Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is probably one of the most influential books ever written on entrepreneurship. One thing I liked about this book is the author’s ability to clearly show readers how to evolve from being an ordinary thinker to being a master thinker. I have read this book more than ten times since I came across it. Every time I read it my mind is refreshed and energized.

If you study all wealthy people you know of, there are some stark similarities in their behavior which makes them a unique group of people. In my pursuit to become a successful entrepreneur, I study and follow a couple of wealthy entrepreneurs who are my role models. As a passionate real estate investor, I have been following the unprecedented rise of Donald Trump founder of the Trump Organization in the US. Donald’s story is a remarkable; it’s pretty similar to that of Steve Job the Apple CEO. Donald’s fortunes plummeted to zero when the real estate market experienced a downturn. He was publicly declared bankrupt in the 90s.

Despite this set back Donald did not sit back and mourn over his predicaments. He worked hard to resurrect from the depths of oblivion. By late 90s, Donald’s financial fortunes improved greatly due to his business acumen, focus and diligence.

The Trump Organization operates a property portfolio worth billions of dollars worldwide. Donald Trump’s empire is synonymous with exquisite and signature properties across the US, Europe and Asia. Donald is a shrewd businessman and excellent negotiator, who has managed to seal very attractive deals. I have read many books authored by this gentleman. I am looking forward to reading his latest book ‘The America we deserve’.

I will share with you some lessons I have learnt from studying this remarkable gentleman, which I hope will be very useful for you irrespective of the nature of your business. The law of entrepreneurship cuts across all spectrums.

Always define your business’s core values

Donald has mastered the art of defining the core values of his brand and leveraging his brand equity to appeal to a wide customer base. This has made his brand connect with his target customers.

Model a brand around your lifestyle

Donald has been so successful in large part because he has managed to build a lifestyle brand around the luxurious and successful life that he lives and most people aspire to. He works hard to cultivate the image, and he uses it to expand into new business lines and find new areas to venture into. From his real estate developments to his casinos and books, his new ventures are selected to dovetail with his core image.

Have a distinct line of business

The Trump name is synonymous with exquisite real estate developments. Donald Trump has done an excellent job promoting the idea that he owns properties around the world.

Form strategic partnerships

Most of the buildings bearing the Trump brand overseas are not wholly owned by Donald Trump. After going experiencing bankruptcy and the ups and downs of the real estate market, Donald learned to spread his risk by forming strategic alliances with other investors. He puts his name and his image to work while keeping his costs and exposure low. For example properties like Trump World, in Seoul, have licensed his name but aren’t owned by him. He gets a fee for lending out his name, makes sure there’s quality control and gets great marketing out of having another big Trump-branded property in the marketplace.

Persistence

The real estate market is a volatile market, which is very unpredictable. Donald showed great persistence in his pursuit to excellence. Having lost everything, he managed a dramatic comeback. Donald has credited his success to patience and persistence over long periods of time to wait out market fluctuations. Persistence is very important a virtue for success in every endeavor.

Negotiation

Donald Trump is regarded as one of the best negotiators alive. He is known for his shrewd negotiating skills which have seen him landing juicy deals in the corporate world. Donald advises businessmen to always do it face-to-face. In this era of telephones, teleconference, and video conference, Donald suggests that if it’s an important negotiation, you should do it face-to-face, so that you can read the other person’s body language.

Middle men

Donald is not a fan of middle men who do not add value and who extract outsized returns. In one of his books, Donald tells the story of how he “goes around” a broker on a billion dollar deal where he was losing a negotiation and flew to Dubai to deal directly with the principal and struck a great deal.

In most cases businesses lose a lot of money to these middlemen, who do not add value to the business. I agree with Donald in by-passing the middleman and going it alone.

So here you go, I hope you learnt one or two things from the ‘Don’s business style. If you have not read any of Donald trump’s books click here: Amazon books

To your Success!!

Today I will focus on commercial real estate as this is my area of interest. I started my real estate investment in 2006, when I bought a piece of land in an industrial area in Norton. This land was serviced, but title deeds were not available then. It was local authority land; hence, I bought it through cessation. The money I used to buy the land was from savings I had put aside in order to buy a better car than the one I was driving then. So when the opportunity came knocking on my door, I had to quickly grab it. This was my first foray into real estate development and investment.

From my salary savings I managed to build five mini shops and one large shop on the land. I leased all the shops and income started flowing in every month. This was sweet income and I used the same to start saving for another piece of land in the same locality.

In 2008, I managed to buy a large piece of land which was three times bigger than my first property. Again, this was bought through salary savings and income from the first building. As I write this article, construction for 12 shops and three offices is now complete and awaiting final touches and official opening. Why I am saying all this? Is it to brag? Of course not. I am trying to clearly explain that it is possible to invest in real estate with minimal cash.

Self financing is so sweet because you will not have sleepless nights thinking about mortgage. You have the leeway to plan your investment portfolio without any hassles or pressure from financiers. You can choose deals that are in line with your resources. The trick in commercial real estate is in the art of the start. Again when some people hear the term ‘Commercial real estate’, they think of skyscraper buildings and other massive shopping malls and office blocks. This is far from the truth. As I have demonstrated above, you can easily start by buying land in commercial areas in High density suburbs, where the land is usually sold by local authorities hence, affordable prices.

Like any other investment vehicle, you need to read broadly in order to get enough knowledge about various real estate investment options available in the market. There are several websites that give very useful information on property investments. Invest in specialized knowledge; I can assure you it will yield a hundred-fold.

One thing you need to be mindful of is the processes involved in construction as a first time developer. A bit of knowledge on construction is vital. My own construction knowledge was from building my own house. When you are a first time property developer, you go through a cycle of mistakes. This entails over estimation and under estimation of building materials by builders. However, depending on funds you can hire a qualified quantity surveyor to give you rough estimates of all the materials that will be required to complete the building.

Watch out for my closing article on how best you can achieve success in real estate development.

To your success!!!!!

Real estate investing is a great way to generate wealth. For me it is a sure way of building your wealth steadily from scratch until you reach the level of Property investment gurus like Donald Trump. If you are a fan of this tycoon, you will see that he started very small without much capital to his name. You too can do the same if you follow the same strategies this great real estate mogul pursued.

Over the years I learnt that, the major reason most people are not interested in a real estate investing is because it requires a lot of money. The thought of the amount of money required in buying a residential home is scary and most of us are still paying for our home mortgage. This thought really gets people scared in venturing into this lucrative sector.

Real estate investment is very rewarding, however, it is not easy to do, as it requires, besides a lot of money, a solid and credible credit record. Despite this real estate investing success is possible in any economy on the planet. Many people think (wrongly) that you can only succeed in real estate investment when the economy is good.

In reality, struggling economies are the best for property investment. When an economy is poor, you are likely to get property at discounted prices. This is very true as most people holding property investments may want to dispose their investment to attend to other pressing matters.

Smart investors usually pour in money in an economy like this as they know when the economy starts picking up their investment will also steadily increase in value. Property investment is a capital intensive investment. However, there are several strategies one can use to enter this lucrative sector. You can be successful in real estate investing no matter how much money you have on your own.

Depending on the state of your country’s economy, there are many strategies you can employ to use other people’s money to buy property. If your credit rating is good and you have good recommendation from your business connections a private lender may let you use their money to invest in property at minimal interest rates.

I will critically look at various ways; you can enter this market with minimal investment in my next post. I will be sharing strategies that I have used to build my two mini shopping complexes with minimal investment on the ground.

To your Success!!!!