Dealing With The More Practical Side Of Your Business’ Products

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. As a business owner, one of the things you’ll want to think about is the practicality of your business’ products. The following contributed post is entitled, Dealing With The More Practical Side Of Your Business’ Products.

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Running a business can be a grand new adventure. Many people are opting to start up their own companies following the pandemic, whether that’s due to job loss through company collapse and redundancy, or because they simply had enough time to realise their previous career path wasn’t for them. If you fall into this category and are getting involved in your own start up, chances are, you’ve already spent a lot of time learning new skills, areas of business management and more. There’s a lot to take on board, but all too many business owners get overly focused on more fun and engaging elements of running their company, such as market research, marketing and brand building. This is important, of course. But you do need to take time to focus on some of the more practical elements of creating your products. You can have the best ideas in the world and the best products ever, but if you don’t bring them to life, you’ll have nothing to offer your customers. Here are a few areas of focus that can help you to get the ball rolling.

Product Development

The product development stage of setting up your business may feel long and drawn out. Often, you’ll need to go through several rounds of suggesting products, receiving feedback and tweaking things until you’ll come up with your final design. But it’s absolutely essential that you grant this step the time, investment and focus it needs. It’s what will help to create a desirable, functional and sellable product that will prove the staple of your business’ success.

Manufacturing

Once you have ideas for your products, you’re going to need to bring them to life. This is where manufacturing comes into play. Manufacturing is the process of taking raw materials and transforming them into your final product. Now, you have a couple of options when it comes to manufacturing. The first is to outsource the process. When you outsource your manufacturing process, you will hand the work over to a third party who can create your products on your behalf. This will come at a cost, but it means you don’t have to invest in factory spaces, machinery, equipment or staff to create your products. Alternatively, you can invest in all these industrial supplies and bring your manufacturing in-house. Most startups find that starting out by outsourcing and then bringing things in house once they’re making profits and have created demand for their products works best.

Product Testing

Remember that all of your products will need to be tested. This will make sure that they are safe for the consumer market, saving you from liability if something goes wrong with any of your products once they reach the consumer. Product testing can also ensure that your products work and are up to standard.

These steps will take some time to get through, but the effort will all be worth it in the end. You should find yourself with a great product to confidently launch onto the consumer market!

How To Invest In Property And Succeed

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A lucrative sector of business is real estate. While it’s discussed in my financial literacy curricula, there are a lot of nuances and rules to succeeding in this sector. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Invest In Property And Succeed.

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Whether you are a business or an individual, investing in property is a great way to maximize the among of money you have. If you get the process just right, you can become very wealthy as a result. However, like all types of investment, there are certain risks and pitfalls you need to be aware of. Not everyone who invests in property manages to produce more wealth for themselves. These people generally do not invest with the right plan or strategy in place. Planning and mitigation is essential to succeed in all types of business, and property is no different.

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Develop a Strategy
A strategy is essential to your overall success. Try and bite off more than you can chew will land you in some very hot water, with huge debts you cannot pay. You could end up losing everything. So, before you buy anything, make a plan. The plan must include things such as budget considerations for each property you buy. You will need to include legal fees, and the probability is you will need to do some renovations. Perhaps you have a builder in mind, perhaps not, but whatever you do, do not overspend. You will also need to diversify your locations, as buying up too much property in one area could leave you open to over-exposure by having too many loans in one area. If you are new to investing in property, then you need to start slowly and find your feet. Start small, then build from there.

Do Your Research
Research should be an absolutely fundamental part of your strategy. Because there are so many things to consider, the more research you do, the better. Look for any areas that are on the rise and are becoming more popular and affluent. This will ensure that it will be a very good long-term investment. Find out about infrastructure upgrades in the area and if there will be any new amenities created as well as transport links. The more investment that is going into the area, the better your investment will be. Think about what is near the property. By doing this, you will develop an idea of the types of people that are likely to rent from you. If it is near a business center, for example, you are likely to get professional.

Property Management
It does not matter if you are a private investor, or buying property as part of your current business investment strategy. Eventually, you are going to need help from a Commercial Property Management company. A management company will be able to provide in-depth, full-time management of your property portfolio. They will find tenants and help you negotiate great deals. They will take a lot of pressure off of you while you focus on expansion rather than the everyday running of the business.

Use all the Space to Your Advantage
To make the most of your investment, you will want to ensure that you are getting the greatest return. Perhaps there is scope to swap a downstairs dining room into another bedroom and rent out room individually. Or maybe you can turn a large bedroom into two or create an en-suite.

How An Industry Can Make Savings

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. As a business owner, one of your tasks is managing the finances of the business. Thus you want to determine how and where you can save the business money. The following contributed post is entitled, How An Industry Can Make Savings.

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Saving money in business is one of the best ways to ensure growth, but making sure that savings are made can be a difficult thing to do – there always seems to be something else to purchase or invest in that means anything you are able to save suddenly needs to be used, leaving you with very little. However, you will find that the more you can save, the easier it will become, and anything you do need to buy won’t leave your company short of funds. Here are some of the best ways to save money.

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Use The Correct Software

Using the correct software to run your business can be an expensive upfront cost, but it is a wise investment. Although it is possible to buy software that will do a similar job to something that is more specific to your sector, in the end it just won’t have all the functions you need to do your work to a high enough standard. If there is something that has been made especially for your industry to use, then it is likely that it will be worth the money to start with, and it will save you money in the long term because you won’t need to buy additional software, and neither will your quality of work suffer.

Review Your Expenses

When you’re in the middle of running your business, you might not notice how much you’re spending. This is why it is essential to have a spending review once a month in order to determine what you are paying for and how much you are spending. Once you know this, you can work on reducing those costs. It also means that you can make sure your bank account tallies with your receipts, and if you do this on a regular basis rather than when tax time comes, it will save you a lot of worry and stress. Alternatively, you can hire an experienced accountant to help you do this.

Make Your Employees Responsible

If you have employees and they are tasked with finding new suppliers, searching for services, or even if they have a company credit card, it’s a good idea to make them responsible for their own spending. That doesn’t mean they have to use their own money, but it does mean that you should try to instill a sense of ownership in them. If they feel more involved in the business and they understand what it takes to run it, they will be less likely to spend without thinking. This can prevent unnecessary purchases and therefore save the business money.

Find Partners

Not all businesses will want or need to find partners to work with, but it can be a good thing for some companies, and it is a good way to save money. If you are working closely with someone, you can split the costs, and you will immediately have a good saving in place. As time goes on, you will be able to work together to boost your businesses as well, bringing more money into the company as a whole.

3 Tips For Getting Customers To Feel Comfortable

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. As a business owner, one of the things you’ll want is for your customers to feel comfortable. The following contributed post is entitled, 3 Tips For Getting Customers To Feel Comfortable.

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To break down barriers and start selling your product or service, you first need to make potential customers and clients feel comfortable about your business. Customers need to feel safe as they want to know where they’ll be putting their money towards. It also helps if they’re able to see the product, service, or even have a one-on-one conversation. Customers and clients don’t want to feel ripped off. Nowadays, it’s so easy to scam people, unfortunately.

Anyone can build a website, create ads, and begin “selling” on the internet. In-person and online shopping are both completely different experiences but both need to be presentable so potential customers and clients can feel at ease when making their decisions. Here are some tips for making your target audience get comfortable with you.

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Start with Creating a Professional-Looking Space

If your business has a physical location, utilize this. You want your business, whether it be a shop, service, or anything else, to look professional. Some customers and clients want to meet and have a discussion face to face. Some are old-fashioned and it should be something that’s respected. If your physical location doesn’t look the best, such as lacking curb appeal or lacking any visually appealing qualities then you’ll want to look into fixing that. Having a comfortable and professional-looking space is vital. Not only will potential customers enjoy this, but it helps employees work more efficiently as well.

You may want to look into a skip bin hire and then make some changes to your workspace. Adding some nice furniture, painting the walls, and changing up the flooring can truly transform the space. Lighting and décor are important as well, as these help out in setting a desired atmosphere to the space. You may even want to add something to the exterior such as plants so the outside looks presentable too. It may seem like a lot of work but first impressions matter as they are long-lasting.

Have a Contact Page on Your Website

If you have a business website (and you should), you need to get yourself a contact page. Yes, a professional and up-to-date website is very important but it’s also important to have the appropriate pages on there too. This contact page should contain information about the company so customers and clients can reach you. You should provide a number as well, and answer any incoming calls. Sure, there may be challenges of using articulate speech during phone calls but it’s crucial to let customers know they’re real humans and you’re running a real business.

Utilize Customer Testimonials

Reviews are one of the most important components for a customer. This is what will help them in deciding on what to purchase or who to hire. You’ll find reviews on social media ( such as Facebook), Google Business Reviews, The Bom, YouTube, and even on a website testimonials page. Whether customers want to compliment you or criticize your service, they should be allowed to. Both positive and negative reviews will let customers know that you’re a real business and it will raise their comfort levels.

Make Sure They Know How To Use Your Products or Services

It’s important that your customers know how to use the4 services or products you’re selling. That’s why demonstrations and customer training processes can be very useful, particularly in certain niches. Software as a service is the perfect example of a niche that requires customer training in order for them to get the most out of the product. Good saas customer success training makes a real difference to outcomes in the industry.

How To Innovate Brand Engagement

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. I key component of your business is your brand. There is also engagement with your brand. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Innovate Brand Engagement.

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It’s all about branding. The jury has been out on this topic for quite some time. If you’re not actively creating opportunities for your consumers to engage with your brand in active and meaningful ways, you will likely find yourself courting irrelevance very quickly. It can sound particularly nerve-wracking, especially for smaller businesses that may not have the big budget spend of their conglomerate and corporate cousins.

But the truth is far more settling than you’d think because creating innovative, fresh, and engaging brand interactions is a lot easier than you might think – and it doesn’t have to ruin your bottom line either.

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INITIATE THE CONVERSATION

There’s an adage from street-hardened salespeople: those who ask the questions control the conversation.

We believe this to be true to the extent that if you’re not initiating conversations about your brand, whether through commercials or social media campaigns – someone else will likely and make no mistake, we live in a highly competitive age where not all the players in the game mean to do so with integrity.

So take the lead and develop meaningful conversations around your products or services within the marketplaces you’re serving.

“The more you engage with customers, the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.” — John Russell, President of Harley Davidson.

DEVELOP A CLEAR AND CONCISE CONTENT STRATEGY

The content that you post online and across your various social media platforms should never be posted for the sake of having something “up there.” You want to ensure that content is dynamic, stimulating, relevant, and has a specific call to action hardwired in the message.

In other words, you want your content to inspire action, a movement that will give you access to the people interacting with your posts and content, access that can lead to a conversation, that can lead to a sale.

Many sportswear companies have been particularly successful at doing this by inviting consumers to post workout tips, diet advice and share conversations across platforms that guide newbies and experts alike.

Agencies like Traffik can offer highly specialized solutions that can elevate your brand engagement credentials exponentially.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou.

CREATING EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS

Take a look at this Volkswagen commercial from South Africa. From an age long before social media, when the web itself was in its infancy. It is an excellent example of the kind of emotional connections you want to create for your brand. To establish a legacy, a follow-through from generation to generation, and to appeal to the sentiment of your consumer and customer.

SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVATIONS

This should almost go without saying, but many companies and businesses still don’t understand just how valuable a resource social medial can be. Of course, it needs to be done right. You have to learn how to actively grow your base on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and more.

When you can get to the point where your customers are taking selfies and then posting images and video footage of themselves using or enjoying your product or service, that image will likely be reshared and shared again. Gold, absolute gold.

Common Reasons For Customer Dissatisfaction

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A key component to the success of your business is customer satisfaction. As such you want to avoid those things that would sour your customers. The following contributed post is entitled, Common Reasons For Customer Dissatisfaction.

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Customer dissatisfaction occurs when your business fails to meet the expectations of your customers.

For you, the consequences can be dire. After failing to satisfy your customers, you may lose their custom in the short or long term. The reputation of your business could be badly affected if bad word of mouth and online reviews reflect the areas in which your business has fallen down. And as a consequence of these situations, you could make losses in your business if news of customer dissatisfaction spreads.

As a business owner, you know the importance of making your customers happy. Dissatisfaction is not the word you want to hear. But to understand more, let’s consider why customers may be dissatisfied.

#1: Poor quality product or service

What are you offering your customers? If it’s a particular product, it needs to be of good quality, functional, and long-lasting. Something of poor quality that breaks within days or weeks of purchase is hardly likely to satisfy your customers.

If you are offering a particular service, you need to fulfill what you have promised. The work you do for the customer needs to be of good quality because this is what they expect when they pay you. A rushed job that fails to meet their needs is going to cause dissatisfaction.

To ensure quality, you should commit to training for yourself and your team when it is needed. And if certain tasks can’t be managed properly in-house, you should outsource to experts, such as industrial sewing services if you are selling fabric-based products. By taking these steps, you will be better able to offer quality to your customers.

#2: Bad customer service

When your customers reach out to your business, they expect timely answers, polite interactions, and a proper answer to the questions they are asking. They don’t expect a long wait on the phone, rude customer service representatives, and a less-than-satisfying response to their queries.

For the benefit of your customers, you need to make sure your employees are trained in customer service skills. You need to monitor their interactions occasionally and give them guidance or warnings if they aren’t treating your customers well. And you also want to cut down on wait times when your customers try to reach you. Outsource to a call center if you need to, provide a live chat option on your website, and be diligent when it comes to answering emails and returning phone calls.

#3: Overpricing

You will be keen to make a profit in your business but that profit shouldn’t come from overpriced products. When a customer realizes that they have paid more than is standard for a product or service, they will be quick to let the world know on business review sites and social media.

You make a profit by gaining more customers and not by ripping them off. So, make sure your pricing is fair by conducting a pricing survey before settling on a final cost. This way, your customers won’t slam you for unfair pricing and you won’t lose them to business rivals that are offering cheaper prices.

Finally

By keeping your customers happy, you will experience return custom, better word of mouth, and higher profits. So, consider your customers. Are they satisfied with your business? Find out by asking for their feedback and by checking reviews about your business online. If you need to make changes to counter criticisms, then do so.

Bringing Your Business Through The Pandemic

Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Current Events. My businesses were obliterated by the Covid-19 Pandemic while others made it through, thrived, or were even started. If your business is still alive, you want to consider how to keep it going as the pandemic may be nearing it’s end. The following contributed post is entitled, Bringing Your Business Through The Pandemic.

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Photo by fauxels from Pexels

Many businesses have been impacted by Covid-19, and while things are improving, firms are still battling to get back on track. Let’s take a look at some of the ways you may help your business grow stronger during this difficult time:

Keep Track Of Your Cash Flow

Identify any cashflow issues as soon as possible, and predict with the worst-case scenario in mind, ensuring that your company is ready for any future socio-economic shifts. Employees should be assigned to procedures that are critical to cash flow, even if this implies cross-training. Many businesses lack a proper, regularly updated cash flow projection, resulting in a lack of awareness of their finances and potential consequences; if this is your company, make it a point to build one. Using tools such as Wefunder Agency could help.

Examine The Dangers In Your Supply Chain

You must prepare for the worst, just as you must for cash flow. What if one of your suppliers is unable to supply you with the things you require? If possible, ensure you have viable backup providers, speak with them, and confirm that they can deliver what you require, as things may not be as advertised on their website at the time. You might also need to make certain strategic supply chain decisions, such as concentrating on your most profitable products or services while reducing other offerings and supply chain risks. While these may be temporary decisions given the current state of the economy, it is always necessary to risk analyse your supply chain.

Keep Yourself Updated

As a business leader, you must stay up to date on the newest COVID-19 developments on a daily basis, as the advice is constantly changing. However, double-check official recommendations, avoid sensationalised news and social media posts, and carefully consider what to tell your employees, suppliers, and customers. Avoid panic and perplexity! When planning your strategy for the coming months, keep in mind the government’s response and business assistance policies. The most recent advice can be found here.

Be Flexible And Open To New Ideas

Many firms that survive and prosper through a crisis like this will have open-minded CEOs who can adjust swiftly to change and inspire their employees to do the same. Given how our lives have significantly and rapidly altered recently, your business model may no longer be feasible and will need to be updated. There may also be fresh prospects for you to take advantage of and diversify your business. Check out the rest of my essay on how to adapt and diversify your business.

Make Preparations For The ‘After’

Start thinking about how you want your business to look once the pandemic is ended once all of the big obstacles have been addressed. It is preferable to begin planning now rather than face the shock of returning to ‘normalcy’ with no awareness of the significant changes we have all through. Make a list of everything that is functioning well for your team and that you might want to keep in place in the long run, as well as anything you want to get rid of. Are you looking for ways to work that are more productive and cost-effective? Is your team collaborating more effectively? Have you taken steps to reduce your company’s environmental impact? Consider how your customers and suppliers will function in the future and include them in your strategies.

How To Improve Cashflow As A Small Business

Two key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. While the focus of a business is the generate profit, a key aspect of that is controlling costs and improving cashflow. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Improve Cashflow As A Small Business.

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One of the problems facing small businesses, even profitable small businesses is cash flow or lack thereof. Having a steady cash flow is important for all businesses as it is the means to meeting all overheads such as rent and bills. If payments are due to be made but cannot be met even a successful company could run into difficulty and uncertainty over their future. Here are some tips to consider when it comes to keeping your company cash available.

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Lease instead of buy

Choosing to lease over purchasing property or even equipment and goods may at first seem counterintuitive as commonly you will end up paying a higher amount over the duration of the lease than you would if you bought the property outright. While this may be the case outlying large sums of money into property or goods will tie up your company funds and could have a very detrimental effect on its access to cash and cash flow. It may also be that your lease agreements can benefit from certain tax advantages, advice on which should always be sought.

Liquidate assets

If you do choose to buy your goods or equipment then you will always have the option to sell them to liquidize those assets. Or, it may be that you have surplus inventory to your requirements that you can dispose of to increase your cash flow. Take a look around, and consider whether everything you have is truly needed. Your company tools or equipment will always be worth something and there are specialized companies available who can help value your stock and offer you competitive rates. If you are in the restaurant trade for example take a look at this site to see what services they offer for liquidating your inventory.

Stay on top of invoicing

It sounds like an obvious one but you would be surprised how many companies lag behind when it comes to invoicing. Firstly be sure to invoice as soon as possible and make sure all invoices are clear and easy to read with all of the relevant information easy to find. Relevant information such as payment terms and payment methods should be top priority. It is also a good idea to include a due date and to make it visible from several locations on the invoice. Finally be sure to chase unpaid invoices regularly. Set yourself weekly or even bi-weekly reminders to send out follow ups as the payment deadline approaches. If an invoice is unpaid after the due date be sure to charge late payment fees.

Consider how people pay you

If your cash is coming from your customers, which it will be, consider the payment methods you offer and whether you can expand these. There are so many viable payment options available from Paypal, Venmo, Apple Pay or even Bitcoin. The more possibilities you have and the more convenient it is for customers to pay you the quicker you will receive your money and improve your cash flow.

Tips For Maintaining Your Customer’s Attention

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Arguably the most important part of any business is its marketing. A part of marketing is figuring out how to maintain your customer’s attention. The following contributed post is entitled, Tips For Maintaining Your Customer’s Attention.

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Maintaining the attention of your customers is super important so that they don’t lose interest. Non-interested customers will slowly hinder your business sales, which will decrease profits and make it harder to grow and expand your business. To make your business more effective and successful, it is important to engage your customers.

On that note, here are the best tips for maintaining your customer’s attention.

Inside Restaurant Bar – Free photo on Pixabay

Make an engaging website
If your business runs an online website, that it will need to be as engaging as possible to maintain the attention of your customers. If your business doesn’t have a website, then it will benefit your business to work with a website design team who will help to build your site. A business website will help your business be more discoverable, which will boost sales and success.

Your business website should be as responsive as possible, which will maintain the attention of your customers. Using an expert in the field will ensure that your website is easy to use and smooth so that your customers do not lose interest.

Fast responses
An effective way to keep your customers engaged is to respond to their comments and questions as fast as possible. Although it would be ideal to offer your customers immediate responses, sometimes it simply isn’t possible. Therefore, ensure to stay on top of your comments/queries so that you can turn around quick responses.

If you do want to try and increase your response time and offer more frequent immediate responses then it can help to build a live chat service on your website. During business hours, customers can contact you there and attain an immediate response to their query, which will keep them attentive and interested.

Never promise anything
You should avoid promising anything to your customers because if you fail to meet the expectations that you have set out for yourself, then you will lose your customer’s trust. Therefore, never hand out promises.

Instead, fulfilling your own expectations should be enough to satisfy your customers and keep them interested.

Get to know your customers
The more personal you are with your customers, the more engaged they will be. Simply knowing their name or their preferences will ensure that you can be friendly and create a relationship, which will keep them coming back to use your business.

Getting to know your customers will also mean that you can rely on them for regular and honest feedback. The more feedback you attain from your customers about your business, the more you can improve and ensure that you provide your customers with what they want.

Offer regular deals
Every customer will appreciate a good deal from time to time. Therefore, offering regular deals to your existing customers will make them feel appreciated and encourage them to keep shopping with you to attain more deals.

You could offer a reward scheme whereby you offer a free product for every ten purchases made. It will keep them interested and engaged with your business, which will maintain their loyalty.

Investment Tips Anyone Can Profit From

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A critical piece to winning with money is learning to invest. As with most things, there are numerous important aspects to learning to invest money. The following contributed post is entitled, Investment Tips Anyone Can Profit From.

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Whether you are new to investing, investing for yourself, or for your business, there are many avenues you can go down. Creating more wealth is a sensible life choice that offers you a lot more choice. How you choose to invest will play a huge role in how successful you are, and your choice is always going to be affected by your personal circumstances. So, when you look to invest, always be honest with yourself, invest only what you can afford to lose, and never get into an investment that you do not fully understand. Let’s have a look at a few options:

Image from Pixabay

Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency is still rising in popularity. In fact, more and more businesses are seeing this as a viable investment option and making investments this way. The rise in technology such as blockchain has made cryptocurrency easier than ever to use. There are also a lot more financial; institutions that can help you create an investment portfolio with cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency may well be the future of all online transitions, so this could be a very good long-term investment. However, there are risks, such as law changes and the volatility of cryptocurrencies. So, be careful.

The Stock Market
The Stock Market is a great way to invest, you can make money on the share price increasing, and you can make money in dividend payouts too. The short-term, high-risk investors may not be so interested in dividends as they are about making big returns on the stock increasing over a short period of time. Long-term investors may well be more interested in the dividend payouts than they are about huge increases in the share price value over the short term. Decide what kind of investor you are and choose something that suits your needs. Younger people may well be more inclined to take risks, whereas older people may find the less risky, pretty much sure thing dividend payout a more attractive option. It may well be worth your while speaking to a financial advisor such as Prio Wealth Management, who can advise you on the best form of investment for your situation.

Spread betting
Spread betting is another way you can make money off the stock market. Instead of buying and selling shares, you make informed bets on whether the value of a particular share will go up or down in a predefined period of time. If you have put in the work, this is less like gambling and more like educated betting.

Real Estate
Investing in real estate is a great thing for both the individual and the business to do. The buy to let market is always thriving, as is buying something as a project to do up and sell later. Property is currently on an upwards trend, and having a few properties in your portfolio can be a very business savvy choice. If you end up with enough properties, you can even create a property sideline or use a realtor to take control of the properties for you, so you can make money with minimal stress.