Financial Literacy and Money – Page 134

Super Simple Ways To Free Up More Money

A key focus of my blog is Financial Literacy/Money. A key aspect of Financial Literacy is understanding how to manage and minimize expenses. Decreasing your personal expenses is in a lot of ways similar to giving yourself a raise. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Super Simple Ways To Free Up More Money.

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Freeing up money in your life might sound like something you want to do, but you’re not sure where to begin. We’re here to tell you that there are probably numerous ways you haven’t even considered that will help you to free up more money! However, there’s one thing you need to do first: take a look at your relationship with money and figure out how you really feel about it. Many people like money, but they feel guilty or ashamed of wanting more of it. Some people openly admit that they don’t like money at all. If this is the case for you, how can you expect to have and keep more of it? It just won’t happen. Get yourself into a place where you can appreciate money and feel good about having it, and then start working on ways to free up money in your life. You’ll get far better results.

Now you’ve done that, read on for more suggestions!

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Switch Utility Suppliers
If you haven’t switched up your utility suppliers in years like many homeowners, now is the time to have a look and see if you could be getting a better deal elsewhere. Chances are, you’ve been paying far more than necessary for some time now! Check online for a better deal, then call your current suppliers and see if they will match or beat what you’ve found. If you do end up switching, the suppliers do all of the work for you!

Downgrade Your Phone
Do you really need the latest phone? There’s only so much we really need to do with them, and we spend a lot of time on them as it is – taking away from what’s truly important! Downgrading your phone could save you money and give you more time with the people you love.

Sell Items That Are A Big Drain On Your Finances
Take a look around your house and sell items you no longer use. Better yet, sell items that are a big drain on your finances. If you have a motorcycle that is mostly for show, you could sell it with the American Motorcycle Trading Company. Do you really want to keep the bike, keep the fuel topped up, pay for insurance and other maintenance costs, when you only really use it every now and again?

Shop At A Different Store And Always Take A List
Stop shopping at expensive stores when you can get the same items at a much lower price from a discounted store. Always take a list with you too, and never go hungry. You’ll save a fortune.

Track Every Expense
Track your expenses so you can see where your spending habits can be improved. You might be surprised at where a lot of your money is going.

Always Look For a Coupon Or Cashback
Never shop without looking for a coupon or using a cashback site. You could be wasting a ton of money – there are even apps to apply coupon codes for you these days!

Simple Ideas. Big Money

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you’re thinking about starting a new venture, it’s important to know what simple ideas you can you use to generate extra cashflow. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Simple Ideas. Big Money.

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Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that seem to make us happy. The things that we just can’t take our minds off, and the things that as soon as we think about them, we smile. But when it comes to business, the thought of a simple thing is few and far between. It would seem that pretty much everything is related to stress and confusion. Arguably, the time when this is at its highest is when we’re thinking of the idea to begin with. All your mind can think about is what might be involved with the process, how you can make more money, and all of the things that could possibly go wrong. So, what if we were to give you some simple ideas, that would make some big money. Ideas that wouldn’t require you to do much, but that you would get a lot out of? Well, you’ve come to the right place, because that’s exactly what we’re going to do for you!

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Farming Ideas

Ok, so this one is a little out of the box, and one that we think you might not have thought of before. But, if you were to go into the agricultural industry, you really could be set for life. Farming is not only fun, but highly profitable if you produce good quality produce that people are after. The main expenses you will have will come from your equipment, and the expenses of caring for any animals. You will need tractors, and you will need a lot of red diesel, which can easily be sourced from the internet as to save money. Once you figure out all of the logistics of how to rear animals, plant good quality produce, and maintain it all, you just need to figure out your sales points. Where is the best place to start? Farmers markets. It’s the easiest place to sell the produce, and you can easily make a name for yourself over the years. Enter competitions, grow a following, and reach out to supermarkets. Before you know it you could be a worldwide brand!

Food Ideas

Sticking to a good theme still, but being slightly different in terms of what you can do. If you’re thinking of setting up a food business, you have to consider the lucrative idea of going into the restaurant business. But don’t just set up your average pub, you need to go for something hip and interesting. One idea that we think will really capture the eyes of people is a healthy eating establishment. Put it next to the gym, and make your menu one that just can’t be beat in terms of creativity, and you should always be able to bring in the money. It has to be creative though, the funkier your make literally everything, the better you’re going to become.

Activity Based Ideas

Some people like to be active, some don’t, but who says this idea is out to encourage everyone to get sporty? This ideas is funky, as we’re going to suggest opening up your own indoor inflatable course. Adults and children could be catered for if you made it big enough, and it is so unique that people will always want to be a part of it. Definitely an idea worth doing if you’d like something easy to manage, and easy to maintain. You’d just have to make sure you’re highly focused on health and safety here.

Wide Load: Selling Large & Impractical Products Online

Two key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Some businesses sell large products that don’t ship easily, and there are special considerations for these types of ventures. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Wide Load: Selling Large & Impractical Products.

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For a lot of businesses, being able to sell products online has made life much easier over the last few years. Without having to start a normal store, this process is a whole lot cheaper than it used to be, and this has opened the doors for loads of companies to get started. Of course, though, when your products are very large or hard to handle, the online trend can start to become a hindrance. You have no choice but to sell online, but will face challenges which simply don’t come with smaller products. To help with this, this post will be exploring some of the best ways to solve these issues before you get started.

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Communicating Size: Simply giving customers the measurements for your products won’t often be enough when it comes to showing them the size of your goods. People will feel worried about buying something which they aren’t sure if they have room for, though, making it important to look for new ways to convey the size of your goods. One of the best ways to achieve this is through photography. As long as you have a common item in the shot, like a magazine, it will be easy for your customers to tell the size of the piece you’re selling. This trick may sound simple, but it can have a huge positive impact on your sales.

Storing Goods: When a business is selling small products, storing a couple of boxes is usually all they will need to keep a good inventory available to their customers. Larger products will make this very hard, though. To solve this issue, having a slightly longer delivery time quite be well worth it, giving you the chance to either make or order in the products as you need them. While this may stop some people from buying, it will be significantly cheaper than paying for a warehouse to keep goods which may not sell.

Shipping Orders: Getting orders out into the world is another challenge which large product sellers will often face. Normal delivery companies won’t be able to help you, as their vehicles simply won’t be big enough. To save looking for this company and that, there are loads of marketplaces around the web for those who need to buy large item delivery, making it significantly easier to get goods out of the door. Not a lot of people know about this sort of service, leaving them to pay for private companies to do all of their shipping. This can cost a small fortune, and won’t often enable you to handle more than a single order at a time.

With all of this in mind, you should be feeling ready to get started on the process of selling large goods. While a task like this may be a challenge, there will always be ways to overcome it, making your life as a business owner much easier. Of course, though, you will need to do plenty of research, and you may even have to talk to a couple of companies along the way.

What Makes Business Computing Such A Challenge

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A key to operating most businesses today is keeping your Information Technology systems running optimally. The title of this contributed post is thus entitled; What Makes Business Computing Such A Challenge.

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It’s no secret that a lot of businesses struggle when it comes to the computers they have to use each day. These machines are the subject of a lot of frustration within a lot of companies, making it hard for people to do their jobs, while also presenting challenges which a lot of business owners never expected to face. Not a lot of people understand what makes these machines such a chore, though. Instead, they will simply harbour a dislike for them, often making it even harder to get to grips with the tasks they need to perform with them. What exactly makes this field so difficult, then?

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Unfortunately, while modern schools are often including computing in their standard work rotations, this wasn’t the case just a few years ago. People would go through education learning about all sorts of useful life skills, but would only use computers for tasks which related to other subjects, halting their chances to learn about the devices properly. As a result, a huge portion of the working population finds it hard to use computers. Even those who have to use them everyday will often only learn what they have to, leaving them to struggle when something happens which they don’t expect.

Of course, though, you don’t always have to wait for something to go wrong for a machine like this to throw you through a loop, as the software systems which businesses tend to use are always changing. Developers will rarely consider the impact an update will have on their wider user base. Instead, when they release something like this, it can often take weeks or even months for guides to be made which will teach you what you need to do. This presents more learning, along with forcing a lot of organisations to use IT consulting services just to figure out which versions they should be using. This makes it very hard for people to learn how to use software, especially when they already find it hard to use a computer.

On top of all of this, computers are generally seen as boring machines. People don’t want to dedicate themselves to learning something which they don’t enjoy, even if it is part of their job. This is a real issue, but most people won’t even notice it happening, as it simply makes the learning process a little bit harder. To solve this issue, companies have to work hard to create training programs which can actually engage their employees. Even if it means using tools like social media for context, it will be worth looking for creative ways to handle this task, as people won’t be willing to do it for themselves.

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In reality, most of the trouble which computers can cause for a company will be down to the users themselves. These machines will rarely go wrong without cause, and will be impossible to operate properly without the right learning, making it crucial that you take the right steps when it comes to conquering this challenge once and for all.

Protecting Your Business From The People Within

Two key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When running any business, it’s important to hire staff you can trust to the best of your abilities, and also protecting your operations from your employees if necessary. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Protecting Your Business From The People Within.

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Hiring people should always mean that you’re able to trust those inside your business. When you’re paying someone to work for you, you should be able to expect their loyalty, even if things go a little bit wrong. Of course, though, this isn’t always the case, and a lot of businesses have been impacting by their employees in the past. To keep your company safe, this post will be exploring some of the measures which can be taken to make sure that your team is always on your side. This sort of effort is worth it in organisations of any size, even if they are very small.

Monitoring: While keeping an eye on people may seem a little sneaky, it’s not such a big problem when you’re paying for their time. A lot of companies monitor areas like search histories, room used by employees, and even the activities people get involved with outside of work. Taking this approach is nice and easy in the modern world, with loads of tools available to make sure that you can achieve this goal without making your employees feel like they’re being watched all the time.

Security: Information within a business should always be kept on a strictly need-to-know basis. If someone doesn’t need access to a set of files, they shouldn’t have access to it, as this helps to improve security by a huge degree. Likewise, when it comes to items which need to be physically protected, locks and safes can be very useful. It’s amazing what people will steal when they have the chance, even when they’re being paid by the victim they’re making.

Strict Policy: A lot of companies struggle to keep their employees in line because they simply don’t try hard enough. It will be easy for your team to be lazy with their work if there aren’t policies in place for targets, discipline, and reporting bad behaviour, making it crucial that you work to put them in place. To make sure that you can enforce this, a lot of companies use shift managers to keep people working as they should be.

Legal Support: As the last area to consider, it’s time to think about what could go really wrong for your business. When you hire someone, you take on a set of responsibilities which you have to fulfill. Failing to do so could result in being taken to court, forcing you to get help from a company like Ogletree Deakins to fight your corner for you. By following the rules and doing things by the books, you should be able to avoid this sort of issue, even if someone is hell bent on trying to take you for everything you’re worth.

With all of this in mind, you should be feeling ready to start putting protection in place for the inner workings of your business. A lot of people struggle with this sort of work, finding it hard to know exactly what they need to do when they want to keep their company safe and secure.

Where And When To Outsource Your Solutions

Two key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When running any business, it’s important to know what tasks you can effectively perform on your own, and when the need arises to outsource those tasks. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Where And When To Outsource Your Solutions.

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Outsourcing provides you with the option of giving some of the work that your business is responsible for to a third-party company. There are companies that can help you outsource all kinds of work, but it’s an option that needs to be used responsibly. It can help get rid of monotonous tasks and implement expert knowledge in the business but if it’s overused, it can cost a lot more than simply hiring someone. Here, we’re going to look at when it’s a good idea to outsource and some of the risks of doing it poorly.

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When you’re not ready for full-time employees
A common reason to outsource is that you have more work and duties than your current team can handle. Why wouldn’t you simply take on some employees? The biggest reason to go with outsourcing instead is that there isn’t quite enough suitable work to justify a full-time role in the business. In that case, the process of recruiting and training an employee so that they can spend most of their time doing nothing can be much less cost-effective than simply relying on a service that you can call on whenever you need it. Outsourcing is scalable to your needs, but a full-time employee might not have that flexibility.

When it makes your business more efficient
There are services that can help you work on the business from a bird’s eye perspective, creating the structure and tools that allows your team to become a lot more productive and efficient. Many business consultants do exactly that, helping business owners strategize certain teams, processes, and systems that the rest of the team uses. The most common form in today’s tech-fueled environment is IT consulting for businesses. You might not necessarily need a full internal IT team if your business isn’t big enough, but consultants can make sure that you have the right tech systems in place, as well as providing repair and maintenance when it’s needed.

When you need real expert insight
There are a lot of tasks you might not need to do quite as often, but when you do, you really need expert input on how to do it right. For instance, there is a lot you and your team can learn to handle in marketing, from content marketing to social media networking. When it comes to website design, however, you need someone with specific experience and expertise in that field. When it comes to parts of the business that have legal implications, it’s best not to go it alone, too. For instance, hiring a business accountant when the tax season rolls around, and you want to avoid getting audited as best as you possibly can. Outsourcing allows you to temporarily tap into a much broader network of expertise that you might not necessarily need on your team, but you definitely need on your side.

Outsourcing can really help you unlock the productivity of your team and benefit from reals experts that you might not have room for on your internal team. Make sure that you’re following the tips above to outsource in a way that promotes the growth of your business rather than stifling it.

A look at the Law of Compounding Interest and why you should care

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“Compounding Interest is the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it!”

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Note. Like my Net Worth piece, the subject matter of this blog post is not new. It has been known for years by those who’ve learned about it in their families, learned about its concepts in business school, or who have discovered it on their own. It’s a discussion from my personal perspective which I think is worth visiting. Also, while this is a ‘money’ topic, I’m discussing it from a ‘scholarly’ perspective. I’m not rendering financial advice where I’m telling readers what they should do. In the spirit of the first principle of my blog, Creating Ecosystems of Success, I’m simply introducing a concept and discussing why it’s important for the lay person, so they can make their own life choices.

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“Because we’re getting our Ph.D.s and we’re in school for so long, we won’t start making our money until much later,” my lab mate and senior graduate student Damon adamantly said. “When you save and invest your money, it doubles about every 10 years, and we’re missing out on the ‘doubling cycles’! The classmates I attended Colgate University with, who’ve already gotten out and started working, are already seeing their money double!”

To start this off with some humor, coming from the eastside of Buffalo, anyone named Damon I’d ever met up to that point was black, but this Damon was of Greek descent. Damon was a very smart, opinionated and short-tempered guy. He was also knowledgeable on numerous topics: current events, politics, and economics, and I loved talking with him while in our research lab as I always learned something.

Damon introduced me to one of my current heroes, Dr. Thomas Sowell and let me borrow his copy of Inside American Education, which Dr. Sowell wrote. I didn’t know it, but that day while our Pharmacology experiments ran, Damon gave me my first lesson ever on the “Law of Compounding Interest”. I was in my late 20s, and similar to my learning about the ‘Net Worth’ and a ‘Matching Contribution’ concepts, it was late in the game, but still much earlier than many people learned about it. So, let’s talk about the Law of Compounding Interest and why we should all care.

As opposed to trying to piece together an explanation of Compounding Interest myself, I’m going to simply reference the book How To Turn $100 Into $1,000,000 which I referred to in my post entitled, Challenging misconceptions and stereotypes in class, household income, wealth and privilege. In that story I talked about how my mentor challenged me to read what appeared to be a children’s book. While it is written for children, the book contains lots of valuable information that many adults don’t have a handle on – even those in their 40s and beyond. Since reading the book I’ve consequently given copies to my younger cousins and other youngsters in my circle to give them the chances I didn’t have. You should too!

Before discussing the Law of Compounding Interest, I’m going to jump ahead to Chapter 9: Investing, because for the sake of this post, it needs to be introduced first. According to Chapter 9, investing is defined as, “Putting your money into something that can potentially make you more money.” There are likewise lots of investment classes out there: stocks, real estate, and businesses of all kinds.

Coincidentally, the same buddy I discussed in my post entitled, We should’ve bought Facebook and Bitcoin Stock, recently approached all of us, looking for ‘investors’ because he wants to start his own Amazon store – a ‘speculative’ investment. When you think about the Law of Compounding Interest though, you want to think about putting your money in places where it will steadily ‘appreciate’ over time – someplace safe where you’d place your retirement savings for example (discussed below).

Two important concepts to understand here are ‘Principal’ and ‘Interest’. Financially, Chapter 8 assumes readers understand the meanings of Principal and Interest in the context of getting a ‘Return on Investment’ (ROI), as opposed to the borrowing context where you’re paying someone else interest on a loan. The chapter quickly starts discussing how Interest can steadily build your Principal from year to year.

If for example you have a $100 and it’s invested in something at a 5% interest rate after one year, you’ll have earned $5 so your total principal at the start of year two will now be $105. If you keep that $105 principal invested, it will earn the 5% on that amount and not the original $100, so your new total after year two will be $110.25, and so on. This is just an example, and this is just with the starting a principal of $100, but what if you started with a greater principal – let’s say $2,000, and you steadily added more money to it every month for 10-20 years? For retirement purposes the ideal scenario is to be invested for 40 years allowing one to retire well at age 65. Ideally the person should have started investing/compounding at age 25. However, getting started at any age is the key.

The second aspect of the Law of Compounding Interest discussed in the book is the “Rule of 72” on page 84. The Rule of 72 is a calculation which allows investors to determine how long it will take for their money to double based upon a given interest rate. To determine this number, you simply divide 72 by the interest rate that you expect to earn over time. The higher the expected ‘Rate of Return’, the less amount of time it takes to reach your goal. For example, if you divide 72 by an interest rate of 10%, it would take 7.2 years for your money to double. If you divide 72 by an interest rate of 2% the time would be 36 years – hence the importance of looking for the most competitive rate of return relative to your personal risk tolerance when looking for investments.

The chapter cites two more examples which highlight the importance of continuing to add to your principal and then the importance of time. The example on page 86 shows the difference in returns when two siblings both start with a $5,000 investment at the same age at an interest rate of 8%. One sibling continues to contribute to her account out to age 50 – that is $1,000 every year and arrives at 50 years of age with $750,000. The other doesn’t contribute anything further and arrives at 50 years of age with a total of $200,000.

The last example on page 87 gives an example of two people who start investing at different times in life (pictured above). In this example both subjects become millionaires by 70 years of age. The first individual started saving $1,000 per year starting at age 15 and paid in only $55,000 to reach their $1,000,000. The second individual started at 30 years of age and had to put in a total of $140,000 to reach their $1,000,000. The take home lesson here is that because the first person started earlier, it took them less than half the principal of the second person the reach their $1,000,000.

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My classmate Damon’s words at the start of this post, underscores these last two points. Our peers who started working immediately after earning their Bachelor’s degrees, were in theory able to start taking advantage of the Law of Compounding Interest earlier, assuming they knew to do so. Working towards our Ph.D. s, we wouldn’t be able to start the process until much later. But there were other professionals from our peer group who were getting even later starts than us due to the nature of their fields and the amounts of debt incurred during their educations; the Law and Medical students come to mind.

There’s another piece to this though. What about individuals who didn’t go the college route at all? They too would’ve been able to start using the law earlier in life assuming they knew about it and followed it. So, as I’ll describe below, having a degree has nothing to do with using this law.

Who should care about the Law of Compounding Interest? Everyone. That goes for STEM professionals like me and Damon, ‘Blue-Collar’ workers swinging hammers, cooks in the kitchen, lawyers in courtrooms, non-degreed individuals, business owners/entrepreneurs – everyone. No matter what your profession is, you only must know about the law, start it, and start it as early as you can.

To start using the law and to using it correctly, one must embrace two of the principles of my blog; the learning of Financial Literacy/Money, and Long-Term Thought/Delayed Gratification. Thus far in my writings I’ve discussed the latter principle sparsely, but it’s key here because to take advantage of the Law of Compounding Interest, the individual must think long-term. This means that they must be disciplined enough to live without a certain percentage of their paychecks every month.

They’ll also forgo or delay some short-term luxuries and indulgences for greater gains later – playing the game of ‘Chess’ in a way. This isn’t something that’s necessarily easy to do in the presence of considerable peer, societal, and in some instances familial pressures. See my Mother’s Day 2017 post, to get an idea of how to lose both money and time due to personal and cultural pressures.

What are the real-world applications for this? I’ll cite two articles. The first is by Rodney Brooks of the Washington Post. I cited his article entitled; 71 percent of Americans aren’t saving enough for retirement in my post about the Tax Reform and Jobs Act. It discusses reasons why people can’t take advantage of the Law of Compounding Interest. Another piece is entitled; Club Fed millionaire: Membership 23,000 and growing by Mike Causey which discusses the growing number of federal employees who are retiring as millionaires – most self-made. I’ll say it again, the majority are self-made meaning no one gave them anything, and they simply methodically prioritized, saved, and invested their money.

Of course, if you run a business, using a venture capital firm makes sense. Like investing, companies are also “money attractors”, but often more powerful. Using other people’s capital to get them off the ground can accelerate entrepreneurs along the path of compounding, just like it has countless times in the past for people like Larry Ellison and Elon Musk.

There’s a final context for the law, and that’s giving. When you think about Higher Education, philanthropists and generous alumni often leave gifts to their schools of choice through ‘Endowments’, many of which are invested so that they’re continuously compounding and generating returns used for scholarships and operating expenses. The famous Jim Kramer runs his “Charitable Trust” of which he is continuously thinking about out how and where to safely invest its funds for charitable purposes. Lastly, consider how the lives your relatives and your community could be changed by having a continuously growing principal and interest you can use in any fashion you see fit: saving up a down payment on a home, college tuition expenses, seed money for building businesses, supporting political campaigns, etc.

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If it sounds like an underlying theme of this post and others like it is that your financial (and life) success is about what you know and don’t know (outside of your profession), then you’re correct. In an upcoming story I’m going to discuss how I didn’t understand these pieces when I first started my federal science career and didn’t take advantage the Law of Compounding Interest or the federal government’s ‘Matching Contribution’ – both of which have cost me money. There were actually several personal ‘blunders’ in these areas.

The opening quote for this piece is from the famous Physicist Albert Einstein and it pretty much sums up the importance of this topic – either you’re getting paid, or you’re paying out. Compounding Interest is something anyone can take advantage of regardless of: race, creed, color, sex, gender or religion. One just must know about it, and then start living by it. If they don’t know about it, they must be curious enough to find out about it. Most financial literacy programs cover it in some way.

There are other necessary pieces such as ‘Budgeting’ which I’ll cover as well in another post. As I stated in my Net Worth piece, it’s not something that can be worked out with your boss, or even legislated by the government, though I do think schools could do a better job of teaching this information at an early age. In closing, two other principles of my blog do tie in here, and they are Self-Accountability and Self-Reliance, because first, the individual must realize that no one can make them practice and incorporate this law into their lives, and secondly, it’s themselves who have to do it. And with that, I hope you’ve learned something here about the Law of Compounding Interest.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you enjoyed it, you might also enjoy:

• Your Net Worth, your Gross Salary, and what they mean
• The difference between being cheap and frugal
• We should’ve bought Facebook and Bitcoin stock: An investing story
• Challenging misconceptions and stereotypes in class, household income, wealth and privilege
• What are your plans for your tax cut? Thoughts on what can be done with heavier paychecks and paying less tax
• My personal experience with Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball revisited
• Mother’s Day 2017: One of my mother’s greatest gifts, getting engaged, and avoiding my own personal fiscal cliff

If you’ve found value here and think it would benefit others, please share it and or leave a comment. To receive all of the most up to date content from the Big Words Blog Site, subscribe using the subscription box in the right-hand column in this post and throughout the site, or by adding the link to my RSS feed to your feedreader. Please follow visit my YouTube Channel entitled, Big Discussions76. Lastly follow me on Twitter at @BWArePowerful, on Instagram at @anwaryusef76, and at the Big Words Blog Site Facebook page. While my main areas of focus are Education, STEM and Financial Literacy, there are other blogs/sites I endorse which can be found on that particular page of my site.

Know This If You Plan To Keep Your Company Open Overnight

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Not all businesses are 9-5 operations and some are open for 24 hours. There are special considerations for these types of business. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Know This If You Plan To Keep Your Company Open Overnight.

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In modern retail, you need to live up to a variety of expectations from your customers. The typical ‘9-5’ workday isn’t enough in this field anymore. Instead, you need to aim for a business which is available to customers at all times. At the very least, this means operating an online shop. It’s also not unusual for retailers to now stay open overnight. The practicality of being able to pop to the shop at any time has become an expectation rather than an exception. So, you may well be wondering whether 24-hour opening is for you.

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In many ways, this seems like a sound business decision. More opening = more time for profit, right? In reality, though, there are a few things to consider before you take the leap. To help you decide, we’re going to look at the main realities you’ll face.

You’ll need to pay more

There is no federal law which says that you need to pay night workers more. But, sticking with day rates here will soon see your night staff deciding to quit. Why would they put up with the added risks and fatigue for no extra money? As a rule, then, pay at least an extra dollar or two for each night hour. Over an all-night shift, that can add up. With that in mind, consider whether this would make monetary sense.

You’ll need to increase security

It’s also worth noting that you’ll need to improve security during those night shifts. In the day, other customers provide a deterrent for thieves. But, if the shop is empty with only your staff inside, thieves may be more willing to take a risk. Hence why you need to consider everything from panic buttons to security cameras. It may even be worth investing in systems like those offered by Athena Security, which have gun detection. That way, your cameras can call the police when they witness the extraction of a gun. Many would argue this is the only way to keep your night team safe.

You’ll need to work night shifts too

Don’t think, either, that you can hand every night shift over to someone else. Like anything in business, you need to show willing with whatever you expect your team to do. At least once a week, then, you’ll need to tackle that overnight shift yourself. If team members are off sick or can’t work on set nights, you may even find yourself alone. Make sure to consider that before making a choice here.

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Do all these pointers mean that 24-hour opening wouldn’t work for you? Not at all. If you stayed busy through the night, you could easily cover that extra pay and security cost. If you don’t mind working through the early hours, it won’t bother you at all that you have to step up to this mark. But, by considering these things, you can ensure you’re 100% certain about taking the late-night plunge. All the better for avoiding unpleasant surprises in the dark!

How to Make Your Clients Happier All the Time

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A key aspect of business is keeping your customers and clients happy and maintaining your relationships with them. The following contributed post is thus entitled; How to Make Your Clients Happier All the Time.

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It is said that it costs five times as much to find a new client that will buy from you, or use your service than it does to get an existing one to give you repeat business. It has to make economical sense to spend some of your marketing budget on letting your existing clients know of any new products you have on offer, or of any special deals that are available. Of course, new customers are important, but if you want your business to be strong you have to foster loyalty from the ones you already have.

Keep In Touch With Them

You should not make a sale and then ignore your customer. An occasional call or email will be appreciated by most of them especially if they are not always promotional. Keeping in touch with your customers lets them know that they matter to you and that you are always there to help them if they need assistance.

Simple things such as a handwritten Christmas card can make a big difference to how your business is viewed, and a personal touch such as this can keep the customer loyalty flowing.

Keep Your Premises Presentable

Not all businesses are online. If you have a store, warehouse, offices or anywhere else that your customers venture, they need to be kept presentable and safe all the time.

Make sure they do not get cluttered, particularly in walkways, as someone could be injured if they trip over an item. Keep them clean, as nothing is more off putting than dirty premises. You should use commercial cleaning services so that you can be certain that your store, offices or warehouse are spotless. All areas should be clean and safe for workers and customers alike.

Know Your Industry Well

Make sure you know all the ins and outs of your industry or profession. Customers who feel they are dealing with an expert will trust your business more and are likely to stay loyal to you. If you can solve a problem for them, this will ensure that they never go elsewhere.

Keep up to date with the latest trends in your line, and make sure that you are aware of any new laws and regulations that affect it. Your customers are relying on you and if you let them down because a law has changed that you and they were unaware of, they will soon find someone to give their business to.

Listen To Feedback From Customers

Feedback from your customers can be invaluable, regardless of whether it is good or bad. Good feedback will let you know that you are getting things right. If they are complaining you should thank them for getting in touch with you. Them letting you know there is a problem means you can put it right before the same issue arises with another client, and that could prevent you from losing more customers. Research leads us to the conclusion that customer loyalty is built on how complaints are responded to and dealt with, so ensure that you and your employees always handle them in a positive way.

In fact, some businesses send questionnaires or surveys to find the thoughts of their clients, as they consider them to be so important.

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Be Confident In All Your Dealings

Customers use your services or buy your products because they trust you, and you need to stay confident to maintain that trust. Always be decisive and positive and avoid words like ‘if’ or ‘maybe’ in your correspondence with them. If you think they might ask you something you are unsure about, do some research before you take their call or reply to their email.

If you really do not know the answer to a question, be honest and tell them that. Also, let them know that you will find the information they need and get back to them without delay. Once again, this will help to keep the trust you have built, but a quick response will also make them feel they matter.

Keep Your Promises

Be realistic about the delivery dates of products, or deadlines you can meet with a service. It is always better to be early than for goods to turn up late or for the deadline you have set yourself to be missed. You have to remember that if a customer has a bad experience because of unrealistic promises you made, they will tell everyone within earshot what an unreliable business you are.

They do not tend to tell so many people when their experience has been good, but if they only mention it to 4 or 5 people, that is getting your brand name around. Then some of those people may become customers too, and hopefully, they will be treated well enough to recommend your business as well.

Have Valuable Content On Your Website

If you are an online business, it is your website that people will go to view your products and services. Make sure the content on there is relevant and useful to the consumers that are likely to buy from you. It does not need to be all written content, as images and videos can sometimes be more appealing. It seems that these days, consumers are more likely to watch a video about products rather than read written text about them.

Use the feedback clients have given you in a question and answer section, as this can show others how often people come back to you. Let the customers know that you are using their comments, as that will make them feel a bit special that you consider what they think to be important enough to repeat.

Ask About New ideas

Keeping your existing customers is all about making them feel you care. If you have an idea for a new product or an addition to your services, send an email to all your existing customers asking their opinions. Firstly, this could bring invaluable advice before you move forward, and secondly, they will be impressed that you cared enough to ask the question.

Keeping your existing customers happy will give you a client base that is loyal, and most time, this is the best basis any business can have.

How Small Businesses Can Afford Their Equipment

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A key challenge for many small business owners starting off is covering their operating expenses. The following contributed post is thus entitled; How Small Businesses Can Afford Their Equipment.

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Entrepreneurship is one of the primary principles of your ecosystem of success. As you get to build your business, you build, with it, its path to success. Every strategy, every market research, every service or product moves your company forward along the success ladder. The aim, naturally, is to climb the ladder, and not to fall back one or few steps lower. However, expenses, and especially equipment purchases can exercise a negative drain on your cash flow and your rate of expansion. While a company can’t provide its offering to the market without the appropriate equipment, its purchase can bring insurmountable obstacles and threaten growth. In a desire to continue your business journey safely and on stable grounds, you need to be able to look out for alternatives solutions.

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They look for cost-friendly alternatives
High tech machinery comes at a price, especially in industrial sectors such as agriculture and construction businesses where the business can’t perform without specialized equipment. For many small businesses, the cost of purchasing brand new machinery can drag the budget in the red and put the company at risk of bankruptcy. Entrepreneurs are rightly suspicious of second-hand equipment, which could present faults and represent an even higher cost in the long term. However, you can find safe and professional auctions online that guarantee customer care services and precise description of each item. You can save money on used equipment that works for your business.

A typical auction room

They choose not to buy
Expensive machinery requires specialist maintenance and servicing. Needless to say, if the equipment is draining the budget, it’s likely that the necessary maintenance schedule might affect your cash flow significantly. As a result, only a few small businesses are happy to commit to the purchase of equipment during their first years of existence. For many, hiring the equipment they need for the duration of specific projects and tasks ensures that the teams are supplied with everything they need in real time without permanent commitment. Ultimately, while it’s not a viable approach in the long term – especially as projects multiply and the need for equipment increase – it can allow your company to build up the necessary capital to purchase.

They sell their specialist knowledge to partner companies
A subcontractor is, by definition, a professional who owns their own business and is hired by another company to support a project. Their skills are designed to enhance the set of talent the company has to offer. For small businesses, acting as a subcontractor can ensure access to high-quality equipment on a project basis without needing to purchase or hiring additional machinery.

They use tax relief
Last, but not least, small companies can receive a permanent tax break when they buy new equipment. Indeed, by using the Section 179 deduction, a small business can immediately write off the items of equipment – without waiting for the natural depreciation to run its course over several years. The tax provision is only aimed at small and medium companies in an attempt to support growth.

Applying any of these financing solutions can ensure that your small company gets access to the equipment you need for growth without putting your cash flow at risk.