4 Smart Tips To Get Started in Investing

Learning the basics of investing isn’t all that difficult. You’re determined be smart about your investing decisions, you’ve done the research, you’ve learned about the different types of investments you can make, and you’re ready to stop learning and start acting. What do you do first? How do you protect yourself and safeguard your investing success?

Step One: Accept that There is No Net

Here is the hard truth: there is nothing that you can do to absolutely guarantee that every single investment you make is going to perform well and earn you lots of money. Investments often depend on how the market does and, as the market is comprised of millions of people making decisions all at the same time, the market is volatile and hard to predict. Some of the investments you make won’t go well. Some will go very well. Accepting this truth now will save you hours of stress and frustration (and, likely, money) later on.

Step Two: Find Someone Who Knows What They Are Doing

Some people choose to hire one financial advisor and allow that professional to manage their entire portfolio. Others choose to work with several different brokers based on the individual investments they want to make. The direction you choose here is up to you, but whichever road you take, make sure you hire someone who knows what they are doing. According to 24option, “Creating a safe and secure trading environment is in the best interest of all involved and stringent financial protocols ensure that you receive the security you need to invest with confidence” This means that if you want to try your hand at binary options, work with a company that specializes in binary options or choose a financial advisor whose experience extends to this area.

Step Three: Accept that the Research is Never Truly Over

Yes, it’s important to do your research before you make that first investment. It’s good to understand how stocks and bonds work and learn the vocabulary of investing. It is also important to know that your research is never going to be done. Yes, you can hire someone to manage your portfolio, but you need to check out that person’s background and make sure that they are qualified to manage your money before you hire them. Even after you verify this information, you will want to do your own research on each of the investment suggestions your portfolio manager suggests so that you can make an informed decision on how to approve (or not) those suggestions and requests.

Step Four: No Investment is Forever

Investing isn’t like a direct deposit savings account. You don’t just “set it and forget it,” trusting that your portfolio will grow of its own accord. It’s important to know when to buy and sell, and how to predict when one of your investments is due to go south so that you can get out of it before you become part of its failure’s collateral damage. It’s also good to know when something has the potential for huge profits. For example, don’t you wish you had bought into Twitter in the beginning? Sure, you might have had to sell off another investment to buy in, but it would have been worth it, right? Knowing how and when to do these things requires practice and constant attention. Get used to tracking your portfolio. Don’t wait for an emergency.

Step Five: Gamble Responsibly

Investing is a gamble. Make no mistake about it. And, like traditional gambling, playing the market can become addictive. Go slowly. Be careful. Never invest more than you can afford to lose. This is where hiring a great portfolio manager becomes imperative: you need someone who can tell you no and–this is important—whom you will listen to when they do.

Investing can be a great way to solidify your financial future and, if you are smart and practical about it, you should be very successful!

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Staying Local: Campaign Ideas to Target Local Markets

Targeting local markets has been a recommended strategy for businesses that want to tap into key demographics and build bases within specific communities. The concept of buying local is something that has continued to work for businesses in a very real and effective way. Companies who focus their marketing efforts locally stand to gain a better customer following, more efficient campaigns, and better customer retention. Read on for some ideas on how to target local markets…

Customize Your Website
One of the simplest ways to market your businesses locally is to create landing pages that are specific to specific cities and areas. If you own a large company with several offices, it’s best to let the manager and employees at each specific store provide their input for what their customers seem to want. Using IT services from Ottawa to help you set up the server to detect where someone is accessing your page from, can help to deliver customized and tailored results. These managed services in Ottawa are also great for protecting against virus and malware threats.

Tailoring Campaigns
Most people get their information about new businesses by going on the Internet. In the past, television and radio were the biggest source of advertising. Even older populations are active on the Internet, so you can’t afford to miss out on this key demographic. IT services can help you set up your website in such a way that search engines know you have a local business that might be relevant for the searcher.

Start Local Fundraisers
A classic way to advertise your business is by creating special events for select groups of customers. By creating VIP memberships and holding special events for your most valued customers, you can create an organization that puts a high value on customer loyalty. A special member’s page for customers who spend a certain amount of money per year is one way to recognize smaller groups. Starbucks offers a good example of this with their Starbucks Card Gold Card benefits program. Customers who buy a certain number of drinks per year get special rewards and incentives.

Be Picky
Too many marketing campaigns attempt to market to everybody. There are good ideas, bad ideas, and the right ideas. The good ideas may offer a novel approach to something, but cost a lot of money and provide little in terms of customer loyalty. Bad ideas can actually harm your company and are typically formed through poor planning, research and a lack of knowledge about the population you’re marketing to. The right ideas ensure that your campaign performs highly by providing real value to customers over an extended period of time.

Mass marketing no longer provides a suitable method of promoting products and services on a large scale. There is going to be some group that disagrees with your mission statement, so it’s best to find your niche and develop an intense loyalty in that group. By doing so, you can develop loyal and reliable customers.

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Financial Management Tips to Keep the Cash Flowing

There are so many intriguing layers to running a business. Though you may have the best products and services in your industry, they all mean nothing if you can’t properly manage your cash flow. You need cash to adequately market your products and services, hire and pay staff, manufacture and produce results, and provide customer service. If your cash is always tied up in one aspect of business or another, your business stands to become stagnant. To avoid this common pitfall, here are some tips on effectively managing your cash flow:

Better Record Keeping

One of the most basic yet important concepts to managing cash flow is diligent record keeping. When the subject matter is your company’s finances, there is really no such thing as being too observant of your money. It is important to implement a process for keeping a record of all financial matters within the business including your banking statements, receipts, invoices, expense reports, and payroll. If you can’t afford to hire an accountant, there are plenty of affordable accounting software packages you can invest in to help make recording finances a lot easier. When you have a clear understanding of where your money is you’re better prepared to make financial decisions for the future.

Improve Receivables

If you’re in the business of extending credit to your customers, then your receivables are where a lot of your cash is tied up. It is important that you have clear guidelines and contracts between your customers so they pay in a timely manner. Popular methods for getting customers to pay on time include offering incentives like discounts for paying prior to the 30- or 60-day timeframe. Other ways to improve your receivables would be to offer several methods of payment so that customers can opt to electronically pay you for your products or services. You also want to make sure that you have a follow-up process in place for customers who are nearing their due date to try and get the funds collected.

For problematic customers or outstanding invoices, some small business owners opt to consider factoring accounts receivables. Factoring companies will purchase the outstanding invoices from qualifying companies and give cash up front. This way you can use the money without having to wait for the customer to pay you.

Efficient Filing

Another part of maintaining financial records is having a systematic filing system in place. Whether you’re currently operating with digital forms or you still prefer to use paper, there needs to be a system in place that will keep all financial documents in order. Cloud file management systems are trending for businesses that utilize digital forms. Documents can easily be scanned and uploaded to the server for safe keeping. When the forms are needed, they can be easily accessed by specific staff members who have permission. This keeps things from getting out of hand or overlooked as tons of paperwork often can.

Consider Different Payment Terms

If you’re really having a hard time collecting from your customers it might prove beneficial to consider different payment terms going forward. By requesting for example, that customers give you a 50 percent deposit upfront, you’re lessening the amount of cash you have outstanding. If you’re going to make changes to payment terms, it is important to do so in a manner that does not upset current customers. Incorporating it into new contracts, for instance, is ideal so that there is no confusion going forward.

Maximize Payables

Your customer’s aren’t the only ones who have to foot a bill; you also need to make sure that you’re paying your vendors on time. If you can slow down the process of repaying your vendors, then you can effectively manage your cash flow a bit better. This might include asking for extended repayment options so that you have 60 to 90 days to pay them. If you like this option, be sure that you don’t overdo it by forgetting to pay your vendors on time as this could create more financial issues for you with late fees and a ruined business relationship.

Effective money management is the key to operating a business. Without the cash for operating costs, the business will slowly but surely dissipate. If you’ve been having cash flow issues, try incorporating some of these ideas into the mix. Over time, you should start to see some cash free up that can be put to use elsewhere such as in developing new products and services or expanding your business in the next few years.

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Effective Ways to Overcome Burnout

When you have experienced a long bout of stress, whether on your job or in your home environment, it is expected you will suffer from burnout. This is the point where you become almost numb to your situation. You lose the drive to even get up and try to complete your daily tasks.

Life looks bleak, and you may not see a way for things to ever change. Many people who suffer from burnout may give up on their jobs and their relationships out of a feeling of hopelessness. When you feel that burnout is becoming a problem, you need to focus on getting the support you need to recover, before an absolute breakdown occurs.

Stress vs Burnout

When a person is stressed, they become anxious and try to figure a way to complete a number of tasks that may seem overwhelming. Burnout is well beyond the severe stress level. It is the phase where a person seems to give up. They go through the motions of daily life, but are mentally detached from people and activities. Burnout is the point at which continual high levels of stress have exhausted a person mentally to the point where they have no motivation to go on.

Overcome Burnout

There are a number of ways to overcome burnout. These include but are not limited to:

Change jobs — if it is your job that is causing the problem. A fresh environment may do the trick. If this is not possible, maybe talking with your superior about changing some aspect of your job will help.
Take time off from work, if you have vacation days coming or sick days. You may find taking a vacation will help shake the feeling out of your mind. It will give you the time to rejuvenate and rest.
Talk to a friend about how you feel. Keeping everything to yourself will only make things worse. You may find it helpful to consult a therapist or counselor for assistance.
Take Modafinil – a prescriptive, no side effect drug that will help boost your overall well-being. It improves your brain function and helps you deal with sleeping disorder which add to the stress you are undergoing.
Exercise and get your body moving even just 30 minutes a day will help you feel better. Practice deep breathing regularly to calm yourself and relax.
Do something that you enjoy. Even if it is a small thing, sometimes doing something for yourself, as others take so much from you, can really help turn things around.

Whether your burnout is being caused by too much to do at work or at home, getting support from family or friends will help.

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Need Employees? Here’s 4 Reasons You Should be Working With Staffing Agencies

Can you remember how much you spent on hiring the last employee who unfortunately “didn’t work well with the firm”? There’s a lot that goes into the cost of hiring, including the time human resources spends creating job descriptions, setting up interviews, or the time the hiring manager took in training the new employee all need to be taken into account. When you add it all up, the cost of hiring (and eventually firing or losing) can put a serious dent in the company budget.

If your quest to find a quality team of professionals has been less than successful or overwhelmingly expensive, it’s time to consider other sources for assistance. That’s where professional staffing agencies come into play. The right staffing agency can provide top talent for even the most challenging positions. The best part… its usually at a fraction of the cost of trying to hire someone yourself.

Here are some more advantages to working with staffing agencies for your employment solutions:

Valuable Industry Expertise

One of the first advantages to working with staffing agencies is their knowledge in an array of industries. Agencies typically hire recruiters that have experience ranging in categories from accounting and finance to healthcare and admin support. So whether you’re a medical facility in need of healthcare support staffing or a small business owner in need of technical support, there are agencies that can find you efficient workers for the job.

Quicker Hiring Process

The hiring process is not only costly but time consuming. When you figure you have to create a job description, find platforms to advertise on, monitor applications, screen applicants, schedule interviews, and make a decision, that’s a lot of valuable time that could have been spent on other business measures. When working with a staffing agency, the hiring process is taken care of for you.

Since staffing agencies already have an arsenal of highly qualified professionals standing by for the phone call, they can easily hand pick you a few candidates to choose from making the hiring decision shrink from what could be a few months to a few days.

No Commitment

In the world of business you never know what your needs might be from one day to the next. If you need staff on an as needed basis, working with staffing agencies just makes sense. Since the workers they produce know that it is a temporary contract, you can keep them on board for as long as you need and let them go later on if there is no longer a need. This is great for small business owners with a little budget, companies that have high seasons where products/services are in demand more, or individuals who simply want to test the waters of working with staff.

Saves You Time

Most business owners are aware that time is money. The more time you and your staff have to spend working to hire others, the more time is lost to other business aspects. Staffing agencies on the other hand take a bulk of the hiring process out of your hands freeing up a lot of your time and the time of your key staff (i.e. managers and human resources). This allows you to focus your attention on growing the business instead of worrying about employee turnover rates and lack of assistance.

Whenever you find yourself in need of an expert professional to join your staff, you may not have to resort to the often time consuming and costly method of hiring. The right staffing agency is equipped to handle all of your staffing needs by finding you highly competent employees that are ready to be trained to get the job done. This will free up time, and money, while still allowing you to give the best possible service to your clients.

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Mobile Branding: A Look At Google’s New Logo

As 2015 draws to a close, it’s clear that mobile devices are all the more ubiquitous in our lives. We can go anywhere and do anything with remarkable ease. The increasingly fast development of technology, predicted by technology experts for years, pushes us further into the realm of extreme convenience and efficiency.

One industry leader that undoubtedly understands the notion of increasing ubiquitous mobility is Google. Their numerous platforms and apps span across all devices. Google is with you wherever you go, no matter what you’re doing — and makes it easy to do practically anything.

The marketing team at Google has decided to act in order to better communicate this exact idea to their users. Sooner or later, if not already, you’ll recognize a Google product whenever you’re using it. Google does this in hopes that it welcomes more users into expanding to more of their products and makes the “Google experience” more enjoyable.

Google’s new logo combines all the components of the company’s ubiquity into one easy to recognize and understandable symbol. The colors represent the many platforms, apps, and devices and how they are all unique yet one in the same. This logo illustrates a prime example of the concept of mobile branding with intent. It’s a strong move by Google and will likely become standard in the industry.

As we move about our day-to-day lives chatting on our smartphones, surfing the Web on our laptops, watching Netflix on our iPads, or getting some work done on our desktop PCs, there’s an ongoing competition to grab our attention from one provider to the next. Google has proven successful. Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and Uber are not far behind. Each attempts to steal as much time and attention away from one another as possible.

Today, we’re truly are witnessing the future of mobile branding. As technology continues to save us more time and money, we’ll continue to develop stronger relationships with each of these providers. We’ll undoubtedly learn a lot more about Google and its competitors as time goes on. We’ll start identifying ourselves further and further as fans of one company or the other, creating communities of mobile fanatics (hello, Apple!).

Branding will lead the way of all of these developments. We’ll begin to identify directly with — and benefit directly from — these providers, although that’s likely to come at the expense of other services. In the end, we’ll all react differently to each company and settle with the ones we enjoy the most.

Further, poor brand strategy and management could lead to the demise of any one of these gigantic companies. They will have to learn quickly, move swiftly, and with accuracy if they hope to win us over in the long run.

With its logo change, Google seems to what it takes to be a leader in the new mobile marketing reality. Will its competitors?

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Why People Leave Cushy Corporate Jobs for the Unknown of a Startup?

Let’s face it, corporate jobs have a lot to offer. There’s job security, the promise of internal promotion and not to mention the robust benefits. And while many find that holding down a corporate job has it’s advantages, others opt to leave a cushy corporate for the uncertainty of the startup high.

Others may decide to leave their corporate jobs in order to join a startup. Those who do typically have many reasons for doing so but in general, many do so in pursuit of the same goals. Such goals may include the desire to fully utilize all of their talents completely, the opportunity to enter a new field and develop effective leadership skills, or the chance to potentially greatly increase their personal net worth.

A career shift of any kind can be the ideal way for any person to explore their previously underused talents. For instance, they can bring their expertise to the table and offer tips for SaaS companies and startups. Someone who truly loves to cook may want to join a startup that is centered around providing people with access to high quality meals.

A business person who likes to use technology such as a conference call may want to work with a new company that is built around providing their customers with access to such networks. The ideal fit between a startup and a person can truly help that person be happy both at work and during their leisure time. Many startups allow their employees and top executives more freedom to pursue goals in nontraditional ways than are often found in corporate culture. This kind of freedom can be highly appealing to those who may be tiring of corporate routines.

Another aspect of entering a startup at the ground floor that many potential employees find quite exciting is looking at an old field from a new angle. Someone at a standard corporation may feel constrained by pre-existing procedures or that workplace relationships have gone stale. They may also feel that they have hit a career plateau with their old company and may not be considered for important promotions anymore.

Joining a startup can help them shake off any preconceptions that others may have of their work as well help provide the employee with a new shot at promotion and new responsibilities that are suited for their talents, background and prior training. A fresh start can be highly appealing even when it means the employee may need to change jobs or relocate somewhere else.

Leaving a pleasant corporate job can also mean the chance to earn more money. Many companies may not offer the kind of compensation that an employee would prefer. While a startup poses certain risks that may not do well in the long run, those who have worked for a long time in the standard corporate world may have been able to build up a significant nest egg that enables them to easily weather any potential downturns in the new startups including potential layoffs. The new company may offer them significantly better compensation including a higher overall salary, a finer benefits package and the chance to earn even more money should the company eventually plan to go public.

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McCormack Family Farms at “I Believe”

As part of “I believe“, Ulster Bank has given a stand to their clients to sample the Christmas atmosphere, sell and make the public aware of their offerings.

Over the next weeks you can visit them at the Food and Craft market. On Saturday 19 December it is the turn of McCormack Family Farms

McCormack Family Farms

The McCormack Family Farms’ story began in 1984 when Edward McCormack began growing and selling veg in Kiltale, Co. Meath. In the late 1980s he was joined by his son Stephen McCormack and together McCormack Family Farms was born. For 20 years the father and son team focused on growing veg and selling into Smithfield Market in Dublin. Then in the early 2000s the focus shifted to growing salad leaves and herbs, the first of many innovative steps! Success followed with the company earning its first retail contract in 2007 supplying herbs to Superquinn.

Today McCormack Family Farms supply all the leading retailers in Ireland! In March 2015 this 2nd generation family farm took its biggest, innovative step yet entering the juice market launching three new veggie juices using the finest salad and veg grown by the McCormacks: Apple & Spinach; Orange & Beet Leaf; Carrot, Beetroot, Kale & Pea Shoots.

Visit them at the fair or visit their website.

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Why Local SEO Is More Important Than Ever

Local SEO has become an asset. Everyone is in a race to get noticed on the internet, to have their website be focussed on in the first page of results on Google. So if you’re looking to get popular amidst your target audience, local SEO is more beneficial than you’d think. There’s so much competition out there that you’d have to get in line to find your position somewhere around the search engines. Local SEO will be your best friend to get you out there so you can be seen and noted by people who are more significant than you know. You’d wonder why Local SEO has become that important. Let’s find out.

1. More people are searching for Local Businesses online

The way you look for new apps and games on the internet, people look for businesses too. Yes, it’s the most common phenomena these days after the way the virtual world has evolved in the last few years. You might not know, but the number of people looking for local businesses online is more than those looking out in the real world. People find it much easier to get immediate results at the click of a mouse and the touch of a finger. Your visibility on search engines during such a time will help you get noticed right away. Search engines often find local businesses based on location. If your business is ranking and is close to where the consumer is at the moment, you’re sure to get noticed instantly. Isn’t that so much easier a job for you as well as the customer? People are too busy to take the trouble of scrolling through the wide list of results on the search engine, and if your company website is right at the top, you’re sorted already. Local SEO will help you attract more customers than you would if you were to promote elsewhere.

2. Less competition in local than global search

In the global scene, there’s more than a million websites with ties enough to have them rank right at the top, rendering your website somewhere in that huge mess. Let’s be honest, you’re not going to get up there in the global standard so easily. It takes a lot of effort. But if Local SEO is there to help you out, in the local area, you’re more likely to get noticed, because there’s an entirely separate level of competition here. It’s much easier and more reliable too. With Google maps and the likes, search engines are more inclined towards the local sphere than global to deliver better results. What you must keep in mind is that it makes everyone’s work so much simpler. Neither the search engine, nor you, nor your customer has to go through too much of a hassle. Instead of jumping into the global world first thing, get to the local sphere initially so that you can be more prominent overall.

3. To rank higher in Local search engine with little efforts

Less competition, easier approval from the search engine, and being seen prominently on the local sphere; it gets much easier for the search engine to rank you higher when you’ve gone local. You can be shown on local search results more frequently than you would if you aimed for the global standards. Search engines will rank you higher, resulting in a simpler notice of your website to the people who are near you, and who are searching for local businesses in their area. What better way to get noticed than becoming popular within your local consumers instead of just jumping into the sea of websites ranking high in the global sphere. It makes the search engine’s job much less of a hassle when dealing with so many websites trying to get noticed.

4. Save dollars with local marketing

Local marketing saves more money than you’d think. Your local business will be marketed in a more refined way, without you having to shed dollars every other minute. Search engines like Google are keener to go with local businesses, giving you more access to become popular where other rich and famous businesses are already dancing about getting noticed more often than not. Search engines will want to rank your local business higher so you can get a chance to be out there, ranking you high enough to become as popular as you can get. These search engines might have profits of their own while doing this, but at least you get what you wanted, without having to spend precious time and money that you’d rather save to expand your business rather than in promoting it. It is indeed important to market your business out in the virtual world, and you do have to spend some heart-wrenching money on it, but in the end it all works out best for your business. And the better way is to get Local SEO so you don’t have to empty your bank account all over.

5. Get targeted traffic that actually converts

Matching results with the location of the customer and the geographical area of your local business, the search engines will develop results that will suit the requirements of the customer. This in turn gives you more scope to be seen because you appear to those closer and more accessible. Proximity searches are customized based on the one searching for the local business, and the internet traffic that develops according to your ranking, geographical location of the one searching, and how easily available your local business is to your customer, the search engine will render extremely useful results. And the internet traffic is much more refined than you’d imagine. Local SEO takes up a lot of your significant matter, making you more prominent out there.

6. Create brand awareness and increase visibility

According to the search history of the customer, your website will be ranked in the search results. Your company getting noticed and ranked higher is based on how close you are to your prospective customers. People want to trust local businesses rather than pay too much attention to the global standard. There might be excessively popular websites of businesses out there, but consumers will always give their first priority to those more accessible to them. Your visibility increases if you are in the local business sphere. Google maps targets the proximity factor, and the likes of the Texas Google Maps Company have evolved in this sphere greatly. It will get you a more prominent sort of ranking in the results, so that you can be accessed better by your customers. Also, people recommend things to others, and if you are locally recognized by many, your popularity increases tenfold. Keep in mind that your popularity will directly affect the business of your company in future, which is certain to bring you more progress than what you’d imagined before you even entered the arena of local SEO.

With the virtual world advancing, the website for your business is less likely to get noticed if you delve into the global phenomena. It is much easier for everyone if you are locally visible. Take measured steps, and improvement is sure to come.

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Tracey’s Kitchen at “I Believe”

As part of “I believe“, Ulster Bank has given a stand to their clients to sample the Christmas atmosphere, sell and make the public aware of their offerings.

Over the next weeks you can visit them at the Food and Craft market. On Friday 18 December it is the turn of Tracy’s Kitchen. This is her story.

Tracy’s Kitchen

As a small girl, I recall food being central to our lives – when friends and family called over, when we visited my grandmother’s house, when we came home from school, and certainly at Sunday lunchtimes! It seems that I have always been surrounded by good, wholesome, home-cooked food! It was no surprise to my mother then, that when I left home at 17, I didn’t rely on the usual student fayre to get me through college, rather I cooked my way through those four years, and my digs became the central location for friends who had run out of funds before the end of the month – it became known as a place where tasty grub would always be rustled up…simple and cheap, but tasty and filling!

When my own children started with the Walking and Talking, life got busy and I soon discovered that having more children than hands could be a problem if they weren’t occupied! Thus started the baking – Play Doh I had to buy in, whereas flour, milk and eggs I had in abundance always…when I added a few raisins and they made their first scones, albeit misshapen and kinda tough, we were hooked… hooked on the pieced that gathered us around the counter, hooked on the squigy feel of getting stuck in with tiny hands and hooked on watching through the glass door of the oven watching nothing turning into something…

We became bakers…aged 1, 2, 3 and 35..! It wasn’t until Lucy Jayne’s 4th birthday, that we turned our hand to making something more special, like a fondant covered cake…her first birthday cake request for a Heart Shaped Cake so I bought a heart shaped cake tin and never looked back…