Ok, I have to narrow down my focus. Finding hard money loans and preparing packages takes up too much of my time. So I am going to give you my personal hard money funding techniques that get my deals funded time & time again. These tips will help your hard money lender make a decision allot easier. These tips have taken me years to develop and I am passing them on to help my fellow investors cut years off of the learning curve! There is so much business out there right now you want to take massive action and you would prefer not to have your deal get shot down because you didn’t package it correctly!
Hard Money Loan Package Summary
A. Know your ARV (After Repair Value). You MUST know your comps. If you think hard money lenders will do it for you think again. There’s too much business out there. What are homes selling for in the neighborhood today? If there aren’t at least six comparables of recent sales in the last 3 months (Forget about 6) then your deal probably will not be funded! I use several websites to find out this value.
www.hvasoftware.com This system will pull comparables from eppraisals.com, cyberhomes.com and zillow DO NOT assume the value it comes up with is correct. You then have to research each comp. make sure its within a half mile to a mile of the home and the comps are within the last 6 months!
www.trulia.com Type in the address then review the recently SOLD comparables
www.propertyshark.com This is a GREAT tool because you can give it specific parameters.
When reviewing your comparables, if there were many short sales and foreclosures in the area you will know because of the large difference in price. You may need to review property shark for each comparable and look at the title history. With this you can tell weather the last sale was a short sale or foreclosure.
B. I normally provide my lenders with a market analysis also. You can get this from www.cyberhomes.com
C. With the popularity of YouTube now besides pics of the home, to get hard money funded you should also provide at least a minute of YouTube video of the property and the neighborhood. I recommend owning a flip video. Just make sure you record the neighborhood, the outside and inside of the home. Be careful not to go too fast or too slow on your recording. Just the facts, slow enough for someone to see what you see. The eye is quicker than the camera so the camera takes another half a second to see what you see.
D. Last but not least create your executive summary. This should be no more than two pages and include a summary of the property. What you are looking for and a brief resume summary of your background. Because so many investors have walked away from projects they really don’t want to lend to a newbie. But if you are a newbie highlight experience that you have relating to the industry.
Last but not least…You want to gather your info then put it all in a neat little pkg. Within the first paragraph of your executive summary you need to get out what you are looking for, how much time it will take you to return their money and a little bit about yourself. Of course, you want to make sure they continue to read all of the details you have provided! I hope this helps!
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When a corporation or limited liability company is formed, the business owners enjoy limited liability protection, which means that the business owners are not typically held responsible for the debts of the company. This limited liability protection, however, is not guaranteed. By what is called “piercing the corporate veil” one may reach the assets of the business owners of the corporation or limited liability company.
This can occur when the business owners;
(1) have not complied with state requirements (called “statutory requirements”), and
(2) have not undertaken what are called “corporate formalities”, to maintain a separate corporate identity from that of the business owner (themselves). It is therefore of utmost importance that, as a business owner, you maintain a separate corporate identity (for example, have separate bank accounts for the company and
do not commingle personal and business funds).
To do this, you must strictly adhere to the statutory requirements, and you must also follow general corporate formalities, such as holding an initial meeting of directors, distributing membership interests or stock, maintaining corporate records, and more.
Annual reports, or in some states, biennial reports, are the thrust of the statutory requirements . Each state will require a report, along with payment of fees, in order for the company to remain in good standing and to continue doing business in the state. Failure to file this report, or late filing, may result in the company falling into “bad standing” or “suspension” which can ultimately lead to “revocation of corporate privilege” or “administrative dissolution”. Should that happen, the business owners would no longer enjoy personal liability protection.
As a new business owner, you should be aware of the continuing statutory compliance and corporate formalities that are required and, where not required, suggested, in order to remain in good standing with your state of formation and to maintain your personal liability protection. Please note this list is not exhaustive, but merely an overview for your reference. If you have a corporate kit, you will find samples of many of the documents and notices outlined below, and within the kit, will find the appropriate places to insert your documents for appropriate record keeping.
NOTE: The purchase of a corporate kit may be the single best investment under $50 you can make. We recommend www.corporatekit.com . It includes many of the forms you need such as sample corporate resolutions, annual meeting forms, share or member certificates, share transfer ledger, company seal, etc. However, its single most important function may be to serve as the one place in which you keep all of your corporate records which may be irreplaceable or, at least, extremely expensive to replace.
Get help with this today by calling the Small Business Helpline at 1-866-732-HELP (4357) and dial ext 2 to be connected to a live consultant.
If your business is playing recorded music for the enjoyment of your customers, you may need to obtain a license from performing rights organizations that represent music copyright holders in the United States. For more information, contact the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) at www.ascap.com, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) at www.bmi.com and/or SESAC at www.sesac.com.
“Music in the Market Place” is a publication put out by the Better Business Bureau that is designed to help businesses that use music in any way in their dealings with the public to understand their rights and obligations under the copyright law. For a copy of this publication, visit www.bbb.org.
A trade association is a valuable source for information, services and advice for your business. The association(s) listed below is for reference purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement.
All of a sudden we have Silver prices at $16-$17 an ounce with Gold prices hanging over $1000 an ounce and this has happened almost overnight! I knew the dollar was going down, I knew the economy was in horrible condition and I knew that we were in a recession. But now here’s the phenomenon… Have you noticed the ‘We Buy Gold & Silver’ commercials everywhere in the last two years or so? A girlfriend of mine invited me to a gold party where everyone brings their old Gold in, they weigh it and offer the attendees that want to sell a good price for their Gold. Then, as recently as the last two years I’ve noticed that the cost of a simple Silver necklace, ring or even a pair of Silver earnings cost just as much as gold did 10-15 years ago. Mmmm, I guess I am getting older and finally see inflation… Like when my Grandmother says I remember when a candy bar was five cents! It was so far fetched when I was younger to think of a fifty cent (when I was 12 years old) candy bar as being a nickel! What a crazy idea. But then again, candy bars are now over a dollar and I actually did watch the dollar continue to go down or the cost of living continue to go up! I used to philosophize and think that everything is actually relative. For instance when my Grandmother, who was born in 1914 was growing up, she paid five cents for a candy bar but it was relative to the amount of money people made in that time. Simply put, in the age of factories, the industrial age, workers were paid $15 per week. So if we do the math and divide five cents into fifteen dollars a week we could buy a candy bar 300 times. If I look at the same scenario for today, minimum wage is now $7.25 an hour in NYC.
Let’s figure on a 40 hour work week the average person would make $290.00 before taxes. Guess what? You would only be able to buy a $1.00 candy bar 290 times! So, I was right, it does seem to all be relative.
I am not a financial analyst but I did major in Business. I do know that supply and demand are supposed to determine the marketplace. In a nut shell if there is an unlimited supply of something then it should cost less. That’s why when new technology hits the scene like a flat screen TV, they were all way too expensive for many of us to buy. The 42″ Flat Screen LCD TV was over $1500.00 when flat screens first hit the scene. I know everyone went to buy one to keep up with the neighbors but I didn’t jump on the band wagon because I really didn’t think it mattered whether I watched a box TV or a flat screen! In fact I just bought my first flat screen TV AFTER Christmas on my Business Credit account with Best Buy and snagged that 42″ on behalf of my corporation for business expenses so it’s a tax write off, yes I will be doing many presentations on it and for only $499! So, I waited about 5 years before keeping up just so that the market would flood with the flat screen TVs and of course this would drive the price down as we have seen over and over with technology. I will not go buy the new iPAD this year, I’ll buy it next year if I really need it! So now that we know everything is relative there are certain things in our society that break away from the norm.
Since the beginning of time Silver & Gold were always precious metals. For instance you buy your special someone a gold necklace, ring or bracelet and the higher in pure Gold the more expensive. Or if you either preferred Silver to Gold or just couldn’t afford Gold then you would buy your loved one Silver and make sure its pure… It had better have that 925 stamp inside for Sterling Silver purity (US). But something has been changing as our society progresses. I’m not going to write to you like an economist here. I am not going to waist time on the long story about how the US dollar was backed by Gold until President Nixon decided to make the dollar a promissory note. Instead we are going to keep it in the new millennium and discuss technology! Thomas Edison created the light bulb, in order for it to work, we must use pure silver. There is a new cell phone for us to buy every month if not every week! The components in the cell phones to allow us to communicate is dependent on pure Silver. So, Silver has become an industrial commodity which is why it is continually going up. 20 years ago Silver was selling for $3-$5 per ounce. As of the date of this article Silver is selling at $16 an ounce! According to the Silver Institute “Silver Uses Demand for silver is built on three main pillars: industrial and decorative uses, photography, and jewelry & silverware. Together, these three categories represent more than 95 percent of annual silver consumption. In 2007, 455.5 million ounces of silver were used for industrial applications, while over 128 million ounces of silver were committed to the photographic sector, 163.4 million ounces were consumed in the jewelry market, and 58.8 million ounces were used in the silverware market.
Why is this indispensable metal in such demand? The reasons are simple. Silver has a number of unique properties including its strength, malleability and ductility, its electrical and thermal conductivity, its sensitivity to and high reflectance of light and the ability to endure extreme temperature ranges. Silver’s unique properties restrict its substitution in most applications.” Here are a few applications of Silver. * Traditional
o Coinage
o Photography
o Silver Jewelry
o Silverware and Table Settings * Industrial
o Batteries
o Bearings
o Brazing and Soldering
o Catalysts
o Electronics * Emerging
o Medical Applications
o Mirrors & Coatings
o Solar Energy
o Water Purification”
Now let’s look at Gold, it is currently selling at over $1000 per ounce when 20 years ago the price was hanging around $400 per ounce. Here’s a chart to show how Gold has increased over the years.
No. 1: The dollar’s in trouble No. 2: Gold production lags demand No. 3: Gold producers are buying gold No. 4: Gold follows oil
So with this information we can gather that to insure our wealth as business owners and entrepreneurs we need to buy assets. Investing in Silver & Gold has been and always will be a safe way to hedge yourself against the declining dollar and buying Silver & Gold can be done in many ways. Of course, you can play the stock market and try to understand how to be a trader. But many people enjoy buying the metal in coin form. There are several countries that offer the metal of which you can buy from their Mint facility which is the facility of the government which actually makes coinage. There are several countries that you can buy Mint Coins from which are listed below but continue reading before you make a mistake…
From each of these facilities you can purchase Gold and Silver bullion coins. Bullion simply means any precious metal that can be found in bulk. These Bullion Coins and bars are worth the value of the metal in the market as we discussed earlier plus a few extra dollars because the metal has been converted from a raw metal to an actual coin. But, before buying a simple bullion coin there is one more step that you can take to insure the value of your assets go through the roof! A Graded Silver or Gold MS70 Coin means the coin has been graded by a third party company. There are many coin graders out there but there are three top graders that investors trust for authenticity which are ANACS the oldest grading company in the world, NGC and PCGS . Have you ever seen the coins that are sealed and encased being sold on television. The grading is what sets one coin apart from the other. First of all only one out of every ten coins that the Mint makes is considered perfect, without flaw and 99.9% pure. The graders certify and authenticate the rarity, quality and purity of the coin among other things. Each year there are several Mint State 70 coins made. After the year is done and the supply is gone, this adds another value of collectability to the coin. When these same coins are encased before they are circulated and graded by one of the top graders it turns a bullion Silver coin worth only $20 ($16 for market value and a few extra because it is actually money) to a coin worth over $115 today! A bullion Gold coin or bar is worth approximately $1100.00 (market price + the fact that it is money). A graded gold coin would be worth over $1400.00. These coins can be purchased in many places. To give you an idea, the 1I have put my trust in the Numis Network to buy quality Mint graded Silver & Gold one of the top sellers in the world of these coins has been Mike Mezack. He has sold millions of dollars of these coins on the Home Shopping Network. Everywhere we look we are seeing We Buy Gold & We Buy Silver commercials, Pawn Shops and Billboards. There is a paradigm shift happening, a window of opportunity for the average person to gain some wealth.
First of all..I agree with some and not others, but as small business owners we need to learn from our history of leaders. SO with that said, here is a synopsis of this book. You should definitely read it in its entirety! My favorite Law is #35 Master the art of Timing
Law 1
Never Outshine the Master
Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power.
Law 2
Never put too Much Trust in Friends, Learn how to use Enemies
Be wary of friends-they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them.
Law 3
Conceal your Intentions
Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelope them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late.
Law 4
Always Say Less than Necessary
When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.
Law 5
So Much Depends on Reputation – Guard it with your Life
Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once you slip, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable. Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.
Law 6
Court Attention at all Cost
Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried in oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious, than the bland and timid masses.
Law 7
Get others to do the Work for you, but Always Take the Credit
Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance save you valuable time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed. In the end your helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered. Never do yourself what others can do for you.
Law 8
Make other People come to you – use Bait if Necessary
When you force the other person to act, you are the one in control. It is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process. Lure him with fabulous gains – then attack. You hold the cards.
Law 9
Win through your Actions, Never through Argument
Any momentary triumph you think gained through argument is really a Pyrrhic victory: The resentment and ill will you stir up is stronger and lasts longer than any momentary change of opinion. It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word. Demonstrate, do not explicate.
Law 10
Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky
You can die from someone else’s misery – emotional states are as infectious as disease. You may feel you are helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own disaster. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you. Associate with the happy and fortunate instead.
To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you.
Law 12
Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm your Victim
One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people. Once your selective honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A timely gift – a Trojan horse – will serve the same purpose.
Law 13
When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest,
Never to their Mercy or Gratitude
If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself.
Law 14
Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy
Knowing about your rival is critical. Use spies to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. Better still: Play the spy yourself. In polite social encounters, learn to probe. Ask indirect questions to get people to reveal their weaknesses and intentions. There is no occasion that is not an opportunity for artful spying.
Law 15
Crush your Enemy Totally
All great leaders since Moses have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely. (Sometimes they have learned this the hard way.) If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation: The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit.
Law 16
Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor
Too much circulation makes the price go down: The more you are seen and heard from, the more common you appear. If you are already established in a group, temporary withdrawal from it will make you more talked about, even more admired. You must learn when to leave. Create value through scarcity.
Law 17
Keep Others in Suspended Terror: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability
Humans are creatures of habit with an insatiable need to see familiarity in other people’s actions. Your predictability gives them a sense of control. Turn the tables: Be deliberately unpredictable. Behavior that seems to have no consistency or purpose will keep them off-balance, and they will wear themselves out trying to explain your moves. Taken to an extreme, this strategy can intimidate and terrorize.
Law 18
Do Not Build Fortresses to Protect Yourself – Isolation is Dangerous
The world is dangerous and enemies are everywhere – everyone has to protect themselves. A fortress seems the safest. But isolation exposes you to more dangers than it protects you from – it cuts you off from valuable information, it makes you conspicuous and an easy target. Better to circulate among people find allies, mingle. You are shielded from your enemies by the crowd.
Law 19
Know Who You’re Dealing with – Do Not Offend the Wrong Person
There are many different kinds of people in the world, and you can never assume that everyone will react to your strategies in the same way. Deceive or outmaneuver some people and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge. They are wolves in lambs’ clothing. Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then – never offend or deceive the wrong person.
Law 20
Do Not Commit to Anyone
It is the fool who always rushes to take sides. Do not commit to any side or cause but yourself. By maintaining your independence, you become the master of others – playing people against one another, making them pursue you.
Law 21
Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker – Seem Dumber than your Mark
No one likes feeling stupider than the next persons. The trick, is to make your victims feel smart – and not just smart, but smarter than you are. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives.
Law 22
Use the Surrender Tactic: Transform Weakness into Power
When you are weaker, never fight for honor’s sake; choose surrender instead. Surrender gives you time to recover, time to torment and irritate your conqueror, time to wait for his power to wane. Do not give him the satisfaction of fighting and defeating you – surrender first. By turning the other check you infuriate and unsettle him. Make surrender a tool of power.
Law 23
Concentrate Your Forces
Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point. You gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting from one shallow mine to another – intensity defeats extensity every time. When looking for sources of power to elevate you, find the one key patron, the fat cow who will give you milk for a long time to come.
Law 24
Play the Perfect Courtier
The perfect courtier thrives in a world where everything revolves around power and political dexterity. He has mastered the art of indirection; he flatters, yields to superiors, and asserts power over others in the mot oblique and graceful manner. Learn and apply the laws of courtiership and there will be no limit to how far you can rise in the court.
Law 25
Re-Create Yourself
Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Re-create yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define if for you. Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions – your power will be enhanced and your character will seem larger than life.
Law 26
Keep Your Hands Clean
You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency: Your hands are never soiled by mistakes and nasty deeds. Maintain such a spotless appearance by using others as scapegoats and cat’s-paws to disguise your involvement.
Law 27
Play on People’s Need to Believe to Create a Cultlike Following
People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, a new faith to follow. Keep your words vague but full of promise; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking. Give your new disciples rituals to perform, ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf. In the absence of organized religion and grand causes, your new belief system will bring you untold power.
Law 28
Enter Action with Boldness
If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid.
Law 29
Plan All the Way to the End
The ending is everything. Plan all the way to it, taking into account all the possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune that might reverse your hard work and give the glory to others. By planning to the end you will not be overwhelmed by circumstances and you will know when to stop. Gently guide fortune and help determine the future by thinking far ahead.
Law 30
Make your Accomplishments Seem Effortless
Your actions must seem natural and executed with ease. All the toil and practice that go into them, and also all the clever tricks, must be concealed. When you act, act effortlessly, as if you could do much more. Avoid the temptation of revealing how hard you work – it only raises questions. Teach no one your tricks or they will be used against you.
Law 31
Control the Options: Get Others to Play with the Cards you Deal
The best deceptions are the ones that seem to give the other person a choice: Your victims feel they are in control, but are actually your puppets. Give people options that come out in your favor whichever one they choose. Force them to make choices between the lesser of two evils, both of which serve your purpose. Put them on the horns of a dilemma: They are gored wherever they turn.
Law 32
Play to People’s Fantasies
The truth is often avoided because it is ugly and unpleasant. Never appeal to truth and reality unless you are prepared for the anger that comes for disenchantment. Life is so harsh and distressing that people who can manufacture romance or conjure up fantasy are like oases in the desert: Everyone flocks to them. There is great power in tapping into the fantasies of the masses.
Law 33
Discover Each Man’s Thumbscrew
Everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall. That weakness is usual y an insecurity, an uncontrollable emotion or need; it can also be a small secret pleasure. Either way, once found, it is a thumbscrew you can turn to your advantage.
Law 34
Be Royal in your Own Fashion: Act like a King to be treated like one
The way you carry yourself will often determine how you are treated; In the long run, appearing vulgar or common will make people disrespect you. For a king respects himself and inspires the same sentiment in others. By acting regally and confident of your powers, you make yourself seem destined to wear a crown.
Law 35
Master the Art of Timing
Never seem to be in a hurry – hurrying betrays a lack of control over yourself, and over time. Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually. Become a detective of the right moment; sniff out the spirit of the times, the trends that will carry you to power. Learn to stand back when the time is not yet ripe, and to strike fiercely when it has reached fruition.
Law 36
Disdain Things you cannot have: Ignoring them is the best Revenge
By acknowledging a petty problem you give it existence and credibility. The more attention you pay an enemy, the stronger you make him; and a small mistake is often made worse and more visible when you try to fix it. It is sometimes best to leave things alone. If there is something you want but cannot have, show contempt for it. The less interest you reveal, the more superior you seem.
Law 37
Create Compelling Spectacles
Striking imagery and grand symbolic gestures create the aura of power – everyone responds to them. Stage spectacles for those around you, then full of arresting visuals and radiant symbols that heighten your presence. Dazzled by appearances, no one will notice what you are really doing.
Law 38
Think as you like but Behave like others
If you make a show of going against the times, flaunting your unconventional ideas and unorthodox ways, people will think that you only want attention and that you look down upon them. They will find a way to punish you for making them feel inferior. It is far safer to blend in and nurture the common touch. Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.
Law 39
Stir up Waters to Catch Fish
Anger and emotion are strategically counterproductive. You must always stay calm and objective. But if you can make your enemies angry while staying calm yourself, you gain a decided advantage. Put your enemies off-balance: Find the chink in their vanity through which you can rattle them and you hold the strings.
Law 40
Despise the Free Lunch
What is offered for free is dangerous – it usually involves either a trick or a hidden obligation. What has worth is worth paying for. By paying your own way you stay clear of gratitude, guilt, and deceit. It is also often wise to pay the full price – there is no cutting corners with excellence. Be lavish with your money and keep it circulating, for generosity is a sign and a magnet for power.
Law 41
Avoid Stepping into a Great Man’s Shoes
What happens first always appears better and more original than what comes after. If you succeed a great man or have a famous parent, you will have to accomplish double their achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadow, or stuck in a past not of your own making: Establish your own name and identity by changing course. Slay the overbearing father, disparage his legacy, and gain power by shining in your own way.
Law 42
Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep will Scatter
Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individual – the stirrer, the arrogant underling, the poisoned of goodwill. If you allow such people room to operate, others will succumb to their influence. Do not wait for the troubles they cause to multiply, do not try to negotiate with them – they are irredeemable. Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them. Strike at the source of the trouble and the sheep will scatter.
Law 43
Work on the Hearts and Minds of Others
Coercion creates a reaction that will eventually work against you. You must seduce others into wanting to move in your direction. A person you have seduced becomes your loyal pawn. And the way to seduce others is to operate on their individual psychologies and weaknesses. Soften up the resistant by working on their emotions, playing on what they hold dear and what they fear. Ignore the hearts and minds of others and they will grow to hate you.
Law 44
Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect
The mirror reflects reality, but it is also the perfect tool for deception: When you mirror your enemies, doing exactly as they do, they cannot figure out your strategy. The Mirror Effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact. By holding up a mirror to their psyches, you seduce them with the illusion that you share their values; by holding up a mirror to their actions, you teach them a lesson. Few can resist the power of Mirror Effect.
Law 45
Preach the Need for Change, but Never Reform too much at Once
Everyone understands the need for change in the abstract, but on the day-to-day level people are creatures of habit. Too much innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt. If you are new to a position of power, or an outsider trying to build a power base, make a show of respecting the old way of doing things. If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.
Law 46
Never appear too Perfect
Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses. Envy creates silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable. Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity.
Law 47
Do not go Past the Mark you Aimed for; In Victory, Learn when to Stop
The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. In the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfidence can push you past the goal you had aimed for, and by going too far, you make more enemies than you defeat. Do not allow success to go to your head. There is no substitute for strategy and careful planning. Set a goal, and when you reach it, stop.
Law 48
Assume Formlessness
By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you open yourself to attack. Instead of taking a form for your enemy to grasp, keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes.
When starting your business it is imperative that you understand the proper way to set up your business for maximum exposure. After filing your business entity, take the time to list the business phone number in various telephone directories. You will want to list your telephone number with Google local, yellowpages.com, yellowbook.com, Yahoo Local, Superpages.com and other directories you can find to list your business address and telephone number. If you have not opted to purchase a business line that would be listed with your local telephone company this is a great way to have your personal phone number associated with your business.
After you’ve obtained your employer identification number you will want to make sure you immediately open a business bank account. You must separate yourself from your business. When setting up your business bank account you will want to pick a bank that is business friendly. Ask the banker if they provide small business credit cards and unsecured business lines of credit. You will also want to ask the banker if they offer secured credit cards that would be reported to the business credit report. Find out if they offer payroll services and feel our each banker. As your business grows you will want to deal with a bank with the least amount of fees and a bank that will care about your business with them.
Next, you will want to immediately apply for your Dunns Number which is issued by Dunn & Bradstreet. Dunn & Bradstreet will provide you with a Dunns number for free if you do not have the funds to pay for their credit builder program. But, paying the minimal fee in my experience will do wonders for your business financing profile. Many lenders utilize your Employer Identification Number, Bank Account and/or your Dunns number to insure that you are in business. With these identification factors you will find that obtaining vendor credit within a week of completing all of the above items will be very easy. You will need vendor credit to begin developing a credit profile.
Although we may feel that there is a credit crunch there are still many lenders out there that will extend credit to new businesses. But it is imperative that you set up your business for credit worthiness. If you have created a business just to find ways to obtain credit for your personal use you most likely will be very unsuccessful. Because of the credit crunch, finding small business financing can be tough because the creditors have already lost millions of dollars on illigitimate businesses.
ATW Consulting LLC has created the all new Business Finance Hotline which provides small business owners with over 60 creditors that will provide credit to new and seasoned small businesses. More information is available on their website or you can call the small business finance hotline at 866-732-HELP (4357)
