature reaches the stands, the question everyone asks is: Is it really possible to learn something from a book like this?
I may be able to answer that question by speaking a little of my own
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Create Wealth from the Customers You Already Have
You probably don’t think of your customers as expenses. But if you add up all the money you spent to win their business, you will discover how costly they really are. To win them, you spent a lot of money on advertising, salespeople, a Website and other marketing initiatives too.
Customers are costly. In fact, many businesses report that it takes more than a year before a typical customer represents a profit, not an expense.
What is the solution? You could go on spending money to win more customers - and you should. But you need to do something else too:
You need to
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The Apprentice: What I Learned from Episode Four
Have the guts to take on the toughest assignments
Ultimately, the reason that Marisa got fired last night was that she had annoying habits, like interrupting people, resisting authority and not listening to her teammates. It is sobering to think that just a handful of personal traits like those - probably invisible to her - were enough to end her Apprentice career.
But for me, the most significant lesson came when Surya left Kinetic, the winning team, and voluntarily went to work for Arrow. Arrow, you remember, had already lost the first three tasks this season. They were losers. They were sleeping
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Never Quit: A Lesson from The Apprentice
I was shocked after a recent task on The Apprentice, when a candidate resigned instead of taking her chances in the boardroom. After having a tough time as project manager - and knowing her teammates certainly didn’t like her - Michelle threw in the towel and quit.
I was amazed that she would throw away such an opportunity. She had a chance at catapulting into the business spotlight, a chance at a high-profile job in a high-powered corporation. Yet, she chose to throw it all away.
It’s a business lesson I teach over and over again: “Never, ever give up. Never quit. You
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Entrepreneurship Defined
An exclusive first look inside The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative’s newest book, The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative Entrepreneurship 101
The term entrepreneurship leaves much to be desired. You have to wrap your mouth around the word, making creative pronunciation choices on three of the five syllables. Dictionaries define it as the startup and management of a business, with great initiative and risk, for profit.
But to me, entrepreneurship encompasses these three factors: Mindset, Actions and Process:
Mindset: Entrepreneurs go through the world continuously seeking ideas and opportunities that can be commercialized. They focus on innovating, doing things better, adding, creating, and delivering unique value to customers and to all
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The Art of Driving Your Competition Crazy
“The purpose of competition is not to beat someone down, but to bring out the best in every player.” - Walter Wheeler
One of the signs of a boom - or at least a boomlet - is that companies start wanting to drive their competition crazy. This occurs when “survival” is no longer an issue and optimization or maximization can become a corporate goal. However, the desire to do things to the competition can lead a company astray - or drive it to even greater heights.
Companies go astray when defeating the competition becomes more important than taking care of customers. When companies become
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The Great Marketing Information Giveaway
You’ll be glad that you stopped by today, because The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative is giving away some of the most powerful marketing ideas available anywhere - information that can make your enterprise vastly successful in today’s competitive marketplace.
Better yet, we are not giving away this information next week or next month. You don’t have to send us an email to request it either, because we have already given you all this information in recent postings on this page.
In case you missed it, here it is for you. So grab that mouse and get clicking.
Learn how to build your brand. (Trump Blog Post of
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The Apprentice: What I Learned from Episode Three
Talking to your customers is the real secret of career success
The contestants had a pretty simple task last night. They only had to organize sightseeing tours of Hollywood on double-decker buses. I could execute that task by myself in an hour or two, and I bet you could too.
So why did the contestants engage in such bizarre behavior? Michelle was trying to dodge blame again this week by refusing to make a decision of any kind. And Tim, once his team’s bus tour got underway, picked up a microphone and told a busload of nice-looking school kids exactly how John Belushi
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When I Say, "You're Hired!"
The essentials of building a great staff
One of the keys to being a great leader is the ability to delegate. For some strong people, that’s not an easy thing to do. It’s often difficult to relinquish the reins because you want to make sure things are done correctly. Many people adamantly believe the adage, “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”
But executives and managers and leaders of any kind are too busy to tend to every detail so delegation is crucial. However, in order to assign tasks to others, you have to really trust those who
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Press Release Power: How to Get $Millions Worth of Advertising Oomph for Free
Here’s a marketing strategy that’s literally too good to be true, because . . .
You can master it in an afternoon.
It costs you nothing - literally zilch.
It performs as well as expensive advertising.
It is renewable, meaning that with just a little ongoing effort from you, it will keep producing good results.
I am talking about writing press releases. If you spend just a little time reviewing the information in this post today, you can achieve the results I describe above, or even better. Plus, you can get started today.
What You Need to Know
What are
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Is a Franchise Your Best Route to Entrepreneurial Success? (Part II)
One week ago today, this blog ran Part I of a two-part, in-depth interview with The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative instructor Richard Parker, developer of The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative’s The Art of Buying a Business course.
In that interview, tackled many of the questions that need to be asked before buying a franchise. Today, Richard Parker talks more with The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative’s Barry Lenson and brings the issue into even sharper focus.
Barry Lenson: If you own a business, you can deduct the costs of advertising, signage and other expenses. Is that also true with a franchise? Is there an advantage one way or another?
Richard Parker: The expenses can be
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Know Your Customer, Create Your Success
I'd like to ask you a very basic question today:
When you become an entrepreneur, will you know who your customers are?
That's an interesting question, because there are so many ways to answer it. As an experiment, I asked our Executive Editor Barry Lenson to call three entrepreneurs and ask them that question. Here is what they told Barry:
Entrepreneur #1 answered, --Well, I know who my customers are, but I have never actually spoken to any of them.--
Entrepreneur #2 said, --I have spent a lot of money on focus groups that told me what my customers like, and don't like, about my
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The Apprentice: What I Learned from Episode Two
Last night's episode taught important lessons about risks, responsibility and teams. But the most important lesson I took away was this:
To get to the top, you have to make decisions
Plenty of decisions were made on last night's show. Some were good, but many were bad. Let's take a closer look.
First, Michelle made a non-decision. Early in the episode, she refused to make a decision about how to price her team's swimwear line. She obviously had ideas about what those prices should have been, but she clammed up and waited for other people to make the decision for her. She apparently
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Is a Franchise Your Best Route to Entrepreneurial Success? (Part I)
An interview with The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative's Instructor Richard Parker
Today we bring our readers the first installment of a two-part, in-depth interview with The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative Instructor Richard Parker, developer of The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative'sThe Art of Buying a Businesscourse
Should you buy a franchise? Does owning one offer a viable way to achieve entrepreneurial riches and independence?
In this recent conversation The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative's Barry Lenson, Instructor Richard Parker brings the issue into sharp focus.
Barry Lenson: Many people believe that owning a franchise minimizes the risks of owning a business - that there are systems, policies, and procedures in place that will minimize the hazards. So is it
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Why Starting a Business Remains the Path to Creating Wealth
--Secrets of the Self-Made,-- an interactive multi-media article on Forbes.com, offers a revealing glimpse into the minds of some of America's entrepreneurial billionaires.
Among the more interesting information, for me, are the descriptions that these ultra-rich individuals share about their first jobs. (All data on the net worth of these men comes from the Forbes article.)
Franklin Otis Booth Jr., an investor and rancher, started as an electroplater, making 65 cents per hour. Today his net worth is $1.9 billion.
Danny Gilbert, managing partner of Gilbert & Tobin, fueled his entrepreneurial fires as a kid by selling homemade pizzas out of his family's kitchen
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The Apprentice: What I Learned from Episode One
Only minutes into the season's first episode last night, Donald J. Trump stunned the contestants by asking them to build a tent in the backyard of his LA mansion. He hardly knew the contestants - they had only given him their names and professional credentials. He hadn't even divided them into teams.
They were probably expecting a task like those that the teams tackled last year, like launching a new video game in a WalMart or planning a charity fundraiser. Instead, they faced a cardboard box packed with a canvas tent and tent poles. They looked as stunned and confused as steers
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The Apprentice and Beyond
Entrepreneurial wisdom from Apprentice finalist Andrea Lake
We kick off our extensive coverage of the new Apprentice season with this interview of one of last season's top contenders. Be sure to watch the first episode of the new season this Sunday on NBC, 9/8c.
On the last season of The Apprentice, Andrea Lake was the cool, confident, self-possessed competitor who made it into the final six. In real life, Andrea is a highly successful entrepreneur who had already founded highly successful companies before the showbecame part of her life.
In this conversation with The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative's Barry Lenson, Andrea talks openly about what she
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The 101 Percent Formula for Entrepreneurial Success
If you are starting a new business, the day will finally come to stop planning and start interacting with your customers. That day is of critical importance. Ultimately, it will determine your success or failure.
To get the most from that moment, I recommend an approach that I call giving your customers 100 percent of your promise, plus an additional one percent. How can you deliver101 percent of your promise? Let me explain.
You start by answering this question:
What is my promise to my customers?
Let's say, for example, that you are starting a company that will install swimming pools. If that is your
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Think Like a Winner in 2007
Words of Wisdom from the New Book, Trump 101
Donald J. Trump, Chairman of The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, knows that success begins in your own mind. So as the year 2007 begins, I'd like to offer you his thoughts on success, taken from the pages of his new book, Trump 101.
--Ask yourself whether you're doing what you want and what is right for you.--
--Be positive every day. If you're not, no one will think you can succeed.--
--Believe in yourself, exude confidence, and get in your competitors' way. Project yourself into their picture and upset their status quo.--
--Break loose from your comfort zone by moving
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