3 Healthcare Marketing Secrets You Never Knew

Marketing a healthcare business is tough! the Healthcare Industry is a unique field because while you deal with the very sensitive nature of your patients’ treatment, which often frighten you, make you vulnerable or confuse you, you also work in a very scientific and avant-garde industry where treatments, tools and systems in constant evolution. Today, healthcare providers are rarely caught up in the new health marketing strategy and sales processes or respond to technological advances.The healthcare marketing landscape has shifted dramatically the past decade with the increase of technology tools, social media, and digital devices. A recent article for Socialnomics quotes Tricia Wilkerson, Senior Marketing Specialist at Conifer Health Solutions, on the state of B2B Marketing in the Healthcare industry: “Healthcare is notoriously behind other industries when responding to technological advances and audience expectations, so it remains important that marketers push the industry with smart trend adoption.”Here are some important stats to consider as you begin planning out your marketing strategy:• As of 2016, there were more than 326 million people in the U.S. Each one of them with their own personality and each one of them a potential patient.• 52% of smartphone users gather health-related data from a smartphone.• 91% of adults have their smartphone within arm’s reach 24/7.• According to recent Facebook data, the number one most asked for recommendation is a doctor or a healthcare provider.• There are 8.2 billion health-related video views on YouTube.As in many B2B industries, long sales cycles can mean change comes slowly to marketing strategy. So, to make it a little easier for you, here are some essential truths we’ve discovered about healthcare marketing. Here are the three healthcare marketing secrets and how they can rejuvenate your business:#1 Research and Define Your Ideal CustomersWhen you try to reach a particular audience, your success depends on how deeply you can guide them. Focusing on a certain segment of the market to generate and attract potential customers will not only help you polish your marketing, but also ensure that the customer association you get from your sales and marketing operations will have a better success rate.How to Reach Your Target Audience in the Healthcare Industry?If you are looking to improve your health care marketing, you may have realized that not all messages will be adapted to all audiences. Partnering with a marketing professional with health care experience is always a smart strategy. Before doing anything else, you need to consider your audience:• For whom are you creating this report?• What do they want to know?• What will they do with the information?For any organization and practice of medical care of all kinds (hospitals, manufacturers, doctors and surgeons, dentists, pharmacists or groups), the more specifically the target audience defined, the greater their capacity to inspire a positive response.Once you have identified your targeted audiences, it is helpful to gather some information about them. This information can help you determine the information needs of your audience, how you can communicate with them more effectively, and where and how you can contact them.#2 Create Valuable ContentHow do healthcare marketers develop and promote relevant content? First, they must understand the needs of clients by building insight through primary research, syndicated sources, and behavior analysis. Next, they need to create content that meets their needs, such as video, blogs, articles and supports brand objectives. Finally, promote content in the media where customers interact and share.According to a new report, 85% of healthcare B2B marketers have a content marketing strategy, but only 4% believe their programs are extremely effective.For a healthcare marketer focused on a pediatric service line, creating helpful content could mean writing an educational article on the merits and concerns of pediatric psychology. When planning to increase content production when the vast majority does not believe that their content marketing efforts are highly effective, B2B marketing specialists are potentially prepared for failure.Content marketing nurtures a long-term relationship with customers, which is critical in the medical industry.3 Tips to Grow Your Healthcare Company with Content Marketing:1. Know what your customers want to learn2. Be a healthcare industry leader3. Capitalize on current eventsThe following tips will set you up with the knowhow you need to produce better content for your readers. Content marketing is an excellent way to both position your healthcare company as a thought leader and to generate new leads and customers for your business. Be creative and offer information that provides real insight for your customers.Target Ideal Buyers with ContentCreating and sharing successful Healthcare marketing content is all about your audience: who you’re speaking to and what you’re trying to say. To make the most out of your healthcare services, you first have to define the group of people you’re creating your content for and what they’ll find useful about it. Content marketing involves creating and sharing quality content that is specifically designed to attract your target customers. If you’re not sure how to get started with your content marketing strategy, we can help! Here’s how to target your buyer persona through content marketing.• Defining And Developing Buyer Personas• Consider The Buying Team• Mapping Content To The Buyer’s JourneyThe beauty of the specific content is that it was created with a specific group in mind to enjoy and learn from the way they prefer to consume content. Without a persona-based content marketing initiative, you run the risk of allowing your competitors to influence buyers by talking about their needs and addressing uncertainties through specific content, which increases the consideration of purchases as along the road.That’s especially true for B2B healthcare marketers, many of whom face more complicated, longer sales cycles, making their challenges with consistent and compelling content creation all the more problematic. With that in mind, there is a lot for B2B marketers in other industries to learn from the world of health marketing. Be sure to always involve a specific target audience through different channels and remain relevant.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

A Business Owner’s Guide to SEO Basics

What is SEO?SEO, or search engine optimization, is the term used to describe the process of driving a website to be more popular on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, etc. When people search phrases or words in a search engine (also known as keywords), the results and the order that they appear in is the direct effect of SEO.Do you need SEO?Generally most businesses would answer this question with a resounding yes, however how much you choose to invest into SEO is dependent upon how you want to do business. A lot of business that you generate most likely derives from word of mouth referrals, however, studies from Forrester Research shows that 93% of consumers worldwide use search engines to find and access websites.Consumers are significantly more likely to initiate contact and purchase a product or service from a business that they can find online. If your site can’t be easily located online, then your business is missing out on substantial prospective business.How does SEO work?There are a lot of factors concerning SEO. The keywords you choose and the popularity of the search for them and the competition that you have with those keywords are just the beginning. The titles, descriptions, url names, html framework/validity, tags and how they are used are also crucial factors. Backlinks to your site and popularity are also factors. There are hundreds factors and penalties that search engines use in order to deploy SEO. SEO could easily be likened to chemistry. Which brings me to my next point:Should you hire someone for SEO?Absolutely. It is possible for anyone to learn, but let’s be honest, you have a business to run. SEO takes a lot of time to learn, employ, and maintain. For most business owners to become expert SEO analysts is unreasonable, but you should be armed with the knowledge of what you need to be more successful from SEO, and what to expect from anyone you employ to do it.In order to have an effective SEO campaign, I would strongly urge anyone to employ an SEO professional. Fortunately, a lot of web design firms specialize in SEO, has someone on staff that does, or can refer you to someone. If your designer does not – there are plenty on the market.What should you watch for when shopping for an SEO specialist?Be extremely cautious of anyone who promises you the top spot on Google or immediate results. As good as that sounds, it really is too good to be true.Effective SEO is slow and steady which equates to months and months of work. It is important to note that the months and months of work are in bits and pieces and not 40-hour work weeks. There are no fast tracks to SEO success and make no mistake about it, search engines are not easily fooled. There are penalties for what has been coined as “Black Hat” SEO techniques. Here are just a few Black Hat SEO techniques:
Keyword stuffing (packing long lists of keywords on your site)
Invisible text (this is done by placing text in your html that does not show up on your website when viewed)
Doorway pages (pages that are added to your website, but never seen)
Tiny text or alt text (placing very small text on your page for spamming keywords)
Mirror sites (sites that is a duplicate of your site)
Submitting your site repeatedly to search engines (which is seen as spamming)Using any of the above tactics will not only get your site penalized in search rankings, it will more than likely get your site banned from search engines altogether.Back links (links on other websites that link to yours) are important to SEO, and getting bad ones or spam links, are not good for SEO. Beware of companies/individuals who use this technique as well. When consulting with an SEO professional, ask them to provide you with a “plan of action” or how they intend to help your SEO. If you see any of the above Black Hat techniques, keep shopping.Those techniques will work, for about 5 minutes until the search engines figure it out, and they usually do, and then it’s ban city. You’ll have to undo the Black Hat techniques, reformat, resubmit your site, and hopefully they will accept your site again. You are back to square one and have to now employ a legitimate SEO specialist.How long does SEO take?A long time. I like instant gratification as much as the next person, but SEO is where patience really pays off. Once your site is submitted to a search engine it usually can take 1-3 weeks to get indexed, but that’s not a promise. After that, it’s time to start tweaking the SEO process. Search engines do not update as much as we would like them to, popular keywords today may not be popular next week, if you rank high today – that spot isn’t guaranteed forever, or even for tomorrow for that matter, ranks fluctuate, and trends change.With that said, SEO is not a one time event, it is an ongoing process. There are likely thousands of websites who want your spot and if you give up on maintaining SEO efforts, you will lose it, usually pretty fast. A lot of SEO and/or web design companies have packages or hourly rates for SEO and you can choose how much you want to invest in any given month or timeframe.Now that you have a better understanding of what SEO is, how it works, and it’s importance to your business, you are well on your way to making smart business decisions concerning your website and it’s marketing.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

The Death of Business Landlines For Small Enterprises

Business landlines are soon becoming a thing of the past. But are small businesses really willing to put them into oblivion and welcome VOIP technology and business mobile phones for their small businesses?Nowadays, more and more consumers are giving up their business landlines in exchange for handy mobile phones and internet based phones to pave a way for more fiscal efficiency. However, some of them consider the switch quite tricky.Regardless whether you are an established business or just a startup enterprise deciding on some alternatives for your business landline systems and dumping your business landline is never an easy option, and money isn’t an all-too important consideration.One major reason is the fact that landlines offer steadfast and constant availability for they do not rely on an internet connection or a very robust network signal for one to make calls. This is an important consideration whenever the weather is bad, especially during a storm, where the only thing that might work for timely communication is your business landline.Next consideration is the voice quality. There is practically no background noise if you work with your business landline where you can expect your conference calls to be crisper and clearer. But the ultimate question is whether the business landline is heading an untimely demise? Or people are just looking for something fresh and new to add to their old business landline?To help you come up with a decision whether or not you have to ditch your business landline for good, we have outlined four major considerations to consider VOIP and mobile phones as against your customary business landline.Cost EfficiencyThe leading factor that made VOIP so attractive to many entrepreneurs worldwide is cost. Because VOIP is so cost efficient, more and more business owners are tempted to dump their business landlines in exchange for a high end VOIP phone systems in their business offices. Although VOIP plans are way practical in terms of lower monthly fees, making use of mobile phones at the office does away with extra fees of paying for two phone systems.By simply turning to VOIP phone systems, businesses are able to cut their monthly phone bills in half. However, in your plan to switch to the new phone system, there are some inquiries you have to make:1. How much will the new communications apparatus cost?
2. How much will I be charged monthly?
3. Can I truly save more money by eliminating the role of an onsite private business branch exchange (PBX) system manager?
4. How much valuation is attached to the new calling and system management tools which are not available or in use?As for VOIP phone systems, enterprises must weigh a lot of cost considerations prior to determining if indeed they have to depend on mobile phones for business communications exclusively. Undeniably, nothing beats mobile phones, however when it comes to costs they can pose a huge problem for a business. Mobile phones break easily, they can get lost and incur damages too. On the contrary, business landlines get to have the least wear and tear in terms of constant use.Mobile phones also pose a high risk for liabilities experts stated. As a matter of fact, a great number of road accidents are attributed to talking over the mobile phone while driving. Although a company may strictly write a policy against it, truth is, they can still be sued in case any untoward accident happens while their employee is on the company-issued phone talking when an accident occurs.Easy AccessBesides cost, another major consideration that works in favor of business landlines is easy access. You can always access a business landline phone 100% of the time. Compared to VOIP and mobile phones, landlines do not need to depend on an internet connection or a very strong network signal to make calls. But with the recent innovations in technology, your VOIP phone system need not rely on connectivity for most of the time.Although, internet downtimes are a fact of life, there are certain mobile technological innovations that made VOIP phones much more reliable than they were in the past. VOIP companies even provide an alternative in an occasion where users are unable to access the internet. With the new technologies, users can now easily reroute calls to another phone until such time that the outage or downtime has been fixed.Furthermore, the fact that VOIP depends on an internet connection which may make it more of an appealing option for small business owners and employees who want to access their business lines whenever they are on the go.Meanwhile, mobile phones can come with their own accessibility drawbacks. First of all, since mobile phones depend on the network’s signal, the quality of your calls is dictated by the carrier’s signal strength. For all we know, the signal strength will often rely on your specific location. Furthermore, mobile phones may only take two calls at a given time, which makes it a limited option for businesses that receive massive levels of calls day in and day out.Your choice of telephone system for your business will all depend on your business needs and requirements. Basically, if you have a small business with 3-5 employees and you don’t receive big volume of daily calls then a mobile phone would work for your enterprise.Voice Call QualityMany mobile phone users know that the voice call quality will rely on a lot of factors as equipment, network signal, and location. Voice call from VOIP phone systems have since been suffering from poor voice call quality, which makes many businesses hesitant to ditch their business landlines for good. Currently, avid followers of VOIP technology claims that voice quality with VOIP are no longer an issue.For those who are concerned about this matter, several VOIP vendors now allow businesses to try the service prior the switch. In fact, it is not that difficult to set up and configure. These tests will immediately show users that VOIP voice quality has improved substantially over the years.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

How To Raise Finance For Your Property Investment

Raising FinanceThere are many ways of investing in property, even if you don’t have any money. Lease options and Rent to Rent are two very popular strategies. You can create a lot of cash flow by packaging and sourcing deals for other investors for a fee. However, it doesn’t mean that if you don’t have money, you can’t invest in multi-million pound projects such as developments, commercial conversions or normal BTL properties worth a lot of money.There are people out there who are waiting with their cash to invest in your deals instead of having their money in their bank where they’re unlikely to get much return. Money loses value every single day and after paying taxes, they may just break even or make a loss. That is why they look for new opportunities. Some of those people are cash rich and time poor, meaning they don’t have the time to find deals. These investors are looking for people like you to find and negotiate deals so they can finance it and share a profit with you. You need to start hanging around with these sorts of people; tell them what you do and build a relationship with them at the networking events, exchange business cards and after the event follow up with everyone the next day via email. You can say things like: “Hi Mr Smith, it was a pleasure to meet you at the property networking event yesterday. It would be great to meet up with you to discuss further business opportunities. Please let me know when you’d be free to meet up.” Or you can say things like “There is no free lunch, but there is when I am in town.” It all depends on who you deal with. This is just a simple example. If you are good at writing emails you can develop it, but try to keep it short and to the point. Remember: dress to impress; you can never get a second chance at a first impression. Who you hang around with is who you become and your network is your net worth. If you told us how much five of your friends made annually we could predict your salary.We will name a few places and products where you can raise money for your property investments. Even if you have a lot of money and you start investing, you will eventually run out of money one day. That is why it’s very important to raise finances and use other people’s money instead of your own. All successful people do the same – they don’t use their own money.Joint Venture (JV) This is a very good way of building your property portfolio quickly with minimal risk and no capital required. JV partners could be people who you meet at networking events. Some have a lot of time and will bring you good deals, whereas others are very busy but have a lot of cash to invest. If you are working with private investors they will have business experience that can help you. This will be very beneficial when analysing deals, legal issues, profit and loss etc. It is much easier and quicker to build a property business with partners than by yourself. Before entering in any JV agreement, make sure you do your due diligence on the person you are dealing with and consult with your solicitor. JVing with other people has positives and negatives so you need to analyse it before you enter such an agreement.For a joint venture to work, you need to choose the right partners; each partner needs to bring something different to the partnership. It’s important to have clear documents that outline how the partnership will work so you know who is responsible for what. You need to be honest and open with each other.I (Damian) experienced bad partnerships many times and lost a lot of money in business but it wasn’t their fault – it was mine. You need to take responsibility for yourself. If I had done enough due diligence on the people I was partnering with I would never have gone ahead with the deal. But I am happy that it happened as it was a good lesson and I will never make the same mistake again. It takes time to find good partners and you might be lucky and find a good one in the first place. Remember there is a golden rule in business: trust but verify! I have done many good deals with my current business partners and it would never have happened if I didn’t go to networking events. Shane and I travelled all the way from London to Florida just to network and meet new people who we can do business with. That is called sacrifice; we do whatever it takes. Do today what others don’t, to have a tomorrow that others won’t.You can also JV with your friends and family; you provide the deal and knowledge whilst they bring the money required. Once the work is done, you share the profit 50/50. There are many different ways of structuring JV deals. For example, there might be people who are not interested in monthly income but investing money for capital appreciation. So instead of sharing the profit 50/50, you take the cash flow every month and they take the equity. The amount the house appreciates in value will benefit your JV partner, but make sure you have an exit strategy in place so you don’t have situations where they want to sell the property but you want to keep it.Remember that 50% of the deal financed by a JV partner is better than 100% of nothing.Crowd FundingCrowd funding is getting more and more popular. There are a lot people with a good business plan and models but with limited finances. Raising money from banks is difficult and bridging is expensive. Many investors look for opportunities where they invest their money for a share in a company or project in return. It is very common in this day and age to start big developing projects where there are few investors that fund the project together to build apartments, and once it is sold they share a profit equivalent to the proportion of the money invested. In some crowd funding projects, anyone can invest money and get, for example, a 10% return on their investment. Quite often there are hundreds of people investing in one project. This is an extremely powerful strategy and it’s now even used to raise money for start-up businesses and movies.Credit Cards, Loans and OverdraftsWhen we started our property journey we had no money and a lot of debt. Our favourite source of investment at the time was credit cards and overdrafts as we didn’t know many people who we could raise the money from. Most of our credit cards were maxed out, so we had to increase our credit limits. Our first property investments came from none of our own money! When you have no money you must start thinking outside the box as you have little choice. These tips came from our mentors, they showed us how to do it and what to say when talking to the banks as this is very important. If you tell your bank that you need money to invest in property then you can forget about them agreeing.From being broke, we both achieved financial freedom in just one year of investing in property. It all came from knowledge that we acquired from our mentors, books and creativity, so we managed to crush the myth that you need money in order to make money! If you want to master the property game, you need to have the knowledge to be creative. That is how winning is done. Most of the multi-millionaires and billionaires are self-made; they started from zero or debt, so anything is possible. You just have to believe it, set up a plan on what you want to achieve and how you are going to get there; for your dreams to come true you first have to wake up! You can have anything you want in life, you just have to be hungry and believe that you can have it.Sylvester Stallone (Rocky Balboa) is a great example of a self-made millionaire. He started from humble beginnings – he was evicted from his apartment and was homeless for a while. In March 1975 Stallone saw Muhammad Ali fighting against Chuck Wepner. After that fight, he went home and started writing a script, taking inspiration from both the fight and the autobiography of Rocky Graziano to start writing Rocky Balboa. Stallone attempted to sell his script to multiple studios with the intention of playing the main role in the movie. Although receiving enormous amounts of rejections, which went on for several months, he never gave up. He was finally offered $350,000 just for the rights to the script without him playing in the movie. He refused to sell it unless he could play the main character, so after a substantial budget cut to compromise the producers agreed to have him as a star, and the rest is history. He could have just taken the $350,000 which for him at that time was a lot of money, but if he did he wouldn’t be where he is today. That shows determination. There was a time in his life where he had to sell his dog for $50 because he didn’t have any money to feed him; after his success with the Rocky Balboa script, he bought his dog back for $15,000.Angel InvestorsThere are a lot of places to go where angel investors spend their time. All you need to do is search on the internet for the closest one to your area. Millionaires and billionaires come to these places and look for people with great ideas for a new business where they can invest their money for a share in the company in return. More importantly, not only will they invest, but they will also give you all the support you need, which is priceless. They usually have their own power team that has expert knowledge in marketing, branding and selling. Of course, you must know everything about the business and have a great pitch that will attract the investors to persuade them to invest in your company or project.You need to make sure you know your numbers; know everything about your competition, if there is any, and have a great unique selling proposition (USP). Having a mentor that has already achieved what you want to achieve is precious! I (Damian) have invested and started many companies before property investing. I invested all the money I saved from my part-time jobs and I lost it as well as getting myself into debt. The main reason I failed in both businesses was because I didn’t know what I was doing. I had no guidance or a mentor to tell me how it needs to be done, what needs to be changed and what it is I was doing wrong.When I started property investing, I had a mentor from the beginning and that is why I succeeded and I have done it in a very short space of time. I knew exactly where I was going and I knew that I had the support if I needed it. Every successful person has a mentor; imagine a footballer in the English Premier League or an athlete without a coach. Do you think Usain Bolt, the fastest runner on the earth, would be where he is today without a coach? We have paid a lot of money for mentoring and coaching, but with angel investors you can receive investments and free mentoring for a share in your business.Family and FriendsThere are a lot of people such as friends and family that have money sitting in their bank accounts without getting much return on their savings. Believe it or not, but money goes down in value all the time; inflation kicks in and prices go up. What you could buy for £10 ten years ago you can’t buy anymore. That is why it’s very important to invest in assets that appreciate in value. If you get a good deal, you can ask your friends if they would like to get 10 % return on investment on their money. I am sure they will like the idea as in the bank it’s unlikely they’ll get more than 1%. How you give it back is flexible; once the property is refinanced or pay them interest each month. It all depends on the individual and your agreement. Once they get their money back after the first deal, this will prove you can be trusted and they are likely to lend you money again.Sell LiabilitiesWhat do we really mean by selling liabilities? A liability is something that takes money out of your pocket, e.g. if you have a car that is worth £10,000, it will go down in value every single year plus it will cost you money every single month. Car insurance needs to be paid, road tax, petrol, MOT test, car maintenance and repairs. If you sell the car for £10,000 and buy a property below market value, you can refinance the property after 6 months and buy a new car or you can get a new car on finance as you will have a passive income from the house you bought. Every single month the rental income will pay for your car without you physically working to pay for it, so instead of having just a car, now you have a property plus a car that is paid by the asset you have acquired. What would you prefer?Bridging LoanA bridging loan is a very good method if you need to borrow money for a property that you want to buy very quickly. It only takes a few days for the bridgers to accept your application and lend you the money; in some cases 24-48 hours. If you borrow for the first time and pay back successfully the next one will be much easier and quicker because they know that you are reliable.Bridging loans are mainly used by investors buying houses at auctions where you have to complete the purchase almost immediately. You cannot do the same with a standard mortgage company. Bridging loans have very high interest, from 1-3% per month or more in some cases. You need to know your numbers and have an exit strategy in place as it’s a very risky loan. If you have never taken out a bridging loan, make sure you consult with a financial advisor beforehand or somebody that has experience in bridging so they can make you aware of the potential problems that can arise.Social Media GroupsThere are a lot of property investing groups on social media that you can join for free. You can ask questions, gain free advice and find potential business partners. You can even sell and buy property deals, subject to how active you are in the forums.Before buying anything, make sure you do your due diligence on the person that is offering the deal and on the property they are offering. We had many deals that came our way but when we did our due diligence we found out that many of these properties were on Rightmove and Gumtree, revealing that we were not being offered a discount or, in some cases, they were trying to charge us above market value!Seminars and Networking EventsThis is our favourite way of raising finance, as most of the deals we have done and money we’ve raised came from people we met at seminars and networking events. Some people we know say that we are lucky because we manage to sell a deal or get a deal financed that made us a lot of money. But guess what? If we were sitting at home watching TV, playing PlayStation or going to the pub with friends, we would never have met the sources and our business partners. It’s all down to our hard work and the time we spent building relationships and our network. Your network is your net worth and it’s not who you know but who knows you.You first need to invest some money into the relationship before you start to do business with anyone. We invite potential business partners for dinner, for example. Is food free? No, it isn’t! Is transport free? No, it isn’t! You need to pay for eating quality food, for petrol or a train ticket. People who say you are lucky forget about all the sacrifices, costs and hard work. Business relationships are similar to dating. You shouldn’t ask for sex on the first date; it’s the same in business. You need to meet multiple times and build a relationship with a potential business partner before you do any business together.Private Members ClubThere are many different types of private members’ clubs. If you are a fan of cars, you could look into a Ferrari or Lamborghini private members’ club. You don’t necessarily need to own one to be a member. People who can afford these kinds of cars are definitely the ones with money so it could be a huge benefit to hang around with them and build relationships that could add value to your business in the future.There are also yacht clubs, gentleman’s clubs, luxurious concierge services where you pay a monthly fee of anything between £50-£200. You get access to the best clubs in your city for free where you don’t need to wait in a queue. Impressive restaurants and sold out VIP events from the world of music to theatre, film, sport and art. There are many different private members’ clubs to choose from – it all depends on what you are looking for and what interests you. You can find more information about private members’ clubs online.High End GymsThe gym is a perfect place to network with people. There are reasons for that. First of all, you will see the same people every single day or at least 3-4 times a week because if you want to keep healthy and fit you need to work out on a regular basis. When you meet someone every single day and you make eye contact with them they will remember your face, and eventually you will start talking to each other. You will share weights, benches and equipment together and if they like you, you might even come to the gym with them at the same time and work out together.The main reason that we mentioned high end gyms and not just any gym is because this is where wealthy people go to exercise. Wealthy people won’t go to any local gym as they like luxury and great customer service – everything they need is in one place from nutritional guidance, private medical care, spa treatments to DNA testing to determine what exercise suits them best. They also want to hang around with other people who are successful because who you hang around is who you become.High end gyms have very expensive joining fees, which could be anything from £400-600 and a monthly fee of around £185-240. The most expensive one in London is in Knightsbridge, which costs as much as £2000 to join and £500 per month. There are a lot of gyms to choose from that are also very good and attract successful people and cost much less. David Lloyds or Virgin Active gym will cost you around £70-90 per month. High End gyms cost a lot but sometimes it is money well spent. If you can find someone that could finance your project of £500,000 to £1,000,000 or JV with you, isn’t the £200 per month worth it? Some people spend £3 on a coffee every single day, £3 x 5 days= £15 per week! In one month, that’s a cost of £60. What if you could save this money instead and put it towards the gym membership that will be much more beneficial and healthier than your daily coffee?There are many more places where rich people spend their time. A charity ball is a good place to go as people spend a lot of money there bidding and raising funds to help the less fortunate.There are very cheap and also very expensive ways of raising money. Everyone’s situation is different. You might be able to pay the £200 for the gym membership or you might prefer to go to free seminars or networking events. If you keep working hard and you are out often meeting new people, you will build your network and you will find the people who you are looking for. It might take you slightly longer than the more costly route as it may attract wealthier people, but you will still make it as you might meet someone who knows somebody who has the money and would like to invest it or get a better return than the bank is giving. We had to choose the cheap route as we were in debt so didn’t have the money to join expensive clubs. We are a living example that you can build a big network without spending £200 per month on gym membership. We met most of our business partners and investors at networking events and seminars, but we worked really hard to build those relationships.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments Off

Property Auctions Encloses Seized Property

Seized property auctions takes place when the property is seized by the government with regards to the crimes made by the particular person. Seized property auctions property takes place, when people make crimes then the government seizes the property and it will be listed for auction in property auction. Seized property will be listed for sale in property auctions as per the judgment made by the government for the criminal act made. Generally any property seized by the government will be listed for sale in the property auction and it will be sold for reasonable price consideration. For seized property auctions, auction information will be listed on the online property auctions websites.Investment houses, residential home, commercial property and repossessed property and so on are the different kinds of seized property listed for sale. UK property auctions are well known for its different kinds of seized property auctions for reasonable price consideration. Seized property auction constitute different kinds of properties seized may be residential homes, investment houses, commercial property. Generally seized property auctions will be sold for highest bid in the property auctions to pay off the debts. Seized properties will takes place when the borrower fails to pay mortgage to the lender within the prescribed time or when the person involves in the criminal act his properties will be seized.The property seized from the person will be sold to the buyers who are interested to purchase the seized property for reasonable price consideration with regards to highest bidding in the property auction. Online auction websites are available which displays auction information of different seized properties accurately and properly. Buying a property auction provides more benefit to the buyer who purchases the property from the auction. Generally, every property which seized by the government will be listed for sale only in seized property auctions or property auctions. Seized property auctions will compile with the statutes, rules and regulations of the government.Property auctioneers will be available in the property auctions to the helps the buyer and seller of property and with the help of the property auctioneer the property can be sold easily in the property auction for reasonable price consideration. Real property auction takes place for most of the times and when proper guidelines have followed while bidding for the seized, then the property can be purchased from the property auctions. The value of the Seized property will be based on the market price during the time of seize. Generally all seized property auctions will be subject to terms and conditions of the respectable state from where the property is seized.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments Off

Investing in Property – What Is the Best Way to Buy Rental Property?

Investing in PropertyWhat is the best way to buy rental property?The question you need to ask yourself is – Am I buying this property as an investment?Now this sounds like a pretty stupid question, right? But in reality, many people (myself included) have made a purchase decision on the basis that they love the “property” not the “investment.”What do I mean? Well you have to stop and ask yourself do I really love investing in property or do I just love to own property. Many have purchased an “investment property” on the basis that they “liked” it, rather than because they had calculated it would provide a great return.When investing in property you should always run your numbers through a property investment calculator before deciding whether to even look at a property, let alone buy it!My first CBD apartment – aka “Investing in Property for Fools!”I’d always wanted to own a piece of the CBD. Growing up as a kid I loved visiting the “city” to look at the skyscrapers and imagined coming here for work like my Dad did each morning. Sure, I was investing in property. I was investing my emotional security in a property location! So you can see quite clearly that it was an emotional, rather than a hard headed decision to buy a newly complete one bedroom unit back in the early 2000s. It was just something I’d always wanted to “have.”I remember driving around the inner city with a well known property spruiker looking at projects he was involved with. Of course his level of involvement was as a master salesman. A unit became available for approximately $230k. As a young couple my wife and I discussed the pros and cons and I decided against the advice of my wife that this might not be such a great idea.At the same time another unit had become available in the inner city block of apartments that I was currently living in. It was available at a similar price. My wife counselled me to consider this as an option. My “adviser” had discouraged me on the basis that I would be putting all me eggs in one basket. There was some truth to this advice so I followed my “dream” of an apartment in the “city”.When I went to the office to sign the papers I remember being advised that the original unit was no longer available, but a different one on a higher floor was, at a higher price! I said OK, No problem, like we Aussies tend to do. Then I was presented with the option to purchase a “furniture package” for an extra $20k. This would “guarantee” a rental return of 8% to me for the first 2 years of my investment. I hadn’t previously considered this, but of course I said “Yes”and was told what a wise choice I had made. (Of course this made me feel good about myself!)The truth was I bought the unit not on the basis of its potential financial return but its immediate emotional return. I never did end up living in it or even spending a single night there, although I’d often wander past and gaze up at my balcony and wonder how “cool” it would be to live here.In fact the property was a complete drain on my bank balance due to the high costs associated with the common areas including pool and gym equipment. The rent never paid for the outgoings and I lived in hope that the price would go up so I could make a “paper” profit at least!Now some time later I did end up selling the unit for around $300k, so it was far from a complete disaster. In the end I was very glad to sell and call it even. In reality the cost to me was an opportunity cost. What else could I have been doing with my money? I looked recently for sales data on the city block in question and found a similar unit sold for $355k, approx. 10 years after my initial purchase. Currently in the inner city block I was living at, prices are over $650k. Remember that 10 years ago these properties were selling for approximately the same price. If I had listened more to my wife and less to my own emotion I might have ended up $300k better off!What did I learn? I learned that whilst it’s great to listen to “advice”, be aware that sometimes advice might be just a little biased! I’ve learned to trust my own instincts more and weigh advice against what I already know to be true and reasonable. The reason I liked the apartment in my own block was that it was located well. It was quiet, had views, was close to city, walk to tram, bus and train and there was no high-rise in the vicinity. The area couldn’t be quickly re-developed and units added. In short, the amenity was desirable and there was not going to be any new properties added in the foreseeable future. This meant there was a cap on supply.In the city here is not a cap on supply. There are numerous developments under construction at any given time. I’d be more than happy to live in many of them. But I wouldn’t buy then as an investment! Unless they were in a landmark building of some sort there is no scarcity value in them. They can be replaced easily.If one of your neighbours wants to sell and needs to move quickly, guess what. They set the price for your unit. You have virtually no control over the market. No matter what you do to your own living space the whole value of the block will be determined by factors outside your control.Investing in Property for cashflow or for growth?Let’s be honest. Most of us are investing in property because we think that prices are very likely to go up! On the other hand we all know about “negative gearing”. In essence it means we can write of our “losses” on our investment against other area of income. I don’t disagree with the concept, we ought to be able to weigh our profits against our losses and pay tax on the net result. BUT, if all we own are “investments” that are make a “loss” and we’re offsetting that against a “gain” from our job, that’s not really smart investing is it? Sometimes a property might be increasing in value at a greater rate than we could expect to make as a cash income from our investment. This is not always the case as you can see from my experience in the Melbourne CBD. But at what point does this cease to be a valid reason for deciding to invest of even “keep” and existing investment? Steve McKnight from PropertyInvesting.com once said something very illuminating at an event I attended. Basically he said we ought to do an audit of our property portfolio every year and re-assess whether we ought to hold or sell each property!Seriously. I never thought I was going to sell anything – Ever!Early on in my property journey I’d decided I was going to “Accumulate” property. Buy and never sell! That was my motto. Once I’d paid down the loan I would be sitting on a nest egg and having rent more than cover my outgoings.But consider this! Real world example -My unit in inner Melbourne right now would be worth about $650k and yet it might command a weekly rental of around $480. That’s about $25k rental annually.The yield is therefore 25k/650k annually or 3.8% of the value.Setting aside things like mortgage repayments, there are still fixed costs on any property – In my case they include for the last financial year:Council Rates $820
Water $945
Insurance $302
Owners Corporation $1660
Agent fees $1815
Repairs $890
Total fixed expenses for the year $6430This reduced the total income to ($25000-$6430)=$18570Now my actual annual return is 18.5k/650k = 2.9%Of course costs like Agent fees and Owners Corporation are not always applicable but they serve to show that in the real world the actual return can be a lot less than a simple headline figure.If I include my interest costs (which still exist) I must deduct another ($150000*6%)=$9000 from my income.This reduced the total Real income to ($18570-9000)=$9570Now my actual annual return on the asset value is 9.5k/650k =1.5% Should I Sell this property?There is no right or wrong answer. Sometimes I say yes and my wife says NO! Sometimes I say No and my wife says NO! Do you see a pattern here?There is no right answer because everyone has different needs, has different skills and is coming from a different base and most importantly – We all want different things! It depends on your circumstances, your family situation, the personalities of you or your partner and your goals in life.If our main goal in life was to increase our cash on cash return or all our assets then it would be a no brainer to sell up and invest elsewhere (assuming I could expect a greater return than 1.5%!) Having said all that I still love property, and I love investing in property.It’s quite possible to love the idea of property without loving investing in property. In fact most property that you’ll “love” will probably be pretty darn useless as an investment. Don’t be confused.Would I choose to invest $650k of my actual cash in this investment right now of it were available for sale? Probably not! – So why am I still keeping it? I love it and plan to live in it.This is a question only YOU need to ask yourself and answer on a case by case basis. I’ve looked long and hard at my own situation and decided to keep for now based on family reasons, NOT investing reasons.Review every property every yearFor every investment I currently hold I review the property and make a decision based on the real numbers, not a fantasy of what I’d like to see happen.That’s why I decided to sell my apartment in the Melbourne CBD.
It was “Costing” my money to hold, and NOT growing in value anything like I’d hoped it would. So I cut it off.
It was why I needed to sell my first home out in the “burbs”.
It was why I made a similar hard decision to sell a property in inner city KEW that was returning a reasonable cash return, and well located but had ZERO capital growth over ten years.
It was one of the reasons I sold a great apartment in Sydney’s North. I had improved it and added value. It was time to take my money off the table.Your relationship with a property needn’t be a marriage for life. There’s no compulsion to “stay together” till death do you part!.What about Cashflow positive real estate?I love cashflow positive property and investment strategies. So Yes, I look to see where the cash if flowing and see how I can get if flowing towards me.Think! Are you buying for lifestyle or for investment? What return are you hoping to achieve? Only when you can answer these questions honestly are you ready to take action!Until Next time,

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments Off

Green Tips to Adopt for a Green Lifestyle Easily

Summarised below are some green tips that you can adopt for a green lifestyle easily! All these tips are selected based on their ease of adopting and effectiveness.a) Eat and shop green. Prepare your meals by purchasing or growing your own organic vegetables. Otherwise consume vegetables and fruits that are in season and grown locally.b) Bring your own shopping bag instead of using plastic bags when you shop for groceries. This green tip can be adopted easily in your green lifestyle immediately!c) Another green tip to adopt easily is to thaw your frozen food a few hours in advance before cooking using room temperature instead of using the microwave oven.d) Pre-sort out your trash to separate paper, aluminium cans, certain plastics from the perishables and organic trash. Involve your family members in this green tip to make it more enjoyable and less of a chore.e) Take public transport or walk to destinations within your residential district or community instead of driving. This green tip can be adopted easily into your green lifestyle but also saves you money spent on gym memberships!f) Do your laundry only when you have a full load. For clothing like jeans and shower towels, you can wear and use them more than once before dumping them into your washing machine.g) Switch off your electrical appliances at the mains. Do not leave them on maintenance mode. This green tip that can be adopted easily will prevent unnecessary money spent on utilities.h) Purchase and use dry-cell batteries that contain 0% cadmium and mercury in your green lifestyle. Such batteries are readily available in major departmental stores like Ikea.i) Utilise the half-flush button that is available on most toilets to flush away liquid waste instead of the full flush mode. A full flush can waste up to 6 litres of water therefore this green tip, once adopted in your green lifestyle, will easily prevent unnecessary wastage of water.j) Reduce your average shower time instead of spending long hours in the shower. Wash your face using a small container of water instead of under a running tap.k) Do not use a hose to wash your car or water your plants. This green tip will prevent large-scale wastage of water that will otherwise occur easily.l) Generate your own electricity from green energy sources for your own heated water for your showers. This long-term green modification to your house will add to your green lifestyle and also allows you to go off-gird. It also increases the resale value of your house.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Simple Home Repairs Save You Big Money

I seriously don’t know how many times I walk into a house to give someone a free estimate and notice other problems that are normally inexpensive and easy to fix. It never has made any sense and I don’t think it’s ever going to, yet year after year, I see the same things over and over again.Let’s start with your electrical system. It might be difficult to replace electrical outlets, switches and light fixtures, but it’s not difficult to replace broken electrical switches and outlet covers or to tighten up loose light fixtures. These are simple home repairs that don’t require a university degree from one of the top home repair colleges in the country.Now what about the leaking faucet? This might be a little harder to fix, but with a few books and some simple illustrations, I believe that most homeowners and do-it-yourselfers can even tackle a job like this with excellent chances for success.One of the biggest problems with homeowners and home maintenance is the fact that they won’t inspect their home or look for damage on a regular basis. I recommend that homeowners purchase a home inspection checklist and inspect their homes at least once a year. Most of these home inspection checklist can be purchased for under $20 and could save you a small fortune.If you inspect your home and find a difficult home repairs or repairs that you don’t feel comfortable tackling, you can always hire a professional contractor or handyman to make them for you. However, if you do find something that’s relatively easy to repair, then you shouldn’t think twice or procrastinate.Some of these simple home repairs are safety hazards. If you have a broken electrical switch plate that would normally costs under one dollar to purchase and won’t cost you anything to replace, you should. Once a home repair becomes a safety hazard, you could find yourself in the middle of a lawsuit, dealing with medical problems and death.Don’t let simple home repairs turn into safety problems that could lead to financial problems. Fixed a small stuff as soon as possible and let the professionals handle the rest.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Automotive Franchises May Be Your Perfect Financial Vehicle

Why, you may ask? The automotive repair industry is huge business and is growing. Consumers spend an average of nearly $1000 on vehicle maintenance annually. Recession equals opportunity, and it’s especially true in the automotive repair industry. Consumers continue to keep their cars and trucks on the road longer, so it stands to reason that as they age, they need more maintenance. In 2003, the average age of vehicles on the road reached 8.5 years old. By 2008, it was 9.5 years and in 2012, it’s increased to 10.5 years. Choosing to partner with an automotive franchise that seeks to address the needs of thrifty car owners, especially in a recession-type atmosphere, can be an investment well worth your time, investment, and effort.As a franchise seeker, you also have the luxury of choosing among several specialized types of automotive franchise businesses, such as transmission, oil change and maintenance, glass repair, collision, paint, and car washes, to name a few.You may say “I’m not at all mechanically inclined and know zero about the automotive business.” Well, that concern is completely addressed by the superb ongoing support and repetitive training that is provided by the better automotive franchises. You’re shown exactly how to operate a successful, profitable franchise business beginning from your first day as an automotive franchisee.Consider this. Auto franchise owners come from quite the wide array of backgrounds, such as insurance agents, pastors, business brokers, welders, engineers, teachers, etc. Most knew practically nothing about how to run a profitable automotive franchise.Which type of auto franchise is best for you? There are several considerations here, such as the number and types of similar franchises that are nearby, your ability to expand your business if you choose to do so, the overall reputation of the franchisor and how long they have been in business, and the amount and quality of training and support that you will receive.In addition, brand recognition is absolutely vital to the success of an automotive franchise. Savvy consumers look for businesses that have a top-notch reputation that they can trust with their vehicles. Names that are unique and memorable, with a history of innovative advertising and marketing.Be sure to do your due diligence as you take the first crucial steps in acquiring an automotive franchise business. As every successful entrepreneur knows, your initial research is vital to owning a thriving business. Identifying the right type of franchise business can be very challenging and time-consuming. I’m happy to do the heavy lifting for you by sorting through the hundreds of franchise businesses and helping you identify and attain the best one for you.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Keep These 5 Rules in Mind for Successful Commercial Designing

Who doesn’t want an excellent commercial design? Excellent commercial design is important to maintain the reputation and brand image of the company. As it is said, the first impression is the last impression, a good impression always attracts potential customers. It’s obvious no one would ever love to walk in a congested environment with bad lighting.

Bad design and interiors deteriorate the productivity of the employees. It can be a confusing task when planning a commercial designing project for the first time, hiring expert Commercial Architects Melbourne can be the best option to know about the latest trends and perfect matching designs.

This blog is about some basic rules to consider for making the commercial project successful.
Keep structures versatile

When it comes to transforming any commercial space, focusing on convertibility and keeping office interior decor versatile can be the best option. It can be done by implementing a versatile structure to spaces such as cafeterias, offices, and many more. Everyone gives preference to comfort hence, focusing on spatial and versatile design will help to complete commercial designing projects in an optimal way.

Consider the latest technology implementations

Technology plays a supportive role to enhance the commercial designing project. Moving forward with the latest technology is important to execute any business smoothly because technologies make the work much easier and comfortable for the employee as well as organizations. Implementing centralized and decentralized digital control is much needed in any commercial design.

Keep office aesthetics updated

Good aesthetics and interiors impact the overall representation of the office and make the place functional and attractive. Hire a reputed designer for modern décor and furniture ideas. Hiring a designer reduces half of the project stress and helps to meet the contemporary fashion and latest trends. They can help to choose the perfect theme that blends well with the office decor, atmosphere, and colour.

Provide personalized space to prevent congestion

Majority of customer prefers personalized space such as different seating to seat comfortably and do the personal work. Personalized space is one of the crucial factors for customer-based service offices such as hotels and cafeterias to provide an ambient and comfortable place.

Always keep safety first

Safety is the central feature of every construction and designing project. Hence, it’s the high-priority factor to keep the aesthetic and functional safety at the working place. It can be compromised for interior decoration and design purposes but it’s not at all affordable to compromise for safety purposes.

Following the above useful ideas can easily help in the successful completion of a commercial designing project in a safe and pleasing way. In today’s, modern construction, reliability, and comfort is also an equally important factor.

Final words,

It’s important to hire the experienced Building designer Melbourne to make the commercial designing project worthy. Hope the above rules helped you to scale up your interior designing projects with a better outcome. Follow the above tips for any renovation or remodelling project and surely you will get award-winning and achieve a better office experience.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off