Ideas and Opinions from Donald Trump and The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative Instructors.

George Steinbrenner was not only an icon, he was a friend and a very great man. He also knew what winning is and what winning meant. It meant everything--and everything is what it took to achieve it. If you know anything about George, you’ll know he was focused and incredibly tenacious. He knew what he wanted, what his vision for the Yankees was, and he went at it 100% on every level. Every detail mattered to him and the bottom line is that his tenacity worked. He refused to give in under any circumstances and he made the Yankees a great more...

Social media is without a doubt one of the fastest ways to bring red hot leads right to your door. No matter what industry you are in, your target audience is out there right now just waiting for your product or service; you just have to get their attention. So how do you that? The answer is simple: leverage the power of video on YouTube. Why YouTube? Because people love video! Given the choice between reading a long, boring article and watching a captivating video, which do you think your audience is going to choose? Plus with video, you can invoke positive emotion more...

Buyer's remorse. Appraisal problems. Loan denial. We all know the pitfalls of what can cause a contract to fall apart. Here is a list of 10 ways to keep that agreement together. Don't allow closing dates too far into the future. If necessary, a closing date can always be extended through an addendum to the contract. The quicker the closing, the easier it is to keep everything moving and all parties on their toes. If a buyer is in a lease and claims to not be able to close quickly, offer to pay the remainder of their lease or some other incentive more...

As I stated in my last post about formulas, I would address how to calculate a figure for ARV in a post of it's own. Simply put, ARV, to a real estate investor, means Approximate Retail Value or After Rehab Value. ARV is one of the most important values to the real estate investor in calculating profit. It is extremely important for this figure to be realistic and formulated for the market in which the property will be sold. "The market in which the property will be sold". Remember that sentence. Write it down. Unfortunately, when calculating ARV, many real estate investors and more...

Over the past week, I have received quite a few inquiries from real estate investors asking me to help them build their portfolios through purchase-rehab-sell (I despise the word "flip"). When I initially speak with an investor, I ask a lot of questions. Unfortunately, many don't have some of the most important answers. To invest in real estate, you must have a goal, an objective. You must also have a formula. We cannot create a successful real estate investment plan without the formula. It's really very simple: P = ARV - (PC + SE + HC + RC). Where P = profit, ARV more...

What do an empty shopping mall and your brand new website have in common? If you guessed "zero traffic" then you are correct! Your website may have the most stunning design in the world, you may have the hottest product or service on the market, but without traffic you're going to make just as much as that empty mall: NOTHING. In order to jump start your marketing efforts without waiting for Google and the other search engines to rank your website, you need a secret weapon: pay per click marketing. Pay per click marketing allows you to test your product, service more...

If you're looking to expand your business by marketing on Facebook, you're not alone. Social Media Marketing is a great way to reach more potential clients with minimal effort and expense. There's definitely a right way and a wrong way to go about it though, and unfortunately most people get this horribly wrong. They're using a sledgehammer when they should be using a gentle nudge. Get this wrong and you're going to alienate your potential clients before you ever get your foot in the door. When you make the decision to market your business on Facebook, you need to be aware of more...

You might have joined a few social networks in the past. My guess is Facebook or even MySpace! And you might have joined at least 1 business networking site such as LinkedIn. In fact, some people look to LinkedIn as more of a job networking site for career advancement as opposed to being a pure business networking site. LinkedIn, in fact offers both opportunities - a great resource for all of us. What you need to know as entrepreneur, business owner or an investor, is that there are many niche business networking sites out there that can truly give your business an more...

After the startling success of MySpace and Facebook, the world has quickly caught on to another online phenomenon- Twitter. Suddenly, it seems as if this hitherto unknown portal is everywhere, in the news, in the papers, on the blogs, and in everyday conversations. Almost every celebrity has an account on Twitter, and they don't miss out on sending a few Tweets each day. Understanding Twitter can be a bit of a challenge for the newcomer, as it features some really novel components and interfaces, which might come across as a bit of a problem initially. But more than using it, the real more...

N2Care has created what they claim to be the "latest" in elder care. More correctly called the MEDCottage, these shed-like structures are placed in a backyard for those folks with a medical need as determined by a physician. As per the website, "The MEDcottage is a state-of-the-art mobile medical temporary home for persons with special needs or disabilities". Still in it's infancy, the Salem, Virginia based company sees these modular structures as an alternative to a nursing home or assisted living facility. The pods are fitted with items such as automatic pill dispensers, special floor lighting and monitoring technologies such as water more...

For the first blog for The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, I'd like to start with some basics that will help anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur. My father, Fred C. Trump, who was a real estate developer, gave me some great advice, great because the advice was not only solid, but it worked. In fact, it still works. He always told me to "know everything you can about what you're doing." In other words, be thorough. I watched him and he definitely practiced what he preached. He knew everything about construction and could show carpenters shortcuts. He was very focused as well more...

The internet seems to be abuzz with new buzzwords and catch phrases every day. Initially, it was all about chat, IRC and newsgroups; then came Google; and now, we hear of the term Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) almost everywhere. To the uninitiated, this seems to be a mere online epidemic. Magazines talk of websites using the best SEO techniques, and so many businesses have sprung up to offer professional SEO. It is generally agreed that without SEO, your website has far less chance of being discovered. But what does all this mean? What is SEO, and why should it affect anyone more...

I wanted to take just a few moments to thank our readers who are serving or have served in the Armed Forces of the United States. Having spent much of my life living in a military town, I understand and appreciate the sacrifices you have made and continue to make. Thank you for protecting us, fighting for us, and above all, loving our country and the freedoms it provides us. Thank you to all the readers for taking the time out of your day to read my blog posts. I receive some wonderful correspondence from the readership here at The Trump Blog more...

Most real estate investors purchase their investments under the name of a corporation.  Obviously, that is smart both legally and for accounting purposes, but it is also smart for marketing purposes. Any business that had a product or service to sell knows that it is a lot easier to sell to people who knock on your door rather than vice-versa.  This also applies to the internet marketing world. There are many free, online directories where you should be listing your business.  By doing so and using keyword rich titles and descriptions, you will see your traffic increase along with your search engine rankings. If more...

As the internet has had an impact on every aspect of our lives, entrepreneurs, business owners and investors realize its importance in every domain- one of them being its use as a marketing medium. The most advantageous thing about internet marketing is that it happens to be a near zero-cost, wide-reach platform that gives new meaning to competition and innovation. If you have an upcoming product or service you would like to promote, or if you are looking for various investment opportunities such as real estate, stocks or gold, your best bet lies in using internet marketing to expand your reach locally more...