This Issue: Which Investments Are Right For You?

When you profit in real estate, other people profit too.

You've seen it on the evening news and read about it online. Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. is pursuing plans to build a magnificent new hotel casino in Diamondhead, Mississippi. It might be as beautiful as the Trump Marina, pictured to the right.

Where is Diamondhead? It is located on Interstate 10, a little northeast of New Orleans on the Bay of Saint Louis. In other words, Diamondhead sits in the heart of Hurricane Katrina country.

You've seen it on the evening news and read about it online. Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. is pursuing plans to build a magnificent new hotel casino in Diamondhead, Mississippi. It might be as beautiful as the Trump Marina, pictured to the right.

Where is Diamondhead? It is located on Interstate 10, a little northeast of New Orleans on the Bay of Saint Louis. In other words, Diamondhead sits in the heart of Hurricane Katrina country.

Final plans are still pending, but if the new Trump casino resort is built, it will exert an enormously positive force on the area. Construction contracts will be issued. Hundreds, if not thousands, of vital jobs will be created for the hard-hit people of Mississippi and Louisiana. And tourists will come to the area, cash in hand.

It just goes to prove that when you write a business plan for real estate investing, you can do more than just put money in your own pocket. You can build needed new housing for families, improve neighborhoods and make life better. You can create jobs. It would be hard to think of another investment that allows you to make such a positive impact in the lives of other people.

That's what our Chairman, Donald J. Trump, is doing in Mississippi. And the good news is, you can do it too, at the same time you start building your own fortune in real estate. You don't have to wait until you can build a casino. You can start small, one property at a time. And the best part is, you can get started now.

Michael Sexton, President of Trump University, recommends The Real Estate Investor Training Program for first-time real estate investors.

When people start businesses, they often hire staff when needed, where needed, with no strategic plan in place. Sometimes they are lucky and it works. But more often than not, it wastes money and hobbles the startup, as these typical scenarios show:

Ready, aim . . . wait! A software developer sits at her computer for more than a year, developing a product that she plans to bring to market. Finally, the product is ready, so she dashes out and starts looking for a marketing consultant. Two months later, she finds one. But during that time, she is not making any sales and her competitors are developing new products of their own.

Well, I needed her . . . last month! An entrepreneur who is launching a wine distribution company hires a full-time assistant to handle his travel plans, meetings with investors and office set-up. Her presence helps him whittle down his workload, but when he needs funds to hire a sales staff ASAP, his "necessary" assistant suddenly starts to look like an extravagance.

So you should expect things like that to happen in a startup, right? No, wrong! You can take preventive steps to be sure you hire the right people at the right time, strategically:

• Write your own job description first. If you are as smart as the software developer we mention above, you probably believe that you can do it all. You can develop and package your product, market it, sell it and keep it updated. Well, you can't do all those things. Write a job description in which you realistically lay out your "deliverables," meaning what you can do every week, every month, every quarter and every year. This job description keeps you accountable and serves as a yardstick for measuring your progress. It also helps you identify areas where you need assistance - and areas where you don't belong. In a startup, it is deadly and wasteful for people to be tripping over each other.
• Then write job descriptions for the other people you will hire. Don't think that a list of titles ("head of sales" and "office manager") will cover these bases. Unless write down the specific tasks that each team member will handle for you ("preparation of payroll"), you will leave bases uncovered. For example, we know one company where the owner forgot that he needed someone to answer the phones! Don't let that happen to you.
• Plan to start small. Don't hire too early and squander your limited resources. Remember, you can start out with consultants or advisors for marketing, technology and other responsibilities. You can hire part-timers, temps and others per-hour employees too, until your company income lets you expand.
• Hire to meet the big milestones you'll achieve this year, next year and beyond. Do you need a marketer to produce a marketing plan for you by next January, for example, and then a technology person to set up a fully functioning Internet retailing operation by next March? Whatever your goals are, write them down. If you do, you are more likely to succeed than if you just try to keep them in mind.

As you move from being a solopreneurship to an entrepreneurship, you need to build a staff of people who cover all the important functions and perform as a team. Don't, like many first-time entrepreneurs, hire haphazardly. Making the right hiring decisions, at the right times, can be the foundation of your success.

Beth Polish is professor for The Entrepreneurship Mastery Programat Trump University. Ms. Polish, who received her MBA from Harvard Business School, has held senior management positions in diverse industries including media, finance, private investment and technology. She serves on the National Advisory Board of the Women's Leadership Exchange and conducts seminars around the country as a WLE "growth guru."

Marilyn Byrd, President of Byrd Associates,is a seasoned executive recruiter with over 12 years of executive-level recruiting experience. She recently joined Beth Polish as a presenter for the "Team Building and Leadership" segments of The Entrepreneurship Mastery Program.We regret that we were unable to obtain a photograph of Ms. Bird in time todisplay alongside this post.

Students at the College of Charleston can earn a new grade on their report cards this semester. Instead of an "A" or a "B," they can get an "XF," which is not a good thing. The "XF" grade means a student failed a course because he or she cheated.

About 70 percent of college students admit they've cheated at least once at school. Colleges and universities are well aware of this dishonesty and are trying to do something about it.

Duke University has a Center for Academic Integrity. The University of Georgia has created a new full-time position for a coordinator of academic honesty.

Students who are suspected of cheating most often meet with a faculty member to discuss the charge. The student and professor then agree on a penalty - usually an "F" on the assignment or even the course, and the process is over.

The schools say they don't want to punish the students too much. They just want them to learn a lesson. Life is tough and we all make mistakes. Better to learn from them early on.

Donald J. Trump, Chairman of Trump University, offers his advice about success in many Trump University offerings, includingThe Trump Way to Wealth.

Editor's note: Mr. Trump and all the personnel at Trump University wish you a happy and restful LaborDay.