Archives for August 2018

August
18, 2018

2 min read

Online reviews can make or break your business. If you’ve got poor negative reviews, you can almost certainly say goodbye to welcoming new customers. However, if you’re receiving fake online reviews, there’s something you can do about it.

Related: 5 Surefire Ways to Improve Your Site’s Online Reviews

For starters, it’s important to be able to differentiate between a fake and real review. Typically, fake reviews will have a vicious or even aggressive tone, and they’ll also have general criticisms rather than specific ones. Authentic reviews usually provide specific reasons why they are writing reviews in the first place. If you click into a reviewer’s profile and see other reviews they have posted including overly positive reviews for a competitor, this is a sure sign they are a phony.

The next best step to take is to report the reviewer to the website they posted on. This is one of the most critical steps to take in order to get that negative review fully removed. While you wait for the review to be removed, take action and respond to them. Respond professionally to the review, and offer a solution so other customers can see how serious you take the situation. Lastly, continue to monitor all of your reviews and respond accordingly. If you let a fake negative review slip through the cracks, it can cause major damage to your business.

Related: Online Reviews Are the New Social Proof

To learn more, check out Headway Capital’s infographic below.

August
17, 2018

6 min read

Mind over matter? Try mind over money.

The more you believe you can accomplish your financial goals, the more likely you are to actually do so, suggests a newly published study that followed millennials over the course of 10 years, starting with their freshman year in college.  

When researchers looked at subjects’ overall well-being, they found that the concept of financial self-efficacy (or believing you can accomplish your money goals) had the strongest correlation not only with financial well-being but also with peer relationships, psychological well-being and satisfaction with life. So, yes — believing you have the ability to meet your money goals could help you turn them into accomplishments. But more than that, it could help increase your happiness in areas like relationships, mental health and overall outlook on life.

It’s especially important for women to get in financial formation (sorry, Beyoncé). Why? The same study found that only 27 percent of women earned more than $60,000 per year, compared to 45 percent of men — and that’s on par with national figures suggesting women earn 17 to 20 percent less than their male counterparts. That gender pay gap can lead to less in retirement savings, which means less compounding interest, which means a smaller nest egg when we do decide to stop working and take a fair-weather cruise to Florida.

Since there’s no shortage of reasons why it’s vital for women to take control of our finances, we’ve rounded up four personal finance apps to help you do just that.

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Digit

Image credit: Digit | Entrepreneur

What We Love: Digit connects to your financial accounts and analyzes your spending patterns, then auto-saves small amounts of money on your behalf. More than $1 billion has been saved with Digit to date, according to the app, and those savings are FDIC-insured with a no-overdraft guarantee. One of the best aspects of Digit is its subtlety — it only pings you when you’ve reached certain savings milestones, meaning it’s easy to “set it and forget it,” then be happily surprised once you see the stockpile you’ve built up. Plus, you can set specific savings goals — like $1,000 by June 1st for a summer trip — and it will save with your goal date in mind.

What Users Say: One reviewer says, ‘Love this app. Saves money little by little that you don’t really notice but adds up very quickly.’ Another writes, ‘Great app! Saved over $600 in 5 months not touching anything!’

How to Download: $2.99 per month for iPhone and Android

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Clarity Money

Image credit: Clarity Money | Entrepreneur

What We Love: Clarity Money is all about displaying your complete financial picture: total cash, credit card debt, spending, monthly income, subscriptions and credit score. You can sort through recent transactions by category — “June spending on entertainment,” or “What did I spend on Lyft this month?” — to get a better idea of your spending habits, and the app also lists out your recurring subscriptions and offers to cancel them for free on your behalf. Plus, you can turn on automatic savings to meet long-term goals (for example, saving $5 every Monday for your nest egg).

What Users Say: One reviewer says, ‘This app is really something else. It’s comparable to Mint or Level Money (RIP), but it gives a lot more insight and helpful guidance than those in my opinion.’ Another writes, ‘Great app! Super useful for tracking all spending across multiple accounts, seeing ongoing subscriptions and keeping a detailed budget.’

How to Download: Free for iPhone and Android

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Qapital

Image credit: Qapital | Entrepreneur

What We Love: Qapital is a savings app specializing in IFTTT (if this then that), meaning users can set savings “rules” based on spending habits, location, day of the week and more. The team behind the app built it to drive behavioral change and help users spend money on things they actually wanted in the long term. For example, every time you spend less than $25 a week on coffee, or go to the gym, or make a purchase you’ve tagged as a “guilty pleasure” (like ordering takeout), you can set Qapital to save a certain amount for one of your longer-term savings goals. You can also tell the app to round up to the nearest dollar for every purchase you make and save the change.

What Users Say: One reviewer says, ‘I’ve been using this app to save for a trip with my mom to Italy. It’s very easy to use, and totally customizable. You can use it with IFTTT and make automatic triggers for different actions, whenever you enter certain locations, or save for your rainy day fund whenever it rains.’ Another writes, ‘This app makes it so easy to save money that I don’t even realize I’m doing it!’

How to Download: Free for iPhone and Android

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Debitize

Image credit: Debitize | Entrepreneur

What We Love: It’s too easy to spiral into credit card debt. That’s probably why Americans kicked off 2018 owing more than $1 trillion in credit card debt for the first time in history. Debitize aims to help consumers take advantage of that credit — and reap as many rewards as possible — without paying the price later in interest. The app does this by acting as a middleman so you can treat your credit card like a debit card: Each time you swipe, it deducts what you’ve spent from your checking account balance, then pays off your credit card on your behalf. Since the purchase amount is immediately deducted from your account, you don’t have to worry about racking up a revolving balance.

What Users Say: One reviewer says, ‘I have never been disciplined with money, and every time I would use a credit card for rewards, I would end up paying interest for not being able to pay off full balance — this solves it. In the first three weeks I’ve received $65 in rewards with no extra debt!’ Another writes, ‘This app helps curb you from yourself.’

How to Download: Free for iPhone

August
14, 2018

7 min read

This story originally appeared on GOBankingRates

Thinking about starting your own business or taking on a second job? You’re in luck.

GOBankingRates asked today’s top finance experts and bloggers the following: What is the No. 1 thing you wish someone had told you before you started your side hustle and why?

Related: 10 Things to Know About Working With Your Spouse

Below is expert advice on side gigs that will help you keep your sanity while working two jobs.

(By Terence Loose)

Make a daily to-do list

When you’re juggling two jobs, be aware of what you actually need to get done each day.

“I’ve worked a full-time job while maintaining several freelance contracts on the side, and the critical advice I can give is to stay organized,” said Glenn Carter, author of the personal finance blog The Casual Capitalist.

Carter recommends taking 15 minutes at the beginning and end of each day to make a task list and organize it in order of importance. If you want to be successful, you have to spend your time wisely.

Begin your day with a proactive task

It can be easy to get sucked into checking email and social media first thing in the morning, but Nick Loper, founder of Side Hustle Nation, advises that it’s best to start your day by checking a concrete task off your to-do list.

“For me, the biggest productivity win in the last 12 months came from a simple micro-habit of forcing myself to do one proactive task before diving into email or social media,” he said. “It’s way too easy to start your day in reactive mode, and before you know it, hours have gone by and you haven’t touched any of your highest priority projects. Itemize out those high-priority tasks the night before, and make sure to accomplish at least one of them first thing.”

Make sure you know what customers want

It’s important to have a unique idea for a product or service if you are launching a side hustle, but make sure your idea is viable and is something consumers actually want before investing time and money into it.

“Ideas alone possess little value until you actually start building, creating, making and most importantly — selling your idea,” said Ryan Robinson, a content marketing consultant to the world’s top experts and growing startups.

Related: The First Thing These Famous and Successful People Do Every Morning

“Most side hustlers I talk to wish they would’ve spent more time validating their idea by going out and talking to would-be customers, and asking them to pre-order the product or service they’re thinking of creating before investing tons of time and financial resources into things like a website, legal business entity, flyers and business cards. At the end of the day, if you don’t have paying customers, nothing else matters.”

Prioritize sleep

It might seem impossible to get seven to nine hours of sleep each night when you are working more than one job, but it’s important to make sleep a priority — otherwise, your performance at both jobs could suffer.

“Other things in life may fall by the wayside when you are working two jobs in order to make ends meet, but sleep should not be sacrificed,” said Jeff Proctor, a finance expert at DollarSprout.com, who himself has worked two jobs at the same time. “Missing sleep can quickly compound into less focus and decreased productivity at work, which can actually lead to depression. Moral of the story: get your sleep.”

Have a clear end game

When you’ve got your nose to two grindstones, trying to earn additional cash and putting in extra time, it’s easy to lose sight of your overall goal. Bobbi Rebell, financial expert and author of “How to Be a Financial Grownup,” said that there’s a difference between having a career-boosting side hustle and working two jobs. The latter involves having a clear, strategic reason for working hard.

“For example, to earn money to pay down a debt. Or to save for a vacation. Or to acquire a new skill that can expand your professional options. Or to explore whether a business is financially viable. You have to be careful not to just work two jobs for the sake of it, because that can be exhausting,” she said.

Understand that there are no rules

Get a job, buy a house, start a family, save, retire — or don’t. Just because most of your friends follow a certain path in life doesn’t mean you have to walk in their footsteps.

Mohawk-donning financial blogger J. Money, who broke the rules by posting his net worth online, was able to leave his 9-to-5 job. In fact, in seven years he managed to save $400,000 through side gigs, blogging and financial smarts, mostly against the advice of others.

The BudgetsAreSexy.com blogger wants entrepreneurs to remember that there aren’t any rules in life, particularly when it comes to your career.

“I had no idea you could make a living as a blogger or freelancer or anything outside of a standard 9 to 5, really,” said Money. “Or that you can craft your own lifestyle, too, even if the rest of the world thinks you’re crazy! The ‘early retirement’ movement online is doing a great job helping get this message out, which I’m beyond thankful for.”

Scale up sooner

If you dream of turning your side hustle into a full-time gig, you will probably need to scale up sooner rather than later. However, expanding your business can be intimidating.

Millennial money expert Stefanie O’Connell says you should never be shy about believing in yourself. A professional speaker and author of “The Broke and Beautiful Life,” O’Connell has a passion for helping people achieve financial greatness. However, those with successful side gigs sometimes doubt that they can or should be able to earn more, she said.

Related: How to Set Career and Financial Goals You’ll Actually Achieve

“When you find out you can make money doing something on your own time and terms, it’s so exciting and you feel lucky. Often to the point that you stop being aggressive in your money asks,” she said. “Remember, you’re still a business, and you should always be seeking growth. Once you’ve validated your side hustle idea with a few paying clients, think about your next step — raising your rates, finding more prestigious clients, building a team, etc.”

Set up a corporation

David Bach, a best-selling author and respected financial expert, said the best thing someone told him before he started his business was to set up a corporation for his new business.

He said that, at first, he was unsure of the decision. He had an attorney, bookkeeper and tax accountant, but no income. His attorney told him the reason he needed to be setup was because “‘there will be business. And you want to be set up from day one like a real business,'” Bach recalled.

Stick to your schedule

When you’re working two jobs, distractions can mean the difference between success and financial failure. A money expert, blogger and financial consultant, John Rampton said that success relies on creating a schedule and sticking to it with laser focus.

“It seems like we never have enough hours in the day,” he said. “This is especially true when balancing a full-time gig with a side hustle. It’s doable, but you need to budget your time to the minute.”

Set regular hours

Yes, you need to work hard and stick to a schedule if you hope to succeed at your side hustle, especially if you’re picking up work as a stay-at-home parent. However, money expert Lauren Greutman said you should also create a schedule that allows for life outside work. If you don’t budget time for yourself, your side gig could overwhelm your life.

Greutman currently operates LaurenGreutman.com — a finance website that helps women live better lives for less. She said the one thing she wished someone would have told her when she launched her business was to set regular work hours.

“A side hustle is something that can easily get in the way of your life if you let it. I started my website in 2010 with two kids at home, and it quickly grew into a full-time job with irregular hours,” she said. “I wish the phrase, ‘Work Smarter, Not Harder,’ was one that I knew back then. Once I started treating my side hustle like a business, I was able to make more money and put stricter boundaries on my work time.”