What Is Credit Control

Credit control is a strategy used by businesses to extend credit to potential customers to increase the sale of products and services. Credit control is a strategy used by businesses to extend credit to potential customers to increase the sale of products and services. The goal is to work with as many creditworthy consumers as possible and limit how frequently credit is offered to consumers with poor credit. 

 Definition and Example of Credit Control

Credit control is a standard businesses use to determine how much credit to offer their customers. While getting paid upfront is the easiest and safest way for most companies, it can also limit the total profits. Extending credit can make it easier for potential customers to purchase your products and services. By breaking up the payments into monthly installments or letting customers pay later, it can make the purchase more manageable. Alternate name: Credit policy For example, a company may offer in-house financing in which they allow customers with high credit scores to pay off a purchase over a set period of time. In theory, the financing encourages customers to make purchases, thereby boosting the company’s sales.

How Credit Control Works 

The success or failure of your business largely depends on the sale of your products and services. Sales are a clear metric for business success: the higher your sales, the higher your profits will be. Before you extend credit to your customers, you need to have a credit policy in place. Credit control determines who your business extends credit to. Extending credit to customers with a poor credit history or delinquencies can ultimately hurt your business more than it helps. A credit control policy can play out in a variety of different ways, depending on the type of business you run. For instance, professional services businesses may offer credit terms to individuals and companies. After the service is provided, they’ll typically send an invoice with payment terms depending on the service agreement. An e-commerce business, on the other hand, may set up a monthly installment plan to pay for the purchase of products. These types of companies will usually accept credit cards and other online payments.

 Types of Credit Control 

Two common types of credit control are restrictive and liberal. The policy your company implements will largely depend on its size, profit margins, and total market share. 

Restrictive Credit Control A restrictive credit control policy poses the lowest level of risk to your company. It means that  you’re only willing to work with customers that have a strong credit history. This is a good option for companies with low profit margins or where there are many risks involved. Liberal Credit Control A liberal credit control policy means the business is willing to extend credit to most customers. Companies that have high profit margins or operate in a monopoly may prefer a liberal credit policy.

Types of Credit Options

 If you choose to extend credit to your customers, you’ll need to decide which types of credit you’re going to accept. Here are a few of the most common types of credit options you may choose to offer. Credit Cards Companies that choose to accept credit cards will have to decide which payment options they’re willing to accept. For example, a merchant may not accept credit cards from a certain issuer but accepts cards from other issuers. Companies will pay an interchange fee for every card transaction, starting as low as 1.15% plus a few cents for Visa and Mastercard transactions. However, accepting credit cards comes at a very low risk to businesses because the risk falls on the credit-card issuers and not the individual customer.

Checks Some companies still accept checks from customers, though this can be risky. There is always a chance the check will bounce. If you choose to allow this option, you need to have a policy to obtain customers' identification. 

Credit Terms Finally, some businesses will extend credit terms to their customers. If you do this, you’ll need to have your customers sign a sales contract that outlines the payment terms. Before the terms are binding, the agreement must be in writing and signed by the customer.

How to Grow Your Online Business With Amazon

Maintaining an online business requires wearing a variety of hats at all times, from inventory and marketing to shipments and customer service. To simplify daily tasks, however, business owners can leverage the systems that other platforms have already put in place. One of the best sites for small and midsize businesses to use is Amazon. In 2019, there were millions of active users on Amazon, including 105 million Amazon Prime customers, many of whom shop on the site daily.1 According to a 2016 study, more than 50% of online shoppers go to Amazon first when looking for a product they want to buy.2 Using Amazon to start your e-commerce business provides a platform for marketing, connecting with customers, selling, billing, and even shipping your products. This can help you start your venture with fewer resources, grow your business more quickly, and learn valuable lessons about selling online in the process.

Why Use Amazon to Grow Your Business 

There are millions of third-party sellers on Amazon combined, they sell more than 50% of the products sold through the site.3 In 2018, small and midsize businesses in the United States made an average of over $90,000 in Amazon sales.4 This is made possible by a variety of benefits that any business can take advantage of by using Amazon as an e-commerce platform. 

It has a built in customer base: Millions of people around the world go to Amazon every day and buy thousands of products. That’s qualified traffic you can’t get with your own website, especially not in your start-up phase. That reach can help you make a profit from your early stages, rather than spending most of your time and resources trying to attract customers.

It’s a brand name: Customers are more likely to trust businesses whose names they recognize. Because it has been around so long and been so successful, Amazon is a trusted site. As a new business, you would have to work hard to earn that sort of trust. But when you sell on Amazon's preexisting platform, you can leverage their credibility with customers from day one. 

The technical work is already done: One of the major tasks that online sellers face is setting up an e commerce platform and shopping cart where your prospect can easily browse and order your products. When you work through Amazon, this has already been done, and the job of maintaining it and handling tech support is also covered by Amazon. This allows you to focus your time, energy, and other resources elsewhere. Amazon has two levels that sellers can choose from. Individual sellers can list products in more than 20 categories and pay a fee of $0.99 per sale. Professional sellers can list in an additional 10 categories, pay a flat fee of $39.99 monthly, and have additional customization options for their listings and shipping. Both types of sellers pay additional fees when products sell.

How to Use Fulfillment by Amazon to Grow Your Business 

If you’re selling on Amazon, you can sell your products through the website, then process orders and ship them to customers yourself. If you don't want to handle processing and shipping, which can tie up valuable time and resources, you can also let Amazon handle payments and processing orders, which is known as FBA.

Using FBA is a standardized and fairly simple process: 

• You send a number of your products to Amazon. 
• Every time an order comes in, Amazon will handle the necessary steps to get the shipment to your customers.
• Amazon takes a portion of each sale as a fee.
• The net income from each sale is deposited in your bank account on a regular basis. 
• Amazon handles any returns or exchanges.

Because Amazon has streamlined systems and sufficient manpower to handle order fulfillment and returns, they can do these tasks more efficiently and at a lower cost-per-order than many small businesses. The fees you pay for each FBA sale are generally lower than you would pay to store and ship a comparable number of products yourself. 

Business

What Is Business?

A business can be described as an organization or enterprising entity that engages in professional, commercial or industrial activities. There can be different types of businesses depending on various factors. Some are for-profit, while some are non-profit. Similarly, their ownership also makes them different from each other. For instance, there are sole proprietorship, partnerships, corporations, and more. Business is also the efforts and activities of a person who is producing goods or offering services with the intent to sell them for profit.

Types of Businesses Various businesses are organized per some type of hierarchy or bureaucracy. In these businesses, the positions have a customary role and responsibility.

Partnership: As the name suggests, it is a business where two or more people run it together. The partners bring in resources and money, and then the shares in the profit or loss are divided amongst them. 

Corporation: In this business, a group of individuals act together as a single entity. The owners in this business are called shareholders. They discuss their views on the common stock of the corporation. There are unfavourable taxation rules in a corporation for the business owners.

Small Business: There are different sizes of business. Small businesses are companies where small owners (an individual or a small group) operate. For instance, family restaurants, clothing companies, home-based companies, and publishing companies. In this type of business, the profits are not that high but just enough to continue the business operations.

 

Large Business: This kind of business usually operates as a corporation. It has an employee base of 1000+ people, and its revenue production is more than $1 billion. Usually, these businesses issue corporate stock to finance their operations. Thus, it is publicly traded. As a result, it must report on certain things and operate restrictions. This is the opposite of a small business, where operations are independent of regulators. Amazon and Walmart are examples of large businesses. 

Business Industries There are different industries in which businesses operate. A certain company can define its business by the particular industry. For instance, there are industries of real estate, agriculture, advertising, banking, and more in which businesses exist. It is because often, the term ‘business’ interchanges with the daily operations and the total formation of the company. We often use this term for indicating transactions concerning an underlying service or product.

The most successful ones include:

Amazon: The largest online retailer, Amazon sells a wide variety of products on its ecommerce platform. It began as an online bookseller and captured almost every category of retail. It also offers cloud computing services, movie and show streaming platforms and subscription products. 

Apple: It is a renowned company famous for its innovative electronic products. They sell personal computers, smartphones, earphones, watches, and laptops. Similarly, they also provide various services like music and video streaming and production services. 

Walmart: Being of the most successful retailers globally, Walmart is a multinational corporation that runs a chain of hypermarkets offering a huge variety of products ranging from family apparel to housewares. It is present in 24+ countries and has millions of employees worldwide.

 How can one start an online business? 

An online business is different from a traditional business. You need to design your website after your market research, business plan development, and paperwork formalities. After that, start finding ways to build up your target market and engage your audience with social media platforms. 

What is business plan? 

Business plans help run your business and secure the fund needed to start the operations. There are two ways- traditional business plan or lean business plan. The former is full of details like the company’s summary, plan for success, product information, sales projections, etc. The latter one is not that detailed but has necessary information like details of the partnership, cost structure, revenue stream, and more. How to get a business loan? 

First, decide the type of loan your business needs and then choose from where you will get it. Your options are the traditional lender, online operator, government-backed loans, or more. Make a business plan, present it to the lender, and ensure your credit score is good. Having collateral will also help in securing a loan.

How To Start A Business

Starting a business is one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences you can have. But where do you begin? There are several ways to approach creating a business, with many important considerations. To help take the guesswork out of the process and improve your chances of success, follow our comprehensive guide on how to start a business. We’ll walk you through each step of the process, from defining your business idea to registering, launching and growing your business.

1. Determine Your Business Concept

Most business advice tells you to monetize what you love, but it misses two other very important elements: it needs to be profitable and something you’re good at. For example, you may love music, but how viable is your business idea if you’re not a great singer or songwriter? Maybe you love making soap and want to open a soap shop in your small town that already has three close by it won’t be easy to corner the market when you’re creating the same product as other nearby stores

• What do you love to do? 
• What do you hate to do?
• Can you think of something that would make those things easier? 
• What are you good at? What do others come to you for advice about?
• If you were given ten minutes to give a five-minute speech on any topic, what would it be?
• What’s something you’ve always wanted to do, but lacked resources for? 

These questions can lead you to an idea for your business. If you already have an idea, they might help you expand it. Once you have your idea, measure it against whether you’re good at it and if it’s profitable.

Your business idea also doesn’t have to be the next Scrub Daddy or Squatty Potty. Instead, you can take an existing product and improve upon it. You can also sell a digital product so there’s little overhead

What Kind of Business Should You Start? 

Before you choose the type of business to start, there are some key things to consider: 

• What type of funding do you have?
• How much time do you have to invest in your business? 
• Do you prefer to work from home or at an office or workshop? 
• What interests and passions do you have? 
• Can you sell information (such as a course), rather than a product? 
• What skills or expertise do you have?
•  How fast do you need to scale your business? 
• What kind of support do you have to start your business? 
• Are you partnering with someone else?
•  Does the franchise model make more sense to you?

2. Research Your Competitors and Market

Most entrepreneurs spend more time on their products than they do getting to know the competition. If you ever apply for outside funding, the potential lender or partner wants to know: what sets you (or your business idea) apart? If market analysis indicates your product or service is saturated in your area, see if you can think of a different approach. Take housekeeping, for example rather than general cleaning services, you might specialize in homes with pets or focus on garage cleanups. 

Primary Research The first stage of any competition study is primary research, which entails obtaining data directly from potential customers rather than basing your conclusions on past data. You can use questionnaires, surveys and interviews to learn what consumers want. Surveying friends and family isn’t recommended unless they’re your target market. People who say they’d buy something and people who do are very different. The last thing you want is to take so much stock in what they say, create the product and flop when you try to sell it because all of the people who said they’d buy it don’t because the product isn’t something they’d actually buy.

Secondary Research Utilize existing sources of information, such as census data, to gather information when you do secondary research. The current data may be studied, compiled and analyzed in various ways that are appropriate for your needs but it may not be as detailed as primary research

3. Create Your Business Plan 

A business plan is a dynamic document that serves as a roadmap for establishing a new business. This document makes it simple for potential investors, financial institutions and company management to understand and absorb. Even if you intend to self-finance, a business plan can help you flesh out your idea and spot potential problems. When writing a well-rounded business plan, include the following sections:

• Products or services: This section describes how your business will operate. It includes what products you’ll offer to consumers at the beginning of the business, how they compare to existing competitors, how much your products cost, who will be responsible for creating the products, how you’ll source materials and how much they cost to make. 
• Background summary: This portion of the business plan is the most time-consuming to write. Compile and summarize any data, articles and research studies on trends that could positively and negatively affect your business or industry.
• Marketing plan: The marketing plan identifies the characteristics of your product or service, summarizes the SWOT analysis and analyzes competitors. It also discusses how you’ll promote your business, how much money will be spent on marketing and how long the campaign is expected to last. 
• Financial plan: The financial plan is perhaps the core of the business plan because, without money, the business will not move forward. Include a proposed budget in your financial plan along with projected financial statements, such as an income statement, a balance sheet and a statement of cash flows. Usually, five years of projected financial statements are acceptable. This section is also where you should include your funding request if you’re looking for outside funding.

what is Business

Business is the sale of goods or services to try to make a profit, as in Restaurants are a tough business, with many restaurants closing in the first few years. Business is also used to refer to any person or group of people that operate with the purpose of making money, as in Yen and Tao went into business walking the dogs in their neighborhood. Business is also used to refer to the sales and money brought in by a business, as in Even though we had a lot of visitors to the store, business was slow over the weekend. Business has many other senses related to work and trade, but it can also refer to someone’s personal concern or interest. Your feelings, for example, are your own business. Business can also be used as an adjective to describe anything related to the workings of a profession or exchange of money, as in The business office is closed on weekends, but the store is usually open.

HOW TO USE BUSINESS IN A SENTENCE It’s unconscionable to go home before the election without helping families and small businesses, and I think there’s a deep recognition that now, at this point, that it’s simply impossible to go home without getting something done

Another idea circulating in the House is to pass individual bills, such as new business loans or unemployment help, just to show or remind Americans that House Democrats are trying to help. The full restrictions at issue have now eased, but a variety of limitations on businesses and gatherings remain in effect. Before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered businesses and sent unemployment soaring, the president could certainly brag about the state of the economy in his first three years as president. The plan calls for accelerating access to reconstruction funding, forgiving disaster relief loans to municipalities and bolstering local businesses.

Marketing plan: The marketing plan identifies the characteristics of your product or service, summarizes the SWOT analysis and analyzes competitors. It also discusses how you’ll promote your business, how much money will be spent on marketing and how long the campaign is expected to last.

Financial plan: The financial plan is perhaps the core of the business plan because, without money, the business will not move forward. Include a proposed budget in your financial plan along with projected financial statements, such as an income statement, a balance sheet and a statement of cash flows. Usually, five years of projected financial statements are acceptable. This section is also where you should include your funding request if you’re looking for outside funding.

Best Online Business Ideas

want to join the online work force, do your dream job, or maybe just work from home? While there’s plenty of demand for online workers today, breaking in can be intimidating. Even if you’ve researched the top online business ideas and picked your best match, you still might not know how to get started or what to expect. To help you find innovative business ideas for a digital career, we’ve compiled a list to inspire you. But before we dive into the best online business ideas, let’s talk a little about how to find the right path for you.

Your success in whatever job you choose will depend on your skills and talents, and your happiness will depend on what that job entails. For starters, if you’re already a skilled laborer, you may be able to seamlessly migrate your job from offline to online. Specialized jobs like teacher, executive assistant, translator, bookkeeper, or personal shopper, all have online counterparts. Depending on your experience and credentials, you may even have an advantage over your online competition from day one. So before you look at new innovative business ideas online, your first step should be seeing if you can shift your current job online. Of course most professions still need be handled on site, but in the wake of all the pandemic lockdowns, you might be surprised at what you can do online. Start by hitting the job boards (listed below), specifically for your field of expertise. Of course, if your offline career is doing well, you have to ask yourself if switching online is really necessary. Maybe you like working directly with people, or maybe you prefer offline methods of attracting new business. Consider both your personal taste and the online demand for your services before making a decision to upend your offline business.

Start a low cost business

Small businesses and startups often have a high initial cost to start a bakery, you need a building and bakery supplies. To start a fertility app, you’ll need medical specialists and a few software developers. While a lifestyle business is not without its costs, they’re generally low. Here are a few examples of costs a lifestyle business might incur

• Software subscriptions As an internet-first business, many of your costs will include subscriptions for online services, hosting, invoicing, and more (e.g., Mailchimp, Shopify, WordPress, QuickBooks, Thinkific, etc.).
• Operation costs Like any business, your lifestyle business will incur operating costs (e.g., incorporation, insurance, taxes, etc.). 
• Outsourcing For anything you can’t do yourself, you might hire outside help to enable your company to grow without eating into your time (e.g., freelance designer, virtual personal assistant, marketing consultant)

As a lifestyle entrepreneur, you can start your business with minimal upfront costs while keeping expenses low, creating a profitable business that supports your lifestyle.

Build a lifestyle business on your own terms From the low cost to the location independence, a lifestyle business is one of the most flexible options for anyone looking to leave behind an office job and design their ideal life. Whether you have a passion for software development or a knack for social media marketing, building a lifestyle business lets you turn your expertise into a product or service that generates enough income to live the life you want.

What Is a Lifestyle Business

There’s a growing resistance to spending 9 to 5 at the office, embarking on long commutes that bookend each day, and living to work instead of working to live. From the great resignation to a rising anti work movement, many are rethinking their jobs, reconsidering their careers, and reevaluating their relationships to their professions. But one class of work innovators are abandoning offices forever by building companies that allow them to earn a living while still enjoying life: lifestyle business entrepreneurs.

What is a lifestyle business?

A lifestyle business is a passion centered company that generates enough profit to allow an entrepreneur to work and live from anywhere, earning an income on their own terms. The only criteria of a lifestyle business is forming a sole proprietorship, LLC, or corporation that generates enough profit to support the lifestyle you want to live. Therefore, what a lifestyle company actually looks like differs for every entrepreneur. Starting a business in the lifestyle niche could mean creating and selling digital courses on photo editing, freelancing as a product designer for various clients, becoming an online influencer in the productivity space, creating a niche app as an independent software developer, or starting an ecommerce dropshipping business that sells home goods. Any business that allows you the flexibility to work from anywhere, anytime, while optimizing your lifestyle fits the description of a lifestyle business. A lifestyle business conjures the image of running a company from the beach, a laptop in one hand and a margarita in the other. But what the growing category of lifestyle business truly offers entrepreneurs is the option to turn their skills and hobbies into businesses, while also designing the life they truly want. That can mean working from home in a small town close to family or globetrotting the world, taking business calls from an iPhone full of travel photos.

small business vs. lifestyle business

A startup focuses on building a technological product or service that generates millions or billions in revenue, typically raising venture capital funding and growing a team to achieve this aim. Many startups take years to find profitability. Successful startups are generally acquired by a larger company or have an initial public offering (IPO). While startups are increasingly embracing remote or hybrid work, most startups are co-located with a central headquarters and satellite offices. Startups emphasize scale and impact. Examples of startups include a dating app, a media company, or a genetic testing service. 

A small business generally focuses on providing a good or service. To fund a small business, business owners typically turn to their savings or a loan from the bank. Successful small businesses return their initial investment and eventually find profitability. Small businesses generally start as one person or a small team, growing in size as they scale. While small businesses increasingly embrace unlocking new customers by using the internet, many small businesses are location dependent, serving a particular city, state, or country. Examples of small businesses include a vintage clothing store, a restaurant, or an artisan selling hand-dipped candles on Shopify. 

A lifestyle business is generally internet-first, selling digital goods or software, providing a virtual service, or operating an ecommerce business remotely. Lifestyle businesses generally have a low upfront cost that does not require outside funding. Successful lifestyle business entrepreneurs have the flexibility to work from anywhere. Successful lifestyle businesses must become profitable quickly, allowing an entrepreneur to fund the lifestyle they want this could mean earning $50,000 per year or $1 million per year. Lifestyle businesses operate flexibly, sometimes reducing their working hours below 40 hours per week, often turning to outsourcing and automation and emphasizing lifestyle over work. Examples of a lifestyle business include selling online templates, providing virtual consulting, or a clothing dropshipping business.

Live and work from anywhere

Lifestyle businesses untether you from a specific desk, instead allowing you to embrace flexibility: working from anywhere, anytime. Many lifestyle entrepreneurs begin their business so they can travel as they work, bouncing from Airbnbs with stable Wi-Fi to rooftop lounges with a laptop plug in. Others take a different approach, using the “anywhere opportunity” to leave bustling city centers like New York or Los Angeles to move somewhere quaint and quiet, while still earning an income online. Regardless, starting a lifestyle business provides the unique opportunity to live and work where you want, not just where there’s a thriving job market. Instead of taking a two week vacation every 12 months, you can satisfy your wanderlust and be on the road 365 days of the year. Rather than “Work-from-home Wednesdays,” you can run your business from a home office while getting to spend more time with your children. In place of early morning meetings, you can embrace your inner night owl, working into the evening. A lifestyle business unlocks the opportunity to iterate on your lifestyle, experimenting with different modes of work and life.

Creating a lifestyle business can help you turn your hobbies into income and your side hustle into your main hustle. If you have a skill people will pay for, or a digital product someone will buy, it’s never been easier to make money online. If your skills and passion lie in editing photography, create and sell Instagram photo presets. If you’re a talented writing coach, develop and sell a digital course on writing for results. If you’re a trained accountant, develop an online consultancy that makes accounting easy and paperless for your clients. By finding a lifestyle business idea at the intersection of skill, passion, and market demand, you can generate income while also funding the life you want.

Online Business Ideas

Online business ideas you can start quickly

Whether you want to become a full-time entrepreneur or start a part-time online business to generate side income, your product or service should fulfill a specific consumer need. We’ve compiled a list of potentially profitable online businesses that have minimal startup costs and are easy to get up and running quickly.

1. Small business consulting Consultants advise businesses and individuals on various issues and business aspects. An online consultancy offers a limitless client reach, and you can get started quickly and easily. In particular, small business consultants use their skills to help new business owners avoid typical startup mistakes and help experienced entrepreneurs grow their businesses and overcome obstacles. Your chances of success as a small business consultant are greater if you focus your strategy on a niche aspect of business consulting.

2. SEO consulting If you know the ins and outs of search engines and have technical skills in platforms such as Google Analytics, becoming a search engine optimization (SEO) consultant may be a lucrative option. Many small business owners don’t realize how much of an impact SEO can have on their business. Start your online SEO consulting business by educating clients on the power of SEO to help transform their websites and increase conversion rates. Then, use your marketing skills to show business owners the benefits of analytics data, strategic keywords and content structure to gain more organic web traffic.

3. Social media consulting Social media consultants are in top demand as social media for business becomes more crucial. Larger enterprises can hire an agency or a full-time staff member to run their social media accounts, but small businesses must often handle their social media marketing. As a social media consultant, you can help small businesses devise tactics, create content calendars and develop an overall content strategy to reach their target audience. As their follower counts grow, so will your business. 

4. Niche market e-commerce retail There’s an audience for everything, even if it’s as specific as dollhouse furniture or organic dog food. With a niche e-commerce site, you can reach customers seeking your specific products. Finding a business niche can help you differentiate yourself from other brands and build credibility and expertise. Look to social media and evaluate consumer needs to develop a product to sell in your online store. To get your e-commerce business up and running, you need a web hosting service with an integrated shopping cart feature or e-commerce software. To simplify the shipping process, you can work with vendors to ship products to customers on your behalf. This can reduce the amount of inventory you need to keep on-site.

5. Web design or web development business If you’re a creative digital professional who thrives on forming a website’s layout, visual theme, font set and color palette, freelance website design may be a good path for you. If you have little or no experience in this field, you can learn the basics of web design and master the tools you’ll need for success. If you’re more interested in the coding side of building effective websites, freelance web development might be in your wheelhouse. If you know HTML, CSS or JavaScript and have a good eye for solving problems with creative solutions, you can launch a service to build attractive, easy-to-use websites for small businesses. If you need to learn the basics of web development before launching your full-stack career, take a beginner’s course to get started. Put your technical and creative skills to good use for business owners who want to take their online presence to the next level. Build a comprehensive portfolio and create your own website to show it off and attract a steady stream of clients. 

6. Online blogging If you love writing or have helpful information to share, blogging may be a profitable business. Starting a business blog is straightforward with website builders such as Weebly and WordPress. However, consistency and quality are key to success. To gain a steady following, you must continually write and produce high-quality content that provides value to your readers. Content that educates, informs or entertains your readers gives them a reason to follow you. Once you’ve mastered consistent content creation, you can make money through your blog by selling products such as online courses, digital coaching, e-books or webinars. You can also sell ad space or sponsored posts. This business strategy may take a little more time and effort to monetize, but it can be very profitable. 

7. Virtual assisting Do you have impeccable organizational skills and task management abilities? Maybe it’s time to put those skills to good use by becoming a virtual assistant (VA). VA services typically involve basic administrative tasks, like entering data, making travel arrangements and answering phone calls. Previous experience in this field is ideal but not required. Platforms such as TaskRabbit and Zirtual make it easy for VA professionals to find jobs. These sites allow you to create an online profile, sign up for tasks you want to complete such as data research, virtual assistance or basic errands  and begin building clientele.

8. Social media influencing Social media influencer marketing has become a popular and profitable career path. This line of work involves marketing the products and services of different brands to your audience and earning money from such sponsorships. If you have a niche following on social media apps such as Instagram and TikTok, you can work with brands in your demographic and earn money via sponsored posts, brand partnerships, monetization programs, affiliate marketing and more. 

9. Voiceover business A voiceover business provides voice recordings to clients or companies for educational videos, audiobooks, advertisements and other projects. You can offer voiceover services online to various clients until your business is profitable and well known in its space.

10. Online bakery If you have the talent and passion, consider baking treats in the comfort of your own kitchen and selling them online. Create a digital store, start marketing your baked goods to potential customers, and ship the treats yourself. It helps to choose a niche that will set your bakery apart from others. For example, consider offering dairy-free or gluten-free options, or perhaps make your desserts into personalized designs for customers.

11. Email marketing Email marketing has long been an effective marketing tactic, and many businesses outsource their needs to agencies. By starting your own email marketing agency, you can sell your services to multiple clients and spend your days developing email marketing strategies and drafting impactful email copy.

12. Self-publishing Today, self-publishing is easier than ever. If you have the talent and passion for writing, you can begin self-publishing your work on platforms such as Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing and earn a decent profit. Consider whether you want to write fiction, self-help, educational e-books or other books; choosing a niche will help your audience recognize and anticipate your work. It might take some time to get started, and your first book or two might not gain immediate traction. However, if you stick with it, you can turn this endeavor into a full-time gig.

Top 16 Graphic Design Business Ideas in 2023

If you have great skills and vision over graphics and things around you. Or if you have done a professional degree in graphic design but you don’t want to engage yourself in a full-time job for others or want to be productive for yourself this article is for you. Of course, graphic designers and video editing companies have a different ways to see things near them, they see things in more creative ways, and take their creativity out with it. If you want to enhance your skills more, then you must try to explore things more and more which are near you. 

Here is A List of 16 Best Graphic Design Business Ideas Table of Contents 

1. Advertising Agency To achieve success as an advertising consultant, a person must have branding expertise, a creative mind, and effective interpersonal skills. Persons from the marketing field possess certain advantages in starting this business. As an advertising consultant professional, you are supposed to guide businesses in developing an effective advertising strategy to promote goods or services.

2. Catalog Designing Product catalogs are the most important marketing tools. As a graphic designer, you can start a home-based catalog designing business. Any small and big, product or service-based industries could be your potential clients.

3. Children Book Designing Children’s drawing books, comic books, and storybook making is another potential business for graphic designers. The demand for these services is increasing globally. A creative mind with adequate skills in designing is most important in this business.

4. Cover page Making Any hard copy or digital book demands an attractive cover page. You can start this business as a home-based and part-time also. Any individual or institution, associated with book publishing could be your potential client. 

5. Make & Sell T-Shirts We all know the size and sales of t-shirts all across the globe. For graphic designers, creating and selling t-shirts is much easier than for a common man not having design skills. 6. Company Newsletters You start providing newsletter-making services to companies that do not have an in-house department for this. Most business owners believe that creating a monthly newsletter and distributing it to valued clients is a very inexpensive and powerful marketing tool for their business. 

7. Greeting Card Making A greeting card-making business is perfect for those who enjoy creativity and want to turn their creative minds into successful ventures. A greeting card is an illustrated piece of card or high-quality paper featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiments. Greeting cards are a billion-dollar industry now.

8. Marketing Brochures Professional marketing brochures help businesses a lot. This acts as a first impression of the company. The business can be operated from home on a part-time basis and expanded to full-time as the business grows.

9. Newsletter Publishing Individuals who have got a flair for the written word and a talent for turning out new material in a specific field on a regular basis can initiate a newsletter publishing business. You can produce custom-tailored newsletters for clients to send to their current and potential customers. 

10. Package Design Service Every product demands to package. Packaging matters a lot in marketing and promotion. Any manufacturer introducing a new product to the market or any company seeking to redesign the existing packaging of a product could be your potential client.

11. Printing Press A full-fledged printing press is the most profitable business graphic designer profession. After any type of design, the material goes to printing presses to get printed. A one-stop printing solution that provides designing and printing services is the best business in the printing industry. 

12. Restaurant Menu Card Making Restaurants look for creative menu card designing services. You can start this business as home-based. Community advertising is a great way to get clients for this business. 13. Silk-Screened Mouse Pads A personalized mouse pad is considered the most popular promotional item as its cost is low. Having a silk screen printing machine, you can design and print mouse pads for business houses. You can sell the mousepads to companies with corporate logos printed on them for use in their own business or to give or sell to their clients.

14. Video Editing Video editing services providing business can be initiated in two ways. One is on a part-time basis and another is with a full-fledged studio setup.  Video editing service providing is an all-time hot opportunity. People need this service for various reasons, such as memorable family videos, creating fun videos, creating school projects, or business reasons. Business houses have a need to transform a bland website into a more engaging one full of multi-media content. 

15. Website Designing Web designing business is one of the most lucrative and popular business ideas for graphic designers. It is perfect for those who are professional expert in website designing and has basic knowledge of HTML coding, graphic designing. The different areas of the web designing business include web graphic design, interface design, user experience design, web development, and search engine optimization.

16. Graphic Designing Institute You can establish a graphic designing institute with the accreditation of reputed universities. The graphic designing career is in high demand. You can initiate this business on a small scale basis with some basic courses. A home-based graphic design business operation demands a high-end computer with an internet connection, color printer, and scanner. You must be equipped with the necessary Software. Most graphic designers use Macs. Some of the useful Software are Corel Draw, Pagemaker, Photoshop, Adobe, etc.

6 Reasons Graphic Design is More Important to Your Business

As a business owner, you may have hundreds of concerns to address during your day-to-day workplace activities, so you might be tempted to ignore the need for expertly crafted graphic designs. However, utilizing professional graphic designs can be an integral step in the process of establishing and maintaining a successful business. The six points listed below emphasize how important graphic design is to your business. 

Brand Recognition: Your company’s total brand image starts with a great logo and expands to every aspect of your business. The design needs to target your audience in a way that is functional, attractive, and professional. Your brand should provide an instant connection to the outstanding products and services that you offer, and you need an excellent graphic design to forge that kind of connection. Company Unity: Your employees will be surrounded by stationary, company web pages, uniforms, publications, and more. If you want a happy and healthy workplace, your employees will need to band together behind the designs that you select to represent your brand. Building your company identity starts on the inside, so your employees must be committed to the brand. A good graphic design can strengthen that sense of commitment.

Professionalism: You want your company to make a great first impression on clients, vendors, and other entities a logo for example only has a fraction of a second to make a first impression. A design that looks cheap will cast an unfavorable light on your business, and it can be difficult to break the impression that your company cannot afford a professional design. 

Communication: The usefulness of graphic design extends beyond your logo and your website. Graphic design can produce visual aids that will help you communicate your ideas. An informative image can transmit ideas that cannot be expressed with words alone. You can use professionally designed images to create a positive impression and avoid misunderstandings. 

Efficiency and Productivity: Badly designed graphics can negatively impact worker productivity and general workplace efficiency. Your website is the area of your business where signs of a bad design are most likely to be observed. A practical design should include useful features, such as easy navigation, legible fonts, and appropriate colors. A website with blinding colors, tricky fonts, or hidden navigation will be a headache for clients and employees.

Money: Badly designed graphics can be very expensive. If you go for a cheap design, you might get a lackluster product that is not ready for print. If the design is not ready for print, you might end up spending more money on a new design. Additionally, a competent graphic designer will create a design that is not too expensive to produce. You do not want to spend a significant portion of your budget on a bad design. Fortunately, there are many modern methods, such as crowdsourcing, for obtaining professional and attractive designs. Ignoring your organization’s graphic design needs can negatively impact clients, vendors, and employees. Utilizing an appropriate design can improve every aspect of your business. Consider the six reasons listed above before underestimating the importance of graphic design to your business.

 

UAE pension authority sees sharp rise in subscribers

GPSSA has seen a total of 7,451 employers registered with it as of June 2023.

ABU DHABI: The General Pension and Social Security Authority (GPSSA) has reported a notable surge in contributors and registered employers, according to the statistics released for June 2023. The data revealed that the number of contributors rose to 104,038, marking a significant increase, compared to 87,982 contributors during the same period last year. Moreover, registered employers rose from 7,451 in the previous year to 10,568 as of June 2023. The report further disclosed that pensioners reached 19,548 by June 2023, compared to 18,318 in June 2022. Similarly, the number of beneficiaries stood at 8,368, showing a slight decline from the 8,432 beneficiaries recorded during the same period last year. In terms of insurance expenses, the data indicated that the value of expenses in June 2023 amounted to Dh397,799,391, higher than the Dh396,086,188 reported during the corresponding period in the previous year. These statistics were unveiled during the fifth board meeting for 2023, chaired by Mohamed bin Hadi Al Hussaini, Minister of State for Financial Affairs and Chairman of the Board of Directors at GPSSA.

During the meeting, Al Hussaini presided over the approval of minutes from previous meetings and led discussions on the progress of past decisions and recommendations made by the board. The meeting also approved various decisions and recommendations presented by sub-committees, including the Investment Committee and the Internal Audit and Risk Committee. Furthermore, the board reviewed and approved GPSSA’s final financial statements for 2022, which will be submitted to the UAE Cabinet Ministers for final approval. Additionally, they examined the investment performance report for 2022 and the first half of 2023, followed by discussions on other important topics on the meeting’s agenda.

 

5 of the best high-yield savings accounts with no minimum balance

Make sure your high yield savings account charges no monthly fees, which can chip away at the interest you earn over time.

With federal interest rates high  and another potential rate hike on the horizon  now is a great time to save. But even among the best high-yield savings accounts with no fees or other costs, there can be a significant barrier to entry. Some of these accounts require steep minimum deposits or ongoing balances to either open your account or earn interest. If you don't already have $1,000 or even $5,000 to deposit into your new account, you may not qualify to earn the great interest it offers. That's why you should look at all the details of a new account before you open it. There are a number of competitive high-yield accounts today  even some that offer near the highest available APYs  that require no minimum at all. To earn interest with these accounts, all you have to do is open it and make a deposit in any amount.

Why you need a high yield savings account today

High yield savings account interest rates are significantly higher than traditional savings accounts.

Savings are an essential part of any smart financial plan. Whether you're building an emergency fund or setting aside money for a big purchase, a healthy savings account can help you reach your financial goals and cover unexpected costs without going into debt. And every little bit you can set aside counts. The easiest way to boost your savings is with a high-yield savings account. High-yield savings accounts are a popular financial tool for many reasons, including the ability to earn much more interest than you can with a regular savings account. If you don't already have one, now is the perfect time to consider opening one. See today's high-yield savings account rates here to find out how much you could be earning.