Has Your ‘Alternative’ Income Disappeared?

Investing, , ,

“I’m very financially stressed now. Last year I really wanted to change both my job and my lifestyle, so I put money in three high-interest investments. I calculated that the returns would be enough to pay my bills and give me extra money to start my own business. However, these investments have stopped paying interest for awhile and I don’t know how I’m going to survive.”

There’s a wave of worry and depression that’s affecting many investors today. Everywhere you go – your salon, your church, your office, or your gym – you can share in sorrowful stories of lost riches and ruined finances.

And just when you think you’ve heard it all, someone comes by with an even more devastating tale of great wealth that has disappeared in an instant.

In recent years, Jamaica has been a haven for high-yielding ‘alternative’ investments. Persons who previously had to settle for less than five per cent annual interest on foreign currency bank accounts, were thrilled at the chance to jump on the ten-per-cent-per-month train.

Finally, it seemed that average investors would be able to make their money work hard for them, so that they could quickly achieve their financial dreams.

Continue reading Has Your ‘Alternative’ Income Disappeared? →

How to succeed at any goal

Goals, Money & Your Mind, , , ,

Are you having difficulty achieving your financial goals? Do you desperately want to buy a house of your own, spend a nice vacation in an all-inclusive, or earn enough to stop living off credit cards? Are life’s challenges intervening to make your desires seem like impossible fantasies?

Sometimes our goals are elusive because we’re not taking all the steps needed to attain them. Get back on track to achieving your objectives by following this four-step system:

The Dream Process

“We’ve got to have a dream if we are going to make a dream come true.” –  Denis Waitley

The first step in improving your current financial picture is to envision yourself in a better situation. To start the dream process, become child-like in your thoughts and dream big. Visualise yourself living out your dream – see what’s around you, hear the sounds and smell the scents, taste and feel the experience.

Get to the root of your dream and ask yourself what emotional need it satisfies for you. Your desire for your own home might really be a need for security; a new car might bring the self-confidence you crave. Then use that strong need to bolster your determination that the dream must one day come true. Use visual reminders to help you continuing focusing on your dream. Continue reading How to succeed at any goal →

Get Ready to Retire!

Retirement & Estate Planning, , , ,

“I’m going to retire after working for over 40 years and I’m feeling a little anxious about the future. The way how prices are rising now, I wonder if I’ll be able to survive on my pension. I don’t have any children and I worry what will happen to me if I run out of money.”

Retirement is a big lifestyle change that can bring some amount of anxiety about your financial future. To reduce your apprehension, you have to learn how to assess your spending needs and to calculate if your planned income will be enough to meet them.

If you’re approaching retirement, here are some key considerations that will help you to be fully financially prepared:

How much money will you need to spend each month?

It’s very important to know exactly how much money you’ll need to meet your expenses during retirement. Spend some time to create a realistic budget of your expected income and expenses. Writing these figures down will let you identify if you’ll have enough money to pay your bills, and it will help you to make decisions about how to distribute the money you have. Continue reading Get Ready to Retire! →

Can we gain from rising oil prices?

Investing, , ,

“Every day the cost of living is increasing, thanks to the continuing rise in oil prices. The last straw for me was the big jump in my electricity bill. I don’t know how I’m going to survive these higher prices when my pay is not going up. What can I do to fight rising costs?”

Unfortunately it seems that there is no end in sight to the rapid rise in the price of oil. In July last year, the price of oil was just about US$70 per barrel, and current prices have blown past the US$145 per barrel mark. There have even been discussions suggesting that oil prices are heading to an unbelievable US$200 per barrel.

The rise in oil costs is negatively affecting consumers in many ways. One obvious instance is painful petrol prices. I’m secretly wondering if the gas station price boards can actually display prices over J$100 per litre!

Then there are the electricity bills that are getting higher than many of our other expenses combined. All industries which use oil as inputs such as tyre and paint manufacturers, and businesses that rely on high-priced petrol and electricity to produce and distribute goods are forced to increase the costs of their products.

What exactly is driving the dramatic increase in oil prices that’s causing this decrease in our standard of living?

Continue reading Can we gain from rising oil prices? →

Beware of Internet Money Scams

Income Creation, , ,

The Internet is a wonderful resource that can provide a wealth of information and bring tremendous opportunity to make money. It allows people to have an audience of millions and provides entrepreneurs with potential customers at a relatively small cost.

However, sometimes it’s difficult to determine if the information on the Internet is genuine or accurate. The Internet can also be used by scam artists to make themselves wealthy by taking advantage of the gullible.

Here are some of the common ways that people lose money by trying to make money on the Internet: Continue reading Beware of Internet Money Scams →

Are Women Getting Better at Making Money?

Wealth, , , ,

Traditionally, the only way that women could end up becoming very wealthy was to find a husband with money. Many girls grew up hearing that they had to marry well if they wanted to experience the good life.

If a girl was born lucky, she might get rich by becoming the heir to her father’s fortune. In fact, the ten wealthiest women on the Forbes 2008 billionaire list all inherited their massive wealth from male relatives.

The famed ‘glass ceiling,’ that invisible barrier to women’s upward mobility in business and politics, has historically ensured that ambitious women could only earn a comfortable living from their own labour, but not access the vast wealth available to their male counterparts.

Women shouldn’t lay the blame for their financial inequality solely at the feet at men, however. Lois P. Frankel, PH.D., author of Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich: 75 Avoidable Mistakes Women Make With Money, declares that girls are generally socialized to be nurturing and supportive, while the more assertive qualities needed for financial advancement are usually discouraged.

Frankel examines some of the common mistakes that women make which prevent them from becoming wealthy. Here are three errors that can hold women back financially: Continue reading Are Women Getting Better at Making Money? →

New Options for Small Business Financing

Business Success, , , , , , ,

“I need to get a loan to expand my small restaurant. However, many of the micro financing options charge interest rates that would kill my business. Regular banks ask for collateral that I don’t have. No one wants to sign as a guarantor for my loan. I’m getting very frustrated, because I know that if I got financing, my business would really take off. What can I do?”

The universal answer facing small business owners in search of financing is “No Collateral, No Deal.” If you’re an entrepreneur with a viable business idea or an expansion plan, at some point you’ve probably faced the challenges of raising capital without collateral.

There is an increased business-friendly focus in most of the commercial banks. With more people going the route of self-employment, it makes sense for financial institutions to pay closer attention to the development of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector.

Small business can eventually bring big business in the long run.

Continue reading New Options for Small Business Financing →

Wanted: Access to Personal Credit Reports

Debt, , , ,

“Why is it that an individual cannot obtain information on his credit record in Jamaica? If you try to get the details from a company that carries out credit checks, you are informed that access to the information is only available to financial institutions such as banks, credit unions and mortgage houses.

“Therefore you could be making plans for your financial future, but there may be some little thing in your past that you might be unaware of, or which might be wrong, and you don’t have the ability to correct this information.”

Jamaicans are becoming increasingly credit happy. With buying sprees funded by payday loans, credit cards, and hire purchase plans, we really can get it if we really want it. However, as our credit appetite grows, lenders are becoming more cautious about the extra business.

Many consumers may not be aware that when they apply for a loan or credit card, their borrowing history is placed under a microscope. Past details about what they borrowed, and how well they paid it back may have been captured on a database by a credit investigating company. This information can be used to determine if they are successful in getting new loans or not. Continue reading Wanted: Access to Personal Credit Reports →

Revenues from Referrals

Business Success, , , , , ,

Recently we looked at one of the secrets of making money – applying the law of attraction to manifest wealth. The law of attraction states that whatever you think about and focus on will determine your results.

So if you concentrate on earning money instead of worrying about your bills and debts, then you will be more likely to succeed in achieving the money you desire.

I decided to take my own advice by carrying out all the recommended steps to create abundance. One ‘pretend-I-have-money’ technique I used is visualizing cheques coming to me in the mail. In less than a week, I received a completely unexpected cheque rewarding me for a business referral I had made over a year and a half ago.

Yes, I know I probably would have received this money even if I hadn’t visualized it, but it was definitely a sign that the law of attraction was in effect!

After getting this sizeable referral payment, I was re-energized to seek other customers for this overseas-based training company. If I could earn all that money for simply enlightening my associates about the benefits of their business, then I would be happy to be a walking advertisement for them.

This experience was a perfect example of the power of referral marketing for increasing business revenues. A satisfied customer, armed with a strong motivation to tell others about your business, is a marketing medium that will keep providing customers long after the print ad has faded and the radio commercial is forgotten.

Word-of-mouth marketing can be especially beneficial to start-up operations that might not have the funds to spend on traditional forms of advertising.

Marketing coach, John Jantsch writes about ‘Referral Madness’ in the June 2008 issue of Entrepreneur magazine, “Referrals are probably the ultimate measure of success for your marketing efforts.” Jantsch explains that people refer for logical reasons because they know that your company offers good products and deals, and also for emotional reasons because they like doing business with you.

Unfortunately, too many entrepreneurs fail to take advantage of the potential profit that enthusiastic customers can bring.

How can you kick-start this referral process to enhance your business revenues?

Jantsch reveals that it’s important to develop your customers’ trust in your company and your products, by ensuring that you deliver what you promise all the time. “You must intentionally build processes that allow you to deliver such a wonderful experience that your customers have little choice but to rave about your company and its services.”

Let’s look at some steps recommended by Jantsch to convert prospects into customers who can become referral agents for your business:

1. Know: People need to get familiar with your operation. Identify your ideal target market and use direct advertising, networking opportunities, newspaper articles, and PR events to get their attention. If they don’t know that you exist, they can’t recommend you!

2. Like: Ensure that you create a great first impression. ‘Fake it until you make it’ so that your prospective customers see an image of where you want your company to be, not where you are today. Spend a little extra to make your marketing materials and office area really stand out.

3. Try: Encourage new customers to experience your service. You may have to offer free products or services, use supermarket sampling opportunities, or provide some kind of worthwhile reward to entice them to give you a try.

4. Buy: Make it simple and effortless for your customers to buy from you. Offer payment options, delivery services, fast turn-around time, and superior after-sales service to remove any hesitations they may have in purchasing from you.

5. Repeat: Keep them coming to you over and over again. Use customer appreciation events, frequent buyer rewards, complimentary product lines and cross-selling offers to ensure that they buy repeatedly. Remember, consistent clients make great referrals.

Once you have hooked your customers to your products and services, many of them will naturally tell their friends and family about you. However, to maximize your referral business, it’s best to establish a formal programme that will provide customers with tangible rewards.

Customers will be more motivated to spread the word if they will receive a direct benefit.

Here are a few ideas that you can utilize in your referral programme:
– Give free or discounted services for a specific number of new customers brought in;
– Provide monetary commissions based on new sales brought in;
– Offer free gifts from a joint venture partner which may also want to advertise its services (e.g. travel destinations, book vouchers);
– Create a free information guide to be given out in exchange for new leads such as email addresses;
– Ask your customers how they would like to be rewarded if they help to increase your business.

Remember, your own customers can potentially be your most productive marketing and sales team. Encourage referrals and watch your business revenue grow!

The Secret of Money Revealed

Money & Your Mind, , ,

Research has shown that only about one per cent of the population achieves exceptional wealth. Is this because the other 99 per cent are missing some crucial information, such as an ancient guidebook on wealth creation? Is there a hidden secret to making money?

After years of hearing the hype about The Secret, I finally read Rhonda Byrne’s book based on this best selling DVD about having, being and doing anything you want in life. Most of the material was based on concepts that had been expressed before by many great thinkers and achievers throughout the centuries. In fact, I had already read and heard ‘the secret’ in several different forms.

What exactly is this ‘secret’? What is this great mystery of achievement in life?

The secret is the reality that everything that is happening to you right now, and everything that has taken place in your life before, is a direct result of what you are thinking now and have thought in the past.

Continue reading The Secret of Money Revealed →