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Actual for You - Debt Management, Budgeting and Financial Controls - Planning The Budget
Three seconds. That's what you have to convey your message. Creativity is the strategic weapon that allows us to capture those few precious moments of attention from busy consumers in our increasingly competitive, time-crunched environment.Focus groups tell us that time is a precious, yet dwindling resource. Attention spans are dwindling, as well.Many forces condition people: competing messages, special effects, quick cuts, pop-up videos, too much media. We should not totally surrender to these trends but instead look at the yearnings they reveal: a desire for simplicity, efficiency, truth, and quality of presentation.When we design and write marketing communication material we must recognize a very fundamental fact: we are interrupting someone's day.The fact that they chose to read, hear or view our message places a great responsibility on us to present this work as best we can. All the elements should contribute to a single point. A single reason for being there. Add something and it is excess baggag
In this example we might get back something like ?130 per month. I
Whether you want to admit it or not, soap operas may hold the key to your home business success. This article includes a few home and small business principles I learned while watching SoapNet.Be really, really good looking. I don’t know if you’ve had this experience, but every time I turn on SoapNet I feel overweight, ugly, and hopelessly average. There is no way I could ever compete with the collection of beauties, male and female, that the soap operas have assembled. But before you go out and buy a Bow Flex and dye your hair blonde, remember that I’m talking about your home business in this article. Just because you are running your business out of your home on a low budget does not mean it has to look like you are running your business out of your home on a low budget. Invest a little bit of money into getting a professional logo and stationary. If you own a website and cannot afford a professional web designer, take courses at your local college. Presenting your business professionally can open up doors you may
In the previous exercise, we have identified all costs and all income and now have a clear picture of the current situation. Using this information, the budget we set will, in effect, be an overview of how we live our lives from this point on. There will be certain rules that we have to stick with, but we will know that sticking to the rules will allow us to achieve our future financial goals.
The next part of the process is a little more painful and certainly more laborious than the last, but nevertheless must be done. Begin with the easy stuff first. This is the middle section on the budget sheet, i.e.:
- motoring expenses;
- food and housekeeping;
- miscellaneous goods and services;
- personal and leisure;
- sundries and emergencies.
There will be lots of low hanging fruit here (easy savings to be made).
For example, let's say your daily expenditure diary reveals that on your commute to work you buy a newspaper at the railway station and a coffee while you wait for the train. You buy lunch at the deli around the corner, but go to the local pub for a sit down lunch and a drink on a Friday. You have a drink with colleagues after work on average 2 nights a week and buy an evening paper to read on the train on the way back from work. This is what this expenditure looks like over the week:
Morning coffee: 1.50 x 5 = 7.50
Morning paper: 0.60 x 5 = 3.00
Lunch at the deli 2.50 x 4 = 10.00
Bar lunch: 7.50 x 1 = 7.50
After work drinks: 2.80 x 2 = 5.60
Evening paper: 0.50 x 5 = 2.50
Weekly total: 7.50 + 3 + 10 + 7.50 + 5.60 + 2.50 = ?36.10
Look at this again. Every single item is discretionary, yet it will cost you ?144.40 in a 4 week month.
You may not be able to give everything up on the list, but taking a flask of coffee to work with a packed lunch may be a start. Many newspapers now offer yearly subscriptions that will cut the weekly bill by more than half - if you still need to have a newspaper every morning and every evening (do you?). The pub lunch could be dropped and the drinks with the colleagues after work cut back to one drink one evening a week - still sociable enough for most people.
In this example we might get back something like ?130 per month. If
In the world of athletics there is widely accepted principle that states: “Speed Kills”. In most sporting events speed will prevail over strength and often times speed will end-up being the deciding factor between victory and defeat. As important as speed is on the field of play it has been my experience that it is even more important in the world of business. While there is little debate that speed can create an extreme competitive advantage, it is not well understood that the lack of speed can send a company (or an individual’s career) into a death spiral. Agility, fluidity, decisiveness, commitment and focus all lead to the creation of speed which results in a certainty of execution. In today’s blog post I’ll discuss why you should feel “The Need For Speed.”General George S. Patton said it best: “A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.” The pursuit of perfection is one of great adversaries of speed. In fact, at the risk of being controversial I’m going to take the positi
- motoring expenses;
- food and housekeeping;
- miscellaneous goods and services;
- personal and leisure;
- sundries and emergencies.
There will be lots of low hanging fruit here (easy savings to be made).
For example, let's say your daily expenditure diary reveals that on your commute to work you buy a newspaper at the railway station and a coffee while you wait for the train. You buy lunch at the deli around the corner, but go to the local pub for a sit down lunch and a drink on a Friday. You have a drink with colleagues after work on average 2 nights a week and buy an evening paper to read on the train on the way back from work. This is what this expenditure looks like over the week:
Morning coffee: 1.50 x 5 = 7.50
Morning paper: 0.60 x 5 = 3.00
Lunch at the deli 2.50 x 4 = 10.00
Bar lunch: 7.50 x 1 = 7.50
After work drinks: 2.80 x 2 = 5.60
Evening paper: 0.50 x 5 = 2.50
Weekly total: 7.50 + 3 + 10 + 7.50 + 5.60 + 2.50 = ?36.10
Look at this again. Every single item is discretionary, yet it will cost you ?144.40 in a 4 week month.
You may not be able to give everything up on the list, but taking a flask of coffee to work with a packed lunch may be a start. Many newspapers now offer yearly subscriptions that will cut the weekly bill by more than half - if you still need to have a newspaper every morning and every evening (do you?). The pub lunch could be dropped and the drinks with the colleagues after work cut back to one drink one evening a week - still sociable enough for most people.
In this example we might get back something like ?130 per month. I
The corporate Christmas card is more common than ever, especially since market research studies have shown that customers really do appreciate the personal touch when contacted by businesses. This is because most people resent doing business in what seems to be a technologically sophisticated and cold world. As is true of traditional Victorian Christmas card, the corporate Christmas card is an elegant way of reaching out and celebrating with others during the holiday season. In fact, even the first paper Christmas greeting was actually a form of business promotion as it was sent out to advertise the services of the printer who first invented the greeting card – John Callcoot Horseley.Of course today’s corporate Christmas card comes in an infinite number of styles. As most corporate entities consider it to be another kind of business card, the corporate Christmas card can be considered to be a form of branding. The result is today’s corporate Christmas card may be more generic in terms of religion (referring to the season a
Morning coffee: 1.50 x 5 = 7.50
Morning paper: 0.60 x 5 = 3.00
Lunch at the deli 2.50 x 4 = 10.00
Bar lunch: 7.50 x 1 = 7.50
After work drinks: 2.80 x 2 = 5.60
Evening paper: 0.50 x 5 = 2.50
Weekly total: 7.50 + 3 + 10 + 7.50 + 5.60 + 2.50 = ?36.10
Look at this again. Every single item is discretionary, yet it will cost you ?144.40 in a 4 week month.
You may not be able to give everything up on the list, but taking a flask of coffee to work with a packed lunch may be a start. Many newspapers now offer yearly subscriptions that will cut the weekly bill by more than half - if you still need to have a newspaper every morning and every evening (do you?). The pub lunch could be dropped and the drinks with the colleagues after work cut back to one drink one evening a week - still sociable enough for most people.
In this example we might get back something like ?130 per month. I
99% of all ezines are not "being a reporter" on current events; that is the first and most important thing to understand.This means that you don't have to be publishing your ezine one day before the "deadline" of when you've decided you'll be sending it out, and going into a great tizzy over the whole thing.Most ezines are highly topical and related to a business, a market or futher products and services of one kind or the other, and their function is to keep customers in touch, as well as to convert interested parties into customers.This gives you a constantly "rolling" audience of old hands and newbies, and an ebb and flow of subscribers and unsubscribers.There are certain evergreen topics in any context that you can always write about, and write about over and over again, from many different angles, and it will always be interesting and well received.This is the key to successful ezine publishing.It's not so much about "news", but about enjoyable content - and that can be as old as the
Morning paper: 0.60 x 5 = 3.00
Lunch at the deli 2.50 x 4 = 10.00
Bar lunch: 7.50 x 1 = 7.50
After work drinks: 2.80 x 2 = 5.60
Evening paper: 0.50 x 5 = 2.50
Weekly total: 7.50 + 3 + 10 + 7.50 + 5.60 + 2.50 = ?36.10
Look at this again. Every single item is discretionary, yet it will cost you ?144.40 in a 4 week month.
You may not be able to give everything up on the list, but taking a flask of coffee to work with a packed lunch may be a start. Many newspapers now offer yearly subscriptions that will cut the weekly bill by more than half - if you still need to have a newspaper every morning and every evening (do you?). The pub lunch could be dropped and the drinks with the colleagues after work cut back to one drink one evening a week - still sociable enough for most people.
In this example we might get back something like ?130 per month. I
Whizzing in perpetual motion the minds of those in the Online Think Tank never stop considering all sides to all issues in their quest to come up with the best decisions and solutions for mankind. Recently a topic came up which pits capitalism against socialism in the ultimate challenge as one gentleman who worked 30 years in an R and D research project is now giving it all away.Thus he stated that giving it away is best for humanity. Well yes in a way it is pretty nice of him. I agree that if you have an idea or concept that giving it is better for humanity and yet there is nothing wrong with making a profit either. I also believe that Bill Gates did give away much of what he produced if you will recall. In fact he did so well the government told him to stop it. No free browsers with the operating systems said FTC.William Gates III continues to give away gifts to the world; he and Warren Buffet. Indeed, I give away lots of information, concepts and stuff as well. Before retirement we gave away our services often as
In this example we might get back something like ?130 per month. If there are two of you doing it, it might be more like ?260 per month.
You need to do this type of breakdown and cost reduction exercise on each line item. Drop things like takeaways to a once a month treat and (if you do not already) learn to cook and cut out ready meals and other prepared food. You will not only save money, you will find you start living healthier too.
Examine closely how you do your motoring. Could you mange with one car instead of two? Could you get rid of the gas guzzling 4 x 4, which would reduce insurance, maintenance, road tax and fuel bills - all at once? Hopefully you are getting the idea by now.
Once the individual figures have been reviewed and cost reductions identified, you can put the new figures into the budget sheet and we can now start to see the new budget taking shape.
Next we can look at the first section. That is:
-housing costs;
-rates and utilities;
-important household services;
-personal insurances.
These are largely fixed costs, but there are opportunities here too. Housing costs such as rent or mortgages can be reduced. Mortgage deals can be switched to take advantage of new lender deals, or fixed rate schemes taken on if interest rates look like rising in the near future. The term of the loan can be extended or (if things are really tight) payments dropped to interest only for a while. You need to ask the question.
If you are renting, could you manage with a smaller property, or a one in a less fashionable area? Could you move closer to work at the same time and reduce daily travelling costs?
Take a look at what seems to be fixed costs such as personal, or household, insurances and compare rates and benefits. Deals in this area change literally every week.
Gas and electric costs can be reduced by switching supplier or, better still, turning down the heating and sw
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