You’ve just launched your first business. Your team is your biggest asset. Without hard-working teams, the most successful brands wouldn’t have made it onto the market. Brands such as Apple, which we continue to associate with Steve Jobs, are made by talented individuals (plurals). It’s never just one person. Together, we are stronger and better. A brand without a team dies out.
Therefore, it makes sense to look after your team. A lot of businesses fail to understand that there’s a high cost to pay when you neglect your team. Every month, 3.6% of workers leave their company. While this may not seem like much, employee turnover affects recruitment costs, productivity, morale, understanding customer acquisition cost, and overall team knowledge. To put it into perspective, a 500 employees company that loses 90 employees in a year, all with an average salary of $65,000, experiences an annual employee turnover cost of approximately $3,000,000. If that is a terrifying thought, you want to find ways of caring for your employees that boost your business budget.
At a time where most companies have moved to virtual offices, you can save a lot of office-related costs when you encourage your team to work remotely. Working from home can feel isolated. Therefore, you need to make every interaction count. However, even at Zoom meetings, you can build a persona that makes your employees feel engaged and cared for. Arrange a time for one-to-ones to touch base with your team.
Making a point to be presentable even though you’re at home can send the right message across. What does it mean to be presentable in an online meeting? It means being organized about your time and your employees’ time, ensuring there are options in place to capture information for people who are double-booked (recording), and using the best equipment for the job. Remote meetings can get unnecessarily draining when employees struggle to understand what’s being said!
Make healthy employees your mission
Not every business provides health insurance perks to their teams. But, saving costs on insurance plans is a false economy. Sickness and absenteeism come at a cost. Additionally, employees who struggle with health invoices are likely to accumulate side hustles to pay their bills, making them less productive in the team. You can save yourself and them some troubles by choosing a budget-friendly plan, such as the MEWA health insurance plan, that has them covered. This will reduce stress and uncertainty for your team.
You can also create a health-focus environment. Encouraging employees to take regular breaks during the day can alleviate stress and burnout risks. It also makes it more manageable for your team to keep their work/life balance and carry out errand tasks without needing to take time out of work.
Be a mentor to them
Everyone has a professional goal. When you hire someone for a position, you need to consider where they want to be in a few years and what they want to learn. For small businesses, training costs can be challenging. However, mentoring programs are free to set up and can contribute to professional development in a positive way. Listening to your team contributes to their professional development and ensures you can keep growing talent in-house.
We get it: Managing a budget is tricky for a small business. However, you can’t afford to cut corners when it comes to your team. Putting your team first doesn’t have to break the bank. On the contrary, it can save you a ton of money!
Running a business is a real challenge, it’s an exciting venture, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. As a startup, you might not be making a huge profit yet. The good news is there are plenty of ways to improve your business finances. For some awesome ideas to get you going, let’s make a start with these four.
1 . Save Where You Can
To improve business finances, it’s wise to make savings where you can. There are plenty of ways to save your biz money including:
Outsourcing: Permanent staff members can be costly for startups, and you might not need to hire a large workforce. Outsourcing can help you to save money on various tasks, employing staff for short-term projects.
Free resources: There are plenty of free resources and software tools, which can support your business. For a top free marketing tool, try SendPulse. For support with your project management needs, check out Bitrix24.
Go green: From going paperless to purchasing second-hand office items, there are plenty of savings to be made when you go green.
2. Improve Your Budgeting
To improve your company finances, it’s essential to improve your budget. To help you create the perfect budget many software tools can help you. For a few of the best options, check out Prophix, Planful, and Jirav. All of these offer budgeting and forecasting solutions to help your business grow. From reports to financial analysis, you’ll soon improve your financial health.
3. Use The Right Accounting Tools
It’s important to use the right accounting tools to keep on top of your business finances. Quickbooks is one of the best accounting solutions for small and mid-sized businesses. The software can help you to track transactions, bills, and payments. You can organize your accounting notes, and use the accountant toolbox. If you’re planning to use Quickbooks for your business, check out this easy way to become Quickbooks certified. With the right certification, you’ll get the most out of this powerful accounting software. Using Quickbooks you’ll benefit from a wide range of features including:
Invoice Management
Auto Tax Calculations
Profit And Loss Reports
Payment Tracking
Balance Sheet Reporting
4. Improve Your Marketing
Making more money for your business is all about great marketing. To stand out from your competitors, you need a great marketing campaign. To enhance your marketing campaign this year, focus on the following areas:
Use plenty of video marketing, to increase conversions.
Host live events to widen your reach.
Focus on personalized marketing, to build rapport.
Work with the right influencers to boost trust and loyalty.
Improve the UX of your site, in response to new Google updates.
When it comes to living a frugal life and cultivating a positive relationship with money, one of the biggest hurdles to overcome is the urge that many of us feel to overspend on a habitual basis.
From time to time, everyone needs to spend a bit of money on something fun or uplifting – and we certainly all have various obligations we need to fulfil, financially.
Whether you want more money set aside for those special occasions, or whether you need to send money to Vietnam to relatives, reducing the desire to overspend gratuitously can be very beneficial.
Here are a few tips to help you reduce the urge to overspend.
Keep your home tidy and aesthetically pleasing so that you can really enjoy what you already have
A lot of the time, the urge to overspend is really an urge to escape from an uncomfortable or frustrating environment or state of mind, by purchasing items that you feel – often on a more or less subconscious level – will help you to experience an enhanced sense of well-being.
Keeping your home tidy and aesthetically pleasing is a very good step to take in order to help you better appreciate what you already have, so that you can experience an enhanced sense of well-being in the here and now, rather than feeling driven to make impulse purchases in order to achieve that result.
Often, if your home is well arranged and organised, you’ll be able to better cherish, notice, and make use of belongings you’ve had for years that would normally have “flown beneath your radar.”
Focus more on “doing” and “being” than “having,” as a rule
Overspending – and especially impulse buying – is generally a matter of trying to enrich your life by “having” more, rather than by focusing more directly on what you are “doing” and who you are “being.”
While money can help you to “do” certain things, of course, a lot of the deepest meaning and satisfaction that you are likely to experience in life will tend to come from activities and ways of interacting with the world that are more or less completely separated from financial matters.
Don’t get these different “modes” of interacting with the world confused.
Set yourself savings goals and emphasise quality rather than quantity
A lot of overspending can be linked back to an approach to your possessions that emphasises quantity over quality.
In other words – feeling that you need to have the newest of everything at any given moment, in order to be properly satisfied.
By emphasizing “quality” instead – in the sense of buying things that involve more craftsmanship and that are built to last for a longer time – you can do a lot to remove yourself from this habitual spending cycle. Of course, these high-quality items will tend to cost a good deal in and of themselves – which is why you should set yourself savings goals to help enable yourself to purchase them over time, in a responsible manner.
Saving money can be a difficult thing for most of us in our lives. Understanding the best ways to put money aside for savings, emergencies and larger purchases is an overwhelming process so this guide will show you three ways you can save money for the future.
Taking advantage of cheap purchases
Whether you are doing some arts and crafts or looking for everyday items it’s always good to save money by taking advantage of cheaper purchases. Look for the best shops to go in and avoid pricier shops because this can tempt you into buying something you see. A store that is the best to get cheap purchases is in the Dollar Store because everything is a good price that if you see some items you like and it won’t break the bank by treating yourself to them. They have a wide range of items from lifestyle items such as wall hangings And candles to party plates and balloons. This is why it’s a great time to go to the shop because you can pick up most of your daily shopping needs from here.
Planning your ingoings and outgoings
At the start of every month you need to plan that you’re in goings and outgoings to ensure that you’re making the most of your money. Evaluate the past month By sitting down with a notepad and a pen and write down every single transaction that you bought including subscriptions. For example, this is a great way to add up how much coffee you had last month and to re-evaluate your spending to see whether you could cut down on your coffee spending to save you money. Often you Will be shocked how much You spent on certain items that you don’t really need that you could put towards your savings. Next plan for the next month ahead by looking back on the past month violations and deciding what percentage of money is going on to ensure that you have enough money left over for savings. If you’re really serious about putting money aside then take out at least 20% of your paycheck each month and put it straight into your savings then at the end of the month transfer anything that is left over before your next paycheck comes in it is a great way to budget with the money what you have left.
Control your shopping lists
When you are shopping, have lunch before you go because if you go with a hungry stomach then you often buy more unnecessary items. Whereas if you shop with a full belly then you will not pick up unnecessary food items and go astray from your list. When it comes to writing a shopping list be stricter though exactly you need and try your hardest to not go off it. A good idea is to buy your shopping online as you will often miss promotions and deals that are on the end of each aisle which will save you a lot of money on the necessary items.
There are several advantages of creating a more minimalist garden. Firstly, decluttering your space will have a calming effect, especially if you introduce more low maintenance features. You can also make the most of a small area such as a patio or balcony using tricks like container gardening. A minimalist garden should also be eco-friendly. This means reducing waste, using native plants, and recycled materials. You can also welcome the local wildlife. Here are a few quick tips on how to create a charming yet minimalist garden.
Container gardening
If your space is limited or you are looking for budget home improvement plans, container gardening is ideal. You can turn old household items into planters or even complete miniature gardens. Set these up as a decorative feature. Alternatively, use wooden crates or old drawers as contained flower beds for growing herbs and vegetables. These are pretty low-maintenance as you’ll only have a small area to water, and you can move them around according to the sunlight throughout the year.
Plant raised beds
For larger gardens, raised beds are also ideal for growing low-maintenance flowers and vegetables. Build your own raised flower beds to fit the size and style of your garden. You can edge the beds with stone or recycled bricks, or even reclaimed wood. These will be self-contained and you can use them to border the garden path, wild lawn, or classic minimalist hardscaping features.
Create zones
Separate your yard into zones, to keep it decluttered and organized. Set up an area with Outdoor Furniturefor dining and entertaining, and other zones for planting, a children’s play area, or even a place to meditate. You could also use trellises, screens, or shrubs to create barriers between zones. Even build your own vertical garden using reclaimed wood or bamboo, for example. Select materials that match your minimalist ground scraping theme.
Minimal plant variety
Choose a select few plants, and ensure these are native. This means they will thrive easily in the local climate and won’t be invasive. A minimal plant variety also means a more low-maintenance garden. You can search for species indigenous to your area using this native plant finder. Plan the landscaping of the garden carefully so you can watch your chosen few plants bloom against a minimalist background. Consider selecting different plants according to the season as well, so you’ll have a touch of greenery all year round.
Let your lawn grow wild
The lawn can often be the most high-maintenance part of the yard. A perfectly manicured lawn also isn’t as eco-friendly. Why not replace your lawn with easy-care wildflowers? This way you can work with the environment and encourage the natural ecosystem. Another alternative is to plant moss or other ground coverings. These will be more appealing to local wildlife and are very low maintenance. Make your yard more inviting to your guests and visiting critters this year. The trick is to make the most of the space while following the principles of sustainability and minimalism.
How wonderful it will be to control whatever happens in your life and predict what will happen to you in the future. However, no one can determine what life will bring, as it often tends to throw unexpected situations your way that can put your family in an uncomfortable place if you’re not financially stable. A Bankrate.com report reveals that only 39% of Americans can foot a bill of $1000 for an unexpected expense. While you can’t control every issue, you do have the opportunity to put systems in place to handle them effectively while setting up a solid financial future for your family. If you’re wondering how to secure your family financially, here are some tips to help you out.
Settle your debts
Incurring debts can put a strain on your finances and restrict you from spending your money the way you please. It can get more strenuous if you have children, as taking care of them demands a lot. According to a report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the average cost of raising a child until age 17 is estimated to be $233 610, which goes into their housing, feeding, and other expenses. To attain financial freedom and security for yourself and your family, you need to pay off any debts.
You can start by creating a debt list to ascertain how much you owe and when you should settle them. You should also prepare a realistic budget to help you allocate your money to your various creditors. It will help if you start paying the debts with the highest interest rates, as postponing them will only accrue more interest and increase the amount you have to pay. If it doesn’t affect your budget, you can pay above the minimum amount required each month. It won’t hurt if you transfer spare cash into your debt payment, as the goal is to get rid of them completely.
Set feasible financial goals
Setting financial goals is essential should you desire a conducive economic environment for your family. Not only do they help you plan how you spend your money, but they also help you set priorities and monitor your progress. They also keep you accountable so you don’t misuse your money and fall back into debt. While setting financial goals is commendable, knowing how to go about it makes all the difference between attainable and impractical ones.
You should first pen down your targets and paste them on your mirror, desk, or car for motivation. It will also help if you’re specific about your goals, as a vague one does little to boost your resolve. For instance, instead of writing “I want to save for a house,” you can rephrase it as “I want to save $500 every month towards my dream house.” You should also set deadlines for attaining your goals and ensure that they’re measurable. To make it easy, you should start with short-term goals, and achieving them will motivate you to set long-term ones.
Embrace insurance
Insurance is another way for you to be financially protected; it buffers up the impact of unexpected events on your finances by covering the costs and keeping your other financial reserves intact. Also, you have the opportunity to select an array of insurance policies to guard against risks in various areas of your life. For instance, you can opt for health insurance, income protection, disability insurance, liability insurance, long-term care insurance, critical illness insurance, etc. This helps take care of any cost you might incur should you have a problem in those areas.
Now, there are certain factors you should consider before buying an insurance plan. First, you should thoroughly research various insurance companies to ascertain the right one for you. It will be best if you’re sure that your chosen insurance company is licensed; you can contact your state insurance department to be sure. You can also compare the monthly fees with the claims to get the best value for your money.
Set aside an emergency fund
Just like insurance plans, an emergency fund caters to unexpected needs without putting stress on your finances or disrupting your financial goals. A bank account is set aside for sudden expenses such as unemployment, major car repairs, unforeseen medical expenses, and home-reliance repairs or replacement. An emergency fund helps to build your financial security by preventing debts that would have come as a result of borrowing high-interest loans or frequent credit card use.
To build your emergency fund, you should deduct a specified amount from your pay every month and deposit it into your account before allocating the rest to other needs. An automated savings account is ideal because it automatically deducts your savings before receiving the rest of your pay. Remember, your emergency fund is strictly for emergencies, so you must be disciplined so that you don’t dip your hands into it without having a good reason.
Acquire multiple sources of income
Although having one steady job is excellent, uncertainties can take it from you at any time. This is why you should have multiple income sources to have a plan B if you lose your primary income source. Even if you don’t lose your job, you still benefit from getting more money from different angles, enabling you to save and secure your family financially.
There are various ways to earn money, and thanks to the internet, you can gather a large client base. You can buy and sell or explore drop shipping if you don’t want to keep inventory or don’t have space to store goods. You can also monetize your skills and talents; luckily, platforms such as Fiver help you get gigs and earn more money. You can also go for low-risk investments, as they generate higher returns than you might anticipate. You can also acquire night or weekend jobs to support your primary one. The more income sources you have, the more money you can save towards your family’s future.
Write a will
Although no one wishes to leave their family behind, life can lead people in unexpected directions. In this case, if you don’t have a will prepared for your family, the state would have all rights to determine what happens to your assets, and not all decisions might be in your family’s favor. Therefore, to protect your family financially, you need to have a will in place. It states how you wish your assets to be shared and how your children should be cared for. It also helps you determine your beneficiaries and your preferred guardian for your kids. What’s more, you’re assured that your family can stand on their own in the event of your death.
You can make a list of your properties and your desired beneficiaries (spouse, children, friends, extended family, etc.). You should also designate the properties to them in the manner you prefer. You can employ a certified lawyer to draft a valid will for you. Thanks to the internet, you can also choose a will from various online wills websites to make it easy for you.
Life is full of uncertainties that can throw your finances off the balance if you’re not prepared for them. Fortunately, you have the chance to secure your finances and provide a comfortable life for your family, irrespective of any circumstance. These tips are not exhaustive but will put you on the path to financial freedom and security while protecting your family from any shortfalls.
From a young age, the adults around us tell us to save money for a rainy day. When you’re a child, you can’t imagine saving money for a thunderstorm – you can’t go out and have fun when it’s raining! However, as an adult, you learn that a rainy day is simply a miserable time in life that requires a little cheer and sunshine. Saving for that particular day may seem difficult at times; everything is getting more expensive but we’re not earning any more than usual! Still, despite the difficulty, we should be doing all that we can to put money away for those “just in case” moments in life.
If you haven’t already begun weaving your safety net for your family, then you need to get started putting one together now. You may need one to replace appliances, fix up the car, or pay for divorce legal services to cover you after an injury at work while you wait for help from personal injury lawyers. The point is that the money that you save is going to be your cushion in a financial crisis, and while you may think that a crisis will never happen to you, there’s always the “what if?”. So, with that in mind, here are five reasons to convince you to get saving for that rainy day right now.
Job Loss. No civilian could have expected the COVID-19 pandemic to turn into what it has, with home losses and job losses. You can’t always predict that you’re going to lose your job, so why wait to find out? You could have the most comfortable and secure job and still lose it; you can’t take security for granted. You should ensure that you have at least three months of expenses saved at all times if only to help you to get by while you look for another job.
Poor Health. Should you become ill, it can be a comfort to know that your mortgage and bills are paid even if you can’t work for a while. If you keep expenses for your day-to-day living in your savings account and you find that you suddenly can’t work, you don’t have the added stress to ensure that your payments are covered on top of everything else. How are you going to finance that trip to the ER anyway? Oh, wait, your rainy-day fund is working for you!
Home Repairs. The one thing that all homeowners dread is an unexpected repair. From the boiler busting to the roof needing new tiling, home repairs are often very difficult to manage when you don’t expect them. However, if you have money put to one side, needing repairs is never a problem as you’re already covered.
A New Car. Your old car is ready to give up the ghost, and you need to replace it. Without the car, your kids can’t get to school and you can’t get to work. A kitty to cover you for vehicle expenses is a kitty you want to be involved in! Make sure that you have money put to one side for yours!
Last Second Travel. Whether you’re traveling because of a family or friend in need, it can help to ensure that you have money put to one side to keep you going when you need to go somewhere new at the last minute. Last-minute travel is often more expensive than most, so you should have enough money put to one side. It can also help to use currency conversion such as with 1 Canadian dollar to 1 Rupee, because it means you can budget for your holiday while also having the backup blanket of a little emergency cash if you need it.
Friends, how are you saving for rainy days at home? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
