7 Ways to Stay More Organized at Home and Work

Do you have a problem staying organized and focused? This is an issue for many people today, at home and on the job. Adopt the following 7 practices, tips, and strategies, and you will find yourself clutter free and focused, organized and more productive.

1 – Let Technology Help You

There are several applications and pieces of software that can keep you organized at home and on the job. The following apps are some of the most popular for organizing work, handling travel plans, freeing you from text message overwhelm and helping you in other important aspects of your personal and business lives.

• GroupMe
  

  Technology

• Track My Life
• Dropbox
• CamCard
• Expensify
• Tripit
• Hashtags
• MailTime
• HabitList
• IFTTT
• Toodledo
• Cold Turkey
• ProcrasterApp
• CoSchedule
• Venmo

2 – List Your Big 3 Every Day

Write down your top 3 tasks for the day. Accomplish or complete these first, before you do anything else. You will find your productivity soar, and your organizational skills improve.

3 – Do One Thing At a Time

Do you remember a few years back, when multitasking was all the rage? As it turns out, you get more accomplished when you focus on one task at a time. The human brain works better when it is devoted to one train of thought. Research backs up this belief, showing that multitaskers suffer higher levels of stress and anxiety, and more disorganization as well.

4 – Handle Things Once

Deal with your mail as soon as you take it from your mailbox. Don’t take it inside, lay it down on your desk or counter, intending to deal with it later. Do the same thing with every physical and virtual object or piece of information you have to deal with.

Handle everything one time, and you cut down on the time spent trying to organize your life.

5 – Simplify

Keep Things Simple

Do you really need another purse or pair of shoes? How many sports jerseys are enough? Do you have too many televisions, smartphones, tablets, and computers? How many coffee cups can you drink out of at one time? Take some time to simplify your life. Organization is easier when you have fewer things to deal with.

6 – Learn to Say No

Sometimes organization simply means saying no. The more times you agree to help someone out with a task or chore the more you are putting on your plate. Just like the last tip, simplifying, learning to say no means fewer obligations and simpler organization.

7 – Clean Your Workstation

Work Area

Relatively recent research about clutter reveals a simple way to organize your life. Did you know that everything in your field of vision is being processed by your eyes and mind? You may be consciously writing a report or listening to a conference call. At the same time, your brain is trying to handle any and all visual data that your eyes are processing. Clear your workstation of everything but the essentials you need to do your job and you will find your ability to stay organized and focused improving.

7 Ways to Stay More Organized at Home and Work.

Hackers What Can They Do?

Hello Everyone,  I am sorry that I have not posted in a while.  It has been one computer issue after another.  Today, I want to share some things that hackers can and will do with your site if it is not protected.  Also, I want to let you know that I have been working on some new material for my site.  Hope everyone that is a Mother had a wonderful Mother’s Day.

What Hackers Do With Compromised WordPress Sites

PLEASE NOTE: This entry was posted on Word Fence in Learning, Research, WordPress Security on April 19, 2016,by Dan Moen

We often talk to site owners who are surprised that their sites are targeted by attackers. Most of them assume that if there isn’t any juicy data to steal, like credit card numbers, that compromising their site is a worthless exercise. Unfortunately, they are wrong. Aside from data, a compromised site’s visitors can be monetized in various malicious ways.  The web server can be used to run malicious software and host content and the reputation of the domain name and IP address can be leveraged.

Last month we ran a survey that included the following open-ended question for people who reported that their site had been compromised:

What did the hackers do to your site?

We received a total of 873 responses that could be categorized, which we did by hand. The chart below reflects the results. Many of the responses described multiple categories, so the percentages on the chart below deliberately add up to greater than 100%.

We did not include categories for “installed backdoor” or “installed malware”. We consider that to be more of a means to an end. Instead, we focused on answering the question, “what’s in it for the attacker?”.

As you can see from the chart there are a wide variety of things that attackers are doing with compromised WordPress sites. Let’s take a look at each of them, so we can better understand the motive behind the attacks that we are constantly defending against.

Defaced Site / Took Offline

In some cases, hackers replace your content with their own. The most common were political content from terrorist groups and the like. The next most common was hackers simply bragging that they hacked your site. In all of these cases, the attacker is doing absolutely nothing to obscure what they have done, anyone who visits the site immediately knows that you’ve been hacked.

In other cases the attackers just destroy your site in some way, taking it offline. Based on what we see when performing forensic research on hacked sites, in the majority of these cases, the attacker just screwed up what they were doing and accidentally took your site down.

Example of defaced website courtesy of opennet.net

 

What’s in it for the attacker?

For the attackers who replace your site with political propaganda, your site is just free advertising for their cause. Those that brag about taking your site down are looking for recognition.

Send Spam

Spam email continues to be a huge issue. According to Statistica, 54.4% of all email traffic on the internet was spam in December of 2015. According to our survey respondents, 19.8% of compromised WordPress sites are used to send email spam.

In many cases, the site owner was not aware that it was happening for quite some time. In some cases, they notice a slow down in site performance or a spike in server utilization that tips them off. Or their host recognizes it and alerts them.

Unfortunately, a very high percentage don’t find out until their domain has been blacklisted by spam watchdog services like Spamhaus. If you depend on email for communication with your customers or others it can have devastating consequences.

What’s in it for the attacker?

The attacker gets two huge benefits. First, they get to use the server resources that you’re paying for free of charge. Second, until they ruin your reputation, their email delivery benefits tremendously from originating from your domain and IP address. Ultimately they are trying to get people to click through to their malicious websites.

SEO Spam

There are a number of ways attackers can leverage your website to improve their search engine rankings. The first is to simply host pages on your domain, accruing the benefits of your Domain Authority and clean reputation. Example page below.

The next is to plant links throughout your site to the site(s) they want to give an SEO boost. Since backlinks are still the most important SEO ranking factor, an attacker who compromises a large number of sites can game search engine rankings in a big way.

Many of our respondents used the term “pharma hack” to describe this type of attack because it has recently been used a lot to boost the rankings of pharmaceutical sales sites.

 

What’s in it for the attacker?

As I’m sure most of you know, ranking well for popular search terms is a great way to drive traffic to websites. By gaming the system with SEO spam, attackers are able to divert traffic away from legitimate sites toward their own.

Malicious Redirect

Redirects are an incredibly effective way for attackers to funnel traffic to malicious websites. The unsuspecting user doesn’t have to click on a hyperlink or advertisement for it to work, they are taken there directly.

Sometimes the attacker will take a very aggressive approach, redirecting all traffic to a malicious site or sites. But in many cases, the attackers will employ measures to avoid detection, such as only redirecting some URL requests, and in some cases only activating the redirect for specific browsers or device types.

What’s in it for the attacker?

The motive here is simply to drive traffic to their malicious content.

Host Phishing Page

Phishing pages attempt to fool the visitor into providing sensitive information. In some cases, they impersonate a bank or retailer and try to get you to give them valuable information like credit card numbers directly. In others, they try to capture your username and password to various sites, including your WordPress site if you’re not careful.

Phishing page example courtesy of eff.org

 

What’s in it for the attacker?

The value of your credit card number is obvious. They can use other data to break into important online accounts, use it for social engineering or spear phishing attacks or to steal your identity.

Distribute Malware

Once they have compromised your site, attackers can install malware that in turn installs malware on your website visitor’s computers without their knowledge. This is an incredibly scary proposition for you as a site owner.

If Google detects that it is happening they will flag your site via their safe browsing program. This will cause your SEO traffic to drop significantly. For more details please read our recent blog post on the impact of a hacked website on SEO. Worse than that, site visitors that are infected will not be happy with you.

The impact to your reputation could be significant and long lasting. Luckily only 2.9% of respondents reported this.

What’s in it for the attacker?

Installing malware on hundreds or thousands of your site visitor’s computers gives the attacker direct access to steal information or wreak havoc on them.

Steal User Data

Given that most people we talk to assume that attackers are interested in stealing their data, we were surprised to learn that only 1.1% of our respondents reported it happening.

We think the main reason is that the majority of WordPress sites do not store sensitive data beyond user credentials for that site and maybe email addresses. It would also be very difficult for the owner of a hacked site to detect data theft if it occurred, so the numbers are likely understated.

What’s in it for the attacker?

Stolen user credentials could be used to regain entry to the site, even if the site has been cleaned. The username / password combinations can also be attempted on other sites in hopes that the user is repeating use of passwords.

Stolen email addresses can be used for spamming. Obviously, more sensitive information like credit card numbers would be even more valuable.

Attack Site

In some cases, an attacker will decide to use your web server as a platform to launch attacks on other websites. This is relatively rare based on our respondents, who only reported this happening 0.7% of the time.

What’s in it for the attacker?

The attacker gets to use your server free of charge for their malicious activities. They also are much more likely to slip past their targets’ defenses with the attack originating from your domain and IP address. At least until they ruin your reputation.

Ransomware

Ransomware is malicious software that blocks access to your website and demands that you pay a ransom in return for having access restored. This kind of attack has been receiving a lot of attention on blogs and in the press recently. So we were surprised to have only 0.6% of respondents report it.

 

What’s in it for the attacker?

If you don’t have backups that you were able to keep out of the hands of the attacker, you may decide that paying the ransom is worth it.

Host Malicious Content

Hackers will very often use your web server to host malicious files that they can call from other servers. They are essentially quietly using your hosting account as a file server.

What’s in it for the attacker?

The attacker gets to store their files free of charge on a server with a domain and IP address that have a squeaky clean reputation.

Referrer Spam

If you use Google Analytics you are likely familiar with referrer spam. Referrer spam is bot traffic to your site set up to look like it is coming from a fake referrer. The spammer is trying to get the website owner to check out where the traffic is coming from, driving traffic to the site.

Referrer spam example courtesy of phpmatters.com

 

What’s in it for the attacker?

As with a lot of the nefarious attacker activities we have already described, they get to use your server free of charge under the cover of your pristine IP address. Their ultimate goal is to drive traffic to one of their websites for reasons that often turn out to be malicious.

Conclusion

If you were of the opinion that your site couldn’t possibly be of interest to hackers, we hope that this post has changed your mind and given you some insight into their motives and methods.

Regardless of what you use your site for, how much traffic it gets or how inexpensive your hosting plan is, an attacker can figure out how to make use of it if they can break in. To learn about how attackers gain access to WordPress sites, check out our blog post from last month.

Did you enjoy this post? Share it!

 

May you be safe and blessed in your journey,

Star Harden

 

How To Keep Your Emotions In Check During Changing Times

Hello Everyone,  sorry I got out of my routine.  I hope that all of you have has a great weekend and a joyous Valentine’s Day.  Right now, I am going through a hard time in my JOB.  We have new CEO’s and policy changes along with employee changes.  Boy, that is a lot of changing going on!!  That is what prompted me to write this week’s post.  Keeping a positive attitude and thinking positive can make things easier and make you feel better along your journey.

How To Keep Your Emotions In Check During Changing Times

Many people have problems with change, yet change is just about the only thing you can count on. We see this all the time in the stores, workplace, electronics and more. No matter whether you are an employee, a boss, a parent, a teacher, a student or some combination of these personal descriptions, eventually, you will have to deal with change. Chances are, you will be dealing with change on a regular, ongoing basis in any lifestyle. Luckily, there are specific steps you can take to keep yourself on an even keel in changing times.

 Read on to learn more.

Regardless of your profession, family role or leadership position, it is important that you set a good example for others by responding appropriately to change. Always look for the unseen benefit in changes, and avoid automatic reactions. Focus on responding to change in a flexible manner rather than reacting against it.

People often have anxiety with changes.  This can create negative reactions from all types of people, professions, and groups.   If you are in possession of special knowledge about the coming changes, be sure to share your information with others in your school, work groups or family in a positive way. If the changes will cause more work or added responsibilities for yourself and others, think of ways you can help each other out and make the most of the situation.

Avoid Negativity.

If you feel resentful or fearful about the change, take some time to think your feelings through and identify why you feel that way, is it just a feeling or is it based in fact? The only thing that negative talk and thinking will do is drain your energy, bring you down and it may even stop you from progressing.

Stay positive.

Instead, focus your energy on the positives of the situation and help yourself make the most of it.  Use this time to evaluate the situation, group or were you are in your life at that time.  Think of changes as an opportunity to brainstorm a new outcome.  A chance to change things you can and possibly go around/avoid things you cannot change.

Concerns.

Understand that if you have concerns, others around you probably do too. It is alright to discuss your concerns as long as you do not spread fear and anxiety. Instead, discuss your concerns as a way of brainstorming for good ideas that will help everyone adjust and move forward.

Approach changes in your personal life and your work life with the mind of a child. In other words, look for aspects of changes with which you are unfamiliar and view them as an opportunity to learn and grow rather than as a burden.

Remember

In work situations, organizations and school changes often come in the form of new people in positions of authority. In families, these days, new people of all sorts may be added. New spouses, parents, and siblings are a common occurrence in today’s world. If your changes consist of a big shift in group composition and dynamics, be sure to stay open and positive, avoid judgments and expect the best.

Being friendly and interested will go a long way toward helping yourself and those around you weather this sort of stressful change. If these changes are occurring within your workplace, school or organization, be sure to make the most of any resources at hand, such as mentoring, counseling and so on.

Setting the Example  

Change can be frightening and stressful; however, when you remember that, no matter who you are, you set an example to others, you are sure to want to show yourself in your best light. When you do this, you also benefit yourself with your mature, thoughtful behavior. Follow the tips presented here to handle change successfully in any situation.

As always be safe and blessed in your journey,

Star

3 Tasty Tax Tips To Get You Through 2016!!

People are always searching for ways to lower their tax liability. Well here are few yummies that will fill your belly.

#1 Tasty Tax Tip

Home office deduction… There are 2 ways to calculate this deduction. #1 is to take your home office room and divide it by the number of rooms in your home not counting bathrooms, etc… So let’s say you have a four bedroom home and one is the office then you can deduct 25% of direct and indirect expenses. Number 2 and the easiest way is to use the simplified method which entitles you to $5 per square footage and is capped at 300 square feet totaling  $1500. So that is $1500 deduction on your taxes that you can write off.

#2 Tasty Tax Tip

We all hear about the mileage deduction and the apps that track mileage but you can also use the actual car expense method where can write off gas, car repairs, car tools, license fees, parking fees for business trips, registration fees, tires, insurance,  garage rent, car washing, lease payments, interest on car loans, towing charges,  and auto club dues.  Once you add everything up you need to determine your business use percentage and that will be your deductions. Things like parking fees and tolls the entire amount is written off. So sometimes that will actually give you a higher deduction than the standard mileage deduction.

#3 Tasty Tax Tip

My favorite and last tasty tip is:

Hire your children. That means that they can earn as much as $6,300 in income, tax-free under the age of 18 if you have an unincorporated business. You can still claim them as a dependent on your taxes, AND write off their salary as a business expense.  You can also start and can contribute to an IRA for them. They could use a Roth IRA, later on, to pay for college expenses or just have an early start into their retirement account.

 

Hope these tasty tax tips taught you some things that can help you with your business. If you want to learn more please feel free to reach out to at www.ssbmconsulting.com

 

 My name is Sandra Morno and I am a small business tax consultant. I have been in the tax industry for the last 9 years preparing personal and small business taxes and honestly I never saw myself doing this. But my friend, mentor, fraternity brother saw something in me and asked me to come work for him. I was working on MBA at the time and he thought that I would be a good asset to this accounting company. He taught me everything I know and is literally the biggest nerd I know. He started doing taxes back in college over 20 years and loved to read tax law books. Who does that? He taught me everything I knew, which is why I do what I do and I love it. I am an IRS Enrolled Agent which means I can represent people in front of the IRS with their tax issues and considered to be a tax specialist. My passion is to educate and guide entrepreneurs in the right direction in the formation of their businesses. I also help educate to understand the tax benefits they are entitled to, implications of running a business and inspire them to be more aware of what is going on in their business.

This has led me to write about tax tips for US based businesses.

You can connect with me at:

www.facebook.com/ssbmconsultingllc

www.ssbmconsulting.com

10 Tax strategies for 2015

10 Strategies You May Want to Consider as You Prepare for Tax

Here are 10 tax strategies you may want to consider for 2015.

The year-end tax planning season is less uncertain than it has been in recent years. Yet investors may need to be prepared for higher taxes. For 2014, higher income taxpayers may be subject to a 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax on their net investment income and an Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% on compensation. The top effective tax rate is now 43.4% on dividends, interest and short-term capital gains and 23.8% on qualified dividends and long-term capital gains. The estate tax (as well as the gift tax and generation-skipping transfer tax), with a new slightly higher rate of 40%, has a new “permanent” exemption of $5 million (2011 dollar-indexed for inflation), which increased to $5.34 million for 2014 and $5.43 million in 2015. In addition, the annual exclusion from gift taxes will remain at $14,000 per donee for 2014. Given this, here are several tax strategies to consider as we move into 2015

1. Max out retirement plans.

The primary advantage of participating in a Traditional IRA is that the contribution may be tax deductible; similarly, a contribution to a 401(k) plan may be made on a pretax basis. If your taxable income is lower, the amount of income tax you owe for that year might also be reduced.

And because these are tax-deferred accounts, you do not pay income taxes on any earnings on your investments until you withdraw funds.

2. Consider a Roth IRA conversion.

While income limits may preclude some investors from contributing to a Roth IRA, anyone can do a Roth Conversion by converting eligible funds from a Traditional IRA or employer-sponsored retirement plan to a Roth IRA. Roth IRA contributions are made with after-tax dollars, and qualified distributions are federal income tax-free.1 When you convert, you must pay taxes on the amount converted as ordinary income for that year, except to the extent the amount converted is treated as a return of your after-tax contributions, if any. In general, after-tax money in an employer-sponsored qualified retirement plan (e.g., 401(k)) may be directly converted to a Roth IRA tax-free. Taxpayers who have potentially taxable estates should consider the Roth IRA conversion option, as it could make a potentially significant future wealth transfer more tax efficient. Consult with your tax and/or legal advisor regarding your individual situation as a Roth IRA conversion may not be for everyone. A number of factors should be considered before converting, including (but not limited to) whether the cost of paying taxes today outweighs the benefit of income tax-free qualified distributions in the future.

3. Review highly appreciated assets.

The capital gains rates for most taxpayers are still significantly less than ordinary income tax rates. Consult your tax advisor about whether shifting to investments that generate capital gains instead of ordinary income would be a good strategy. Be sure to weigh the risks of having a large concentrated stock position or highly appreciated position. If gradual diversification is needed, trim before year-end to spread the capital gains impact over multiple years.

4. Give increased attention to buy-and-hold strategies.

With increased capital gains tax rates, buy-and-hold strategies may be attractive; the higher the tax rate, the more valuable the strategy. Similarly, it becomes more important to harvest tax losses to shelter gains that otherwise would be taxed at the higher rate.

5. Augment your tax-advantaged investments with municipal bonds

Municipal bonds, the interest on which is typically free from federal, state and local taxes, are one of the most efficient investments available for defending against current and potentially higher tax rates. Even though income tax rates rose for high-income taxpayers, interest income earned on municipal bonds remains largely unaffected. (Capital gains from the sale or exchange of municipal bonds typically is not tax-free.)

6. Consider redeploying assets to a variable annuity.

In a rising tax environment, the tax-deferral feature of annuities becomes increasingly attractive. Diversifying your retirement portfolio with a variable annuity may provide tax-deferred growth potential, guaranteed lifetime income, increased retirement savings, equity upside potential and a death benefit for named beneficiaries. Remember, though: withdrawals from variable annuities will be taxed as ordinary income and, if made before age 59½, may be subject to a 10% early distribution penalty tax. Please consult your tax advisor about whether variable annuities are appropriate for you.

7. Consider professionally managed and tax-advantaged investment strategies.

Now is a good time to evaluate the overall tax efficiency of your investments. Beyond municipal bonds, consider tax-efficient mutual funds or separately managed accounts that aim to limit the number of taxable events within your portfolio.

8. Review dividend distributions of your current portfolio.

Qualified dividend tax rates are still lower than ordinary income tax rates for most taxpayers, so consult with your financial and tax advisors about whether you should adjust your investment holdings to achieve greater income tax efficiency.

9. Engage in legacy planning and gifting.

All investors should have an estate plan that reflects their wealth-transfer goals and objectives. Taxpayers with taxable or potentially taxable estates who are in an economic position to do so and would like to benefit their heirs should consider making lifetime gifts to those heirs now, which may be a potentially more tax-efficient wealth transfer strategy. Also, consider making gifts under the annual gift tax exclusion and charitable gifts before year-end. Please consult your tax and legal advisors to review your current estate plan and ensure it reflects your goals and objectives.

10. Consider a securities-based loan or line of credit for tax obligations.

Using cash or liquidating assets could disrupt your investment strategy and trigger capital gains taxes or transaction fees. A securities-based loan or line of credit can be fast, easy to set up and may offer competitive rates with typically no fees while keeping your investment portfolio intact.

These strategies might help minimize the impact of current tax laws on your portfolio. Contact a Financial Advisor or Private Wealth Advisor to determine which strategies might be appropriate for you. Restrictions, tax penalties, and taxes may apply. For a distribution to be an income-tax-free qualified distribution, it must be made (a) on or after you reach age 59 ½, due to death or qualifying disability, or for a qualified first-time homebuyer purchase, and (b) after the five tax year holding period, which begins on January 1 of the first year for which you made a regular contribution (or in which you made a conversion or rollover contribution) to any Roth IRA established for you as owner.

 Restrictions, tax penalties, and taxes may apply. For a distribution to be an income-tax-free qualified distribution, it must be made (a) on or after you reach age 59 ½, due to death or qualifying disability, or for a qualified first-time homebuyer purchase, and (b) after the five tax year holding period, which begins on January 1 of the first year for which you made a regular contribution (or in which you made a conversion or rollover contribution) to any Roth IRA established for you as owner.

 In certain instances, clients may be charged legal or documentation fees by third parties. Clients may also be charged a fee for the issuance of a letter.

Omojola began her financial advisory career with Goldman Sachs and was later recruited to Morgan Stanley following 8 years of service as an Intelligence Officer in The United States Army. As a Captain, Omojola completed two combat tours to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. She graduated from Western New England University with a BA in Government followed by Masters in Public Administration from Central Michigan University. Omojola also attended The College of Financial Planning where she received her Chartered Retirement Planning CounselorSM designation. She holds a Series 7, 65 security licenses and the Life and Variable Annuity Insurance licenses.

Omojola utilizes her intelligence and planning skills to develop wealth management strategies that help clients and their families establish goals, strategize solutions, and envision clear and understandable financial path for their future.

Omojola immigrated to the United States from Sierra Leone at the age of 8 and resided in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She believes a balanced life is the essence of happiness, As such; she is dedicated to helping her community be a better place to live and work. She is an active volunteer at shelters for battered women and trafficked teenage girls who are in hiding.

In her spare time, Omojola enjoys exercising, playing field hockey and golfing.

Connect with Omojola:

Phone: 202-689-1883

Email address: omojola.hebron@morganstanley.com

Website: http://www.morganstanleyfa.com/omojola.hebron/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OmojolaHebronMS

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/omojola-hebron-crpc®-64768989

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/omojola.hebron

How To Promote Your Business Thanks Internet Marketing

Editor’s Note: We are happy to have Star on the blog today to share with us about using Internet Marketing to build your business. 

Developing a strong online presence for your business is an excellent way to boost your sales and reach out to a wider audience. Your Internet marketing campaign will help you generate an interesting income if you use efficient strategies. Go over the following article to learn more about Internet marketing.

Start by defining what you want to accomplish thanks to Internet marketing. If your goal is to bring more customers to your brick and mortar store, you should focus on local Internet marketing strategies. You could for instance, list your business with different directories and make good use of Google Pages to advertise your business to a local audience.

If you want to sell products to an online audience so you can broaden your horizons, you will have to provide your audience with a safe way to pay for the products they order. You will also have to find an affordable way to ship the products you sell. Share plenty of details about the shipping methods you use and make sure your customers feel safe about sharing their payment information with you.

 

The best way to develop a strong online presence is to create a website or a blog so you can share information about your products.

Write useful content to inform your audience about the items you are selling. You will get even more traffic if your site or blog is filled with useful information. You could, for instance, create some tutorials or share some news related to your field.

Give your customers the possibility to subscribe to your updates. You should keep producing quality content as often as possible to keep people interested. Share links to new articles or video tutorials and let your audience know about new products. You can stay in touch with your audience by using email marketing or by creating profiles on the social networks your customers are likely to use. People will subscribe to your updates if they see your content as useful and valuable.

A lot of individuals will not shop online because they have a hard time trusting online stores. If your goal is to sell your products over the Internet, you need to put a human face on your brand. Write about your experience and your work on your site or blog. Post some pictures of yourself at work on social media or produce your own videos so you can demonstrate your products to your audience. Encourage people to get in touch with you if they have any questions. You could, for instance, let your customers know they can email you their questions, contact you on social media or even call your 800 number.

These tips will help you develop a successful Internet marketing campaign.

Do more research on your audience and on the different Internet marketing strategies, you want to use. Monitor your results, for instance by counting the number of products you sell online to make sure your methods are efficient. Tracking can help you see where strategy is work and where you may need to improve something in you marketing methods.                              

As always have a safe and blessed journey,

 

Star

 

I am the creator and author of www.StarHarden.com.  I am a working professional, small business owner, wife, friend and best of all, a grandmother. I am a 50-year-old woman that is married for the second time in her life.  My husband is an Indian Chief, and we have been married going on six years. We have six grandchildren; I would like to be able to spend time with them more. We have five kids that are all grown, and four of them have kids of their own.

I have lived in Mississippi for the past
5 years.  I was born and raised in San Diego, California, and then the majority of my adult life was spent in Ohio, the Dayton area.  I love to bake and spend time with my grandchildren while visiting over a cappuccino, coffee or tea.  In addition, I love listening to music such as James Taylor, Motown, Country, Easy Listening, Classic or Soft Rock. There are those who say a good book is great but I would rather wait for the movie.  A good movie is something that can cause a person to think and use their imagination.

You can Connect with Staron Facebook and Linkedin.

Own Your Financial Future:A Guide for Women

Editors Note: We are happy to have Omojola on the blog today to share with us 5 tips for women to help them plan to achieve their dreams and prepare for the unexpected.

A growing economic force, women account for 47% of US wealth creators. Two-thirds of women identify themselves as primary decision-makers, not just influencers when it comes to money. And yet, four out of five women say they lack confidence in their financial knowledge.

When it comes to controlling the purse strings and managing day-to-day budgeting and spending, women do well. But they often don’t get involved in the wealth building part of the equation, leaving control of the invested family capital to their husband or partner.

Women also represent two-thirds of family caregivers, whether it’s caring for young children or aging parents. Between their responsibilities at home and at work, many women spend so much time caring for others that they forget to make themselves—and their financial futures—a priority.

Moore, who is one of America’s top 100 women financial advisors, offers the following advice to help ensure you—or your mom, daughter, sister, aunt, friend—are financially secure.

1. Talk With Your Partner About Money

Money can be a complicated and even controversial topic.

People will often talk freely about sex, drugs, and even their plastic surgery, but everyone zips up when it comes to money. The first and most important tip I give to women is to discuss their finances with their partner and their children as freely as they would any other topic.

Open discussion about money makes it easier to develop a financial plan that takes into account your family values and goals and is flexible enough to provide the security you need if you have an understanding of all the different types of assets your family has. In my experience, if a woman asks about financial planning or shows an interest in the family investments, this can sometimes be threatening to her partner, making it difficult for her to learn about the status of financial affairs without coming across as confrontational.

2. Have a Financial Plan

I encourage couples to create a family financial plan, even if it’s just a preliminary one. Talking through the plan together, what kinds of events you need to plan for—education, second homes, weddings, when you might be able to retire, a lasting legacy—is the best way for women and their partner to see where all the assets are. When all the assets are disclosed, the topic of financial planning becomes shared territory, and conversations about money get easier.

3. Factor in Widowhood or Divorce

The average life expectancy for a woman is just over 80 years, which means not only a retirement that could last 15 to 20 years or more but also a high likelihood of outliving your spouse. Are you prepared to take on the responsibility of making investment and asset all too often, women are unaware of the true state of family financial affairs until they are plunged into it due to the incapacitation or passing of their husbands? The same is true for divorcees, who suddenly find themselves responsible for their own financial well-being while considering the things you’d prefer not to think about—death, divorce, disability, allocation decisions as a surviving wife? Coping with enormous emotional stress. Disaster—allows you to plan for unexpected detours.

4.  Have the Money Conversation With Your Parents

As the population ages, more and more women will need to shoulder the responsibility of caring for an aging parent. Asking your parents about their financial affairs—wills, insurance policies, investment accounts, birth certificates, passports, long-term care plans—helps you understand if and how to include them in your financial plans.

Giving your parents the gift of a financial checkup will one day be the greatest gift you could have given them. They will be prepared for whatever lies in their future, and so will you.

5. Get Educated

If you need to boost your financial literacy, educate yourself, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Many women are reluctant to reach out to their Financial Advisor, either feeling intimidated or just reluctant to ask simple questions. It is important to entrust your wealth management to someone you can develop a relationship with and who not only understands your needs, goals and risk tolerance but can also help you understand those as well. Your advisor should be able and willing to clearly explain your financial situation, portfolio allocation and anything else—simple or complicated.

Still, you don’t need to be a master of it all. Just be confident you know enough to recognize I am committed to advancing the financial well-being of women and to being an employer of choice for women. Learn more about how I can help you achieve financial independence and achieve your goals.

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Omojola began her financial advisory career with Goldman Sachs and was later recruited to Morgan Stanley following 8 years of service as an Intelligence Officer in The United States Army. As a Captain, Omojola completed two combat tours to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. She graduated from Western New England University with a BA in Government followed by Masters in Public Administration from Central Michigan University. Omojola also attended The College of Financial Planning where she received her Chartered Retirement Planning CounselorSM designation. She holds a Series 7, 65 security licenses and the Life and Variable Annuity Insurance licenses. Omojola utilizes her intelligence and planning skills to develop wealth management strategies that help clients and their families establish goals, strategize solutions, and envision clear and understandable financial path for their future. Omojola immigrated to the United States from Sierra Leone at the age of 8 and resided in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She believes a balanced life is the essence of happiness, As such; she is dedicated to helping her community be a better place to live and work. She is an active volunteer at shelters for battered women and trafficked teenage girls who are in hiding. In her spare time, Omojola enjoys exercising, playing field hockey and golfing.

You can get in touch with her through the following ways.

Phone: 202-689-1883

Email address: omojola.hebron@morganstanley.com

Website: http://www.morganstanleyfa.com/omojola.hebron/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OmojolaHebronMS

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/omojola-hebron-crpc®-64768989

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/omojola.hebron

Financial Armour

Editor’s Note: We are happy to have Debra Hegler on the blog today. She is a radio talk show host and focuses on finances. I found good advice in Debra’s post and thought that you might as well, I hope you enjoy it. 

Financial Armour

1. Loins girt about the truth-Get all the information, balance your checkbook, know the condition of your flocks, what are your credit card balances, How much are your bills, Have a budget.
2. Breastplate of Righteousness-Make sure all $$ comes from legitimate places, No gray areas, partner with the Lord in finances: pay your tithes on the gross, give to poor without grudging, spend on righteous things: food, shelter, make sure entertainment is not shady, no lottery, casinos, strip clubs, shopping for entertainment, showing off stash of cash.
3. Feet shod in the preparation of peace-call the utility companies with the expectation of a long wait and be pleasant, peaceful, courteous, respectful. Be prepared for peace not ready for a fight. Pray while on hold if you have to in order to act like God’s child when you get someone on the line.
4. Above all-Shield of faith: Know that God will provide for you, He always has! You may get ripped off from time to time but your Father in Heaven is rich beyond measure. He’ll give you more. Have faith that HE will avenge people who harm his children. Have faith HE will reward you.
5. Helmet of Salvation: He saved you because He loves you. Repay him with your good works, sacrifice to your God from your treasures. Don’t pay a tip in church, pay a sacrifice from time to time. Let the Spirit within you (salvation), direct your path as you earn and spend. You can’t give to everything, and everybody all the time BUT, don’t spend like water. Don’t go $50,000 into debt for a car because you don’t know the future AND you’ll put yourself into bondage when you were saved to be FREE. $$$ Savings (salvation) is the key to protecting your future. Try to save a little, it’s hard discipline for our culture. Don’t Co-sign for stuff, again you could end up in bondage for someone else’s debt. Try to live so that you don’t need 2-3 jobs to make it permanently, if temporarily, ok. Don’t try to raise a family, work full time, get your degree at the same time. Stay out of voluntary bondage, keep your freedom. Keep your helmet on, surround your thoughts with faith which is the opposite of fear. Talk to yourself in psalms, hymns, words of Christ-that’s your helmet. Keep your head surrounded with pleasant, peaceful, holy thoughts and you’ll get peace and joy. Easy to say, hard to do but worth it.

 

DB Hegler is a baby boomer being raised by a single teenage boy and a boxer named Rocky. She hosts a weekly business advice radio talk show on WJCU 88.7FM Wednesdays 12:30.  She’s a foodie who likes to laugh overshadowed by a wicked curiosity.  You can connect with her through email at: dbhegler@gmail.com

Choosing a Retirement Plan for Your Business

Editor’s Note: We are happy to have Omojola as a guest on the blog today. If you’ve wondered how you can prepare for the future with a retirement plan, then you’re reading the right article. Being self-employed doesn’t have to mean you’re unprepared or that you can’t retire comfortably. 

A retirement plan provides a systematic way to save for retirement and offers some of the most significant tax savings available today. A retirement plan may be tailored to fit the specific needs of your business by using a variety of plan features.

A retirement plan can also have a positive effect on employee productivity and can help to attract and retain employees. Its value as an employee benefit, combined with the substantial tax savings it can generate for you and your business, underscores the importance of a retirement program for your General Retirement Plan Types

There are a wide variety of retirement programs available, all of which can offer tax advantages to both employers and employees. Most retirement programs are based on one of two general types

•  Individual Retirement Account-Based Plans
•  Defined Contribution Plans
•  Defined Benefit Plans

Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) Plan:

SEP is an alternative to the variety of other qualified retirement plans available to a business owner. The SEP Plan offers many of the tax benefits of a qualified retirement plan while eliminating much of the administrative burden and expense often associated with providing retirement benefits for employees.

Employer contributions are deposited directly into an employee’s SEP-IRA. Contributions are eligible employee’s compensation, or $53,000, whichever is less. If the plan sponsor is a self-employed individual or a partnership, then the owner or partners’ contributions will generally be limited to the lesser of (a) $53,000, or (b) 20% of earned less 1/2 of self-employment taxes, without deducting contributions for the self-employed individual/partner from the business that has the plan.

The Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE)

SIMPLE IRA Plan was designed to make qualified plans more accessible to small businesses. The SIMPLE IRA Plan is available to employers with 100 or fewer employees who have no other qualified retirement plans. For existing businesses, the SIMPLE IRA plan must be established by October 1 to make contributions for the current year, or as soon as administratively possible for businesses established after October 1. Employee contributions are made on a salary deferral basis, and employer contributions must be made by the business’s tax-filing deadline, including extensions. Employees are eligible to participate in a SIMPLE IRA Plan if they earned $5,000 or more during any two preceding calendar years and are expected to earn $5,000 or more in the current year. Employers must make contributions to employee accounts in the form of either a dollar-for-dollar matching contribution on employee salary deferrals of up to 3% of employee compensation or non-elective contributions of 2% of employee compensation (subject to $265,000 compensation cap) for all eligible employees.

IRA-Based Plans

Defined Contribution Plans

The Profit Sharing Plan is a relatively flexible qualified plan. An employer may typically contribute up to 25% of includable compensation of all eligible employees on a tax-deductible basis. For 2015, the maximum amount that may be allocated to any one participant could be as high as 100% of the participant’s compensation or $53,000, whichever is less. The contribution percentage and the dollar amount may vary from year to year. Since the decision to make a contribution is made by the employer each year, many employers tie the level of contribution to the profitability of the business, but it is not a requirement that the employer shows a profit in order to make a contribution.

Age-Weighted Profit Sharing Plan

The Age-Weighted Profit Sharing Plan is structured to allow employers to make a discretionary contribution each year while allocating contributions based on each participant’s age and salary. This permits a larger share of the total employer’s contribution to be made on behalf of older employees. The allocation in an Age-Weighted Profit Sharing Plan formula rests on the premise that older employees have less time to accumulate retirement benefits and therefore, a larger contribution must be made on behalf of older participants to make the benefits of all participants equal at retirement. As a result, the percentage of contributions allocated to older participants is increased.

New Comparability Profit Sharing Plan

A New Comparability Profit Sharing Plan is designed to allow contributions to be allocated based on criteria such as job classification, compensation, and age. This enables the employer to allocate a greater contribution on behalf of key employees, especially owners.

Contributions to conventional Profit Sharing Plans are generally allocated to each participant in direct proportion to each individual’s compensation or allocated on another nondiscriminatory basis such as the Permitted Disparity rules. The New Comparability Plans provide for contribution allocations that favor key employees to a greater degree than what can be achieved with conventional plans.

401(k) Plans

The 401(k) Plan is an employer-sponsored plan that allows your employees to make contributions with pretax dollars. These contributions are generally made to the plan through payroll deductions.

Contributions to the 401(k) by employees will reduce an employee’s gross earnings for federal income tax purposes. In 2015, the maximum salary deferral contribution to a 401(k) Plan is 100% of compensation or $18,000, whichever is less. Individuals age 50 or older will be allowed additional “catch-up” contributions of $6,000 ($24,000 total). The combination of employee and employer matching and/or profit sharing contributions that may be allocated to an employee may not exceed the lesser of 100% of compensation or $53,000 ($59,000 for individuals age 50 or older) in 2015.

The Roth 401(k) became effective January 1, 2006, as a complement to the traditional 401(k), allowing employees to make after-tax contributions to their employer’s 401(k) Plan. The contribution limits of a Roth 401(k) mirror those of the traditional 401(k) — employees are able to contribute up to $18,000 of salary in 2015 ($24,000 if age 50 or older), with each employee’s combination of Roth and traditional 401(k) contributions not to exceed these limits.

While contributions to a traditional 401(k) Plan are made with pretax dollars, contributions to a Roth 401(k) are made with after-tax dollars. Each individual will have to analyze the value of receiving a current income tax deduction for contributing to a traditional 401(k) versus the benefit of contributing to a Roth 401(k) and potentially having no taxation on future distributions from the plan.

HOW I CAN HELP

•  SELECTING INVESTMENTS

Choose appropriate plan investments from a broad range of products.

• RETIREMENT PLAN ADMINISTRATION

Record-keeping and plan maintenance are important ongoing responsibilities that should be addressed at the outset, to be certain that the program operates efficiently and complies with all current and future

•  SETTING A RETIREMENT INCOME GOAL

Help you figure out how much you’ll need to support your retirement lifestyle, how much to save in order to meet that goal and a plan which can help you do so.

•  DESIGNING A PLAN

We can help you design a plan that will reflect your current business profile and retirement savings goals, and address the needs of your employees.

•  REPORTING PERFORMANCE

Report regularly on your plan’s investment performance.

Omojola began her financial advisory career with Goldman Sachs in 2014 and was later recruited to Morgan Stanley following 8 years of service as an Intelligence Officer in The United States Army. As a Captain, Omojola completed two combat tours to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. She graduated from Western New England University with a BA in Government followed by Masters in Public Administration from Central Michigan University. Omojola also attended The College of Financial Planning where she received her Chartered Retirement Planning CounselorSM designation. She holds a Series 7, 65 security licenses and the Life and Variable Annuity Insurance licenses. Omojola utilizes her intelligence and planning skills to develop wealth management strategies that help clients and their families establish goals, strategize solutions, and envision clear and understandable financial path for their future. Omojola immigrated to the United States from Sierra Leone at the age of 8 and resided in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She believes a balanced life is the essence of happiness, As such; she is dedicated to helping her community be a better place to live and work. She is an active volunteer at shelters for battered women and trafficked teenage girls who are in hiding. In her spare time, Omojola enjoys exercising, playing field hockey and golfing.

You can get in touch with her through the following ways.

Phone: 202-689-1883

Email address: omojola.hebron@morganstanley.com

Website: http://www.morganstanleyfa.com/omojola.hebron/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OmojolaHebronMS

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/omojola-hebron-crpc®-64768989

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/omojola.hebron

5 THINGS TO FORGIVE YOURSELF FOR NOW [ESPECIALLY BEFORE YOU DO ANY BIZ PLANNING]

Editor’s Note: We are happy to have Denise Roseland from Changemaker Consulting as our very first guest poster on the blog today! 

I consider it to be a modern miracle if I make it through an entire day on social media without seeing someone talking about making plans for their biz in 2016.

Don’t get me wrong.

This #strategygeek loves a good business plan. And I consider it truly essential to have one if you want to move from chaos and uncertainty to growth and freedom in your business.

I’ve even mentioned my own planning in a comment or two. [And I’m cooking up something to help women who want a little help planning their best biz year yet. More on that coming soon.]

I just wonder if maybe there’s more talk about planning than anything.

I suspect that plans get made and then shelved for many entrepreneurs. Or that they talk about planning because everyone is talking about planning but don’t actually DO planning.

And I wonder why there’s such a focused look to next year when there are still 6 weeks in 2015 to make things happen NOW.

So this post is for you, sister if you started this year with big plans for your biz but somewhere, things didn’t turn out that way. It’s for you if your biz just isn’t hitting the mark you’d hoped.

With genuine sisterly love, I invite you to take a few minutes now to FORGIVE yourself.

Yes. Forgive. Yourself.

You see, I hear it all the time…the unspoken shame women feel when they dream big and fall short. The embarrassment. The sense of failure…all bubbling below the surface or cloaked in a million reasons (some might even say excuses).

And when you silently carry around that shame, that disappointment, that embarrassment, it dulls your shine in the here and now. It drives you to play small…to play it safe. To stop reaching. To stop dreaming big.

So will you take just a few moments now to recognize those thoughts are not reality?

That they are NOT truly you.

That your dreams and big ideas can’t breathe, and dance, and thrive when you surround them with the poisonous air of your doubts and shame.

If you are like me [and the women I’ve worked with], you probably beat yourself routinely with at least one of these [false] beliefs and it’s time to truly forgive yourself for:

1. The chances you didn’t take
2. Whatever it is that you still don’t know
3. The mistakes you’ve made
4. The big goals you didn’t achieve
5. All the ways in which you are not enough

It’s time to stop letting these beliefs define you.

Each moment, each day, each week, each year you have the power to start fresh. And the real power is in the decision to forgive yourself for the things that didn’t work the way you thought they should.

So what about you? Are you doing biz plans for next year?

Can you take a moment to forgive yourself first? Truly forgive yourself? To reconnect with your wise self and your big-hearted dreamer?

After you do, sit down and make planning playful. And season it with the best of you.

If you find you get stuck putting a plan together or you feel like the plans you’ve made never work out, I invite you to sign up here to get powerful and playful tips each week for the rest of the year that help you plan your thriving biz.

Denise is an entrepreneurial strategist that helps women go from struggling start-up to soul-fueled thriving mini-empires by getting clear on their purpose, getting confident about their value, and tapping into the systems and habits of successful changemakers.

You can visit her blog here

Connect with her on

Twitter @changemkr

Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/ChangemakerConsulting

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/rose0613/ and http://www.pinterest.com/beachangemaker/

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/beachangemaker/

 

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