Secret Strategies of the Gurus: Guru 1 - Bill Gates as a Small Business Entrepreneur by Rick Tanzo

At the outset, I will lay down the results of my research Introduction:
Strategies are strategies. Dismiss for a moment from your mind what some people are saying about Bill Gates’ offensive practices he used to transform himself from a small business entrepreneur to a titan in the business world. There are yet honest-to-goodness strategies we can glean from his sleeves. We can study, learn from them and possibly apply them in our own home based business. Upon this premise that this article was written.

Strategy of Bill Gates - Have a Vision:
on one secret strategy of Bill Gates. He used the same strategy to jump-start his small business to today's business behemoth. Based on my research, the strategy of Bill Gates is grounded upon the following:

"Have a VISION of what you want to achieve
and hold on to that vision come wrath or
high water."

His vision was:

"A Personal Computer on every desk."

By the way, I didn't want to use the grammatically correct expression "comes hell or high water" - for personal reason - so excuse my grammatical preference. Anyway, let's go back to our subject. When you have a vision, you can make the impossible possible.

Almost everybody is familiar about how once upon a time the small business entrepreneur Bill Gates secured mighty IBM's contract to supply the latter's operating system. When he was negotiating with the IBM people, he had no operating system as yet. He was able to buy a Disk Operating System or DOS for $50 thousand. In the end, he got the contract. Why?

Bill Gates was guided by his vision - that every desk all over the world should have a computer on it. This vision enabled him to provide IBM with a DOS operating system and have control over it including to whom he wanted it sold to.

Beginning Entrepreneur:
Before he became an entrepreneur, Bill Gates had nurtured the vision that software will one day rule the world. During high school he spent many late nights with friend Paul Allen tinkering with the school's computer system.

He dropped out of college after completing his junior year at Harvard. Instead, he and his bosom friend Paul Allen set up a small business - a software company - in far away New Mexico. This move was in accordance with his vision.

His vision became clearer as he moved from a total newbie to one with a small business to keep. His vision was clothed in clearer terms, as he negotiated the DOS deal with IBM.

Better late than never:
Bill Gates’ company ultimately became the leader in the software arena. During the first half of the 1990's - 1993 to be exact - he was among the last of the software titans to acknowledge the future significance of the Internet.

But once he did realize that indeed Internet was the wave of the future, he had the tenacity to reshape his vision. His vision retained its old flavor - that is, software dominance in commerce, industry and in every field. It was rehashed in his own words as follows:

"In the years ahead, the Internet will have
an even more profound effect on the way
we work, live and learn … this technology
will be one of the key cultural and economic
forces of the early 21st century."

At this moment in time, Bill Gates is guided by the vision that the Internet is the wave of the present and the foreseeable future.

Lessons Learned:
You can learn from Bill Gates by having your own vision for your small business. Lay down this vision in your mind. Then put it into writing. Read your vision everyday while at work in your small corner of the house. Your vision could be as short-term as the following:

"To make my web site land within the top five of
Google when people search for the keywords
'home based business,'" or

"$200,000 earnings this year from Google
Adsense,"or

"To enrich the content of my web site using
the theme 'scrap book making.'"

Do not limit yourself to short-term vision. Aim for the long-term. A five to ten years period would suffice. Technology may change but your vision will essentially be the same. You may refine it if deemed necessary, like incorporating the effect of technological changes - as Bill Gates did.

Your Share of the Pie:
Everybody - from Bill Gates down to your netpreneur friend - has recognized the tremendous role of the Internet in business developments. Some of the more immediate pressing concerns you should consider at this stage concerning your home based business are the following:

- General preference for digital transactions by clients. For example, as a beginning Internet entrepreneur you should meet your clients' demands who favor the use of online payment system.

At this juncture, I would like to refer you to my web site at InternetMarketingLearningCenter.com which offers free learning stuff on Internet marketing and home based business. One category being tackled in the web site is the online payment system. You may read online news and keep yourself abreast of the best software companion for your small business.

- Choose products that are preferred by people at this time when the Internet is dominating people's lives. It has been determined that information products and web shopping are favored by most consumers. Information products include your very own eBooks and "how-to" manuals.

- Make it your aim that your products are cheap, very useful, and the best among the rest of competing products. This applies most especially to shopping products. For your own digital products, you have the advantage of pricing them according to your own estimation.

You as the author of your own digital product determine the price level. It is no wonder why gurus like Jay Abraham, Jim Daniels and the late Corey Rudl have become so wealthy from selling their own digital pieces.

As for these three, they will be among the titans that we will tackle in future issues of this series.