Category: Business

  • Ripple (XRP) Cryptocurrency: What Is It And How Does It Work?

    Ripple (XRP) Cryptocurrency: What Is It And How Does It Work?

    Ripple is a decentralized and open-source cryptocurrency that offers fast, secure, and inexpensive transactions. It has become the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The Ripple network offers many different products to financial institutions in order to provide real-time settlement of international payments as well as low-cost remittance services.

    The article discusses what XRP is and how it works with other cryptocurrencies for payment settlements.

    An introduction to Ripple (XRP) cryptocurrency

    What is Ripple XRP Cryptocurrency
    What is Ripple XRP Cryptocurrency

    Ripple is a global real-time settlement system. It is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world, and it’s used for instant payment settlements between banks across borders.

    Ripple was created by Ripple Labs Inc., a U.S.-based technology company with an office located in San Francisco, California that provides financial services to expedite payments across borders.

    In addition to the current services for international payments, Ripple Labs Inc., is working on product developments and strategic partnerships with other companies.

    They also offer a digital asset called XRP (XRP) that can be used as a currency in its own right or it can power transfers between fiat currencies without any intermediate banks or currency exchange.

    Their XRP cryptocurrency is a great option for those who want to transfer money internationally because of the reduction in fees and time taken to complete an international bank wire.

    The benefits of using a Ripple wallet

    The most notable benefit of using a Ripple wallet is that it allows you to transfer XRP and other currencies all around the world in seconds. Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin wallets which take hours if not days for transactions to process successfully, Ripple has built-in infrastructure so that funds are transferred quickly and cheaply across borders. This also allows you to conduct business with people in other countries without any intermediary fees.

    Ripple is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies on the market today, and so it may not be surprising that there are a number of different options for Ripple wallets available. There are desktop wallets such as GateHub or Segwit Wallet, mobile wallets like Toast wallet, browser-based wallets like Toast wallet, and hardware wallets such as Ledger Nano S.

    How to store your EXP tokens in an offline wallet?

    GateHub is a desktop application available on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems. It allows users to create an account in order to send or receive payments with other Gatehub members who also have accounts registered there. Segwit Wallet is another web-based option that lets you store your Ripple offline for better security against malware threats. Toast Wallet can be used both online and off-line (cold storage). For those preferring browser-only solutions, we recommend the Chrome extension Epayment’s plugin RippleFox – it looks good!

    Ledger Nano S is a hardware wallet that stores private keys inside a secure chip designed by France based company Smart Contract. Ledger Nano S is the most popular hardware wallet that has an easy-to-use interface and supports a wide range of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin and many others.

    XRP (ripple) cryptocurrency was developed to help with international payment settlement. Rippex also helps people store their XRP offline for better security against malware threats.

    Ledger Nano S is one way to securely store your Ripple in cold storage or on your computer’s hard drive so you can sell it when necessary without having any exposure to hacking attacks from criminals who might target exchanges like Coinbase as we saw back in December 2017 during what became known as “the bitcoin gold rush.” To date, these types of critical vulnerabilities have not been found in the Ripple protocol.

    Where to buy Ripple (XRP) in Malaysia?

    If you are residing in Malaysia, Luno is one of the best options to buy Ripple (XRP) as it is a regulated cryptocurrency wallet and exchange, in compliance with Malaysia’s Financial Services Act.

    You can easily link your Luno account to any local bank accounts in Malaysia in just a few steps after you have completed the verification process.

    Closing thoughts on investing in XRP cryptocurrency

    Ripple is a powerful cryptocurrency that has the potential to change how we move money. If you’re looking for something with more liquidity, then Ripple may not be what’s best for you. However, if you believe in what it stands for and want to take on some risk in order to gain huge returns off of its widespread use at banks and financial institutions across the world – XRP might be perfect!

  • 10 Tips To Monitor Your SEO Success

    10 Tips To Monitor Your SEO Success

    Whether you have an online store or offering IT services, you must know how to measure revenue and conversions from SEO efforts. In most companies where the business’s success is mainly tied to income and conversions, people ignore the importance of monitoring SEO success. 

    Measuring SEO success can vary depending on your business type, goals, and audiences. However, some generic tips that any business owner can use to monitor the success of SEO. In this blog, we will reveal some valuable tips to keep an eye on your SEO efforts.

    Let’s Have A Look At All The Tips.

    1. Look For Organic Traffic.

    For newbies to this term, organic traffic is the traffic coming from searches, and that’s the traffic you can increase using sound SEO strategies. As you work on improving search engine rankings for a particular keyword of your site, the organic traffic on your website from the keywords will increase.

    Check out the keywords your website is currently ranked for using your website’s Google Search Console tool. Apart from this, marketing efforts can extend your brand’s awareness and improve organic traffic through branded search terms. 

    1. Website Bounce Rate.

    The bounce rate of your website is the total percentage of people who visited your website and then left (bounced) without making a purchase or waiting for some time. If this is the case for a particular keyword search, your page may not come in search results again for that specific keyword search. 

    If your website’s bounce rate is high, the carrier may not be viewed as relevant to a person who finds it using a keyword search. 

    1. Determining ROI.

    Make sure to track the monetary value of conversions to determine the ROI of your SEO efforts. Suppose you are only measuring a new customer’s initial purchase and not considering the future purchases. In that case, the customer can inaccurately calculate the actual return you are receiving on your SEO investment.

    1. Keyword Rankings.

    Knowing how much effort you need to put to rank is important. And for that, make sure you analyse the ranking of your domain on main targeted keywords before starting to work on your SEO strategy.

    Also, during the process, you would need to track search engine rankings of your domain on targeted keywords every month to analyze how your SEO efforts are paying off.

    This is because the keyword rankings fluctuate throughout a day, week, and month. And tracking could help to understand what is bringing improvements over time, and what more and less needs to be done.

    1. Pages Per Visit.

    Pages per visit are the metric you need to keep track of and your visitors’ time on site. Pages per visit can be an indicator of how people find information and navigate your site. 

    You need to keep relevant content on the top of the website to make sure people visit your website and take action like making a purchase or reading a blog. Yes, people scroll, but some people don’t, and it takes just a few seconds to turn someone OFF. Make sure you have unique content above the fold, not just an image.

    1. Session Duration.

    Session duration is how much time, on average, someone spends on your site. To increase session duration or make people spend more time on your site, make sure you have placed unique content when they click through to your site. 

    This is an excellent metric for determining whether your website’s Meta titles and Meta descriptions are well written and website pages are optimized for the correct keywords and phrases.

    1. Traffic Quality.

    When you are getting much irrelevant traffic on your site, it will not help you in any way. Measure the quality of traffic, and you need to do a more careful analysis. Metrics you can use to know the quality of traffic:

    • Pages per visit
    • Bounce rate
    • Duration of the average visit 

    If you find that the average number of pages viewed per visit, the average time visitors is low, and the site’s bounce rate is high, there is either an issue with your website or the quality of traffic your keywords deliver.

    1. Alexa Ranking.

    Whether your site ranks in the thousands or the hundreds of thousands, the ranking is still a relevant factor to determine the site’s ranking. 

    Alexa Rank shows how a website is ranking taking into account all other sites. Alexa ranking is a great KPI for benchmarking and competitive analysis.

    1. Goals & Conversions.

    Set your in Google Analytics to track form fills, downloads, and other CTAs of your site. Start tracking the metrics on where the traffic is coming and the frequency of its conversion. You can measure the number of visits to a page and then optimize the page based on the data. 

    1. Click-through Rate (CTR).

    Your CTR(click-through rate) from search results to a particular page can give you insights on how you’ve optimized your website page title and meta description. Use Google Search Console to find this data.

    The average CTR on paid search ads is around 2%. Anything over 2% is an above-average CTR, and a high CTR indicates that you are targeting the right audience through your ads.  

    Conclusion.

    Google’s algorithm is constantly changing, and the old-school SEO strategy might not give you the result you expect from your SEO efforts. You can track SEO success using the above tips and get the maximum value from your SEO strategy.

  • 10 Reasons Why Flutter Will Rule The Future Of Mobile Development Market

    10 Reasons Why Flutter Will Rule The Future Of Mobile Development Market

    A robust mobile app can help your business succeed, and to do so, you need to create a mobile app that is rich in customer-centric features and capable of engaging all users significantly. This blog focuses on Google’s Flutter, one such fantastic mobile app technology.

    Flutter was released in 2017, it is a relative newbie in the cross-platform app development sector. However, it has achieved success in mobile app development due to its solid features and special perks. Let’s see what flutter is and why flutter mobile development is the future.

    What Exactly Is Flutter?

    Flutter is a Google open-source UI software development kit that allows you to create applications for a variety of platforms. You can create apps for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, web, and Google Fuchsia using a single codebase. The UI toolkit, written in C, C++, and Dart, assists you in creating natively-compiled applications.

    What Makes Flutter So Special?

    One key feature that distinguishes Flutter is its ability to construct apps for many platforms from a single codebase. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel by developing new code for each platform.

    Furthermore, the user interface is identical on Android and iOS. As a result, when you employ Flutter developers, they won’t have to deal with platform-specific stylistic concerns. The Flutter framework ensures that everything looks the same.

    Flutter also has additional advantages, such as editor integration, live to reload, and a faster time to market.

    Many developers believe that Flutter is the future of mobile app development. This article explains why developers feel this way.

    10 Reasons Why Flutter Will Rule The Future Of Mobile Development Market

    1. A Single Codebase For Any Platform Application.

    Flutter is a platform with a single codebase. Any application created using Flutter is compatible with the Android and iOS platforms. This saves entrepreneurs time by allowing them to get their businesses into the market more quickly. You only need to code once, and the program will operate on any platform.

    2. App Debugging Using Hot Reload.

    The Flutter’s defining characteristic is hot reload. The changes you make to the source code will be reflected instantly in the current program without the need to recompile the source code or restart. This reduces the developers’ development time.

    3.Fully Customizable Widgets.

    Flutter includes a lot of widgets for creating user interfaces. The widgets are reusable and customizable, making them helpful for future development. Flutter also includes two widget sets: Material Design and Cupertino.

    Material Design is Google’s design, while Cupertino is Apple’s iOS Human Interface standards. This provides developers with a myriad of creative alternatives for creating visually appealing apps.

    4.Best For Cross-platform Applications Development.

    A cross-platform application is a software program that can be easily implemented across numerous platforms and devices.

    Flutter has been a popular tool for cross-platform application development since its initial release. Once the code has been turned into a fully functional program, it can be used on any platform, including iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac OS.

    5. Testing Is Significantly Simpler.

    The QA team would find it easy to test the application because mobile apps are produced from a single codebase using Flutter technology. Thus, they can start testing on a single platform for functionality, user interface, usability, and logical formation, rather than wasting time testing many platforms.

    6. More Rapid App Development.

    As previously said, the primary benefit of Flutter is the single codebase and hot reload functionality, which allows developers to create a functioning app in a short time.

    Entrepreneurs looking to develop a minimum viable product for their company idea can use Flutter technology to produce a functional prototype to market or present to investors.

    7. Low Development Costs.

    In today’s mobile app development industry, the cost of producing a native mobile app is around $30,000. This is because it would be costly to develop an app for several platforms. In addition, there are additional expenses to consider, such as marketing, team building, server fees, and so on. Flutter lowers development costs since you just pay for one source code. And the source code is also cross-platform compatible.

    8.Best For MVP.

    The minimum viable product (MVP) is a product that requires the minimum of functionality and features to understand the needs of the target audience while also obtaining sufficient validation for future product iteration. The MVP prototype reflects the essence of the company concept and is intended to achieve the primary business goal.

    When you want to get your firm into the market quickly or show your investors a functional prototype, an MVP is ideal. On the other hand, flutter mobile development is perfect for creating a minimum viable product for your company since it speeds up the development process and offers an appealing UI design style.

    9. Firebase Integration.

    Firebase is a platform for developing Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) apps. It helps developers focus on consumers by utilizing analytics, databases, messaging, and crash reporting. Firebase is quick and straightforward to include in the Flutter platform.

    10. A Diverse Set Of Open Source Programmes.

    Flutter includes free open source packages to help you create your project quicker. Loading Animations, Youtube player, Frideos flutter, Flutter eCommerce are some of the notable open-source packages. Since Flutter is an open-source platform, developers are contributing to the library.

    Wrapping Up.

    Experts believe Flutter will be the undisputed ruler of mobile apps soon for various reasons. First, flutter mobile development has significant business benefits. Companies can bring their products to market faster, save money, and target different platforms, and therefore more people, all at once.

    Flutter is simple to use for developers and enables speedier app development. In addition, the increasing community assures that any issues are handled as soon as possible.

  • Ultimate Guide To Business Roadmaps For CEO’s & Project Managers

    Ultimate Guide To Business Roadmaps For CEO’s & Project Managers

    Apple sold its first product in 1976, and it was a basic computer named Apple I. Today they have various products ranging from iPod to Macbook, but their marketing strategy remains the same. When Apple launched the iPod, the ad read “1000 songs in your pocket”. Today, the advertisement for the Apple watch reads “40 million songs in your pocket”. 

    The same marketing strategy for two different products at different times suggests how strong the brand vision is. Apple is known today as the company that endorses innovation. The company has produced devices with varied services and innovated explicitly through the years with the changing market trends while increasing their sales year after year. It is a product of a clear brand vision and has a strategically planned roadmap.

    What is the one document that will help a Project Manager, the CEO, the whole team when they get stuck on a project? It is the Business Roadmap.

    A business roadmap is a document with all the key events and timelines laid out strategically. This document helps all teams and employees be on the same page and plan out events in a well-calculated way. Also, there’s no need for you to spend a cent, since there are many business roadmap software free to use. When implemented wisely, it will bring in high profits and excellent investments to the business. 

    Many companies have benefited from having an efficient roadmap. This article talks about everything needed to build and work with a business roadmap.

    What Are Some Of The Common Problems Businesses Face?

    All companies face some common problems that can be solved only by spending time with it, and visualizing. Following are some of these issues:

    1. Lack Of Business Process Management (BPM): Companies largely need the BPM system to grow and enter new markets. They also help in optimizing and automating business processes. A failed BPM system can result in an ineffective communication within the company and, eventually, a decrease in profitability. 
    1. Lack Of Direction/Vision: Businesses grow exponentially when they go hand-in-hand with market growth. To sustain the business in this market in the long run, even billion-dollar companies need to constantly adapt and evolve with the growing demands with keeping the ultimate brand vision in mind. A lack of vision can also lead to a failure in keeping up with market transformations. In this case, you begin to lose your company/market fit.
    2. Failing To Define & Sell On The Unique Competitive Advantage: If your business has not identified what skills and resources it possesses by which it can sell some products and services at lower prices and to a larger consumer base, you miss out on a lot of sales. 

    Competitive advantage has the potential to make your brand more desirable. 

    Importance Of A Business Roadmap

    Airbnb’s former head of global hospitality built a document and called it “The infamous paper to take over the world.” It was a business roadmap. And today, Airbnb is one the best in their industry. A good business roadmap can help your business achieve goals more efficiently, just like Airbnb did.

    What All Does A Business Product Roadmap Have?

    1. Depending on the company and the product, the roadmap can have a few technical information and features.
    2. The roadmap needs to have a vision about how the product will evolve with the market growth. Markets grow constantly and you will need to have a strategy of how your products will be in demand.
    3. Besides an alignment tool, the roadmap should also consist of all the decided timelines. It will help everyone on the team be driven and focused.
    4. The roadmap should have an answer to all the “why’s” behind decisions around the product. Why do you need to attract a certain audience? Why do you need to allocate resources from this source? 

    How To Build A Business Roadmap?

    No matter what others tell you, building a business roadmap is not a very daunting task. Only the first step is a little challenging, and you can keep updating certain parts of the roadmap as you advance through the journey. 

    1. Write down your ultimate vision that you are trying to achieve with your product. You do not need to write what the product is or what the fine details are. Remember, it is a guide to where you want to go, not how to reach.
    1. Calculate and analyze the company to market fit. Are the chances of this fit increasing or decreasing in the coming times? A perfect Product/Market fit will compound itself over time. In simple words: Product/market fit is when people sell for you.
    1. Your business roadmap should prioritize the goal of the business before the features of individual products. You can build these features with time, but remember the goal is your foundation.
    1. Now, decide on an ETA for this roadmap. You don’t have to mark a specific date, but be clear about the approximate time. The ETA gives a sense of time to other team members, which will keep them driven through the entire course of the project.
    2. The last thing you need to talk about in the roadmap is possible risks and mitigation. Let us say one of your products does not do well for any reason; how can you fix it and achieve your goal in the decided ETA? In this part, you do not have to talk about what you will do but how you will complete the objective. It can be paying more attention to the brand’s social media presence or thinking of new ways to hold conversations with customers. Along with the right framework product prioritization in a business roadmap can help determine how you’re going to get down to it

    How Can A Business Roadmap Help Overcome Business Problems?

    A great business roadmap is also an efficient coordination and alignment tool. Here are some ways in which the roadmap will help.

    1. Product managers and Project managers can both benefit from having a roadmap. The roadmap will help in business process management as a great tool.
    2. The roadmap also works as an amazing tool for communication between various teams in the company. The roadmap will be a single reference point to everyone so that the goals are clear and common. It will ideally also compromise each department’s contribution towards the goal.
    3. Having a roadmap also negates the possibility of uncertainty in the timelines of individual products and projects. Clarity arising from this will lead to increased productivity and innovation.
    4. A well-planned roadmap can also help you find investors in your business. Because a good roadmap has all the key milestones and dates lined up, you can plan when to find the investor in your journey.
    5. Developing and updating the plan over time. Since there is such deeper coordination and communication between teams with the help of a roadmap, it will also help other departments know about the company’s accomplishments and advancements. It will make sure that everyone is on the same page.

    Conclusion

    The benefits of having a great roadmap are varied. It will also reflect directly on the overall sales of the company and the leads that your focused and driven employees will bring with them. As Benjamin Franklin said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Wishing great success with building the best roadmap and for your venture!

  • 6 Simple Steps Required to Set Up a Business in Singapore

    6 Simple Steps Required to Set Up a Business in Singapore

    There’s nothing quite like growing a business from the ground up. It takes time, patience, perseverance, and a little bit of luck. Even after all the foundation is laid, the work isn’t done. Keeping a business running takes just as much, if not more, gumption. So kudos to you for getting the ball rolling and trying to figure out how to manage your soon-to-be company. The following will explore the initial steps required to get your business up and running. In particular, we’re going to focus on starting up a business in Singapore.

    Why Singapore?

    There are dozens of countries in the world with legal and tax systems designed to support business owners and encourage flourishing. Singapore had consistently been at the top of this list for the last several years. The country offers a stellar, central location in the southern hemisphere that is positively connected to many other hotspots with high-quality infrastructure. The position is particularly stellar for businesses hoping to tap into the Asian and Middle Eastern markets.

    More than this, according to www.pilotoasia.com/, Singapore is well known by entrepreneurs for how easy it is to set up and conduct business within. Intellectual property rights are strictly protected in the country, and there are very few legal requirements to set up your business there. As well, the tax schemes and existing trade deals keep the majority of your profits in your pocket. A Singaporean location can help reduce the taxes you owe and can limit the number of times you’re paying double tariffs (or sometimes, even single tariffs as Singapore has a fair few free trade deals).

    Given all these business-encouraging benefits, many are predicting that Singapore will continue to be one of the world’s leading business hubs. Even during the pandemic, businesses were making the switch to a Singapore home base.

    Step One: Business Plan

    Of course, no matter where you’re starting your business, you’ll need to have some sort of plan or strategy in place. Many entrepreneurs cite the business plan as one of the most important aspects of a business’s success. Your plan should include well-outlined long-term objectives detailing the products and services you’d like to present to the public, as well as a clear picture of who your audience or customer base is. You’ll also want to indicate what markets you’re planning on serving and what intermediary steps need to be taken to meet these objectives. Take some time to identify the best time to open up your business, your pricing model, and how you’re going to readjust any parts of your plan that need to be reconciled with new information or unanticipated results. Part of your plan will include where you’re going to base your company. Be sure to read up thoroughly on the laws and regulations for the type of work you plan on doing in the area that you want to work in.

    Step Two: A Shareholder And A Dollar

    The next step is to figure out what you need to get your business legally existing. Depending on your industry, you might want to include capital, products, employees able to offer your service, and licenses. When it comes to registering your business in Singapore, there are a few additional criteria you need to meet. First and foremost, you need at least one shareholder and at least one dollar in capital.

    The single shareholder can be yourself. If you’re starting the business with partners, they can also be included (multiple shareholders are, of course, allowed). If this is the case, be sure to agree on the percentage of the company each shareholder owns early on. This will keep things from bottlenecking and slowing later on. Negotiations can take a long time if they’re needed, so best get those out of the way now.

    Step Three: Company Secretary

    To legally start a business in Singapore, you’re also going to need a company secretary. This position needs to be filled within six months of incorporating and must be fulfilled by a local resident in Singapore. You can go about hiring your own secretary or use a service designed to help foreigners start up Singaporean businesses that pairs you with a secretary. You can expect this to cost around $300 per year. This being said, if you have additional skill sets required of your administrative team, it might end up costing you more.

    Step Four: Find A Local Resident Director

    You are welcome to have multiple directors for your company. Legally, they must be people (we shouldn’t have to say that, but you’d be surprised what people have tried) who are at least 18 years old. One of these directors (or the only one if you want to keep things simple) must be a local Singaporean resident. This means someone who is a citizen of Singapore, a permanent resident of Singapore, or a holder of an entrepreneur pass or employment pass. Again, you can go about hiring your own director or use a service designed to pair businesses up with a Singaporean director. You can expect this to cost somewhere around $1500 per year, but as with any position, the cost can increase if you require highly specialized skills or unusual experience.

    Step Five: Secure A Singaporean Address

    Depending on the scale of your business, this might be as simple as a mailbox or as complex as a multi-story building. Read through your strategy as you seek out the right address to host your business. Like with the above points, there are services available that can help find you a Singaporean address to help facilitate business growth. Of course, you’re welcome to take your time and shop around until you find the right site for your company’s needs.

    Step Six: Apply For Business Registration

    Once you’ve sorted out the above things, you’re ready to apply for incorporation. This can be an incredibly quick process in Singapore, sometimes taking only a day. Of course, certain industries need approval from government agencies, in which case the process could take longer.

    The above tips should have given you an outline that can take you from having a business idea to having a Singaporean legal corporate entity from which you can operate your business. Be sure to consistently reevaluate your business strategy to ensure that you’re staying flexible and adjusting to new information and trends.

  • The Different Financial Institutions That Serve as Alternative to Banks

    The Different Financial Institutions That Serve as Alternative to Banks

    So What Are the Different Financial Institutions That Serve as Alternative to Banks

    Like it or not, money is an important and essential part of our lives and always will be. We need it to eat, live, travel and so many more things. Sometimes in the past, it has been deemed past to be obsessed with money, but the fact of the matter is we all need to be a little obsessed with money throughout our lives. 

    Money management is something which definitely should be taught more at school when we are growing up and more open to learning, but it is something we have to find out for ourselves as we delve into the world. Correct money management and understanding the different financial institutions available to us is key. It helps us decide who to trust with our hard-earned money and allows us to build for the future from an early age. Hopefully, the financial institutions you use will educate you along the way best in terms of the best ways to manage your cash and be responsible.

    Back in the day there were a handful of banks that people used to securely hold their money, but as things have developed around the world and technology has advanced, the amount of options available to us with regards to storing or generating money has increased hugely.

    It’s important we all understand the difference between what a bank is and the other financial institutions are, so we can make the right decisions based on our own preferences, requirements, and personal situations.

    Credit Cards

    This won’t be a new term to you but it is definitely worth mentioning as it’s one of the most common alternatives to banks that people use to leverage money. You can apply with an array of different companies and actually, a lot of the main banks offer their own credit cards. As they are a short-term lending option, credit cards come with higher interest rates than most banks or traditional ways of holding or borrowing money.

    There is a reason that credit cards are so popular these days and uses among the masses. They provide a backup for millions of people who might be on smaller salaries or can’t get through the month on what they earn, but can also act as a way to build up rewards and gifts for others.

    If you are new to credit cards or unfamiliar with how they work, the wide range of benefits include:

    • Instant access to funds from a lender and your own credit card which can be used for online purchases and in shops or other areas you might need to spend money like restaurants or bars
    • Suitable repayment plans based on your own earnings and a support team there to help you if you find yourself in a position that you can’t pay it back
    • Loyalty schemes and the opportunity to build up rewards if you use your credit card on a consistent basis. Depending on the supplier you use, building up points by using your credit card can mean being able to claim back financial points at different outlets like food, retail, and travel which is super appealing to users who spend on their credit card regularly

    Credit cards are here to stay but need to be used carefully and if you think you have an issue with the amount of debt being racked up on your account then speak to your credit card supplier and try to work out a more ideal repayment plan.

    Credit Unions

    As opposed to banks and other large financial institutions, credit unions are typically owned by their members and don’t exist to serve the shareholders for profit. Its members’ purpose is to be helping credit unions as this gives the whole organization, its members, and also their partners much wider flexibility in terms of options and the way they operate with borrowing and lending money. 

    Operating in this differing way means they can:

    • Offer better savings rates
    • Provide lower loan rates
    • Give their members overall lower fees on transactions 

    If you want to buy into a smaller, potentially fairer system then researching and looking into a credit union might be a good move for you personally.

    Personal Loan Options

    Some smaller, less-well-known institutions exist to provide people with personal, short-term loans to help in their personal lives. These often come with much higher interest rates than your typical bank or credit card supplier but this means they are able to offer much higher loans than other institutions. This is attractive for people who might need to borrow large amounts for shorter periods of time. 

    Business Loan Options

    Most businesses need money to start, whether that be to employ salespeople, invest in products, or maybe infrastructure. The good thing about securing a business loan is that often it doesn’t go against your personal name, but against the company. This isn’t always the case but can definitely help when you are just starting out, giving you some confidence as a new business owner that if everything goes under then you are not personally liable. 

    Securing a business loan when starting a new company could:

    • Help you invest in your first order of stock, allowing you to get your business off the ground and start generating revenue
    • Allow you to secure a trademark or patent which gives your business some initial value in the market and an edge against your competitor
    • Secure you and your new business a big first deal that gives it the momentum it needs and referrals from happy clients
    • Provide you with the kickstart you need to follow your dreams and chase the vision in your head that you know you are able to execute

    There are many different financial institutions that serve as alternatives to banks and each one plays a different role in supporting the various groups of people or professionals within our society. Real money management and understanding come from knowing what the options are out there before making any rash decisions. Do your research, understand what’s what and see what you think.