The online learning industry has expanded in recent years
and further growth is expected. By 2025, the sector is predicted to generate revenue
of over $325 billion. With the potential to triple its value in just ten
years, it’s easy to see why so many entrepreneurs and budding businesses are
focusing on online learning management systems.

As the industry grows, it will bring new job opportunities
and career paths with it. If you want to be part of the eLearning boom, take a
look at these top tips for what it takes to succeed in the industry.

1. Business Acumen

Any successful manager or entrepreneur needs to develop good
business
acumen. Understanding the market, predicting future developments, and
having in-depth knowledge of how to leverage corporate structure for financial
gain are key attributes of effective business owners.

Whether you choose to launch your own online learning firm
or join an existing enterprise, possessing business acumen is advantageous.
While eLearning is focused on online education, the organisations within the
industry are operating to generate revenue. Being able to increase this revenue
and secure a bigger market share will ensure you can look forward to a
glittering career within the industry.

2. Understand Education

Effective eLearning is about much more than making materials
available online. Although many people will seek to capitalise
on the eLearning industry in the next decade, few will have a thorough and
nuanced understanding of education.

By enhancing your understanding of education, you will bring
unrivalled insight into your next role within the sector. Formal training in
education will give you the opportunity to delve into critical issues and concepts,
such as:

• How do we learn?
• What hinders the learning process?
• Does the environment affect learning methods?
• Group vs. individual learning
• What improves learning outcomes?
• How can learning be measured?

As you might expect, these types of issues are at the core
of the eLearning industry. When combined with business acumen and commercial
awareness, they are the backbone for a successful career within the online
learning sector.

Many people assume that you need to train to be a teacher in
order to study education in detail. While this is certainly an effective way to
understand education, it isn’t the only way to gain the knowledge you need to
succeed in the eLearning landscape.

There are a number of highly respected programs designed for
non-teaching professionals, which enable you to increase your understanding of
education. At the University
of Exeter Online, you can advanced post-graduate qualifications in
education easily into your life, even if you don’t have previous experience in
teaching.  What’s more – completing a
post-grad program online will give you key insights into what it means to be a
student within an eLearning environment!

Studying online is an ideal option at post-graduate level,
as many people want to continue working on a full-time basis while completing
their qualification. In addition to this, completing a post-grad program online
typically means:

• Lower fees
• More flexibility
• The ability to pace your learning
• The opportunity to use your skillset in
  real-world settings

If you want to develop a career within the online learning
sector, becoming an eLearning student will give you an exceptional
understanding of key industry issues. Furthermore, obtaining an advanced
qualification in education will establish your specialism and give you the
skills you need to thrive in a growing sector

3. Tech Knowledge

Online learning is centred around technology, so it’s
beneficial to have a good understanding of what it takes to create a great
learning management system. Online learners prioritise a number of factors when
selecting online learning tools, including:

• Reliability
• Accessibility
• Compatibility
• Intuitive UX
• Security

Depending on your target market, you will need to ensure
your future learning platforms offer an enjoyable, stimulating, and rewarding
experience to students, as well as improving
learning outcomes. Although you may choose to work with developers and
designers to create an innovative learning platform, having an understanding of
the technology driving the industry is always beneficial.

Building a Career in eLearning

The internet has changed the way we live, and it’s certainly
revolutionised the way we learn. With information at our fingertips, we can
access any type of data within seconds and connect with experts across a number
of platforms.

As more educational
institutions and private companies seek to implement online learning
opportunities for students and employees, the future of eLearning is undeniably
bright. For the savvy entrepreneurs who choose to hone their business acumen,
develop their understanding of education and enhance their tech skills, the
online learning sector offers unrivalled opportunities.

Prototyping
is the critical step between initial design and mass production. Skipping
prototyping is always a mistake since you risk launching a product that doesn’t
work or fails to meet customer expectations. Delays in prototyping can delay
the release of your product, and poor quality prototypes may lead to incorrect
design decisions. On the other hand, choosing the right prototyping service and
making other good decisions during this process can save your company time and
money during this critical step. Here are eight questions you should ask when
prototyping a product.

How have Previous Solutions Fallen Short of Market
Expectations?

It is far
less painful to learn from another’s mistakes than to make them yourself. So,
before you start, you have to do an honest assessment of the solutions to the
problem you’re trying to solve and try to determine why they failed. Were their
products too expensive for their customers? Was it too difficult to use?
Understand why they fell short of market expectations so that you don’t make
the same mistake.

You’ll
also notice that it’s rarely because the product was delivered ahead of schedule.
For example, the answer might be that the devices they offered were too slow or
inconvenient for the modern consumer. Read customer reviews before you make
assumptions about your product being better. What would keep them from buying
the product, and what makes them regret the purchase they made? These are all
questions that will allow you to refine your product, and give your clients
exactly what they need.

What are Customer’s Behavior Patterns?

A good
rule of thumb is to always make your product fit the customer’s current habits.
If you change how they do things, there better be a very good reason. For
example, people will use more expensive disposable straws before they buy a
reusable straw that has to be purchased and then sterilized.

Understand
how your target audience uses current products to solve their problems. A
product that’s too different will be disregarded in favor of the familiar. This
is why successful wearable devices tend to be more similar to watches.

Understand
the ergonomics of your target user base, and ensure that your products
literally fit them. If the item is too large, heavy or hard to use, they won’t
use it. This knowledge can prevent you from adding features that get in the way
of the product’s core purpose, too.

What is your Turnaround Time?

Once
you’ve finalized your initial design, it is time to find a prototyping service
to make the first prototype. Understand that prototypes are intended to be
rough, disposable, initial versions of the product. It won’t be perfect the
first time, and you’ll probably need several iterations to get a good final
design to hand off to production. This means you’ll want to get each prototype
back as soon as possible for user feedback and product testing. You’ll also
find that the best prototyping services balance speed with quality of work.

What Services do You Offer that can Improve the
Prototyping Service?

You can
find a variety of CNC services online, and they all have a different scope of
service. Some will allow you to send them your design files, and the online CNC
machining service will make it in their shop and ship you a prototype. That
allows startups and small businesses to quickly get a working prototype,
assuming the design is viable.

However, there are CNC prototyping services that will go the extra mile and give you invaluable advice on improving the design and electronics compliance. For example, prototype machining company Rapid Direct has a blog where they discuss design for manufacturability or DfM. They touch on recent tools that have come out online that allow you to upload a CAD file and grade the manufacturability of a part. You could use this information to make changes to the design to make it cheaper and easier to manufacture before you ask them to make it for you.

How do we Communicate Design changes?

Some
prototyping manufacturing services require you to place a brand new order and
pay full price yet again if you ask for a modified version of the original
prototype. Other companies allow you to make modest changes to the design and
order a few more. You want a team that will be as flexible as possible and will
leave you some space for some alterations.

On the
other hand, you also need a process for receiving feedback regarding their
proposed changes to the design during their manufacturing process. You want to
know when they’re having problems 3D printing or injection molding the product.
You can’t maintain your schedule if you don’t know about delays until it is too
late. You should also know what the process is if you want to order an
additional three prototypes for testing.

Do you use Non-Disclosure Agreements?

You don’t
want to hand your design to a prototyping service that won’t respect your
intellectual property rights. You also can’t afford for one of their employees
to discuss your product development with other companies that might steal the
idea. Ensure that they have a non-disclosure agreement they use and enforce so
that your prototype is protected. This is crucial if you
hope to get a patent for the product.

How Much Do You Charge for the Manufacturing of
the Prototype?

Cost is a
factor in the selection of a prototyping service, but it is far from the most
important one. For example, it is worth paying more for a service that can not
only make it according to your plans but gives advice on how to make it faster
and cheaper. You also can’t afford a cheap prototyping service that takes weeks
to send you a working unit.

You should
ask about the materials that are available as well. Some companies offer low
prices because they’ll only make the prototype out of cheaper materials. This
could result in an inferior prototype. Then you waste money on a prototype that
falls apart in the user’s hands or fails during performance testing even though
one made of the same material as the production version would survive.

A good
company will be able to give you advice on which materials would be the best,
and which ones could cause trouble. Some pieces might absolutely need to be
made out of metal, and in some cases, polymers and plastic might work. So, make
sure that you work with a team that will be ready to give you some suggestions,
and look at the suggestions with your development team.

What other Services do You Offer?

3D
printing is commonplace. CNC machining is commonly available, as well. Sheet
metal fabrication isn’t as common. The best prototyping services offer all
three so that they can make every piece of your prototype in house. This
simplifies the manufacturing process and typically speeds it up. It also helps
protect the intellectual property itself since the prototyping service will not
have to share your design information with third parties in order to
manufacture the item.

Conclusion

Take the
time to ask questions during the design and prototyping process. Rushing
through this critical phase can cost you dearly later.

To prevent the spread of
coronavirus (COVID-19), face-to-face businesses around the world have been
forced to shift to remote operations. This shift has proved to be particularly
difficult for traditional investment brokers, many of which still rely on face-to-face
contact with clients. Fortunately, online brokerages have been able to take on
the additional demand for brokerage services.   

Given their growing popularity,
we thought now would be a good time to take a deeper look at online
brokerages and determine whether they’re an effective investment platform
for today’s turbulent economic conditions.  

What Are Online Brokerages?

The term “online brokerage”
refers to a class of brokerage firms that use digital interfaces to both host
their services and communicate with clients. Unlike a conventional broker,
investing through an online brokerage does not require face-to-face
consultation. By shifting their services to the web, online brokerages do not
have to maintain or staff brick-and-mortar business fronts.

In comparison to a conventional
brokerage service, online brokerages—which benefit from very low running costs—are
usually far more affordable when it comes to brokerage and account fees. What’s
more, many online brokerages offer additional affordability bonuses. For
instance, top Canadian brokerage Questrade offers zero account keeping fees and
$0 brokerage for exchange-traded fund (ETF) products.

The Economic Impacts of
COVID-19

To combat the spread of the
COVID-19 pandemic, the international community has implemented strict
containment and social distancing policies, shuttering non-essential businesses
and, for all intents and purposes, locking down the global economy. While
unquestionably necessary, there’s no doubt that COVID-19 prevention measures
have wreaked
havoc on global equity markets.

In the U.S. and Canada, dozens of
industries, especially businesses in the tourism and entertainment sector, have
been pushed to the brink by the ongoing wipe-out in earnings. According
to the U.S. Commerce Department, month-to-month retail sales have already
fallen by a staggering 8.7 percent. U.S.
unemployment data is similarly bleak, with slightly more than 10 percent of
the domestic workforce, some 16 million people, losing their jobs over a three
week period. Unfortunately, the economic impacts of COVID-19 are not isolated
to North America., comparably bleak figures have been recorded in the
Indo-Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Although it recently recorded an
encouraging rally, the benchmark S&P 500 index (sitting at 2,783 points as
of April. 16) is still a long way from its record high of 3,386 points on Feb.
19. When you consider that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, it’s
entirely possible—maybe even likely—that global equity markets will undergo
further falls.

Why It’s Still a Good Time to
Invest

On the surface, you might think
it’s crazy to even consider investing in today’s hyper-volatile geo-economic
environment. However, as anyone who’s seen “The Big Short” would tell you,
financial crises pose unique opportunities to savvy investors.

Broadly speaking, when retail
investors rush to take their money out of the market, they’ll often leave
behind a treasure trove of distressed assets and undervalued stocks. Remember,
looking for opportunities during a market downturn doesn’t mean you should go
out and buy every cheap stock on the market. There are a lot of
under-valued equities on offer right now, but you have to be discerning.

If you’re in a position to
invest, opening an account with an online brokerage will give you access to a
wide range of low-cost stocks, bonds, and commodities. By getting a 20 percent
to 30 percent discount on these assets, your portfolio will be primed for
significant growth when the global economy starts back up and markets
inevitably begin to recover. Encouragingly, there are several factors which
suggest that the global economy might recover sooner than expected.

The first factor is the extraordinary
level of monetary and fiscal stimulus being hurled at the global economy. On
March 26, the collective economies of the G20 announced that they would be injecting
over $5 trillion into the global economy, mostly via central bank monetary
stimulus and liquidity operations. In the U.S, the Federal Reserve has
committed to buying an unlimited amount of Treasury Bonds, corporate debt, and
municipal bonds. These unprecedented measures show that central banks are
willing to do anything to pull the global economy out of recession.  

The second key factor is the fact
that the international COVID-19 outlook is slowly improving. While we’re not
out of the woods yet, many countries have experienced a slowdown in the rate of
new cases. For instance, in the U.S., models for the rate of new COVID-19 cases
have begun to resemble a standard growth curve rather than an exponential
growth curve. Meanwhile, in places as far afield as Australia, the daily infection
rate for new COVID-19 cases has dropped from between 25 percent and 30 percent
to 5 percent. The sooner we reach an international inflection point in the
COVID-19 viral curve, the sooner economies around the world can begin reopening
and recovering.

Regardless of whether you are
a new or experienced forex trader, a term you will find very quickly in the
industry is that of leverage. Leverage is facilitated by margin. This margin is
a loan granted to you by the broker in order to increase your purchasing power
to carry out the operations you want.

In the world of trading,
there are many investment strategies that a trader can take to improve the
profitability of their operations, as with leverage, a tool widely used to
generate the highest profitability based on a small investment. Explore the directory of the best high-leverage forex brokers in the market.

Brokers with higher leverage

Trading in the brokers with
the highest leverage gives the trader the possibility of trading high-value
orders. It also gives traders an attractive position in the market without the
need to have large amounts of their own money, since only with a small amount
when using a greater leverage could carry out high-value
trades.

Of course, this type of high leverage strategy is only available to professional traders, since, according to recent ESMA regulations, maximum leverage is limited for retail traders, between 1:2 and 1:30, when high leverage could occur. Even at 1:1000.

This is because carrying out
strategies with leverage takes study and experience because, just as it could
generate large profits based on a minimum investment of money, it could also
generate significant losses.

Considering that leverage
virtually multiplies the investor’s real funds, a higher leverage of 1:1000
would mean that the trader’s funds would be increased 1000 times to allow him
to carry out trades and issue orders of such value. Of course, the
profitability generated would be measured based on that high amount, but so
would the losses, stressing the importance of having an honest margin and
stop-loss to stop operations at high risk of loss.

It is pertinent to mention
that not all brokers are authorized to issue products with a high leverage
range, just as not all countries allow it. These are some brokers with higher
leverage.

Exness

Featured among the brokers
with the highest leverage thanks to its remarkable characteristics:

• It has accounts adapted for each type of investor, the mini and
  classic.
• Perform operations on MT4, MT5, and WebTerminal.
• It offers 1:2000 leverage for both accounts.
• Minimum deposit of $1 for the mini account, and $2000 for the
  classic account.
• Spread from 0.3 and 0.1 pips.

MTrading

Featured among the brokers
with the highest leverage thanks to its remarkable characteristics:

• Learn to operate in the financial market with the best advice on
  Forex product, CFDs, commodities, indices, and more with the lowest spreads.
• Trade on the MT4 and MT4 Supreme Edition platforms.
• Give 1:1000 leverage for your orders.
• Minimum deposit $500.
• Spreads from 0.5 pips.

FXTM

Featured among the brokers
with the highest leverage thanks to its remarkable characteristics:

• You can carry out trading operations with more than 61 currency
  pairs, precious metals, raw materials, CDS, futures, and ETFs.
• Carry out your operations on the MT4 and MT5 platforms.
• The ECN Professional Account provides a higher leverage of
  1:1000.
• $ 100 minimum deposit.
• Adjusted spreads from 0.1 pips.

Alpari

Featured among the brokers
with the highest leverage thanks to its remarkable characteristics:

• The best products in Forex and Investments.
• It has the MT4 platform for its operations.
• It offers maximum leverage at 1:1000.
• $100 minimum deposit.
• Spread from 0.8 pips.

XM

Featured among the brokers
with the highest leverage thanks to its remarkable characteristics:

• It operates in Fores and CFs on stocks, indices, raw materials,
  metals, and energy.
• You have the MT4, MT5, and XM Web Trader platforms.
• Minimum deposit of only $5.
• Leverage up to 1:888
• Spreads from 0.6 pips.

AdmiralMarkets

Featured among the brokers
with the highest leverage thanks to its remarkable characteristics:

• It offers the best opportunities to trade forex, indices, CFDs
  on stocks, cryptocurrencies, commodities, and more.
• Carry out your market operations on the MT4 and MT5 platforms.
• With a maximum leverage of 1:500 for professionals.
• Minimum deposit $250.
• Spread from 0.5 pips.

Conclusion

You can find many forex
trading blogs that will inform you about the benefits of leverage. However, maximizing
your trading profit is about how you manage the leverage available to you.
When implemented in the proper situations, it can greatly increase your
profitability as a merchant. To achieve the best results from your use of
leverage, you must also ensure that you are operating through the broker with
high leverage that will provide you with the best quality assistance in terms
of customer service.

Leverage trading can be a
wonderful asset to your trading career, and it will really help you improve
your position in the forex market. Once you have understood the best situations
to apply and the leverage limitations, you will be in a good position to trade
with a high degree of success.

Trading online during times of uncertainty could be a real challenge, even for experienced traders and what online brokerage companies can do is to provide tools and features to make their clients feel secure. The markets could be wild and volatile for extended periods, which increases the risk of someone losing money, even with a proven successful strategy. With the risk of their accounts taking a downward path, traders need not just the traditional risk management tools (negative balance protection, stop loss, or take profit) but some additional tools specially designed to meet the demand of 2020 market conditions. easyMarkets had answered the question and just recently had announced a major upgrade for dealCancellation, one its most popular tools, that once activated, can undo losing trades.

What is dealCancellation and how can traders use it?

dealCancellation is a unique and innovative risk management tool that allows traders an unprecedented level of control by undoing
losing trades to recover some of their lost funds in exchange for a fee, according
to the terms & conditions. Already activated for more than 30,000 trades,
the feature had raised the traders’ interest since it unlocks a completely new
way to trade during these volatile times.

One of the best ways dealCancellation can be used ifs for hedging purposes. The market valuations are very volatile around
macroeconomic events and the ability to anticipate what could happen is
limited. Traders can neutralize or reduce the risk by opening an order covering
the other side of the market, with dealCancellation activated before the trade
is even opened. After the news had been
released and the market had digested it, one of the trades will be successful
and the other won’t.

Since dealCancellation had been activated, the ability to undo the
loss limits the downside, since traders had to pay the fee associated and
recover the rest of the loss. Testing a new strategy or undoing a trade opened
by mistake are other two great ways to use this tool.

Major upgrade takes dealCancellation to the next level

According to a recent press release issued by easyMarkets,
dealCancellation had been upgraded and now the duration had been extended to 3
and 6 hours. Alex St. Louis, Chief Information Officer at easyMarkets, talked
about it and mentioned the decision had been motivated by the current uncertain
market conditions:

“In the face of the current worldwide crisis, we
enhanced our remote access infrastructure to ensure that easyMarkets could
continue to operate at full capacity, maintaining its excellent standards of
client services and daily operations. This combined with our already established
development practices and collaboration tools enabled us to deliver major
projects such as extending the duration of dealCancellation to 3 and 6 hours,
with more to come in the next few months.”

The decision to improve dealCancellation comes in a period when the
company is already offering other proprietary risk management tools like Freeze
Rate. These can all provide an enhancement of risk control and help traders
navigate one of the most challenging market periods.

SMEs (small and medium sized businesses) have 0 to 250 employees and in the UK, they account for an incredible 52% of all turnover and 60% of employment. 

Source
BEIS

Yes,
that’s right, all our small businesses contribute more to the economy than all
those large corporations. So, the issues that occupy the Owners and Managers of
SME’s are really important to the UK economy. What are the top concerns for
these businesses and how can they be overcome?

UK SMEs Top Concerns A number of studies in the UK were carried out in 2019 with broadly consistent findings. The chart below nicely illustrates the top concerns occupying the minds of SME business leaders.

Source:
dataconomy.com

The top
concern is pricing (27%) and then cash flow and debt collection (24%) however
technology related concerns appear twice with 21% worried about keeping up with
technology and 16% worried about cyber security. 

Technology

Technology
covers a lot of different areas and issues. It is an area where specialist
skills are required and an added spanner in the works is the high speed with
which the technology landscape changes. So, it is perfectly reasonable for SME
Owners and Managers to be concerned that their knowledge and skill level is not
enough to manage risks and capitalise on opportunities sufficiently. 

Common IT
issues;

1. A lack of integrated IT systems causing inefficiencies and
   reducing a business’ ability to adapt quickly. 
2. Centralised data storage and access rather than using cloud-based
   systems reduces your ability to access information and work remotely. This, in
   turn, reduces efficiency and prevents you offering flexible working to your
   staff. 
3. All this remote working from
   multiple devices increases the risk of a security breach which can be
   catastrophic. 

So, don’t try to manage all this on your own. An SME should be looking to find a high-quality IT company who can provide strategic advice, system implementation and ongoing IT support. This way you always have access to highly qualified experts who have worked with, and learnt from, hundreds of SMEs just like yours. 

Cash
Management

There is
no doubt that managing
finances is an essential business skill but so few of us have any formal
training in how to do it. So, it is not surprising that business leaders worry
about their ability to manage their financial risks properly. The good news is
that these days there are plenty of online training sources and some great
tools that can really help anyone generate robust forecasts and perform some
‘what if’ scenarios. 

First –
online training. There are plenty of courses you can sign up for however if you
have never tried udemy.com give it a go. Courses are about £10 and are online
video based. You can do small segments in your own time and revisit them as
many times as you want. Other uses provide genuine independent reviews. It is
fast, cheap as chips and completely flexible which is perfect for a busy SME
Executive. Search for a generic cash flow management course or for more
specific courses on how to use your software (e.g. QuickBooks) to manage your
cash. Which leads us nicely onto….

Second –
use the right tools. If you have invested in decent accounting software (which you
should have) they will have budgeting and cash flow tolls and reports built in.
If you use your accounting software properly you will be able to do much more
accurate cash flow and budgeting and it will take a fraction of the time. The
issue for most businesses is that they never spend the time training people how
to use the software or spending enough time working out which reports and tools
will be useful. Again udemy.com can come to your rescue. There are tons of
courses on specific pieces of software that give you a fast overview of how
they can be useful. Once you have identified the reports and features that will
help you search for a more specific course on exactly how customise and use
them.