Guide to Making Money Online (Your $100,000 income blueprint) PART 1

Many people who want to get started on making money online have been seeking advice on how to make money online. This is a complete hands-on guide to making money online. Lots of people, including myself, have made money using the following strategies. 

However, I need to state here that making money online is not as easy and straightforward as many people think. It requires sacrifice, discipline, persistence and a natural knack for excellence. 

If you hope to make a living online, you must first accept the fact that making enough money online is possible, but it requires patience. I have seen many people try to make money online, but somehow end up getting disappointed and discouraged. When I first started out, it took me a little more than a year before I started seeing positive results.

But before I proceed, I must throw in a few warnings.....

If you want to make very quick money—there is no such thing as overnight millionaire online. You have to be ready to put in the work. Pick any random human being who is trying to make money and you will be told that making money online is like building Rome—you know how long it took to build Rome, don’t you? Shortcuts don’t work. I tried a few shortcuts and ended up failing or losing money. Those who like shortcuts are easy prey for scammers. Beware; a scammer is hovering above you, waiting for you to make a silly step before he can devour you ferociously. The online world is such a ruthless place for the less vigilant and the money-hungry hawks. SHORTCUTS DON’T WORK. I Repeat. SHORTCUTS DON’T WORK. You can’t make money online without offering something of value in exchange—time, services, quality products and ideas etc The last time I checked, black hat ways of making money online backfired on most people. I don’t want you to join that list. So let’s just do the right thing. Stick to legitimate ways of making money online. Making money online is not the substitute for laziness. Making money online is not for those people who don’t want to work or follow a blue-prints or strategies. Making money is not a preserve of the select few. Anyone can make money online so long as they are committed. The internet is actually a blessing to humanity. If the internet was a human being, it would be called the financial savior of humanity. It has brought salvation to all people irrespective of their nationality, race, gender, educational background and religion. What more could you ask for? Dare not start making money online without milestones, goals. Starting out on a venture without goals is like sailing without a destination. The Chinese have a saying that goes “he who travels without a destination in mind will end up anywhere.” If you are serious about making money online you better set goals. Making money online is a business and career to many people. I don’t work anywhere else apart from the comfort of my home.   I have been successful because I always set goals every month. Goals help me to stay on track and improve. I started with $200 monthly goal then went to $400 then $500 then $650 then $800 then went to $1000 then $1,500 then $2,000 and now I am currently at $2,500. Very soon, I am setting my sights on $5,000.  My ultimate goal is to get to the $100,000 monthly income, which I believe I will get to very soon. Many people are already doing it. Why not me? Why not you? Shall we take this challenge together? If you want your daily income to look something like this that is still possible. You just have to move away from your comfort zone and plunge into the sea even if the only tool you have is blind faith.

Having sounded those few warnings, we can now proceed to more serious stuff.  In this guide, I am straight away going to tell you about all the kinds of work you can do online to make money. I am going to be as candid with you as possible. I am not going to give you bull crap and meander with facts.

If there is something I don’t know I will simple refer you to a link for more information. I have been making money online long enough to know what works and what doesn’t. I have been successful in many of them, but I have also been fried dry in many more. 

I don’t want you to make the mistakes I made. I want you to walk straight into success. If you want to quit you 9-5 job and start making money online full-time, I wish you the best of luck. If you just want to make money online part-time, I still wish you the best of luck. The only thing I request of you is to thank me later if you find this information useful.

Freelance

Working as a freelance is a popular way of making money online. You can work as a writer, a program or as an internet marketer either through portals like Upwork.com, Freelancer.com, Freelance.com, GetACoder.com and FreelanceCareers.com, among others.

The number of people joining freelance bandwagon continues to increase each year. According to Financial Times, freelancing is enjoying an impressive growth of 12% with popular freelance broker sites like upwork.com enjoying consistent growth in terms of number of new members and number of jobs posted.

The good news I have to tell you is that freelance work is a happy job. According to freelance industry report, 90% of freelancers are happier now than they were before going solo. 77% of freelancers are optimistic about their future prospects.

With these kinds of statistics, no one should tell you that freelancing is a bad thing; it is actually a wonderful opportunity for you to become your own boss and build a successful freelancing career. Unfortunately, many a newbie don’t know where to begin. Here is how to go about it.

1. Choose your craft

Just about everything can be outsourced these days. From writing articles to writing codes; from internet marketing to virtual assistance, anything and everything can be outsourced these days and that is where you can make money.

Therefore, there are obviously many things you can do to make money as a freelancer. However, I must warn you that the competition is enormous. For instance, when you join sites like freelancer.com or upwork.com as a freelance writer, you will find yourself competing against hundreds of other freelancers for a single job.

The clients often select the best candidate among the lot. That means you have to be really good at what you do. So choosing the skills that you know you are an expert at is the first thing to do as a freelancer.

However, do not be paralyzed by a preconception that you are not good at a particular skill. If you have the desire and hunger to learn that skill, you will become a pro. No one is born being an expert blogger or a programmer or a marketer. We all learn these things over time.

When I started out as a freelance writer, I must admit I was not very good. I received awful feedback from enraged clients and did very low-paying jobs. However I resolved not to get discouraged. I resolved that I would make continuous learning part of my daily routine. Today, I write for high-end clients for an upward of $50 per article. It is pays to be patient in the freelance world.

2. Create a Brand

I always tell freelancers that they are a brand in themselves. Brands are not a preserve of big companies. As a freelancer, you need to create a strong brand that sets you apart from the competition. Your brand is your identity. 

You can establish your brand through a blog, website, and social media account or by maintaining an impressive feedback score if you work through freelance broker sites like Upwork.

Having said that, try to narrow your area of expertise to just one specific industry to maximize your. For instance, if you are a website designer, you might choose to focus on ecommerce sites only. 

This form of laser focus specialization makes you attractive to prospective clients who are looking for that particular service. Coming across as a jack of all trades can be do more harm than good.

3. Build a Portfolio and Source Testimonials

Overtime, as you complete more orders, you establish a trail that prospective clients can look at when making a decision. A freelancer with average skills but with high feedback score and great testimonials becomes more successful than a skillful freelancer with low ratings. 

Several things contribute to your feedback score and ratings:

• You quality of work
• How you communication with clients
• How you price your services
• Willingness to do revisions/changes
• Friendliness/customer service
• Your skills and expertise on the subject matter
• How well you implement instructions etc
• How reliable you are

In short, just do your best to provide an exceptional service.

4. Keep Pitching

Whether you are working on a project or not, keep looking for clients. Unless you have a stable client base, you should keep pitching to ensure that you have a stable supply of work.

Affiliate marketing/blogging

Affiliate marketing is another area where you can make a living off. Affiliate marketing simply involves selling other people’s products and retaining commission. There are so many ways you can set up your affiliate business:

You can blog about products you love and recommend them.

I can recommend you read these articles to get a better idea

The Secrets to Big Profits Using Affiliate Marketing

How to Monetize your Blog through Affiliate Marketing

The Ultimate Guide to Creating Affiliate Income through Your Blog

You can advertise the products directly using PPC, Facebook ads, and BuySellAds. I must warn that spamming social media accounts is not the best way to go about it.

….end of part one

I would like to end there for today. Treat this as an introductory part. Next week, I will go into the steak of making money online. We will look at the more unconventionally but lucrative methods of making money online. Until then, have a good one!

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7 ways to improve customer engagement

Customer engagement is one of the most important keys to running a successful business. Hence, one must make a strong and proper customer acquisition strategy in order to engage the customer. How do you improve your customer engagement? The best way to improve customer engagement is by turning the business into a customer centered one. However, this can be a challenging undertaking and may take a little time to accomplish.

Here are 7 ways to increase customer engagement:

1. Put the customer at the center

Without the customer, your business cannot be; therefore, the customer is the most important person in your business. So placing the customer at the center of the business is the most logical thing to do. As you do so, you must ensure that you have a very clear focus on where, when and how you will interact with the customer.

2. Be honest with yourself when assessing your failures.

Things may go wrong, and often they will. But if you are honest when it comes to assessing what is holding you back, you have a better chance of creating a better customer engagement or relationship. Then you need to strategize on how to tackle the problems. It is recommended that you start by setting achievable and quick goals before proceeding towards hard and long term goals.

3. Capture customer feedback

Customer feedback is an essential tool when you are in the process of creating great customer engagement. It ensures that you will learn customer behavior and get insights that will help you to fulfil your customer needs.

4. Understand value exchange

Understanding value exchange involves first understand and then building the information exchange program. Identify which kind of information customers are normally happy to share and understand what your business and the customer can gain in exchange. 

5. Take a broader picture

If you want to improve customer engagement, taking a broader picture is important instead of focusing on individual experiences. For instance, all departments in your company have a role to play when it comes to customer engagement and doesn’t apply to marketing or customer service alone; therefore, it is important that you focus on the whole picture.

6. It is not all about marketing

Marketing might be an important component of any successful business, but you have to go beyond marketing. You need to study various customer retention strategies. All successful businesses treat the customer as their most important person and designing their strategies around retaining the customer. It involves everyone in the organization, not just those who interact directly with the customer.

7. Empowering business users

It is important to empower business users who keep you updated about your customer experiences instead of leaving all that responsibility to the IT department. You should align all the marketing, sales and customer service department around the customer. In order to achieve this, it is advisable that you develop a complete buy0in from the Chief Executive Officer including all the other executive team members of the organization.

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Facebook marketing Gone Wild

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Three main stages of business growth and how to recognize them

Understanding the 3 stages of business growth is a key factor for any small business owner. Do you know what stage your business is? Before you understand what they are, it is important to mention here that business growth comes with its demands. When your business graduates to the next level, it demands different managerial and leadership style. Every successful company  developed organically, from the initial stage to the next until they became the giants they are today.

Having said that, let us look at the three stages of business growth and look at what each stage entails in terms of management and leadership. All types of businesses go through the same pattern of growth.  A hotel and a fast growing online business may seem far apart in their management styles, target audiences and growth cycles, but research has shown that they all pass through the three fundamental stages.

Stage 1: micro-level

The main characteristic of micro businesses is that the founder does all the word, or gets assistance from a friend or family members. The founder is also the sole maker of decisions affecting the business. He/she contributes the capital, manages the business and maintenance the records. The success or failure of the business boils down to what the founder does or does not do.

Stage 2: Small-scale

When the business transits to small, the owner employs more people to work for him. He still does some tasks for the business, but he is not the sole contributor of labor. In fact, a large part of the work that is done in the business boils down to the employees. Thus, the success or failure of the business depends on the type of people the owner has employed.

Stage 3: midsize

The business has graduated to mid-size when the owner find it necessary to create at least one management level. The owner is now not directly involved in day to day operations of the business. Instead, the managers are answerable to him and the workers are answerable to the manager. In short, the owner has gone from managing workers to managing managers. Many entrepreneurs dread this stage because they fear losing control of their business. However, if you employ the right workforce, you should trust their expertise and judgment to do a great job. Just leave the people you have employed to do their job although you still control the vision and values of the company. 

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Are you in search of small business loans? Follow these steps to get the right business loan

 

If you own a business—or already thinking of starting one—you have three main loan options: traditional bank loans, government-backed loans and loans provided by alternative lenders.

When you are looking for small business loans, you need to choose your lender carefully. The good news is that access to small business loan is becoming easier with each passing day, thanks to the proliferation of alternative financing options available in the market.

Choosing the right lender can be a herculean task because you have to make sure that the small business loans financing option you have chosen is the right one for your business.

Many business owners still don’t know how to choose the right loan for their specific needs. Therefore, before committing yourself to a loan, you need to make sure you understand the terms and ensure it meets your needs. Be mindful of the fact that some lenders have devious options that have hidden fees, unfavorable lock-ins and self-serving disclosures, making some small business loans unfavorable to entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Here are some few important considerations small businesses should keep in mind when searching for small business loans.

1.       Understand your financial position

Now that you have settled for the need to apply for a loan, it is important to thoroughly review your financial position to ensure your business will be approved. Most lenders will ask for documentations to determine what your chances of repaying the loan are.

A detailed documentation of your expenses, income, profits and projected revenues is crucial when it comes to small business loans. There are many book keeping tools like QuickBooks, Xero and sage that can help you to keep records of your business financial performance. You can also hire an accounting firm/professional to take care of the books.

As a small business owner, you may find difficulties when it comes to separating your business and personal finances; however it is crucial to place a clear distinction so that you can easily demonstrate how financially strong your business is. By all means, don’t mix your personal finances with business finances if you are looking for small business loans.

2.    Know how much you’re paying

Be attentive with how small business loans lenders frame their terms, as it might end up confusing you. For instance, an alternative financier might quote a 3% rate of interest but there might still be some additional fees and charges that could push the cost of the loan high. 

It is important to bear this in mind so that you are both financially and psychologically prepared. For instance, 3% annual rate loan might actually turn out to be a 10% percent effective annual rate if you add the upfront fees and installment payments.

Before you get a loan, it is important to ensure you know what you’re getting into. Many people think that small business loans constitute is free money that they will only need to repay back later (without taking into consideration interest). The truth of the matter is that borrowing without plan can get you into trouble.

You should only borrow when you are ready and not borrow for the sake of borrowing. Understanding what you are going to do with the loan is the single most important thing you need to consider before making the application. Small business loans decisions should be made in a hurry.

3.       Anticipate financing needs

In order to avoid taking a sneaky loan deal when you need it, anticipate your financial needs and start taking proactive steps now. As a matter of fact, many lenders will want to look at your books and require that the reports are accurate before giving you a loan. 

Next, it is important to identify very specific cash flow pain points that could adversely affect your repayments. For instance, if you are dealing with a B2B company or a government entity, you could encounter a cash flow gap as a result of a long payment cycles.  

You may also anticipate a holiday season where payments come in a bit late. Therefore, it is important to prepare yourself on how you are going to recover such gaps. Failure to prepare and anticipate financing needs has landed many small business loans borrowers into trouble with their lenders.

4.       Shop around—use free online tools

Taking a less-than-optimal loan when better options are available is what can be described as bad financing. If you want low cost small business loans, you have to take time to scavenge the market in order to discover funding options with friendly terms such as low interest rates, faster turnaround time and reasonable repayment and grace period. Talk to several lenders to figure the best option given your business needs. If speed is of essence, take a look at cash-flow loans.

5.    Sort out your financial house

Typically, lenders want to reduce the risk of default as far as small business loans are concerned. Even if you have sufficient security to cover for the loan, not many lenders are excited about lending to a business with no clear guarantee that the money will be paid. The process of going through the process of loan recovery is something they are unwilling to do because it is costly and wastes a lot of time. In that regard, the best time to approach a bank for small business loans is when you are making a profit. Most lenders require businesses to be profitable in at least the past 6 months. You also need to keep an eye on your credit history because most lenders will look at it before making a decision whether to offer you a loan.

6.    Be more organized. It pays

Although many banks/lenders are using the services of automated loan management software, many lenders still use outdated loan application processes. Therefore, it pays to be a bit more organized in your loan application. This increases your chances of being approved. Clear documentation and organized financial statements reduces the chances of mix-up and loss. In other words, the more organized you are, the more chances you have of being approved for a loan.

Commercial and industrial lending is increasing for larger companies; however, the share for small business loans has wildly fluctuated. Applying for and getting a loan is not an automatic thing and requires one to understand what they need to do to increase their chances of getting a business loan. One also needs to apply due diligence when looking for a lender.

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What to expect during the first 90 days of launching your startup

Last week I asked Nick Malik, a veteran entrepreneur on what it is like in the first 90 days for a new business owner. His answer was, “Heady. Crazy. Risky. Adrenaline.”

The reality is that hit as a new business owner, you are creating something new and during these early stages, every decision is going to count.

Generally, the process of starting a business involves key steps from choosing a business name to selecting the business location and structure. Once you have opened your doors for business, the first 90 days can make the difference between success and failure in the long term because without the early momentum and positive reinforcement, you might never maintain the momentum and get enough customers. It is, therefore, important to learn what to do during the first 90 days in business.  Here are few of the lessons you will learn during the first 90 days of being in business.

·        What is your target market? What can you do for your customers?

One mistake that many entrepreneurs seem to make is that they set out to create a product first and worry about the market second. It is important to design your product in such a way that it solves a specific need for a particular target market. This can prevent a lot of headaches. In other words, entrepreneurs should be aware of the fact that having a satisfactory solution that targets a need that has not been met is always better than having a perfect solution to a need that either doesn’t exists or is already being met adequately.

·        Launch “good enough product” and upgrade later

Sometimes entrepreneurs get sucked up designing a perfect product without knowing exactly what the market needs. The only way you will be able to figure out which aspect is good for the customers and which ones are not needed is by launching a minimum-viable product, gather feedback and upgrade. However, you must make sure that the initial product is good enough to realistically meet your customer’s needs. For instance, if you are selling an app, you can start selling the initial version and roll out new versions depending on the feedback from the market.

·        Are your team members in the right roles?

You must make sure that every team member is in a place that compliments his/her skills. It is important that you put team members in a place that they are likely to succeed instead assigning them random tasks.

·        Cheap is expensive

Many founders think that economizing will be good for their business. Instead of focusing on the amount of money your are spending on resources, you should focus on the overall value. Spending a little more on certain aspects of the business can create a tremendous value on the business.

·        Get the First Customer

Let us just say that the only reason you are in business is so that you can attract as many customers as possible. If you didn’t already have a customer at the beginning, then you should make it a priority to have customers during the first 90 days of being in business. You can employ various marketing and advertising strategies, but make sure that they are affordable. Start with networking and referrals before you move to paid advertising. Employ people with master selling skills if you are not good at marketing and selling because this is essential to your business success. Spend at least 4 hours per week learning and applying new selling skills in your business.

·        Make a Profit

Without profit, your business might not make it. Please focus on making money by reducing costs and following the right business model. Study your financials to make sure that your company is making profit. If it is not making profit, it means that there are few things you need to change to make it happen.

·        Evaluate Pricing strategy

When you are launching a business, it is obvious that you will make assumptions about what prices will be appropriate for customers and the amount of profits you will make. However, during the first 90 days of being in business, you will discover that your assumptions will be challenged with the realities of the market. This is the time to re-examine your pricing strategy. Remember that offering the lowest possible price might not be the wisest thing to do if you want to remain profitable. It would be easier to reduce prices in future than to increase. Your competitors have established themselves in business and are able to offer reduced prices than you (a start-up).

·        Quarterly goals

Running a successful startup can be both stressful and time consuming. So it is easy to get caught up in the daily routines and forget the bigger picture. Last year, I set up a freelance writing business and I kept looking at the site and tweaking things in the website. Before I knew it, the year was halfway yet I hadn’t done any marketing to reach customers. So I started with a one-month goal to get at least 5 clients. The result was phenomenal. Within the following month, I had managed to get 6 clients. Therefore, it is important to have an executable plan for your business.

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Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill: Review

It is difficult to find something personally un-appealing, yet effective when considered on its own terms. You might not enjoy reading the book—I found some parts pretty darn boring—but it is an intriguing book. 

Although Hill’s original purpose of writing Think and Grow Rich was to teach us how to make as much money as possible and become shrewd in business, this book is actually a masterpiece in the science and art of achieving success in virtually all facets of life.  

Despite its few flaws, this one deserves to be ranked at the top of get-rich and motivational books. I would aptly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a stand-alone business and life guidebook.

Think and Grow Rich contains 13 steps to obtaining success. This is the end products of more than two decades of serious research conducted by Napoleon Hill where he interviewed more than 500 successful individuals in a wide array of disciplines. 

He started the research when Andrew Carnegie, who was the richest man then, gave him an assignment to organize a philosophy of success. Among the people Hill interviewed included Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell, George Eastman, John Rockefeller, Charles Schwab and William Wrigley.

Hill then put together the masterpiece in the form of 13 steps to success (which became Think and Grow Rich) and 17 principles of successes which he taught in form lectures and courses. 

Napoleon was way ahead of his time. His was to bring success to the average person by explaining the principles of success in very simple terms so that anyone, irrespective of their profession, level of education and family background, can build a successful and prosperous future for themselves. 

First published in 1937, at the height of the great depression, the book became an instant success. It has sold more than 70 million copies and it is one of the most mentioned business motivation books in the internet.  Considering the fact that this motivational masterpiece is still widely read more than 79 years since its first publication, you know that the information to be gained is truly valuable. The 13 steps to success include:

1.      Desire: one should use deep desire as a goal of obtaining what they really want

2.     Faith: Hill is basically saying that we should have strong faith that the future holds great things for us.

3.     Autosuggestion: what Hill is basically saying here is that if we keep repeating our goals to ourselves, those goals will become a reality. This is  principle was expounded by “The Secret”

4.     Specialized knowledge: it is important to have specialized knowledge instead of being a jack of all trades.

5.     Imagination: what the mind can conceive, it can achieve. Every achiever has an element of rich imagination.

6.    Organized planning: it is important for everyone to have a plan for success

7.     Decision: we should never be afraid to make decision even if it means having to make hard decisions.

8.     Persistence: persistence is means that you will not deviate from your goals no matter the obstacles you may encounter along the way.

9.     Mastermind: success is largely attributed to the ability to pick great ideas from great minds. Surround yourself with like-minded people.

10. The mystery of sex transmutation: this chapter is perhaps the vaguest in the books. I personally don’t think the details of your sex life has anything to do with your success or failure. Instead of attributing success to sex, a loving and supporting family could make more sense. I honestly don’t think sex can be a factor because I have seen men and women who practice celibacy achieve great things in life.

11.   The subconscious mind: expunge negative thoughts from your mind because negative thoughts will register in your subconscious and pull you down.

12.  The brain: taking care of the brain and being mindful of the non-verbal cues you send to the brain can pay enormous dividends.

13.  The sixth sense: buried deep within us is the sixth sense. Sometimes our sixth sense can be the driving force behind the ingenious decisions we make.

To buy or not to buy?

More than any other book I have read, Think and Grow Rich can be described as the mother of all motivational books. If a ready buys this book seeking guidance on how to get rich, they will find it. If a reader comes into this book pursuing a deeper meaning in life, they will find abundant practical advice. Therefore, this books winds up being all things to all people.

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Are You Thinking of Ditching You Job to Start a Business?

Are you itching to ditch the traditional 9-5 job and join the self-employment bandwagon? Many people find themselves responding to the siren’s call of self-employment and wanting to be fully in-charge of their failure or success. It can be a thrilling challenge, handing in your resignation note and venturing into the world unknown. However, your dream can also come tumbling down quickly if you aren’t prepared to change from an employee to an entrepreneur or business owner.

 How to prepare yourself 

Many people dream of becoming their own boss and being the masters of their destinies. Whether you are running a shop or you just launched a multimillion chain, it is important to take care of your finances. You don’t want your dream to fizzle because of poor financial management and decisions.

How do you prepare yourself financially when you become self-employed? How do you ensure you are not making the same mistakes others before you have made? Here are tips to help you thrive in the financial world, whether you are working on your business full-time or part-time.

Tip: Budget for Fluctuating Income

The fact that earning are unlimited when running your own business is the main reason why many people want to become business owners. But one thing they fail to take into consideration is the fact that income is not constant. One month you can make thousands in profit and the next month you are wallowing in negatives. If you are being realistic, you really shouldn’t expect that your income will increase consistently every month forever. You will have dry spells once or twice a year. So you need to adjust your mentality from a steady paycheck to a fluctuating income.

Bare bones budget is made of only essential bills such as rent/mortgage, food, electricity. It is trimmed of all unnecessary expenses such as coffee, magazine subscriptions, gifts, entertainment etc. This will help you figure out the minimum amount you need earn per month. This is the budget you will use during the difficult months.

Tip: Prioritize Your Bills and Expenses. 

Although your intention is to earn higher than what you need to cover expenses and bills, there may be times when that will not be possible and your emergency fund is exhausted too. Therefore, you may want to prioritize your bills end expensive such that your nondiscretionary bills come first.

You need to have a regular budget that combines both discretionary and non-discretionary expenses and build. This is your typical budget and may include other expenses such health insurance. You need to review your budget to ensure it doesn’t include luxurious expenses and bills.

It is important to separate your business and personal budget. It will make things much easier for you when you are planning your finances. It also prevents you from spending aimlessly. One thing I have noticed with many entrepreneurs and small business owners is that they make the mistake of thinking every business expense is a good expense.

 If you are a business owner, you must have an emergency fund. There are no two ways to it. Because of the income fluctuations we have mentioned, you may need to dip into your emergency fund unlike someone who has a steady source of income. Apart from low income in certain months, you might incur unexpected expenses such as unexpected machine breakdown, medical emergencies etc. I would recommend an emergency fund of between 6-12 months of your expenses.

Tip: Consider a Business Emergency Fund

All businesses experience unexpected bills and expenses such as unexpected repair and emergencies. Look at your operating costs and set aside equivalent of 3-12 months of expenses as your emergency fund. Remember, the emergency fund is not just for taking care of unexpected problems, but can also be used to take advantage of opportunities that arise.

When you are employed, you get used to taxes being taken directly from your pay. It is a different ball game when you are self-employed. You need to understand that it is your responsibility to pay taxes. If you are not sure about this, please work with your accountant so that you know what you owe the taxman and make sure you make timely payments.

Do not incur mindless business expenses unless it is instrumental in the growth of your business. The reason most businesses fail is because they overstend themselves before they are profitable. Simply, do not spend more than your business can handle.

Tip: Create a System to Track Business Expenses

You should create a system to track your business expenses and you shouldn’t throw away the receipts because you will need them when you are filing for taxes.

You never know what happens tomorrow. Risk is everywhere and if you don’t insure your family and business against risks, you are threading on very dangerous grounds. You need to obtain things like health insurance and appropriate business cover against theft, accident, fire and other calamities.

What Insurance Does Your Business Need?

This actually depends on the type of business you own, the number of employees and the income level. Think about all possible problems that may arise and understand the different types of insurances related to owning a business.

Self-employed people should always keep in mind that one day they too will retire from active businesses. Most people put retirement and other goals on the back burner while they try to get their business off the ground. Eventually they forget about it altogether. Even if you create a sustainable business, you should still think about retirement.

Tip: Think percentage not dollars

Set a fixed percentage of your income every month to set aside for your retirement.

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10 Painless Ways to Save Money

 

One of the most common pieces of financial planning advice is to save a fraction of your income and make personal sacrifices to ensure that this is achieved.  Often, this is painful and unattainable considering the fact that we may be living in difficult times. Maybe in some months it seems like an achievement if you get to pay your bills on time. But how do you save money without undergoing through much pain and sacrifices? Here are 9 ways to you can do it.

1. Get a jar

Throw in all those coins you get as change from stores and the grocery. It sure might not seem like much but it could add to something substantial at the end of the year. This is something that might have ended up in the vending machine.

2. Be healthy

This might not sound like the usual saving money tip but it could save you hundreds of dollars a year. Poor health can cost you a lot of money in terms of seeking medical help and treatment. It is an indirect way of saving so to speak.

3. Hunt for offers, freebies and cash backs

For most things being sold online, there are plenty of alternative products being offered on free samples, at discounts and other advertising strategies. Make sure you are one of those who benefit. I have used a dozen of software offered as freebies I searched online. When I compare the prices of alternative products available for premium subscription/purchase, I realized I just saved $1, 576.

4. Slow down the internet services

Go for a slower internet provider and you will save some bucks, but you will get the same services

5. Improve the credit score

Having poor credit rating is one way to get into trouble financially. Accessing things like cheap credit will be elusive to you if your credit score is horrible.

6. Post pone expenses

If you want to buy something, try adopting the habit of postponing purchases until you feel it is absolutely necessary to buy them. It works

7. Save all extra income

There are some monies that come unexpected like gifts, picking cash in the streets (don’t expect to pick any), pay increases, part-time income, etc. you can do without such cash because you had never expected it in the first place. In a typical year, you might receive 4% salary increment, get $400 on bonuses and tips, receive $100 worth of gifts, and earn 2% interest on your savings and so on. If you add all these, it could translate to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. By the way, this is money you could easily have squandered because you think it is free money.

8. Find cheaper means of paying your bills

Certainly there are loopholes in the way you pay bills that could open a few opportunity to save. For instance, you can make online payments instead of writing checks and save the saved amount.

9. Cook your own meals at times

Eating out isn’t a bad think but there is a lot of money to be saved by reducing the number of times you eat out. As a matter of fact, eating out has consistently been proven to be more expensive than eating at home.

10. Rent books, DVDS

These are some of the stuff that you use once. So, instead of buying, I would suggest renting some of them. You can also find free versions of ebooks, movies and music online. And you can even reduce the number of hours you spend watching movies and engage in more productive activities.

For instance, I get most of my books and music from www.4shared.com

I also discovered that some cool movies are available on YouTube and other sites.

Generally, there are a thousand and one ways one can save money painlessly without the need to change lifestyle. Just be on the watch out for all available saving loopholes. 

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