Small Business Guide: How Can Cloud Pave a Path For the Future

Technological developments are taking place rapidly and we all need to keep up to survive in the competitive industry. Small businesses can feel a large amount of pressure to learn and adapt to the evolving landscape. But we have the cloud to help us with the transformation. With the cloud, one can work through the hindrances and adapt to the new technology with ease. Smart alternatives like QuickBooks cloud hosting make handling finances a much easier chore.

The cloud is already popular among business of all sizes for various work processes. The cloud has been entitled as the top trend in small businesses for digital transformation. With its many benefits and convenience of use, the cloud is the backbone of small-to-medium sized businesses enabling them to take full advantage of new technologies like artificial intelligence and Block-chain.

The cloud has become the driving factor for small businesses as it is providing what they need to stay ahead in the competition. The cloud is flexible, remotely accessible and extremely affordable as compared to a traditional setup, which is why it becomes an ideal choice.

The Cloud and the Data

A huge amount of data is collected by companies, but is that data being put to the right use? Data, when analyzed properly, can give you a clear strategic advantage and valuable business intel. But how can the cloud help?

The cloud and cloud-hosted applications, like cloud-based QuickBooks, give SMBs an affordable way to use advanced tools on aggregate data and apply algorithms to find out important information that can be applied for better growth of the organization.

You do not need to research and learn about new software or technology, you can integrate them to the applications you use every day and which already have access to your business data. Thus the cloud helps in increasing the efficiency and reducing the efforts you put in to give a simplified solution that helps to boost business.

The Cloud and Data Security

Cloud is the future, and it will soon become a basic that cannot be ignored. According to a study, 78% of businesses will be using cloud technology in some way by the year 2020. Now that you are on the cloud, you need to secure it well to use it wisely and avoid any kind of data breaches.

Data security is of utmost priority. Thus, it is important to create a well-thought security plan around the cloud. The infrastructure will have to be modified according to the hierarchy of access to successfully keep authorization in check.

If you opt for a third party cloud provider, it is their responsibility to secure the virtual server for QuickBooks hosting and to keep sensitive business data for being compromised. Almost all the companies that have embraced the cloud report that their security worries have decreased as the cloud platform is more secure.

The cloud is a technology that will benefit SMBs for years to come. And thus we should embrace this new technology and let it help our work processes to enhance business productivity and to thrive in the future.

How much superannuation is enough? Retirement Financial Planning

Others may be hoping to retire earlier because their current job is physically demanding.

Whatever your retirement goals, making sure you fulfil them is largely down to how much you have saved in your super. The government Age Pension may seem like a reassuring safety net, but it’s not really designed to fund the standard of living you’re probably hoping for.

With life expectancy for a 60 year old expected to rise from 86 for men and 89 for women now to 91 and 93 respectively by 2055, many of us will spend more than a quarter of our life retired.1 And as our population ages, it’s likely age pension entitlements will continue to change – making it more important than ever to be self-sufficient in retirement.

The life expectancy of Australians continues to rise, so you could spend more than a quarter of your life retired.

So when Retirement Financial planning you ask when can I retire?

The first decision you need to make is when to retire – and this will depend on many personal considerations. Start by checking your age pension entitlement age and ‘preservation age’ (when you can access your super) here.

For example, if you’re born in 1957 you’ll be eligible for the age pension at 67 but you can access your superannuation savings from the age of 55.

The amount of super you will need once you retire depends on:

the lifestyle you want
your health and medical bills
how long you live after retirement
any other one off or ongoing repayments or financial responsibilities.
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) Retirement Standard2 benchmarks the annual budget needed by Australians to fund either a comfortable or modest standard of living when they retire, and is updated quarterly.

ASFA defines three levels of living standards, and assumes you own your home outright and are relatively healthy.

Comfortable

A comfortable retiree could afford a decent annual holiday in Australia and eat out regularly at good restaurants. You would be able to make home improvements, have a reasonable car and hold private health insurance.

Modest

A modest lifestyle could afford you short holiday breaks in Australia, with some cheaper eating out at local restaurants. You could repair your home but wouldn’t have the funds for any major improvements. You might have an older car and private health insurance.

Basic

If you need to rely solely on the age pension, you would find additional expenses such as car repairs, leaking roofs and holidays a challenge. Even heating bills could cause you financial stress.

How much money will I need?

According to the ASFA Retirement Standard, a couple that owns their home and is relatively healthy needs $34,051 a year for a ‘modest’ lifestyle. For more ‘comfortable’ this rises to $58,784 a year. You can take a look at how this budget works out here.

So as part of your Retirement Financial planning saving enough for a comfortable retirement could be a challenge for a couple on the average wage. According to a 2015 report from the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST), a full-time worker on average wages from 1992 (when compulsory super began) to 2014 should have super assets of around $131,000, based on compulsory employer superannuation contributions alone.3 So without additional voluntary superannuation contributions being made by that full-time worker, they are likely to have a significant funding gap between their current super assets and the amount they need.

Remember, the ASFA figures are benchmarks that exist to help you work out if you have the super savings to fund the retirement lifestyle you want, and everyone’s expectations are different hence why Retirement Financial planning is personalise matter. Another approach is to assume you need two-thirds of your current salary to keep living the same sort of lifestyle you currently have.

It’s never too late to save

Even if you make modest additional contributions to your super later in life, it could still make a difference to the type of retirement you enjoy.

How Best Tradeline Companies Help Boost Your Credit Rate?

Adding the best tradeline companies has been the latest and easiest way to the new generation desirous to improve their credit score. No matter, whether you’ve absolutely no credit line or negative credit history, and intended to attain the potential of having a good credit score as per FICO standard, considering tradeline is a consistent way to reach your goal.

How it Help?

Best tradeline companies can help by adding your details as an authorized user (AU) to a pre-existing credit card with considerably long and desired credit score. With this, being an authorized user, you enjoy the credit history and characteristics linked with that particular account. Notably, AU cannot use that account, make any modification in it, nor would they’ve any responsibility to pay back the balance owed in it. The whole objective of the system, also refers to piggybacking has been recognized as a lawful approach to primary cardholders to add their spouses, children, nearest relations, employees or business partners to their accounts enabling them to avail the credit line advantages. While you don’t receive any physical card, once after authorization, the detailed credit card history will show on your (AU’s) credit status, and thus, your credit status will automatically increase.

How Much Credit Score You Can Attain?

That largely depends on how effectively you can choose best tradeline companies that can help you enjoy AU advantages of cards with a high limit and consistent background. In general, professional groups review your credit background and accordingly customize the best plan to enhance your credit score in the fastest and easiest way.

How It Will Be Beneficial for You?

Unsurprisingly, an enhanced credit score comes with numbers of benefits and a great opportunity to improve one’s quality of life. Simply put, with higher credit score which is accepted by credit rating companies including FICO, as you get entitlement to various loans like home loan, business loan, car loan, etc, good credit score typically fetches you less interest rate on mortgages, relaxed repayment terms, avoid down payments and more. In fact, whatever money you invest for buying a tradeline with greater credit rate, that will appear insignificant to the potential loss you likely to face with a less credit rate or no credit history.

How Do You Reach ‘The Best’?

Search for best tradeline companies through the internet. Check corporate website, evaluate services, reviews, and find one that appears genuine, affordable, and ready with sizable credit line options fitting to your need. Professional agencies evaluate your background to help you become an authorized user and reap the scopes of tradeline usage effectively in your upcoming financial decisions.

Is It a Legalized Service?

One of the most frequently asked questions is whether or not the services offered by best tradeline companies are lawful? To be precise, the system of becoming an authorized user is perfectly legalized; so long it’s not used deceptively. Ranging from the Federal Reserve Bank, the Federal Trade Commission to Attorney Generals have recognized credit piggybacking is perfectly a legal way to add some other individual to one’s existing credit card account, being an authorized user of it. This is been protected by Regulation-B under Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

Starting a Business Online – The Danger it Holds For a New Business

Not exactly the title you’d expect from someone who helps new business owners set up successful businesses, is it? Yet a definite danger lurks on the Internet for prospective business owners: the fact that building a business online looks so easy.

My wife checked out a new shopping district that was being built near our home one time. Only half the shops were occupied at that time. The old world look of the shops, though, got her thinking about her long-time daydream of starting her own chocolate shop.

She’s a highly skilled chocolatier who has for years sold her upscale line of chocolates on a small scale strictly by word of mouth. For years she’s daydreamed of opening her own shop in just the type of charming little area growing nearby.

The only thing that stopped her is her own lack of interest in putting aside all of her other interests to devote her whole attention to chocolate-making. When she spots a promising location, she daydreams for a moment. Then she remembers the commitment of money in renting the space, the extra equipment she’d have to buy, the time she’d have to put in, and the intensive planning and promoting she’d have to do to ensure it made money and didn’t turn into nothing more than an expensive hobby.

When your thoughts of starting a business include a physical location, startup costs, devoting specific times to running it, and the number-crunching to determine if you can make a profit, you’re forced to do some genuine planning. The risks are too high if you don’t.

That’s why the Internet can be a dangerous place to start a business. The barriers to succeeding aren’t obvious. You can be tempted to overlook them.

You don’t have to commit hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month to securing a physical location. A few bucks for a domain name and some lost-cost hosting takes care of that.

You don’t have thousands of dollars invested in equipment or inventory. In some Internet business models, you can start without paying a cent for either.

You don’t have specific store hours to keep. You’re free to assume (and many scammers online are quick to assure you) that a few hours of “spare time” will generate a hands-free money machine that requires no further effort.

And with that illusion of easy money, the tough work of planning how you’ll make your business profitable seems totally unnecessary.

Saying that the illusion of no-effort success makes the Internet a dangerous place to start a business, though, does not mean you shouldn’t do it. People succeed at building profitable businesses on the Internet. They’re the ones, though, who put the same effort and planning into it that a prospective business owner would put into starting a brick-and-mortar business.

Plan for your success instead of expecting it to come up and bite you on the butt. Recognize the costs you’ll have to face and the effort you’ll need to put into promoting your business to make it succeed. Become a true businessperson and not just a tirekicker.

You can succeed starting out your business in your spare time, but you have to use that spare time with a purpose and a plan. Now, that may sound too hard to those who cling to the dream of no-effort riches. But there’s very little I know that can match the sense of accomplishment that comes from guiding a business through those barriers to profitability. And it’s there for those who are willing to make the effort.