12 Tips To Help You Get The Financing You Need To Start Your Small Business

Finding the appropriate small business loans you need is no easy process. Receiving money to start a business is difficult, and getting it at times can feel unattainable.

Fortunately, there are many options accessible in the market today for obtaining business capital from outside sources, through revenue streams, or through other channels that you can create yourself. Whatever amount you require to launch or expand your business, the following tips can help you secure small business funding.

Tips to get funds to start your small business

If you are planning to start a business, here are some tips to help you get funds.


1. Use your personal funds

Using your funds to launch or expand a firm puts you in an ideal financial situation. Using your funds prevents you from taking on more debt and maintaining your ownership stake in the company.

Additionally, there is no debt to be paid back and no interest to be accrued. Ensure you have the partner's permission before using any jointly held accounts.

Read How to Avoid Accruing Debt and Start Saving

2. Contact banks

Your chances of getting a loan from a bank are better if you have operated a firm for one or two years. Banks often demand a guarantee and collateral for business loans if you are a new entrepreneur. Banks receive loan guarantees from the Small Business Administration (SBA) to entice them to lend to small businesses. The SBA will reimburse the bank if you don't repay the loan. The business owner is, however, still liable for debt repayment in full. As your company expands, you should set up a line of credit with a bank as an established company to assist you in managing your cash flow.


3. Sales/Income

The best strategy to expand your business is to leverage customer sales money, especially if you have already run a firm or have clients lined up before opening your doors. You receive the same advantages from utilizing your own money without diminishing your savings. 

ALSO READ 10 Important Business Skills Every Professional Need

You won't have to repay a loan or pay interest, and you won't have to give up equity or take on more debt. Without a loan payback plan, your growth might be slower, but you'll be more at ease.


4. Approach angel investors

Angel investors are often wealthy people who want to put money into emerging companies. They resemble venture capital corporations, albeit they are mostly individuals. If you use angel investors, be aware that when the company buys outstanding stock within seven years, it will expect to receive a return in the form of stock or stock repurchase.

Entrepreneurs seeking angel investors should network with small business-focused attorneys or accountants; they may know of investors they can recommend.


5. Take out small business loans

These loans are available to companies with limited assets and low yearly revenue. To qualify for small business loans, your company must meet specific criteria. Small businesses are typically assessed based on variables, including the size, kind, and value of their assets, their sales and income, the number of people they employ, and the number of years they have been in business.

For small business loans, most financial institutions demand collateral and a guarantee. The SBA doesn't make loans, but it does provide guarantees to help small businesses get loans from commercial banks, finance companies, and government agencies if they meet specific requirements.


6. Vendor Finance

If you and a vendor have a solid working relationship, the vendor might be prepared to finance a portion of your company by extending their payment terms for a defined period. Vendors can be approached, and you can present them with your business plan and the orders you've previously gotten.

The vendor might be willing to give longer payment terms if they are confident that your company will succeed and become one of their best clients in the future.

A longer period of credit terms may also be swapped for establishing supplier exclusivity for a specified period. Your company may have to pay more for this agreement.


7. Peer-to-Peer Lending

Companies employ this type of lending because it is less expensive and simpler than obtaining a loan from a bank. It is also known as online lending or person-to-person lending.

These loans will appear on your credit report as personal debt, reducing your credit score. A peer-to-peer loan requires a high credit score, typically 640 or higher, and loans are typically capped at roughly $25,000.

READ Applying for Personal Loan: Basic Things You Need to Know

8. Look for federal grants

Companies that fulfill the SBA's size requirements for most of the economy's industries may be given small business loans and grants.


9. Watch out for state grants

Start by looking at the state where your company is located when seeking small business grants. To promote the expansion of small businesses in their regions, several states have organizations that can provide grants and other forms of business help.

Small Business Development Centers are present in most states (SBDC). The Small Firm Development Centers (SBDC) are a worldwide network of locations, usually located at colleges and universities, that offer training and consultation to small businesses on all facets of launching, financing, and managing a company.


10. Borrow from credit cards

Due to the high-interest rates and potential for credit damage, financial experts advise against using credit cards. Using a credit card can occasionally be more convenient than applying for a traditional loan. An instance would be using a credit card to address immediate cash flow issues while future revenue is assured.

Only use a credit card if you can pay it off monthly. You will spend much more on interest and late penalties if you cannot pay off the credit card each month. Additionally, you can be charged even greater interest rates if your payments are late.

There are several instances where entrepreneurs have failed to make credit card payments and, as a result, incurred debt. Many of them consolidate their credit cards for affordable monthly payments.


11. Borrow from friends and family

Although initially, it may seem like a good idea to borrow money from them, you should examine your options. The ultimate query is, "At what cost am I acquiring these funds?" It is not necessary to repay funds received as gifts.

But you must decide how the arrangement will function if the money is offered to buy interest or ownership. Will they be consulted before decisions are made? Or will they become partners? Whatever their function, you should use caution.

Make sure you have loan or investment documents prepared in each circumstance with precise ownership, investment, and repayment terms.


12. Obtain unsecured business loans

Unsecured business loans, often known as lines of credit, are loans made without requiring security. Due to the lack of collateral as a guarantee of repayment, these loans are riskier for the lenders. The loan amounts are less, and the interest rates are greater due to this risk.

Note: Please note that the last 3 tips are a little bit risky. So, you should use them only if there are no other options.


Final note

Finally, you can opt for crowdfunding, which is done by asking many people for money on websites made just for that purpose. They usually get a gift or the product you're making in exchange for their money.




Author Bio: Lyle Solomon has extensive legal experience, in-depth knowledge, and experience in consumer finance and writing. He has been a member of the California State Bar since 2003. He graduated from the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California, in 1998 and currently works for the Oak View Law Group in California as a principal attorney.

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How Can You Profit From NFTs? A Closer Look For An Investor

People thought NFTs were a fad and wouldn’t be here for long. But apparently, some people are earning millions from them. NFTs are considered collectibles. You shouldn’t confuse NFT files with JPEG files. While the former has a value, the latter does not. The term NFT stands for non-fungible tokens. Very few blockchain experiments have been as successful as NFTs. You will find some similarities between NFTs and other cryptocurrencies, like Etherium and Bitcoin. However, unlike cryptocurrencies, you won’t be able to exchange them. The popularity of NFTs is increasing by leaps and bounds every day, with renowned celebs and multinational companies looking at having their own NFTs.

Understanding NFTs

What gives NFTs their value? It’s straightforward. The more people interested in an NFT, the more valuable it becomes. The value depends on their rarity and the amount of interest people have for them. You can convert any form of digital media into NFTs, but you won’t be able to stop someone from sharing them. However, one can see through the blockchain to whom a particular piece of NFT originally belongs.

MUST READ How To Make Money On YouTube Working From Home

You’re likely to make a lot of money through NFTs. It can change your life. A considerable number of people are involved in the world of NFTs. They’re either investing in NFTs or buying and selling them. With their increase in popularity, more and more people are interested in knowing how to make money. 

NFTs are capable of storing information that a standard currency cannot. They are made up of different parts. You can find them in any digital art form. They can be kept in any digital storage device, and they have a value attached to them. Anything that is in digital format can be converted into NFTs.

Digital artists can arguably profit the most from NFTs. Selling their pieces of artwork as NFTs will fetch them high prices. Those original digital artworks can be memes, digital art audio, video clips, or music. 

To make money with NFTs as an investor, you can stake, borrow, or sell them. In the world of cryptocurrency, the term for selling an NFT is “flipping.”

1. To get money, you do not necessarily have to sell your NFT. You can choose to invest in an NFT that yields tokens that you can sell to earn money in some other currency.

2. Borrowing or lending NFTs is another way of making money. The mechanism through which it happens is called “Scholarship.” This term gained popularity through a blockchain game called Axie Infinity, in which the game’s assets are in the form of NFTs. The player borrows those NFTs to play, and the player who borrows earns a little bit of the money. The owner of the assets sets the rules here. This model allows for the NFTs to be used actively. If they’re just there sitting in your inventory, they’re not making you any money. However, in this model, you’re renting them out for actual money, which is more profitable than otherwise.

3. Many investors in the blockchain community prefer to sell their NFTs to make money. However, it’s not as easy as it sounds. You won’t be able to make a sizeable amount of profit easily. Generally, newer
investors are more inclined towards selling or “flipping” as their investment strategy. If you want to make money by “flipping,” you need to have a considerable amount of knowledge regarding this world. You also must talk to the community for a significant amount of time to gain an insight into the market. If you want to make money by selling NFTs, you should have access to information that will benefit you financially. Investors looking for this option want to make a lot of money in a short while.

How to buy NFTs

Some websites allow you to buy NFTs using credit cards. However, you’ll find that most of the websites only accept payment in cryptocurrency. To use a cryptocurrency, you’ll need to have a wallet. You’ll quickly find websites that won’t charge you fees for creating a wallet. You’ll need to verify your identity on websites like blockchain.com first. After that, you’ll be able to buy the cryptocurrency of your choice. After you’re happy with the amount of cryptocurrency you have, you can look for NFTs on auction websites like OpenSea. Think of it like eBay for NFTs.

ALSO READ Check Out These 3 Simple Ways to Make Money with Live Streaming!

If you’re buying NFTs with cryptocurrency for the first time, keep in mind that they charge you extra for using such a currency to check out. Blockchain congestion and the type of cryptocurrency used will determine what this checkout fee is going to be.

 
If you want to showcase your NFTs, you can do so on Lazy.com. All you need to do is make an account there and prove that you are the owner of a particular NFT, and in a matter of minutes, you’ll be able to showcase your collection online.

 
Different people will profit from NFTs in different ways. If you’re considering investing in NFTs, you should buy one that you think will become popular in the future. There are high-profile NFTs, but you’ll find that they cost way more than they should at the moment. The NFT market is at its emergent stage right now, so there’s much less competition here.

What the future holds

Right now, we can’t say much about the future of NFTs, as is the case with many other blockchain experiments. Still, some publications believe that NFTs are here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. The concept that you can use assets without the owner losing all their rights over it in the world of music can become the new method of selling music.

 

 

About the Author

Camron is a licensed attorney and the spokesperson for the Internet’s first get out of debt community - DebtConsolidationCare.com (DebtCC). He has vast experience in dealing with debt, bankruptcy, personal and business tax-related issues. As a spokesperson of DebtCC Community, he provides legal advice and debt solutions to community members. Furthermore, he writes articles and creates podcasts to help people get back on the right financial track.

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10 Important Business Skills Every Professional Need

In this 21st century world of today, it is becoming increasingly important for every professional to understand essential business concepts and tools. This is because a good grasp of fundamental business principles will help build your confidence when conducting your daily professional chores and open the door to many more opportunities the business world has got to offer.

As you navigate the world as a professional, one thing you will quickly realize is that to be successful requires more than expertise in your professional field. The fact that you possess the best qualifications or the most intelligence within the establishment does not necessarily guarantee success. Hard work and passion are handy to succeed in your career, but this is still not enough. All these may help you secure a job in the workplace. However, your career progression will most likely stall if you do not develop and master a set of fundamental business skills.


What are Business Skills?

Business skills help you understand consumer and organizational behavior and use this information to make your company successful. Business skills are at the base of success in the business world. They include soft skills, communication skills, management skills, technical skills, and analytical and mathematical skills that help a business succeed. Critical thinking, negotiation, and train-ability are also examples of business skills.

ALSO READ 7 Tips for Starting Your Own Business Overseas

In this article, let us discuss ten important business skills every professional must possess to be successful:


1. Communication Skills

Communication skills are an important skill one needs to navigate through any professional undertaking effectively. Almost everything you do requires improved communication. Good communication skills encompass active listening, the ability to deliver precise and effective verbal and written messages, as well a good sense of empathy. Good communication is essential for business success. Effective communication is key to the selection process when you are hiring a staff member. Communicating with people you work with requires you to clarify your expectations and to be sensitive when handling problems.

2. Sales and Marketing Skills

The ability to succeed as a professional depends on having excellent sales and marketing skills - including pricing and advertising. In order to develop your marketing strategy, you will need to analyze your competition, the marketplace, and industry trends. Building profitable revenue streams is achieved by formulating and communicating a compelling message to the right audience.

3. Leadership Skills

The task of leadership involves persuading and managing others to accomplish set goals and objectives. You must be able to motivate people you work with in order to get the best out of them and improve their output. The key in this area is understanding that leadership is more focused on people and the vision that drives success. You should encourage regular assessments and progress meetings to make sure people working under you are happy – listen to their issues and needs and do all you can to provide needed assistance. People tend to put in their best when they’re most comfortable.

Increasing your business and team size requires employing more people - good leadership skills are crucial to engaging the best talent and retaining them in tough times.


4. General Management Skills

People often think leadership skills and management skills are the same. This is not true. Leadership is centered around people and management of their interactions and emotions, while management deals with directing people to coordinate towards achieving a particular goal.

 

For your business, you will need an individual who can plan and execute projects, manage people to do the tasks, and take the blame when things go south. Like leadership skills, a good grasp of management puts you ahead of your colleagues when promotions come around.

READ How to Avoid Accruing Debt and Start Saving

Managers develop processes in pursuit of goals, including allocating funds and organizing people.

Good management includes knowing how to lead people wherever they are. A leader’s impact is felt in the immediate environment by leading individual teams, while managers must propel an organization’s philosophy.


5. Financial Management Skills

Business success depends on the ability to manage your finances, so developing this skill should be a priority. Financial management skill entails applying the different financial technique to monitor your cash flow and measure the overall financial out your business. You will need to be able to correlate your income to your expenses and also be able to do a forecast your sales and cash flow. It also entails profit and loss monitoring. In other words, you need a good grasp of financial statement analysis to identify the items that affect profitability.


6. Negotiation Skills

Everybody negotiates informally from time to time, even if we don’t know it. However, negotiating on a formal basis is something you can only learn through knowledge and experience. As you participate in more business activities that involve making deals than when you are just an observer, you become a better negotiator. Experienced negotiators are more likely to close deals quicker and more favorable because they know what to say, how, and when to say it.


7. Networking Skills

Networking is also an important business skill you will need as a professional. There is so much you can benefit from knowing how to build a strong network. You can get ideas and advice on a problem or vital career information from people in your professional network. 

CHECK OUT Applying for Personal Loan: Basic Things You Need to Know

To gain the most benefit from any network, seek opportunities to build new connections and develop relationships.


8. Time Management Skills

Time management is a skill that is so key to productivity and success in business. Knowing how to manage your time effectively means that you can be more productive and meet up deadlines. Many companies find that having good time management skills makes their employees more valuable and they get promoted to take on even more challenging jobs. The key to time management is knowing how to prioritize your schedule such that the essential ones are executed first.


9. Delegation of Skills

Not delegating work is a trap many people fall into simply because they find it hard to give up proprietary control. However, to manage your time effectively, which is required for productivity, you may need to delegate specific responsibilities to others. Delegation of tasks gives you more room to concentrate on those aspects of work that generate more returns.

Sometimes, the delegation of work can mean giving others opportunities to learn and grow. This will help foster collaboration within the group, and everyone then benefits from it.

Even if you are the most talented or intelligent person in an organization, you would not be able to do all the work to keep the company’s wheel running smoothly. It would be best if you had available people who can take up the task should you become unavoidably unavailable


10. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence means having a high Emotional Quotient (EQ), which can be defined as the ability of a person to harness their own emotions in relation to the emotion of people they deal with daily.

Emotional intelligence is a major driver of productivity in the workplace, and the important cannot be overemphasized.

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How To Make Money On YouTube Working From Home

More than 30% of the human population wants to experience the convenience or ease of working from home and making money with YouTube. That's something sensible and worth it, provided you are aware of the prerequisites and you adhere to the already established rules and guidelines. However, not everyone knows what these rules and guidelines are; some know what they are, but they don't exactly understand how they operate, and that's precisely what this article talks about. This article will teach you everything you need to know how to make money on YouTube working from home. Let's go! 

 

You can't earn money online from YouTube if you're not a user of the app itself, and no, not just by scrolling through videos already on YouTube but by developing your own YouTube Channel. Have a plan on what your Channels content should resemble, basically create your Signature! Ensure your YouTube Channel Page is fun, enjoyable, and welcoming. You don't want a channel that's disorganized, too little, or too much. Now let's get to the hard part, which is creating content. If you want to be a YouTuber, then you have to be consistent with content production. For it to be easy for you, pick a niche you are interested in - something you can create content without stress. The good thing about youtube is that there are many options on the type of content for the platform. Some of the contents are vlogs, webinars, tutorials/how-to, behind-the-scenes, product reviews, user-generated content, e.t.c. The list is endless; there is so much you can do.

1. YouTube Partner Program (YPP) requirements

 

It is important to know that your already set up channel has to meet the YPP requirements. To count your channel worthy of joining the program, it has to have a bare minimum of 1,000 subscribers and a total of 4,000 watch hours or more in the last 12 months. Not so easy eh? Well, it could be, provided you adopt this simple logic; the higher your number of videos and the needs they meet, the higher the chances of it reaching the viewing-hours brink. Videos that are entertaining and high-quality are more likely to fit in the category of those that earn you more subscribers and views. Immediately you've met these requirements, go to your profile and navigate the "monetization" section, and you're good to go. You're welcome! 

MUST READ Check Out These 3 Simple Ways to Make Money with Live Streaming!

Are you wondering how to meet these requirements? First, you will need to do a form of promotion; either you opt for free advertising, which entails using your other social media platforms to promote your videos, or use a paid promotion service. The choice is yours!

2. Google Adsense

 

 

Connecting to Google AdSense gets you approved as a YouTube Partner. Google AdSense is the company's system for advertisement. Using AdSense is the key to acquiring space on videos based on relevant keywords, the title of your video, and your audience. In addition, the number of "impressions" that your videos make determines how much you'll be paid. "Impressions" means when a viewer clicks on an ad or watches it.

3. Correctly Set Up Your YouTube SEO

 

Having gone through the rigor of setting up your video and carefully editing them, not filling out the right title, tags, and description for the video could potentially leave you with zero views after three months or more! Saddening huh? To successfully make money on YouTube, you have to maximize YouTube SEO. Keyword research is significant in achieving this. Ensure you make use of high-value keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and tags. For your videos to be found quickly and enjoyed, there are some key ranking factors for YouTube SEO that you should consider: the video length, the number of comments, subscribers you get after a particular video has been watched, the likes and dislikes ratio, and the keyword relevance. Generally, it's advisable to use keywords that surround "how-to," "tutorials," and "reviews," as Google provides the video results for these keyword searches.

4. YouTube Premium

 

Now Google AdSense isn't the only way for YouTube Partners to earn money on YouTube, working from home. Making your videos available on YouTube Premium is another way; you get a percentage of YouTube Premium users' subscription fee when a member watches your video. This process is automatic, which makes it even more convenient and direct.

5. Add Affiliate links to your video.

 

Perhaps you aren't making a lot of money from running ads; another beneficial method of monetizing your YouTube channel that you should take advantage of is adding affiliate links in the video description. These affiliate links should surround recommending products that your viewers can purchase and carrying out product tutorials. If a user visits your link to buy a product you recommended, you start earning commissions immediately. Placing the link at the top of your video description increases the chances of your viewers seeing and clicking on it. You can also talk about the affiliate offer and what surrounds it in your video content.

6. Grow Your Audience
 

Building your audience is beneficial to you in more ways than one. Firstly, a large audience increases your chances of successfully making money online by selling digital products, eBooks, and online courses. Your audience purchases these items from you directly, adding more money to your bank account! 

ALSO READ Does Working from Home Truly Benefit Your Budget?

You can also ask for donations by using crowdfunding. Recurring and project-based crowdfunding are the two basic types. The former allows contributors to pay a specific amount on a planned schedule. In contrast, the latter is for projects that need financial assistance. You can use sites like GoFundMe or Indiegogo for Project-based Crowdfunding. 

CHECK OUT 5 simple ways to start making money online

Additionally, growing your audience attracts companies to your channel, especially if your audience is their target audience. Interested companies usually sponsor your videos or offer you deals in exchange for a shout-out. So what's in it for you? You may ask. Well, you'll most likely be paid either on a per-sale basis or in commission. However, it is important that you can vouch for the services the company renders before you sign up for the deal.

The "sponsor" strategy is another thing you should tap into. Here, YouTube doesn't get any part of your earnings as you directly negotiate with the company and get paid directly! Little wonder YouTube is a significant way to earn money online while working from home! 

READ Top Freelancing Websites to Get Jobs and Make Good Money

And it's a Wrap!

Earning money online by working from home has been made possible and accessible to everyone on planet earth, provided you're willing to put in the work. It's common knowledge that little effort births little reward and large effort births large reward. All you need to do is choose yours! The earlier you start using YouTube, the earlier it is for you to generate traffic and be in a better place in the next 1 or 2 years when the competition is tougher than it is right now.

So here is a recap on how to make money on YouTube Working from Home;

Become A YouTuber
Join the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) and meet the requirements
Connect to Google AdSense
Correctly set Up Your YouTube SEO
Consider using YouTube Premium
Add affiliate links to your posts

And!!

7. Grow Your Audience

May the odds forever be in your favour, Ciao!

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How To Make a Small Room Look Bigger With Stone Tile Flooring

As the Australian population grows, homeowners have no option but to build smaller rooms. That's particularly so in towns and cities where limited space is fast becoming the order of the day. But even with that, no one wants to stay in a room that feels cramped.

If your room is feeling too small, the first step is to remove the items you don't need. That's simple, right?

Unfortunately, you can't go that direction if everything in the room is essential. Therefore, you must look for alternative ways to make your room look bigger. One way is to choose a flooring option that will make the room look and feel spacious. Tiles are a perfect option to achieve this.

Below are some of the ways through which you can use tile flooring to make your room look more spacious.

Use Large Size Tiles

The good thing about tiles is that they come in a variety of sizes. Travertine, limestone, and marble floor tiles are available in different sizes. Choose a size that will give you the spacious feel you need. Professional designers agree that large tiles make your room appear larger. Further, experts say that when you use large tiles and grouts of the same colour as the tiles, you get a sense of bigger space.

Choosing The Right Colour Combination

Almost every designer will tell you that brighter colours make a room look more spacious. While many people have tried this with great success, research reveals that this only works because of the colour combination used in the entire room. Therefore, when choosing colours for your tile flooring, pick the colours that work best for you, experimenting to get the best results. You can buy travertine, marble, or limestone tiles Newcastle in a colour choice that works best for room users without limiting them to bright colours. The fact that they're available in many colours means you can always select a colour that blends in well with your general room design.

Combine Different Shapes

Achieving a visual effect that makes your room feel spacious takes some effort. One of the ways to do this is by using different shapes. You can go for square and rectangular combinations, but maintain the same texture and colour across the floor. Getting the right mix requires a high level of skill for everything to remain organised. Consult a flooring expert if you're not sure about what to do with different shapes.

Employ Consistency

For the best result, avoid using different flooring styles in different rooms. Using a uniform style creates a seamless blend, making your room appear more spacious.

Use The Diagonal Trick

Although it might not sound realistic, installing your tiles in a diagonal style will make your room look bigger. This rule works not only for tiles but also for other flooring options. Diagonally installing the tiles requires that you use a coloring option that projects the diagonal effect.

By following the above approaches, you'll be surprised by how much you can make your small room look bigger. You must, however, ensure that you only keep what you need. Also, as mentioned above, every other thing in the room, including wall hangings, shouldn't be things that make your room look cramped.



Writer Bio:

Victor Ochieng is a content and blog writer who formerly worked for Insider Monkey and Metaverse Corporation. He has a background in Accounting and technology, answering why he has a bias for finance and technology writing. When he writes, Victor makes it simple for the average reader even as he also injects flair to make his pieces interesting to read. His maxim: To be a good writer, write.

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3 Beautiful Countries for Business Person That are Visa Free for Nigerian Passport Holders

No doubt, most Nigerian business owners willing to have a vacation outside the territory never knew there are beautiful places in West Africa. Sadly, none of these people search for countries in West Africa but searching for greener fields and never had a clue about the beautiful cities in West Africa. The most important city in West Africa would depend upon infrastructural improvement, including the availability of right avenues, basic structures, and urban masterminding. Various components to consider before arriving at the best and most superb urban regions are shopping workplaces, preoccupation, and unwinding workplaces, fresh air, and neighborliness.

While it is difficult to figure out one west African city as the best, there are significant West African Cities that stand separated among the rest. However, as extraordinary infrastructural structure and improvement equally as having a system that works.

Let's see some remarkable countries to visit for vacation which is visa-free for Nigerian passport holders;

1. Accra – Ghana

The capital city of Ghana is a cutting edge city with great bars, cafés, shopping centers, and night clubs. It likewise has a thriving land division, little marvel why it has turned into a most loved excursion goal for privileged Africans and vacationers. Ghanaians are neighborly individuals, and their tropical condition is particularly good.


There are numerous highbrow zones and furthermore pleasant spots for night home base, making it an astounding city to live.

There are numerous prosperous regions, including East Legon. The area of the city is just a customary shopping complex, Accra Mall. Accra has the most fabulous shopping center in West Africa. – The West Hills Mall.

Another common choice is Osu, privately alluded to as "Oxford Street," where many go to the shop and hang out.

The tropical atmosphere makes it all the more engaging. Things are improving and quick. There is no uncertainty that in two or three years, Accra will have the option to rival some Western nations of the world.

2. Abidjan- Ivory Coast

Another country to visit as a business person for vacation is Ivory Coast. Abidjan happens to be the biggest city in Cote d'Ivoire. A few years prior, Abidjan would have topped the rundown of the most delightful city in West Africa. Tragically, it has lost this situation because of the effect of war. We can't reject it from this rundown as despite everything it has the vast majority of the stuff to rank with West Africa's best urban communities. It has a decent number of exhibition halls and craftsmanship displays that will draw in guests. A couple of different attractions in Abidjan are St. Paul's Cathedral, the Banco National Park, and the Amani Gallery. Arriving is most simple since Abidjan and Nigeria are both in the western piece of Africa.


3. Dakar – Senegal

Situated along the coast, Dakar is the capital city of Senegal. Senegal is a country located on the western edge of Africa. It has a few vacation spots that a business person can consider and is additionally blasting in exchange and other monetary exercises. It is a standout amongst other West African urban areas. You'll unquestionably appreciate the glow and accommodation of the locals. A portion of the significant spots worth visiting in Dakar is the Grande Mosque, the Renaissance Monument, and the Dakar Cathedral.

In conclusion, there are other places you can consider for your vacation as a business person. This is not an end list of visa-free countries for Nigerian passport holders but can pick on any of these countries. As a business person, business class flight to any of these countries would be okay as you are planning on having a vacation or either enjoy yourself. Travelstart is the right option for you to book a cheap economy and business flight to any of this country for your vacation.

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7 Tips for Starting Your Own Business Overseas

7 Tips for Starting Your Own Business Overseas

Most entrepreneurs began like this…

They found themselves looking at other successful entrepreneurs living the dream life in an exotic country, while staring out the window of their apartment building in a crowded city.

Slowly but surely gathering courage and inspiration to chase the same dream..

Researching ways to start a business overseas...

...and then they suddenly woke up with a feeling of “I’m doing it!”. And that’s all she wrote. Now you’ll probably see them floating at the top of their industry.

However, building a successful business abroad isn’t simply a stroke of luck. Your favorite entrepreneurs didn’t centralize their business idea around just anything that seemed profitable at the time.

They knew better and didn’t rely on luck but rather their dedication, passion, love, motivation, and willingness to face the risks and overcome them.

Did you already figure out how you’re going to launch your business in a foreign country?

Don’t worry if you haven’t!

I’ve made a list of 7 essential things in order to help you successfully launch and develop your own business overseas!

1) Ask yourself “Why”

Starting your own business might be an intimidating uphill ladder to climb but many have gone and done it before you. Being constantly rejected after job interviews will take its toll and drain your self-belief.

As mentioned in the intro, starting a successful business doesn’t come easy, heck starting a business at all isn’t easy. That means you must be heavily motivated and believe for 200% in yourself and in your business in order to succeed. When you’re starting a business as a last resort, you’re already down 2 points.

Dig deep - and I mean really deep. Find the true answer to why you want to start a business. Once you can answer that, it’s ready to go to the next step.

2) Let’s Nail It Down

You might already own a business in your home country but want to re-brand and introduce it overseas in a new market. For the sake of this list, I’m assuming you don’t have a business yet. First off, it would be pointless to reinvent the wheel.

Here’s the catch:

Try to find an idea that is already available on the market and simply improve it! For example, I developed an idea and started my own business in my last year at the University. At the time, it was mandatory to do a 6 months internship abroad. I decided to do my internship in Asia, Indonesia to be specific. In Indonesia, it’s quite hard to find a company that’s willing to provide an internship due to all the paperwork etc. That’s why there are various agencies offering a service that will land you an internship.

However, I was very dissatisfied with how things were handled. It was poorly put together from start to finish and I had to take care of so many things myself. I thought I can do this but way better.

Based on that experience, I decided to start my own internship agency, offering internships in Indonesia for a fixed fee and my agency would take care of paperwork, housing, airport pickup, visa documents, and a few extras.

Look around you, think about this example and maybe you’ll get an awesome idea to improve an already existing product or service.

3) Business Plan

Some business plans are never ending documents of countless of pages with expectations, calculations, assumptions, market trends, fluctuations, what’ll happen in 2, 3, or 5 years, and so on.

It’s simply too much.

Too much information, It will take way too much time and effort, and for what? It’s nearly impossible to predict what your budget or revenue will be estimated at in 3 or 5 years. I read the “$100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau” and I highly recommend it! Chris shows a great example of a “one-page business plan” that covers:

❏    What are you selling
❏    What is the value of your product or service
❏    Who is going to buy it
❏    How are you going to find customers
❏    How much will you charge
❏    What are you going to do to make it happen

That’s all. Try to answer all these questions. It’s not as easy as you might think.

4) Target Market

Let’s quickly flashback to one point in the previous section: your potential customers.

When thinking about your potential target market, try to really nail it down as specific as you can. For example, when you sell waist trainers for women, don’t just target all women. Narrow it down by targeting women who are interested in a healthy lifestyle, gym, fitness, body shape, losing weight, etc.

You get my point.

Furthermore, you want to target a very specific target audience through social media campaigns also. The better you are able to narrow down your audience, the better the results are. It’s better to reach a small group who you know will be interested in your product or service instead of targeting a large group who might not be interested at all.

Finally, test and analyze your own campaigns. Develop an A/B testing strategy and to optimize your campaigns and utilize your full potential.

5) Pricing Strategy

You don’t want to charge too much, yet you don’t want to charge too little. Be realistic and recognize a fair price for your product or service that people are willing to pay for it. This also means, if you’re offering something of great value, don’t be afraid to price it accordingly!

Set realistic goals and calculate how much you need to sell quarterly/monthly or weekly in order to break-even or surpass your goal. Again, be realistic, this is important. Calculate any overhead costs such as delivery and/or any other incurred costs, it’s not rocket science.

Update and revise your financial overviews every month.

6) Startup Capital

When you’re just starting out, you want to keep the costs as low as possible. Be creative and be careful with spending money. Don’t rent expensive equipment or a fancy office at a premium location if that is not directly affecting the success rate of your business.

When I first started my business, I moved to Indonesia with just one suitcase and my laptop. My room was a very simple one-bedroom apartment with a shared kitchen. If I wasn’t driving around visiting companies, I was either working from home or a local cafe. Much, later on, I decided to rent an office.

Do you need extra starting capitals and you can’t reach it alone? Explore your options among crowdfunding websites. It’s a great solution to raise a certain investment and you can even invite friends, family or old business partners to support your business idea. One of the most famous crowdfunding platforms is Kickstarter.

7) It’s Time For Action!

Your business idea can be great, awesome, or incredible. Yet, without customers, your business won’t stay around for long.

It’s a follow-up on section 4 - your target audience. When you’ve been able to pinpoint who your potential customers are, it’s now time for action! The most important thing is to get started. It doesn’t really matter where or how - just do it. Don’t overthink it too much.

Create a list of companies or individual prospects who might be interested in your product or service and go after them. Call them, visit them, email them. Try to build a network and constantly expand. Schedule social media ad campaigns to raise brand awareness, engagement or following.

Are you still sitting in that chair, in your apartment building, in the crowded city?

I know I’m repeating myself here but it’s the most important thing to start your own business: It’s time to get out from that chair and take action. Nothing is going to happen if you don’t get started! Hopefully, this list will push you in the right direction.

Did you already experience how it is to start your own business? What were your biggest challenges?

Let us know in the comments below!

________________________________________
About Marcel de Jong: Marcel is a lead content writer for Now Health, digital nomad, and entrepreneur living in South East Asia for the past 10 years. In his free time, he loves to do outdoor sports such as wakeboarding, climbing, or snowboarding. If not, you might catch him hanging out with his friends or travel and enjoy the beautiful countries in Asia.

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How - and Why - to Build a Powerful Blogging Brand

How - and Why - to Build a Powerful Blogging Brand  

 

If you’re like me you’re probably wondering why in the heck an individual blogger would need to build a powerful brand.

Isn’t that just for Apple, Nike, Google, Starbucks, and all of these billion dollar empires?

No!

Whether you like it or not, readers make a split second decision each time they find your blog. Either your presentation impresses them and they stick around or you send them packing with a poor presentation.

Your presentation is your blogging brand.

Powerful blog branding is about creating a memorable, impactful experience.

If you follow a few specific steps you can craft a renowned and powerful brand.

Why Build a Powerful Blogging Brand?

Creating a powerful blogging brand:

● Increases your blog traffic

● Boosts your blogging profits

● Multiplies your features on top blogs, podcasts and news outlet websites

● Increases your email list size

● Boosts your blog comments

● Fosters a sense of community among your readers

If readers remember your blogging brand they will return to your blog, buy your products, hire you and endorse you to their like-minded communities.

Follow these tips to build a rocking blogging brand.

1: Pay for a Domain, Hosting and Premium Theme

Pay for a domain, hosting and premium theme to build a powerful, renowned, memorable blogging brand.

By owning a self-hosted Wordpress blog and buying a premium or bespoke theme you can perfectly tailor your blog around your brand. Literally, you can mirror whatever brand image you have in mind through your blog.

Your customization options goes through the roof with a self-hosted Wordpress blog and bespoke theme. Pay up to move up in blogging circles.

2: Align Your Blog Top Down

Align every element of your blog 100% with your core message to create a world renowned brand.

I did not appear on world famous blogs and news sites until I aligned my blog 100% with my core message.

Powerful blogging brands are lean, mean machines, with no excess fat jiggling around your blog design.

You will only see Blogging From Paradise products and services on my blog. I am ruthless when it comes to enforcing this rule but this is the main reason why my blogging brand shines brightly enough to get featured on popular, world-renowned blogs and news outlets.

Trash anything that does not align fully with your blogging message. Yes, that means trashing Adsense or other 3rd party ads that you do not own.

Remember the title of this post; we are building “powerful” brands, not “average”, or ho hum, brands.

3: Integrate Multimedia with Your Blog

Many of my readers said they feel like they got to really know me through my Facebook Live videos.

Recording videos, podcasts and other multimedia adds a human component to your blog which makes your brand memorable.

If my blog is just words on a screen you may have a difficult time remembering me and my blog. If however you see me talking via a Facebook or Youtube video you will perceive me to be a real, living, breathing human behind the words on the page, making my brand more memorable.

Record videos. Start a podcast. Remind readers that you are human. Create a powerful brand by connecting with readers on a deeper, human level.

4: Guest Post on Top Blogs from Your Niche

Guest post on top blogs from your niche.

Add a “Seen At” widget to your blog.

Readers instantly associate your blog with where you were featured, adding more power and credibility to your blogging brand.

I appeared on sites like Virgin, Forbes, Entrepreneur and Fox News. Readers perceive my blogging brand in a different light through the power of associating Blogging From Paradise with these famous, respected brands.

Write 1000 words daily in a Word document for practice to gain confidence in your writing. Comment on top blog. Promote top bloggers via social media. Build friendships with top bloggers to either gain invites to guest post or to pitch your friends successfully.

5: Publish the Same Brand Message across Social Media

Publish the same brand message on social media. From Facebook to Twitter to G Plus to LinkedIn send the same, branded, singular signal that aligns with your core message.

Example; I blog about blogging from paradise. I share tips to help you retire to a life of island hopping through smart blogging. To maintain a powerful brand I chiefly publish social media updates related to sharing blogging tips and pictures I snapped in tropical paradises.

Stay on topic. Brand yourself and your blog effectively.

Your Turn

What tips can you add to this list?


Authors Bio
Ryan Biddulph is a blogger, author and world traveler who's been featured on Richard Branson's Virgin Blog, Forbes, Fox News, Entrepreneur, John Chow Dot Com and Neil Patel Dot Com. He has written and self-published 126 bite-sized eBooks on Amazon. Ryan can help you build a successful blog with the 11 Fundamentals of Successful Blogging Audio Course. 

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How to Avoid Accruing Debt and Start Saving

Getting smart about saving money can be hard, especially when taxes are just around the corner. With all the conflicting services advertising online these days, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all of the options.

Given the lack of formal financial education available to most individuals, one of the most difficult parts of establishing financial security can be sifting through the available information to find applicable, good advice. Some useful strategies, like taking out a short-term loan to prevent fiscal emergencies from ruining a credit score, can be overlooked during this process. Read on for a few simple tips on how to avoid debt, start saving, and design the best financial plan for any budget.

How to Avoid Accruing Debt and Start Saving

Stop Accruing Debt

The best way to evade increasing levels of debt is, quite simply, to pay bills and obligations as they come due. Of course, life has plenty of unforeseen complications that don’t always leave this possible: from the loss of a job, car troubles, family emergencies, or something more benign like a forgotten bill, there are any number of things that can prevent bills from getting paid on time. In situations like these, short-term loans can save time and money.

Taking out an easy payday loan to avoid missing a payment will save the heartache and headache associated with overdue payments, keep credit scores intact, and help maintain a positive relationship with lenders. These things all contribute to keeping the financial future bright, making it easier to find future loans and avoid increasing late fees. It can also increase the amount of the next payment which will go towards decreasing the true loan amount, rather than simply paying off interest.

Start Saving

Interest isn’t always a bad thing—when it comes to money in a private savings or checking account, keeping more money will increase the interest earned each month. These interest levels differ between account types, though; and keeping money in a savings account will earn more in the long run. Of course, this comes with the trade-off that money is less accessible. Most savings accounts will only permit a certain number of withdrawals within a month before charging accessory fees.

In situations like these, it’s beneficial for your financial scores and saving potential to have a savings account earning higher interest rates for each month. If money gets tight, loans can be beneficial for this as well. Taking out a small denomination loan is beneficial in the long run if it helps maintain a savings balance, or avoiding fees for moving money around before a set date. These loans can easily be paid back once a financial crisis has been averted, especially when a stack of bills with the same due date have been paid or the next paycheck has come in.

Budgeting

Keeping a yearly budget is one of the most important steps in maintaining positive finances. The initial process can be complicated—determining monthly expenses will take at least a month of active tracking, and systematically evaluating those expenses to differentiate between necessities and areas of potential reduction can be painful. In the long run though, the alleviation of stress achieved with financial stability and security is well worth the struggle.

Avoid Accruing Debt Now

Taxes are coming due soon, making this one of the most stressful fiscal seasons of the year. If taxes weren’t figured into the yearly budget, it will be easier to apply for a short term loan to cover the expense than deal with the headache of late payments or tax delinquency. Save yourself the monetary pain of poor credit and late fees, and look into payday loans to cover your short-term financial needs.


Author Bio
Robert Martin is a freelance writer and a financial advisor from Los Angeles, California. Combining over 10 years of expertise in the financial sector, he has worked with many prestigious businesses and private clients. When he is not busy working with budgets, he enjoys researching new topics and writing.

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Check Out These 3 Simple Ways to Make Money with Live Streaming!

There are many Internet users who use live video streaming to promote their brand. With this medium, businesses are able to position their brand, create the buzz of their new products andget rapidfeedbackfrom their target audience. The growing trend of this new marketing tool has opened new avenues for businesses to promote their brand.

Besides, a video also brings out the creative soul in front of the cameraand provides a quick and easy way to share information, make a point, or even launch an entire marketing campaign. So if you want to truly want to leverage the potential of live streaming, you need to follow these tips:

1. Subscriptions/Pay Per View Options

If you want to make money from your personal videos, you can straight up charge people before they watch them. There are some platforms that allow video makers to have a paywall, the first one being DaCast. Of course, there are third-party options, like InPlayer, which can require a visitor to pay up in order to view your unique content.

This could work with either live streaming or on-demand videos that viewers could choose to view from.Subscriptions are also a good, maybe better option for some. Netflix and Amazon work this way, and so can any person who wants their videos to earn for them, provided the content is good enough. A subscription is basically a periodic charge that would allow viewers to watch as many videos as they can for a specific period of time.

2. Focus On Advertising

You can contact companies to place advertisements in your video descriptions, or for product placements within your videos themselves. Of course, you would have to make sure theta the quality of the video does not suffer as a result of this product promotion.

The ads could appear in set places right in your video itself, or appear as a link or images in your video descriptions. Or, if the product is relevant enough, you could even show yourself using it. For example, if you’re a makeup artist, makeup brands could very well contact you themselves and ask you to try out their products in order to promote them.

Advertisements could also interrupt the broadcast of our videos, but this is generally an irritating occurrence and can put some viewers off both the video and the advertisement. Ads should be tastefully placed. However, the upside of advertising is that it makes videos and other content free for the viewers.

3. Sponsorship

This method is similar to advertising. However, here the sponsoring company or party would actually fund your video before it gets made. The sponsor would thus be endorsed in the video itself and usually gets a shoutout at the end of every broadcast.

One usually needs a large audience before sponsorship or advertising are suitable options. However, since the content would be free as a result, it might be easier to get a larger audience than if the video viewing had to be paid for.

Wrapping Up…

Before one can start making money through live streaming, they do need to make sure their content is of high quality. The present numbers of the viewers also largely count when monetizing videos. The options above, as well as others, can only then help in earning video makers enough cash to keep them going.

So if you intend to make money using this new form of video marketing, you need to keep in mind all the aforementioned tips before you lift your camera and tripod stand. Wishing you all the luck!

Author Bio:RayanneDany is a Digital Marketing Guru, SEO Expert, and a Blogger. Apart from these roles, she also provides true assignment service to international students. You can connect with him on Google+.

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