Boy it has been too long since I last blogged. Partly laziness and partly just being sheer busy building up my companies. I am delighted to note one of my companies has officially launched and so far so good. I have issued my first invoice so only £999,999,800 to go till I reach £1 billion. Of course this is gross and does not start to factor in overhead costs etc but then is when it gets tricky. The beauty with this business venture is it is service oriented so the overhead costs are very very small, I would say if I actually broke it down it would be at least 70% pure profit.

I have been networking a lot, these past couple of weeks, with some fantastic results. The truth is I had always believed in the power of the network, I think I used to do it more informally than I am doing it now. I have really formalised it, i.e. identifying which events to attend, dishing out the business cards, following up with a “it was great to meet you at such and such an event” email, sending an invitationt to be part of my LinkedIn network, I tell that is a full time job in its own rights. Networking is trully powerful, I love meeting new people, finding out about them, sharing about me, laughing at what you have in common and hopefully going on to build lasting friendships and rewarding business relationships for all involved.

So the journey continues, I will be trying to blog at least once a week, I think my attempt at trying to blog every single day was a bit ambitious, but it can’t be helped I am a go getter.

So until we read again,

I wish you wealth, good health, peace and happiness

abillionaire

Yesterday I went to the worst party I have ever been to in while. That is partly the reason why I didn’t get the chance to blog but it also made me realise that there are some boring people out there in this world!

I have been feeling a little lethargic these last couple of days, the task at hand is really sinking in and you always want to feel like you are making progress. It is only natural I believe then to feel down and doubt yourself sometimes. This is where “You motivate you” comes into play. The truth is, you can read many an inspirational book, have people talk you up as much as possible, but its really down to you. Life is an individual sport and whilst you may have many team players it is really down to you to achieve what you want to achieve in life. The building of my empire is something that is hugely important to me, how I am going to build it is starting to take shape, however I know it is not going to be easy and days like these will come around.

I keep feeling like I am nearly there, but I just need that last little push to cross me over. Right now something that would be very uplifting is if I managed to secure the first round of funding for my business. I realise to do that I need to have a rock solid business plan and I think that is where I am struggling and what is getting me down. I have read a few articles about this and it says entrepreneurs are very focused on the idea but forget to concentrate on the plan or rather less interested to committing the idea to paper which is crucial if you want to have that funding. So I have made a pact with myself that I am going to get this business plan done by the end of the week so I can cross over and take things to the next level.

I motivate me and I am my biggest asset.

I wish you wealth, good health, peace and happiness

abillionaire

Wow! That was just one of those statements that blew me away. It is worth reading again - “Success comes to those who find businesses with great economics and not necessarily great inventions or advances to mankind.”. Now when I started this blog, my thing was really about using innovation to make me rich. I also knew that along this journey to great wealth through innovation I was going to be great lessons, this is one of them. I came across it today whilst doing some research on polishing up my Business Plan and it really stuck.

Lets dissect this statement for a moment. The Success  part of this statement demonstrates that is the primary objective. Success in business simply means more profit period. Of course there are other “sub-success” e.g. customer satisfaction, but the main purpose behind running a business is profit, any other reason then you need to register as a charity. Success in innovation on the other hand refers to both radical and incremental changes in thinking, in things, in processes or in services (Mckeown, 2008 ) - the goal of innovation is positive change, to make someone or something better. 

The next part of the statement is the one that really kicked me in the nuts, its ones of those simple yet brutal statements. Some initial research showed that they have been many great innovations out, some still around today, but these innovations are the worst businesses ever. A good example is the airline industry. I read a report that stated that the cumulative earnings of all airlines since Wilber Wright flew that first plane are less than zero, basically airline losses have been greater than their profits.

So the lesson learnt here is quite simple, as innovators even though we may have fantastic inventions we need to ensure the the business i.e. economics side of things is taken care of. I am sure people in the UK watched the final of The Apprentice last night, and forget who won and the controversy behind it for a moment and lets look at the task they were given. Alex and Helene came up with a brilliant product in my eyes (even though it was actually the designer who came up with it, but theres the point), the product was very practical, heck I would but it. But when the economics were thrown in the industry experts confirmed that production of the bottle would noy be viable and as opposed to the RRP of £29.99 a bottle like that would have cost three if not four times that. So its now not only all about the innovation folks its about the economics of these things. I am glad I started looking for an accountant now.

I wish you wealth, good health, peace and happiness

abillionaire.

 

Following on from my post two days ago [Cash flow, Financial Forecast, NPV, CAPM, Risk Analysis %$£* I just want to run a business! - 10th June 2008], I had a few meetings with some Accountants today. As my Innovation and Business Enterprise company is a start-up I thought it best to get an accountant on board at a very early stage. Every business needs a good professional team behind them to help support the business. My way of choosing a firm I think is reasonably sensible, meet with four firms and make a decision as to who I think I can work best with and who could be beneficial to realising the vision.

You see in my opinion a lot of business people forget this, an accountant isn’t just the person who prepares your annual accounts every year and keeps the tax man or woman off your back, but they are really an integral part of your business from an organisational perspective. And if you are a small business, you need to ensure you pick the right one more than ever. Before you start looking make sure you have a selection, I like the number four, so I chose 4 different firms, 2 I researched locally, 1 I got as a referral and the other, well I saw their signage and just walked into their office (nothing like some off the street potential business right). I also made sure they were all local, this is a personal thing for me as I want to feel like I am giving business to the local community. I have a simple and logical five point check list for accountant selection (Please note this is a list based on my opinion please consult professional advice before you make a decision abillionaire will not be held responsible for any losses - lol- there I go again with my “health warnings”):

1. Rule no. 1 when picking an accountant - make sure they have some sort of track record, but are not the sort of firm that have remained stagnant over time. You want a dynamic proactive firm.
2. Leading on from these dynamic and proactive characteristics, you need a firm that is really on the ball. Tax & Company Laws change very regularly, I am talking annually in some cases, so you need a firm that is grasping this information quick enough and relaying it to you in a manner you understand.
3. Keep it professional boys and girls. Sleeping with your accountant can be detrimental to your business. Remember the old rule “never mix business with pleasure”!
4. Trust. Big big big rule! You have to trust your accountant, they have the power to get the tax man or woman to investigate you and the power to make you bankrupt.
5. Make sure your accountant is well connected and creative (well from a financial perspective). Remember your network = your net worth, we all know that. So a well networked accountant, who looks after other high net worth individuals could possibly mean investors or clients for your business through referral. And the creativity part is simple, there is a reason multi millionaires, billionaires and corporations pay less tax in relation to what they actually earn, its called creative financing / accounting. Nothing illegal about it by the way.
6. The last sentence above is very very important. I cannot stress this enough, never ever go with a dodgy accountant, and if you do for whatever reason chose an accountant that turns out to be dodgy or unethical, severe ties with them as quick as possible and ensure there is a huge gulf between you. Because sooner or later he or she will get caught and when he or she does that tax man or woman will start investigating every single one of their clients, and that includes you.

So we got the accountants blog post done and dusted. Tomorrow, my blog will be one week old, so happy birthday to me.

I still haven’t chosen an accountant yet by the way, now I am going to digest everything they have said and let them stew for bit, also it will be interesting if any of them try and follow up with you, that is always a sign that they want ou business. But then again accountants are accountants not sales people, but the truth is they are still in business and every business needs to be able to sell itself!

I wish you wealth, good health, peace and happiness.

abillionaire

I couldn’t resist I just had to jump on the bandwagon and have a blog post about the Blackberry vs iPhone debate, especially after the news of the iPhone 3G release news. I am however, going to look at it from a business side of things, because I am all about the business.

Firstly let me pass my condolences to Nokia, Motorola (Goodbye Moto), Samsung, LG & Siemens and the rest of the mobile phone handset “original” manufacturers. You have just experienced a wonderful lesson in Disruptive Intellectual Property 101 and Product Life Cycle for Dummies. I can remember when I had my first “brick mobile phone”, it was actually my moms, but I used it like is was mine, I was only 15 at the time. Then when I turned 18 I got my own mobile (Yep at that time you really had to be at least 16 to have your own mobile phone, now even 10 year olds have mobiles). Back to my Disruptive Intellectual Property and Product Life Cycle lesson - you see all these manufacturers thought they had conquered the world, little did they know they were really just the opening act.

When Blackberry stepped on the scene a good few years ago things got a little interesting. Originally a device for the Wall Street & City (London term for Investment Bankers) boys & girls, they really become popular with them because companies soon realised that they increased productivity from their employees, they started dishing them out as part of your remuneration package. You can picture the scenario right, Bankers / Executives on the golf course entertaining and the office needing you to proof some figures, presto, your pocket vibrated or you heard that bleep and there you had it, CAPM.xls. Quick glance the click confirmation to your PA that you are happy with the figures and you just made your company another £10 million.

Then pop culture took over and everyone had to have a Blackberry from Paris Hilton to Prince Harry. Terms like “crackberry” were coined just to indicate how addictive the device is (I am testament to that, I swear I need therapy). Then just like the PC vs Mac wars, Apple thought they would step into the mobile phone market, and with much hype, catchy advertising and those classic Steve Jobs presentations we saw the birth of the iPhone.

The features were amazing and Apple fanatics (which I am not, by the way) formed an orderly queue (some even 24 hours before) to get their hands on one. There were great reviews of the device and while Nokia, Motorola (Goodbye Moto) and the rest were K.O’d, RIM, who make Blackberry’s, were only knocked against the ropes. They regained their momentum with updated model designs, the good ol’ trackerball navigation, media player, camera and a host of other applications (Visit for more information). Then Apple came through and connected with a left hook (ouch!!!), with the news of the iPhone 3G.

Lets exam the The Business Principles here folks for our dearly departed ”original manufacturers”:

No. 1 - This one is simple, the “original” mobile device manufacturers dropped the ball, they should have seen the Blackberry & iPhones coming.

No. 2 - You have to innovate to keep things viable in business, basic Product Life Cycle math.

No. 3 - If you are not first to market you can still come and blow the market away with your product -Congratulations Steve Jobs & Apple.

No. 4 - Oh, lets not forget number 4, this is the most important one (Bill Gates and Microsoft pioneered this one) - Get version one out as soon as possible (bugs, warts and all), then release a “super duper” version two shortly thereafter and people will throw out their current version and “upgrade”. Just Brilliant looks like your Profit & Loss account is showing more profit than loss now

So folks there are a lot of business principles to be learnt from the mobile phone device industry and some we should take on board regardless of our business. As I grow my empire and become a billionaire, these are lessons I will truly take on board, because in business you have to have the EDGE.

I wish you wealth, good health, peace and happiness

abillionaire 

 

So today I had to do some financial forecasting and Start-up expenses. I get to meet a couple of accountants on Thursday to speak about taking things forward with my company from a financial perpesctive. I hate the financial side of business, but don’t get me wrong I understand the importance of it all. The truth is I blame the schools, they teach you how to add, subtract, multiply and divide, but that is only just the beginning. By high school I think they should introduce Financial Business classes, not just to understand finances from a business perspective, but finance from a personal perspective as well. Why do you think so many people get into debt? The truth is the majority of people do not understand APR’s and the rest of it, if they did they would be able to do like all the banks have done recently and when s%&* hits the fan (credit crunch write downs) go out with the begging bowl and raise money from shareholders and SWF. Now imagine if you as Joe Blogs could do that, you would put bailliffs out of business.

The truth is we need better financial understanding and I know if I want to become a billionaire I better have my accounting hat on a lot of the time or better still have a really good accountant I can trust. Yes TRUST being the operative word, because otherwise you will end up like Sting and have a couple million missing next time you check your bank balance!

I wish you wealth, good health, peace and happiness.

abillionaire

PS: I am off to play some basketball now hence the short blog. More tomorrow!

Do you know who Scott A. Jones is? You should do if you own a telephone, be it mobile or landline. He is the man who invented voicemail. Interesting fact and yet few people know it even though on any given day more than  10 million voicemail’s are left (no accurate source to this statistic, just a guestamate) and yet this man is not as well known as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, but to entrepreuners and innovators across the globe, I am sure they know him well, and there is a reason why amongst this breed of people he is well known. “Scott Jones thinks up more ideas in a month than most folks do in a lifetime” this is a quote from the article written about him in the Fortune Small Busines Magazine November 2007. Yet there is nothing small about his business he is worth several million US dollars, oh and you know your iPod and iPhone music players, yep he owns Gracenote the company that makes it!

The reason I mention Mr. Scott A. Jones is he is a man after my own heart and I believe truly describes what a serial enterpreneur is. You have to have a multitude of ideas in order to have success. Unless you have that one Idea which you truly believe is the meal ticket and see it through, but chance are that there were several other ideas before that. I counted recently that from the 11th May to date, I have thought of 5 potential business ideas. Two already rejected, one I have put in my pending file and two which I am working on now which I believe have the most potential. Time will only tell.

The two rejected I thought were potentials. One was the Pringles PushUp Can. I thought that was brilliant, have a can that has a push up tube from the bottom and makes it easier to get to the crisps. P&G said no. Rumor has it they maybe phasing them out, that is only a rumor. Second idea the AlphaNumeric Calculator. That I thought was a great educational tool for people first using a calculator or those who have difficulties reading long numbers. This I came across when doing large calculations and found that if I entered a figure like 560000000, I normally found myself counting the zero’s, makes me sound thick, but you give it a try. So I thought to myself why not have it in text as well. so you have 560000000 and at the bottom level of the screen you have “five hundred and sixty million”. makes total sense, did any of the calculator companies get back to me - No! I even emailed Microsoft and tried to see if they would be interested for their Windows calculator application, again no luck. Oh well I guess another two inventions that never see the light of day.

I wish you wealth, good health, peace and happiness

abillionaire

You very rarely hear someone get excited because its Sunday, trust me I never used to be when I used to work for my old company, I hated Sunday with a passion. Sunday meant the weekend was over and it was back to the grind of the rat race, but now that I “work” for myself or rather take care of business for myself, I love Sundays. Sundays to me mean I can look forward to Monday because then I can actually get a hold of someone in the office, because even though I do research and browsing on a Sunday you can never really get a hold of anyone from a business perspective. I suppose people that “work” have to rest at some point, but for me as I am taking care of business it is not really “working”. You see work-a-holic’s are obsessed with work and generally work-a-holic’s work for someone else, hence the term. Where as me, I take care of business, I don’t report to no one, I don’t have to be in an office for 9am and spend all day clock watching to see when 5pm comes around, and even then, if you are trying to get a “promotion” wait till 5:32 to leave the desk so that it shows ”commitment”.

I am sure you have all read Robert Kiyosakis books. I have great respect for that man, because he has really helped me change my philosophy on a lot of things. I have read his book twice titled ‘Before You Quit Your Job’, fantastic book really opens up your mind and believe me when you “cross over” mentality wise there is no looking back. Being your own boss or rather your own business owner and or investor is a liberating feeling and granted I am still over £50k in debt but believe me I feel like a million pounds and that is why that £50k debt will be paid of by the end of the year, and this time next year I will be a few million up.

So to any visitors to this blog who feel that they too want to enjoy Sunday and not dread waking up Monday morning, then think about how liberating you could be if you were waking up Monday morning to take care of business as opposed to rushing to work. I will probably touch again on this subject in one of my other posts, but for now, I am about to go to bed and look forward to waking up tomorrow morning. If you are in Australia or Asia and you have to work tomorrow, well your sleep time is nearly up, if you in Europe its nearly bed time and if you in the Americas’ you still have a few more hours to enjoy whats left of your Sunday.

I wish you wealth, good health, peace and happiness

abillionaire 

We all have dreams, some of us dream bigger than others. The reality of it is we all want better lives for ourselves and for those around us. Granted not all of us have the ambition to be millionaires or billionaires, I am sure the percentage is very small, but we all want to have a comfortable lifestyle. The man on the living on the street, wants a studio council flat, the family living in the studio council flat would be happy with a three bed council house and the family of four in the three bed council house, well they want their kids to grow up in suburbia. It is at this point (suburbia living) you start to have a shift in expectations, some get to suburbia and think to themselves “great I have made it”. They are happy with the white picket fence, the manicured lawns, the two cars (1 a company car, the other moms run around “taxi”), the friendly and nosey neighbour, the pet cat and dog and their kids going to decent schools. For the others, they now want the mansion and the lifestyle that brings with it. I definitely want to be in the latter, I want that mansion, I want that Maserati, I want that private jet, I want my daughter to go to private school, I want my wife to go shopping on Old Bond street and not think twice about spending £20,000 on shopping in one afternoon, and mostly importantly I want to be able to help others.

To be honest it was only recently that I started thinking of the notion of getting rich to help others, you see before I was an arrogant bastard, only interested in myself and the immediate people around me. Then I resigned from my relatively well paying job with company car and mobile, in pursuit of freedom, independence and all the glory that comes with being your own “boss”, only to realise that it is a tough world out there.I end up accumulating a huge amount of debt within a short space of time, had to leave our lovely suburban house and move in with my inlaws. A very humbling experience for me, but you see I am one of those people that believes everything happens for a reason and I needed this experience because it has taught me a number of things and if it weren’t for being in this situation I would have never come up with my innovation. So there you have it folks hopefully it will be a rags to riches story and which is why I agree with Mr. Trump, that hey if you are actually going to be thinking then why not think big. Our brains are the most amazing resource God gave us, capable of thinking up the most amazing things. Look around the world today at all the technology around, yes the technology processes things faster for us, but it had to be thought of and programmed, and it is man or woman (to be politically correct) that did the programming.

Progress Report on Innovation:

Exceptionally busy week for me, meeting various contacts and establishing a fantastic and growing network (Your network determines your net worth). They have all commented on how interesting the concept and model is, however have warned that it is an ambitious task with major challenges ahead. All taken on board but still pursuing it because one thing that has been confirmed - there is a huge market for this product! Next week I continue to build the network and look to raise some start-up capital. So any investors who are interested in getting in early on a revolutionary product please drop me a comment. Confidentiality Agreements will need to be signed.

Have a great weekend

Wishing you wealth, good health, peace and happiness

abillionaire  

The beginning! Every story has a beginning, yesterday my blog began, but the inspiration behind the blog began three weeks ago and the man behind the blog was born in the 80’s. My blog titled “The natural path of innovation - my road to becoming a billionaire” has been created to help track the progress of my ambition to become a billionaire and the innovative product that will get help me achieve this and the natural path I will have to progress up. This is not the first blog of its kind and it certainly won’t be the last. The truth is some will find it interesting and some won’t, FACT.

Why the title? Probably one of the many questions any visitor to my blog will ask. Well firstly my start-up business is all about innovation and business enterprise now, and the statement or phrase “the natural path of innovation” is something I have coined recently as I embark on getting my product idea from concept stage right through to distribution stage and hopefully become a billionaire, whilst doing it.

Yesterday my blog title was “necessity is mother of all invention”, how true could that statement be. History has shown us that all great inventions came about in one form or another because it was necessary for the inventor i.e. they were looking for an easier way to do something personally for them, or the inventor saw a need for the invention. I could start listing several inventions of our time that we all take for granted today, but I wouldn’t want to bore you with it all, my point simply being take a look around and reflect for a moment . . . . humans are one of the most innovative species on this earth and through technological advancements some amazing products have come into existence, and they all have a beginning story. Mine quite simply came about from a news piece about how UK households throw out more than £10 billion of good food in the bin each year. £10 BILLION!!!!! If food waste was on the Sunday Times Rich List 2008 it would be No. 3 right between Roman Abramovich (£11,7 billion) and The Duke of Westminster (£7 billion). Now not only that if we think of the under privileged and impoverished nations out there (sob, sob), how that wasted food would benefit them you have to think for a second and say “What a waste!!!!”. This news article led to a “eureka” moment and before I knew it was spending several hours research various solutions and then “eureka” moment no 2 hit! Why not have a “…” (wouldn’t you like to know!). Basically my product concept sounded good to me, further research indicated and confirmed there was a market for it, and low and behold, the innovation process begins.

What an educating process the last three weeks have been. I would not call my self the most academia person, but the amount of information I have learnt in the last three weeks, would be unlikely to be taught in a 3 month semester at Uni. I completely understand why Robert Kiyosaki talks about “street smarts”. What a learning curve it has been, and what a continued learning process it is going to be. The ups, downs, victories, losses, successes, failures, the joy and pain, agreements, disagreements, encouragement, scepticism and this my friends is all part of THE NATURAL PATH OF INNOVATION.

I wish you wealth, good health, peace and happiness

abillionaire