When you’re just starting in the investment world, you may think that investing is just a matter of depositing money and buying the stock you want. The truth is that investing is not too complicated, but you need to have a strategy and write out an investment plan.

As time goes by, our brain tends to play tricks on us, especially when it comes to decisions we made in the past. This concept is especially true of the investment market. After all, your choices might change or grow, and you’ll want to know where you started.

Investing

It’s always fun to notice the prices you buy a stock at and the amounts they grow over time. For example, if you had invested in AMD in the early 2000s, it might be pleasant to know that you bought that stock for about $7 a share, and now your AMD earnings are well over $75 per share.

The stocks you invest in will depend on your goals and your risk level. If you need money in a few years and don’t want to risk too much, then that will influence your plan. A year later, you might have changed your plans and be willing to take a few more risks. Just remember, diversification is key.

Savings

The amount you save is really up to you. Financial experts recommend around ten to fifteen percent of your income, providing you start saving right away from the point of having your first job. However, you might want to look at your plan year after year, to see how your savings rate can put you on track for your goal or not.

It Functions as a Guide

Writing down an investment plan can give you a guide to follow. Plus, it can prevent the emotions of greed and fear from overcoming you at critical moments in the life of your investments. Even a one-page investment plan can be beneficial, and it doesn’t take a long time to write out. Here are a few reasons why your written intentions may come in handy in the future.

Keep from Being Your Own Worst Enemy

As an investor, you can be your own worst enemy. Low points in the market might mean you experience painful losses and cause you to be tempted to sell. But selling might mean missing out on future gains. One of the biggest mistakes beginner investors make is selling too soon.

By the same token, when the market is at higher levels, it can often be too easy to miscalculate the risk and keep the money there when it is time to sell. It can be easy to forget what economic intentions were when you first started in the financial market.

It’s Just One Page

Writing down an investment plan doesn’t have to be time-consuming. It doesn’t have to be involved, and you don’t even have to have the correct wording. It can be just one page.

Update Your Plan

Once in a while, review your old plan and make changes to the one-page plan you had. Keep things simple. Develop your strategy based on a few questions.

What are your financial goals?

How much do you plan on saving each year?

How do you plan on investing your money?

Goals

Your goals might be as simple as trying to save money for a future event or as complex as not having to work by the time you’re fifty. On the other hand, you might have something concrete, like you want to save two million dollars by the time you’re 40. Whatever your goal is, please write it down and review the plan every year. This plan will keep you on track, and it will be fun to see what the differences are from year to year.

When Should You Withdraw Money From Investments

Again, this decision ties back into your one-page investment goal. If you are saving for retirement, you shouldn’t take the money out before then.

Put All of the Ideas Together

The answers to the above questions and the ensuing tips can help you make your plan. Of course, an investment plan doesn’t have to be perfect. But a plan always puts you in a better position than when you have no plan at all.

 

The dream of one day becoming a business owner is shared among many, which is also able to provide a good amount of financial freedom. However, no matter how good you think you would do or how much experience you think you have, you have a high chance of failure because of innocent errors that occur along the way. Being ready and having everything in place prior to opening your business is important. To ensure that you are, there are five critical things you need to be aware of first. Of course, they may not seem like a big deal, but they have caused serious problems for many.

1. You Need to Have a Solid Business Plan Set in Stone

Having a solid business plan is the best plan to have. Unfortunately, many businesses just starting out have nothing at all. This mistake is seen frequently and is actually alarming due to the fact that they are able to point out problems that your business may experience. Employee monitoring software can be your best choice in your business to monitor employee’s work. They may also be used as a marketing tool towards investors who may be interested in funding your business venture.

Prior to getting your business off the ground, sit down with a pen and pad and write down a simple draft of a business plan that will express what you are offering, the marketing required, client base, cost, whether it will be an LLP or LLC, the competition, and, of course, the much-needed funding. Plus, you need to include any practical hurdles that may be experienced.

If you need more guidance, you can obtain it from the Small Business Administration.

2. Throw Frugality Out the Window Because It Won’t Matter

Okay, you have your business plan. Now you will be able to have a clearer understanding of the importance of funding so you won’t under or overspend. A few first-time business owners miscalculate their true costs, and ultimately overspend and throw their budget out the window. Others though do not spend enough to provide a real opportunity. This is all based on the belief that if you remain frugal then your business will still succeed.

Try to get a feel for what your business costs will be as you start the funding process and throughout the first year while in business. Another tool you can use from the SBA involves calculating costs at start-up. This is a great way to calculate the financing needed to get off the ground. Once you know your financial needs, you can begin locating the capital.

3. Contact Partners That Are a Perfect Fit

You may experience the same problems when the amount is concerned while searching for partners that are a perfect fit. Oftentimes, it is impossible to start a venture by yourself. This is where having a perfect partner comes into play as they will bring industry knowledge to the table. Make sure that you only involve one to two partners. That way you will not have issues with making profits or having any confusion arise. Hopefully, the business plan will cover these points

4. Completely Understand Your Market and Customers

It is important that you have a complete understanding of your market and customers prior to launch. Knowing that there is a want for your product or service is important. Are there plans to compete with others in regards to product quality, pricing, or service? Quite a few new companies end up having problems in the beginning because they do not thoroughly grasp their market. This will be especially true while expanding and you come into contact with a whole new crowd.

5. Make Marketing a Priority

There are many great services and products that new businesses offer. However, they fail in being able to successfully market themselves. When you are aware of the market you will be serving, you will have very few issues come up.

When you have a firm understanding of your customers, you will be able to cater to them directly because of their wants and needs. Whatever you do, do not leave out any conventional forms of marketing like advertising on billboards.

Starting a business can be a fun experience if you let it, but when it comes to getting off the ground, you have to expect some difficulty if you are not fully prepared.

 

Nimrod Santo is a direct-response marketer and online entrepreneur, traveler, surfer, and business developer. We will be having a conversation with him on how online entrepreneurship has changed in 2021

Nimrod Santo, as a well-seasoned business developer, do you think online entrepreneurship will change in 2021?

In all honesty, it is already changing. Successful brands are doing everything to stand out and maintain their spot.

From my experience, online entrepreneurship will experience a lot of changes this year that brands and businesses should be ready to adapt to. If they do not, they will lose their customers to their competitors and eventually they will go out of business.

Some businesses are developing personal relationships with their customers. Some do this with new customers. Nimrod Santo, do you take this as advisable?

I believe we will see more of this year. If you are into online entrepreneurship and you don’t do this, you might be harming that business and brand of yours.

There are different flexible ways to do this. The Internet has made this very easy. You do not have to go to your customers’ house or call them individually. Do something as little as sending a personalized email, messages will go a long way.

What other necessary things do you think online entrepreneurship should do to improve their business?

Brands will be making customers reaching out to them and ordering products and services in the easiest way possible. I already see this happening.

You should put yourself in your customers’ shoes. If you as a customer find it easy to order and purchase products will you not rather stick with that brand?

No one has the time to be stressing themselves over something as basic as purchasing products when there are easier ways out. To do this, you should tailor your business to:

• Enable customers to order online and have their orders delivered without having to make a phone call.
• Create an e-commerce website or app to sell your goods. You must ensure that your website is mobile friendly.
• Provide all in-store and numerous delivery options.
• Put a customer service Chabot on your website so that customers will not have to be calling you when they have an issue or need to make inquiries.
• Have payment options that will make it easy for customers to pay.

  Related: Expert Explains: How Nimrod Santo Plans to Crush His Business Goals in 2021

A good number of companies have continued to allow their workers to work remotely. Nimrod, do you think online entrepreneurs who have staffs should stick to this method?

You are right. Companies and businesses have told their staff to continue to work remotely even though things are gradually becoming normal.

I believe online entrepreneurs should give their workers the options to choose between working remotely if employees can and resuming physically. Another option is to rotate these options.

The main goal is to create a healthy working environment to boost productivity and at the same time reduce the cost of running the business.

Before you go to Nimrod Santo, what advice will you give to online entrepreneurs?

One very important thing I will say online businesses and brands to do is to have an interactive online presence. Having a website or online social media accounts is not enough. Make sure you put out engaging content.

People are spending more time online than ever before, which means that there are more eyes on your online identity and more competition for their attention. However, this does open the door for small companies to take advantage of online participation in a unique way, resulting in the creation of an authentic culture.

First, you can connect with a majority of global social media consumers by focusing on one or two sites. Second, you must win your users’ interest by creating genuine, customer-focused content that represents your company’s purpose.

Finally, you must represent your social media efforts through all of your digital touchpoints. This includes your website, forum interactions, digital advertising, and any other channel by which your customers can communicate with you.

You must have a seamless, genuine experience that can be viewed from whatever Smartphone that your customer chooses to use.

Also Read: How Direct Response Marketer Nimrod Santo Overcame Obstacles to Find Success

 

If you have not yet paid enough attention towards optimizing your business website’s overall accessibility to disabled users, then you are missing out on a big portion of your target audience because of it. accessiBe is one of those rare web accessibility optimization solutions that webmasters can use even without an extensive knowledge of coding.

Despite its simplicity of usage, accessiBe is also the leading name in providing ADA & WCAG compliant accessibility solutions to websites across all niches. If you are not sure how accessiBe can help you gain a wider target audience, you will be surprised to know how easy it is to do so and boost sales, views and reach.

accessiBe Helps Websites in Becoming More Inclusive

There was a time when websites in foreign languages remained inaccessible to those who did not know the language. Thanks to Google Translate and other built-in translator apps in various web browsers, the language barrier has been broken on websites for the most part. Naturally, this has also led to greater exposure and better sales rates.

accessiBe does something quite similar for websites which have the accessiBe plugin installed, but what this intelligent software automates seamlessly is far more complicated than the task of a translation app. accessiBe makes your website appealing to target/interest groups who would not even be able to use any site without accessiBe.

Post installation, your website will naturally start receiving more inclusive traffic from customer groups that not enough businesses are catering to. accessiBe helps any site become more accessible to potential customers with visual impairments, complete blindness, partial/complete hearing loss, epilepsy, motor impairments and cognitive impairment.

How Does accessiBe Work?

The ADA & WCAG compliance solution for websites is completely automated, meaning that as a website owner, you need not concern yourself with common accessibility maintenance issues such as:

• Manual optimization of new content to improve screen-reader performance
• Manual optimization of input navigation adjustments for their customers with disabilities
• Manually checking for Section 508, ADA Title III, EAA/EN 301549 and WCAG 2.1 compliance every time new content is added
• Errors made during the manual optimization process

All of the processes mentioned above, along with several others, are handled automatically by accessiBe, thanks to the extremely intelligent machine learning algorithm which they use. Consequently, people with disabilities will visit your site more, simply because they can access it with greater ease. accessiBe does much more than just boosting accessibility though, as we will see next.

accessiBe Boosts Sales through Intelligent Interpretations

One of the premier tools used in making websites more accessible is a screen-reader. While all accessibility compliance solutions have this feature, they cannot match the depth that accessiBe adds to every reading session.

Due to constant adjustments made by the specially designed AI which powers their reading tool, it constantly adjusts in accordance with the content on screen to deliver a clear understanding of what is being shown on-screen. This boosted understanding of the product or service directly contributes to a higher chance of conversion. Any customer will have a higher chance of converting if they can clearly perceive what is on offer.

accessiBe solves the core issue that keeps disabled customers away from online interactions; the ability to access and interact with websites. By installing the compliance tool, you also add the same advantage to your own website.

Initially, JD stock was specific about promoting authentic products. The company looks ahead to directing copyright security in the e-commerce business because the supply procession is rising from unpredicted points. Accordingly, the company has discharged the first royalty-free platform, the JD stock material center, purposed for their commercials. The company has also employed a perfect strategy in this project to ensure its innovations continue to run smoothly.

The Key opinion leaders (KOL) and commercials can make use of the center for free. This move will avail solutions for all their visual requirements set in to endorse their goods in JD. Therefore, it will benefit them; to save a lot of money on Ren Min Bi (RMB) side and protect intellectual property rights (IPR).

JD expects a merchant to averagely use no less than a hundred images and a dozen fonts every year. Consequently, they get to spend thousands instead of millions of RMB. Apart from cost, merchants should look into their design process because of copyright violation, which poses a challenge, especially on the evaluation stage.

The online merchants’ requirements are also in consideration. JD stock material center has an offer of 100 million quality images, and they are royalty-free. Besides, there are different typical fonts they can choose from there.

Where technology is advancing fast, the application of AI technology enables this freedom to be accessed better. AI allows the recognition of texts and images to be automated and employs style to sort out fonts. The company has a team to assist undecided merchants in finding materials that match their needs.

Jiandong Pei, as vice president at JD Retail, emphasizes that venturing to defend copyrights will continue until a copyright protection system gets raised for the industry of ecommerce. Also, to increase benefits for the JD group, he will enhance and expand the visual material network.

To promote innovations and guarantee that progress continues every day, using the best strategy is paramount. This strategy might be to have the entire logical properties branded in acknowledgment of copyright inventions. Taking the chance could be worthwhile since saving the RMB and protecting the IPR will be the long-run results that can lead to a country’s improved social and economic impact.

JD Company is China-based, where it is affecting significant improvements. It operates online and directly deals their stock. It has a website and mobile application. There, clients can access all of their products. It deals out various products, from Mainframes, communication goods, manuscripts, digital products, appliances, and garments are all available in their stores. Their consumers are direct clients or certified merchants who they ensure are well serviced.

The company’s continued growth and development has managed to create employment opportunities for thousands of employees. The workforce in JD has proven to be very competitive through its indulgence. Furthermore, Lui’s prescience in logistics and artificial intelligence has increased its transaction capacity, which carries on to managed an extensive base of consumers, thereby bringing forth protract ability globally.

Its founder is Richard Liu Qiangdong. He is the chairman and Executive chief in JD. His childhood was generally rough because he got to live in a society that modernization got late. Understanding the challenges of such a society from experience got to enable him to develop an innovative mind. Therefore, he has been working hard and continues to invest himself in maintaining and pulling off the realization set for this company. For that reason, he follows to direct the company in a path that could win it and the wholesale and retail market an economic forward step. One of the significant steps is the company’s copyright protection, aiming to build a prosperous ecommerce.

While bicycles are wonderful for having a great time, they can also be helpful for certain jobs. In many cities, couriers rely on bikes to deliver important items without having to worry about finding and paying for parking spots. The food delivery enterprise also has solid potential for using the mobility, flexibility and speed of bikes. As with riding for pleasure, choosing the best bike for the situation is critical, and hands down hybrid bikes make the most sense in many locations. They are sturdy, have plenty of carrying capacity and perform well on roads, pathways and gravel surfaces. While making room for personal preference, here are some of the top bikes for food delivery services in California:

1. EVRYjourney steel model with rear rack
2. ReachyourDestination model with 7 speeds
3. Paven’Trail model with 21 speeds and rear rack
4. BodyEase style with 21 speeds and rear rack
5. EVRYjourney fat tire with 7 speeds and rear rack

Riders can add extra capacity on the bike with handlebar bags, baskets and even panniers. This way, they can bring several meals to customers on one outing.

The Potential To Go Electric

The right e-bike can be a powerful tool for delivery companies. These bikes offer just as much speed and flexibility as traditional bikes, while allowing riders to make use of a reliable motor and battery system. The best ebike for delivery has carrying capacity as well as the range to get a rider through several deliveries. These models will adapt well to the delivery business:

• EVRYjourney 500W 7-speed hybrid
• EVRYjouney 250W 7-speed hybrid women’s
• EVRYjourney 500W 7-speed fat tire
• A/0 MAYA Electric Touring Hybrid

Each of these bikes has the ability to go up to 24 miles an hour and can go for two hours or more between charges. The bikes can always be used in the manual mode as conditions warrant, giving the rider the ultimate in flexibility. Just as importantly, the electric motor will handle most of the hills of Los Angeles and San Francisco and other locations with ease.

The Ability To Work and Have Fun

Food delivery options in the Golden State continue to expand, providing just the right opportunity for someone who likes to earn some extra cash and have fun doing it. The benefits of food delivery could include being in the outdoors, getting valuable exercise and meeting new people. Who said work had to be drudgery while sitting in a cubicle? Bikers might even be able to use the bike as a tax write-off, depending upon the situation.

For the ladies who want to get out and explore their community, a womens hybrid bike is an ideal ride for a delivery job. They offer easy on and off, durability, stability, safety and comfort. Powerful brakes enable fast and reliable stopping in tricky situations, while extra features allow for carrying water bottles and some gear. These bikes are lighter than a mountain bike, but more durable than standard road bikes, making them a good choice for a working bicycle. Now might be the time to start a fun career by buying a new bike.

Business resembles war and sports where you frequently utilize the offense and protection system. They are on offense by hitting their objective and making a score while the defense is keeping the other group from making a score and putting forth a valiant effort to be on the offense side for one objective and that is to win. Check Josh Melick’s prompt on playing more in the all-out attack mode side.

It is not clear for each situation when you are going to play offense or guard. It’s anything but a fixed plan. Josh Melick accepted that as top of an organization, they should know which office to assign the offense just as the defense of the business. Think broadly and attempt to play on the offense instead of defense.

HR offices for instance are frequently on the defense side since they secure the organization and its workers, says Melick. Ensuring that things are done well and reasonable, battle against claims, and cancel badgering. HR has more significant destinations which place them into the offense side. They deal with the workers which are the business’ greatest promoters. On the off chance that workers are upbeat, customers will be cheerful as well. Enlistment also can track down the correct players that make up the offense group. Advantages are considered as an offense and the best organizations give the absolute best advantages.

Likewise, we generally believe that Sales and Marketing are on the offense side yet as the outreach group is in consistent discussion with the clients against the contenders, they might be considered as on the defense side. To be on the offense side, the office should utilize the upside of talking with the clients by utilizing deals and materials that they have. They can utilize stories that can be of their benefit, for example, the best deals work area as an illustration as Melick exhorted.

The office that manages claims and shields the organization. The legal division is frequently seen as on the defense side however in the event that they are to utilize the legal counselors and claims as an apparatus and don’t consider them just a safeguarding strategy, at that point this office can be on the offense side as well. Melick expressed that according to Barack Obama’s book “A Promised Land”, Obama expressed that during his first Illinois Senate Campaign, the legitimate test worked for him when he tested the designations of his rivals for not having enough marks.

As a rule, if the offices referenced above just as the Customer Support is to play more offense instead of defense by making programs and going past for their clients’ fulfillment that makes an offense score and with that is successful.

Josh Melick, fellow benefactor and CEO of Broadly, an endeavor back organization that has raised $20M by aiding independent ventures on the best way to construct their apparatuses for powerful correspondence with their customers. Melick worked at AT&T and Intuit in the executive leadership office.

Ever wonder which skills will still be relevant in 2021? Think you have what it takes to make it as a successful freelancer? Freelancing has been one of the leading ways of earning extra money, especially for tech-savvy people.

2020 was a great year for freelancers, with more gigs getting claimed in 2020 than the previous three years combined. This trend will continue in 2021 and beyond — with a few shifts in traffic. Let’s take a look at the top 5 skills that freelancers will be working on in 2021 and beyond.

Web Design

The ripple effects of the web designer trend are felt across most digital industries, as web design has moved beyond simply making information accessible to becoming an integral part of advertising campaigns and global marketing strategies.

Web development skills are consistently in demand. Freelance web designers are needed to develop websites for a plethora of organisations and businesses. Freelance web designers have the ability to write HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML and PHP code as well as Adobe Flash, Flex and Silverlight software. So, endeavour to learn them!

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

It’s no wonder A/B tests and SEO consultants are so in-demand. The extra visibility that comes from great SEO is invaluable, especially when paired with a site owner who knows how to use the data to make improvements.

Plus, SEO isn’t going anywhere: search engines will always be looking for ways to improve themselves, and competition in the SERPs (search engine result pages) just keeps getting more cutthroat. Everything about SEO is falling into place, so now’s the time to get started in this lucrative field.

UX Design

In the UI/UX Design field, clients are willing to pay more for talented designers. These skills are in demand across every industry, and for a good reason. Companies rely on user experience designers to create positive first impressions, retain visitors and build their brand’s identity.

Digital Marketing

Many of the top jobs posted on job sites on a daily basis now require digital marketing skills as much as or more than traditional skills. With such fast-paced shifts in the marketing industry, marketing professionals who are proficient with new technologies and techniques will be employable regardless of whether they’ve been working in the marketing field for five years or ten years or if they’re just coming out of college.

Writing

Writing is one of the most sought-after skills in the freelance industry. The need for excellent writers will continue to grow as we depend more and more on the internet and websites for information. Specialised content writers are needed for everything from web copy to blogs, SEO content, white papers, writing invoices, eBooks and even ghost-writing.

Final Thoughts

It’s a good time to be a freelancer. Companies are contracting more with independent workers, and the number of freelance job postings on job sites is increasing by 5x each year.

Competition for jobs on these platforms can be intense, which means that you need to stand out from the crowd if you want to increase your chances of winning more gigs in 2021.

Josh Melick is highly qualified to provide meaningful advice on innovative customer service solutions as he is the founder of three businesses. One of which happens to specialize in building easy-to-use digital tools, to help businesses have better experiences with their target audiences.

Customer Service Solutions

Josh Melick believes that exceptional customer service starts with a business’s culture and that business owners and CEOs need to put programs in place in order to ensure that employees in every sector understand the importance of providing stellar customer service. Melick goes on to recommend that businesses recognize the individuals within their business, who go above and beyond to help their customers have positive experiences with their company.

There are numerous ways in which businesses can celebrate their employees. As examples, they can provide them with promotions, bonuses or special awards. At the same time, he also encourages businesses to terminate the contracts of any employees who show that they are unwilling to provide the standard of customer service which they expect of all of their employees.

Once a business has a culture which values its customers, its management should assess the functionality of all of their digital systems. As in order for information to be stored logistically and easily accessible, every system should be linked. So that employees can find customer information such as transaction numbers and customer addresses, quickly and easily. Which will help a customer support team answer more queries in an hour than was previously possible. This is great, as the quicker that customers receive the support which they’re looking for, the more satisfied they’ll be with their experience.

Melick also teaches owners and CEOs about how critical it is to think about differentiation when it comes to customer service solutions. As in order for a business to stand out from its competition, it has to provide its customers with more value. One company that proved that they were able to provide their customers with more value was Apple. Who launched their Genius Bar concept, knowing that customers still wanted convenient, face-to-face service. Especially as many customers don’t have extensive knowledge about electronics and could benefit from being able to talk to a tech whiz at an Apple store.

Businesses should take inspiration from Apple and should think about the type of support that their customers would be likely to appreciate, in order to design a new customer service solution, which customers will flock to. If in doubt, most customers appreciate concierge-style services which offer in-depth information from a knowledgeable expert. Especially as the better experiences which customers have with a business, the more loyal, they’ll be in the long run. Especially as psychology has shown that people often make shopping choices based on emotion and will return to a business to which they feel connected to, over and over again.

So if businesses want to reap the benefits of having a loyal base of customers, they should definitely take all of Josh Melick’s advice. In order to help their business grow from strength to strength.