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9A STRICTLY BUSINESS/The Charlotte Post Thursday, March 13,1997 Create your own enterprise story By Pierre A. Clark NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION Is entrepreneurship your dream? If so, you are not alone. Nearly everyone in America dreams of becoming self- employed and starting and run ning a business. Self-employ ment is both the American dream and an economic alterna tive for an increasing number of people. African Americans, Asians, Hispanics and other minorities especially, have a great deal to gain from starting and operating businesses, name ly, the opportunity to create secure jobs and personal wealth. “The Entrepreneur’s Comer” can be your guide if you want to learn how to create personal wealth through entrepreneur- ship and starting and operating your own business. If you are planning to start your business, we offer tips and techniques to get started successfully, to avoid income droughts and other start-up blues and generate higher and more consistent income. If you are already in business, our ideas on how to build a client base, promote and market your products and ser vices, create high-profit strategic alliances and invest your income with savvy and knowledge have worked for thousands; we know they will work fof you. There are social issues that create poverty in residents and communities, such as racism and disinvestment by banks and other institutions. We choose to focus on positive steps you can take, through entrepreneur- ship, to create opportunity for yourself and your family and overcome the challenges we aU know aue there. Healthy com munities feature high-growth businesses owned by residents of those communities which employ other residents and keep income circulating within com munities. The bottom line is that if you don’t own it, you can’t run it. There are techniques and strategies that entrepreneurs use everyday to overcome the challenges to entrepreneurship and build high-profit businesses. For example, a single store in one of Chicago's poorest neigh borhoods generates $5 million a year and hundreds of residents make $100,000 a year or more doing everything from painting to song-writing. What we’ll be discussing in each issue is not speculative, get-rich-quick strategies but proven techniques that tens of thousands have used to start, build, grow and manage successful businesses. After four years of publishing columns in the Chicago area on self-employment and entrepre neurship, I've heard directly from over 4,000 people who say they use the techniques we've suggested to successfully start and operate their own business es. Can you start a business with no upfront cash? Can you acquire free resources such as computers, meeting space, furni ture to build your business? Can you generate free publicity for your business, get ads in popular media at no cost? The answer to all these questions is yes, as you'll discover here. Self-employment offers you the opportimi- ty to change your life, take posi tive steps to take control of your life and gener ate the kind of income that would only be a dream if you were working for some one else. Many people ask: Can you really become a millionaire from starting your own busi ness? My answer is this: Around 99 percent of the people who are millionaires become miUionaires from and through their own businesses. If you want to earn $50,000 or more per year, you have a 98 percent chance of earning it in yoim own business, but only a two percent chance of earning this sum working for someone else. Clearly, the road to high income find financial independence can better be reached through your own busi ness. We believe the keys to successfully starting your own business are learning and apply ing success techniques that hun dreds of thousands, who started with no dollars or a few dollars, have used to achieve success. Applying them successfully doesn't depend on whether you are male or female, black, white or Hispanic or Asian, w 0 r ki n g, unemployed or on welfare. AU that mat ters is how diligently you work the techniques and how determined you are to achieve suc cess. Are you ready to start, operate and maintain a successful business enterprise and learn how thou sands of others have done the same thing? Are you ready to learn how to use that business to build the kind of life that you want? You’ve come to the right place. Join us here each issue. Pierre A Clark is a nationally- known entrepreneurship and self-employment columnist. For a free sample copy of his newslet ter, “Self-Employment Simplified,” send a self- addressed stamped envelope to Pierre Clark, 601 South LaSalle Street, 6th Floor, Suite C-818- EC, Chicago, IL, 60605. Diversify your stock portfolio By Omar Dillard SPECIAL TO THE POST Life is a continuous series of ups and downs - and so is investing in the stock market. If price fluctuation gives you stom ach fluctuation, relax: Spread yom- assets among a variety of investments, and you can mini mize the impact of ups and downs. One way to diversify is to put some of your money in bonds. Bonds offer great protection when the stock market falls. They promise a set aniounfof interest for a specific time. At . maturity, you get your original investment back. For your shorter-term needs, try three- to six-month U.S. Treasury hills or money market fimds. ’These offer a set interest rate and no price fluctuation. Another way to diversify is to invest in quality common stocks paying an attractive dividend. These stocks can help soften the blow during stock market dechnes. Financial stocks, real estate investment trusts, energy stocks and select utilities cur rently offer above-average divi dend yields. When buying stocks for divi dends, be sure to examine the company’s history of dividend payments and earnings. You can find this information at your public hbrary or broker’s office, with reports from investment research services such as Standard & Poor’s and Value Line. These reports include detailed information on stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange and American Stock Exchange, as well as many over- the-counter stocks. They list earnings and dividend informa tion for the past 10 years or more and often project future earnings. These reports can help you make informed decisions about the qualify and reliabflity of your selection. Investors looking for strong dividends and limited price volatility often turn to quality stocks in sectors that are out of favor with most investors. For example, Chris Wiles, a portfolio manager for $1.6 million worth of utility assets, told Mutual Fund News Service that although utility stocks are cheaper today relative to the market than at almost any time since World War H, they are still “the most unloved group in the market.” The reason is the fear of competition and the changes going on in the utility industiy. Professional money managers often look to out-of-favor stocks because, if the market falls, they tend to be less vulnerable than popular stocks. Wiles looks for stocks offering dividend yields of 5 percent or more for his utility fund; this compares to average yields of 2 percent. Again, the emphasis is on the quality of the company, dependable dividends and reduced market value. Finally, many investors look to foreign stocks to diversify. Bruno Bertocci, who handled invest ments for the Rockefeller family and other wealthy individuals, says that at any given time, dif ferent countries are in quite dif ferent phases of the economic cycle. He recommends that pru dent wealthy investors place 10 percent to 15 percent of their assets in overseas investments. International markets have underperformed U.S. markets in five of the past seven years. This is unusual because foreign economies have been expected to grow at a faster rate than the U.S. economy over the long term. Now is a good time to diversify an all-domestic portfo lio by investing 15 percent in international equities. A good way to gain some foreign expo sure is to invest in mutual funds with long and successful histo ries of international money man agement. Investing in stocks can be rewarding, but your investment will fluctuate. If volatility keeps you awake at night, maybe it’s time to inject a little more diver sification into your portfolio. Omar Dillard is an investment representative at Edward Jones in Charlotte. Urban bankers confab PHOTO/PAUL WILLIAMS III Maurice Grant, vice president of the Chariotte N.C. Association of Urban Bankers and CNCAUB member Connie Grant (no relation) taik with former Chariotte mayor and U.S. Senate candidate Harvey Gantt during the organization’s banquet. Gantt was the keynote speaker. Index funds a great investment Continued from page 8A Additionally, feeding interest in such loans are the companies that make miUions of first morti gages. They can offer you a second mortgage at just the moment when your profile tells them you might need one. One study esti mates that $3.2 trillion of equity is available for loans. How should you react when offered a home equity loan? First, consider whether you real ly need additional credit at all, even at a low rate and with no closing costs. Your payments will significantly increase the monthly burden on your pay- check. Ask what kind of rate- increase protection, if any, comes with the loan. Not aU sec ond mortgages or equity lines of credit carry aimual rate-increase caps. Find out what kind of ultimate rate you might be signing up for, in other words, find out the worst case scenario. Home equi ty loans are a little different from first mortgages. Your inter est rate could wind up as high as 18 to 21 percent. The bottom line; be sure you have the resources to repay this debt or you could lose your home. Charles Ross is host of the nationally syndicated radio show, “Your Personal Finance” and author of “Your CommonSense Guide to Personal Financial Planning.” Tax time right time for do’s and don’ts Continued from page 8A to $2,400 for one dependent child and ,'$4,800 for two or more dependents. 'The credit is phased out for higher-income earners. Don’t: • deduct reimhursed expens es. Medical, casuality loss, and business expense deductions are not allowed when the costs are reimhursed to you by your insurance company or employ er. • overpay the tax due on your mutual fund profits. If you par ticipated in a dividend rein vestment plan, be sure to increase your cost basis by the amoimt of dividends that were reinvested. Increasing your basis reduces your taxable gain. • forget to take a deduction for used clothing and other property you donate to charity. The fair market value of old clothes, furniture, household items, and books that you give charity is deductible. Just be sure to have a receipt from charity to substantiate your donation. • assume your miscellaneous expenses are not deductible. Although tax law allows you to deduct only those miscella neous expenses that exceed 2 percent of your Adjusted Gross Income if you itemize your deductions, it is often easier to reach this threshold than you may originally think. Take the time to total unreimbursed employee business expenses like dues to unions and profes sional associations, tax prepa ration advice, and investment- related cost, such as invest ment advice, IRA or Keogh cus todial fees, and safe deposit rental for boxes used to store investment-related document. You may surprise yourself with a deduction. A-Plus Insurance Agency Too Many Tickets/Points Low Down Payments •Life/Health Plan 'Auto, Boat, Motorcycle • Commercial/ Business • Homeowner/ Rental •Income Tax Service 903 Eastway Dr. Charlotte, NC Oocated at SugarCreck & Eastway) 704-536-5007 Fax: 704-536-5506 “We Insure AU Vehicles & Drivers" Michael Morrison Agent/ Owr>er (fOOCH, INC, church A Motivational Training Consultant Service -providing Workshops for: • home* school • workplace • community Senior Consultant, Glenda Horton Manning New . 6316 Montieth Drive • 561-3731 or 596-6036 At last! A Certified MBE Company That Can Handle Your Office Needs! 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The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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March 13, 1997, edition 1
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