Nama: Dato' Siti Nurhaliza Bt Tarudin

Umur : 34

Syarikat:Simply Siti sdn.Bhd

Usahawan Dato’ Siti Nurhaliza adalah Penyanyi No 1 Malaysia, . Pelancaran produk kosmetik dan penjagaan kulit jenamanya sendiri iaitu “SimplySiti” sememangnya mendapat sambutan hangat daripada peminat beliau yang pastinya sangatlah ramai di seluruh negara termasuk di Singapura, Brunei dan Indonesia.

Pelaburan besar telah dibuat untuk menghasilkan produk kecantikan bermutu merangkumi penjagaan kulit SimplySiti C Bright, SimplySiti New Age dan SimplySiti Acne Solution selain Krim Simply 5 yang istimewa. Harapan ahli perniagaan muda ini adalah supaya produk sulung beliau mampu menembusi pasaran negara luar terutama jiran terdekat iaitu Singapura, Brunei dan Indonesia selain Timur Tengah memandangkan ia diiktiraf halal oleh Jakim. Ini penting kerana majoriti bakal pembeli produk ini adalah terdiri daripada golongan orang islam.

Memanfaatkan pengalaman menjadi duta produk kecantikan seperti Maybelline & Pantene, semua produk SimplySiti dipasarkan di lebih 200 rangkaian farmasi Watson seluruh negara dan pasar raya Jusco. Kehadiran suami beliau, Dato’ Khalid sebagai rakan kongsi yang mempunyai pengalaman luas dalam bidang perniagaan sememangnya membantu menjayakan perniagaan kosmetik beliau.

Menggunakan khidmat ahli saintis dari Korea, bahan-bahan yang digunakan dalam produk SimplySiti semuanya berunsurkan bahan-bahan semula jadi seperti ekstrak daun Prunella Vulgaris yang mampu merawat semuala luka dan radang kulit. Sepertimana yang diketahui, Korea merupakan pusat pembikinan dan pembuatan produk kosmetik yang terunggul di dunia,

Beliau dan pasukannya telah membawa beberapa ahli saintis Korea ke Malaysia untuk mengkaji dan merasai cuaca di sini supaya mereka faham masalah dialami oleh wanita-wanita di Malaysia. Dan seperti yang boleh diagak, jualan produk SimplySiti sangat memberansangkan walaupun baru satu bulan ia dilancarkan. SimplySiti dinobatkan sebagai "The Best Halal Product" dalam kategori kosmetik oleh majalah Halal Journal Magazine.

http://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siti_Nurhaliza_binti_Tarudin

Success Story: Five Hints From A Seriously Successful Global Web Entrepreneur

Michael Bruno is the founder and chairman of 1stdibs.com, the world’s largest online luxury marketplace, which showcases works for sale from more than 1,800 prestigious international dealers in collectibles, antiques, design, fine art, silver, fine jewellery, vintage fashion and high-end residential property – beautiful, unique items that you won’t find anywhere else. 1stdibs.com was founded in 2001. The site now has over 900,000 subscribers, receives over 2.2 million visits each month, and over 9,000 items each month are sold on it – total sales reached around a billion dollars in 2013, up 54% from $650 million in 2012.
So: how do you build a globally successful web business?

Come up with a great name
“I bought my domain name before I knew exactly what my business was going to be. I knew I loved old houses, I knew I loved antiques and I just felt that was going to be the area I was going to be in. I was trying to think of interesting names that convey fun, convey you have to act fast, convey there’s only one chance. Once I’d bought the domain name, it was like buying a piece of real estate: I’d got to do something with it.”

Base your business on trust
“Trust is the foundation of my business. From day one I believe I established trust because, number one, we always did the right thing. I started my business in Paris. The Paris flea market is known worldwide by everyone who loves design and I was able to leverage a famous brand for free by putting it on line. Curating is a trendy term now but, hello! – that’s how we started our company 12 years ago. I would pick every item, check its condition, and built trust right from the very start by having eyes and hands on the scene. As we began to expand, I felt I could only work with professionals, as we sell expensive things. When we opened the States I visited every dealer before they went on our site and I still visit 90 per cent of new dealers. Once the market had been opened up and we had a good, trusted core of dealers, we found we could grow organically, as it’s a small community and the dealers themselves help us to know who we should work with – and who we shouldn’t. Just because we were online didn’t mean we couldn’t establish a personal, old-fashioned business relationship. A web-based operation can have a trust factor that’s really high – it’s about people, not about ratings that can be rigged.”
Manage your expansion carefully
“We’ve seen many other people try to get in as a competing business, but now we have 14 countries, we have so much space. I made the decision to say, ‘If I can control the American market, the rest of the world should be manageable. If we focus on 12 major markets in the US, we should have the whole of the US under control.’ Such a strong foothold in the US made it easier to expand into Europe. We had dealers all over world saying ‘Open up our city’ and we said ‘No, not yet, not now’ – we waited until we had our solid base in the US. At the beginning no-one had heard of us – then people were waiting for us. That recognition factor is very difficult to establish and once you have it you need to leverage it. You have to be very careful in the choices you make and be very careful of the reputation you’ve built. A mistake companies make is to abuse their position.”
Be prepared to take a risk
“Fifteen years ago, I was making over a million dollars a year selling houses and living in San Francisco. I decided to move to Paris so I could focus on starting a new business and I had to take the risk of giving up a very good career. People go to school, get MBAs, but will never learn how to have confidence, faith in themselves, and a willingness to jump in. They spend too much time learning when they could spend that time learning by doing. There are various things I explored and considered that I didn’t do – but it was a learning process. If you go down some paths that don’t work out, you learn something, and if you don’t go down some paths that don’t work out, you probably don’t go down any paths at all!”
Have a life outside work
“I think when people are truly enjoying what they do, work is more fun than fun. But you have to find things to do outside work, otherwise you get pretty boring. I always have multiple things going on. I’m renovating houses, I’ve bought a great old house in upstate New York, and I’m launching an app project to manage your housekeeping staff. It turns out a lot of people could really use that – even if it’s to manage their kids and their chores and homework. I do a lot of yoga, it lets me go to a space where I’m not thinking about anything work-related and I can let go 100%. When I come back to it, it’s more interesting. Anything you do all the time becomes boring.”

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/hesterlacey/2013/12/18/success-story-five-hints-from-a-seriously-successful-global-web-entrepreneur/

NAMA : NURUL ATIQAH ISMAIL
NO MATRIKS : 214230

                 Saya menubuhkan blog ini adalah untuk menjalankan kerja kursus bagi kertas BPME2013 Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Skills. diharapkan blog ini mampu memberi informasi sedikit sebanyak mengenai usahawan-usahawan yang berjaya dan mampu memberi inspirasi kepada masyarakat di luar sana untuk  mendapat manfaat dari blog ini.

Faiza tampil produk baru

 Sebut sahaja Syarikat Faiza Sdn Bhd, produk utama yang terlintas di fikiran sudah tentunya beras. Namun Syarikat Faiza bukanlah semata-mata syarikat pengeluar beras, sebaliknya telah bermula dengan perniagaan berupa rempah ratus sejak tahun 1968 lagi.

Pada 1989, Syarikat Faiza memulakan perniagaan dengan menjadi pembekal dan pengeluar beras ke pasaran tempatan, secara kecil-kecilan.

Kini, Syarikat Faiza mengorak langkah ke hadapan dengan mempelbagaikan rangkaian produknya kepada produk lain seperti rempah ratus, tepung, air mineral dan garam bermula 2007.

Setelah lebih 10 tahun beroperasi, lebih 100 produk bukan beras dihasilkan. Awal tahun ini, Syarikat Faiza telah memperkenalkan beberapa produk baru seperti bihun tomyam dan sup serta madu.

Bagi menambah rangkaian produk bukan beras keluarannya, Syarikat Faiza bakal melancarkan beberapa lagi produk baru tidak lama lagi.

Syarikat Faiza juga membuka sebuah kedai runcit Faiza yang beroperasi sejak 1972 sehingga kini, yang terletak di Batu Pahat, Johor dengan menjual semua produk Faiza dan beberapa produk keluaran syarikat lain.


Bakal perkenal pes segera

Pengarah Urusannya, Faiza Bawumi Sayed Ahmad berkata, produk terbaru itu kini dalam proses penyelidikan  dan pembangunan (R&D) yang telah pun di peringkat terakhir iaitu pembungkusan.

“Kami menjalankan R&D  selama dua tahun bagi memastikan produk yang dihasilkan adalah terbaik dalam pasaran.

“Bagi memperluaskan pasaran ke peringkat antarabangsa, kami akan ke Paris bagi tujuan mempromosikan produk terbaru dan produk lain seperti kicap, bihun, rempah dan ketupat segera dengan kerjasama Perbadanan Pembangunan Perdagangan Luar Malaysia
(Matrade),” katanya, ketika ditemui Sinar Harian, di pejabatnya di Taman Perindustrian Subang, baru-baru ini.

Produk baru itu adalah pes segera kari ayam, kari ikan, rendang, berani dan sambal tumis yang dijangka berada  di pasaran tempatan sebelum akhir tahun ini.

Menurutnya, sasaran utama produk baru itu adalah bagi menerokai pasaran antarabangsa selain pasaran tempatan.

Faiza berkata, bagi memperluaskan pasaran produk, Syarikat Faiza juga bakal membawa produk bukan beras keluarannya ke Kaherah pada November ini, dengan kerjasama Matrade dan Kerajaan Johor.

Selain itu, Syarikat Faiza turut merancang membawa produk syarikatnya ke pasaran Eropah dan Timur Tengah.


Giat eksport produk

Menurut Faiza, produk bukan beras Syarikat Faiza turut dieksport ke New Zealand sejak 2009 dan kini di Sydney, Melbourne, Brunei, Singapura, Vietnam menerusi Pasar Raya Parkson dan Arab Saudi.

Manakala bagi pasaran tempatan, produk tersebut boleh diperoleh di Pasara Raya Tesco, Carrefour, Billion, Giant, Tunas Manja dan Tiong Fat seluruh negara.

Faiza berkata, rempah ratus adalah produk paling banyak menyumbang kepada perolehan syarikat iaitu 80 peratus daripada keseluruhan pendapatan. Awal tahun ini sahaja, Syarikat Faiza telah melancarkan produk baru iaitu bihun segera dalam dua perisa iaitu tomyam dan sup pada akhir Mei lalu.

“Selain itu, kami turut memperkenalkan produk madu lebah sejak enam bulan lalu dengan harga pasaran RM48 sebotol.

“Produk ini boleh diperoleh di Pasar Besar Giant dan pasar mini seluruh negara, bagaimanapun, masih belum memasuki pasaran Sabah dan Sarawak,” katanya.

Syarikat Faiza bakal membuka kilang khusus bagi produk rempah milik sendiri sepenuhnya di Bandar Enstek, Nilai menjelang akhir 2013.

“Kilang itu nanti akan didatangkan dengan sijil Analisis Bahaya dan Titik Kawalan Kritikal (HACCP), sijil halal, mendapat persijilan ISO/9001 dan Sijil Amalan 5S.

 http://www.sinarharian.com.my/bisnes/faiza-tampil-produk-baru-1.87928

Kisah usahawan beras Faiza

 

"SAYA ingin menjadi pembayar zakat terbesar di negara ini." Itulah azam, pemilik syarikat pemborong beras Syarikat Faiza Sdn. Bhd., Faiza Bawumi Sayed Ahmad ketika ditemui Kosmo! di Sri Gading, Batu Pahat, Johor.

Wanita kelahiran Mesir itu berhijrah ke Malaysia pada tahun 1964 kerana mengikut suaminya.
Ketika kebanyakan wanita seusianya berehat di rumah, Faiza, 58 dan nenek kepada 32 cucu sibuk merancang strategi bagi mengukuhkan kedudukannya dalam pelbagai cabang perniagaan di negara ini.

Faiza yang juga Pengarah Urusan Syarikat Faiza, sedang bertungkus-lumus mengeluarkan beberapa produk baru yang dijangka masuk ke pasaran selewat-lewatnya penghujung tahun ini.
Wanita yang berperwatakan lembut itu sebenarnya seorang yang tegas. Beliau mahu memastikan syarikat yang ditubuhkan sejak tahun 1992 itu berada di landasan betul sekali gus mencatatkan keuntungan saban tahun.
Berkecimpung dalam bidang perniagaan sejak kecil, Faiza pernah menjadi juruwang di kedai milik bapanya. Pengalaman tersebut mendorong beliau untuk bergiat secara serius dalam bidang perniagaan.

"Kejayaan ini tidak datang dengan mudah, saya bermula dengan mengambil upah menjahit sulaman dengan modal RM4 selain menjual pelbagai barangan dapur.
"Kemudian, saya beralih membuat rempah kari di bawah jenama Bunga Raya yang dilakukan di rumah dan mengedarkannya di kedai-kedai," katanya yang mampu menguasai bahasa Melayu setelah tiga bulan berada di Malaysia.
Ibu kepada tujuh anak itu menambah, modal daripada menjual rempah kari itu digunakan untuk membuka kedai runcit. Dari situ beliau mendapati pemborong beras kebanyakannya dibekalkan oleh kaum lain.

Dengan mempunyai kedai sendiri, beliau mula belajar mengenali pelbagai jenis beras. Sebelum menjual beras, beliau terpaksa pergi dari satu kedai ke kedai lain bagi mendapatkan maklum balas sama ada mereka akan membeli berasnya jika beliau menjualnya.
Atas respons yang positif, Faiza memohon lesen pemborong beras dan menjual pelbagai jenis beras termasuk ponni, basmathi, beras wangi serta beras Siam.
"Pada mulanya, saya buntu juga melihat satu lori treler penuh berisi beras diletakkan di hadapan rumah, namun saya nekad membungkus menggunakan jenama Bunga Raya dan menghantar ke kedai-kedai di seluruh Johor.

"Sehingga kini, perniagaan beras keluaran syarikat saya mendapat sambutan. Meskipun saingan sengit, kami telah dikenali kerana kualiti produk yang tinggi, seratus peratus buatan Islam dan halal," katanya yang kini mempunyai kilang di Kuala Lumpur, Kedah dan Terengganu.
Pada tahun 1998, beliau terdorong mempromosi beras ponni dari India yang dipercayai baik untuk kesihatan, khususnya bagi penghidap diabetes, obesiti dan darah tinggi.
Faiza berkata, bagi membuktikan kebaikan beras itu, syarikatnya telah meminta Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) membuat kajian dan hasilnya memang positif.
"Saya melabur berjuta ringgit bagi produk Taj Mahal dan telah meminta hak eksklusif daripada Bernas," tambahnya yang gembira dengan sambutan orang ramai terhadap produk tersebut.
Walaupun syarikatnya menumpukan produk beras dan rempah, kini beliau sedang meneroka bidang baru termasuk memasarkan bihun, sos cili dan kicap.

Beliau yang mempunyai 200 pekerja tetap dan lebih 300 pekerja kontrak berkata, dengan penglibatan dalam penghasilan produk tersebut ia memberi pilihan kepada orang Islam untuk mendapatkan produk yang bermutu tinggi dan tanpa diragui status halalnya.
Ketika ini, syarikatnya telah memasarkan bubur herba penghujung tahun lalu dan mendapat permintaan yang baik daripada para pelanggan.

Bagi produk bihun pula, syarikatnya telah menempah mesin dari China dan produk itu akan diproses di sebuah kilang lain juga di Sri Gading.

Kilang tersebut mampu mengeluarkan sebanyak sembilan tan bihun sehari, namun pada peringkat awal cuma memproses lima tan bihun dengan sasaran jualan sebanyak RM12 juta bagi tahun pertama.

FAIZA BAWUMI

Kehidupan

Faizah yang suka hidup bermasyarakat berkata, semua usaha yang dilakukan itu bukanlah untuk mengumpulkan kekayaan sebaliknya untuk menjadi pembayar zakat terbesar di Malaysia sekali gus membantu lebih ramai orang yang susah.
Sebab itulah, syarikatnya bekerjasama dengan TV3 selaku penaja utama sejak lapan tahun lalu menerusi program Bersamamu.

Dari segi kehidupan berkeluarga, Faizah menerapkan pendekatan supaya anak-anaknya hidup berdikari. Sejak kecil anak-anaknya dilatih menjual dan mereka mendapat upah.
Bagaimanapun katanya, pendidikan menjadi keutamaan dan mereka diberi peluang menuntut ilmu setinggi mungkin.

"Bukan semua anak saya terlibat dalam perniagaan, anak sulung dan kelima menjadi pensyarah dan lima yang lain membantu Syarikat Faiza," katanya.
Bercerita tentang pengalaman menguruskan perniagaan tersebut, beliau pernah menangkap pekerja yang menipu dan mencuri.

"Macam-macam cara orang hendak menipu dan saya pernah menangkap pekerja yang menjual guni beras yang dimasukkan ke dalam lori. Guni beras ini harganya mahal di pasaran," katanya.

Artikel Penuh: http://www.kosmo.com.my/kosmo/content.asp?y=2010&dt=0607&pub=Kosmo&sec=Varia&pg=va_01.htm#ixzz2wkEGYmJN

Donald Trump: The secret of his success

Donald Trump is not just the archetype of an "All-American Billionaire". He's also turned himself into a global brand. But what's the secret of his success?

Donald Trump was in Scotland recently, collecting an honorary doctorate from a university in Aberdeen. In the press conference afterwards, he said he was thinking about running for President in 2012.

'Trump considers White House bid' produced more coverage than his honorary doctorate. Whether or not he runs, Trump knew the media would take the bait. They always do.
In 1999, he said the same thing and generated the same kind of attention. And that was just a rerun of 1987, when rumours were also flying about Trump running for President. The following year, George Bush senior was elected - without Trump on the ticket.
Through the many ups and downs of a long business career, one of Trump's key assets has been his relationship with a media that never tires of his name.
 
The Big Apple 
 

 

A man and his town: Donald Trump in Manhattan

He has had two bites at the Big Apple. In the first, he was a blonde, twenty-something tycoon from Brooklyn who developed huge, shiny buildings like Trump Tower on New York's Fifth Avenue. He and his wife Ivana became fixtures on the New York celebrity circuit.
But as the eighties drew to a close, Trump was battling for his business life, at what can now be seen as the end of the first part of his glittering career. Recession hit Trump's many projects and forced him into a spectacular near-bankruptcy. Around the same time, his marriage ended in divorce.

But Trump survived - to breathe life back into his business, and find domestic happiness again too.
The Trump franchise Today, he is a celebrity with global, rather than national, recognition. But in some ways, not much has changed.

He still lives in his Trump Tower triplex, he's still got a model wife - his third, Melania Knauss -, and he insists he's still got his own hair, whose curious architecture is now a key part of the image.
He's back at the top of his game, but this time round, it's a bigger game than in the eighties.

Trump on Lord Sugar: 'I like Alan very much'

There are 21 Trump buildings in New York, and more around the country and the world. There are 10 Trump golf courses, and another one in Scotland under construction - against some publicity-generating opposition, which he freely admits has helped raise its profile.
He has his very own beauty pageant business, Miss Universe. And he co-owns a huge global TV franchise, and stars in the original US-version of The Apprentice, which he developed together with Mark Burnett. (Lord Alan Sugar is Britain's version of Trump.)

“Start Quote

Trump's career was never just about money... fame was the real goal.”

Ned Eichler former business partner

• The life and times of Donald Trump

The key to Trump's business and media longevity, in both phases of his career, has been his ability to monetise his name.

Putting "Trump" in large gold letters on Trump Tower may have started as an ego-trip, but it quickly turned into a smart business move. Today he estimates the brand centred on his name as being worth $3bn - about half the $6bn he says he's worth.
Others dispute the figures: the authoritative Forbes Rich List, with which he regularly disagrees, has him down for 'only' $2bn to $3bn.
Whatever the number, nobody disputes that the name Donald J. Trump, on a residential building, a hotel, or even a silk tie, gives it a value it wouldn't have if it was branded Donald J. Bloggs.
Ned Eichler, a businessman who dealt with Trump in the early days, recognised Trump's priorities right from his first project. Trump's career, recalls Eichler, was never just about money: "money was just part of the fame, but fame was the real goal."
 
Too big to fail
 

 

Donald and Ivana Trump, here with Bob Hope, were part of New York High Society

Trump turned fame into money by writing an early autobiography and self-help book, The Art of the Deal, a couple of years before his financial crisis. He plugged it relentlessly, even turning up on the Wogan show with his wife Ivana. The book was a huge best-seller, adding to the name-recognition he had already created.

In his late eighties crisis, when a slew of Trump businesses were struggling to keep up interest payments on massive loans, his creditors had to decide whether to pull the plug on his empire. That they decided not to, says his biographer Gwenda Blair, was thanks to his name recognition:
"He was one of the first to get, that getting his name on things, getting his name associated with luxury, and making himself the central character, would make him the irreplaceable piece."
He was, in a phrase the recent global financial crisis has made familiar again, "too big to fail".
New caution
Trump has his own account of how he scraped through that crisis, saying "it turned out that the banks liked me a lot". But he admits he 'took his eye off the ball' in the late eighties, over-expanding and believing his own hype.

Apprentice creator Mark Burnett: 'Donald is not the kind of enemy you would want'

Who wouldn't when, as he remembers, his own father told him that "everything you touch turns to gold?"
Twenty years on, he's more cautious, saying he calculates what might go wrong before committing himself to a deal.
One sign of this new caution is what he calls the "branding deals" he negotiates with the developers of some of the latest Trump buildings.
They use his name on the building, along with his contacts and marketing expertise, and give him a share of the upside. If the project goes wrong, Trump's financial exposure is limited.
Family business
At the same time, with the help of three of his children, Don Jnr, Ivanka and Eric, who now work as Trump executives, he's taken his business in new directions to exploit the brand he's created.
So alongside new luxury apartment blocks like New York's Trump World Tower, the tallest residential building in the city, there are the golf clubs and overseas resorts, such as those in Hawaii and (to come) Panama.

Donald Jnr, Ivanka and Eric Trump tell their story

And there are Trump managed hotels, like the huge gold building in Las Vegas, where the Trump brand, once the preserve of the super-rich, is open to anyone who wants to stay a night in a reasonably priced room.

The familiar business journey from upmarket to profitable mass market works for Trump as well as for other brands.
At 64, Donald Trump is still firing on all cylinders. In years to come, it will be up to his children to maintain the right kind of media profile, so that the company can keep charging a premium for the name Mr Trump has worked so hard to associate with success.

Donald Trump: All-American Billionaire is on BBC Two on Sunday, 28 November, at 2100 UK time

Donald Trump

Sypnosis 

 

          Real estate developer Donald John Trump was born June 14, 1946, in Queens, New York. In 1971 he became involved in large profitable building projects in Manhattan. He opened the Grand Hyatt in 1980, which made him the city's best known and most controversial developer. In 2004 Trump began starring in the hit NBC reality series The Apprentice, which also became an offshoot for The Celebrity Apprentice.

Early Life

            Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946, in Queens, New York, the fourth of five children of Frederick C. and Mary MacLeod Trump. Frederick Trump was a builder and real estate developer who came to specialize in constructing and operating middle-income apartments in Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn. Donald Trump was an energetic, assertive child, and his parents sent him to the New York Military Academy at age 13, hoping the discipline of the school would channel his energy in a positive manner. Trump did well at the academy, both socially and academically, rising to be a star athlete and student leader by the time he graduated in 1964. He entered Fordham University and then transferred to the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1968 with a degree in economics.

New York Real Estate Developer

 

           Trump seems to have been strongly influenced by his father in his decision to make a career in real estate development, but the younger man's personal goals were much grander than those of his senior. As a student, Trump worked with his father during the summer and then joined his father's company, the Trump Organization, after graduation from college. He was able to finance an expansion of the company's holdings by convincing his father to be more liberal in the use of loans based on the equity in the Trump apartment complexes. However, the business was very competitive and profit margins were narrow. In 1971 Donald Trump moved his residence to Manhattan, where he became familiar with many influential people. Convinced of the economic opportunity in the city, Trump became involved in large building projects in Manhattan that would offer opportunities for earning high profits, using attractive architectural design and winning public recognition.

             When the Pennsylvania Central Railroad entered bankruptcy, Trump was able to obtain an option on the railroad's yards on the west side of Manhattan. When initial plans for apartments proved unfeasible because of a poor economic climate, Trump promoted the property as the location of a city convention center, and the city government selected it over two other sites in 1978. Trump's offer to forego a fee if the center were named after his family, however, was turned down, along with his bid to build the complex, which was ultimately named for Senator Jacob Javits.

In 1974 Trump obtained an option on one of the Penn Central's hotels, the Commodore, which was unprofitable but in an excellent location adjacent to Grand Central Station. The next year he signed a partnership agreement with the Hyatt Hotel Corporation, which did not have a large downtown hotel. 

 Trump then worked out a complex deal with the city to win a 40-year tax abatement, arranged financing, and then completely renovated the building, constructing a striking new facade of reflective glass designed by architect Der Scutt. When the hotel, renamed the Grand Hyatt, opened in 1980, it was popular and an economic success, making Donald Trump the city's best known and most controversial developer.

Expanding His Career

 

Trump married Ivana Zelnickova Winklmayr, a New York fashion model who had been an alternate on the 1968 Czech Olympic Ski Team, in 1977. After the birth of the first of the couple's three children in 1978, Donald John Trump, Jr., Ivana Trump was named vice president in charge of design in the Trump Organization and played a major role in supervising the renovation of the Commodore.

In 1979 Trump leased a site on Fifth Avenue adjacent to the famous Tiffany & Company as the location for a monumental $200 million apartment-retail complex designed by Der Scutt. It was named Trump Tower when it opened in 1982. The 58-story building featured a 6-story atrium lined with pink marble and included an 80-foot waterfall. The luxurious building attracted well-known retail stores and celebrity renters and brought Trump national attention.

Meanwhile Trump was investigating the profitable casino gambling business, which was approved in New Jersey in 1977. In 1980 he was able to acquire a piece of property in Atlantic City. He brought in his younger brother Robert to head up the complex project of acquiring the land, winning a gambling license, and obtaining permits and financing. Holiday Inns Corporation, the parent company of Harrah's casino hotels, offered a partnership, and the $250 million complex opened in 1982 as Harrah's at Trump Plaza. Trump bought out Holiday Inns in 1986 and renamed the facility Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. Trump also purchased a Hilton Hotels casino-hotel in Atlantic City when the corporation failed to obtain a gambling license and renamed the $320 million complex Trump's Castle. Later, while it was under construction, he was able to acquire the largest hotel-casino in the world, the Taj Mahal at Atlantic City, which opened in 1990.

Back in New York City, Donald Trump had purchased an apartment building and the adjacent Barbizon-Plaza Hotel in New York City, which faced Central Park, with plans to build a large condominium tower on the site. The tenants of the apartment building, however, who were protected by the city's rent control and rent stabilization programs, fought Trump's plans and won. Trump then renovated the Barbizon, renaming it Trump Parc. In 1985 Trump purchased 76 acres on the west side of Manhattan for $88 million to build a complex to be called Television City, which was to consist of a dozen skyscrapers, a mall, and a riverfront park. The huge development was to stress television production and feature the world's tallest building, but community opposition and a long city approval process delayed commencement of construction of the project. In 1988 he acquired the Plaza Hotel for $407 million and spent $50 million refurbishing it under his wife Ivana's direction.

Ups and Down Business

 

Trump reached south to build a condominium project in West Palm Beach, Florida, and in 1989 he branched out to purchase the Eastern Air Lines Shuttle for $365 million, renaming it the Trump Shuttle. In January 1990, Trump flew to Los Angeles to unveil a plan to build a $1 billion commercial and residential project featuring a 125-story office building.

It was in 1990, however, that the real estate market declined, reducing the value of and income from Trump's empire; his own net worth plummeted from an estimated $1.7 billion to $500 million. The Trump Organization required a massive infusion of loans to keep it from collapsing, a situation which raised questions as to whether the corporation could survive bankruptcy. Some observers saw Trump's decline as symbolic of many of the business, economic, and social excesses that had arisen in the 1980s.

Yet, he climbed back from nearly $900 million in the red: Donald Trump was reported to be worth close to $2 billion in 1997.

Personal Life, Politics, and Reality TV

 

Donald Trump's image was tarnished by the publicity surrounding his controversial separation and the later divorce from his wife, Ivana. But he married again, this time to Marla Maples, a fledgling actress. The couple had a daughter two months before their marriage in 1993. He filed for a highly publicized divorce from Maples in 1997, which became final in June 1999. A prenuptial agreement allotted $2 million to Maples. In January 2005, Trump married for a third time in a highly publicized wedding to model Melania Knauss, who gave birth to a son, Barron William Trump, in March 2006; it was her first child and Trump's fifth.

On October 7, 1999, Trump announced the formation of an exploratory committee to inform his decision of whether or not he should seek the Reform Party's nomination for the presidential race of 2000.

A state appeals court ruled on August 3, 2000, that Trump had the right to finish an 856-foot-tall condominium. The Coalition for Responsible Development had sued the city, charging it was violating zoning laws by letting the building reach heights that towered over everything in the neighborhood. The city has since moved to revise its rules to prevent more such projects. The failure of Trump's opponents to obtain an injunction allowed him to continue construction.

In 2004 Trump began starring in the NBC reality series The Apprentice, which quickly became a hit. In later years the show began showcasing celebrities as contestants under the revised name The Celebrity Apprentice. 

In 2012 Trump's flirtation with politics returned when he pubicly announced he was considering running for president again. However, his association with the "Birther" movement, a fringe group that staunchly believed President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, discredited his reputation politically to varying degree. Regardless, Trump has continued to be vocal against President Obama—not only regarding his place of birth—but also on a variety of his political policies.

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