My last Forex update was in April. I had recently transferred our account from a US based branch of FXCM to the UK office. The US government changed the laws and that basically took away a lot of the advantages of Forex. If you’d like a more detailed explanation, I please e-mail me and I can direct you to a more knowledgeable person.

Given the interruptions, we (my wife and I) have been actively Forex trading for a little under 5 months, but we’ve been very happy with the results.

Please take a look at past Forex updates to get an idea of the beginning of our journey.

· 1/15/09: Balance: 15,485.80 Equity: 13,530.00

· 2/16/09: Balance: 16,768.40 Equity: 13,981.30

· 3/16/09: Balance: 17,971.20 Equity: 15,116.20

· 4/16/09: Balance: 20,341.88 Equity: 18,171.08

When you look at the past articles, you will see that there is mention of a demo account. Unfortunately, the transfer of our account from the US to the UK resulted in the demo account evaporating so I will not be reporting on those results going forward.

My strategy - correction - my mentor’s strategy, is that I read the charts before I go to bed, when I wake up, and when I get home from work. I read the charts at those times and put trades in from what I see. I’m not an active trader, per se, because I simply choose entry and exit points based on the charts. Basically, I make my money when I’m asleep or when I’m at work. I put in as much as 10 minutes and as little as a few minutes into Forex trading each day. The key for me is to be consistent and not greedy. Instead of going for the home run trade, I go for lots of base hits.

In the last month, my wife and I started to become serious about Forex trading and decided to put more money into our account because of past performance success.

If you look at the beginning balance and deposit, you can see that we made a significant addition to our account. This addition is what enabled us to do as well as we started doing in terms of profit this month: $1,375.80 ($2,974.40 in total earnings).

Forex is a great market because you trade based on margin, however that same margin can also get you into trouble very quickly. It’s really important to have a good margin percentage. I know it’s difficult to get a perspective on what I’m talking about, but basically you want a really high margin percentage. My current margin percentage is at 98.85%. You want to make sure it’s above 90%. We were able to make more money this month than in any previous month because we have more money in our account. This gave us a higher margin percentage given our trading level, giving us the ability to trade more units. Yes, I know this may seem very confusing, but stay with me. The more money I have available to keep my margin percentage, the more units that I can trade which means I can essentially make more money and take on the same amount of or less risk if I choose.

Photo by: Kevin Dooley

This is the first part of a series on leadership.

Leadership is a tough quality to define. When NFL scouts look at a prospect, they classify leadership as an “intangible.” Leadership is definitely a quality, while tough to define, is a trait that you’ll able to distinguish whether a person has “it” or not.

When you take a look around you and throughout history, the world has been fortunate to have been inhabited by a whole host of influential leaders. Some of the most admired leaders have been Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. What made these people such great leaders? Were they particularly great public speakers? Martin Luther King, Jr. undoubtedly was a great speaker, but I’m not sure the same can be said for Gandhi and FDR?

While leadership is certainly difficult to DEFINE, there are attributes that we can associate with signs of being a leader.

1. Visionary: A leader brings a vision to it’s group. It’s a plan by which others can FOLLOW. This vision brings the followers the emotion of hope and something the followers can strive to achieve. The vision should be clear and the leader should stand up for what the leader believes in.

“A leader is a dealer in hope” – Napoleon Bonaparte

2. Reliable: You don’t want to follow someone that shows up late or doesn’t do what they say they are going to do. In a leader, you want someone that’s reliable, with a message that people can follow. If leaders aren’t consistent if their efforts and their actions, it causes followers to begin to doubt the dedication of the leader to the cause. I can’t find a citation, but historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was recently on The Daily Show. She stated that during the Great Depression and during FDR’s tenure a citizen once said something to the effect of “I don’t have any money, don’t have a job, and I don’t have a reason to live, but I keep on going because I know FDR is there.”

“Deligating work works, provided the one delegating works, too.” – Robert Half

3. Audacity: It takes guts to be a leader. It’s not for everyone. Some people would prefer to tag along for the ride and that’s fine. Not everyone can or should be a leader.

4. Empowering People: Inherently, people want to do a good job. They want to succeed and make others happy. As a leader, you need to allow people to succeed. By empowering people, the leader isn’t doing the task for the person following the leader, but instead gives them the tools necessary to succeed.

5. Positive: Nobody wants to follow a person who is “doom and gloom.” A leader doesn’t need to be all about rainbows and sunshine, but there definitely needs to be a boost of positivity especially when tackling a difficult project or the “going gets tough.”

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” - Winston Churchill

6. Motivating: If you don’t have the previous characteristics, it certainly isn’t very motivating for the follower to follow the leader let alone do a great job. A leader needs a vision, otherwise people don’t have a map and tend to get lost.

What do you think about the 6 characteristics of leadership I’ve given? Do you have any to add?

Photo by: Jim Bowen

This year is cruising right along. Looks like I’ve been trading for about 3 1/2 months. Here are the previous three posts so you can keep tabs on my progress:

· 1/15/09: Balance: 15,485.80 Equity: 13,530.00

· 2/16/09: Balance: 16,768.40 Equity: 13,981.30

· 3/16/09: Balance: 17,971.20 Equity: 15,116.20

I want to remind you that this is a demo account. Unfortunately, it’s not REAL money. To recap, my demo account started with $15,000. The difference between the balance and the equity is the amount in trades that are open and negative. It is my mentor’s strategy, and therefore my strategy, that I don’t take losses while trading. To avoid a margin call, there are a few ways to avoid this situation. One of the most important points is that you must have a properly funded account. When trading Forex, you are trading on margin. The brokerage firm will only allow margin up to the point that you can cover which is why proper funding is important. Another tactic to avoid a margin call is to offset a trade. If you have a trade that goes negative, whether a buy or a sell, put the opposite trade in to keep a healthy margin. The last thing you can do is only trade in single units.

I’m pretty excited about my numbers this month. I started getting pretty aggressive this month by trading more than one unit. For instance, in the past, I would trade only a single unit. If I gained 40 pips, that would translate into $40 (minus any carry over fees). This past month, I started trading 2,3, and 4 units. So, that 40 pip trade that landed me $40 in the past, landed me $80, $120, or $160 for the same trade.

New Balance and Equity Numbers

Account Summary 3/16/09 – 4/15/09

This month I profited $2,431.40. This is more than twice than any previous month. Also, I had a few old trades come out. If I were to close my account today and cash out, including any negative trades, I would profit over $3000. I wish I could spend more time with Forex, but unfortunately I usually only spend about 5-6 hours per week on Forex. Imagine how I would do if I spent more than a few hours per week.

Another exciting development this month is that I just opened my live account. I’m being much more conservative with that account as opposed to my demo account since it involves REAL money. I’ve also only been trading for a week so keep that in mind. Here are the numbers for my account with REAL money:

New Balance and Equity Numbers

Account Summary 4/8/09 – 4/15/09

As you can see, I deposited $7500.00 into the account. I’ve put in 5 trades and profited a total of $99.09. It’s definitely not Earth shattering, but I’m being very careful since it is real money and I can’t have as many trades open due to my current funding level ($7,500 as opposed to the demo account of $15,000).

Be sure to subscribe to my FULL RSS Feed to stay tuned and see how good or bad I perform next month.

Photo by Orangeacid

Other Posts

World’s Greatest Mentoring Relationships
5 Steps You Need to Take in Preparation of Being a Mentor/Protege
10 Things to Look for in a Protege
10 Things to Look for in a Mentor
Want to Be Successful? - Get a Mentor

This is the fifth part of a five part series on mentoring.

1. Want to Be Successful? - Get a Mentor

2. 10 Things to Look for in a Mentor

3. 10 Things to Look for in a Protege

4. 5 Steps You Need to Take in Preparation of Being a Mentor/Protege

5. World’s Greatest Mentoring Relationships

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” - Isaac Newton

If you look at any highly successful person, you will almost always find a mentor. It’s really hard to imagine that some people have mentors. We, as a society, tend to put people on a pedestal. In fact, it almost seems as if some famous people were just born awesome when in fact it took many set backs and failures before they achieved greatness.

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

It also seems that the older or longer ago a person lived, the more difficult it is to imagine that historical figures are people too. They are just like you and I and they too needed a mentor.

Strongest Symbol for Non-Violence in the 20^th Century

There aren’t too many people that have had a more profound effect on the world than Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi, like you and I had a mentor, Dadabhai Naoroji. Dadabhai helped start the Indian Independence Movement in 1857 and Gandhi was able to complete the task on August 15^th 1947 which handed the country of India back to it’s people. This movement was the first and largest non violent resistance the world had ever seen and involved 50 million people within India. This all came from a person who had limited success starting a law practice in Mumbai and was also turned down for a part-time teaching position. While not being a direct mentor, Gandhi has been noted as an inspiration for Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela among others.

Richest Person in the World

It’s difficult to imagine that one of the most successful investors the world has seen was mentored at one time. In fact, Warren Buffett was mentored by Ben Graham while at Columbia University. Buffett celebrates Graham’s book, The Intelligent Investor, as the greatest book on investing ever written. It’s interesting to note that Ben Graham once owned a small insurance company you may have heard of before, GEICO. Apparently Ben Graham taught his student well as Warren Buffett now owns GEICO.

Most Admired Person for the 20^th Century

Mother Teresa committed her life to God through good works and truly helping others. Instead of living a comfortable life in a convent, she decided to live among the poorest of the poor and help them even though she had no income to speak of. Mother Teresa received permission from the Vatican to start Missionaries of Charity. It started with 13 members to help the hungry and homeless - those shunned by society. Today, there are more than 4,000 nuns operating orphanages, AIDS hospices, and various charities worldwide. She led a remarkable and revered life, but she may not have achieved all that she did if it weren’t for her mentor, Father Michael van der Peet.

Greatest Basketball Player

Michael Jordan is arguably the best basketball player to ever play the game. LeBron James and Kobe Bryant might think otherwise, but they are referred to as “the Next Jordan”, not the other way around. Michael Jordan was a great player, having earned Rookie of the Year, but it wasn’t until he was joined with his coach and mentor, Phil Jackson, that he flourished. Under Phil Jackson’s first year as coach of the Chicago Bulls, and the help of young players Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant, Michael Jordan and the Bulls were able to win their first NBA title. Michael Jordan amassed 6 NBA titles and became the most decorated NBA player ever under Phil Jackson.

What do you want to achieve? It’s probably not as difficult as you think.

“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

You’re only limited by what you think is possible. Figure out what you want and then find someone who’s done it. Get a mentor, ask for their counsel, become comfortable with what they’ve done, and then make it your own.

Photo by Vincent

Other Posts

Carnival of Personal Finance #199
Rich Life Carnival #19 - Money Blueprint Edition
5 Steps You Need to Take in Preparation of Being a Mentor/Protege
10 Things to Look for in a Protege
10 Things to Look for in a Mentor

This is the fourth part of a five part series.

1. Want to Be Successful? – Get a Mentor

2. 10 Things to Look for in a Mentor

3. 10 Things to Look for in a Protege

4. 5 Steps You Need to Take in Preparation of Being a Mentor/Protege

5. World’s Greatest Mentoring Relationships

Whether you are interested in being a mentor or a protege, there are some steps that you should take before entering into this sort of relationship. One thing to keep in mind is that no mentoring relationship is the same. All mentoring relationships are unique.

1. What Do You Expect – Before setting out to do anything, you need to consider what you want to accomplish. This goes for mentoring or just about anything in general. If you are a mentor, are you looking for pass on specific knowledge? For a protege, what would you want to get from a mentoring relationship? This step is most important and expectations or goals should be known by the mentor and protege. I would suggest that the expectations be SMART, but that is ultimately up to you. Remember that mentoring is a relationship, it’s constantly growing and changing course, and nothing is set in stone.

Personal Story

As I mentioned in my posts, I have a FOREX mentor. She actually approached me. I really didn’t know anything about FOREX trading and had no desire to learn. After she initiated the contact, I read a about the subject. It sounded interesting, but I still wasn’t sure what she would be doing exactly. She explained that she would spend as much time with me as I wanted using Skype. After speaking with her on a separate occasion and saw that she wasn’t trying to make money off of me, I was all in.

I am now trying to find the same sort of mentoring, but in real estate investing. I think I may have found one and look forward to sharing my experiences when I do.

2. Assess Skills and/or Experiences – Before entering into a mentoring relationship, the mentor and protege need to assess each other’s qualities to ensure a good fit. There are many ways to do this such as by exchanging resumes or cover letters. The cover letter should obviously be geared towards the potential mentoring relationship. You may want to include your goals for the mentorship. Another way to assess the potential mentor or protege is to actually meet. It’s preferable that this is a short meeting. You are basically trying to get a feel for the other person and see if they’re going to be a fit or not.

3. Be Prepared to Retract – If after exchanging resumes/cover letters and possibly meeting with the person, you may find that you two are not a match. That’s OK. It’s better to find out ahead of time before much time is invested. Whether you are a mentor or a protege, you want to make sure that you’ve found a good fit for you. If both parties aren’t fully committed or compatible, move on. A mentoring relationship can be as rewarding as you want it to be!

4. Set Boundaries – Think about how personal you want to get in your mentorship. Perhaps a protege is mentoring under someone to mentor them in starting up a business. Many people are really “tight lipped” about their finances. How detailed does the protege want to get with their finances? Is this instance, it might be crucial for the protege to disclose his or her finances, but this is a boundary that the mentor/protege needs to think about. Related to that, does a protege disclose a possible partner’s financials? Be sure that you are very clear with your mentor/protege from the beginning about boundaries. It would be a real shame for spend a few weeks with a person and then come to a halt due to a boundary that wasn’t discussed, but is crucial to the process.

5. Why Do You Want to be a Mentor or Protege? – Perhaps, if you are a potential mentor, you want to pass on your knowledge to others. In fact, you may even be so inclined because you feel like you owe society because someone was generous enough to mentor you in the past. For a protege, maybe you want to hone a particular skill. Perhaps you want help in a broader sense, such as personal development. Whatever your position, figure out why you want to be a mentor or protege. I know that’s one of the first questions I’d ask if I was interviewing a prospective mentor/protege.

Have you been a mentor or protege before? Did you do anything to prepare for the mentorship?

Photo by: Marina Cast

Other Posts

First Edition of the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights
10 Things to Look for in a Protege
10 Things to Look for in a Mentor
Want to Be Successful? - Get a Mentor
5 Reasons Why You Should Have a Store Front

This is the third part of a five part series.

1. Want to Be Successful? - Get a Mentor

2. 10 Things to Look for in a Mentor

3. 10 Things to Look for in a Protege

4. 5 Steps You Need to Take in Preparation of Being a Mentor/Protege

5. World’s Greatest Mentoring Relationships

There have been many great mentor/protege relationships. At least for me, it seems a protege is typically looking for a mentor to help obtain the goals they have set out, but that isn’t always the case. In fact, in 2007 Warren Buffett announced he was looking for a successor(s). This is a bit of a different circumstance than the typical mentor/protege relationship.

In the same vein that a protege looks for qualities in a mentor, a mentor could be looking for certain qualities in a protege. He or she may be want to pass on knowledge of a particular subject. If you think about it, it makes sense in the grand scheme of things. A person lives for let’s say, 75 years. Well, that is 75 years of experience that someone is walking around with. If the mentor worked hard and obtained success in his or her career, that is a lot of knowledge that they could pass onto a younger generation and help the younger generation shave time off of a potential learning curve. For the sake of man kind and progress, this mentor has not only allowed or at least laid down the ground work to obtain the same success that he or she achieved, but helped them in getting a leg up so that they can progress past the success of the mentor and in turn help society progress (hopefully in the right direction).

So, what should a mentor be looking for in a protege?

1. Motivated - A mentor wants someone who is motivated to succeed in whatever it is that they want to pursue. A mentor more than likely values his or her time and wants to use it wisely and thus on someone who will ACT on the knowledge passed down.

2. Time - A protege needs to be able to carve out time in their schedule. If the potential protege isn’t able to commit a meaningful amount of time, it’s time to look for a different protege.

3. Positive - It’s never any fun to work with someone that isn’t positive around you. The mentor should look for happy people. The protege should look at things in the context of the "glass is half full."

4. Respectful - You want a protege that is respectful of you and your time. A lot of people pay large sums of money to be mentored on anything from blogging to real estate investing (think late night infomercials).

5. Willing to Learn - This goes along with being motivated, but you can be motivated and still not willing to learn. "An investment in knowledge pays the best dividend." - Benjamin Franklin

6. Honesty - It’s a complete waste of time if the protege isn’t honest with you. I’ll stay with Benjamin Franklin with a quote on honesty: “Trickery and treachery are the practices of fools that have not the wits enough to be honest.”

7. Communication - The protege needs to be vocal in whether concepts are clear. The protege also needs to be able to vocalize his or her thoughts and help steer their development. The protege doesn’t need to be a gifted speaker or the most opinionated, but they need to be able to carry on a conversation.

8. Confidence - This isn’t a must, but it’s probably necessary to start out with some resemblance of confidence. People, mentors included, are just naturally attracted to someone who is confident and comfortable in their skin.

9 & 10. I didn’t want to add something just to add it so I’m curious if there is anything you would add. I’d like to get your input and I’ll finish it up based on the best suggestion.

Let’s hear your suggestions for 9 and 10!

Photo by Martin Kingsley

Other Posts

10 Things to Look for in a Mentor
Want to Be Successful? - Get a Mentor
5 Reasons Why You Should Have a Store Front
5 Reasons Why You Should NOT have a Store Front
Case Study: My Adventures in Forex Trading (Update: 3/16)

This is the second part of a 5 part series.

1. Want to Be Successful? - Get a Mentor

2. 10 Things to Look for in a Mentor

3. 10 Things to Look for in a Protege

4. 5 Steps You Need to Take in Preparation of Being a Mentor/Protege

5. World’s Great Mentoring Relationships

1. Experienced - Mentors are typically older, but that is not a rule. As Bud Bilinch from Fast Company states, one of his mentors is 20 years younger than him and is teaching him the ways of the Web 2.0 world.

2. Character – Your mentor should be a person that you respect and admire. Many times a protege (mentee) patterns his or her life after the life of the mentor and thus you want to ensure you are following a person that with good moral standing.

3. Similar Goals - Find a mentor that has goals similar to yours. It can only help your chances of success if your mentor has already gone through a lot of the work you have in front of you.

4. Availability - Your mentor needs to be available for interaction. It can be great to have a really successful person mentoring you, but if they aren’t available to meet, it defeats the purpose of the arrangement.

5. Open-minded – You need a mentor that is open-minded. This will allow you to progress in a way you need to progress, not necessarily in the way the mentor would prefer.

6. Caring – We all want people to think what we’re doing is important especially our mentor. A mentor needs to care about your success just as much as you do. This is a person that should help you up when you fall and all of this starts with the mentor caring about you and your success.

7. Positive – Your mentor needs to be positive and help keep you positive. If you spend a meaningful amount of time with your mentor, and they are positive, this is bound to rub off on you. Remember, good thoughts in, good thoughts out. People want to work with other positive people. The future is bright and as Henry Ford says “Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.”

8. Focus – You want a mentor who is able to not only focus on you and what you would like to achieve, but also help you focus. For instance, let’s say you are new to starting a business and have a mentor who has been successful in starting many businesses over the past 30 years. Starting a business can be a daunting task. There’s a lot of things to think about and especially in the beginning, you have to wear many hats. A mentor can help direct you to what might be the most important point in terms of starting a business.

9. Believes in You – A mentor needs to believe in your potential. If they aren’t sold on you, they aren’t going to put all of their effort into the mentor-protege relationship. No one wins in this relationship and both parties are wasting their time.

10. Open and Honest – A mentor-protege relationship is most beneficial when you can both share experiences and bits of information that a normal acquaintance wouldn’t know about you. Openness and honesty also help build credibility and trust among the mentor and protege.

Remember, a mentoring relationship is only as good as the sum of it’s parts. This is only a guide line for what to look for in a mentor. You may add or subtract from this list as pertains to your situation.

Are there other qualities you look for in a mentor? How did you decide who your mentor was going to be?

Photo by: Puliarf

Other Posts

Want to Be Successful? - Get a Mentor
5 Reasons Why You Should Have a Store Front
5 Reasons Why You Should NOT have a Store Front
Case Study: My Adventures in Forex Trading (Update: 3/16)
Carnival of Personal Finance #197

This is the first of five posts on mentoring. The other four will be posted in the coming weeks.

1. Want to Be Successful? – Get a Mentor

2. 10 Things to Look for in a Mentor

3. 10 Things to Look for in a Protege

4. 5 Things You Need to Do in Preparation of Being a Mentor/Protege

5. World’s Greatest Mentoring Relationships

You’ve heard the saying: "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Well, success is too. Success is whatever you want it to be, but "there are two ways to acquire wisdom; you can either buy it or borrow it." You should by no means take a short cut because you will only be short changing yourself, but if there is an easier way to do something, do that. Get a mentor.

What does having a mentor mean?

From Wikipedia:

One definition of the many that has been proposed, is "Mentoring is a process for the informal transmission of knowledge, social capital, and the psychosocial support perceived by the recipient as relevant to work, career, or professional development;mentoring entails informal communication, usually face-to-face and during a sustained period of time, between a person who is percieved [sic] to have greater relevant knowledge, wisdom, or experience (the mentor) and a person who is perceived to have less (the protege)" (Bozeman, Feeney, 2007).

Personal Story

I’ve had official and unofficial mentoring relationships. I’ll be honest that my past mentoring relationships, in my opinion, have not been that beneficial. However, I have 3 separate relationships with people that I think could evolve into a mentor – protege relationship. One of the relationships that you all are familiar with is my mentoring relationship with my FOREX mentor. I feel safe in saying that there is no way I would be where I am in my FOREX trading, and in such a short span of time, if it weren’t for her.

So, why do you need a mentor?

What are they going to offer you that you can’t find in a blog or a book?

1. A mentor offers a relationship. This is something a blog or book simply can’t offer. You might be able to have a relationship with a book or more likely a blog in 50 years through the evolution of technology, but I don’t see it changing anytime soon. Besides, having a relationship with a book just seems weird.

2. The mentor can give you advice and help guide your career. Mentors can be great sounding boards especially if you’re feeling lost or confused. Let’s see a book do that!

3. Mentors can offer encouragement especially if you are feeling discouraged, which is bound to happen when venturing into something completely new to you. Their encouragement can help you build the confidence necessary to venture out onto a new path.

4. A mentor can offer stories about their experiences that might pertain to your situation and be able to answer any questions you might have. This is especially important because a mentor’s ability to identify with you (because he/she at some point had to be where you are now to get to where they are now) enables you to envision yourself enjoying the same level of proficiency and success as he or she currently experiences.

By no means does having a mentor equal success, but it definitely can’t hurt. Some of the most successful people in the world had mentors. People are often regretful of what they did not do, not usually what they DID do.

Do you have a mentor? How has your mentoring experience gone?

This splendid photo is by: Sir Mervs

Other Posts You May Enjoy

5 Reasons Why You Should Have a Store Front
5 Reasons Why You Should NOT have a Store Front
Case Study: My Adventures in Forex Trading (Update: 3/16)
Book Review: Ready, Fire, Aim - Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat
Interview: Pledgehammer

In my previous post, I wrote about why you should not have a store front. Of course with all ideas, there are pros and cons to everything. It’s up to you to decide what’s best for you in your particular situation and different business have different needs.

1. Store fronts provide the store owner with walk in traffic - This may be more beneficial for some store owners than others. For instance, if you are next to restaurants or other businesses that receive a lot of foot traffic, you may be able to receive a portion of that traffic because of the proximity they are to your business.

Personal Story

My father’s third store was next to a hair cut establishment that provided quick hair cuts with an emphasis on catering to men and kids. I’m not sure if my father intentionally placed the store next to the hair cut business, but it paid dividends. For instance, if a family of four (mom, dad, and two kids) went into the hair salon, while one of the kids or the father was getting their hair cut, a lot of times one or both of the kids would come next door to my father’s store. Many times the parents didn’t buy anything for the kids, or if they did it was usually a small purchase, but a lot of times that short initial visit spawned subsequent visits.

2. Customer Interaction – As “connected” as we are today, nothing beats a face to face chat. If you have a website, you can call customers, e-mail, chat over Gtalk, or even chat over video, but it’s difficult to pick up on the tone of the speaker or their body language.

3. Establish Relationship and Trust – When the customer is in front of you, you are able to establish a relationship with him or her. There is an instant bit of trust involved in this connection even if it is a small. You, the business owner, allow the potential customer to put a business name with a face. If they come back, and they had a positive experience with you, they will find you. You are their connection to your business. This relationship or bit of trust can also be enhanced through your ability to tell jokes. Jokes, most often times, are difficult to convey over a website to a potential customer. It’s interactions and jokes than allow the you to build a rapport and create “raving fans.”

4. Provides Ample Selling Opportunities - It’s easy to suggest other products on a website after a customer has already committed to purchasing the initial product. A website could have “Other Customer’s Also Bought” and other suggestive links before the purchase to create additional sales. A lot of times, for me at least, that doesn’t work. When I feel like I am being pressured to buy, I do the opposite. However, if the sales person can convince me that I need it, then I might consider.

Personal Story

My wife and I were at the wireless store. She needed a new cell phone because she had lost her phone. She went and picked out the phone she wanted. We were intent on not buying any other accessories since we tend not to use them. However, when we got to the cash register, the salesman suggested we get a screen protector. My wife and I adamantly said “no.” We were fixated on NOT buying any accessories. However, the sales person made a few valid points that the screen will dull over time when placed inside of a jean pocket and scratch through the use of the touch screen. So we ended up purchasing the screen protector, but this would not have happened if we were purchasing through a website because this conversation would not have occurred.

5. Ability to see and feel the product - For instance, a speciality wedding dress shop may have a difficult time selling dresses online. Brides are usually very particular and an in-person measurement is most often times needed. Being able to see a fabric up close and feel its texture, especially for something as specialized as a wedding dress, is essential to most brides. Providing customers in a specialized market a physical shopping experience is almost always vital to making a sale. For a business selling more mundane products, like a book store, a store front is less of a necessity since a book is a product that does not necessarily need to be touched to convey worth and value.

What do you think? Do you have a store? Have you always wanted a store?

Photo by: Striatic

Other Posts You May Enjoy

5 Reasons Why You Should NOT have a Store Front
Case Study: My Adventures in Forex Trading (Update: 3/16)
Book Review: Ready, Fire, Aim - Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat
Carnival of Personal Finance 195th Edition
What Time Do You Wake Up?

Opening a business is tough. A lot of great companies have started when the economy is down such as GE, Google, Microsoft, and Allstate. Whether times are tough or the economy is going strong, when it comes to a business, you’re only going to stay open as long as your sales exceed your expenses unless you happen to have a pile of cash to burn through. If the latter is the case, please e-mail me and I can help with that :).

Personal Story

My wife and I spoke having a store front the other day. She is interested in becoming a baker specializing in cakes and cupcakes. I hadn’t posted anything about her blog before, but you are welcome to take a look at it. If you take a look at her blog, you can see that she’s gotten pretty darn good at the art of baking and decorating cakes and cupcakes. If we were to make a pro/com list, there would surely be a good list for both, but this article will be focusing on the con portion of the list.

5 Reasons Why You Should NOT have a Store Front

1. Store Fronts are Expensive - This is a no-brainer, and the main reason why I don’t want a store front. Before you make any profit for the month, you have to make, in most cases, at least $1000 (I’m guessing on the rent) and up to $1000’s of dollars a month for nicer locations. This seems backwards to me. It seems silly that people should have to work really hard just to break even, not to mention how hard you have to work to make a few bucks on top of that. When I think of store fronts, I can’t help but think about being a sharecropper and that’s is not a positive image for me.

2. Vacations are gone - My dad had 3 different stores during his tenure as a business man. I always had a lot of fun in the last two stores (I was not born for the first store). The second store sold comics, costumes, and magic tricks. The third store sold sports cards, comics, magic the gathering cards, and Pokemon cards. Both stores were really cool as a little kid and teenager. If there was something I really wanted in there, I could talk to him about a way to work for that item. Looking back on my childhood though, there was one thing missing from our vacations: my father.

3. Time Away from Family - When you are getting a business off the ground, lots of time will be spent on the business. Most people value time with their family. If the business is located away from the home, this is more time spent away from your family. If you are able to keep your business at home, this inherently gives you more time with your family, although probably not much in terms of quality time. However, having the business at home may also allow you to avoid daycare partially or all together.

4. Less Flexibility - Here’s the deal. You have a store and it must be occupied by either yourself or an employee at all times. In the case of a bakery, hours during the week are typical and on Saturday at a minimum is required for potential customers. In addition to less flexibility in terms of time, there is also a lack of flexibility in terms of businesses’ finances. A lot of people are feeling the pain of America’s current financial state. If you have a store, and business goes down, that could certainly put your finances in a crunch. If you worked from home, you have less expenses overall and are more flexible if there is a dip in your business.

5. Added Expense - Rent is not the only cost associated with renting a space. In addition to the utilities such as electricity, cable, gas, there is also the expense of making the space as you see fit. Your landlord is more than likely not going to turn the space into what you desire. For example, my wife is interested in opening a bakery. If we were lucky enough to find a store front with a kitchen included, I think we should consider ourselves lucky. If we find a store front with a kitchen, we will need to make the kitchen to fit to the needs of a bakery. Some additional costs could be if there are repairs needed for the rented space and the cost of any potential employees.

I understand that some businesses have more of a need for a store front than others. For instance, a fast food place might rely on foot traffic for a lot of it’s revenue plus hunger is a pretty urgent need, but an online book retailer might be able to get away with not having a store front (i.e. Amazon).

What do you think about having a store front for your business?

Photo by: Any Jazz65

Other Posts You May Enjoy

Case Study: My Adventures in Forex Trading (Update: 3/16)
Interview: Pledgehammer
Book Review: Ready, Fire, Aim - Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat
What Time Do You Wake Up?
What Did The New Obama Speech About His Budget Mean to You?