Mohit Tater's Blog, page 675

The Retirement Tips Every Entrepreneur Should Follow

Retirement might seem like an unfortunately long amount of time off, but there’s no better time to prepare for your retirement future than the present. No matter your age or occupation, these saving tips and tools will see your financial status more secure by the time you reach retirement.

Determine How Much You’ll Need

For a while, the million dollar marker was a point most retirees worked towards, but these days, the amount you hope to save should be crafted around what you plan to do with your time once you are retired. Will you desire to travel? Do you have or are you hoping to have a large family with plenty of grandchildren to spoil? Will you move to a beach hut in Bora Bora? Considering exactly what you want to do will give you a better jumping off point of determining how much you need. If you need help figuring out how much money you’ll need to live the life you want, consult with a financial planner and estimate a solid number to work towards.

Start Saving Now

Even if you’re only in your first or second job and still have a long way to go in your career, it’s important to start saving as early as possible. The best strategy for bolstering a retirement account is starting as early as possible and remaining diligent with adding to it as the years go on. The longer there’s money in the account, the more compounded interest you’ll garner. If you find it hard to follow the discipline of contributing to a retirement account each month, put your savings on automation. This way, your money will go to the account before you even bat an eye.

Take Advantage of Free Money

If you contribute to a 401(k) but don’t take advantage of employer matching, you’re essentially throwing cash in the trash each year. You might be hesitant to take advantage, say, if your 401(k) requires you to deposit a higher threshold of money into the 401(k) each year, but by and large it’s worth it to cut your budget in other areas and sock away as much as possible—especially when there’s free money on the line.

Options Other than 401(k)

Perhaps your company doesn’t offer a 401(k), or you’re a self-employed individual. It’s important to look into IRAs, or individual retirement accounts. These might give you access to investment opportunities that a 401(0k) wouldn’t, like real estate investments, emerging market funds, and other financial options. You might also consider a Roth IRA, which provides tax-free growth and tax-free qualified withdrawals.

Budget Carefully

If you want to have more money to contribute into your retirement account but your salary isn’t going to experience an increase in the near future, you’ll need to figure out how to cut spending in your current habits. Sit down and look at where the bulk of your spending is allocated each month. Determine the expenditures that are frivolous and unnecessary, and allocate that into your saving efforts.

Reassess Your Tax Filings

Taxes are usually complicated, and throw in varied life events, changes in employment, and rising incomes, and you’re set to owe the government quite a bit of money each year. However, there are many lucrative but unfamiliar deductions and credits that you might be missing out on. Even if you think you’ve got a handle on your finances, it’s never a bad idea to consult with a tax professional. More often than not, individuals find they’ve been paying too much or missing out on credits that could have saved them hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Use a company like Community Tax and see if there’s anything you might have overlooked, especially if you’ve recently changed jobs, gotten married, or had a child.

It’s never too early to start building a retirement plan, and whether you’re in the beginning of your career or nearing the end, these tips will help bolster savings accounts dedicated to life after the professional sector.

The post The Retirement Tips Every Entrepreneur Should Follow appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Entrepreneur Life Hacks – How not to let life troll you!

For an entrepreneur, life is not at all easy. With so much to be done, in so little time, life starts to seem cruel. And, cruel it is.

With nothing but, work, work and work, there is absolutely no time to relax or even SLEEP. We understand the dilemma you’re in, and are here to serve. To make things less exhausting, we present to you some super-awesome life hacks. These will definitely make your life easier, and make you wiser and stronger.

1. FIX A SCHEDULE

There should be a fixed time for all your work and your hobbies. You should have a particular time for your official work and don’t forget to take out time for the thing you love doing. Be it playing sports or spending time with your family.

2. DON’T GET DISTRACTED

It is easy to get distracted all the time. Checking your phones all the time or mails or messages is the most common way to get distracted. The best way to escape these things is to check your mails and messages while on the way to office or when you get 5 or 10 minutes break.

3. SET YOU MIT’S

Your most important task should be aligned on your desk separately. This way you will be able to finish the important tasks first and the rest you can do later when you get time.

4. TAKE NOTES

You should always take notes somewhere of the tasks you need to do. This way you will never forget what you have to and when. Try keeping page markers or sticky notes with you at all times so that you can note every detail you need.

5. FOLLOW THE TWO MINUTE RULE

A famous author had stated that you should always think that a task can be completed in two minutes. This way you will be able to complete the task in lesser time.

6. DO NOT MULTITASK

Whenever you think of multitasking you end up doing nothing completely. You should focus on doing one work at a time and this way you will complete all the work with dedication.

7. TAKE A BREAK FOR ONCE

Working continuously without taking a break can cost your brain lot. Take out 5 or 10 minutes to have some time of your own. Check your phone or listen to music to refresh your mind and then start your work.

8. EXERCISE

Staying fit is more important than making money so you should definitely try and take out time for exercise. Jogging and yoga can be very beneficial in staying healthy.

9. KEEP A BACKUP

You should always keep a backup of all your important data and files so that if you need them in future you can have it anytime. Backing up all your data is always a smart option.

10. LEARN FROM FAILURE

Never get upset if you don’t achieve success. If you are working hard then you will achieve success in life someday. Always learn from your failure and don’t repeat your mistakes.

These were some simple yet awesome life hacks for all the entrepreneurs out there.

And, on a parting note, as good luck – May the force be with you!

The post Entrepreneur Life Hacks – How not to let life troll you! appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Miami’s Real Estate Market Upward Mobility

There is no shortage of people wanting to live in Miami. The weather, the food, and the beaches are just some of the reason that makes this one of the most sought after locales in Florida. Due to its popularity, the real estate market in the state has been enjoying significant growth in the last couple of years.

Miami is a city that offers refuge to a largely transient community. This, in part, has helped the housing market to do incredibly well in the last few years. The majority of real estate demand that has propped up the market has been from international buyers and immigrants. It’s hardly surprising that Miami has been labelled the ‘Capital of Latin America’. This increase in international investment has led to more development in the real estate sector. There has been in an elevation in the number of construction sites throughout the city.

It is not only international investors who are in the real estate game, however. The residents of Miami are also taking advantage of the upturn in the market. Single family homes were one of the most sought after residential structures in the region. Unfortunately, the supply was not always meeting the demand. The statistics in 2014, showed that this began to change. Home owners were placing single family units and condominiums on the inventory at an increased rate. You too can get in on this trend by building and selling your own home. Employ Miami’s custom home builder and interior designer for the stars to get the best possible price for an investment home.

Selling real estate in Miami is projected at being a solid venture. The statistics are proving this, more than anything else. Each passing year, homes seem to be spending less and less time on the market. At the end of 2013, a single family home was expected to spend no longer than 41 days on the market. This demand for residential homes has another advantage for sellers – the price. The price of a home is steadily increasing in Miami, favoring sellers. Thus, if you are planning on selling your home, you are bound to get much more than you paid for it.

There is currently a lot of interest in Miami from both foreign and domestic investors. They are concerned with developing several areas around the city. This means that the real investment market is currently as hot as the weather in this sunny city. There are plenty of advantages for joining the boom that Miami is currently experiencing, particularly as it is nearing its peak. If you like great weather, Cuban food, and beautiful people and are also interested in exploring investment opportunities, you may have found your solution. There are different ways that you can choose to take advantage of the upturn in the real estate market. You can choose to be a buyer, seller, or invest in the numerous development projects. It appears that the real estate scene in Miami is doing well and can only go up from here.

The post Miami’s Real Estate Market Upward Mobility appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

The Benefits of Quality Shopping Cart Software

Having a good shopping cart is an important part of your website. Once people have browsed through your services or items, it should be easy for them to pick out what they want. There are many companies offering premium online shopping cart software. You want to make sure that you get everything you need to have a successful business.

Coupons and Discounts

With the right software, you can keep in touch with your customers so that they will know what is going on with your business. There are options that will allow you to send emails to your customers thanking them for built-in broadcasting technology. By providing online coupons and discounts to your customers, you can entice them to come back and shop with you again. This shopping cart software can help you to promote customer loyalty.

Make Sure Your Store is Optimized for Search Engines

You can find premium software out there that will make sure that your online store is optimized for the larger search engines as soon as you start to use it.   It is important to get customers to your site so that they will be able to do business with you.

Upsell Your Products or Services

The right shopping cart software will help you to upsell your products as well. After your customers have completed their order, they can be shown other products that they can add with just a click of a button. This will make it easy for you to have larger sales on a day-by-day basis. It is important to let your customers know what you have to offer. If you have something that they may be interested in based on their last purchase, you should be sure to show them.

Help Spread the Word

Word of mouth is an amazing form of advertisement, so be sure that your customers can easily help you find others that may be interested in what you have to offer. You can have software that will help you to get affiliates. Good software will provide you with built-in affiliate marketing technology. You can offer affiliate banners, promotional links, and an easy way to pay your affiliates commissions.

Sell Items All Over the Internet

You can help your sales grow by adding buttons on social media sites that will help customers to buy items from you right away. This direct checkout technology can make life easy for you and your customers. You can connect with people through blogs and large social media outlets and be able to share links to your shopping cart without any delays.

When you have a quality company, you want to have the best shopping cart software out there. You should be able to easily find customers. When they visit your site, they should be able to check-out with you quickly and efficiently so that you can make as much money as possible.

The post The Benefits of Quality Shopping Cart Software appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Weebly: The Ultimate Website Builder

Weebly is a drag-and-drop website builder that is increasingly becoming a popular alternative to massive content management systems like WordPress.  The platform currently has about 30 million users, and the company pitches that it is “surprisingly easy to create a high-quality website, blog or online store” with Weebly. This site builder was recommended to me by many of my colleagues, so I went about and tested what Weebly can actually do, compared to what everyone else says it can do. Read ahead for my review of Weebly.

At-a-Glance

Weebly, like most of its competitors, has a free basic plan for users. Weebly users do not require any prior technical knowledge of coding for the web and such, which is an advantage over a CMS like Drupal. Anyone can sign up with a valid email. I chose the free plan to test it, and signing up was easy. The hardest part was deciding on a web address. Because I was using the free account, I got a mysite.weebly.com domain.

Ease of Use

Once I chose my web address, I was prompted to choose a theme. Weebly has a good collection of free and paid themes. Their free themes are stylish, and did not come off as cheap or out of fashion. With a little bit of customization, a free Weebly theme could be used for life.

Once I chose the theme, I was directed to Weebly’s website building interface. Basically, on my right-hand side was the web template I was customizing, and on the left was an options bar with buttons clearly indicating things I could tinker with, such as title, text and image.

Weebly is a drag-and-drop website builder as mentioned above, so everything was easy as dragging and dropping. For example, I wanted to add a photo gallery to my site, so I dragged the “gallery” button on the menu and dropped it on the template where I wanted the gallery. And voila, it was done and all I left to do was to upload pictures from my computer. I could easily customize as I wished from then on and include videos, comments sections and add-on features like online shopping cart software.

I found Weebly extremely easy to use, even more so than initially suggested. I didn’t have to go through tutorials; I was building a website soon as I signed up.

Pricing

Those who want to graduate from the basic plan can use paid plans starting from 8 USD per month. Domain registration is free for one year, and after that it costs 19.95 USD per year. This is a temptingly affordable option compared to many others currently available.

Compared to the Competition

Weebly is easy to use, comes with attractive themes, and is affordable. So how does it compare with the other popular CMSs? Weebly is on largely equal grounds with other drag-and-drop builders like Wix and Squarespace. It’s far more easy to use than WordPress or Drupal, but does not offer the same variety of features or community support.

All in all, I think Weebly is a great website builder for beginners. Professionals will find that Weebly lacks advanced features necessary for certain sites, and the ability to change code is limited. Therefore, Weebly is highly recommended for amateur users who want to build least-demanding sites.

The post Weebly: The Ultimate Website Builder appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

It’s Time for Indian Women to Take Control of Their Health

As per a survey conducted by one of the country’s leading insurers, while many Indian women are proving to be greater home makers, mothers and professionals, they are doing little to care about their health.   The survey that included 1009 (women) respondents revealed the following facts:

Only 39% of women were covered by any health insurance plan in India
Of that 39%, only 22% had purchased the policy themselves
16% of respondent were covered by their employers
A large number shared the policy with husband or father
71% of women developed some kind of an illness at least once or twice a year
16 % respondents never went for a health check-up
63% went for a check-up only when unwell

These revelations are hardly surprising, as most Indian women prioritize the wellness of their family members over their own. Traditionally, women in India are seen as an individual who is responsible for keeping the family together and strong. She is expected to look after her husband, children and maintain kinship ties. Amidst this, most women neglect their health and do not feel the need to consult a doctor. There is an urgent need to create awareness about women health, especially amongst women and show them a link between how their well-being is connected to that of their family. Keeping that in mind, here are some common health concerns that women after 30 must watch out for so that they can remain healthy in later years of life.

Breast Cancer

According to Breast Cancer India, out of every 100 breast cancer patients 16%, are the 30 to 40 age group. There is also an increase in the number of breast cancer patients between 25 to 40 years old in recent time, a trend which is highly disturbing.  Women whose mothers or grandmothers were diagnosed with breast cancer have a high risk of developing it themselves. At the same time, being overweight, or lifestyle choices like smoking can also put women at risk of developing the disease, even without a family history.   Experts believe that awareness about the disease and regular screening are the biggest deterrent to breast cancer.  Diagnosis of cancer in its early stage (1 and 2) can improve the chance of survival and prognosis. Therefore, women must watch out for symptoms of breast cancer through self-examination and go for regular monograms and check-up to minimize risk.

Osteoporosis

As per a study, 1 out of every 3 women is India suffer from Osteoporosis. In 2013, an estimated 36 million people were found to be suffering from osteoporosis in the country. This is an alarming, as the symptoms of osteoporosis can be reversed through proper nutrition, Vitamin D supplements and calcium. There are a number of over the counter bone supplements available in the market today. However, before taking any medicine or supplement do consult a doctor.  Although not life threatening, osteoporosis can cause severe bone damage or fracture due to brittle bones leading to impaired quality of life.

Hypertension

Increased Blood pressure is directly related to the development of coronary heart diseases and kidney failure. An analysis of prevalence of hypertension in India revealed that prevalence of Hypertension is highest in the urban region of the country and a growing number of women are being diagnosed with high BP. Uncontrolled BP can lead to severe health complications including heart attack, stroke, kidney failure and even cognitive impairment.  Hypertension is a highly preventive disease and can be controlled though proper care, diet and physical exercise.

Diabetes

The average age of women dying in India due to Diabetes is 57.4 years, according to a report.  This indicates that women with diabetes have an average life 9.5 years shorter than Indian women without diabetes.  Diabetes is yet another lifestyle disease which can be easily prevented though lifestyle modification and diet. Gestational diabetes is again very common in India. It refers to a condition when pregnant women have high sugar levels around the 24th of pregnancy, but were not diabetic before. It is estimated that at least 16% of pregnant Indian women develop gestational diabetes, and the number is rapidly increasing.

Women should regularly screen their blood sugar levels. Those with a family history are particularly susceptible of developing it themselves.

Cardiovascular diseases

A Safforlalife study 2015 revealed that 61% of Indian women are at risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Diet and sedentary lifestyle are the biggest cause of any kind of heart ailment.  It is an extremely preventable disease.  Women are required to focus on heart health and must maintain a health BMI, lead an active life and should eat healthy and nutritious food.

A woman’s health is not just tied-up to her reproductive health and ability to procreate. It is more than that and is about holistic well-being. She has to juggle between so many responsibilities, manage stress level and focus on her own life.  Keeping all these factors in mind- It’s time that women should take control of their health and health insurance needs. A plain medical insurance plan along with a separate critical illness policy is a must for each & every Indian woman.

The post It’s Time for Indian Women to Take Control of Their Health appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Top 10 Crucial Softwares For SAAS Startups

SaaS startups are disrupting several industries thanks to genius products, very dedicated and skillful team and by using other SaaS startups product to boost their productivity and efficiency. SaaS acronym has been massively used since few years and has been first introduced by Salesforce. Software as a Service (SaaS) is a revolutionizing way to put software accessible to customers over the internet, using the cloud-computing technology. SaaS companies are emerging everyday with new concepts, ideas, and foolproof softwares to make companies business more prosperous.

What matter is to determine which softwares can have a true impact on your team productivity, team efficiency, customer retention, or business profitability. Here a list of top 10 vital softwares for your SaaS startup to make your business more productive, more efficient and more profitable.

SLACK

Slack as a mix between Facebook group feature and google Hangouts in a single & unify platform. Originally built to improve internal communication between co-workers, Slack is also now used for external communication to advertise product/service in targeted Slack communities. Slack is the number one communication tool in the market nowadays. Users can set up private chat group for each projects in the startup, or join public groups, through web, desktop and mobile app as the platform is a cloud based solution. Last but not least, Slack has also a super user friendly interface, easy to use and nice to work with.  Slack is the solution to build or improve your communication in your SaaS startup.

SALESTOOLS.IO

Salestools is a cloud based platform that help B2B companies to skyrocket their sales by generating very targeted and accurate outbound leads. Salestools.io is a foolproof platform helping salespersons to extract contact info on professional social networks (Linkedin, Xing, Crunchbase, Github, Viadeo, Twitter) in order to maximize their sales campaigns. Indeed using Salestools save 45% of sales rep prospecting time and gather up to 80% verified email address. This lead generation platform is integrated with more than 70 CRM (Salesforce, Sugar CRM, MS Dynamics, Pipedrive, and so on) and can also export leads on CSV files to make sales prospecting as easy as possible. This very customer friendly software is a game changing tool for SaaS startups either for their sales, recruiting or marketing campaign.

ASANA

ASANA is a tasks management cloud based software used by various SaaS companies such as MailChimp, Stripe or Lyft to manage & track team work project from start to finish. Asana is a very flexible tool that enable users to create projects, set deadlines, assign tasks, build subtasks and comments on each of them. Very high quality design software with the latest cloud based technology to make teamwork deeply efficient.

BUFFER

Buffer is crucial for every SaaS companies to build, manage, forecast and analyze their social activity. SaaS startup need social media to exist in our today’s digital era as they cannot rely on physical interaction with their audience. Buffer offer a very easy & customer friendly solution to manage, schedule and share posts at any time on every social networks. Schedule and re-share your post as many times as necessary, everywhere and whenever! Excellent tool if you are a SaaS company and want to be present all around the world as your valuable content can be shared while you are sleeping. Amazing isn’t it?

MEDIATOOLKIT

Mediatoolkit is your brand reputation tracker best friend! It helps you to monitor and track millions of websites and social media profiles where your name is mentions. Knowing who, where and on which platform people talk about your brand, product, team is essential to create or improve your marketing strategy. Get Mediatoolkit notification as soon as someone mention your name somewhere to react immediately.

SaaS startups will enjoy the tracking and analytic feature to highlight relevant figures, trends, reviews in order to improve their digital brand reputation. Secret tip: Track your competitor’s mentions in order to adapt your marketing message.

INTERCOM

Intercom is a key software for user management and customer service. SaaS companies has to be reliable 24/7. Today’s customers  want to have a very precise and immediate information. Intercom propose a very simple tool to manage users requests, feedbacks and create tickets for each interactions you have with them. It also allows you to be in touch with them through email or in-app notifications.b The user interface is well design & foolproof and once you start using it, it will soon become something essential to manage your customer requests.

Salesforce

Salesforce CRM, leader of the cloud based CRM, propose a very customizable platform that fit perfectly all SaaS sales management needs. Super stable, the platform provide real-time customer information, insights and analytics in one single place with customized dashboard.   Sales SaaS companies start existing when they are integrated with Salesforce, which means that new business softwares are first integrated with this CRM. It offers a great opportunities in order to increase business sales productivity and efficiency.

STREAK

STREAK offer a very nice design email tracking solution for your sales, marketing or recruitment campaigns. Personalized each steps your leads are passing through and stop missing opportunities. This tool help you to manage your deals, support queue (and more) inside Gmail. It combines multiple external systems in a single platform so call Streak. Share contacts, email, files, and anything else needed with all members of your team to get the job done! Free and simple to integrate, this software helps thousands of SaaS startups to track their leads in real time.

MARKETO

Marketo’s Engagement Marketing Platform allows Startups to attract visitors, engage them over time, measure and maximize marketing investment. Marketo helps as well to plan and coordinate marketing effort across the overall team.

Marketo is transforming the way companies are driving personalized, lifelong and meaningful relationships with customers and companies alike and converting visitors into customers evangelists. It helps you in your digital marketing operation and give you opportunities to build and improve your SEO strategy according to your inbound performance.

AIRCALL

Aircall is a phone system built for SaaS teams. Aircall lets you engage and manage in real time customers phone interactions and distribute them across your support, sales or marketing teams. Aircall connects all call information with CRMs, Helpdesk, Slack and many more softwares such as Pipedrive, Zendesk, Salesforce and so on.

Each of those softwares are essential for SaaS startups to increase team productivity, find new opportunities and manage real time customer relationship. Boost your business using the right tool with the right team. Best practices on how to build a SaaS startup team in the next article!

The post Top 10 Crucial Softwares For SAAS Startups appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

How to Survive Your First Year as a Start-up

How many times have you heard that most start-up businesses fail in their first year? And why doesn’t this information put off the many thousands of people who choose to become their own boss? The answer’s simple – because there are always people who have the drive, determination and vision to follow their chosen path even when the odds seem to be stacked against them.

Granted, the first year is going to be tough but following these five tips, as well as following the wealth of expert advice you’ll find online, will make getting off the ground that little bit easier.

Have a plan . . .

It’s absolutely vital that you have a firm vision about the sort of business you want to be, and preferably one that stands out from your competitors in at least one significant way. Once you’ve crystallized this vision, back it up with a precise idea of the sorts of customers you aim to target and the ways in which you’re going to reach them.

. . . but be ready to adapt

Now this might sound like a complete contradiction, and to a certain extent it is. But it’s only when your business is up and running that you’ll be able to discover what you need to adapt and why. It could be that a whole new group of potential customers appear or you discover that there are times of the year when the business you were hoping for simply isn’t there. So you have to be flexible enough to respond appropriately. The good news is that, as a smaller company, you should be more nimble and able to adapt.

Have some cash reserves

Until you’re established, income is unlikely to be regular and this is going to affect you in two distinct ways. Firstly, you may not be making the money you need to keep the business afloat and, as a separate consideration; you may not be able to pay yourself the salary you were hoping for. To tide you over these difficult times you need to have some available cash reserves. In terms of personal money some people believe that you should have savings equal to at least one year’s personal income to be on the safe side.

Keep on top of the finances

Closely related to this, no business can succeed unless it has a very close control of its finances and cashflow in particular. One of the very best investments you can make is in quality online accounting software. Not only will it save you huge amounts of time in managing your accounts, it will also be able to produce up to the minute reports on where you stand financially.

Believe in yourself!

The fifth, and most essential, aspect in any start-up’s success is having a commitment and belief in yourself. There will be times when it feels like it’s you against the world, but if you can battle through these with a combination of faith in yourself and a gritty stubbornness to succeed, there’s a better than average chance that you’ll make it through to success.

The post How to Survive Your First Year as a Start-up appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Things to Consider if You are Going to Register a Start-up

Setting up and running your own business can be one of the most rewarding experiences in the world. Developing an idea into a product or service that you are deeply passionate about and feel can impact people’s lives is what drives people into setting up their own businesses. More and more entrepreneurs are seeing the appeal of launching start-ups and it’s never been easier, so if you’re thinking about setting up your own business, here are a number of steps to consider before you register.

Every successful business starts off the same way, with a strong idea that can be developed into a product or service. Once you’ve settled on an idea that you feel passionately about, but also believe can be turned into a profitable business, it’s time to research your market.

Market research is essential for anyone considering launching a start-up, and while you’ll have to ask yourself some difficult questions, you’ll find it is more than worth it. The most basic method of carrying out market research is to discuss your business with potential customers, questioning them on their needs and expectations. One extremely effective process to discover if your business idea is viable is to create a prototype of your product or service (if possible) and test it out in the market. While it’s important to take your potential consumers into consideration, do not neglect researching your prospective competition. The key to a successful business is offering not only a desirable product/service, but also making it unique.

In order to run and operate a successful business it is vital that you have a solid and well thought-out business plan. Forming your business plan will help you focus your business, giving you a clearer direction and helping you establish your company values. It will provide you with a well-defined contingency plan to ensure your start-up is well-prepared for any potential difficulties it may encounter in the future. It is important for your business plan to establish the product/service you are aiming to supply and how the company will turn a profit whilst doing so.

As strong as your idea may be, no business can succeed without looking after its finances. While large corporations have entire teams comprising of trained accounts to look after their finances, this is not a luxury afforded to every business, particularly small start-ups. However, there is online accounting software that can be utilized to great effect, enabling you to manage your cash flow and prevent problems such as bottlenecking.

You cannot underestimate the importance of creating a strong brand for your company and therefore creating a name and logo for your business is not a decision that should be rushed. They should be effective and memorable, encapsulating what your company is about in a concise fashion. You should also register a domain name and build an easily navigable website.

These are all things to consider before you make the exciting venture into running your business.

The post Things to Consider if You are Going to Register a Start-up appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Would a Brexit Break or Boom Small Businesses in the UK?

As the opinion-splitting referendum on European Union (EU) membership for the UK looms, debate rages on the impact of businesses, trade flows, people and everyday lives. Even within SME business circles there is no clear consensus, with more than two-fifths of entrepreneurs saying they are undecided.

Benefits

Tax

The UK’s contribution to the EU budget costs about £140 per person, per year. If we leave, there may be tax reductions which put money in people’s pockets.

Less red tape

EU rules and regulations are often described as holding British SMEs back with excessive and time-consuming paperwork. Leaving the EU may allow the government to roll back some of these and promote stronger innovation and growth. However, leading politicians say this possibility is over-exaggerated.

Working time directive

Our current rules on working hours, annual leave and parental leave originate from Brussels. SME owners would almost certainly appreciate changes and flexibility to these expensive policies.

Single market membership

Those arguing in favour of Brexit say Britain could continue to access the European single market via an agreement, similar to the one held by Norway, which does not come with obligations for national home affairs, justice or agriculture policies.

Export

Choosing to leave would give the UK freedom to negotiate its own trade deals; potentially on more favourable terms than those led via Europe.

Downsides

Workforce

The free movement of people across borders that the EU provides has kept a flow of willing workers to large swathes of British businesses. Removing this provision would remove a significant, and educated, chunk of the jobseeker market.

The economy

According to the most recent research available, three million jobs in the UK are linked to trade with Europe. Access to finance may also feel the pinch if the country’s credit rating is downgraded due to uncertainty in the markets.

Contracts

Business owners in legal contracts spanning the period beyond Brexit may find the imposition of tax, duties or other charges make the supply of these goods not economically viable. It is unclear whether a British Leave vote would constitute a “force majeure”, which could break these without penalty.

Trade

As EU members, UK businesses can readily export into other member state markets. If we leave, import taxes may come into play and considerably impede our ability to offer a competitive price.

Farming

Farmers currently benefit from significant subsidies from Brussels which, for some, make their operations viable. It is unclear if, or how, these would be replaced.

Campaigners on both sides are stepping up their arguments as the referendum draws closer, but it’s obvious that for business owners there are clear costs and benefits on either side. Weighing up the certainty of the deal we already have over the potential benefits of new arrangements is a personal decision, and not to be taken lightly.

The post Would a Brexit Break or Boom Small Businesses in the UK? appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.