Phase one: Learning to soldier

Similar to the military, entrepreneurs need to learn to work through pain, lack of rest and distractions.  With this being the case 100 percent of the time, we think it is a needed function of the program to make this step one in the process toward financial freedom.  During Phase One of the program, our entrepreneurs will be given the opportunity to show what they are worth and learn more about business than they ever dreamed.  We will have them focused on making sure the day to day activities of BFC are covered in full, this will mean a lot of “grunt work” for a period of 4-5 hours a day.  This activity is not designed to teach anything but work ethic. In the start phase of their business, these candidates will have to sacrifice time for results in launching their businesses, so we want to teach them how to do that while we have a chance to mentor them to phase two.  Each candidate will be evaluated by the mentors to see which one of the BFC projects would fit them best and will assign them to it.  The purpose of this assignment is to ensure success in phase two.  Phase one is designed to last no longer than 45 days and no fewer than 20 days.

This will also be the time our candidates will start to find themselves and the type of entrepreneur they are.  We will have our staff, partners, affiliates and contacts help them to begin the basic stages of their start up.  They will be taught to understand the types of corporations they should be forming, the differences between them and the way to form them.  These candidates will have the opportunity to interview some of the most innovative minds in the Gen Y/Gen X markets to start gathering information and learning the way the real world works.  Each day will be filled with “grunt work” followed by a video from our firm and a new author, speaker, successful business person, attorney, accountant, CEO, CFO CIO, investors and so on.  They will learn to: focus, out work their competition, learn how to promote and edify other businesses, use social media, market through many channels at the same time and understand why this is all important. Building their bandwidth for knowledge is the forefront of phase one.

Phase Two: Learning to sell

We see it all the time, “Eric my product is amazing, my office design is perfect, my books are run well…….why am I going broke” and the answer is always the same—YOU ARE NOT SELLING.  The purpose of any business is to sell products or services, period.  Most businesses fail, not because it is the law of averages, because the person running them had one of the following problems:

1. They couldn’t break the paradigm of going from a W-2 salary employee to a 1099 Self –Employed machine. This is a problem.  This is why most businesses fail.  Most people are taught to do “a job”, not “run a business”, which are far different things.  “Doing a job” is nothing more than filing your role within the system, and most of the time getting paid a fraction of the value of the job.  “Running a business”, has no function, YOU MUST KNOW AND DO EVERYTHING, from the smallest to most important task—EVERY DAY.
2. They couldn’t get out of their comfort zone. People are funny; they love to do what is easy and want to be paid like they did the things that are hard.  Being successful is all about doing things that everyone else hates to do or doesn’t want to do.  We have to teach these candidates to get out of their comfort zone and break through the barriers that hold back their peers.
3. They never learned to sell. What a problem this can be for an entrepreneur, not knowing HOW to sell.  Think about it, once you have a product or service, what good is it if nobody buys it?  Sometimes the best product or service in the market is never heard of because the owners didn’t know how to sell, really know HOW to sell.  We teach them TO sell and HOW to sell during this phase, while they sell their business that they have been working on.
4. “I am a business person not a salesman”. WOW, this is a killer.  No one says that you have to sell used cars out of the back of a flea market like a bad movie.  Think of some of the best salespeople out there, they are the names you know.  The entire panel of multi-millionaires on Shark Tank, some of the best salespeople to ever live.   Sean (P-Diddy) Combs, Tony Robbins, Donald Trump, Suzie Orman, David Letterman, the list goes on and on.  These people have made it in their industry because they are always on the sale.  When people realize that a salesman is the same thing as a businessman, they sky is not even close to the limit.  The common misconception that salesmen are bad is controlled by the way that a sale is done.  Learn to embrace it and use it right.
5. I need money to make this work! Big problem for most businesses.  Entrepreneurs seem to follow the trend of the popular failures and successes of those that have been where they are.  Make sure you have a product and or service that is good enough to not need money from anyone else.
6. One revenue stream. This is 2009 and the world of specialization has hit, but the specialty is in knowing how to pay your bills.  Companies that limit themselves to their business alone as a revenue stream will be left behind.  We will teach our candidates to learn about other businesses and partner with the right ones to ensure that SOMEONE is always selling and revenue is always coming in. Make no mistake about it, the consolidation era is here and those that embrace it will come out on top.

During this next 3-6 month phase each candidate will have exact advice on their new business ideas and begin to write a formal plan and organize a team of board members from our panel of contacts.  We will teach them to find the right consultants for the business as they start the process of creating their service and or product line, They will be taught to make their own marketing pieces, form their “pitch” for their business, learn to: stretch a dime, leverage relationships, find other forms of income to solve short and long term cash flow issues, predict markets, understand consumers, SELL the product they just “grunted” and earn money.  For every deal that these candidate close they will be paid a commission and learn to live off of what they earn and break the habits of the past-being paid to go to work.  As they earn and produce more they will be promoted to up the ranks and move forward toward owning their own enterprise they will have a side account set up in their name that will match them a certain percentage of their  commissions in escrow for the purpose of funding out a business when they leave the incubator.  We want them to learn to live based on the results they have and then reward them for these results with an easier path to success in the future from proper funding.

Phase Three: Turnarounds

As a firm, BFC is built on the premise of helping business owners turn their businesses around from loss to profit in exchange for equity in the business.  This means that we have a team of people that have been through the ringer!  On any given week we might be asked, or pitched, by 5-10 businesses that need our help and we work closely with firms that will help us determine which deals to take, if any.  We then dig right in and get to work and revamp the entire company to focus on making money.  Doing this can only be done with a strong will, background, network and thick skin.  As the candidate progresses through phases two, selling, into phase three we will then start to allow them to work on managing projects that we see fit for them to succeed in.  We should have a candidate that can start the entry level turnaround process with little need for mentoring.  We will have made this candidate a beats from all the things they will have not only learned, but been through to this point.  We will walk them through our model for their first 2-3 turnarounds and then let them finish the five they need to leave the candidate stage and become a business owner.

The point of this phase, aside from raising the amount of people we have that are trained well and can execute, is to teach the candidate to solve problems.  Problems WILL arise in business the better you are at seeing them and solving them to better chance you have to succeed.  We want them to need us for a few deals and lean on our knowledge and support so that our business continues to grow and flourish along with teaching them to be a professional problem solver and execution specialist.  When they start to see problems in others businesses they will learn to avoid them themselves in the future, making our investment one that can make money.  We will be paying a standard commission based on success, this may include revenue sharing, equity stakes, options or even outright ownership in the businesses.  Along this path the escrow account will grow based on the success they have in each endeavor.  They will be taught the ropes and will now be building a real pro forma, business model, contacts, experience and shopping their ideas to investors in our network.  We will make sure that the investment they are offering out to the network is a fundable deal in all ways.

Phase Four: Spreading the wings

At this point we will have made an entrepreneur that actually knows how to stand on their own 2 feet, earn money doing things outside their comfort zone, run a business, turn a business around, SELL, network, use the internet and technology, build multiple revenue streams, manage their funds properly, market, advertise, build bridge and so on.  So let’s take care of the crew now!  We will have “self funding” sitting in an escrow account for them, an interim CFO to make sure they are not wasting time on the books when they need to be building their business and possibly (depending on their level of revenue potential) investors ready to drop in cash to make the idea become reality.

Our goal extends much further than just the launching of their business, anyone can do that.  We are in this with them for the long run. We will be partnered with each entrepreneur and have an interest in their success and company.  Guidance through the good times and the bad is what they will have with us, nothing less.  We are a resource of REAL business owners, not just people teaching and or “speaking” about business.  Our goal is simple, let’s make some money! We will not be using any professors form universities, because we believe that what we do is congruent with what they do.  Professors lay down the foundation and teach the HOW to think, we work with them to build the house and show them WHAT to think.  We are VERY selective on who we have educating these young minds and will doing background checks and verifying income in the past for all our instructors.  Instructors should be n the trenches and teaching when they have free time (if they ever do).  We understand that there are times when entrepreneurs struggle, but we are ONLY looking for people that can PROVE they have made money in the past, as an entrepreneur.  We understand the importance of public speaking and “self-help” professionals, but again only want the ones that can back up their speaking with evidence of success.  We are not looking to find billionaires to teach, we are looking for real, humble success stories that want to procure a nation of entrepreneurs that change the path of modern times.

We found that more than 92 percent of all companies are planning to launch a campaign that involves either print ads (newspaper and magazine), email (now considered dead in the SPAM age) or direct mail (or direct recycle as we call it) in the next few weeks.  What these companies don’t realize is that they can reach twice as many people with half as much spending.

Social media has burst onto the scene and made an impact, fast.  Facebook is considered the third largest country on the planet. Words like ‘blog’ and ‘tweet’ are common words that don’t even need a spell check anymore.  People are going to their computers instead of bars to find their next mate.  What is going on?  Businesses face a much larger dilemma, get into this crazy world or not.  The common questions about social media that people ask me are the same:  Where do I begin? Who do I go to?  Should I hire someone to do it for me?

Well, San Diego Entrepreneurs, this article will help you answer those questions and many more.  We have taken a deeper look into the world of social media and found some things that may just impress or shock you.  Overall, businesses are very open to using this median and love the idea of a lower marketing bill every month.

However, this is a problem that I think needs to tackled right away–this is not marketing, it is branding and P.R.  The world of lead generation is one that should not be mixed into your social media campaign, at least until you have a reputation to protect.  Social media is best used as a tool to inform the public of who you are and what you do 24 hours a day, not a door to door salesman.  The etiquette on these sites may just get you kicked off forever if you abuse the system.  This being said, it is important to note that it is a specialized field that should be handled with care.

So to answer the first question, “Where do I begin?” We have to say one word, research.  Learn what all the sites do and who is on them before you jump in.  Watch the way people act and the things they say before you start to build your friend base.  Just learn.  Experience is important to your online presence; it means the world to have a person that can counteract anything that is written about you in a negative way on the web. Starting point number one should be to take a workshop and build a base of understanding about these sites and this new world of communication.  Think back to when email came out and do it again, but faster.  Don’t jump in and start making things happen if you don’t know what you are doing, it may cut you off before you have a chance to start.

The next question is “Who do I go to?” This is the base of the article.  We found that there are more “social media” companies popping up than almost any other type of service out there right now.  The thing that we found to be the most interesting about these “companies” is the fact that most of them are owned by a virgin entrepreneur.  This is scary considering that every one of their clients is putting their 24 hour a day perception in the hands of a rookie.  My advice is to first get to a seminar or a workshop and build that foundation of knowledge for this type of communication.  From there you can decide if you want to do it yourself, hire a staff member or hire an outside firm to handle it for you.  Either way, make sure that YOU understand the way it works.  So, hit the seminar circuit and go to work.

Right in line with the last question, is the answer to the final question, “Do I hire someone to do it for me?” I think everyone should know this information, so pay attention.  In this market there are people trying to make a buck any way they can, which means we all need to have our guard up a little bit. Again, there are more social media companies popping up out there than any other service right now and this means you need to be a smart consumer and not just a business owner.  The answer to the question is yes and no.  I think it is important that you, ultimately, handle your own social media and get your message across.  This means that you would have to hire someone or work more hours.  There are firms out there that will take over your campaign where it is and make it more enhanced and productive for you.  Some will even assign a consultant to educate your entire staff on the ways they can start to learn and take over the campaigns.

If I were to hire someone I would want to look into their past, not the Google stuff, their real past.  Make sure that any company that approaches you has made money using social media before, period.  There is a big difference between meeting lots of drinking buddies on Facebook and selling washer and dryer sets on Twitter, don’t get burned.  This is your company’s reputation and it will be on the internet forever, be careful.   Check the board of directors out, make sure they have been successful in the past.  Make certain the company you use has sold product of their own through these markets, because it is a whole new game.  You don’t want some 24-year-old kid that has been laid off and sitting at home in their pajamas for six months managing your reputation, it lasts forever.

“Check to make sure they are actually incorporated, surprisingly, this is a common theme in the white collar hustling community-they don’t really have a company. These Tweeters try and impress businesses with the promise of a huge network of people and in the end they have 5000 friends that never want to buy the product and the business owner is out $5000” says Eric Rice, President of Boom Media Inc. here in San Diego.

Most importantly, check to see if the company you are using has a track record of going from social media to old media, the internet to the TV, the free blogs to the bank and so on.  It does you and your business no good to have a bunch of friends in Texas on Facebook if you can only operate in California.

All in all, there will be more and more companies popping up in the social media sector and we need to start educating the business community about them right away so we don’t, saturate the market, get ripped off or make fools of ourselves.

Eric Rice goes on to say, “The bottom line here is that these businesses are still just that, businesses and need to be able to run as such.  Find a place that has experience doing just that, running a business.”

A social media company should be comprised of successful people that have used the system to their advantage before; this means they have experienced profit from social media at some time in the past.  Make sure your reputations are intact and your pocket books get larger, not the other way around.

Thankfully enough, FHA and VA have made aggressive moves to support this need and Buyers now have the ability to finance larger loan amounts with these programs.

The convicted felon working as a Telemarketer from his basement trying to sell you a home loan is NEVER, EVER, EVER going to be able to provide you with personal face to face service, the comfort and security of knowing your personal information is safe and secure, the knowledge that your qualification criteria is being perfectly matched with the Lender, expertise thru years of required schooling and training, years of experience, moral conduct, and down right good ole fashioned hard work. “I can do this myself.”I cannot begin to count how many times I’ve educated a Buyer, walked them thru the entire process, only to see them convince themselves that they could now gallop off into the sunset and negotiate the largest loan that they will ever take in their lives, never stopping to review anything other than the rate. Suddenly, a couple of years later that same Buyer will call me up and ask if they can pop in for a moment of time.

I of course being a fine upstanding member of the community looking out for my fellow man will graciously invite them to stop by whenever convenient. They’ll tell me how they were told it was a fixed rate mortgage, how the interest rate would never increase, that their property taxes were included in their payment and the best one of all – that there was no prepayment penalty on the loan. After a quick review, what we discover is that the Buyer left us for a Bank, Credit Union, or Direct lender who’s Loan Officer’s are paid to do one thing and one thing only – sell the highest rate, with the highest payment on the loan that brings that institution the most profit over the long haul. I explain to this heart broken Buyer that if they’d stayed with us we would have looked out for them and avoided all of this because we do not work for the Bank, Credit Union, or Direct Lender. In fact, those institution’s profit margins are not of our concern because we don’t make our money with them.

I kindly remind the Buyer of the same thing I reminded them before, that as a Broker I only work for the Buyer and am held to full disclosure – no fine print.

Fifteen year mortgage rates were lower this week over last and 10 year U.S. Treasury yields rose during the holiday shortened week, as of last Friday yields were at 3.43 percent.

Current mortgage rates are expected to remain low for now but will start heading up when strong economic data is reported by the government and inflation becomes a real concern. Another factor that will drive mortgage rates higher is the completion of the Fed program to buy $1.25 billion of mortgage-backed securities. The Fed has already started slowing down the purchases and will complete the program in the first quarter of 2009.

An idea man by nature, Eric’s success is defined by his relentless work ethic and ability to share his vision with his partners, employees, and the public. Never satisfied, no matter the level of his success, Eric drives and motivates his team to constantly improve, and spawns countless ideas and strategies on a daily basis, which he filters through his partners before implementation.
Eric is not only BFC Ventures driving force behind the scenes; he is also the face of the company in the eyes of the public. He has been wildly effective in branding
himself through numerous media avenues including radio (has hosted two shows, weekly guest on two others), television (has hosted one show, weekly guest on channel 6 news, numerous guest appearances on other shows), and the web (huge presence on a variety of social media outlets, and internet video platforms). As the visionary and public presence for the firm, Eric has taken BFC Ventures to impressive levels, but everyone who has met Eric knows that he will never be satisfied.
Eric thirsts for success and is driven by the ability to either succeed or help someone succeed. With this in mind, after closing his last company he started to focus on what he is really good at and where he belongs in life. So, he is now training and investing with young entrepreneurs and businessmen all around the globe. “The thoughts that come out of his head are mind blowing sometimes, not because of their content, but because he knows he will work hard enough to make the thought a reality.” says his partner Adam Blejski, “I have never seen anything like it, he has a gift to find revenue streams for businesses that no one would have ever known were there”. With that being said, Mr. Rice is now playing the free agent market and not settling done to one company. He is a highly sought after consultant that will not take the work if it is long in nature. He is focused on his own projects and the 10-15 new ones he sees every week from investors and inventors.

For more info contact Vivian@bfcventures.com
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Eric Rice created the “Fund the Youth” program in four stages. In every stage of the apprenticeship, the participants would be educated in business strategies, marketing, online social media, management and funding prospects just to name a few. Applications are currently being accepted, and scouts will be available on San Diego college campuses to inform interested parties about the company and answer any questions that they may have.
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If you are seeking an apprenticeship such as this or know of a talented individual who would benefit from our program, please contact our “Fund The Youth” Director at Vivian@BFCVentures.com.
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“We lost our son, who we love dearly, last year and had to go dark for a period of time to clear our heads. We are back now and making sure that he sees us daily doing the good things we do. We want to continue to make him proud.” states Mills, an avid family man and pillar of integrity. This small and growing firm was once a powerhouse in the mortgage market before tragedy struck. Casa Financial ensures that each and every person that walks through the door has the same pricing as the last, a rarity in this market. They have not written one bad loan and still thrived as one of the top producing mortgage firms during the boom. Mills, who served 13 years in the Navy, booked the most submarine time in the military during his time in the military. He shows a level of dedication to his business that is only bested by his dedication to his family and this bleeds out into the file of every client Casa Financial serves.
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