5 reasons why you should start paying taxes

If you want to avoid legal problems and penalties, check out the list of reasons why you should start paying taxes for your start-up company.

Fund public services

As a business owner, you shouldn’t just be concerned about the different types of payment methods and how you can earn. You also have to know your obligations.

Taxes are used to fund public services such as education, healthcare, infrastructure, public safety, and social welfare. Tax revenues are the primary source of funding for government activities, and the amount of taxes collected from individuals and businesses is determined by the government budget. 

Tax revenues are used to pay for a variety of services, including public schools, highways, health care, police and fire departments, and other public services. Investing in these services will help your business grow and prosper.

Create a level playing field

By paying taxes, you are helping to create a level playing field for your competitors. This will help ensure that everyone is playing by the same rules and ensure a fair market.

Build trust with customers

When customers know that a business is paying its taxes properly, they feel more confident that the business is operating ethically and is taking its obligations seriously. This trust can lead to increased loyalty, higher sales, and a better reputation. Your brand is more than likely to earn a good following.

Furthermore, paying taxes is a statement of good faith that a business is taking responsibility for its actions and doing its part to contribute to society. When people know you’re complying with the law, they are more likely to support you and your business.

Avoid penalties and fees

If you fail to pay your business taxes, the consequences are serious and can result in fines, penalties, and even jail time.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can assess penalties for failure to pay taxes, file a return, or pay the correct amount of taxes. The IRS can also charge interest on unpaid taxes. Depending on the amount of unpaid taxes, the IRS may also impose criminal penalties such as fines and jail time.

The IRS may also pursue collection efforts such as liens, levies, and wage garnishments. A lien is a legal claim against your assets, such as property and bank accounts, which can prevent you from selling or transferring them. 

Obtain government incentives

Paying taxes may also make you eligible for government incentives and tax breaks. This could help you to save money and make your business more profitable.

Tax credits are incentives offered by the government that can reduce the amount of tax businesses owe. Depending on the type of credit, they can help businesses save money on taxes, create jobs, and promote other activities such as research and development.

Meanwhile, tax deductions reduce the amount of taxable income a business has to report. This can result in lower taxes for businesses.

Tax abatement programs provide businesses with a reduction or exemption from certain taxes. This can be a great way to encourage businesses to invest in certain areas or activities.

Tax deferrals, on the other hand, allow businesses to delay paying taxes until a later date. This can help businesses manage their cash flow better and provide more time to generate profits.

Conclusion

You pay taxes to support public services and programs provided by the government, such as national defense, Social Security, public education, public infrastructure, and public safety. Taxes also help fund programs to protect the environment and support medical research. In addition, taxes fund the government’s ability to assist those in need, such as unemployment benefits and food stamps.

Whether you own a large company or a small startup, it’s important to pay your taxes and do it at the right time. It’s a big help not just for the government but for your business as well. Remember, it establishes trust.

Work habits that will make you a better trader

If you are an aspiring trader, you have to incorporate these four habits into your work in order to make a successful career and avoid failures.

Set realistic goals

It means that you need to start small and slowly build your way up. Don’t expect to pull off large ROI numbers for a long time. You need to identify what is profitable over time before trying to get large profits, which takes years to master. Be prepared to invest years of your time into learning trade skills, and there are hundreds of places you can start from. For instance, you can get informed about the latest occurrences in the market on tradecrypto.com, and check out their review of the largest crypto hub here: crypto.com review.

Respect yourself and the time you invested

This may seem strange, but being too relaxed and perceiving trading as a game can be detrimental and lead to decisions that are not thought through. If you treat trading as a real business, it may yield to you just like a real business does.

Accept the variance

This is not a regular day job. Your profit may be stable long-term if you are good at it but short-term, it never happens. Variance is the very essence of this job. 

 Paradoxically, you need to be prepared to lose, and lose a lot, in order to win. Most people just want to make money, and it is natural to witness a natural increase in your resources. In this business, however, you have to accept short-term uncertainty for long-term gains.

Manage your risk

Define your bankroll, and always use a small percentage of it for trades. Never make any exceptions.  

Learn on the go and adapt quickly

It’s a jungle out there, and thousands if not millions want the same as you. The few winners will be the ones who solve the problems at hand the fastest. 

 This includes anticipating and analyzing the market better than others. Even when you have done that, your knowledge is not set in stone. The winners are the ones who implement new ideas and tactics the fastest and take the profit before the competition joins in. A great resource for traders to stay updated with all current important concepts is this exhaustive list of crypto terms.  

Don’t make gambling errors

• “Profit lost means that the trade is bad”: No, it doesn’t. It is all based on probability. If we offered you a dice roll and you lose only if it falls on number one, it will surely happen sometimes, maybe even on the first roll. But that does not make it a bad deal even if you lose, does it? 
• Trying to get even quickly after you lose has destroyed the lives of many people. Take the loss peacefully, analyze it, then define the next step.

Possess a stable personality overall

You must be in the right state of mind most of the time to keep making profitable moves. 

 Traders with a well-organized, stable lifestyle and personality will always have the edge over emotionally unstable people, who have mood changes, or vices, or are going through any kind of difficult period in life. If you are not balanced, then you are out to make reckless trading decisions.

Conclusion

Good traders are not necessarily smarter or more talented than you. There is a chance for you to trade and make money if you are ready to engage yourself enough. At least everyone is treated equally in this business, so if you want to be among the profitable minority of less than 20% of traders, get ready for some hard work.  

How to secure seed grants for nonprofits

Here are a few ways to help your organization to secure seed grants for nonprofits.

Examine your funding model

Most nonprofits do not consider the nature of their donors before applying for grants. For instance, a local clinic covered by Medicaid doing community work and a nonprofit funded by a government agency both receive public funds. However, the people involved in approving funding are completely different, as are their aims.

Also, the audiences these nonprofits aim at will likely be vastly different. Some nonprofits aim to establish a heartfelt connection by appealing to a wide audience. The Make-a-Wish foundation is an example of this funding model. Others like the Cleveland Clinic rely on former beneficiaries of their services to raise money.

The simplest model is the one where nonprofits charge their members a monthly fee. Each of these models has its advantages. Take the time to choose the right one for your nonprofit. If your organization does not have a ready-made way to distribute important information or recruit a large number of donors quickly, following the Make-a-Wish model is unlikely to yield any results.

You might be better off by leveraging your existing network and relying on a few big donors. Alternatively, if you can highlight a public good your organization will achieve, government funding is a great resource to raise money. 

If none of these options work for you, consider reorienting your model to that of a beneficiary broker. In this model, you connect those in need with services offered by the government and receive a fee from the government in return. The Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership is a good example of a nonprofit that successfully uses this model.

Conduct grant prospect research

To secure grants for non profit organizations, doing your due diligence is a must. Grants application evaluators are perhaps one of the most critical audiences nonprofits must appeal to, and it’s well worth taking the time to apply properly. The sad reality is that many nonprofits neglect conducting research before the application process and mistakenly think that just submitting paperwork is enough.

Think about it like a job interview. Grantmakers receive a mountain of applications, so you need to be creative in making your application stand out. The easiest way to do this is by conducting research into your grantmaker’s needs and their history with past applications.

For instance, does the organization fund causes in your area? Do they have a track record of funding causes similar to yours? Each grant application is different so take the time to double-check the requirements. If in doubt, hire an experienced grant writer who can research for you.

When applying for grants, you must quantify or demonstrate the impact you have had on those in need. You must prepare beforehand and collect any material in the formats the grantmaker requests. Taking a look at previous funded causes will give you an idea of what they need and what data you must have handy.

Often, the best way of figuring out a grantmaker’s needs is to call them. Ask them questions and get to the bottom of what they’re looking for. You’ll also manage to build a relationship with them, something that will help you immensely in the future.

Apply for the right grants

Some nonprofits find themselves getting rejected a lot because they apply for grants that aren’t a good fit. Sure, they might fit the cause, and the grantmaker might have a track record in that area. However, you must consider your size, the impact you have made, and the grantmaker’s needs before applying.

For example, if you do not have a lot of experience raising money through grants, applying for the largest opportunities does not make sense. Your competition will likely be far more experienced and have the relationships that matter.

Instead, going small and local is a great way to tilt the odds in your favor. You should also benchmark against other nonprofit organizations operating in your area or within your cause to figure out your likelihood of success.

Securing a grant often boils down to preparing a lot before applying. Unfortunately, some nonprofits treat the application process as a lottery and apply to everything out there, hoping something sticks. This approach will create a negative impact in the long term since failing to raise grants repeatedly will damage your reputation amongst donors.

While securing a grant is a great thing, check whether you and the grantmaker are a good fit. Accepting grants (or applying for them) from organizations that are misaligned is unlikely to win you donor support, something that is critical if you wish to sustain your nonprofit in the long run.

Double-check your math

This is a basic piece of advice, but many nonprofits still ignore it: Double-check your math and make sure your numbers check out. Calculate your budgets and have someone else scrutinize them before you include them in your grant application.

You could have a great application, but include shoddy math, and you’ll lose all goodwill, leading to rejection almost certainly. Common numerical errors include padded numbers, unrealistic budgets, and misrepresenting your plans. Some organizations believe they need to exaggerate numbers to win a grant, but this is false.

Always be realistic with your numbers, and you’ll win a grant that’s a good fit for your organization.

Conclusion

Winning a grant might seem like a tough task, especially given the increasing competition for them and the need to prove impact. However, with a little preparation and research per the tips in this article, nonprofits can ensure they place themselves in the best position to win them.

7 deadly sins of email marketing that can backfire your campaign

This guide will cover the 7 deadly sins of email marketing and how you can make sure they don’t ruin your campaigns. So let’s get started!

Sending too many emails

If there is one thing that will get your emails flagged as spam, it’s sending too many messages. Spam filters are designed to detect bulk emails and send them straight to the junk folder—and unfortunately, it doesn’t take much to trigger them. Implementing a strong DMARC policy increases protection
against potential email-related issues.

Even if you do manage to get your emails delivered, too many in a short period of time can be very off-putting for recipients. So make sure to keep an eye on your send frequency and adjust it accordingly.

For those of you that tend to be email-happy, try setting up an automated drip campaign. This way, you’ll be able to ensure that your emails are sent at regular intervals, without overwhelming your contacts.

Not personalizing emails

Another deadly sin of email marketing is neglecting to personalize your messages. That’s because your customers want to feel like you are talking directly to them—so make sure to use their name, mention past purchases or interests, and provide relevant content in the body of the email.

In fact, an Experian study found that personalized emails had a 29% higher open rate and 41% increased click-through rates than non-personalized emails. Personalizing your emails is a must if you want to get the most out of your campaigns.

The good news is, most email marketing platforms make it easy to incorporate personalization into your emails. So take the time to do some research and find out how you can make your messages more tailored to each recipient.

Not including a professional signature

Including a business email signature is essential to any professional email. Your signature should contain your name, job title, company logo, and contact information. Not only will it look more professional, but it will also give your customers an easy way to contact you directly.

Failing to include even the most basic of email signatures can make your emails look sloppy and unprofessional—which is the last thing you want when trying to convince customers to buy from you.

Failing to follow up

In email marketing, failing to follow up is a huge mistake. These days, the competition for customer attention is fierce, so it’s important to remind them of your brand and give them a reason to keep coming back.

One way to do this is by setting up an automated follow-up sequence. This can be a series of emails sent at predetermined intervals, like a few days after someone makes a purchase or subscribes to your list.

These emails can include special offers, discounts, or even just a friendly reminder that you’re still there. With the right follow-up sequence, you can ensure that your customers feel valued and keep coming back for more.

Not segmenting your lists

Segmentation is the practice of breaking up your mailing list into smaller, more targeted groups. This way, you can send more relevant content to different customers based on their interests or preferences.

For example, if you sell tickets to music events, you might segment your list into fans of rock, hip-hop, and country music. This enables you to send more specific content that resonates with each group, instead of a generic marketing message.

On top of this, segmenting your lists is likely to boost engagement and increase the chances of customers taking action on your emails.  So make sure to take the time to figure out what kind of segmentation would work best for your business.

Failing to optimize your emails for mobile device

Mobile devices now make up a large portion of email opens, so it’s essential to optimize your emails for mobile. This means making sure that images display correctly and links are easy to click.

You should also consider using a responsive design template so that your emails look great on any device. This is especially important if you’re sending out newsletters or promotional emails, as a good design can make all the difference in how your messages are received.

Failing to do this could lead to a poor user experience, which could hurt your open and click-through rates—so make sure to optimize for mobile before sending out any further campaigns.

Not testing before you send

No matter how well you craft your emails, it’s important to test them before they’re sent out. This will help ensure that the message looks the way you intended and that all of the links work properly.

Most email marketing platforms have testing options, so make sure to use them before sending out any emails. This will save you a lot of time and frustration in the long run, as it’s much easier to catch small errors before they get sent out to your entire list.

After all, there is nothing worse than sending out an email to thousands of email subscribers only to find out later that it contains a glaring error.  So make sure to test, test, and test some more before sending out any emails.

Conclusion

From making sure to include a professional email signature, segmenting your lists for more targeted campaigns, and optimizing for mobile devices, following these best practices will help ensure that your email marketing efforts are successful and that your customers stay engaged.