Category: Financial Literacy and Money

Business Leaders – Are You Wasting Time?

Some of the key focuses of my blog are: Financial Literacy, Money, Business and Entrepreneurship. A key aspect of any successful business is the efficient use of time. The following contributed post is thus titled; Business Leaders – Are You Wasting Time?

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Wasting time is the number one ‘no-no’ when it comes to anything to do with business life. We hear that ‘time is money,’ and that’s no accident. Any business leader, at least those successful the world over, will have mastered the art of effectively using their time. Honing your own personal schedule is all very well and good, but when looking at the larger picture, your business may be telling you something else entirely. If your business is wasting time, even in small ways, its inefficiency can build and build in its aggregate form.

It might take time to inspect and fully make effective, but a business concerned with improving its growth and optimizing it’s process will need to cut out the fat sooner or later. Here are the places you might look first:

Payroll

Your payroll department is often the last thing you’ll establish when you’re starting to grow your firm. This is because a certain amount of employees may not warrant a dedicated specialist to come in and handle these hours, it might be that the manager or the owner takes care of this. This task is unlikely going to be the only one undertaken by the person responsible in this case. While you must always dedicated the correct amount of time to this task lest you make mistakes that can cost the satisfaction of the employee you have impeded, you can always implement time-saving options to help you deliver your duties well.

For example, using a service to create a paystub can help you organize dedicated formatting efforts for your payroll, both calculating and providing proof of income and charges to your employees routinely and with predictable formatting. This can be very helpful if dealing with a team of variant roles and variant hours worked, as templates can be saved and you can adjust via hours, salary or any other payment criteria your business has setup. Payroll can often be the most intense and important consideration to get right, so taking out any human error and providing a uniform formatting option of proof can help the person responsible take care of this task appropriately each time.

Dead Weight

None of us enjoy having dead weight on our time. This is perhaps one of the easiest ways to reduce total staff motivation, waste money on salaries and have to conduct time and money into the cleanup that a faulty staff member will need to cover them. This means that inspecting your staff routinely to ensure they’re working hard as per reasonable standards, that they are paying attention to your policies and security/safety protocols, as well as ensuring they care about the end result of their work can help you identify anyone who isn’t pulling their weight, or who is willfully neglecting it. In certain industries such as hospitality and retail, this can be quite a common occurrence. With a skilled, reasonable and rational eye, you can decide to conduct training efforts, motivate that person further, or let that person go.

With these two simple tips, you can cut plenty of wasted time from your schedule, and the larger flow of your business.

Wonderful Changes That are Going to Improve Your Business Today

Some of the key focuses of my blog are: Financial Literacy, Money, Business and Entrepreneurship. Starting a business can be very challenging. Business owners constantly need to think about how grow and evolve their businesses in order to survive in constantly changing market conditions. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Wonderful Changes That are Going to Improve Your Business Today.

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It is really important to make sure you understand what is involved in the process of improving your business long-term. There are a lot of things that can play a role in taking the business to the next level, and you need to look at what you can do to improve. These days the business world is so competitive, and there are a lot of issues that can play a role in holding your business back, and you must think carefully about this.

Running a modern brand requires a lot of work and nurture these days, so you need to be careful and think hard about things. What can you do as a business owner to try to elevate your company above the competition and achieve success? Entrepreneurs so often focus on what they ARE doing and not what they SHOULD be doing. These are some of the excellent ways of improving your brand today.

Reinvent Yourself

Reinventing your business is absolutely essential in this day and age. It is something that needs to happen in order to help keep the company fresh, exciting, and ahead of the times. This is absolutely essential if you are looking at ways of bringing yourself more success. The company should be fresh, fun, and exciting, and this is an excellent way of achieving that. It’s also clear that business extension starts with reinvention, and this is something you have to make sure you put into practice.

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Get Closer to Your Customers

It is also so important in 2018 to try to get closer to your customers as much as you possibly can. They are the lifeblood of any company, and you can’t afford to be losing them to your rivals by not prioritizing them. So, the best thing to do here is to make sure you improve the way you approach your customers. As a business, you need to use things like UserIQ in order to try to get closer to your customers as well as getting a better handle on your management too.

Always be Financially Stable

A business can only achieve success if it has financial stability, and this is something that you need to focus on achieving as a company. That means you need to be sensible with what you are spending and how you are spending, and it also means you need to look at how you can become more financially stable as a business. This sometimes means recruiting investors or getting crowdfunding to help you take the business forward as well. Always having financial security will go a long way toward helping you remain a successful and stable business.

If you can follow some of the ideas in this post, you will be armed with some of the tools needed to make sure you are improving your business where you can. This is something you need to make sure you look at moving forward. Make changes that are going to improve and enhance your brand long-term, and understand what makes this so important.

Business Extension Starts With Reinvention

Some of the key focuses of my blog are: Financial Literacy, Money, Business and Entrepreneurship. A key to effectively doing business in today’s world is continuing to evolve in changing environments and readily addressing emerging challenges – in some instances re-branding. The following contributed post is entitled; Business Extension Starts With Reinvention.

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If you want your business to grow and expand then you need to be brave enough to reinvent it. Obviously, this doesn’t mean you should start from scratch. It just means that you shouldn’t cling to an old business plan if it isn’t relevant in today’s market. Too many companies fall into a steady decline because they’re unable to adapt to a changing industry and changing consumers. Your business needs to return to the drawing board and take some risks if it wants to push itself forwards. Business extension starts with reinvention, so this advice might help you with that.

Take a better approach to online marketing.
You might already have an online marketing strategy, but the internet is always evolving. And, as mentioned in the introduction, your business needs to adapt if it wants to keep up with the changing world. But you shouldn’t be a sheep. Following in the footsteps of your rivals isn’t going to help you increase your client base. Why would your target market choose you if you’re just offering the same thing as every other business? You need an online marketing strategy that helps you to stand out.

SEO is important, but climbing to the top of search engines will only help you to increase traffic (potentially). The real secret to expanding your business’ client base is to turn website visitors into paying customers. If you struggle to turn traffic into sales then you might want to seek help from a conversion rate optimisation agency. If you can understand what customers like to see on business websites then you’ll stand a better chance of reeling them in. It might involve completely overhauling your existing website, but (as is the theme of this article) business extension starts with reinvention.

Make some new investments.
If you’re often hesitant to make any new investments in your business then you’re going to quickly fall behind the competition. You need to take some risks that could push your business in the right direction because the risk of doing nothing is that the market will quickly lose interest in you (and that’s the wrong direction). Invest in new employees to give your business fresh ideas; invest in a new branch to help target markets in new locations; invest in better resources so that you can speed up the work process. You need to spend money to make money, as stereotypical as that is to say. Even if you fail, you learn from every mistake you make. You can only create a successful business by learning which routes to take and which routes not to take.

Be more creative with your customer service.
This isn’t to say that your customer service is bad, but forming a unique relationship with your clients might help you to stand out from the crowd. The better your customer service, the better your reviews will be, and this will help you to build a reputation that increases your client base. More importantly, you’ll be able to secure long-term clients if you treat each customer well. You could make an impact by giving away vouchers and freebies to customers as a way of showing them that they matter to your company. You could even start a referral scheme to try to encourage word-of-mouth marketing; that would definitely help to expand your business quickly.

5 Ways You Didn’t Know Your Credit Rating Would Affect Your Life

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money. Building and maintaining a strong credit rating can significantly affect one’s financial health and open certain doors and opportunities. The opposite is also true. The following contributed post is entitled; 5 Ways You Didn’t Know Your Credit Rating Would Affect Your Life.

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Ah, credit rating. You have probably heard the term in financial circles when dealing with mortgage applications and cars, but your credit rating can have a huge impact on your life – even when you didn’t realise it. Most people don’t tend to concern themselves with their credit rating – particularly young adults, who believe that a credit rating is something for homeowners and richy rich people to worry about.

Credit can have an effect on the way that you do everything. If you choose to go back to school, for example, you may need a finance loan to help you to pay for your living expenses. If your credit isn’t great, you could find yourself instead turned down for mainstream finance and turning towards loans for bad credit instead. This is a good way to start building your credit from the poor to the good, but it’s not always that simple for everyone. So, with all of that in mind, how DOES your credit rating affect your life?

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Buying Property
It’s an obvious one, but you will find it very difficult to be approved for a mortgage if you have debt on your credit file. You need to clear the debt on the file to start improving your credit rating, otherwise you could find yourself with a very high interest mortgage instead of one you can actually afford.

Owning A Business
If you are aiming to own a small business, credit can really affect your ability to ensure that your business can stay afloat. You may not be the sort of business that needs external funding to start with, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t need it later. Personal bad credit can affect your business credit.

Getting A Phone
No one can live without a smartphone these days, well, you could but it’s not the norm anymore. The thing is, electrical items like this are never usually bought outright; they’re bought on finance. If you don’t have the right credit rating, you can be turned away from getting that contract.

Utility Bills
You need to access water, electricity and gas. If your credit rating is poor, there is a chance that you could be put onto special metres for your payments because the companies would see you as not being trusted enough to pay those bills on time. These metres are often higher in cost to run. Good credit can save you cash every month.

Property Interest Rates
The amount of interest that you can secure on your mortgage is directly linked to your credit rating. So, we mentioned earlier about having trouble buying a property, but if you manage to secure finance, your credit rating can push that interest rate right up.

The key to your credit rating is to work out how to pay off the debts that you owe and gently start improving the rating that you have. Once you start to do this, you can rebuild your credit with a bad credit loan and make efficient payments to prove you can do it.

Old School And New Approaches: Essentials For Running A Store In The Modern World

Some of the key focuses of my blog are: Financial Literacy, Wealth Building, Business and Entrepreneurship. Doing business has changed significantly in today’s digital/information age. Many ‘brick and mortar’ retail stores have folded altogether, while others have had to rethink their business models in order to survive. What are the keys to running store in the modern world? The following contributed post is entitled; Old School And New Approaches: Essentials For Running A Store In The Modern World.

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There are two schools of thought when it comes to setting up a retail store in the modern world. Firstly, you may find that your target audience doesn’t physically go shopping, but prefer to go online. But, conversely, the demand for a physical store in recent years has seen a rise. And if you are selling products of various types, the temptation could be to go via an online marketplace, but you could find that you are neglecting certain parts of your target market. But, are there things we can do to harness the online capabilities with the offline capabilities in a physical setting?

Implementing The Quick Checkout Service
The best way to marry the fast checkout service of an online store with the personal approach to the modern retail store is to have online payment services inside the store. The vast majority of stores have self-service methods to pay now, as well as various ways in which to provide payment, such as through your cell phone. But in addition to this, you need to still implement a personal approach to your customers, and this can be quite tricky to get right because it depends on each individual customer. At the end of the day, the customers come into a physical store because they want ease of access to a product, and they want to see it themselves. So, as soon as they find that the product suits their needs, they want to be able to pay for it without lengthy queues. On the other hand, others still prefer that old school approach. Implementing both covers all bases.

Taking Responsibility For Your Customers
And as the physical setting requires a lot more consideration in relation to health and safety, this means that you have a few more things to consider in comparison to an online store. Whether this is employers liability insurance just in case of accidents in your store, or ensuring there’s enough space for your customers to walk around, this is a deft combination of legal compliance with common sense. Taking responsibility for your customers isn’t just relating to the safety side of things, but also ensuring they have a good experience in your store, and this boils down to how your employees interact with the customers.

Looking After Your Workers
A very easy thing to overlook nowadays is the impact that your workers can have on the customers. Because personal interaction is at an all-time low, with the reliance of the internet to do the vast majority of our work for us, the personal touch is a very difficult thing to achieve. This is why you have to work with your employees to ensure that they are not just representing your store properly, but they have the common courtesy that we demand as customers. But in addition to this, the retail industry is notoriously underpaid and overworked, which this is something else you have to think about when it comes to making your employees work effectively for you, but that they’re also happy in the position.

The best retail store is a component of the old school personal methods, with the modern technological approaches. It’s a tricky balance, but they are both essential in the modern retail store.

Could You Be Making It Easier For Your Employees? Here’s What To Think About

Some of the key focuses of my blog are: Financial Literacy, Wealth Building, Business and Entrepreneurship. A key to effectively doing business in today’s world is creating the best possible work environment for your employees. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Could You Be Making It Easier For Your Employees? Here’s What To Think About.

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When it comes to running your business often as you start to expand, you get to the point where you may end up having employees working for you. However, if you do end up having employees working for you, then you may want to ensure that you do what you can keep them happy. After all, happy employees means a happy and productive business workforce. So what can you do to make things easy? I thought I would help you by sharing some of the things your and your business could do.

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Making the working environment comfortable

One of the first things you may want to think about is the working environment that you have for your staff and whether or not you feel that it is comfortable. There are things that you can do to ensure this. First off, thank about their workstation and seating, their desk and where they are positioned. You may want to think about room temperature, not too hot out too cold especially on hot and cold days outside. You may also want to think about the facilities you have in place, such as drinking water, places to store food and drink for lunch breaks and lastly whether there is outside space for fresh air. These things can make life easier on your employee in terms of how they feel in work.

Making the work levels simpler for your employees

There are things that you may want to think about internally to help simplify the workload that you have for your employees. Such as document management. After all, there is a likelihood that there will be a lot of documents passing through your business. Things like invoices and receipts, contracts and signed papers, and a software system to manage them may help matters. This is when looking into websites like https://www.templafy.com/document-management-software/ could really help you out.

Keeping your staff and employees safe

When you have staff and employees working for you, you have a responsibility to ensure that you keep them safe. So you may want to think about how you can do that as an employer. Things like having a decent health and safety p-solicit in place is probably a good place to start. Regular rose assessments and ensuring things are checked over is a great way to do this. It can often be the simple things such as this, that can have employees feeling valued and respected while they are in the working environment. Having a policy booklet on hand can also help ensure that everyone is aware of the policies your business has in place.

Being approachable as a boss

Finally, being approachable as a boss is a crucial to ensuring that you can keep things going. Your employees will need to feel comfortable talking to you about things such as their career development, but also feel comfortable and confident enough to talk to you about personal issues that may involve them having time off etc. Being approachable is something you may need to work on, but it could help ensure that you do right by your employees and your business. Articles such as https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141008154953-152548954-6-steps could help you do this better.

I hope that these tips help you make things easier for your employees.

Finding Your Target Audience

Some of the key focuses of my blog are: Financial Literacy, Wealth Building, Business and Entrepreneurship. A major key to succeeding in the business world is understanding your target audience and clientele base. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Finding Your Target Audience.

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When it comes to creating a marketing strategy for your company, one of the things you will want to think about is finding the right people to market your business towards. There is no point for example trying to market a teen fashion brand to people in their 50s and visa versa. In order to get your name out into the world and be as successful as you can in your business you need to make sure to find the right audience and target all of your marketing to them.

Business or Consumer?

The first and easiest question you can ask yourself to narrow down your market is whether you are aiming to sell to businesses or consumers. Both b2c and b2b sales have their own style of marketing and you will notice that B2B companies will often be more formal with their work than B2C because it is seen as more appropriate. Make sure you know which one you are going to choose for your business and this will have a big impact on the type of content and the tone of voice you use later on.

Age and Gender?

One of the biggest things you will need to consider when looking for your ideal target audience is their age and their gender. Let’s say for example that you plan to sell birth control products or sanitary products. You can’t focus your marketing towards men because this wouldn’t make any sense, and similarly you wouldn’t target it to women who are under the age of 13 or over the age of 60. Make sure you understand how your product or service is going to fit into people’s lives and how you can put across your point in a clear and interesting way.

Hobbies and Interests

One of the other things you can bring into your decision as far as your target audience goes is their hobbies and interests. With sites like google analytics you can monitor what your audience is interested in and this allows you to use their hobbies as part of your marketing campaign. For example let’s say you are a food company and you often share recipes on social media to demonstrate your cookware. You might notice that a lot of the people who follow you and engage with your brand also enjoy Game Of Thrones. Here is the ideal opportunity for you to create some Game Of Thrones style video content such as a recipe for Arya Stark’s Pie, Daenerys’ dragon eggs or the beer which the nightwatch drink at the wall. Think of being relevant and make sure that you can interact with your audience on a meaningful level.

Who will value the product?

When you are trying to gain an insight into who will use your products, think about what everyday problem your product solves. If you are selling a bathroom cleaning product which can make the job much easier, to won’t be targeting this towards teenagers. You would instead be targeting it for new homeowners and anyone who stays at home for work or runs their home full time. Really sit down and think about what your product does, what value it will add to your customers lives, and who would appreciate it the most. This will allow you to narrow down your audience easily to find the ideal one for you.

Choosing Social Media Platforms

When it comes to finalising your target audience and narrowing down the field of who you will market towards going forward, the main way you can do this is to choose a social media platform which fits in with the customers you are looking to target. For example, if you are a fashion brand looking to target women between the ages of 18-30, the best social media site for you would be Instagram, because most of Instagram users fall into this demographic. Think about what social media accounts will suit the type of content you share and who exactly you need to reach out to.

Creating great content

Now that you have chosen your target audience and you are set up on social media, you need to start making content to draw them in. People are visual beings and video content is becoming more and more popular on platforms outside YouTube. If you are struggling to know what kind of content you should create, you can always take a look at your competitors and see what kind of things that they are doing. This can be a huge help and it will give you the inspiration and ability to get out there and reel in your customers.

Healthcare Business Ideas You Can Set Up Yourself

Some of the key focuses of my blog are: Financial Literacy, Wealth Building, and Business and Entrepreneurship. It is predicted that there will be a lot of opportunities for growth in the Healthcare industry. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Healthcare Business Ideas You Can Set Up Yourself.

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If you are looking for a business idea which makes a big difference to people’s lives, you need look no further than setting up a healthcare company. With a rising and ageing population, there is always going to be a demand for a wide range of products and services directly related to people’s health and wellbeing. There is also more of a widespread focus on health and wellness than there has ever been before. However, you may feel like you need a bit of focus when it comes to what sort of healthcare business you would like to establish. To give you a helping hand, here is some inspiration in this regard, here are some possible ideas about the type of company that you could set up.

Home Healthcare Service

Nowadays, there is a greater and greater strain being put on hospitals. And as beds continue to fill up, there is a call for more healthcare at home to pick up the slack. Just some of the types of people who could utilise home healthcare include those recently discharged from hospital, senior citizens, and those in regular need of personal support. Of course, you will need to have all the proper skills and qualifications, as well as equipment like a portable ultrasound machine for sale. With all of this, you could have a very rewarding business concept on your hands.

Medical Records Management/Admin Business

One of the main problems which many medical professionals have is trying to keep up with the mountain of paperwork which regularly comes their way. You could help to alleviate this issue by setting up your own medical records management and administration business. Of course, you will need to have a high level of organisational skills and a keen eye for details to make a success of this particular venture.

Physical or Occupational Therapy Centre

Another area of medicine which comes in for high demand these days is physical or occupational therapy. Pursue this particular business path and you can play a central role in helping patients recover from their injuries, regain a full range of the motions which they had before, and perform some of the tasks involved in daily living. Again, you are going to need to have the correct certification and qualifications in order to pursue a business of this variety.

Nutritionist or Dietician Business

A lot of people are highly concerned with what they are putting in their bodies these days, and if you are one of these people, you could start your own business as a nutritionist or dietician. Since this is becoming a more complex field these days, you could even specialise further to focus on an area such as sports nutrition, weight loss or something else.

As we mentioned at the start, healthcare is always going to be a field which requires dedicated people working to improve it through innovative businesses, and these are just some of the business types which you could set up yourself.

How To Beat The High Co$t of Living

Two major focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, and Wealth Building. A key part of both of these areas is budgeting, planning and controlling costs. The following contributed post is thus entitled; How To Beat The High Co$t of Living.

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Another day, another bill. Another day, another dip in the bank balance. Another day, another moment when you wonder how you are going to cope with the rise in energy prices, bank charges, insurance costs, and more.

Rather than confront another day like yesterday, we wouldn’t be surprised if you huddled under your duvet in the morning, fearful of losing yet more money simply by going about your daily life.

Don’t despair! It is possible to beat the high cost of living, but you are going to have to work at it. You can put the ideas we give you in this article into your five-year plan, or better yet, your yearly planner. You see, you don’t have to let the financial aspects of your life get on top of you.

For starters, quit those bad habits that are eating away at your monthly income. Not only will you have more money in your pocket, but you will feel better as well. We are thinking of smoking and drinking alcohol, two expensive habits that are harmful to your health. We are thinking about watching too much tv; despite the many wonderful things to watch (and the utter drivel), you will save on your electricity bill if you spend time doing other things, such as (dare we say it), exercise! And quit your spending addiction. If you’re forever buying things you don’t need, then it’s little wonder you have no money for the essentials in your life. Put that credit card away!

Don’t let your utility companies take more money than they should. They are forever putting their prices up, but you are in your right to ditch them. You can get the same gas and electricity from another supplier, so use a price comparison service to find a cheaper deal. After switching, instill good habits around the home to make further energy savings. We have already told you to stop watching so much tv, but there are further ways to save money. Ensure your family are up to speed with your energy-saving habits as well, because as you know, they can often be responsible for draining your bank account!

Cut down the cost of driving too. For starters, don’t use your car if you are only travelling short distances. Why waste money on fuel when you can save money (and feel healthier) by using your two legs. As with your utility companies, use a price comparison site to save on your insurance. We use this site, https://cheapautoinsurance.co, but there are there are plenty of others available. Then practice safe driving. You see, the less reckless you are on the road, the less likely you are to do damage to your vehicle, and the less likely you are to pay out on huge maintenance bills. Driving safely saves money on fuel too!

Don’t let your bank take you for a ride. If they are charging you monthly fees just for having an account with them, it’s hardly fair! As with some of the other things on this list, you can do yourself a favour by ditching those banks who are inflicting damage on your account and transferring to another. You should be able to find lower rates and fees, and may even get rewarded for making the switch too. Check out this banking guide as a way to make the most of your money.

You can beat the high cost of living by making changes in your life, and by doing your homework into finding cheaper alternatives to the people who take your money away from you. So, don’t delay, start to make savings today, and continue to practice good habits and price comparisons in the months and years to come. It does make perfect financial sense, after all!

 

 

Your Five-Year Plan

Two of the principles of my blog are “Creating Ecosystems of Success” and “Long-Term Thinking and Delayed Gratification”. A key to being successful is looking into the future, setting goals and planning the steps towards achieving those goals. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Your Five-Year Plan.

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Do you often find yourself just going through the motions of your life, without any clear goals or targets? Just living life day to day, without purpose or focus? Many of us do. Then, a few years down the line, we look back at what we’ve achieved and find that nothing has changed. We still have debts, we still live in the same place, our relationship hasn’t developed or grown, we’re no closer to getting what we really want from our life, and our career has stalled.

Well, this happens when we don’t have a plan. You’re never going to hit your goals if you don’t have any. You get one life, you should be making the most of it. A five-year master plan can help you to do this. Five years is a great period of time. A lot can change in five years. Think about who you were five years ago, what you enjoyed doing, who your friends were. Now, look at your life today. In five years, we grow, we change, we start to enjoy different things, we meet a lot of people. You might eat differently, look after yourself more or less, and even go to bed at a different time. Five years is long enough to make massive changes and achieve a lot, but not too long that you can’t look ahead with focus and determination. So, here’s a look at how to create a five-year master plan to help you to develop and get what you want from life, as well as some ideas of things that you should include.

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The Benefits of a Five-Year Plan

If you are the kind of person that just lives day to day, you might not see the point of a five-year plan. But, it can have some definite benefits. It gives you focus. Instead of a general idea of what you want to do with your life, you’ll have clear and well-defined goals for all areas. Five-years means that you’ve still got time to be spontaneous and do what you want, as long as you get back to your plan and continue working towards your aims. It also helps you to prioritize, to stay on track, to keep motivated and to say no to things that would take you off course.

Merely sitting down and writing goals forces you to think about what you want and reflect on your choices so far. You are also statistically more likely to achieve things if you’ve written them down. Something about writing down a target makes it real and gives you a greater focus to achieve it.

How to Create One

Sit down and think about your life so far. Think about what your dreams were when you were younger, and if you still want the same things now. Then, write yourself a Wishlist. Think of your ultimate goals and dreams, no matter how outlandish they might seem. Write them all down. Even those that might take longer than five years to achieve.

Then, ask yourself why you want these things? Will hitting these goals make you happy or improve your quality of life? Try to picture your life if you reach these targets? Take some time to imagine your ideal life. Now, look at your list again, do you need to add or remove anything?

Now you’ve got the what’s and the why’s. It’s time to think about the how’s. This is potentially the most crucial part of your master plan. Without plans, your goals are vague and unreachable. Ask yourself what you can do to meet your targets, or to get significantly closer to them. Write these down too. Now, let’s take a look at some of the things that you might want to include.

Money

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Money is often a big part of our future plans, and your goals might depend heavily on your current financial situation and what you want from your future. If you need to borrow to help you achieve other goals, this is the website to help. If you need to save, or pay off debts, work out how much you need to save each year.

You might have something specific that you’d like to achieve financially, perhaps saving enough to start a business, or to buy a house. Or, you might want to improve your credit score and pay off your debts. Five years is long enough to make massive changes to your financial situation. Think about your goals and take the time to make a household budget to match.

Relationships

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Your relationships will also depend on where you are now and what you want in the future. If you are in a relationship, marriage and children might be in your near future. If not, you might want to think about meeting the right person and starting down the road to settling down.

Wherever you are romantically, there will be other relationships that you need to nurture. Make giving your friendships plenty of love and attention a goal. You might also want to rekindle old relationships, mend family feuds or meet new friends and expand your circle.

Career

Your career is a big one. Getting your career right can improve your financial situation and allow you to take more time for your relationships. Do you have any burning ambitions? Do you want to start your own business, or would you like to dive into a career change? If you are happy where you are now, you might just want to aim for a promotion or try to learn more about your industry to become more confident at work.

Health and Fitness

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Our health is something we often neglect when making plans for the future. Especially when we are young and healthy. But, it shouldn’t be. Your health and fitness are essential to a happy and long life. But, your goals don’t need to be huge. They might just be to carry on what you are doing or to make small improvements to your diet. Think about small, realistic changes that you can make that will improve your health and fitness.

Break it Down

Now you’ve got your five-year targets, you should think about breaking them down. A five-year master plan is fantastic, but it can be hard to stay focused when something is so far away. So, break it down and make plans for the year ahead. Thin about what you can do in the next 12 months to help you to reach your goals.