Finance Tech

If you are a small business owner, you probably would have started with a great business idea that you thought had heaps of potential to do well in the market. You decided to run with it and launched your own business. It took you some time to arrange the funds needed, and once it was done, you probably thought it was going to be smooth sailing from thereon. What you didn’t anticipate was how challenging it could be to manage the finances of a small business once it was off the ground and running.

According to research, only half of small businesses survive past their initial five years, the reason being the early-year-challenges. Mismanagement of business finances, whether it is due to failure to plan and set budgets, lack of proper accounting systems and procedures or unrealistic expectations related to revenues and costs, are too common in small businesses and leading causes of downfall.

However, if you are ready to study the financial mistakes made by many new entrepreneurs and learn the tricks of financial management for a small business, you can ensure your business takes good care of its money and survives in an already challenging and unpredictable economy. Here are some of the top tips to help you have a safe sailing.

Start with Sufficient Capital – When estimating the funds needed to launch a business, many entrepreneurs only take into consideration the initial cost of setting up, i.e. the cost of acquiring office space, machinery, and furniture. But what you also need is business expenses for the first six months, as you need to give the business some time to stand on its feet. Not a lot of entrepreneurs are lucky enough to start making profits during early days of their business, therefore you should always have a practical plan in place.

Cut Costs Where Possible – For a small business, even small amounts of overspending can have a significant adverse impact on its finances. Therefore, do not be shy to start small and keep spending to a minimum especially in the early years. Remember, the money you save now will help ensure your survival when the odds are not in your favor.

Cost-cutting is possible in several areas:

• Save office rent by starting your business from home or small office space. You can always move to bigger premises once your business can afford it.
• Limit your marketing budget by focusing solely on your target market. Avoid any fancy business cards or expensive marketing, which will cost more than the benefits it can bring for the business. Take advantage of social media marketing – it costs little (or even nothing depending on how you choose to market yourself) and has excellent customer outreach.
• Start with a small workforce – hire the people you need but outsource services to a third party as and when required, such as legal and tax advisory, IT support, etc.
• Lease equipment instead of purchasing it – you can get the machinery you need without having to pay the high initial cost.

Analyze Your ROI – When you look everywhere for small business tips, the most common advice you will find would be to keep the costs down. It is imperative to consider the Return on Investment when deciding which expenditure is worth incurring and which isn’t. A small business with limited funds has to ensure that the money available to it is getting used in areas where you can generate maximum return. If some projects are not paying off, it may be best to shut them down and redirect resources to initiatives that can create better returns for the business.

Look for Growth Opportunities – As a small business owner, the thought of growing the business can sometimes feel like an intimidating idea. The areas like funds sources, smooth business processes, dealing with the increased cost of operations are likely to put you in a fix at some point in time.

Growth is vital for the long-term success of the business. Customers appreciate variety in products and winning customer services and after-sales services. Employees benefit from career advancement opportunities, and the company itself benefits from increased profits and better brand image. Growth helps move the business forward in the right direction if adequately managed.

Seek Finance before You Get into Trouble – Small businesses often wake up from the slumber only after they find themselves in a spot of bother. Unfortunately, this is when you are most likely to have your loan application rejected. When a lender is presented with poor financial statements of a small business with no prior track record, all they see is a high possibility of losing their money if they choose to lend to your business. Some form of external finance should always be available to the business, such as a line of credit for emergencies or a loan option in case a growth opportunity comes by.

Conclusion

To sum up, if you want your small business to survive, the finance function should be considered an integral part of the company’s strategy. Only when you learn to understand your numbers will you be able to ensure your business survives and grows at the right speed.

Trading and investing in multiple shares have always been an outstanding way of generating instant profits. Yes, there are risks involved, but if you are ready to take those risks there are multiple rewards that come with it. In other words, the trade market is based on a simple principle of ‘risk and reward’, the higher the risk, the larger are the chances for a reward.

Trading Internationally

If we give a holistic view on the kinds of trades there are out there, among the leading ones is forex.

Forex

There are forex trading companies around the globe that help individuals trade in foreign currencies. Obviously, trading in something like this requires a lot of practice, knowledge and ample understanding of the global market. This kind of trade heavily relies on the foreign currencies and the risk to reward ratio in such trades in generally exceptionally high. There are no certain law prevention in any major countries that don’t allow an individual to trade in forex, so that is good news.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin or cryptocurrency has been highly popularized in recent years. And since it’s inception, trading in bitcoin has seen a tremendous hike in past few years. Since it is completely digitized there is a lot of computing knowledge that goes into trading in bitcoins. Simple gains can take anywhere between a few months to a couple of years. There are a lot of individuals who do bitcoin mining and trading individually which can be really consuming.

But, for people who have a fair amount of knowledge of bitcoins and are willing to invest, there are several companies in various countries that can help them out. It is worth mentioning that this kind of trade is not accepted by a lot of countries.

Which is better?

Obviously, it has to come down to forex vs bitcoin. Both have fair share of rewards and risks attached to them. Both are not restricted to a country or region but depend on changes in the global market. While there are only a limited amount of bitcoins surfing through the systems, forex trades also have probabilities of crash depending upon the type of trade. There is no one answer as to which one of the two will bring more rewards to the table but generally, a seasonal trader would mostly go with forex trading. Why? Because it is more open to trade and growing or falling, forex trading has been around for years.

Now, if you are someone who is looking to invest, it is beneficial to choose the right kind of investment company. A company that assists you with your investments rather than falsifying and leading you into a path of loss. Hence, to protect your money and time, be very careful while choosing your trading company. Go though the programs of these companies and check how genuine they are. Once you have done that, go invest. But keep in mind the risk to reward probability. Higher the risk better are the rewards.

You may have heard of a trading journal. This is where day traders track their trading activity. It is one of the most important things you can do as a trader. Trading is not just a bit of fun – it’s a job, and because of that, you need to track your performance so that you can make changes if necessary. Even if you’re tired or stressed after a long day of trading, it’s important not to become careless or complacent, and to spend the time filling your trading journal.

How to Track Your Trades

Tracking your trades may seem like a daunting process. You may even feel like it will take your time and attention away from trading and could lead to you missing the right trades. The good news is that a trading journal doesn’t need to be time-consuming, especially these days. Certainly, you can write in a journal in the old-fashioned way with notes and comments and if that works for you, it’s perfect. But, there are other effective ways to store information that are quicker.

Set Up a Spreadsheet

This may take a little time to set up, but once it’s organized, it’s just a matter of plugging in the information. Have a different column for each bit of information – date, time, price, profit or loss etc – and input the information as it becomes available. Make sure to include notes on the side, even down to noting if you were feeling ill that day! At the end of the day, you’ll be able to go through every trade you made to see how you performed over that day, week or month. With a lot of trades, this sort of manual tracking may become difficult, but some trading platforms may have this information stored for you so that you can simply download the data onto your own spreadsheet. You can then add comments and notes to describe the market conditions at the times of the trades.

Create Charts

This might sound complicated, but it’s actually probably the quickest and simplest way for you to track your trades. Most traders have charts which they mark throughout the day, which include lines and indicator levels, and are used to help them determine trends and find target points. You can use these exact charts for your tracking. Even better, these charts show the market conditions being traded in a more objective way than comments in a journal could. You can just take a screenshot of these charts and type up a few comments on the side.

Conclusion

Keeping track of your trades can be a simple and quick exercise, but one that is very important if you want to become a successful trader. Whatever method you use to track your trades, you need to go back at the end of the week, and the month to analyze your trades. This will help you see patterns, determine your strengths and weaknesses, and spot common problems. It is only by using this information that you will be able to improve your trading strategies and remove your obstacles to success.

An individual who is a foreign national or non-resident alien and is not eligible for a Social Security Number, but is required to have a United States taxpayer identification number (but who do not have), and is not eligible to obtain a Social Security Number (SSN) has to apply for an ITIN or an Individual Tax Identification Number. An ITIN is a tax processing number that is issued by the Inland Revenue Service. An ITIN is nine digits and the first digit will always be the number “9”, and is in the format xxx-xx-xxxx.

An Individual Tax Identification Number is issued regardless of immigration status because both resident and non-resident aliens may have a United States filing or reporting requirement under the Internal Revenue Service Code. You will need to apply for an ITIN if you are one of the following:

• You are not eligible to obtain a Social Security number.
• You are a non-resident alien who is required to file a United States tax return with the Inland Revenue Service.
• You are a United States resident alien who is filing a United States tax return with the Inland Revenue Service.
• You are a dependent or a spouse of a United States citizen or resident alien.
• You are a dependent or a spouse of a non-resident alien visa holder.

Individuals who applied and obtained an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are eligible to apply for an SSN by submitting Form SS-5. This is only applicable for those who have been issued a Visa from the United States Department of State that enabled them to obtain a Social Security Number.

To apply for an ITIN, an individual with a foreign status should complete the W7 Form, Application for Inland Revenue Service individual Taxpayer Identification Number. The completed W-7 Form must be accompanied by the following documentation:

• An original United States Federal income tax return.
• Your passport.

Form W-7 is to be filed with the federal income tax return and is attached to the front of the income tax return. You can file Form W-7 either by mail to the branch of the IRS or apply in person at a designated IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center (TAC). The ITIN application usually takes within 7 weeks for the Inland Revenue Service to process and to send out the assigned ITIN to the applicant.