Money
Bet on Yourself
Making money in these tough times is as
much about guts as it is about brains.
By Edward Sigall After graduating from
the University of San
Y
OU STILL CAN PROSPER IN DIFFICULT Diego, Breitling’s passion
economic times if you stay alert for for sports had him desper-
the right opportunities, act boldly, ately wanting to be “the next
and seize the moment. Bob Costas.” But after short
Ask Tom Breitling, who moved stints as a TV weatherman
to Las Vegas in 1993 at the age of 25 and a high school sports
with $100 in his pocket. Within 10 reporter in California, he
years, he and his business partner set aside his ambitions.
had made their second $100 mil- He took a chance when
lion. Poster invited him to join
Not bad for a kid from Burnsville, a new travel business that
Minn., who never saw a hundred- focused on fi lling dis-
dollar bill until he went to college. count hotel rooms in Las Vegas. GOLDEN BOYS Tom Breitling (left) and
“The most important thing is to He may not have had a fi rm plan, Tim Poster, the two unlikely buyers of
dream big,” Breitling tells Newsmax. but like many budding entrepre-
the Golden Nugget Casino.
“There are still a lot neurs, Breitling had an underlying
of opportunities in philosophy that he still lives by: “Find “We found a better way to do busi-
“We found a
the marketplace.” your passion and then fi gure out if ness, moved fast to take advantage
better way to
Breitling and partner it is a good business idea,” he says. and worked really hard, 16 to 18 hours
Tim Poster’s modern- “Identify its potential — and then be a day,” he explains.
do business
day Huck Finn/Tom the best at it.” But you don’t have to start big,
and worked
Sawyer adventure took Within six years, the partners grew Breitling points out. The statistics
the pair from their their Las Vegas Reservations Systems indicate he is right. Opportunities
16-18 hours
arrival in Las Vegas to from $3.6 million in sales to more still abound in small businesses and
a day.”
their unlikely $215 mil- than $100 million. In March 1998, home-based businesses.
lion acquisition of the they co-founded
Travelscape.com, a More than 20.7 million U.S. busi-
GES
Golden Nugget hotels Web site for reserving hotel vaca- nesses without a payroll had total
TY IMA
and casinos, and fi nally to their sale of tion packages worldwide. In 2000, annual revenues of over $970 billion,
T
/
GET
the properties less than a year later for Breitling and Poster sold the Web according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s
nearly $340 million. site to Expedia for $100 million. latest fi gures.
GASREPOR
In his new book, Double or Nothing: So, what is the key to giving your Remarkably, nearly half of the
/VE
How Two Friends Risked It All to Buy business that winning edge, even in nation’s businesses are now oper-
WNERS
One of Las Vegas’ Legendary Casinos, diffi cult times? ated from home, and more than 60
Breitling details the fi scal adventure “No matter what the business, look percent of owners used their own
that saw him weather the rise and fall for a better way to do it,” Breitling says. money to start the business, accord-
of the dot-coms as well as the demise Early on, Breitling recognized the ing to the government.
of tourism after Sept. 11. His formula enormous potential of the Internet The average income for home- /ISTOCKPHOTO/CASINO O
for success includes a healthy blend and launched one of the fi rst automat- offi ce households is $63,000 a year,
/
C
ARDS
of passion, customer service, and ic online reservations systems. Service according to a survey by IDC, a major T
O
plain-old business moxie in the face was far faster than over the phone, provider of market intelligence.
of what most anyone would consider and the Web had the added advantage Jim Blasingame, host of the
impossible odds. of including images of the properties. nationally syndicated radio program C
OMPOSITE PHO
70 NEWSMAX MAXLIFE / DECEMBER 2008
0070_Money_Risks.indd 7070_Money_Risks.indd 70 111/7/08 11:35:23 AM1/7/08 11:35:23 AM
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