Author: Complete Controller

Over the last few years, the world has evolved, opening doors to several new opportunities for businesses to benefit. Whether it’s the technology or the tools that have made our tasks hassle-free, adapting to them is the need of the hour to ensure growth. One such development happens to be digital marketing. Over time, digital marketing has become crucial to grow and solidify your business’s presence in the market.

Digital marketing has become the norm rather than the exception in the last several years, but it is still evolving. If you use digital marketing to your advantage, you can grow your business. Here are five digital marketing strategies you should use to promote your business.

Content Marketing

When you are launching your brand, what’s the first thing you want it to gain? Customer awareness, perhaps? Content marketing is the way to go when striving to connect with your audience. With content marketing strategies that help you reach the masses, i.e., your target audience, increase your market share while keeping your audience’s interest alive, you get to grow as a brand. 

Content marketing is the strategy that covers the informational bit about your brand rather than sales. From blogs to articles, your website’s content gives insight into your brand to your audience, and they get to understand you better.

Email Marketing

Retaining their audience is no walk in the park. When you strive to retain your audience – you know precisely about the struggles you get to face. The competition in the market is cut-throat, and you can’t easily track your audience and their action plans once they find your brand not worth their time. Email marketing, in this regard, retains your audience. One of the end goals in email marketing is brand awareness – marketers would do everything in their might to ensure their target audience, even if they are not investing larger-than-life on the brand, stay updated about it. That is the result in the extended run that matters more to them – because of which they get to improve the quality of their services and products with their unmatched skills. 

Search Engine Optimization

SEO ranks your website organically on search engines. It improves your website’s content – from adding keywords to your website’s content to making sure there isn’t any stuffing of keywords – SEO jumps in the nooks and crannies of your website’s content. Other than that, one of the strategies it utilizes is adding the highly searched keywords and phrases – related to your business – into your website’s content. This helps your target audience to reach you and find you without any hardcore struggle. As a result, your website ranks higher in the search engines, ultimately improving your market share.

Social Media Marketing

If you haven’t heard of social media marketing, you probably live under a rock. As one of the most common marketing strategies, social media marketing is what keeps your customer connected with you. From increasing brand awareness and conversions, what does social media marketing do? It promotes your brand, interacts with your customers on varied social media platforms, targets brand awareness by promoting your brand and whatnot! It even works on your brand’s reputation – that is, if your brand’s image doesn’t seem to follow through because of any reason, social media marketing helps you improve it if done right.

Pay-Per-Click Marketing

The latest and most effective editions to digital marketing strategies, pay-per-click is the paid form of the advertisement you get to do online. An auction-based system lets you bid on the keywords – on the most relevant keywords to your brand’s niche. This makes the process of reaching your brand a bit less of a hassle and immensely useful. That is, every time your audience would write the keyword, the searches would trigger the search engine, and they’ll find your brand in seconds.

Conclusion

With several digital marketing platforms available, ensure you are using those that match your brand’s niche. Whether, it is social media marketing, content marketing, or PPC – ensure brand awareness as your end goal so that you get to achieve milestones.

These are some of the most primary digital marketing strategies you can use to earn a competitive edge over the others in the industry. Be sure to increase your knowledge on the others so that your brand solidifies its digital presence.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Retirement is a subject that consistently stands out as truly newsworthy, and not every one of them is empowering. Americans are living longer than at any time in recent history. Be that as it may, if you expect a great many people to be sparing more to plan for their more extended-term needs, you’d be mixed up. Given that such a significant number of Americans are behind in their reserve funds, maybe it’s not astonishing that many stay in the workforce well after arriving at a Social Security qualification.

The regular headlines are not always encouraging, such as retirement. The advancement of health sciences made humans live longer than before, resulting in old-age financial issues. If you think that people are saving for their long-term financial goals, sadly, you are mistaken. Here are some painful truths about retirement in America.

• Social security advantages are not enough for your comfortable retirement.
• The post-career period is the last quarter of an individual life.
• Half of the more Americans don’t have any saving plans.
• Medicare won’t bear the cost of a nursing home or assisted living

Make sure that you are saving enough so that you can easily live your life after retirement with comfort. Here we have six facts that no one will tell you before your retirement:

In the United States, the average retirement age is 65, and lives approximately 79 to 80 years. For instance, A 65-year-old man has a chance of reaching the age of 82, or a 65-year-old woman can reach the age of 82 to 85. That’s why younger working individuals need to plan for two decades of income in retirement. Today’s good decision to make your financial future comfortable

Short Falls of Social Security 

Social security’s amount is not enough to hit your targets. Social security enforces to help older Americans by providing them with an ongoing income on their retirement. Later program reconsiders and extends its benefits to the minor children and spouses of retired employees. Social security’s one of the most significant issues is that they only provide a similar standard of living to those in the lowest quartile of income breadwinners in America. The amount you pay in taxes is not the same you will obtain later in retirement life.

America is far away from the Habit of savings

Savings have a bad reputation in America; only three in ten people are saving-oriented. The values are lower than you think. You have to work on your long-term financial goal. With increased discretionary expenses and inflation, the people of America are far behind in the concept of long-term savings. There is a strong need to build the habit of saving in the next generation. Those who are not saving yet, have to start budgeting their expenses to secure their long-range goals.

The fewer individual have a Retirement plan

Planning for retirement is about restricting the spending in retirement and how many years retirement lasts. The timing of retirement is most important; you don’t know how much you will live after your retirement. Maybe some people have a goal of early retirement. If they were financially stable to maintain the living standard after early retirement easily, then there would be no issue retiring at the age of 45.

Contingent upon how much advancement you’ve made toward your retirement objectives, you might be feeling good or more terrible about where you stand. In case you’re not exactly as near your objective as you’d prefer to be, investigating your retirement plan can assist you with pinpointing the holes.

Start by attempting to make sense of precisely the amount you’ll require for retirement, given your present spending and the way of life you need. At that point, take a gander at your reserve funds adjusts and the amount you’re sparing consistently.

Your retirement is your wake-up call to take things seriously around you. Little savings for retirement is not enough to maintain your old age expenses. Make yourself habitual for money-saving, which will help you later in life.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

The state of Oregon passed the Senate bill 99. Oregon’s legislative assembly would implement their own system for this, and the contract for Cover Oregon would also have a website specifically for the bill. But due to continuous delays and issues, the government canceled the project. Now, Oregon has decided to utilize the federal government’s plan. It was not just the delays that caused Oregon State to abandon the project. There were many other reasons as well. The initial budget allocated to implement this project was $300 million US, but as of January 2014, more than $200 million US were used. The project was in the initial state, which means that the project was never going to be completed under the allocated budget.

The State of Oregon was in no position to allocate more funds for this project. Now the question is why a corporation like Oregon failed to implement this project. This project was complex; it starts with the enrollment of people in health insurance programs, then goes on to keep a check on whether they are paying their premium or not. Thus, it was meant to decide if they were getting the benefits or not. This means that this project should have been linked with various departments of Oregon State like the labor and business department or even the health department. It must also be linked with the federal department for the population to check whether the person applying for the insurance is a resident of Oregon State or not. Then in the second stage, this project was to be linked with the insurance program itself, which was necessary as this project must take care of the premiums people are paying as well. In the final stage, this project was meant to relate to hospitals and properly provide benefits to insurance holders.

Plan of Action

In order to get this done on time and efficiently, this system must be made using JavaScript/HTML and CSS without using any other language.

Apart from this, the whole project must be designed in such a way that it incorporates the aspects of the insurance. It offers a short-term solution for medical emergencies, hospitalizations, co-pays, and low premiums. The induvial and family plans have different size insurance plans ranging from 30 days to years and flexibility in enrollment, which means that one can enroll themselves at any time. While in long-term solutions, this act also provides outpatient care, preventive care, lab testing, emergency room visits, hospitalization, parental and maternity care, prescription drugs, mental health services, rehabilitative care, pediatric services, cost assistance, and meet ACA tax requirements.

Due to the previous delay and loss of more than $300 million US, the state of Oregon is incredibly careful in implementing this plan. The objective is to develop a website that can be used to get people registered for health insurance using federally subsidized rates and then purchasing it. This project has to be developed in such a way that it can incorporate all the aspects of the Cover Oregon project. This project must take the data from the users then verify it. This might seem easy, but it is not, as data must be confirmed from multiple sources. This whole process must be made completely autonomous without any need for paperwork at any point. This means that website will have to be made so that its data server can relate to that of a database of labor and business department of Oregon State and several departments as well. The reason for this is that when a person gets himself registered with the program, there will be a need for a proper cross-check of the data he will provide for purchasing the insurance. This will be of multiple stages like the website will have to check his residence, age, parentage, education, job, family crime record, and many other things.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Now that our world, when it comes to concerts and performances, has transformed, there are many platforms where you can broadcast concerts online and earn money from them. For instance, Stageit.com has some fascinating technology that helps us use the tools because, unlike other media where you can perform similar actions, this one is specially designed for it. 

You can broadcast performances with your laptop and broadcast all kinds of events that people around you or your group of friends organize. In other words, this is the best “online concert hall” that will allow you to interact online with your fans through live shows and monetize them. 

If what you offer is good, it will bring you a great source of revenue. Several renowned artists have tried the music marketing experience and swore by the benefits this one provides. Another advantage of this way of performing is that you can chat live with your fans, creating a unique experience for yourself and your fans. 

The website also has integrated a payment system where you can mention the price to pay for entry tickets to your concert. It also allows your best followers to get a reward for their loyalty to you and your brand. Your fans can compete to be the most loyal, and you can give them signed CDs, virtual and private meetings via Skype, or whatever reward you decide to provide them with.

Even if you begin to perform live in venues again, you can take a laptop to the dressing room and invite some fans to live that experience with you. Sites like Stageit.com make artists more accessible to fans and grow long-term loyalty. While a historic pandemic and unprecedented lockdowns slowed down the performance industry, it pushed innovation and new ways to connect and perform.

You can also use the site to help raise money for your projects outside of performance. You can let your fans know you need funding to move your project forward and create a virtual event for it. In as little as thirty minutes, you can have income. You then can take it a step further and involve your fans in the projects you are working on by creating live events to get contributions or feedback. Having your fans involved will ensure that the interest in your final product will be high. Also, it will help you work through those times when you get stuck creatively.

Another great feature of Stageit.com is that you can organize every type of event, including a virtual party to celebrate milestones, launches, birthdays, or other special occasions you want to involve your fans in along the way. It is about connecting with your fans and utilizing the virtual environment to keep your performance work going, even if the world is locked down. If you want to see some examples of events, you can go to the site and browse live events and find out what your favorite artist has to say.

With social media and sites such as Stageit.com, if you are a performer, musician, or artist, you have a unique opportunity under these circumstances to put yourself and what you produce out in the world without having to book a venue and trying to fill it. This technology allows new artists to get out to fans and potential fans.

These new developments in the world and their functions have been a great challenge for so many industries. However, if you are an artist, there have been ways to perform via the online environment. Using sites such as Stageit.com can transform the way you perform, and even after things get back to normal, this more intimate way of performance will likely be continued. Streaming online opens your concerts to those who cannot attend in person and opens it up to be a worldwide event. When adversity happens, you can either fold up and allow it to take you down, or you can face it and find a way to persevere.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

One of the leading economists, Paul Romer, advocates creating more charter cities, especially in the under-developed countries, to have an exponential effect on the economy. He is also supportive in developing countries (in most countries in the Southern Hemisphere), a law should be presented in the parliament, and the legislature votes for an amendment in their existing constitution to formulate a charter city whose demographics are of paramount importance, particularly when it comes to geopolitics. This new charter city should then be either under the administration, comprised of citizens from the host city, or temporarily be governed by a third-party constituent. The primary aim of the charter cities phenomenon is to provide hosts with the liberty to pick and choose the best option regarding where they want to dwell and offer them the fundamental rules of governance and amenities.

According to Romer, the idea of establishing a charter city stands on three fundamental pillars. First and foremost, the country should be willing and acceptable, whether it be from a developed region or a developing region. The host country will be accountable for providing the land or city and assigns that specific piece of land as an exquisite development zone if it complies with the already established policy and set of rules. The second step would be that the developed country will provide a guarantee that it will govern that piece of land, city, or region, either with some kind of administration, like a committee, board of governors, or an elected chairperson, like the infrastructure of Senate and Congress in the US. Lastly, the home country shall always be a part of the charter city and residential population.

In theory, the idea or the concept of having a charter city in a developing country, where the fundamental dynamics of the economy are volatile. Some developing countries seem to be willing to Romer, while other developing countries tend to think of this notion somewhat receptively. Suppose we take the example of Madagascar, a troubled island located at the southern tip of Africa. The then-president of Madagascar had a formal meeting with the leading economist and proposed that to have a stable economy, the government of Madagascar wants to give the status of a charter city to two cities. The proposal had to be shelved due to the country’s political instability, as the entire government was overthrown.

In light of recent events, the elected government of Honduras shed some light on the thought of establishing a charter city. In the year 2011, the government of Honduras made some fundamental legal changes in its constitution. Romer served as chairperson of the committee but pulled back in September 2012, when a government agency of Honduras was held accountable for entering into agreements for projects with other international countries without bringing anything into the knowledge of the administrating committee.

Romer incepted the formulation of Charter Cities (semi-autonomous cities in rural places of developing countries) with the purpose to bring economic stability, eradicate poverty, wipe out crime and bring an end to the political turmoil. By keeping the growth of Hong Kong in mind, which was under the governorship of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997 (nearly 150 years). In other words, Britishers brought it the concept of capitalism as opposed to China’s socialist/communist culture. According to Romer, this advancement was only possible by vaccinating the economy of Hong Kong with different laws and regulations, cultural norms, and notions of neo-imperialism. However, micro and macroeconomic factors and demographics in 1841 were different as opposed to the current situation, which is why the level of acceptability and implementation was high, and there was no predominant psychological or ego-centric barrier.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Most of our senior citizens and peer groups advise swipe credit cards and relish services like reward points, cashback (of a certain percentage), seasonal promotions, and purchase protections. However, there are instances when credit cards should be hidden in their wallets or purses. Below mention are ten occurrences when credit is not a viable option and can go against personal interests.

Car Loan Installments

If an individual has leased out or sought a car loan and finds it financially stressful to pay Equal Monthly Installments (EMI), using a credit card to cover the EMI payment is not a viable option. In doing so, the same person is piling more debt and perhaps creating a debt trap. At the end, when the person has reached the financial threshold of payments on a car loan and credit cards, the person will pay interest amounts on both types of finances. Furthermore, if the payment expenses overtake the disposable income, both finances will pile up into default payments. Subsequently, the person’s credit report will yield a bad score.

Mortgage Payments

Of all the kinds of finances, mortgage finance and the payment is more than the EMI of a car loan. If the person uses the credit cards stack to make the payments, then, consequently, the result will be the same as mentioned. The stress is going to amplify. In this situation, the best way moving forward is to visit the bank and renegotiate the terms of the payments. It is called restricted, where the bank can grant an extension of the maturity period and lower down the monthly payment. Thus, easing out the heat coming from an empty wallet.

Online Money Transfers

Always use cash while making domestic or international transfers to anyone, such as Western Union, etc. This kind of payment is a no-go area for credit cards. The reason is that as soon as the credit card is swiped, a transactional fee is debited from the credit card balance and the interest calculation starts immediately.

Costly Art, Antiques, and Collectible Items

Avoid making purchases of frolicsome products; even there is a significant limit on the credit card, like a Black Card (Amex), Platinum Card, etc. Furthermore, such luxe items may not be covered by insurance (credit card). If cash is available or the person has sufficient balance in the savings accounts, then a simple online money transfer through debit card or cheques would be plausible.

Home Renovations

Even if the house warrants refurbishment or remodeling, the exterior and interior décor, think before pulling out the credit card from the wallet. It is pertinent to mention that renovation is a very costly business and payment via credit cards is not advisable. However, if the house requires renovation and the person requires money on dire-straits measures, then seeking out a personal loan will be a better option and less cumbersome.

Lending or Giving Money

After there is humanity in us, but when it comes to credit cards, always be selfish. Lend money or pay to your relatives and friends if you have cash or adequate balance in the savings accounts. Even if they pay the amount back, think about who is going to pay the interest amount accumulated on the credit card.

Medical Invoices

If you are not covered by insurance, then a credit card is no solution. It is another no-go area for credit cards. Medical bills and invoices for diagnosis and treatment can be exponential. Always resort to medical insurance, as medical lien agencies in the US act as a negotiator between the doctor and the insurance company.

Education and Tuition Fees

Always exhibit reluctance in swiping the credit card for educational expenses. Availing a personal loan from a bank is a much better option to pay the tuition fees, as the interest rates are comparatively lower than a credit card.

Upfront payment to purchase a House

Perhaps the quickest and easiest way to fall into a debt trap is by using credit cards. Do not go for the purchase unless there is an ample amount of balance in the savings account. Purchasing a home brings along other expenses, such as legal fees, property taxes, etc., to avoid the debt trap at all possible in this scenario.

Huge Business Expenditure

Never finance the sources of your business through personal credit cards. Even if the purchase is for small office equipment or stationery, always keep a business credit card. Just remember, never mix business with pleasure.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

The primary concern of management is to look at the approaches that could help them with the satisfaction of the organization they work with. In other words, if the bank’s client is satisfied with the company’s services, they will be able to expand their operations in a wide geographical location. In developed countries like the UK, USA, and Europe, the institutions and government are using a mixed approach in handling their operations. For instance, they are offering dual services to their clients so that they can utilize them as they choose. However, the critical advantage in developed countries is their privacy and security setup. These things are crucial to operations in these countries. 

In most cases, management works with a solid and intact structure that helps to sustain their clients’ data and avoid any external element to intrude the system, breaching their data and operating systems. However, the case of developing countries is very different. In developing countries, people face a number of issues related to the efficiency of the structure through which the rates are designed. Most of the time, it has been identified that the system is not up to their expectations, which is a significant pitfall in the US. The organization is trying to achieve maximum loans with minimal interest rates to increase their profitability, which ultimately increases their growth. It was also identified that when the companies from any particular institution face an issue, they immediately switch to the other option due to the availability of a wide range of substitutes in the country.

It will be appropriate for the banking structure in developing countries to focus on the international standards of the banking sector to design their structure of interest rates and increase the level of customer satisfaction for the company. In addition, focusing on the international standards also helps the companies to focus on their security and privacy structure that will also reduce the threats for their customers in the future. The management of the exchange rates and the interest rates by the government and the banks would help the banks for retaining their customers for the long term. It would also increase their financial and economic stability among other economies working in the same region. It is essential that the electronic business operations should be made common in the region so that access to the proper knowledge can become easier for management. Therefore, the authors stated that it is obligatory for the US that they should implement a flexible approach so that the interest rates can be made according to the satisfaction level and the feasibility of the organizations. It would help them to increase their growth on an individual basis, and they can collectively improve the performance of the US economy.

People have treated the interest rates and the exchange rates as different entities, and their impact on the stock prices has been discussed separately. However, the comparison has yet to be made accordingly. Although both are rates used for business transactions, the interest rates are normally applied on the bank loans, and the exchange rates are used in the trading identified it. He also evaluated the similar results in his study in which he discussed that the fundamental difference, which exists between both the factors, is their basic identity and the purpose for which they are used. However, the interconnected nature of both the factors has confused the researchers on many points for which they take into consideration several approaches and research designs so that their impact can be identified separately.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Did you know that small businesses face a heightened risk of fraud, often arising from within their own ranks? While large corporations typically have the financial resources to invest in comprehensive and sophisticated fraud prevention software and tools, newer startups and smaller enterprises might feel overwhelmed and unsure about how to safeguard themselves against potential threats. Let’s explore several reasons that contribute to the increased susceptibility of small businesses to fraud.

Limited Anti-Fraud Software Solutions

Small businesses frequently need more financial means to invest in advanced, up-to-date software to prevent fraudulent activities. Although they may implement essential accounting software, these systems often require more robust features and security measures available to larger corporations, which can afford cutting-edge technology. Basic security protocols—such as surveillance cameras or software to monitor digital activity—are commonly seen as optional in smaller operations. Still, in reality, these tools are essential for maintaining security.

Reduced Staff Accountability

In smaller businesses, the workforce is limited, resulting in fewer employees sharing responsibility for key departments. For example, when a single individual is tasked with accounting and bookkeeping, they are under increased pressure and have fewer checks and balances in place. Without a larger team to audit or review each other’s work, it becomes easier for mistakes to go unnoticed and for unethical behavior to flourish. This heavy burden of responsibility, combined with a lack of oversight, can create an environment where trust is misused.

Employees at Risk of Embezzlement

Embezzlement is a form of theft that occurs when an employee misappropriates company funds for personal gain. This behavior often arises from employees experiencing significant financial or emotional turmoil. Employees who feel overwhelmed by personal challenges may resort to misusing company funds as a desperate means to alleviate their struggles. Additionally, workers who feel undervalued or entitled may justify their actions to themselves. Maintaining open lines of communication with your employees is vital; it fosters professional relationships and helps clarify their roles, expectations, and the potential consequences of their actions.

To combat fraud effectively, it’s crucial to conduct thorough background checks and remain attuned to the dynamics occurring both inside and outside your company.

Warning Signs of Potential Fraud

Here are some telltale signs that may suggest an employee could be engaging in fraudulent activities:

An increase in errors

Watch for discrepancies in financial statements or accounting records that do not reconcile. Combining outdated software and the absence of thorough audits can lead to a greater risk of overlooking dishonest behavior. Pay particular attention to accounting errors, especially when manual methods are used—these can be manipulated by an embezzler seeking to cover their tracks.

Disproportionate spending

If you notice employees suddenly indulging in extravagant purchases that exceed what their salary would typically allow, it may be a cause for concern. By analyzing their spending patterns against their income, you can identify potential red flags that indicate involvement in corrupt practices.

Irregular working hours

Take note of employees who begin to report significant increases in overtime or who exhibit unusual patterns in their working hours. Such behavior may signal that they are exploiting flexible schedules to steal time or engage in questionable activities during their work hours.

Summary

Statistics reveal a troubling reality: small businesses are particularly susceptible to various forms of fraud. The risks can arise from unexpected sources, whether it’s a trusted senior vice president, a newly onboarded assistant manager, or even a temporary relative helping out during busy seasons. This underscores the critical need for continuous vigilance in the workplace.

To combat these threats effectively, it’s essential to establish a comprehensive fraud prevention framework tailored to your organization’s unique needs. By implementing strong, proactive strategies and safeguards, you can create a formidable line of defense that protects your business from potential fraud and fosters a secure environment for your employees and stakeholders. About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness, respect, and similarity are the essential components of the TEARS (Trustworthiness, Expertise, Attractiveness, Respect, Similarity) model. These productive dimensions are illustrated in this article regarding production and entertainment.

Trustworthiness

It is the initial aspect of the TEARS model and the initial aspect of the credible endorser. It can be referred to as the productive perception and belief of the production and entertainment that can be shaped efficiently through believability, integrity, and honesty of the endorser. The lavish lifestyle of the celebrity (production and entertainment) is reflected through various means of media, which creates a positive perception of the celebrity that the endorsing corporation efficiently utilizes to attain the trust of the targeted audience.

Trustworthiness is a crucial aspect of the potential credibility that allows brands to influence the behavior of the targeted consumers. It is vital for the brand to have this potential dimension of trust. An absence of this aspect will make another dimension of credible sources ineffective and unproductive and will not be able to transform consumers’ perceptions. Production and entertainment houses tend to be more honest than the non-celebrities, as they live a transparent life due to the high interference of the media. This trait of celebrity allows them and endorsers to create trust between the brand and the consumers. This allows various advertising entities to attract potential consumers to their products.

Expertise

Expertise is another vital dimension of the source of credibility and the second potential aspect of the TEARS model. It is a crucial aspect that refers to the ability of the endorser that is enhanced with the potential aspects like knowledge, information, skills, and experience regarding the endorsed brand’s product or services. Production and entertainment firms are termed experts when they can endorse a product to the targeted audience in a productive way.

The affinity between validity and expertise of the celebrity as it assists the brand in transferring appropriate and accurate information regarding the endorsed product. The star needs to share appropriate and accurate information regarding the product innovatively, as a maximum number of individuals is attracted towards the products due to the celebrity.

Attractiveness (Physical attractiveness)

Attractiveness is another potential aspect that is comprised of physical attractiveness, similarity, and respect. Attractive is an essential component that allows the brand to attract various consumers and effectively shape their behavior.

Physical attractiveness is a part of the TEARS model that is referred to various physical aspects from production and entertainment houses. Personality, characteristics, lifestyle, and skills are the potential attractive traits that perceive the attention of media. It is evident that endorsers having attractive traits proves to be productive. One of the biggest reasons for this positive result is that consumers will have traits like the endorsers. Only excellent and attractive traits are insufficient to produce productive results, as communicating appropriate and accurate information is more vital. Production and entertainment firms effectively associate celebrities with endorsing products efficiently. In this process, involvement of a high amount is observed. Physical appearance and attractiveness are essential components that tend to drive the need of the consumer and transform their purchase intention.

Respect

Production and entertainment houses and celebrities are often respected for their effective and productive work in their respective field. For instance, the actor is appreciated for their acting, politicians are appreciated for their work, and sportsmen are appreciated and respected for their abilities. Their audience’s personalities who are respected and appreciated tend to become more productive endorsers, as they already have a fan base that follows them.

The influential association between the respected and appreciated celebrity with the advertising entity or brand allows them to enhance the brand’s equity. It tends to transfer traits of celebrities to the brand from which consumers provide the same respect and appreciation to the band. It is vital for the production and entertainment agencies to have an affinity with respected celebrities, as it tends to transform the behavior of the consumers most productively. One of the reasons for their productiveness can be their constant productive appearance on the media that tends to increase their fan base, which is eventually converted as potential consumers by various endorsing agencies.

Similarity

Similarity can refer to the similar aspects observed in the targeted audience and the selected celebrity endorser. Those similar aspects can be age, ethnicity, religion, gender, etc. It allows the targeted audience to find some similar traits in the personality or life of the endorser, which tends to attract the consumers positively and productively. The ethnicity of the celebrity endorser plays a vital role in the effective endorsement of the brand as various individuals of the same ethnicity tend to connect with the endorser and the brand in an efficient manner. Effectiveness in this process can enable endorsers to attract a maximum number of audience members because product branding will produce valuable results.

Ethnicity is an aspect that the endorser efficiently utilizes; most of the endorser treats this aspect as a valuable and operative resource. It provides productive assistance to the advertising and marketing entities to create an operative factor of trust. Trustworthiness is an operative tool that the endorser can use to manipulate the behavior of consumers and production and entertainment houses in a positive way.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Do you want to invest in real estate, or do you plan to invest in real estate in the near future?

When investing in real estate, everyone thinks they have the recipe to get there:

• Buy a property
• To rent
• Use rents to repay the bank

If the method were so simple, everyone would be rich. Of course, it is a little more complicated than that, and most investors make mistakes that prevent them from achieving dazzling success.

Mistake # 1: Buy as a couple

It can be tempting to buy as a couple to reduce the investment.

Without going into the apparent human relations problems, know that legally, “No one is forced to remain in indivision.” This means that if the other wants to sell, he can demand it, and you cannot stop it.

In addition to limiting potential problems, you can maximize your profits with your spouse if you do not buy as a couple. 

Mistake # 2: Do not negotiate your sales agreement.

With the sales agreement, the seller and the buyer formalize their arrangement:

• The seller agrees to sell at the agreed price, to the buyer, within a given time.
• The buyer agrees to purchase at the agreed price, from the seller, within a given time.

The sales agreement can be signed at the notary or the real estate agency. In any case, it should be written by a professional and should be included in the agency fees and the notary fees. The sales agreement must consist of “conditions precedent,” which are clauses that protect you as a buyer. The most common is the suspensive clause for obtaining a loan. If you cannot secure your mortgage, you no longer have to buy the property. You can disengage without consequences, and the eventual escrow is returned to you. In the sales agreement, you can include a rate. For example, “subject to a suspensive condition of obtaining a real estate loan over 20 years at an interest rate of 3% maximum”. If you get credits, but at 3.1%, then you can opt-out anyway. You can also include any suspensive condition. For example, you can indicate that you will only buy if your contractor sets the amount of the work unless you pay it (x Dollars), or that you will buy only if the co-ownership, or the town hall, according to the case, gives you the right to do such or such work.

The only limit is what the seller will accept but protect yourself to the utmost. See what is essential to you, and your notary can transcribe it as a condition precedent.

However, you can negotiate the price down with the seller, saying that you sign without a suspensive condition, but that means you are obligated to buy even if the bank does not lend you money. Therefore, it is a weapon to use with great care, but it can be effective because the seller will know that you will not waste time. 

Mistake # 3: Do not use a construction broker

Finding contractors to renovate a property is a headache, especially when you are not in the business yourself. Construction brokers visit your property, know the prices, and find the contractors themselves at the best price. These brokers are helpful when you do not know much about construction or do not have time to get quotes from all trades.

Mistake # 4: Thinking that you have to pay the notary fees

The notary fees are the buyer’s responsibility, but it is not a legal obligation. With the seller’s agreement, you can therefore ask to make an “act in hand.” In this case, the seller will pay the notary fees. The main interest of this type of act is to avoid paying large sums of money in notary fees. Furthermore, banks often refuse to finance these costs.

For example, you want to buy an apartment for $200,000, but the notary fees will be $16,000. As we have just commented, banks do not like to integrate notary fees into credit, so your note will only be $200,000. Fortunately, because you do not want or cannot pay $16,000 cash, offer the seller $216,000 “act in hands.” This will allow the bank to lend you $216,000 because it will consider that it is the property’s price, and the notary fees are the seller’s responsibility. For the seller, it does not matter; he will pay $16,000 to the notary and will have $200,000. 

Mistake # 5: Buy at Multiple

It can be tempting to buy a property for couples, of course, but also by partnering with another investor because it is reassuring. Without going into the obvious problems of human relations, know that legally again, “no one is forced to remain in division.” In short, if you buy two properties because you have an investor, you will be committed to the full price of the property. On the other hand, you will only receive half of the rent. Therefore, your debt capacity will be limited when you want to buy another property. Do not invest in more than one property if you cannot do it without the other investor. 

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.