Business

 

When did cars become so expensive?

Buying a brand new car off the lot is going to cost you a lot of money, more than spending money on one of the most common traffic laws violated in New York. Especially with today’s rising prices in vehicles. The most tragic part of buying a new car is the dramatic diminish in value for every mile you drive it.

If you spend this much money, the smartest way to maintain the value is by investing into the car’s well-being.

This might mean enrolling in the best defensive driving course NY has to offer. It will also mean being proactive by ensuring your car is in tip-top shape. Here’s the best ways to invest in your car.

Don’t Skimp Out on Tires

Let’s talk tires. They’re the feet of your car. Just like feet, they help you get from point A to point B. Ensuring the tires are in great condition will help you save money across the board. Not only that, but the tires will help you maintain the quality of your vehicle’s performance.

When your tires get trashed from potholes, bumpy roads, or just general wear, you will spend more money for your mileage. Run down tires will lead to poor gas mileage for your vehicle. Not only will you spend money on your gas, but you could spend more money on auto part replacements.

Bad tires could lead you to car accidents considering a blown tire or getting a flat. Replacing a bearing or even the suspensions of your car will cost more money than getting those tires checked. Be preemptive by investing in your car’s tires.

Driving with Care

Driving with care is the most underrated investment for your vehicle. What this means is don’t speed, drive sporadically, brake hard, or take sharp turns. Treat your vehicle well by driving patiently and carefully – it will ensure the car’s long term investment.

When you drive sporadically, you will run the risk of damaging your car in more ways than running up points on your driver’s license. Taking your time, decreasing distractions, and reminding yourself to practice proper road etiquette will protect your car from wrecks and preventable breakdowns.

Trusted Car Repair

When something bad happens to your car, you should take it to a trusted repair shop. Sure, you might be able to save some money by taking it your buddy who is “a total car expert,” but you will be running the risk of a faulty fix.

When you take your car to a trusted auto repair shop, you’re not only investing in the parts you’re buying, but a quality of service. Hiring a professional, who knows cars, will ensure you’re getting the best hands to work on your vehicle.

If you’re performing heavy car repairs, you don’t want to skimp out on the quality of service. If you do, you will be running the risk of a problem popping up later. This will cut your vehicle’s life a little short. No hard feelings toward your “car expert buddy,” though.

Routine Maintenance Checks

Performing a maintenance check on your car will help you identify car issues before they arise. Paying a little bit for a professional to investigate an odd noise coming from your car will keep you from dishing out a ton of money down the line.

Moreover, make sure you are getting your car routinely checked. When you do, you are spotting the warning signs before they become severe car problems. Doing so will save you money in the long run and keep your car in flawless condition.

Getting started in the stock market can seem like a seriously intimidating process for most people. If you’ve never taken part in an investment strategy that’s as active and fast-paced as stock trading before, then you’re going to need some time to get used to it. Be it going it alone, or looking into online trading academies for guidance, you will need to do the proper amount of research to be successful. The online world now means that it’s easier for anyone to control their own investments, rather than shelling out cash for a broker to do it for them. However, as an online investor, you’ll also have more challenges to think about, including the demand for greater research into each of your stocks. Of course, if you can overcome these challenges and make the most of trading online, then you can also get greater profits at the end of the day. To help you start on the right foot, here are three important principles to consider with online trading.

Always Have A Plan

No matter what kind of trading you want to get involved with, it’s important to make sure that you always have a plan of action in place. This means deciding what you want to trade, to begin with, how much tolerance you have for risk, and if you have any specific profit goals that you’re trying to reach. It’s also worth considering how much time you can devote to tracking your investments on a daily basis too. For instance, you might think that day trading sounds exciting, to begin with until you realize that you don’t have hours a day you can use to sit at your computer and watch the stocks.

Know your Goals

There are many things that can affect your trading plans, including your budget and your availability. However, one of the most important factors is your investment goals. For instance, do you want to make yourself a little extra income that you can spend right now, or are you more interested in building up your long-term wealth? The goals you set when you first get started with trading will determine how active you need to be with your investment, and how much risk you’re going to need to take too. It’s important to be careful and make sure you have plenty of cash aside for a comfortable pension and retirement when you’re finished with your everyday trading strategy.

Focus on Losing Small and Winning Big

Finally, this may seem obvious, but the goal of any investment strategy should be to lose small and win big whenever possible. Risk management is important when you’re investing or trading assets. It’s foolish to think that you can simply win all the time, but you don’t need to get constant wins to be a successful trader. Instead, all you need is a 3:1 reward and risk ratio. Another good way to make sure that you lose small and win big is to set a pre-set stop or stop-loss system in place. This just means that you know when to stop trading and start selling an asset. If the market moves against you, having a stop loss in place could mean that you’re less likely to lose vast amounts of money in your portfolio.

Making improvements to your home can be an exciting time, but it may seem daunting if you are working on a budget. Having to be frugal when purchasing new furnishings can often lead to higher ticket items being overlooked in place of cheaper alternatives. However, this can cause disappointment, and sometimes prove costlier in the long run. This is a common mistake home owners make when buying new flooring. It’s no secret that solid and engineered oak flooring comes with a heftier price-tag than other types of flooring, which may be off putting at first. But investing in wood flooring could actually save you money down the line. Still not convinced? Here’s five ways that could change your mind:

Durability

Flooring is put to the test every day as you move from room to room. Consequently, you need a floor that can stand up to the challenge time and time again. Whilst laminated floors and carpet are always a strong choice, neither are as durable as solid and engineered woods. Not only can wood flooring be resistant to heavy footfall, materials like oak can have a lifespan of up to 25 years!

Insulation

If there’s one thing that home owners are always looking to save money on, it’s their energy bills. Thankfully, making the right decision when buying flooring can drastically help cut down on those monthly payments. You may be thinking that carpet would be your best choice here, but you’d be mistaken! Wood flooring is excellent at retaining heat, and circulates the heat it absorbs. Engineered wood is particularly good at this, due to its layered construction. Ultimately, this means less time spent with the heating on, and more money left in your bank account.

Low Maintenance

As previously mentioned, wood flooring’s durability is unmatched. In fact, solid and engineered wood can often be sanded and restored several times during its long lifespan. This removes the need to replace your flooring again and again as it deals with day to day wear and tear. On top of that, wood floors are resistant to rot, stains, and spillages, making them the perfect money saver for parents and pet owners.

Timeless

Wood flooring has remained a popular choice for generations, and although trends come and go, wood floors are still as fashionable as ever. Never again will you have to spend excess funds on updating your flooring to keep up with the times. With its extensive lifespan and desirable look, wood floors will feel stylish for years to come.

Adds Value to Your Property

It’s durable, it’s stylish, it’s low maintenance. There’s a reason why wood flooring is as popular as ever! Buying wood flooring can boost the saleability and overall value of your home. Prospective buyers will be thrilled to see solid or engineered wood already in place before they even make an offer. After a quick sand and refinish, your wood floors will look as good as they did on the day you bought them. This is sure to give the best impression of your home.

 

Although the term design thinking has its roots in the artistic community, it’s a powerful tool in the business world as well. When a business professional or sales representative applies design thinking, he or she first defines the problem that requires solving. Observation skills are critical in this endeavor. That means viewing the work of employees at every stage of the process rather than just hearing about it secondhand.

The other stages of design thinking involve creating and considering multiple options, refining the directions, and selecting a final solution. Although it might seem like a simple process, it’s long and involved and it has taken the business world several years to even consider using it. Now that design thinking is growing in popularity, it has helped some of the world’s largest companies tackle their most complex problems. This has required them to identify how the problem affects users and not just themselves.

Big Business and Design Thinking

Big companies that have embraced design thinking have done it in style. IBM, for example, has created 30 on-site design studios that provide its employees with the time and space they need to come up with innovative solutions to complex problems. Each space comes complete with a white board, post-it notes, pens, scratch paper, and uninterrupted time for employees from various departments to go through the different stages of design thinking to arrive at solutions that solve a real problem in the lives of IBM’s customers.

Infosys has made a heavy investment in design thinking because its leadership feels that it offers the most effective and efficient business model to unleash creative power and potential. It has held multiple workshops to introduce its more than 170,000 employees to the concept and allow them to tap problem-solving abilities many didn’t know they possessed. In less than one year of getting on board with design thinking, Infosys has completed training with approximately 20 percent of its workforce and 500 managers.

A Different Approach to Meet the Needs of Today’s Buyer

The Internet and constant connectivity of our time has issued in a whole new era of sales. Today’s salesperson must remind themselves that the transaction is about the customer and what he or she needs, not about the salesperson closing a deal. This requires sales professionals to use greater empathy in their approach. Salespeople should aim to learn what matters most to the customer before even attempting to sell anything.

One reason that large businesses have embraced design thinking is that it helps them meet the needs of the modern customer. People today have so much information available via online research before a salesperson even enters the picture. Therefore, it’s vital for the sales professional to tap into his or her empathy skills and understand the world and values of the customer.

Without this understanding, the presentation is likely to fall flat because it feels inauthentic to the one receiving it. In this fast-paced world, taking the time to listen, offer empathy, and understand the humanness of the other party can go a long way into making a connection that lasts well beyond the initial sale.

We continue to see blockchain technology finding its way into different areas and industries and this is definitely the case for the gambling industry. One of the main issues faced by online casinos is that winnings and payouts are first hidden from the public to avoid scrutiny.

Blockchain technology has the benefit of solving many of the issues that are faced by online casinos.

Let’s take a look at some other ways through which blockchain is making waves in the gambling industry.

1. Greater Transparency

We’ve all heard of casinos that fraudulently steal from its customers without them knowing. This is part of the reasons why most gamblers shy away from online gambling casinos. Which is only understandable. After all, wouldn’t you stay away if you knew that the transparency is questionable?

Since blockchain boosts security and transparency, online casinos become more trustworthy and will begin to see an increase of players.

1. Reduced Fraud

Fraud in online gambling does not only happen from the casinos and sometimes, players themselves will defraud operators, stealing from them as they make deposits. What’s more, it is still possible to bypass the casino’s security features.

Blockchain technology provides secure methods of doing transactions which reduces fraudulent activities and increases security. The ledgers are distributed making it impossible to alter any data. If a player wins, these will be sent directly to him.

1. Payment methods

An obvious benefit of using blockchain in gambling is the addition of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin as a payment method. This makes it possible for players find a way around certain jurisdiction limitations. Why? Well simply due to the fact that there are no regulated payment restrictions.

Since there are no banks and other transactional intermediaries, the costs are significantly lower for both players as well as the bitcoin casino.

1. No need for personal information

Casinos are under a lot of regulations. Some of them include requiring players to provide documentations when opening an account. This keeps other willing players away as he whole process consumes a lot of time.

Blockchain provides anonymity. It allows players to participate without providing personal information. An added benefit of this is that hackers cannot get access to user data or winnings.

1. Greater Accessibility

Some locations strictly prohibit gambling. A player situated in such a place may not have many options and may easily turn to illegal bookmakers. Things could get dangerous too with illegal bookmakers .

Blockchain’s digital currency means anyone around the world can take part in gambling.

 

 

Property investment is an increasingly popular venture, and more and more landlords are choosing to invest their finances in creating a property portfolio as a strong and steady source of income.

Anybody who has the dedication and the initial finances available can start a property portfolio. In fact, residential bridging loans provide short term finance to anyone looking to buy property. These are available through banks, building societies but also providers such as Glenhawk.

But just being able to buy a property isn’t enough to ensure that your property portfolio lives up to its true potential. There are a few things you can do to make sure your portfolio is as successful as it should be, and luckily we’ve outlined them for you below. Here’s how to get the most from your property portfolio.

Use your pre-viewing time wisely

You can browse the property market online to your heart’s content, being as focused or as casual as you like while perusing possible property investments. However, when it comes to physically viewing properties you should hold off until you are prepared to do so in a fairly targeted way. What kind of property do you actually want to invest in? Hone in your viewings to only ones that fit this criteria.

Start thinking about what you actually want from your investment too. Do you want to invest for cash income or capital growth? Research these factors fully and choose properties which could potentially meet your goals by weighing up advantages and disadvantages. This includes factors such as location, price, cost of things such as utilities, and how much you would need to alter and change the property before being able to use it for financial gain.

Find the risk/reward ratio

Like any investment, property investment is not without its risks. Before entering such a big investment you need to be fully aware of the hazards that might be involved. Stay aware of the current market at all times to see whether it’s a good time for you to be investing at all.

Go into a potential investment with a practical frame of mine, and make a realistic but full assessment of the potential risks and rewards of every possible investment. This will help you determine how the risks and rewards compare so you can find a property with a ratio you are happy with.

Different properties and different markets (depending on when and where you choose to invest) will carry different levels of risk and potential gain. This means that finding this ratio is one of the most important pieces of research you can do in the run up to adding to your property portfolio. You can balance out riskier investments you’re passionate about with lower risk investments elsewhere in your portfolio.

Don’t be limited by location

We live in an age where everyone and everywhere is connected, so there is no reason to limit yourself to only investing in property in your local area. You may find that by widening your scope to a national or even international view you can find much more valuable investment opportunities. Take the time to research markets across the UK rather than just on your doorstep.

An extended scope gives you the opportunity to boost your portfolio in several key ways. Firstly, and most obviously, it will simply give you more choice and flexibility when looking to expand your property portfolio. It will also allow you to look at different markets and find out which areas are particularly booming, or which are expected to boom over the next few years. This will help you get more for your money and invest on upcoming national growth.

RPA or Robotic Process Automation involves the use of software and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in order to handle menial tasks. Businesses are able to eliminate the sort of tedious grunt work that employees hate to do by delegating the boring bits to AI-powered, “robot” helpers.

RPA tools have been embraced by a wide range of industries and businesses. These include human resource departments that use the tools to process mountains upon mountains of resumes while outsourcing companies have used the technology in order to help managers and other executives focus on important business decisions. They have even been used by accountants in order to process invoices, switching from a system where they received PDFs, printed them off and filed hard copies. This is a complex system but one made a lot simpler with RPA tools stepping in to provide a helping hand.

How Businesses Can Benefit from RPA Tools

Businesses can delegate all sorts of tasks to AI helpers using robotic process automation. Employees can automate their workflows, allowing these robots to take care of tasks such as sending emails (and crafting the responses), filing invoices, submitting and processing payouts to partners and handling orders, which is especially important for growing e-commerce channels. This can help businesses to save thousands of hours, allowing employees to refocus their time on other things that do require their input, such as telemarketing or making sales pitches to new clients.

According to a recent Gallup poll, some of the biggest reasons why employees do not enjoy their work include the fact that work has too great a demand on their time, there is little distinction between their work and personal lives, and it is difficult for them to focus on important tasks (e.g. there are too many things to do and not enough time to do them in). By introducing more automation into the workday, employees will be able to free up more time, alleviating many of the frustrations that they have.

How Small Businesses Can Success With RPA Tools

RPA tools may be used by some of the biggest and most well-known businesses on the block, including Microsoft, HP, AT&T, and Allianz, but the technology can also benefit smaller businesses. It could even give smaller organizations a huge advantage over their much larger competitors.

In a small workforce, the happiness of employees is integral to how that company grows and thrives. In a team of 10, one unhappy worker is 10% of the entire employee base and they may not be working at their best as a result. But, by supporting them with robotic process automation, that company can become more efficient. It also means that, as the company grows, it is able to expand much quicker as tasks that would traditionally require new hires (thus thwarting potential expansion) could be delegated to robot helpers.

The adoption of RPA may be driven by major names, which have garnered many headlines. However, smaller businesses can benefit greatly from it.

Buying a house has always been considered as a major achievement. It’s a sign that you’re already a responsible adult. However, things are starting to change as of late as people are now questioning whether real estate is actually a good investment or not.

Nowadays, people already have different opinions when it comes to home ownership. Some believe that renting is a better option than buying which sounds completely ridiculous to others. They believe that nothing beats property ownership as you can also cash in on your mortgage later on. Avid renters, on the other hand, argue that the costs and hassle of the maintenance, and the upkeep isn’t worth the large upfront costs.

In a few major Canadian cities, renting makes a lot more sense, especially with the sky-high property prices. Renting isn’t just the affordable option for but it’s the only choice for the average citizen. But is this also the case for Calgary? Stick around to find out.

Buying vs. Renting in Calgary

Calgary’s real estate market is deemed as a “topsy turvy” one following the continuous improvement of the local economy. It hasn’t been considered very hot in the past but recent changes have turned it into what many experts consider to be a buyer’s market.

This is why the question of whether buying a home right now is a good idea became more pressing. Reports claim that the prices for detached homes haven’t changed while condominium prices are 3% lower than last year’s. These make the market more attractive for those who are considering investing in real estate.

But with such a large amount of money involved, it’s not surprising to see why a lot of people are asking whether doing so is a good idea. If the market is becoming more attractive to buyers, it can mean you might not be able to resell the property right away and still profit from it.

On the flip side, buying now means you’ll probably get properties at a bargain. The savings you can make from what’s currently available in the real estate listings in Calgary might just be worth the wait until you can resell the property for a profit.

Note, however, that mortgage rules have been tightened in Calgary just recently. In hopes of curbing debt loads, the Bank of Canada has ordered a mortgage stress test that will apply to uninsured buyers. Experts believe that it will prevent about 50,000 people from buying a property in Calgary. This can affect a lot of people who are already planning to buy their own homes.

Renting, on the other hand, saves you from all of these worries. If you’re not planning on staying in Calgary for a long time anyway, renting won’t tie you down. You can be liquid if you have the money for a down payment, which can be beneficial for your situation.

Then there’s also the fact that renting is way cheaper than buying a property. This makes it even more ideal for those who are thinking of investing their money in something else.

Buying as an Investment

Looking at how locals reacted to think pieces regarding the rent or buy debate in Calgary, it’s easy to see that people have quite a divided opinion about the matter. At the end of the day, though, the answer lies on what you consider as an investment.

As some people pointed out, there are those who buy so they can have a home that they can call their own. Others cash out just to make money from the property. Only you might be able to decide whether buying a property is a good investment based on your priorities and values related to home ownership.

Workplace safety is essential in any kind of business. Without it, employers will be exposing their workers to various hazards that can seriously affect their safety and productivity. You will also be overwhelmed by liabilities that might cause your company’s breakdown.

It is required by the law to protect your workers, so you should tighten workplace safety measures. Fortunately, taking the first step isn’t that hard. In fact, here are five of the simplest ways enterprises can implement better security measures for their workers:

Identify the Different Threats to Your Workers

Different industries face various challenges and threats on a regular basis. It depends on who and what they work with and the tasks they need to do to get their work done. By identifying and recognizing what these dangers are, you can immediately take the appropriate measures to prevent and eliminate them altogether.

Doing this shouldn’t be a major undertaking. A lot of research has already conducted about the various workplace safety concerns in different industries. You can also easily determine a few unique dangers right inside your workplace through keen observation,

Follow Safety Standards

Aside from having a legislation that requires businesses to implement safety measures in the workplace, the government also has its own set of safety regulations that it requires the public to follow. The HSE (Health and Safety Executive), the agency created by the government to regulate and enforce workplace safety, health, and welfare in the UK, made a guide that businesses should follow. They also conduct formal inspections and audits to make sure workplaces adhere to their safety standards.

Properly Train Every Team Member

Workplace safety also starts inside your organization so it’s crucial to make every member aware of its importance. This can be done by properly training each team member so they can execute their tasks in a correct, safe, and accurate manner.

Conducting regular safety trainings and seminars would also help assure that your employees know how to ensure workplace safety. Information is the biggest key to the success of these efforts, because a weak link can definitely put your efforts to waste. Cover all your bases by making sure that everyone is aware of how to keep the workplace safe.

Conduct Regular Inspections and Checkups

Employers should also take note of checking how their operations are doing in terms of maintaining a safe work environment. Regular checkups and inspections will help accomplish this as it can help them see if their team members are actively practicing safety measures while at work.

Safety tests and assessments are also essential to ensure that the workplace is still meeting the safety standards set in place by the government and the internal safety rules of the organization. Without these, employees can become lax and skip the essential measures required to ensure workplace safety.

Enforce a Lone Worker Policy

Lone worker security is just as important. Because lone workers work on their own or away from the base of your operations, they don’t have the protection given to those working within a controlled environment. Without having colleagues around, they can be exposed to certain threats that can otherwise be prevented when you’re with other people. So if you have employees who work alone, it’s crucial to implement a lone worker policy.

Special measures are required for lone worker safety because of the unique nature of their jobs. It’s important that employers pay close attention to these intricacies to prevent any harm from happening to their lone workers.

With safety measures in place, a workplace can be a safer, healthier, and more productive space for employees. Everyone will benefit from such an arrangement, which is why employers should strive to meet and even surpass the safety standards set in place by the government.

If you’re building a budding business endeavour, you might have gone through the trouble of dealing with energy expenses and it’s natural. With the tide of 2018 nearing its mid-year mark, a number of energy companies, like British Gas and EDF in the UK, have taken brave steps in raising energy prices to accommodate the growing living costs of the global market. Energy providers worldwide are sure to follow this example later on in the year and will make it a difficult year for consumers, especially business owners, to deal with the challenging price increases. Here are a few things to consider in getting the most out of the tricky situation of the energy economy and get the best business gas prices.

Know your own business

Your energy expenses are proportional to what your business is about. For stay-at-home business owners, this might not be as much of a problem for you. If you’re operating off-site, then things should go smoothly in paperwork. But if you do operate an energy expensive business at your home, an inn or a restaurant, for example, it’s a little trickier to avail of a business tariff rate. You might be better off looking for a cheap domestic energy service provider. Knowing the actual range of your business in terms of electricity and gas expenses, and how much you use each one, can help you find an adequate service provider.

Preparing to find the right service

As with any business deal, you might have to negotiate your way into getting the best benefits for your business expenses. It’s a little-known fact that new customers are often given more favourable deals at the start as what companies are looking to buy is customer loyalty. Compared to your rate to a service you’ve been used to, you can see in the math that you’re slowly but surely paying more expensive bills than when you first signed up for it. You’re not being delusional about it. Sure, the cost of living increases every year but new customer rates are far-off from regular customer rates. Take advantage of this fact once you plan on jumping ship to a new energy service provider.

Scouting for potential choices

It’s a little difficult for businesses operating outside the urban district to find alternative energy service providers. But if you’re closer to the city, chances are, you’re just in range for smaller energy supplier companies that can provide a friendlier range of energy prices than that of big-name companies. Taking a stroll on the Internet can lead you to various news sites, blog posts, and user reviews on a company and their services.

Thankfully enough, if you’re still undecided about the choices that you have, there are services available like Utility Bidder that give prime advice on consulting and price comparisons with big-name energy suppliers. The global economy is slowly but surely struggling to find its way to remain stable within a competitive energy market, but this does not have to mean that commercial and residential customers have to suffer that much for it. It takes a little bit of legwork to find an affordable alternative, but it’s worth the trouble.