Is Crowdfunding Becoming More Expensive?

For many entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners, crowdfunding by posting their projects in Indiegogo.com or Kickstarter.com had allowed their dream products and services to flourish online. Thousands of campaigns, both silly and truly beneficial, were completed through the help of backers.

The crowdfunding market is now maturing as a stable, income-generating and profit-based platform. This might be why it is becoming more expensive.

1.    The Example

In a close-knit community, a person could write a business or product plan in a sketchbook, notebook or a napkin. Then, they can post the concept online and share it with others, who could then provide feedback or call on potential contributors to help with the design. Today, many entrepreneurs are spending thousands of dollars and their time to create the perfect example, such as a product prototype or a service test case.

2.    Video Production

Gone are the days where you just need your webcam to show people your plan and how you created your prototype. With thousands of campaigns to compete with, you’ll need a video and an idea that stands out. A professionally-produced video campaign for your crowdfunding project could go from £1000 to even £8,000 in worst-case scenarios. Yikes!

3.    Public Relations

Marketing and public relations also help create more noise for your project. You could actually have some marketing professionals plan and create your internet marketing plan for you for a packaged deal of £420 on average. A celebrity tweet to their followers could cost double or triple this amount. However, this is all about the noise right?

So, is crowdfunding becoming more expensive? I still believe so.

Three Ways Businesses Could Make The Most Out Of Black Friday Sales

Big businesses could often overshadow online retailers and small businesses during Black Friday despite huge drops in prices due to the lack of presence in different fields. However, these small businesses have edges that large businesses do not. Here are three ways they could make the most out of yearly Black Fridays.

1.    Reliable Customer Service

Customers would love it if their packages are sent and are guaranteed arrival. Small businesses could temporarily create a tie-up with a courier service, which may include an added fee for prioritisation. However, think of it as an investment for the many profits and conversions you could create from the venture.

2.    Targeted PPC Campaigns

A well-targeted PPC campaign could be expensive but effective. Creating customised PPC campaigns require expensive keywords even if they run in niche categories. However, you could target people depending on other factors, such as social climate, environmental or weather conditions and other keywords, to increase your business presence.

            3.  Create Your Own Effective Customer List

If you have an existing mailing list, encourage them to improve their reach by inviting people to shop with them. Using group vouchers encourages such behaviour. Timed deals during Black Fridays, with increasing discounts for groups, are a great way to increase your market presence as well.

The ISA Vs. Your Pensions, Which Should You Get?

I’ve been thinking a lot about how a higher-rate taxpayer like me often gets the short-end of the stick. I’ve been investing on Cash Isas to ensure my pensions would go to my children and wife without much trouble, but then again I am faced with the dilemma after the UK government has decided to abolish the death tax overall.

Death tax is when the government gets a large cut over our pensions, a very big problem because we want our inheritors to actually get the entire pension benefits for themselves. The abolition of the death tax is a relief because it guarantees a 25% tax-free lump sum without any reductions to the pensions upon death.

Now that I’ve invested in a Cash Isa, I would consider having a pension now because now, I could withdraw before I reach 55 years old without any reductions. For Cash Isas, I would be getting tax free savings below £15,000. For pensions, I get everything tax free too.

It’s pretty hard to decide, but whichever works for me is the pensions because I can wait until I’m 55. For my Isa, as long as the Inheritance Tax does not interfere with the amount I save, I would definitely stay with it.

Three Unusual Ways People Should Think of Money

Gold and vaults is the old perspective of looking at money. Modern monetary systems make the money-in-the-sock concept obsolete. You are not richer when you keep your money in your house because daily, money’s value continue to decrease or increase rapidly. In 10 years, your money’s value could be half of what it was today. Here are a few things to help you modernise your outlook with money. 

1.    It’s Not Just About Discipline, but Management

I am admitted that I am a big spender, but friends often wonder where I get all the money I could spend for myself. Spending helps consumers contribute to the bustling economy, as economies depend heavily on consumer activity in a capitalist world. Anybody could spend so much on him or herself given they know how to manage their debt effectively to have their money still work for them despite repayments.

2.    Money Should Rest on Value, Not Its Own Value

Money’s denominations give its value, but globally, money also has value. Everything in the world has a global value, which changes depending on the effort and valuation society gives an object. Investing your money in the possible long-term trends, such as an expensive vehicle, is not indulging yourself in luxury, but rather, ensuring your collateral and making sure your money’s value is frozen in time, or even incremented, with buying something of high value.

3.    Invest on Insurance

Insurance should be a no-brainer, but some people think that insurance is needed only when people get sick or are at high risk of being in an accident or any malady that is similar. People tell you that you made a bad purchase either because the item is defective, or you found no other use for it in less than a week. Insurance policies are great investments because at any time and depending on the length of your contract, you have access to personal financing for your own safety.

Three Surprising Ways Real Estate Can Fail Your Investments

Real estate will always have value regardless of the economy. You can suffer gains or losses, but you will still own the property and it can still increase in value. However, there are quick ways real estate can fail your investment, especially if you expect it to earn you much profit in a very quick way.

1.    Project Abandonment

It logically follows that investing in a property near malls and amenity areas give a property a high value. Beach vacation spots make property values improve more, despite heavy competition. However, disasters and failed investment projects could devalue the property even more, and if competition abandons the area, your property will have 80% of its value stripped easily.

2.    Poor Community Regulation

The city of London is one of the world’s most expensive cities because of the high value businesses that continue to flourish in the city. If city regulation decreed a free-for-all property instalment without any standards in terms of construction and quality of residents, a neighbourhood could level down the price of your properties. This is the reason why suburbs normally have a lower value in properties because of crime rate and lax governance.

3.    Disasters

Beach vacation properties are not the only ones that could suffer from disasters, cities could also suffer from grave disasters, and properties near amenities are the first to be hit by property devaluement. A bigger trouble is infestation; if city regulation fails at preventing pests from the city, it could drag down your properties quite highly.

How to Attract Venture Capitalists for Your Small Company

It is easier to find investors and venture capitalists if your idea was compelling enough, and the public applies your product or service into a useful, everyday tool that provides a consistent solution for their daily routine. Venture capitalists only want to see if your idea works. If you want to attract them to invest in you, here are some things you should know. 

1.    Your Own Funding

An startup company is an investment, one that has a very high risk, for the proprietor. Your family, friends and your life savings are all you would have as you begin your business. This may seem inevitable, but investors want to see your performance in a few months to half a year first before they decide to work with you.

2.    Always Seek Improvement

It has become a great notion for most business proprietors that venture capitalists would remove them once they found them inadequate. While this may be true, it is because venture capitalists care about the direction of the business. Proprietors should always seek improvement in the products and services they create. After all, investors only look for a good return of investment on their behalf.

3.    A Solid Outlook

Investors and venture capitalists want minimal risks in their investment, and the lower risk comes with business proprietors who have a good idea of their objectives for the small company. A proprietor who has a solid plan for what he or she envisions his or her company in three years to half a decade, will likely be flocked by investors.

Things To Watch Out for When Getting Business Financing

It is an inevitable fact that banks are gigantic companies that seek profit. Despite the fact that the government charges them with the responsibility to grow the economy, their profits are still their top priority. Banks are lending to small companies again, but as an owner of one, you best beware when getting financing.

1.    Credit Scores

Having knowledge of the effects of credit scores on the financing you get is important. Banks will just suggest that your interest rate is fixed for your credit score. Be sure to compare financing with other banks and financial institutions. Avoid getting cheated on your interest rate.

2.    Breach of Contract

Today, UKbanks are facing enormous financial scandals ranging from wrongly-sold financial products to manipulation of arcane banking rates. It is not unlikely that they could breach your contract. In any case, review your contract and read the terms and conditions effectively. You may one day need to sue them for breaching your contract.

3.    Investigate Vendors

Most banks have vendors that they trust and you could get funding without much trouble. However, if they breach your contract, make sure to contact the vendor and ascertain if they had returned the bank, technically your own, down payment. If the bank charges you to pay back the down payment, then you could file a litigation against them.

Why Renting is a Better Option Nowadays

In line with investing in properties, I’ve always known that renting will be a better option for individuals, or even families, in bigger cities because of the employment opportunities and amenities that it offers. Having a house in a remote area is manageable, but with the hectic city lifestyle, having the management of a condominium unit handle all the necessary things for the tenants is an advantage among other things.

1.    Makes it Easier to Move Around

If you think you will only be staying for around 3-5 years in your job, then renting will make it easier for you, or your family if you’re a family man, to move around different cities. In my experience, some small families who had rented homes on my end usually have a job of 3-5 years until they finally move out of the properties. Some who stayed had stable jobs in this area.

2.    Maintenance Costs

Taking care of the electricity, gas and water bills is better rather than maintaining the property by yourself. Some of my tenants tell me that it would take 1% of their total property value should they buy a house to make repairs and improvements in their home. With landlord (like me) handling all the expenses, it makes it easier for them to make a precise budget, despite the rental fees.

3.    Property Values Rise and Fall

Let’s admit it; the current market’s policies are skyrocketing prices everywhere. My property had been appraised several times because of the increase, but who can say its value will still be the same in the next few years? What if you purchased a house now, and then decided to move away later during a time the property prices are low? You wouldn’t even get half the investment you made should you sell it just a few months after you owned the property.

You Will Need Property Investments Upon Your Retirement

By the time I reached 35, I was already earning a fortune. I have financed my own vehicle, paid halfway my mortgage and had been setting aside money for the educational plans of my future children. I have also been setting aside property investments upon my retirement.

Yes, I do have some stock market investments, which are currently fluctuating despite UK’s best economic recovery since the 2008 financial crisis. However, stocks, like companies, can come and go, and despite their growth, the money you deposit in them they can lose their value. Properties are also the same, but because they are solid assets, they can get you more.

A simple monthly rent already serves as passive income in many cases. Imagine if you had more properties. Most UK couples and young families prefer to rent instead of purchasing a new house or room because it is more affordable. You will surely find someone who will want to rent your property.

You could also invest in improving the property’s quality to raise its value. However, the real deal is when another investor takes interest to open up a significant economic driver in the area, such as a mall, a factory or a business centre for locals. With bustling activity, your property’s position increases its value.

You may lose some of its value because of economic changes, but any economy wants to recover, which is why you would not really lose out on investing in real estate.

Will the Help to Buy Really Help Homebuyers to Buy Properties?

Bank of England Chancellor George Osborne had announced the extension of the Help toBuy scheme until 2020. What started as a one-year plan had ballooned into the biggest free-for-all for homebuyers, and both local and foreign property investors. This can just drive up the costs of properties everywhere in the United Kingdom.

Properties in London became exorbitantly-priced because private investors have purchased and developed these lands with other investments in amenities and convenience that the comforts and benefits it provides cost an arm and a leg. With Help to Buy, other areas of the UK can probably increase in value the same way London has. London may even inflate further.

The extension of Help to Buy can result into a bubble burst. London is safe from a burst because it is the capital and the bustling city of the United Kingdom with almost-infinite business activity. However, for other areas, inflating and deflating, especially in residential neighbourhoods, will mean a lower number of homebuyers, or lower values of properties.

As home buying interests increase all over the United Kingdom, the Help to Buy extension could also cause drastic damages to the environment. Resources needed to build new homes can decimate entire natural forests and quarries the UK has.

Will lots of new homes be beneficial for the United Kingdom? We might become a country full of houses, but not enough productivity and environmental concern.

Why We Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Risk It

As an investor, I think that it is important to also consider high-risk investments. Yes, we could be successful in diversified portfolios. Yes, we understand the economy’s saving grace for mutual funds and bonds. However, spreading ourselves thinly to gain something from everything is like trying to impress everybody when we know we can’t.

A high-risk investment comes my way and I’ll study it further. I consider investments dangerous when they’re innovative, but not too compelling. Another would be a business structure that is so simple, it seems too easy and too good to be true. Another would be an investment for a friend; I value friendship, but I will never do business for a friend because of the emotional attachment involved.

Yet one of these three hold the key to success. Look at smartphone applications; many of these games have a unique innovation, but to make them “presentable” to the public, it will need several hundred thousand dollars. I might not be compelled by the innovation as an investor because I’ve seen the idea before, but they just changed the characters and improved the levels.

A too-simple business strategy is something that a kid could come up with without having to explain other details, but sometimes, these business strategies actually work in application. A marketing strategy, for as long as it compels consumers to purchase your products, is an effective marketing strategy regardless of the message. A simple, emotional and clever quirk to such a business strategy might just be the right ingredient for a success story.

So don’t be afraid to risk it. Even with family or friend investors, a sound reasoning could entail high-risk, but may possibly reel you in with high success.

How the Money Market Works

The stock market is made up of many markets and it is the “bull” market that is well-known for many people, partly due to some films portraying dramatic situations inside the ticker tape office. The bull market entails very high risks, but very high returns, which make them instrumental for developing colourful investor or broker life stories, but if you’re like me and you’re looking for somewhere stable to deposit your money, you might want to know about the money market.

The money market addresses many companies, government entities and individual investors’ financial needs for a very short time. Cash investments, as money market investments are called, are debt securities that mature in one year as compared to usual securities such as bonds. Essentially, when the economy does well, your returns do well too.

Money markets are synonymous with mutual funds, treasury bills, certificate of deposit and other types of time deposits.

Yearly, the yields of money market financial instruments are very stable; it is very rare for a government reserve or a bank to go bankrupt at any time within the year.

The money market also works in conjunction with the help from the government. It helps governments raise money from the public and investors. Treasury bills are backed by government reserves, which virtually make them one of the safest investments in the world.

So if you’re like me and you don’t want to gamble too much with your investments, stick with the money market, or you could just give it a chance.