The Celebrity Apprentice: Business Lessons

Finally!! The show is back an I've got to to say that I have really missed it. When it was on it was my favorite TV show, and now it looks like it's going to be a great season. A couple things I noticed:

1. It was clear that Dennis Rodman and Andrew Dice Clay didn't pull their weight. They should have even if they thought they were above making cupcakes, but when it comes down to making money, you must put 100% out. Everybody on the team felt they weren't contributing properly.
2. Dennis Rodman - what was he doing inside the truck?? He should have been out on the street attracting attention. He is clearly the most recognizable celebrity on the team but he was downright lazy. When you have an ability that could be useful in a situation, USE IT, don't just sit back and blame someone else.
3. They forgot to put sugar in the cupcakes??? How can you bake cupcakes without sugar?? Someone made a huge mistake. If you know people are going to spend $10 000 on a cupcake, at least make it taste good.

I loved the show. Donald Trump did a great job although some of the cast are really irritating. But thank G-d Dice is gone!!

How Do Hedge Funds Work?

When we open up the financial section of the newspaper or watch any business channels on TV, we always hear about hedge funds. Especially recently, during hard economic times, we hear about hedge funds that are having trouble. However, we all listen without actually understanding how they work.

I found an amazing video on YouTube by Senior Editor of Marketplace Paddy Hirsch. It's a 10 minute video, but well worth your time. He explains everything in very simple everyday terms.


Please take 10 minutes and watch it.
Click on the link below to watch it.



A look inside hedge funds

$50 Billion Ponzi Scheme

Over the past few days, as you have probably noticed in the media, the largest fraud in history has been uncovered. It was started by Bernard Madoff of
Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. In the last few years, when some of his investments went sour and he wasn't cutting a profit, he resorted to running a Ponzi Scheme.
A Ponzi Scheme works as follows. It is a fraudulent investment operation that involves paying abnormally high returns to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from the profit from any real business
Madoff was smart. He only offered 10% returns. His records were kept under lock and key and his auditors were nobodies.
However, investors should have known better. If you would have compared graphs of Madoff's returns against the markets, the markets show a rollercoaster, while Madoff's is a straight line going up. This is impossible. The best investors, lawful investors in the world, must ride the market waves.
But what were his real motives? How could a man have absolutely no regard for other people's money? People have lost billions of dollars. Charities have had to shut down because of him. Companies have had all their assets frozen.
A few people saw it coming but nobody did anything. He was a pretty important figure in the world of finance, being the fomer chairperson of NASDAQ. He used his social standing to persuade people to invest with him. Rich people at his country club in Palm Beach. Unfortunately, their greed overcame them.
In conclusion, I know its extremely unlikely, but I hope all the unlucky investors will somehow be repayed.

Any Thoughts?

Economic Crisis Explained

I found this video recently about the ecomnomic crisis and how it started. This video is is extremely simple and can help anyone understand what's going on.

Book Review - The 10 Rules of Sam Walton

I realize I haven't posted in a while, it's been busy, so here's the new post.

The truth is I never finished this book. I got about 2/3 of the way through before I got bored. The ten rules outlined in the book do make sense, and each of them could be expanded into a great chapter.

Rule 1: Commit to your business.
Rule 2: Share your profits with all your associates, and treat them as partners.
Rule 3: Motivate your partners.
Rule 4: Communicate everything you possibly can to your partners.
Rule 5: Appreciate everything your associates do for the business.
Rule 6: Celebrate your success.
Rule 7: Listen to everyone in your company and figure out ways to get them talking.
Rule 8: Exceed your customer's expectations.
Rule 9: Control your expenses better than your competition.
Rule 10: Swim upstream.
However, Michael Bergdahl seems to repeat himself over and over again. His main point to me seemed to be that Sam Walton was a people person. We can see by the success of Wal-Mart and the quality of its employees that Sam Walton knew how to get people excited and invlolved in the company. Otherwise, there are a few interesting items, and some short inspiring stories. This book was more focused on promoting Sam Walton and Wal-Mart, as it didn't really include any flaws, rather than focus on rules for business success that can be universally applied.

Next Book: The Starbucks Experience

Run your own Starbucks!!

Some of you might already know that I have another blog called The Game Garage: thegamegarage.blogspot.com and I wrote a post about a very interesting game called Coffee Tycoon. I doubt the game has an business merit, but it's a model of Starbucks so it should be fun. Here's the post:

First, there was the Lemonade Stand Game. That was interesting, but wait until you try this game. It's called Coffee Tycoon. Basically, you run a coffee empire. Call it Starbucks and imagine you are Howard Schultz. This is only a demo but it is still fun.
On the first page, you can manage Baristas, Managers, and Executives. After you have done that, you must buy drinks to sell to customers. However, you don't have all the drinks already. You have to make some money first. Then you have a choice of about 36 different ones.
On the next page, you manage your empire. You have the option to open more stores: 1, 5, 25, or even 1000 stores. You also have the option to give your employees benefits.
Next, you can upgrade you equipment to buy better, more complicated drinks. You can also build buildings to make world headquarters or a plantation. Stocks are also controlable so you can hire a Financial Officer or takeover a company.
Finally, there is advertising. You can choose to advertise in a bunch of media places like newspaper or even the super bowl!
And how would a coffee tycoon run if it didn't know it's customers. Therefore, there is a section where you can read about the different customers that enter your stores.
Before you can do any of the big things, you have to work with one store making a few hundred dollars a day.
This game is very fun and will get you to want to buy the full version. Have Fun!!
Play Now

Business Ideas Galore! Thousands of Business Ideas

If you caught my earlier post on Springwise, the site that compiles new business ideas from around the world, this site is similar, except it has more topics. It's called Cool Business Ideas. These are the categories:

• Advertising
• Arts
• Automobiles
• Branding
• Consumer Goods
• Culture & Music
• Design
• E-commerce
• Education
• Entertainment
• Environmental
• Fashion
• Food & Beverages
• Gadgets
• General
• Health & Beauty
• Homes & Living
• Luxury
• Marketing
• Media & Publishing
• Mobile
• Music
• Nanotechnology
• Newsletter
• Non-Profit & Charity
• Online & Social Networks
• Online Services
• Pets
• Retail
• Robots
• Services
• Special Feature
• Sports & Games
• Technology
• Tourism
• Travel & Transport
• Trends & Insights
• Wireless

Make sure to check it out!

http://www.coolbusinessideas.com