Customer Reviews

The Millionaire Maker's Guide to Creating a Cash Machine for Life

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you are expecting some magical insight to building a Cash Machine For Life, you will be disappointed. However, if you are looking for a simple, straight-forward overview of the process of creating a cash machine for life, this book should prove helpful.

The book is simple, fairly well written and easy to understand. It is not an in-depth how to book. But for anyone owing are thinking of starting a small business, it has some very good information.

None of the lessons are new. But they are all valuable and since it seems that small business owners have a bad habit of failing to follow the basic advice presented here, it is well worth the time to at least revisit these lessons.

The very first and most important lesson is the difference between working in your business and working on your business. This was the major theme of Michael Gerber's E-Myth books. But it is a lesson that still needs to be told. To be successful in building a cash machine for life, you must work to build a business, not a place where you have a job. This of course involves changing the mindset of most people who go into business for themselves.

The second lesson is to go into a business that relies on your own skill set. Again, this lesson is fairly old - Elegies an ancient philosopher said, "Let each man pass his days in that wherein his skill is greatest."

If you are going to build a business that is not totally dependent on you and your time, you will need a team. And the make-up of the team can and will change as the business goes through the different growth cycles. The book spends a great deal of time discussing the concept of building a team.

Langemeier also talks about the need to model your business after some other business. Again, this idea is fairly old. Terence, another ancient philosopher said, "Draw from others the lessons that may profit yourself." Old advice but still very revelant today. Unfortunately far too many people starting their own business fail to follow it.

She also devotes a lot of attention to developing a revenue model. A lot of people start their business with very vague goals and then wonder why they never achieve them. Loral advises that you need to have some very specific revenue targets and dates for hitting those targets. Action is one of the keys to success in any business. Take the action to generate the revenue and then adjust and correct as you go. If you wait til everything if perfect, you will wait forever.

There is one excellent bit of advice if you are starting a business with a partner. "...design your divorce while you're still in love." Far too many people enter into business relationships thinking everything will always be roses. "Divorce" in business can be as bitter as in marriage.

The examples in the book are extremely simplistic. However that does not lessen the value of the principles. My recommendation would be to use this as a starter guide and as you master the concepts and principles, find more complex and deeper material. But for the majority of people who own or plan to start a small business, this would be an excellent starter guide.

Loral Langemeier has some good ideas. Start a business that can make you money now, today! Most people want to start a business and they make it too complicated for significance. She wants you to start a business that can make money ASAP so it will work. She says if you know how to sew then start taking orders taking for sewing. Don't start a new business that you are not familiar with. This is not the sexy but it comes from her farming background.

This is the foundation of her book and the $2,000 seminar I went to that went along with it. She says it herself that her books are brochures. There is really no other major substance here. The books misleads you to think this is something " new and different", that she will take you by the hand and make you rich.

If you want to save two hours reading, $20 for the book, $2,000 for the seminar ( which offers the same info, start what you know, now), $1200 for the hotels, $300 for airfare, $200 for misc expenses and $300 for the rental car just then start your idea now.

When you go to the seminar she wants you to sign up for her " Big Table ". This is where you do deals with like minded people for somewhere in the nature of $12k to join. Or they urge to sign up for coaching for $7k or so lasting 10-12 phone calls. Some deals have gone really sour from this. Everything is about relationships. Spend $1k and start a first class local group of like minded people instead. This way you can build trust and have a local knowledge of your investments.

To sum it up in another way they are a business. She is very smart. I say it's better to find a way to replicate her model more ethically for billions not millions.

Author Loral Langemeier is a woman who makes her living talking about building wealth through independent enterprise and she has an entire series of books dedicated to the "Cash Machine" concept. What Langemeier is referring to when she talks about cash machines is a business concept that involves complete and total involvement in an enterprise with lofty goals to grow and expand in a very short period of time. Langemeier stresses that a business can grow very quickly and she rejects the notion that a small business will always be small. She feels that business owners underestimate their abilities. They should set their goals very high and overachieve in sales and profits.

I have read many books like this and one thing that is a certain turn- off is a book that promises large sums of money very quickly and with very little work. These "get rich quick" types of books are common and they all make lofty promises and "guarantees" of great, limitless wealth. This book does talk about getting wealthy, but it is far more realistic in its approach. Langemeier doesn't guarantee great riches and she doesn't lead the reader to believe success will take place overnight. On the contrary, she talks about the demands of owning a small business; the commitment; the necessity of an exit strategy; and the gradual build- up to success. This is one of the many positive aspects of this book. It shows how financial independence can be reached, but it never claims the road to success will be smooth and completely free from bumps, roadblocks, and detours.

I like the multi- step approach of this book and the fact that it covers so many different parts of the process. The first few chapters talk about the start- up period and they cover everything from the decision to start clean vs. the decision to buy an existing company to the initial phase of brainstorming for ideas and identifying existing skills. Like Langemeier correctly points out, everyone has some specific skill set that can be converted into a full- fledged cash machine. For some, the skill might be something physical, like landscaping. For others, it might be something that requires more thinking, like private consulting. Whatever the skill, most everyone has several of them and it is only a matter of deciding on which skill(s) are best to use when building a cash machine.

Overall, The Millionaire's Guide to Creating a Cash Machine for Life is a very good book about starting a new business and developing it to its fullest. It isn't an exceptionally long book, so don't buy it with the expectation that you will find everything you need to know and an answer to every question as it relates to a small business. This isn't an exhaustive book and it only covers the most essential steps to build a business. But what it does cover, it covers quite well and it doesn't give the budding entrepreneur a false sense of hope. It's a very good book and one I recommend to anyone who is serious about starting and growing a business of their own.

The concept of a cash machine is definitely not new, but how many of us really know how to set one up and make it work for life? Few, I suspect. As Loral Langemeier points out, most of us operate in the traditional model of getting a good paying job, investing in a 401K and hoping it does well enough for us to retire on. It's what we're taught and it's what we know and we certainly don't need to apologize for it. However, the fact that there may be another way of creating a cash machine with sustainable income for life is just as EXCITING as it is un-nerving.

In her 3rd book, Loral Langemeier lays out the steps for setting up a sustainable cash machine for life. She goes into detail about how to look at yourself and determine the types of cash machines that will work for you and your own personal skill set. She is clear that this is NOT a "one size fits all" strategy and that you will be required to put forth some creativity here. Once the cash machine is identified, creativity subsides and the analytical side of this business emerges. You test the cash machine for marketability, put your team together, and develop the marketing and sales strategies. Voila!

It seems like an obvious recipe for success on the surface, but it is easier read than done. Luckily for us, Loral Langemeier has a unique teaching style makes this "seemingly" monumental task an attainable feat for anyone with the will to succeed. The steps are clear and straight forward. No magic pill, just a recipe for cash.

This 3rd book is definitely Loral's best work since, "Building Your Wealth Cycles." Go Loral!

You have probably heard Loral Langemeier's ads on the radio, I know that I have started noticing them after having read this book. Her big concept is the Wealth Cycle and this book deals with creating a part of it. A Cash Machine is a PROFITABLE business you can set up easily, quickly, and uses expertise you already have. She emphasizes that a Cash Machine is probably not going to be your dream job and should never be a project.

I really enjoy the way she helps you identify your skills, the people and skill sets you should team up with, and how you can evaluate the "right" Cash Machine for you and your circumstances. The foundation of the whole idea is that your Cash Machine should not consume your life, but contribute to the quantity of your cash flow.

Langemeier is also great in helping you think through the questions you must answer before you take the plunge and what to think about after you are in the pool. What she is not very forthcoming about is what you should do when things don't go as planned. Maybe she just thinks you will be smart enough to get yourself out of it quickly. However, too many new business owners are awfully optimistic in their assumptions, in the contracts and leases the sign, and how far their available cash can really take them. Sure, she is wise in the advice she gives you in the up front planning, but from my view of things she is a bit light on how to open the canopy and pull the ripcord.

Maybe one reason she doesn't emphasize that is that one of the core ideas of the Cash Machine is that you are not trying to be a pioneer. You are going to use, copy, buy, or rent an existing successful business model for your Cash Machine. And that makes real sense. However, even some of the best ideas have wrinkles that sometimes trip up the owner new to the world of running a business.

Still, I like her ideas very much and think it a useful guide for those that want to add some income streams to their Wealth Cycle. Just be sure you have enough time in your day to provide the attention every business, especially new businesses need to become successful. If you don't know the basics of running a business you will need to get that, but you can take a couple of courses at your local community college quite inexpensively and get what you need to know.

Useful book for the right people. However, I suspect that this book is really more of a come on for her seminars and such. But if you are going to buy a car wash or a franchise of some type, this book will help you think through the right things as you look at the opportunities you are considering. I can't imagine what her costly seminars would really add, but I am sure she can fill in the interested.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

If you are looking for a simple way to get rich with little effort, this is NOT the book for you!

However, if you're willing to put in the necessary work, take acceptable risks and get team on your side, this IS the book for you!

That was the theme I got from this book. I just finished reading Cash Machine for Life and I loved it. Loral doesn't give you a "flavor of the month" business you should invest in where you just sit back and let the money roll in. (That's a fantasy, not a dream and yes there IS a difference between the two!) She's a coach in the truest sense in that she'll help guide you to where you want to go but won't run the race on your behalf. That's YOUR responsiblity. (Right on, Loral!) I particulary liked her ideas on Sales, Marketing, and Operations. Nothing really new but her "go over it, under it, around it or right through it" approach to obstacles was refreshing. The buck stops here.

I first heard about Loral from The Secret DVD (awesome movie) and her appearance in it made me think that she could be the real deal. So I purchase her books and it seems that the underlying theme of this book (and all of her works) is, go for your dreams, and just because obstacles may stand in your way is no excuse to stop and here are some ways that can help you out along the way. Buy this book ONLY if you're committed to acheiving your dreams and goals and willing to get some help. Otherwise, go buy one of those "play it safe by becoming a millionaire by saving money for 30+ years and pay off debt" books because Loral can't help you in that area.

By the way, for those who are wondering whether this review is "fake" to promote this book as some negative reviewers have implied about other positive reviews, as I mentioned earlier, I just finishing reading the book so I have YET to benefit from it, however, I'm going to practice what I preach as I have already signed up for one of Loral coaching programs because after all, I will need some assistance (team, as Loral puts it)

Thanks Loral for showing me it's OK to dream again!

"Cash Machine" is a great book for those that haven't started businesses before, or that have and were unsuccessful. It is a nice step by step guide on getting your business off and running in a short time period. The action plans are nice and the real-life examples add good flavor. All in all though, the book felt as though it were lacking detail and concrete steps.

One Sentence: It was a good read as a starter book to get your entrepreneurial juices flowing.

The Millionaire Maker tells you what is obvious..to make money, you need to have a business on the side.

Unfortunately, the math doesn't add up. For instance, "I want to sell t-shirts. I will make a 5 dollar profit. I want to make a millionaire a year. I need to sell 200,000 shirts. Great, let's begin"

To make real money with her cash machines takes RIDICULOUS luck and marketing efforts to get the results she recommends. I got a little bothered when she suggested MLM's as well.

[...]

The only criticism I could have for this book is that Loral way oversimplifies - but I know that she is smart and does it on purpose! Her aim is to get you STARTED, not getting bogged down by planning every detail.

Loral's #1 impact on me has been to do the math. It sounds so obvious, but I did not always have it clearly laid out in my business. If you want to make this much a year here's how much you need per month, per day, per project. DUH! There is no rocket science in here, just a clear plan that encourages you to get going with your business.

I also love that Loral encourages everyone to aim high. She says your starting goal should be 100k a year. There is no downside to thinking big so why not? You are going to go for and get more money if you're aim for 100k a year instead of just 1k a month the way many businesses start.

The problem with the world today is that the corporations are taking over and dominating life in a feudalistic way. Langemeier wants to change this with Cash Machine for Life, a kinda gimmicky and cheesy, but really common-sense look at creating a business and making it succeed. She says that everyone has marketable talents/interests that they can sell in the form of a product. It's not brain science, but she does a great job at giving step-bystep instructions on how to acheive financial independence.

The book is kinda like The 4-Hour Workweek minus the outsourcing bit. If you can't see yourself going out on your own despite the inspiration in this book, I really recommend How to Take Advantage of the People Who Are Trying to Take Advantage of You by Morse, which gives techniques to cash in without risking it all.

Overall, this is a good and inspirational book. It didn't receive the 5 stars because it Langemeier seems to forget that what ferriss calls the Muse is the most difficult part to develop in becomming rich. The cash machine is automatic after that!