Make Good returns with Real Estate Investments

Real Estate is one of the most lucrative investment options available on the market today. I personally believe in this investment option as I am involved in commercial real estate investment. Real estate offers the highest return on investment over any other type of investment available. This investment option allows the largest accumulation of wealth during a relatively short period of time.

For example, if you invest in real estate, you automatically receive a number of tax reducing privileges that do not happen for other types of investment. Since taxes amount for at least 30% of your annual expenditures, saving on taxes can make your investment much more solid and lucrative.

Before you can think about venturing into this type of investment, you need to learn as much as you can before you invest a single cent. Take classes and seminars on investment analysis, real-estate finance and commercial lease analysis.

The second step is to look for the right properties. Do your research to find what comparable properties are sold and rented for in the location you are considering. The right property attracts the right tenants or buyers, so spend time and effort up front on finding desirable properties. A good rule of thumb is to look for the worst house on the best block, since you can make many changes to a property but you can never change its location.

Real estate investments are categorized into two main categories namely; residential and commercial real estate. Depending on your capital and personal preference, you can choose to invest in either residential or commercial real estate. I have listed different types of real estate investment options below by category:

Residential/housing

Family Homes - This is the simplest and most common type of real estate investment on the market. Families need houses to live in. The demand is very high, and also this the easiest investment to start with as little knowledge is required to venture into this category.

Condos/Estates - These are multi-family homes and the second common type of real estate investment. It is important to be careful with your assessments on the property and your numbers when calculating your likely return on investment.

Commercial

Commercial real estate is a bit sophisticated type of investment; this requires some knowledge about this market. However, you can still start with this type of investment with the help or guidance of a seasoned real estate investment consultant. Commercial real estate offers the highest return on investment if the numbers are played intelligently.

Investment in commercial real estate covers retail properties, office buildings, shopping centers, hotels, warehouses, manufacturing facilities, apartment complexes – and vacant land that has the potential for development for these types of buildings. In short, almost any kind of real estate except single-family home and single-family lots can be regarded as commercial real estate.

I will cover benefits of investing in either residential or commercial real estate in my next post.

Wishing you all the best in your quest to financial freedom.

How to tap into Internet Riches

Have you ever considered starting an internet business? The internet has produced hundreds of millionaires since the dot com boom. If you've never considered starting an internet business, I think you will be geared to start your own online business after reading a book by Scott Fox called Internet Riches. You can read the book review at one of my blogs here: Internet Riches.

After reading the review, you can buy this book here: Amazon books. Scott Fox shares internet success secrets in a simplified and easy to follow manner.

Scott Fox is a top e-business consultant in Hollywood. He is a frequent speaker on e-business and entrepreneurship at universities, including NYU, USC, and UCLA, and at conferences such as Digital Hollywood and Internet World.

Happy Reading!!!

Business Lessons I learnt from the Master of Real Estate

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is probably one of the most influential books ever written on entrepreneurship. One thing I liked about this book is the author's ability to clearly show readers how to evolve from being an ordinary thinker to being a master thinker. I have read this book more than ten times since I came across it. Every time I read it my mind is refreshed and energized.

If you study all wealthy people you know of, there are some stark similarities in their behavior which makes them a unique group of people. In my pursuit to become a successful entrepreneur, I study and follow a couple of wealthy entrepreneurs who are my role models. As a passionate real estate developer, I have been following the successful rise of Donald Trump founder of the Trump Organization. Donald’s story is a remarkable one. Here is a gentleman whose fortunes plummeted to zero when the real estate market experienced a downturn. He was publicly declared bankrupt in the 90s.

Despite this set back Donald did not sit back and mourn over his predicaments. He worked hard to resurrect from the depths of oblivion. By late 90s, Donald’s financial fortunes improved greatly due to his business acumen, focus and diligence.

The Trump Organization operates a property portfolio worth billions of dollars worldwide. Donald Trump's empire is synonymous with exquisite and signature properties across the US, Europe and Asia. Donald is a shrewd businessman and excellent negotiator, who has managed to seal very attractive deals. I have read many books authored by this gentleman. I am looking forward to reading his latest book ‘The America we deserve’.

Key business lessons I have learnt from Donald are:

Always define your business’s core values

Donald has mastered the art of defining the core values of his brand and leveraging his brand equity to appeal to a wide customer base. This has made his brand connect with his target customers.

Model a brand around your lifestyle

Donald has been so successful in large part because he has managed to build a lifestyle brand around the luxurious and successful life that he lives and most people aspire to. He works hard to cultivate the image, and he uses it to expand into new business lines and find new areas to venture into. From his real estate developments to his casinos and books, his new ventures are selected to dovetail with his core image.

Have a distinct line of business

The Trump name is synonymous with exquisite real estate developments. Donald Trump has done an excellent job promoting the idea that he owns properties around the world.

Form strategic partnerships

Most of the buildings bearing the Trump brand overseas are not wholly owned by Donald Trump. After going experiencing bankruptcy and the ups and downs of the real estate market, Donald learned to spread his risk by forming strategic alliances with other investors. He puts his name and his image to work while keeping his costs and exposure low. For example properties like Trump World, in Seoul, have licensed his name but aren't owned by him. He gets a fee for lending out his name, makes sure there's quality control and gets great marketing out of having another big Trump-branded property in the marketplace.

Persistence

The real estate market is a volatile market, which is very unpredictable. Donald showed great persistence in his pursuit to excellence. Having lost everything, he managed a dramatic comeback. Donald has credited his success to patience and persistence over long periods of time to wait out market fluctuations. Persistence is very important a virtue for success in every endeavor.

Negotiation

Donald Trump is regarded as one of the best negotiators alive. He is known for his shrewd negotiating skills which have seen him landing juicy deals in the corporate world. Donald advises businessmen to always do it face-to-face. In this era of telephones, teleconference, and video conference, Donald suggests that if it's an important negotiation, you should do it face-to-face, so that you can read the other person's body language.

Middle men

Donald is not a fan of middle men who do not add value and who extract outsized returns. In one of his books, Donald tells the story of how he "goes around" a broker on a billion dollar deal where he was losing a negotiation and flew to Dubai to deal directly with the principal and struck a great deal.

In most cases business lose a lot of money to these middlemen, who in most cases do not add value to the business. I agree with Donald in by-passing the middleman and going it alone.

So here you go, I hope you learnt one or two things from the ‘Don’s business style. If you have not read any of Donald trump’s books click here: Amazon books

To your Success!!

The Art of the start

As human beings, we all have dreams; we have ambitions, we aspire to be successful in all spheres of life. These are natural human feelings. However, most of our dreams and aspirations are unrealized as we do not act upon them. May be you have tried once to pursue your dream and experienced some form of setback and you gladly accepted failure as inevitable. This is not the way to go. Remember what the mind conceives, it will surely come to pass. Remove the word ‘impossible’ from your vocabulary, as nothing is impossible to achieve under the sun.

Mark Twain said 'The secret of getting ahead is getting started'. Procrastination is a thief of time. It is human nature to procrastinate, but it is a terrible thing to have a dream and not do anything about it. Many people have excellent ideas, but fail to take action. Theodore Roosevelt said 'It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.'

Many people are languishing in their current status because of fear to follow their dreams. It is human nature to be afraid of the unknown, especially when it affects your comfort zone. It takes great courage and effort to start any type of business. Great entrepreneurs and innovators recorded in the annals of history had great dreams and worked on their dreams to achieve success which is evident today. If they had not worked hard to realize these dreams and aspirations the world would have never seen any of these inventions and innovations.

There is story I always recite every time I talk about following and accomplishing our dreams. A close ally of mine from my days in high school Douglas, was a gifted artist, Douglas could draw anything imaginable. In school he scoped all available accolades for his drawing skills. After school he went on to enroll at an art school in Harare where he graduated with distinctions.

I recall talking to Douglas soon after he had won a scholarship to do his masters in the US. Then he was working as a part time lecturer at a college. He said to me, 'you know I have been thinking of establishing an art school for the past three years.....I interrupted and asked him why he had not started the college? Without mincing his words he said ' you see, this venture is BIG, I need so much money to start this school. Where on earth am I going to get the money I need as a start up? You know banks are very difficult to approach'. He went on and on, telling me how impossible it was for him to realize his dream.

I asked him another question, 'but Douglas, have you ever tried approaching a bank or individual people to come in as Joint Venture partners? He gave me an emphatic no, and justified why he had not thought about this route of funding. As Douglas narrated his story, every time he mentioned an obstacle his voice radiated in agreement. My friend had already succumbed to failure before he had even tried.

Douglas's problem is similar to millions of people who have brilliant ideas but have been sitting on their laurels without taking any action to actualize their dreams. Just imagine if Larry and Sergey of Google had not taken action to actualize their dream, what could have happened to Google?. The world would have been deprived of a search engine that has redefined and brought great innovation and empowerment to millions of people worldwide.

Take Action

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. You need to take action and start working on your dream. Start small and grow gradually. Remember you don't need money to start actualizing your dream. What you need is drive and passion to follow your dream. Don’t let fear and ill advice distract your thought process. Keep your eye on the ball. Michael Friedsam said ‘Concentrate on finding your goal, then concentrate on reaching it."

Fear is an enemy of progress

Fear is defined as being afraid of the unknown. If it’s raising capital that has been impeding on your success there are several ways to raise money apart from borrowing from a bank. Honestly I don't know why people waste their time approaching banks for funding when they know they don't have collateral to cede against their loan. As a start up banks are not the right place to look for capital. You can raise capital through your personal savings, contributions from friends, parents and Joint Venture partners.

Live and cherish your vision everyday

In order to remain focused, you need to visualize everyday what your venture would be like once it is set up. Every day you need to set aside time to reflect on the dream to keep it alive in your heart. When Sam Walton the founder of the biggest retail chain in the world, started Wal-Mart, he had a vision of building the biggest grocery chain in the United States. But when he started, he started with a small grocery store. Although he started small, he never at once lost sight on his goal of ' building the biggest grocery chain in America'. Today Wal-Mart is the biggest Supermarket chain in the world employing millions of people worldwide.

Proper planning and conscious effort can take you far in realization of your dreams. Dennis Green said, ‘The secret to success is to start from scratch and keep on scratching."

Tips for creating a Viable Business

In my career i have read many books on entrepreneurship and studied business models of many fortune 500 companies. I have studied business models of Google, Face Book, Zappos, Coca Cola, Wal-Mart and Macdonalds just to mention a few.

I was thrilled by Google's business model. Those of you who have been following the Google story will attest to the fact that this company is the fastest growing business at the moment. I am sure you will agree with me the company's performance is currently the envy of many executives and engineers around the world.

Google is a marvel of Web brilliance, and is also a case study in savvy management. The team at Google are filled with cutting-edge ideas, rigorous accountability, and relentless attention to detail, which has catapulted this company to unprecedented heights.

I will not dwell much on Google as this is not the essence of this post. There are five key lessons which i would like to share with you that i learnt from all the business models i have studied.

Create a product that will make people's lives easier

Everyday people surf the net to look for information which will make their lives easy. Nobody likes hassles, hence, as an entrepreneur, if you come up with a product that will make life easier for people, it will be a winner provided it is well thought out. Again there must be a need for your service/product in the market.

Choose a big Market

Mass markets are usually very profitable due to numbers. Again some people argue that mass markets are already flooded with goods/services, hence, there is no room for new comers. My take on this is, if you have done your research and you found a need that is not adequately addressed. Go in and swim in these murky waters. Be different, be original and offer value added services. Niche segments are very tricky due to their size. However, if your offer is unique, niche segments are high value markets.

Develop a business model that will make money

Like Google, you need to come up with a good business model that will allow you to make money. Google's business strategy never cease to amaze me. In your opinion whos is Google's customers? How do they make their money? All their services are free, isnt it? So how on earth do they make their money? Google's business model is based on a philosophy practiced by many successful online entrepreneurs. You provide a service first, then money will come later. Google never charges for any of their services, their revenue comes from advertisers, its as simply as that. They concentrate on creating unique services and then advertisers will patronize them to get to their target markets. What a better way to make money? You too can borrow this model provided you know what you are doing.

Dont pay to get customers

In order to make money, you need to contain costs. As a start up one of the most important tasks you have to do is to publicize your business. In my opinion, you dont have to pay in order to get customers. With the advent of social media, blogs and forums such as facebook, Tweeter, DIGG, Myspace and linkd, you can freely publicize your business without spending a dime.

Be strict about who you hire

A business's success or failure is dependent upon its employees. It is very important to hire good hands. In order to get this right, you need to have very strict fool proof recruiting procedures. I read about a company that screens up to 50 people when they are hiring for a single position. This ensures they get the best candidate for the job. There a technique called a technique called top grading which reveals people's pattern of behavior which most successful organisations use in hiring the best people. Google hires the best there is on the market, because they are now an employer of first choice.

Feel free to contact me with your comments and suggestions.

To Your Success!!!!!

Lessons from the Black Statellites of Ghana

History was made on Friday 16^th of October when the Black Satellites of Ghana cruised to a historic victory over four times champions Brazil in Cairo. Ghana cruised to a 4-3 victory after a bruising penalty shout out, to become the first African team to win the under 20 World cup. André Ayew, son of the legendary Pele led the ten men Ghanaian side to victory against favorites Brazil. The Ghana boys made Ghana and Africa proud; I sincerely hope this victory is a sign of good things to come. With Nigeria defending the under 17 World cup on home soil, I hope the Young Eaglets will repeat the same feat and make Africa proud.

Watching a 10 men Ghana team battling Brazil man for man throughout the match, without showing any signs of discomposure taught me valuable lessons about perseverance and sheer determination. Analyzing the game, I learned two vital lessons one can follow to attain set targets.

Lesson one – Stay Focused

The team was tactically strong and played as a team despite having lost a colleague in the 37^th minute. Sheer determination and focus on the main goal gave them the impetus to continue even though the odds were against them. Most times people fail to attain their goals due to lack of focus and distractions from temporary failure. Setbacks should be seen as stepping stones to realizing our dreams. The Black Satellites of Ghana remained focused to the very end of the game. Twice they were behind, but they kept soldiering on until they attained the trophy.

Lesson two – Don’t stop believing in yourself

Despite being one man down, the team never in a single moment doubted their ability to lift the trophy. With this belief the team worked coherently thwarting the marauding Brazilian strikers in their effort to score. They played as a team and managed to compete with their opponents’ man for man throughout the match. Often time’s people lose focus and allow doubt to creep in and destabilize their plans. The most important attribute in pursuit of success is self belief. You need to believe in your ability to do things before you get approval from outsiders.

In life success does not come on a silver platter. It comes through hard work, singleness of purpose, concerted effort and hard work. Abraham Lincoln said ‘You can have anything you want, if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose’.

To your success!!

How to make extra Money with your photos

I love taking photos; I have been taking photos since my days in college. Photography is defined as the process, activity and art of creating still or moving pictures. The good thing about photography, everyone can take a picture even if you have not used a camera before.

I think all of us have taken a photo before. The world of photography has changed since the instant camera was developed. With a digital camera, you can take a not so good shot and make it perfect using a variety of software options. Best of all, pictures can be printed on quality paper on your printer or at a store kiosk for just a few cents per picture.

Technology has created memory cards much like the flash drive storage medium to file and save pictures for sharing on the Internet. You can easily upload pictures from the memory card to your friends, family and a blog or website if you have one.

Today I will be sharing with you how you can use photography to make some extra cash. In this article I will show you how as a newbie or novice photographer you can start making a living, with your digital camera or mobile phone camera.

How you can Earn Money with Digital Photographs

Stock photography is one of the best ways to break into the online digital photography market. You can sell your photos to others who need pictures for websites, newsletters, magazines and e-zines and other media. Have you browsed through the Web lately? Many of the photos look the same. Your photos can add a new flavor to what is currently being offered. There is never any harm in seeing how your images will be perceived.

First, understand how the stock photography business works. On these sites, customers can purchase pictures or lease them for a certain amount of time. On some sites, photos are free to use when signing an agreement of use and including a link back to the site.

As a photographer, you will make more money if your photos are leased as opposed to being sold. The one time sale may net you some cash but the lease will provide a continuous source of income. Many people can pay to lease the photograph at one time. Through the leasing process, your work will be viewed by a large audience.

Start by researching current stock photography sites. Find one that offers the leasing option to customers and also has an easy-to-navigate site. Begin here and test the waters with your work. Now, all you need to do is produce some quality work. Look at other stock photographs. What do they have in common? Are the pictures clear? Can you make out all of the features of the photo? At the least, your photographs need to be clear with the subjects in the foreground.

Another consideration is the type of digital photos you are trying to sell. More of the same that already exists won’t be received well. The stock photography companies are out to make money too. Don’t be afraid to try some new ideas for holiday photos or for everyday photos. They will let you know what does and does not sell.

In the meantime, create a website or blog with links to the stock photography sites featuring your work. This will send more people to view your photographs and may lead to other opportunities in the future. Some popular stock photo sites are as follows:

• www.istockphoto.com/
• www.gettyimages.co.uk
• www.fotolia.com/
• www.everystockphoto.com

To your success!!!!