Michael Emilio

Real Estate and Small Business Blog

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Kenneth Cole’s Top 10 Rules of Style

August 25th, 2009 Topics: Lifestyle

If you’re in any sort of business where looks plays a part (which is just about any business where at some point you have face-to-face interaction with people), then you need to know about style. My personal favorite clothing designer is Kenneth Cole, so when I found an article written by him in Details magazine I definitely took a look.

I’ll give you the run-down on Kenneth Cole’s rules of style. One of the big take-aways of style is that clothing is a form of self-expression. It’s usually the first thing people see before you even open your mouth. As first impressions are usually formed within the first five minutes of meeting someone, this means it’s essential for you to get your personal style together. You’ll get better results in your business life and your personal life with just a few tips.

  1. Before you open your front door to go out into the world, take a few minutes to take a good look at yourself in the mirror. Think about what message you’re sending out with what you’re wearing. Is it exactly the message about yourself that you want others to receive? Or is there some inconsistency between your look and what you want to project? If there is, make a plan to fix it!
  2. If you’re wearing cologne/perfume, make sure you arrive before it does and make sure that it doesn’t linger when you leave.
  3. The truth is that most people don’t really dress up. The trick to look great without looking too “try-hard” is to mix a dressy look with a casual look or a rugged look with a refined look. For example, wear a blazer with your jeans or a casual top if you’re wearing dress slacks. Also, of the items you’re wearing, one item should be more tailored. If you’re going to be wearing a t-shirt, then wear cleaner jeans.
  4. Your choice in footwear  is critical. Your shoes are the most important accessory in your wardrobe – they allow your entire outfit to come together and make a huge impact in your look.
  5. Find your own “personal uniform”, then layer in something new in order to maintain the freshness of your look. For example, Kenneth Cole always wears jeans, a white shirt, and his boots. He then mixes up the rest. He may wear a white shirt, a pin-striped blazer and a V-neck sweater. Another day he may wear a graphic t-shirt, with a white shirt and a vest. However, you must always have a comfortable blazer and a white shirt in your wardrobe.
  6. If nothing else works, wear black.
  7. The accessory of the season are vests. You can use them as an element of sportswear or you can wear a vest with a suit – but make sure they’re not matching. Vests are best used to break up a suit and wear them as separates. Your suit jacket, either with or without the vest, can be worn with jeans. Your suit dress pants can be worn with sneakers, hooded sweaters, and t-shirts.
  8. Patterns and stripes need to be very subtle. You don’t want to look like you’re wearing a matched wardrobe (or that you’re an escapee from the local prison). Think about putting on a jacket that doesn’t match your pants and wearing a shirt that doesn’t match either. You don’t even need to have your belt and shoes matching, as long as your whole look seems to work together.
  9. You know you’ve put together a good look when people tell you, “You look great.” What you don’t want, is people asking you, “Where did you buy your jacket and how much were your shoes?” You want your look to help present you.
  10. You should never look like it took you more than 10 minutes to get dressed, no matter how long it actually took you.

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Budgeting is Not Boring: 30 Days to a Frugal Lifestyle

August 24th, 2009 Topics: Finance

I say this emphatically: Budgeting is not boring.

What makes budgeting boring for some people is that a lot of us don’t have the correct knowledge and experiences when it comes to budgeting. For example, if you went to a bowling alley and, because you had no idea how to bowl, every time you’d throw the bowling ball it would go in the gutter, then bowling would be pretty boring too right? It’s the same with budgeting. If you know the right way to do it, you gain positive experiences and budgeting can become fun. You see results (more money in your bank account) and this is definitely a fun thing!

What happens is that you start to feel accomplished in your new routine of living on a budget and the benefits that it entails. You may even look back at the “bad old days” when you used to spend your cash wildly and look back not too fondly! You take a look at those old bank statements and wonder where all the cash went.

What your new budget-conscious mindset will give you is new opportunities to do fun things in life without having to run over to the ATM machine every other day for a fresh infusion of cash into your wallet. Does frugal have to equal being bored? Not necessarily.

In order to get your new budget-conscious mindset right, I suggest you track your budget for the first few months. You can use either standard pen-and-paper or you can use any of the assortment of computer programs for this (Mint.com, Intuit Quicken, etc). After some time following your budget (again I recommend at least a couple of months writing everything down) you can think about dropping the written records and not having to write every expenditure down. The human mind takes a minimum of 30 days to get used to any new mental habit, so make sure you don’t give yourself any leeway during that first month or two to deviate from your planned budget! Once you get comfortable with your budget, you’ll be able to figure out how much you’re allowing yourself to spend on any particular category and how much you’ve already spent, all by heart. One of the big tips about fighting temptation during that first month is that whenever you feel an urge for something not budgeted (ex. new LCD television) remember what you’re saving for (ex. winter trip to Puerto Rico), imagine yourself doing that and walk away! Then replace that “urge” with something constructive (ex. watching the sports game at a friend’s house).

The bottom-line is that in order to budget effectively, you must have “budget-awareness”. This means you need to be aware of how commercial society influences people’s spending habits and you must fight these urges. A huge contributor to our materialistic culture is television – studies actually demonstrate that the more that a person watches television shows, usually the more that person will spend. Television constantly bombards the viewing public with messages of ultra-luxury beyond the grasp of the common middle-class, leaving the majority of people in debt trying to “catch up with the Joneses”. Even your friends and neighbors may affect your spending habits! Try to develop friendships with people also trying to build a debt-free frugal lifestyle in order to support your new ways. Remember that budgeting and frugal living doesn’t have to be forever – remember to reward yourself for your good work following your budget and reaching your goals!

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How to Overcome Nervousness as a Beginning Real Estate Investor

July 30th, 2009 Topics: Real Estate Investing

If you’re getting started in real estate investing, you might be a little bit nervous about actually going to take a look at a potential real estate investment property.

Questions in your mind might be, “What do I say to the seller? How do I act? Am I going to seem dumb if I ask a silly question? Should I come across as cool and experienced or should I play it “dumb”? When I should I mention price? When do I start negotiating?”

Newbie real estate investors and real estate professionals get jitters – I know this, because I’ve been there. We all get scared we might say the wrong thing and “our cover will get blown”. But it doesn’t have to be like this. You don’t need to have a “cover”. You can be yourself and still get the deal.

The good thing about real estate investing is that if you’re dealing with the typical home seller or real estate agent they’ll likely be clueless to real estate investing. Most people, even those inside the real estate profession, don’t bother to learn about real estate investing. But since you’re interested in real estate investing and you’re investing the time to read this article shows me you have the interest and passion to learn – this gives you a head-up over the average person out there. So let’s get into how to talk to sellers if you’re a real estate investor.

One of the first insights you get as a real estate investor is that a house is a house is a house. What I mean is that as you gain experience, you start to realize the usual issues that the typical property for sale has, how these issues can get fixed, and around how much it’s going to cost. This comes with experience but really isn’t very difficult to master. It’s a good idea if you’re a beginning real estate investor to bring along a friend that’s experienced in home improvement to give you some price estimates privately after you’ve viewed the property together. Remember that real estate is your business and since it’s your business you need to be constantly learning and improving your skills in all areas, including communication and negotiation.

So if the issues that investment properties have are pretty similar across the board, what makes the difference from one home to another? The difference is the unique characteristics of each seller. You need to be able to listen, learn when and how to negotiate, and learn rapport tactics that you can use in your dealings with sellers. Think of yourself as a being an interviewer of the seller on a television show. You need to be directing the conversation with your questions, not the other way around with the seller asking you questions. Remember that he who asks the questions leads the conversation. The secret is that you want to be asking your questions so that the seller is free to talk without feeling like it’s an interrogation session – the conversation should be fluid and relaxed.

Throughout the process of you talking with the seller, remember that the seller wants to talk to you. They have an issue (they want to sell their property) and they’re hoping you can be the person that can solve this issue. Many times people are selling their property due to issues in their personal lives (divorce, layoff from a job, etc). By being friendly and warm with the seller they will likely relax and reveal their “true issues” to you – almost like a real estate therapy session.  You want to be the solution provider, but to do this you need to know all the issues behind the sale.

One of the biggest tips to feeling at ease when meeting a seller for the first time is get there on time, about 5 minutes before the scheduled time, but not earlier than that and definitely not late. Aim to get into the neighborhood twenty minutes early. Once there and you have that extra time, take a drive around and look at other active listings in the area so you have an idea of how much active listings are selling for in that particular neighborhood.

You’re going to want to dress relaxed business casual for the meeting. Don’t dress up too much, but don’t underdress either. You want to come across as someone that has money but that isn’t showy about it. Something along the lines of a short-sleeve polo with beige khaki pants. If you feel the area is very working class, you may want to go for jeans, but usually that khaki/polo combo will work well for you.

I know some people are going to be more relaxed than others when meeting a seller. Of course, with time and experience, even the most skittish of real estate investors will get the hang of things and before they know it will be gaining quick rapport. My best advice is practice, practice, practice. If you need to, set up two visits in one day: the first one with a property you’re not really into and the second one with the property you’re really into. This helps you because after the first meeting you’ll feel much more relaxed because you’ve gone through that experience already so the meeting with the second seller will generally flow much smoother and you’ll be much more at ease.

Have you ever gotten nervous when meeting a seller? Let me know how you’ve gotten over your nervousness in the comments!

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