#melvin feller adjunct professor

[melvinfeller]

Real Estate Guidance and How to Profit in a University Setting

Melvin Feller both an adjunct professor in real estate and real investments and financing located in Texas and Oklahoma invests across the country and now sees this current economy as a great time to be investing in real estate.  Melvin Feller has taken a class of college students out to the field to test the theory that anyone can invest smartly and by asking the right questions.  This was a test for Melvin Feller and his new upcoming College Class Book on “Today’s Real Estate Techniques – What Works in This New Economy.”

 His students did well with 10 out of 14 students having bought or been deeded real estate that these students turned around and made profits on.  Melvin Feller called this his first outdoor lab with boots on the ground for university learning!

 However, as Melvin Feller suggested, if you are looking to get into real estate investing you will want to do your research and take advice from people who know what they are talking about.  Real estate investing, if done properly, can make you wealthy and financially independent, over a period of time.  Investing in real estate can be risky at times, due to the current economic situation. This article will give you some great advice if you are wanting or thinking about real estate investing.

 Real estate investment has been proven to be less risky than buying stocks.  It attracts numerous people from numerous different backgrounds and real estate investing has three main benefits: the tax advantages from deprecation and the equity growth.  The best benefit is that is looked at as forced savings account because your renters are paying off the mortgage.

 The term depreciation in real estate investing means purchasing with money that came from a mortgage that has the yearly rents less than the interest of the current mortgage and the expenditures paid for the property’s maintenance. These items convey benefits from taxes and the most important thing is the interest of your mortgage that become highly coveted tax deductions on annual basis.

 Equity growth is defined as the appreciation earned from the value of your properties. One point to remember and always keep at the forefront of your mind is that is not guaranteed, because you have no guarantees that the value of a property will raise.  You always need to know that real estate is micro economically controlled and thus id depend upon that city’s economic policies and safety issues.

When planning your real estate investing you don’t have to start by investing in a place where you live. Just by following due diligence principals on various surrounding areas and getting to know the area like the back of your hand; you can buy an apartment or house that you can then rent out. Furthermore, real estate investing that’s done in a city which you are not going to live actually removes some of the stress and emotion of what and where to buy.  The main reason is because you will need to turn the daily management of those properties over to property management company.

 If you get into real estate investment as landlord, but you feel that you just do not have the time and/or the skills to manage, you can hire a property manager that will take care of the property management for you. Generally, the fee for their skills are around 10% of the profits, but there are many advantages, you save a lot of time and you will certainly profit from the experience and knowledge property managers have.

 One of the most important decisions to make as your preliminary thinking about investing in your local market, I recommended that you try to locate rental property in growing areas that provide everything a tenant is looking for which includes: leisure activities, restaurants, transportation and a sense of belonging to an area that they love.

 Another possible risk in real estate investing is the chance that the value of the property you purchased may actually decrease in retail value, and you may feel that will be forced to sell the property quickly, so consider this when buying and try to pick an area where you know and understand that rents are stable.  Many areas have price drops and increases.  However, we generally never see where rents decrease over this invent. In fact, rents generally have increased and the tenants are still making a profit for you.  So rather then sell the property, it is actually a great time to purchase more property.

 The last item in regards to purchasing and renting out a property is that before doing the initial purchase that you do an in-depth research regarding the history of tenancy in that specific area.  The main reason I suggest this is because if there are too many tenants in a given area your vacancy factor may increase, which translates into longer period of vacancy between tenants.  

 I have described some of the most basic information you will need if you want to start investing in real estate.  Real estate investment is not easy so you should take this advice and do further research with well-seasoned Realtors and Investors if you think that this is the ring thing for you.

[melvinfeller]

Melvin Feller MA Illustrates How You Can Buy Any Business During Any Economic Cycle!

According to Melvin Feller Business Group, if you’re thinking about running your own business, especially in buying a company that’s already established may be a lot less work than starting from scratch. Melvin Feller has over 30 years in the commercial real estate field and the buying and selling of businesses. Why not buy a business from someone that does it and teaches it both in person and as an online adjunct professor? However, you will still need to put time and effort into finding the business that’s right for you. This article was written by Founder and CEO Melvin Feller in order to take you through the steps of buying an existing business, including how to assess and value a business, your obligations to any existing staff and where you can get professional help.

Actually, there are advantages and disadvantages of buying an existing business and If you get it right, there can be many good reasons why buying an existing business could be the right move for you. Remember though, that you will be taking on the legacy of the business’ previous owner, and need to be aware of every aspect of the business you’re about to buy.

Advantages:

Melvin Feller Talks Buying a Business.

According to Melvin Feller, it may be easier for you to get finance as the business will have a proven track record. A market for the product or service will have already been demonstrated.

There may be established customers, a reliable income, a reputation to capitalize and build on, and a useful network of contacts.

A business plan and marketing method should already be in place.

Existing employees should have experience you can draw on.

Many of the problems will have been discovered and solved already.

You can always re-sell the business.

Disadvantages:

You often need to invest a large amount up front, and will also have to budget for professional fees for solicitors, surveyors, accountants, etc.

If the business has been neglected you may need to invest quite a bit more on top of the purchase price to give it the best chance of success.

You will need to honor or renegotiate any outstanding contracts the previous owner has in place.

Deciding on the right type of business to buy:

Melvin Feller Recommends Being Your Own Boss.

Ideally your business needs to fit your own skills, lifestyle and aspirations. Before you start looking, think about what you can bring to a business and what you’d like to get back. List what is important to you. It is useful to consider:

Your expectations in terms of earning — what level of profit do you need to be looking for to accommodate your needs?

Your commitment — are you prepared for all the hard work and money that you will need to put into the business to get it to succeed?

Your strengths — what kind of business opportunity will give you the chance to put your skills and experience to good use?

The type of business — limited company, partnership etc. — that you’re interested in buying.

The business sector you’re interested in — learn as much as you can about your chosen industry so you can compare different businesses. It’s important to take the time to talk to people already in similar businesses.

Location — but don’t restrict your search to your local area. Some businesses can be easily relocated.

Where to look for a business to buy:

Many national and local newspapers carry advertisements for businesses and business locations or lots.

Depending on what sector you’re interested in, you could look in trade journals. Or put in your own advertisement, saying what you are looking for. You can get contact details for most newspapers, magazines and trade journals from press directories available on the internet.

Some magazines, many of them with their own websites, specialize in buying and selling property and businesses. Of course, do not forget Realtors who use their publications and websites like loopnet.com, Crexi.com, Showcase.com, as well as Marcusmillichap.com and get familiar with their websites, including Craigslist and eBay.

How to value a business:

Melvin Feller Talks Valuing Your Business.

Understandably, how to value a business is often the most worrying part of buying a new business. Remember, though, that what a business is worth to you will not be the same as it is to someone else with a different set of priorities and objectives.

To get a general idea of how healthy the business is, look at:

the history of the business

its current performance (sales, turnover, profit)

its financial situation (cash flow, debts, expenses, assets)

and why the business is being sold

The following list of questions will help you discover possible areas where you could financially get hurt.

How healthy is the business?

Stock:

How much is there?

What condition is it in?

Assets:

Does the asking price take into account depreciation?

Is anything leased or currently being purchased?

Intangible assets:

How much goodwill comes with the business?

Are any trademarks registered?

Products:

What are the profit margins on each product or service?

Which products or services account for the majority of sales?

Licenses:

Which ones are required to conduct business?

Are there any outstanding issues with the licenses?

Debts:

How old are the debts?

Which debtors owe the most?

Creditors:

What does the business owe?

What is the credit history like?

Suppliers:

What are their prices?

What’s their credit policy?

Employees:

Is the business adequately staffed?

Is it over-staffed?

Do all employees have the necessary skills?

Do all of the employees have the necessary equipment to do their job safely?

Premises:

Do they need refurbishing?

Are they leased or company owned?

Competition

What percentage of the market do the competitors have?

Valuation methods:

Melvin Feller MA Discusses Valuation Methods.

Your accountant can advise on how to put a specific value on the business and do the actual calculations. You can then decide how much you want to offer, or if you want to buy it at all. If you do decide to make an offer, the research you do now will be completely verifiable once you’ve agreed a purchase price and terms with the seller.

Make sure the business is worth buying by doing your due diligence:

Having done your research, it is important to verify the information you now have. A period of time is allowed for you to access the business’ books and records in order to verify that all of the information that you have discovered up to now is accurate, and this is known as due diligence period. It should give you a realistic picture of how the business is performing now and how it is likely to perform in the future.

When to begin due diligence.

Don’t start due diligence until you’ve agreed to a price and terms with the seller. For a down payment they may agree to take the business off the market during your investigation.

The investigation period is negotiable — but most small businesses need at least three to six weeks.

Where to get help

You should get accountants and attorneys to help you identify various risk areas but you can also get information about companies directly from the internet. Remember, due diligence is much more than the finances of a business. You need to come out of this period knowing exactly what you are getting yourself into, what needs to be fixed, what the costs are to fix them and if you are the right person to take over this business.

Key areas to cover are:

employment terms and conditions

outstanding litigation

major contracts and orders

IT systems and other technology

environmental issues

commercial management including customer service, research and development, and marketing

Information sources

Dig as deeply as you can and use whatever documents are available. For instance, if you’re looking at employee records, you could check out:

payroll records

staff files

copy of retirement and profit-sharing plans plus financial statements, if relevant

employment contracts

the staff manual

union contracts, if relevant

you may also need information from external sources such as the landlord, tax office or bank.

A step-by-step process on how to buy a business

Get professional advice

Professional help is invaluable as you go through the negotiation, valuation and purchase process. You may find it useful to contact the professional organizations to get advice and help on finding a lawyer or an accountant.

Research

Research the business sector you’re interested in, including the best time to buy. Shortlist two or three businesses.

Make sure a business is worth buying: conduct due diligence and verify any information you have been given. As well as checks on the business, your attorney will conduct searches in order to verify relevant licenses etc.

If you’re planning to arrange a loan, the lender will insist on carrying out their own survey and valuation at your expense, but you may want to pay for an additional independent survey and valuation.

Initial viewing and valuation

Be discreet — the owner may not want staff to know they are selling, but be thorough and record key findings.

Arrange finance

Lenders generally require:

details of the business/sales particulars

accounts for the last three years

financial projections even if no accounts are available

details of your personal assets and liabilities

Make a formal offer

If you make your initial offer by phone, follow this up in writing. Head your letter subject to contract and include this phrase in all written communication.

Negotiation

Before completing the sale, try to negotiate an overlap period so you have time to become familiar with the business before taking over. Record all the main point agreed.

Completion

Even after you reach an agreement on the price and terms of sale, the deal could still fall through. You have to meet certain conditions of sale to complete, including:

verification of financial statements

transfer of leases

transfer of contracts/licenses

transfer of finance

Looking after existing employees:

There are regulations that govern what happens to employees when someone new takes over a business. These apply to all employees when a business is transferred as a going concern, meaning employees automatically start working for the new owner under the same terms and conditions. For more information, check on your responsibilities to employees if you buy or sell a business.

Inform and consult employees

If you do want to discuss reducing numbers of employees or reorganizing the staff it’s a good idea to do this once you’ve completed the due diligence period, but before you take over the business. As the new employer you should inform and consult all employees — including employee representatives — who may be affected.

Employee Retirement Plans

 Melvin Feller Believes that Employees add to the Bottom Line.

As their new employer, you do not have to take over rights and obligations relating to employees’ retirement plans put in place by the previous employer. However, if you don’t provide comparable retirement plan arrangements, you could theoretically face a claim for unfair dismissal.

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[melvinfeller]

Influential Traits of Women in Leadership Positions

Melvin Feller MA, Founder of Melvin Feller Business Group in Dallas Texas, likes to study leadership traits and what makes a great leader. According to Melvin Feller MA, there is no gender rule when it comes to achieving high levels of success in life.

As the Founder of Melvin Feller Business Group and a former member of the United States Navy Reserve, Melvin Feller MA has made it a priority in both his business and academic pursuits as an Adjunct Professor to know that leadership moves the world. That’s why it’s important, why he and his colleagues’ study it, and why they strive to do it well. At its core, leadership is about human beings coming together to accomplish some desired outcome. It guides and facilitates the processes that allow groups of people to attain personal, organizational, and societal objectives. However, it has been a goal of the Melvin Feller Business Group to focus on influential traits of women leadership.

As Melvin Feller MA points out that we have certainly seen so many successful people, both men and women. While most leadership traits might be sometimes considered as genuine masculine qualities, however, look closely and see how many of these same traits are those of women’s leadership traits as well.

General Leadership Traits

Integrity — covers many topics. If you are to be a good leader, people need to know they can count on you. This is much more than simply being available to others. First, integrity means your word is a guarantee. When you say you will do something, you must follow through with it. Leaders are reliable and dependable. It does not matter if a situation seems trivial or difficult. Following through means you are trustworthy.

Integrity also means honesty. Saying what you mean and meaning what you say show others you are an honest person.

Fairness — in your dealings with other people shows leadership character. You should never undermine others, or cheat anyone, in order to get ahead. When you are fair, it extends to all people. Those who are in a lesser position than yourself count as much as those who may be above you. Every person’s feelings and situations are equal.

Respect — Strong and caring leadership requires respect. Contrary to popular belief, respect does not mean someone is above someone else. Instead, it is about seeing everyone as your equal, and demonstrating this when you interact with them. Basic courtesy and manners are signs of respect.

Strong leaders care about the people they deal with in every situation. You may not be in the other person’s situation, or fully understand everything he is experiencing, but compassion goes a long way in showing you care. Compassion shows a leader is a caring human being.

Citizenship — is another trait of a positive leader. Active concern about your world and your community are assets you cannot afford to dismiss. If you have the ability to transform your concern into constructive action, this is even better. You will gain respect when people know you are not only thinking about yourself.

Self-confident — A leader needs to be self-confident. While arrogance and boastfulness are characteristics of weak people, healthy self-confidence shows strength. You know who you are, and you like yourself. You can get the job done, whatever it may be. You take pride in your accomplishments, whether they are large or small.

Therefore, becoming a leader does not take power, money, or attaining a certain age. Leadership traits can be incorporated into anyone’s life. All it takes is the right attitude. When you are determined to always do and be your best, you are showing the signs of being a good leader. Whether you begin learning these leadership traits, or develop them even further, you are building the foundation for success and your role in your own life and in the world around you will be that of a confident leader.

As we can see above, women and men can have the same attributes as above as it comes to leadership skills. But, on the other hand, let’s see what feminine attributes can turn a woman into a great leader.

Women are caring, creative, dutiful, courteous, devoted, affectionate, pragmatic, handy, flexible, sympathetic… and of course we cannot find enough words to describe what they are.

But how are these feminine strengths suitable for a leadership career?

Studies in women leadership from the Melvin Feller Business Group and Melvin Feller’s Academic Research show that most influential woman leaders own specific qualities and most importantly, they manage to use their personal attributes in a constructive leadership strategy.

Here are some of the specific women leadership traits found in the Melvin Feller MA research:

Let’s begin with communication skills. Women are born communicators. Mothers simply know how to verbally interact with their children, using proper words that children always understand. This genuine ability of a woman works wonderfully in leadership. Within the women leadership context, a woman leader who is managing a team of subordinates must be able to intercommunicate with each of them in a manner that every person should comprehend.

Women leaders are also very empathic and prove to be great listeners. Showing openness and caring for other people’s concerns makes it easier for a person to become a good leader. Since they are naturally trained to feel the emotions of their loved ones through empathy, women easily develop powerful interpersonal skills.

Many women can be multi-tasking. They can focus on multiple different things in the same time, such as talking on the telephone, writing a report and checking out their outfit in the mirror. It’s just amazing! In women leadership, this ability works wonderfully in dealing with limited resources and planning further results in advance.

A women’s leadership style reconciles being patient and process oriented. This way, a woman can see the possible issues of a strategy or plan and address them in advance.

Women are willing to find a win-win solution or a win-win deal. They often demonstrate their feminine willingness to be tolerant and team oriented in the process of problem solving and decision making.

This also brings about another women leadership trait uncovered by the Melvin Feller Business Group: behavioral flexibility. They are more likely to ignore or reinvent the rules, take risks, gather the information from all sides and finally bring the people around their personal vision.

  Woman leaders don’t bother with fear of rejection. They can learn from any disappointment or any distress and go on with a positive attitude. Women are also more likely to admit their mistakes and so being able to constantly improve and grow.

Women Leadership Means:

Women can successfully combine leadership with compassion, which turn them into some of the most loved and appreciated leaders.

A women leadership style means getting people to realize the importance of living their lives based on the values that really matter.

Do these feminine qualities have a high value in the world today?

It looks that authoritarian leadership style is becoming less and less fashionable in these days. People begin to appreciate those feminine attributes that keep families together and unite the teams. These well appreciated women leadership traits of sharing, nurturing and caring for others are not only desired but also needed to make a difference in the world.

[melvinfeller]

Forget the Goal Setting-Try This Method Instead

Melvin Feller Business Group

More than anybody, Melvin Feller MA knows and understands all too well that we all have things that we want to achieve in our lives — getting into the better shape, building a successful business, raising a wonderful family, writing a best-selling book, winning a championship, and so on.

And for most of us, the path to those things starts by setting a specific and actionable goal. At least, this is how I approached my life until recently. I would set goals for classes I took, for weights that I wanted to lift in the gym, and for clients I wanted in my business.

During my online teaching and working with many students, I’m starting to realize, however, is that when it comes to actually getting things done and making progress in the areas that are important to you, there is a much better way to do things.

It all comes down to the difference between goals and systems.

Let me explain.

The Difference Between Goals and Systems

What’s the difference between goals and systems?

If you’re a coach, your goal is to win a championship. Your system is what your team does at practice each day.

If you’re a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week.

If you’re a runner, your goal is to run a marathon. Your system is your training schedule for the month.

If you’re an entrepreneur, your goal is to build a million dollar business. Your system is your sales and marketing process.

Now for the really interesting question:

If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still get results?

For example, if you were a basketball coach and you ignored your goal to win a championship and focused only on what your team does at practice each day, would you still get results?

I think you would.

As an example, I just added up the total word count for the articles I’ve written this year.

What I did focus on was writing one article every Monday and Thursday. And after sticking to that schedule for 11 months, the result was 115,000 words. I focused on my system and the process of doing the work. In the end, I enjoyed the same (or perhaps better) results.

Let’s talk about three more reasons why you should focus on systems instead of goals.

1. Goals reduce your current happiness.

When you’re working toward a goal, you are essentially saying, “I’m not good enough yet, but I will be when I reach my goal.”

The problem with this mindset is that you’re teaching yourself to always put happiness and success off until the next milestone is achieved. “Once I reach my goal, then I’ll be happy. Once I achieve my goal, then I’ll be successful.”

SOLUTION: Commit to a process, not a goal.

Choosing a goal puts a huge burden on your shoulders. Can you imagine if I had made it my goal to write two books this year? Just writing that sentence stresses me out.

But we do this to ourselves all the time. We place unnecessary stress on ourselves to lose weight or to succeed in business or to write a best-selling novel. Instead, you can keep things simple and reduce stress by focusing on the daily process and sticking to your schedule, rather than worrying about the big, life-changing goals.

When you focus on the practice instead of the performance, you can enjoy the present moment and improve at the same time.

2. Goals are strangely at odds with long-term progress.

You might think your goal will keep you motivated over the long-term, but that’s not always true.

Consider someone training for a half-marathon. Many people will work hard for months, but as soon as they finish the race, they stop training. Their goal was to finish the half-marathon and now that they have completed it, that goal is no longer there to motivate them. When all of your hard work is focused on a particular goal, what is left to push you forward after you achieve it?

This can create a type of “yo-yo effect” where people go back and forth from working on a goal to not working on one. This type of cycle makes it difficult to build upon your progress for the long-term.

SOLUTION: Release the need for immediate results.

I was training at the gym last week and I was doing my second-to-last set of clean and jerks. When I hit that rep, I felt a small twinge in my leg. It wasn’t painful or an injury, just a sign of fatigue near the end of my workout. For a minute or two, I thought about doing my final set. Then, I reminded myself that I plan to do this for the rest of my life and decided to call it a day.

In a situation like the one above, a goal-based mentality will tell you to finish the workout and reach your goal. After all, if you set a goal and you don’t reach it, then you feel like a failure.

But with a systems-based mentality, I had no trouble moving on. Systems-based thinking is never about hitting a particular number, it’s about sticking to the process and not missing workouts.

Of course, I know that if I never miss a workout, then I will lift bigger weights in the long-run. And that’s why systems are more valuable than goals. Goals are about the short-term result. Systems are about the long-term process. In the end, process always wins.

3. Goals suggest that you can control things that you have no control over.

You can’t predict the future. (I know, shocking.)

But every time we set a goal, we try to do it. We try to plan out where we will be and when we will make it there. We try to predict how quickly we can make progress, even though we have no idea what circumstances or situations will arise along the way.

SOLUTION: Build feedback loops.

Each Friday, I spend 15 minutes filling out a small spreadsheet with the most critical metrics for my business. I rarely think about this number, but checking that column each week provides a feedback loop that tells me if I’m doing things right. When that number drops, I know that I need to send high quality traffic to my site.

Feedback loops are important for building good systems because they allow you to keep track of many different pieces without feeling the pressure to predict what is going to happen with everything. Forget about predicting the future and build a system that can signal when you need to make adjustments.

Fall In Love With Systems

None of this is to say that goals are useless. However, I’ve found that goals are good for planning your progress and systems are good for actually making progress.

In fact, I think I’m going to officially declare 2020 the “Year of the Sloth” so that everyone will be forced to slow down and make consistent, methodical progress rather than chasing sexy goals for a few weeks and then flaming out.

Goals can provide direction and even push you forward in the short-term, but eventually a well-designed system will always win. Having a system is what matters. Committing to the process is what makes the difference.

Melvin Feller MA is a business consultant with more than 35 years of business experience. He has an extensive background in planning and managing cross-functional business operations, and both real estate and technology projects. He also continues to teach others to excel in this business realm. He is an adjunct professor and online educator as well.