By Rick Tanzo

Introduction:

Strategies are strategies. Dismiss for a moment from your mind
what some people are saying about Bill Gates’s 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:

At the outset, I will lay down the results of my research 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 “come 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’s 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 earning 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 determines 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 gurus, they will be among the titans that we
will tackle in future issues of this series.

(c) 2005 Rick Tanzo. Reprint rights granted so long as article,
by-line and active links are reproduced intact.

About the Author: Rick Tanzo is the webmaster of the
InternetMarketingLearningCenter.com. The site offers simple,
fast and easy way to learn Internet marketing and home based
business. To learn about home business strategies visit
http://www.internetmarketinglearningcenter.com.