8 Benefits of an Online Business
People see internet business through an extremely narrow lens. You’re either flogging your stuff on eBay or you’re trying to make it big and be the next Mark Zuckerberg. The reality is that there are hundreds if not thousands of different ways in which you can do business online. There are tons of different business models that cater to any goal or ambitions that you might be thinking of taking whether its selling other people’s products online as an affiliate or creating your own products and selling them yourself, or maybe you just want to use the internet as an extension of your already established offline business. The possibilities are endless!The internet is a global population full of enthusiasts of all kinds looking for solutions and products to solve their own personal problems. It’s a global market in which everyday people can take advantage of, all they need is some sort of value to give, or skills necessary to guide people to value that somebody else has created.The Benefits of an Online BusinessLow Start-up Costs:If the entrepreneur deep down has been calling out to you, you might want to consider the start-up costs on an online business. In comparison to a traditional “Bricks and Mortar” businesses the start-up costs are substantially lower for an online business. A business owner who launches their ventures online enjoy a substantially lower start-up cost than those who choose the offline approachThe “real World” business owner must pay for commercial space, physical inventory, printed stationary and allot more. As an internet business owner, your only real expenses will be your domain name and hosting account. Even if you do need to buy inventory or maybe your outsourcing technical skills to get things started your overall start-up cost will be incredibly lower than your offline starting costs.Increase In Earning Potential:If you’re employed full time or working your way up the corporate ladder, your earnings are determined by the amount of hours, and position your in. The time it takes to double your income would be obscene in the offline world, (not impossible, But defiantly harder) say you’re making $80,000 a year, how long do you think it would take to make that $80,000 to $160,000. My guess is a very long time.
Online if you learn to sell one product you can teach yourself to sell 50. If you create 1 successful business what’s to say you can make another, or maybe a few more. There’s a whole market for website flipping. People make a living off creating websites and online businesses and flip them for people who want a business that already has market traction. The truth is that the sky is the limit for your online business.Job Security:When you learn the skills required to sell products online, or create some sort of online revenue the chances are that you’ll be able to repeat this process. If you’re willing to learn the skills necessary to take your business to the next level is up to you. There’s not going to be a shortage of affiliate programs or people online to sell to.Wider network clients and buyers:If you were to start a business in your country’s capital city or the most populated city in the world, you would be pretty confident that the earning power of your business would be astronomical. There are people making a killing in your local cities with successful businesses. Now imagine how many people are online, online you have access to a huge global network of clients and buyers.Online you don’t have to compete against other agencies in your area for the same small pool of customers and clients. Instead you have access to an enormousness pool of people in which you only need the tiniest fraction to make yourself an incredibly comfortable living. You’re free to think as big as you want online. There’s no shortage of people or market space.Free Time:Wouldn’t you love to have the time to do the things you want in your weeks and days? I remember watching some of Ray Higden’s videos about his story of when he was in corporate America. He says he spent more time with picture frames of his kids then actually seeing them.Don’t you hate having to wait for traffic, taking orders from a boss, asking permission for taking holidays? Having an online business fixes all of this. You’re able to work at home when you have an online income. You can spend more time with your family, spend time traveling and best of all having the time to do the things that you want to do.Your business is open and running 24/7Instead of the 9-5 opening hours of the traditional “Brick and Motor” shop, when you set your business up online its open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You can literally make money while you sleep! You do the work upfront and then you reap the rewards long after you’re done.You’re even able to automate most aspects if not all aspects of your business depending on your business model. There are endless amounts of products available to help automate your business. By doing this you can turn your online business into a valuable asset that will provide for you constant passive income.Freedom to Work from AnywhereYou physical presence doesn’t matter when you’re working online. As long as you have a laptop and an internet connection you’re able to work from half way around the world if you want. Where you work is totally up to you, whether it’s in your favorite coffee shop or if it’s while you’re on holidays the decision is totally yours!The Satisfaction of working for yourselfMy opinion is that creating your own business or enterprise beats working for someone else or underneath someone else. The satisfaction of creating your own income and knowing that it’s you that’s in charge of your pay check infinitely more fulfilling then being another cog in the corporate machine.The principles of Online business success is the same as any offline business. You have to have a great idea, have a good solid business plan and there should be a value proposition for potential clients. With the increase in new technologies getting your business online is become easier and cheaper. The best time to start is right now!If you enjoyed this article or this article helped you in anyway please re-tweet or comment.Andrew
Why We Need More Skepticism in Environmental and Health News
Skepticism is the act of refusing to believe a claim without proof (unlike climate-change ‘skeptics’, who refuse to believe claims with very credible proof). Environmental news is filled with extremism or conspiracy theories, with people unscientifically predicting the end of world. Health news is similar, with snake oil salesmen and miracle cures being sold by almost every site that claims to provide health news.The biggest problem in environmental news by far the amount of conspiracy theorists, with sites like ENEnews telling of a world-wide cover-up of the Fukushima “disaster” despite the lack of a realistic disaster scenario. The second largest problem is both the Global Warming and Climate Change deniers and extremists. The deniers help to spread the lies that Climate Change or Global Warming isn’t real, using non-arguments like “global cooling” (which never had any following among the scientific community) or that a few degrees in temperature change isn’t really that bad. Extremists are unscientific as well, promoting conspiracy theories that predict the end of the earth, and while I agree pollution and global warming are both awful, and they should be one of our priorities, they aren’t the most important thing.The field of health news is by far worse, with hugely popular sites promoting pseudoscience of the miracle cures of homeopathy, faith healing, or chiropractic medicine. People who go against their manufactured grain in this area are beaten down by the promoters of quackery, mainly because emotions are far easier and faster to use as a source than actual data. These promoters of quackery will call anyone who doesn’t believe in alternative medicine a paid shill, someone who promotes the pharmaceutical industry in their writing, despite big business’ being behind much of alternative medicine as well, especially homeopathy. Another problem in this field is the co-opting of issues like organic food, which is now an awful industry that exists solely to make a profit on people who think they’re actually eating good foods, the local food movement is far better if you want to have a healthy meal. Modern day organic is simply a re-branding done by big-business, with a few changes in how they operate, yet it is still the same corporations doing all the farming.There are a few sources of skeptical information, mainly sites run by people who are already far too busy to debate with every person with an illogical point of view. The skeptics are by far less numerous than the promoters of quackery or “woo”, which is why we need more sources of skepticism.
Color Your Dream With Online Home Improvement Loan
In this expensive world, having a dwelling is rare! Generally, people opt for rented one. However, for those you have a home of their own and want to go for some or the other improvement have a wider choice with online home improvement loans.Home improvement loan is taken for both interior and exterior. It can be for either roof repairs, remodeling, central heating fitted, construction of new room, getting the house painted and many more. Online home improvement loan is nothing but searching for a suitable lender through World Wide Web. This makes your search fast and convenient.Online home improvement loan can be either secured or unsecured. Unlike other credit, the interest paid to secured online home improvement loan is tax deductible. To get tax deductibility the ownership of resident must be primary. The interest rate in secured home improvement online loan is low as it increases the equity on the home. Even the loan term is stretchable as the loan taken is secured one and come up with low monthly repayment.Unsecured online home improvement loan do not require any collateral but requires you to fulfill some requirements relating to monthly income, employment, and residential proof. The interest rate comes bit high, as lender has no security for the loan amount.Bad credit borrowers can go for online home improvement loan with or without placing collateral. However, in case you stick to your repayment term then your credit history is improved.As such while going for online home improvement loan you need to be extra cautious, as the information you provide is sensitive in nature. See that the site of the lender is securely accessed. Even while making a firm decision regarding the choice of lender compare various quotes, repayable term, low monthly repayment etc. then click for online home improvement loan.
In this expensive world, having a dwelling is rare! Generally, people opt for rented one. However, for those you have a home of their own and want to go for some or the other improvement have a wider choice with online home improvement loans.Home improvement loan is taken for both interior and exterior. It can be for either roof repairs, remodeling, central heating fitted, construction of new room, getting the house painted and many more. Online home improvement loan is nothing but searching for a suitable lender through World Wide Web. This makes your search fast and convenient.Online home improvement loan can be either secured or unsecured. Unlike other credit, the interest paid to secured online home improvement loan is tax deductible. To get tax deductibility the ownership of resident must be primary. The interest rate in secured home improvement online loan is low as it increases the equity on the home. Even the loan term is stretchable as the loan taken is secured one and come up with low monthly repayment.Unsecured online home improvement loan do not require any collateral but requires you to fulfill some requirements relating to monthly income, employment, and residential proof. The interest rate comes bit high, as lender has no security for the loan amount.Bad credit borrowers can go for online home improvement loan with or without placing collateral. However, in case you stick to your repayment term then your credit history is improved.As such while going for online home improvement loan you need to be extra cautious, as the information you provide is sensitive in nature. See that the site of the lender is securely accessed. Even while making a firm decision regarding the choice of lender compare various quotes, repayable term, low monthly repayment etc. then click for online home improvement loan.
Google Places – Top 10 Tips
If you’re a small business owner it makes sense to claim your free Google Places listing as it can propel you to the head of the listings for certain keywords and phrases related to your business. Below are our top 10 tips for making the most of your Google Places business listing.Link it to your websiteA Google Places listing is not just to show the location of your business but it can also serve as a valuable source of traffic to your website. It’s crucial that you add details of your website to your listing so people can click through to it.Complete your listing as fully as possibleIt makes sense to provide as much information for people on your listing as possible. This will not only let others know more about your business but can also help boost your rankings within the Google Places listings.Write a keyword rich descriptionThe description of your business in your listing should include the main keywords or phrases that you want to be found for online.Don’t spamYour Google Places listing should be your actual business name. Don’t be tempted to add extra keywords or phrases to it to try and ‘cheat’ the system. The same applies to your description, just use keywords and phrases as they occur naturally and don’t be tempted to repeat keywords and phrases multiple times.Add images and video to your listingIt’s a good idea to add some images and video to your Google Places listing as well as text to make it more interesting for people viewing it.Ask customers to add their reviewsAnother way you can optimise your Google Places listing is to get reviews from your customers added to it. Some customers may do this off their own backs but you can also ask happy customers if they’d be happy to add a review for you.Use coupons to win new customersGoogle Places allows you to add promotional coupons to your listing which can help you attract new customers through offering discounts. You can add a unique code to the coupon so you can track the effectiveness of it when people call you or order online.Keep it localGoogle Places is intended for local business listings. So for example if your business is based in a town just outside London, you need to use your correct address rather than trying to get a listing in London through using a P.O. Box number or registered office address.Create one Google Places listing onlyIf you have a service based business such as a plumber and cover lots of different areas, you should still only complete one Google Places listing based on your business address. Trying to outsmart the system by creating a listing for each area you cover won’t work.Monitor your listingWith Google Places you can receive regular emails telling you how many times your listing has been displayed and how many times people have used it to click through to your website. If these stats are a bit lower than you expected then you could try changing your description or adding more information to your listing.
What are anti-ligature blinds?
Anti-ligature blinds are becoming increasingly popular in a range of different settings. The way these blinds differ from traditional blinds is that they are designed to prevent suicide by hanging.
Initially, uptake for this type of blind was largely restricted to high-risk environments such as psychiatric hospitals and prisons, where suicide is common. In mental health environments and detention centres, suicide via hanging is common and preventative measures must be implemented. A huge range of objects could be used to create a ligature point, meaning anti-ligature systems are highly important.
Over the years, anti-ligature blinds have been supplied to hospitals, schools, student accommodation and even hotels.
How do they work?
There are a range of different systems on the market, but the most reliable could well be the magnetic anti-ligature system. YewdaleKestrel® products utilise load release magnets which separate when a downward force is exerted on the product. This means that the product falls to the ground safely and prevents suicide via hanging.
The magnetic systems used in Yewdale’s products are highly reliable because magnets don’t lose their strength for hundreds of years, guaranteeing a lifetime of lifesaving functionality.
Anti-ligature blinds usually have a magnetic connection point above the blind’s barrel. The blind is easy to reconnect to the magnetic bracket after it has fallen to the floor.
If you are considering an anti-ligature blind, Yewdale is a highly recommended company. Based in the UK, Yewdale produce a wide range of anti-ligature products, commercial blinds, and healthcare products including hospital cubicle tracks and medical curtains.
Yewdale produce other anti-ligature products too including a soft, lightweight en-suite door and other accessories such as soap dispensers, toilet roll holder, shelves and artwork. You can see the full range on the website using the link below.
Complete weight loss strategy
For those who want to lose weight
Research on the causes of obesity, knowledge about weight loss, and various diets for weight loss are updated every year. However, with the update of knowledge and the release of diet pills one after another, the obesity rate continues to rise every year, and there is no sign of wanting to decline. I used to be very, very fat, and I am also a person who is prone to obesity.
So I understand the voices of fat people, I really want to lose weight, but I tried many ways to lose weight at that time without success.
I have tried the common boiled meals on the market, eating less and moving more, but it was not until I tried other diets that I managed to lose weight. After I lost weight, I began to study the essence and method of losing weight, and wrote him in this weight loss strategy article, hoping to help you.
A few key myths about losing weight
The weight loss myth of eating less and moving more
The phrase “eat less and move more” is actually true, but most people do it wrong. Many people think that they should eat less of everything, so they limit their calories to a very low level, and it feels a bit like eating an ultra-low-calorie fairy meal. Then, for the hyperactive part, the first thing that everyone thinks of is aerobic exercise such as running, cycling, etc., but in fact, this is a very short-term and easy way to regain weight, mainly because eating too little is an easy way to lose weight. The reason for the loss of muscle mass, coupled with the fact that aerobic training is not helpful for muscle mass growth, causes the metabolism to drop too much.
Maybe you can lose 5 kilograms in this way, but if your metabolism declines, you will easily regain the weight. And it’s all the fat that gets back up, not the muscle you lose that makes you look fatter than before. This is what we call the yo-yo effect, lose weight, get fat back, get fatter than before, lose weight, get back on Fat, get fatter than before.
Stop taking diet pills and meal replacements
At this time, you may start to seek other ways, eat weight loss meal replacements, taking diet pills, and so on. But believe me, most diet pills will inevitably hurt the body, especially the gastrointestinal tract. You may actually lose weight in the moment, but when your gastrointestinal tract is damaged, you will be fatter than before.
The key to understanding how to lose weight
You must have thought, why some people will not gain weight no matter what they eat, while some people will gain a kilogram the next day after eating a little bread? What is the cause of obesity? This is not a simple answer that can be solved!
You can see the link to the picture below, mainly talking about the influencing factors of obesity, which are very, very complicated.
Image source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/296290/obesity-map-full-hi-res.pdf
In the middle of this picture is the heat balance
So we can know that calorie balance is very important
But this article doesn’t keep preaching that calorie balance is the key to losing weight like other sites
If you don’t know what calorie balance is, you can probably imagine that our body has calorie consumption (exercise, thermogenesis, basal metabolism), and calorie intake (eating).
When calorie consumption exceeds calorie intake, the weight will drop, so the truth of weight loss is to eat less and move more, very simple. In the short term, it is really possible to simply achieve weight loss by eating less and moving more, but simplicity is not simple, because the operation of the body is very complicated. Many people think that they can control their calorie consumption, that they can achieve a lot of calorie expenditure by running all the time, and that eating fairy meals (low-calorie meals) can reduce calorie intake and then easily lose it.
However, according to research, 90% of people who use calorie control, eat less and move more to lose weight will fail or regain the weight.
Because eating less and moving more for too long, metabolism will easily drop, hormones will easily become imbalanced, and muscle mass will easily be lost. Even if you lose 10 kilograms, you will easily regain weight.
When losing weight, the body is like a factory
For me, the key to long-term weight loss and maintaining good posture is the environment in the body, such as hormones, the level of inflammation in the body, and the gastrointestinal system.
Think of the body as a factory
-Your hormones are the managers and workers of factory operations
-Inflamed condition is how good factory machinery and hardware are
-Calorie intake is wages for factories as well as fuel
If the manager of this factory is an idiot, or if the hardware in your factory is completely rotten, then no matter how it works, it will create a pile of waste. Just as our hormones are already out of balance and the level of inflammation in the body is very high, no matter how much you eat, if you don’t solve the existing problems, it will easily accumulate into fat. It may be easier to understand with a few examples.
Hormones vs Weight Loss
This study looked at the effects of sleep and weight loss
Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20921542
Both groups of humans were calorie-restricted, but one group slept 5.5 hours a night and the other 8.5 hours. Both groups lost weight, but the group that slept less lost 55 percent less body fat and 65 percent more muscle mass than the group that slept more. It is equivalent to losing weight, but most of the loss is muscle mass, which reduces metabolism and makes it easy to regain weight later.
There is such a big difference mainly because poor sleep has a negative impact. The imbalance of the secretion of these things will easily increase fat and reduce muscle.
This next study looks at the effect of insulin sensitivity on body composition!
Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19471290
Basically, many chronic metabolic diseases, obesity, and poor muscle-building effects are closely related to low insulin sensitivity. Insulin is an anti-catabolic hormone whose main function is to store nutrients in cells. For example, after heavy training, our muscles will be more sensitive to insulin, and the nutrients we eat will be more easily absorbed into the muscles. When insulin sensitivity is low, the nutrients we eat are more likely to be stored as fat rather than absorbed into muscles.
We can simply say that the nutrients in the food eaten by people who are insulin insensitive are more likely to be stored as fat, and the relative fat mass will be much higher than the muscle mass.
To put it simply, the key to losing weight is actually to improve hormones, improve inflammation in the body, and add an appropriate calorie deficit. It is not difficult to achieve a calorie deficit. What is more difficult is how to choose the type of food that suits your body to improve hormones and achieve a long-term good body.
If you only pursue short-term weight loss and rely on a lot of calorie deficits to achieve the effect of weight loss, and then the hormones are still the same after the loss, then I can guarantee that you will gain weight very easily.
With so many ways to eat on the internet, which diet should I try?
When talking about losing weight in Taiwan 30 years ago, everyone would definitely want to use boiled meals
When it came to losing weight five years ago, everyone might think of using a low-sugar diet. When it came to losing weight in the past two or three years, everyone might directly think of the ketogenic diet.
I lost 30kg in 3 months on a low-sugar diet myself for the first time, so I used to believe that a low-sugar diet was the best way to lose weight
But after my long-term understanding of weight loss-related research, genetic cognition, and observation of students, there is no diet that is most suitable for everyone! Although it is said that high-carbohydrate foods will most stimulate insulin secretion, which in turn promotes the storage of nutrients into fat, some people are naturally good at metabolizing carbohydrates, so they can still be healthy and strong after eating high-carbohydrate throughout their lives.
For example, this study compared the responses of people with high and low insulin sensitivity to high- and low-carb diets.
Research source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/oby.2005.79
The study concluded:
-For people with high insulin sensitivity, eating high-carb and low-fat to lose weight is very helpful
-However, people who are insulin insensitive use a high-carb low-fat diet to lose fat, but the weight loss effect is not so good.
But on the contrary, studies have also shown that people with low insulin sensitivity have a very good weight loss effect on a low-carb high-fat diet, which shows that improving insulin is very important for weight loss, and it also shows that people with insulin insensitivity are more suitable
Lose weight with a high-carb diet.
So if you have been obese for a long time, you know that you eat carbohydrates easily, or you know that you have diabetes in your family and want to lose fat, then I would suggest that you can start by reducing carbohydrates, which is what we call low carb diet!
The Negative Impact of E-Levy on Mobile Banking.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Mobile Banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution that allows its customers to conduct financial transactions remotely using a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet.
Electronic Transaction Levy or “E-Levy” is a tax applied on transactions made on electronic or digital platforms.
ADVANTAGES OF MOBILE BANKING
Mobile banking offers numerous benefits such as ease of transaction, convenience, time-saving, managing your finances, and budgeting. Some advantages of Mobile Banking in remote areas include:
Financial Inclusion — mobile banking offers convenient and easy banking services to people in remote areas. Thus, it allows banking on the go and offers all benefits of a banking system to rural areas without the presence of a financial institution.
Accessing the bank 24/7 — Mobile banking provides ubiquitous banking services without the need to visit the bank to have access to services. This offers time to benefit and ease of transacting at a distance.
Cost-benefit — Mobile banking saves the banks the cost of building physical infrastructures (branches) and maintaining branches and staff. Also, reduced costs on the customer side since the burden of visiting the bank for services is eliminated.
Improving resilience in the face of poverty — Mobile money acts as both a savings vehicle and a means of transferring funds during times of economic or environmental shocks.
Strengthening the formal economy — For many micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), opening a mobile money account can facilitate access to formal financial services. Mobile money is well placed to address the issue of informality that blights many developing economies and hampers domestic resource mobilization efforts. Mobile Money enables ease of transacting, thus increasing business profits for MSMEs.
Facilitating economic growth — Mobile money has been shown to contribute to economic growth by increasing both productivity and per capita incomes
DISADVANTAGES OF E-LEVY ON MOBILE BANKING
The design of mobile money taxation policy appears to be the antithesis of a well-designed tax system. The disadvantages include:
Inequity — Mobile money taxes as currently structured to create inequity in the tax system. As the tax is mostly borne by the poor and users of the services are subject to additional taxation (unlike bank or cash transactions), the principles of both horizontal and vertical equity in the tax system are contravened.
Uncertainty -. Uncertainty and lack of transparency over taxation systems can have a direct impact on the operations of the tax authority, increasing enforcement costs, as well as discouraging investment.
Inconvenience — The administration of mobile money transaction taxes creates an inconvenience for MMPs who must calculate and collect the tax on the revenue authority’s behalf. There is an additional inconvenience for users of the service for whom remote digital transactions become more expensive or out of reach if they revert back to cash.
Inefficiency — Badly designed mobile money taxes have been shown to have a distortionary impact on demand for mobile money services. This in turn has had negative impacts on overall tax takes, as well as impacting the attainment of national economic and development goals.
EFFECT OF MOBILE BANKING — CASE STUDIES
The decision to impose taxes on mobile bank transactions will trigger so many problems.
Ghana — According to The Fourth Estate Ghana; Although the government projects a 24% decline in transactions when the levy is finally implemented, preliminary findings published by the bank of Ghana indicate the value of mobile money transactions had dropped by 3.2 billion in December 2021, less than 2 months after the proposal to introduce E-levy.
Uganda — An e-levy of 1% introduced in 2018 has led to an overall drop in the person-to-person transaction by more than 50%, and a 24% drop in industry transactions within the same year the tax was introduced according to a report by Global system for mobile communication (GSMA).
Congo — An e-levy of 1% was introduced in 2019. The government had to reverse the tax on cash outs only due to negative results of the levy on Mobile money users such as a decline in mobile money agents (unemployment) and high-value withdrawals by people.
Other countries include Benin (5%) and Cameroun (0.2%). In all these countries, the e-levy has imposed a negative effect on the economy and people. If we want to ensure the financial inclusion of people in rural areas, we need to ensure that we encourage mobile banking by withdrawing the e-levy tax.
Reference:
https://thefourthestategh.com/2022/03/16/e-levy-this-is-what-happened-when-other-african-countries-passed-it/
Purohit, S., & Arora, R. (2021). The benefits and challenges of mobile banking at the Bottom of the pyramid. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government Vol, 27(1).
Charles G. Kpan, Jr. is an Information Technologist with over 5 years of experience in the provision of Information Technology Services and an emphasis on Web Development and Visual Branding. He’s the managing Director of CYGEC IT SOLUTIONS INC. and holds a bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology from Blue Crest University, Liberia.