Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

How to Handle a Growing Home-Based Business

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Home-based businesses are any enterprises for which the chief managerial and administrative activities occur within the personal residence of an individual. People set up home-based businesses for a wide range of reasons, with many doing so as a way to become their own boss.

While financial failure is one of the chief concerns most folks have when opting to start their own business from home, success can be another factor to consider. In the event your business takes off, will you be able to keep up with demand?

The following tips should be considered when managing a rapidly growing home-based business:

Use of low-cost or free services

A home-based business owner saves money by working from a home office. This is because they avoid spending money on office space. There are many other ways that the home-based business owner can save even more money. One of these is through the implementation of business software. For example, the benefits of using master data management software include reduced costs, improved staff efficiency, and streamlined business operations.

Outsourcing

Most home businesses are set up and run by a single person. However, different skill sets from different people are required once the business grows past a certain level. Outsourcing jobs is an excellent way to manage a growing home-based business. Websites such as PeoplePerHour and oDesk make it possible for home-based business owners to connect with cost-effective independent contractors. Hiring freelancers frees up the time of the home-based business owner to focus on other tasks.

Joining professional groups

Managing a home-based business can lead to limited social interaction. Joining local networking groups offers the home-business owner the chance to enjoy the camaraderie of like-minded people. It also enables them to create a strong team. This could consist of experts in the parts of the business the home-business owner may not be an expert in. Such events could also lead to further growth of the home-based business by word of mouth.

Maintain Professionalism

Maintaining a professional image is very important when handling a growing home-based business. Renting an office or a conference room space for a day when needed helps maintain professionalism in situations requiring it.

Invest in separate landlines

The home can prove to be quite a challenging work environment when trying to run a growing home-based business. For example, the presence of family members in the workspace can lead to one of the family members accidentally answering a critical business phone call. This problem can be solved by investing in a separate landline for work-related matters. It is also advisable to invest in another cell phone to remain accessible in a power outage.

Getting organized

A growing home-based business generates large quantities of computer and paper files. Organizing these files makes everything easier to find. One way of accomplishing this is by implementing a color-coding scheme for computer storage devices and file folders. Printed labels can also be created with a label-maker to help readability.

Creating a beneficial work environment

As a home-based business grows, it becomes increasingly beneficial to invest time into acquiring furniture and equipment that improves the work environment. For example, the ergonomics at the workstation and lighting in the home office should maximize productivity. You may even consider upgrading your living and working space from a studio apartment, and look for a 2 bedroom apartment for rent in hamburg if you’re based here, for example. An extra room can allow you to create a dedicated space for your expanding business, and making the necessary adjustments to become more productive and strive for success.

 

8 Free and Cheap Things to Help You Save Money on Your Wedding

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They say nothing is free, but I know from living on a broke budget that there are many free things in this world if you just take the time to find them. Thankfully, this even applies to weddings and  it’s easier than ever to plan a wedding on a budget. These are some of the best ways to cut corners and get something for free to help you save big money on your wedding day.

Electronic Invites

It might sound crazy, but wedding e-vites are starting to trend. With a growing awareness of the impact of paper on the environment and people who simply want to save buck, they provide the perfect solution. It’s important to follow-up with your friends and family though just to be certain their invite didn’t end up in their junk email folder.

Wedding Websites

Tell everyone about your story in a fun and creative way. Free wedding websites help you connect all of the most important information to your guests. When you create a wedding website, you get to choose the theme, add images, put in the event time and location, and so much more. The designs are chic, stylish, and help you communicate everything you need in a free and modern way.

Free-ish Officiant

Don’t want to fork out money for someone to officiate the wedding? Did you know you can get ordained online for free or cheap? Some states require an ordained wedding officiant to handle the ceremony. But the cool thing is that there are ways to become official for good or just for the day. Choose someone you love and respect to get the credentials if they don’t have them already. It’s likely they’d be honored to participate in your day in such an important way.

Pot-Luck Style Dinner

It might be a terrible idea, but what a fun way to include everyone in the wedding. Some people love pot-luck style family gatherings so for them, this could be a great way to save cash on the big day. It’s important to note that if you do this, you risk people being offended or frustrated that you’re not providing a meal. So maybe you provide the main dish, and they bring all the delicious sides.

Church or Community Center

Some churches rent out their event halls for low cost or a donation to the ministry. The same goes for local community centers. They provide affordable alternatives to hotels and other large wedding venues. These types of locations are perfect for smaller gatherings.

Get Married at a Park

If you don’t care about fancy decorations, a wedding ceremony at a local park could be the perfect solution. Some of them allow weddings as long as it’s standing only. Additionally, in Colorado, you can get married in the Garden of the Gods for free. You just need to make a reservation in advance and follow their rules. Look at your local parks and see if any of them offer something similar.

Borrow your wedding gown

What if instead of paying $5-$10K on a dress you’ll wear only once, you simply borrowed from a family member or friend? Since most people will never wear theirs again, they might be excited to see their wedding clothes get a second act. Be prepared to offer to pay for cleaning services and understand that you may not be able to make any alterations if you don’t love something about the dress.

Free online wedding planners

There are countless companies who offer wedding checklists to help you plan a fantastic wedding. Once you get it done, you can put in the details and check it off the list. These are helpful because if you hired a wedding planner, you could expect to pay up to 20% of the total cost of your wedding on them.

What not to get for free

While free is good, it’s also important to think through the parts of your wedding day that probably should go to a professional. While you may think that random camera phone photos of the day will suffice, hiring a professional photographer and/or videographer is something you should definitely plan in the budget. Unless you have a friend, who is a pro and will do it for free, it’s best to hire it out.

One way to save however, is to only hire them for the most important parts. If you get them for at least the ceremony and formal photos, you’ll have some key memories captured professionally. You can let your buddies take endless camera phone pictures of the reception and dancing and upload those for you later.

Do These 6 Things To Save Energy

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Saving energy is both important and beneficial for a number of reasons. Of course, shutting off the lights when you leave the room or adjusting the temperature when you’re not home will save you money and keep your energy cost low.

But there’s so much more that you can do. Energy is likely being lost through cracks in the walls, the windows, worn-out weatherstripping, poorly designed doors, uninsulated ceilings, and walls. The energy that you’re paying for is literally going out the door.

You can do six major things that will improve your home’s energy-efficiency and save you money. You’ll find that most of these methods are things that you can do yourself without shelling out thousands of dollars for a new energy-efficient HVAC system or having solar power energy installed. Although these would be beneficial to your energy savings, they are not always in the budget.

1: Replace your light bulbs

Technology is pretty amazing. You can use between 25 – 80% less electricity by changing your light bulbs to energy-efficient alternatives such as Halogen incandescent bulbs, compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), and light-emitting diode bulbs (LEDs). The downside to these light bulbs is they are an expensive alternative; however, you’ll actually be saving money in the long run.

2: Install a smart thermostat

Keeping your temperature just 10 to 15 degrees cooler while you’re at work will help to save you between 5-15% every year according to energy.gov.

Smart thermostats allow you complete control over your thermostat. You can program the temperature for when you’re at work or sleeping so that you’re not keeping the house too cool or too hot when it’s not necessary.  An additional benefit of a smart thermostat is that you can program it to tell you when to air filter needs to be replaced.

3: Insulate your home

A poorly insulated home plays a major role in retaining energy in your home. Insulation is designed to keep heat out during the summer and keep heat in during the winter.  You should consider insulation installation in your attic, walls, floors, basement, and crawlspace. These are the main areas where proper insulation will be beneficial.

Consider having a home energy auditor come to inspect your home to locate the areas that need additional insulation.

4: Weatherize your home

You’ll need to visually inspect both the inside and outside of your home to look for areas where air could be getting into your home. You’d be surprised how much air is lost through vents, windows, and doors because of worn-out weatherstripping, cracks, and gaps. Even small cracks or openings can cause lots of energy to be lost and make it harder to control the temperature to a comfortable level.

Replacing weather stripping, sealing, and filling the gaps around windows, doors, plumbing, and ducts will improve your energy savings. You’ll want to check the attic and light fixtures as well.

5: Unplug things that you’re not using

Leaving those small kitchen appliances plugged in is actually costing you money. There is still energy going through these appliances as well as your computer and chargers. So when you’re done using your computer, toaster oven, blender, and coffee machine, you should get into the habit of unplugging them.

For some appliances like your refrigerator, washing machine, or dryer it isn’t practical to unplug them between uses so don’t get that much plug paranoia. Instead find ways to make these machines work better, or fewer hours. For example you could sun dry your delicate clothes to run your dryer less or use tricks like a dryer ball in order to get your clothes moisture free quicker which means less run time on the machine!

6: Tune Up Your HVAC System

Regular maintenance of your HVAC system will not only help you to keep the cost of repairs low and prolong the life of your unit, but it will ensure that your heating and cooling are running efficiently. Keeping it at peak performance helps you to continue to save on your energy bill.

We all want to save money, and these are just some of the simple do-it-yourself ways to reduce the amount of energy that your home is losing. We tend to believe that the only way to improve our home’s energy efficiency is by purchasing all new energy-efficient appliances, windows, and doors. Oftentimes it’s the little things that you can do that make the most significant differences.

Saving money on your energy bills can often make the difference between which bills you can pay off this month and which ones you cannot. Learning how to budget your bills to keep costs down is essential.