Working at home has become the norm today. With Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, announcing that all his employees can work remotely ‘forever’ and other forward-thinking companies following suit, remote working will become even more popular in the coming years. Of course, the Global Pandemic plays a role in people’s decisions to have a home office, the trend actually began years ago.

We bumped into Nimrod Santo—a direct response marketer and online entrepreneur with some pizzas and he gave us a few tips on the things we can do to set up a comfortable home office. Nimrod’s telemarketing business and his online entrepreneurial network has made him the king of ‘sit-at-home’ and remote space, and he had invaluable lessons for us. Let’s give it to Nimrod.

Thank you for honoring our invitation. Do you think remote working will become the norm this decade?

Remote working is already a trend. A recent Pew Research study showed that people preferred to work from home at least three days in a week and work from the office the remaining two days. So, will the trend become popular across all industries? Yes.

People are embracing the idea of remote working and companies are shifting their product-value and innovative efforts to accommodate stay-at-home employees and entrepreneurs.

What are the three must-haves in your home office, and why?

The space: I am particular about my space—whether in the home or in my actual office. When I work from home, I love a space that looks over a nature. Imagine working on your balcony—and the balcony sits across a beach—or a sea view. It’s beautiful. If I cannot achieve a natural aesthetic space, I use wall papers.

The furniture: I have seen many people bother about everything when creating their space—and then they are lackadaisical about their furniture. It’s not just about the aesthetics. You must consider comfort and health when choosing a home-office furniture. Choose one that will help you sit upright. If your space is large enough, you can create another furniture piece where you get to stand and work.

The design: I always have amazing design ideas, but I am not a home decorator. Most times, I hire a home decorator to get the ideas from my mind into my space.

What is the most important factor for a home office?

Privacy. When you have a home office, it’s easy to think, I am at home. Time flies, and before you get to do any meaningful work, it’s evening—and then it is night. I love my home office to be secluded from any other person. Seclusion sends a message to everyone that I am busy, so, everyone is mindful of not getting me distracted.

Do you prefer a home office to a real office space?

I love my home office, and because of the nature of my business, it’s more fun. But I cannot work from home every day, all day long—it gets boring.

I am a private person, so I don’t like taking meetings in my home. I spend most of my weekdays at home and weekends in the office. There isn’t a preference for me; I love both types of spaces.

Can you list the five things we should factor in when creating a home office?

• Comfort
• Privacy
• Aesthetics
• Sufficient space
• Lack of distractions

Once those factors are achieved, you will be more productive working from home.

Read Next: Tech’s towering challenge – if the future is Working From Home, what are we going to do with all those skyscrapers we bought?

If you’re looking to expand your business horizon’s, the internet is the doorway to all of the world. You won’t get a bigger audience anywhere else than the audience you have at your disposal online.

Running an entirely digitally based business operation calls for an even more refined ability in terms of digital design. Take some time from your day to investigate the opportunity to fine tune your business operation with a few digital web design tips, and take a chance on earning more money.

Design a clutter free spot

If you want a solid business website, keep your pages free from excess clutter. A busy homepage makes people run away for fear of spam.

Keep your design clear and to the point, so users can get right down to business. Less clutter also serves the purpose of presenting a more professional image to web users.

Simple design styles are useful

The general layout and function of your business website should be simple. Web users should have no problem finding the information they’re seeking.

Simple navigation design is a good start to an effective design. This online gun store website hosts a clear and simple design that makes shopping easy for passing users.

Mobile friendly design is critical

The introduction of the mobile-first index concept by Google means that it would be folly to launch a business website that wasn’t optimized to please mobile users online. Mobile-friendly design is critical to relevance in the digital world today.

Make sure your pages will automatically adapt to the size and display settings of whatever mobile device is visiting at the time, and you’ll find your pages to be far more effective at reaching your target audience.

Clear communication efforts

You want your business website to be designed in such a way that it encourages a trusting bond between your company and your target user. Start the road to rapport by working a clear communication effort into your business website design.

Leave phone numbers, email contacts, and even a physical address for users to investigate and understand more about your operation. Include an email sign-up or contact form within your website’s design as well, so you can strike up a two way conversation with users as soon as interest is shown.

Incorporate the concepts of SEO

Search engine optimization is crucial to the design of your business website, because it is crucial to your visibility online. If you’re not ranking well in the SERPs (search engine results pages), users will have a hard time finding your pages in the first place. Learn what it means to have proper SEO within your design, and build from what you learn.

 

Obtaining a small business loan from a bank can be a tricky maneuver. Even some private lenders are not all that eager to lend to certain kinds of businesses. In many cases, banks and private lenders request a guarantor before they agree to write a loan.

If you have ever been in that position, perhaps you still don’t quite understand the whole guarantor thing. This post is for you. It will explain everything you need to know about the guarantor in the simplest possible terms. As a side note, there are ways around guarantors. One of them is to seek out a hard money loan from an organization like Salt Lake City-based Actium Partners.

Actium Partners has a lot more flexibility to work with certain kinds of borrowers. If a borrower’s collateral is exceptionally strong, the likelihood of that borrower needing a guarantor is pretty slim. With that said, let us move on to discussing guarantors and how they work.

A Basic Definition

Actium Partners explains that a guarantor is an individual or business entity that agrees to guarantee repayment of another individual or business’s debts. Imagine you are a small business owner in need of debt refinancing. A fellow business owner may act as your guarantor at the request of your bank. In such a case, that person would be promising to pay the loan in the event you default. Note there is a difference between a guarantor and cosigner. That difference will be discussed later in this post.

Two Types of Guarantors

The laws in most states recognize two types of guarantors. They are limited and unlimited. A bank will determine which type of guarantor it needs on a case-by-case basis.

Limited Guarantors

A limited guarantor is one whose liability is limited in terms of loan percentage, loan terms, etc. For example, a limited guarantor might only be asked to guarantee 50% of the value of the loan in question. Or the guarantor may be required to guarantee the loan for a limited amount of time. At the end of that period, the borrower takes full responsibility for the loan.

Unlimited Guarantors

An unlimited guarantor is exactly the opposite. This individual or business entity guarantees the loan until it is completely paid off. The guarantor’s liability is irrespective of loan value and terms. This is obviously the more risky position to be in, so individuals and businesses must do their due diligence before agreeing to act as an unlimited guarantor.

Guarantors Are Not Cosigners

There is some confusion between the guarantor and cosigner. For the record, cosigners are rarely utilized in commercial transactions. They are more of a retail thing. Nonetheless, cosigners are worth discussing just to make sure there is no confusion.

Guarantors and cosigners both agree to guarantee the debt of someone else. However, the legal difference between them lies in the individual interests they have in the transaction. A cosigner has an interest in an asset involved in the deal. For example, you may have two property investors who have equal interest in a particular asset. If that asset is used as collateral to obtain a loan for just one of the parties, the other party may be required to act as cosigner.

A guarantor has no interest in a shared asset. This is important for legal reasons, but also in terms of surety as well. Sometimes guarantors are required to pledge their own collateral as surety for a loan.

Hopefully you now understand the basics of guarantors and what they do. Guarantors are a normal part of traditional business lending.

 

We live in a world where we do not always get what we want. Sometimes we fail; other times, we succeed. Sometimes we work so hard for a goal that the pain can become physical if we do not achieve those goals.

A lot of people tend to give up after a series of failures. However, if you do not try, you might as well not make it.

Business is one place where failure can be expected. One out of every five enterprises is doomed to fail. Does that fact stated mean that you should not launch your own business? Absolutely not.

We spoke to Jacques Poujade, the managing partner and financial consultant at LendPlus—a real estate brokerage firm, and he had a lot to teach us about failure and rejection.

A smart investor should be savvy enough to make speculations on the direction of the economy. https://t.co/iTT15MlVSs

— Jacques Poujade (@PoujadeJacques) November 12, 2020

 

Failure and Rejection are a Part of Business and Life

The moment you stop seeing your shortcomings as failures, you will begin to succeed some more. Business is tough, and you will make mistakes. You might make the wrong move, lose a potential investor, squander business funds on personal purchases, and make an embarrassment of yourself. It’s only standard.

Have you heard of billionaires who failed thoroughly? You may begin to ask, ‘how did they fail after achieving so much?’ The gospel truth is that anyone can fail. Anyone can be rejected; therefore, the next time you fail or you are rejected, buckle up, learn, and go at it.

There Should be no Do-or-Die Affair with Business

I have heard many motivational speakers advise their audience to keep going. One picture I have seen on social media that baffles me is the picture of a butterfly tied to a big rock. The motivational speaker then says, ‘You can do anything as long as you believe.’

Do not get fooled by people who do not run businesses. How can you take real estate advice from a motivational speaker who has never successfully made a massive success from real estate?

Business, especially within the real estate industry, relies on facts, figures, skills, people skills, and more. There is a lot to learn, and sometimes, the best way forward will be to quickly dump a property before the loss completely drains your finances.

I am not advocating for you to give up easily; I am only advising you to treat business objectively and not with emotions. I have recently been featured on USA Daily Chronicales where I talked about the real estate trends last year and what might be next for 2021. You can check the full interview here: https://www.usadailychronicles.com/2020-real-estate-trends-roundup-with-jacques-poujade/

When you Fail, Ask Why?

They say once bitten, twice shy. Do not lament; instead, ask yourself, ‘why did I fail.’ Growth comes from understanding why one failed in a particular venture.

If you can define the reasons for your failure and the mistakes you made, you will realize just what not to do next time you are faced with similar circumstances. It is even more accurate for the real estate business—and business in general.

You pitched an idea to an investor, and he says ‘no.’ You need to ask why he rejected you. Perhaps there are so many loopholes in the proposal. Whatever it is, you cannot know until you ask.

Keep Moving and Keep Being Innovative

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that life can have a ridiculous change in direction. December 2019 was excellent. Who knew we would be thrown into a lockdown in 2020? No one saw it come; however, every company that had been innovative and fluid about their ways of performing duties remained relatively functional and profitable during the lockdown.

Do not wait until the problem comes before you find a solution. Seek the solution to the issues you envision even before they happen.

Do It

Never allow the fear of failure and rejection to hold you from achieving your dreams. Failure and rejection are all a part of life. Lessons must be learned, and what better way to learn a lesson than from personal experience.

Learn quickly, do not fall into the same pit twice, and do whatever it takes to grow. Be optimistic about your failures. Celebrate your little victories, and live a happy life.

 

In today’s world, just about every business is going to need internet access. It’s nearly impossible to thrive if you don’t have some sort of internet access, even if that means internet access from your home computer. However, rural areas have found themselves without effective internet access for many years. If you currently have DSL internet access and you’re looking to upgrade, consider these steps to finding alternatives for your rural small business.

Step One: Ask Yourself the Important Questions

First off, you’re going to need to ask a couple of questions before you can upgrade. These questions are important because they can help you decide whether you need to upgrade and what speed you might need in your upgraded internet access. Here are a few of the most important questions to ask yourself.

• What internet services do you use every day and every week?
• How fast is your internet connection right now?
• Do you need an internet connection that’s faster than the one you currently have?
• Do you share your internet connection with customers?

Of course, these are only a few of the questions that you should probably ask yourself when you’re considering an upgrade. You may want to ask other questions, depending on your company’s unique situation.

Step Two: Research Different Internet Options

There are all sorts of different internet options available for companies nowadays. This includes companies in rural areas; with many internet options, you can receive high-quality and high-speed internet access even if you’re in a rural area. Here are a few of the internet options that might work for you.

• Satellite service
• Wireless internet
• Fiber-optic internet connection
• Cable internet
• Dial-up internet, especially as an emergency backup

Some of these options may be less effective than other options. For example, you don’t want to opt for dial-up internet as your only internet access because it’s unlikely to be fast enough for your needs. However, not all rural areas will have super high-end options like fiber-optic.

Step Three: Upgrade to the Right Option for Your Needs

Every company needs different internet access options. If you’re thinking about upgrading, it’s likely that you don’t have fast enough internet for your needs, and DSL definitely isn’t fast enough for most businesses nowadays. However, you might not know what is.

Your best bet is to do a lot of research. There are many different ways that you might be able to upgrade your internet access; satellite service, for example, offers internet access across nearly 100% of the United States. All you need to do is find the service that works best for your company’s needs and budget.

Conclusion

Even if DSL internet was the only internet option available for you at some point in the past, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s still the only internet option that you have available. There are plenty of options available for small businesses in rural areas. It’s all about what you need for your business to thrive. Don’t be afraid to draw on internet options other than DSL so you can provide your employees and your customers with a better experience.