With today’s current economy, many people are afraid that it is not a good time to try to get funding for a start up company. Over the past few weeks, I have talked to a hand full of Venture Capitalist, and every one of them said they had funds open for the right job.

Granted, they all, to the very last one, stated that they were being very selective with whom they picked to fund. Each one said that there needed to be a solid business plan wrapped around a strong management team that was wrapped around a needed product, be it a service or a consumable or hard product.

So get that business plan written, get together your development and executive team ready, and get your coach in place to help you through your funding round so that you can move forward with your plans!

For various reasons a year or so ago I shut down TDBell Enterprises, Inc. and the blog just kinda set dormant. I have reopened TDBell Enterprises, and will once again be posting, semi-regularly, to the blog on topics dealing with business, IT, Investments, start ups, etc. I look forward to getting my readers back!

Dr. Don Bell

In points 6, 7, and 8 of the “Indvidual Plan”, as found on our web site, I continue the age old adage that you need to buy instead of rent your place of residence, and that you need to continue investing in real estate as part of your investment strategy.

One thing I recently added to that list is number 8, which reads:

8. Invest in a REIT. This also grows your Real Estate investments and takes out the management of property requirement.

What is a REIT? The acronym expands out to be “Real Estate Investment Trust”, which means a fund that invest in various types of real estate projects dealing with property acquisition. When you invest in a REIT, you get the benefits of buying real estate and the often good increase in value of said real estate without the worries of taxes, property management, etc.

I highly recommend iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors Index Fund (ICF) as one of the top performers in this area.

Another option to use is real estate funds. There are two types of such funds:

Property Funds. Buy mortages, real estate, etc.
Management Funds. Buy interest in management companies that manage property, often by owning said property.

I recommend two such funds:

CGMRealty (CGMRX) and
Alpine US Real Estate Equity (EUEYX)

Good luck!
Don

I have received some flack for having the Watkins links, Google Search Bar, and a few other links on this web site. If you go to our Individuals page, you will see we follow our plan as outlined there. Watkins and the book links are one of our income sources at TDBell Enterprises, Inc. Some months TDBell Enterprises makes as much or more than our consulting services.

For the most part the consulting services we provide are not residual in nature. In order to increase revenue from that stream, I, as President, would have to hire and train more people with the right skill sets to increase revenue. Again, this would not be residual income. Residual income is key to growth in any major way. Watkisn provides TDBell Enterprises with a strong residual income source.

The links to books provide another form of residual income in that other than the posting of new and great books, there is little work on my behalf and if you click on a book, find that it might be of interest to you and buy it, TDBell Enterprises again receives a bit of income.

The search bar is so that you can better search THIS site for information, but at the same time provides a way to find complementary articles or websites on the web. It is there for your use.

Enjoy,

Dr. Donald M. Bell
CEO/TDBell Enterprises, Inc.

Many people feel that a business plan is JUST for raising capital in the company. That is FAR from true, and in fact, that isn’t even a valid reason for writing a business plan.

A business plan is just that, plan, or map, of how you want to run your business, the goals of the business, and how you have gotten there so far. This is a document that you initially create to get the concept of your new company on paper and so you can start making it happen. As your company grows, the plan grows and shifts as your priorities shift and as new business opportunities come along.

Now, when you go after venture funding, a business plan is often needed to get the attention of the funding source. The plan should be the SAME plan you plan on building your business of. Not something that is written to get the attention of the funding source. You will add a couple of documents to it, such as a use of funds document, resumes of key staff, etc.

When you build a business plan, you need to keep in mind that it is a living breathing document that changes as your company changes. The business plan should have the input of, and be given to, each of your key players in the company so they know your direction and are part of that direction.

A business plan, in and of itself, should not be created just to get funding. It is a document that you should be using to keep track of your company, it’s goals, it’s successes, and it’s failures.