If you’ve decided to turn your hobby or a skill you are good at into a business, there are several things you need to make sure you have on your checklist beforehand. If you are planning to operate your own business in the future, then you might consider checking out  Money Brighter to learn how to start an llc in texas in 6 simpler steps.

In today’s gig economy, more and more professionals are deciding to become self-employed or work in some sort of freelance capacity.

As job security is on the decline, there has been a shift  from traditional permanent employment towards work-from-home roles, contracted positions and project-based work.

In reality, there are different kinds of being your own boss and, although transitional, each of them has its own specifics.

Knowing if you’d like to be a freelancer, a sole business owner or an entrepreneur may turn out to be crucial for your future efforts and success as it will help you plan accordingly for the right kind of growth, saving you loads of time, money and headaches along the way.

Freelancing

Most people who make the choice to work independently start off as freelancers.

The reasons for that may be different – it may be seeking a better work/ life balance, a wish to perfect your craft and focus on this particular skill or service you are good at, or it may happen by accident while you still have a full time job.

Freelancing is a lot different to a full-time job with regular income to cover all your liabilities. There is no set work schedule to adhere to and no team to work with.

Freelancers often work on their own and may sometimes hire other freelancers or short-term contractors for some of their projects. Essentially, though, they are responsible for finding their own clients, setting their prices and managing deadlines.

Freelancers trade their time for money, they create a job for themselves and if they do not work, they do not get paid.

Freelance work is not scalable and sustainable – freelancers have no long-term commitment to any client and need to constantly be looking for projects. They tend to be particularly good at one skill but not experienced in others, which limits their capacity. Another drawback is that the amount of work and the size of their clientbase is limited by time as there are only that many hours in the day!

From freelancing to owning a small business – how to make it happen?

To begin with, if you want to have a small business, you need to build it larger than yourself. You would be focused on branding, sales, systems and processes to put in action so your business runs smoothly without you being directly involved day in and day out. You might want to think about taking out a loan, such as a loan for the self employed; as a way to help finance the additional costs needed to get to this point

This is the stage when you may take on your first few hires – maybe skilled junior staff you can train up gradually on your own terms.

Instead of you completing projects and being hands-on from start to finish, your efforts would be directed in managing your team to effectively do that.

As a small business owner, you need to feel more confident about your work and trade your services at least at market rate. If, when you were a freelancer, you did not invest in a professional website, now is the time to do so.

Small business owners still need to go to networking events themselves to look for clients, but they are able to pick the projects they want to work on and take on more varied tasks that they used to when they were freelancers.

Entrepreneurship – the ultimate goal

OK, so you have started from a busy do-it-all freelancer and grew your company with a small and trustworthy team. It has been a bumpy journey and you’ve probably had a lot of clients that did not want to pay or that were simply too risky to take on board but yet, you got to this point. What’s next?

If you are wondering about your next step, you are already on the track of entrepreneurship as you are now looking at the bigger picture and what you can do beyond your business.

Entrepreneurs think as leaders and are more prone to take higher financial risks.They have the opportunity to expand their potential further and take more varied and interesting projects. Entrepreneurs are in a position where they can afford to turn down a project they feel won’t bring the business high ROI.

Their mission is no longer simply to figure out how to pay the bills every month but  to solve problems and make the world a better place.

What is the single biggest advantage that today’s investors hold over previous generations? It’s not living in an age of opportunity; other time periods have provided ample chances for savvy investors to make money. Nor is it simply increased networking chances – networking is certainly easier today than ever before, but that’s not the greatest change.

I’d argue that the single biggest advantage the modern investor holds is the immense wealth of information at his fingertips. This may seem self-explanatory – of course, we know more than ever – but we’re going to narrow it a little further. How does modern software take advantage of that information to help investors manage their portfolio? We’ll look at four ways in particular. This is not a review of specific software products, though we may mention some in the course of the article.

Software Curates Information

The first point is slightly counter-intuitive. Software helps manage a portfolio by limiting information. That is, after all, what a curator does. He selects certain aspects of an art collection to display, or particular shows to air – increasing the value of the overall exhibit by limiting the number of pieces shown. 

Any random Google search of “investment,” “how to manage your portfolio,” “investment tips,” or any similar terms will return hundreds of thousands of pages about how best to manage your portfolio. It’s easy to get inundated with so much big-picture information that it becomes impossible to make accurate decisions. The problem is not limited to the strategic level. An active investor may have a dozen different portfolios on different websites and platforms, all with their own unique formats and available tools. Just learning the intricacies of each one can be a job itself!

A good software program helps to limit the total amount of information available, filtering out excess information or even false information to provide the investor accurate information needed to properly manage his investments. 

Software Centralizes Investments

How does good software curate information? Largely by centralising it. This is where software like Personal Capital and Mint come in. These are meta-level programs, bringing together information from as many online investment and financial management tools as an individual has, and centralizing them under one virtual roof. No need to open a dozen different programs at one time just to get a snapshot of your portfolio and expenses; open one program, and see the entire picture.

Centralizing your portfolios provides a level of convenience that encourages further investment. There’s no need to limit yourself to one or two online brokers so you can stay on top of things. The overall ease centralization provides encourages more tinkering with your portfolio, more examination of strengths and weaknesses. 

Software Informs Investors

First, software curates and filters information about your portfolio. Next, it can centralize that information. Having done those things, software then works to provide good information that leads to analysis. Good management software allows an investor to see the big picture when needed, and zoom in to the small details as necessary. It can provide general information on how your assets are allocated, what your cash flow looks like, and how retirement planning measures up. On a smaller level, software enables all the “simple” tasks, in real-time, which used to be done by mail or in person. The performance of particular investments, tracking individual portfolios as part of a bigger one, and a host of other information forms the basis for investors to make wise decisions about their overall portfolio.

Software Opens Opportunities

Finally, software opens opportunities. We’ve looked at some already – opportunities to use portfolio management software to see big-picture strengths and weaknesses and adjust as needed. That’s only one opportunity among many more. Take one sector, real estate, as an example. Tech-based investment platforms like Fundrise allow smaller investors to jump into real estate, while CRM software facilitates the interactions between the real estate investment firms and their investors.

The four ways we’ve looked at today operate on a big-picture level. Above all, software empowers investors, allowing nearly anyone, with large or small portfolios, to improve their investment strategies and overall positions.

Check out useful resources from the best webinar platforms to build a solid portfolio.

Technology and digitalization has taken over everything in 21^st century, even currency. Yes, you heard it right! Gone are the days when people used to invest their hard earned paper currency in stock-market. No more because people are now more interested in investing the digital currency or what is also called crypto-currency.

Though since last one decade there are a lot of cryptocurrencies that have come to origin like Altcoin, Bitcoin, Ripple, Litcoin and Libra among others but Bitcoin is the most famous among all the crypto-currencies in the market. Though there is no exact explanation for it but yes the unstable and volatile nature of Bitcoin is responsible for it to a great extent. People kind of have high hopes with the unstable nature of Bitcoin which always kinds of hikes up the price of the crypto-currency and have made thousands of people rich.

It will not be wrong to say that paper currency is outdated now and Bitcoin may soon take over the traditional currency.

How to define Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a digital currency that you cannot touch. You can see it on your computer and smart phones screens though, same thing as online banking. However, many people who are reading this article must be thinking that what is so special about Bitcoin? Why is it considered as the first choice for investment? Well have patience! You will get the answer in this very same article. Get more information about Bitcoin in Bitcoin era.

First of all, it is important to understand that how Bitcoin works?

Bitcoin works on the theory of Blockchain and algorithms and you need to understand algorithms for making the correct forecast regarding the value of Bitcoin in future. Once you have understood how algorithms work, you can go ahead and start investing in Bitcoin or even try the latest algorithm of the Bitcoin Loophole.

The best feature about Bitcoin is that it is not controlled by government or banks and is complete free from restrictions. Also the blockchain technology of Bitcoin keeps records of all the transactions occurred and so there is no chance of fraud and identity thefts, and hence is considered a safe mode of holding money.

Here are so of the advantages of Bitcoin that makes it superior to traditional currency:

• Bitcoin is one of the easiest and the most preferred method for online shopping. There is an e-wallet just like online banking where you can store Bitcoin, do transactions and pay for services.
• Bitcoin is a very famous form of trading all over the world and it is accepted as a mode of payment everywhere. Even the world’s largest software company Microsoft accepts Bitcoin as a mode of payment.
• Bitcoin gives people the independence to exchange currency and do the transactions without the involvement of any third party unlike traditional currency that is controlled by government and banks.
• The technology behind Bitcoin, which is, blockchain is what makes or breaks it. Thousands of computers during a distributed network use cryptological techniques to form a permanent, public record of every Bitcoin transaction that has ever occurred.
• This record is going to be very valuable for numerous things besides following the payment. Bitcoin is secure, open for all yet private at the same time. So, there is no chance of any fraudulent activities.

Each Bitcoin has a different code and the blockchain technology keeps a record of every transaction that ever took place, so there is no chance of any fraud activities here.

Danny Haber of oWOW is a real estate developer. oWOW has an impressive portfolio of investments around the world. His companies use innovative technologies and vertically-integrated solutions.

Danny Haber is the CEO and co-founder of oWOW, a real estate development company. The objectives of oWOW are clear: solve the housing crisis in the greater Bay Area, and build affordable housing for any income. We sat down with Danny for a full interview regarding the housing market, innovations, and trends heading into 2020.

Question: What do you foresee as the biggest challenges for the housing market in 2020?

Answer: ‘Over the years, I have learned a great deal about how the housing market works. On a basic level, demand/supply considerations are largely responsible for housing prices. There are demand-side factors and supply-side factors to consider. In the US, the Federal Funds Rate plays a critical role in the process. Currently, we are looking at a rate of 1.75%, and while the correlation between the FFR and bank lending rates is non-linear, there are certain correlations. For example, increases in the Federal Funds Rate invariably make the cost of short-term borrowing more expensive. This impacts discretionary spending (personal disposable income) by way of increased payments on credit cards, short-term loans, et cetera. The impact on long-term loans such as mortgages is real too. The lower the bank lending rate, the better it is for potential homeowners. In 2020, we are going to see an increase in the demand for affordable housing, particularly in San Francisco and surrounds. I think that the pledges from Facebook, Google, Apple and other big tech companies will help to accelerate the growth of new housing units, but it’s not sufficient to meet demand. The economy is booming – that means that there is low unemployment, steadily rising wages, and increased demand for housing. Consider that in 2018, US homeownership rose to 64.8% – the highest in many years. These trends are going to continue, and we need to curtail runaway property price growth so that younger generations like the millennials will be able to afford their own homes.’

Question: Why does San Francisco always get a bad rap when it comes to housing?

Answer: ‘San Francisco and the Bay Area are unique. This particular housing market is characterized by extremely high demand, by dint of the fact that the cultural, art, and technology scene leads the world. It is a cosmopolitan metropolis and arguably the biggest liberal enclave in all of the country. It attracts tourists from far and wide, boasts an eclectic mix of populations, and is highly desirable to many people. That being said, housing demand outstrips supply by a long margin. Many years ago, Proposition 13 passed, and while it was designed to protect existing homeowners from outrageous increases in real estate taxes, it had an unintended effect on new housing developments in and around the city. Property prices that were purchased for $100,000, 30 or 40 years ago may be selling for 10 times that amount at least. If you consider that the median house price in San Francisco and surrounds is $1.3 million – $1.5 million (depending on where you look), and the average rental price ranges between $3500 – $4500 (depending on where you look), it’s clear that there is something unique going on in this city. Proposition 13 limits property tax increases, meaning that city and town councils have to find alternative ways of generating revenue on new developments that are built. This often means that expensive licensing and development fees come into the picture. Unfortunately, these costs are passed on to tenants and homeowners in the form of higher prices. When you add excessive demand into the mix, it’s a recipe for disaster. The current building rate cannot keep pace with the existing demand. If 10 homes are required every year and only 2 homes are being built, you can understand why there is such a dilemma. And why do we have such incredible demand? Silicon Valley companies! The robust growth of major tech companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, and dozens of others means that more people are working in the city, and they need somewhere to live. Since 2008/2009, we have seen hundreds of thousands of new hires, yet new housing developments are sorely lacking. These are some of the issues that we are dealing with.’

Question: What types of solutions do you foresee?

Answer: ‘We need to stabilize prices for one thing. As a property developer myself, I also understand that if prices keep rising unchecked, this is going to have an adverse effect on the success of the metropolis. Think of it this way: if low-wage workers such as wait staff at restaurants, hotel workers, teachers (yes, I know it’s a shame), municipal workers, childminders, dog walkers, policemen, firemen, emergency workers, and others cannot afford to live in a city, that city will start to fall apart. We already have the worst homeless problem in the country, with thousands of people living on the streets, in their cars, in tents, or in shelters. These are issues that we need to address quickly. From my perspective, it’s important to cater to low-to-middle-income earners just as much as it is to provide high-end units for the well-heeled. That’s why my company – oWoW- is invested in providing luxury-style living 50% cheaper than the going rate. Our model works because we are a small, integrated company with a hands-on approach to everything that we do. We focus on paring the right people together in apartments, and managing existing square footage as effectively as possible so that everybody can live comfortably in their own space. We do this by way of MacroUnits and a flexible wall system known as Magic Walls. These pre-fabricated designs are built offsite, allowing us to rapidly deploy them and rent out the apartments that we have renovated. Granted, this is a drop in the bucket for a much bigger problem that San Francisco and the Bay Area currently faces. We are doing our part, and we are seeing results.’

Question: When do you think things will turn around in San Francisco and the Bay Area?

Answer: ‘Things are already turning around. It’s hard to see the big picture when there is so much negative press making the rounds. However, we already see results in Oakland California, where we are operational. For example, our developments in 1919 Market Street, 674 23rd Street, and 316 12 Street are success stories. We can proudly say that we accommodate people across the spectrum. Our buildings house educators, tech workers, artists, entrepreneurs, pretty much every other possible vocation you can think of. It’s an eclectic mix of people to say the least. This gives us hope that it is possible to build communities in forgotten places. We take abandoned or condemned buildings, and bring them up to code so that they are places where people really want to live. More importantly, it’s the type of quality you seek at prices you can afford. Now if we can propagate this same thinking in other enclaves, it will be terrific. There are nine counties in the Bay Area, there are lots of jobs available, and it’s a competitive market for sure. There has been a notable cooling heading into Q4 2019, and counties like Alameda are attracting people that have lost confidence in property prices in San Francisco. Watch this space – its unfolding right before our eyes!

You can connect with Danny through LinkedIn, and Twitter.