Although we talk about property in this newsletter, property itself is merely a mechanism for getting cash, to pay for your investment, an investment that will hopefully increase over time. Thats it. Nothing more. Property today, is just the trendy way to do it, in the 80's it was shares (until the crash) and in the 90's it was gold (I think, well before my time of course!). But right now, its property, and the chances are that it wont always stay that way, so maybe its time to grow something alongside your property portfolio.

You see, if you do not have the funds to get your first deposit on an investment property, then a business could be the way to get that first deposit. Imagine if you know how to use a PC for example, and advert in the local paper teaching others how to do the same, will bring in the cash, even if its a low hourly rate, that money over a period of time adds up to a potential deposit. This is called sacrifice, and is something it seems, that most people are not able to make. But if you can make that sacrifice now, then possibly, it is the start of your new career / lifestyle.

So lets talk about starting a business then. This is just an alternative route to property, and can be less risky depending how you go about it.

You see, many people starting one, buy the hatstand, the coffee machine, the water dispenser, a new fax machine, a new laptop, business cards, letterheads, an office, a company car with logo's, etc etc and they havent sold a thing. That is not the way to start a business, unless you have a lot of money to throw at it, and you are going full time right from the start.

The best way to start a business, in your spare time is to simply start. Choose your product, and let everyone know about it. It will be a struggle at first, but then something called momentum kicks in. Lets say you buy yourself a burger bar, you know what I mean, one of those you see parked up on a Friday night in a city centre selling hot dogs, burgers and the like. You spent say £10,000 on that as an investment, then on your first Friday night you dont take a penny. On the Saturday, parked up in the same spot, you may sell a few burgers. As the weeks progress, as more and more people start to know you, and know that you're there in the same spot on a regular basis, the business begins to take off. This is exactly the same in any business, and once you're bringing in the sales, then you can start to progress a bit more.

This could be the same for any business, a plumber, a plasterer, you need to start off letting as many people know, it costs nothing, and any business you get from that can then go and pay for some advertising, or marketing, etc. It may take 2 years to get from doing nothing to getting a business that brings in additional cash, but at least its a guaranteed way of starting up, rather than a huge amount of money up front and a large amount of risk.

With a small business, you need to ensure that everything is generally pointing in the right direction, your attitude and your enthusiasm alone are enough to kick start the business, then additional skills take over, such as learning where and when to advertise. As experience takes over, you become a better business player. You could run your burger bar, and its the same thing, except that it is likely to be a cashflow investment each month, the chances of it increasing in value are lower, but they still exist in terms of building an asset that did not exist before.

If you build your business as a plasterer, then it is also a cashflow generator, but also, if you grow the business, you are building an asset that increases in value, just like property.