A business plan is a guide that helps you outline and achieve your goals. It’s also a management tool that allows you to analyze results, make strategic decisions, and showcase how your business will operate, and grow.

The business plan

<ul><li>Without a business plan as a baseline, it will be far more difficult to track your progress, make adjustments, and have historical information readily available to reference when making difficult decisions. </li><li>Investors and loan providers need to know that you have a solid understanding of the trajectory of your business. You need to prove that there is an attainable and sustainable need for your solution, that you have a strong business strategy, and that your business can be financially stable. </li><li>By having a written business plan that you’re regularly reviewing, you can make confident decisions.</li></ul>

Why write a business plan?

<ul><li>Keep it short. Business plans should be short and concise. You want your business plan to be read. </li><li>Accommodate your investors, and keep explanations of your product simple and direct.</li><li>Test your business idea. Working through your business plan, and starting with a one-page pitch, can help you test the viability of your business idea long before launching.</li><li>Establish goals and objectives. You should know what you want to get out of your business upfront. </li><li>Don’t be intimidated. Did you know that the vast majority of business owners and entrepreneurs aren’t business experts? </li></ul>

5 tips to write a great business plan quickly and easily

<ul><li>Executive summary: An overview of your business and your plans. </li><li>Opportunity: What are you actually selling and how are you solving a problem (or “need”) for your market? </li><li>Execution: How are you going to take your opportunity and turn it into a business? </li><li>Company and management summary: Investors look for great teams in addition to great ideas. </li><li>Financial plan: Your business plan isn’t complete without a financial forecast. </li><li>Appendix: If you need more space for product images or additional information, use the appendix for those details. </li></ul>

Key components of a business plan

The executive summary of your business plan introduces your company, explains what you do, and lays out what you’re looking for from your readers. Structurally, it is the first chapter of your business plan. And while it’s the first thing that people will read, consider writing it last, because once you know the details of your business inside and out, you will be better prepared to write your executive summary. Ideally, the executive summary can act as a stand-alone document that covers the highlights of your detailed plan.

Executive summary

<ul><li>What are your business objectives?</li><li>What is your target market and how will you position yourself?</li><li>Who are the key players on your team?</li><li>What are your expectations for growth and how will you achieve it?</li><li>What are your funding requirements? </li></ul>

Key questions to answer with your executive summary

A good business plan will identify the target market segments and then provide some data to indicate how fast each segment is growing. When identifying target markets, a classic method is to use the TAM, SAM, and SOM breakdown:<ul><li>TAM: Your Total Available or Addressable Market (everyone you wish to reach with your product)</li><li>SAM: Your Segmented Addressable Market or Served Available Market (the portion of TAM you will target)</li><li>SOM: Your Share Of the Market (the subset of your SAM that you will realistically reach—particularly in the first few years of your business).</li></ul>

TAM, SAM, and SOM

Most business plans include market research and compare their features against their competition using a SWOT analysis. The most important thing to illustrate in this section of your business plan is how your solution is different or better than other offerings that a potential customer might consider. Investors will want to know what advantages you have over the competition and how you plan on differentiating yourself.One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make in their business plans is stating that they don’t have any competition.

Competition

The opportunity section of your business plan should provide enough information and data to prove that there is a need for your business and that you understand how to position yourself in a given market. To help you develop this section, try to answer these questions:<ul><li>Who is my typical customer? Who is my ideal customer? How will I target them?</li><li>What pain points do my customers have? How do they currently alleviate that pain point?</li><li>How does my solution solve their problem? </li><li>Who are my competitors? How does my solution differ from competitors?</li></ul>

Key questions to answer with your opportunity analysis

The marketing and sales plan section of your business plan details how you plan to reach your target market segments (also called target marketing), how you plan on selling to those target markets, what your pricing plan is, and what types of activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success.Before you even think about writing your marketing plan, you must have your target market well-defined and have your buyer persona(s) fleshed out. Without truly understanding who you are marketing to, a marketing plan will have little value.

Marketing and sales plan

A business plan is only a document on paper without a real path to get the work done, complete with a schedule, defined roles, and key responsibilities. Investors will want to see that you understand what needs to happen to make your plans a reality and that you are working on a realistic schedule. Start with a quick review of your milestones. Milestones are planned major goals.

Milestones and metrics

This section covers the functionality of your business. To help you develop this section, try to answer these questions:<ul><li>What marketing and operational channels are best for my business?</li><li>How will my pricing strategy differ from competitors?</li><li>What technology or services will you need to invest in?</li><li>What will my branding look like? What elements do I need to create?</li><li>What metrics do I need to track? What does success look like?</li><li>What milestones do I need to hit? What steps are necessary to reach them?</li></ul>

Key questions to answer with your execution

The company overview will most likely be the shortest section of your business plan. For a plan that you will share with people outside of your company, this section should include:<ul><li>Mission statement</li><li>Intellectual property</li><li>A review of your company’s legal structure and ownership</li><li>The business location</li><li>A brief history of the company if it’s an existing company.</li></ul>

Company overview

The company overview is meant to help you identify how you will operate, as well as what positions, departments, or other structures you need to implement. To help you develop this section, try to answer these questions:<ul><li>Who makes up my current team? What roles need to be filled?</li><li>What is my core mission? How does it affect business operations?</li><li>Do I need a physical location? Where should it be located?</li><li>What is my company structure? How will that change over time?</li></ul>

Key questions to answer with your company overview

Your financial plan is meant to help you understand what your expenses are, what it will take to be profitable, how much cash you need to keep on hand, and what you will be doing with any funding. You don’t need to have actual financial data at this point.To help you develop this section, try to answer these questions:<ul><li>What are your sales expectations for the next year?</li><li>What expenses are necessary to operate?</li><li>When will you become cash flow positive?</li><li>How much cash do you need upfront to fund growth?</li><li>How will you use the loans or investments? What funding is necessary for specific endeavors?</li></ul>

Financial plan

A go-to guide, for entrepreneurs for building a company from the ground up.

books

Books

teamwork

Teamwork

business

Business

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

How To Build A Company

Learn how to write a business plan, with our expert-driven step-by-step guide for 2021. Start writing your business plan today.

Discover the world of business and economics.

economics

Economics

How to Write a Business Plan

Without these elements—a full understanding of a problem, new connections, and a vision or direction for a solution—there is no entrepreneurial venture. Whether the problem you’ve identified is global or local, broad or niche, your ability to spot it and conceive new solutions is a core element of entrepreneurship. And passion about the problem you are solving might not be as important as you think.To launch a successful venture, you must also make other people see the merits of your idea and invest in it—whether they are employees, customers, or funders.

Is starting a business right for you?

A business opportunity is primarily a product or service that creates significant value for customers and offers significant profit potential to the entrepreneur. A business opportunity:<ul><li>Solves a real problem for customers</li><li>Offers significant risk-adjusted profit potential</li><li>Fits well with the capabilities of the leadership team</li><li>Is potentially profitable over a reasonable time span</li><li> Is amenable to financing. </li></ul>Evaluate promising opportunities by considering the market, the current and anticipated level of competition, the underlying economics, and the resources you’ll need to be successful

Identifying a problem to solve

A business model describes how an enterprise proposes to make money. A well-conceived and promising business model is only half the equation for success because it doesn’t take into account the market competition. Dealing with competition is the job of strategy. Strategy is a plan to differentiate the enterprise and give it a competitive advantage. A successful business has both a solid business model and a good strategy.

Defining your business model and strategy 

The 5 steps of strategy formulation are:<ul><li>Looking outside the enterprise for threats and opportunities</li><li>Looking inside at resources, capabilities, and practices</li><li>Considering strategies for addressing threats and opportunities</li><li>Building a good fit among strategy supporting activities</li><li>Creating alignment between the organization’s people and activities and its strategy.</li></ul>

Defining your strategy

At the onset of your new venture, you will need to address the legal form your enterprise will adopt. Should it be a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a corporation, or a limited liability company? This decision is driven mainly by your objectives and those of your investors. Taxation and legal liabilities also play a part. The trade-offs built into the law can make the choice difficult; to get the most favorable tax treatment, a business must often give up some protection from liability, some flexibility, or both.

Organizing your company

A business plan is a document that explains a business opportunity, identifies the market to be served, and provides details about how the entrepreneurial organization plans to pursue it. To be effective, a good plan also describes the unique qualifications that you and your management team bring to the effort. It explains the resources you’ll need and forecasts financial results over a reasonable time horizon.Any business that seeks outside funding from banks, angel investors, venture capitalists, must have a solid business plan. Without it, creditors and investors won’t take you seriously.

<ul><li>The executive summary should explain the opportunity, why it is timely, and how your company plans to pursue it. It should also describe your expected results and provide a thumbnail sketch of the company and the management team. </li><li>The business plan should state the company’s goals and explain how investors will eventually cash out. </li><li>Use as few words as necessary to get your points across. Avoid long, complex sentences whenever possible.</li><li> Make your document easy to skim by using simple data visualizations, headings, subheads, white space, and numbered and bulleted lists to break up blocks of text.</li></ul>

Writing your  business plan

<ul><li>Startup-phase financing is initially bootstrapped from personal savings, credit cards, and other personal sources of income, followed by friends and family and, in some cases, by small bank loans. </li><li>Trade credit from suppliers is another low-cost source of financing. </li><li>Other early sources of financing include online banks, accelerators, and crowdfunding.</li></ul>

Startup-phase financing

During the growth stage, your business expands its sales and develops a growing base of customers. As a result, you’ll need more capital—for expanding your operation, hiring and training new employees, etc.Your company may already be generating some positive cash flows that can help finance these initiatives, but you’ll probably need more cash if your growth is strong. Having now proven your business’s credibility, though, you can generally tap external capital more easily than you could in the startup phase. For slow- to moderate-growth firms, much of that capital comes from bank debt.

Growth-stage financing

<ul><li>The most likely source of outside venture funding comes from so-called angel investors. Angels are high-net-worth individuals who provide early-stage capital to startup businesses. Networking is often the best way to connect with angels. </li><li> Venture capital comes from an individual or a firm that seeks large capital gains through early-stage equity or equity-linked financing of high potential entrepreneurial enterprises. Entrepreneurs should not waste their time pursuing venture capital unless they have all the characteristics VCs look for.</li></ul>

Angel investment and venture
capital

Growing firms with exceptional revenue potential have another option to achieve a significant cash infusion: they can seek financing through an IPO. This process presents ownership shares to the world of individual investors and institutional investors such as pension funds and mutual funds and results in a significant exchange of paper ownership shares for the hard cash the company needs for stability and expansion. An IPO marks a major milestone in the life of a company. It signals that your enterprise has earned the confidence of people outside its inner circle of participants.

Going public

<ul><li>Growth forces companies through transitions. Continued growth is usually a function of a sustainable strategy, the ability to expand into other markets, and mechanisms for scaling up the volume of output. </li><li>Companies have several mechanisms for sustaining growth. They include (1) exploiting the learning curve to maintain a cost advantage, (2) not pricing for maximum profit (high profits attract competitors), and (3) continually refreshing the offer to customers.</li><li>To scale up, businesses often have to change their guidelines around processes like hiring to make themselves more nimble. </li></ul>

Sustaining entrepreneurial growth

Possible approaches to leading a startup faced with rapid growth: <ul><li>Managing content: The most direct approach to getting things done is to do them yourself or to directly supervise those who do. </li><li>Managing behaviors: you specify how people should behave; you identify the behaviors that lead to success and codify them as rules that employees are told to follow.</li><li>Managing results:  providing the resources, the training, and the motivation that people need to produce results.</li><li>Managing context:  you approach results more broadly by shaping the culture, values, and structure of the organization.</li></ul>

Leadership for a growing business

Entrepreneurial leaders can keep the spirit alive if they:
<ul>
<li>Preserve an innovation-friendly culture</li>
<li>Establish a strategic direction</li>
<li>Remain personally involved with innovation</li>
<li>Continually improve the idea to-commercialization process</li>
<li>Apply portfolio thinking to their innovative efforts</li>
<li>Hire people with entrepreneurial attitudes</li>
<li>Create an ambidextrous organization that is effective at both getting today’s work done (operations) and anticipating the future.</li>
</ul>

Keeping the entrepreneurial spirit alive

There are probably as many reasons for harvesting an investment as there are entrepreneurs. Retirement is one reason. An offer “too good to refuse” is yet another. Common reasons:<ul><li>A need to diversify wealth: Successful entrepreneurs can easily get into a position in which most of their wealth is dangerously concentrated in one basket. </li><li>The business has reached the end of its line: Some successful entrepreneurs sense where the wind is blowing, and sometimes they sense an ill wind. </li><li>The owner’s urge to begin anew: Some entrepreneurs are motivated by the challenge of creating something from zero. </li></ul>

Why entrepreneurs cash out

The one primer you need to develop your entrepreneurial skills. Whether you're imagining your new business to be the next big thing in Silicon Valley, a pivotal B2B provider, or an anchor in your local community, the HBR Entrepreneur's Handbook is your essential resource for getting your company off the ground. Starting an independent new business is rife with both opportunity and risk. And as an entrepreneur, you're the one in charge: your actions can make or break your business. You need to know the tried-and-true fundamentals--from writing a business plan to getting your first loan. You also need to know the latest thinking on how to create an irresistible pitch deck, mitigate risk through experimentation, and develop unique opportunities through business model innovation. The HBR Entrepreneur's Handbook addresses these challenges and more with practical advice and wisdom from Harvard Business Review's archive. Keep this comprehensive guide with you throughout your startup's life--and increase your business's odds for success. In the HBR Entrepreneur's Handbook you'll find: Step-by-step guidance through the entrepreneurial process Concise explanations of the latest research and thinking on entrepreneurship from Harvard Business Review contributors such as Marc Andreessen and Reid Hoffman Time-honed best practices Stories of real companies, from Airbnb to eBay You'll learn: Which skills and characteristics make for the best entrepreneurs How to gauge potential opportunities The basics of business models and competitive strategy How to test your assumptions--before you build a whole business How to select the right legal structure for your company How to navigate funding options, from venture capital and angel investors to accelerators and crowdfunding How to develop sales and marketing programs for your venture What entrepreneurial leaders must do to build culture and set direction as the business keeps growing HBR Handbooks provide ambitious professionals with the frameworks, advice, and tools they need to excel in their careers. With step-by-step guidance, time-honed best practices, real-life stories, and concise explanations of research published in Harvard Business Review, each comprehensive volume helps you to stand out from the pack--whatever your role.

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

startup

Startups

The one primer you need to develop your entrepreneurial skills.Whether you're imagining your new business to be the next big thing in Silicon Valley, a pivotal B2B provider, or an anchor in your local community, the HBR Entrepreneur's Handbook is your essential resource for getting your company off the ground.Starting an independent new business is rife with both opportunity and risk. And as an entrepreneur, you're the one in charge: your actions can make or break your business. You need to know the tried-and-true fundamentals--from writing a business plan to getting your first loan. You also need to know the latest thinking on how to create an irresistible pitch deck, mitigate risk through experimentation, and develop unique opportunities through business model innovation.The HBR Entrepreneur's Handbook addresses these challenges and more with practical advice and wisdom from Harvard Business Review's archive. Keep this comprehensive guide with you throughout your startup's life--and increase your business's odds for success.In the HBR Entrepreneur's Handbook you'll find:<ul><li>Step-by-step guidance through the entrepreneurial process<li>Concise explanations of the latest research and thinking on entrepreneurship from Harvard Business Review contributors such as Marc Andreessen and Reid Hoffman<li>Time-honed best practices<li>Stories of real companies, from Airbnb to eBay</ul>You'll learn:<ul><li>Which skills and characteristics make for the best entrepreneurs<li>How to gauge potential opportunities<li>The basics of business models and competitive strategy<li>How to test your assumptions--before you build a whole business<li>How to select the right legal structure for your company<li>How to navigate funding options, from venture capital and angel investors to accelerators and crowdfunding<li>How to develop sales and marketing programs for your venture<li>What entrepreneurial leaders must do to build culture and set direction as the business keeps growing</ul>HBR Handbooks provide ambitious professionals with the frameworks, advice, and tools they need to excel in their careers. With step-by-step guidance, time-honed best practices, real-life stories, and concise explanations of research published in Harvard Business Review, each comprehensive volume helps you to stand out from the pack--whatever your role.

Harvard Business Review is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Harvard Business Review has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Harvard Business Review's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Harvard Business Review

Harvard Business Review Entrepreneur's Handbook

The Harvard Business Review Entrepreneur's Handbook

Scientists in recent years have developed ways to measure biological age by tracking chemical changes in DNA that occur naturally as people age but occur at different times in different people. These so-called "epigenetic clocks" have proved to be better predictors of lifespan and health than chronological age. According to their findings, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry , stress does indeed make life's clock tick faster—but that individuals can help manage the effects by strengthening their emotion regulation and self-control.

Stress-free Mind Improves Performance

The more one worries, the more blunders one commits.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

health

Health

mentalhealth

Mental Health

problemsolving

Problem Solving

Stress makes life's clock tick faster but chilling out slows it down

The great depression forced a lot of people to start being creative with ways to save money while some of them may be a little extreme I think we can definitely learn from them and adapt them into our day to day lives to start bettering our finances.

Frugal Living Tips From The Great Depression

I love finding new ways to better finances. These are some great and different ways of thinking about Monday and finding the balance between needs and wants. 

Frugal Tips From the Great Depression – Gabe Bult Blog

I read around one book every week on average. Even when I’m on the road, I bring books with me.However, I don’t only read books; I also utilize them. I read until I come up with three ideas that I can put into action right now.Most made the mistake of gathering all of this expertise but never putting it to use. You have all the information you require. However, you will never see any effects if you do not begin adopting soon.

Isn’t it true that Information is power?

Most prospective billionaires have either read or heard about this book. It’s a well-known personal finance book.Robert discusses the differences between assets and liabilities in this one. What does he have to say?Anything that puts money in your pocket qualifies as an asset. A liability, on the other hand, depletes your bank account. Simply said, assets provide nourishment while liabilities deplete your resources.

1. Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad

These are the 5 books that every aspiring billionaire should read, in my opinion. Each one of them can teach you something valuable.

Now is the time to get your master key to money, success, and importance.

Click on the link for the full article and follow for algorithms

What’s up, it’s @hackedongrowth here, What books should you read if you want to be a millionaire? Books are an excellent way to gain insight into the minds of successful individuals.The greatest way to become a millionaire — or perhaps a billionaire — is to learn from other millionaires or billionaires.

What’s up, it’s @hackedongrowth here, What books should you read if you want to be a millionaire? Books are an excellent way to gain insight into the minds of successful individuals. The greatest way…

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

5 Must-Read Books for Aspiring Millionaires

Timing the market is notoriously difficult, even for the most experienced investor. People often focus on trying to dodge the bad days but fail to realise that missing even a few of the best days can be equally damaging. The largest gains tend to occur during periods of extreme volatility and often follow large sell-offs. During these episodes inexperienced investors panic sell or just sit on the side lines. The key lesson is that to be a successful investor it's often better to take the rough with the smooth rather than trying to play the market in search of a quick profit.

1. Take the rough with the smooth

Many investment houses and brokerage firms profit when investors buy or sell shares. This leads to a lot of noise in the market and it is often difficult to detangle good information from bad. It is challenging to distinguish good financial ‘experts’ from bad, as they are often more concerned with self-promotion rather than providing good investment advice. As George Soros said, “if investing is entertaining, if you're having fun, you're probably not making any money. Good investing is boring.”

2. Drown out the noise

The longer you invest for, the better your chance of success. For example, from 1990 - 2016, the average investor will have had a turbulent journey - the dotcom bubble & financial crisis were 2 of the worst bear markets recorded. Yet over that period the return in a back-test of our moderate growth multi-asset portfolio would have averaged 7.4% per annum. That may not sound that great but €1 million invested in 1990 at that rate of return, would now be worth almost €7 million. The lesson is that the power of compounding tends to be the single biggest contributor to an investor’s success.

3. Time in the market, not timing the market

It is easy to focus on what can go wrong in the world and extrapolate these geopolitical events into investment returns. Yet geopolitical shocks (outside of world wars) tend to exhibit little or no relationship to returns. Last year was a case in point. Brexit and Donald Trump’s election as the US President threatened to send financial markets into a tailspin, but it never happened. In fact, markets rallied strongly in the second half of 2016.

4. Geopolitics (often) matters less than we think

Diversification is probably the most commonly quoted piece of investment advice. Yet unfortunately, time and time again people tend to over concentrate their investments in a specific stock or asset. The idea behind diversification is that it spreads out risk and therefore helps mitigate all kinds of developments, especially negative shocks. The reality is that no asset, stock, region, sector or currency will outperform all the time. Multi-asset funds, which divide their investments between different assets, such as stocks, bonds, cash, & property aim to reduce permanent loss of capital.

5. Build a robust portfolio

Instead of following the herd, investors should take their lead from the economic and business cycle. One of the few constants in investing is that all economies are cyclical – that is they expand and then contract. By focusing on the cycle, investors can determine the prospect for different assets and markets at the different stages, and importantly can avoid taking on excessive risk when the economy is showing signs of overheating just before a recession. Buying high and selling low is not a sensible investment strategy. Investing counter cyclically is.

7. Invest counter cyclically

Overpaying for investments is a common mistake. The most recent examples of this phenomenon were the housing bubble in the run up to the financial crisis. Private investors often do not have access to the same range of data as institutional investors so they often get caught out on price. This is true across all assets including the income yield for property investments, equity valuation metrics like price-to-earnings, or bond yields. Warren Buffett says “price is what you pay, value is what you get”. Consider the intrinsic value of an investment before putting your hard earned capital at risk

8. Price is what you pay, value is what you get

Emotion is dangerous when investing. Unfortunately, it is too easy to become emotionally attached to investments when they are increasing in value. We feel comfortable when we are invested & often actively look to add to winning positions. When the market is doing well it may seem that an individual stock will never go down & that we should hold more and more of it. The most successful investors take profits & rebalance their portfolio. Our experience shows that failing to take profits can result in ‘risk drift’ in portfolios.

9. Don't let your emotions cloud your judgement

“Irrational exuberance" was a phrase championed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to explain investor’s behaviour in the mid-to-late 1990s. Although it took a number of years for the bubble to burst, the phrase epitomises the tendency of investors to get most bullish just before a collapse. Quite often it’s wise not to follow the crowd, particularly if the fundamentals do not add up. Remember, when the herd is running towards the cliff, the one running in the opposite direction seems crazy.

6. Don't follow the herd

A common failing of investors is investing in the rear view mirror, chasing performance by buying more of an asset, sector or stock that has performed the best in the most recent time period. A large body of evidence tells us that this leads to underperformance in the long term. Assets that attract the largest amount of inflows subsequently underperform. Investors must accept that no strategy, investment or approach will outperform in every market environment.

10.Don't chase performance

We share what we believe are some of the most important rules that can help you to achieve your long-term financial goals, with a little help from Carl Richards. Carl is the creator of the weekly ‘Sketch Guy’ column in the New York Times and was the keynote speaker at our 2014 Annual Conference. His sketches are famous for simplifying some of the most complex and important financial concepts.

10 Timeless Rules of Investing

The truth is that wealth is what you don't see, Wealth are financial assets that haven't yet been converted into the stuff you see.

Wealth is quiet, rich is loud & poor is flashy.

One of my favourite ideas from the "psychology of money".

Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people. Money—investing, personal finance, and business decisions—is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people. Money—investing, personal finance, and business decisions—is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.

Morgan Housel is a partner at The Collaborative Fund. He is a two-time winner of the Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, winner of the New York Times Sidney Award, and a two-time finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two kids.

Morgan Housel

The Psychology of Money

The Fastlane is a state of wealth that is characterized by abundance. In the Fastlane, you don’t trade your time for money and are in complete control of all the wealth-generating factors.
The Fastlane lifestyle is for the people who want to retire young and don’t want to follow the conventional get rich roadmap that involves maxing the 401k, being frugal, and retiring at 65. Being on the Fastlane requires that you turn your back on what society says about wealth. Otherwise, you will never get rich.

The Fastlane

"The Millionaire Fastlane isn’t about being retired old with millions, but about redefining wealth to include youth, fun, freedom, and prosperity."

The get rich slow strategy that is championed by society is a losing game. It is anchored on your time, assumes that everything will go according to plan, and doesn’t involve getting rich at a young age.If you want to get rich, take the Fastlane road.True wealth is authored by three fundamental F’s:<ul><li>Family (relationships). Wealth is strong spirited familial relationships with people.</li><li>Fitness (health). Fitness includes health, vibrancy, passion, and boundless energy .</li><li>Freedom (choice). Freedom is the ability to pursue your dreams and do what you love.</li></ul>

True Wealth Isn’t Having A Bank Balance

The roadmap to wealth is made up of four key ingredients: <ul><li>Your roadmap. The roadmap is the guiding force behind the decisions you make </li><li>Your vehicle. Your vehicle is you. No one can drive you to your financial destination</li><li>Your roads. Roads are the financial pathways that lead to wealth. You can be an engineer, a plumber, a truck driver, etc. The roadmap guides your actions and the consequences of those actions create your financial life</li><li>Your speed. Speed refers to execution or your ability to go from idea to implementation</li></ul>

The Fast Roadtrip To Wealth

Sidewalker mindset:<ul><li>Debt perception: Credit allows you to buy things now. </li><li>Time perception: There is enough time and you could be dead in two weeks anyway.</li><li>Education perception. You don't need to learn.</li><li>Money perception. If you have money, flaunt it</li><li>Primary income source. Whatever pays the most, you will chase it</li><li>Primary wealth accelerator. Luck</li><li>Wealth perception. The one with the most toys wins</li><li>Destination. “I live for today and I’m not bothered about tomorrow”</li><li>Responsibility and control. Indulges in the victim mentality</li><li>Life perception. Life is too short to plan ahead</li></ul>

The Three Road Maps To Wealth: The Sidewalk To Poorness

Slowlane mindset:<ul><li>Debt perception: Debt is evil.</li><li>Time perception: Time is abundant</li><li>Education perception. Educations is important as it helps earn more dollars</li><li>Money perception. Each and every dollar must be accounted for because money is scarce</li><li>Primary income source. A job is the primary source of income</li><li>Primary wealth accelerator. Compound interest</li><li>Wealth perception. Savings, investments, and 401K</li><li>Destination. Comfortable retirement in the twilight years</li><li>Responsibility and control. Works to provide for the family by relying on others.</li><li>Life perception. Settle for less, and give up on any dreams</li></ul>

The Three Road Maps To Wealth: Mediocrity- The Slowlane

Wealth = (Primary Income Source: Job) + (Wealth Accelerator: Market Investments) When in the Slowlane, you mindlessly trade your life for a paycheck.

The Slowlane Roadmap Equation

"The ultimate insanity is to sell your soul Monday through Friday for the paycheck of Saturday and Sunday. Yes, give me $5 today and in return I’ll give you $2 back tomorrow. 5-for-2. No? Why? This is a smoking Deal!"

"Time isn’t a commodity, something you pass around like a cake. Time is the substance of life. When anyone asks you to give your time, they’re really asking for a chunk of your life."

"Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows."

The Fastlane mindset: <ul><li>Debt perception: Debt is useful as it allows one to grow their system</li><li>Time perception: Time is far more important than money</li><li>Education perception. Learning is important for growth</li><li>Money perception. Money is everywhere. It reflects the value you create</li><li>Primary income source. Business systems and investments</li><li>Primary wealth accelerator. Making something out of nothing</li><li>Wealth perception. Build business systems for cash flow and asset valuation</li><li>Destination. A lifetime of passive income. Life is what you make of it.</li><li>Life perception. Dreams are worth pursuing no matter how outlandish</li></ul>

The Three Road Maps To Wealth: The Fastlane Roadmap

The Fastlane is a business system while the Slowlane is a job. In the Slowlane, you trade your time for your employer’s cash while in the Fastlane, wealth is driven by a business system. The Fastlane wealth equation looks like this: Wealth = Net Profit + Asset Value Asset Value = (Net Profit) X (Industry Multiplier) The Fastlane Roadmap is engineered for two purposes. It’s engineered to create a passive income stream to the excess of your expenses and lifestyle desires, and to make financial freedom a reality, exclusive of age.

The Fastlane Is A Business, Not A Job

"Instead of digging for gold, sell shovels. Instead of taking a class, offer a class. Instead of borrowing money, lend it. Instead of taking a job, hire for jobs. Instead of taking a mortgage, hold a mortgage. Break free from consumption, switch sides, and reorient to the world as producer."

"You could own the best hotel in the world located on the best beach in California, but if customers are treated like inconveniences and requests go unfulfilled, they won’t return."

<ul><li>Rental systems. Real estate is an example of a rental system that produces a recurring monthly income</li><li>Computer/software systems. The internet and software programs have created more millionaires than any other system in history</li><li>Content systems. Content systems are systems of information. They include books, blogs, and social networks</li><li>Distribution systems. These are systems that move products to the masses. An example is Amazon</li><li>Human resource systems. Systems that are run by people. Sometimes they can work in conjunction with other systems</li></ul>

The Five Fastlane Business Seedlings

The more lives you affect in an entity you control, in scale or in magnitude, the richer you become. To exploit the Law of Effection, your business needs to make an impact of either scale or magnitude, or both. Within our Fastlane wealth equation, “scale” and “magnitude” are implicit to our “net profit” variable. NET PROFIT = Units Sold (Scale) X Unit Profit (Magnitude)

The Law of Effection

<ul><li>To get to the Fastlane, you need a well-oiled and ready vehicle and that vehicle is you. You are the one responsible for making the journey.</li><li>You can’t pay yourself first if you don’t own yourself. To own yourself, create a corporation that divorces you from the act of business.</li><li>Success is not made up of a single choice but hundreds of them.</li><li>The easiest way to start making better decisions is to start changing your perception.</li></ul>

Your Vehicle To Wealth

1. Worse Case Consequence Analysis (WCCA). Analyse potential consequences before making a decision. 2. Weighted Average Decision Matrix (WADM). Weigh the various decisions and see which one is better.

Tips For Making Better Decisions

<ul>
<li>The commandment of need. Businesses satisfy the needs of people. Don’t chase money. Rather, look at how your business will help other people.</li>
<li> The commandment of entry. As entry barriers to a business fall, or lessen, the effectiveness of that road declines while competition in that field subsequently strengthens.</li>
<li>The commandment of control. Play in an organization that you control or you will be at the mercy of someone else.</li>
<li>The commandment of scale. Increase scale and magnitude in your business.</li>
<li>The commandment of time. Your business should detach you from your time.</li>
</ul>

The Five Fastlane Commandments

The Fastlane is a conglomeration of information that creates potential speed. You understand the Fastlane roadmap and its wealth equation. You’ve dumped the Sidewalk and the Slowlane. Ideas are nothing without execution. Execution divides winners from losers. Execution is a process. Ideas are events.

The Importance Of Speed

An excellent book on how to create insane wealth and live a great life. M. J. Demarco shares the secret to becoming a millionaire at any age. And it is not the kind of advice you receive from financial gurus, parents, or friends.

Is the financial plan of mediocrity -- a dream-stealing, soul-sucking dogma known as "The Slowlane" your plan for creating wealth? You know how it goes; it sounds a lil something like this: "Go to school, get a good job, save 10% of your paycheck, buy a used car, cancel the movie channels, quit drinking expensive Starbucks mocha lattes, save and penny-pinch your life away, trust your life-savings to the stock market, and one day, when you are oh, say, 65 years old, you can retire rich." The mainstream financial gurus have sold you blindly down the river to a great financial gamble: You've been hoodwinked to believe that wealth can be created by recklessly trusting in the uncontrollable and unpredictable markets: the housing market, the stock market, and the job market. This impotent financial gamble dubiously promises wealth in a wheelchair -- sacrifice your adult life for a financial plan that reaps dividends in the twilight of life. Accept the Slowlane as your blueprint for wealth and your financial future will blow carelessly asunder on a sailboat of HOPE: HOPE you can find a job and keep it, HOPE the stock market doesn't tank, HOPE the economy rebounds, HOPE, HOPE, and HOPE. Do you really want HOPE to be the centerpiece for your family's financial plan? Drive the Slowlane road and you will find your life deteriorate into a miserable exhibition about what you cannot do, versus what you can. For those who don't want a lifetime subscription to "settle-for-less" and a slight chance of elderly riches, there is an alternative; an expressway to extraordinary wealth that can burn a trail to financial independence faster than any road out there. Why jobs, 401(k)s, mutual funds, and 40-years of mindless frugality will never make you rich young. Why most entrepreneurs fail and how to immediately put the odds in your favor. The real law of wealth: Leverage this and wealth has no choice but to be magnetized to you. The leading cause of poorness: Change this and you change everything. How the rich really get rich - and no, it has nothing to do with a paycheck or a 401K match. Why the guru's grand deity - compound interest - is an impotent wealth accelerator. Why the guru myth of "do what you love" will most likely keep you poor, not rich. And 250+ more poverty busting distinctions... Demand the Fastlane, an alternative road-to-wealth; one that actually ignites dreams and creates millionaires young, not old. Change lanes and find your explosive wealth accelerator. Hit the Fastlane, crack the code to wealth, and find out how to live rich for a lifetime.

10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITIONIs the financial plan of mediocrity -- a dream-stealing, soul-sucking dogma known as &quot;The Slowlane&quot; your plan for creating wealth? You know how it goes; it sounds a lil something like this:&quot;Go to school, get a good job, save 10% of your paycheck, buy a used car, cancel the movie channels, quit drinking expensive Starbucks mocha lattes, save and penny-pinch your life away, trust your life-savings to the stock market, and one day, when you are oh, say, 65 years old, you can retire rich.&quot;The mainstream financial gurus have sold you blindly down the river to a great financial gamble: You've been hoodwinked to believe that wealth can be created by recklessly trusting in the uncontrollable and unpredictable markets: the housing market, the stock market, and the job market. This impotent financial gamble dubiously promises wealth in a wheelchair -- sacrifice your adult life for a financial plan that reaps dividends in the twilight of life. Accept the Slowlane as your blueprint for wealth and your financial future will blow carelessly asunder on a sailboat of HOPE: HOPE you can find a job and keep it, HOPE the stock market doesn't tank, HOPE the economy rebounds, HOPE, HOPE, and HOPE. Do you really want HOPE to be the centerpiece for your family's financial plan?Drive the Slowlane road and you will find your life deteriorate into a miserable exhibition about what you cannot do, versus what you can. For those who don't want a lifetime subscription to &quot;settle-for-less&quot; and a slight chance of elderly riches, there is an alternative; an expressway to extraordinary wealth that can burn a trail to financial independence faster than any road out there.Why jobs, 401(k)s, mutual funds, and 40-years of mindless frugality will never make you rich young. Why most entrepreneurs fail and how to immediately put the odds in your favor. The real law of wealth: Leverage this and wealth has no choice but to be magnetized to you.The leading cause of poorness: Change this and you change everything.How the rich really get rich - and no, it has nothing to do with a paycheck or a 401K match.Why the guru's grand deity - compound interest - is an impotent wealth accelerator.Why the guru myth of &quot;do what you love&quot; will most likely keep you poor, not rich. And 250+ more poverty busting distinctions...Demand the Fastlane, an alternative road-to-wealth; one that actually ignites dreams and creates millionaires young, not old. Change lanes and find your explosive wealth accelerator. Hit the Fastlane, crack the code to wealth, and find out how to live rich for a lifetime.

MJ DeMarco is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. MJ DeMarco has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. MJ DeMarco's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

MJ DeMarco

The Millionaire Fastlane

<ul><li>Use small plates: When money comes into your main operating account, immediately dispense it into different accounts in predetermined percentages for profit, owner pay, taxes and, consistently operating expenses</li><li>Serve sequentially: Always move your money to the profit account first, then to your owner pay account, then to your tax account, with what remains to expenses</li><li>Remove temptations: Move your profits account and other accounts out of arm’s reach to make it difficult for you to access your money</li><li>Enforce a rhythm: Do your payables and pay your bills twice monthly.</li></ul>

The Profit First Diet

A great business is one that has healthy profits. And as business gets healthier, taxes will increase.Profitability isn’t an event. It’s a habit. Profitable habits practiced consistently cause a company to be financially healthy. Forming the right business habits from scratch prevents you from forming bad habits that can be difficult to break in the long run.

The Health of a Business

<ul><li>Paying yourself should always be your priority even if you’re in debt.</li><li>Practice the one more day technique. Hold off on purchasing something and test how much you need it. You’ll feel rewarded when you see yourself saving more by going without certain items.</li><li>Modern-day success is not about earning the most revenue, hiring more employees, and having the biggest office spaces. It is about generating the most profit through the fewest employees with the least expensive office space.</li><li>You cannot add new debt as you pay the old debt off. Pay your smallest debt off first.</li></ul>

Tackling Debt

<ul><li>95% of your company’s profitability depends on what goes on beneath the surface (after the sales), and not the sales themselves.</li><li>Serve your clients with the same or very similar problems, using your one consistent solution to solve the problems.</li><li>The key to being efficient is repeatedly serving a consistent core customer need.</li><li>The more you focus on improving efficiency, the closer you’ll get to achieving double the results in half the time.</li><li>Focus on one area of your business that benefits your best customers and challenge yourself to figure out how to get twice the results for half the effort.</li></ul>

Money and Efficiency

The benefits of accountability groups:<ul><li>Having accountability partners can make a potentially challenging experience bearable</li><li>Enforcing a plan or a system with others ensures that you are more likely to do your part</li><li>When you regularly meet with an accountability group, you get into a rhythm that makes it easier for you to stay the course ad achieve your goal</li><li>Keep the accountability groups honest! Let your accountability partner(s) not be your friends.</li><li>You must be accountable for the process by any means necessary.</li></ul>

Accountability Groups

Innovation in business and efficiency comes from big, bold questions.

Author of cult classics The Pumpkin Plan and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur offers a simple, counterintuitive cash management solution that will help small businesses break out of the doom spiral and achieve instant profitability. Conventional accounting uses the logical (albeit, flawed) formula: Sales - Expenses = Profit. The problem is, businesses are run by humans, and humans aren't always logical. Serial entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz has developed a behavioral approach to accounting to flip the formula: Sales - Profit = Expenses. Just as the most effective weight loss strategy is to limit portions by using smaller plates, Michalowicz shows that by taking profit first and apportioning only what remains for expenses, entrepreneurs will transform their businesses from cash-eating monsters to profitable cash cows. Using Michalowicz's Profit First system, readers will learn that: · Following 4 simple principles can simplify accounting and make it easier to manage a profitable business by looking at bank account balances. · A small, profitable business can be worth much more than a large business surviving on its top line. · Businesses that attain early and sustained profitability have a better shot at achieving long-term growth. With dozens of case studies, practical, step-by-step advice, and his signature sense of humor, Michalowicz has the game-changing roadmap for any entrepreneur to make money they always dreamed of.

Profit First

Find 100+ Ideas and Facts about Money - Curated from interesting sources like Books, Podcasts & Articles - Genuine Insights from like-minded Users like You!

How to Write a Business Plan

The Harvard Business Review Entrepreneur's Handbook

Stress makes life's clock tick faster but chilling out slows it down

Frugal Tips From the Great Depression – Gabe Bult Blog

5 Must-Read Books for Aspiring Millionaires

10 Timeless Rules of Investing

The Psychology of Money

The Millionaire Fastlane

Profit First

12 Personal Finance Tips and Tricks to Make You Rich - Swift Salary

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

How to Write a Business Plan

The Harvard Business Review Entrepreneur's Handbook

Stress makes life's clock tick faster but chilling out slows it down

Frugal Tips From the Great Depression – Gabe Bult Blog

5 Must-Read Books for Aspiring Millionaires

10 Timeless Rules of Investing

The Psychology of Money

The Millionaire Fastlane

Profit First

12 Personal Finance Tips and Tricks to Make You Rich - Swift Salary

It's time to Read like a Pro.

It's time to
Read like a Pro.