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6 Ways Startups Must Embrace to Get Success on a Shoe-String Budget

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A famous saying by Garrett Camp, Co-Founder of Uber, “Stay self-funded as long as possible” reveals one of the biggest mantra for success of any startup. Success doesn’t hit by chance. Every penny, silver and dollar saved by startup owners feed its success chances.

startup budget planning

Undoubtedly, saving money nurtures the growth of a startup. But, it happens often that Small business owners lose the hold on finances. 8 out of ten businesses collapse due to cash shortage. Don’t let yourself fall beside these millions of people tussling to keep their heads above the water. Check out these few tips that can save your business from becoming a cash casualty:

 

Avoid Money Pitfalls:

It’s not necessary to invest big for lavish office set-up. Look out for alternatives of expensive filing cabinets, new furniture or other fixtures. This can help to build war chest of emergency fund – be it venture capital or cash to cover the shortfalls. Auctioneers and used-office furniture stores can offer big savings on furniture and related equipment. Tracking the cash-flow, maintaining a spreadsheet to organize receivable and payables, analyzing monthly expenditures are some other means to take better control over finances.

Watch Your Investment Strategy:

Monitor your spending pattern. Spend only on business strategy which helps to create more customers and generates revenue. Employees are really good at finding reasons to spend. They constantly offer suggestions for improvements and additions. Perform market research on every business idea proposed by employees. Decide wisely before spending your hard-earned capital on propositions and suggestions made by employees.

Shun Plastic Money Dependency:

One of the toughest and daunting tasks is to raise the start-up capital. An innovative idea is not sufficient to build a startup. Solid operating capital catches the eye of investors quickly. But, seeking early stage survival with plastic money sounds like a no-brainer. Credit cards carry high interest rates and annual fees. Whether through own funding ora small business loan, maintaining a healthy store of operating capital can help to escape the credit card debt.

Take the leverage of Free Advertising:

The advertising means that cost an arm and a leg may not necessarily help in promoting your business. You can think beyond billboards to promote your business. Cost-free advertising channels such as starting a blog, social media bookmarking, online directories, article marketing, press releases are some of the excellent ways to widespread your business andfoster the success rate of your business quickly. .  

 

Prepare Tax Planning Structure Meticulously:

In order to escape from a head-long struggle during the tax filing season, it’s significantly easier to formulate a plan four months in advance. Failing to frame tax planning structure carefully can make you pay heavy tax penalty to the IRS. Compile the entire list of income sources such as employers, mutual funds, banks and other list of deductions required to file tax return appropriately. E-filing of the tax returns can fasten the process. Also, Tax advisor can help in simplifying the tax-filing process.

Hire Only Based On Needs:

Reading discussions and getting ideas from the online special forums in sales, marketing and other areas can help to find best talent cost-free. Withoutevaluating the need for hiring can lead to dilution of the operating funds. Hiring handful of interns can be immensely profitable for the business as they extinguish the need for hiring the expensive employees. In fact, some of the interns that are just looking forward to work in exchange for experience can add great benefits to your business. Also, hiring someone on consulting basis for few hours can be an excellent idea to drive business smoothly and cost-effectively.

The Gist of It:

It’s not a simple task to run a new startup on shoe-string budget. If you want to extract the most out of every dollar then you need to shear the corners where you can. Creating a financial plan and preparing the roadmap of your budget can let you prepare measurable set-up of shortfalls. Implementing the tips mentioned above can help you gather much wanted funding to make your startup get on the path to success faster.

About the guest author:

Shraddha Tewari (@tewarishraddha1.), a skilled and accomplished ‘Editor’ is formally associated with AceCloudHosting that offers services related to QuickBooks Cloud. She possesses diverse professional experience in digital marketing. Her strong interest in reading and writing about technology, cloud computing and latest software developments enables her to develop informative and effective technology oriented content.

 

Ideas and Tool for Growing Small business

Editorial Team
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Businesses have in the recent past become very competitive in India due to a number of reasons reasons. Remaining competitive in the market is one element that needs to be looked into very meticulously since it determines whether or not your business will be able to remain relevant in the particular industry. It is for this reason we need to inform you about business communities like Infoisinfo in India. Infoisinfo India is an online platform that makes it possible for your business to grow and remain competitive in the industry here in India.

Basically, Infoisinfo provides you with solutions for your online business in the sense that it will be able to reach out to many potential customers who in turn will be converted into actual buyers or consumers of your goods or services that you offer. It is important to understand how essential it is to have an online platform for your business that can be easily accessed by potential and actual consumers of your products. We ensure that we optimize your website and integrate it with the popular search engines so that it can be ranked highly every day. This particular process takes a very short time as possible, which means that you shall be able to see the results within very few days.

We also have links to many other businesses that we have worked with previously. This, therefore, means that we have the ability to ensure that we link you to such businesses so that it increases the ability of your business in obtaining ideal customers. We have a variety of companies that are added to our website on a daily basis thus increasing the chances of your company growing since various people visit our website at every given moment. This primarily implies that we have what it takes to ensure that the visibility and presence of your company remain high always.

The other important thing that you need to know regarding this site is that it can be accessed through a number of devices. You can use mobile phones, tablets, PC’s, laptops and all other many devices to access this particular website. The primacy of this is that it helps in enhancing convenience in the sense that you are not limited to access the website from only a specific device, but you can do so from a variety of devices so long as there is internet connectivity in the same. The ease of accessibility is enabled through apps that are compatible with whatever device whether PC or mobile.

At Infoisinfo India, there is a feature that allows you to add your company to the website. The good thing about this feature is that you do not need to pay any single cent when adding your company on this platform. This is advantageous as it shows that your company or business will get access to several consumers as well as enjoy other benefits that are associated with this particular website at absolutely no cost. This without a doubt increases the chances of your company to grow, eventually making it remain competitive in the market regardless of the season. Therefore, it is advisable that you seek the services of business communities like Infoisinfo for online solutions to your business.

Designing and Printing Tips for Presentation Folders

Guest Contributor
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Creating attractive marketing and promotional materials could really be a challenging task. From letterhead to business cards, catalogs to brochures, the range of diverse products that businesses usually use for promoting and selling their products as well as services could really be overwhelming. However, one product that is being used by several businesses, but not fully utilized is the presentation folder.

 

Presentation folders generally comprise a sheet of quite a heavy paper stock and another stiff, but thin material that is usually folded into half having pockets for keeping paper documents. Presentation folders are pretty much similar and are said to function very much like file folders and are used for organizational purposes. Presentation folders could be both plain as well as printed and are used as effective tools for business presentations made for customers to make the sales process more effective.

Also read: 5 Things You Didn’t Know a 3D Printer Could Do

Role of Presentation Folders

A really well-designed presentation folder speaks volumes about your company, its level of professionalism, its style and can effectively set the tone for some new product launch or a business meeting. Presentation folders are great for showcasing your creativity, making a lasting impression on the prospective customer’s mind. They are absolutely effective vehicle for your product sheets and brochures. They act as the outer wrappings and if they do not look attractive and interesting, your customers would surely not wish to open them.

These folders could be found in various styles for catering to multiple purposes. Most of these folders are manufactured by a company for promoting and marketing a business, product or service. They could be used for introducing a new product and highlighting its benefits to the potential customers. Product features and benefits could be showcased in really an organized fashion. These folders could be effectively used for organizing important documents for distributing to the delegates at seminars or conferences.

Also read: Why are Printer Ink Cartridges So Expensive? How to Save Money

Tips for Making Your Presentation Folder a Grand Success

  • Avoid using generic graphics. You must pay a lot of attention to detail. Choose a picture that really exemplifies your product & brand.
  • Be very specific and precise about the layout. Your graphics and custom images should be placed exactly as you want and visualize them to be.
  • Deliberate over the size of the presentation folder you wish to order. Most of these come in a standard size of 9″ x 12″. However, you could opt for a custom size depending on what you would be putting inside the presentation folders.
  • Keeping your designs generic proves to be advantageous. Even if presentation materials to be put inside the folders keep changing, do not opt for new folders each time. Generic designs are great as they could be easily adaptable and would be saving a lot of money on printing costs.

Presentation Folder Design Techniques

Don’t miss: Amazing Things You Can make With Your Printer

Determine Your Target Audience:

It pays to know exactly whom you are targeting whether new customers, existing customers or prospects etc. Once you have determined your target audience, you should devote your attention to the feel and final look of the folder. You should opt for a minimal look with very few details and colors, or professional or casual folders as per your business requirements.

Use Colors and Fonts with Utmost Care:

You should use information, colors and fonts cleverly. Stay away from using too many fonts as that could divert your attention away from the point you are trying to make. Stick to two or maximum three font types. Keep information precise and simple. Focus on key points such as new products, store opening, sales and services etc. Do not give loads of information. Avoid unnecessary clutter.

Also read: How to Create Your Own Screenprint T-Shirt

Use Appropriate Paper:

Before choosing the paper, you need to do ample research and do your homework well. Consult your printer and ask for samples to understand which one is best suited for the look and finish you are thinking of. Matte, glossy or even uncoated stocks give really different feel. Your message or logo could be made to look far more attractive by the right paper choice. Choosing the wrong paper would make the images look dull and your snappy logo would lose its significance.

Proofreading Is a Must

A really well thought out presentation folder having the perfect message and attractive pictures, on the correct paper, would also be a total flop case, if there is some stark typo in it. A wrong spelling or a small error could mar your company’s image and erode your customer’s faith and confidence in your company and you. Do proper proofreading before sending it off to a professional printer.

Pay a lot of attention to details, while designing a presentation folder. Consider effective techniques for making a presentation folder look distinctive. A presentation folder should be able to deliver your message to the prospective customers.

Also read: Why Good Content is Essential Strategy for Social Media Success

About the guest author: Joe Forrest

Joe Forrest is an established designer cum printer known for designing truly amazing brochures, file folders or presentation folders. In his spare time, he enjoys blogging and sharing his knowledge with everyone.

4 Ways Mobile Devices Can Enhance Your Business

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Mobile technology represents the future of communication. When Star Trek originally aired in the 1960s, the idea of handheld portables capable of phone-like transmissions seemed impossible. Less than half a century later, the world embraces cellphones as a basic part of life. Your company should view the ubiquity of cellphones and other smart devices as a rare opportunity to enhance your overall productivity and revenue. Here are four ways mobile devices can enhance your business.

Pictures Are Perfect

Image via Flickr user clasesdeperiodismo

A picture says a thousand words. That maxim is one that the internet has irrefutably proven. Some of the most popular social websites and apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest use imagery as their preferred form of communication. You’ll understand why when you start employing basic smartphone technology to maximum benefit.

The next time your employees are on a sales call or troubleshooting a problem, ask them to take photographs of the issues they face. They’ll discover an exciting way of evaluating issues from a new perspective. In return, you can study the daily hurdles they must overcome to accomplish their assignments. It’s the photographic equivalent of walking in someone else’s shoes, and you can use it to improve employee efficiency.

Mobilized Work Force

One of the ongoing debates regarding 21st century employment is the 40-hour work week. Companies realize that when they provide portable smart devices to their employees, the line between work and home life blurs. While you don’t want to push the issue and run the risk of your workers burning out on their jobs, there are numerous advantages to a mobilized work force.

Employees that use tablets or laptops have the ability to take their job tasks with them wherever they go. Since inspiration can strike at any moment, this ready access could spark dozens of innovations within your industry. Also, cloud computing empowers members of your staff with the ability to perform joint operations on the same files simultaneously. The collaborative abilities of portable computing are revolutionary.

Superior Customer Service

Your customers can log on to the internet at all hours of the day and night and reply to the comments section of any website. They expect the same interactions with your company. Since they’re generating the revenue that keeps the lights on at your building, they also feel a sense of entitlement that these customer service engagements should exceed what they receive on sites where they’re not paying clients.

The good news is that you can meet these lofty expectations thanks to clever smart device usage. If a loyal customer hasn’t received a package yet, you don’t need to be at the office to check on the delivery. You can use GPS tracking on your phone to update the status or, if the worst occurs, begin a tracker for the lost goods. The situation works in reverse as well. If a client wants additional information about one of your products, you can add a QR code that will relay full details. Then, she can access the comprehensive specifics on her phone.

You can even sign binding contracts via digital signatures. Several sites like DocuSign provide contractual verifications. All the two parties must do is read the attached data to verify the agreement, then enter their names and timestamps in the appropriate fields. You can even choose the style of handprint when you sign. It’s a painless way to complete a deal while you’re away from the office.

E-Commerce Elegance

Accepting payment is the most critical aspect of your business. While receiving online payment is a standard procedure by now, you’re likely worried about how it works through portable devices and intermediaries. You don’t need to stress, though. It’s a painless process. You can easily manage your customers’ payments with Sage and similar programs. These software solutions offer intuitive monetary exchanges that’ll relieve you of the stress of questionable payment methods. With paper currencies degrading more in popularity each year, mobile payment processing of credit cards is the way to assure you’re making your clients happy.

You’ll have little trouble enhancing your business through emerging technologies. All you need to do is research and adopt the offerings above. Your customers will thank you for it with their business and their loyalty.

 

How Facebook Harvest Your Personal Data For Experimentation

Guest Contributor
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Before we start, we all should be aware of the fact that Facebook takes various liberties with its “terms of use” along with the data. Facebook Team feel free to run experiments on users, just to observe how they would react to the manipulation of their news feed. Well let’s face it, Facebook access the data you provide them. Surprisingly, Facebook tends to know a bit more about you, which includes your likes, your dislikes, what your interests are, I mean- Your favorite movies, songs, videos and other media content- simple from the content you share and the number of times you hit the like button.

Even though, the basis of your data is provided by your Facebook profile, there are many more sources other than that as well. The three major sources for your news feed input that come from your on-site activity:

  1. Interaction with your friends – The friends you chat with everyday will definitely score the top places on-site.
  2. The type of content you’re more likely to enjoy – In case you like and share more videos than photos , more video content will appear on your newsfeed on Facebook.
  3. Activities on a certain post – depending on the likes and comments and tagged photos of your friends will be featured at the top of the newsfeed as well.

The question now is : Are you really happy with the Facebook in order to exploit what they know about you?

The whole concept of the Facebook business model is entirely based on accessing your data more effectively. Here’s what they actually do: They provide you with the free platform of the social media to access and in turn that sell all the information in terms of advertisements and other info depending upon the activities you do while accessing your Facebook Profile. We can call facebook as one of the “Biggest data Analytics”, as it has a huge ability to collect, store and analyse the data available. Honestly! this kind of knowledge is a marketer’s dream as, Facebook knows – how to leverage other people’s relationships/networks and sell the advertisements based on the information you shared or even liked a minute before.

Here’s a quick flash back at the most  shocking and surprising things that facebook policies are allowed to do with your data. Some of these policies may have been scrapped out but others are still existing

  1. Facebook knows what you are upto!!

 

Reportedly, The social network has been tracking its user’s behavior in order to provide them with the better advertisements. Facebook purchased a data in the year 2012 on 70 million U.S. households from a firm called Datalogix.  As a result, the backfire of the creeped-out Facebook users led it to use more transparency about such targeted programs. Now, the users also have the ability to target Ad options which they can opt out if they wish to do so.

 

2. Keeping Your Data Forever, Even If You Leave : Want to Deactivate Your Account? Really

Earlier, when Facebook was brawling with the MySpace, there was no such option to delete your Facebook account even if you wanted to. Sure, you could deactivate it though, but in order to completely wipe out yourself from the database of the respective was to delete all the content you ever posted, along with the Facebook email, Facebook somehow added a straightforward deletion option for the accounts in the year 2010

Initially, facebook said that people misunderstood the main intention of the change that sparked out when the company was into the controversies in year 2009, reasoning that it was important to keep the users messages to another handy even if they left accessing the Facebook. Eventually the company had reverted back to its old terms and conditions in order to allow the users to vote for the future changes in the policies.

  1. Facebook can predict your personality Traits by your “liking” activities:

 

So, liking something from your account on Facebook is a bit simple, and almost senseless way to pass your time on the Social Media. But selecting certain particulars “likes” such as beer, crappie allow the Facebook researchers to conclude more details about you, mentioned in a report by University of Cambridge in March 2013.

 

4. Beware: app permissions.

Well. it is somehow a hard habit to get into. But permissions are really boring and specially when you are asked whether you permit them or not, you are generally signing up into an app or play game, and something you ignore doing is to read the privacy policy, which is really important, if you are giving away the information that does not seem important for what you are doing , then please understand that the chances it is being sold.

  1. Telling Your Friends What You Buy Online

Beacon, as we remember was the very first controversial moves of Facebook, through which various companies were able to post the items to the users’ indicating – what stuff they have bought from their websites. Mark Zuckerberg himself called the Beacon a Big Mistake in the year 2011. After that Facebook provided  a more transparent platform by accessing which the users can use their Fb accounts to perform actions on other websites.

  1. Forcing You to Make Your Data Searchable

Over the years Facebook has also increased the amount of the user data which is required to be viewed publically which includes your user name,profile picture, cover photo, networks and gender. So watch out for other privacy options to stay away from the Facebook- Stalkers.

  1. The Facial Recognition Software to Spot You in Photos

Going back in 2010, facebook started experimenting with a latest feature that involved all the tagged photos in the Social Network’s huge database. In order to help the users automatically tag their friends in the fresh piece of uploads. This feature took a U-Turn in year 2012 and came back in 2013 with a bit expandable version which included the recognition of the user’s display or profile pictures as we call them to the photos they are tagged in automatically.

  1. Utilizing  Your ‘Likes’ In Ads

Facebook again got in trouble for its so called “Sponsored Story” ad format in 2011, as Facebook was using the member names and photos in ads and for the products the members liked but not reimbursing them. As a Facebook had to pay $20 million as a settlement fees and removed all the Sponsored Story ad unit.

According to a report on Cnet:

Even if you are not a facebook user or not logged into the services, The social Plug-ins will gather all the information of the web page being visited by you along with the Internet address of the visitor the moment the page is loaded- hitting the like but is not required. If a number of sites participates in the process facebook automatically allows to assemble a huge amount of data about the Internet users and their browsing habits.

9.Tracking You through the Web: Facebook knows your movements on web

Yes! You are being tracked by facebook for all the movements you do through web, even if you are not logged into the services. The company utilizes the cookies in order to log the data such as the date, time, the URL and your IP address. Facebook says, that this data is used in order to show you a personalized experience on the site, and protect you and facebook from the malicious activities.

  1. Giving Your Data to the Government

Unlike Google and twitter,  earlier Facebook has refused to publish the transparency reports outlining law enforcement agencies request access the user data. Now by the time Facebook has now vowed in order to provide the agencies with as much transparency as they can.  

So do you see it as an incursion in terms of your privacy and does it really scare you that facebook knows everything about you and could  utilize or sell what it knows? Do you think that this makes Facebook more powerful? What are views ??? Please share your views in the space mentioned below:

 

About the guest author:

Lisa Coffey is a writer by profession and present ideas to empower companies to make evolutionary leaps in their go-to-market strategy. Currently she writes for Fourquadrant. She also writes for numerous other magazines related to ‘sale and marketing leadership’ and serving as an advisor to start-ups.

6 Apps To Make Money In Free Time

Guest Contributor
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You most probably know that there are many apps in the play store which are not only for entertainment but also for earning some extra cash or for saving money. But still you may not know these apps by their names, these apps are some of mine favorites and I would like to share them with you. Here are the 6 most killer apps through which you can make some extra money or save some.

Foap

This is an application that lets you make money simply by taking photos. You can charge as much as you like per picture, which means your money making prospects with Foap are endless. People are always looking for a wide variety of photos and you will be surprised to realize how much money you can make from taking a good picture of your dog.

Bookscouter

If you are a book worm and you have a lot of books and you really want to get rid of them but in a beneficial way then this app is for you. Use this app to sell the books which you have you can scan the barcodes of your books with the help of a smartphone and Bookscouter will show you price comparisons of payouts from more than 20 books buying companies. Once you find a good offer, you can fill in the information about where the payment should be sent and ship the books to that buyback company.

Fieldagent

This is an awesome app that also helps you in earning money. When you click the navigate window from there you can search for jobs by clicking on the “Job List” or through the “Map View”. Choose a job to see further details and accept it. Once a job is picked, you have two hours to complete the task, just make sure that you are near the objective before you start the task.

Cash For Laptop

You can earn some extra cash by selling your old laptop and with this app you can do it easily. Simply select the type of your device that you wish to sell. Add the description of your device, pack it and ship it free of charge and then get paid with Paypal or cheque.

Expensify

If you are facing issues with your expense reports, then with the help of this app you can save your time and money. This app will let you capture your receipts, mileage and track time, create expense reports, track business travel and more. Using this app will help you in getting things done quickly and you can spend more time by actually making money.

Ibotta

With the help of this app you can take photos of your receipts and receive “rebates”. You have to sign up a free account and download the mobile app and click on rebates. Here you will find a lot of great offers.  Rebates will vary on the promotion and products.

So these were the top apps on my list that help you earn some extra cash, do mention me any others which I don’t know about below in the comment section.

About the Guest Author:
Adams Thomspon: As Product Marketing Manager, Adam drives product-focused communications for WestendITStore. He is actively involved in product strategy and specializes in articulating technical concepts in the form of creative, value-based messages. Adam brings 10 years of experience in marketing enterprise software/hardware products in startup, high-growth and mature companies

Best Solution to Secure Your Mobile

Guest Contributor
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Everyone craves that one thing everyone else is trying to breach- privacy. There is no a human person conscious enough to have an opinion who does not lie to have some privacy. Really, even children will tell you not to look when they are undressing even when you changed their diapers when they were younger. While everyone is craving some privacy, more and more people are looking to break the privacy. There are many software and small devices that have been invented to breach the privacy of people. Parents want to see what their kids are up to, Spouses want to know whether there are being duped or not and thieves just want to know when you have money. In all these commotion there needs to be a way to keep your privacy intact and keep people from find out things that they should not know.

LEO Privacy Guard is an application that has been developed to increase the protection of your phone and other software that you have in your phone. You are also able to safe guard the images and videos you have on your phone that you want to keep from others. 

Setting up LEO Privacy Guard takes longer than it does setting up most applications however; the time spent on the application is worth it. In the set up, you are first required to set a master password for the application. You will also have to answer one recovery question in case you ever forget your password. This allows you to be the only one who can unblock your phone if it blocks because you forgot your password. You are also able to assign a new password after you have correctly answered you recovery question so make sure it is something you are going to remember. 

How it is set up

After you have set the pattern and recovery question, you will be presented with three screens which you can slide from one screen to the next as you pleas. The first screen contains two modes: the guest mode and the home mode. In the modes you can set he apps you want to set passwords to. You may select any number of apps for the modes as the modes are not dependent upon the number of applications that run on them. The modes are to be activated and used according to the specifications you have set on your phone. The app lock mode allows you to lock specific applications.

 In the second theme you are allowed to choose from an already downloaded section of which you will want to be displayed on the phone when the phone is locked. If you do not like the themes being displayed, you can choose a theme from the many that are brought to you. Lastly is to choose which more you want to use mostly between the home and guest mode. The app cover allows you to select cover all you applications with one password. There will be a fake application and a real one in which only you will know how to navigate keeping your phone safe even when it is take without your permission.

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