Reginald Chan

Author: Reginald Chan

  • Are You A Real Estate Agent? Here’s How To Improve Your Business

    Are You A Real Estate Agent? Here’s How To Improve Your Business

    The real estate industry is saturated, and growing your real estate business can be challenging. If you operate as a real estate agent, you act as a licensed professional playing a pivotal role in bringing the sellers and buyer together in real estate transactions. A real estate agent acts as an intermediary who negotiates the deal until closure. They work on a commission basis and are usually affiliated with real estate brokers. 

    In other words, a real estate agent works as an independent contractor, meaning that you can grow your business if you take appropriate measures. There are different things you can do to grow your business and reach new customers while making more sales at the same time. Many new real estate agents make the mistake of overestimating the potential revenue they can generate while underestimating the expenses affecting their business.  However, with the right approach, you can take your business to another level. Read on to learn everything you need to know about improving your business if you are a real estate agent. 

    Have a Business Plan

    Most real agents act as independent contractors. If you are an independent contractor, you need to act like a small business instead of an employee. You can only succeed as a real estate agent if you control your growth strategy, invest in long-term goals, and relationships. You must create a business plan that is flexible and also helps your venture to grow with you. A business plan plays a critical role since it helps you create a framework to follow in your operations. 

    Take time to understand your target customers and the market to create an effective plan. It is essential to develop new skills to promote the growth of your business and educate yourself on the different things you lack. Instead of only being concerned about getting clients, focus on creating a concrete plan that will promote the growth of your business. This plan will also help to set your business apart from the rest.     

    Use Networking

    Networking is critical in the real estate industry since you need to work with sellers, buyers, and other stakeholders. To grow your business, you must work on ways to find the right people at various networking events. Your goal is to connect with many people who can share financial advice or other help. Focus on meeting people from diverse backgrounds since real estate is for people from every walk of life, and equally, surround yourself with like-minded people. Some people can even act as mentors in your business network if you choose the right partners to associate with.    

    Time Management

    When you want to grow your business, it’s important to focus on how you can reach the next stage. Many real estate agents usually lack time management, which often leads to distractions and, ultimately, affects their business. Use different technologies to manage your business activities. With Close Concierge, you can organize your daily, weekly, or monthly tasks and set aside time for distractions. It is an easy-to-use technology that helps you track your activities, contracts to close a deal and to attract clients. Your Concierge helps ensure that your contract will close without errors, and you will get your payment.  

    Ask for Referrals

    It’s imperative to focus on building referrals and also use word of mouth to attract many clients. It can be achieved by offering referral gifts, creating loyalty customer programs, or requesting referrals on your official website. Test all these ideas to determine the best option to yield the most referrals. It becomes easier for you to enjoy constant business if many sellers and buyers are happy to work with you. These same people will refer their friends and colleagues to your business.    

    Set a Budget

    If you are new to real estate, you must not solely focus on closing your first deal or achieving immediate success. You may be tempted to quick-start your business, but you will soon realize that long-term success depends on a budget. When determining your budget ensure that you cover your mandatory daily life expenses and set sufficient money for the business aside. What is important in business is to monitor your cash flow and how you spend the money. If you do not have a budget, you may not realize your goals. 

    Be creative

    Knowledge of sales tactics is a must for sales agents, but you also need to understand other techniques. Be creative and utilize your writing and photography skills to provide compelling descriptions of your listings to motivate the consumers so that they share the same vision as you. If you have a compelling way of telling your story, you are likely to appeal to the interests of many clients. 

    Use Social Media

    Many people increasingly use social media to perform various activities. It is vital to be active on at least one social media platform where you can drive leads, share content, or even run ads. Social media helps you reach a wider audience of target customers, and it also allows you to engage meaningfully with your clients. Your customers might not necessarily be from your immediate area; therefore, social media goes a long way in attracting these customers.

    Real estate agents are primarily concerned with acting as intermediaries between the sellers and buyers of property. These agents work for licensed brokers, and they play a pivotal role in negotiating and closing deals. While you may operate as an independent contractor, you must know that there are different strategies you can take to improve your business. It is crucial to have a business plan and to focus on the bigger picture instead of quick sales. Always be creative and use social media platforms to reach a wide range of target audiences. Additionally, you must have a realistic budget for your business and make sure that it is separate from personal expenses. A true real estate agent builds relationships with their clients that last for years. They are honest and knowledgeable about the ever-changing laws and regulations.

  • How To Improve Your Business And Attract More Customers?

    How To Improve Your Business And Attract More Customers?

    Managing a business really means working thirty different jobs at once. This is part of what draws entrepreneurs to the work as it is challenging and, therefore, rewarding. It can also be a source of great confusion and frustration at times, especially when a business isn’t doing as well as the manager knows it could be.

    The following will explore some of the things you can do to help encourage your business to grow and thrive. Special attention will be paid to drawing in more customers.

    Understand Your Purpose And Your Ethical Lines

    Before you begin making any changes, it is crucial that you get really specific about your purpose with the business. This will include particular goals regarding sales and revenue but also will include your overall aim with the business. Why are you selling this product or service? To make money isn’t a good enough answer. Every business that truly thrives is one that is solving a real-world problem for ordinary people. Do you want to make their lives easier? More comfortable? Safer? Figure out why your business is important and construct a statement around that.

    As your business grows, you will encounter challenges you could never have anticipated. This is part of what it is to manage a business. If you have a statement that clearly outlines your values and your ethics (what is ethically acceptable to you in exchange for profit and what isn’t), you’ll have a paradigm from which you can begin trying to solve problems.

    For example, let’s say one day (knock on wood), it is discovered that the primary material used in your product causes cancer. If one of your values is promoting the health of your customers and employees, you cannot carry on producing your product with that material, even if it ends up shrinking your margins.

    This might sound like a far-fetched problem to have, but toxic ingredients are one of the most common problems bigger companies are having right now. And, you’d be shocked how many are not changing their ingredients or materials in response to new information. Triclosan, for instance, has been connected with several types of cancer and has been shown to wreak havoc on the endocrine system, messing up people’s hormones and increasing the risks of birth defects. Despite this, the ingredient is still located in hand sanitizer, antibacterial soap, face washes, mouthwashes, and cosmetics.

    As more and more customers develop the ability to educate themselves about products, ingredients, and materials, as well as other ethical concerns like labour rights, sustainability, and fair trade agreements, you can expect that sooner or later, the ethical stances of your company will be discussed. Moreover, having this information front and center on your website and as part of your employee training materials can result in more customers over a period of time. A good reputation takes time to build, but ethical companies are seeing very positive responses from clients and customers.

    Test, Test, Test

    When running a business, data is your best friend. You want to know how people are feeling about your products and services, and you can’t do that without running tests on a regular. You should be seeking feedback on your website and beta testing new products. One of the most crucial elements of this testing is the acceptance that it is part of your job forever. That you should be constantly revisiting and testing everything you do to be sure that you’re keeping up with the times and customer expectations which vary widely. This is never something you do once and then leave. It should be a quarterly task at the minimum. Every few months, come back and see if what you’re doing is still working. If it’s not, adjust.

    Give Things Away For Free

    If you’ve done your due diligence with the ethics of your business and you’ve tested out your products or services and made things as perfect as they can be, then letting people try out your product or service will help gain you more sales, follows, and loyal customers. If applicable, offer free trials of your products or services.

    You might have to get creative with this. When it comes to books, many authors give out the first few chapters of their book for free. When it comes to software, companies often allow people to try out the program for a week free of charge. This makes life easier on your customers by taking away some of the pressure to make buying decisions as they will have proof of concept or quality before they make a choice to spend their hard-earned money. People want to drive the car before they buy it.

    As a bonus, this step will help reduce some of the stress that comes with returns, cancellations of services, or other refund-based situations as it will be less likely that someone will be mistaken about what they’re getting into and want to return it.

    Sales, Discounts, And Rewards

    Finally, once you’ve gotten your company paradigm shifted to the right place from which to make decisions and tested and improved your products to the best of your ability, and found the right audience for your services using free trials and other gifts, it’s time to focus on customer retention—getting customers to come back and buy more or different products for you.

    Encouraging loyalty among customers involves excellent customer service (which you have because you’ve been testing and pivoting based on the feedback, right?) and the occasional discount or reward to get them back on site. If you have an email list, this gets even easier. Sites like The Gift Card Cafe allow you to send gift cards to people in a number of formats for promotions (buy one get one free) or discounts (10% off). When someone is on the fence about a purchase, a gift card can make the difference. This sort of approach is an excellent way to get people to return to their online carts that have been abandoned with items still inside.

    The above four steps might seem simple, but if they’re continually applied with dedication, they can be mighty. Whenever you’re in doubt about the direction you need to take your business in, return to that first step and your purpose: what are you trying to do for other people?

  • How Optimizing Your Payment Processes Benefits Your Small Business?

    How Optimizing Your Payment Processes Benefits Your Small Business?

    Any small business may struggle in the beginning due to financial or organizational obstacles. One of the things that can help your small business grow and succeed is optimizing your payment processes. You need to worry less about payment methods when you’re still starting your start-up company. Investing in digital or automated payment will reduce costs and expenses, giving your small company a chance to save more money. Additionally, paper invoices were found to be more expensive. Not only can’t they be automated but also, they have to be conducted manually. It takes a single invoice up to six days to process, which costs approximately $20. With the growth of technology and mobile phones, it’s become possible to switch to more advanced payment methods. On that note, read to know how developing payment methods can benefit your small business.

    Efficient Business and Increased Profit

    Whether you have a small-scale company or an enormous corporation, optimizing your payments can help you have a better insight into improving profits and managing inventories while tracking your daily sales. Moreover, when you participate in e-commerce using digital payments, you will be able to widen your clients’ visibility, which will allow your business to grow massively. Furthermore, when you’re starting your small business, you don’t want your finance team to spend a considerable amount of time processing manual transactions, collecting checks, and sending payments. Refrain from having tedious processes by opting in digital or automated means to pay. This way, you will run your business more efficiently, hence increasing your profit.

    Error- and Fraud-Free Environment

    Any employee, no matter how good or proficient they are, can make mistakes. However, in some businesses, errors are inexcusable since they can cost the company tons of cash. The best thing you can do to avoid financial catastrophes is to have reliable and stable digital payment software that will be responsible for validating data and identifying errors. In addition, this software is able to update itself automatically, so you don’t have to worry about catching up with the latest technicalities.

    Your start-up business will benefit greatly from simple software that is easy to handle, especially in the beginning. Therefore, you should choose a reliable software provider. Many small business owners have reviewed the Clover Station POS and reported back that it has simple and straightforward payment software. Your small company needs payment software that keeps your customers happy and your business expanding.

    If you aim to face the fierce competition in the market today, you should have an automated system that is ready to identify any invalid or fraudulent invoices. When you work on optimizing your payments by installing proficient software, you make it easier for your business to single out suspicious invoices by flagging or reporting them.

    Benefits for Business Women

    Optimizing standard payment methods and opting for digital or automated ones has a great influence on any business owner, especially women. Society and traditions often make it challenging for women to travel or fly far destinations. Even though female entrepreneurs have proven to be equally competent as men, if not more, social and communal norms still prevent them from going to faraway destinations. Digital or automated payments make it easier for women to access the marketplace without the need to travel to deposit or collect money from banks or suppliers. For example, pregnant women and moms can easily start a small business and still be able to manage payments remotely. Furthermore, computerized payments are safer than regular methods as they ensure that your money is secure and is less likely to be stolen.

    Faster Payments and Lower Cost

    Any business owner wants to ensure the satisfaction of their suppliers. In order for that to happen, you should invest in automated payments that make the settlement process more efficient and faster. Moreover, when you pay your suppliers early, you save money and earn payment discounts. The faster the payment process is, the more productive your employees are since they don’t have to spend long hours entering sums and rates and checking whether or not they’re precise and accurate.

    It is important to know that paper checks and invoices are more expensive than automated payments. By using digital payments, you can reduce costs up to 80% in comparison to manual or paper-based techniques.

    Less Scrutiny From Suppliers

    With electronic payments, your business can work with actual-time visibility and run transactions smoothly through a digital threshold, which will cut back the time you may spend on responding to inquiries and developing relations with your suppliers. Moreover, the negotiations between you and your suppliers become easier when they know that you use automated payments. When dealing with costs, taxation, transportation, and general payments, your suppliers and clients need to confirm that you have a secure payment method.

    Credit Cards Are The Old Deal

    As a business owner, you need to offer your clients various ways to pay you, especially if you want to be a part of the global market. Studies show that 1% of Chinese citizens use credit cards, while only 25% of the German population use Visa and Mastercard for online shopping. Therefore, retailers, sellers, and merchants need to provide their clients with different payment methods. Furthermore, tech-savvy customers live in a digital world, where everything advances every day. They would rather deal with businesses that have better payment options than credit and debit cards. For this reason, you should optimize your payments and incorporate various methods, such as gift cards, electronic checks, and mobile wallets.

    Nowadays, our world is concerned with digital technology. Therefore, offering simple payment methods is a fundamental factor of success for any business owner. It is a crucial element that can either make or break your company, and its impacts can either enlarge your small project or put an end to it. The last thing you want for your customers is them discarding their purchases from your retail or online store when the means to pay is too complicated or limited to one option. You need to apply sturdy and effective payment methods to grow your business and help you stay ahead of your competitors.

  • How to Secure Your WordPress Site – With 12 Easy Steps

    How to Secure Your WordPress Site – With 12 Easy Steps

    How to secure a WordPress site? If you find yourself asking this question often, you’re not alone. The popularity of WordPress among website owners has made it equally popular with hackers who are constantly looking for ways to attack and break into WordPress websites.  

    If you’re worried about WordPress security, you’re in the right place.  This guide takes you through 12 trusted and recommended ways to secure a WordPress site. Let’s get started.

    How to Secure Your WP Site in 12 Steps

    WordPress security can sound challenging and highly technical, but you don’t need to be a technical or WordPress expert to secure a WordPress website. You can perform these security steps even if you’re a novice user. Here’s what you need to do to set up a robust security posture for your site: 

    1. Take frequent backups.
    2. Keep everything up to date.
    3. Change the WordPress login URL.
    4. Limit the Login attempts.
    5. Use a WordPress security plugin.
    6. Use HTTPS protocol.
    7. Change the WordPress database prefix.
    8. Always use strong passwords.
    9. Secure your wp-config.php file.
    10. Change your default username.
    11. Disable file editing.
    12. Use secure hosting.

    Next, let us discuss each of these 12 measures in detail.

    1. Keep your website updated 

    Most hackers exploit vulnerabilities in the Core WordPress version or installed plugins and themes to get into websites. A secure WordPress site runs on the latest WordPress version and updated plugins/themes. This is because WordPress developers add security fixes to the updated versions for the vulnerabilities introduced in previous releases.

    If you cannot find an updated version of your installed plugins/themes, consider removing or replacing them for the safety of your site.

    2. Change the WordPress Login URL

    Did you know that anybody can access your WordPress login page by adding “/login” or “/admin” or “/wp-login.php” at the end of your website URL? For example, www.mysite.com/login. Why is the login page important? 

    Hackers often target your login page as the first step to gain unauthorized entry into your WordPress account. Once they gain access, they can take full control of your website which can damage the user experience with random warnings. In brute force login attacks, hackers repeatedly send HTTP requests to your login page until access is gained or the server crashes.  Even if they don’t manage to break in, these high volume and incessant attacks often push the server to its limit which can result in a website crash.

    How can you protect your WordPress login page from hackers? There are multiple ways of protecting your login page, but the easiest way is to change the default URL of your login page. You can use WordPress plugins like WPS Hide Login to do this. However, this alone may not be enough. There are chances that hackers know the URL format suggested by popular tools and can find their way around this. That being said, combined with the next two measures, it can make your login protection more robust.  

    3. Limit Login Attempts

    By default, WordPress allows an unlimited number of attempts to log into their accounts. Unfortunately, hackers take advantage of this. 

    In addition to changing the default login URL, you can secure a WordPress website by limiting the number of login attempts to your account, say to three tries. This is the best guard against brute force attacks that use automated bots to guess your login credentials.

    How do you limit login attempts? You can install a plugin like “Login LockDown” or enable the CAPTCHA feature using a plugin like reCAPTCHA to protect your site from bots and brute force attacks.

    4. Use strong passwords

    Configuring long and strong passwords as part of your user credentials is possibly the easiest and yet, most ignored, way to secure WordPress websites and their login pages. Weak passwords like “password” or “123456” are easy to remember for users but equally easy for hackers and their bots to guess. 

    Here is how you can strengthen the password for every user:

    • Passwords should include upper- and lower-case alphabets, special characters (example, _ or @), and numbers.
    • They must be at least 10 to 12 characters long.
    • The same password must not be used for multiple user accounts.
    • Change passwords frequently after a gap of 4-6 months.

    5. Change your default username

    Default or easy usernames like “admin” or “admin123” make it easy for WordPress hackers to use brute force attacks and gain access to your site. After configuring strong passwords, go a step ahead and change the default usernames of all your users – particularly WordPress administrators (or admin users), to block unauthorized access into your WordPress account.

    Here are some considerations for managing admin usernames:

    • Make sure every username is unique and not easy to guess for any hacker.
    • Restrict the number of users with admin privileges to as many as you require.
    • Assign user roles like “subscriber” or “contributor” with lower and fewer privileges to other WordPress users.

    How do you change the default username? First, create a new admin user on your WordPress account, and delete the existing admin users. Alternatively, you can change the usernames of existing admin users with the Username Changer plugin for WordPress sites.

    6. Install an SSL certificate 

    Another great way to secure a WordPress website is to move it from HTTP to the HTTPS protocol.  HTTPS makes sure all the data transmitted between a user’s browser and your website is encrypted. Even search engines like Google consider it a factor for your website’s SEO ranking. 

    How can you switch to an HTTPS website? By installing the SSL (short for Secure Socket Layer) certificate on your site. You can obtain this certificate from your web host provider or install a third-party SSL plugin like Let’s Encrypt. 

    Once you have installed the SSL certificate, you can verify the same by checking for https:// or a lock symbol before your URL. 

    7. Use secure hosting

    Your WordPress web hosting platform can be a decisive factor for your website security. A good and secure host will always keep your website safe and operational, while a weak host can leave your site vulnerable. Apart from security, a good web host can improve your website performance across devices and provide facilities like regular backups and SSL certification.

    If your website is on a shared host and facing regular outages, it’s time to switch to the more reliable managed web hosting that offers a dedicated server only for your site.

    8. Change the WordPress database prefix

    A majority of data breaches happen when hackers gain access and control to your database records. By default, WordPress prefixes its database tables as “wp_,” thus making it easier for hackers to run database attacks like SQL injection. 

    The smartest way to secure WordPress databases is by changing the database prefix from “wp_” to some other prefix. How can you do this? From your WordPress installation folder, open the wp-config.php file and change the value of the “$table_prefix” variable from wp_ to something else, say wp_a1357_, so it looks like this:

    $table_prefix  = ‘wp_a1357_’;

    Note: You can only use numbers, letters, and underscores to do this. 

    9. Secure your wp-config.php file

    If there is one file that can make or break your WordPress site, it is the wp-config.php file that is part of every WordPress installation. Hackers try to take control of this PHP file because it contains sensitive information like your usernames and passwords, along with details on how to access your WordPress database.

    How can you secure your wp-config.php file? Here are some tips:

    • Change the default location of this file in the WordPress installation folder.
    • Add the following code to the .htaccess file:

    #secure wp-config.php

    <files wp-config.php> 

    order allow, deny 

    deny from all 

    </files>

    10. Disable file editing

    WordPress allows all its admin users to make changes in PHP files (including wp-config.php) using a file editor tool. Unfortunately, this privilege is also what enables hackers to break into WordPress admin accounts.

    Disabling file editing or your file editor is the easiest way to prevent hackers from adding their malicious code to plugin/theme PHP files through an admin account. Disabling the File Editor is also among the hardening measures recommended by WordPress itself.

    How can you disable file editing? All you need to do is adding the following code to the wp-config.php file:

    define(‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT’, true);

    11. Use a WordPress security plugin

    An automated security tool is probably the easiest way to secure a WordPress site. Security plugins or tools like MalCare, Wordfence, or Sucuri can protect your site from many malware variants by detecting the latest malware and attacks. They scan your website regularly for security holes, vulnerabilities, and malware before it is too late. 

    While there are many free security tools, paid tools like MalCare have advanced and evolving algorithms to detect new and unknown malware that most others miss.  MalCare, for instance, also comes with additional inbuilt features like a firewall, WordPress hardening, 2FA protection, and most importantly, automated malware removal so you can clean your website without having to rely on technical experts.

     It is easy to set up and use and lets you manage, scan, harden, and clean even multiple websites in a few clicks. 

    12. Take frequent backups

    Though strictly not a security measure, this is a good practice to ensure a hack doesn’t disrupt your website operations and take you back to ground zero. 

    Complete backups of your website and database files help you restore your site in case of a crash without losing users and business due to downtime. Frequent backups – daily, hourly, weekly, or monthly – can be configured based on your website needs.

    You can back up your website manually, but doing so repeatedly and regularly is a huge investment of time and resources. WordPress backup plugins like BackupBuddy or BlogVault are easy to install and run and offer scheduled and automated backups at a frequency of your choice. They also come with easy restore options you can use to restore your website from a dashboard in a few clicks. Plugins like BlogVault, have a 100% restore rate and features like Test Restore that make sure you can restore your site without any issues. 

    Conclusion

    A hacked website means more than just downtime. It causes a loss of revenue, damages your user experience, puts your users and their data at risk, impacts brand perception, lowers your hard-earned SEO rankings, and undoes all your WordPress development and business efforts so far. 

    The steps in this article can go a long way in improving your website security. However, there is no such thing as absolute protection from hackers as they are constantly innovating to find newer ways to attack and damage sites. It can be hard to keep up with them. Security plugins like MalCare provide an easy way to ensure ongoing and continuous protection for your WordPress website. They also combine several recommended security measures into their automated user flows so you can secure your WordPress site with minimal effort.

  • 6 Important Things To Consider When Implementing Your Website

    6 Important Things To Consider When Implementing Your Website

    Running a business in this contemporary world requires that you have a solid online presence. As a matter of fact, a solid business plan must include strategies for branding your product or services to reach more potential customers. 

    Having a website is part of business branding. The entire web portal informs potential customers about your business and how to buy your products or hire you to render the advertised services. After you have decided that your company or industry requires a website, here is a highlight of some important things you need to consider when bringing your website to life. 

    Have Target Audience

    The deciding factor on how to structure your website is your target audience. So, it would be best to answer some important questions relating to your customers before or while implementing the website. 

    What product or service are you offering? 

    Who are your customers? 

    What is the age bracket for your target audience? 

    What do your customers want to see when they click on the URL link to your website? 

    What will be their first impression when they get to your landing page? 

    What do they want to see when they navigate through your website? 

    What type of content interests your target audience?

    Will they want to come back again after their first experience on your website?

    You can create an online poll targeting your preferred customer for feedback. The responses will help you put your website into perspective, and you can work with it to make a sitemap or wireframe for the proposed website.

    Build A Sitemap and Plan Your Design

    User Interface and Experience (UI/UX) makes an excellent website and achieves a relatable UI for your target audience. You start with a detailed site mapping. Everyone has an idea of what they want their website to look like or what they think their target audience would like to see when they get to the landing page, all you have to do is map out all the pages you want your website to contain, the categories and header titles.

    When you have named all your categories, you can proceed to wireframe, where you detail what each category represents on the page. You can use an online simulator program to achieve this, as it will make designing your website easy. Website design has many intricacies to wade through, considering that you want your web portal to mirror your business branding strategies and communicate to your target audience in a way they will understand.

    You want to make sure that your website design & development are top-notch. This is why you should take the long road by doing a target audience poll, gathering materials with similar websites, doing site mapping and wireframes. If it happens that you have to hire a professional for the job, you will have a well-structured plan for the web designer to work with. 

    Also, you must prioritize mobile-friendliness features for your website when it is still at the implementation stage, as a large percentage of traffic that will make it to your website will be from smartphone users.

    Have A Plan For Valuable SEO Driven Content

    Content is the heartbeat of a website. The contents on a website complement the design and work in sync to attract potential customers. When planning your website, you have to make a good case for the type of content that will fill up each category.

    When you have a perfect idea of who your target audience is, it narrows down the contents that will fill your website because that will help you with customer retention. If you are into the fashion business and building a website for your brand, know that your blog content must be steeped towards fashion trends but with fewer words and more pictures and videos, as that is what your target audience can relate to. Be double sure that your content aligns with your business brand and the medium used in communicating is satisfactory to your target audience.

    Find a Suitable Web Hosting Platform

    This is a major deal-breaker for your website as it will determine the functionality of your website and user retention. Website hosting will decide if your website survives when it has massive traffic coming its way, so you need to make conscientious decisions on the hosting domains you will be patronizing.

    Hosting providers determines the speed of your website. Slow loading time, frequent non-availability, and server errors will downgrade your site ranking on search engine results, so you need a good hosting provider to help you achieve user retention for your website. Not only that, your hosting provider has a considerable effect on your domain authority. Hence, do your research on the best ones that offer excellent services suitable for your branding journey.

    Be Conscious of Cyber Security

    As a business owner, you need to consider the security of the potential users that will visit your website. In a situation where you want your website to be a one-stop-shop for potential customers, then you should make sure that the security of your website is top-notch. The personal information provided by customers, such as email, credit card information, and other biodata, is it safe?

    When you are implementing your website, ensure that you add an SSL certificate to your budget scope and other security measures to prevent data leaks from your end. You can have an idea of how your website firewall is when you do a bug or split testing and plug any loopholes before the official rollout.

    Have A Budget

    Businesses are hinged on financial transparency and accountability. This is why you have a budget for everything. Hence, it would help if you had a budget for business branding and building a website. During the implementation stage, you should have a list of professional web designers or hosting sites and narrow down which one fits your budget and achieve your preferred business website.

    Implementing a user-friendly website that will help promote your business brand is essential, so consider the points mentioned above when building your website.

  • Top Tips That Every Uber Driver Must Know About

    Top Tips That Every Uber Driver Must Know About

    If you have a passion for driving and more than a few hours on hand to spare every day, becoming an Uber driver is a great career option. You would get to meet new people every day, drive around the town, and get paid for it. Globally, the ridesharing business has around 3.5 million drivers, and the company is sure that the driver network will continue to grow. If you are part of the Uber drivers team or wish to join them, make sure you know these useful tips. These will make your life as an Uber driver safe, easy, and rewarding.

    Understand the Taxes

    When you drive for Uber, you fall under the category of self-employed professionals. This means you will have to file your taxes for self-employment and pay for your Social Security and Medicare, which comes to 15.3 percent of your income. If you have received more than 600 dollars in the form of promotions, referrals, and other non-ride income in a year, you might get the Form 1099-NEC form on your Uber app. The tax summary and form are available in your Uber app as Uber 1099 taxes forms under the accounts tab. If you earn less than 600 dollars, you might claim an exemption under the self-employment clause. However, you might still have to pay taxes for your earnings from the previous year. 

    The IRS website has all the information you will need, including the important dates for paying your taxes. Other information like the mileage deduction, breakdown of the expenses, actual taxable income of the driver, etc., can be found using the tax calculator on the Uber website. You can also find a useful tax calculator online as well. Use these tools to ensure you understand and pay your taxes on time. Else you might face an IRS action and lose your driving privileges.

    Focus on The Service

    While this might seem elementary, it could go a long way in helping you secure more rides. If you are considerate to your passengers, engage them in small talk, have a clean car, take the route that your passenger prefers, and engage in music, it creates a positive experience. All this will ensure you get a good tip from the passenger. Besides that, they are more likely to give you a five-star rating, which assures the app and Uber that you give your riders the best possible experience. 

    Therefore, the algorithm is more likely to assign you rides when you have consistent five-star ratings. Getting those five-star ratings are easier than you think. Smile, treat the passengers nice and make sure you ask them to review the ride at the end of the trip. You are driving with Uber to make a living. Being nice to your passengers and earning five-star ratings will increase the probability of making good money every day.

    Explore the City

    If you are new to the city or driving to a new town, it would help explore the city. You could do this by driving around the city multiple times, talking to your rides, reading about the city, and exploring through Google Maps. This will give you a perspective on the traffic bottlenecks, alternative routes, interesting destinations for tourists, popular dining places, public restrooms, etc. If your ride is for a long-distance trip, prepare a list of restaurants and local restrooms beforehand. Inform your ride every 30 minutes to one hour about an oncoming break spot. 

    The last thing that your ride wants is to be asked to relieve themselves in the bushes and abandoned lot. So, engage them in a conversation and inform them about the places where you could stop if they need a break. This will save them embarrassment and make their ride comfortable. If you are traveling to regions where you are not sure about the availability of public restrooms, always drive to a Starbucks. Your passengers can relieve themselves, use the Wi-Fi and get something to eat or drink at the same time and thus earn you brownie points.

    Make the Most Of the App

    Spend some time on the Uber App. Explore Uber app features like the driver destination, find rides in places with surge pricing, and get assistance on whether you need to keep driving or take a different route during traffic congestions. Besides that, you can track your earnings in real-time and use the app even when there is no network. Exploring these features and trying to understand them will make your life on the road easy and increase your earnings, as you will know how to find a ride every time you are working. You will find better routes, understand the city well, and stay safe on the move. While understanding the app might take some time, it would be worth it because this time would be an investment in your future earnings. 

    Use Uber Accessories

    Accessorize your car with a phone cradle, in-car chargers, and AUX cable to let your riders connect their phone, charge, and use it on the go. These will help you build a great rapport with the rider and earn you a five-star rating, which will increase your earnings in the future. Besides that, you could also have a few books, magazines, and movies available for them to watch if the rides are long-distance. As most of these accessories are a one-time investment, you will not have to spend money on them often for them to yield results. 

    These are just a few handy tips that every Uber driver should know to increase their earnings, make a living, and have a safe life while riding. If you are going to a new city for a ride, make sure you know the local laws. Carry your documents and permits with you at all times as an additional safety precaution. Besides that, make sure you sanitize your vehicle often, keep a sanitizer and a box of tissues and masks handy for your passengers. Stay masked at all times, even if you are vaccinated. This will keep you and your riders healthy, which is paramount.