How Your Company Can Make Smart Decisions For Online Operations

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By now, every business owner and entrepreneur knows that having a great online presence is essential for overall success. However, making the decisions necessary to building your online presence can be quite stressful. From choosing web hosting and design packages to devising online marketing strategies, becoming a brand with a powerful online presence can seem overwhelming.

It’s possible for your company to navigate their online sales and marketing without hitting any roadblocks, however. Here are some smart tips on how your company can make smart decisions for online operations.

Do Your Homework

This sounds like it should be obvious for just about any business decision, but you’d be surprised how many entrepreneurs rush into things without really stopping to consider their other options. Whether it’s your web hosting plan or a prospective marketing firm that claims it will be able to take your business to the next level, it’s essential that you make decisions slowly and with a lot of consideration. When it comes to your business, never rush into things. Even if a company is touting a “limited time offer,” always really consider things before signing any contracts.

Compare Services

There are many companies out there devoted to helping companies to expand and improve their presence on the internet. They all have their own pros and cons. For this reason, it’s essential that you take the time to compare services. Look for companies that have a track record of success with brans similar to yours, as what’s ideal for one brand might not be so ideal for another.

Know The Value Of Design

These days customers tend to make a lot of split second decisions. With the plethora of goods and services available online, customers are more inclined to be swayed by first impressions. This is why great design is so important. Customers will often make buying decisions based on the emotions that the design of a website or logo evokes within them. For this reason, it’s crucial that your design is something that you’ve put a lot of work and thought into, rather than something you assemble haphazardly to get it over with.

Create A Budget

It can be easy to overspend when you’re launching your online brand. For this reason, you should lay out a budget before you begin looking at different services and hosting providers. By knowing how much you’re willing to spend in each area from the beginning, you’re less likely to go over budget.

Creating a home for your company on the internet can be a challenge, but it’s integral for your company’s success. Customers are attracted to companies with stellar online presences, so make sure that your brand is up to par.

September 2016 Net Worth Update

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penniesIn order to keep track of my financial progress or lack of progress I have decided to calculate my net worth each month.

My net worth as of 9/1/2016 is as follows.

Assets
Cash – $3313.19 (-$1080.23)
IRA – $23,904.31 (+$64.57)
Roth IRA – $10,378.74 (+$58.49)
Solo 401k – 992.54 (NA)
Car/Stuff – $4600 (-$100)

Liabilities
Student Loan – $129,663.70 ($111.47)

Net Worth = $-86,474.92

My net worth increased by $46.84 since the last update. An increase is better than a decrease but my net worth is still less than it was in July. I need some bigger increases. I’ve put in a couple of job applications the past week. I’m hoping one of those comes through so I can increase my income.

Although I paid over $700 on my student loan last month the balance only decreased a little over $100. Since the loan charges over $600 a month interest it is really difficult to make progress on paying down the loan. I need to increase my income dramatically to be able to get ahead on this loan.

I’ve been using Personal Capital (affiliate link) to help track my net worth. It keeps track of all of my financial accounts and my student loan making it pretty easy to calculate my net worth each month. It is free to sign up. If you would like to sign up I’d appreciate you using my link. All blog income, including affiliate income, goes to paying down my student loan.

Personal Capital

August Income – $1824.38

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Here is a breakdown of my income for August.

Job $0
Interest $1.52
Online Income $143.40
Amazon FBA $1551.92
Uber $7.61
Cash Back $119.93
Total $1824.38

My income was pretty good in August considering I didn’t have any job income. I was aiming to make about as much in August as in July and I came within $40 which I consider close enough. The big contributor to my income this month was Amazon FBA.  I sold almost all of the inventory I bought in July from the hardware store that was going out of business. Unfortunately, I didn’t find another great source of inventory like the hardware store in August so next month’s FBA income will be considerably less. When you are doing Retail Arbitrage (RA) you constantly have to be finding new inventory. That is a skill I still need to improve. In the long run I think my FBA business will do better if I focus on wholesale and private label products. I don’t have any wholesale or private label products yet.

My cash back income was a lot less in August. The $1000 in cash back in July was an anomaly. I still made over $100 in cash back in August which is pretty good for extra money. If you sign up for Mr. Rebates you can help me make more cash back and earn cash back for yourself as well.  Later this month I am going to write a post with all the cash back sites I use.

Although I’ve done okay without a job the last couple of months I am looking to get another job in order to increase my income and meet some financial goals.

August Expenses – $1673.22

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for August.

Household $403.21
Entertainment $6.49
Transportation $77.70
Food $184.14
Student Loan $749.40
Travel $89.14
Phone $36.79
Health $126.35
Total $1673.22

My August expenses were nice and low. I’m quite happy with the total expenses for the month. If you deduct the $749.40 I paid towards my student loan then my total expenses for the month were under $1000 which is my stretch goal for every month. The extra paid towards my student loan in August came from my online income. I have committed to using all income earned from my blogs to pay down my student loan.  If you buy something or sign up for a service through one of the affiliate links on this site the money I earn in commission will go towards my student loan. It had been a few months since I had made an extra payment which resulted in the large payment in August. I need to start making the payments every month I have online income so it isn’t such a hit to my checking account when I make the extra payment.

The only expense category I wasn’t happy with in August was the food category. I spent way too much money on food in August. Some of that was due to my Vegas trip where I paid over $16 for a Shake Shack (overrated) meal. Even without the trip my food spending would have been way too high. I’m aiming to cut that expense in half this month.

Other than that I expect my expenses in September to be pretty similar to August.

Saving with Spare Change Apps

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spare change appsThere have been a number of spare change apps come out in the last couple of years. Apps such as Acorns, Digit, and Qapital all have the goal of automatically saving your spare change. You have probably read a review of some of these apps on other personal finance blogs. Almost all of the reviews I’ve read seem to think these apps are a great idea. I’m going to give the other bloggers the benefit of the doubt and assume they are not just giving  the apps a good review due to being an affiliate of the apps.  To be clear, I don’t have any problem with bloggers being affiliates for the apps. I’m an affiliate myself, I just think in some cases it might keep the bloggers from mentioning the cons of the apps. I do think  there are positives to the spare change apps, but there are some significant negatives as well.

One of the main things I didn’t like about these apps when I first learned about them is that they took random amounts of money out of your account and put it into savings. I like to have more control over my money and want to know exactly how much is going from my checking account to the app account. The Acorns app has a $1 monthly fee. That might not seem like much, but when you’re saving such small amounts that could easily equate to a 5% fee or more. Digit and Qapital don’t have monthly fees which make them a better option in my opinion.

My biggest complaint about these apps is that the amounts put into savings are too small. I used Qapital for about a month and a half and it put $36 into the app savings account. Such a small amount of savings is not going to add up very quickly. It would be a lot easier to just set up an automatic transfer from checking to savings of $100 a month or whatever amount you can afford. Personally, I just send money to my IRA or 401k whenever I have some spare money and I haven’t had a problem maxing out my IRA. If instead of sending the money to a no interest savings account the apps sent the money directly to my IRA or to pay my student loan I would find these apps much more appealing. Since that would prevent the app from making money on their savings accounts I don’t see this kind of change taking place.

I realize that some people suck  at saving  money or have just never started saving money and they might find it easier to use one of these apps. Even though it is super easy to transfer money from your checking account to your IRA I know a lot of people will find it to be too much of a bother. For those people, these spare change apps could be a good deal. I think the apps might also be good for parents who are trying to teach their teens to save.

If you are already in control of your personal finances and have already developed a savings habit then I don’t think you should bother with these apps.  You could use one of these apps to save money in addition to the money you regularly save. Personally, I don’t think it is worth my time to save money with these apps since it is another account  I need to monitor and will use up more of my limited time and mental bandwidth. Since I already save (or pay down debt with) a large percentage of my income it is doubtful the apps will result in any extra money saved for me.

All of that being said I do have a Qapital referral link for those that are interested. If you sign up through the referral link and make a deposit towards your goal we will both make $5.  If you would like a referral link via email you can leave a comment or send me an email and I’ll send you a referral link.

Do you think spare change apps actually help people save money?