Categories
Business Ideas

NFT Photo

Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are digital assets that come in the form of music, art, collectible, and in-game items. These are often traded online using cryptocurrencies encoded with smart contracts on blockchains. In recent years the Non Fungible Token market has been experiencing record sales and disrupting the art world with many digital artists making a name for themselves. Besides digital art NFTs offer photographers and creatives an additional medium to ply their trade and generate revenues. In addition to these, they offer guaranteed payments on each sale without the need for third parties, offer instant and secure payments, and enable access to a global audience through decentralized marketplaces.

What is an NFT Photo?

What is an NFT photo? NFT photos like other digital assets such as videos, audio, and other digital assets are tokenized photographs. NFTs are digital files stored and exchanged on a blockchain which is a digital ledger that certifies a digital file to be unique and not interchangeable. These make photography NFTs highly sought after due to their exclusivity and that no two people can now the same NFT.

NFTs are quickly rising in popularity resulting in artists turning their photographic works into tokens, generating a great deal of visibility on digital marketplaces. As more and more people start to purchase NFTs they will help create a unique marketplace for photo NFTs similar to real-world auction houses and galleries, providing creators with the recognition and monetary rewards they deserve.

Why You Should Create Your Own NFT Photography

The NFT world s is booming, if you are a photographer be it a nature photographer or an amateur, and can capture some great pictures you should consider creating your NFTs. Some of the perks that come with being an NFT photographer include:

Create experiences for your fans: NFT photos are limited editions of your photographs guaranteeing buyers sole NFT ownership and memorabilia. They have a high potential for fans to own these rare collectibles

Low barrier to entry: If you are a photographer and have all the equipment including digital cameras starting a gig as an NFT photographer comes with lower costs. Creating NFTS requires relatively little investment and does not require a complex process putting you on an almost equal footing with other photographers.

Build your following and brand: Through creating your own unique NFT photographs you can capture the attention of fans and build a strong following and brand spanning the globe.

Generate revenues without middlemen: NFTs photography lets you engage directly with buyers, and earn 100% of the proceeds of your work without the need to go through a third party- meaning more money for you.

How to Convert an Image to an NFT Digital Asset

If you decide to make a simple NFT, you won’t necessarily need a developer. By simply following these simple steps you can go about creating your first NFT.

1. Select a photo to convert into an NFT: To start you will need to select a particular picture that you want to turn into an NFT you will also need to make sure that you don’t have any problems with copyright and have the exclusive rights to the digital image.

2. Choose an NFT marketplace: To convert your photo into an NFT you will need to mint into an NFT this is where an NFT marketplace comes. There are lots of NFT marketplaces to choose from. Each NFT marketplace has its pros and cons for sellers, so make sure you do your research before making a choice.

3. Set up a crypto wallet: You will then need to create a digital wallet where you’ll store your cryptocurrencies and NFTs. The wallet you select must be compatible with the blockchain technology and NFT marketplace you intend to use for minting your NFT photos.

4. Buy cryptocurrency through an exchange: After creating a wallet, you will need to buy some cryptocurrency so you can pay the gas fees to mint your NFTs.

5. Connect your wallet to the NFT platform and start minting:  After adding funds to your wallet, you’ll need to connect it to the NFT platform you’ll use to create your NFT.

6. Upload your NFT file to a listing: Once you have converted your digital assets into NFTs you can then list them up for sale on the several available NFT marketplaces.

For more insights check out our article How to make an NFT.

What is an NFT Photo? [Smallbiztrends]

About Our GE Network Expert - Min Tang

Categories
Legal

Business Umbrella Insurance

A commercial umbrella insurance policy adds more coverage to any existing liability policies you have. It covers liability claims that go above your coverage limits. It’s additional liability protection.

What is Umbrella Insurance for Business?

This umbrella coverage covers small businesses the same way business liability insurance does. It covers costs like legal expenses, medical bills on injury claims…etc.

Commercial umbrella insurance isn’t a stand-alone product. It works with other liability coverage policies. Like general liability insurance.

Read More: Types of Business Insurance

Does My Business Need an Umbrella Policy?

Business needs an umbrella policy for additional coverage.

  • If the public goes on your commercial property.
  • If anyone you employ works on other people’s property.
  • If a government contract requires umbrella coverage, most do.

If your business might get sued. In other words, most can use this additional layer to cover the financial risk from lawsuits.

Why You Should Have Umbrella Insurance

Commercial umbrella insurance covers what other policies miss.

Here are five other reasons why you need this extra liability coverage.

  • Got lots of foot traffic? This covers liability risk.
  • Got lots of vehicles? An umbrella policy offers auto insurance.
  • Use dangerous equipment? Umbrella policies cover employees’ severe injury claims, it is great for construction businesses.
  • Need to land a big contract? Extra coverage through an umbrella insurance policy helps satisfy bigger clients.
  • Is a lawsuit escalating? An umbrella insurance policy steps in when you exceed your coverage limits.

What is Covered by Business Umbrella Insurance?

A commercial umbrella policy needs to be comprehensive. Look through these different types of business insurance for reference.

Read More: Business Insurance Benefits

A business should check to be sure it has the following:

Liability Coverage

Get commercial umbrella insurance cover for legal issues that crop up. These insurance policies handle liability claims for property damages or injuries. Umbrella policies expand the liability limits offered with a general liability policy.

Global Coverage

This is the kind of liability coverage a small business needs when it works online. When a business interacts with global customers, an existing underlying policy might not be enough.

A commercial umbrella policy can fill the gaps. If you can’t get this kind of liability protection where you are, other insurance companies might have it. Ask around to avoid worst-case scenarios.

Property Damage

One of the other options is to add financial protection. A policy that covers business equipment or other items your business owns. An umbrella insurance policy here is divided into loss of use or bodily injury categories.

Medical Expenses

An expansion of your other liability insurance policy covers medical expenses if your small business is up against a bodily injury claim.

Those are a few of the boxes to check when you’re looking at commercial umbrella insurance options. Ask the insurance company you’re thinking of what you’ll need specifically.

What is Business Umbrella Insurance, and Do You Need it? [Smallbiztrends]

About Our GE Network Expert - Min Tang

Categories
Planning & Management

Life Insurance for Business Owners

A small business owner can buy two types of life insurance policies, associated with the business.

  1. A small business owner can buy a life insurance policy for the business. Typically, the policy is in the name of an owner or partner. The business pays the premiums, and the business is the beneficiary. Premiums aren’t tax-deductible.
  2. A small business owner can purchase group life insurance for employees. The premiums are tax-deductible as a business expense.

What is Business Owner Life Insurance?

Small business owners should have individual life insurance, separate from policies associated with the business. Individual life insurance will help the family handle personal expenses and settle a person’s estate. Both business life insurance and individual life insurance can be a “term life insurance policy” or “whole life insurance policy.

Term life insurance coverage is specific to a chosen number of years. For example, a term life insurance policy might provide coverage for 15 years. A whole life policy is permanent life insurance. An insurance company pays dividends into the policy, and you can take out policy loans against the accumulated cash value of the policy.

Group life insurance for business covers employees and is part of an employee benefits package. A business owner’s life insurance is owned by the business, and the business is the beneficiary. It is key person insurance that pays out when a key person – such as the owner or a partner – dies. You can add riders to be covered if a key person or partner becomes seriously ill or disabled.

Why You Should Take Out a Business Life Insurance Policy, and Employee Life Insurance Policies

Owners put their heart and soul into establishing and running their small businesses. A business life insurance protects that investment:

  • The business life policy payout is tax-free income and can cover business loans, such as mortgage payments, and other debts
  • By protecting the company, the policy will protect employees’ jobs
  • If there are business partners, and there is a death of a business partner, the policy payout can help redistribute the deceased business owner’s share of the company
  • It can help fund the search for replacing a key employee who has passed away
  • It can be reassuring for employees to know that the company’s financial future is protected
  • A life insurance policy for your small business will protect your company
  • Providing life insurance as part of an employee benefits policy can help you compete for employees
  • Premiums you pay for employee life insurance policies are tax-deductible

What is Covered by Life Insurance for Small Business Owners?

A business life insurance policy covers the business, but it doesn’t protect your personal finances. Here are some of the ways the business life insurance policy payout can be used:

Key Employee

For a business life insurance policy, the owner or partners can be the policyholders, or the policy can name a key employee. The key person’s life insurance is for an essential employee who is invaluable to the business operations. With key person life insurance, the cash value of the business life insurance policy pays to help the business find and pay a replacement after the key employee’s death.

Death Benefit

The business is the beneficiary and receives the cash value of the death benefit. The monies received from the business life insurance policy death benefit can be used to pay business partners for their share of the business or pay business loans or debt.

Lost Revenue

It makes sense that a business would experience a loss of income while it’s in flux due to the passing of an owner, business partner, or key employee. The death benefit monies can be used to cover business expenses.

Buy-Sell Agreement

With a Buy-Sell Agreement, each business partner takes out a policy on the other, or others. In the event of a business partner’s death, the death benefit payout is used by the surviving owners or business partners to buy out the deceased partner’s share. A Buy-Sell agreement should be defined in the business’s operating agreement.

Accelerate Benefits Riders

It will cost more but you can add riders to cover key employees such as the owner or partners should they become seriously ill, need nursing home care, or become disabled. The addition of accelerated benefits can be defined in buy-sell agreements.

What is Not Covered by Small Business Life Insurance?

A person’s personal debt, loss of income, and personal estate taxes are not covered by a small business life insurance policy.

As part of retirement planning and an estate plan, an individual should obtain individual life insurance coverage, so that death benefits can be paid to a family member or members.

How Much is Life Insurance for Business Owners?

The cost varies widely. Term insurance is less expensive than whole life insurance, for example.

Since term insurance is comparatively less expensive, many business owners opt for that. They get term insurance for the same length of time as a significant business debt. For example, the business has a 15-year loan on equipment worth $200,000. Business owners could get a term insurance policy for 15 years, worth $200,000 so that the loan would be paid.

Life insurance policies purchased as part of buy-sell agreements will vary in cost based on the status, such as age, of each insured employee. Those policies can be term or whole life insurance policies.

Fortunately, each company that provides life insurance for business has a formula. One of the best formulas we’ve found was developed by Affordable Life USA.

Life business insurance is calculated on a number of factors. An insurance company will want to know the age of the business owners, partners or key employees. The insurance company will want to know the dollar amount of the policy sought, and the length of time to be paid in. Also, they can be term or whole life insurance policies, with whole life insurance usually more expensive.

Here are some ballpark numbers: A 30-year-old business owner who wanted a $500,000 policy for 10 years would pay about $15 monthly. A 50-year-old business owner who wanted a $1 million policy for 30 years would be paying $252 monthly.

About Our GE Network Expert - Min Tang

Categories
Uncategorized

Travel Blog

A travel blog is a great way to document your travels, share your experiences, and show the amazing destinations you’re visiting. Becoming a successful travel blogger is all about creating great content for users on a consistent basis. Once you establish a travel blog and a following, you can find ways to monetize it and grow your channel. Let’s go through how to start a travel blog and how to make money blogging.

What is a Travel Blog?

A travel blog is a way to document your travels and show your destinations. It can be done in the form of a travel vlog, with primarily video-based content. Other options include long-form written blogs that describe travel experiences and share travel tips, a photoblog of your travels, or a combination of the above.

Why You Should Start a Travel Blog in 2022

Becoming a travel blogger is one of the best ways to share your experiences, and it has many benefits, such as:

  1. Monetization: As you grow your following, you can monetize your blog through different avenues and earn money (which helps you travel more!) and create a profitable travel blog.
  2. Advice: You can share advice, helpful tips, and your experiences with others which can be beneficial for travel destination research.
  3. Memories: As you travel, you have a way to document your trips and preserve your adventures and memories online on your own blog.
  4. Connections: You can connect with other travelers online and offline by sharing your content on a serious travel blog, so you can get advice, meet new people, and have new experiences wherever you go through a travel blogging community.

Starting a Travel Blog in 13 Simple Steps

Starting your own travel blog isn’t as hard as it might seem. You can create a brand new blog in a few simple steps and optimize for Google search to increase your reach. We’ll go through some of the steps successful travel bloggers have taken to start their blogs and how you can create successful blogs.

1. Learn Everything You Can About Travel Blogging

Before starting with a blog and blogging platform, establish a solid foundation for your blog by taking courses. You can take a travel blogging course specifically and general freelance writing courses depending on the medium you choose for your travel blog.

2. Choose a Niche

A general blog can get lost in the competition. The best way to differentiate? Choose a niche when creating your personal brand. The niche will depend on the types of trips and your interests, but some examples include solo travel, budget travel, luxury travel, off the beaten path, and more for your travel blog theme.

3. Look at Your Competition

Once you’ve selected a niche, take a look at what other travel blogs are doing and how professional travel bloggers are building their following. Some things to note are how often they post, what kind of content seems to get them more engagement, and how they interact with followers on social media platforms.

4. Get the Necessary Tools

There are many digital marketing tools that can help you become a successful blogger. Make sure to undertake search engine optimization for your posts using tools such as Yoast SEO to gain visibility. You can also use tools like Google Analytics to understand traffic on your own site and optimize accordingly. Google Analytics features detailed analytics, including clicks, bounce rates, and user behavior, to help you identify how users are interacting with your content.

5. Choose a Web Hosting Provider

There are many different hosting companies with various deals available, so take the time to select a hosting company for your website. Most travel blogs are created on a self-hosted WordPress account, making them easy to set up. Look for a hosting provider that you can use with the WordPress platform to make it easy to set up and host basic pages of your blog.

6. Buy a Travel Blog Domain

Once you’ve chosen a hosting provider, go through their hosting plan in detail. You should purchase an exclusive domain name and domain privacy protection for your travel website. Some may have offers if you buy hosting, so look for exclusive deals to gain a free domain name for your travel blog.

7. Create Your Travel Blog

Once you have the domain and hosting set up, you’re ready to start. Install WordPress to make it easy to set up and maintain your first blog posts. A WordPress blog is easy to format and post. You can also find additional tools on the WordPress dashboard to enhance your blog by adding WordPress plugins. You can use free themes for your WordPress site or a premium theme that you purchase for website design. If you’re not comfortable setting up your WordPress theme, you can work with a cheap web developer to get the website up and running with a free theme.

8. Organize Your Site

Now that your site is designed, you should use the WordPress content management system to organize your content and make it easy for users to find content on your site. Look at other professional websites to see how other bloggers have set up their website sections.

9. Write Your First Blog Post

The next step is to start writing your first blog and posting it. You can talk about exclusive travel tips, your experiences in a country, or really anything that you’d like. Focus on making it valuable for users, and include information you wish you had known beforehand to give users an exclusive look at your travel.

10. Optimize Your Blog Post for SEO

Making sure search engines can find your posts helps you gain more followers as that can help with making money. Add in relevant keywords based on what people are searching for in travel blogs and the destinations you’re writing for. Posting regularly and optimizing for SEO as much as possible will help you grow your travel blog exponentially.

11. Publish Your Post

After you’ve written the post, it’s time to publish it. You’ll need to preview the formatting to ensure it shows up on the website correctly and hit publish. You can find helpful articles on publishing the blog on a free WordPress website if you’re unsure how to.

12. Share on Social Media

Now that the blog is up, it’s time to promote it! Word of mouth marketing helps increase social media coverage to drive more views and traffic to your business. You can promote the post within your own network on any social media platform to start with. Ask for feedback to gauge whether people can tell how much effort you put in and what users would like to see so you can improve moving forward.

13. Grow Your Travel Blog

After the first post is published and promoted, you’re on your way to becoming a seasoned travel blogger. A successful blog is all about ensuring that you’re posting consistently and that users find your content valuable (and tell you that!). Encourage users to leave comments, like posts, and ask questions to build your following. Once you start seeing engagement, you can seek opportunities for sponsored posts and affiliate marketing to become a successful owner of your blog.

About Our GE Network Expert - Min Tang

Categories
Uncategorized

Virtual Assistant Business

What is a Virtual Assistant Business?

The virtual assistant industry has seen a boom over the last few years as more people have taken up the profession. A virtual assistant business offers specialized skills and services to business owners, ranging from general administrative tasks like scheduling appointments to customer relationship management and other services to busy professionals.

Is a Virtual Assistant Business Profitable?

Virtual assistants can generate significant income for themselves, but it depends on several factors such as hourly rate, working hours, number of clients,, and more. In the US, the average salary for a virtual assistant is up to $20 an hour, but professionals can charge more or less depending on experience and availability.

Why You Should Start a Virtual Assistant Business in 2022

There are many reasons to start your own virtual assistant business. If you’re not sure how to start a virtual assistant business or why you should do it, here are just a few reasons why you should consider it:

  1. Set your own schedule: You can work part-time or full-time as needed based on what your clients
  2. Work on different projects: Increasing your client base allow you to offer specialized services and work with various clients, so there’s more variety in your work.
  3. Good source of income: A VA business can be a good source of revenue if you’re looking to make some money on the side or if you’d like to go full-time
  4. Easy to start: You can begin to (or stop) a virtual assistant business whenever you want, and you need very little to get started.
  5. Value: You can serve an important function for small business owners and busy professionals that need your services and offer value to potential clients in a variety of ways.

Starting a Virtual Assistant Business in 15 Simple Steps

Once you’re ready to be a virtual assistant, keep up the momentum and start setting up your business. We’ll walk you through how to create a successful virtual assistant business and how to become a virtual assistant for clients.

Choose a Niche

The first step to becoming a virtual assistant is to pick a niche for yourself. For example, some VA businesses only focus on administrative tasks, while others offer services like maintaining social media accounts, scheduling, and other ad-hoc tasks that a personal assistant might offer. Think about your skills and where you think you can offer the most value, and go from there.

Know Your Target Market

Once you’ve identified your niche, think about who your target market is. Are you going for a busy professional, such as a solopreneur or a real estate agent? Or would you instead offer VA services to a small business or company? Many virtual assistants work as a personal assistant or as a virtual receptionist for businesses, while others work with multiple clients.

Create Business Plan

Your business becomes more official once you make a business plan, which consists of several elements:

  • A business name, business license, and legal entity, if needed
  • Information about who you’re targeting as your market
  • How you plan on gaining new clients
  • Marketing materials for your business
  • Operating expenses
  • Income targets

Set Up a Business Bank Account and Credit Card

Once you’ve come up with a business plan and a brand for your VA business, your next step is organizing income. A business bank account and credit card help separate your work money from your personal money and make filing taxes easier.

Consider Taking Our Business Insurance

Business insurance is an essential step because it protects you from liabilities and gives your business more security. It’s a cost-effective way to keep your business operating. It makes you look credible to potential clients, and it can help with marketing efforts.

Invest in the Relevant Tech

VA businesses need the right tech to offer their services to busy clients, which can vary depending on the type of tasks being completed. Some important equipment to consider includes:

Sort Out Your Business Structure and Register

There are different business registration options and legal entities you can use to structure your business and pay for taxes.

  • You can work as a sole/independent contractor and report your earnings to the IRS. For this option, you should work with a tax professional to understand how much state and federal taxes you’ll need to withhold
  • You can register as an LLC and pay yourself a salary
  • Another option is to register your business as a corporation, but that may have different tax implications depending on the state you are in

Plan a Marketing Strategy

Now that your business is up and running, it’s time to think about marketing yourself to small business owners and online businesses.

Make sure to highlight how virtual savvy you are, how you can offer value to business owners, and be clear about the services you offer. Look at elements of your business plan to define your marketing strategy and what channels will be best suited for your services.

Price Your Services

When hiring virtual assistants, most businesses tend to worry about costs – especially small businesses. Being upfront and competitive with your pricing will set you apart from other VA businesses.

Before pricing yourself, look at what others in your area are charging, especially those with a similar experience level. Some VA businesses start with a low hourly rate such as $15-20 an hour to entice small businesses and then raise prices once they gain an established client base. You can also charge flat fees and retainers for different services, and create pricing packages to appeal to different clients.

Create a Business Website

As a new business, establishing yourself is key – a website helps make that happen, and it can make the difference in landing your first client. You can create a sleek and simple website that showcases your services, and it can serve as your business card.

Market Your Business and Find Clients

Market your business through a variety of channels such as social media, paid ads, and local newspapers to reach as many people as possible. You can find virtual assistant jobs and apply to them on job sites as well to broaden your search for clients. Dedicate at least some time in the month to market to your current network and find new clients to build your business.

Search for Virtual Assistants

You can find virtual assistants to grow your network and extend your service offerings through third-party websites and LinkedIn. This way, you’ll have a strong connection with virtual assistants in different locations and areas to increase your coverage for clients and expand.

Invest in a Time Tracking Tool

Most virtual assistants start with hourly contracts, which Is why time tracking tools are so useful. You’ll be able to bill clients with transparency, and also keep an eye on working hours, output, and how you can grow your business.

Some great time tracking tools include:

Ask for Reviews

Reviews are everything! Once you build up a solid base of customers and have regular work coming in, make sure to ask them for reviews! Glowing reviews can really make a difference in building your client base, so make sure to periodically ask. You can post reviews as testimonials on your website, on professional profiles for networking, and other channels as a marketing strategy.

Scale Your Business

As you build your services and grow your business, think about how you want to expand. Do you want to offer more personal assistants to businesses to increase coverage? Or do you want to grow your current client base and try to offer more services to entice them? Scaling your business is about balancing capabilities with resources, and looking at what your clients are asking for and how you can provide them more value.

How to Start a Virtual Assistant Business [Smallbiztrends]

About Our GE Network Expert - Min Tang