One thing I love about business is that it's about as good as a well-trained house pet. If you give it focus, attention, and love, it'll love you back. It won't disappoint you so long as you put the appropriate time, effort, and energy into it from the get-go.
And it can make you extremely happy!
Of course, business and pets are vastly different but -- unlike people who are nothing more than "loose cannons" to me -- pets and business can give you "love" if you give them the appropriate attention from the beginning.
And that's what I like.
I like to know my result from the beginning.
If you give a dog love from the start, he's going to give you love back.
If you set up a business correctly from the start, the business will give you money back.
Those are basic rules of how I've found that life works.
I have a new kitten. It's a boy. I generally stay away from male cats but he sort of fell in my lap when a neighbor moved to San Diego last weekend and they didn't want to take the cat with because their daughter is allergic to cats.
So, essentially this kitten "adopted" me in one way or another.
I made it my daughter's cat. She's 5 and she's old enough to learn responsibility now. She does well feeding her aquatic frog and 2 fish so a kitten shouldn't be a big deal to add to her responsibilities.
Because it's her cat, she got to name him. She chose Pineapple. Ronnie was trying to get her to name him Louie. Louie (or Lou) is a cute name but nothing a 5-year-old would accept. So, his legal name can be Pineapple Louie...named sort of after a bar I know in Panama City Beach, Florida called Pineapple Willy's. (That place is cool as hell. You can even watch people walking on the beach on PCB right now on their website: http://www.pwillys.com/. Damn, I wish I was there right now!)
Pineapple, the kitten, is "off the hook." He's a crazy kitty...pounces, jumps, attacks, and tried to eat my face off yesterday. My 2 older cats can't stand the little rat and find their days filled with the exhausting endeavor of fending the little sh** off. Since they're both 10-years old, this can be extremely taxing on 2 old lady cats.
I have to admit; I love the new energy of the little one. He's shaking things up a bit in our household and change is something a Gemini (me) absolutely loves.
I also love animals.
I was thinking about this yesterday.
Animals are pretty predictable. Especially domestic pets. As I mentioned already, you just have to give them some love and they'll love you right back. It never fails.
People...not so much.
I had an unfortunate incident with a friend of mine and we ended up having a complete falling out after about 3 years of friendship.
And it makes me very sad.
I started thinking about business and, believe it or not, it's actually quite predictable. Much like domesticated pets.
Give it love, you'll get love back.
I think this is why I've done so exceptionally well with business and yet have continued to fail miserably in family and friendship relationships.
Business is extremely predictable because you'll get out exactly what you put into it. And you will get the result you're seeking provided that you know precisely what that is.
People are unpredictable and never have your best interests at heart because they're too busy focusing on how they can personally gain, even if it means you'll get the short end of the stick.
Now I know why I see so many old people in the world wobbling around with their old-as-dirt dog or cat while ostracizing themselves from the world. Somewhere along they way they've determined that people are too much trouble and they'd rather pal around with a scruffy dust puff of a pet because at least they know it won't maliciously hurt them.
Yesterday I indicated that I'm stepping out of the game of real estate investing training for awhile...or maybe forever...simply because after this upcoming Atlanta event in November, there will be nothing else to teach you on how to capitalize on the real estate market past the end of 2014.
There has been a huge demand amongst my students for more New Wealth Ninja "stuff" including the stuff I'll be teaching my students at my Underground Secret Event in a few weeks from now in Los Angeles. (And you can still get a deal to attend that event by clicking here.) This event, as you know, is non-real estate related and is all about Aggressive Income on Speed and Steroids.
Last year I started teaching my New Wealth Ninja strategies because my students wanted to know more about how to raise cash to inject into passive income real estate since the market started changing, competition with other investors became apparent, and it was obvious that if my students wanted to enter into the New Real Estate Market in our New Economy, they were going to have to cough up some cash for these deals.
This is how my New Wealth Ninja (NWN) trainings began...as a means for students to raise funds for real estate deals.
Then NWN became a demand in and of itself.
I started getting more and more stories of students with graduate degrees, a load of professional experience, and who were still sharp as whips sent out to pasture because they were too "highly paid" in their field and "too old" to play anymore.
Companies that were in the midst of the economic crisis (and many still are) found out about a little trick called the Dump-the-Overpaid-Old-People-on-Payroll-for-the-Moldable-Cheap-College-Grads Game. I noticed that this game started back in about 2007/2008 and has become more and more predominant in the employment arena.
It sucks to be an experienced professional or in a highly paid management position in a company, especially if you're in your 50s or beyond. Because chances are, you're probably not employed or employable anymore.
It didn't hit close to home until recently when my dad (who, unfortunately, I had to terminate out of my own company due to embezzlement issues) had to take to working at Lowe's part time because he can't get a job anywhere else. And he needed the position mostly for health care because he can't get government health care until next June when he hits 65.
It became even more abundantly clear that we're in trouble as a highly-populated Baby Boomer nation when I recently interviewed dozens of people for an entry-level low-paying job for both of my companies and found that I was sifting through hundreds of resumes from people who were overqualified (including those with degrees) to those who were over 50 years old to both.
And they were vying for a job with a starting pay of $11 an hour.
Rewind to about 2003...I interviewed people in a completely different economy and I couldn't get anyone to start at less than $15 an hour. And even this was like pulling teeth. I had people who were qualified and even under-qualified for the positions I had applying for jobs, 50% of the people who I scheduled an interview with didn't show up, and I had a hell of a time finding people who would work for me. (Interviewing was a bitch back in those days.)
What a difference a freakin' decade makes.
As an employer and business owner, I tend to lean toward hiring older people with more experience because they tend to be more loyal and dedicated in their positions. The young people in this day and age are texting their friends all day while having Facebook minimized in their "tray" on their computers. They are lazy, take too many sick days, and basically suck as employees.
Yet larger companies want these deadbeats to work for them because, (a) they start out as "cheap labor" and, (b) because they figure they can "mold" these screw-balls into whatever they want them to be for their company.
I couldn't disagree with that mentality more because, to me, it's like burning useless dollars to pay some Gen-Yer to text their buddies all day while uploading pictures to Facebook from the party they went to the weekend before when they got sloshed out of their gourd. But hey, at least they can "multi-task," right?
And then there's the whole $15/hour fast-food debacle where all these people who think working at McDonald's is a "career" feel like they should be getting paid more than minimum wage. Last time I checked, flipping burgers and making a milkshake doesn't take much skill, certainly not enough to justify $15 an hour.
WTF is going on with our nation?!
What these people don't realize is that there are ship loads of robots made in China coming over by the day that cost, on average, about $5,000 each that can do everything a low-wage worker in McDonald's can do...yet this robot won't require a wage, worker's compensation insurance, personal days off, sick days, vacation days, health care insurance, and you don't have to worry that this technical creature will sue you for sexual harassment, call in sick at the last minute, or steal from you.
I don't know about you but, as a business owner, I'll take the robots any day. And to think that all I'll have to pay for is some maintenance and a couple of software downloads here and there.
It's a lot closer than you think.
Then what happens to all the people who are minimum-wage workers...?
They may go from $8/hour to $15/hour. But I can guarantee you that they're about to go from employed to unemployed as things start to become more advanced in our society.
Gotta love Asia and the advances we can enjoy as a nation.
As an employee, do you hate the possibility that a robot can take your job?
If so, stop thinking like a f*****g employee and start thinking like a business owner...because as a business owner, you'd love the idea.
I have a machine coming over from China in a couple of weeks. No, it's not a robot but it'll be replacing a few minion jobs in the warehouse.
And a few weeks after that I'll be ordering another machine to replace a couple more minions.
And on and on it will go from there.
As a business owner, I've run the gamut with government regulations and have always noticed that they don't like to make it easy to operate as a business, especially in sunny California. I think the reason this is the case is because you have a bunch of dumb sh** government "employees" making decisions about what business owners should and shouldn't be able to do. And, unfortunately, these dummies don't take into account what the consequences of their dumb sh** thinking can be which usually has something to do with taking your business out of state or out of the country where -- guess what? -- no one can benefit from employment or the tax dollars associated with doing business here.
But what makes running a business most difficult are the employees that are associated with the business because they never do what you want them to do.
So...I can't wait for the robots to take over the employment market.
But if you're an employee, that doesn't give you really good job prospects in the decade to come, does it?
Guess what...you have to stop being an employee and start being a business owner otherwise you're not going to make it. Period. No exceptions. Especially if you're 40 an over...you're really in trouble now!
In the first half of 2014 (and until I turn 40 in June), I'll be focusing on showing you some cutting-edge New Wealth Ninja strategies to teach you how to have either a small cash flowing Aggressive Income home-based business or a larger cash flowing Aggressive Income multi-million dollar business.
Your choice.
Bottom line, you do have to choose one of the above presented options if you're going to survive and thrive in the years to come.
Until I turn 40 in June, that is. Then, after that, you're guess is as good as mine on what I'll be doing. Maybe I'll lay down and die on a beach in the Bahamas. (Doesn't sound too bad acutally, does it?)
Many of you have heard of Andrew Shaw. He started out with me sometime in late 2008 when he purchased my Apartment Building Cash Flow System. In 2009 he signed up and completed one of my first signature Apartment Building Mentorship Groups including taking the 9-week Advanced Group later that year.
But, like many of my students (unfortunately), he ended up in a phase of information overload paralysis. And did nothing with the information until the next year when he decided to kick himself in the ass.
He hasn't turned back since.
In this first couple of years of being a "serious" real estate investor, he climbed up from $0 to making $74,000 a month in passive real estate income.
Now he's at the $138,000 per month mark. And no, that's not gross receipts. That's what he gets to put in his pocket each and every month after all of his mortgages and expenses are paid on all of his properties.
So, here's what happened last month. I tried twisting Andrew's arm until it just about fell off to speak at my upcoming November Atlanta Boot Camp Seminar but, of course, he said no. Again.
You see, Andrew is the type of person that I think would literally have a heart attack if he had to utter 2 complete sentences in front of even a small crowd of people. (Goes to show you that even timid people who aren't socially adept can become massively successful in real estate.)
And that's why I have never been successful in getting him to speak at any of my events over the past couple of years. He's shown up at my events before and, even then, I wasn't allowed to point him out that he was there. Yes, that's right! For those of you who have been at my events before, you actually were sitting in the room with Andrew Shaw. He was even at one of my recent non-real estate related Underground Secret Events. (Can anyone remember who was in the room at my last Detroit event?)
But here's what Andrew did do for me. He wrote a book on exactly what he did to reach the level of success he's reached today and, in his own words, explains that if anyone can do it, you can too.
Andrew started with less than nothing. In fact, if I remember correctly, he had something like $40,000+ in credit card debt when he got started with me. He wasn't working and he really needed to hustle to get himself up and running in the real estate game.
And he did.
Without any money. Without any credit.
He did it easily, seamlessly, and quickly by following a simple plan that he created himself.
And he put down this exact plan on paper which you'll be able to get so that you can use his exact well-laid out plan for your own real estate success. Click here for more details on getting this book.
Why commercial-commercial real estate? Why now?
I'm going to be honest with you; not that I'm not always honest but I think it's time that you really come to an understanding of what's going on with both me and the real estate market right now.
Here's what I'll never become: a "guru" that stands on a soap box in front of a group of seminar attendees talking about irrelevant and non-profitable real estate topics that don't apply in our current real estate market. I promised myself that I'll never become anything like that which is why my students have always appreciated me being a teacher and mentor.
Come 2014 and I'll have thoroughly introduced and talked about every cutting-edge real estate strategy you can use including all of the "supporting" education such as building personal and business credit, raising capital, and all of the other needed elements to get to where you need to go as a successful real estate investor.
When we are in a recession, you will get your best deals and opportunities in almost every type of asset class in real estate investing out there.
When the economy starts to "thaw out" and take off, the opportunities immediately disappear.
And that's what's happening now.
Why do you think I've meticulously "planned" my real estate training "end" date to be December 31, 2013 since last year?
I knew the end was coming. And, sadly, it's almost already here.
Let's talk about what opportunities are left in cash flowing real estate deals and then we'll talk about what I'll be doing for my students until I turn 40 (next June).
What do we have left for profitable real estate in the remaining portion of 2013 and all of 2014 that you can realistically get into with some creative financing, little/no money down, and for a bargain in a market where things are getting very hot very fast?
1) Small multifamily properties ranging from "quads" (4-plexes) to 10-unit apartment buildings.
2) Small MHPs ranging from a handful of pads to about 20 pads.
3) SFR flips in certain areas of the country.
4) Smaller REO apartment buildings.
5) Commercial-commercial buildings, particularly office buildings and industrial warehouse space.
6) Self-storage.
7) Building small multifamily buildings to either buy-and-hold or flip to investors who will pay top dollar for them.
Again, these opportunities will begin to diminish one-by-one as we kick off 2014, definitely starting with SFR flips. Then vacant REOs. Then MHPs and small multi-families.
Then any commercial-commercial opportunity by the end of next year.
For my students that have been learning from me for the past several years, they already know that you shouldn't build a piece of investment real estate until you're in a hot market. Otherwise, building will cost you more per square foot than what you can buy it for in a slump market.
And that's a complete waste of money!
The next huge money-maker is buying raw land and building, especially small multifamily buildings anywhere from "quads" (4-plexes) to 8-unit buildings.
These can make you a fortune in this market because now, in many super hot areas, it actually costs less to build than buy a fully occupied multifamily (and even commercial-commercial) property.
What's awesome about this strategy is that, once you take a piece of raw land and build, you can quickly lease the units (because they are brand new, there is a higher demand and you can get top rent dollar) but you can "flip" the property to other investors who want the leased-up high-in-demand rental property.
In fact, you'll get more money per unit than comparable buildings in the area because the units are brand new and getting more in rent than other units in the same area.
Plus, this strategy can put you into Class A and B areas whereas before you were probably only investing in (or considering) Class C and D areas because it was more affordable to get into.
I have a new lender that handles financing both raw land and the construction portion of the deal. A construction loan goes up to 1 year and then you refinance it into a conventional loan after the construction (and lease-up) has been accomplished.
Why buy a Class C property when you can buy raw land and build a Class A property that commands top dollar in both rents and cost-per-door when you flip it?
There is a specific step-by-step strategy required to make a fortune with this investment methodology. I've never taught this rare, little-known strategy to any of my students.
Even better, this lucrative strategy can be used to build any type of asset class from 8-plex multifamily buildings to a retail strip mall.
And no, you don't need to be a contractor to pull this off nor do you need to get ripped off by a GC (general contractor) in most states. As long as you know the steps, you can contract the job yourself by subbing everything out one piece at a time.
Rehab and new construction have always been my favorite method of real estate investing just because it allows you to be creative and to become part of a process in making a nice home for people. It's the one facet of real estate I enjoy the most, even down to choosing the color of the exterior paint of a building.
Back to School, Hello Fall, and Happy Halloween All in 10 Days!
My daughter started school almost 2 weeks ago and even though technically summer isn't over, it's pretty much over. Yesterday I walked into Lowe's and saw this 16-foot grim reaper staring straight down at me. I'm like...WTH?? Didn't we just celebrate the 4th of July?
I bought a 16-foot Grim Reaper at Lowe's the other day.
Strangely enough, when I saw this amazingly tall and oversized blow-up Halloween lawn decoration, it made me smile. In fact, I couldn't stop smiling when I saw it. I still can't stop smiling about it. :-)
You see, I'm a Halloween junkie. It's my favorite holiday and it's the only one I actually go "all out" with a variety of different blow up "things" in my lawn with the precise intent on showing up my neighbors. Yet by the time Christmas rolls around, my yard pretty much has nothing to celebrate the overrated retail-money-suck-driven holiday. Even a Charlie Brown Christmas tree much more than what I do for Christmas.
But Halloween is different.
It's a day where you can do something different...be somebody different. There's a magical element to that to me, for some reason.
So, there I was at Lowe's, smiling my ass off at a grim reaper that is about as tall as my house, and thinking how freakin' awesome it'll be in my yard since I live at the end of a cul-de-sac. I stuffed 1 of the last 2 boxed grim reapers they had in stock into my cart while thinking..."Isn't life awesome?!"
Lately the seemingly dumbest things have been making me happy. And I'm not sure why I was so ecstatic about this grim reaper. Is it because he's so unusually large in size and I've never seen any holiday yard blow-up thing so cool? Or is it because I can spend $200 on something so stupid and not think twice about it? Or because my neighbors will gasp in shock and awe at how awesome it is? (Nah, I really don't care about them but I do care about the kids gasping and being in awe! Halloween is for the kids, after all.)
I figured out the real reason why a dumb holiday yard blow-up grim reaper makes me happy.
Because I'm not miserable about anything else.
Yes, that's right. You read that correctly.
Most people are running around feeling stressed about money, or their job, or their future, or making a mortgage payment, or a variety of different things revolving around "survival" and "trying to make it." They'd be too stressed out to enjoy something as goofy as an overpriced, oversized lawn decoration.
I've been extremely lucky that I've been able to figure out business and investing early on. I've been pretty good at bringing in a consistent cash flow into my life from real estate investments, business activity, and even residual income from things I've written.
I had a conversation with a student of mine a short while back. He has 2 Master's degrees in business, he just turned 50 years old, and his six-figure-annual job just gave him his walking papers because they believe they can hire 2 college kids for a fraction of what they pay him, mold them to their liking, and have another set of slaves for at least 2 1/2 decades when they know they can't get that amount of time out of a 50-year-old.
Now he doesn't know what to do.
This is exactly what I've been talking about when it comes to the "New Economy," folks! Things just ain't what they used to be anymore.
But guess what?
If you can -- even for a few minutes -- stop thinking like a Paycheck Charlie and start thinking about an entrepreneur, you'll very easily see how this New Economy can work in your favor.
You now can easily make a six-figure-annual income...working 20 hours a week or less and never having to leave your house.
You now can easily take advantage of some incredible loan programs for commercial property allowing you to be a real estate cash flow millionaire by solely using other people's money.
It's all in what you know.
A Paycheck Charlie only knows how to put together a resume and how to start applying for jobs. He or she also knows how to do reasonably well in an interview, how to get a job, and how to take orders from someone else for 40 hours a week. He or she knows how to trade hours for dollars.
And that's hard work in my opinion.
Recently I had to do some interviewing myself. I was replacing 2 employees in my warehouse. The job pays $11 an hour.
And I had dozens of people with degrees applying for the job.
What??
What the hell is going on here??
It seems that once someone adopts the Paycheck Charlie mentality -- no matter what economic changes occur -- they can't break free of that limited type of thinking.
It's not a matter of deciding to change your thinking process because it might be good for you.
It's a matter of being required to change your thinking process because you don't have a choice anymore.
While people are demanding minimum wage to be raised to $15 an hour, little do the small-minded thinkers realize is that there are shiploads of robots coming in from China as we speak to start replacing these minimum wage workers.
After all, if you owned a McDonald's, what would you rather have:
An employee who not only demands $15 an hour in minimum wage (for very limited skills, mind you, such as mopping the floor and flipping burgers...brainless skill-less activities) but calls in sick, steals, files a Worker's Comp claim for slipping in the back, steals, punches another employee out in the parking lot (and now the other employee is suing you), files a discrimination lawsuit against you, and then slacks off on the job to the point where you have to terminate him...now he's collecting unemployment that you have to pay for!
Or...
"Hire" a robot imported from China which costs you $5,000 plus maintenance including upgrades on software...and that's it.
No salary, no lawsuits, no insurance, no days off, no calling in sick, no hurting other employees, no stealing, no drama...nothing.
It's coming, folks! If you think I'm joking, just wait around for another couple of years and watch those minimum wage jobs evaporate left and right.
Now, you have another choice...and no, it's not going back to college to get a useless degree to become "educated" so you don't have to sink to the point where you need a minimum wage job. (Because, after all, I just demonstrated that those jobs are going to be disappearing very soon.)
You have to become "educated" in another fashion.
This is why I love America. I recognize the never-ending opportunities everyone has here at their fingertips...including you. Especially you. Because you're already here!
And if you're reading this, you probably read and speak English well.
Simple elements needed to be highly successful in our New Economy.
I was watching a Secret Millionaire episode recently where I was comparing the difference between the millionaire and the guy who was barely able to make end's meet.
And, as far as I could tell, there was no difference except for one thing:
The millionaire "knew" something about how to navigate through commerce and the other sap had a Paycheck Charlie mentality.
But that was the only difference!
What did the millionaire know? Did he have some wiz-bang degree from a college?
Nope! In fact, he was a high school drop-out.
He knew how to develop a product that would sell and he also did well in investing.
Oh, one more thing: he wasn't afraid to take risks and start a business.
That's sort of important.
Our economy isn't going back to where it was so now you're faced with a question that you have to answer:
How are you going to start cashing in on the New Economy in order to not only survive but thrive these major economic changes? Are you going to invest or are you going to start a super successful Aggressive Income business? Or both?
The only thing my mother ever taught me about anything "financial" in my entire lifetime was about credit. She always told me to take good care of my credit because our entire world revolved around having an excellent credit history.
She cautioned me about using credit wisely, about not getting into debt, and about "constructive debt" vs. "destructive debt" long before Robert Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad, Poor Dad came into the picture.
And that's all she taught me about economics. Period.
Turns out, it was one of the most important lessons a young chick like myself could have possibly learned because I'm only now just figuring out how extremely important all this "credit business" really is.
And the more fractured and delicate our economy has become over the past several years, the more cautious banks had to become. The more cautious, the better your credit has to be in order to tap into the financial resources (i.e. loans, credit cards, etc.) that they have to offer.
None of us really could have predicted what happened with our economy. The only thing any of us really could have known was the regular "ups and downs" economic conditions tend to wave through as the years roll on.
Now it takes really good credit to get to where you want to go...and that includes anywhere.
Let me give you an example:
Right now I'm in Las Vegas at a trade show for my other business. There are hundreds of exhibitors, all of whom cater to retail stores and wholesalers. This means that anyone with a business is considered a prospective buyer to these exhibitors.
But here's the deal...
The buyers qualify for "show deals" on placing orders directly with these exhibitors during this 4-day trade show.
However...
There are what they call "purchase minimums." This means that you're not going to walk up to a booth and realistically get one of anything. In many cases, you won't be getting a handful of anything either. You're looking at purchasing in volume.
We just closed out the first day of this 4-day show. I, of course, had to walk the show to see the hundreds of exhibitors and what they had to offer in a variety of different categories.
And all I could see is dollar signs.
Why?
Because most of the items that are being sold at this trade show are not only being offered at incredible wholesale prices but the "show only" deals that are being offered for orders placed here at the trade show are...absolutely mind-blowing!
The money that can be made by simply buying products and selling them to the general public is nothing short of amazing. Even if you had an eBay store, you'd make a killing.
But if you don't have the money to be buying these required volumes to get these "show only" deals, you're screwed.
Unless you have the credit, of course.
I started thinking about the new credit cards I just got for my newest company within the past couple of months, adding up to tens of thousands of dollars that I could simply use at any of these booths to essentially "flip" product and make a fortune.
And guess what, folks?
I may actually just do that.
After all, many of you who know me already know that I like doing different things just to change stuff up a bit (since I'm easily bored).
Plus...
Since I have my seminar coming up next month in Los Angeles for my Underground Secret Event talking about the most Aggressive Income Strategies (on Speed and Steroids), within the past couple of months I've been creating this special "case study" that will be presented at the event to show you how you can build a $20,000-per-month home-based business literally starting from nothing.
And I can just add to that special case study I'm doing by buying some stuff at this trade show, "flipping" it online, and taking in some huge profits by using other people's money.
Yes, that's right.
By using the bank's money with the new business credit cards I just got!
There's nothing worse than building business credit and using it for anything but business and investing related endeavors. In fact, using business credit for personal reasons should and probably is considered a crime on certain levels. As it should be.
There's only one reason to get business credit: to use the money to make money.
And the last time I checked, a big screen tv or a new Mercedes doesn't make money.
As long as you are responsible and understand the importance of why you are fixing/rebuilding your personal credit while building business credit then you're responsible enough to do the right thing with all the money you're going to have access to.
And that is to use that borrowed money to make money.
If you don't understand that basic concept then don't even bother trying to get personal or business credit otherwise you'll be irresponsible with this newfound secret strategy.
You need to now choose how you'll position yourself for 2014. You can choose to be broke and feeling sorry for yourself for missing the boat. Or you can choose to seize these opportunities by positioning yourself slightly ahead of the curve so you can cash in big when the next year rolls around.
As I always tell you, the choice is always yours.
Again, you can choose to take advantage by both learning what I have to show you but by also (most importantly) applying the strategies I give you.
Or not.
You choose. The nice part about life is that you always get to choose your own fate. You just might be realizing for the first time ever that you actually do get a choice in the matter. You always have.
Some of my students who are part of my business credit building teachings like to put the cart before the horse, usually even before they get or read my course materials.
I got an email today from one such student who asked about opening up several BLOCs (business lines of credit) at the same time. After all, he wanted to open up as many as he possibly can in the shortest amount of time. (Who doesn't?)
First of all, business credit access doesn't work like this.
How does it work?
Glad you asked!
In order to gain access to lines of credit from $50,000 and up (preferably a lot more than that), you have to start establishing yourself with a bank. Preferably a large bank.
You can't realistically walk into any bank in town and say, "Hey, I have a DNB profile with a 90 Paydex so...where's my $200,000?"
As you can probably guess, that's not how it works. Not by a long shot.
When getting unsecured BLOCs, you have to understand that the bank has to "get to know you" on a financial level.
And this starts with an unsecured business credit card.
Now, here's the trick and something I've learned the hard way:
You can't have your business bank accounts at this bank where you want to establish a relationship (to get a BLOC eventually) unless you do a sizeable volume of business (i.e. have a huge business cash flow). If you just open a business bank account with $100 in it, never have any volume or business transactions, and expect that they won't consider this inactive account in their credit decision on a BLOC, you have another thing coming.
So...
You have your business account somewhere else.
Here's a scenario for you:
1) Open up a business bank account at Chase.
2) Get an unsecured business credit card at Wells Fargo. (Wells Fargo is the only bank that offers secured business credit cards now too; in the event that you have poor personal credit, you can start with a secured business credit card now.)
3) Get a second unsecured business credit card at Bank of America. (May as well establish credit with 2 banks at the same time, right?)
4) When basing credit decisions (even down to getting your unsecured business credit cards), these decisions won't be based on what's in your bank account or what type of business volume you do since they don't have access to that information.
5) Once you establish a payment history with your business credit cards, you can now start the process of getting a very low BLOC...like $5,000 to $10,000.
Now, in case you don't understand what a BLOC is...it's a line of credit. And it's revolving, much like how a credit card works. You gain access to a certain amount of money that the bank allows you access to. Say it's $10,000. You can draw out $5,000. This means you still have access to $5,000 that's left. Say you make a payment of $2,500. This means now you have access to $7,500. Say you pay all $5,000. You now have access to all $10,000 again.
Eventually, after showing that you can take money, pay it back, take it again, pay it back...you can now ask for the bank to increase your BLOC.
So, this goes against my students' common misunderstanding that a BLOC is a loan. A loan is an open and closed deal. You get a certain amount. You get the whole amount, usually in the form of a check that is deposited into your account. You make payments on the loan. Once the loan is paid off, the loan closes. It's not revolving in any way.
A BLOC is not like this at all. The account stays open...forever (or until you die, close it, or screw the bank over, which I hope isn't an option for you).
So, when a student is asking me how he can open up as many BLOCs as possible, my question is..."Why?"
You need to establish a solid relationship with a bank, first starting with a business credit card then a small BLOC. Once you get this relationship going, they'll keep increasing the size of this one BLOC. No need to have 20 BLOCs when you can keep increasing and stretching the one you got!
Then, hopefully if you paid attention, you will have started establishing a business credit card at a second large bank and this is when you can also get a small BLOC with them for the purposes of establishing credit.
Now, when I say "for the purposes of establishing credit," I mean you're not using this money to buy anything. You're taking the money out, parking it into a savings or checking account, then using the same money to pay back the bank.
Get it?
Within a short time, you'll notice that you'll have a BLOC (or two) that are collectively worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars that you can use for investing, starting a business, etc.
As you know, to compete in real estate investing right now, you are going to be going up against seasoned investors that have money down. This is the way it's going to be from now until about 2020. So, if you don't have the cash to compete, establishing solid business credit is your last chance aside from robbing a bank, hitting up rich Aunt Sally, or winning the lottery. (You could get an investor partner.)
Some of you have actually been emailing me, wondering when I'm going to spill the beans on how to access the hundreds of thousands of dollars in business credit cards that you'll be getting.
After all, getting unsecured business credit cards are actually the easiest thing to get when it comes to business credit provided that you put the time, effort, and appropriate energy into fixing/rebuilding your personal credit to get yourself over that 680-FICO score threshold.
Now, since getting unsecured business credit cards is quite easy to do and it's much easier than you think to get several of these cards that are collectively worth $100,000 within a very short period of time, you're probably wondering how to use this credit as a down payment on a property, for instance.
Many of my students have asked me..."Can I just give escrow my credit card for the down payment?"
Um...no. You can't.
What you can do is this:
1) If you plan on having and operating a functioning business (say a distribution business, for example) then you'll get something called a "merchant account." This merchant account will allow you to be able to charge credit cards which can include your own. (There is a restriction against this in the merchant agreement about running your own credit cards but that's a risk you'll have to take.) It's recommended that you have a different business set up than the company that you are establishing business credit under in order to successfully pull this off without a hitch.
2) You can "pay yourself" through PayPal. For example, if your spouse has a PayPal account and you (or your company that has the business credit established, which is preferred) have a PayPal account, you can have your spouse do a "money request" or send a PayPal invoice for services for whatever amount (cash) you want to take off your business credit card. You can easily get the money off your cards this way. It's recommended that your spouse have a PayPal account set up under a different business name than the one you have business credit under, particularly with a different tax ID number. You don't have to have a corporation to go to the IRS.gov website to get a tax ID number for a "sole proprietor" business. (For example, your spouse could "start" a company called Terry's Flowers and go to the IRS.gov website to get a tax ID for this company using his/her personal social security number to secure this tax ID number. This tax ID can then be used on the PayPal account where the money request is coming from, thus "shielding" your spouse (who probably has your same last name) in the transaction as being someone who is related to you; this makes it look like there is no relation between you and the establishment who requested the money for services from you.
3) Cash advances are limited but are also available for some of your business credit cards. You can "max out" on the cash advance limit for each of your credit cards.
Since getting $100,000 in unsecured business credit with multiple business credit cards is quite easy to do within just a few months' time, you can easily extract $30,000 or more of that money without anyone (mainly your credit card companies) really being any the wiser to what you're doing. And getting a whopping $30,000 is a decent amount of cash if you're buying a "quad" or if you need that 10% down on a commercial SBA loan.
Also, when paying for due diligence (property inspections, appraisals, etc.), you can use these business credit cards to directly pay for these services in many cases as well.
When you borrow this business credit, make sure you have the means of paying it back. If this money is going toward a cash flow property, make sure you understand the interest rates on the down payment money you are borrowing off these credit cards to make sure the property still cash flows. Also, make sure you take more cash off the cards than what you need for the down payment so that you can wait the first 45 to 60 days to start seeing the first of your cash flow after closing without being strapped for the money to pay your credit cards.
The other day I promised to lay out the exact steps you need to do to get the type of business credit I was able to line up recently with my relatively new company. In order to do this, though, it's only fair that I break it down into 2 parts since getting this type of credit requires seemingly "separate" things in place.
Now, before I tell you exactly how this is done, I need to first make it clear why business credit is where it's at. Building personal credit alone won't get you to those unsecured six-figures (and one day seven figures) as I indicated in my last email when I was showing you the difference between my 2 Bank of American unsecured credit cards that I got in the same month: my personal card yielded me a pitiful $5,000 unsecured credit card while my new business's unsecured credit card is $30,000! Big difference!
Why the difference?
Think about it from the bank's perspective.
If you were Bank of America and you were analyzing a personal vs. business credit application, the first think you'd wonder is...what's someone getting a personal credit card going to do with it? Then, what's someone getting a business credit card going to do with it?
When someone wracks up debt on a personal credit card, they quickly get into financial trouble. It many cases, it can become the financial "death" of them within a very short period of time. And it almost doesn't matter how good their personal credit is now. A small (and even temporary) financial off-balance (i.e. loss of job, high medical bills, etc.) can sometimes lead to getting into a lot of debt...and fast.
In business, "debt" isn't only accepted...it's expected! Many businesses use credit to balance cash flow against giving clients and customers extended credit terms (like net 30, 60, or 90 accounts). And business owners need a means of balancing their incoming cash flow which is where credit comes in.
This may seem obvious but one thing you probably didn't know is this: while banks drew back on giving out personal credit ever since our recent banking collapse, they've been virtually forced by the government to keep offering up credit to businesses.
Why is this?
The only difference between the Great Depression in the 1930s and our complete economic demise by 2008 is one thing...and one thing only: credit to businesses.
That's right.
The reason so many businesses folded in the 1930s to the point where they had to close show (thus offering no employment to people which makes the economy go around) is that banks completely stopped giving out any type of credit to business owners.
When businesses can't stay open for business, they shut down. When people are out of work, they don't get a paycheck. Without a paycheck, they stop buying. Then the economy shuts down.
The government didn't want that to happen...again.
Now, I don't know exactly how it went down but I imagine it played out something like this. Imagine the bank is a lower-echelon thug and the bank is a gangster named Bruno, dwarfing the thug in size.
Bruno to thug: "Come here!"
Bruno drags thug forcefully by his ear into a dark alley, probably around 1am.
Bruno: "Now, I just want to make sure we have an understanding here. We don't want a replay of the Depression so, no matter what, we're going to keep lending money to businesses to keep the economy from collapsing completely."
Thug: "Or else what?"
Bruno: "Or else I'll make your life very miserable."
Thug: "And how's that?"
Bruno: "You don't wanna know. So...do we have an understanding?"
All the while, during the conversation, Bruno was punching his hand the whole time to drive the point home.
And that's how I envision that it went down. Take it or leave it, that's a symbol of how it pretty much went because nobody can quite pinpoint what the threat would have been but suddenly, around 2010, banks not only started offering business credit but they were raining it down on businesses whether they needed it, wanted it, or not!
Of course, there was a single criterion to giving out this money to businesses. Based on the major reason we had the credit collapse to begin with (which was non-qualified individuals getting loans on houses they couldn't afford in the first place), the banks had to be careful with lending out business credit.
And no, it had nothing to do with having business gross receipts (i.e. "business activity"), businesses that were "well seasoned," or businesses with a lot of built up business credit.
And it definitely had very little to do with whether the business had a Dun & Bradstreet profile with built business credit either. (Surprised??)
Unlike the "old days"(just a few years ago), personal and business credit now go hand in hand. You have to boost your personal FICO to about 720 or above ("mid" score) in order to fully qualify for endless amounts of business credit.
Yet surprisingly, this is fairly easy to do!
So, I'll quickly lay out the very simple steps of bolstering your personal credit before delving into the business credit part.
1) Pull your "tri-merge" credit report. I recommend using Experian.com and paying the $39.95 to pull all 3 reports which will include the FICO for each. (Don't fall for the $1 bait-and-switch deal because they'll bill your credit card forever for some monthly monitoring service that you don't need.)
2) Dispute everything that's negative. This includes "hard" inquiries. In this step, you'll also fix personal information including phone numbers and addresses to make sure your account is current.
3) Start rebuilding personal credit at the same time by getting yourself a car loan or lease (if you don't have one) and getting 2 credit cards: these can be secured or unsecured depending on what you qualify for in the present state of your credit. Use the credit cards and never exceed 45% of the total credit line in charging activity. Pay your car payment each month on time. This process will automatically build credit for you while you're chiseling away at the negative things on your credit reports.
4) Keep disputing and disputing and disputing while using other critical strategies to get these negative things removed off your credit reports. The more consistent you are with the process (by disputing every 35 - 40 days), you'll have Triple A credit within a few short months...especially while rebuilding at the precise same time. (That's the key!)
In the meantime, you can start the process of building your business credit at the same time. This also can be done in just a few months.
Here are the steps:
1) Get yourself a corporation. Yes, it helps somewhat that you have some "seasoning" which means the age of the corporation. Two years seems to be the "magic number." So, if you already have a corporation that's 2 years or older, you're ahead of the game. If you don't, that's okay. You can consider getting a "shelf" corporation that's already seasoned 2 years for you or you can start from scratch (incorporating right now) if you have a long way to go with your personal credit (i.e. just filed for personal bankruptcy). By the way, your corporation needs to be in your home state and not in Nevada (unless you live there or you are foreign to the U.S.).
2) Once have your corporate resolution documents (after incorporating), get an EIN (employer identification number) with is equivalent to the "social security number" of your corporation. You can get this number at the IRS.gov website.
3) Open a business bank account with a large bank like Wells Fargo or US Bank. You need your EIN in order to do this.
4) Get your first business credit card. If you're still working on your credit, go to Wells Fargo and get a secured business credit card. They are the only bank that offers this program right now. Otherwise, get something like a Chase Ink credit card or other business credit card that's unsecured if you have at least a 680 mid FICO score.
5) Use the hell out of that single business credit card. Use it, pay it off, use it, pay it off. Keep doing this. All activity will be reported to Experian Business using the company's EIN. Use this card for 6 months and wait until you get a business credit card offer in the mail. (Always fill in the application and mail it in. Never apply online. It's weird but when a human being has to type in your application information, it usually gets approved. When you apply online, a computer makes the decision on your credit worthiness...and they are pretty hard to surpass because one minor "glitch" on your credit report can throw you into a "decline" as far as the computer is concerned.)
Within a year, you'll have tons of unsecured business credit cards, adding up to at least $100,000. By having (and using then paying off) these credit cards, you'll qualify for all kinds of unsecured business loans.
Now, I have one secret for you that a lot of my students have been asking me about for years and it goes somewhat as follows:
"So, if I have $100,000 in business credit cards, how can I tap into that money to use the cash as a down payment since most credit cards don't allow for huge cash advances?"
And I have a secret. And no, you won't show up at a closing with a MasterCard telling the escrow officer to "put it on this card." (It doesn't work that way.)
In the next entry, I'll tell you exactly how to tap into that credit card cash. (I think it'll surprise you.)
The other day I sent you an email about my recent Bank of America experience with a personal vs. business credit card.
And I think I proved that you'll always get more -- much more -- when it comes to business credit, even if you have a fairly new business.
Here's an example of the power of taking a conscious effort in building business credit for your company:
Because of all the promotional materials, ad space, trade show booths, equipment, raw materials, and printing I have to do for my newest company (which is only 2 years old), I've been using my business credit cards a lot.
On the other hand, Global Success is over 5 years old but I've used my business credit for that particular business minimally due to wanting to stay as solvent as possible.
Britney at US Bank talked me into a business credit card for my newer company and for Global Success. Since I was doing other banking business there I said, "Sure, why the hell not?"
Both companies were instantly approved for business credit cards except...Global Success got approved for much less! What?!
Let me reiterate: The older company with more "seasoning" that has made millions every year (as per our annual tax returns) is approved for...less? Much, muchless?? WTH??
Then I put 2 & 2 together in almost an instant.
Because I've been consciously building credit for the new company (because I know what the hell I'm doing due to plenty of practice), the new company has kick-ass credit while the other one never had the need for credit and therefore didn't build it up well enough.
The newer company is only 2 years old. Two years and 3 months, to be exact. There is only one good tax return (for 2012) that actually showed that the company did decent (but still not as well as Global Success). The year before was at a lossdue to its first year being in business.
I didn't start actively building business credit for this new company until I got anAmerican Express card for it last summer. Then I got a 2nd American Express card for the company about 6 months later.
I used those credit cards to death and all of the activity was immediately reported to my Experian Business credit report (through the company's EIN).
Last month I applied for a Chase Ink business credit card for the new business. It was instantly approved for an unsecured credit line of $18,000. (In the meantime, I can't get approved for a personal unsecured credit card for over $5,000 if my life depended on it!)
And I just mentioned that Bank of America just approved the company for an unsecured credit card with a credit line of $30,000.
Meanwhile, Britney at US Bank is shoving a $250,000 unsecured loan down my throat that I really don't need but I think I'm going to take it today. I can use the money to build up more credit simply by borrowing it and then paying it off within 6 months...or less, and never really using the money at all for anything.
Between this new loan and a small handful of business credit cards, I'm at $313,000 of unsecured credit not including the one American Express that has no pre-set spending limit.
And I pulled this off in less than a year without busting my ass or anything like that. All I did was get a couple of business credit cards, use the hell out of them, and...that's basically it! That's all I did!!
Okay, so there are a few other steps that I didn't quite mention. But it's all simple stuff that you have to work on regularly and religiously.
In the next entry, I'm going to break it down to you so you know exactly what you need to do to gain access to this type of credit and then, after that, I'll tell you how to access the credit for things like down payments on apartment buildings. (My strategy for accessing this credit, especially unsecured credit cards, will probably surprise you.)
