We wanted to find a way to protect our investments and to make some money on the side. We did this before I read Kiyasaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad so I didn't really know what I was doing. My first was selling promotional products. We were at a home and garden show when I saw a fellow demonstrating a screen printing system for making shirts and such as well as a pad printer for smaller things like pens. I had taken print shop in high school, so I had always found printing interesting. I just didn't know how to get into the business. This seemed like a great opportunity. We met with the fellow in our home later and he was quite convincing. The trouble was, we were living in a condo at the time with no place to set up a printing business and the start up cost was around $30,000. I didn't have that much money and didn't want to get into so much debt.
We later found a fellow who, for about a quarter of that amount, was going to train us to arrange our own print jobs through vendors and all I would have to do is find the business. I probably should have saved my money and found something else. We gave him the money, he set us up with a web page and I was in business. Well, sort of. I had no idea how to sell such a service, had no marketing skills or artistic skills, so I had to figure everything out on my own. We never made any money in the business but this is what I learned.
First, working for an employer and working for yourself are completely different. At a job, you can show up late, call in sick, complain about the boss, have a good or bad attitude, go on vacation and get benefits. So long as you do what you need to, you will stay employed, take your check home each week and not have to think much more about it. A good life, really, unless you have a desire to do something on your own.
What does Kiyosaki say about all this? He says there are four ways to gain wealth and he shows it in a simple diagram he calls ESBI.
E is for employee. On the top left corner he writes Employee. This is the traditional way to make a living. Go to school and get a good education. Find a job and do well and move up. Our economy is based on that. I have been an employee all my life as have been most people, if they were able to keep a job. If you are lucky, you find something that pays you well, gives you opportunities to move up and give you benefits. Years ago, you could also get a pension, if you happen to connect with a large company like a utility or financial institution. Before 401k's came along, there used to be pensions. These were sponsored by your employer who paid you a certain amount for the rest of your life upon retirement based on years of service, age, and last two years of pay. Most of those disappeared in the 90's. I managed to pick up a couple over the years, but not enough to keep me going to 90.
S is for Self Employed. These are the doctors and lawyers and guys like me who wanted to start a small business at home. You gain the freedom of working for yourself but you never really have any freedom because the business always calls you. My mother ran her own bookstore for 30 years and loved it, though she never had much time to herself. She was fortunate enough to have a boyfriend who took her around the world when he retired, so there was a happy ending there. The risks are that you are still dependent on yourself.
B stands for business. You own the business but other people make money for you. There are many opportunities out there such as franchises, multi-level marketing, and such. If you get them going right, you can earn money from the labor of others. Just like your employer does from you.
And the I stands for investments. These are passive like stocks, bonds and, in my case, real estate. I will talk about my adventures in that in another post.
Basically, though, my aim is to find a business that I can start and then get others to work in it where we all benefit. Does that exist?
No comments:
Post a Comment