Photo by akseabirdDo not miss business with pleasure. Time and time again, this sentence has been repeated in movies, musical lyrics, newspapers; in fact, as we all know it is quite popular. However, whoever coined these words, really gave it a good thought.

Life in today’s business world is aggressive and harsh. Companies try to outwit one another. There still exist pockets of secret trade wars between Nations. Our offices are battlefields: no body joke with promotion opportunities. Secret coups to take over Corporations happen every day. People are smart; they are prepared to press the right buttons at the right time. In addition, co-workers are not always friends; they are literary rivals.

A lot of businesses fail because people tie business with pleasure. First, let’s make it clear that when we discourage people from mixing business with pleasure we are not talking about doing what you hate to do. You must love and enjoy what you are doing, however, refrain from allowing opportunities pass you by just because you would rather love to live close to your beautiful girlfriend or spouse instead of taking up that new appointment and relocate to a better city. Having said that, there are instances where a little of this may be required.

The fact is, if all businessmen and women mix their businesses with pleasure 24 hours of the day and 365 days per year, the world’s economy would be far worse than it is today. In principle, there is time for everything. One can truly make their job fun, however it must be between you and an inanimate object, and that’s your job.

Once I was away in Buenos Aires in a beautiful sea resort and there was this old man who came about that time with his dear wife. We started talking and he told me about his business principles. He believes everyone is a business rival, including his wife. “I don’t mix business with pleasure’’, he said.

One other secret I learnt from this grey beard Argentine man whose white hairs glinted gold was the fact that he sees his business empire like not his own. I mean he feels the business belongs to someone else and all he is doing is helping that person build the business. All business decisions he takes is for the prosperity of his business.

Thirdly, when it comes to business he doesn’t keep mutual friends but good business friends or partner. To put short, he doesn’t joke with business. Also he doesn’t allow sentiments to cloud his business judgement. Whichever business he does with a friend he expects to make the same level of profit as any other one, no special treatment. This is a good business principle to adopt. We can just go ahead and add sending a thank you card or gift thereafter.

Now, there’re many lessons we can learn from this Argentine friend of mine. It all goes to show that we must have timetable for everything; and also never mix business with pleasure. There is a difference between giving one a thank you gift and giving a discount of your product or services. To put bluntly, don’t ever mix business with pleasure.

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The American economy after the great depression climbed the stairs of wealth. Today we have a giant and superpower called the United States of America. The member states of the European Union followed the same path. In much the same way, many great families started off from a humble beginning to greatness. And if we talk about business tycoons in the UK and Australia, the same storyline of a humble beginning at one point or the other will be repeated. Man himself started small. Christians believe in Adam and Eve modest beginning; and science believes in the Stone Age man.  Great multinational companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple, HP, Coca Cola, Pepsi and Ford, just to mention a few all had their modest beginnings.

All these go to show that there is no age limit to start thinking of making money. No land is totally useless to offer opportunity. In fact ground zero is the most important part of a business empire. Without it no business mansion will stand. So when people find themselves in such a state as ground zero, it is an even important avenue to move up to the top. In fact, one can easily tell if they are on the second floor of a building when coming from the ground floor than to say where one is heading to when coming from an unknown floor.

Many people that inherited their wealth are not aware of where they started from and where they are going to. But someone from ground zero has an objective to move up – climb the stairs of success. From ground zero you can choose the business area that fits your lifestyle, interest, and talent. People who inherited a certain level of the stairs have to follow their family business even when they don’t really like the business or have the necessary education or skill to move the family empire to a greater height.

Step-1:

Let’s say a man plans to make millions in profit annually and right now he can barely afford an apartment. To climb up the stairs of wealth, he must draw a time table. Next, come out with what it is he can do very well that nobody can do, or to be more realistic, few people can do. This must be what he enjoys doing. Make plans to sell the idea and make profit. Obey the rules of customer satisfaction by placing the customers first. Serve and obey them like Kings and Queens which they are.

Step-2:

When the business start making profit, think of better ways to expand, more markets to capture, what is it that competitors don’t do that you think you would really enjoy if you were not an operator in the business yourself. You don’t have to know everything, employ people that know. You don’t have to be an inventor of all ideas, copy and modify some from competing businesses that are making it. Be careful of patent rights so you don’t get sued.

Step-3:

Believe it, there are millions of ways to change that business; all you have to do is discover the ways and be the first to profit from it before the crowds join you.

Step-4:

Be aggressive with competitors and a slave to customers

Step-5:

Switching from one business to another does not apply to all business ventures, however learning when to back out of a business and reinvest the capital on a more profitable business market is what counts. This is necessary for profit and growth. If there is a potential of growth in your present field of business, then you need not change gears.

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Investment is all about putting money to get profit back in return. It does not make any business sense when someone pumps cash into a project and nothing comes back as profit. Or put differently, very little comes back to the pocket. This is why there is a need to identify new trends, analyse market trends and above all, study to understand the flow of money.

Once there is a genuine interest in understanding the way money flows in our economy and summiting oneself to studying market trends and other vital information needed to make right investment moves, only then is an individual place in the proper platform to make good financial decisions and start building wealth. These are the major things business consultants know that many of us are ignorant of. Bottom line, lots of practicing begets perfection. Practicing, understanding, and applying the principle of wealth creation will definitely yield ripe fruits, if not almost instantly then in the future.

Outsourcing
Outsourcing to an average worker means loss of jobs, redundancies, economic recession, and foreclosure. However, while outsourcing may be close in meaning to all of these things; it is a survival strategy used by many western entrepreneurs to stay competitive and make more profits. With the fake value of the Chinese currency and an ever increasing influx of manufactured goods to Europe and America from China, outsourcing remains a necessary evil. We all know that manufactured goods from China go for sale at unbelievable cheap prices. So one trick business owners rely on to stay in business is to invest in territories where the cost of living is low.

China, India, Pakistan, Brazil and a few other countries have close to the same level of qualified workforce as Europe and the United States put together; and the cost of living in these lands is quite cheap. So investors prefer moving their businesses to such places where they will spend almost 80% less, and remain globally competitive. This is one of the tricks of money making, present day style.

Although, the initial cost of moving one’s business to another land and paying up a one-time fee may be expensive but that will be covered in a couple of years. In addition, tax incentives, and a host of other goodies make outsourcing a very attractive option for entrepreneurs to follow.

Stock and Mortgage Investment
There has never been better time to invest in the housing market or to buy into companies than today. Many people have lost their homes to foreclosure, some companies had to cut down on cost and therefore so many heads were forced to roll.

The good thing about all of these is that the global economic crisis cannot get any worse than it is today. At the end, some jobs and companies will disappear in the steam; however the majority that would still be around will only see their share prices appreciating. When this happens, those that took the risk will reap. Surely there is going to be a recovery.

Similar theory applies to the housing market. House prices are at an all-time low due to the present economic crisis. Many families have lost their homes due to their inability to pay back their debts. Buying these homes at the lowest prices today simply means that one is surely going to make profit when the house market bounces back to stability.

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Investment means taking risk. No matter how meagre the money one has in the bank they can always invest it on something. A truly rich man is someone whose money brings more money to him. Wealthy people don’t sweat all day long in factories just to get paid at the end of the month. To want to be rich means looking for capital, if you are not born with a silver spoon, and invest it. Start small and be consistent. Here are some things I have found common among the rich.

Opportunity in Adversity
Rich men are true gold diggers. They try to see the business side of all human problems. The same way the heat produced by a volcano eruption can be used for power generation. When a company keeps disappointing its customers, they are indirectly creating the market for another company to prosper. This technique has been one of the major tools western companies have used to dominate the world. Other parts of the world just realized this. They are trying to obey this rule but they are not getting it right.

Little Bit of Madness
Successful tycoons are a little bit mad. They are mad about something. Usually they are not the usual type of nice people that girls find attractive. Many of them discovered their purpose and went for them. This set of people does not follow the conventional way of life. In fact, the conventional way of life is like a road and everybody is on that road (what seems right). There is another road that the normal “office worker” and of course every one of us think is for the crazy people. But in fact that’s the  path that leads to the top. All known geniuses we know today took that road. They were just different.

Take Careful Decision
When it comes to business, critical decision requires critical thinking. One has to learn how to learn fast and act fast. There are people who are good at analysing market data. They are everywhere. That’s what college teaches someone, however, very few persons are born with the rare gift of taking a good decision at the right time. It’s all about timing. The art of good decision-making is in everyone (geniuses are naturally good at it) but we can learn it.

Act Fast
Procrastination is a business killer disease. When it comes to business, idea without good timing spoils everything. Politics is one case in point. In politics, good timing wins election. Life is dynamic and putting off a good idea until tomorrow maybe a big mistake. If it was not a mistake then luck was involved and luck rarely comes round when we expect it.

We can learn from the masters who had nothing and came up fast with these rules. Sir Richard Branson did it. He sold records out of his car when in fact people with white-collar jobs thought the man had gone mad. He was hopeless in their eyes. Bill Gate followed the same part and left school to follow his dream (right timing). There are millions of stories like that.

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Wealth creation is something that has been greatly talked-about. It is at the very centre, the backbone of all business seminars. Everyone no matter how wealthy they are search anxiously for new ways to make wealth. Little wonder why people attend business schools because it can help them figure out how to make money, manage a company, or as the trend is today, salvage a dying company and make it profitable again.

Look out for New Opportunities
Wealthy people spend time thinking on how to create more wealth more than the poor in our society do. For example, Bill Gate has large stakes in a number of businesses. Warren Buffett also known as the oracle of Omaha and a host of other business tycoons do the same. They all have interests in a number of things that fetch them money. Many of these people don’t necessary get involved in the day to day running of all their business ventures. They only need to be convinced of the prospect of a business doing well in the future and they will buy into it. Greatest risk to take is not to take risk at all.

Rely on Your Strength
Some people made their money just because they are great managers. Others created wealth out of their sporting or innovative talents. Good managers can take up several business interests at the same time and turn them around for good; whereas people with talents have rare skills in a particular field and that’s what they rely on to keep them going from strength to strength.

Ever heard of the adage, ‘’too many cooks spoil the broth’’? This applies to people with rare talents (people like Tiger Wood, Bill Gates, Entertainers, and so on). Their talents are what come first. They spend more of their time practicing and perfecting what brought them to fame. Diverting their time to other fields will be a suicide mission. For example, Tiger Wood venturing and spending all his time on shipbuilding business rather than playing golf will sadden us all.

Don’t get me wrong, talented individuals do invest their money to work for them. Yes, they do. However, they are not involved in the day-to-day running of the companies. Therefore, one business principle we can learn here is, we must identify if we are good at management and go for it, or if one has a special talent in sports or in technology, follow it to the grave.

Don’t Be Confused By Money
This applies more to the sporting and technologically talented folks. The glory of their achievements in sports and innovations should be above making money and wealth creation. One should do everything it takes to fight and fend off any hurdle that may stop their career from progressing. The talent of great soccer players, for instance, will stop flourishing if they allow themselves to be deceived by the dangerous love for money and opt for a football league in the world that would stop their progress and dilute their skills.

The best way to make good money with one’s talent is to concentrate in perfecting on what one can do best and lots of money and progress will follow. People that give their strength and best to entertain the World are always rewarded both kind and bank notes. In principle, the same is true for talented business managers, they give to the poor, and viola we start trusting them with our lives.

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Millionaires truly have secrets.   By using the word millionaire, I am talking about those lucky persons that have stockpiled fortunes from ground up. To put short, there are unique behaviours that are characteristics of the rich in our societies. A careful observation will help you identify some of these secrets. Some say the super rich are frugal with their wealth. The truth is, to have wealth is one thing and to remain rich is another.  Wealth is how much you are able to save and not how much you have spent.  What then are the secrets of a millionaire?

Spend Less Than You Get

One key rule is to spend less and save more. Have a budget and stick to it. Do not be lured into spending money on things that you did not initially plan for, except something important. One rule of thumb is to spend less than 50% of your income after tax and save up the remainder. Better still, you may want to save 40% and spend 60% or thereabout.

  Discipline

 Whichever saving and spending plan you choose, a good degree of discipline is required. You probably must have heard sad tells of people who stumbled upon sudden wealth only to get back broke within a very short time. Human wants are insatiable and our means are limited. There are thousands if not millions of your heart desires that money can buy. These things are tempting to get. Be warned, money without good wealth managerial skill that requires a great deal of discipline would come to nought.

For example, it does not make sense for Mr. Tom, ones a poor fellow who inherited £25M to squander £20M on an Island alone just to have the experience of Island owners like Sir Richard  Branson and American actor Mel Gibson. Many millionaires can sneeze out such money to own those beautiful getaways without qualms; however, it is important to point out that very few of them actually own one.  They would rather prefer investing their money into things that would fetch them more money. Now we can deduce our ultimate lesson number one: use your head and not your heart.

Invest Wisely

Let us say you have been able to save up thousands of pounds from a business venture. In order to exceed your current business potential you need to reinvest a large chunk of the profit back to the business. If you are very good at what you are doing, invest more to it; aspire to capture more of the market. Be creative. Think out of the box.

It is important to have more than one source of income. There is a limit to how much you can save from one source of income alone. Consider Sir Richard Branson for instance; he is into a whole range of things from Virgin Airline to credit cards. Bill Gate has stakes in many companies that are completely independent from Microsoft Inc. Warren Buffett, the second richest man in the world, is also one man to watch and learn. The list is endless. All the various sources of their incomes add up to form what makes them thick in the world today; after all, several small bricks make a mansion.

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