Easy Ways to Save Money Without Sacrificing Too Much

When you need to save money, it's not a wise solution to starve yourself. By simply making practical and the right decisions when it comes to your lifestyle, you can actually save a lot from your earnings. There are several ways on how you can achieve this if you will only take a closer look on some of the things that are being overlooked on your day-to-day routine.

To help you out, here are some easy yet effective money-saving tips, and you don't have to starve yourself just so you can save some bucks.

1.    Learn the skill of secondhand buying

Buying used things can cut the cost up to 50% or more, and with a little effort, you can get almost-new stuff for half the price. You can check local craigslist and other similar websites to see if there is a listing of the particular item you want to buy. From DVDs to cars, everything can be bought secondhand and usually in great condition.

2.    Wait for sales

Whether it’s clothing or electronics, sales come and go often, and you should keep your eyes peeled. If there is a specific item you are looking to buy, then it’s worthwhile to wait a bit and see if it gets listed as being on sale. You can wait for holiday sales or clearance sales. Better yet, just ask a store agent if there will be any upcoming sale, and they will surely be able to provide a date estimate.

3.    Aboard the DIY train

The Web is flooded with do-it-yourself ideas to make pretty much anything in your home. You can create beauty products, smartphone stands, cleaning products, cloth racks, kitchen accessories, storage spaces, decorations and much more. Simply do a search on Google for what you want to make, and there should be a DIY tutorial. There are even DIY apps to easily find amazing DIY projects.

4.    Use a money-management app

Money management is the key to money-saving, and thankfully there are many cool smartphone apps that can make this task a breeze. Mint is a great money management app for Android and iOS that lets you handle all your accounts and expenses in one place.

5.    Do online shopping wisely

Online shopping is a great convenience, but in order to save money you need to make sure you get the best deal online. There are hundreds of stores that sell the same item at different prices, so it can be a little hard to get the best bang for the buck. Thankfully, there are many shopping apps and tools available to get the best prices on the item you need.

Furthermore, there are many apps to find great deals on your favorite products. Slickdeals is a good website for finding cheap and even free deals. Take advantage of such tools to ensure you get the best price for your favorite products.

6.    Use coupons (the right way)

Today, coupons are available for almost everything, and you can save big on your favorite items. Websites like RetailMeNot or even a simple Google search can easily get you a coupon for your favorite store, service, or an item. Usually, you can save up to 50% on things using a coupon code.

Fund Your Own Business With the Help of These Methods

It can be a very challenging thing to succeed without a solid financial backup no matter how great the business idea is surprisingly, the best source of financing can be from out of your own pocket. The term “self-financing” includes using your own money to invest directly in the company and using your personal assets as collateral for outside funding. When you self-finance your business, it gives you complete control of your company and the independence to do what you want. Here are some ways you can self-finance or fund your own small business.

Personal Savings

Saving up the money to fund your business ahead of time saves you money (i.e., no interest) and security, though it does involve risking your life savings. If you need to ramp up your savings quickly, consider picking up a side job at nights or on the weekends. You can also sell some of your possessions to add to your savings. If you have old boxes of collectibles accumulating dust, sell them for fast cash.

Life Insurance

Borrowing against life insurance offers another valid financing option, but it does come with some risks. You can typically borrow up to the cash value you’ve accumulated at a reasonable interest rate. Unlike a conventional loan, you won’t need to pay the loan back. Instead, any money you take out will be deducted from the amount your beneficiaries receive when you die. However, life insurance loans are subject to some tricky taxation and compound interest. If you pay your loan interest out of your policy, the IRS views it as income and will tax it accordingly. You’ll also be subject to compound interest. Take these disadvantages into consideration before withdrawing your total cash value.

Home Equity Loan

If you own a home with a sufficient amount of equity from paying your mortgage, think about taking out a home equity loan or home equity line of credit, also known as a HELOC. Home equity loans provide a one lump-sum payment, while a HELOC works similarly to a credit card, where you only pay interest on the outstanding balance. Both carry a low interest rate as compared to other forms of financing. However, putting up the family home as collateral certainly raises the stakes for the business. You must ensure you will have sufficient cash flow to make your payments or you may lose the home.

Credit Cards

If you have a stellar credit rating, you may be able to fund your business by solely relying on credit cards. It may be one of the most expensive ways to self-finance your business, but many successful business owners have made it work. To avoid the slippery slope of credit card debt, shop for a good interest rate, and avoid zero percent interest cards that shoot up to astronomical rates after 60 days. Create a payment plan to stay on top of your debt.

Investments and Securities

Borrowing against your investments and securities as collateral offers an easy way to raise the money you need at a low interest rate. You can borrow up to the initial margin limit of your stock, typically 25 to 50 percent. The downside to taking out a margin loan is maintaining enough equity in your investments to avoid margin calls. If your stock drops and you don’t have enough equity to maintain the margin limit, you’ll need to supply more money within a certain time frame. If you don’t have enough cash within that time, your brokerage may liquidate your other securities to satisfy the call.

Bootstrapping your business successfully requires a clever combination of assets, cash flow, and penny-pinching. The road to success may be a long one, but in the end, it may be worth it because you won’t have a bank, venture capitalist, or small business loan to hold you down.

5 Common Reasons Why Business Plans Fail

There are obvious reasons why business plans fail -- missing crucial deadlines for finishing the business plan or drawing unattractive profit projections are just some of those instances that may repel potential investors. On the lighter side, there are also those more subtle reasons that investors and banks lose interest to. By learning these tips, you can avoid the often overlooked mistakes some people usually make when writing a business plan.

1.    Bad business idea

Nobody likes to talk about it, but the main reason why business plans fail is bad ideas. Most ideas look great on paper—but all too often, companies realize they have invested in a bad idea once it is too late.

To avoid this, smart businesses are using “user-driven development” (UDD) to build new businesses. Lots of ideas seem great until you figure out that the market doesn’t actually want your product. In order to ensure that a business idea is sound, entrepreneurs should search for product validation by reaching out to their target consumers before sinking huge amounts of time and money into the project.

Firms that want to innovate with a focus on customers often hold small meetings with the potential end users where they describe the project and then ask users for their opinions. After the first round of discussion, the firm can go back to the drawing board to incorporate the helpful feedback. Second and even third rounds can enhance the final product’s popularity.

Avoid wasting time on a bad business plan by gauging the market sentiment toward your project before investing a significant amount of time and effort.

2.    Employee compensation is not incentive compatible

Business plans can fail because employees are not compensated in a way that aligns the goal of the employee with the goals of the company. For example, if an employee is paid with annual or monthly bonuses then the employee will only do what is good for the company in the short run. Startups and small businesses can offer more customized salary packages than large multinational corporations.

For example, instead of offering a standard salary package of retirement plans, child-care assistance, savings program, determine what the employee wants the most. For example, elderly employees may not be motivated by child-care assistance, so don’t focus on that in their package. Secondly, instead of offering an upfront payment of 2 percent of the company’s stock, offer a salary that pays that 2 percent over several years to ensure that the employee stays committed in the long-run.

3.    Un-balanced team

Another common cause why business plans didn't work out is that the team is not balanced. Say for example a tech business plan that was making a health application for smartphones. The problem is, the team did not have a single developer or IT specialist involved. If the business idea requires 80 percent of the labor hours to be performed by a software programmer, then the team needs at least one developer onboard. It is important to keep in mind that venture capitalists sometimes refuse to fund companies that only have one founder or have unbalanced teams.

4.    Missing financial projection details

The “numbers” are actually the most interesting part of the entire document for most investors. Break-even and return-on-investment (ROI) calculations are also parts of a good business plan. Do not forget to factor in future expenses. For example, if the company needs to purchase new office equipment every three years, then the discounted value of those expenses should be included in the forecasted financial projections. Of course, the figures are only estimates, but they are important benchmarks that can be used to measure the company’s progress toward achieving their goals.

5.    Failure to improve business plan after receiving feedback

Once you have finished writing your business plan, it is a good idea to send it out to at least three people before showing it to potential investors.

Think of these three people as your board of advisors. Ask them to read the plan and look for logical gaps in the content. If one advisor recommends a change that you disagree with, do not ignore his advice. Instead, ask the other advisors for their opinions and then make a decision. Edit your plan according to their constructive criticism, and thank them for their help.

Need Some Motivation to Your Entrepreneurial Confidence Check Out These Ways

Confidence usually comes easy with people who had a taste of success in their lives. This is true because they believe in themselves, as well as in what they're doing. However, it isn't their success that makes them confident; the confidence was there beforehand.

Confidence is a crucial building block in a successful career, and embracing it fully will take you places you never thought possible. With proper guidance and hard work, anyone can become more confident. Once you pass a certain point, you’ll feel it from the inside.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, you need to possess qualities that will give you faith in your own decisions and actions to execute on your ideas. Read on the strategies below to help you give that boost you need.

1.     Embrace worst case scenarios

How bad could it be? Lack of confidence is often a fear of failure. Overcoming it starts with figuring out what the problem is. Identifying the possible negative consequences of our decisions and entrepreneurial initiatives and then naming their potential solutions reduces uncertainty and increases confidence.

As an entrepreneur, leveraging the available collegiate resources such as professors’ advice, library, connections, and things as little as a printer to pursue a startup venture was a great extracurricular activity instead of looking for an internship or part-time job while at school.

It will not only help you figure out what it really meant to build a business, but also to build a stronger resume in case you decide to look for a job in the future. Even though you did not seek for a job after college, building a business while in college certainly helped many of your classmates on that front.

Things that might lead to the worst-case scenario: not earning a degree, not finding a job, retaking classes, regret, and so on, turned out to be a competitive advantage over other students who focused entirely and solely on studies.

Spend time thinking about the worst that can happen. It’ll help you be more at ease when you start your entrepreneurial endeavor because you’ll have thought your decisions through completely.

2.     Keep a cash cow: Your monthly revenue goal

Successful entrepreneurs maintain multiple streams of income—something easier said than done. Specify how much revenue you need to be generating from your startup for you to let go of other responsibilities (such as a part or full-time job) to be able to focus entirely on your new business. Is it $2000, $3000, five, six, or seven clients per month? Identify the magic number.

Setting a benchmark will help you quantify milestones so you’ll know when you get there, but most importantly, it’ll help you clear all doubts by proactively accounting for all your financial concerns about transitioning to running your new venture full time.

Confidence is gained incrementally, and it’s the small successes that take us from one increment to the next. So, quantify progress by highlighting the small accomplishments on your way up to the bigger ones.

3.     Keep mentors in the loop

From every business dimension, the best mentors have been shown to make a significant impact in entrepreneurial success whether by boosting new business initiatives, increasing revenue, funding, acquisitions, partnerships, and more.

When Steve Jobs was 12 years of age, he called the co-founder of Hewlett Packard, Bill, to ask for spare parts to build a frequency counter. Bill offered him an internship that summer. Jobs says, “Most people never pick up the phone and call, most people never ask. And that’s what separates, sometimes, the people that do things from the people that just dream about them.”

4.     Launch -- Don't wait for perfection

Groupon, the second fastest company to ever reach a billion dollars in valuation, started with a WordPress blog. During a design conference, Airbnb founders saw a need for lodging when all the hotels in the city were booked so they approached attendees for bed and breakfast.

A product is never perfect so we might as well start with nothing. Start selling as soon as you find a need, and don’t hesitate to get paid for a mediocre or even a simulated product (like Groupon) in the beginning. Starting with an MVP (minimum viable product), one that only includes the core version of the product, can help you go to market quicker, test faster and evaluate the potential of the idea without investing a lot of capital.

Validating the need for your product as early as possible removes a lot of the guesswork and consequently boosts your confidence about the potential of the idea.

5.     Learn continuously

More specifically, learn what's relevant. Start by identifying the areas you need to learn more about and then focus on reading or watching videos from two to three of the top experts in your industry. Keep in mind that the most educated are not necessarily the best people to learn from. Those who got their hands dirty and lived the ups and downs of running, failing, scaling, and successfully building a business can offer better advice.

It is true that most business decisions cannot wait weeks or even days, however, investing as little as a couple of minutes to read a book chapter, articles or even attend an online course or lecture, can tremendously improve decision making, boost confidence and most importantly, make sense of the acquired knowledge.

Ultimately, entrepreneurial confidence is about making calculated choices and being proactive about reducing risk. Remember that taking small steps—finding a mentor, launching an MVP, or reading a book on innovation in your industry—can have a big impact over time.

4 Signs Your Business Isn't Working Anymore and What You Can Do to Resolve It

No entrepreneur would want to admit it, but sometimes the way we run our business isn't working as well as it could. We all get into certain habits when it comes to doing business, but sometimes there are better methods of doing things that we aren't using in order to make our business grow.

So, here are four signs that your business isn't working anymore, as well as some tips on what you should do to fix it.

You're Disorganized

You’ve probably heard a million and one tips about how important organization is to success. There’s a reason that self-help gurus and business advisers stress the importance of being organized. We can’t work to our maximum abilities if our offices are in chaos and our days have no structured routine to them.

If you’re functioning in a state of disorganization but feel like your business is still thriving, just imagine how much better everything would be if you weren’t constantly searching for a lost document or trying to remember who you were supposed to call back.

If your workday and your office are chaotic, it’s time to finally get them under control once and for all. Commit yourself to creating a daily schedule and trying to follow it as much as possible. Get your office clean and organized and then devote ten minutes each day to ensuring that it stays that way. You’ll be amazed at how much more productive and motivated you are each day when you’re no longer surrounded by disorganization, chaos and disarray.

Your Data Storage System is Outdated

In the early days of tech, people still associated storing data with physical storage. Instead of storing paper documents, people stored data in physical hard drives and servers. While this system served many companies just fine for many years, the way we store data has changed. Physical data storage no longer makes the same sense that it used to. After all, in the event of a fire or robbery, that data is gone forever.

If you haven’t moved to cloud storage, it’s time to finally make that move. While many entrepreneurs worry that cloud storage is less reliable than physical storage, this simply isn’t true. After all, cloud storage can’t be harmed by theft or catastrophe the way that physical storage can. If you have no idea how to develop a cloud storage system, consult a cloud storage consulting service.

You're Procrastinating

This is closely tied to disorganization when it comes to behaviors that hurt your business even more than you may realize. When you’re constantly putting things off, you’re not working to advance your business. Instead, you’re just constantly trying to catch up on the things that you failed to accomplish the week before. Constantly feeling buried under the weight of overdue work is no way to run a business, nor is it any way to live your life.

If you’re ready to finally climb out from underneath the crushing weight of procrastination, don’t be surprised if it takes some time to develop better habits. Once we get into the habit of doing things a certain way, it can be difficult to unlearn these behaviors. Just commit yourself to improving how much work you complete in a day. Anytime you get the urge to procrastinate, just remind yourself of how miserable you feel when you wake up the next day and realize that you didn’t accomplish all of your goals from the day before.

Your Passion Isn't There Anymore

When people first start their businesses, they’re overwhelmed with feelings of passion and excitement. As the days turn into months and weeks, it’s easy to lose that feeling.

You should always feel passionate about your company. Otherwise, you might lose the motivation to truly make it great. Every morning, take some time to remind yourself of how lucky you are to be an entrepreneur and remember why you started your business in the first place.

If you’ve fallen prey to any of these four bad behaviors, then it’s time to make some positive changes. As an entrepreneur, you should always be committed to improvement.