Optimism shows investors that a company is confident about the market opportunity, its ability to execute on the opportunity, etc. Over-optimism, however, leads investors to believe that the management team does not fully understand the opportunity or the tough road ahead. As such, business plans must be sure to limit over-optimism and show investors they are realistic and credible.

Realism, the opposite of over-optimism, should be used in business plans to portray sobriety and credibility to investors. Realism should manifest itself in management team bios that tell the actual accomplishments of managers, rather than fluff. It should manifest itself in credible market forecasts and sober assumptions of the company’s growth.

Many popular authors of financial self help books explain in great detail that after 20 to 30 years this 10% savings can likely help you retire from your day job. In fact, you probably know of such people that live in your neighborhood that have paid themselves first in this manner and over the years amassed considerable wealth.

If you are able to sit down today and adjust your living expenses so that you can live on 90% of your income to start saving 10% you are fortunate indeed. Especially if you happen to live in an urban area where the cost of living is continually increasing. Additionally, if you, as many people do, already give regularly to a local church or charity 10% of your present income that will only leave you with 80% to budget.

Most people think such a savings strategy to be extremely difficult if not impossible to follow. However if you read more closely to the advice given by popular authors, they are trying to tell you that you should use some of the 10% you are saving to improve your skills so you can earn more. Their message is to continually improve your earning ability in order to increase the amount you can earn.

Nobody expects NEVER to get a raise or earn more money. They may not believe that this could happen any time soon at their current job but certainly they realize that their life’s ambitions are not limited by their current situation. Unfortunately when they sit down and attempt to map out a financial strategy to get ahead they usually forget a basic fundamental economic principle. Learning new skills always means the ability to earn higher wages.

Even in something as simple as weaving carpets there are lousy cheap polyester carpets and very expensive Persian wool rugs. Some created by lousy carpet weavers at minimum wage. Other’s created by expert carpet weavers that have studied their craft and honed their skills in modern factories.

Most people think earning more money means that they have to have a second and third and maybe even fourth job. How depressing! What they really need is an opportunity to earn more income and then have the income grow exponentially. In financial terms this type of income is usually called residual income.

When you go to an investment advisor they always like to explain that if put X dollars in an investment and reinvest the interest then it will begin to grow exponentially. If you practice this type of investment strategy it can lead to a very large sum after 20 years. Especially if over those years you contribute monthly a small amount to cause the principle to grow.

Network Marketing is a business opportunity that can lead to exponential income growth or residual income. You begin by starting a part time home based business usually called an independent distributorship that earns income by recommending the products to others and earning commission income on those referrals.

The key to exponential growth in Network Marketing that is important to understand is simply this: You always introduce the business opportunity to others when they buy the products because you are expecting to find some people who will also be interested in the business opportunity. Those people you train to do the same as you are doing. Recommend and introduce.

By sponsoring new distributors and teaching them to do the same a downline is created. Network Marketing companies like Tahitian Noni International pay 53% of retail cost of the products back to the distributors. This 53% is divided up amongst the distributors who had a part on recommending the products up to 8 levels deep in the downline. Like the interest investment, the goal is simply to continue recommending the products to others and training those whom you sponsor as new distributors to do the same. This activity ensures that you will experience exponential growth in your organization.

Over time this simple duplicatable activity will lead to a very large group of people who are doing the same work of recommending the products every day in your organization. Overtime this also can lead to very large commission cheques because of the exponential growth.

By investing in yourself a small portion of the 10% savings to learn the art of network marketing you will have a new skill. This new skill will allow you to over a few short years to establish a business owned by yourself that’s income is only limited by the number of people you introduce the business to as well as train them to do the same.

Since there are considerable tax advantages to owning a home based business you should also consult a tax consultant for information for your province or state. Usually the tax savings amount to over 10% of your income so if you’re careful you can create a business that breaks even in the first month.

The Network Marketing Company we are using Tahitian Noni International, http://www.tni.com/1522283, provides a training program called Success Path. You can read about it on our web site http://www.nonijuiceint.com. We also provide training for our downline organization so that they can fine tune their sponsoring skills. You can read more about our opportunity at http://www.nonijuiceint.com/ebook

The mystique of the partnership is evaporating, and it could change the character and composition of the Big Four fundamentally. Yes, Mr. Dylan, the times, they are a-changin’. Anecdotally, more and more senior managers talk quietly – never publicly – about what their next moves would be. Those illicit conversations occurred in hushed tones away from the office – often emerging from frank advice offered to more junior staff members.

But, where do you go?

Many senior managers are considering VP and C-level positions instead of shooting for the partnership. Citing lifestyle desires (i.e. getting off the road), earning potential, and less politically charged environments, even top-performing senior managers are exploring careers outside the Big Four.

Aside from these internal pressures, up-and-comers clearly have concerns about the resilience – and costs – of the partnership structure. Once upon a time, the partnership buy-in was considered a pristine investment opportunity. The past few years, though, have called this perception into question.

It all started with Enron.

Many of the consultants and accountants in our community are still in pain from the collapse of Andersen – especially the ex-Andersen folks who have sought refuge at the remaining Big Four. Professionals who worked at Andersen, especially former partners, are acutely aware of the risks inherent in buying into the partnership. New partners, with fewer than five years as members of Andersen, were brutalized financially. Their buy-in loans were collateralized with their partnership units. The collapse of Andersen led to a negative equity situation for them; partners owed hundreds of thousands of dollars and could not divest their units to repay the loans.

A similar fear rippled through KPMG, recently. Under investigation for selling abusive tax shelters, KPMG settled with the Justice Department. The settlement included a fine of $456 million. While KPMG avoided the fate of Andersen, the resulting fine equates to around $300 thousand for each of KPMG’s 1,600 partners.

The declining interest in firm membership is supported by potential changes in firm organization. Accenture and BearingPoint have forsaken the partnership model, and both now trade on public markets. Doubts as to the protections of the limited liability partnership model are causing the Big Four to consider incorporation – instead of partnership.

Once recognized as an elite club in the accounting and consulting industries, the major partnerships are losing their mystique. The firms themselves continue to provide the best services available on the market, but the firms themselves are undergoing a fundamental shift. Every associate used to hope to grow up to become a partner. Senior managers could taste it – and would think of nothing else.

I have enough money; shouldn’t I buy my real estate investment for cash? No, I absolutely advice against investing large sums of cash into a single real estate investment. There are two reasons why not. First, you give away most of your profits by not leveraging your real estate investment. Second, it is far too risky to put every egg into one basket.

Let me explain the leverage issue for a moment. I will give you an example of a $100,000 investment property that typically increases its value (appreciates) by 7% average a year. Maybe more, maybe less depending where you live. Paying all cash for this property will yield in a 7% appreciation profit plus the net profit from renting the place. Now you’re looking at roughly 15% of returns.

If you’re conservative with your investments you might be satisfied with this kind of a return. These days you might get equal or better returns with other conservative investments minus the hassle of being a landlord. But you don’t mind being a landlord, because you understand and utilize the leveraging method with financing your real estate investment.

With the example above you will make roughly $15,000 a year in profits from your investment. Now let’s take a closer look at what leveraging can do for you. Today a typical real estate investor can get financing as high as 95% - 97% of the purchase price. Occasionally 100% financing is available as well. But this would be totally unfair in this example to compare this with all cash purchasing.

15% return sounds like a lot, but wait till you see this. Let’s assume that the rental income will cover all your expenses including the mortgage payments. Taking the same example from before your net return would be the 7% appreciation profits of your property. This would translate into a $7,000 a year profit. With a 95% financing in place you would get $7,000 return on $5,000 (your 5% down payment) invested. This is a whopping 140%
return on investment.

With the same $100,000 you can go out there and get 20 investment properties, finance 95% of it and make an amazing $140,000 profit a year. This beats the projected $15,000 profits with an all cash transaction any day.

Of course you will have a lot of trouble to get financing for 20 properties in a single year. Typically 5-6 new rental property mortgages are the maximum lenders will allow these days. This is the signal to get creative with your financing structures.

In this case sellers financing would be your key to achieve your goal of maximum leverage of your investment dollars. Despite the message from all these late night infomercials, seller financing is harder to get than they want you to make believe it is.

It all depends on the seller’s ability to offer seller financing and the seller’s motivation. Only about 1 out of 20 properties for sale are able to get seller financing. That means that there’s no mortgage balance on the property. From this narrow selection the seller must be motivated to sell under these conditions. This could be tax reasons, time constraints, personal reasons and many more.

As you can see this translates into a lot of work to achieve your goals. But let me tell you one thing. This separates the tire kicker real estate investors from the real go-getters. Wouldn’t you agree that a little bit of hard work and determination is well worth it to build a real estate empire?

Each of these business models has their own advantages and disadvantages.

· Corporation. Most investment clubs will avoid becoming a corporation. This is because corporations are taxable business entities that require knowledgeable accounting skills to make them run smoothly and in accord with government regulations. A corporation generally means a lot of paperwork. This paperwork can be avoided by choosing another business model for your purpose of running an investment club.

· General partnership. This type of business model requires less paperwork and knowledge about taxes and other financial issues. Most investment clubs choose a general partnership as their choice of a business entity. A general partnership has nominal paperwork and costs associated with it because the taxes are passed to each partner’s tax returns. This type of business model will let you accomplish what you need to do to run your investment club with the least amount of tax influence.

· Limited liability corporations. This type of a business model is much like the general partnership but it gives individual members of your investment group a bit more liability protection. Keep in mind that this type of business entity can be expensive and will need more paperwork.

Members of your investment group will have to decide which of the above business models works best for your club.