When you’re running a business, working in any kind of managerial role or simply taking decisions on behalf of one for example as a marketing agency entrusted with a budget, what you’re doing every day is choosing where to spend resources to get the best results for the smallest investment. Those resources might be literally money, but the resources you have at your disposal could be the work-hours of the team you’re managing, the reputation of your company, even personal favours built up over time.

You need to make shrewd use of these resources, putting them into projects that bring in a bigger return than spending them costs. This doesn’t just mean profit: one of the most important things you can do is begin to recognise more indirect gains, from building a reputation for quality with your customers, spending money to build in risk avoidance systems that reduce loss from future projects and avoiding false economies, seeing the bigger picture is vital as you rate your decision making and account for it in front of others.

One of the most important factors at work here is the use of data to inform each decision you make. Using research on your own company, and from market research agencies like Attest mean you can approach choices with confidence about what your consumers want, the extent to which they’ll trust your brand, and exactly what you can do to get it to them. It ensures you’ll avoid problems like over promising, which can harm trust in your company in the long term and drive away the loyal repeat custom that success is founded on. With good data you can start to predict the outcome of your choice, and this modelling allows you to steer towards good outcomes and away from bad ones.

It’s important that your research and data gathering looks back as well as forward. Don’t just walk away from a project, especially if it’s gone badly (or at least, not as planned). Review your decisions, look at where your expectations differed from reality and try to work out why: you might need to make some personal changes if your preconceptions are causing to allocate resources wastefully, or you might need to change your data gathering and analysis techniques to better your ability to predict how your choices will turn out and make sure you’re making the right ones.

When seeking to continue to build your financial portfolio, adding investments is one idea that many choose to pursue. One way that such investments are typically made is by buying part of a business. Buying into an existing business means that you become one of the main stakeholders, owning a portion of the business itself. While this is something that is done frequently, quite often are new business owners not aware of the many factors that are related to making this significant financial decision.

Benefits

Of course, buying part of a business may sound overwhelming, but there are many factors that make it a beneficial decision.

• Established company client base. One of the benefits of owning part of a business that is established is the fact the client base is already set. While a new business has to attract customers and build a group of returning clients, one that is already functioning will have this taken care of. This will allow the business owners to focus more on customer service and maintaining client retention and increasing the number of clients.

• Ease of expansion. If you happen to buy part of a business that is looking to expand, it will be much easier to do with a company that has already made a name for itself and gets good feedback from its clients. It’s also easier to get an unsecured small business loan for expansion when the company has a proven track record of sales.

• Focus on business improvements. You may like challenges and, thus, purchase part of a business that may need to make a few changes to improve. Luckily, the company has a plan of operation in place so that you can focus on how to improve it for the company’s overall success.

• Current owner knowledge. One of the best factors of buying part of a business is that the current owners will be very familiar with the company and can show you what has and hasn’t worked for business operations thus far. You, equipped with this knowledge, can then come up with innovative ideas to benefit the business.

Risks

As there are many pros to buying part of an existing business, there are just as many risks of shared ownership of a company. It is best to keep these factors in mind as you make your decision.

• Current owner practices. It would be an absolute nightmare to purchase part of a business where the owners mismanaged funds. Upon learning more about a business you may want to purchase part of, be sure to research all financial records.

• Bad reputation. A good use of customer feedback is to learn how the company fares amongst past clients. A company with a bad reputation will likely struggle with being successful.

• High turnover. In addition to clients being indicative of a company’s progress, the employees can serve the same purpose. If there have been numerous employees during the business’ lifespan, especially due to multiple resignations, this would be something to keep in mind as a problem area when taking the company on.

• Differences between owners. If the current owners are not open to change or new ideas, you could possibly run into difficulties with trying to take the company to the next level in terms of expansion, increasing profits, or employee and client satisfaction.

The choice to buy part of a company should only be made after carefully considering all factors, good and bad, that are involved. It can also be helpful to seek the help of a business adviser who can answer your questions and give guidance as you take this big step.

When it comes to our personal finances, it’s safe to say we’ve all done our fair share of worrying. With bills to pay and mouths to feed, it can seem like saving any of your money is a pipe dream. An impossibility. And, yet, we must. We have the unenviable task of doing the impossible. Or, at least, that’s how it seems. In truth, savings money can be easier than you think. With a healthy does of will power and the right know how, you can secure your financial future. Here are some tips to get you started.

First and Foremost, let’s talk where and when to spend your hard earned money. For starters, consider eliminated or reducing luxury spending. For example, you don’t really need that new video game, so it can wait until it’s one sale, or until you’re in a better financial position. Meanwhile, we all need things like Winter coats and shoes, so these are items worth spending money on. In fact, it might even be worth spending a little extra on these items to ensure quality. After all, you don’t want to end up spending even more from having to replace these items frequently. However, even in this situation, there’s room to save. Here’s a Mackage coupon to help you find a good quality coat and save. Which brings me to my next point…

Coupons and sales are another great way to save. Retailers employ these cost cutting measures frequently in order to entice customers new and old and generally drum up some extra business. That’s why an eagle eyed shopper stands to be able to take home most, if not all, of their shopping at a heavily reduced price. You may have to do your shopping piecemeal in order to maximize savings, but it’s well worth it to save that much money. You’ll also have to remain diligent in order to find thee special offers, so keep your eyes peeled like a jaguar ready to pounce on its unsuspecting prey.