How To Embrace A Sustainable Work Environment

In our current work environment, we’re working remotely, creating an eco-friendly workplace, and supporting sustainability. 

If you’ve been noticing that your work life has changed dramatically in the last few years, you are in good company. The radical changes have altered expectations, norms, and standards for many Americans. 

What can you do to enjoy the transformation? 

Here are 4 tips to help you support sustainability as you work.

Embrace Remote Work

Initially, when professionals started working from home, a lot of people were upset. We were used to face-to-face meetings, social interaction, and in-person camaraderie. The idea of working from a home office seemed unappealing to many people. 

However, flash forward to today. Now, we are happily working from home, enjoying the freedom and independence of setting our hours. If you’ve managed to escape this trend, consider the benefits of remote work.

Working from home can help you take control of your time and your life. You won’t have a long and tedious commute. You’ll be able to play with your children if you have kids. And you won’t be the absentee husband/wife/ partner that you might have been in days when you worked in an office. 

The decision to move to Scrum and Agile culture may sound very linear and clean, it’s important to note that a number of internal projects and teams focused around components of products and just started using Scrum.

Embrace Healthy Living

A sustainable work-life is healthy and balanced. If you’re working remotely or in a hybrid arrangement, focus on maintaining your mental and physical health. This means making it a priority. 

Healthy decisions include setting boundaries around work. You may have done this at the office, but now you need to maintain regular working hours from your home office, as well as set boundaries with your family, housemates, or friends. 

It’s easy to forget that healthy living starts with having a healthy and balanced attitude towards work. Our work-centered society can get the better of our time, energy, and attention. By making your health a priority, you’ll take care of your part to have a happy, healthy planet. Starting with your mind, heart, and body. 

Embrace Healthy Transportation

We do love our cars, don’t we? That’s why one of the smartest decisions to help the planet is to shift to electric transportation. If you’re thinking about which car to buy, there are many makes and models to choose from. 

However, one of the most popular is Tesla. The sleek design of this electric vehicle offers an unparalleled experience for the driver as well as for maintaining a green ethos. In addition to beauty and driving efficiency, you’ll find that it’s very convenient to locate a convenient Tesla charger.

This means you won’t have to stress over where to recharge your Tesla. You’ll find that like many electric cars, the option to do fast charging makes driving electric even more attractive. 

Embrace Alternative Transportation

Let’s not forget that the car is only one option for transportation. To support earth health, and your health, get out of your car regularly. When you do, turn to alternative transportation. 

Remember bike riding? It may have been a while, but many communities rely on bikes as the main mode of transportation. If you’ve been to Amsterdam, you know how joyful it is to see people of all ages traveling across town on bikes. Why not get this trend started in your area?

Remember walking? It could be that you live in an area with an exceptional walking score. If so, you most likely selected this neighborhood because of its walkability. Now that you’re living here, why not go for a stroll? Take a walk to the local corner store. Go watch the stars at a local park. Bake something to bring to a neighbor down the street. 

Remember car sharing? It could be that you did this when you were in high school or college. Why not initiate some carpooling for group events and outings? Perhaps there is a need for a carpool in your neighborhood. Talk with your friends and associates to explore options. 

As you evaluate ways to embrace sustainability, keep an open mind. You’ll start with simple shifts, share ideas, and grow your toolkit. In no time, people will ask you for input about how to start and keep an eco-friendly lifestyle.

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Courses To Consider Taking Before Starting A Business

There’s been an increase in the number of people interested in starting a business. Some people have always dreamed of being the boss, while the decline in job security encouraged others to jump on the bandwagon. Although there’s nothing wrong with setting out on your own, many people leap without having a complete understanding of what they’re getting into. Ultimately, their businesses barely turn a profit or fall by the wayside after only a few years. 

How can you prevent this from happening to you? By learning everything you can about owning a business. While you will still face challenges along the way, it’s easier to bounce back and press on to success when you’re well-educated. If you’re thinking about starting a business this year, find the appropriate learning platform, brush up on your Cornell Note taking skills, and consider taking professional development courses such as these listed below. 

Business Management

Managing a business is about more than just having a good idea, introducing it to the marketing, and waiting for sales. If you’re going to remain successful, you must learn how to be an effective leader, develop solid plans with actionable steps, resolve problems, work with different personalities, collaborate, and manage teams. 

While some of this comes with time, a business management course can give you the basics. You’ll learn things like business planning, decision-making, ethics, and laws, which will help you navigate any organization you intend to run. 

Finance And Accounting

Novice entrepreneurs make many mistakes when it comes to business finance and accounting. They merge personal and business finances, fail to develop budgets, waste money, mismanage their taxes, and so much more. The outcome could prove detrimental and take years to bounce back from. 

Even if you hire an accountant to take care of your finances, a good entrepreneur should know the basics. A general finance and accounting course would teach you how to create a budget, manage expenses, generate financial reports, comply with local and federal taxes, allocate payroll, make investments, and more. 

Marketing

No matter how great your business idea is, if no one knows it exists, you’ll have a hard time turning a profit. That’s where marketing comes into play. Many hopeful business owners don’t realize that it’s a multi-faceted, complicated, ongoing task. Sure, you could create a website, write a few blog posts, and share your business on social media, but if you’re not in tune with the latest trends or your target audience, it won’t get you very far. 

Ultimately, taking a marketing course can help you better understand what’s required, what’s trending, and how to apply these practices to your business. In a marketing class, you could learn how to use traditional and digital channels, and more importantly, how to define and reach your target audience. 

Productivity And Work-Life Balance

Last but certainly not least, anyone thinking about starting their own business should look into courses that teach about productivity and work-life balance. Although it may seem like life would be easier when you call the shots, set your schedule, and delegate tasks to others, it’s quite the opposite. 

Business owners devote long hours to their company, and their personal life often takes a hit. If you’re going to remain productive and maintain a healthy and happy lifestyle, you must learn to find balance. Whether it’s learning how to rely on others or managing your time more efficiently, these courses can help reduce the challenges entrepreneurs face in the first few years. 

Thanks to modern technology, starting a business is easier and more convenient than ever before. Whether you want to create an eCommerce site and sell merchandise, offer professional services to other companies (accounting, virtual assistance, etc.), or do something that helps improve the lives of everyday citizens, it’s possible. However, before you quit your job, start investing money, or prepare for launch, it’s a good idea to get educated. The types of courses listed above will give you the foundation you need to ensure your entrepreneurial journey is more manageable.

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Why Financial Literacy Is So Important

Do you know how to manage your money? Do you understand the basics of financial literacy? If not, that’s okay! You’re not alone. Financial literacy is something that a lot of people struggle with. But it’s important to learn about it because your financial health is essential to your overall well-being. In this blog post, we will discuss what financial literacy is and why it’s so important for everybody to embrace it. We’ll also share some tips on how you can improve your financial literacy skills! Read on!

What is Financial Literacy?

Financial literacy is the ability to understand financial concepts and make informed decisions about finances. It’s not just about counting your money with cash counting machines or balancing your checkbook. Financial literacy also includes understanding concepts such as credit, debit, investing, insurance, and retirement planning.

Why Is Financial Literacy Important?

Your financial health is essential to your overall well-being. If you don’t have a good grasp of financial concepts, it can be difficult to make sound financial decisions that will benefit you in the long run. Poor money management can lead to stress, anxiety, and even bankruptcy!

Financial literacy is important because:

Gives You More Control over Your Personal Finances

This is probably the most influential reason why financial literacy is so important. When you have a good understanding of financial concepts, you have more control over your personal finances. This means that you can make informed decisions about things like budgeting, saving for retirement, and investing.

Helps You Avoid Financial Scams

Financial scams are becoming increasingly common. If you’re not financially literate, it’s easy to fall for these scams. A scam artist will often use complex financial jargon to confuse and mislead people. But if you know what to look for, you can avoid these schemes!

Provides Essential Knowledge for Managing Your Money

In order to be successful in life, it’s critical to have a good understanding of basic financial concepts. These concepts are especially important if you want to achieve financial independence. Financial literacy provides the essential knowledge that you need to manage your money effectively!

Tips for Improving Your Financial Literacy Skills

If you’re looking to improve your financial literacy skills, here are a few tips:

  •         Read books and articles about personal finance: This is a great way to learn about financial concepts and how to apply them to your own life.
  •         Attend workshops and webinars: There are lots of great workshops and webinars out there that can help you improve your financial literacy skills.
  •         Talk to a financial advisor: A good financial advisor can teach you everything you need to know about personal finance. They can help you create a budget, save for retirement, and invest in stocks and mutual funds.
  •         Start tracking your expenses: This is a great way to get a better understanding of where your money is going each month. It can also help you identify areas where you could be saving more money!

Conclusion

Financial literacy is essential for everybody! If you want to have a healthy financial future, it’s important to learn about financial concepts and how to apply them to your own life. This article provides a basic overview of financial literacy and some tips on how to improve your skills. With all this information at your fingertips, there’s no excuse not to get started!

 

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5 Benefits of Remote Work

A lot has changed in recent years when it comes to the workplace. Many Americans have discovered the benefits of remote work and how it improves their work and home lifestyles.

Having the flexibility to work from home and avoid the time and money-consuming daily commute has offered employees the chance to tailor work hours to their needs. And as people see productivity increase with WFH (work from home) situations, it’s no wonder some employers are encouraging their employees to work to the beat of their own drum.

Are you thinking of making the switch? Here are 5 benefits of remote work to consider.

1. You Have More Freedom and Flexibility

There’s nothing the modern worker appreciates more than their freedom. Working remotely allows people to plan their day around their work and home life schedules.

People have the flexibility to attend appointments, pick children up from school, run errands for family members, or even work from anywhere in the world. This freedom appeals to people juggling many responsibilities.

2. You Can Save Money

This one’s for the workers who have spent an ungodly amount of time and money commuting to the office in even the worst weather conditions. One of the biggest perks that people relish when they go remote is the amount of money they can save.

As soon as you take your office home, you cut the costs of gas, parking, lunch, and coffee straight away. And for the average American who spends $2,327 on take-out coffee, that could add up to be an even bigger bonus than you imagine.

Remote working reduces these expenses by having everything you need at home at your fingertips. And once you cut out these costs, you’ll realize that you have a much larger disposable income to spend on things you genuinely enjoy.

3. It Improves Inclusivity

Remote working is beneficial for both employers and employees, as it has enabled companies to become more inclusive and embrace diversity. Employers can hire people from different cultural, socioeconomic, and geographical backgrounds who have different perspectives. When companies are recruiting people to work on-site, it can alienate people who are just as talented but may not have the means of physically getting to work.

This inclusivity gives people the opportunity to show off their skill-sets in the environments where they feel the most comfortable. It shows that companies actively choose to support and celebrate diversity.

4. It Benefits the Environment

For those looking for reasons other than their personal benefits to working from home, consider that you’re saving the environment while typing away at your home office desk should do the trick.

Remote work benefits the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions because fewer cars and vehicles commute to and from work. It also reduces the amount of paper wasted, as people are more conscious of printing and copying documents at home that could easily be shared virtually.

5. You Can Improve Your Health and Happiness

While the traditional 9-5 and commuting to and from work has been ingrained in society for as long as anyone can remember, being in an office for 8 hours a day isn’t the healthiest activity.

Physically, remote working can reduce the chances of coming into contact with colds, flu, and other viruses. Mentally, it can reduce stress and improve productivity and motivation. It also makes it easier to strap on some sneakers and go for a walk in your neighborhood.

Take Control of Your Life

Essentially, remote work gives people the opportunity to design their perfect work-life balance. From increasing freedom and flexibility to being generally happier and healthier, 9-5 office life could soon be a thing of the past.

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Why Do Professionals Seek Life Coaches And You Should Too?

Back in the 1980s, Mr. Thomas Leonard started life coaching and adopted it as a career. Most people rejected the idea and did not agree with Thomas’ idea of being a professional life coach.

Soon, with time and as the younger generation started to get into more troubles, the idea was accepted and recognized as one of the most important disciplines.

Life coaches are the people who work with individuals facing problems to help them resolve these issues and motivate them in their life goals. Some work to improve or save their relationships, some do it to get better at their jobs as well as personality development. 

Every human being is a work in progress and is slowly moving towards perfection. No one is perfect and we all are an unfinished work of art living to be completed.

life coach courses at The Life Coaching College Australia can help you clarify your goals, identify the roadblocks in your way, and devise solutions to overcome each one. Life coaches tailor these tactics to your specific abilities and strengths.

What Does A Life Coach Do?

It’s a teamwork between the coach and the student. The aim of each session is different depending on the specific requirement of the student but a simple layout is followed in each session. Here is what a life coach do during a session

  • First step of each course is building a connection between the coach and the student. It is indeed one of the most important steps of any life coaching course through which a deep, honest and powerful connection is established between a coach and his student.
  • A particular approach to address each issue of the student is taken by the coach based on the personality, mental level and objectives of the student.
  • A plan or a set of daily tasks or habits is formulated and the student is made to follow the routine.

Who Needs A Life Coach?

Young entrepreneurs as well as well-established individuals seeking a new path or a complete life change enrol in life coaching courses to better understand challenges and their solutions. People who are having marital problems consult life coaches in order to maintain a good relationship and live a happy lifestyle.

However, if you are experiencing any of the issues listed below, hiring a life coach may be an excellent option for you.

  • Anxiety, lack of confidence or motivation.
  • Unable to quit bad habits.
  • Dissatisfaction at work or stressful life.
  • Marriage troubles, unhappy partner.
  • Feeling stuck or loss of creativity

Suggestions

These life coaching courses come in different forms and types. Each life coach works in a different style and it also depends on your requirements. Some have face-to-face meetings where discussions take place. Some can have a seminar or public speaking session. 

If you are considering consulting with a life coach, please keep in mind that you get to choose what you want to work on throughout your meetings. Each meeting should get you feeling energized and elevated, so pick a coach whose approach and ideology you connect with.

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Want to be a Financial Trader?

Are you looking to start financial trading as a part-time or full-time job? There’s never been a better time to enter the field. Not only are more people working and investing from home due to the current pandemic, but anyone with a decent internet connection has the potential to benefit, as long as they can learn and adhere the basic principles.

After acquiring a grasp of the essentials, it’s imperative to gain real-world experience on a live brokerage platform. The better online brokers offer many training tools like detailed tutorials, up-to-date libraries, and trade simulators.

After you feel comfortable placing and closing trades, consider specializing in one particular market to hone your expertise. Later, you’ll have the chance to take advanced video courses and sit for licensing exams in several areas. But, as is the case with every new career, you’ll have to start with the fundamentals.

Learn the Basics

Before putting one dollar of your own money at risk, and even before working with a demo account in a simulated trading bot, take time to understand how the securities markets work. There are hundreds of worthwhile books and online tutorials to choose from. Consider reading about the different kinds of orders, how to place stops, what the most popular technical and fundamental tools are, how to set up an account, how to measure profit and loss on transactions, and which markets are best for beginners. Check out some of the most reputable brokers’ websites and take advantage of free educational content, videos, tutorials, and other resources available to site visitors.

Get Experience

What’s true for every other job is true for financial trading: it’s imperative to gain real-world experience in order to develop an acceptable level of competence. No matter how much research, reading, and studying you do on your own, there’s no substitute for trading with a broker. Fortunately, the better brokerage companies offer informative learning resources like video tutorials, trading simulators, online libraries, discussion forums, and customer service reps who can help you understand how to use all the platform’s features. Everyone has different goals and ways of learning, but you should expect to spend at least a month or two acquiring the essential skills in the real world by making online trades of various kinds.

Specialize in One Market

It’s a rare trader who can follow multiple markets, especially during the first few years in the business. That’s why it’s essential to focus on just one general asset class, like stocks, forex, cryptocurrency, or something else. One of the main benefits of specialization is that you’ll learn the unique characteristics of your market more quickly.

Take Several Online Courses

Never stop learning about the area you choose to specialize in. Fortunately, there are all kinds of free resources out there, including online courses. Some sites charge a nominal fee for classes, so don’t be put off if you’re asked to pay for a course. However, avoid websites that charge exorbitant amounts for lessons. There are just too many excellent, low-cost choices. Eventually, consider testing for one or more licenses, like the Series 7, Commodity Trading Advisor, Certified Financial Technician, or others.

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4 Academic Workshop Basics and Planning Tips

Are you planning to host an academic workshop? Then you already know it can be overwhelming to think of all the things that have to get done in order for the event to run smoothly.

Here, we have put together some of the most important tasks and items that you will need to check off of your list before the workshop begins. Read on for four tips to plan the best academic workshop this year.

1) IT Support Is A Must

Your focus might be on getting a venue and preparing the workshop’s content, but don’t forget about tech needs. You will need to have IT people ready and on hand to help with all the technological requirements of hosting a workshop.

Most workshops and conferences make use of PowerPoint for presentations, which require a staff of IT professionals there to help you set up and solve problems in case problems occur, especially if videos and sound are involved.

How do you find the best team for the event? IS&T Houston’s answer to IT staffing is to bring on more than just one professional. Always consult with IT staff the day before the workshop so that everyone is clear on your needs.

2) Choose a Focus and Stick to It

When you plan your academic workshop, remember that your attendees want to gain knowledge and, most times, a certificate that proves them to be capable in the subject area that you are teaching. With this in mind, you should plan carefully to maximize the time you have with those in attendance at your workshop or conference.

When you are deciding what to cover in your presentation at the workshop, make sure that you hit all the topics that are the most central to the attendee’s understanding of the subject in question.

Try not to stray too far off of these topics. Sidetracking or adding in unnecessary information can derail your schedule and cause setbacks that lead to an unsatisfying experience. Most workshops are only a day or two at the maximum, and people will be reluctant to attend an extra day if you run out of time on the first day.

3) Incorporate Breaks

Psychological studies have shown that taking breaks when studying or learning new things improves the ability to recall information. This means that when you are scheduling the day of your workshop, you should make sure that the participants have break times frequently throughout the workshop.

Even just 10 minutes between topics, or presentations for downtime will help the participants be able to recall all of the information presented more effectively.

4) Give Time For Participants to Collaborate

Using group discussions and encouraging conversations among groups of attendees will foster a better academic and learning environment. Letting the participants interact with one another is also a great way for them to meet colleagues and dicsuss their own opinions on the topic.

You can do this by posing a relevant question to the attendees and saying “among yourselves, discuss and find an answer.” After a few minutes of conversing, you can ask a few individuals what answers they came up with.

In addition to a better learning environment, you will have an opportunity to check in with attendees and receive feedback. You can see what topics need to be reviewed or clarified before moving on to the next topic.

Final Thoughts

Running an academic workshop is a difficult task to do, but it is beneficial for the individuals who are attending your workshop to gain educational credits, certifications, or a new skill for their resume.

Making the day or weekend run smoothly requires a few additional steps beforehand in the planning process to help everything go according to plan. Remember to keep the content focused on niche topics and to plan tech needs ahead of time to avoid delays.

 

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5 Reasons Why Your Company Should Use a Staffing Agency

Staffing agencies work as the middle man between a company and its potential employees. From checking references, shortlisting candidates, scheduling interviews and screening resumes, they also help people find career progression and opportunities within their chosen field.

So, if you run a business and are trying to decide whether hiring a staffing agency is worth it, then read on. Here are five reasons that will make up your mind for good:

1. They Reduce Overhead Costs

Full-time employees will cost your company much more than just a regular salary. There are other overhead costs to think about, like:

  • Health care
  • Sick pay
  • Vacation pay
  • Retirement plans
  • Employer tax

When employing a staffing agency, you won’t have to pay any of these extra fees; you pay the agency for the work they’ve provided with no additional overhead costs. For example, IT staffing firms such as IS&T at https://www.is-t.net/staffing offer employers modern, up-to-date services that factor in these additional costs.

2. They Save You Training Time

Let’s face it: training new employees requires a large investment of time and money. If your business requires the expertise of someone for just a few months, it isn’t financially viable to spend money on their training.

By using a staffing agency, you can cut the time that training takes. Simply employ someone that is already trained in the job and focus more on your business operations.

3. They Make It Parting Ways With Employees Easier

Once the contractor has finished the job, the work is completely over, and you have no ties to the employee. This means you won’t need to stress about how to part ways or worry about:

  • Unemployment insurance
  • Severance pay
  • Sourcing a replacement

4. They Handle Short-Term Staffing

As an employer, you may need to quickly hire a temp for a number of reasons. Whether it be sick leave, maternity leave, a leave of absence, or a family emergency, staffing agencies can step in and fill the position quickly and efficiently. You’ll be less thrown off by the sudden departure of an employee and have more time to focus on your current obligations.

Let’s say you need seasonal workers. The job advertisement, interviewing process, hiring, and training would also need to happen within a relatively small window, which is more often than not difficult for business owners. A staffing agency has the resources to source temporary employees for seasonal work. Skip the training and bring on an employee that’s trained to do your work for a few months.

Staffing agencies also give you the flexibility to schedule external workers for one-off shifts or short periods of time to handle specific absences.

5. They Have Large Networks

Staffing agencies have a larger network of available professionals than employers do, which means they could have more than one candidate in mind to fill the spot. This also makes it easier to hire: if one worker can’t complete the job due to other commitments, they have other people readily available to jump in.

Many agencies also have good relationships with workers, which makes it easy for them to recommend people to employers. Not only does this make the hiring process quicker, but it also provides a sense of security for employers when taking on short-term employees.

Hire a Staffing Agency to Take the Pressure Off

If you are an employer and you’re looking for ways to cut costs and make short-term hiring worth your while, you should definitely consider a staffing agency. From ensuring you have the best people working for you to saving you training time, the extra help will allow you to focus on other important aspects of your business.

 

 

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What are the Main Pros and Cons of a Peer-to-Peer Marketplace? Do the Benefits Outweigh the Drawbacks?

Summary: A peer-to-peer marketplace is an exciting platform for buyers, sellers, and business owners. In our article, we provide a complex description of both pros and cons of P2P marketplaces from different points of view and give pieces of advice on how to minimize the risks of P2P marketplaces.

 

 

While Rob Kalin was creating various handicraft things in his forest house in 2005, he came up with an exciting idea to unite handmade artists into an extensive global P2P marketplace. That’s how the story of creating one of the largest P2P platforms, Etsy, began. 

In 2021 Etsy, like many other P2P marketplace platforms, has over 81M active buyers with $1.7B revenue and 110% growth from 2019. 

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, P2P marketplaces remain relevant and are overgrowing.  

 

What Is a P2P Marketplace?

A P2P marketplace platform can be an application or website that helps suppliers of goods or services contact customers searching. The P2P marketplace is a great platform to sell unnecessary things, get rid of rare goods that do not carry value for their owners, rent stuff for a certain period and return them after time, find financing for your idea, and many others.

Pros of a Peer-To-Peer Marketplace

The peer-to-peer market is mutually beneficial for sellers, buyers, and marketplace business owners. Global companies can start their P2P marketplace platforms with minimal investments, attracting a large audience. 

However, let’s look in detail at the advantages of P2P marketplaces for each business segment.  

For Sellers

For sellers, marketplaces are an excellent platform for realizing their business goals.

Small Fee for Advertising

Sellers on some marketplaces have the opportunity to profitably buy advertising and get to the top, as well as place an unlimited number of products for a fee. This is the most profitable for sellers with many goods and small funds.

No Restrictions on Sales

A seller can exhibit various goods, ranging from bicycles to unique coins. Usually, P2P marketplaces do not limit their sellers in categories.

No Payment to Intermediaries

P2P marketplaces don’t need to pay commercial intermediaries; sellers can cooperate directly with buyers and resolve disputes. However, sellers have protection and legal assistance from the P2P marketplace.

 

For Buyers

The marketplace provides many advantages for buyers, such as: 

Direct Payment and No Overpayments

People always want to find everything for the optimal price. In this case, a P2P marketplace is a perfect place. There is no need to pay money to intermediaries. Buyers can contact the seller directly and get their questions answered fast.

A Channel For Finding Exclusive Things or Services

Some people are actively searching for used or rare items or services. The P2P marketplace is the best place to find exclusive items at lower prices.

Great Market Competition

Buyers can find many different options for what they are looking for in one place. In order to become better and more visible to their customers, sellers maintain quality at a high level.

 

For Marketplace Owners

Marketplaces certainly have two main benefits for their owners.

Continuous Product Flow

Marketplace owners do not need to worry about deliveries or product flows, as the customer base is constantly replenished. Owners can also launch ads or additional benefits and attract two parties to the platform – sellers and buyers.

Opportunities For Broad Monetization

Marketplaces allow their owners to choose a wide range of monetization opportunities to select the business model that suits them best: listing, payment for advertising or product placement, freemium, and premium features.

 

Cons of a Peer-To-Peer Marketplace

For Sellers

Overloaded Monetization System

Some marketplaces may be overloaded with monetization systems and have unreasonably high rates for sellers. It’s crucial for business owners to think about not scaring away but attracting sellers to your marketplace platform. The practical baiting methods can be: 

  • free trial
  • discounts for referring friends
  • bonuses for activity on the P2P marketplace, etc.

Lack of Potential Buyers

Often sellers are faced with the fact that there is a bit of a potential audience in new  P2P marketplaces, or it does not correspond to reality. The best advice for sellers is not to pay for the P2P platform before using it. It can be done only after some weeks of exploring the pros and cons of the marketplace. 

 

For Buyers

Frequent Disputable or Conflict Situations

Quick and direct communication between buyers and sellers can escalate into conflicts and misunderstandings. Business owners need to create a powerful advanced, flexible conflict prevention system to satisfy both parties and keep them as frequent users of the P2P marketplace platform.

Low-Quality Goods or Services 

Creating a marketplace and its subsequent positioning is very important. In the wake of popularity, business owners often stop monitoring their resources’ quality of goods and services. And here, a loyal audience can turn its back on marketplaces, and platforms can experience a significant outflow of customers.

Complex Navigation

P2P marketplace visitors sometimes find website navigation too overloaded. It can be the result of ready-made products or ready-made solutions to create CaaS. If users are uncomfortable using the platform, they will probably leave it despite the apparent advantages.

 

For Marketplace Owners

Сreating a marketplace involves some cons and risks that can be easily prevented. Business owners should pay attention to:

Marketing Expenses

For sellers and buyers to meet on the marketplace platform, the business owners need to conduct marketing events and spend money on promotion. Some owners believe that a loyal audience will find its way to the marketplace platform. That’s not how it usually goes. Even at the beginning of development, it’s better to warm up the audience you plan to attract.

Searching For a Niche

There are already many marketplaces on the market that solve specific problems. 

By creating a widely-focused marketplace, business owners can lose money in vain. That’s why it may be worth looking for a reliable, narrowly focused niche where there is still a place for competition.

 

How to Minimize Risks When Creating a P2P Market

Each marketplace business usually has more advantages than disadvantages. However, when creating a new business, companies strive to minimize risks, hence costs. Let’s look at a couple of strategies that will help avoid risks in the future.

Solving the Real Customers Problem

Before creating a marketplace, business owners need to study the needs of the market and their target audience. 

There is no need to develop something similar to competitors. Good advice would be to find ways to become better than competitors and solve the problem they’ve missed. 

It is worth starting with studying competitors and the audience’s needs. Perhaps there is something that millions still dream of, and competitors haven’t delivered it yet.

Raising Funds for Further Development and Scaling

Fundraising is the process of attracting third-party investment resources for business. 

Funds are a great way to expand the marketplace business and build a platform with the necessary features right away by attracting financing from the outside. For example, there is such a P2P marketplace platform as Kickstarter where talented people and interesting companies can get funding. 2021, has already shown many successful cases in different industries.

Also, there are a lot of fundraising platforms for P2P marketplaces; entrepreneurs need to have a profitable idea. Though, the ideal situation is to have a minimum visual product with core features that business people can show investors.

 

Conclusion

P2P is a fertile ground for discovering a business potential. When opening their new marketplace project, business people take risks, but this risk is more than justified – in most cases, the platform will be successful. Therefore, in 2021 and beyond, marketplaces are where you can realize your wildest ideas.

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8 Reasons to Combine Fonts

Combining fonts is a craft that takes time and patience, but it can be extremely rewarding. It might turn out looking like the work of a master-type designer or someone with no eye for design at all!

But there are some things you can do to give yourself the best chance of creating successful type combinations. Here are 10 reasons why you should combine text fonts!

1- Make a Stronger Statement  

The statement your design makes is very important and one way to improve it is by choosing two fonts that contrast with each other. For example, if you were designing a poster for an outdoor concert, you might use sans serif fonts with thick weights for the main text and a decorative or script font for the subheading. This combination would make your design more interesting because the two fonts contrast with each other in many ways- by weight, style, size, and the message they convey.

2- Visual Balance

Similar to number one, combining fonts is also a way you can balance out your design so it’s not too heavily weighted on one side. For example, if you were using a decorative serif font as your main heading and a sans serif as your subheading, the design would feel too different with one thick custom font and one thin sans serif. To create a cohesive design, you could make your main heading in the same style as your subheading or choose two fonts that are similar in weight or size.

Source: CreativeMarket

3- Combine Fonts for Personality 

Combining fonts is also a great way to express your design’s personality. This is especially helpful if you are designing for an organization with a strong brand identity or you want to give your design a specific voice or tone. Maybe the voice in your head wants to be playful and fun, edgy and unique, classy but professional, etc. So find fonts that fit with that vision and combine them to create a design that provides the desired message.

With CreativeMarket, you can find a wide variety of fonts that you can mix and match. 

4- Combine Fonts To Show Hierarchy

If you have a lot of information to convey in your design, it’s important to think about how best to organize that information so it’s easy for your reader to digest and navigate. You can do this by changing the styles (e.g., italic, all caps, etc.) of  different fonts to distinguish between the headers and body text or by combining fonts with complementary personalities. This way, you can help your reader move through the different sections of your design with ease.

5- Bring Balance Between Elements

Balance in typography is tricky because it can be really hard to achieve. But balance can make or break your design, so you’ll want to avoid creating an imbalance with your fonts that distracts from the rest of your design. You can achieve better balance by using the same typeface family for different elements (e.g., headlines and body text) or choosing two fonts that contrast with each other in a complementary way.

You can also create a better balance with your typography by choosing a font for each section of your design that is similar in weight, style, and personality.

Source: CreativeMarket

6- Combine Fonts To Improve Legibility

In order to improve the legibility of your work, you’ll want to focus on combining fonts that have different personalities but are still readable in smaller sizes. For example, if you were using a very decorative font for your main heading, you might want to use one that is more legible than the main body text. This way, readers would be able to read the headings and the rest of the text without too much strain.

7- Combine Fonts For Better Readability Over Time

If you are designing something that will be read over time, then combining fonts is an excellent way to create designs that are readable across different platforms. For example, if your design will be viewed across different devices, e.g., computer, phone, iPad, etc., you will want to use fonts that are web-friendly so they appear clean and crisp everywhere. If the readers of your website or book might be older or younger than your target audience, you’ll also want to consider how legible certain fonts will be for these people as well.

8- Combine Fonts To Build Trust

Let’s face it. If you are making a website for your company or clients, the decisions you make when combining fonts is going to reflect on them in some way. So if you want to build trust with your audience and give them a sense of security about who they’re doing business with, then you will want to use fonts that project a certain personality they can relate to and develop trust with. There are plenty of alphabet fonts available beyond the most popular ones like Helvetica and Times so try looking for other options in your font library to see if there is something more suitable for your organization or business.

In Closing

There is a font for practically any application and purpose you could think of. However, the best way to maximize your use of fonts is by combining them together in creative ways that complement each other and create an aesthetically pleasing design.

 

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