Josie Weller
Gav Shannon is a Network Marketing Professional who writes about different topics that he feels may be of an interest.If You want to know more about him go to http://www.gavshannon.com
Category Archives: Multimedia
If You Spend More Than You Earn Then You Better Start Budgeting
Knowing how to manage money can help you make smart choices. Your money will work harder for you. You’ll be more likely to avoid traps that can undermine your ability to attain your financial goals. You’ll be in a better position to pay off debt and build savings.
Calculate how much money you earn in a month after taxes. For this budget plan, use your net pay or take home pay. Include tips, supplementary income, side-jobs, investments etc. This is your income.
Figure out your expenses. The best way to do this is to save receipts for a month or even a couple weeks. Knowing how much per month you spend on groceries or gas makes the next part much easier. If you want to start writing your budget today, and don’t have receipts, that’s OK, it’s just a bit more difficult.
Read and post messages on personal finance and budgeting topics with other people from around the world. Everything from saving money on groceries, to understanding your credit rating. This will get you some good tips on where you might be able to trim.
Break your budget up into some basic categories. You might want to organize your expenses into needs – such as your loan and electricity – and wants – such as clothing and entertainment.
List all your spending under each of these categories. Let’s take Auto as an example: $300/month car payment, $100/month insurance, $250/month on gas, $50/month on maintenance, 10$/month on fees such as registration. So, your total Auto budget for the month would be $710/month. If you don’t know the exact amounts you spend, try to make good estimates. The more accurate you are, the better chance your budget has of working.
After getting an overview of your monthly expenses, look for anything that you can cut down to help you save money. For example, if you always eat out at work, try bringing left over or home cooked meal. You can also bring sandwiches and drinks. This can save you an average of $200 per month if you estimate $10 of lunch per day.
Limit your movie watching to once or twice a month instead of four times a month. For a huge family this can be a lot of savings. Before going to the movies, eat first to cut down on food and drink expenses. Just buy drinks or bring your own if you can. You can cut down transportation fees such as fare, gasoline and toll fees if you participate in a carpool or ride sharing.
A simple budget can be written on a piece of a paper with a pencil, and optionally, a calculator. Such budgets can be organized in three-ring binders or a file cabinet. Simpler still thre are the pre-formatted household budgeting or bookkeeping forms that creates a budget by filling in the blanks. It is really easy to budget if you want to, but as most people don’t follow thier own plan most are doomed to fail.
Budgeting for Commercial Painting Projects
If your maintenance budget for the current operating year has a taken a hit, you may be wondering how to get a commercial painting project accomplished along with everything else. Two possible solutions to project budgeting are purpose driven spending and changing the contracting process.
Purpose Driven Spending
The most common view of a commercial painting project is simple maintenance and facilities up-keep. Justifying painting and coating projects as preventative maintenance is relatively easy because the surface treatment can prevent damages to the underlying structure. If the budget separates preventative maintenance funds from operating costs, you could package and combine the painting project according to its true purpose to get the funding from your management team.
However, painting and coating can be a lot more than simple up-keep. In a retail setting, the appearance of a structure can a have a direct impact on the amount of business the facility is able to attract. If the current maintenance budget cannot support a painting project, perhaps the marketing budget could.
Changing the Contracting Process
As a commercial painting budget solution, changing the contracting process may seem like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. However, the savings from a new way of administering contracts can be significant, especially if your facility does a lot of outsourcing.
Many large organizations adapt a job order contracting system (JOC ) to handle their contracting process. A JOC system is a type of indefinite demand and indefinite quantity contracting system which relies of pre-defined base prices for services. Contractors bid by multiplying the base prices by a selected co-efficient.
JOC systems are often used by schools, government agencies and other organizations to streamline their contracting process. The real savings come from reduced advertising costs, reduced administrative needs, and a quicker RFP to finished project time. According to a white paper published by Centennial Contractors Enterprise, Inc., the savings associated with a JOC system can be up to 21 percent of standard costs.
The advantage of a JOC system is that once in place to cover a painting project, the system is equally applicable to virtually every other outsourced aspect of facilities budgeting. However, if you are not currently using a JOC system, you should strongly consider hiring an expert consultant to help you implement the program.
Final Words
Facility budgets are not likely to increase anytime soon, so creative solutions are a must to find room in the budget for commercial painting, construction and maintenance projects. In the end, whether your company chooses purpose driven spending or changing the contracting process, the ability to establish a companywide logical decision-making process and get management buy-in is critical to the company’s success in managing your commercial painting budget.
Steve Parker, Sr. Estimator.
RaiderPainting.com is the preferred painting contractor for building owners and facility managers of
commercial and industrial properties nationwide. Call 877-724.3371 for a free Estimate and read my daily Blog.
Budget Travel Tips for Those Who Plan
Kaye Dennan has shared tips from the 101 Tips for Travelling on a Budget ebook listed in the http://www.ebooksnowonline.com Exciting travel is still possible when you know where to go. Take a minute to look at ebooksnowonline.com/travel/budget/
How to Make a Budget (and Stick to It)
Responsible budgeting and money management are skills everyone needs to learn as is the discipline required to put these skills into action. Many people find it difficult to stick to a budget; oftentimes, this is because the budget they created is not realistic. Regardless of the economic climate, it is important to know how to manage your finances and keep track of your spending. In order to do this, you need a budget that you can live with. Here are a few simple steps to get you started.
First things first: before you can put together a reasonable, livable budget, you have to know what the greater scope of your financial situation actually looks like. This doesn’t just mean knowing how much money you make every month you need to take into account your income, your fixed expenses (like rent, gas, groceries, day care, and insurance) you pre-existing debt, as well as other random spending needs (summer vacation, birthdays, etc.).
Once you have all of this information in front of you, organize it into three categories: Income, Needs, and Wants. Income will obviously be your salary and any other wages you may receive. Needs are your fixed expenses, not including entertainment and other superfluous expenditures (just because you like going out to dinner and a movie once a week, doesn’t mean you need to). You should, however, include monthly bill payments in your fixed expenses, as paying off debt is a crucial step in establishing financial stability. Finally, “Wants” are things like entertainment spending, new clothes or jewelry, trips, etc.
Now that you have an accurate picture of your financial situation in front of you, it’s time to do the dirty work. What can you afford, and where do you have to make cuts? The first things that need to be taken into account when determining where your money goes each month are your “Needs”. Once those are accounted for (including, if at all possible, paying into a savings account), you can start adding some of your “Wants” to the list prioritize these, as it’s unlikely you’ll be able to accommodate them all. Also, be honest with yourself when identifying “Needs” vs. “Wants”. A top-tier cable service with 1,000 channels is not necessary. Neither is a fancy gym membership (especially if you don’t use it much). Being honest with yourself and limiting over-the-top expenses is not only the financially responsible thing to do, it will free up more cash for other items (like occasional dinners out, or a movie rental membership).
Once you have a budget worked out for yourself, make sure you keep it on hand a budget is useless if you don’t use it. Update it often, and feel free to make changes and alterations if you need to. Think of your budget as a fluid, living document. Your needs may change from month to month or quarter to quarter, and your budget should reflect that. Finally, don’t get discouraged if you go over budget one month. Remember, it’s a tool, a guideline. If you use it correctly, it will help you achieve long-term financial stability.
Escape Austin real estate operates in central Austin. Their site has map based search for Austin homes along with a Austin real estate blog.
5 Steps to Create a Budget
Are you having a difficult time stretching your paycheck to cover all of your monthly expenses? If so, you are not alone. With our economy in its present state, millions of people are struggling to make ends meet and do not have the luxury of being able to save money.
Before you give up hope, you can improve your situation by setting up a personal budgeting plan. This will show you exactly where your money goes. To help you get started, consider some of the tips listed below.
HOW TO CREATE A BUDGET PLAN
First – write down your fixed expenses (house payment/rent, utility bills, insurance premiums).
Second – under your fixed expenses, write down all of your basic needs expenses (food, gas, clothing, toiletries, etc.)
Third – add all of these amounts together and subtract from your total monthly paycheck. The amount that is left is what you actually have to work with in terms of budgeting.
Fourth – list all of your remaining purchases for the month; every single thing you spent money on down to the smallest detail. Be honest. Every cup of coffee, every newspaper or magazine, every candy bar from the vending machine, every meal you ate at a restaurant, your pedicure, manicure, make-up, etc. Make sure you write down every single item.
Fifth – add up the amount you spent on all of those items and subtract that amount from the amount you had left for budgeting. How much did you spend? If you are being completely honest about every single thing you purchased during a month’s time, the amount you come up with will probably be a big surprise.
SOLUTION
Can it be possible that you spent that much on items you did not need? Unfortunately, most of us are completely unaware that we are throwing away that much money each month when we could be saving it. How do you solve this problem?
First – you must determine the things that are most important to you. Identify and list the items you must have. When you are trying to budget your money, you should only be purchasing those items that are for you and your family’s basic needs and lifestyle.
Second – now make a list of the items you want to have. Do you really need them? In order to be successful at budgeting your money, you have to be satisfied with the things you already have or you are setting yourself up for failure.
Third – you must now come up with a budget you can live with. Once you accomplish that, your biggest challenge will be to decide how you are going to use the extra money you have at the end of each month. Do you want to invest in an emergency fund (in case of illness or job-loss)? Perhaps you want to add more to your retirement fund. There are many possibilities.
These budgeting tips will help you succeed IF you have the determination to stick with your budgeting plan. You will be rewarded for your dedication by having extra money that you can use for you and your family’s future.
Debra Gropp enjoys working on the Internet by doing everything from paid surveys and working for affiliate programs to blogging about her interests. Her articles pertain to some of the subjects she is most interested in, ways to save money, hobbies, work from home information, and diet, fitness, and health-related information.
Setting an Effective Marketing Budget
One of the most important decisions that a small to medium-sized business has to make is how much money to spend on a marketing budget. Prospects often ask, “How much should I spend on marketing?” The answer is, “It varies by industry and business size.”It is also based on how much you want to grow, and how fast.Both SCORE and USSBA define the variable for a proper marketing budget to be between 2% and 10% of sales, noting that for B2C, retail and pharmaceuticals can exceed 20% during peak brand-building years.Most companies underspend on their budgets, thinking that not to spend is to save. This, quite simply, isn’t true. You’ve heard it before, and it bears repeating – you have to spend money to make money. The trick is to spend your money wisely on a tailored marketing plan aimed at fulfilling your company’s goals. Keep in mind that your marketing efforts are directly correlated with your revenue, so now is not the time to be penny foolish.Budget-Setting GuidelinesThere are two main things to consider when setting a marketing budget:•The brand development or refinement of the brand and channels used to promote the brand. These include logos, Web sites, blogs, email campaigns, sales presentations, brochures, ads, etc.•The ongoing expense of promoting and advertising your brand to your customer base.For most small to medium-sized businesses, the percentage of revenue dedicated to a marketing budget is determined by industry and size. Below is a chart showing what we have put together based on several creditable sources.Revenue Marketing Budget Under $5 million 7-8% $5-10 million 6-7% $10-50 million 5-6% $50-100 million 4-5% Over $100 million 2-3%Here’s an important consideration:Every industry is different, so companies that sell to specific government branches or one that has an ultra-specialized niche may be able to deduct 1-2% from the above figures. If your company is B2B or B2C, you may need to raise your budget by 1-3% to see solid results. Retail and pharmaceuticals lead the spending, with many of these companies spending more than 20% of net sales. Overall average is reported as 6%.Many other circumstances will merit an increase or reduction in your marketing budget as a percentage of revenue. Feel free to contact us to discuss this, or visit http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/index.html.During an initial branding build or a re-branding phase, you should have a higher budget, which can be reduced in the future. This will allow you to contract for all the media you need to make an impactfull brand impression.Last year, ImageWorks clients spent on average spent between $50,000 and $120,000 building or rebuilding their “brand language.” The broad range reflects business size and industry.Can I still grow my company with “baby steps”?Sure. We call this organic growth, and it is how nearly every business starts off. Remember washing cars or mowing lawns for a few bucks? Next thing you know, your neighbor wants it done. That neighbor refers you to another neighbor, and so on. Many businesses grow their clientele on word of mouth alone, and are very successful.But they usually hit a brick wall. That’s where building a solid branding campaign helps. To rely on partial branding or organic growth alone, you risk losing revenue from business you did not get because X% never discovered you or did not have their interest piqued when they interacted with your brand. Nor can you account for lost revenue from those who perceived your current brand negatively and left your site without you ever knowing it. This is why it is so important to build the brand correctly. Why risk millions to save thousands?Why do so many small and medium-sized businesses fail?One reason is that companies do not allocate enough money for marketing. Successful and highly profitable small and medium businesses (SMBs) know how to allocate adequate funding to marketing each year. SMBs realize that marketing, if done properly, brings back solid returns and vice versa-whereas not allocating enough in your budget for marketing could spell disaster. Think of marketing this way: It is a fundamental ingredient for profitability and growth.For more marketing information, please contact sales@imageworksstudio.com.
Michael Delpierre and Scott C. Margenau, the key principals at ImageWorks Studio, a leading marketing and branding agency, contributed to this article. They specialize in branding and marketing strategies, persuasive content and optimization, and revenue-generating programs for their clients. To learn more about ImageWorks Studio and what it can do for you, visit
http://www.brandsthatsell.com/.
Budget Advice for Mom’s & Women
Much of the time it is up to the Woman of a household to take care of the budget and finances. Mothers have the task of determining the budget, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the budget. In other instance a mother has to take care of these duties while also working part of full time. Nonetheless the time that a mother has is very limited in which doing everyday things in the most efficient manner is absolutely necessary. It is absolutely necessary for a mother to set a budget for the household so that everything can run smoothly and effectively. For a household that is not properly planned can cause for much chaos. When kids are involved in the mix the need for a budget is much more greater for resources tend to become depleted quite easily. By setting easy and comfortable budgets for your family can save you both time and money allowing for you family to run easier and smoother. When a mom is taking care of the budget while also working, planning ahead of time is essential. For example grocery shopping in bulk will not only save you time and money, but it will also save you in terms of preparation. You will be able to make meals in large batches then freeze them for whenever you need a quick meal. This allows you a piece of mind that you can always have something ready for last minute occasions.
Another large impact of a family’s budget is the entertainment expense. When you have kids they have a need to be stimulated all the time. Instead of spending money on going to the movies, buying them unnecessary toys, and expensive fun parks, enroll them in sports teams or some type of lesson that they are interested in. Yes, this will cost some money but in the long run it is much less than the other types of entertainment. Your kids will learn a new skill that will enable them to keep preoccupied & content even they are not at their actual lesson or team practice. They will be able to practice on their own and get better at something not involving a video game or TV.
Setting a budget for your family needs to be customized to the amount of money that is going in and out of your household every month. If you are trying to save up for something then something else must be given up. This really allows you to weigh what is important to you, short-term satisfaction or long-term goals. If the woman of the house knows some of these tips, she will be able to set up a household to be the most efficient as possible. When a household is efficient, it opens up the much-needed time for family and friends to enjoy each other’s company. Setting the proper budget can allow your family to become closer knit because they will value the time they can spend with each other
Jeff Nelson gives advice on money management. His advice helps you to eliminate your debt faster. To make online budgeting easy and set up your Budget for each category you are targeting, visit www.mint.com
Budget Advice for Mom’s & Women
Much of the time it is up to the Woman of a household to take care of the budget and finances. Mothers have the task of determining the budget, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the budget. In other instance a mother has to take care of these duties while also working part of full time. Nonetheless the time that a mother has is very limited in which doing everyday things in the most efficient manner is absolutely necessary. It is absolutely necessary for a mother to set a budget for the household so that everything can run smoothly and effectively. For a household that is not properly planned can cause for much chaos. When kids are involved in the mix the need for a budget is much more greater for resources tend to become depleted quite easily. By setting easy and comfortable budgets for your family can save you both time and money allowing for you family to run easier and smoother. When a mom is taking care of the budget while also working, planning ahead of time is essential. For example grocery shopping in bulk will not only save you time and money, but it will also save you in terms of preparation. You will be able to make meals in large batches then freeze them for whenever you need a quick meal. This allows you a piece of mind that you can always have something ready for last minute occasions.
Another large impact of a family’s budget is the entertainment expense. When you have kids they have a need to be stimulated all the time. Instead of spending money on going to the movies, buying them unnecessary toys, and expensive fun parks, enroll them in sports teams or some type of lesson that they are interested in. Yes, this will cost some money but in the long run it is much less than the other types of entertainment. Your kids will learn a new skill that will enable them to keep preoccupied & content even they are not at their actual lesson or team practice. They will be able to practice on their own and get better at something not involving a video game or TV.
Setting a budget for your family needs to be customized to the amount of money that is going in and out of your household every month. If you are trying to save up for something then something else must be given up. This really allows you to weigh what is important to you, short-term satisfaction or long-term goals. If the woman of the house knows some of these tips, she will be able to set up a household to be the most efficient as possible. When a household is efficient, it opens up the much-needed time for family and friends to enjoy each other’s company. Setting the proper budget can allow your family to become closer knit because they will value the time they can spend with each other
Jeff Nelson gives advice on money management. His advice helps you to eliminate your debt faster. To make online budgeting easy and set up your Budget for each category you are targeting, visit www.mint.com