Leo Kanell

Tag: Business Startups

  • Why Mark Cuban is Wrong about Starting a Business on a Business Loan

    Shark Tank has become one of the most fascinating shows on tv regarding entrepreneurship and capitalism.  One of its current “Sharks” is Mark Cuban, he is a man I respect immensely in terms of business development, entrepreneurship and creating wealth.  He has also been quoted as saying that he would never start a business on a loan.  Why would he say that?  There is the fact that it is more profitable for himself and his show to give capital to entrepreneurs for ownership and equity in these new businesses, if the entrepreneur figured out how to secure financing then clearly that would not benefit the premise of the show.  That said, he may really believe that is an important aspect of starting a business.  I think he is completely wrong and I’m going to prove it with some concrete examples.

    I have started multiple multi-million dollar businesses and each of them was started with some sort of loan or funding that I had to creatively secure in order to get these businesses off of the ground.  So from my own first hand experiences I can tell you that in order to begin and at several turning points in my businesses the ability to secure capital for them has been a tremendous key.  So that said, allow me to share a much better example of businesses succeeding due to a business loan or some sort.  

    Allow me to present Walmart.  We all have been to Walmart and have witnessed its growth first hand.  Decades earlier it was begun with one store by a great man named Sam Walton.  Sam started his first store with a loan of $20,000 and $5,000 he had saved up.  He continuously tinkered with the discounting methodologies that he would develop over the years to create the biggest global retailer in the world and he would never have succeeded at growing it the way he did without constant financing.

    At one of his first stores he secured a loan for $1,800 to finance an ice cream machine that he used to sell ice cream outside his store and attract new customers.  He was nervous about the loan, but it ended up increasing his sales significantly.  As he began to grow from his first variety stores to his first full fledged actual big box store Walmart he went around looking for capital from investors.  Each investor passed on his business model believing it would not succeed long term.  So Sam “borrowed to the hilt” and risked all of his personal assets in order to build Walmart and grow it exponentially.  Walmart now has thousands of locations worldwide and had annual sales recently of nearly $500 Billion Dollars.  It all started with a loan and was grown with significant funding.  Additionally if Sam were still alive today he would be the world’s richest man and be valued at 160 Billion nearly double what the current richest man Bill Gates is worth (about $80 Billion) so suffice it to say understanding how to start a business with a loan can be one of the best decisions that a business owner ever makes.  Comprehending the best methods to secure growth capital as your business expands can be vital to long term growth and success.

  • Leo Kanell Knows Freedom is the Key

    You may ask yourself how is it that in the last 240 years has the world in general progressed so incredibly with technology and improving the way we live as humanity.  According to Leo Kanell the truth is it all begins with freedom, there is a reason that technology did not evolve quite so rapidly under certain elements of time versus others.  For example, much of the development began with the Italian renaissance where there was sufficient freedom to develop new products and inventions.  Many great artists and scientists like Leonardo Da Vinci (who Leo Kanell was named after) and Michaelangelo came during that time.  Where there is true freedom the opportunity to prosper exists.

    So with such unprecedented freedom in existence in society today in the year 2015 how is it that so many people really still live with so little freedom.  To me freedom is the ability to make our own choices, maybe that means I’m not going to work tomorrow, but will instead go wakeboarding on the lake with my family all day.  Perhaps it means that I will travel to learn more about a new culture or way of life.  In reality though the majority of people are not free to make such decisions and we all know exactly why that is.  Leo Kanell says it is because the majority of the population is subservient to those that control and mange their own enterprises.  I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, but to obtain true freedom it all begins with one question, are you an employer or an employee?  It really is that simple, either I work to create my own freedom through wealth creation or I am working to help someone else create their freedom through my efforts.

    In the Count of Monte Cristo novel, Napoleon Bonaparte truthfully states, “in life we are kings or pawns.”  Truer words were never spoken, so which will it be for you, king or pawn?