Put Your Money To Work

By Brandon Gaskins

In 1983 Donna Summer lit up the charts with a hit titled, "She Works Hard For The Money", Well other than politicians and there cohorts, there are very few professions where you don't work hard for your money. We spend the majority of our lives at workplaces, when we would rather be somewhere else. We tell our families we do it for them , sadly we know better than that, we know if there was a life reset button, most people would chose to chase their dreams instead of a paycheck. The problem with a paycheck is that once you get it, your bills pretty much eat it up. You have rent, mortgage, gas and electric , cell phone, car note, food, credit cards bills,and miscellaneous. Two paychecks a month is not helping you climb out of your financial crisis.

Somehow you are able to not only survive but save some of your hard earned money. Unfortunately the $500 or $1000 you have been able to save is not enough to start that small business you have been dreaming of, or so it appears. There is a key component to every successful person's portfolio; and that is networking. You hear about this word often but its not practiced enough.
I have a goal to use Ideatank75 as a platform to bring people for the purpose of networking to build small groups of investors that are committed to building small businesses. 

Without getting into too much detail, I would like to briefly describe two avenues of revenue building that will be discussed in a later event. The first is Purchasing Power; everybody knows that if your going to buy a new or used car from a dealership, a home or even furniture you going to pay more than what its worth. The same goes for bikes, televisions and phones, when you only represent one buyer your going to pay a higher price. Don't you want to be able to make purchases at the cheapest price offered, of course you do. Well guess what, every person on this planet would love to do the same thing, the only problem is we don't have a program in place to connect with each other when we are ready to make a purchase.

The second is Circle Of Investors; Why is it when we hear the word small business we think of an endeavor requiring a store front or $10,000 to operate? There are plenty of small businesses that operate with far less capitol. For instance, you could sponsor charted trips for around $1,500, you could become a wholesale distributor of any number of products, there are events you could sponsor, like a Santa Claus obstacle race during the summer time, think outside of the box.

 You may be reading and thinking I don't have $1,500 well if you have a circle of investors to network with you wont have to come up with the money by yourself and you have a group of people with different ideas and skill sets to network with.

Jobs VS Careers VS Entreprenuership

By Brandon Gaskins

Let me begin this post with this statement, there are plenty of men and women who are working in fields they would rather not be in, however they are doing so to help someone else reach their potential. Which means they are not basing their life's work from what they are doing to make money for themselves, they are basing their work from what they can do for someone else. That sacrifice is what allows many others to have choices not afforded to their elders. Their elders happiness is derived from seeing their hard work payoff in the success of their families. However there are far too many that are willing to accept a quick access to financial gains that they do not plan for their pending retirement until it is too late to do so. Never before have we seen so many citizens at retirement age working jobs that were once dominated by the youth.

When it comes to "making a living" there are typically three paths one can take, they are; jobs, careers and entrepreneurship. All three paths will ensure some type of stability as it pertains to your financial portfolio. However each path has its own set of rewards, limitations and obstacles that will keep you asking, Am I making the right decision? That's the irony of each path, you have to choose for yourself, you have to look yourself in the mirror and feel confident that the path you have chosen, is the one that defines who you are as a person and the one that will sustain you in your retirement years. Now I have to ask you, Have you chosen the path that will leave you with a fulfilled life or have you chosen a path that will only satisfy some of your needs.

From www.dictionary.com, a job is defined as the following:  An individual piece of work or task; An occupation; An object worked on or a result produced from working. What I get from this meaning is that a job is a short term task with very little reward but can require plenty of labor and sacrifice. In my opinion a job is a short term solution for someone in need of financial gains. You are never paid what you are worth because you are in a position were you can be replaced fairly quickly and by someone who is willing to do the job for lesser pay. Whatever your circumstances are, unless your goal is to work as hard as you can to help your family members got to school or you are helping them pursue a field that will help your family achieve social mobility, then a job should only be temporary.

From www.dictionary.com a career is defined as the following: An occupation or profession chosen as ones life work; an occupation requiring special training. A persons progress or general course of action through life. So as you can see,there is a Big difference between what a job is and what a career is. In my opinion the biggest difference between the two is the special training and education a person needs to obtain a career. With a job you are able to start working quickly to obtain a paycheck and usually without special training. While a career requires you to obtain more education and special certificates. Because a career requires so much more before you are able to receive a paycheck, they pay is almost always significantly more than that of a job. But, please do be fooled with that significant increase in pay comes an increase in bills.

From www.dictionary.com an entrepreneur is defined as the following: The owner or manager of a business enterprise, who by risk and initiative attempts to make profits. There is a BIG glaring word that usually send most people running scared from entrepreneurship and that word is, risk. Unlike with the other two paths there is no guarantee a check will be coming in a week or two, there is no certainty that you will be successful with your business offering. If you like eating steak you had best get used to eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for awhile. While most people avoid entrepreneurship because they are afraid of taking risk, those that have taken the initiative and put in the "grind" it takes to be successful will tell you the financial freedom and the ability to plan your own work schedule is well worth the risk. Looking at the definition again you will notice there was not a mention of money. taking the initiative does not cost you a dime, of course there will come a time where you will need an investor or two, however if you put in the leg work and you research to make sure your endeavor is profitable, when the time comes to find investors you will not have a problem finding one or more that believe in your idea; (see also crowd funding for revenue sources).

As you can see there is some level of risk and reward with each path, however if you want a life where you have more say so as to how your time will be spent, more financial freedom, a greater since of accomplishment and the ability to create a legacy, then the choice is simple, you should become an entrepreneur. If the highlight of your day is getting back in bed or if you are "living for the weekend", then you are definitely not happy with your current profession and should seriously consider becoming an entrepreneur. A word of advice, you should not attempt to become an entrepreneur to become rich, instead focus on how you can enrich the lives of those around, there is no greater currency than love.

Why Your Small Business Will Fail

Written by Brandon Gaskins


    I have had my fair share of projects that I wanted to turn into a business but for some reason could not get the ball rolling. Sure I start off with some momentum that leads to sales and some light interest but then I make the mistake many aspiring business owners make and that is not thinking creatively to generate interest from a different perspective. Every customer does not show int erst in you for the same reason. Some may like your appearance, others might like your presentation while someone else may not like you at all or just a little but LOVE your product or service. Do not settle with one approach for generating leads, sure social media is a must into today's marketing world but if you want to really gain a following, nothing beats a face and voice your audience can see. Stop standing behind or inside your business and start standing in front of it. you speak for your business, it does not speak for you.

    I see small businesses come and go very often, from restaurants, clubs, clothing stores, phone stores you name it, they put up grand opening signs, fresh new paint and expect the customers to come rolling in. Soon the flyer's start coming, then the sales, next comes the,"New Management" signs. Still the sales are fickle and your barely staying afloat. Once the frustration of negative sales start rolling in, they forget all about customer service and just become the biggest" Bitch" ala Naomi Campbell. You walk into their place of business and the staff are more focused on themselves and not you the customer. Once your heart is taken out of play you will never be able to give one hundred and ten percent to your project because you can easily be thrown off course by the smallest of problems. If you have your health, your faith and the wisdom to respect all creations your a wealthy person.

    Now that I have pointed out why your small business will fail, let me give you the antidote to suffering sales; its networking. Network with other businesses in your area, possible investors, local media, seek out aspiring entrepreneurs could be a great resource for getting low cost marketing for your business. Get out and offer samples, allow the public to give a critique of your project, seek out like minded business that could benefit from having a relationship with you. The name of the game is this, If you are not willing to introduce yourself to every possible lead then you are setting yourself up for failure. If you truly believe in your product or service,then it is a must you sell yourself or partner up with a trustworthy person that can do the bulk of the gorilla marketing for you. You must tirelessly seek out ways to improve your idea and connect with the public.

   

(Summary) 42 Tips For Producing A Memorable Small Business Event

Written by Jamillah Warner 6/2/2013 @ smallbiztrends.com ... view original post to see all 42 tips

1. Decide upon your target audience before anything else- This approach will also help you stay focus on achieving specific goals and not allowing the scope to become too broad or watered down.

2. Have a clear business purpose for holding the event- Before you can begin planning a successful event be clear on why you are doing it in the first place. your reasons could be to; create awareness, generate leads, create brand loyalty or to simply make money.

3. Be flexible with changes in time, size, location and other details-  Changes are natural and perfectly fine as long as you don't lose sight of the reason your doing all the work in the first place.

4. Know your limitations- We all know the goal is to throw a great live event. To that end we also have to be aware at what we can or cannot realistically do; be it budget or time.

5. Create smart goals- Just like building any business, great events start with a strong thoughtful and measurable strategy. 

6. Develop a financing plan for your event and estimate the numbers- Know how you are going to pay for the event. Most events are sponsored through sponsorship, ticket sales and internal marketing budgets. Estimate how much money you can raise from the mentioned revenue sources. Before you book your event or sign any contracts, its a good idea to start looking for sponsors or selling advanced tickets to make sure there is enough interest in your idea to fund it.

7. Be tireless in your efforts or your event will fail- If you don't want to be alone at your event then market, market, market and then market some more.

8. Define good reasons for people to show up to your event- You need to define what your doing at the event that will bring those target attendees in the door. For a consumer product it might be a party with entertainment, product demos and freebies. For a business crowd it might be educational content or an expert speaker.

9. Make it easy for your speakers to publicize to their followers- If you have any speakers/experts attending your event encourage them publicize their attendance to their social media followers/email subscribers.

10. Have a skilled social media team cover your event- Don't forget a social media team. While not imperative for every event or industry, more and more events are focusing on harnessing the viral power of their audience. If your audience is tweeting, Facebooking and taking pictures on Instagram; you should be doing the same and will need a trained team to execute.

What is NFTE and How Do They Impact the Community

 Sources: NFTE.com , Business.Time.com

NFTE- Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship, is an international non profit organization, providing entrepreneurship training and classroom based education, to young people from low income urban communities, to find their path to success.

1. Assist in business plan writing
2. Offers volunteers from local businesses
3. Instills hope and improves student lives through entrepreneurship education
4. Inspires students to graduate, go to college and embark on successful careers
5. Students have a head start by receiving real world education that is relevant to running a business
6. Offers Biz Camps which are 1-2 weeks intensive day camps for teenagers aged 13-18 featuring topics on: return on investment, supply and demand and marketing. Participants also receive wholesale trip grants and enter into business plan competitions where participants can receive awards and prize money.

  Jabius and Anthony Williams were living in Southeast D.C. with their mother and 7 other family members in a cramped 2 bedroom apartment. Everyday the boys walked miles to an Exxon gas station to pump gas. Typically the boys said they earned thirty to fifty dollars, which they used to help support their mother.

  One day the boys met Men Loflland, a caring business teacher at Suitland High School. Mena got the brothers into her entrepreneurship class sponsored by NFTE. The brothers applied their street knowledge to the classroom setting and became excellent students.

  With the help of business volunteers and philanthropists the brothers started a Hip Hop clothing line. Today Jabius is a scholarship grant student at Southeastern University and operates Jabius Bam Williams Art&Photography company. Anthony Williams operates a youth mentorship program.

Extreme Couponing For Profit

Source: Extreme  Couponing
By: Joni Meyer-Crothers

Extreme couponing means to never pay full price for any item that you can get a coupon for. There are two types of coupons, store coupons that can only be used at that particular store and manufacture coupons that can be used at any store. Couponing is such an easy way to save money; most people in an average year are going to save between six and ten thousand dollars, just using basic couponing strategies. These strategies also apply to those families receiving food assistance as long as the purchase is for food, stores will still accept your coupons.

In order to be an extreme couponer you have to collect as many coupons as you possibly can. You can search your Sunday newspaper for coupon bundles or collect bundles of store circulars. Get in touch with street vendors that sell Sunday newspapers, curb side and see if they are willing to give or sell you their unused coupon bundles at a discounted rate.  You can ask neighbors that throw away their circulars if you can pick them up. Many nursing home residents subscribe to receive the newspaper, but usually throw away food coupons because their meals are accounted for. Get in contact with the manager to see if you can leave a box out front to collect their unwanted coupon bundles.  Many family and home based magazines will often have coupons in them. You can also go directly to a company website, locate the contact us tab; usually there is a place to leave a compliment or a message. From there show your interest in their products and let them know you want to try it out; usually they will send you coupons for their products. Never ask for coupons directly as history shows they will not send you coupons in most cases.  Some big chain stores like Target and Rite-Aid will allow you to print coupons directly from their websites. A few websites that offer printable coupons are RedPlum.com, SmartSource.com, Coupons.com, CouponNetwork.com and CellFire.com.

Once you are able to collect as many coupons as you can, you want to pay attention to sale cycles. The key to getting the most value from your coupon is to buy items when they are on sale. Most products go on sale every eight to twelve weeks. Along with normal sale cycles you also have seasonal sale cycles. For example Halloween falls in the month of October, although candy will be on sale the entire month, the biggest savings will occur the day after Halloween. Every month there are seasonal sale cycles to take advantage of, for instance January is National Oatmeal Month, March is National Frozen Food Month and May is National Pet Week.

 Here are two examples of how extreme couponing works. You have a manufactures coupon for $1.00 off a container of orange juice; you do your research and find a supermarket that is offering a store coupon for .50 off the same container of orange juice. The regular price of the orange juice is $2.50, so by applying your coupons you would have paid $1.00 for the orange juice saving you $1.50. You could possibly get the orange juice for .50 if the store doubles their store coupons and free if they double manufactures coupons. Another example is a box of Cheerios that sells for $3.99, you have a .75 off coupon which would drop the price to $3.24, if the store doubles their coupons you will save $1.50 and pay $2.49 for the cost of the cereal. Extreme couponers will hold that .75 off coupon until the cereal goes on sale for, let’s say $2.00, now you will be paying $1.25 with your .75 off coupon and if the store doubles their coupons you will end up paying .50 for a box of cereal that generally cost $3.99. Note: you can also stack coupons by pairing manufacture’s coupons with store coupons.

Because there are many families that are facing hard times and cannot take advantage of extreme couponing it would be great for you to give back. For example if you are stock piling cereal because you have the coupons and knowledge to get that product for free, pick up 20 boxes for yourself and 5 boxes to donate.

Once I became aware of extreme couponing I thought it was a unique way to save money for myself and others. If you have seen the cable network show Extreme Couponing, then you know that most families that appear on that show have basements and garages filled with merchandise worth hundreds and thousands of dollars, which may not be used within a years’ time or more, despite giving away a large portion of their purchases to charities and needy families. The entrepreneur in me asked; Why not find sellers who are willing to buy those items at a discounted rate. That box of cereal that you paid .50 for could be sold to a convenient store for $1.50 giving you a profit of $1.00 a box. Of course I recommend doing your research to find out what you have to do legally to sell those items without breaking any kind of laws.

Stamp Out Youth Unemployment by Introducing Entrepreneurship To Kids

Sources: PBS.org - These kids Mean Business 

              USA Today - Workshops Get Kids Started as Entrepreneurs

 A lot of kids would like to start their own business of one kind or another but most don't know how. The old thinking figured kids were too young to learn about entrepreneurship, The new thinking sees entrepreneurship as a healthy remedy for classroom boredom, restless energy and high dropout rates. Academic experts suggest, entrepreneurship education has a positive effect on the academic performance of at risk students, as well as affecting their attitude and behavior.

According to a Gallup poll released in January, 43% of students in grades 5-12 want to be entrepreneurs. The popularity to become entrepreneurs comes at a time when the youth unemployment rate is one of the worst on record. January's unemployment rate for ages 16-24 was 17.6%. A far cry from pre-recession levels of 10.9% in January 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many young entrepreneurs say if they don't make their own jobs, no one will. Amy Rosen, CEO of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) wants entrepreneurship taught in schools. She feels if it's not, kids risk dropping out of school for a lack of interest and opportunities.

NFTE is an international non-profit organization, providing entrepreneurship training and education programs to young people from low income urban areas. NFTE provide classroom based programs that inspire young people to stay in school, to recognize business opportunities and to plan for successful futures.