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Financing Behind Olympic Competitors

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Personal finance skills are of utmost importance to those that train to compete in the Olympics. Gold is obviously the coveted prize at the end of the Olympics rainbow. But what some of the athletes do to earn their daily gold in between competitions shows a wide range of personal wealth — or poverty. On this year’s roster are a dentist, a bartender/bouncer, a former brothel owner and a monk, plus many with more mundane jobs, according to an Associated Press story.

The costs of training are enormous, and the time demands of training mean that earning a living has to fit a flexible schedule. In some countries, the local International Olympics Committee provides some help. Not so in the United States. The International body shares some money with the smaller organizations, but the latter get to decide what to do with it. In some places, none of it trickles down to the Olympic hopefuls.

That means some athletes end up jockeying two or more jobs — up to seven in rate instances — to pay for their training and keep themselves fed.

Before coming to the London Games this summer, Irish boxer Darren O’Neill was a teacher at Holy Trinity Primary School in Dublin. He quit before the London competition to train full-time. Will he have a job to go home to? He isn’t sure, although a hand-painted banner on the school saying “Good Luck Mr. O’Neill” is a promising sign. Bottom line: He likes boxing well enough to sacrifice the job if necessary.

When Lance Brooks, an American discus thrower, moved to Denver to start serious training five years ago, he became a bartender/bouncer and all-around bar backer, restocking shelves and taking out the trash. He also picked up cash working Denver Rockies baseball games and coaching at a local high school. He did a stint at an oil-change service and worked construction to make ends meet. Finally, his coach put the kibosh on so many jobs. Brooks had to choose to discontinue his patchy employment or lose his trainer.

Some of the Olympians combine work and training. Luca Tesconi of Italy, who won silver in 10-meter air pistol competition, is a police officer in his home town. And Kai Johnssan, a pistol shooter, is a member of Finland’s Coast Guard Air Flight Patrol.

Sometimes they get creative. Nick Symmonds, four-time U.S. outdoor track champion in the 9000-meter, went on eBay and auctioned a spot on his shoulder for $11,100, promising to sport a temporary tattoo for the highest bidder. The offer was picked up by Hanson Dodge Creative, a marketer focused on active lifestyles. Too bad. Olympic rules preclude athletes advertising brands during competition. Symmonds had to cover his billboard shoulder.

Wendy Houvenaghel had to take continuing education courses so she could go back to her career as a dentist in Northern Ireland after taking an extended break for training. She’ll go back to dentistry when the Olympics and her cycling career are over. She rides for Britain.

At the extremes are Logan Campell, a taekwondo fighter for New Zealand, who financed his training with an upscale brothel in Aukland, and Kenki Sato, a Japanese equestrian competitor, who is a monk at his family’s Buddhist Temple near Nagano. Campbell sold the brothel in 2010 (although prostitution is legal in New Zealand) when the help was provided by his the IOC and sponsors. Sato will go back to his job as monk, which he says is good for discipline.

The 2012 Olympics will end and then dozens of this year’s athletes, along with hundreds of hopefuls for Olympics future will be back to the grindstone to earn the pennies that lead to the gold.

Small Business Tips From Entrepreneur Kirk Taylor

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Serial entrepreneur Kirk Taylor
Kirk Taylor, Serial Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur Kirk Taylor has been successful at building many companies from scratch. As a serial entrepreneur  with experience stretching back 34 years ago, he is happy to share what he has learned to help  small business owners. Although success and building new companies is somewhat akin to riding a roller coaster. Ups and downs are bound to occur.

Working Hard

His first company project was launching and building  LimoLink, a website that catered to transportation needs for people all over the world who were seeking elegant rides.  A second company was built after that experience. It was successful enough to produce revenues of $20 million annually within a three year period of time.  The company was recognized as one of the fastest growing private companies by INC magazine. He was also awarded Entrepreneur of the year for small-midsize companies in Iowa.He reveled in sales tallying in the neighborhood of $20 million in three years.

He left the company in 2002 eager to move on to bigger and greener pastures and start on a new project.  “I’m not a CEO-type guy,” he says. “I like the starting-up phase.”  But he was wise enough to take what he’d learned in his first experiences with him, and creating new opportunities in other niches.

Seeking Opportunities

Catching on quick to an opportunity and moving double quick to get it functional is what real entrepreneurs do, Taylor says.

Kirk Taylor knew a good thing when he saw it.  “It” was the weekly ABC Shark Tank Show. Entrepreneurs who have what they are convinced is a good business idea have an opportunity to try to raise capital if their idea is appealing to the panel members.  Panel members are five recognized business geniuses who are millionaires, and billionaires ready to invest in new ideas. The panel members listen to the pitch, then offer (or don’t offer)  partnerships providing money and sometimes expertise to the entrepreneur.

Taylor assumed, rightly, that the show was going to attract a huge audience of people itching to get into business or to improve a business already established. He piggy-backed by creating a blog focused on Shark Tank’s entrepreneur interviews. Communication then opened up between Shark Tank producers and Kirk.

One of the people who has been very helpful to him is Barbara Corcoran, one of the Sharks who swims weekly in the ABC Tank.  On his blog, he interviews contestants of the show and publishes those interviews.  The blog has become very popular,” he says. “She has given me scoops regarding things that are likely to happen, but we have no direct conversation. It’s a trust relationship,” he says, “and I work hard at keeping that trust. I’m careful not to abuse it.”

Be Realistic

Over his years as a successful serial entrepreneur, Taylor has learned a thing or two (or a whole lot more) about the relative roles of idealism and realism . Without the dream, nothing happens, “But there has to be realism, too.” Most entrepreneurs, in his very educated opinion, are strong-willed people who learn to recognize that magic spot where idealism has to be set aside for the sake of facing up to the real business world.

Get Funded

The barrier that trips up many would-be businesses short of success is the money issue, he says. “Every entrepreneur has to raise capital.”  Trying to go solo on that challenge without any understanding of the  process has sunk many a newcomer to the competition. He suggests involving others who know the ropes and can find the most suitable investors to back your idea. Often the entrepreneur has friends with expertise. “Work them all.”

Small Business Mistakes

His own biggest mistakes in building companies, he admits, have been in turning too much control over to managers. When he associated himself with people who had been successful in big companies, the tendency then became to let them supplant him at the top of the decision-making pyramid. “That’s been a real disaster,” he says. It’s the entrepreneur’s life, financial well-being and ability to keep expanding that’s on the line — too much personal investment to turn it over to someone else without restraints, he has learned.

Goals

The most important goal, according to Kirk, is to get to a point in life where you and your company are completely debt free. In 2008, he turned to affiliate marketing, building yet another new source of income. “I like it,” he says. He sees “huge potential in sales with relatively low start up expenses.” He likes the independence it offers and the feeling of not being bound to others when decisions need to be made.

Big Break For Small Business Suppliers

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An exciting new opportunity has been created for small business owners. The ability to offer their products or services to large corporations is a big boost to businesses that would otherwise not be able to even put their foot in the doors of big companies.

Supplier Connection, a program recently put into effect by the U.S. Small Business Administration is a program offered by the IBM foundation and was created as a way to improve part of the Obama administration’s American Supplier Initiative. The public-private effort involves 15 major corporations that are willing to consider ordering supplies and services from the small businesses registered with them. The corporations collectively have more than $300 billion in purchasing power.

It is expected that the initiative will grow small businesses, create new jobs and add strength and diversity to America’s supply sources, said SBA administrator Karen Mills.
“While it is clear that becoming a corporate supplier can lead to business growth, breaking in can be a challenge for small businesses,” she said.

The administration recently sent letters to more than 50,000 small businesses outlining the new program and providing tools to smooth entry into the process. Supplier Connection is available to interested small business owners and registration is free online. There, they are able to register their company name and include details about what kind of products they offer. The hope is to provide small business owners an opportunity to become suppliers to larger corporations.

Among the 15 companies that have signed on to the program are Wells Fargo, UPS, Pfizer, Office Depot, Kellogg’s, John Deere, J P Morgan Chase, Dell, Facebook, CitiGroup, Caterpillar, AMD, AT&T, Bank of America and Caterpillar. They have agreed to look at the services and products of small businesses that register online. They then will determine which services or products warrant their financial investment. Small businesses can learn to supply large corporations with their unique offerings.

Small business owners often have no idea how to connect with large corporations and thus never get the chance to get contracts with corporations who have large amounts of capital. This free service can help pull small companies that have real potential into the mainstream of American business and put them on the road to success. The new revenues coming from a business relationship with successful corporations may prove just the needed edge to grow revenue to new levels. On the other side of the coin, the corporations that are purchasing goods and services will have better insights on the pulse of emerging businesses. Everyone wins.

Small businesses connect with business checks suppliers for ordering discounts.

Tips For New Business Startups and Entrepreneurs

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New entrepreneurs are developing new business ideas in record time. With Internet coding hackathons, some business plans and products are created within a 48 hour window of time. The chances of new businesses succeeding on the Internet increase as time goes by. You may be in this group of new entrepreneurs out of necessity, choice or pure passion for having control of your financial lives.

Embarking on an entrepreneurial adventure is more likely to be both successful and satisfying if you examine your reasons to start a new business and be sure that you are on course to pursue what you really want.

Noam Wasserman, associate professor at Harvard Business School, says “If you’re starting a new company, you probably already know that a crazy variety of land mines await you.” In his new book, “The Founder’s Dilemma: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup,” which will be published later this year, he gives pointers and tips to identifying the potential problems involved in starting a new business. He borrows from his Harvard classes on entrepreneurship for the compelling content.

Wasserman collaborated with Timothy Butler, a senior fellow and director of career development programs at Harvard to survey some 2,000 founders relative to motivation. They divided the participants by gender and age. The data was compared with non-entrepreneurs who also ranked the possible motivations. Those with an entrepreneurial spirit tended to focus on autonomy and power, while those in the non-entrepreneurial group say to a greater degree that they valued security and a congenial work environment above other motivators.

He lists the seven most common motivators entrepreneurs have for starting a new business. The results of a survey (which vary between men and women) suggest common reasons people pursue business startups.

AUTONOMY: If this is your first objective, don’t take on partners or significant investors. The downside could be slower growth or a smaller business initially, but the upside is that you have ultimate control. This advice is for those who want independence above all, including financial gain.

POWER AND INFLUENCE: If this is your motivation you may want to examine some problems associated with bringing on partners. Two like-minded partners can quickly find themselves in headlocks if each aims to be CEO. Money and hiring practices can also lead to logger-heads if there is no clear definition of who does what. Founders in this category may have trouble letting others do their jobs.

MANAGING PEOPLE: This motivation can lead to frustration if there is a disconnect between yourself as manager and those you want to manage. It takes some adjusting as the manager learns to let the doer do what he is hired to do. If you are bent on hiring, counseling, evaluating and rewarding, Wasserman advises keeping the business small.

FINANCIAL GAIN: If gain comes first, the entrepreneur may have to give up some control when seeking partners or professional investors. In studying the problem, Wasserman said, those who demanded full control of a board and CEO realized an equity stake 52 percent less valuable, on average, than those who shared significant decision-making authority with others. He calls the push-and-pull between autonomy/power and influence/financial gain as the “rich versus king” dilemma.

ALTRUISM: Nonprofit or socially responsible companies best fit this motivation. It requires that you make decisions based on what’s best for others, rather than what’s best for your bottom line. There may be other ways to accomplish what you envision besides creating a traditional company.

VARIETY: You can accomplish this by starting new companies or by exploring new product lines and markets. Employees may have ideas on developing new ideas in-house. Studies indicate that variety becomes more important to entrepreneurs as they age, so strong support by a partner is important.

INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGE: To satisfy this craving, the answer is to diversify. This, too, is a motivator that may carry more weight as you get on in life. Consider starting special projects that relate to your next line of products or extension of the company. Devise projects that exercise your curiosity.

Wasserman suggests that “people problems are responsible for a significant portion of startup failures, and that entrepreneurs tend to underestimate their potentially dangerous long-term effects.” When starting a new business keep in mind what your long term goals are and how to best achieve those goals.

Keep your business accounting simple by using QuickBooks from the beginning of your new business.

Entrepreneurs On The Rise

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It is a survey finding that surprised even the experts. Since 1996, entrepreneurs in the 55-64-year-old age group have initiated more new businesses every year than those in the 20-34 age range.

Dane Stangler, senior analyst for the Marion Kauffman Foundation located in Kansas City, Mo., which conducted the survey, said its results were surprising even to him. They shatter the stereotype of the young college graduate (or dropout: Bill Gates of Microsoft, Mark Zuckerburg of Facebook) as the expected founder of a new business. The involvement of baby boomers who should logically be considering retirement instead of new ventures is a growing trend, Stangler said. The number of Baby-Boomer entrepreneurs continues to rise over the younger age groups each year. The foundation’s research was reported in an AARP publication.

The reasons for the phenomenon are, of course, multiple and complex. For one thing, Americans are living longer and more healthfully. Full retirement at the usual age isn’t appealing to many who have spent their normal career years cultivating skills that can be transferred to a business they control themselves.

The AARP article points to Doug Wolf, a man in his 50’s who had spent his career years in the medical field, working at hospitals as an MRI or CT technologist. When he tired of the job, he determined, despite a bad economy, to strike out on his own. He started, wisely, by researching franchises he felt would work for him. He paused for awhile over the possibility of opening a bird feed store, but ultimately opted for a carpet cleaning business. Among the reasons: carpet cleaning is a useful service; it is year-round and indoors. So despite discouragement by some of his family, he stepped out and joined the ranks of middle-aged first-time business owners.

The franchise of choice for the 21st Century seems to be a home-based, computer-supported business. Multi millionaires such as Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki and Warren Buffet, all are involved to some degree with businesses like this.

From the entrepreneur’s standpoint, the advantages are obvious. What other business offers — for an initial investment in the neighborhood of $500 — the lure of low overhead (you probably have no additional housing expenses for the business beyond your own home) no need for expensive advertising and the prospects of unlimited growth, which translates into unlimited wealth.

Those who have already succeeded are proof-positive that age doesn’t need to be a factor if you have the desire.