Five Business Start-Up Secrets
If you want to be a business-building genius — or just make a ton of money this year — learn these five proven (and absolutely true in my experience) habits of highly successful entrepreneurs. 1. Don’t spend too much time planning. Based on interviews with the founders of 100 businesses…
READ MORERemember That Life Is Fleeting
As I told you before, I’ve made it a point to spend a few moments every day sitting back and paying attention. I recommend it strongly. Just after Christmas, I received the following letter from RS, a longtime ETR reader and a copywriting student of mine, with a reminder of…
READ MOREPromise #8 for the New Year: To Build Your Network of Support
On January 8, 2001, I resolved to make one new business or social contact per week. I suggested you do the same. My goal was too lofty. It was not possible for me to cultivate a new relationship every week of the year. I did manage, however, to make about…
READ MOREPromise #7 for the New Year: To Grow Richer Every Day
On January 7, 2001, I made a two-part resolution: (1) to make more money than I had made in 2000 and (2) to invest a higher percentage of my gross income than I had previously. If you were with me on January 7, you were asked to do the same.…
READ MORELearn (Or Perfect) A Financially Valuable Skill
On January 4, 2001, I asked you to promise yourself that you would learn (or perfect) a financially valuable skill. I asked you to forget (at least temporarily) about all the interesting talents you have that nobody will pay you for and focus, instead, on developing the one ability that…
READ MOREAchieve Something You’ve Always Wanted to Accomplish
On January 3, 2001, I promised myself that I’d do something great and frivolous this year — something I’ve daydreamed about but never took seriously. It would be one of those things I would like to try to do had I my life to live over again. You see, I…
READ MOREWhy You Shouldn’t Expect (Or Want) Our Goverment’s Help
Recently, Forbes Small Business magazine convened a meeting to poll some of its readers on how they felt George Bush has done with regard to small business. They rated him highly for his efforts to end estate taxation and for dismantling a Clinton proposal that would have forced small-business owners…
READ MOREAgreements: Written? Oral? What?
“Wrong must not win by technicalities.” – Aeschylus (The Eumenides, 458 B.C.) A very common question among businessmen: Is it prudent to “paper” deals? During the 25 years I’ve been in business, more than 90% of the deals I’ve made have been oral. Usually, the process is some version of…
READ MOREThere Is No Limit To The Number Of Ways You Can Make Money
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky (legendary hockey player who holds numerous NHL records, including most career goals and points scored) Inc. magazine just came out with its yearly issue on the fastest-growing small companies. Looking over the list, you have to be impressed…
READ MOREMultitasking: One of the Most Odious Words Coined in the Last Decade
Let’s spend a few moments today talking about something you should NOT be doing and its opposite — which is the core habit of all successful enterprises. Of all the hot air that inflated the New Economy bubble (new myths about how businesses grow, what they should be about, the…
READ MOREPioneers and Governors: You Need Them Both In Your Business Empire
“The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.” – Walter Lippmann In Message #466, I talked about growth (how much is good and how much is too much) by drawing an analogy between a new…
READ MORECreate A Culture That Respects Money
“Men are divided between those who are as thrifty as if they would live forever and those who are as extravagant as if they were going to die the next day.” – Aristotle I am, as you know, a living depository of every negative, desultory, and deplorable habit ever devised…
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