You should “shop” for self managed IRAs, just like you would shop for anything else. The fees attached to a self directed IRA can vary significantly. These new “easy free set-up” accounts are offered by stock brokers. If you want options, you should probably stay away from the brokerages.
Tip #2 – Brokerages May Not Be Your Best Choice
Generally speaking, the brokerages that offer self managed IRAs will only make stock investing available to you. If they do allow you to invest in other options, they charge hidden and often excessive fees. Some of them even take part of your earned interest as a fee for managing “un-invested cash balances”.
Think about it. What kind of “managing” does a cash balance require? It’s basically just sitting there.
Tip #3 – Your Best Choice
The best choice for a self directed IRA custodian is a company that charges a reasonable set up fee and a flat annual fee. If you want to invest in stocks, you may still have to pay a broker’s fee, but you won’t be charged for buying, selling, writing checks, etc.
It’s particularly important to compare the fees charged by self directed IRA custodians when it comes to real estate investing. Many people are still unaware that they have the option, because few custodians offer it.
It’s always a good time to invest in real estate, as long as you make the right choices, but today it is just about the only way to retire wealthy. The stock market is not performing well. Sure, you have geeks and gurus that want to sell you their “systems” for making a killing in the stock market. But, the only reason they are making any money is because people are buying their books.
Tip #4 – Get Educated
It does take some education to be successful with self managed IRAs. But, a good custodian can provide most of the information that you need, free of charge. They can tell you about the relevant tax laws, the “dos and don’ts”, so to speak. The better companies have a huge on-line educational center to help you better understand the common mistakes, and how to avoid them.
Tip #5 – Common Mistakes
The most common mistakes made from within a self directed IRA fall under one category; self-dealing. While you can hold real estate within the account, it must be for investment purposes only. To avoid confusion, many people are going with a new “hands-off” strategy offered by experienced investors.
There are lots of success stories concerning self managed IRAs. But, there are a few horror stories, too. Take the time now to learn everything that you can.
Tip # 6 – The Good News
With the right background and some good advisors, the growth potential of your self directed IRA is unlimited. Most people make some mistakes early on. I know I did. But, you actually have more options than I did.
There are actually companies that offer guaranteed returns in the real estate market. That almost sounds too good to be true, but it’s certainly worth considering.
To sum it up; compare self managed IRAs, educate yourself, get sound advice and consider all of your options. That’s the road to success.
Cada pareja tiene una historia única que contar. Los detalles, las emociones y las pequeñas cosas que hacen que su relación sea especial son aspectos que desean preservar para siempre. Es por eso que, cuando llega el día de la boda. Fotógrafo de Bodas en Medellín. Con tantas opciones disponibles, ¿cómo puedes estar seguro de que has elegido al fotógrafo correcto? Lo primero es revisar su portafolio. Las imágenes hablarán por sí mismas y te darán una idea de su estilo y calidad. Además, considera su experiencia
Event and sponsorship marketing is the single most effective way to reach and move audiences, according to Promo magazine. So, to get the best ROI from your corporate, brand or organizational anniversary, use events that generate vibrant, emotional connections with customers and potential customers, and build employee pride and passion.
In a word, events can drive your marketing communications in ways traditional and new media cannot.
Events communicate in personal, powerful, interactive ways.
Knowing this, design events that help accomplish your marketing goals. You can use anniversary-marketing events to:
*Introduce a new product or service upgrade
*Announce a new company initiative
*Expand into new territories
*Integrate employees of newly acquired or merged companies
*Enhance the reputation of your CEO and your company
*Provide product information
*Celebrate a successful year or project completion
*Target your marketing
*Position your company as a community leader
Events generate understanding and involvement
Tell your employees and your customers WHY you have bought a sponsorship or created an event. You want the support of your employees so they understand why precious resources are being directed to these endeavors. Tell them how your past is the strongest criterion that people have to judge your future.
Events provide interaction between you and your audience, so structure that contact carefully.
Your competitors may already be employing events for their marketing. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store took its chuck wagon on the road with a tour by Grammy award-winning artists Alison Krause and Union Station. And Wella and Sebastian combined for a 10-city tour in which models show off the latest hairstyles and makeup products for salon owners. John Hancock Financial Services made extensive use of former baseball greats and Olympic athletes to interact with its constituents.
People love to meet stars, so put your guests in direct contact with well-known athletes or local celebrities, such as baseball players, professional golfers, media celebrities. Have baseballs signed for each attendee. Have the golfers play a par three hole at your charity tournament and have your photographer available. Have your guests mix with Olympic athletes. Create that personal experience for your guests.
Don’t forget your employees. Bring the celebrities to meet your employees. Introduce them and have their photos taken. This increases employee support and pride.
Design events for your specific audiences
Sometimes you will develop events that reach a very small, specific audience, for example, electro-chemical engineers who use your product. Or your audience may be broader based, perhaps parents of young children. Fisher-Price developed its 75th Anniversary Celebration 12-city tour that features two 60′ x 60′ traveling play areas. Company spokesperson: “It helps parents remember how special the Fisher-Price experience was for them and how meaningful it still is for their children.” Other audiences might include opinion leaders and government officials who can have major impact upon your endeavors.
Be creative in funding event marketing
Analyze your budget to find funds for anniversary marketing events: advertising and direct mail expenditures, a monthly newsletter, counter cards, boxes of logoed mugs that will end up in the warehouse. Move those funds into the powerful field of event marketing. Integrate events into your total marketing strategy and goals and they will effectively develop and cement your brand in your customers’ minds and hearts. Your audiences may remain the same. You are just rethinking how best to reach and move them to action.
Help find a solution to a significant problem
Use your organization’s anniversary to throw support behind an important cause. The Home Depot Foundation’s mission is to build affordable homes for working families. Avon elevated its image immeasurably, and raises tremendous amounts of money to eradicate breast cancer, with the annual Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.
Get help to do it right
Don’t think you can create a powerful, effective and efficient anniversary events marketing program by throwing it on an already overworked marketing department. Or if you do, get them outside, experienced professional help. Find a partner who can think and plan and act strategically to incorporate a new, long-range events-based initiative into your existing marketing efforts. Find an organization that can move you quickly and decisively into this new arena.
After 12 years of promoting seminars, I’ve identified 9 things that you absolutely must have in place to properly promote your events.
1 — A multi-channel marketing plan that spells out what you need to do each week to promote your seminar.
If you don’t have this in place, you know what happens? You make it up as you go along. Then you get busy with life, developing your content, or a million other things … and all of sudden it’s been 3 weeks since you last sent out a promo. Or you rush to toss something together … and your mediocre effort produces mediocre results.
Developing a plan increases the likelihood that you’ll contact prospects frequently enough about your event and develop a solid message that you can carry through from piece to piece.
Plus, having a written plan means you can delegate implementation of the plan to someone else!
2 — A foundational marketing piece to promote your seminar — such as a salesletter, copy for your direct-response web site, or even a brochure.
Developing one piece that contains EVERY detail needed to sell your event is a great idea for a few reasons. First, it’s like having a salesperson on your staff that you can refer prospects to 24/7. When prospects have everything they need to make a buying decision, they won’t put off registration until they’re able to get more information from you.
Also, developing this comprehensive piece makes it easier to create supplementary marketing materials. All you have to do is lift chunks of copy from your salesletter and then polish the transitions.
3 — One or more follow-up marketing tools to continue promoting your seminar.
You’ll see the best results from your marketing if you notify prospects about your event more than once. The easiest way to follow-up is to simply re-mail the first promotional piece (e.g., a brochure). But modifying your copy and/or type of follow-up piece can produce big bumps in your response rates. For example, after sending a salesletter, send a postcard that warns of an impending registration deadline.
4 — A plan for building your database of qualified prospects
When marketing a seminar, the people in your database are your very best prospects, because they already know you. Building your list is almost as important as marketing your seminar … and this activity deserves its own plan.
5 — At least one marketing piece designed to build your opt-in list
Most people invite website visitors to join their mailing list. If you want to maximize the growth of your database, you should also actively market the opportunity.
6 — A system for capturing and keeping seminar registrations to prevent last-minute cancellations
After registering for a seminar, many people are hit with a case of buyer’s regret. If you’re not staying in touch with registrants after they sign up, they might see red flags warning them to stay away from your event. At the very least, be sure to confirm registration within 2 business days … immediately if possible.
7 — A system for tracking all of your responses, so you gather the data you need to make educated decisions about your marketing for future seminars.
Most new promoters have questions like “How can I tell if I’ll get enough registrations to run my seminar?” “Will this promotion really be worth the effort?” “How many times do I need to contact a prospect to get them to sign up?” Although there are general rules of event marketing that you can follow when getting started … you will need to discover what works for YOUR audience and YOUR seminar specifically. Tracking results is how you gather the data you need to answer these questions.
8 — A plan for capturing testimonials and valuable feedback from seminar attendees.
Testimonials are one of the most powerful marketing tools at your disposal. But if you don’t have a plan in place before your seminar, chances are good that you won’t capture as many testimonials as you could if you were prepared … and the ones you do get will be bland.
9 — A plan for staying in touch with prospects and past seminar attendees throughout the year
Getting someone on your list isn’t enough. You have to keep your name and expertise in front of your growing list if you want to remain relevant … and if you want to increase the likelihood that people on your list will want to attend your future events.
As with your list building and seminar marketing activities, having a written plan makes you more accountable — and enables you to outsource this portion of your marketing.
Network Marketing Businesses have emerged as an upcoming trend in the recent years thanks to the increase use of the Internet. The Network Marketing Businesses is also referred to as the Multi-level marketing (MLM). In this process the business distribution strategy allows the parent multi level company or organization to market their services and products directly to the customers.
Thus the process of bonding the customer-dealer relationship in Network Marketing Businesses is done through the modes of relationship references and direct dealing with the customer. The various sales personnel involved in Network Marketing Businesses like the distributors, associates, business owners, franchise owners, sales consultants, etc. represent the parent company and are paid through commissions based on performance. They quantity of the product sold by each one adds up to his or her commission.
Network marketing is mainly done on the internet and the competition is very tough. Only the best companies sustain and make sufficient profits to maintain the loyalty of customers and employees. In spite of various kinds of troubles and hardships the Network Marketing Businesses manage to make profit and benefit from this MLM strategy.
The members and sales persons gain because the Network Marketing Businesses follow the pyramid structure of commissions. The more the numbers of people signing up under you the more you get paid. It is true that the person on top of the pyramid which may be the owner or the CEO of the company gets paid the most. But at the bottom there is always hope of improving the line and adding more customers to get paid more.
Also the payment structure is mostly performance based so unlike most companies where employees are salaried based, the Network Marketing Businesses do not have to worry about this problem. If you show results you get paid if you don’t show results you don’t get paid.
The initial set up cost of the Network Marketing Businesses is the major cost input the company has to undertake. Apart from this the affiliate marketing and network marketing procedures don’t involve much cost. The pay per click system ensures that the payment is based on fair performance only.
The members of the Network Marketing Businesses benefit from it too because
They are paid on performance basis. This motivates them to get more visitors or clicks to the sites so that they get paid more.
This is a low cost business opportunity which they can do from home. Also most in most Network Marketing Businesses the sign up cost is minimal or free.
The pyramid structure makes it motivating for the employees to work harder. The larger the number of people under you the more you get paid. Also the customer feels he or she is a part of the company rather than just being an employee because of their direct interaction with other sites and visitors whom they urge to sign up for.
Network Marketing Businesses are an emerging trend in the business sector which is cost effective and revenue generating for both the employer and the employee.