Alonzo G. Decker Jr. - The Business Leader Who Became a 'Household' Name

From power tools to handy car vacuum cleaners, the Black & Decker brand is one of the most trusted brands of household and commercial products used in almost every American home or workplace.

Alonzo G. Decker, Jr., scion of the company co-founder and the name behind the brand, came a long way from simply being the heir of his father to becoming an engineer, an innovator, a civic leader, a philanthropist and the business leader that he was.

Alonzo G. Decker , Jr. - The 'Handyman' Who Revolutionized the Concept of D-I-Y

Decker did not sit back and wait for his time to simply inherit his father's business. He worked painstakingly from bottom-up in the then Black & Decker Manufacturing Company by first working part time, and then as a consulting engineer in the export sales department.

Decker did not even escape being laid off from the company during the Great Depression in 1932. When Decker resumed work, he tried his hand in different departments such as engineering, research and manufacturing.

Decker has then revolutionized the concept of do-it-yourself (DIY) in the late 1930's by having Black & Decker introduce in the consumer market some portable and easy-to-use power tools such as electric drills.

Decker was completely hands-on in the development of most of Black & Decker's products, and had even designed and developed products such as electric hammer drills by himself.

Decker did not rest on his laurels and was eager to further improve Black & Decker's products by exploring new technologies and discovering new applications. Decker became most noted for his being responsible in introducing in 1961 the world's first cordless rechargeable drill, a tool that was way ahead of its time and is still widely used to this day.

Decker moved up in his career by joining Black & Decker's board of directors in 1940, becoming CEO in 1964 and serving as Honorary Chairman through 2000. He continued supporting Black & Decker as Director Emeritus until he died in 2002.

The Alonzo G. Decker, Jr. Quick Bio

Full name: Alonzo G. Decker , Jr.

Birth date: 1908 (deceased 2002)

Birthplace: Maryland

Company: Black & Decker Corporation

Industry: Fabricated Goods

Key business leader success traits: a visionary, hands-on approach to leadership, selfless generosity, mentor to his colleagues and community members

Additional:
Decker was not only one of the most admired business leaders of his time but was also one of the most charitable and generous. He selflessly devoted much of his life to various philanthropic causes, including those involving education and science. Decker was a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and CSX Corporation, and was a trustee at The Johns Hopkins University.

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Intro to Work at Home Jobs

Guest Post by Joe Land

Work at home jobs are jobs that usually require you to use your computer. They are in high demand because there are lots of people that want to work from the privacy of their own homes. Stay at home moms, teens and disabled people are just a few examples of people that would like to work at home to gain some extra money. Working at home using your computer will not replace your day job (at least for most people). It will however provide you with an extra source of income.

Work at Home Jobs

Some of the more popular work at home jobs include blogging, paid surveys and affiliate marketing. These are popular because they are proven to work, and you control how much money you make. Blogging can be a great way to make money because of the awesome potential that it has. Look at Darren Rowse for example. He makes his income blogging. Affiliate marketing is another good way to make money online. A good place to start is with a site called ClickBank. They pay you to promote other peoples products. You get a commission every time someone buys one o your promoted products. Paid surveys are great for beginners. They pay you to take surveys about various products. These three ideas are a great place to start if your looking to work at home.

Beware of Scams

A simple Google search for the phrase “work at home” yields over 320 million results. Beware of work at home scams. One of the most common work at home scams is make money posting links with Google. This is also called the Google Scam. Beware of any jobs that require you to buy a kit or pay a small fee in order to sign up. These kind of sites will be scams almost 100% of the time. There are plenty of free opportunities out on the world wide web today. There is no need to chase the latest scam.

Finding Work at Home Jobs

There are tons of work at home jobs out there that can make you money. When searching for work at home jobs make sure you do your research. Find out what has worked for others. Dig a little deeper into things to ensure that you will be successful. Proper research and a little caution will ensure that you will find a good work at home opportunity that suits you well.

Author Bio:
I have had some success with work at home sites. I started with CashCrate and. This is a great place to start because its free and only requires a user to be 13 in order to sign up.

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Donald J. Trump - The Business Leader Who Thrives on the Art of the Deal

Donald Trump (a.k.a. The Donald) is a business leader like no other. Many claim that he is a genius while others report that he is not as rich as he claims to be. Either way, one has to concede one thing that he has achieved - Trump is undeniably a brand name today.

Donald Trump - Real Estate is His Domain

Donald Trump was born to affluent parents. His father, Fred Trump, is a multi-billion dollar real estate tycoon (without much of the publicity that his son has around him). Needless to say, young Donald had a good education but there was definitely a fire in him.

One anecdote often cited is when he punched his music teacher in the second grade because he thought the teacher "didn't know anything about music".

Trump began his business career at his father's company, Trump Organization. His first successful deal was when he bought his first property from a cash-strapped transportation firm and then later sold it to the government. He was 25 years old at the time.

Since then, Trump has had many real estate deals... with many of them not succeeding due in large part to the recession. In fact, in the mid-1990s, Trump had about $900 million in personal debt and approximately $3.5 billion in business debt. These events ended with Trump declaring business bankruptcy. In 1999, however, his father, Fred Trump, died and sales of his real estate business enabled Donald to bail himself out of his own financial problems.

So why then is Donald J. Trump deemed a great American business leader? Donald Trump never gives up. He has tremendous self-confidence and is a huge risk taker. And last but not the least, Trump is a survivor. Case in point - despite the financial losses that surrounded him, he managed to ingrain himself in the minds of the public via the reality TV show The Apprentice where his "You're fired." comment at the end of each show became a popular catch phrase. Trump has indeed bounced back and is today estimated to be worth $2.5 billion.

The Donald J. Trump Quick Bio

Full name: Donald John Trump, Sr.

Birth date: June 14, 1946

Birth place: Queens, New York

Key success traits: extremely self-assured, knows how to create and market a brand, un undeniable risk taker, a survivor

Company: Trump Organization

Industry: Construction and Real Estate

Additional: The success of Donald Trump in the entertainment arena has enabled him to branch out into other businesses, all of course bearing the Trump name. These include the Donald J. Trump Men's Collection, Trump Ice (bottled water), Trump Magazine, Trump Vodka and Trump University (a business school established in 2005)

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How to Write a Business Plan in a Few Hours

Rise early, work hard, strike oil. ~ J. Paul Getty

Automaker Henry Ford observed, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.” That’s the reason, too, why 90 percent of new businesses fail within the first five years. Not a good sign.

That’s where the process of thinking through the business of either starting a new business, or running one that’s already existing, is an art and a science. Not a luxury to forgo, indeed.

It’s not as hard an exercise as some may think. Insights gleaned from creating and developing a business plan unique to your company? Priceless. Many entrepreneurs say the best quality of being in business is—nothing is etched in stone. And, working through your business plan is an ongoing tool that helps refine and evolve your business successfully.

Creative spirits that business owners are, they relish opportunities to go with the flow of market demands and the guidance business plans give in innovating rapidly to keep up with market forces of demand, or non-demand.

So, put on your thinking cap to envision all the possibilities out there with a business plan that’s inimitably suited to your company. It’s similar to an adventurer exploring new terrain and new ideas, scooping out threats (or competition) and becoming a successful business warrior who is also a happy and prosperous survivor.

Best of all, you can write a business plan easily and effortlessly. Think out loud to yourself and others. Or, reflect and contemplate in silence, as some prefer to do.

Our guide will show you how you can write a compelling business plan in a few hours. However, thinking about your business plan is the essential prelude to writing it.

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Gillette - An Empire Borne Out of a Unique Business Model

When a business brand is known so much that even competitors are called by its name, then what better testament could there be that a business is successful? Mention Gillette and safety razors quickly pop to mind.

Ironically though, Gillette is actually falsely credited to be the inventor of the safety razor. (The safety razor was invented in the mid-1870's by the Kampfe Brothers.) What Gillette had though was this - the eye that sees business opportunities.

Gillette - How It All Began

King Camp Gillette was born to a middle-class family who was ravaged by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. To support his family, he started to work as a traveling salesman for the Crown Cork and Seal Company. It was in the 1890s when he suddenly seized upon a business idea . He realized that there was a need in the market for cheap, disposable razor blades.

Prior his 'invention', razor blades required non-stop sharpening to be useful, which of course wore them out quickly. And since men needed to shave all the time, they were 'forced' to keep buying new razors. Gillette thought that he can earn a lot by offering the market a safety razor at a discounted price and then offering them cheap disposable razor blades ... he was right.

Although Gillette's business idea occurred in the 1890's, it was not until 1903 when he began to actually sell his products. This is because inexpensive thin steel was next to impossible to work with and extremely difficult to sharpen. A lesser business man will have abandoned his business idea by now. Not Gillette though and that's why he is regarded as one of America's top business leaders .

In 1903, he sold 51 razors and 168 blades. In 1904, he sold 90,884 razors and 123,648 blades! How did he achieve this growth in so short a span of production time? Gillette's success formula was this - low prices, excellent advertising and automated manufacturing techniques. These are the foundations why we, a century later, are still buying Gillette products.

The King C. Gillette Quick Bio

Full name: King Camp Gillette

Birth date: January 5, 1855 (deceased July 9, 1932)

Birth place: Fon du Lac, Wisconsin

Company: Gillette Company

Industry: Personal Care Home Products

Key Success Traits: patience, the aptitude to see his business idea through, an innovator when it comes to merchandising and advertising

Additional:
The Gillette Company was the maker of Gillette , Oral-B, Braun and Duracell products until 2005, when it was sold to Procter & Gamble for $57 billion.

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Robert S. Abbott - A True African-American Business Leader

When it comes to the newsprint and media world, who doesn't know business leader Robert S. Abbott?

He's the man behind the success of the country's most influential black weekly paper back in the 1900s - the Chicago Defender.

Abbott was staunchly opposed to any form of racism. And with his indomitable spirit and considerable entrepreneurial skills, Abbott was able to catapult the Chicago Defender to national prominence.

Business Leader Robert S. Abbott - His Story

Robert Abbott wasn't exactly an overnight success - far from it actually. Abbott had to battle racial discrimination, which made it impossible for him to work as a lawyer or printer. Abbott then turned his sights on journalism.

Abbott was born to parents who were former slaves. From his humble beginnings, Abbott persevered, mastering the printing trade at Virginia's Hampton Institute. For his law degree, Abbott moved to Chicago in 1897 and worked odd jobs till he graduated from the Kent College of Law.

In May 1905, Abbott showed up on Chicago's streets selling copies of his Chicago Defender with the come-on of being the only weekly in the city worth a cheap two cents. With only the kitchen table of his landlord as desk, Abbott set out to make his publication dream a reality. Abbott served as the newspaper's editor, business manager, publisher, sales force and reporting staff.

Abbott's entrepreneurial expertise paved the way for further national prominence for the Chicago Defender. He recruited Pullman porters and entertainers to handle the paper's national circulation in exchange for newspaper coverage. The Chicago Defender became the first black broadsheet to hit a circulation of close to 100,000. It was the first to have a full-page comics section and the first to have a health column.

Abbott became one of the first African-American millionaires as a result of the Chicago Defender's success and is considered the single greatest force in the field of African-American journalism.

The Robert S. Abbott Quick Bio


Full name: Robert Sengstacke Abbott

Birth date: November 28, 1868 (deceased February 29, 1940)

Birthplace: Georgia

Company: Chicago Defender

Industry: Publishing Print Media

Key Success Traits: unwavering determination in the face of adversity, a dreamer AND doer

Additional:

Abbott created the Chicago Defender back in 1905 with only 25 cents in his pocket and a press run of less than 400 copies. The year 1921 saw the newspaper turn national, with a total of 70 employees and a plant that's valued at a cool half a million dollars.

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Henry J. Heinz - The Business Leader Who Founded the Heinz Empire

HARD WORK. This phrase comes to mind when reading about business leader Henry J. Heinz, whose products' presence on just about every table makes people include him as one of the greatest business leaders in American history.

Henry J. Heinz - Working Since Nine!

Heinz was one of eight children born to German immigrants Heinrich Heinz and Anna Margareta Schmitt.

He was born in Birmingham, Pennsylvania, but the family would later move to Sharpsburg (on the outskirts of Pittsburgh).

Heinz started in 'business' very young. At just six years old, he was already helping his mother look after a backyard garden from which they sold vegetables to neighbors. At age eight, young Heinz would be selling produce already door-to-door!

By the time Heinz reached 17, he was already earning $2,400 annually, a staggering amount during those times.

Laying the Foundation for Heinz

In 1869, Heinz founded his first company - the Heinz Noble & Company with L.C. Noble - to sell horseradish but it was not successful and it ended in bankruptcy in 1875.

Never the one to just give up, Heinz established F & J Heinz with family members and started selling products, one of which was tomato ketchup. In 1888, Heinz bought out his partners and re-organized the firm to the H. J. Heinz Company and it is still the name of the firm to this day.

As a business leader , Heinz was known to be fair in his treatment of employees and was a great supporter of safe and sanitary food practices. In fact, in 1906, he lobbied in favor of the Pure Food and Drug Act. He was also known to be very involved in church activities and did many philanthropic works during his lifetime.

The Henry J. Heinz Quick Bio

Full name: Henry John Heinz

Birth date: October 11, 1844 (died May 14, 1919)

Birth place: Birmingham

Key success traits: a hard worker to the core, a strategist, never a quitter

Company: H. J Heinz Company

Industry: Food & Tobacco

Tidbit:
Heinz' well-known tagline "57 varieties", applied in 1896, actually bears no actual meaning. Heinz just happened to like a shoe store ad he saw while in New York City which said "21 styles" and wanted to copy it. In reality, Heinz was already selling more than 57 types of products at the time the slogan was introduced.

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