This Issue: Starting a Business is Easy; Staying in Business is Hard

Let The Entrepreneurship Mastery Program make your start-up a success.

How many people start new companies every month? Who are they?

Just yesterday I was reviewing some data from The Kauffman Foundation that answers those questions, and more:

• 550,000 Americans start new businesses every month.
• Men are two times more likely to start businesses than women are. I know so many successful women entrepreneurs, that's a shocker to me.
• Hispanic Americans continue to start new businesses at a rate that outpaces all other groups. They are the heart and soul of American entrepreneurship.
• African-Americans lag behind when it comes to starting new businesses. That's disturbing. But growth is picking up and one day, we'll see parity or better against other groups.
• Immigrants are more likely to start businesses than native-born Americans are. They're really contributing to our economy.

At least two-thirds of new businesses fail within the first four years.

That's right, at least 366,000 of this month's 550,000 new businesses will be history by year 2010. And as I mentioned on this blog on June 27th, the reality might be even worse than that. After all, entrepreneurs are slow to report their own failures.

Will You Succeed or Fail?

If you're armed with the know-how you need, you will succeed. You can be one of the 1/3 that grows and thrives. And the good news is, that knowledge is now available as it never has been before, in one of the most powerful programs ever available for any entrepreneur.

It is Trump University's Entrepreneurship Master Program.You've read about it here. Some of the greatest entrepreneurial thinkers in the world have built this unique program, which can give you the winning edge in today's ultra-competitive climate for start-ups. It's the kind of knowledge that most entrepreneurs gain only after years of running a business . . .

• How to conduct powerful market research that assures your product or service will succeed, not fail.
• How to start at the right size - not too small or too big - and assure positive cash flow before you even open your doors.
• How to secure funding that will support, not sink you.
• How to hire the right employees, lawyers and accountants when you need them - and not a day before.

Those are only a few highlights of the program. So if you are ready to get started on the route to entrepreneurial success . . ..

• Check out The Entrepreneurship Mastery Program right now. Look at it - kick the tires. Or call us at 800-893-0677 to find out how to enroll.
• Or sign up right now, using our Online Application Form.

Why I am making such a strong case for The Entrepreneurship Mastery Program to you this morning? It's because of all the courses we offer at Trump University, it lies at the heart of our mission to help your dream succeed. And when I think that two-thirds of all new companies fail - well, that's a mission right there. It's a statistic that Trump University ought to be able to change.

Radical learning from The Wealth Builder's Blueprint

Finance has its own vocabulary. The more you understand it, the more you control your financial future.

This story illustrates the point. Early in my career as a CPA, I had two clients who were pretty similar. They both owned construction companies. They each earned about $50,000 a year, and when they came to me so I could do their taxes, they both brought shoeboxes stuffed with financial records.

After I was done sorting through the first guy's financial records (let's call him John), he only got mad. He was angry about my fee. He was angry about the tax he would owe. The only lesson he took away was that he had to work harder to make more money so he could pay more bills.

The second guy (let's call him Bob) also got mad at me, and at the government for the excessive taxes he had to pay. But then he asked me a question that changed the rest of his life:

"What do I have to do so this never happens again?"

It was a great question. We talked about it. We decided that he needed to get a bookkeeper to keep good records for him. Then we decided that he should start meeting with me through the year to review his finances. In those sessions, he started out by simply asking questions. He wanted to learn. We covered all the basics, like these:

What is an asset? - An asset is something you own that is going to put money in your pocket. A lot of people think that a great set of clothes or some nice piece of jewelry is an asset. But that is not so. Even though you spent money on them, they do not earn more money for you. A true asset is something that is going to support you and pay you back repeatedly, like a computer or a piece of equipment that pays for itself many times.

What is a liability? - A liability is something you owe. Over time, you are going to have to keep paying back money on it. A good example is the debt on the credit card that you used to pay for that set of great clothes. The value of those clothes is decreasing, but the dollar liability is growing because of the interest on your unpaid balance. Like a lot of liabilities, it continues to grow until you eliminate it.

Ten years later I saw John, the guy who only got angry. He was driving around in a beat-up old pickup truck, in exactly the same place where he had been a decade earlier. But I already knew all about Bob. After those same 10 years, Bob was making more than $1 million a year in his business, simply because he had decided to learn. He had learned how to work on his business and not just in his business. That's a big difference.

Over the next 90 days, I encourage you to take a look a what's been happening in your life. Look at the things that might not have happened for you, as the result of holes in your financial literacy. What deals have you not been in? What real estate markets have you missed out on? Is it possible that what you don't know is hurting you?

Sure, it's a little painful to ask those questions. But if you feel the pain of confronting those assumptions now, you will save yourself a lot more pain later on. Trump University is a great place to let that learning process begin.

Trump University Faculty Member Diane Kennedy, CPA, is the author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller Loopholes of the Rich and other books. Her Money Mastery curriculum is a centerpiece of Trump University's The Wealth Builder's Blueprint.




Take a Financial IQ Test

What is it about real estate that makes is such a phenomenal way to make money? Perhaps the clearest way to see the advantages is to contrast it to investing in the stock market. For the sake of example, let's say that you have $100,000 to invest. That's the same scenario I use in the real estate segment of Trump University's Wealth Builder's Blueprint program. If we apply that scenario here, the advantages of investing in real estate become very clear.

• Leverage. Real estate gives you far more leverage than any other investment does. If you invest $100,000 in the stock market, you can buy exactly $100,000 in stock. But that same $100,000 can easily buy you $1 million worth of real estate. Now you might be saying, "With a $900,000 mortgage, how am I going to pay the interest?" Well, the answer is that you own an asset that is worth $1 million that is generating rental income.
• Borrowing power. Institutions are eager to lend you money to invest in real estate. If you go to a bank and say that you want to borrow money to buy gold or stamps or antiques or paintings, they will laugh you out of the office. But if you say you want to borrow money to buy real estate, they will be falling over themselves to lend you money. There are billboards, radio ads, emails, TV ads, newspaper ads, all saying "Come see us, we'll give you the best deal" and, "We have mortgage counselors who will come to you to take your application." That doesn't happen in the stock market.
• Exponentially greater return on your investment. If you invest $100,000 in stock and it goes up 10 percent in value, you have made a 10 percent return on your investment. If, on the other hand, you invest $100,000 in real estate and buy a $1 million property that increases 10 percent in value, you have gotten a 100 percent return on your investment.
• You control the value of what you own. You can improve your property and increase its value. You really cannot improve your stock. In fact, you are essentially powerless to exert any control whatever over its value.

That is only the tip of the iceberg about why real estate is, in my experience, the greatest investment vehicle of them all. There are lots of other reasons too, and actionable, solid advice on how to get started in the courses and materials that Trump University has invited me to create for them, including The Wealth Builder's Blueprint and Bubble-Proof Real Estate Investing.

Dr. Dolf de Roos, a distinguished member of the Trump University Faculty, is a real estate investor, lecturer and author of five books, including the New York Times bestseller Real Estate Riches. His holdings range from high-rise department buildings to high-end vineyards.