Is the life of an entrepreneur for everyone? Probably not, as it can be rather demanding and it’s hard to imagine living that life unless you have a passion for business or for the service or product you choose.
The next question involves whether you can learn to be an entrepreneur. Some people may want to do it, but they really aren’t prepared to make a successful go of it.
Forbes has several articles asking tough questions about the job market in California. The sad truth is that California is losing jobs to other states and other countries, as the high tax burden and cost of living makes it difficult for employers to commit to the state.
Now, you have to take into account the agenda at Forbes. While the business magazine is excellent, the ideological bent is very clear. The publication favors free markets and loathes taxes. While you would expect that from most business writers and publications, Forbes sometimes takes that to an extreme.
That said, they often make compelling arguments when presenting cases where business development is hindered by taxes and regulation, and California has become the poster-child for many of these problems.
In one provocative article, a Forbes writer argues that California is becoming more like France.
A friend of mine who is a successful venture capitalist shared a depressing observation over dinner recently: “California is like France,” he said. “I try not to hire here, and I certainly would not launch a company here. But the wine is good.”
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Listen up Sacramento, your tax base is moving elsewhere.
“California has competition,” says Mehta. This is starting to show. A report recently released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Silicon Valley lagging. Tech employment fell nearly 17% between 2001 and 2008, while nationally those types of jobs grew 4%. Silicon Valley’s 11.8% unemployment level is higher than the nation’s.
“It’s a combination of taxes and talent,” says Mehta. “Taxes and expenses here are high, and we can get the talent or move it elsewhere. This wasn’t the case 10 years ago.”
Another article details how employers like McAfee are moving employees outside the state.
The dysfunctional nature of California politics is now catching up to the state. Meanwhile, other states are seizing the opportunity with incentives and other aggressive tactics to brings in jobs. Will California wake up?
If you have a small business, the thought of giving some of your employees a credit card for expenses can be terrifying. Sure, they may be trustworthy, but it becomes something you have to monitor, and sometimes the problem can get out of hand and you don’t catch it for months.
One solution would be to use prepaid credit cards for your employees. This way, you don’t have to worry about them exceeding the limit on the card, and it forces you to monitor the situation and pay attention to expenses.
In this economy, you need to use every tool at your disposal to monitor costs. Having your employees fill out reports isn’t enough, as you’re often too busy to look over them closely. With this system you can minimize mistakes.
People who want to learn about success often forget that many of these lessons are also about how to face gigantic problems and solve them. As Oscar Wilde famously said “Who are afraid to fail are afraid to succeed.” There is no better person to learn from than Donald Trump.
As a kid, Trump was obsessed with baseball to the exclusion of almost everything else so his parents had to send him to the New York Military Academy to sort him out. It worked and Trump pulled up his socks, graduating from one of the best business schools in the country, the Wharton School of business at the University of Pennsylvania. After an apprenticeship with his father, a successful real estate developer, Trump was ready to take off on his own. Trump has always thought big and told Millionaire Magazine “Always do something that you like, always do something that you enjoy doing, or you will never be successful. You will never be good at it,” However, it is Trump’s success in overcoming his gigantic problems that make him truly unique.
Trump made a multibillion dollar fortune only to see most of it wiped out in the real estate market crash. He was staring down the brink of the precipice with total debts of over $9.2 billion. His superlative negotiating skills and his astute business moves enabled him to recover. In his own words: “It’s always a great asset to be able to get along with people.” Over the years, despite some very tricky deals, I’ve generally been able to get along with people. You always have to let the other side think that they are also getting something out of the transaction. And, it’s often true that the best deals are the ones that everybody benefits from.”
Trump would be a winner anywhere, but he happened to choose the real estate business. He was also a master at using debt and keeping his options open. Certainly, one lesson you can learn from him on using debt is to investigate the use of elastic loans.
A credit standing has many advantages. In the first place, you will gain access to a whole range of sources of affordable debt who will welcome you as a customer. In the second place, you will be able to obtain the best possible terms and interest rates in the market because of your credit history. Finally, your credit score says much about you as a person so whether you are dealing with a landlord with a potential employer, your credit history will speak for you.
In the last few years of profligate lending, the easy availability of credit seduced many people into borrowing far more than they could afford to repay. For many of these people, debt consolidation is now being touted as a magic wand to waft all the problems away. Nothing could be further from the truth. Debt consolidation is a platform on which to reorganize your personal debt on a one time basis, but it cannot be a long-term fix, unless you are prepared to rein in the sort of spending that led to your problems.
If you would like to take control of your life, a debt consolidation is a good way to look at your personal debt and to reorganize it. If you are like the average American, the chances are that you will have debt outstanding on several credit cards and possibly some personal loans. All of these are high-cost debt because they carry a high interest rate. You should aim at obtaining one single debt consolidation loan to pay off all these bits and pieces and to provide you with a single monthly repayment. If you are in a position to use your home equity as collateral, you should be able to obtain this loan on favorable terms and conditions thus potentially saving you thousands of dollars in interest.
Finally, having regained control of your life, aim to keep it that way, and a lifelong high credit standing will follow.
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