Shark Tank

     For people who are interested in being an entrepreneur one day you should definitely watch the show Shark Tank. I absolutely love that show so much. It shows the different ideas, business, and concepts people come up with on a daily basis. Watching Shark Tank you can see the good and flaws in people as entrepreneurs throughout the show. The main reason I love the show is because I want to see who are truly the good entrepreneurs on the rise and how the successful guys perceive them. That's really my favorite aspect of the Show how Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Kevin O'Leary, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, and Barbra Corcoran look at the entrepreneurs and their pitches.


     First let me talk about how I either like, dislike, and perceive each shark when it comes to reacting to pitches and their methods of negotiating. The first guy I have to talk about is Kevin O'Leary aka "Mr. Wonderful". I won't lie he's the one shark I'm not a big fan of. To me he comes off as a complete asshole, which sometimes you have to be in business but he seems to be an asshole 90% of the time. His negotiation methods are selfish, horrible and downright bad a lot of the times. Why do I think his methods are so bad? He always wants a royalty when negotiating with an entrepreneur that is pitching a manufacturing product or business.  The sad part about it is so many of these entrepreneurs that come on this show actually entertain his offers that include royalties. That shows me how some of those people aren't ready enough when coming to the table. Always remember Rule #1 "All money isn't good money" No deal is better than a bad deal.  The reason why royalties are just terrible for small businesses is that it's counter productive. They cypher out necessary cash flow that is needed to grow a small business. When growing a small business cash flow is CRUCIAL. The last thing any growing business needs is a royalty on their books that's cyphering out  2%-10% of the cash flow that could and should be re-invested into the business. Kevin O'Leary makes horrible offers because he's a blood sucking leach that only cares about getting his money back and yielding a return with as little risk as possible at the cost of potentially bleeding the business dry. For Kevin royalties mitigate his risk by guaranteeing him money while increasing the risk of the entrepreneur. I hate Kevin's methods of negotiating its like he completely forgot how small businesses operate.


     Robert Herjavec and Mark Cuban are my two favorite sharks on the show. Robert you can tell is a very compassionate guy who actually cares about helping these entrepreneurs grow their company and being successful while also making smart decisions when he does try to close a deal on a pitch. Even when Robert is not trying to close a deal he still gives a lot of the entrepreneurs advice from his experiences. He's also very straight forward and honest but in a very respectable way. He understands and considers the obstacles these small businesses go through and always consider that.


Mark Cuban is the guy who stays in his lane. He's has a technology background starting from his days of starting MicroSolutions and Broadcast.com. So the technology sector is what he mainly stays in when trying to close deals on the show. He will branch off occasionally but he stays in his lane. The one thing he always says which I take to heart is "The money isn't the most important issue when I'm investing, its my time because no matter what I do I can never get back the time lost." Mark Cuban understands his strength and weakness as a business man and he smartly sticks to his strengths and what he's good at. This is why I like Cuban on the show.


     Now when it comes to the next guy Daymond John I don't want this taken out of context and I'll explain why. But of all the sharks I think he's the least when it comes to book smarts and business savvy. Now not by any stretch of the imagination is he dumb because you just don't develop a $200 million dollar brand in FUBU and be dumb absolutely not. Damon is a hustler, the type of entrepreneur that just knows how to work the system and hands he's dealt to make the most of it. I personally knew an entrepreneur like this the late "Comer Cottrell" Now Lets be honest the main reason his clothing line grew so much originally was because he knew and had connections to LL Cool J and hustled his way to convincing him to wear his shirts in his music videos. When LL Cool J and other rappers were wearing his clothing line he was still making shirts and hats in his basement. He's quoted on record that at one point everyone thought he was this major clothing line when in reality he only had 10 shirts hanging in his basement and was still selling hats out of his car while working at Red Lobster. Daymond John hustled his way to the top. So when it comes to negotiating it seems a lot of the times the other sharks don't quite give him the same level of respect as in they know were smarter than you. Damon Johns background is mainly in manufacturing but he does branch out and diversify which is a risk because you could be getting into a business sector your not too familiar with. which is also why I think he does a lot of joint deals with other sharks. His mentality is so much different than the other sharks which can be a gift and a curse.  

     Now what separates the good entrepreneurs from the bad ones on the show?  Well the good ones understand the most important rule when it comes to getting investors. What is it? It's very simple one word NUMBERS. What do I mean by NUMBERS? (I'm going to capitalize NUMBERS every time to show its importance.) What I mean is "Women lie, Men lie, NUMBERS don't" NUMBERS is the only thing that matters. Does your product or service provide good margins, are the overhead or manufacturing costs low, is their a legit market for your business, are your sales NUMBERS good. Those are the most important things that separate good entrepreneurs on shark tank from bad ones. So many times people have came on this show with a product and the sharks are like no way. As soon as he spills the NUMBERS and their really good all of a sudden the sharks eyes pop open. Your NUMBERS speak for themselves. At the end of the day your in business for one reason only to make money. a VC or investor can't make money with bad NUMBERS.

     Shark Tank is a good show for people who want a solid understanding of investing, business, and what makes good entrepreneurs. I absolutely love the show I'm savvy enough to know which entrepreneurs are legit and have a legit business and the ones that don't know what the hell they are doing. (An arcade game with a built in beer keg SMH c'mon that was maybe the worst thing I've ever seen and their NUMBERS were awful.)  But if your interested in business in any shape or form watch this show.