LIVING OFF DIVIDENDS & PASSIVE INCOME

Bob Parsons is the multi-millionaire founder of Godaddy, probably the world’s largest domain registrar company. Here’s an interesting video about the top 5 rules for starting a business that they don’t teach you in business school.

#5. Start small

Don’t go all in when first starting a business. Get a proof of concept first and make sure you have a fallback plan. Parsons worked at a day job for 3 yrs while he started his first business, which he subsequently sold for $64 million.

#4. The best business partner is no partner

As opposed to conventional wisdom, two heads are not better than one. Having a partner or investor usually ends badly. You too much time discussing and negotiating than doing anything productive.

#3. Solve your own problems  Read more... (333 words, 9 images, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)

If you’ve ever been interested in working for yourself, or starting a small business, you’ve heard the statistic that most small businesses fail within the first 5 years. Why is that?

The most common reasons given are:

1. Lack of experience
2. Being under-capitalized (running out of money before you achieve profitability)
3. Poor location
4. Poor inventory management (Not having enough of an item, or having too much which may suck up all your capital)
5. Poor money management (poorly structed business loans, co-mingling of finances)

But I think the most basic one is lack of any business sense whatsoever!

I went to get a smog check for my car registration and I called up several smog check test centers within a 10 mile radius. I got quotes that ranged from $37 to $70.  The fact that the highest quote was 89% higher than the lowest quote was quite interesting.  Read more... (466 words, 9 images, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Personal Finance blogger Lazy Man & Money is being sued by a multi-level marketing company called MonaVie that sells a very expensive juice. The crux of the matter is that Lazy Man is highly skeptical of the claims the company makes about the product and the company is trying to shut down his freedom of speech on the basis of a very flimsy trademark infringement case.  Read more... (985 words, 8 images, estimated 3:56 mins reading time)

Here are some must-read articles I’ve read this week. None of them talk about gold breaking a $1000, dividend stocks or things you’ve probably read in the news.

• Living In Beverly Hills A fascinating economic look at our consumption-based society
• 10 weird businesses that make money
• Hyper-inflation in the US: Is it a possibility? Features an awesome video made by the National Inflation Association
• True Story of SmashMyViper.com Trying to figure out how to raise $1 million to open a bar? Check out this story.

A couple of years ago, I went to a real estate seminar and met a successful businessman. He was in his sixties and I was amazed to learn that he had more than a dozen small businesses going and was also trying to start his own bank.

Since I wanted to find out how did he manage to run so many different ventures, I offered to buy him lunch. (Incidentally, that’s a great way to cheaply pick the brains of someone who normally wouldn’t give you the time of day!)

Most of the various businesses he ran were some how interconnected and did a lot of business amongst themselves. Since they were in somewhat related fields, the management was a lot easier. For example, one of his businesses was writing newsletters for Trade Unions and another one was printing & mailing services.  Read more... (428 words, 9 images, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Today’s guest post is from James at DINKS finance:

This posting will be on the topic of doing due diligence when evaluating investment opportunities. When I’m talking about investment opportunities, I’m speaking specifically about taking part in new business start ups. I’m not speaking about investing in stocks or loaning money to people at interest. To invest properly in new businesses, you’ll have to do what’s called “due diligence” or simply put you need to do your homework.

Here are some thoughts on doing this:

1) Research the market. All business operate within given markets. You should consider the demand for the product or service that your candidate business would produce. For example, if you might be considering investing in an internet start up. In this case you should consider the demand for the software or service the company is producing. Is it an American company which is feeling pressure from Indian or China? Is the product going to be used by a growing industry? So, to summarize you might consider using the internet to get a sense of the market.  Read more... (446 words, 8 images, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)