When to Use Graphic Design for Your Business

The digital world is taking over, and your company needs to follow suit. Many businesses are now ditching brick and mortar in order to take their company solely online. Others are ditching traditional marketing tactics in order to use only new digital options.

When it comes to marketing your business, whether internally or externally, it’s very important that you have a handle on the right routes to take. You need to be sure that your business is using graphic design to your advantage. Having a graphic designer on staff, or outsourcing your graphic design needs, will help ensure consistency and attractiveness throughout your marketing collateral, whether digital or print. According to Multi Image Group, an app design and web development company, “The driving force behind decisions is emotion. It’s what makes us human, makes us tick, and defines how we react to different situations.” Using a graphic designer will ensure that emotion is highlighted on whatever type of collateral you want to create.

Graphic design can be used in a variety of different ways throughout your company, and the following are a few options to help you jump on the graphic design bandwagon.

Website

The most obvious place that graphic design will benefit your company is through your website. At this point, your company should currently have a website. If you don’t, now is the time to invest in one, as many of your customers are looking for companies just like yours online.

If you do have a website, you need to make sure it’s branded, user-friendly, and attractive. This is where a graphic designer comes in handy. Your graphic designer will be able to design the website so that it incorporates your company’s branding (colors, fonts, etc.). They will also be able to lay the site out so that it’s easy for your audience to use. A graphic designer will also be able to make the site attractive to the eye. If the site is jumbled or unattractive, your visitors may leave after landing on your site.

Digital Ads

Along with websites, your graphic designer will also be able to create digital ads for your company too. If you market your company on other websites, then your graphic designer will be able to create ads that also represent your branding as well as the messaging you want to use. Having a professional graphic designer create an ad will ensure the piece is much more attractive than it would be if you used just text. An attractive ad will be more likely to be seen by your potential customers, and if you’re using a PPC advertising tool, then you’ll likely earn more clicks and more traffic because of it.

Apps

Many companies are now using apps as a way to market their business and attract their customers. If your company is interested in creating an app, then a graphic designer will be able to help you. You can talk with a graphic designer about what type of app you want to create as well as how you want it look and what you want it to do. They’ll be able to use the information you provide in order to create an app that fits your wants and needs and is attractive and user-friendly for your audience as well.

Print

Even though you may not create as many print collateral pieces as you once did, a graphic designer can still help. They will be able to design whatever type of piece you want them to create with the messaging you want to use. Plus, they’ll be able to add fun graphics or design elements to ensure it doesn’t just look like a boring piece of paper. So if you want a one-page brochure, a booklet, or even a white paper, a graphic designer will be able to take it from bland to grand.

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Ellvena Graham is a Winner at WXN 2015

Ellvena Graham was among twenty five female business leaders who were honoured at this years WXN Most Powerful Women event in the Intercontinental Hotel, Dublin on 11th June 2015. The award was a very fitting tribute for Ellvena who has recently retired from Ulster Bank after a 33 year career. Nominees were judged under a host of different headings: career accomplishments, vision and leadership and corporate performance. Other winners on the night included Anne O’Leary, CEO Vodafone, Siobhan Talbot Group Managing Director, Glanbia and Julie Sinnamon CEO Enterprise Ireland. Cathriona Hallahan, MD, Microsoft Ireland was inducted into the Hall of fame, having been in the Top 25 on two previous occasions. Over 400 Business Leaders from across the country attended the gala event which was preceded by a day long business summit. Ellvena was joined on the night by a number of her Ulster Bank colleagues to celebrate her success.

Ellvena Graham is a winner at WXN 2015

Ellvena Graham is a winner at WXN 2015

 

WXN was founded in Canada in 1997 and today is Canada’s leading organization dedicated to the advancement and recognition of women in management, executive, professional and board roles. The organization has 17,500 members in Canada and Ireland has 2,500 members. WXN is launching in London in September this year and it is hoped that this chapter will generate more cross channel business and opportunity for WXN members.

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EURUSD Q4 Parity

Last Friday for the first time ever a developed economy missed a repayment to the IMF. As an alternative to a technical default, Greece requested to roll four payments into one for June 30th and hold further credit negotiations. We also saw the worst performance of German ‘safe-haven’ rates since the 2008 recession, and culminated in the worst three-day performance in US Treasuries since the ‘Taper Tantrum’.

Last week concluded with robust economic prints in both the Euro-area and the US; as Euro-area (CPI) inflation bounced to 0.3% after being -0.60% just 5 months prior, and US nonfarm payrolls broke higher to 280K in May and more encouragingly hourly earnings rose by 0.3%, which moved the year on year rate up from 2.2% to 2.3%, matching the upper end of the range that has been in place since 2009. The stronger than expected number brought the year to date job growth over the 1million job threshold, and was the 56th consecutive month of positive readings, a new record of continuous payroll gains.

US unemployment data

While the German bund certainly set the tone through the most of last week, the importance of the US unemployment data cannot be underestimated and leaves the door open for US monetary policy and ‘data dependency’ to drive EURUSD into the end of the year.

For me every new data point brings the US economy closer to a rate hiking cycle with my preference for 2 rate hikes prior to the end of the year the first coming in September followed by a further 0.25% hike in December. The initiation of the rate hiking schedule and improving US economy relative to the challenges in Europe in finding a solution for Greece and the expanding balance sheet from Quantitative Easing ultimately leads in my opining to investors and market participants “Queuing (Q) For (4) Parity” in the last quarter of 2015 (Q4).

Key milestones between spot today 1.1224 and parity are:

  1. 100 day moving average = 1.1062
  2. 38.2% Fibonacci retracement from the 16-Mar-15 low = 1.0800
  3. 16-Mar-15 low of 1.0458 (which is a 12 year low)

EURUSD Performance YTD

body-img-27

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Why Is Local SEO Important For Small Businesses?

As it is usually witnessed, the new advertisers in the market tend to set up their own Ad buying and also handle their own media buying. Being a small business owner and a marketer, you have to let search engines know where you are located. At the same time it is also important for all the search engines to know what you are offering to the customer. This helps you to gain visibility and marks your presence in front of the relevant audience.

Unfortunately, it has been noticed that SEO is considered to be a confusing topic to understand. As stated by force digital advertising agency, the algorithms related to Google’s pigeon are difficult to learn and understand at times. Here, Google pigeon refers to the code name given to the latest Google search engine update. There are several reasons which explain why it is important for small business units to focus on local SEO.

1. Local Scale Exposure

The main reason why everyone is in need of a digital presence is because they want more and more number of people to witness their presence in the market. The main reason for using the local SEO is that it will target the people in the area where your business is established. This makes SEO a powerful tool for the small business unit owners who have recently started their enterprise.

2. Business Extension

The online website is considered as the second outlet of your business. With the help of a local SEO, you are actually making it easier for the users to interact with your business firm. This makes it easier to locate and study your business website page and also update it with informative and engaging content which is relevant for the growth of business in future. It is very important to consider all these for optimizing your website with regards to the usage of local SEO. By constant provision of content to your website will keep it updated and also your clients will have a better idea about your services and products as such.

3. Link Building And Social Sharing

Another important part of using local SEO is the creation of potential partnerships between two business firms. It creates a link between them and also helps in social sharing purposes. In this process, it helps you to meet potential clients who can help you grow your business in future. Meetings with other websites owners and local bloggers can change your approach towards business in a positive way. You can initiate an event or a new business idea together for future benefits and profit making schemes as well.

4. Profit Maker

If the steps and processes are followed correctly, SEO will help your business to fetch more profit along with the much needed online exposure. The traffic for the website can boost upwards immediately if your site is listed on the top spot of search engine. To elaborate the same, the web page should appear on the first page of the search engine in order to gain more visibility.

By playing your moves in the right direction, nobody can stop you from being listed as number one. Local SEO helps in gaining instant visibility and by following the above mentioned steps; it will simplify the process for future gains. It doesn’t really matter how effective your local SEO is, unless the right information is provided and the right people are attracted towards the website.

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5 Cloud Computing Functions to Revolutionize Your Small Business

Cloud computing is radically changing the way we do business today. Many important business functions are being moved to the cloud, making them the cheaper and more reliable for businesses of all sizes. The impact on small businesses are perhaps most dramatic, giving these small enterprises access to resources not possible before the advent of the cloud.

Cloud Computing Data Sharing and Backup

Data storage was one of the first business functions moved to the cloud. By outsourcing data storage to cloud providers, small businesses can reduce or eliminate the IT overhead associated with maintaining file servers while making data easy to share across the office and at home. The advantages of scalability make it much more affordable to keep remote back-ups of important data.

Telecommunications

The rise of cloud computing has seen the creation of many innovative tools for communication and collaboration. It has also lowered the barrier of entry for enterprise grade services such PBX networks, offered by companies such as Telesphere, which were once only available to businesses with the resources to operated self-hosted networks. Cloud-based communications platforms make it is easier than ever for businesses to communicate over a variety of devices and take advantage of task-specific tools for things such as remote white-boarding, video chat, and conferencing.

Enterprise Resource Planning

Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP, integrates several key business functions into one suite of software utilities that interact closely with one another. ERP is extremely efficient for tracking inventory, managing payroll, organizing marketing campaigns, and generating reports. It allows for greater cooperation between different sections of the business. While this was once a tool only used by large corporations, it is rapidly becoming a possibility for smaller businesses thanks to cloud platforms that allow you to outsource the management of the software.

Customer Relationship Management

Like ERP, Customer Relationship Management software, or CRM, is an integrated set of tools that makes managing aspects of a business more efficient and easier to track. In the case of CRM, the tools are specifically for managing customer interaction. Utilizing cloud-based CRM software allows employees in billing, marketing, or technical support to access needed customer information on the fly, allowing you to create a more personalized relationship to each of your customers.

Productivity Software

Many of the everyday productivity software used by companies is also moving to the cloud. This includes software for editing documents, creating presentations, handling spreadsheets, managing calendars and a variety of other everyday office task. By running this software in the cloud, small businesses can be less dependent on a particular configuration of hardware and software; tasks can be completed on almost any web-enabled device.

There are numerous benefits to handling these essential business functions in the cloud. Utilizing cloud platforms ensures that your company resources are available at all times, that they are securely backed-up, and that they can be accessed with a wide variety of computer equipment. The greatest benefit of the cloud may be the cost compared to running software locally, allowing small businesses to do things only possible for large corporations a few years ago.

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Increase Brand Awareness: Implied Links and Brand Mentions

A lot of businesses still don’t know what is a fast and safe strategy to get an organic brand visibility online. How not to be penalized or banned in search engines and get customers flow. Interested how to increase brand awareness in a right way? Let’s dive into.

Rolling out algorithms like Penguin Google’s goal is to decrease a value of “grey hat” link-building strategies that allowed to get faster visibility growth for new websites, products or startups or get higher rankings results for low quality websites.

Here is a citation from recent SEMPRO Club meet-up with googlers from search quality results department in Dublin in Kiev Andrey Lipattsev:

“Google ignores up to 95% of links. Do not spend money on low-quality blog post submissions, link farms or buying links on link broker websites like Sape. It’s so easy for us to recognize link patterns and disavow their value. It’s better to invest those assets in increasing quality of website, product that would lead to increasing brand awareness in a natural way.”

So, it’s clear that search engines push businesses to natural link-building that is earning or acquiring links as acknowledgement of service quality, uniqueness or its advantages. Or Eric Ward link-building style that would work too but costs a lot due to amount of consumed time.

So what new businesses should do to increase brand visibility in search engines results without being penalized sooner or later?

Disclaimer: Provided tactics below are not pure spam on social networks or forums as it has been for years. The main goal of all tactics is to help people in first using personal or brand expertise and get brand mentions, follow and implied links as an additional bonus for a well-done work.

Is brand mentions a new “link-building” strategy?

Brand mentions or “implied links” could be a part of Panda algorithm keynotes that are mentioned in patent registered by Google, described in Simon Person research at MOZ.

It’s clear now that Google can associate some brand queries (reference queries) with the website. Once visitors type-in brand queries and click on a site results, connections are made and search engine starts associating unlinked brand mentions (citations) as “implied links”.

According to above mentioned statement, brand mentions could be used for measurement of website authority. High-quality brand tend to have more brand mentions online (linked or unlinked) that could be used as a visible website authority factor.

To say in easy words, in order to increase online brand awareness for new product, service or startup, businesses need to pay attention to increasing number of brand mentions. No matter, linked or unlinked. This strategy will allow to get website visibility in organic way without violating Google webmaster guidelines.

P.S. If you want to transfer some brand mentions into links, follow this strategy.

Crafting perfect online brand awareness strategy

There are tons of ways to build brand awareness online. I would recommend you to start from reading guide from Neil Patel about personal brand developing. There you can find decent strategies that could be used for developing brand awareness for any business or startups.

Let’s describe main tactics that you can try to create brand recognition:

  • Infographics
    Just include your brand name just under main graphic content. If the infographic is useful, people will definitely search for your brand name to find out more related information.
  • Guest posts
    Allows to build personal expertise and promote your business.
  • Content syndication
    Allows a broader audience to learn about your brand.
  • Influencer marketing
    Try to network with influencers in your niche, show the benefits of your product, how it can help them in a daily life, etc. More details on how to manage this here.
  • Forum link-building and brand mentions
    One of the best ways to show an expertise in your niche. Show how your business would be useful for a target audience. This channel is very powerful and if done right can generate leads and sales.
  • Q/A sites
    Very powerful tool for creating first brand mentions. It’s very easy to become useful answering their questions and proving real value.
  • Blog comments
    Still can be used for creating unlinked brand mentions. Keynotes: do not spam or promote too much, choose niche-leading blogs with audience.

Some of these tactics could be called guerrilla marketing tactics. Guerrilla marketing is an marketing strategy designed for small businesses to promote their products or services in an unconventional way with little budget to spend.

Using above listed tactic especially brand mentions on forums and answering questions on Q/A sites is an affordable and natural way to improve brand recognition for new service or product and even generate leads. Furthermore, those links (express or implied) would have a positive influence on your SEO due to natural looking link profile and brand mentions.

How to utilize online guerrilla marketing tactics, what tools to use?

Buzzbundle

Paid tool that allows to monitor topics (on forums, blogs, social networks) you are interested in and answer on any of them directly from Buzzbundle software. Using this tool allows you to save time and get rid of routine tasks like keeping in mind all your social accounts, etc.

Google Alerts

Free tool from Google where you can adjust notifications to your email whenever topic you are interested in pop-ups online. So you can easily jump into conversation there (help people using your experience, promote your service or product, build relationships, etc).

Works great for online reputation management. Using Google Alerts you will find the latest brand mentions and would react faster than ever.

Talkwalker

Social data intelligence tool that allows to track, analyze your brand activity on social networks and all over the web.

Developing brand awareness case study

Case is provided by BrandCitations.com.

The goal – increase brand name awareness and traffic.

The tactic – answer people questions and mention new brand name without linking to website.

The result – 15% up after 1 month of work

impression

organic traffic
Screenshot of branded organic traffic

If you have no time for improving online brand awareness by your own, my advice to outsource it tohttp://brandcitations.com/.

Offline

This channel is more used by big brands or brick and mortar small businesses. I will count few most often used techniques:

  • Coupons, Giveaways;
  • Print marketing;
  • Signs, Banners;
  • Conferences, public events;
  • Networking;
  • Word-of-mouth.

Sources for additional reading:

Utilizing these offline activities will lead to improvement of online brand awareness as well. People will start discussing your product, service online.

Easiest way to measure brand awareness online

  • Use Google Webmaster Tools. Track the volume of brand searches using data from Search Analysis report.

google analytics impression

By the way, do you remember case study before? That’s the same site a year after, developing brand citations bring more than 4 times (400%) more brand searches online.

  • Use Google Trends. Track the graph of popularity for your brand keywords. example.

By the way, one more citation from Andrey Lipattsev from Google web results quality team (video in russian):

“Yes, guerrilla marketing or crowd-marketing (aka brand mentions, expertise answers on forums and Q/A sites) works for businesses. Businesses need to go to discussion boards and have a conversation with the target audience, help them. There is nothing wrong. We support that.”

So, that’s all. Now it’s time for you to think it over and start following this online brand awareness strategy. And if it done correctly, you will definitely reach your goals.

Have additional questions, have no time for doing it yourself? Get in touch with me.

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Annual Leave Law – Employees Set to Accrue Annual Leave on Sick Leave from June 2015

As it stands in Irish employment law, employees in the private sector are not entitled to accrue annual leave whilst on sick leave. However, this is not compliant with EU rules and reform has been on the cards now since 2009.

Annual Leave Law: Current Position

Annual leave law in Ireland is governed by the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997, and some subsequent regulations. This legislation is very explicit as to when an employee will accrue and what counts as ‘working time’ for this purpose. As a result, it has been the case in Ireland that an employee on sick leave will not accrue annual leave during a period of sickness absence.

European Developments

In the European cases of Stringer and Others v H.M. Revenue & Customs [C-520/06] and Schultz-Hoff [C-350/06] it was determined that an employee should continue to accrue annual leave whilst on sick leave. It was further determined that if an employee is on sick leave for the whole or part of a leave year that any leave they accrued does not disappear when the leave year has ended, and that, as such, the employee must be allowed to carry forward their annual leave.

These key European decisions applied automatically since 2009 in the Irish public sector. This is because the Irish State is bound by such European decisions and as such anybody employed by the State benefitted from this decision for the last six years. However, the private sector was still governed solely by the Organisation of Working Time Act which meant that a private sector employee would not benefit from these decisions until the legislation was amended.

New System – the Workplace Relations Bill

The Workplace Relations Bill primarily concerns the streamlining of the Irish employment tribunal system. However, the Government has seized the opportunity to amend the rules in respect of annual leave at the same time. Accordingly, the Workplace Relations Bill provides as follows:

  • Where an employee is absent from work then that absence will count as working time where it is covered by a medical certificate from a registered medical practitioner.
  • Where an employee is unable to take all or part of their annual leave during a leave year due to a medically certified illness then the employee will still be permitted to take that annual leave for up to 15 months after the leave year has ended.
  • If an employee’s employment is terminated during the 15 month period mentioned above the employee will be entitled to payment in lieu of any such outstanding annual leave.

This bill is set to be enacted into law on 01 June 2015 and when enacted the above will come into force.

Potential Grey Areas

There are a number of potential grey areas in the wording of the legislation which might result in some key decisions and cases at tribunals down the line. For example:

  • The legislation specifies that an employee will only accrue annual leave on a day where the employee was on ‘certified’ sick leave. The difficulty here could be a tribunal’s interpretation of this when viewed in conjunction with any internal company policies. For example, a lot of employers have a policy that an employee is not required to give a medical certificate for the first 3 days’ of absence. If so, does this mean that a tribunal will allow an employee to accrue annual leave for those first three days, even though they were uncertified, on the basis that the employer has stated that they don’t require a medical certificate?
  • What will the entitlement be where an employee goes AWOL but retrospectively provides a medical certificate to cover their absence?
  • What happens where the employer receives two conflicting medical reports, one saying the employee is certified as unfit to work and another saying that the employee is fully fit to work?

 The above questions can likely only be answered should the matter be challenged before a tribunal. As such, whilst we know broadly what an employee’s entitlements will be from circa 01 June 2015, we are as yet unclear how some of these grey areas will be interpreted by a tribunal.

Conclusion

This is an extremely important update for employers to be mindful of. As employees will now accrue annual leave whilst on sick leave, and will be permitted to take it for up to 15 months after the leave year, it could have major financial implications for a lot of employers. In general, a lot more employees will be entitled to take a lot more annual leave going forward as employees will now be able to accrue annual leave during times they never did before. It is strongly suggested that each employer carry out an internal audit to identify, over previous leave years, how many additional days annual leave would have been accrued by employees and how much, therefore, this might cost going forward. This should allow employers to reasonably identify any budget implications in addition to allowing employers to manage and coordinate workloads accordingly.

If you have any questions on the above article or if you have any query in general about annual leave or sick leave then please do not hesitate to contact the 24 Hour Advice Service on 01 855 5050.

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40 Companies on the Dublin University Campus Bus Tour

The innovation bus left this Tuesday, with 40 small business from a wide variety of sectors, visiting UCD, DCU and Trinity College.

On the day the companies explored the opportunities that universities have to offer in areas such as funding, research, knowledge transfer and innovation, and will cover areas of interest the companies have requested such as sensors, e-learning, RFID, cloud computing, data analytics, 3D printing, monitoring systems, food, health, etc.

The companies visited over 8 research centres, made the necessary connections and started the process of engaging with academia and add value to their businesses.

The feedback has been fantastic

  • “whirlwind tour of the 3 universities” 
  • “it was brilliant to see all the different facilities available in each university”
  • “great day”
  • “impressive”
  • “would never thought about doing this if it wasn’t for the bus”

Ron Immink of Platinum event (and Smallbusinesscan); “We wanted it to make as easy as possible for small businesses to start engaging with universities, but also to illustrate what a wonderful source of innovation and opportunity universities are. It is a win-win, universities can transfer knowledge and IP and businesses that normally do not engage with universities will become more innovative, add more value to their business and the economy. This was a very successful pilot and we will be doing more”.

Background

The campus bus tour is joint initiative with the UCD Innovation academy, Invent-DCU, Knowledge Transfer Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Smallbusinesscan and Trinity College organised by Platinum Event.

Next bus

The next bus will be leaving soon. Register your interest here

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Message from Dublin Startup Commissioner

We’re now at 147 completed Startup Compass surveys for Ireland. An almost 6% response rate that our friends at Compass in California are calling “exceptional” considering Ireland was only added to the survey two weeks ago, and then, had only one city option: “Jakarta”.

Over the past 8 months, I’ve been putting together my own list of exceptional things about Ireland and top of the list is how incredibly robust our startup ecosystem is versus the coverage it gets internationally.

Filling out the survey will go a long way to enhancing our reputation as an innovation hub, so please startups, spend 10 minutes right now and do it.

If we complete 500 surveys by the mid June deadline maybe we’ll throw ourselves a party using my (currently non existent) international PR budget. It would be worth every penny of it.

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Investing Tips: So you’d like to start investing?

Money can be made through hard work and a lot of sacrifice. That is the lane most of us take and usually never make any big money. But there are completely legal ways of earning more money than your salary brings on an annual basis. What you need is an entrepreneurial spirit and some pre-saved cash.

Investing Tips: Opt for bonds or stocks?

The basic difference between bonds and stocks is that investing in stocks means that you get a part of an ownership when you buy stocks of a certain company. If the company whose stocks you own earns money over a period of time, the surplus is then distributed to its stock holders in the form of dividends. However, if a company does not conduct business in a successful manner for a period of time, stocks lose their value and the holders lose money.

Bonds, on the other hand, represent a long-term investment. They are issued by companies and corporations that are bound to pay the agreed amount at a specific date. Over a longer period of time, bonds can be a pretty attractive choice. Also, bondholders earn money from interests.

What stocks matter?

If you are already a major investor with a lot of assets, it is not highly probable that you are reading this. But stock rookies will find some interesting information. For instance, if you want to invest only a little money for starters, to see what it looks like, penny stocks should be the right financial decision for a beginner. Their prices are usually low (up to $5 a piece), since they belong to smaller businesses and companies and are often exposed to risky ventures. They are also perceived as being prone to different frauds. It might be a case if you are at the same time gullible and greedy. But if you wish to win on penny stocks, you first need to learn some basics of the stock market.

How to play safe and stay sound

Financial shortcuts, i.e. earning money in ways different from a regular 9-5 job often carry a certain amount of hazard. On the other hand, riding on a public bus to work can also turn out to be dangerous, especially if you decide to stick your head out of the window. The same goes with stock trading. If you do not play hazardous moves, this kind of investment can bring a substantial amount of money over a period of time.

First of all, you have to follow the market and analyze trends. When do other holders sell their stocks? At the peaks or before the price hits the peak? How does the market react to that?

After that, decide what stock advisor to turn to. Internet forums and financial newspapers can help you make up your mind.

In addition, avoid concentrating money in one place. Invest in stocks of several companies to see the outcome. Then you could invest more money in some steady stocks and start working with stocks in a more determined way.

Dealing with stocks will demand some time for learning tricks and gaining experience, as in every other job. If you stay patient and modest about expectations and invest as we have suggested, you could really make it a great business option.

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