Well as Bill Gross and many others have announced, the market is dead. What they really mean is those days of financial advisers saying "well over the history of the market we have averaged 8-10%." I hate when people say that and I was an adviser. Ask all the people who planned on retiring in the last 5 years and the next 5 years what they think of the market. I do believe in the markets and do believe on putting money into stocks, options, ETF's, etc... Almost all types of investments have a situation where they can be used appropriately but I feel like putting money in a company and looking at it every so often is gone. No more holding a mutual fund or stock for years and years.
So if we can't invest in the market what can we do? We can trade it. The global recession of the past few years has all but crippled most investors and they set back and wonder went wrong. After all they gave money to an "advisor" and he "invested it and now they have very little. News flash, those advisers 1) don't know near as much about the market as you think they do and 2) don't always have your best interest at heart. So back to my point of trading. It is going to take a much more knowledgeable "investor" to make money year in and year out in the market. I think that it can certainly be done but again you are going to have to know what you are doing and in my opinion get in and get out at specific times. With all the options for investments these days and the ability to short or go long on just about anything you want with the invention of a new ETF every day and in particular leveraged and sector specific ETF's.
Look the markets do things for unknown reason and no one can truly tell you which way it is heading. We can speculate and give reasons but at the end of the day there are so many forces pushing and pulling the market in different directions it is impossible to predict. If someone could do it then well they would be managing a very large hedge fund somewhere.
So the questions is if I am advising that you trade the market, what do I mean? When do I trade and what do I trade? Look I am not an advisor and am certainly not looking to give specific recommendations here but what I am saying is learn something. The most successful traders, trade in only a few stocks or sectors. They learn that sector extremely well and learn, as best they can, how that sector works. What I am basically advising is that you learn to time the market....... Now that all of you who ever took a finance have picked your jaw off the floor let me explain. As I said earlier you simply can't put your money in and leave it. You have to find something you know get in and take profits often. Not only learn to take profits but learn to hedge some of your bets with options or future. While futures are out of the reach of the average investor options certainly aren't and with leveraged ETF's you can get both in a portfolio.
Me, personally, am a big believer in material assets. Material assets like Gold, silver, real estate, farming products, etc.... I also am a fan of energy. Why you ask? I think they are some of the easiest to learn and understand.Why are they easier in my opinion? For a couple reasons; 1) they tend to be more cyclical. Look at charts for Gold and Oil and think about it. When does gasoline seem to be most expensive? 2) There is only so much physical oil, gold and silver in the world. While we have tried to produce these and most specifically oil from other products we haven't truly succeeded. Taking what I just said in to consideration and with demand not slowing for these products what will happen in the long run? With that, keep in mind a said trade. So learn the ups and downs and the cycles of the asset. I also mentioned real estate above. I believe in owning property but also in high dividend stocks. I like to own REIT's (Real Estate Investment Trust) and any company that can support a large dividend. Rules and regulations make it so that REIT's and other companies like transportation companies, companies that use tankers, require these types of companies to shell out most of their earnings in the form of a dividend. I am not sure of the reason and honestly its not important for the sake of this conversation. For these stocks I rarely look for a stock that I believe is going to increase dramatically, I look at the dividend yield. I can lose 5-10% in a year and not really care as long as that trend doesn't continue. From my experience they have smaller changes in price but I am looking at the dividend. Some of these stocks have dividend yields of 8-14%. I love cash flow and dividends can be apart of that strategy (I will have a future article on this).
Again, I am not an investment advisor and would certainly recommend talking to a financial planner but preferably a CFP or even better a CPA. I feel like a financial plan is a very valuable tool in life so please consult with someone who can help you put one together.
The market is becoming more and more difficult to "invest" in. Find stocks or ETF's with volatility, learn their movements, practice some trades and make some money.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Friday, August 17, 2012
Too Young to be an Entrepreneur? What can be learned here.
Is there such a thing as being too young to be an entrepreneur? I have seen this question tossed around from time to time and wanted to add my two cents.
I have read several articles and they all seem to come to the same conclusion, you are never to young to be an entrepreneur. As much as this question is about being an entrepreneur I think it is more about how a parent chooses to teach their child about money. I mean when a child is young they have characteristics most commonly found in an entrepreneur. A child is creative, passionate, open to risk, and full of curiosity. These are the ultimate qualities of an entrepreneur, no matter what the age. So if this is the case why would we not want to use these qualities while they still exist. It is my opinion that some of these qualities tend to go away as we use them less throughout our schooling. Our school system is poor at harbouring these qualities and we need to improve upon that.
I want to briefly touch on some of the skills learned as an entrepreneur, in my opinion of course and see what you guys think about them. Please comment to add or disagree to my list. Now all of these depend on what kind of business the child created of course but staying consistent with some of the others I have mentioned in this article I think that the biggest is salesmanship. The ability to close a sale, to overcome a rejection, deal with rejection and ultimately read people I think has to be the top skill learned and necessary by an entrepreneur. I mentioned reading people but to expand on that what I mean is the ability to listen to a person and put yourself in their shoes. This is a quality necessary in all aspects of life but especially in sales.
The next major skill learned is time management. As a child the world is at our feet and at this point we still have all the options in the world as far as what we want to do. We have friends to play with, sports, TV, Internet, video games and on and on. With school and all of these other activities they learn to balance their schedule and give time to the appropriate tasks.
Another major skill to me is marketing. Similar to sales you simply have to put yourself out there and knock on doors, but more then that there are numerous types of marketing and more specific to this generation will be web marketing. Maybe it's Craigslist, eBay, amazon or a host of other sites but again numerous ways to get exposure online.
The final skill learned would be budgeting and learning about cash flow. I think ultimately this may come down to decision making but in finance and accounting, there are more critical decisions to be made. You have to learn how to budget and again another skill set in life is managing and understanding cash flow.
I think when you put these four things together and add in managing employees and creating a chain of command and you have some absolutely key parts to running a business and lessons that can be learned even as a kid should they fully invest themselves in a business.
Like I said I really am not sure what the downsides are to being a young entrepreneur but I will take a couple stabs at them. The first possibility is that there is a lot of responsibility that comes with being an entrepreneur. I would understand if a parent said I don't want my child to have that responsibility just yet. They have all their life to take on as much responsibility as they would like but while they are young I want them to be a kid. The only other downside that I can think of is that there comes risk with being an entrepreneur. In my opinion this is where the parent has to step in. An 8 year obviously doesn't have the skill set or maturity to put together a growing company but there is a lot that can be learned from lemonade stands, mowing yards and maybe creating a website for a slightly older crowd. At the same time it isn't likely that an 8 year old create a sophisticated company.
While I didn't intend for it to be this article turned out to be just as much about the different skills learned/needed to be an entrepreneur as it did about young entrepreneurs. The bottom line to me is that you are never to young learn and especially learn how to be your own boss. I recently read a quote that I think is very fitting to end this article with and that is; "you are either working for your own dreams or working for someone elses." Learn, as early as possible, how to make money work for you and not work for money!
I have read several articles and they all seem to come to the same conclusion, you are never to young to be an entrepreneur. As much as this question is about being an entrepreneur I think it is more about how a parent chooses to teach their child about money. I mean when a child is young they have characteristics most commonly found in an entrepreneur. A child is creative, passionate, open to risk, and full of curiosity. These are the ultimate qualities of an entrepreneur, no matter what the age. So if this is the case why would we not want to use these qualities while they still exist. It is my opinion that some of these qualities tend to go away as we use them less throughout our schooling. Our school system is poor at harbouring these qualities and we need to improve upon that.
I want to briefly touch on some of the skills learned as an entrepreneur, in my opinion of course and see what you guys think about them. Please comment to add or disagree to my list. Now all of these depend on what kind of business the child created of course but staying consistent with some of the others I have mentioned in this article I think that the biggest is salesmanship. The ability to close a sale, to overcome a rejection, deal with rejection and ultimately read people I think has to be the top skill learned and necessary by an entrepreneur. I mentioned reading people but to expand on that what I mean is the ability to listen to a person and put yourself in their shoes. This is a quality necessary in all aspects of life but especially in sales.
The next major skill learned is time management. As a child the world is at our feet and at this point we still have all the options in the world as far as what we want to do. We have friends to play with, sports, TV, Internet, video games and on and on. With school and all of these other activities they learn to balance their schedule and give time to the appropriate tasks.
Another major skill to me is marketing. Similar to sales you simply have to put yourself out there and knock on doors, but more then that there are numerous types of marketing and more specific to this generation will be web marketing. Maybe it's Craigslist, eBay, amazon or a host of other sites but again numerous ways to get exposure online.
The final skill learned would be budgeting and learning about cash flow. I think ultimately this may come down to decision making but in finance and accounting, there are more critical decisions to be made. You have to learn how to budget and again another skill set in life is managing and understanding cash flow.
I think when you put these four things together and add in managing employees and creating a chain of command and you have some absolutely key parts to running a business and lessons that can be learned even as a kid should they fully invest themselves in a business.
Like I said I really am not sure what the downsides are to being a young entrepreneur but I will take a couple stabs at them. The first possibility is that there is a lot of responsibility that comes with being an entrepreneur. I would understand if a parent said I don't want my child to have that responsibility just yet. They have all their life to take on as much responsibility as they would like but while they are young I want them to be a kid. The only other downside that I can think of is that there comes risk with being an entrepreneur. In my opinion this is where the parent has to step in. An 8 year obviously doesn't have the skill set or maturity to put together a growing company but there is a lot that can be learned from lemonade stands, mowing yards and maybe creating a website for a slightly older crowd. At the same time it isn't likely that an 8 year old create a sophisticated company.
While I didn't intend for it to be this article turned out to be just as much about the different skills learned/needed to be an entrepreneur as it did about young entrepreneurs. The bottom line to me is that you are never to young learn and especially learn how to be your own boss. I recently read a quote that I think is very fitting to end this article with and that is; "you are either working for your own dreams or working for someone elses." Learn, as early as possible, how to make money work for you and not work for money!
Friday, August 10, 2012
Social Networking Overload?
So many options, so little time. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google +, youtube, etc, etc, etc.....There are so many popular social networking sites, and only so much time in the day. I know that I am not mentioning other websites as well but are all of these sites too much? What do you focus on and use the most? I know that everyone uses Facebook, as they have over 900 million users but do these sites really work or are they just a waste of time?
I ask this from the perspective of a business owner. Ya if you just want to get on and make fun of your twice removed cousin or see what your high school friend that you haven't talked to in 15 years is doing then yes Facebook is awesome. For those of you that use this as a marketing tool though, what are your strategies, which sites do you use and what I am really curious to see is how effective are they? I guess one more thing is how do you measure that effectiveness? I mean is it really worth tweeting about your business when you have 20 followers?
I mean social media is now so popular that jobs have been newly created for this exact purpose. Not only has this position been created but but it is a job where a 20 something has a lot better chance of getting the job versus a 40 something with "experience". I haven't really taken a look but I am sure there are thousands of other sites out there. I mean all you really have to do is create a site that speaks directly towards a certain segment of the market. Look at Facebook, originally you had to have an @.edu email address or you couldn't get on. Start narrow and as you grow you can broaden your scope. Isn't that what most business models are as well. As an example I started mowing grass but now I put down chemicals, rake leaves, put in irrigation and do snow removal. Most companies start in the exact same manor.
Enough of that tangent and back to social media. How much time per day does the average person spend on social networking? According to this website, http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/09/02/20-stunning-social-media-statistics/, over 15 hours each month or roughly 30 minutes a day... on Facebook alone. I would like to see what the numbers are for businesses and because I have an interest, more specifically small business owners.
Maybe the better question is at what point is it worth your time to focus on all this networking? I understand that you can't just go from zero to million users in a week, but at what point is it truly profitable. With blogs and other websites this number is one that can be calculated based on page views, ad revenues and affiliate income among some of the information that is easily attainable. With social networking like facebook and twitter I think it is a little harder to trace where that revenue is coming from.
As I continue to write and hopefully as the popularity of this blog grows I can give some more feedback on the blog information related to revenue. The one thing that I haven't mentioned is there is a very big difference between a blog and a website dedicated to a company that sells products. Those products could be software, sandals or other services, it doesn't matter. A blogs product is information which is infinite, virtually. A blog succeeds based on marketing a virtually nothing more nothing less. Of course the information and material must be of quality but quality is very subjective.
Anyway, the goal of this post was to get some comments on social networking. Is it worth the time we spend on it? What could we really accomplish with even half of that 15 hours per month? If there are any business owners reading this, what sites do you use and and what point has your time on these sites become worth it? Any sites that are growing in popularity that you find useful?
I ask this from the perspective of a business owner. Ya if you just want to get on and make fun of your twice removed cousin or see what your high school friend that you haven't talked to in 15 years is doing then yes Facebook is awesome. For those of you that use this as a marketing tool though, what are your strategies, which sites do you use and what I am really curious to see is how effective are they? I guess one more thing is how do you measure that effectiveness? I mean is it really worth tweeting about your business when you have 20 followers?
I mean social media is now so popular that jobs have been newly created for this exact purpose. Not only has this position been created but but it is a job where a 20 something has a lot better chance of getting the job versus a 40 something with "experience". I haven't really taken a look but I am sure there are thousands of other sites out there. I mean all you really have to do is create a site that speaks directly towards a certain segment of the market. Look at Facebook, originally you had to have an @.edu email address or you couldn't get on. Start narrow and as you grow you can broaden your scope. Isn't that what most business models are as well. As an example I started mowing grass but now I put down chemicals, rake leaves, put in irrigation and do snow removal. Most companies start in the exact same manor.
Enough of that tangent and back to social media. How much time per day does the average person spend on social networking? According to this website, http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/09/02/20-stunning-social-media-statistics/, over 15 hours each month or roughly 30 minutes a day... on Facebook alone. I would like to see what the numbers are for businesses and because I have an interest, more specifically small business owners.
Maybe the better question is at what point is it worth your time to focus on all this networking? I understand that you can't just go from zero to million users in a week, but at what point is it truly profitable. With blogs and other websites this number is one that can be calculated based on page views, ad revenues and affiliate income among some of the information that is easily attainable. With social networking like facebook and twitter I think it is a little harder to trace where that revenue is coming from.
As I continue to write and hopefully as the popularity of this blog grows I can give some more feedback on the blog information related to revenue. The one thing that I haven't mentioned is there is a very big difference between a blog and a website dedicated to a company that sells products. Those products could be software, sandals or other services, it doesn't matter. A blogs product is information which is infinite, virtually. A blog succeeds based on marketing a virtually nothing more nothing less. Of course the information and material must be of quality but quality is very subjective.
Anyway, the goal of this post was to get some comments on social networking. Is it worth the time we spend on it? What could we really accomplish with even half of that 15 hours per month? If there are any business owners reading this, what sites do you use and and what point has your time on these sites become worth it? Any sites that are growing in popularity that you find useful?
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Self Discipline... The Key to Success
For anyone that knows me well enough they have probably heard me say: "Everyone knows what they need to do in life it is just a matter of whether or not they do it." This is exactly what I want to talk about in this post: self discipline.
What is self discipline? According to Elbert Hubbard "self discipline is the ability to do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not." Similar to what I said above, you know what you need to do now do it. It is the later part of the previous sentence that is the difficult part. The reality is that you know what you need to do to do just about anything you want or at the very least you know where to start. You want to be successful, make more money, learn a new skill, be smarter financially, start a business, build a house, start a new career, whatever it is that you want to do in life you have a decent idea of what it is that you need to do to accomplish it. So why is it so difficult to actually follow through on and do?
There are a million and one excuses that we can use, I mean after all life happens, but the real reason is simply a lack of self discipline. Remember the definition, to do what you need to do, when you need to do it and, most importantly, whether you feel like it or not. To accomplish any of the things above it will take time and effort and unfortunately almost all of us, including myself, tend to take the path of least resistance.
I want to examine the definition part by part. Part 1 we have already discussed but doing what you should be doing. It starts with the goal. If the goal is to make money each month from a blog we need to break that goal down into smaller achievable pieces. Steps might include starting a blog, figuring out what you want to write about, figuring out how to monetize a blog/website. In my opinion you must first determine the goal, and very specifically. From there break down the goal into achievable pieces.
Part two of the definition, is when you should do it. While this is very subjective the answer is as soon as you can. I once heard, that if you are going to make a mistake the best way to make it is quickly. I am not saying that the goal is to make a mistake but I am simply reminding everyone that it is OK to make mistakes and in my opinion it is more important to take action. There is a time for everything but when you take part one into account everything must be done in the right order. When attacking your goal take it step by step. In my example I can't monetize a blog without finishing the previous steps.
Finally and most importantly whether you feel like it or not. This is the most difficult part. We have so many choices we are are on overload everyday. With the internet, TV, social media and all the other activities we have available to us it is hard to focus. It's like we all have ADD and can't focus. It is simply almost impossible but again this is the definition of self discipline. In order to have self discipline you must be able to control yourself and most importantly what you do with your time. Time is the one asset that you can't get back, it is finite. If you have a goal and truly want it, you will go for. How fast and how hard it what separates us all.
There are countless motivational quotes, video's, books, etc... I am just going to point out two things that I think other's might find useful. The first one is the manifesto for the Holstee Company. This manifesto has helped this company get a ton of press. Here is there manifesto:
What is self discipline? According to Elbert Hubbard "self discipline is the ability to do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not." Similar to what I said above, you know what you need to do now do it. It is the later part of the previous sentence that is the difficult part. The reality is that you know what you need to do to do just about anything you want or at the very least you know where to start. You want to be successful, make more money, learn a new skill, be smarter financially, start a business, build a house, start a new career, whatever it is that you want to do in life you have a decent idea of what it is that you need to do to accomplish it. So why is it so difficult to actually follow through on and do?
There are a million and one excuses that we can use, I mean after all life happens, but the real reason is simply a lack of self discipline. Remember the definition, to do what you need to do, when you need to do it and, most importantly, whether you feel like it or not. To accomplish any of the things above it will take time and effort and unfortunately almost all of us, including myself, tend to take the path of least resistance.
I want to examine the definition part by part. Part 1 we have already discussed but doing what you should be doing. It starts with the goal. If the goal is to make money each month from a blog we need to break that goal down into smaller achievable pieces. Steps might include starting a blog, figuring out what you want to write about, figuring out how to monetize a blog/website. In my opinion you must first determine the goal, and very specifically. From there break down the goal into achievable pieces.
Part two of the definition, is when you should do it. While this is very subjective the answer is as soon as you can. I once heard, that if you are going to make a mistake the best way to make it is quickly. I am not saying that the goal is to make a mistake but I am simply reminding everyone that it is OK to make mistakes and in my opinion it is more important to take action. There is a time for everything but when you take part one into account everything must be done in the right order. When attacking your goal take it step by step. In my example I can't monetize a blog without finishing the previous steps.
Finally and most importantly whether you feel like it or not. This is the most difficult part. We have so many choices we are are on overload everyday. With the internet, TV, social media and all the other activities we have available to us it is hard to focus. It's like we all have ADD and can't focus. It is simply almost impossible but again this is the definition of self discipline. In order to have self discipline you must be able to control yourself and most importantly what you do with your time. Time is the one asset that you can't get back, it is finite. If you have a goal and truly want it, you will go for. How fast and how hard it what separates us all.
There are countless motivational quotes, video's, books, etc... I am just going to point out two things that I think other's might find useful. The first one is the manifesto for the Holstee Company. This manifesto has helped this company get a ton of press. Here is there manifesto:
Anytime that need a little motivation I read this. It helps encourage me to be more and to do work that makes me happy. This is something I am still working towards.
Finally I want to leave you with a book. The book is NO Excuses: The Power of Self Discipline. You have quoted it a couple times in this draft but suggest that everyone read it. Some of the most the best content are questions at the end of each chapter that really help set goals in each area of your life. Check it out.
What tools or practices does everyone else use to practice self discipline and focus?
Saturday, August 4, 2012
First Post
Well, I have decided to start a blog. While I am not exactly sure why I do find the idea of sharing my thoughts on different topics exciting. Not saying that my opinion matters anymore than the next guy but I look forward to writing about topics on entrepreneurship, small business, personal finance, financial markets, book reviews, motivation and maybe even sports. I love myself some fantasy sports especially football.
The truth is that this blog is being created for a few reasons: 1) I am always looking to add new skill sets and I think that by sharing the knowledge that I have and practicing my writing skills it can only lead to others sharing their knowledge and improved knowledge and skills, 2) I am always looking to increase my income and allowing potential employers to see a little more of the real you usually isn't a bad thing especially if you come off intelligently 3) I truly believe I am an entrepreneur at heart and I think creating something of your own is acting in an entrepreneurial way. I think we have all seen the articles about how blog writers have "replaced their monthly income" with the income from their blog. I have to think with all of these articles it must be true. I said it must be true, not easy. I want to give it a shot and see what I find out.
I mentioned I think I am an entrepreneur at heart, but yet have never really started any business of my own. I have helped others and have an MBA with an emphasis in entrepreneurship but yet nothing on my own, unless you count lawn mowing which wasn't a business technically just something I did in my own name as every teenage boy does.There are lots of reasons really but ultimately I feel as if I am a jack of all trades and a master of none. I know a lot about the topics listed above that I want to write about but a master of none of them, except maybe fantasy football. I want to find something in the business world I truly excel at. If I am not going to own my own business I want my resume and my credentials to show that I am worth of a high income. High income is very subjective but let's just say 6 figures hypothetically. I think most us could agree that 6 figures is a "high income". I am hoping that through this blog I can teach others a few things or at least bring some topics to life and learn how to better market myself as either and entrepreneur or employee.Who knows, maybe through this blog I find my calling.
This blog is about topics I like to read and write about, if you don't like the same topics then I appreciate you visiting the blog but please don't leave a bunch of negative feedback. If you do enjoy the topics I write about and think others you know might as well please let them know. You can also follow my twitter handles @entrepreneurfix and @ffadvicenow for fantasy football. A lot of the articles I post to twitter will be topics of this blog. Again thank you for reading the very first post. I am hoping to write 4-5 posts a week. If you have any comments please feel free to leave them. The only way we learn from each other is helping each other understand using our experience and education. Thanks!
Sean
The truth is that this blog is being created for a few reasons: 1) I am always looking to add new skill sets and I think that by sharing the knowledge that I have and practicing my writing skills it can only lead to others sharing their knowledge and improved knowledge and skills, 2) I am always looking to increase my income and allowing potential employers to see a little more of the real you usually isn't a bad thing especially if you come off intelligently 3) I truly believe I am an entrepreneur at heart and I think creating something of your own is acting in an entrepreneurial way. I think we have all seen the articles about how blog writers have "replaced their monthly income" with the income from their blog. I have to think with all of these articles it must be true. I said it must be true, not easy. I want to give it a shot and see what I find out.
I mentioned I think I am an entrepreneur at heart, but yet have never really started any business of my own. I have helped others and have an MBA with an emphasis in entrepreneurship but yet nothing on my own, unless you count lawn mowing which wasn't a business technically just something I did in my own name as every teenage boy does.There are lots of reasons really but ultimately I feel as if I am a jack of all trades and a master of none. I know a lot about the topics listed above that I want to write about but a master of none of them, except maybe fantasy football. I want to find something in the business world I truly excel at. If I am not going to own my own business I want my resume and my credentials to show that I am worth of a high income. High income is very subjective but let's just say 6 figures hypothetically. I think most us could agree that 6 figures is a "high income". I am hoping that through this blog I can teach others a few things or at least bring some topics to life and learn how to better market myself as either and entrepreneur or employee.Who knows, maybe through this blog I find my calling.
This blog is about topics I like to read and write about, if you don't like the same topics then I appreciate you visiting the blog but please don't leave a bunch of negative feedback. If you do enjoy the topics I write about and think others you know might as well please let them know. You can also follow my twitter handles @entrepreneurfix and @ffadvicenow for fantasy football. A lot of the articles I post to twitter will be topics of this blog. Again thank you for reading the very first post. I am hoping to write 4-5 posts a week. If you have any comments please feel free to leave them. The only way we learn from each other is helping each other understand using our experience and education. Thanks!
Sean
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