Friday, June 24, 2005

A good nose for business

Does anyone have any tips that might help the 'average' business-clueless dummy develop their business 'nose' (or snout)? When it comes to investing my hard-earned cash, what would you consider to be the top 3 things I need to remember? Apart from hiring someone else to make sense of it all for me....of course!

8 comments:

t said...

I'm so glad you're here!
I'm sooo not an expert on this...
My feeling is this, though:
In general, you try to figure out the benefit money-wise(some kind of number that tells you how much your money's going to make, with what probablity, in what time frame, etc. Various metrics are probably described in accounting books or websites - any experts out there?).
The numbers are probably hard to figure out; they're not just based on what's on the books, but also what's NOT on the books, your idea of risk based on info about all kinds of stuff relating to the business you're investing in, i.e. your knowledge, your research, your advisers research...
Since investing dips into your time, not to mention YOUR money, I think it's really important to do what YOU LIKE e.g. support a technology you care about, build a space you adore, invest in a country you're rooting for, buy into a company that does great business, play safe if you're not into risk, play fast if you love the thrill...
I think the heart and mind should/would/could complement each other (even) in money matters.
I love wikipedia. This is their finance section (too long, but you may pick a topic or three :-)

t said...

More on wikipedia finance ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_finance_topics )
Some of the most relevant articles:
- in Valuation: discounted cash flow valuation, relative valuation
- in Financial Markets: Equity Valuation: PE ratio, market cap
- also see technical analysis, versus financial analysis/ fundamental analysis

Anonymous said...

Thanks!! This is very helpful..

Anonymous said...

Do what I'm about to do - get a financial planner, a broker and a great tax-person!

t said...

Isn't that expensive?
I ask because I don't know...

A broker is for stocks, right?
I've used a tax person before, but I don't think I need one?
And I wonder what a financial planner can do for me at the moment, if I don't have money to plan. say i had some cash, what could a financial planner help do?

thanks.

Info Tek said...

"Does anyone have any tips that might help the 'average' business-clueless
dummy develop their business 'nose' (or snout)?"

Ogo, I hate to say this but a big part of successful investing THESE DAYS seems to revolve around just being at the right place at the right time. And how do you do that? By knowing inside information - plain and simple. Also, do the OPPOSITE of what everyone's doing. If they're BUYING, then you should be SELLING and vice versa. Obviously you know the ramifications of doing the very SAME thing as everyone else, right? You get screwed!!

As for myself, I don't really believe in investing per se. Instead, I'd rather start my own venture by finding a need, filling it, offering impeccabale customer service and SELLING it. I hope to accomplish that with AyoAfrica.com which I hope to turn into the eBay/Amazon of Africa (some day) since the West has totally ignored this part of the world save for its natural resources. This is just my 2 cents.

t said...

More on growing your business nose:
Personal MBA - sweet idea, although I'm not actually doing it.

I personally like Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad books for learning good ways to think about money. You could learn the same from a host of other books or, as Kiyosaki writes, from playing Monopoly.

t said...

Who's a financial planner?
Right now, I'm my financial planner, but I could see how talking to someone besides just my many awesome friends, could be useful.

Like right now, I use professional career counselors / career service persons at my school, and it's good stuff! Must be the same kind of thing.

Peace.

Previously on UpNaira

 

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