Home Wealth Project
Extensive Research On How To Build Wealth From The Comfort Of Your Own Home.
Extensive Research On How To Build Wealth From The Comfort Of Your Own Home.
Feb 3rd
January is always pretty slow in business research land and this month has been no exception. So, I’m a few days late getting this report to you but that’s a good thing because I managed to wait long enough for the release of the 2011 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). This is their 13th annual survey and the news was good.

Entrepreneurship: Alive and Well
In 2011, GEM researchers estimate that 388 million individuals worldwide were actively engaged in starting and running new businesses. That’s fantastic because previous research from Kauffman tells us that most net new jobs come from new businesses. And that is borne out by GEM’s numbers: about 36% of these new entrepreneurs expect to create at least 5 new jobs over the next five years. In fact, 16.8% of them expect to create at least 20 new jobs over the next five years.
In the United States, the 2011 GEM entrepreneurship rate is estimated at 12% — this is not much different from what it was ten years ago and it’s a little less than twice the global average. On average, about 17% were necessity driven and 57% or so were opportunity driven, while in the United States, an estimated 21% were necessity driven and 59% were opportunity driven. This is interesting, because it’s not what you’d expect to find, given the job losses over the last couple of years.
I have a feeling that, when the nonemployer numbers for 2011 come out later this year, we’re going to see them starting to recover from the two disastrous years before.
Selling? Selling Online?
A couple of studies on retailing caught my eye this month and both of them offer some interesting possibilities for small businesses engaged in retail.
For starters, the National Retail Federation proclaimed to the world sometime around mid-month that they expect overall retail sales growth to hit 3.4% in 2012. Presumably, before the world comes to an end later this year, a lot of people are going to want to buy things.
According to a survey by The NDF Group Inc., almost half of online consumers have bought books, stationery and office supplies in the last 12 months, making this the most active category for online retail. Must be all those home offices out there. Apparel and consumer electronics tie for second place, each with 46% of respondents saying they had bought in that category within the last year.
This survey also found that 25% of respondents follow a retailer or brand on a social media site and 27% say they’ve bought something because of what they’ve seen there. But another study, this one conducted by Puneet Manchanda of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, found that the best social media site for your business may be your own.
Manchanda took a look at company-sponsored social networking sites, “using data from an unnamed retailer of books, CDs, and DVDs,” and found that unnamed retailer experienced a 19% increase in incremental revenue from their customers who joined their branded online community. In the community, members can recommend and review products, share favorites lists, make suggestions, and socialize with each other. The researcher also found that customers who were more active in the community, with larger numbers of friends, tended to spend more.
And this survey finds that you get a better return on the investment with your own branded community that you do by simply using Facebook. That will give you something new for you to factor into your online marketing strategy for 2012.
Ecommerce Photo via Shutterstock
Research Roundup: New Entrepreneurs and Online Consumers
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Jan 3rd
Do a quick search for important entrepreneurs. Do you see any wrinkles on those faces? You sure don’t—some of them might even still have baby fat. Inc. does a yearly list of the top 30 entrepreneurs under 30. Business MBA decided to find out how ten of these young adults are making huge impressions on business and on the world.

From: Business MBA
View full post on Business Pundit
Dec 29th
As American children, we are told that people are often wealthy because they are hard workers who built empires on boot straps and elbow grease. As we get older, we realize that there is an even more important component of success in America: connections, and pretending you are successful and lying until enough people believe you. If you learned this lesson after 2003, “then start a reality show” pops up somewhere in there. For all our talk of head-down hard work, some of the most recognizable entrepreneurs in America are rank phonies who were handed billions of dollars on silver platters and used it to wipe their ass, saying “I heard Bravo’s into edgy shit like that”.

Simon Cowell was the face of British snark for much of the Aughts. His put-downs and insults of American Idol contestants are nothing short of legendary, and somewhere in the process he created one of the most popular shows in American history. American Idol regularly puts its time slot to shame by garnering viewers by the tens of millions. The songs and artists that come out of American Idol have produced numerous chart-topping hits and netted Cowell’s label millions.
If by this point you’re thinking of Simon Cowell as some sort of genius who worked his way up from the mail room to spearhead a titan of a TV show and record label, you’re actually kind of correct. But that’s only because, by all accounts, Cowell was an insufferable twat for his entire life and the mail room was the only position even his rich and well-connected father could get for him. Cowell’s father eventually flexed his muscles again, netting Simon as position as an assistant to a high-ranking executive at A&R.
It is true that Cowell deserves some credit for his successes beyond this point, not the least of which was American Idol. But to the rest of us who could only get an entry-level position at a record label through clandestine liaisons in the mens’ room, the point remains that Cowell’s monumental arrogance and general douchebaggery would have gotten him precisely nowhere without his father’s intervention.

Like most Australians, Rupert Murdoch reminds us why we shouldn’t allow Australians to own property, have equal rights, or infect our dreams with their terrifying wildlife. Unfortunately, because of several tenants of the Geneva Convention and that annoying concept of common human decency, we’re forced to give these special little denizens of the southern hemisphere an equal shot. This despite their apparent homicidal bloodlust for the English language.
That aside, Murdoch has managed to build a veritable empire of news media, which owns just about everything ever, except those liberal rags. Valued in the billions of dollars, Murdoch is best known in America for spawning the laugh-fest known as Fox News, and acquiring the Wall Street Journal in order to turn its once-respected opinion page into Karl Rove’s blog.
But despite the Fox News love of America and hard work, Murdoch was born into the newspaper industry, and groomed to replace his father at the helm of News Limited from a young age. Following his father’s death in 1951, Murdoch took over operations and gradually steered the business to becoming one of the largest news organizations in the world. He may have been born with a silver spoon, but Murdoch worked hard to turn News Limited in the bloated, scandal-ridden embarrassment it is today.

George W. Bush is an international man of mystery, going by many names such as “Worst President of all Time”; “The Precocious Scamp We Love to Hate”; and “Generally Not That Good at Business”. Before he was elected president of Texas and then president of the neighboring United States, Bush had quite a stint in the oil industry. And by “stint” we mean he made a habit of running a company into the ground, selling it, running the company he sold it to into the ground and generally not giving a crap because his father was president of the United States and their family had gobs and gobs of money.
Okay, so making fun of George W Bush is like shooting fish in a barrel. Wait, it’s actually easier than that; it’s like shooting a fish in a Solo cup (and also the fish is a humpback whale). That doesn’t change the fact that every business venture he embarked upon wasn’t done through hard work or shrewd business acumen. Nope, they all basically consisted of him getting a bunch of his father’s friends and wealthy Yale alums to pony up a couple million dollars. Though, in all fairness, this was probably all a good dry-run for the bank bailouts.

Probably the only person on this list you’ve never heard of, Carly Fiorina was once considered one of the most powerful and accomplished businesswomen in America. Fiorina began her career as a management candidate at AT&T, and quickly rose through the ranks, overseeing the spin-off of Lucent. Remember when their labels used to be on every phone you used in the 90s? Phones. Those things with the cords that go into the wall that you can talk on.
In short, Fiorina was a successful executive and was eventually picked to head HP in 1999, becoming the first woman to head a Fortune 20 company. It was roughly around this time that Fiorina bought into her own hype and started grandstanding around the lecture circuit while trying to shove a highly unpopular merger with Compaq down the board of director’s throats. Try to think back to the last time you bought an HP or Compaq computer and you can guess where this story is heading.
Fiorina managed to get the Compaq deal approved, and both companies proceeded to immediately tank. The combined company quickly became the largest personal computer manufacturer in the world, and just as quickly lost the title as sales plummeted. Fiorina had used her considerable power and fame to ascend to HP and work the Compaq deal despite repeated objections from experts in the company (including the son of co-founder William Hewlett), but these traits couldn’t save her from getting booted off the board in 2005. Almost immediately, stock prices rose and the company quickly regained its status as largest personal computer manufacturer in the world.

It is a testament to Donald Trump’s greatness that in an America filled with Kardashians, Jersey Shore and Michael Bay, he still manages to stand out as a complete and utter phony.
Trump got his start, like most of the phonies on this list, by investing in real-estate with his rich daddy. He eventually spun this venture into retarded catch phrases and gigantic money-losing phallic emblems to himself. After promoting himself and losing hundreds of millions of investors dollars, Trumps favorite activity is talking about how much money he has. This started way back in the 90s, when Trump started bragging about being worth a cool billion, despite having less money then you probably do now.
Forbes recently valued him at around $200 million in net worth, which is certainly no figure to shake a stick at. Donald Trump, however, has no problem shaking his stick at that number, brazenly claiming that he’s worth $7 billion. With a “b”. According to Trump, all those extra zeroes are the result of his “brand” which he values at around $3 billion and the rest of us value at “oh ew. ewwwww. grooooosssss.”
To round the shameless self-promotion off, Trump decided recently he wanted to be the almost-republican nominee. He shot to the top of the running with his ceaseless attacks on Obama’s claims of citizenship. When asked about the quasi-racist nature of his ultimately failed campaign, the Donald kept it classy and replied, “I’ve always had a great relationship with the blacks.”
View full post on Business Pundit
Dec 28th
Entrepreneurs can be tough people to buy for, if you’ve got them on your Holiday list. If you are an entrepreneur, which is why we’re guessing you’re reading this page, you know that tools and resources that help you build your business are most critical. Here are some gifts you might appreciate and some other resources we hope you can use in your next business venture. Oh — and don’t forget our Business Gift Giving Guide here at Small Business Trends.
Late Holiday gifts for your favorite entrepreneur. It’s not too late to get that perfect gift for that entrepreneur in your life. This list of 11 items can help boost productivity in a variety of ways. From lifestyle to tools needed for building your business, you’ll want to check this list before getting that last Holiday gift for the entrepreneur who has everything. GeekWire
$850 billion up for grabs for your small business. The top 1,000 companies are hoarding cash, but they’ll spend it on the right product, service or investment. Could that money be spent with your small business? Here are more details about how you can get in on this opportunity. Don’t let your company be left behind. Open Forum
What will your business focus on in 2012? You may feel like you’ve just barely gotten through 2011 in one piece, but look out! That’s 2012 just around the corner. What will you be focusing on with your small business? Susan Oakes shares this primer to help you plan for the future.What will your small business do next year? M4B Marketing
Forget about the biggest franchises for next year. Joel Libava has pulled out all the stops to make a few predictions for small business leaders who may be thinking of moving into franchising over the next decade. Which franchises will be the top considerations come 2019? Read this post and find out. The Franchise King
Why is customer loyalty important? Without it, businesses are left to compete on price alone. Customer loyalty is critically important for developing long-term sales relationships. But the question becomes, how do you develop the kind of loyalty amongst your customers to maintain these relationships in the first place? Inc.com
Will you sell in 2012? Are you ready to sell your business? Do you want to get a new start or, in some other way, get on with your life? Is your life or situation changing in some other way that would make selling your business advantageous? Of course, there are many reasons to sell a business, but 2012 may be the year for you. Here are five reasons you may want to make it the year to move on. You’re the Boss
Is your bank committed to small business? It’s an important question these days and one you definitely need to find the answer to before wasting time with a bank that is not committed to you. Not all banks are created equal. Here are some ways to grade your bank’s performance with small business including their willingness to lend. Small Business Trends
101 resources from which your small business can benefit. Small business success depends upon leveraging tools and resources, tools and resources that are easier to find every day it seems. Take this incredible list of 101 resources for entrepreneurs you won’t want to miss. Use these resources to build your small business and share them with others in your network today. Kissmetrics
The real potential of Google+. Think Google’s social network is just another Facebook or Twitter and a pale imitation at that? Think again! This particular network, tied in as it is with the powerful tools of the world’s most popular search engines, guarantees value to your brand beyond your latest update. Nick Stamoulis
So when are you moving to the cloud? You’ve heard about the benefits of moving much of your computer functions to the cloud and know about the increase in functionality and flexibility you will probably reap when using the resources of the cloud for your computing needs. If you haven’t yet made up your mind, here are a few other thoughts to consider. GetApp.com
Late Holiday Gifts for Entrepreneurs
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Dec 13th
Entrepreneurs aren’t equally valued everywhere.
Okay, perhaps that statement is not surprising. But the patterns across countries in how business founders are assessed are intriguing.
As the figure below indicates, a recent British Broadcasting Corporation survey of more than 24,000 adults in 24 nations showed that a paltry 25 percent of Egyptians believe that business founders are “highly valued” in that country, as compared with 75 percent of Indonesians.
I doubt it would surprise most of you that two-thirds of Americans believe that entrepreneurs are highly valued, putting the U.S. in the upper half of the nations surveyed. But it might surprise you to learn that entrepreneurs are more highly valued in several other countries. The comparison that shocked me the most was that the French are more likely than Americans to think that entrepreneurs are highly valued in their country.
There’s something oddly troubling to me about this statistic. The French are supposed to be the ones who hold artists and philosophers in high esteem; and we’re the ones who are supposed to respect business people.
I think I heard De Tocqueville turning over in his grave when the survey results were released:
Source: BBC World Service Survey Poll, May 25, 2011
Where Entrepreneurs are Valued
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Dec 6th
Having an uncertain income is one of the things that people find frightening about going into business for themselves. Unlike a salary earned from working for someone else, future business profits are hard to predict. And people like to be able to forecast what they will earn in coming years.
While the the unpredictability of business income is something that makes people everywhere apprehensive about business ownership, how big this fear is varies a great deal across countries. A random survey of the population of 36 countries undertaken in 2009 indicated that only 19 percent of the population in South Korea but 59 percent in Lithuania saw an uncertain income as one of the two scariest aspects of starting a company (see below).
That’s nearly three times as many Lithuanians as Koreans consider the unpredictability of business earnings to be one of their greatest fears about entrepreneurship indicates that people from some countries are better able to deal with this fundamental difference between working for oneself and working for someone else.
As you might expect, Americans were not as likely to be apprehensive about the uncertainty of business income as people from other nations. The U.S. was tied with the Netherlands and Iceland for the seventh lowest percentage of the population identifying uncertain income as one of their two greatest fears about business formation across the 36 nations where the survey took place.
Share of the population reporting that fear of an uncertain income is a top apprehension about going into business for oneself:
Where Entrepreneurs Fear an Uncertain Income
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Dec 2nd
It’s pretty clear that depending on your level of skill, crime really can pay. A lot. Drug trafficking, murder-for-hire, car jacking, check fraud, and identity theft are all booming industries right now. Many criminals have failed to complete a formal education, another thing that’s been debunked as necessary for success. Intelligent deviants who choose a life of crime often profit — and sometimes, they go legit and become incredibly successful in business. Here are five criminals who became entrepreneurs.

Although not nearly as entertaining as Judge Judy, Judge Mathis is a popular and well paid daytime television judge. Instead of enforcing the law, Mathis routinely broke it as a teenager. In his high school years, he joined an infamous Detroit street gang called the Erroll Flynns. At age 17, Mathis was arrested and sentenced to prison time after the judge saw his heap of past arrests. Mathis had had enough of crime.
Upon his release, Mathis attended college and became a campus activist. After graduating, he went on to become a court judge for Michigan’s 36th district and never looked back. His show has now been running for ten seasons (since 1999), taping over 2000 episodes. Mathis’ laid back, jovial attitude has gained fans who love his sense of humor. Not only does he allow long, angry diatribes by the disputing parties, but he often lets aspiring rappers and singers showcase their talents for a few seconds during the show. What a guy.

Yes, really. Before becoming famous for the quirky show Home Improvement, Tim Allen Dick (his real name) was an avid lover of cocaine. That’s not to say he gave up the stuff once on the show — just that he stopped getting caught. In 1978, Allen was caught trying to board a plane with over a pound of cocaine. Instead of taking the mandatory life sentence, Allen Dick ratted out 21 accomplices and got off with only five years prison time.
As most people would, Allen dropped the ‘Dick’ from the end of his name and began doing standup on a dare. When the crowd loved his ‘lovable loser with tools’ persona, he developed it into what would eventually become Home Improvement.
Although he became very successful, Allen didn’t leave his Dickish ways behind him. In 1997, Allen drunkenly crashed his car into a 72-year-old man… and then sued the guy for “damaging his well-known and well-respected name.” Allen dropped the lawsuit after learning the man had brain cancer. He actually went on to call this a humanitarian gesture.
Ironically, Allen’s dad was killed by a drunk driver. This didn’t stop Allen from getting arrested again on a DUI in 1999 for literally falling over during a sobriety test. So maybe he turned around — and then turned back around.

Jay Z started out as a drug dealer in Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects who shot his own brother over stealing his jewelry. Today, he’s one of the richest guys on earth and really knows how to run a business. Jay Z has released multiple rap albums, many of which are considered ‘landmarks’ of the rap music genre. He’s had four number one songs on the Billboard Hot 100. Jay Z owns clubs in multiple cities, will be partial owner of the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets, has a stake in Roca Wear, is a partial owner of the NJ Nets, and owns an investment company which has equity in a number of odd but profitable ventures. Combined with wife Beyonce, the couple has a value of around $150 million dollars.

Danny Trejo could win a Grammy with zero acting skills whatsoever. All he has to do is stand around and stare at stuff to look pensive, terrifying, badass, and/or angry. He used his intimidating appearance to rob convenience stores and was in trouble so much that his own mother “stopped being surprised” when the cops would show up at their house. After his drug habits and life of crime landed him in prison for 15 years, Trejo decided to do something better with himself.
Trejo learned how to box and took a 12-step program to get clean and stay that way. One of his friends in the program happened to be a film production assistant, and asked Trejo if he could ‘look like a convict’ for a role in Runaway Train. Of course he could. Trejo has been in 124 movies since then, always playing the same character but never becoming uninteresting or trite.

You may not have heard of Georgia Durante, but her story is the most badass one in this list. A model by 12 and nationally known as the model for Kodak by age 17, Durante was legit from the beginning. She turned to a life of crime after marrying mob man Joe Lamendola, who convinced her to become the getaway driver for many of the mob’s crimes. Durante learned tricks, stunts, and all-around crazy driving moves to elude the police.
It came to an end when Durante decided she had finally had enough of her husband’s abusive ways. During her divorce, she testified against many of the criminals she used to work for and with. Consequently, Durante started her own performance driving school and wrote a book about her life experiences. Her company has been used for the stunts in over 100 films, and Durante has personally been the body double for Cindy Crawford and Priscilla Presley.
View full post on Business Pundit
Nov 22nd
While Sasha and Malia Obama haven’t publicly announced that they plan to start businesses, they share something in common with the kids most likely to have such plans: They’re African-American.
According to a Gallup poll of a representative sample of 1,721 children in fifth through twelfth grade conducted this Spring, African-American kids were significantly more likely than White kids to report that they plan to start a business. While 39 percent of White children said they plan to start a business, 52 percent of African-American kids reported this intention.
These numbers are interesting because they are so different from current adult self-employment rates. According to a recent study by Steve Hipple of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, African-Americans had lower incorporated and unincorporated self-employment rates than Whites. For unincorporated self-employment the rates were 7.4 percent for Whites and 4.5 percent for African-Americans. For incorporated self-employment, the rates were 4.2 percent for Whites and 1.5 percent for African-Americans.
Does the divergence between children’s plans and adult actions represent a generational shift in attitudes toward entrepreneurship among children of different races? Or does it demonstrate the greater obstacles that African-Americans face in achieving their entrepreneurial ambitions? I don’t know.
What do you think?

Source: Created from data from Gallup-Hope Index 2011
Image from Paul Frederiksen/Shutterstock
What Future Entrepreneurs Will Look Like
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Nov 7th
The US Small Business Administration (SBA) recently conducted focus groups to learn what entrepreneurs, investors and others believe we need to do to enhance entrepreneurship in America. One of their findings was that we need to improve entrepreneurship education in our K-12 schools.
While it’s hard to argue with “improving education” for anything, this recommendation appears misplaced. More representative surveys show that Americans believe their schools are doing a good job of preparing kids to be entrepreneurs, at least in comparison to what people from many other industrialized countries think.
According to a 2009 Gallup Organization survey of 26,000 people in 36 nations, two thirds of Americans believe that their elementary and secondary schools are providing the requisite skill and knowledge to run a business. These numbers compare favorably to the responses of Europeans, only 39 percent of whom agree.
What are American schools doing right when it comes to entrepreneurship education? The data point to three things:
While Americans are much more likely than Europeans to believe that primary and secondary schools are effective at training people to become entrepreneurs, there are two negatives in the data:
China is becoming the world leader in entrepreneurship and the Gallup survey showed that Americans were no more likely than the Chinese to think that their schools are doing a good job training people to become entrepreneurs. Twenty-five years ago that would not have been the case.
Preparing Children to Be Entrepreneurs
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Nov 2nd
Women entrepreneurs are making progress in obtaining investment capital; minority entrepreneurs still have a ways to go; and the overall angel investment news is cautiously optimistic. So says Q1 Q2 2011 Angel Market Trends, the latest report on angel investing from the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire.
First, the positive news about women. In the first half of 2011, women angel investors represented 12 percent of the angel market, and women-owned businesses accounted for 12 percent of the entrepreneurs seeking angel capital. While these numbers aren’t outstanding, they do represent progress. More impressive is that 26 percent of the women entrepreneurs seeking angel investment in the first half of the year received it. In fact, the report notes, the percentage of women actually getting angel investments is above the overall average.
The news was not quite as good for minority entrepreneurs or angels. Minorities made up just 5 percent of the angel population, and 11 percent of the companies seeking angel financing were minority-owned. Like women, however, minorities received angel financing at a higher than the average: 17 percent of minorities seeking angel capital received it, compared to 15 percent of businesses overall. This is the positive news, but the report’s authors feel that the low percentages of minorities seeking angel capital is cause for concern.
If you’re not a minority or woman business owner, the news about angel capital is still pretty good (at least, relatively speaking). “The angel market appears to have reached its nadir in 2009 and has since demonstrated a slow recovery,” the report states. The market yield rate (the percentage of companies seeking financing that actually receive it) reached 15 percent in the first half of 2011, continuing a slow climb from 10 percent in 2008 and 12 percent in 2010.
Overall, total angel investments in the first half of 2011 were $8.9 billion—up 4.7 percent from the same period last year—and 26,300 companies got angel financing, up 4.4 percent from last year. The average investment was $338,400.
Some of the most popular areas for angel investing are not surprising, including healthcare services/medical devices and equipment (25 percent of total angel investments), industrial/energy (17 percent), biotech (14 percent) and software (11 percent). What is surprising is that media and retail sectors have become firmly entrenched in the top six most popular sectors for angel financing, with each getting 8 percent of total investments.
And for those of us looking to angels as a stimulator of job growth, there’s also good news. Angels have significantly increased seed and startup stage investing, which accounted for 39 percent of angel investments in the first half of this year—up from 26 percent during the same period last year. The report notes this is an “encouraging sign” for new business formation and job creation. And with an estimated 5 jobs created by each angel investment this year—or a total of 134,130 new jobs due to angel investment so far in 2011—it’s clear that angels can be a major engine of job growth if they feel confident enough to invest.
Finally, Some Good News for Women Entrepreneurs in Latest Angel Capital Study
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends