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Even though the economic situation has become more stable now, many Americans keep on being in precarious financial shape. The pandemic has made thousands of people lose their jobs, become temporarily unemployed, and rely on simple fast loans when they are pressed for cash. Even today, many of them struggle financially and can’t pay their bills. Seven in ten people struggle with at least one aspect of financial stability, a new survey by the Financial Health Network finds. If your family struggles financially, here is what you can do to improve this situation. Why People Struggle Financially The Financial Health Network, a nonprofit financial services consultancy, conducted a survey of 5,400 Americans. This survey asked questions about the financial health of the respondents including the way they manage bills, income, savings, and debt. “The American economy has experienced a certain growth this year. However, many consumers still are still concerned with money issues,” m...

We explore four clear-cut SMB marketing strategies you should try, including local, inbound, influencer, and performance marketing. Match the right strategies to your business needs. Let’s get one thing straight before we start: Marketing is an investment. There is no investment without risk, no guaranteed results, no magical solution, that will make your business grow and generate profits without effort. There are, however, increasingly efficient marketing channels that can be addressed without a large in-house team, and without adding costly intermediaries into the equation. What you need is a clear strategy, the right tools to automate your operations, and the capability to measure the outcome of your investment. Small business marketing has a shorter horizon for generating results; business owners must be more selective in their adoption of marketing channels. Whereas large corporations are addressing all the stages of the user journey, the SMB segment of businesse...

A woman has shared her top money-saving tips after paying off her £20,000 debt – without giving up frivolous treats. Shaurna Cameron, 29, first experienced issues with her finances when she graduated from university in May 2013. The money troubles began after she secured her first full-time job with a salary of £17,000. At the time, Shaurna felt “rich", which spurred her on into spending money on clothes, bags and "useless items", as well as expensive trips. If she couldn't afford it on her monthly earnings, she would put herself into debt by using a credit card. It wasn't long before Shaurna was buried in debt. “When I couldn't afford to pay for my flights outright, I wouldn't hesitate to put this money onto a credit card,” said Shaurna, a compliance specialist. “This meant that by June 2016 [three years later], I had accrued around £20,000 of credit card and loan debt. “Initially I didn't really take it seriously – I was 24, living at h...

As the competition for e-commerce sales continues to heat up, focusing on converting the customer ... [+] quickly is becoming increasingly important. Shopping online offers an ease and convenience coveted by many shoppers yet so many online retailers seem to complicate the checkout process, with small business in particular falling foul of creating this purchase hurdle to a degree that’s off putting. Constant requests for usernames and passwords, when many are weary of handing over their personal information to create yet another online account can mean lost profits when consumers abandon their basket at checkout. Findings from Capterra’s 2022 Online Shopping Survey show that efficiency is a high online shopping priority - two-thirds of shoppers expect checkout to be 4 minutes or less, and many (28%) expect it to happen in just two minutes. Guest checkout comes out top The survey found that guest checkout is king with 43% of consumers preferring guest checkout, and 72% o...

When you are just starting out in the market, it may be hard to achieve immediate recognition as the newest player on the field or compete for clients in a crowded space. To pique consumer interest in an oversaturated space, you can study behavior patterns to carve your niche, but it is going to take more than free product samples or trial membership to get consumers to support your brand and stick with you for the long haul. Below, 15 members of Fast Company Executive Board offer their advice on how to boost your brand to appeal to clients in the marketplace. 1. Get to know your market. When positioning your brand in a saturated market, you should first do some competitive analyses to learn what your counterparts are saying externally. From there, develop platforms that support your company’s narrative and focus on the white space topics that your audience wants to learn about. – Melanie Samba, Sproxxy 2. Promote your authentic attributes. Think about three to four attrib...

All Apple brands are B2B brands, as opposed to B2C.  Is Apple An Example Of B2B?  Apple, for instance, operates under two segments to its business: B2C (the sale of goods and services to consumers), and B2B (the sale of goods and services to businesses). What Sales Strategies Does Apple Use?  A very notable difference between Apple and other companies is the way the company positions itself in the marketplace (especially with celebrities and in popular shows.) and how its positive feedback affects the consumer sentiment. The Apple strategy can still boost your market share, even without any budget or resources from Apple. What Is Apple B2B?  Using the custom B2B app store, you can provide businesses who are members of Volume Purchase Program with custom B2B apps. B2B applications that address specific business objectives can be customized by an entrepreneur to fit the business needs. The custom B2B App store has many questions as to how they’ll work. Does A...

You book a flight to Los Angeles. You board the plane. The plane lands. You disembark, walk into the terminal and ask, 'How do I get here?' Frustrated, you fly home. A day later, you board another flight for LA. Once again, you are shocked to find yourself in the city of Angels. You fly home even more frustrated. Why does this keep happening? You don’t want to be in LA. You want to be in Boston. Airplanes are pretty good about reaching their destination. The airlines, for all their faults, tiny seats and surcharges, have an almost flawless record of arriving at the intended airport. You are virtually guaranteed to arrive at the city named right there on your ticket. The only way to end up in a different place is to book a different flight. Makes sense, right? Why, then, are you surprised when the destination of your “I can save you money” sales call is as consistent as landing in Los Angeles over and over again? Every time you connect with someone and your offer is ac...

A business that extends credit to its customers may find that some of its invoices are paid late, or in some cases not at all. Collecting bad debt is a critical part of maintaining your cash flow and keeping a healthy balance sheet. At some point, however, a debt becomes so far delayed that it has to be written off. Documenting Bad Debt As the name suggests, a bad debt is one that a business can’t collect. This often results from credit sales to customers for goods that have been received but not yet paid for, and have been recorded in your company’s accounts receivables. The Internal Revenue Service expects businesses to show some effort to collect such debts before writing off the amounts. For example, if the debt is the result in a loan to a supplier, it helps to have the debt recorded in a document with the expected returns indicated, and to retain copies of letters or e-mails demanding the funds be repaid. Deducting Debt The IRS allows bad debt to be written off and de...

Equity Financing vs. Debt Financing: An Overview To raise capital for business needs, companies primarily have two types of financing as an option: equity financing and debt financing. Most companies use a combination of debt and equity financing, but there are some distinct advantages to both. Principal among them is that equity financing carries no repayment obligation and provides extra working capital that can be used to grow a business. Debt financing on the other hand does not require giving up a portion of ownership. Companies usually have a choice as to whether to seek debt or equity financing. The choice often depends upon which source of funding is most easily accessible for the company, its cash flow, and how important maintaining control of the company is to its principal owners. The debt-to-equity-ratio shows how much of a company's financing is proportionately provided by debt and equity. Key Takeaways + There are two types of financing available to a comp...