Category: Entrepreneurship

You’ve probably heard the catch-phrase “the riches are in the niches” in the context of online marketing, but it’s also true for a traditional career.

If you’re someone who enjoys talking to people and helping them with their needs, then you should consider a professional career along those lines. Additionally, if you’re good with numbers, then you might find a career in the financial industry both emotionally and financially rewarding.

One niche career that might suit you well is becoming a mortgage loan officer. Let’s take a closer look at the type of work it involves, how to get fully credentialed, and how to grow your own business through some astute marketing.

What Does A Mortgage Loan Officer Do?

As a mortgage loan officer, you will assist your clients to get a loan for their home or business. After you assess your client’s need and inform them about loan requirements, you will research the best loans for them. You can niche down your business even more by becoming an expert in commercial or consumer loans. Before you create your own mortgage business, you should work for a credit union, mortgage company, or commercial bank to get experience. While the average salary is about $75,000, you can acquire the knowledge and experience to earn a six-figure income.

A Quick Guide to Starting a Career as a Mortgage Loan Officer

Here is a step-by-step guide to becoming a mortgage loan officer.

Step #1. Earn your bachelor’s degree in business, finance, or economics. Your degree should be able to help you analyze businesses’ finances, read financial statements, and understand basic accounting principles. Your coursework should include economic and business statistics, finance, mathematics, and accounting. Also take courses that can help improve your interpersonal skills like psychology, mass communications, and public speaking.

Step #2. Get Experience. You may not be given a job as a mortgage loan officer fresh out of college, and may have to work your way up the ladder of a banking career. Once you have some experience under your belt, you can then start pursuing loan origination work.

Step #3: Acquire Job Training. The banking or financial institution you work for will offer a variety of job-training opportunities. Be sure to take full advantage of company-sponsored training, whether it is learning how to use a new type of software or getting skilled in underwriting.

Step 4: Obtain Licensure. You must get licensed as a mortgage loan originator (MLO) to become a mortgage loan officer. This will require that you do 20 hours of coursework and pass an exam. The exam itself will cover a national component as well as one for the state you live in. Finally, you will need to pass a credit and background check.

Step 5: Become Certified. Technically speaking, certification is not necessary, but in practical terms, it can be helpful for securing employment. Both the Mortgage Bankers Association and the American Bankers Association offer certifications. For instance, the American Bankers Association offers certification as a certified trust and financial advisor (CTFA), a certified lender business banker (CLBB), and a certified financial marketing professional (CFMP).

3 Ways to Grow Your Business

As a mortgage loan officer, you need to get good at marketing your business, mastering lead generation by understanding buyer motivation. You should market your business even if you work for a financial institution that has a marketing department as this will help you make more sales.

Here are 3 ways to generate more leads:

1. Deploy direct marketing. 

Create an email list that educates your subscribers about the mortgage business. You can build this email list by adding prospects and clients you meet in the course of business or by advertising your newsletter.

What should you send in these emails?

Here are some ideas:

• White Paper.A link to a White Paper pdf. that will help educate your subscribers about some important things they might want to know about mortgages.
• Case studies. A case study will describe how a person got their mortgage. It covers everything they went through — the process, pricing, and challenges. This will give you subscribers an idea of what deals can be financed.
• Articles. Send out articles on timely topics related to the mortgage business.

2. Give talks.

You can give talks based on what people would like to know about getting a mortgage. You can start by giving talks at service clubs like Lions or Rotary, and when you get good, you might be invited to speak at conferences.

3. Start Networking.

By joining various organizations, from Meetups to Chamber of Commerce, you will be able to mingle with business people and tell them about what you do and how you can help them.

Although the minimum requirement is a high school diploma or equivalent, most employers will require you to have a bachelor’s degree in economics, finance or business. You will be required to get a license, and you have the option of additional certification. While licensure is compulsory, certification is voluntary. When applying for a job, experience is not necessary, but preference is given to those with two to five years of experience. High earning mortgage loan officers are thoroughly knowledgeable about mortgages, loan origination, and common policies of financial institutions. In addition, they are good decision-makers, have excellent interpersonal skills, and are great communicators.

 

The difference between failure and success in the beverage business is often tons of hard work, vision and, most importantly, the right decisions based on the right advice.

And while your passion for beverage entrepreneurship may trend one direction or another, what really matters is how you leverage practical know-how and existing advice in your journey and make it work for you.

On that account, mentioned below are the considerations to make when you consider beverage entrepreneurship. You’ll see that some of them are simple mottos, but they can have a significant positive impact on your business.

1. Protect Your Manufacturing Investment

If you’re planning to set up a manufacturing facility to create and deliver beverages, make sure you do something to protect your investment. Remember, your machinery will depreciate if you don’t take measures to safeguard it from wear and tear.

Fortunately, wear blocks and other similar products are available to protect your investment via steel backing plates and other materials that get zero wear when experiencing abrasive flow. Such products manage the composite in severe conditions that are known to cause composite cracking. With options like these, you can make your units shatterproof. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about your machinery undergoing physical damage. Also, external casts will safeguard internal components from dust.

2. Give a Thought to Scaling

From the start, adopt the mindset that your idea could really work. This would help you take measures for scaling when they matter the most. In other words, do branding based on your potential to scale from the very first day. And instead of counting on co-packing facilities, be manufacturing-oriented, and get everyone on board when it comes to production from the early days.

And as you give a deep thought to scaling, avoid being a me-too. The thing is, the beverage market is highly competitive, so you won’t be able to survive in the long run by copying others. Therefore, do something creative, something different. Don’t try to fit an existing idea in your brand identity. Unique branding kicks in at scale, often leaving entrepreneurs surprised.

3. Know About Competition & Looming Challenges

It’s likely that a majority of new beverage companies will pop up as you start your venture. The small-to-medium sized beverage manufacturers and distributors will be your competition, not the large industry giants. Research about them to make sure that you’re able to employ sustainable practices to support business continuity. One thing you can do is keep innovative tactics for the future, and scrape along with your competitors for a year or so.

Also, analyze the challenges you’re going to face in this market. For instance, distribution can be a menace. Limited shelf space, crowded market, and consolidation among beverage distributors will give you headaches. Furthermore, you won’t be able to expand easily without hiring someone to sell on your behalf as it was doable in the past. A decent marketing plan needs to be in place if you want to survive in the industry.

To conclude, you need to take the following considerations into account and develop a roadmap to get a decent payback on your efforts. The key lies in planning ahead, reducing the cost of scaling, and falling in love with your product (the main selling point).

Do you have to try and eat a piece of a hot pepper in order to know it’s hot? No. Why not? Because somebody in the past already tried to gulp down an entire jalapeno pepper and it did not go so well. Therefore, others learned from that mistake and decided to use it in smaller amounts. The same principle of learning on the mistakes and experience of the other people has been around forever. It can also be implemented to small businesses. Here are the 5 mistakes that you need to avoid to stay afloat.

Introducing Every Single Novelty There Is

New technologies are important and you need to make sure that you are up to date. If your competition is using something, sooner or later, you will be forced to try it yourself. It will stop being a perk and it will turn into a standard. However, that does not mean that you need to accept just every single piece of equipment and software you are offered. Pick only the things that obviously facilitate or boost your work efficiency. Even then, purchase only if you are provided by a demo period. You can never tell if it really works until you try it first.

Expanding Too Soon

A good start and a financially successful period may get you thinking about expanding. However, it is not reasonable to expect that a business twice as big will bring profits twice as high, right away. Expanding is a big investment and it doesn’t mean that it has to go smoothly every time. Profits can be less than expected, so it can end up setting you back rather than improving your position.

Miscalculating Optimal Workload for Your Employees and Yourself

At times, you may feel that adding a little bit more on an employee’s plate will make them more efficient without putting in much more effort. However, that can add up very quickly up to the point where it hurts your business. Eventually, the quantity of the work will reflect poorly on its quality and there are no small businesses that can make compromise on their good service or products.

Not Developing a Proper Financial Plan

An effective financial plan is an essential factor of your business survival and success. You need to make it realistic and flexible. Many people find this quite challenging, so it is always advisable to hire a professional for this type of work. Once you have a plan, you need to stick to it. Being flexible about it is good, but even that flexibility needs to be within reasonable limits.

Letting Go on the Money Owed to You

Your business depends on your earnings. You invest time, money and work hours into your business, so if you do not have the money paid back to you, you will soon lose everything. Therefore, if there is one thing you need to think about – it is the way you deal with the payments. All your deals need to be written down and turned into solid contracts. In the worst case scenario, you will be able to hire an agency to deal with debt collection in your behalf.

A lot of businesses failed because of these mistakes. Some of them succeeded despite them. In both cases, it is best to be aware of them and learn from them.

About the Author

Dan Radak is a marketing professional with ten years of experience. He is a coauthor on several websites and regular contributor to BizzMark Blog. Currently, he is working with a number of companies in the field of digital marketing, closely collaborating with a couple of e-commerce companies.

I can hardly count the number of times I’ve had to address and move past a personal failure or shortcoming in business. In my journey as an entrepreneur (a term I use lightly, though I am my own boss!), I’ve encountered everything from tricky projects and customer dissatisfaction to accounting errors and financial obstacles, all of which at one time or another have seemed poised to derail me professionally.

I’ve spent enough time speaking to other people with entrepreneurial interests or their own businesses to know that these concerns aren’t unique to me. Being your own boss and/or running a business is hard, not just because the work itself is demanding but because at the end of the day you’re responsible for holding yourself accountable. This means that when you mess up, there’s no one to say, “here’s what you did wrong, here’s how you fix it.” That part’s on you, too.

Over time, I’ve had enough experience in this regard to figure out a few strategies for addressing one’s own failures in business, and I’ve also done my research on what turned out to be a pretty popular topic of discussion in entrepreneurial circles. So here are four tips for handling your own failures in business.

Tip #1 – Take Some Deep Breaths

Or, more specifically, press pause. This is a tip I’m borrowing from a post on how to survive a breakup as a business owner, because it absolutely applies to more ordinary business obstacles as well. In fact, forget about both businesses and breakups for a moment and consider this: a lot of us, and I’d argue particularly those of us who are personally driven and goal-oriented, have a tendency to act quickly to cover up failure. In my experience, the tendency is spawned by some sort of internal embarrassment. I don’t screw up, we think, I’d better fix that before I have to actually confront it.

It’s an understandable emotion, but it also leads to rash behavior and questionable decisions as often as not. Do yourself and whatever business you may be running a favor, and when you do mess up (trust me, it’s going to happen), take some deep breaths. Analyze the situation calmly and rationally.

Tip #2 – Don’t Sugarcoat It

In addition to taking the time to really acknowledge a failure or shortcoming, it’s also important not to sugarcoat or rationalize it. Personally, I think I’ve always understood this on some level, but I’ve never seen it articulated as well as by the woman behind Menlo Coaching, an MBA application coaching platform I’ve referred back to on numerous occasions (despite the fact that I’m far beyond applying to business school).

Through advice given to clients and a particularly insightful blog post about how to write about personal failures, the Menlo platform communicates the simple but crucial importance of being open and honest with oneself about things that might not have gone so well. We all want to succeed, and because of that there’s a natural inclination to sugarcoat shortcomings; yeah, I messed up, but then I fixed the problem and moved past it, so no harm done. Sometimes this is really how it happens, but thinking that way won’t make you any more likely to avoid similar mistakes in the future. Being open about problems with yourself and any others who may be involved is a better way to assess how and why you messed up to begin with.

Tip #3 – Use Failure To Uncover Instinct

Providing advice on lessons learned through failure for an article in The Huffington Post, one CEO stated wisely, “the failures that you beat yourself up over are the ones where you experienced warning signs….” Basically, she means that if you screw up in a way that you could have seen (or maybe even did see) coming, it’s a lot more frustrating than if something bad simply happens to you. Here’s a clear example: if your computer system crashes due to a bad storm, you might be frustrated, annoyed, and set back to some extent. If it happens again a month later and you lose all your data because you neglected to back it up, your frustration will be amplified not because of misfortune, but because you had a warning and you failed to act on it.

Through recognizing scenarios like this, you can actually start to use failures to uncover and better act on your own instincts. If once or twice you realize that you knew a problem was coming all along, you’ll be better prepared mentally to trust your own feelings the next time you sense something wrong.

Tip #4 – View It As A Sign Of Progress

I know, I know, this sounds a little bit buttered up. Failure is failure to a lot of entrepreneurs, and in a way that’s not the worst attitude to have. Again, it’s important to be honest about shortcomings, and that means recognizing them for what they are. But in the greater scheme, it’s also helpful and beneficial to try to treat failures as signs of progress toward overall success.

“Each failure gets progressively easier,” argued a post at Entrepreneur, and maybe that’s the simplest way to put it. As you act on the other pieces of advice in this post, you can make it easier with each new issue that arises. In doing so, you can begin to see how conquering every new problem ultimately improves your efficiency and perfects your business.

And there you have it. If you’re running your own business and find yourself frustrated when things aren’t going your way, try to keep some of these tips in mind. It can seem counterintuitive, but failure really is part of the process toward making things work.

While social media can be a powerful way for businesses to interact with audiences, there are many costly mistakes that can be made in this area. Hardly a week goes by without hearing about a scandal or faux pas made by a company on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Many mistakes, of course, never reach the media but they can still harm the bottom line of your business. To help you avoid this, take a look at the five biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs often make on social media.

Not Responding Appropriately to Criticism

If you’re on social media, sooner or later you will be attacked. Attacks may be reasonable and factual or they may be obnoxious trolling. Either way, you need to think before you respond. You should never get caught up in back-and-forth arguments on social media. If someone is making a legitimate complaint, respond in a reasonable manner. If it’s a personal issue, try to resolve it by offering the customer a refund or credit, if appropriate. If people are spamming or trolling, on the other hand, you should delete the comments and block the user. It’s never in your best interest to get caught up in social media flame wars.

Not Making the Most of Your Content

You can get a surprising amount of leverage from good content. It’s possible to take a blog post and turn it into a slide show, infographic and video, for example. A video can be placed on your own website and also shared on sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo as well as many others. There are also more creative ways to get more mileage out of content. If you translate website content into other languages, you can reach many more readers. Similarly, you can have videos translated or use subtitles in other languages. 80 percent of youtube users come from outside the U.S., many of these from non-English speaking countries.

Not Targeting the Right Audience

Many entrepreneurs and businesses have topics that are too broad. For example, if you upload content having to do with very broad areas such as fitness, self-help or online marketing, you might be better off narrowing your focus. Rather than trying to reach everyone who’s interested in fitness, you might target people who want to learn effective strength training exercises. You can then target specific topics and keywords that will be of interest to this audience. You can more easily achieve market penetration when you target a select audience.

Offending Your Audience

This is the type of social media mistake you’re most likely to hear about in the media or on the internet. It’s very easy nowadays to let inappropriate content slip through. Avoid publishing content that is likely to be offensive to people, including controversial humor and anything to do with politics or religion. It’s important to have a firm social media policy that everyone on your team follows to the letter. It’s also helpful to insist that people who work for you maintain separate personal and business social media accounts.

Not Having a Clearly Defined Strategy

One of the challenges of social media is knowing how to measure your results. 46 percent of B2B marketers aren’t even sure whether or not social media has generated revenue for their business. This points to the need for having a clear-cut strategy, whether it’s building website traffic, building a mailing list or selling products directly from your website. You should then employ analytics tools to measure your results on social media.

By having a well defined social media strategy and avoiding common mistakes, you can get more leverage from your efforts. The above mistakes can result in losing customers and damaging your reputation. That’s why it’s crucial to carefully plan every aspect of your campaigns before moving forward.