How to Identify Bad Business Partners Our four-part series, “How Business Partnerships Fail and How You Can Succeed” continues with this week’s article. We discuss “How to Identify Bad Business Partners“. Last week, we opened this series by talking about the different reasons that business partnerships fail. Now that you’ve decided to consider bringing on a partner, it’s time to discuss how to identify whether you’re joining-up with a good partner or a bad one. When it comes to business partnerships, there are certain types of people and personalities that you want to look out for. These people need to be the type that will be an asset and a partner rather than a thorn in your side. There are two types of people in business partnerships. Those that are there to make the business succeed and those that are there to make themselves succeed. I’ve had several experiences in business partnering and I wish that I knew then what I know now. I was forced to learn the hard way. I want you to avoid that lesson! Below, I’m going to list several tell-tale signs that you should avoid: The Negative: 1. A potential business partner that demands a substantial salary: When small businesses are birthed, there typically is not sufficient capital to pay the partners a substantial salary. One of the more popular reasons for business partnering is the desire to grow the business. Additionally increasing the bottom line in order to have the ability to pay employees higher salaries. Yet, this potential partner demands a high salary while the other partner doesn’t get one. This obviously makes zero sense. We all have living expenses, but when you’re in the beginning stages of a new business, everyone is going to need to make sacrifices. So if you have a potential partner who’s intentions of greed become clear from the start, avoid them at all costs! 2. A potential business partner who refuses to invest any of their personal money into the company, yet they expect you to put up all of your own money: I had one who wanted a large portion of the company and profits, yet he was never willing to put one dime of his own money up to grow the company. The problem was that he wanted half the cake without including his own ingredients. These type of people are literally like leaches. They suck-out all of the positive and leave you only with the leftovers. 3. A potential business partner that wishes to hire their spouse, family or close friends right out of the gate: Look, I under stand that in small companies, it’s normal to hire employee’s spouses, family or friends. You typically trust these people and they can make good employees. When a potential business partner requests this right out of the gate, it can...
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When it comes to your business, one of the most important things that you deal with is your “brand“. This is also one of the most over-used words in the corporate work place today. It has become a catch phrase like the term “synergy“. Understanding how valuable your brand is ranks right up there with profit and loss statements at the end of your year. There are extreme studies that can help you determine your brand equity. What concerns me most of all is the flippant way small businesses use their brand. They carelessly make changes to their look, their materials, their logo, and various other visual representations of who they are. They wonder how these large brands have arrived at where they currently are without ever considering what it took to get there. Take Walt Disney for instance. One of the most recognizable brands in the world. Its logo is a scripted font without much contrast or color. It has remained the same for decades. Their brand has superseded a man’s name and as become what children wonder about and what parents are comfortable giving to their children without question of its content. It has become a magical place filled with enchantment and fun. How did all of that come out of a man’s name that was written in a lackluster font? Maybe it’s in this that we find that our emphasis should not always be on how we look, but who we truly are as an organization. This reminds me of how I used to pick movies or books off of a shelf. My wife would always rave about what she had seen or read while I was always disappointed with my choices. I have always been fooled by the glitz and glamor of the cover while my wife would always take the time to discern based on content. We are in an age where our content is available everywhere and our content is far more important that the look we give it. Consider looking at one of our brands that we use to set us apart in the markets that we invest in. Ann Lee Interiors, www.annleeinteriors.com. There are many advantages to developing and utilizing our own interior brand: 1. A brand makes one’s company look legitimate 2. A brand sets one apart from the competition 3. A brand allows one to avoid the appearance of a “rehabber” and rather appear as a custom home designer – which results in a higher purchase price 4. A brand gives one the feeling of being “custom.” People equate “custom” with expensive. We are able to provide the customer what THEY want on all price points So, get out there and start “branding!” To receive information or to register for our live “Marketing Academy” events, visit www.andrewcordle.com To register...
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In 2003, Laurence Gonzales wrote “Deep Survival”. This is perhaps the finest book on survival I’ve ever read, certainly the most compulsive and insightful. Gonzales wrote, “Those who can control the impulse to survive, live. Those who can’t, die. That’s the simplest way to explain survival”. In our first blog on this series, I wrote of pain as being a great teacher. Albeit a most unappealing one. When we humans find ourselves in deep trouble, we feel the icy fingers of fear and pain. Our natural impulse is to follow our panicked emotions. Nothing could be more dangerous to our survival! We have all felt the jolt in our heart at sudden fear. That jolt is caused by the chemical nor-epinephrine which is produced in our adrenal glands. The chemicals that pour suddenly into our system at an emergency moment increase our heart beat and respiration. They divert blood from the stomach and make it available for muscles to run or fight. Our vision becomes more tunnel-like and our senses are keenly focused often to the detriment of other important factors that could help us. Being able to engage the reasoning intelligent mind while being flooded with the adrenal cocktail is one of the essential factors in survival. We all know from history of the numerous wealthy bankers and businessmen who jumped out of tall buildings when the 1929 stock market crash wiped out their wealth. Their emotions shut down their impartial reasoning and all they felt was panic, humiliation, and shame. Others, who felt all of those same emotions and who lost just as much, recovered, started over, and rebuilt their fortunes. But telling people, “Don’t Panic!” is like trying to saddle an angry rhinoceros. One learns over the course of life how not to panic. In truth, you bring to every crisis the person you have been preparing throughout your lifetime. You won’t “not panic” if you have not been training for that moment via all the other “emergencies” of life. One person’s marriage ends with the terrible clash of words and emotional bombs. Anothers ends by a vacant house with a note taped to the refrigerator. However it ends, the loss can become crippling, causing one to seek refuge in self-pity, drugs, alcohol or worse. The other understands that marriages- even good ones- often have life spans, similar to giant trees in the forest – eventually all die and fall. The person feels all of the same emotions of loss, regret, humiliation, and rejection; yet, that person moves forward where life and living are, not trying to re-grow a fallen oak, but by planting a new one and reforesting his life again. Do you have the heart to survive? Is it in your heart to want to get back up when you’ve already been knocked down seventeen times? Remember,...
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Those who consistently make money in real estate know the market. They know the location and the history as well as what new developments are planned. They know the transportation, the schools and everything about the area where they invest. In short, they have to know it all. As I was touring one of my Atlanta flips recently, I was heading upstairs into one of the bedrooms. Darkness ruled the upstairs as electricity had been turned off years before. This home had been unoccupied for the better part of a decade. As I walked blindly into one of the dark upstairs bedrooms, I felt the floor disappear. Luckily, I stepped back in time to observe a huge, gaping hole that allowed me to stare directly into the living room below! I was about 3 inches away from being seriously injured. Thank God that I stepped back in time. After a quick laugh, I regained my composure and my heart slowed to it’s normal beat pattern. I had an epiphany – sometimes when you think you’ve got real estate investing by the horns, you realize that something as simple as a flashlight almost ruined your career! It was right then and there that I realized there is a list of important items that every real estate investor should have with them in their vehicle. I have compiled a list of 10 items that every investor MUST have with them! 1. Mobile Office – portable lap-desk with storage for both files and tools 2. Hand Sanitizer – keep your hands clean 3. Camera – for taking photos when out and about looking at houses 4. Business cards, flyers, door hangers etc – great to have on-hand for marketing 5. Smart Phone- for it’s camera, video, web references like Redfin, Homescan, etc – also use for taking business calls, emails, and market research on the go 6. Ipad- TinyScan, EverNote, DocuSign: great tools for organization and executing business documents. Also use for scanning and e-signing 7. Blank contracts – always good to be prepared when talking to people and driving for dollars. Don’t pass up an opportunity to put house on contract on-site 8. Headphones – safe hands free driving, sound clarity, and noise reduction 9. Laser or tape measure – taking measurements when creating layout for house or trying to fit furniture 10. Blueprint paper, property analysis – important documents when building or adding square footage to property. good to analyze the numbers to determine if deal is profitable I can assure you that if you keep this list of items with you at all times, you will never be behind the power-curve. Now, some of you may have caught-on, others not…but there is one last item that we should add to this list. Let’s call it...
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