Archive View (April 2007)

What is the best way to sell a property today? Keep it simple. The more unsettled the market becomes, the more important it is to stick to the basics. Identify your ideal customers. Are they young couples just starting out, baby boomers nearing retirement age, or something else? Identify your target group, then add or accentuate features that will appeal specifically to them. It could be attractive financing for first-time buyers, a shuttle bus to the train station for young professional commuters or a daycare center for young families. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Instead, be the right thing for more...

This season on The Apprentice, two of the candidates - Tim and Nicole - had what I guess you would call “an office romance.” The romance ended up hurting Tim because he couldn’t figure out if his loyalties were to Nicole or to his team. Plus he couldn’t really concentrate on what he was doing. That’s the risk you take when you mix business with pleasure. It certainly makes the workplace more interesting for you, but rarely does it make you a better employee. A recent survey found that at least 60 percent of workers have had an office romance. That’s a lot more...

Back in the early 1990s, Donald J. Trump stirred up a big controversy in Phoenix, Arizona. He wanted to build a luxury high-rise residential building on Camelback Road between 24th and 32nd Streets - one of the most sought-after locations in Phoenix. The problem was, Donald wanted to put up the tallest building in the city, and there were height restrictions. A controversy about the building raged for several years. Then in 1995, residents of the area voted that he would not be allowed to build his building. To the astonishment of many people, Donald simply pulled out and did not pursue the more...

The movie Field of Dreams taught us, “If you build it, they will come.” Well we did build it - a powerful, free, three-day program on how to become rich - and boy, did they come! They came from across the country to hear Trump University’s star wealth guru, Greg Warr.  (That's a picture of Greg to the right.) Greg didn’t only promise to “deliver the goods” by telling people how to amass wealth fast. He actually took ideas like these from the realm of fantasy and translated them into step-by-step advice:   Buy a house with no money down and instantly put $25,000 in more...

It takes capital to start a new enterprise. Yet capital is more than just money. It comes in several other important varieties too: Intellectual capital is made up of the experience, knowledge and skills that reside in your startup team. Groups with rich intellectual capital have tremendous collective energy. They can accomplish far more than the same individuals ever could on their own. Social capital embodies all the professional, personal and social contacts that serve as resources to you and to your team. As the old saying goes, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Even though that saying more...

This past Sunday was Earth Day. All the major media covered some aspect of the day.  Here in NY the Mayor outlined a major 127 point plan to help the environment.  Big business and government are talking about the environment. That got me thinking about all the potential being green/ECO-friendly/conservationist offers to business owners, aspiring entrepreneurs, people buying business, selling products/services and real estate investors. Will a solar power upgrade add value over time? Will eco friendly construction make a difference in your project? Where will these products come from? Who is developing the next solution to our energy problem?  The answer could be you.    There is more...

To highlight the great contribution that small businesses make to the U.S. economy, the United States Small Business Administration has proclaimed this week Small Business Week. The SBA is hosting awards ceremonies and other events to honor America’s entrepreneurs. What benefits can Small Business Week offer to you, our entrepreneurial members of Trump University? Here are two useful resources we found on the SBA’s Small Business Week page: The Small Business Administration’s List of Top Lenders is short, with only seven lending institutions named. But it is worth a look anyway. We all need to be on the lookout for lenders that are more...

Richard Parker, professor of our Art of Buying a Business course, tells me that getting a realistic estimate of a business’s value can be a much simpler process than many professional valuators would like the rest of us to believe. The challenge for you, the buyer, is to formulate a price that will provide you with an acceptable return on your investment and also allow you to service any debt, pay yourself and build the business. To give you an overview of how that is done, let me crack open the door of Professor Parker’s virtual classroom and give you a glimpse of the more...

It was a great Apprentice season. I kept learning important lessons, right up to the finale last night from The Hollywood Bowl. In my post this morning, I’d like to analyze the videos that Stefani and James screened last night for Mr. Trump - the ones that were supposed to prove they were the strongest contenders to become his next Apprentice. James produced a pretty strong video to argue his case to win. It pointed up the fact that he came to America as an immigrant from South Korea and that he was living the American dream of success. His video also more...

For more than a decade, the Family and Medical Leave Act has allowed parents to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for the birth of a child, to deal with serious illness, or to care for a relative - all while still keeping their jobs. Supporters of the bill have been trying to expand the law, hoping to make some of that paid time-off. However, it looks like there are some plans to actually scale back family leave. Some business groups say that the law is abused. It’s OK, they say, to take time off for pregnancy or cancer treatment. But more...

For most small businesses, hiring a professional to perform a valuation is not necessary. First of all it is expensive, and more often than not, it simply does not reflect reality. For example, I recently read a valuation on a local company handling specialized telecom components in a very restricted marketplace. This company was doing $700,000 a year in sales and netting $100,000. The valuation started off: “The company is focused upon the B2B telephony segment which is a $42 billion industry in North America.” I threw out the entire report after reading that one sentence. Why? How on earth can you possibly compare more...

I’ve been working in the front office of The Trump Organization since September of 2001. My office is just outside of Mr. Trump’s, and the acoustics are perfect for hearing everything that goes on. It also helps that Mr. Trump rarely closes his door, and that he doesn’t use an intercom. People often ask me what it’s like here, in this rarefied environment, made more famous because of The Apprentice, which brought the workings of The Trump Organization to public interest. My first response is that it’s loud. That was one of my first impressions when I started to work here more...

As our President Michael Sexton pointed out in his blog post yesterday, Trump University has responded and listened to our customers by adding new products. We want to continue our effort to bring educational resources to as many people as possible in new and entertaining ways. On the horizon is the launch of our new regular podcast series.  Before we launch however, we need a name, and would like to invite our members to help name the podcast. If you are interested in participating, click here to vote (update - voting over) on one of our potential names or recommend one of your own. Who knows more...

Trump University Takes Live Learning a Level Higher Since the day Trump University opened its doors, students have been asking us to add more live instruction. We are starting now, with a new program of three-day seminars that we are calling Immersive Retreats. These live retreats have been under development for months. We have worked with the Trump University faculty, with educational consultants and with Mr. Trump himself. As a result, our Immersive Retreats are something quite unique: You have to set aside three days to attend them. That’s right, three days. They’re only for people who are willing to make a genuine commitment more...

  Now that this season’s final Apprentice task has been completed, everybody seems to be asking who the strongest candidate is. But I would like to ask a slightly different question: Which candidate grew the most during the season? To me, that’s a more interesting question. And I think that the answer is pretty clear. Actually, there are two answers, because Frank and James showed the greatest growth this season. I don’t think it is a coincidence that they also are now part of the final four. If you think back to the early episodes this season, you will remember that James brought amazing more...

Recently I did something that was totally out of character for me. I always talk about taking chances - whether in business or in life -- and this time I really took a big one. I agreed to take part in a huge WWE wrestling extravaganza, headed up by an amazing man named Vince McMahon. He can put on a show the likes of which I’ve never seen. For this so-called Battle of the Billionaires, a record 81,000 people filled the football stadium where the Detroit Lions play. Vince and I handpicked wrestlers to represent us in the ring. If his guy, more...

An article in Wednesday’s Washington Post reports some very encouraging news. The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), a housing advocacy group, has raised $1 billion to help refinance the mortgages held by thousands of lower-income people who are at risk of losing their homes. The funding has been secured by CitiGroup and the Bank of America. My hat goes off to NACA and its backers in this initiative. Still, it remains to be seen how far that $1 billion will go to combat a wave of foreclosures that yesterday's Home News Tribune describes as a “tsunami” in the state of New more...

Your brand is how people think of you. Tom Peters says that “a brand is a trust mark, it’s shorthand, it’s a sorting device.” Think of the well-known brands that you know - Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dell computers, iPods - all of them are shorthand for a product. When you think cola, you probably think Coke or Pepsi. When you think computers, Dell probably comes to mind. When you think portable music players, iPod is probably at the top of the list. Some brands are so strong that they have become a generic name for a type of product - think Aspirin, the more...

What are the most disastrous marketing mistakes that new entrepreneurs make? Now that our Marketing Mastery Program is entering its second successful year and we have worked with hundreds of students, we can answer that question with some certainty. The two marketing problems that most new entrepreneurs need to overcome are cockiness and laziness. Let’s take a closer look. Cockiness - You can hear this attitude in the words of one student who told Professor Don Sexton, “I don’t need to worry about marketing. People would be crazy not to buy my product.” That’s backwards thinking - or worse. People will more...

In the final moments of last night’s episode, we all saw Heidi come apart at the seams. It was hard to believe that we were watching the same woman who was such a consistent winner in the early episodes this season. That, for me, showcased the fact that it only takes one little lie to start the downfall of a career. Just one small fib took Heidi through this wrenching sequence: Denial. When Mr. Trump attacked her team’s brochure for being ugly and over-packed with text, Heidi impulsively tried to blame her teammate Frank for it. A complete absurdity, since the brochure was more...

I always ask other people what they think. Whether it’s in my real-life boardroom when I’m making a multi-million dollar business decision or whether it’s on the set of The Apprentice in my famous boardroom, I like to know what people think. After all, I surround myself with talented advisors for that very reason. I value their opinions and want to hear them. But that doesn’t mean I always do what they say. Even more frequently, I get loads of unsolicited advice. Everyone has an opinion on what you should do and how you should do it. Although most people mean well, more...

The television show I was watching last night was punctuated by some pretty crazy ads. I saw flying cars and a talking toilet.   To judge from those ads, you might think that you need to be a creative advertising genius to get your customers to buy anything from you. Not so. These classic approaches can get your message across simply, without breaking your advertising budget: Target the competition by giving facts about why your product or service works better, costs less, or has other basic advantages.  Just show your product attractively. (This doesn’t work if you have an ugly product.) Showcase your brand. Just more...

Apprentice Blogs and Websites this week have been saying that Tim’s flirtation with Nicole was the real reason he got fired last Sunday night. That is probably true. Tim was on the Arrow team. Nicole was on the opposing team, Kinetic. That caused his own team members to doubt his loyalty. It’s worth noting that before this week’s task had even been assigned, Tim’s team members had put an ‘X’ over his head and had already planned to fire him if they lost. Office romance will put you in that kind of danger. It is a hazardous game. Yet you might recall that on more...

I’m writing from Washington, DC. Two nights ago, my family and I had dinner at a terrific Georgetown eatery called Martin’s Tavern. This morning, we went back for breakfast. And if we were staying another day - you guessed it - we’d be going back for lunch.  It has been a long time since I’ve come across a restaurant with that much “pull,” as marketers like to say. In part, it’s due to the fact that Martin’s delivers great food, attentive service, spotlessness and all the other make-or-break restaurant essentials. But that’s only part of what has kept Martin’s going strong since more...

“Education, research, knowledge - learning in general - are at the core of my success.” - Donald J. Trump We’ve been working on a new book here at Trump University, Trump University Wealth 101. It won’t be published for a few months, but I didn’t want to make you wait that long to learn some truly remarkable insights from our Chairman, Donald J. Trump, on the art and science of developing properties. Trump Secret #1: Be Thorough “Plug in and learn everything you can,” Mr. Trump writes in the new book. “You never know when information will come in handy.” For example, Mr. Trump more...

I talk a lot about education because I think a good college education can really take you far in life. At the same time, however, some people are incredibly book smart but are clueless when they deal with the real world. Others are street smart but can’t handle anything other than what they’re accustomed to. A couple seasons ago, we based an entire season of The Apprentice on this premise, pitting highly educated candidates against those with less formal schooling. In the end, we discovered that the key to success was experience, not education. Learning how to write a business plan isn’t more...