If I asked you to take your pick between being a rich garbage collector or a poor apartment owner, which would you choose? I’m not conducting a survey here, but my “gut feeling” is, you’d pick rich garbage collector. That’s my answer too! Had the choices been between a rich garbage collector and rich apartment owner, than I’d switch back to apartment owner.

If you think like me — Rich is the first choice! My plan to get there has some flexibility. Obviously, I love real estate investing, but I’ll be first to admit, the money has an awful lot to do with my love affair.

It’s been my long-term observation that people who invest in real estate are not much different from those who invest in pizza parlors or buy carpet cleaning trucks. The reason this is so, I think, is because the motivation factors are exactly alike. Industrious folks are constantly looking for ways to get ahead financially and improve the quality of their lives. Many are highly motivated to leave traditional 9-5 jobs for an opportunity to work for themselves. Of course, it goes without saying, most all of us have a desire to end up financially independent after our working days are over.

A THIN LINE BETWEEN INVESTOR AND BUSINESS

More often than not, real estate investing and business opportunities are not thought of as being the same thing! Many people think of real estate investing as a long-term savings plan where you buy now, hold the property for many years and eventually sell for a marked-up profit. The major benefit they expect will come from appreciation over a long period of time. Certainly, that’s a big part of most real estate investment strategies — But my plan is many times faster as you shall see!

Business opportunities, on the other hand, often have more to do with buying yourself a job. For example — Buying a hamburger stand, becoming “The Rug Doctor” with your own special built steam cleaner truck, acquiring a franchised “Popcorn” route or buying a silkscreen “T­shirt” operation. Typically these kinds of businesses don’t have much long­term appreciating value and they seldom provide anything more than steady employment for their owners. In several cases I’m familiar with — The operators feel quite lucky to earn what I would simply call AVERAGE WAGES. Quite often their actual take-home pay would be higher if they worked for someone else — Plus, they wouldn’t have all their money tied up in the business.

Let me say it this way — Many folk~ who are dedicated to a variety of small “Mom & Pop” businesses work extremely hard for twice as many hours and earn less money than they would take home as regular employees. This situation can be a big trap for people like me and other entrepreneurs who often become stricken with a blind obsession to be our own boss, doing our own thing!

YOU MUST ANALYZE REWARDS FOR THE EFFORT

If you’re thinking about starting any small business or perhaps you’re already involved in one, it might well be worth your time to thoroughly analyze the payoff. It’s not the least bit uncommon for people to spend abnormal amounts of time, often years, pursuing a dead-end venture that will provide very little payback for all their efforts. After many years they end up with hardly anything left to show for all their hard work!

Here’s a typical situation I see all the time! Let’s say you purchase a “carpet cleaning” franchise. You now own a truck with a special-built steam cleaner mounted on the back. Next, you build up a customer list and work your tail off for the next 5 years or so. Now it s time to ask yourself these questions -­- What do you have to show for your efforts after 5 years? What is your business worth if you decided to sell out? What will your income be if you suddenly stop cleaning carpets? Do the words hardly nothing ring a bell? My guess is, you’ll have a sore back, a worn out truck and a business with no more value than the day you started. Oh yes, about future income! I think you already know the answer to that!

THE BENEFITS OF MIXING WITH YOUR OWN KIND

One of the reasons I enjoy attending real estate seminars and speaking at investment clubs so much is because I enjoy being around the kind of folks who are attracted to such gatherings. They’re mostly my kind of people. I’m sure you’ve observed what I’m telling you here. I enjoy being around people who think beyond the end of their noses. They are people with vision!

Naturally, I meet a few “Seminar Junkies” along the way, but mostly I meet people who have initiative and “get-up”. They’re “long haul” thinkers who are eager and willing to do whatever it takes to make a better “financial life” for themselves and their families.

One word of caution is in order here because we all need to hear it occasionally! THERE ARE NO FREE LUNCHES. “Free Lunch” thinking must be erased from your thought process. Making sound financial decisions won’t happen until you sincerely believe and understand THERE AIN’T NO FREE LUNCHES ANYWHERE!

BEING YOUR OWN BOSS IS FUN WHEN IT PAYS

It’s my personal view that working for yourself is the “ultimate freedom”. It’s extremely exciting when you can make big money doing exactly what you want, when you want and in a business you choose to do it in! Many folks work long, hard hours in a no-future business. Eventually they end up discouraged when they finally realize they could be earning more money and working less hours for someone else.

There are many business opportunities that allow the freedom of working for yourself. However, many fail to provide adequate compensation. There is not thrill being your own boss if you can’t make a decent living for yourself and family. That brings us to what I consider the best business opportunity today, ‘THE HOUSING ENTREPRENEUR”.

HYBRID OPPORTUNITY – HOUSES AND WIDGETS

It’s a very simple concept. Take the best of several ideas and mix them together like one. Every successful business needs short-term cash flow and long-term growth or increasing value. Without this combination, business future is always uncertain. Many businesses have adequate cash flow to meet daily needs, but very little value or growth increase in the long term.

Take selling widgets for example. When everyone wants to buy them, sales are hot! The registers are ringing, but that’s short-term selling. For long ­term, we must look at the value of business assets. Here we find a worn out delivery truck and a broken down “widget maker”. The value is zip! Additionally, when these assets wear out, we now must have money set aside to buy new ones or the business is down the tubes, as they say.

Let’s say we own REAL ESTATE ASSETS instead. Even as houses are wearing out (getting older), they are increasing in value. If sales suddenly drop off, but our business assets are houses, obviously there is still value remaining in the business,

Let’s say we own REAL ESTATE ASSETS instead. Even as houses are wearing out (getting older), they are increasing in value. If sales suddenly drop off, but our business assets are houses, obviously there is still value remaining in the business,

The combination of a cash flow business that owns real estate assets is truly the best of both worlds. In my case, tenants are my customers. I provide residential housing for my customers. My business assets are houses. Rather than losing value the more they are used, instead, they are becoming increasingly more valuable. Let’s say my stream of rental customers slows down from time to time — Will I go broke? Not very likely because my real estate assets have been continually growing in value. That value is easily converted to cash if I need grocery money — Either borrowing on my equity or selling a house or two!

Houses are much better than worn out machines. Since my business assets are real estate, my product is always growing in value. From a practical standpoint, they never wear out if I keep them painted. As the “cocky” ex-­CEO of the Chrysler Corporation used to say, — “Show me a better deal anywhere and I’ll buy it”. I think my real houses are a better deal and that’s exactly why I buy them!