Archives 2020

According to “Fortune Magazine,” the third most admired company in world is Berkshire Hathaway. When we think of Berkshire Hathaway we think of its head one of the wealthiest man in the world Warren Buffett. What business principles we learn from Warren Buffett? What is his magic?

Strategic Approach

Warren is one of the best investors in the world. His approach is simple. He does not buy stocks as much as he buys businesses. He focuses on a companys value, its stock price and its risks. He looks for companies with strong brands, simple business models, a good return on equity with a lot of debt.

If the price of a firm is less than its value, Warren is interested. In doing his homework, he studies the firms competition, ignores what analysts have to say, and pays little attention to fluctuating market trends. In fact when the market is down, he believes that may the best time to buy.

Jim Collins’ Lens

Let’s start by looking at Warren from a perspective of what Jim Collins teaches in his seminal book “Good to Great.” The book was the result of Jim’s research, where he led a team in a five-year study in which they “scoured a list of 1,435 established companies to find every extraordinary case that made a leap from average results to great results.”

Jim describes the best leaders of the companies that became great as “level 5″leaders. They are ones who built “enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.” A level 5 leader is first and foremost ambitious for the cause.

Humble Style

Warrens humble style is refreshing. He has simple tastes. He doesnt wear expensive suites. He lives in the same home he bought in 1958. And, he drives his own car. Warren also is famous for how he makes fun of himself. One of his one-liners is, “I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.”

Professional Will

Warren is driven as demonstrated by his almost incomprehensible wealth. Warren looks not only for businesses that are a good deal, but he looks for leaderships who have long tenures of success in their business and who are deeply passionate for the business.

Back to Jim Collins – the Hedgehog Concept

Jim’s team came to simple but powerful conclusions. One important point they make is referred to as the “hedgehog” concept. A key to greatness is finding the intersection, referred to as the sweet spot, between your talent, passion,and economic opportunity.

When we look at Warren from the “hedgehog” framework, we find simple insights:

Passion: What are you deeply passion about?

Talent: What you can be the best in the world?

“I was wired at birth to allocate capital and lucky enough to have people around me early on-my parents and teachers and Susie [his late wife]-who helped me make the most of it,” Buffett told Carol Loomis of Fortune magazine in the June 25 issue.

Economics: What drives your economic engine?

Finding great companies and leaders and investing for the long-haul.

Warren found his passion and talent in life and focused. He became one of the most successful and richest investor in history.

Grace Evans a leading business entrepreneur has been involved in business coaching for many years and she is excellent in her coaching. Her duty is focused on helping people by training them on issues such like accountability and ensuring that they focus on their vision and passions so as to become successful in the future.

Grace Evans explains it and says that the way our lives are structured in ways where we create and realize what we have going for us now, however something more can be done to our lives that will enhance our abilities to do even more thus achieving greater and better things in life.

Business Coach: Coaching

Coaching is the extra step that one needs in order to maximize their potential and discover things beyond their vision. Grace Evans has done a lot of business coaching and she says that coaching enables one to have a clear perspective in life, business and evaluate how productive one is and whether they are achieving what they need to achieve in becoming great entrepreneurs

By having this notion in mind, Grave Evans and her team forged a Mentor Business Coaching program that is focused on equipping people with tools, knowledge and opportunities that are needed in helping you discover yourself more hence becoming more effective, focusing on your goals, formulating a powerful plan that will ensure that your plans become successful.

Mentor Business Coaching program ensures that you will achieve the following;

You will have strait focus on what matters most

Your vision will be more clear as you will learn how to perceive it and covet it

The period you will take when you embark on achieving the vision

You will learn how to be accountable

You will be issued with tools that will help you set powerful goals

The coaching will help accelerate achievement of goals

You will now be able to make and achieve better and more confident decisions

The coaching program is designed in ways where you will increase effectiveness and efficiency

You will have a clear conscience to set better strategies for both business and life success

Business Coach: Peer Coaching

Grace Evans and her team do believe that in-order for people to make it in life it is necessary they associate with other in similar fields to gather and exchange ideas so that they can enhance their chances on being successful.

Peer-to-peer coaching as Grave Evans puts it, is an important stage and step in the business life. Attending a coaching session will expose you to such coaching where people who are in the same level/business as you are in will offer advice as they share success stories that might help uplift your business.

If you are getting tired of working for someone else or would like to explore how to make more money and develop an alternative career that can free you from your current job … then please give this article a thorough read. It discusses how to take skills you may already possess and interest you may already have to help you start a brand new career or explore alternatives to what you are doing now.

Chances are that you are reading this article online or found it online and printed it out to read later. The internet has become a powerful and essential tool for many people for information, entertainment and education. But did you know that you can use a simple a tool as your web browser and internet access to make money from what you find online?

Yes, you can and this article will tell you how you can do it.

There are many industries that the concept we are going to discuss could be applied to but we are going to focus specifically on one: the Mergers & Acquisitions Industry (M&A).

The M&A business for many years was predominantly limited to insiders who had connections with each other (it was called, the old boys network). These insiders made millions of dollars by sharing information between themselves as to which companies were for sale and who wanted to buy them. As mergers and acquisitions matchmakers (also called finders), they brought the seller and buyer together and made their huge finders fees.

Now all that has changed; the Internet makes it possible for anyone using a computer to research and access business information that was previously hard to find and often available only to the ol boy insiders. And you can earn a finder or referral fee for introducing business buyers and sellers that result in a closed transaction.

Lets approach our discussion on this in the form of a Question & Answer session:

Is the Mergers and Acquisitions business really that profitable?

Absolutely. And being a finder for M&A deals can be a very lucrative home-based profession.

You can think of it like being a real estate broker, only you match buyers and sellers of businesses, instead of homes. As a real estate broker you can sell a house for $100,000 or you can sell a house for $1 million. The more expensive the house, the more commission you earn. M&A finder or referral fees can be a lot more, since businesses transactions can be quite larger than a residential real-estate transaction.

M&A Deal Finders do matchmaking with businesses that have at least $1 million in sales and go all the way up to $100 million in sales, on that basis alone; being a matchmaker in acquisitions and mergers is a much more profitable business than being a real estate broker.

You are an intelligent person, but you dont have an MBA degree or a law degree; will you be able to do Mergers and Acquisitions matchmaking?

To answer this question, lets take our example of being a real estate broker. You show a home for sale, the buyer either likes the home or they dont. If they dont like it, you take them to another home until they find the one they want. Mergers and Acquisitions works exactly the same way, only you use the power and information found on the internet to find what business buyers and investors are looking for and then find business owners and sellers that match what the buyers/investors are looking for and all of the research is done on the computer using the internet to find businesses. Obviously having specialized learning, education or training will be of help to you in any business but you do not have to be a lawyer, CPA or have an MBA in order to be a successful Finder.

What does it take to startup a small business?

Money probably is what comes to your mind but there are really many more things that you need other than money to do your business. These are all attitudinal things. You should have the mental and physical stamina that would require you to be deeply involved in your business and oversee every minute detail day in and day out. You would need strong planning and execution skills, because if you are going to startup a small business it is initially going to be a one man show. You need to think through what you are going to do and then go ahead and do it as well. Once you identify that you want to undertake business the next step is to decide what kind of business you want to enter into. The choice must be influenced by your expertise, passion about the work, financial position and other factors like government regulation, competition and tax purposes.

Should I go in for a partner?

When you decide to startup the business it is important for you to lay out a business plan and understand what are the things it will take you to build a successful business. These will broadly include technical details, financial resources and managerial skill. Whether or not you go for a partner would depend on your weakness in one of these areas and the choice of your partner should strengthen you in the areas that you find your self weak.

How do I choose employees?

This is a very critical decision as the initial years are the shakiest for any small business which is just a startup. This one decision can make or break the future of your company. More than anything else you must keep in mind that quality scores over quantity. If you find someone that is good enough then you must be willing to pay them a little extra. It is better to have one stellar person working for you rather than three mediocre ones. Also keep in mind that the employees should be in sync with the culture of the company that you are trying to build in. If you like to run a tight ship with all decisions flowing from the top then you must have employees who are not opposed to authority and will follow the same with their subordinates so that you can propagate the culture that you want within the company as you go along building its size.

Where will I get the necessary finances?

Even to startup a small business you would need some sort of loans to go about it. There are several banks, venture finance companies, insurance companies and other financial institutions that lend to entrepreneurs who want to set up their own businesses. However it is advisable that you put some money of your own also when you start up the business. This will ensure that the lenders gain in confidence that you are putting your own money behind this and at the same time the interest outgo will be lesser as the loan amount in itself will be less. The SBA is another place that you can turn to even if you are refused by the banks and they would help you out with your financial needs.

In recent times there has been a sudden increase in the number of home-based business opportunities. In fact, nearly 50% of all small business owners work from home. According to a study, the home business industry is expanding and the revenue generated from this industry will increase by 17% yearly through the year 2008. Growth by such leaps and bounds has seen its share of scamsters along the way, claiming lots of unsuspecting victims. They succeed by typically playing on the inexperience and gullibility of wanna-be entrepreneurs, and roping them into participating in dubious ventures. If youre planning to start one, and have to choose between several proposals, first of all make sure that all the ideas are for a legitimate home based business.

To begin with, you might have trouble looking for the right business option but nevertheless, exercising few precautions can go a long way in making sure you choose the best program. So, how do you find a legitimate home based business in an ocean of fraudulent schemes?

Before you rush into something that might burn your fingers, take time to evaluate the business ideas. Some safety measures are:

Look for established businesses: Look for tried and tested business ideas that have been successful over a period of time. See if theres a good buzz around the business, or better still, try to talk to others who have a stake in it. If the business has been around for a bit, chances are that it is a genuine opportunity.

Keep a cut-off date for success: Sometimes, a proposal which might seem like a legitimate home based business on the surface may actually be a smokescreen for something more sinister. If youre already into it, but havent seen any returns so far, theres not much point pouring good money after bad. Most businesses that have a leg to stand on turn in a profit within a couple of years. Its wise to work to a deadline for success, failing which opt out of the business.

Get real: While consider competing offers, remember that the other parties will glorify their programs, so do remember to discount the hype. For example, a home business that promises you millions of dollars in next to no time is likely to be a get-rich-quick chimera. A legitimate home based business proposal will not offer implausible guarantees.

Check for reliability: Check the credibility of the business before you buy-in. Organizations like the Better Business Bureau can help you check a companys pedigree. Ask whether the business enjoys a good reputation among existing and prior members. Interact with customers or vendors to get some true feedback.

Try it out: A great way to suss out a legitimate home based business is to try out the product or service that is being offered. If the product is delivered as promised, and works satisfactorily, youre probably onto a good thing. If its one of those businesses where youre asked to send a check of $20 in the mail, and thats the last you hear of it, thank your lucky stars that you got away easily!

In order to provide better services to customers and enhance delivery, businesses must bring about a change in their processes. This is what ITIL aims to achieve in the IT industry. This certification was established to bring forward a set of benchmarks for the services in the IT industry, so that businesses below this benchmark can change their processes and improve their service offerings in the market.

ITIL can also help those businesses that are incorporating IT in their businesses processes. There are many benefits of using IT in your daily business. Although it requires an initial investment, it can certainly cut down costs in the long run, by decreasing labor and improving productivity. It can also help businesses understand the needs of customers, so that they can develop products and services which are aimed at fulfilling the needs. With ITIL, businesses can identify all the areas which need a change, and can also learn how to manage this change.

If you are a in the IT business and are thinking about changing your processes as recommended by ITIL, then there are some things you need to do. The first step is to create an advisory board, which includes people who have this certification, and have extensive experience in the IT industry. This will help in identifying all the areas of concern, so that nothing is missed out during the process. It is important to create a team responsible for managing the change in the organization, so that there are no haphazard changes which can uproot the entire system.

It is important to start with one step at a time. If you are thinking about changing the customer service delivery center, and then just put some time and resources aside for that. In that way, you will be able to focus on one thing and give it your full attention. It is also essential to educate people about the changes because in the end, service is provided by the employees, and if they are not trained, then a proper change can never happen in the business.

There should also be an effective process for reporting and tracking changes. Any change that happens should be beneficial for the company, and should improve service quality. The overall aim should be to provide better services to the customer, while bringing financial gains for the company as well. Because good results in company will bring good impact on salary and promotion of every employee.