Category: Personal Finance

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Investing Time into Your Business’ Offline Presence

Business in the Modern World

Modern technology has given budding entrepreneurs the chance to start a business with little more than a computerised device. From blogging and vlogging to running an e-commerce site, many businesses are run without the need for physical premises. However, having a web presence is virtually a necessity for all businesses in 2019 – whether or not they have a shopfront or office.

Given the emphasis on technology in the modern world of business, it would be easy to disregard the importance of reaching out and connecting with others. However, the reality is that in order to grow a successful business, it’s essential to maintain a presence outside of your immediate list of contacts; in order to maximise your business’ potential, you need to invest time into networking, learning and exploring new possibilities.

But how often should you attend events and conventions to propel your business forward?

Propelling Your Business Forward

Some people quickly tire of networking or attending business events if they aren’t getting the desired results. The reality is that it often takes a little patience and persistence to establish your own credibility before business comes your way. Consistency of approach is therefore essential to ensure your business’ message is being conveyed effectively.

Ideally, you should set aside at least 2 hours per week to attend a business-focused event or conference. Used effectively, this time will reap great rewards for your business in the long term.

What Kind of Events Should I Attend?

There are a whole host of different events available to all business owners – many of which are free of charge. Ask your contacts and suppliers for recommendations and use a search engine to find events in your local area. As a business owner, there are three main types of event that you should be looking out for:

  • Networking events: Joining an established networking group in your local area can help you to spread the word about your goods and services through referrals and passing business between members.
  • Conventions: Industry-specific business conventions offer great opportunities for like-minded business people to share their knowledge and collaborate in a supportive environment. There are conventions for every imaginable sector, such as this Vape Event which is opening its doors to all those with an interest in Vape
  • Seminars: Business seminars and lectures are another great way to meet like-minded people, whilst learning about the latest industry developments.

Get Yourself Out There!

Overall, no matter what industry you find yourself working in, it’s of vital importance to ‘get yourself out there’ to boost your business’ profile and enhance your credibility.

After all, no-one ever stops learning in business, and a single conversation can change everything.

So what are you waiting for? Which events or conferences will you be attending?

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What Does it Cost to be a Landlord? Property Management 101

Real estate is a hot commodity, and it’s no surprise that many people with an entrepreneurial mindset want to invest in rental property. Becoming a landlord can do wonderful things for your bank account, whether it provides the main source of income or simply supplements your salary. But getting a rental unit on the market is no easy task. Before investing in property (no matter how nice it already may be), take a look at the common expenses landlords face across the country.

Buying the Property

Naturally, the very first step is buying the property you plan to rent out. This can be a costly process, whether you’re buying a single-family home, duplex, or apartment building. Unless you have enough spare cash lying around to cover the entire payment, you’re going to need to acquire a mortgage. Interest rates, loan application fees, and closing costs can all rack up your monthly mortgage payments. Not to mention, your real estate agent needs to be compensated for helping you find the property. Make sure you have it in your budget to get over this initial hurdle.

Getting Insurance

Insurance is a necessity for any landlord because it protects your property from accidents and emergencies, such as fires or floods. On average, rental homes cost more to insure than standard homes. Rates are dependent on your insurance provider, type of property, and state that you live in, but insurance can nonetheless be a big budget-eater that landlords don’t often think about, take a look at Constructaquote.com Landlord Insurance for more information.

Screening Tenants

According to VIP Realty, finding the right tenants is key to successful rental property business. When you select responsible, trust-worthy tenants, you know you’ll have reliable revenue to pay for all the other expenses you have. Performing a rental credit check will often only cost you a small amount, but depending on how many tenants you have, this small amount could add up fast. A rental credit check is a critical component of the process because it will provide a credit check, eviction history, and criminal background check of all prospective tenants.

Hiring Maintenance Contractors

When the air conditioning breaks or a pipe bursts, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to fix it on your own. Before you get tenants into your property, establish relationships with maintenance contractors that you trust. You should keep plumbers, HVAC technicians, electricians, and general handymen on-call should an emergency repair need to be addressed. If you property has any sort of exterior landscaping, gardeners and exterior renovators might need to be brought in to brighten up the curb appeal for potential tenants. All of these repairs will cost money, and it’s important to leave wiggle room in your budget because you don’t know when you’ll need to pay for the services of a maintenance contractor.

Property Management Fees

Being a landlord can often be more of a full-time job than most people think. If the day-to-day duties of handling tenants gets to be too much, you can always hire a property management company to take over. These businesses handle all maintenance requests, rent collection, and interactions with tenants that don’t require direct contact with the landlord. But don’t expect these services to be cheap—passing the baton of daily responsibility means you’ll be forking out quite a bit more than you’re used to.

Tenant Turnover Costs

More money is spent on your end when a tenant decides to leave. Between cleaning costs, regulatory inspections, and monthly mortgage payments, you’ll notice your budget grow a bit thin. Plus, you’ll need to market the open units to attract new tenants. This could include hiring a professional photographer, finding a management company to manage and respond to your online listing, paying to place ads in newspapers, and remodeling the unit itself. It’s always smarter to try and find tenants that will stay on for more than a year. But, if times are tough, consider renting to a month-to-month renter; their monthly rent can add comfortable padding to your budget.

As a landlord, there are a million and one things on your to-do list every day. Don’t add “pay off debt” to that list! When you close on your new rental property with a proper budget in mind, nothing can stop you from turning your real estate dreams into reality.

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The Secret Lives of U.S. Billionaires

7 wealth management tips and dirty financial secrets

Billionaires and entrepreneurs around the world often share their life advice and sense of passion with consumers—- encouraging them to make changes in their perspective to promote success. But it’s not common for us to get a real glimpse into the reality of the billionaire lifestyle. How exactly do these individuals and corporations beat the odds? We’re taking a look at 7 wealth management tips and dirty financial secrets to give you a look into the lives of the world’s wealthiest people.

1.   Passion

“Passion is the genesis of genius.” – Tony Robbins

Maintaining momentum can be challenging for anyone. Whether you’re trying to run that extra mile on the treadmill, or managing a multi-billion-dollar company, it’s a natural challenge for everyone. But billionaires have mastered this art with years of wins and losses in between. When you’re managing multiple projects at once, it can be hard to hold onto that same sense of passion that got you started on this journey. Maybe you’re still trying to find your passion?

Whatever stage you’re in, the world’s most successful people can all agree that it’s passion that drives them to make a difference. Once you’ve discovered what innovation or cause ignites this in you— you’ll be on the fast track for success.

2.   Be ahead of the game

Staying ahead of the game is what gives the world’s most successful people the edge on the rest of us. Having the foresight to invest in what’s new and the confidence to take risks in unexplored territory is a quality amongst the wealthiest individuals around the world.

3.   Have a vision and hold yourself accountable

Once you’ve developed a concept for a new consumer service or project, it’s important to hold yourself accountable as you check off your goals and meet new milestones. Tracking your goals and coming up with ways to celebrate your success can help you stay focused.

4.   Manage your money efficiently

With smart investments comes smart (and sometimes sneaky) money management. Billionaires and corporations alike have become notorious for using tax evasion (or avoiding) schemes to shield their accounts from US taxes. Offshore tax havens are one way the rich and famous keep their cash in their own hands only, and accumulate more and more.

Tax evasion and offshore havens are considered “black hat tax shelters” in the eyes of the IRS— meaning these accounts can end up in big tax trouble if they’re caught. Rather than jeopardizing your accounts and hard work with black hat methods, managing your money and filing your taxes efficiently is a more honest and legal way to go, and may actually be more lucrative in the long run.

5.   Invest in opportunities that support you in the long haul

While it is great to take risks with your investments and put your money toward new technologies and unexplored concepts, investing in longstanding opportunities can provide you with consistent income that risky investments may not.

Whether you invest in real estate or an up-and-coming tech startup, managing your investment effectively is really what will keep your ROIs steady.

6.   Having a head start helps

Having money often starts with money. With the exception of a few, many of the world’s wealthiest like Bill Gates and S. Robson Walton both had a financial advantage with their wealthy families guiding their success. With better access to higher education, more financial support, and connections, making a career for yourself can be simple if the odds are in your favor.

7.   Maintain good connections

It’s all about who you know— no matter what industry you’re in. Networking to keep promising business and personal connections can help accelerate your vision and keep your business thriving for years to come.

Part of maintaining a good rapport with your connections means having a strong public relations practice to keep yourself and your company in good standing with the public. Executives like Mark Zuckerberg know what it’s like to be under fire in the public eye, and having a good team by his side is what allowed Facebook to stay afloat amongst data breach allegations.

Whether you’re onto making your next billion or just started investing, these tips can be used for billionaires and passionate entrepreneurs alike.

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Alternatives To HARO For Client Placements

All businesses desire to be in the news because this is definitely helpful for their brand awareness. But more than this, besides recognition, brands would also love it if there were in the news with positive issues and achievements as well, so that they can extend their client base.  But since Google has gained massive prominence, the PR world has changed, and even if we’re in 2019, the PR industry has not fully adapted itself to the digital marketing age.

HARO gained enhanced popularity

It’s important to understand that it’s not uncommon for a PR firm to help a reporter prepare their story which would earn them the favor to place their client’s name in that particular story.

These days, PR and Digital Marketers can help you score great media for businesses on various mainstream publications, especially with some help from the right tools. One of the best tools available to PR pros is HARO (Help A  Reporter Out), and it delivers instant access which was previously not available in the industry.

HARO is a great PR tool, and all you have to do is sign up and then, three times per day, you will receive an email which includes a massive list of subjects from reporters who are on the search for sources for their stories. This is definitely an easy way to find all kinds of media opportunities and who knows, even potentially land a massive coverage for the brand that you are promoting.

HARO alternatives

Fortunately, HARO is not the only PR tool that makes it easy to receive journalist requests and become a source.

There are more such useful tools out there like this free searchable database which provides an easier way for PR and Digital Marketers to find various top-quality placements for their clients.

Many business owners already have a pretty good idea about how to connect with journalists and bloggers in order to share data about their products and services. But, unfortunately, many of them are still not aware of such useful tools, and this leads to missing out on robust PR strategies.

HARO alternatives offer more value to the PR arsenal that a business has. This is especially useful if the message that’s sent out to journalists and bloggers is 100% reflecting the overall PR strategy that’s defined by the company’s PR.

Closing words

In today’s digital world, a great place in social media or Google search can be actually much more influential for a client or brand than the fact that it’s mentioned in the New York Times. This used to work in the past, but these days, things have changed. Even if, for the clients, this can be a pretty traumatic change in public relations’ strategies, modern PR people do understand the value of Google search or a strong Facebook presence for their clients.

HARO and such services have a massive impact on social media, and it also goes the other way around. Bottom line, these services will definitely help PR, and Digital Marketers find solid press placement for their clients. More services like this will keep evolving because the landscape of digital media placement and promotion is in full development.

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Finance News Personal Finance

Analyse Your Spending to Make Great Savings in 2019

With Christmas well and truly behind us, the first thing on sensible minds going into what promises to be a grimly uncertain 2019 will be their finances. We always end up spending more than we meant to towards the end of the year, so the beginning of the year is all about making up the difference by cutting corners. Making savings doesn’t need to feel like pulling teeth though and you don’t need to deny yourself many pleasures and conveniences in order to be more financially responsible. A good start is to make sure you’re keeping track of your spending patterns.

Metres

Many of us have a tendency to lose track of how much energy we’re using, particularly in January when it’s so tempting to throw caution to the wind and turn the heating up to counteract the Winter chill. Smart metres can not only be controlled remotely via an app but will give you a more thorough and detailed analysis of your energy expenditure. You can even get one fitting for gas and one for electric, so you’ll know not only when to dial the heating down a few notches, but when to start curtailing those late-night Netflix binge sessions too.

Apps

There are a number of apps (many of them free to use) that exist specifically to help you keep track of your expenses. Ranging from simple software that allows you to input your expenses, to apps that link with your bank account so you can’t cheat it! There is also a rise in mobile-only banks currently making waves in the UK, with Monzo currently leading the charge. Monzo became Britain’s best-rated lender last year, so it’s obviously far more than just a fad and these banks are far better placed to help you keep track of your finances.

Cards

The rise in popularity of contactless credit and debit cards might have made a few nervous spenders feel like they could let themselves get carried away without feeling like they’ve spent a penny, they are actually wonderful for keeping track of your spending. With cash payments, you’ll need to make a manual note that you’ve made a transaction, whereas using a card, you’ll have an automatic, electronic record of every purchase and every paycheque. Of course, a fair amount of self-restraint is required, but mercifully contactless payments are capped at £30, which will stop you from making any wildly expensive compulsive purchases.

Loans

Particularly with January 31st looming and tax bills needing to be paid, short-term personal loans can be a viable solution if your spending has managed to get out of hand and you’re in need of a quick cash injection to tide you over. Likely Loans is one of the few lenders that won’t charge you any hidden fees and offers a very reasonable APR.

Notes

It might sound old-fashioned, but if all else fails, keeping a financial notebook can be a more hands-on way of keeping on top of things. This approach, however, requires a fair amount of discipline.

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