Month: May 2021

E-commerce is an integral revenue stream for any business, and for many companies, it’s the primary driver for growth, brand recognition, and market accessibility. Given the increasing shift from brick-and-mortar to online shopping, especially in the new COVID-19 world, maintaining and developing your e-commerce store is a paramount task. Luckily there are plenty of platforms and support systems out there to ease the burden of development and maintenance, ensuring increased revenue without all the overhead. 

The question for most companies isn’t implementation, but what to target for the biggest bang for your buck. To get you started, below are three easy steps to get you moving and thinking about the bigger picture. 

Step 1: Make Your Site Accessible to All Customers

Seemingly obvious, most customers will decide whether to view your catalog or not within moments of accessing your store. Clunky, difficult, or confusing sites will scare away potential sales and limit your potential. Having a site that is easy to navigate, shows products clearly, and provides flexibility for both the owner and customer are critical for scaling growth and ensuring customer satisfaction–especially among people with disabilities. The goal of any online store is to present products that can be purchased seamlessly and simply by any customer at any time. 

Standard practice requires that sites are ADA & WCAG compliant, which requires some level of specialization. Companies like accessiBe can help reduce the complexity by providing an affordable automated solution and protection from ADA lawsuits. Their website states, “Here’s the accessibility dilemma: small businesses, who make up 99% of the market, knock on our door with a lawsuit worth $30K in compensations, on one hand, a $20K quote for an accessibility project on the other. The source of these litigations is that people with disabilities simply want to be included in the modern, digital era. So they turn to legislation as a last resort.” 

Fortunately, the advancements of AI have enabled companies like accessiBe to solve the age-old accessibility dilemma. This new development allows other businesses to make compliance attainable for every company, creating a real accessibility revolution, and achieving a win for everyone on all sides. Accessible websites, apps, and digital assets provide better customer experiences for all groups of people – in other words, build up your brand recognition and loyalty knowing that the customer experiences you are creating are optimized for everyone, regardless of ability.

Step 2: Control Operational Costs

E-commerce is one of the most effective ways to earn bonus returns on investment. The difference between a cost-effective and cost-prohibitive e-commerce site is the maintenance and overhead required to run and provide new content and continuous updates. Traditional website upgrades (accessibility included) require product-by-product reviews and changes that can reach tens of thousands of dollars, making the process costs prohibitive for most small to medium-sized companies. As with anything else, the right kind of change requires money and the primary focus of any operational function is to mitigate costs while providing world-class service.

A few ways you can reduce costs on your e-commerce store include: choosing the best payment processor, outsourcing freelancers, and streamlining your supply chain management. Instead of obtaining an expensive payment processing system, you should consider using software that allows you to invoice your customers without added fees. If you’re not careful, the high cost of credit and debit card fees can quickly eat into your profits. As far as freelancers go, a good one can be the difference between a productive and a non-productive e-commerce store. By outsourcing administrative and lower priority tasks through a freelancer or virtual assistant, you can free up more time to maximize business efforts – and save money! Lastly, streamlining your e-commerce store’s supply chain and distribution process is one of the easiest ways to cut down on operational costs. Incorporating supply chain management measures (like stocking just the required products), integrating supply chain methods and vendor managed inventory are some of the ways your online e-commerce company can streamline the supply chain process and earn above average return on investment.

Step 3: Optimize your online store for mobile devices

Online shopping has largely shifted from a desktop experience to a smartphone experience. With people being on their phones for hours upon hours during the day, it’s more likely that they are going to come to your site via a mobile device than on their desktop computer. Therefore, your e-commerce store must be mobile-friendly. Morebusiness.com states that, 

“For your products to sell on your eCommerce site, they must be visually appealing to visitors, and they should also be displayed in a variety of different ways to be successful. One way to do this includes going with a good web hosting company that provides many options to help showcase your offerings in their best light, such as image zoom, and that also enables you to display multiple images for the products, so customers can view them from all angles to determine if they may be the right products for them. If you plan to sell on social media, it should also include an option to share your product images there as well”.

This circles back to making sure your website is easy to continuously adapt as new updates and accessibility options are rolled out on desktop and mobile. “M-commerce” as it’s called, has already become a major channel for shopping and changed consumer shopping habits over the last several years. Customers are reliant on their mobile devices now more than ever, and it is only going to inch closer to becoming consumers’ preferred channel for online shopping within the coming years. 

The Takeaway: It’s Now or Never

If you haven’t already started thinking about how to implement or improve your e-commerce store customer experience, now is the time. It’s undeniable how accessibility enhancements can make an e-commerce store more usable for everyone, greatly increasing the likelihood that the product will end up in a customer’s cart. Remember that if you want your e-commerce business to thrive, be prepared to learn constantly and work on improving your store to provide a better customer experience, starting with these three steps!

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We live in the world of automation. As your business takes new ventures, so must its methods. It is highly imperative to upgrade business methodologies with time to stay competitive in this fast-pacing business climate. 

Long gone are the days when businesses used to amass paper-based records in ledger rooms for their accounting. Technology has revamped the way business and accounting work. And businesses that take up automation climb up the economic ladder with time. Small businesses should not run the risk by adhering to traditional accounting practices. In the present-day business climate, running in the business race with primitive and outdated accounting practices will not help you to win over rivals that reap the benefits of technology.

Big enterprises have already accommodated automation for their business accounting. Also, more than half the small to mid-sized businesses are using automation for their business accounting in one way or the other. Primitive practices are gradually fading out of existence. So, it is already high time to embrace automation before your business gets outdated.

Why should small businesses embrace automation?

The word automation resonates everywhere in the accounting sites and business talks. What really is in it? Why does the world take a steep turn on accounting automation? If such questions crowd your mind, you are not alone. These questions itch every small business owner who is comfortable with old accounting practices. Here are the answers.

Automation is not a new trend in accounting. Accounting has always been running with automation but in simpler forms. When people were using the abacus for calculations, calculators came in as the most sophisticated, modern, and expensive equipment in the industry. And then bashed in the computers, followed by a wide range of accounting applications. Today, accounting and bookkeeping have been simplified to an extent where they can be accomplished hands-free. 

Let us set out how automation can push your business boundaries up and forward. 

Bookkeeping is the most time-consuming exercise in accounting when done manually. Some businesses even have to employ people for manual entry or outsource data entry professionals. The average speed of manual keying is 8000 to 10,000 keystrokes per hour. Data entry professionals may even touch 13,000 to 15,000 keystrokes per hour. Think of the speed, it is nowhere near the rate at which software can do it. However, experienced the data entry clerk may be, it takes about 15 hours to feed 300 transactions. Though it seems like a great task, think of it from the automation side. It just takes five to ten minutes for the software to import these values. With automation, your books are done faster.

Accuracy is another severe concern about manual accounting. However vigilant the data entry person may be, there are always high chances of errors in manual data entry. Trivial errors may unintentionally occur. Mistyping a particular value, missing out on a certain column may seem like trivial errors, but will cause huge implications in accounting, especially at the time of reconciliation. But with automation, businesses can get accurate, precise, and intact records on books. As automation software integrates with the applications, the software does every interaction and so the records are error-free and untouched. 

Usually, businesses need someone to push and pass on the process to the next stage at every stage. A business owner will have to call upon his employee to know the inventory status, invoices, and any such information. But with automation, business owners have every information at their fingertips and can check them anytime. They do not have to wait for and rely upon someone to handle such stuff. 

Most of the cumbersome business processes can be automated and apprehensive reports are generated by automation software. This paves way for the business owner to cultivate business strategies and take actions accordingly. Rather than pecking at such menial issues, small business owners can get their accounting done easier, smarter, quicker, and more efficiently. This leaves them with a clear headspace to work on earnest business decisions.

Best Accounting Automation Software

With accounting automation, small businesses can accomplish accounting chores at a higher degree of speed and accuracy. It aims to take away most of the manual elements in small business accounting and so small business owners have more control over things that really matter.

QuickBooks is the most favorite pick for thousands of small business owners and their accountants worldwide for accounting. It can help businesses to send recurring invoices, payment reminders, reconcile expenses, generate reports, take automatic backups, pay bills, prepare taxes, and so much more.  And it is affordable for the feature suite it comes with.

Though QuickBooks is the most efficient accounting software, importing data into QuickBooks is done manually so far. As mentioned earlier, manual keying is the most time-consuming and labor-intensive part of bookkeeping and accounting. Here are a couple of applications to automate and simplify the manual process in bookkeeping with QuickBooks. 

PayTraQer

QuickBooks needs values to do the accounting process for you. It cannot start accounting with empty columns. Manually keying transactions into QuickBooks will take hours. Despite consuming such a long time, the reports may not always be accurate. In such a case, an application that can automatically sync online payments into the QuickBooks account would save hours of labor. PayTraQer is one such application. PayTraQer can sync your online payments into QuickBooks automatically without any human support. By integrating payment systems with QuickBooks, every transaction detail flows directly into QuickBooks without any human touch. This paves way for accurate, error-free, and fresh books all the time. 

PayTraQer is Intuit authorized and is available in QuickBooks App Store. You can install PayTraQer by just clicking the ‘Get App Now’ button. Sign up with QuickBooks credentials and start automating your bookkeeping with their 30-day free trial. PayTraQer can integrate PayPal, Stripe, Square, Clover, and Authorize.Net transactions into QuickBooks automatically, in a snap. 

With PayTraQer, the whole syncing process can be automated, leaving no room for errors. Not only with ongoing transactions, but PayTraQer can also sync unlimited historic transactions as far back as required. There might be chances of uploading transactions that are not needed in the QuickBooks account. In such cases, PayTraQer can effortlessly roll back the sync, delete synced transactions from QuickBooks without leaving any trace. PayTraQer supports transactions in multi-currency, as long as the currency is supported by QuickBooks. 

SaasAnt Transactions Online

Here is another tool that can make importing way easier, just with a click of a button. It is ideal for small businesses that still rely on Excel spreadsheets for their bookkeeping. SaasAnt Transactions can import unlimited bulk transactions from Excel to QuickBooks Online with just a click of a button. Transactions that usually take hours to import manually can be imported in minutes with SaasAnt Transactions. SaasAnt Transactions can also do bulk exports and deletes in a flash. If you are a QuickBooks user, you will really love using SaasAnt Transactions. You shall try using it with their 30-day free trial. 

To Conclude

Having told everything, it is high time to embrace automation for your accounting. Rather than musing with mundane and redundant tasks, try automating repetitive accounting exercises that eat up the most time, to maximize productivity. An efficient automation tool will free you from doing redundant tasks and leaves accurate results in a short span of time. And PayTraQer does this all and is worth a shot!

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Taking risks can be the difference between a thriving business and one that remains stagnant. This usually happens if an owner is afraid to risk any change, growth, or innovation. However, that doesn’t mean you should jump into risk without a definite plan. An entrepreneur only assumes calculated risks, those in which there is a good chance of success.

There comes a time in the life of every small business owner when you have to take some risk. Do you want to increase your customer base? If so, it will require the risk of investing in marketing. 

Do you want to increase production? This requires the risk of opening a credit line at the bank. Without risks, there is no growth; many successful entrepreneurs had to take them at some point to build the megacorporations they now run. However, it’s important to make certain considerations before embarking on your new investment.

Start Small

Starting small is the best way to ensure you’re ready. If things don’t work out as planned, at least it was a slight change. Before taking any risk, carefully analyze all the variables, identifying their pros and cons. If you have the idea of launching a new product or service, do some market research, listen to your customers’ opinions, and identify the competition that you will face.

It’s also important to set specific goals concerning the risk you intend to take: how much investment you will have to make, how long you plan to recover it, etc. Set reasonable dates for meeting goals and assess whether you are willing to take that risk and whether it’s worth it. You may need to go back and set more concrete or realistic goals before moving it to practice. The important thing is to make sure the risk contributes to long-term success.

Talk to Employees

A risk won’t pay off unless your employees support the decision and are on the same page. If you set your goals and objectives in the previous step without talking to your team, it’s better to go back and start over. When taking any risk, you must have the entire team at your side.

This is also a good time to assume the role of a leader. Not as an authoritarian figure, but as someone who knows how to communicate. There are several ways to communicate to your team that the company intends to take a risk:

• Explain Your Plans Clearly– Rather than making rounds or flourishes, try to be clear and confident when communicating your plans. The clearer it is at this stage, the more prepared the team will be to face the challenges with you later.
• Be Positive– If you appear to be tense when communicating your plans or insist on highlighting how difficult and laborious it will be, your team might get stressed. A leader remains calm in the face of the most challenging situations and is ready to deal with crises. 
• After Speaking, Listen– Talking to employees shouldn’t be a monologue. You must transmit messages clearly and listen carefully to the team’s comments and suggestions, showing them that you care about feedback.
• Set an Example– The business is yours, and you are its representative. Show your team that you maintain the same practices you are demanding of them. To lead, set a good example.

Find Insurance

Insurance is necessary before making any business decision. Having a general liability insurance, for example, can protect small business owners from claims of property damage, bodily injury, and advertising injury. This can happen if your business or services harm third parties or their property, or your ads are accused of plagiarism or slander.

Workers’ compensation insurance helps in the case of work-related injuries or illnesses and covers medical costs and wages from lost work. If you intend to purchase a fleet of cars for the company, you should consider commercial auto insurance, which helps cover the costs if you or your employees get involved in an accident. Find the right policy to meet your needs and staff size.

Keep in mind that some factors impact the cost of small business insurance. Your line of business (what you do or sell) can increase your liability risk and consequently raise the cost. The same goes for the area where your business is located (if there are frequent reports of theft or vandalism) and your history of claims. However, the costs can be much greater in the end without any form of insurance.

Learn from Mistakes

It is not always worth taking some risks. Some business owners can leave the experience frustrated and even traumatized because it didn’t work. Others can face the experience more optimistically and accept failure as an opportunity to grow and learn. 

If an incident happens, remember to keep detailed reports of all errors or budgeting mistakes. By accepting failure and analyzing these reports, the mistakes can teach you how to think and plan more effectively next time. You can even use this material to ask for help from professionals in the same field.

Taking Risks is the Key to Evolving

Risks are directly linked to opportunity. Taking risks can be seen as a challenging step for the professional growth of your small business. The whole process can be a bit scary at first, but making challenging decisions is critical in any company that doesn’t want to remain stagnant.

Don’t be afraid to take calculated risks and remain cautious to get the best results out of the process. Remember that if you choose to stay in your comfort zone and take no risks, your competitors may think differently and invest in some new product or innovation, beating you to the sales.

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Many landlords renting out a residential property for the first time assume that their homeowners insurance policy will protect them in the event of a natural disaster, accident, or other damaging event. It is a common and potentially costly mistake.

Homeowners policies generally only cover dwellings that are occupied by the owner. If you start renting the property out to someone else, that coverage no longer applies.

Once you become a landlord, you will need a specific landlord insurance policy that covers your property and extends your liability and dwelling coverage.

Why You Need Landlord Insurance 

Your investment property has value that you will need to protect. Anything from a windstorm that knocks out the gutters, to a lawsuit from someone slipping on an icy sidewalk, could cost you thousands of dollars. Inadequate coverage could be catastrophic for your business and personal finances.

 What Does Landlord Insurance Cover? 

As a landlord, you will not need to insure the contents (personal belongings) of your units. That will be the responsibility of your renters. That said, you may need additional coverages such as income loss coverage in case of loss of rental income resulting from flood, fire, or significant tenant damage to your property. 

 Dwelling/Property 

This covers the structure of your property if it is damaged by a covered peril such as a fire, electric/gas malfunction, or irresponsible tenants. Other structures on your property such as fences, sheds and detached garages should be protected from damages caused by included perils as well.

Try to get a policy that offers coverage for a replacement cost instead of the actual cash value, especially for homes where the fixtures and furnishings are old. Some options offer a predetermined lump sum of cash

Some riders cover additional construction expenses that will cover the cost of having to bring an older building up to current code after it has been damaged.

Other commonly excluded items include damage from earthquakes, water or sewage back-up, and floods. You may be able to purchase additional coverage for this type of loss but be sure you know what is covered before the unexpected happens.

Personal Property Protection 

Landlord insurance does not cover normal maintenance or wear and tear to the property, including landlord furnished appliances. You can purchase personal property protection to cover your personal items/equipment that are used to maintain or service the property, such as lawn equipment.

If you do not have a property management company to handle maintenance calls, you might want to invest in a rider for emergency coverage. It can help you cover some or all the costs you incur traveling to a property if a tenant calls you to fix something such as a leaking dishwasher or was accidentally locked out of the house.

Liability 

While a lot of liability issues will fall under the tenant’s responsibility, if you are found responsible for an injury on your property, liability insurance will protect you legally and financially. It covers medical and/or legal costs that might occur if a tenant or visitor suffers injury due to a property maintenance issue, such as icy walkways or architectural collapse.

Rental Loss Protection

Rental loss covers lost income when the property becomes uninhabitable for various reasons such as severe mold, termites, or a pest infestation. It provides temporary rental reimbursement to cover the rent money you would be receiving if the property were occupied but does not typically protect against tenant default or vacancy.

You can purchase a guaranteed income rider to cover tenant default, which may be worth considering if you cannot cover your mortgage without the rental income and if you think it will be hard to find a new tenant and/or difficult to evict a tenant who is withholding rent due to no fault of your own. This also covers you if a tenant comes up short on the rent one month.

How Much Does Landlord Insurance Cost?

There is a direct correlation between the amount of your premiums and the length of time the property is leased. If you own a vacation rental, the National Association of Realtors say you should expect to pay nearly double in annual premiums if you rent out your home for 12 weeks as opposed to an entire year.

Short-term tenants are less likely to notice or mention maintenance issues. They are more likely to be careless and less likely to understand the layout of the house, location of the plumbing, electrical wiring, etc. This can increase the probability of problems and the insurer’s risk.

According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the average cost of homeowners insurance was $1,211, though prices can vary significantly by state. However as rental properties are more prone to damage and incidents, you can expect to pay about 15% more for landlord insurance on the same property.

Most landlords suggest their tenants invest in a renter’s policy and many make this coverage mandatory. The cost is generally about $20/mo.

The Bottom Line on Landlord Insurance

Landlord insurance helps you rent your property with confidence. When shopping for policies, be sure to ask your homeowners insurance provider about bundle options. If you sign up for homeowners and landlord insurance through the same company, you may receive a discount.

As a landlord, you have a lot of things to keep track of. Not only do you want to make sure your property is functional for your tenant, but you also want to be sure you are protected from liability or financial loss should something happen. Whether you own one or multiple rentals, a property management company can help you understand and implement all that you need for a successful leasing business.

Author Bio

Nichole Shahverdi is the Director of Marketing for Bay Property Management Group. Prior to running the marketing division, Nichole worked as the Director of Leasing, working directly with landlords and property owners to protect their investment properties.

Every business is required to appoint a registered agent to receive notices of a lawsuit (aka service of process) and other legal and tax notices. Whether you already own a business or you’re just starting, you need to understand why a registered agent is necessary and how it can safeguard your business.

Selecting just any registered agent to meet the bare necessities of registering the business can have serious consequences. Here are five reasons why your business needs a reliable registered agent.

Meet State Requirements as Your Business Grows

When you file articles of incorporation or articles of organization to form your business entity, you will be required to designate a registered agent. Without listing an agent that resides in that state (and consents to the appointment), the secretary of state will reject your filing until you do.

Registered agents are state-by-state appointments. As your business grows, you will need to list an agent that maintains a physical address in each one. Many registered agent service companies offer nationwide representation, meaning you don’t have to find and manage individuals or separate vendors. 

Regardless of who or what company you appoint, plan to meet the requirement before you file to avoid costly delays.

Ensure Documents Are Reliably Delivered

The registered agent’s primary job is to receive legal notices and forward them to you. In the event of legal proceedings, response time matters.

Some registered agent companies might lack the technology or infrastructure to deliver documents electronically. Some might mail the documents to you, or worse, forward them to another office for central processing.

A reliable agent will also understand and embrace their role. For example, when a process server knocks on their door, they know how to sign for the papers and immediately work on getting the documents to you. On the other hand, will an individual have the same level of training and know what to do in the same situation?

Consider, too, that individuals have busy personal and professional schedules. It’s infrequent—if not impossible—that the average person will truly be available to receive documents during standard business hours, every working day of the year!

Protect Your Business’s Good Standing

In addition to receiving documents, your business’s registered agent can be a reliable compliance partner. For example, most states require business entities to file an annual report each year, but not every state sends these reminders. Instead, they rely on the business to track their own deadlines and file on time. 

When choosing a registered agent, find one that helps protect your business’s good standing. An ideal agent will provide notices of deadlines even when state agencies do not. The agent might even offer filing services to take care of managing annual reports and other corporate filings.

As your business grows, the right registered agent will grow with you, offering a solution every step of the way.

Protect Your Privacy

The registered agent is your business’s point of contact with process servers, state agencies, and the court system. As a result, the agent’s information is readily available in public records. Anyone seeking to contact you is likely to do so via the name and address they find. Of course, this also means competitors and scam artists,can look up your business as efficiently as legitimate stakeholders. 

Many businesses designate an individual, such as an owner or employee, as their agent to reduce costs. At the same time, they might list the business’s actual address or even the person’s home address. 

As a business owner, would you feel comfortable with your personal information publicly tied to your company? Most likely, the answer is “no.”

By appointing a registered agent provider, the business lists that company’s information, not its own. Regardless of where the business registers, this adds a degree of privacy and security.

Maintain a Professional Image

If you’re like most business owners, you care deeply about your company’s reputation. The registered agent you choose can help uphold your professional (and even personal) image.

Take the above example once more. Imagine receiving a lawsuit in your physical place of business, in front of your employees and clients. Perhaps your home address is listed in state records, and you receive that lawsuit at home in front of your family, children, or guests.

Registered agent service companies are known for receiving and forwarding documents discreetly. They save you the potential embarrassment of receiving a lawsuit in front of your most important stakeholders—and that can make all the difference in your company’s long-term success.

Harbor Compliance does not provide tax, financial, or legal advice. The use of our services does not create an attorney-client relationship. Harbor Compliance is not acting as your attorney and does not review the information you provide to us for legal accuracy or sufficiency.

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Should You Invest in Stocks?

The stock market has a reputation for being risky, and it’s easy to see why. It fluctuates constantly and is impacted by a whole range of global factors. Even the savviest stockbroker can’t always predict stock market trends, and if you don’t have a background in finance, then you could lose a lot of money by day trading. 

On the other hand, investing in a diverse portfolio of shares over the long-term can give you great returns, far better than the banks’ savings rates or government bond yields. You’ll need to do your research on the companies you want to invest in and then check on them periodically (usually annually) to make sure they’re still on the right track. Most importantly, you have to be able to ride the ups and downs and keep a long-term perspective. If each small dip in the market causes you to panic, then stocks may not be the best investment for you.

Alternative Investments

Business ownership

Business ownership doesn’t always mean that you’re running a small business. Rather you could be investing in someone else’s business. In exchange for the capital you provide, you receive a stake in the company, which means you’re entitled to a share of the profits.

Of course, the downside of being in a business partnership, even a silent one, is that you’re also liable for the business’ losses and debts. For this reason, it’s critical that you only invest in a small business if you trust your business partner to operate the business in a profitable way.

Real estate

Many people are drawn to invest in real estate because they’re buying an asset they can see with their own eyes. Moreover, most people have a good understanding of how the property market works, either because they own their own home or they have rented in the past. Banks offer a range of mortgage products targeted at investors, which enable them to use the equity in their homes as collateral for their investment property.

Don’t jump the gun yet, though. Burning hard-earned money isn’t fun and will likely get you into future troubles. And owning and maintaining your property can get costly. Avoid potential pitfalls by looking for other options to invest in real estate.

These days, you can invest in real estate without buying property through real estate investment funds (REITs), real estate sponsors, and crowdfunding platforms. However, doing your due diligence is fundamental to ensure you’re putting your money in the right place. Go on the internet, and look up sponsor feedback and grades. This way, you’ll get a clue on where to trust your money, what to avoid, and how to invest in the right deals.

Peer-to-Peer Lending

Peer-to-Peer lending (P2P) is quite new, but the industry is growing fast. P2P platforms are online services that connect investors with borrowers.  If you’re worried about investing your money in the stock market, there are plenty of other investment options available.

When you sign up, you can decide how much risk you want to take on and the minimum credit score you want the borrower to have. The platform then pools your money with other like-minded investors and issues loans to borrowers. The borrower makes repayments to the platform, and the P2P platform divides the repayments up so that each investor receives their share.

Because all this happens online, the transactional costs are quite low compared to other forms of investment.

Precious metals

Many people mistakenly think that precious metals, such as gold and silver, are a safe investment. This is, in part, because people are comforted by the tangible nature of the investment and partially because they have inherited the belief from their parents.

In fact, precious metals also fluctuate in value and are loosely correlated with exchange rates. The only time that precious metals are a safe bet is if the economy collapses altogether so that people move away from money and start using gold as currency.

Downsides to Alternative Investments

Alternative investments have many of the downsides that shares have; they can lose value or simply not earn enough to keep up with inflation. However, there can be a few other risks involved. 

Firstly, if you are investing in a business or property, it will likely take up a sizeable portion of your savings. Essentially this means you are putting all your eggs into one basket instead of investing in a diverse range of assets.

Secondly, tangible assets come with their own risks, such as fire, flood, burglary, or mismanagement.

Thirdly, it can be difficult to get your capital back quickly. For example, it can be hard to sell a portion of a business, and selling a house can take months especially if need it to pay medical bills for a critical illness. The stock market, on the other hand, allows you to move funds more easily.

The Bottom Line

Whether you should invest in the stock market depends on your situation. Just remember there are plenty of other options available for you to make the most of your savings.

Greg is the President of Dundas Life, a digital life insurance brokerage. Dundas Life empowers people to make better financial decisions for their loved ones, and to know the peace of mind that life insurance ownership can bring.

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How often have you found yourself in the middle of congestion at the society gate or come across incidents of unwanted visitors knocking on the door to your utter surprise? 

Still worse, if you’re a part of the managing committee, you may have consistently faced the issue of financial mismanagement and delayed maintenance payments from the residents. 

Let’s explore some simple and elegant solutions to such pesky problems. 

For Gate Security

 

• Fortify the access points

 

Whether due to Covid-19 or any other reason, patrolling the gate perimeters is crucial as there’s no telling when the next super spreader or a random intruder/solicitor can gain entry into your society.  

Place security guards in full PPE at the main entry and exit points of your gated complex. It’s advisable to arm them with extra gear like batons, tasers or pepper spray if the neighborhood is strewn with unwanted lurkers. 

It may be a good idea to provide them with a digital copy of the license plate numbers of the residents as well as regular visitor vehicles like the water tanker providers and other vendors so that if any suspicious vehicle or imposter tries to enter, they can further probe them. 

An intelligent society management app like MyGate is equipped with a state of the art passcode verification system that allows entry to visitors who have been pre-approved by the residents, including guests, rental cabs and delivery men. No need for pen and paper registration. 

 

• Use technology to monitor movement

Once the visitor is in the premises, they’re required to leave once the purpose of the visit is served instead of lingering. This includes repairmen, hired labour and delivery men. 

Strategically placed high resolution fixed pole cameras can help track the movement of visitors within the premises. If a society is investing in CCTV surveillance, they may as well figure out the spots inside the society from where a 360° view can be found. 

Another way is to use the ‘Overstay Alert’ feature in society management apps that can alert the guard when a visitor (not including guests) has not left the premises despite the expected timeframe. Additionally, face recognition technology in such apps can take guard attendance without the need to physically verify it, while also registering the entry time of domestic help and relaying it to the residents. 

 

• Use trusted delivery services

 

Tie up with local grocery and daily needs suppliers whom you trust, making sure that they provide daily essentials after following the necessary sanitization protocols. 

Pro tip: Use the ‘leave at gate’ feature in MyGate to have the parcel with the guard which you can collect after passcode verification.

Society management apps have tie-ups with trusted food, medicine and grocery vendors, an option you can use to further secure and monitor incoming traffic. 

For Financial Management

 

• Streamline monthly payments

 

A housing society is often burdened with the problem of late maintenance payments which in turn delays payments to services like common light bills and staff payments. Not every society has extra funds lying around to offset late payments from the residents. 

Going to every household to collect monthly maintenance bills is unnecessary when you can simply have them transfer the funds online via society management apps. But you’ll first need to set a timeframe for residents to pay (e.g. by the 5th of every month), after which you can send auto reminders to the residents if the payments haven’t been received. 

Even if you weren’t using a society management app, you could always follow the same procedure and send reminders on society group chats manually. 

Another way to ensure that payments flow in regularly is by setting a penalty for late payments and defaulters, (the amount and calculations can be predefined on MyGate accounting suite). 

Societies that integrate digital payments and streamline the process of setting up reminders have noticed that at least 80-90% of payments are paid on time once the residents are alerted and penalized for late payments. 

 

• Create monthly budgets

 

A society has several expenses on a monthly basis such as staff/guard payments, common utilities payments, amenities management, running composting units, landscaping maintenance, along with other expenses like cleaning supplies, not to mention petty expenses. It’s a best practice to set aside a monthly budget after calculating how much money is generated from maintenance payments. Conversely, it’s also acceptable to pay for the services first and then charge the amount in the maintenance invoice. However, it’s a good idea to have a budget formed in advance so that no resident feels like they’re being overcharged.

End-to-end accounting suite has easy to use templates for expense and income sheets and pre-built calculations that can make accounting automation simpler and more efficient. 

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Being a successful startup founder isn’t an easy task. Countless hopeful entrepreneurs aspire to establish their own thriving startup, but ultimately very few are successful. According to CNBC, hundreds of thousands of new U.S. businesses launch monthly, and about a quarter of the new businesses fail within their first year.

Aiming to Get It Right

With a large fraction of new businesses failing, many entrepreneurs may be wondering how they can avoid this fate. There are many ways a startup founder can and, often do, go wrong, such as running out of cash or trying to build a product that the market doesn’t need. But what can startup founders do to get it right?

There are several key qualities that startup founders may possess, but it is the combination of these qualities and the synergies they create that is crucial. Being a successful entrepreneur may come down to a “perfect storm,” like having the right idea at the right time, fueled by passion and backed by focus.

Teamwork Over Individualism

Startup founders don’t have to and shouldn’t do everything on their own. It’s important to understand their individual strengths and weaknesses and how each member of the team contributes to the bigger picture, so they can delegate accordingly. By working with a dynamic, creative team of visionaries with different backgrounds, strengths and weaknesses, startup founders are able to create a well-rounded team that possesses the best qualities of every member.

A great team will have trust and respect, diversity and healthy communication. Successful startup founders will work with their team to create an environment that balances all of these elements for the success of their business.

Risks and Failures

One of the most important things for a successful startup founder to possess is an understanding of the value in their risks and failures. Failure is a necessary part of achieving success. Smart founders will accept failure, learn from it and continue striving for success. It may be scary to make risky decisions, but foregoing risks altogether may also mean foregoing reward.

After studying various entrepreneurs, William Kerr, a professor at Harvard Business School, found entrepreneurs are more willing to tolerate some level of risk, as long as it is informed and calculated. The study by Kerr determined that entrepreneurs felt a sense of control over the outcomes of situations in their lives and felt more capable of delivering favorable outcomes..

Startup Studio Insider designed a graphic depicting the top eight qualities of successful startup founders. A few of the qualities mentioned include how startup founders always seek opportunities to disrupt and innovate, strive to understand tactical work, and view challenges as opportunities.

These are some key qualities successful startup founders possess, but there are always more qualities that can make you successful in your startup endeavors. Think you fit the criteria? Learn more about startup founders and what it takes to launch a successful startup at Startup Studio Insider on Medium.