Tag Archives: Entrepreneurship

Business

Billionaire Gautam Adani Loses $26 Billion

Leave a comment

Last year, Gautam Adani, 60, was the star of all the rankings of the biggest fortunes in the world. 

He was one of the few billionaires to see his net worth rise sharply as the global economic downturn rattled the fortunes of tech tycoons. 

Adani, an unknown in the West, saw his fortune increase by $40 billion, according to the calculations of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index during a year when Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla  (TSLA) – Get Free Report, and Jeff Bezos the founder and chairman of Amazon  (AMZN) – Get Free Report have suffered some of the biggest losses. 

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of the social networking giant Meta Platforms  (META) – Get Free Report had been ejected from the top 20 billionaires.

Adani, the new richest man in Asia, then saw his rise in the billionaires elite club as an opportunity for him to develop his empire globally and make a name for himself on the international stage. This year should therefore be the year of this strategy. But instead of the coronation he had planned, Adani has been caught in a real nightmare since Jan. 24. This nightmare could have important consequences on his ambitions of global expansion.

Serious Allegations

The New York investment firm Hindenburg Research has announced, on Jan. 24, that it shorted stocks of the Andani conglomerate through U.S.-traded bonds and non-Indian-traded derivative instruments. 

This means that Hindenburg Research, a well-known short-seller, is betting on a short-term drop in the prices of these equities. 

The short-seller explained that the bet stems from alleged illegal practices on the part of the Indian tycoon’s conglomerate.

“We have uncovered evidence of brazen accounting fraud, stock manipulation and money laundering at Adani, taking place over the course of decades,” Hindenburg wrote in a report. 

“Adani has pulled off this gargantuan feat with the help of enablers in government and a cottage industry of international companies that facilitate these activities.”

The report describes a galaxy of shell entities based in tax havens — the Caribbean, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates — controlled by the Adani family.

The Adani Empire has rejected all these accusations and threatened to resort to the legal process to defend itself. 

“The maliciously mischievous, unresearched report published by Hindenburg Research on 24 Jan 2023 has adversely affected the Adani Group, our shareholders and investors,” said Adani Group’s head of legal, Jatin Jalundhwala, in a statement on Jan. 26. 

“We are evaluating the relevant provisions under US and Indian laws for remedial and punitive action against Hindenburg Research,” he continued.

Adani Drops in the Rankings

But Hindenburg, which is credited with bringing down Trevor Milton, the founder of electric-truck maker Nikola, doubled down.

“Regarding the company’s threats of legal action, to be clear, we would welcome it,” the short-seller reacted. “We fully stand by our report and believe any legal action taken against us would be meritless.”

Investors so far seem to believe Hindenburg more than Adani Group’s denials.

The Adani empire has lost a total of $51 billion in market capitalization during the last two trading sessions following the allegations. Adani Enterprises, the flagship of this empire, for example, lost nearly a fifth (more than 19%) of its value on Jan. 27. Units like Adani Green Energy and Adani Total Gas plunged 20%, the daily limit allowed. Adani Power lost 5%. Adani Port’s share price dropped 13.8% and Adani Transmission fell 19.47%.

As Adani’s net worth is primarily tied to his holdings in these various entities, his fortune too has shrunk by more than a fifth in just three days. He was worth $119 billion on Jan. 24, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. But as of Jan. 27, the Indian tycoon was worth just $92.7 billion. He thus lost $26.3 billion in three days, or 22% of his fortune melted in 72 hours.

Adani has fallen down the rankings and now finds himself the seventh richest person in the world after starting the year fourth. If he fails to convince investors very quickly that Hindenburg’s accusations are unfounded, he risks finding himself outside the top 10 in the coming days. 

The group has promised a detailed response to the accusations of the short-seller. But no release date has been officially announced.



Read original article here

Business

A 39-year-old who makes $160,000/month in passive income shares his best advice

Leave a comment

When starting a business, it’s sometimes hard to know what to prioritize, and going at it alone can be overwhelming. But there are strategies you can use to avoid common pitfalls.

My mission is to teach people how to earn money from their passions. It’s what I did: I went from living on food stamps to building two online businesses.

Today, I run a music blog, The Recording Revolution, and a entrepreneurship coaching company. I work just five hours a week from my home office and make $160,000 a month in passive income.

Here’s what I tell my 3,000 clients to think about in the first 30 days of starting a business:

1. Be clear about how you want to spend your time.

Many new business owners I meet know only one thing: how much money they want to make. 

While that’s a great starting point, it’s incomplete. Your business should serve your life, not the other way around. So make sure it aligns with your hopes, dreams and goals.

To get clear about the type of business and life you want, ask three questions:

  1. What does a perfect day look like to you? Don’t just think about your typical workday. Consider other life activities you want to fit into your day, like exercising or spending time with family.
  2. How many hours do you want to work a week? You don’t have to follow the standard 40-hour workweek. Knowing exactly how many hours you want to work will help you better prioritize tasks.
  3. How important is time off? Some people don’t care much about taking time off, as long as they love what they do. Others value extended time off. In order to have money flowing in when you’re not working, you’ll need to have some sort of passive income stream.

2. Simplify your business model.

When I started my music education business, people told me I needed to test my sales pages, throw launch parties and pre-record a bunch of ads in order to grow.

Rather than stretching myself thin doing things that didn’t make sense to me, I kept it simple and focused on three things: creating weekly content for my blog and YouTube channel, growing my email list from that audience, and promoting the paid products I created to that list.

If you’re just starting out, develop content around your expertise to grow an audience. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You can iterate as you go and design new products based on what your customers want more of.

3. Cut out unnecessary daily tasks.

Identify what daily activities will help you earn more. Don’t waste time or burn yourself out focusing on unimportant tasks.

It might feel good to get to inbox zero or change the color of the buttons on your website, especially in the early days where you want to feel like you’ve achieved a goal. But neither of those things will make you money.

Before you start a new task, ask yourself three questions:

  1. What’s the expected outcome for doing this task? 
  2. Does it lead to more money?
  3. Can I point to a direct link between doing that task and earning income?
  4. What’s the cost of doing this instead of something else? 

4. Prioritize having fun.

People can tell if you’re just doing something for the money or if you actually love what you do. That authenticity will connect you deeper to your customers and it will sustain you for the long haul. 

You don’t want to burn out because you spent all your time doing things that weren’t meaningful to you.

I always give my students this framework when they are beginning their entrepreneur journey: Build a business around something you see yourself doing and enjoying for the next 10 years. 

Graham Cochrane is founder of The Recording Revolution and author of “How to Get Paid for What You Know.” He has helped more than 3,000 people launch and improve their own businesses. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter.

Don’t miss:



Read original article here

Entertainment

‘Top Gun’ to ‘Avatar’, these are the highest-grossing movies of 2022

Leave a comment

“Avatar: The Way of Water” has made over $1 billion in ticket sales in just two weeks.

James Cameron’s blockbuster, the sequel to the highest-grossing movie of all time, joins “Jurassic World: Dominion” as a 10-figure earner this year and may depose Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” as the highest-grossing 2022 release by the end of its time in theaters.

“Avatar’s” performance means that 2022 will end with three films passing the billion-dollar threshold at the box office.

While that’s a far cry from the nine billion-dollar grossers that 2019 — the final full box office year before the pandemic — had, it’s still an increase from 2020 and 2021 which had zero and one movies earn over $1 billion, respectively.

Though some industry watchers had predicted that the domestic box office would cross $8 or $9 billion, those hopes were dashed in part because some big-budget films have been delayed, including another Tom Cruise title, the hotly-anticipated “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning”.

Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” is the highest-grossing film of 2022 with nearly $1.5 billion.

Xavi Lopez | Lightrocket | Getty Images

“We might have been in a situation where we had two Tom Cruise blockbusters in the same year,” says Daniel Loría, editorial director at BoxOffice.com. “So I think that’s why we ended up on an ultimately disappointing number with ticket sales.”

Despite there being 40% less film content in theaters this year compared to 2019, industry watchers still see hope for the cinematic experience.

“What we do know is we can still have cultural moments of going to the movies for something that’s uniquely a cinema experience,” Loría tells Make It. “But we are seeing less and less titles coming out from major studios.”

These are the highest-grossing films of the year that received a significant domestic release, with data from Box Office Mojo as of Dec. 28.

10. ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’

Release date: April 8

Worldwide gross: $402 million

9. ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore’

Release date: April 15

Worldwide gross: $405 million

8. ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’

Release date: July 8

Worldwide gross: $760 million

7. ‘The Batman’

Release date: March 4

Worldwide gross: $770 million

6. ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’

Release date: November 11

Worldwide gross: $803 million (as of Dec. 28)

5. ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’

Release date: July 1

Worldwide gross: $939 million

4. ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’

Release date: May 6

Worldwide gross: $955.7 million

3. ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’

Release date: June 10

Worldwide gross: $1.001 billion

2. ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’

Release date: December 16

Worldwide gross: $1.03 billion (as of Dec. 28)

1. ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

Read original article here

Entertainment

‘Avatar 2’ looks different from any movie you’ve ever seen—here’s why

Leave a comment

With “Avatar: The Way of Water” hitting theaters this weekend, director James Cameron is gambling that audiences are ready to not only return to Pandora after 13 years, but that they will be open to a film shot in 48 frames per second. 

For virtually the entire history of film, movies have been shot and displayed at the cinematic standard of 24 frames per second. This means that 24 still images are displayed on the screen every second, creating the illusion of motion. 

While there have been high profile attempts to bring higher frame rate films to theaters in the past — Peter Jackson tried it with his “Hobbit” films and director Ang Lee wanted audiences to see 2019’s “Gemini Man” at a whopping 120 frames per second — both received swift blowback from critics and audiences for the way they looked.

“It came to kind of define the genre of film,” Richard Miller, executive vice president of technology at Pixelworks, says of the 24 frames per second look. “We’ve become very used to it. I think our brains know that we’re watching a story when we see it.”

Newscasts, live sports and even soap operas typically hit your TV screen at 30 frames per second, which gives them their distinct visual feel. But when a film is presented in a high frame rate, the end result can end up looking too realistic to some people, and take them out of the story.

Avatar: The Way of Water

Courtesy Disney Co.

“The old way of doing high frame rate makes it look like sports or a documentary or a soap opera, and it kind of disengages that storytelling zone,” Miller says. “When filmmakers make a movie, they try to instill a suspense of disbelief. You can only really get there with the 24 frames per second look. If you try a high frame rate look, you ruin the suspense of disbelief.” 

“I think everybody who has a recent TV, they’ve seen it,” he adds. It’s kind of subconscious, but it just doesn’t quite look right. It doesn’t look like a movie.” 

Enter James Cameron.

For “Avatar: The Way of Water” as well as the recently re-released original, Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment worked with Pixelworks’ TrueCut Motion platform to adjust the look of the onscreen motion in every shot of the film. 

These “motion grading” adjustments – which Miller hopes will one day be as common as color grading in the post-production process – allow the film to be shown in 48 frames per second so that images look crisp and detailed on bigger, brighter and better displays, but without any unusual-looking motion taking viewers out of the story.

The result is that “Avatar: The Way of Water” is the first major film to be released in a high frame rate but adjusted to keep its “cinematic” look.

In the case of the “Avatar” sequel, the action and underwater sequences will run at a higher frame rate, allowing the motion to look better and more realistic, while dramatic scenes have been adjusted to look like the traditional 24 frames per second standard that audiences are accustomed to. 

“It’s a tool for the director to create the look that he or she wants shot by shot,” Miller says. “It’s used selectively. Some shots may not need the tool at all.” 

The end goal is to create a seamless visual experience that maximizes the aesthetic and cinematic appeal of each shot in the film.

Still, Miller says, the idea is also for moviegoers to not notice anything different about the action onscreen other than that it looks great.

“Sit back, relax and immerse yourself in the movie,” he says.

“Allow that suspension of disbelief to happen and just lose yourself in the world of Pandora. If you never notice anything distracting about the motion and you just love the movie and the story, our job is done.”

Sign up now: Get smarter about your money and career with our weekly newsletter

Don’t miss: ‘Avatar’ director James Cameron once threw out a 130-page script for a sequel: ‘It never quite fit’

Read original article here

Business

Millennial’s beauty startup Social Bella raised over $225 million

Leave a comment

When the Covid pandemic was raging in 2020, much of the world was in lockdown and more turned to online shopping.

But Chrisanti Indiana did the unexpected: she expanded her e-commerce business — offline.

Her beauty and personal care e-commerce startup, Sociolla, had just two brick-and-mortar stores in Indonesia in 2019. By the end of 2021, that number grew “10 times” more, she said.

“A lot of people actually told us that it’s a very bold move to actually open an offline presence, while everybody was closing their offline stores [during the pandemic],” she added. 

But that was a “well-calculated” move for Social Bella, which operates Sociolla. 

We know that this is the time for us to actually prepare … to make sure that after the pandemic, we can serve more and more consumers.

Chrisanti Indiana

Co-founder and CMO, Sociolla

“We know that this is the time for us to actually prepare … to make sure that after the pandemic, we can serve more and more consumers,” she added. 

Looking far ahead turned out to be the right move for the 31-year-old. Her online and offline approach transformed her e-commerce startup into a multimillion-dollar beauty conglomerate.  

Since 2018, it has raised around $225 million, and drawn an impressive list of investors that include East Ventures, Jungle Ventures, Temasek and Pavilion Capital.  

Indiana, the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Social Bella, tells CNBC Make It how she took her Jakarta-based startup to the next level.

Tackling counterfeits  

The idea for Sociolla came about in 2015, when Indiana returned home to Jakarta, after studying in Australia.  

The makeup junkie realized that in Australia, she had easy access to a wide range of beauty products from international brands. That was a stark contrast to Indonesia.

“There was lot of options for me, but then I came back and there’s basically none,” said Indiana. 

“There wasn’t a platform that had it all — I had to find specific sellers on social media, ask friends who can help purchase the product for you [when they are] overseas.”

What made matters worse for her was the online proliferation of counterfeit makeup products that were sometimes selling at “a fraction” of the original’s price. 

I still remember vividly in my mind that there’s a lot of like sellers online, especially on social media, that claim their products are 99% authentic. What does that mean, 99% authentic?

Chrisanti Indiana

Co-founder and CMO, Sociolla

“I still remember vividly in my mind that there’s a lot of like sellers online, especially on social media, that claim their products are 99% authentic. What does that mean, 99% authentic?” 

Indeed, locally made counterfeits in Indonesia are rife, thanks to cheap labor costs and materials. According to a local report, Indonesian authorities seized illegal cosmetic products worth $9 million in 2018 — twice the previous year’s amount. 

Seeing friends buying these products left Indiana perplexed. 

“It’s skincare, it’s makeup. It’s something that you put on your skin. It’s just bizarre for me,” she said. 

Sociolla has expanded into brick-and-mortar shops. It now has 47 stores in Indonesia and 16 in Vietnam.

Social Bella

Determined to build a space where consumers can get products that are safe and authentic, Indiana teamed up with her brother and friend to launch Social Bella, with a starting capital of $13,000.

“Since we started, we ensure that we only work with authorized distributors or brand owners,” Indiana said. 

Building an ‘ecosystem’

Sociolla may have started off as an e-commerce platform, but the trio had bigger dreams. 

Social Bella has since gone beyond offline shops — it’s also a distributor for beauty and personal care manufacturers worldwide.  

“We become an associate partner for a lot of global brands in Indonesia. We help them not only to distribute their products to Indonesia, but we also help them understand the market,” said Indiana.

On top of that, the business also operates Soco, which Social Bella says is Indonesia’s largest online review service for beauty products. Soco has amassed more than 2.5 million reviews for around 36,000 products, the company added. 

Social Bella was founded in 2015 by Chrisanti Indiana, her brother and president Christopher Madiam (left) and CEO John Rasjid (right).

Social Bella

The “beauty journey” for customers goes beyond putting something in their shopping carts and checking out, said Indiana. 

“We realized that there’s a lot of touch points that are really important … finding the right products for yourself is not just about going to the store and picking it up. You will make sure that you read the reviews, talk to your friends, or Google first,” she added. 

“Soco makes sure that they can access tons of product reviews before they purchase products.”

On top of that, Social Bella also runs Beauty Journal — a lifestyle website, and Lilla, an online retailer for mothers and babies.

That’s all part of building the business “ecosystem,” as Indiana calls it.

We want to make sure that we are scaling up and reaching more and more consumers. If Social Bella becomes a unicorn, it’s a bonus.

“We want to … to serve more and more women, not only in beauty and personal care, but also in other industries.”

The startup appears to be on the right track — it now boasts more than 30 million users across all its business units, said Social Bella, selling an inventory of 12,000 products from 400 brands worldwide.

Indonesia’s next unicorn? 

Over the last two years, Social Bella expanded aggressively, growing from just three Sociolla stores in Indonesia in 2020, to 47 stores there and 16 stores in Vietnam today.

While much of the expansion took place during the pandemic, Indiana said that had always been part of the plan for the e-commerce platform, lockdowns or not.

“It’s actually to create a seamless omnichannel experience … because we believe that we are serving the same customer whether she shops offline or online,” the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia honoree said.

“They can choose to do click-and-collect or … she can also deliver the purchases to her home. It’s making sure that she can shop the way she likes.” 

Social Bella aims to serve more female customers.

Social Bella

Read original article here

Business

Elon Musk might buy Twitter—what you’d have if you invested $1,000

Leave a comment

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is reviving his offer to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, which is about $44 billion, following a tense legal battle between himself and the social media platform, according to a regulatory filing.

Twitter issued a statement indicating it intends to close the deal at the original agreed-upon price after Musk’s announcement.

Twitter shares closed at a price of $52 per share on Oct. 4, following the news of Musk’s planned acquisition. That reflects a 22.2% increase from the prior day’s close of $42.54.

If you had invested $1,000 into Twitter a year ago, you’d have less money currently. Your investment would be worth around $890 as of Oct. 4, according to CNBC’s calculations.

However, if you’d invested $1,000 into Twitter five years ago, your investment would have nearly tripled in value and be worth around $2,929 as of Oct. 4, per CNBC’s calculations.

And if you had invested $1,000 into Twitter when the company went public in 2013 at the offer price of $26 per share, your investment would be worth about $2,000 as of Oct. 4 before fees, CNBC found.

Meanwhile, Tesla shares closed at $249.44 per share on Oct. 4. The electric vehicle maker’s shares are currently down about 32% in 2022.

Musk and Twitter have been locked in a battle of “deal or no deal” since April, when the billionaire initially offered to buy the social media platform for $44 billion. However, Musk attempted to back out of the deal in July. Twitter then sued him to force him to complete the deal, and the two parties were scheduled to go to trial on Oct. 17 in Delaware.

If you’re considering investing in Twitter, Tesla or another publicly traded company remember: Given the unpredictability of the stock market, you shouldn’t use a stock’s past performance as an indicator of how well it will perform in the future.

Rather than attempting to select individual stocks, a passive investment strategy tends to make sense for most investors. Investing in an index like the S&P 500, which tracks the stock performance of 500 large American publicly traded companies, can be a great way to start.

As of Oct. 4, the S&P 500 was down close to 12% compared to 12 months ago. However, the index has grown by about 49% since 2017 and increased by nearly 117% since 2013.

Sign up now: Get smarter about your money and career with our weekly newsletter

Don’t miss: Apple just announced its new iPhone 14—here’s how much you’d have if you invested $1,000 a decade ago

Read original article here

Business

International Coffee Day discounts at Burger King, IKEA and more

Leave a comment

Coffee lovers rejoice.

The first day of October marks International Coffee Day — a holiday created by the International Coffee Organization in 2014 to celebrate coffee lovers across the globe.

From cappuccinos to espressos, coffee reigns as the most popular beverage in the United States. In fact, Americans consume about 491 million cups per day, according to National Coffee Association USA.

If you’re looking to save money on your favorite cup of joe, check out these companies for free or discounted coffee for the holiday. Although International Coffee Day is Oct. 1, some deals go until Oct. 5.

Au Bon Pain

From Sept. 29 through Oct. 1, customers can get a small drip coffee for $1.

Atlas Coffee Club

Until Oct. 3, customers can use the code “ATLASCOFFEEDAY22” to get a free 12 oz. bag of single-origin coffee beans with the purchase of a subscription.

Burger King

Until Oct. 2, “Royal Perks” members can get a free small “BK Café Iced Coffee” with a purchase made between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. on the BK app or online.

IKEA

IKEA is offering a 20% discount on its entire line of coffee available in the Swedish Food Market until Oct. 4. Additionally, the furniture retailer continuously offers free coffee to members of its “IKEA Family Program.”

La Colombe

On Oct. 1, La Colombe is offering a buy one, get one 50% off deal on all 12-ounce boxes of coffee beans in its cafes and online.

Peet’s Coffee

Until Oct. 2, customers can get a 20% discount on coffee beans and K-cup pods in Peet’s locations and on its website. Coffee lovers can also get a 20% discount on online purchases using the code “COFFEEDAY” and free delivery on Coffeebar orders through Oct. 2.

Wendy’s

Customers can snag a free coffee with a purchase made via the Wendy’s mobile app until Oct. 5.

Ongoing perks for coffee lovers

Read original article here

Business

‘I work just 3.5 days a week’

Leave a comment

In 2017, after I graduated from college, I started working as an engineer at an oil company. I was 23 and making $98,500 a year.

At first, I thought I had my dream job. But after seeing senior leaders work 60-hour weeks with routine travel, I realized that it wasn’t the lifestyle I wanted. My father passed away when I was three years old, so having family time was always very valuable to me.

Josh works less than four days a week and spends his much of his free time with his family.

Photo: Danny Mizicko for CNBC Make It

In 2018, I started experimenting with side hustles. I set a goal to make $3,450 a month (after taxes) from my hustles in order to support my lifestyle. As soon as I’d achieved that, I decided, I would quit my full-time job.

Today, I’ve accomplished my goal of being my own boss, and more. I left my engineering job in February 2021 to work on my side hustles full-time.

Last year, I made a little over $189,000 from my seven income streams:

  1. YouTube (Google AdSense): $82,349
  2. Fulfilled by Amazon: $13,886
  3. Patreon (coaching): $33,114
  4. Fiverr (product research): $29,014
  5. Affiliate marketing: $29,496
  6. Rental property: $1,272
  7. Taxable dividends: $639

Now I work just 22 hours a week. I take off Thursdays, Friday afternoons, and weekends. Whether it’s golfing with my grandpa, cooking family dinners or starting new business projects in my community, I have plenty of time to invest in the people and things that I care about most. 

Here’s my best advice for turning your side hustle into your full-time gig, all while working less hours:

1. Don’t be afraid of trial and error.

With my early side hustles, I tried acquiring rental properties, then started placing ads in the backseat of Ubers and renting out my three-wheeled Polaris Slingshot motorcycle on Turo, an online car-sharing platform.

But none of those businesses were successful. It wasn’t until I began selling products on Amazon, using the Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) service, that I started making real passive income.

All I had to do was find a generic product that was in demand and ship it to Amazon. My first product was $1,000 worth of headphones, then I moved to iPhone cases and sports equipment.

I grossed more than $25,000 in 2019 through my Amazon store. I wanted to share with others what I learned from my trial and errors, so I started a new project, which would later turn into my biggest income stream: starting my own YouTube channel.

2. Build a community around your expertise.

I launched my YouTube channel, Debt To Dollars, in February 2020. I committed to posting at least two videos per week at first. Over the next eight months, I gained 14,000 subscribers and 871,000 channel views.

Josh’s most lucrative income stream in 2021 was his YouTube account, where he made almost $83,000 from advertisements.

Danny Mizicko for CNBC Make It

While growing my audience, I realized that I wanted to connect more with my subscribers and build a real community. So in October 2020, I began mentoring students one-on-one for $50 a month on how to make money selling products on Amazon.

I currently use Patreon, a platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service, to host my coaching sessions.

In February 2021, I started my product research service on Fiverr, in which customers would pay me to find high-demand, low-competition products — trending toys, pet supplies or travel accessories — that they could sell on Amazon.

These community-based businesses helped me reach my long-awaited income goal of $3,450 per month.

3. Prioritize tackling debt.

I was able to quit my full-time job when I was making less than $4,000 per month because I had paid off all of my debts, except for my house and car.

There are plenty of methods you can use to pay down debt, but I personally like the “Debt Snowball” method because it helps you see your progress.

Here’s how it works:

  1. List all of your debts from smallest to biggest.
  2. Make the biggest payment on your smallest debt and the minimum payment on the rest.
  3. Repeat until you pay off the smallest debt, then continue on with your next smallest debt.

4. Set up the legal side of your business early.

It’s important to incorporate your business with your state for practical reasons, like asset protection and tax advantages. But I also believe there’s a psychological benefit.

I attribute some of my past failures to treating my side hustles like hobbies instead of businesses. Once I formed a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in Texas in 2019, I took everything more seriously and professionally. It’s not a coincidence that all of my businesses failed until then.

An LLC has some of the best features of a corporation or partnership, two other business structures that are also used by companies in the U.S. LLCs protect their owners from being held personally responsible for the business’ debts or liability, like a corporation.

But like a partnership, LLCs income “pass through” the business and are taxed the owner’s personal income, which makes filing taxes simpler.

You can form your own LLC by filing a certificate of organization in your state, which normally costs anywhere from $50 to $300. Many states list filing information on their Secretary of State website.

5. Find a schedule that works for you and stick with it.

When I was working my full-time job, I lacked motivation to work on my side hustles.

But once I put pen to paper and committed to a schedule, working on my business was part of my weekly routine. I chose to focus on my side hustles each weekday evening after work and every Saturday morning.

I still stick with a weekly schedule. I work Monday through Wednesday and a half day on Friday. Each day I’ll work four to six hours, with each hour blocked for a specific task.

One of the benefits of setting his own schedule is getting to play golf with his grandfather on Thursday mornings.

Photo: Danny Mizicko for CNBC Make It

If you don’t set aside specific times to work on your side hustle, your business may get lost in daily priorities.

6. Set up systems that will save you time in the future.

I invest in business models that require as little of my time as possible. It is the only way I am able to work 22 hours per week and still grow multiple income streams. But remember that automating things, and creating the most effective systems, can take time at first.

Every month, I reflect on where I spent most of my work hours and find ways to make those processes more efficient. For example, I used to spend four to eight hours per week editing videos.

I decided to outsource my video editing, but that also required some time up front to run the numbers to see where it fit into my budget, and find a great editor to do the work. But now that I already put time into doing that, I spend those hours growing my business in other ways, or working less.

7. Identify what makes you different.

Marketing is more than just advertising your product or service; it’s separating yourself from your competition by making your customer feel something. They’ll come back or, even better, tell their friends about you.

When I first started selling on Amazon in 2018, I used stock photos my supplier gave me for my product listings. Unsurprisingly, they blended in with every other product. And if someone did buy, they got their product in a boring, clear bag. There was nothing that made my customer experience special.

Once I learned the importance of providing something special, I started to take my own product photos, and I designed custom packaging. My sales spiked.

No matter what your business is, decide what makes you memorable and invest in it.

Josh Ellwood is the founder of Debt To Dollars. Follow him on Instagram and YouTube.

Don’t miss:



Read original article here

Business

College dropout to world’s third-richest man

Leave a comment

There’s a new No. 3 on the global wealth rankings. Indian billionaire Gautam Adani leapfrogged luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault on Tuesday.

With a $137 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Adani is the first-ever Asian man to crack the top three. He sits behind only Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (worth $153 billion) and Tesla CEO Elon Musk (worth $251 billion) on the rich list.

The milestone comes just six months after he was named the richest person in Asia. Adani has added $60.9 billion to his fortune so far this year, making him the only member of the top 10 to not have his net worth drop in 2022.

Adani has come a long way from dropping out of college in his second year at Gujarat University to become a diamond sorter. He is the founder of the Adani Group, which has a massive portfolio of companies in various industries, including ports, coal and energy.

Adani first became a billionaire in 2008, 20 years after starting his commodities export firm. The 60-year-old passed Bill Gates on the rich list in July after Gates announced he would be giving $20 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Whether the tycoon can hold onto his No. 3 spot remains to be seen. Analysts have raised concerns about the amount of debt his company has taken on during its expansion. Additionally, a boost to the stock prices of companies like Arnault’s LVMH or Gates’ Microsoft could see Adani fall back out of the top three.

These are the 10 richest people in the world as of August 30, 2022, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

  1. Elon Musk — $251 billion
  2. Jeff Bezos — $153 billion
  3. Gautam Adani — $137 billion
  4. Bernard Arnault — $136 billion
  5. Bill Gates — $117 billion
  6. Warren Buffett — $100 billion
  7. Larry Page — $93.3 billion
  8. Sergey Brin — $95.8 billion
  9. Steve Ballmer — $93.7 billion
  10. Larry Ellison — $93.3 billion

Sign up now: Get smarter about your money and career with our weekly newsletter

Don’t miss: This company wants to pay you to watch 13 classic horror movies—here’s how to apply

Read original article here

Business

Worst states to retire—and none are New York

Leave a comment

It turns out the “Last Frontier” state may be the last place you’d want to retire: Alaska was rated the worst state for retirement, according to a new Bankrate ranking.

To determine the best and worst states for retirement, Bankrate weighed five categories: Affordability (40%), wellness (20%), culture (15%), weather (15%) and crime (10%). The combined overall score was used to determine each state’s ranking.

Alaska was dragged to the bottom of the list by low scores in affordability and weather. However, there are still positives to retiring in the most northern state: Alaska’s residents bear the nation’s lowest tax burden, according to the report.

Here are the seven worst states to retire in 2022, according to Bankrate.

  1. Alaska
  2. Maine
  3. California
  4. New Mexico
  5. Montana
  6. Vermont
  7. Maryland

Despite its notoriously high cost of living, New York didn’t fall near the bottom of the list. The state’s ranking got a boost from high scores in the wellness and culture categories, placing it somewhat in the middle.

Bankrate acknowledges that there’s plenty of subjectivity in choosing a place to retire. The categories in this ranking may not reflect everyone’s priorities. For example, proximity to family plays a major role in deciding where to settle down for many retirees.

“When I see people retire and move to different parts of the country, 70 to 80 percent of the time, it’s to be close to family,” Clark Kendall, president of Kendall Capital Management and author of “Middle-Class Millionaire” told Bankrate.

Soon-to-be retirees may want to consider visiting different locations to get a feel for what it might be like to live there long-term.

“Go to a variety of different places that you seem to be attracted to — places that have a lower cost of living and lower property taxes — and test them out for a while,” Laura Kovacs, former director of education at the Scottsdale Area Association of Realtors in Arizona and a recent retiree, tells Bankrate.

“When you’re still working, take some time to go preview different types of communities and different types of lifestyles,” she says. “And when you’ve retired, maybe try renting for a while before you commit to buying.”

Sign up now: Get smarter about your money and career with our weekly newsletter

Don’t miss: Here’s how much Americans have saved for retirement at every age

Read original article here