The hilarious thing I have heard about life is don’t plan it all. Instead, let life surprise you a little. Amazement is the spice of life, without a doubt. But it ceases to become interesting when one of the little surprises you have to deal with is bankruptcy.

Being bankrupt is equivalent to opening a can of worms in your life. There is never a moment of peace when you are swimming in debts. And the mother tragedy is that creditors are not going easy on you. So your only choice is to file a claim for bankruptcy and rebuild your life from scratch.

What Is Bankruptcy?

Bankruptcy is a process through a legal framework giving relief to individuals or businesses unable to service their debts. The process undertaken in a court of law forfeits debts that an entity cannot pay to creditors. However, repayment is partly made from the assets the bankrupt person has. They waive the rest, marking the beginning of a new chapter.

Why Do People File For Bankruptcy?

There are five main reasons why people file for bankruptcy, the most common being unemployment. Secondly, overspending and unprecedented occurrences such as sickness are common, as well as divorce and addiction. Here are more details.

1.   Unemployment

So, less income resulting from unemployment has led to many people filing for bankruptcy. Several surveys conducted indicate that at least 40 percent of filers are out of jobs. As a result, they can no longer pay their bills or service their debts with little or no income at all.

2.   Overspending

It is estimated that 25 percent of filers have a history of squandering everything and seeking relief after that. Before seeking protection, credit cards undergo thorough financial abuse as a result of bad spending habits. As soon as life gets more complicated, they turn to bankruptcy in a bid to pay off their debts.

3.   Sickness

When health insurance covers are drained, and you have to dig deep in your pocket, disaster sets in. I have seen people who have sold everything to foot medical bills, plunging them into a crisis financially. However, only 19 percent of such cases are filed.

4.   Divorce

Surprisingly, divorce accounts for 9% of bankruptcy filers, with the theory behind it being increased financial struggle on individuals. When child support and housing are involved, the financial muscle quickly dwindles because of additional responsibilities with no increased income. Before you know it, you are also servicing debts incurred while in marriage, such as mortgage payment, car loan, or credit card. Thus, filing for relief remains the only viable option to start afresh.

5.   Addiction

On extreme levels, gambling and drug abuse drive you to an abyss of a financial crisis. Addicts have a history of draining their savings and selling property to satisfy their gambling or drug habits. But, at the end of it all, the script ends no differently than being hard up.

Can You Make Money Through Bankruptcy?

Many lenders are oblivious of a goldmine that is the thriving claims trading market. Creditors have a legally approved window where they can engage in selling a bankruptcy claim. By law, you can transact the sale of a claim once it is filed with the court for bankruptcy. Therefore, you look out for a claim with less risk to make your purchase or sale.

How To File A Claim For Bankruptcy

After assessing your situation, you can make the bold move and file for bankruptcy voluntarily. Nevertheless, if you owe a creditor and you make no payment, they can go to court and order you to be declared bankrupt.

The first step you take to be allowed to file a claim is undergoing credit counseling to which certification of attendance is issued. An assessment is made on your financial discipline, debt management, and budgeting during the counseling session. An alternative to a bankruptcy claim is also explored before a certificate is issued in filing the claim.

An actual petition for bankruptcy requires one to submit financial statements highlighting debts, assets, and current income and file under Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Fill a means test form showing how much income is streaming in. It determines if the petition goes through or not.

Once it goes through, Chapter 7 bankruptcy invokes powers that sell your assets and pay up creditors from the amount raised. Four months after the petition, they send a notice of discharge, and it is time to start a new life. However, a record of your creditworthiness remains active for ten years. Also, sell all your property off in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

On the other hand, you can file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy if you do not want some of your property sold off. Again, a good bankruptcy lawyer comes in handy. You fill in the necessary forms and file the petition to arrange a meeting between you and lenders. Here, they ask more about your financial status and if there are plans to pay them.

The case then goes to a judge for determination while taking a debtor education course to be discharged. This course covers financial management and budgeting, to which a certificate is issued and presented in court as proof of cooperation.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy allows you to repay your debts in three to five years if there is a steady flow of income. However, by the lapse of five years and you have not cleared your debts, sell your assets to repay the remaining debts.

How Bad Is Filing For Bankruptcy?

A bankruptcy claim dents your creditworthiness in the eyes of financial institutions. They will see you as untrustworthy, and the chances are that they will not credit you. For firms who credit you, chances are the interest rates can be higher and on strict terms.

It is hard to accept that you are in a precarious position financially and cannot pay your debts. But the existence of bankruptcy laws offers reprieve at this time when the debt burden weighs you down.

When it comes to starting your own business, coming up with a lucrative idea and pinpointing your target market is only half the battle. Next, you will need to determine how you will fund your endeavor to actually get started.

However, this is where many promising entrepreneurs often fall short, because unless you know someone you can directly ask for the money, it can be a challenge knowing where else to look for help.

Fortunately, there are various start-up grants available to inspiring business owners, including both private company and government grants, but in the meantime, here are some things to consider before completing your grant application that can help increase your chances of getting approved.

5 Ways to Get Approved for Startup Grants

Get a Professional Mentor

Having professional insight enables you to provide impressive details on your application that help make it more credible over other applications, so you stand out.

Therefore, seek as much advice as you can from professionals in your field before applying for a grant to help increase your chances of approval.

Present a Business Plan That Demonstrates You Are More Worthy of the Grant

To increase your chance of approval, you will also need to develop a business plan that demonstrates how your goals and values match those of the grants, which helps show you are more worthy of the contribution than other startups.

Pre-Sale Your Product

Another effective way to help secure a start-up grant is to pre-sale your product to help create a demand for it. It can then help serve as proof to the grant officer that a need exists for your offerings, which will make them more likely to want to support it.

Seek Other Investors

Seeking a partner or perhaps even utilizing bootstrapping, crowdfunding, or other fundraising methods to help raise some of the proceeds can also help increase your chances of being rewarded a start-up grant.

In fact, According to the experts at Lantern Credit, “grants have high competition among businesses,” so applying for a smaller grant over other startups also helps make it more likely they will approve you.

It also helps demonstrate to the grant officer that others also believe in your business and are willing to put up their funds behind you, which also helps you appear more worthy.

Check in With the Loan Officer Periodically

Once you have applied for the grant, it is also a good idea to check in with the loan officer periodically to help clear up any follow-up questions they may have while processing the application.

It also enables you to keep tabs on your application and how close you are to getting approved.

In the end, whether you utilize Lantern’s options of grants to start a small business or other grant options, begin by getting to know the time limitations and information restrictions set by the loan officer and then be sure to stay within those guidelines when submitting your application to help make the approval process easier.

Today’s retail landscape is virtually unrecognizable to that of even twenty years ago. As shoppers around the world continue their seemingly insatiable and unstoppable love affair with e-commerce stores and web/app-based retailers, so the trend of shopping online grows exponentially – to the point many industry experts predict we could soon see the demise of the traditional high street and brick and mortar shops.

However, while e-commerce systems and software have brought previously unimaginable benefits to firms operating online, they still suffer one major drawback – namely, a lack of consumer/retailer interaction to help guide consumers through the shopping process and onto eventual purchase.

The growing problem of Shopping Cart Abandonment

The term Shopping Cart Abandonment (SCA) refers to a problem that is the scourge of all online retailers. In a typical SCA scenario, a prospective client will be browsing products and adding them to their virtual cart only to become distracted by something else and discarding their goods. In the real world, it would be the equivalent of dropping your basket in the supermarket because you had seen something more interesting outside.

SCA is a real and growing problem for online retailers – so much so, recent research found as much as 81% of potential transactions are abandoned before reaching the checkout stage in web transactions. Other sobering statistics include:

• Mobile sales completions rank lowest at around 8.5% while on the laptop and desktop the stats are not much better at approximately 13% – all caused by SCA
• Typical SCA rates vary from day to day with the figures as high as 90% in some sectors over the weekends
• Travel sites are most at risk of SCA with as much as 85% of all potential purchases failing to reach payment stage

Clearly, SCA is a major issue and one that your firm needs to address if you operate an e-commerce operation.

Ways to identify, isolate and reduce potential causes of SCA

The first step in addressing potential SCA issues is to perform a full audit on your current website and its transaction systems. You must try to see your brand and its products/services through the eyes of a potential customer. Unfortunately, it is all too common for e-commerce retailers to simply assume clients understand their products to the same depth they do, instead you should have someone with zero previous experience evaluate your site.

The shopping journey needs to be as simple and clear as possible for your site visitors so you should address potential causes of concern like confusing navigation structures, improper classification or naming of products, insufficient product information (including images), or confusing (and, in most cases, unnecessary) registration forms, and so on. Anything that can realistically be viewed as a barrier between your customer and them reaching the payment phase should be removed or, at the very least, streamlined.

Partnering with a professional web design and development firm is by far the best way to identify potential problems with your site and improving the purchasing process on your site.

Hand-hold customers and guide them where needed

It is estimated around that most consumer journeys start with an online search, however, just like in the real world, customers will typically do considerable research before finally committing to a sale. It is worth remembering, that the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) a potential client found your site on is just a click away and filled with 1000’s of links to other firms all competing for the same sale – so you must find ways to engage with your users quickly.

The rather impersonal nature of the internet makes interaction with clients considerably trickier than in the real world. However, one tactic that has been growing in popularity in recent years for online retailers has been to add a live chat system to their site. With live chat, you can effectively guide the user to products they possibly did not even realize were of interest when they first visited your site – plus guide them through every step of the path to a final sale. 

Live chat is the online equivalent of a real-world salesperson approaching a customer, advising them and helping them choose the product that is right for them then guiding them to the checkout to complete their purchase. The systems also offer many other considerable benefits as explained in this article.

Reduce form-filling whenever and wherever possible

As any online shopper will attest, there is nothing more off-putting than filling a basket with items only to then be faced with a massive registration or purchasing form. If you find your online sales are below what you might expect, you should check your page stats to see where shoppers are abandoning their carts. It is very common to find customers leave at precisely the point they see the form they are expected to fill in to complete their purchase.

Combatting SCA in these final stages is very easy by simply reducing the information you request from shoppers to the absolute minimum or adding a ‘buy as guest’ button if you still prefer to allow users to register.

Indicate the percentage complete in checkout pages

Giving your users a visual representation of where they are in the checkout process helps them to realize how far through they are in your purchasing system. In fact, it may also give you clues that you are asking too much of customers and allow you to identify parts you should remove as noted above.

Remove barriers between store and checkout

You should make it as easy as possible for your online shoppers to move between the store and final checkout pages. Just like in the real world, consumers do not typically make an immediate decision on a purchase and will often continue browsing even with items in their basket. You should make it as easy as possible to navigate to your purchasing system by always including a basket icon or similar on pages.

Remember the importance of product images on checkout pages

In real-world shopping, we are always aware of what we are about to purchase – just a cursory look down to our basket or trolley shows us what we are going to buy. Online, things can be very different so it is worth giving customers a visual reminder of the products they have added at the checkout phase rather than just hitting them with the final bill. Including small thumbnails of products next to your checkout forms is a great way to keep users engaged in the buying process.

Dropshipping can be a very lucrative business model. But too many first-time dropshippers make mistakes that cost them dearly. If you want your dropshipping business to be successful, ensure you do not make any of the following common mistakes in your first year.

A Lack of Investment

Many people are drawn to dropshipping because they think it does not involve any investment. While you can technically begin a dropshipping business for little to no money, if you want it to be successful, it is vital you put cash into your business. While your supplier delivers any goods directly to your customers, and takes a percentage of the sale cost, enabling you to not have to deal with logistics, you still need to put money into marketing to grow your brand identity and attract customers. You should aim to put around $300 to $400 into advertising. Many newbie dropshippers begin their businesses before they have saved enough. Furthermore, many first-time dropshippers are not willing to invest money into tools that can help with long-term growth. While the best dropshipping automation tools come with costs, they can substantially help to raise your business’s profile, handle various logistics, and make your dropshipping business become a success. Dropshipping is like any other business. The more time and money you invest in it, the more you will see results.

Providing the Wrong Products

Choosing the right product line is at the heart of a successful dropshipping business. But many new dropshippers do not select the right products to sell and end up folding in the first year. There are two primary ways you can go with product lines. You can either sell items that are in high demand or you can cater to a niche audience. While the former can potentially bring more customers, you will face a lot of competition. On the other hand, the latter allows you to target a more specific customer base.

Marketing on the Wrong Platforms

You need to spend time and money on marketing to be successful, but you also need to ensure you target the right audience. So, do not make the common mistake that many new dropshippers make by placing ads on the wrong platforms. Some of the most prominent channels for marketing your products are Facebook Ads and Google Adwords. But if you place those ads on sites like Facebook when you are selling products that are more aimed toward a millennial audience that hangs out on platforms like Instagram, you need to rethink your strategy. The more research you do into your target audience’s demographics, the more accurately you will be able to reach the right potential customers. It takes time to find the right platforms and ad services. Just make sure you pay attention. If your goods are not selling through one channel, it is time to try another.

No Persistence

Dropshipping is not as easy and straightforward as many think it is, which is why so many new dropshippers fail in their first year. Regardless of the precise strategies you implement to raise the profile of your brand and generate new and repeat customers, it is vital you remain patient and persistent. No dropshipping business can make you rich overnight. Like any business, you will make mistakes and learn from your mistakes as you go along, and you will have to spend a lot of time growing your brand. That is perfectly natural. The biggest mistake is giving up early on when you are not seeing results. Instead of throwing in the towel, re-scrutinize your strategies and make changes, such as the product lines you sell, their price points, and your marketing techniques. With hard work, there is no reason why you cannot make your dropshipping business a success.

If you’re about to launch a startup, you’re sure to be excited by the idea. You’ll have lots of different ideas, and you’ll be keen to get going as soon as you can. But it’s important to know that an estimated 97 percent of startups will fail. This shouldn’t put you off from launching your business, but it’s crucial that you are prepared and understand what it is you’re letting yourself in for if you want to be in the three percent of startups that make it. Here are some of the biggest reasons why startups fail so you can avoid being in this situation and grow your business to success. 

Launching Too Soon

You might have the most amazing idea, and that idea could be something that will revolutionize the world. So of course, you’re going to want to let people know about it and start selling right away. 

This is not a good strategy. As much as you might be sure you have a market and that your goods are high quality, that doesn’t mean you’re ready to launch, and if you go too soon – before you’re really ready – you will lose that initial rush of interest. Once this is gone, no matter how many changes you make and what you do to improve, your potential customer will no longer be interested. 

It’s far better to take some extra time putting every detail in place, from revenue cycle management software for healthcare organizations to thoroughly testing your products to having good branding to having a team that has enough training and so on, than it is to rush to launch and not be able to handle the work that comes in. 

No Demand 

For a business to be successful, there has to be a high enough level of demand for whatever it’s selling. As an entrepreneur, you’ll love your idea, and you may well believe that everyone else will love it too, but launching a business on that belief alone isn’t enough, and you might discover that you were wrong – not enough people want to buy what you’re selling. 

The best way to prevent this is to conduct market research. Find out just who will want your product (this will help when it comes to marketing also) and what proportion of the population they make up. Is that going to bring you enough business? You have to be honest with the results, and if there isn’t enough demand, you’ll need to start thinking again. It’s annoying, but it’s far better than launching and then having to close, losing money in the process. 

High Levels Of Competition 

Some competition in business is good. It’s always helpful to have a few competitors to learn from and work with. However, too much competition could be just that; too much. You need your business to stand out from the crowd, and unless you have something unique to sell, that’s going to be hard, even impossible, if there is a lot of competition already. 

Again, market research will give you an idea of just how much competition there is for your products and services. If there is a lot, perhaps you can think of adding a twist to your idea to make it different; this will help immensely.

It’s no secret that commerce has been increasingly shifting to the online marketplace. If you’re a business owner and you operate a website where you regularly conduct e-commerce, it’s important to understand that even your company’s page is subject to compliance standards outlined in the American Disabilities Act (ADA).

Digital accessibility is easy to overlook since most of us presume ADA regulatory standards only apply to your business’s physical environment. However, with 20% of the population attesting to some form of disability, ADA digital compliance is a key consideration to make note of as you grow your online presence.

The ADA already requires compliance for all websites that provide government services. This is because official government services must necessarily provide access to all individuals, irrespective of ones’ ability. The ADA’s digital accessibility requirements in sections 504 and 508 on the Department of Human Services website.

An act introduced more than 30 years ago, the ADA was designed to specifically prohibit various forms of discrimination, particularly in employment and government settings. The ADA’s guidelines primarily apply to public spaces such as parking lots, elevators, along with a building’s entrances and interiors.

In January 2017 the ADA introduced new regulations for web accessibility, later effectuated in 2018. These new rules pose many of the same obstacles to businesses as the act did when it was first introduced over thirty years ago. While it might seem impossible to remain 100% compliant, utilizing a free online ADA compliance checker is a good place to start with your assessment.

Your company page is primarily a visual medium, so you should pay close attention to its presentation while keeping in mind those who are visually impaired. Try to avoid the use of small fonts that are light in color. Similarly, ensure that you are using alt tags that describe the various elements of your website so they can be read aloud by accessibility tools and utilize captions on your videos for those with hearing limitations.

Perhaps the best way to bring your site to compliance if finding an understanding of how your disabled customers navigate the Web. Foremost, those with visual impairments use screen readers to read the text audibly. Brail keyboards are also commonly used, and those with physical impairments often utilize a hands-free mouse which is controlled by speaking commands. A good understanding of these tools is a reliable way to avert a potential conflict with those who use them.

Experts at AudioEye are keen to point out that “a website that is not accessible increases the legal exposure to a potential accessibility lawsuit.” Fundamentally, it’s good practice to ensure your website is accessible to everyone. This ultimately enhances your potential customer base. With that said, keeping on top of ADA compliance within your digital marketplace protects against the prospects of defending a costly accessibility claim.

Indeed, strict ADA compliance won’t be easy at first. It’s important to start adhering to the ADA’s standards early. Should you find this task beyond your scope, don’t hesitate to engage an automated ADA compliance checker tool such as the one offered by AudioEye.