When you start your own business, there are many costs to think about. You have to make sure that you have all of them covered, and that you don’t end up in a position where you have a long list of costs to pay, and no money to pay them. Whilst some costs you simply can’t avoid, there are others that you can cut down, and it doesn’t always mean that you’re compromising on the quality of your business. Follow these simple tips, if you want to save cash on your new endeavour!
1. Compare before you buy
It’s an age old trick, but comparing things before you buy them never goes a miss. If you’re looking for stationary, for example, don’t just go with the most popular company out there and bulk buy things without checking that they aren’t cheaper elsewhere. You’ll be kicking yourself when you find out later that you could have saved yourself thousands, just by looking around at other stores.
2. Buy second-hand
We get it, you have a new office, new employees, and this is a totally new chapter of your life. Shouldn’t you be getting new furniture, and computers? However, you can pay out for the more extravagant things when your business does well, and get some second-hand things in the meantime. You can find things that are of great quality on sites such as eBay, without the price tag to come with them.
3. Look out for trade deals
Sometimes, there are deals out there for people within certain fields, and it could help you to get reduced costs on the items that you need. For example, if you’re starting a building company you could get trade discount on the supplies that you’re looking for, and if you’re in the motor trade you can get reduced insurance for your cars. Take time to look at traders insurance and other lower costs for particular businesses.
4. Hire people that you’ll know you need
Another key to saving money when you’re only just starting up your business is to only hire those that you know you’ll need. Yes, you may be tempted to get someone in full-time to feed the office dog, but you need to be reasonable about who you’re employing, especially if you’re on a budget. You’ll struggle to make a profit if you are not frugal, especially within the first few months that you’re trading.
5. Learn how to haggle
A skill that you’ll need when you first set up your business is haggling, and you’ll be glad that you can do this when you need to get your whole office refurbished, and you’re just beginning to get into contracts with other businesses and clients. Your first few months depend on you cutting the costs, so don’t be afraid to barter with people. You’ll be glad that you did in the long-run!
So, if you’re looking to save money when you start your own business, follow these five simple tips and see how they can help you to reach success, on a budget!
Even though you have a full time job with excellent career prospects, a steady wage and you enjoy an excellent work life balance, there still might be a niggle inside telling you to have a go at side hustling. To obtain a little more money for your savings to prepare for your twilight years is never a bad thing. If you are looking for an avenue down which to make your money work for you in a more aggressive way, real estate could be the answer. Get it right and you might find that you can accrue lucrative amounts to top up your nest egg. Take a look to see if real estate can make real money for you.
Location
If you’re keen to plow some of your savings into property, you must check out the location in which you are looking to make a purchase. An up and coming area sounds great in principle, but it is risky. Some areas have been up and coming for decades and still haven’t seen the ripple effect from more well established areas. For your first real estate investment, it may pay to stick to the tried and tested locations that see an increase in house prices year on year. This way, you can purchase your bricks and mortar relatively safe in the knowledge that you will have a profit on your hands after five years or so. Aim to purchase the worst house on the best street, so you can add value to the property while it is in a fantastic location that appeals to a range of buyers.
You will need to decide whether you are going to create a rental portfolio or whether you are going to purchase a fixer upper to renovate and sell on quickly. For a rental approach, you will create a blank canvas within the property and won’t go all out on fixtures and fittings as you will need to provide hardier carpet and paint that can withstand more wear and tear. For a property that you are looking to flip, you’ll need to dress the home to seduce potential buyers with a lifestyle. You can keep the walls white, simple and clean, but utilize your interior design credentials to provide the ultimate wow factor.
While you may have a hefty deposit in your bank account ready to be spent on a pad, you need to consider your budget for legal fees, mortgage repayments and renovations. The aim of real estate is to make money. Don’t be tempted to stretch yourself to the detriment of your current quality of life. Take the plunge, but always keep a close eye on your spending. Set up a spreadsheet budget detailing every purchase from your lawyer’s fees to the ball bearings you needed for the water pipes. With some savvy spending and budgeting, you can save money. Need to refit the bathroom suite? Head to a showroom and pick up an ex-display model. Cutting costs but not forfeiting quality is a must.
Heading down the real estate path might be daunting. However, if you do your research, check out property forecasts, and spend wisely, you can make an excellent second career or side hustle from the housing market. Before long you may have a portfolio of property making you a tidy profit for your retirement years.
Making a living online can come in many forms. It is no longer one of those mysteries, there is a whole world out there worth exploring. And, with everything being online, you are pretty much guaranteed to find work doing one thing or another. But, where do you start?
Turning your freelancing ideas into a fully fledged money-earning side hustle, or even a full-time gig might seem a little bit out of reach. But millions of people are now making it their reality. Working with multiple income streams is a pretty critical part of it. From writing perfect put together articles and where to submit them, to how to find expired domains and where to sell them – the internet is a hive of information and resources.
Getting a regular is something that we all strive for, and luckily for most of us, you don’t have to be a tech wizard to make decent bank anymore. That doesn’t mean it’s easy though. It takes time and dedication to make a go of it on your own – and it is totally worth every minute.
Freelancing
What is it anyway? Well, it’s just about the broadest job term going, isn’t it? Basically, it means you offer a service, usually skill-based, that people can pay for as and when they need to. The most common ones required are writing, website development, editing, graphic design, and social media management. But if you can speak more than one language, then you could offer translation services. Great with organization – from emails to travel plans? Virtual assistant. If you can think it up, you can probably sell it.
Writing
This one could fill a few books, and actually, it already does (puns), but seriously you can make great money writing. Many of us say that we are working on a novel or something like that, and while that is a great thing to be doing, you have a skill that people really want to pay for. Here are a few places you can look at to sell your words:
Upwork – writing copy, long-form, short form, technical pieces or even special interest – you name it, someone will be looking for it – this is likely on a job by job basis.
Listverse – If you can put it in a list of ten you can have a sweet $100
College Humour – for those of us that manage to write with hilarity (pays based on views)
Metro Parent – Fun, informative, or general parenting blurb, pay is based on words and topic
If you are looking purely for exposure, then you can write on your own blog, submit to places like the Huffington Post, Medium or offer to guest post on other blogs.
You can specialize your writing style, and become a bit of an expert in that style and field. Just make sure that you are keeping your portfolio up to date and including excerpts when you are allowed to.
There is a lot of time and effort that goes into writing. So this one isn’t something to jump into lightly. You’ll need to research your topics, been pretty good (or amazing) with grammar and everything should be 100% original.
Social Media
The chances are you don’t really remember a time that you didn’t have a social media account of some type. And, if you have been trying to establish yourself in the freelancing universe, you probably manage yours pretty well. So extend that skill out a bit. Almost every company will have some sort of social media outreach, some will have huge budgets, others will be fledgling companies that need some help starting it all off. You will be helping a range of individuals and companies maximize their visibility via their social media channels.
You’ll also need to become pretty good with metrics, and creating campaigns, but that will come in time. If you take a few online courses, specifically in paid social media campaigns and reach, you can make some seriously good cash.
Top spots to hunt for freelance social media jobs:
The Dots – relatively new, but growing fast and packed with new opportunities
Upwork – A hive of freelance jobs, currently showing almost 1k social media jobs
People Per Hour – Thousands of social media gigs are live right now, ripe for the picking
If you are new to this, try not to bite off more than you can chew. Start with smaller accounts and learn what does and doesn’t work. Look into platforms like Buffer, Sprout Social, Hootsuite and MissingLettr. They will help you curate and schedule months of content per client, and keep track of growth and engagement.
Blog
This one is a little bit like the writing… only not quite. Here you will not only showcase your own writing style and tone, but you will be looking to make multiple income streams work together. Here is how you’re going to make money via your blog:
Affiliate Marketing – you’re going to be linking to products, why not hook that like up to an affiliate network and make money for either each click or each purchase
CPM/CPC Adverts – You don’t have to have these adverts plastered all over your blog because it looks messy and loads slowly – however a few well-placed Google Adsense adverts makes a reasonable income per month.
Private Adverts – You can sell your sidebar space directly to brands. They give you a lump sum, you keep their advert on your blog for the agreed time. There might be some impression targets to reach, but in general, this can work nicely.
Link Building – companies might look to pay for their links to be included in your blog, usually paid based on DA and traffic
Advertorials/ Editorials – Similar to the above expect the whole post will be dedicated to a brand and you will receive compensation for your time spent.
Guest posts – brands, prs, and SEO companies provide a piece of prewritten content, and you will pop it up on your blog in exchange for some money.
This one takes time to build up, but is worth the effort and is a one-stop shop for a decent income.
Design
This one takes some time, and it’s pretty stiff competition from people who have degrees, other qualifications and have been doing this for years. That said, with the likes of Canva, Picmonkey, Gimp, and Photoshop you’re pretty set for great places to work on your skills. Youtube tutorials are fantastic from getting you from a blank piece of paper to a beautiful design fit for purpose. When it comes to design, you can draw a lot of information from online sources and other designers, but your work should always unique.
Great places to search for freelance design jobs:
The Dots – A big contender in the stakes for all freelancers, some really interesting one-off jobs on there almost every day
Upwork – Great stash of really great projects
Designcrowd – The best place to start to if you’re harboring budding design dreams. You will be categorized by your experience and land jobs that make sense to you.
Simply Hired – They post, you apply – pretty standard, but you will find a couple of more prominent brands on here.
Proofreading
Back to words, on which the whole of the internet runs. If you are a bit of a meticulous person, who you have a penchant for sentence structure, then you might enjoy this. Proofreading is purely about correcting spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, and grammar. Nothing more, nothing less. If you are the type of person that gets asked to read someone’s work before they hand it in, then you should consider this.
When companies and individuals are posting content online or even getting it ready to be published, then they’re going to need a proofreader.
Editing
Don’t get the two confused. Editing has a few levels to it. In general, you will be able to change and manipulate the copy you are dealing with in order to make it fit for purpose. Here are a couple of types of editing that might be right up your street:
Structural Editing – usually on the first draft, does it make sense right now? Are the characters coherent, do they make sense as a person? Could this really happen or could people relate? What can we improve?
Copy Editing – Simply checking to make sure it all makes sense, and where things can be improved. Is the work consistent in style, and tone?
Making a living simply by working online is just about as accessible as it is ever going to be. With technological advances, laptops, mobile phones, and wifi almost everywhere – if you can type on it, you can work. Any type of skill can be put to good use, with a little bit of time and effort you can pay your rent, and work when it suits you.
If you’ve got the experience you need, the qualifications, and a desire to run your own business, it might be time to stop practicing under someone else and to get out there and run your own. Here, we’re going to look at the basics of what a practitioner needs to start their own healthcare business.
Put the plan together
Most people looking to start a business are going to need to look for funding above all else. Unless you’re using your own savings entire, you’re likely to rely on peer-to-peer lending or a bank loan. In order to make the most effective application, you need to put together a business plan. This details how you’re going to use the funding and how the resources you use and the business model you have put together will help you make up for the funding and see profits. There are sites out there that can help you find pre-made business plans for a range of businesses, so there is some groundwork you can customize to your own needs already.
Find the right place
Few things matter to your healthcare practice as much as finding the right location. The visibility and accessibility of the property aren’t all that matter, it needs to be fit to purpose as well with reception areas, treatment rooms, and back-offices already mapped out. Listings can help you find a range of suitable properties, such as dental practices for sale. Look at those listings and the commercial real estate agents who have experience in the healthcare industry to ensure you’re not looking at properties that may not be viable or, at the least, require a lot more investment to make them a good fit.
Know what you need from your staff
You should already have plenty of experience working in other practices and, with that in mind, you should have some idea of what roles you need the team to fill. There is a range of healthcare staff and recruitment agencies that can quickly help you find the candidates with the skills and experience you need to fill those roles, as well.
Build a roadmap to your patients
Whether it’s general practice, dental care, or something else, healthcare is something that most of your customers need, rather than want. Your marketing efforts aren’t about only convincing them of the value of your services but standing out against your competitors and growing local awareness. There are dental digital marketing companies that can help you leverage the internet to your advantage, ensuring that your marketing methods are up-to-date to keep up with an audience that is spending more of their time online and with a growing percentage even using the net to scope out local businesses rather than finding them physically.
Starting a healthcare business is one thing, running the practice from day-to-day is something else entirely. Continue to educate yourself on what it is not only to provide top-quality care, but to make the business itself as efficient, cost-effective, and productive as possible. Never stop working on the business if you want to see it continue to grow.
You will always hear people talk about location when it comes to business. Real estate agents will talk about placement as placement, it seems, is everything in the business world. Where you are located matters for your business more than you thought, and you need to think of your location as much of a priority as your employees or market efforts.
The place that you choose has to be in a region that has great economic investment, plenty of potential customers, a good number of people who could work as staff – there are a lot of considerations. You also need to choose a place to base your business where the local politicians are interested in your business and investing their time and efforts in aligning themselves with you for the sake of the local community. Towns like Irvington, NJ are exactly like that, and it’s thanks to leaders such as Tony Vauss, who aim to make sure that their township has enough economic vibrancy to continue to attract businesses. You need to ensure that you are choosing correctly when it comes to your business location, and here are several tips to help you to do that.
Population Demographics. You need to find out whether the human traffic in the area will be under your targeted consumer base. You can use location analysis to help you to do this, and these tools are the way to do that. This is an important piece of the puzzle, because otherwise you will end up in an area without anyone interested in what you have to offer.
Competition. If you have ever walked through the centre of a town, you’ll see a number of coffee shops, clothing stores and take out restaurants. Fast food chains know that putting their businesses next to each other will encourage business from foot traffic, so you need to see whether you are going to be located near to other competition to know if your business has viability.
Amenities. One thing that is vital when it comes to business is the accessibility of the area. Your business has to be great – of course – but if people cannot get into your location, there’s no point. You need to be nearby to transport areas, or have a parking lot on the land.
Costs. How much does the building you want to rent cost you? Is it worth a city centre location if you cannot afford it? You need your business to thrive and it cannot do this if you are spending more for the zip code than you make in a month. Look at the amount that other similar businesses in the area are paying and base your choice off of that.
Moving to a new location with your business is going to be a big deal, so you have to get it right. Your business is going to make or break depending on the location, and you need to get that home settled as soon as you can.
Does your business have a lawyer on speed dial? You do need to find somebody, not only for those times when you need to get out of a legal jam but also for those times when you need specialist advice to help you stay on the right side of the law within your business.
To explain further, these are just some of the reasons why your business needs a lawyer on speed dial.
#1: To protect your good name
Not everybody who is accused of wrongdoing is guilty. You will know this yourself if you pay regular attention to the world’s media, taking the example of people like Peter DiTommaso who rightly fought to prove his innocence. There may be times when you are mistakenly blamed for something, and times when you might even face court proceedings as a consequence. To salvage your reputation before things get out of hand, a good lawyer will fight your case, give you legal advice on what to do, and get you out of the scrape you have found yourself in before your name, and your business name is dragged through the proverbial mud.
#2: To reduce legal damages
You can find legal templates online to use and you can follow all of the guidelines laid out for your business as best possible. However, there are times when mistakes may be made within your business. You might face a personal injury claim from an employee or customer, for example, or you might have accidentally infringed on another company’s IP. Or there might be times when mistakes haven’t been made. You may have foolishly engaged in behavior that brings you into trouble with the law, meaning you only have yourself to blame. Whatever the case, a good lawyer will fight to mitigate damages on your behalf. You can then learn from the terrible experiences you have been through, and use the advice of your lawyer to ensure you don’t fall into the same traps again.
#3: To support you with employee issues
To avoid legal repercussions when dealing with your employees, you must always listen to their complaints. If they come to you with a health and safety or bullying issue, you can preempt compensation claims before they arise. However, should an employee file for compensation, you will need a business lawyer to assist you, regardless of your blame. You might also need the advice of a business lawyer when drawing up employee contracts, dealing with illegal employee behavior, or when firing an employee, so you don’t make any mistakes with the processes involved.
#4: To draft any kind of contract
We have already mentioned employee contracts, but you might also need to negotiate a contract with a client, or with your business supplier. To protect your best interests, and to protect the interests of the people you are working with, a business lawyer will help you draft a watertight contract that mitigates the risk of any problems on either side. This is better than trying to draft a contract yourself, especially when you aren’t au fait with the rules and regulations that need to be stipulated.
Finally
We have highlighted some of the main reasons why your business might need a lawyer on speed dial. To protect your best interests and the best interests of your business, it is worth doing your research now, so you have somebody you can talk to right when you need them. You might only regret it if you fail to have the legal backup you may later require.
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