Author: Min Tang

Categories
Work Life

Money Management Tips for the Self-Employed

It’s an acquired skill to manage finances efficiently and thoughtfully, and it’s an especially important skill for a self-employed person. From bank fees due to unexpected overdrafts, to maxing out credit cards without even realizing it, there can be so much that goes wrong if you don’t address the financial situation before it tumbles out of control. Before you head down the road to self-employment (or even if you are already there), take a look at these money management tips that will help keep you out of financial, professional, and personal stress.

Save for Your Taxes. This tip is one of the most essential for any self-employed person. You know what’s worse than paying taxes? Not being prepared to actually foot the bill! You should follow the 20% rule, which is 20% of everything you earn should go straight into a savings account that is dedicated to your taxes. At the end of the year, you can use this money to pay the bill, and the leftovers can go to future savings or be used as a way to reward yourself for your hard work. Save now so you don’t get caught off guard in the future.

Budget, Budget, Budget. Being financially secure is all about planning your finances. One of the first things you need to do when thinking about your business is to sit down and plan out a budget. What will you need to spend – each year, each month, even each week? When and why does it need to be spent? What does it leave you with? What are the benefits, and do they outweigh to disadvantages? These are just some of the questions you have to ask yourself when planning a budget. Any good business has a solid financial budgeting plan that it can refer back to in order to prevent financial trouble.

Always Plan Ahead. Technically speaking, this is also known as the emergency fund. When you’re self-employed, there is never a guarantee that you will always have work or always be paid on time. When you plan ahead, you are planning for a few months of no work or very few assignments coming your way. This fund should have between three and six months’ worth of expenses saved up so that you don’t run low on basic needs and are able to pay your bills on time. The ebbs and flows of work are a natural and common occurrence for any self-employed person, so planning ahead is vital to staying afloat.

Pay Yourself. This is great for helping the finances in your business. Select a comfortable amount to live on each month and take that out of your earnings. The rest continues to help the businesses profit margins and you can leave any excess on really good months to compensate for any bad ones that might happen later in the year or have already occurred.

Think About Retirement. It may seem ages away, but we will all retire one day, and as a self-employed person, you have to be responsible for your own pension. While saving up money for current and near future needs, you should also put aside a little for your retirement fund. It might seem daunting and pointless now, but your future self will thank you right now for thinking of their needs!

To Conclude. Money management is about two things: planning ahead and self-discipline With these two aspects, you should be just fine with handling and saving your cash, which will help both you and your business to flourish. It’s not always an easy path to take and we get that it might be a struggle at times. Just remember all the good that comes from being your own boss, and you will find the strength to really save your cash and live comfortably.

 

Categories
Social Marketing

What Hollywood Can Teach Us About Social Media

Whenever you look for great marketing tools, social media is high on the list. These days, all businesses are aware of how effective a social media campaign can be. In fact, many companies will now hire people specifically to work on the social media side of things. It’s no secret that some of the best viral marketing work has been done on sites like Twitter and Facebook. There are so many ways that social media can influence people and help promote things.

Do you know what else has a huge influence on people? Hollywood. Yes, Hollywood has influenced millions of people with blockbuster movies over the years. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at both of these things side by side. More specifically, what can Hollywood teach us about social media?

People Are Different

One thing you notice about Hollywood films is that they can be incredibly different. You may have one film that’s based on romance, and another that’s full of horror. There are so many different genres and subgenres, but what’s the point in this? The point is that by having different types of films, you cater to a wide audience. Hollywood directors are aware that people are different, and certain audiences like certain things. To stick to one genre would be absurd as it narrows down your audience and blocks out people who aren’t interested.

This can be applied to the world of social media marketing too. Just because one person is using Twitter, this doesn’t mean everyone is. So, focus all your attention on Twitter and you miss out on all the people that are using LinkedIn and Facebook. You must understand that people have different tastes, and find a way to adapt to them.

Audiences Love A Lead Character

All Hollywood film directors will tell you that great movies require a strong lead character. Someone that people can identify with, and will recognize for years to come. Think about any movie out there, and I bet the first thing that comes to mind is the lead character. There are lead characters from films that were made decades ago that still get talked about and recognized. Audiences love a good lead, they’re the key to every successful film. A great character can also help a director turn the film into a profitable brand.

Again, you can relate this back to social media. If you want to run a successful social media marketing campaign, your company needs a lead character. Someone for the audience to recognize and identify with. With a character, you start building a brand your name and increasing brand awareness. Whenever someone sees this character, they’ll think of your company. Now, you don’t have to create a fictional character, although that is an option. Sometimes you might use the founder of the company as the face of your social media campaign. No matter how you get your brand character, it’s important you have one.

Good Storytelling Is Crucial

If there’s one thing Hollywood has taught us, it’s that storytelling is very important. All of the greatest movies are built around brilliant stories. It’s rare you’ll leave the cinema and go on about how amazing a film was even though the story was bad. No, a great story, and great storytelling will turn a movie into a masterpiece. All of the best Hollywood directors and writers will spend weeks ensuring their script is perfect. They know it holds the key to whether or not their film is a hit or miss.

Similarly, the same can be said of social media. You need to create a story that grips people and gets them involved. When you think about it, every marketing campaign is a small story. You must use storytelling techniques to entice people in and get them following you on social media. The best companies are ones that can tell a story with their tweets or Facebook updates. If you follow the tip above, you’ll create a brand character for your business. Then, use storytelling to create a story that helps bring people to your company. If you don’t have a story, then there’s no structure to your social media campaign.

You’ll be amazed at how much Hollywood can teach us about social media. These are two things that you wouldn’t usually associate with one another. But, we can take a lot from Hollywood films and apply it the world of social media marketing. When you take a deeper look at things, you realize that there’s lots that Hollywood can teach us.

About the Author:

Hardik Oza is an SEO Practitioner, having 5+ years of experience in SEO. He strongly focuses on link building to enable his clients’ websites to gain organic traffic and visibility. Follow him on Twitter @Ozaemotion.

 

Categories
How-To Guides

5 Great Tools for Organizing Your Inbox

If you are like most people, you may feel annoyed or even overwhelmed by your email inbox at sometimes, and you may feel excited or anticipatory by it at other times. For example, junk mail or demanding requests from work clients may be a source of stress in your inbox, but email invitations and messages from friends may be opened with eager anticipation.

Because email is such a critical method of communication today, it is essential that you stay on top of your messages. However, you do not have to do this alone. There are multiple resources available that can help you to better organize and manage your inbox in a time-efficient way.

1. Boomerang

Boomerang is an effective email management app that works with some of the most common email messaging platforms. You can access it on your desktop or on a mobile device. It lets you schedule when email messages will be sent and get read receipts on select messages. You can snooze some messages that you want to address later, and you can easily incorporate details from an email into your calendar. It is suitable for use with Outlook and Gmail.

2. FollowUp Then

FollowUp Then is an effective way to manage your to-do schedule, and it works with any email service that you may be using. You may currently be leaving your messages that require follow up at a later date to bog down your inbox. Some may get buried, and you may unintentionally forget about them altogether. This app works with any email that you send. You simply add a unique email in the BCC section indicating when you should follow up. At the indicated time, the app will send you a reminder to follow up with the specific email message that you linked the reminder to.

3. Unroll.me

Junk email and spam can clutter your email inbox. It can be a source of annoyance, and it may also cause you to accidently delete messages that are actually important. Through Unroll.me, you can see a list of all emails that you are subscribed to, and you can unsubscribe from those that you do not want to receive communication from any longer. It works with all email services on both android and Apple devices. This is a fast way to easily eliminate the stress associated with inbox management.

4. SaneBox

SaneBox is a robust tool that works with email applications like Gmail, Yahoo!, Outlook and others. You can better manage your email inbox with a BlackHole feature. Once you dump an email in this file, you will not receive any other messages from the same email address. There is no need to go through the effort of unsubscribing when you use this feature. You can also store attachments in the cloud, snooze emails, create calendar events, monitor who has not replied to you yet and more. You can download it to use with some email services, but it works seamlessly if you are already using Office 365.

5. IFTTT

Technology has improved lives in incredible ways, but you may feel as though your devices are not all paired for maximum effectiveness. With IFTTT, you can pair all devices for more efficient benefits. For example, you can use the app to order a pizza online and to turn the exterior lights linked to smart home technology so that the pizza guy can see your house number. It can link home devices, smart watches, cellphones and more. IFTTT is available to download on the Apple and Google stores.

When you think about organizing your life, starting with your inbox is a smart idea. This is often one of the more chaotic and stressful areas of life that affect you on a daily basis. It can be seemingly impossible to keep up with your inbox on your own, and the good news is that you do not have to do this alone. Spend time exploring the benefits and functionality of these apps and programs to find one that is most suitable for your needs. By implementing the right resources, you can easily organize this aspect of your life and move on to other areas that also require your attention.

 

 

 

Author bio: Ashley Wilson is a freelance writer interested in business, marketing, and tech topics. She has been known to reference Harry Potter quotes in casual conversation and enjoys baking homemade treats for her husband and their two felines, Lady and Gaga. You can reach Ashley on Twitter @ashleygwilson.

 

Categories
Customer Service Operations People & Relationships

Why Monitoring Your Customers’ Habits Can Transform Your Business

It seems like a simple business axiom: the better you know your customers, the better your company will function. Yet, despite the inherent truth to that concept, thousands of companies miss the mark each day when they go to market themselves. Why? Part of it is down to how companies view their customers, and how they track their customers’ activities. Another element to it is due to companies failing to take their customers actions into account. Fortunately, you can learn to cater your business toward your clientele — and reap the benefits because of it.

Give Your Customers a Platform

One of the best ways to garner free customer feedback is to open up the floor to them. Social media outlets provide a fabulous means to engage with your customers — and for them to engage with you. You don’t have to launch a massive survey to get in touch with your customer base.

Examine the Competition

The greatest form of flattery is imitation. Taking a look at what your competitors do well and where they fall short can give you a blueprint for how to tailor your marketing efforts. Don’t limit your research to your own market; consider what similar companies do in different parts of the country as well.

Diversify Your Efforts

 Once you’ve identified the need to monitor your customers habits, you should consider multiple means of tracking that data. For qualitative measures, the advantages of in depth interviews are plentiful; understanding what makes your customers tick on a deep level will give you powerful insight into their wants and needs. However, it’s just as important to keep an eye on quantitative data as well. Finding posts or advertisements that resonate with a large portion of your audience is essential to developing a sound marketing campaign.

The Payoff

 Keeping constant tabs on the way your customers interact with your business — both online and offline — can prove a difficult task. But the reward is potentially massive. A company that makes that effort will likely see an increase not only in the amount of customers you’re able to reach,  but also in the retention of current clients. And that can prove exponentially more important. While many businesses can become sidetracked in the constant pursuit of acquiring new business, it’s vital to remember that the best businesses don’t lose important clients. In this instance, both quality and quantity are fundamental to your success. Just remember that as long as you put the leg work in, your business will experience a tremendous shift forward.

Categories
People & Relationships Planning & Management Teamwork & Leadership

How to Tell if Your Employees Aren’t Communicating Effectively

Modern technology is constantly improving the ways we can stay in touch with each other. Social media updates, smartphone apps, cloud phone systems –– they’re all tremendous tools to help people maintain steady communication with each other from remote locations. However, just because business professionals have access to top-of-the-line apps and features, it doesn’t mean they’re going to use them well. It’s hard to fathom, but even in 2018 companies still struggle with communication breakdowns. Fortunately, you can diagnose how well your staff utilizes their communication skills –– so that you can take steps to correct any bad habits before they develop.

Listen to Your Customers

A great way to determine how well your staff collaborates is to listen to the feedback from your customers. Well-informed consumers will notice if your team members aren’t on the same page, and you’ll likely see reviews to that effect online. If at all possible, you’ll want to make improvements before communication problems reach this stage. However, if you do notice customer feedback indicating an inability or unwillingness on the part of your staff to engage with them, take action to correct this immediately.

Examine Your Layout

People interact most and collaborate best when they’re given new challenges and face new environments. So if your office has the same layout from years before, it’s likely that your employees won’t feel as stimulated –– and effective as they otherwise might be. Consider shaking things up with an office redesign, or at the very least rearrangement if you’re looking to bolster collaboration.

Watch Out for Late Work

So many problems in your office can be solved simply by fostering effective communication. However, one tell-tale sign that employees aren’t connecting with each other in the ways that they should is overdue assignments. Not knowing when a task needs to be completed, or not understanding the magnitude of a given assignment is almost certainly down to a breakdown in communication.

The Bottom Line

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink. In the same way, even if you supply your team members with all the tools they need to communicate effectively, it doesn’t mean they’ll do so. The good news is, your staff aren’t horses. You can help them develop better communication skills by focusing time and energy on team-building exercises. Make it your priority and soon enough your office will be buzzing with energy again. You invest your money to help your employees –– do so with your time as well.