Starting an Online Business
Congratulation, it is a very smart move that you have chosen online business.However, first, you need to be mentally prepared for the setbacks that you may experience on your journey in setting up your business.Before you start, I would like to share with you some of the pointers below;1. Learning CurveIn anything we do, there is always a learning curve, running a online marketing business is no exception. You can drive traffic for sales from various sources such as; SEO, Social Marketing, PPC, Blogging, video marketing and everything in between.Therefore, more traffic means more money earned onlineThe more traffic you sent to your online business, the more money you will be earning.Same goes here; More learning equals to more EarningsIf you put in adequate efforts to keep on educating yourself, your online business will eventually gets stronger and stronger, as you get better and better each day at promoting it.Creating quality content which actually helps people to earn online is vital to attract more traffic. Quality Content means larger traffic will be drive to your blog or sites. Thus, encouraging more sharing online giving an exponential impact on exposure.”Online business is the only way you can earn while you rest or sleep”Should your online business has adequate exposure, with only a laptop on hand, you can earn anyway, anytime.2. Creating email list is a good way to drive traffic.Giving away values to people in your email list increase engagement with your potential customers. Building a positive relationship will lead to long-term reputation, thus getting recurring business3. Be prepare to work hard with sleepless nights.During the early stage in building your business, you need to work really hard! However, if you worked very hard and reached the stage where you are at a established stage in your business. With the proper structure, your business will be self-sustaining and you will have the luxury of working lesser hours4. Do not you let negative words of others diminish your dream of succeeding in your own online business. There is once someone asked me, “Why don’t you just get a proper job”I just smile and ask him instead; “Then why didn’t you get a proper job then?” Person said that because they do not dare to dream high, it doesn’t mean you can’t. Always ensure that your passion continues to burn, read more motivational books, watch some business or motivational videos or seminars at least once a month. This applies to whatever you do in life.5. Do not believe everything you read online.Trial and error is a very powerful learning and you only get what really works for your business.6. “Do not burn any bridges” if possible to ensure good reputation in your online business. If you are working on your online business, please do not ever get into conflict with anyone you are working with. So that, no one would post negative things about your online business. Thus, it may jeopardize your online business if some prospects read about some negative comments online. Also, having more friends means you will get more help from others when in need.7. Learn anything about generating trafficAny good traffic generating way is good for making more money as you will get more client leads.8. Do not be afraid to invest money for the growth of your businessSometime, it will take money to make more money, eg. By putting in $25 investment in your marketing campaign that may land you with 100 subscribers, leading to more sales.9. Do not be afraid to outsource your online businessIf you want to speed up the process in building your business or you do not have time to work on projects campaign, ou can engage others to do the work for you. If you do not like programming, logo design or have limited knowledge on doing what is good for the growth of your online business, find help!10. Only promote high quality affiliate product to your customersThere are a few benefits of creating or marketing a new product;- You are able to keep your customer base- Lessen refund rate and keep your reputation online- Providing some researches before promoting the products. You can do it by reading reviews online and to give recommendation for the product.11. Update you blog at least once a weekRefresh your Search Engine Organizations (SEO) as frequently as possible so as to increase your search engines ranking12. Be prepared for “bad times”, Always keep an open mind on failures to get sales. In order to achieve your goals, failure is one of the best way to learn and to be successful and push on.Finally, if you want to succeed in internet marketing business, the only obstacle is “YOU”If you believe that you can do it, you can do itIf you believe that you can’t, you will probably can’t do itAlways believe in what you are doing in a persistent phase..Cheers!
Health News From Hurricane Beaten Florida
The hurricanes have been beating Florida to a pulp and causing untold property damage in that area of the country.I have two good friends who live in the Tampa area, so I’ve been calling down there frequently to check on things.I’ve already told you much about my friend Matt. And as you know, he and his family were over in China for awhile, so they missed much of the action (which is a good thing)But my other good friend, Chet Rowland lives in Clearwater Beach, and he didn’t miss a thing.In fact, I was watching my local news here in Seattle a couple weeks ago, and here’s this reporter doing a story on the Florida hurricanes.But here’s the catch…She’s standing on Clearwater Beach, with the pier in the background, trying to stay on her feet as the wind is howling through at incredible speeds.I couldn’t believe it!Not just because of the winds, but because I saw the pier in the background.I recognized that pier, because it’s just down the beach from where my friend Chet lives..So what do I do?I immediately pick up the phone and give him a call.Isn’t it funny how we react when we’re concerned about those we care about?As the story unfolded, Chet, and those who live in that area didn’t fair too badly. But there were plenty of others who were seriously hurt by the hurricanes.In fact, Chet even commented, “I’ll bet you’re going to have a lot of people from this area calling you as a result of these hurricanes.”And he was right.You see, in addition to running the Health Articles and News Update site, I’m also an indoor air quality expert, and my specialty is in black mold.I work with people across the country, showing them how to locate, clean-up and prevent mold growth in their homes and workplaces.Anyways, let me get on with the story.I think it was only a couple days after I’d talked with Chet.I get this email from a client in Florida.She starts telling me how she had bought some of my products a few months ago (before the hurricanes). I’ll just go ahead and share it with you.Here it is…Kevin, I’ve been having health problems for months. After watching a news story on black mold, it got me thinking.I then went on the internet and started doing some research and that’s when I found your website at www.getmoldsolutions.com.I was a little skeptical to order anything online, but since you had that 30-day trial offer, I decided to give you a try.I got your package in the mail and was amazed by everything you covered. You took me step by step through the process and made it so easy for me to find the mold problem in my home.It ended up being water leak from the washing machine that was causing all the damage.We got it fixed, and now I’ve never felt better. You have no idea what it’s like to have my health back again, and I want to thank you for that.And now, with all these hurricanes, a lot of our friends will be needing your help too.I’m helping them as much as I can, but I’m no expert, so I’m also telling them how to get in touch with you.I’m so glad there are still people like you in this world who are willing to help others, especially in a time like this.Betty WigginsAnd she wasn’t kidding either.It’s like Chet and Betty both had a vision of the future.We’ve had tons of people calling from the Florida area, and we’ve been making sure they get the help they need.You see, people in Florida are now forced to deal with the water damage that’s been done to their homes because it’s so extensive.But most people don’t realize how important it is to take care of any water damage, and to do so right away!Water problems that aren’t addressed will escalate into a full blown mold problem, and this puts you and everyone in your home at risk.Because the demand has been so high, I’m offering a no-charge teleseminar on October 11th in order to help get this valuable information into your hands.If you (or anyone you know) needs to find out how to wipe out the black mold threat in your home, you won’t want to miss out on this.Here’s just some of the topics we’ll be discussing:
The 5 tell-tale danger signs of black mold… any one of these puts you, your family, and your home at risk
How to find out if black mold is the cause of your health problems — without a visit to the doctor’s office
The 3-step method to locating mold… that anyone can do, without spending a fortune to hire a professional
You can get information and register by going herehttp://www.getmoldsolutions.com/black_mold_teleconference.html
The Home Improvement Nightmare-Who’s To Blame and How To Avoid It
Unless you live in a remote part of the country with no television, newspaper or other people to talk to, there is a good chance you have heard or read about a home improvement scam or project gone wrong. It seems to be a fact in this country that when you go about doing a home improvement project you will usually encounter countless problems, delays and shoddy work.The home improvement experience leaves most people stressed and vowing never to do another project again! So it is not surprising to hear that home improvement complaints rank at the top of consumer complaints nationwide year after year. Where does the blame fall for this epidemic of home improvement problems?I am proud to say I was a home improvement contractor for almost 30 years and I was fortunate enough to win some of the industry’s highest awards. However, it has never ceased to amaze me the poor home improvement decisions that I have seen so many homeowners make. One of the more notable mistakes I would see done over and over again was when a homeowner would blindly hire someone to do a project because the person was a friend or a friend of a friend. To me this reasoning makes no sense.Friendship and craftsmanship are not related, but for some reason a lot of people believe other wise. Another great example of homeowner apathy is hiring someone to do a project without ever putting anything in writing. Who in their right mind would ever agree to such a disastrous situation? Another very similar blunder would be for a homeowner to blindly accept an estimate on the back of a business card. Usually the only information that has room on the back of a business card is the PRICE.A major mistake made by many people doing a home improvement project is letting price dictate the decision on who to hire. More problems occur because homeowners pick the lowest price they can find. Why? It is very simple. You can only produce a high quality project at a certain cost. High quality materials, expert labor, appropriate insurances and a reasonable profit to stay in business, cost a certain amount of money.If someone can do that same project under that amount, what do you think is going to happen when the job is being done? That’s right, the person or company is going to do anything they can to try and make a profit. All of the possibilities that could result from the person you hired, as the low bidder, trying to make a profit, are simply all BAD for the homeowner. In home improvements you get exactly what you pay for.Let’s not forget to put some of the blame on people looking to work on your home. Over the years I have seen some of my competitors commit heinous business practices. (Surprise!!) I have seen contractors switch materials to lesser quality without customer approval, use unqualified labor, overcharge homeowners for “unforeseen problems”, try to up sell the customer once the project starts, etc.,etc.,etc…….it makes you wonder if you can trust anyone?So where does the blame fall for all the home improvement complaints year after year? I guess it would be easy to blame the homeowner for not educating themselves on what to do when attempting a project. However the next question would be where does a homeowner get “educated”? Maybe a better question would be when does a homeowner find the time to get “educated”? Education is a great tool if you have the time to do the research. Most people don’t have the time or want to take the time to do hours and hours of research on how to go about getting a home improvement done correctly.Oops I almost forgot Uncle Sam. A lot of people, including myself, think the government makes it too easy for someone, who has no ethics or skills, to do home improvement work. Why are there still some states that do not have licensing for people doing home improvements? And in the states that do have licensing, why are some of these states issuing licenses without the applicant needing to demonstrate any type of competence in home improvement work? This is like giving out a driver’s license without taking a road test. Doesn’t make much sense to me.One last situation to blame, one that I would never forgive myself for not mentioning. Home improvement television shows have become the latest fad in television. You can hardly change television channels without a home improvement program popping up. The influx of home improvement shows on television has been phenomenal. However, most of these shows tend to unrealistically glorify the home improvement project as being easy to do with nothing ever going wrong. The last time I looked, nothing ever goes perfect, including home improvement projects. Little, if any information is mentioned on these shows, about how not to be “taken to the cleaners” when doing a project.One would have to conclude that there is plenty of blame to go around when it comes to the problems homeowners face when attempting a home improvement project. Unfortunately, most of these problems have been around for many years and if you are expecting a “quick fix”, I think you might be waiting a very long time.Since I retired from the home improvement industry two (2) years ago I decided it was time to stop worrying about who or what to blame about the constant wave of home improvement complaints (it really seems to be a waste of energy since nothing seems to change) and to put together a way for homeowners to fight back and get the home improvement results that they deserve.This is why I founded The Home Improvement Success Club of America (TM). The club’s website, which I hope you will visit, can be found at http://www.homeimprovementsuccess.com. This is a one-of-a-kind club that guides homeowners on how to get high quality, problem free, home improvement results.Membership to this club includes The Home Improvement Success System, a complete how-to home improvement system that details all the steps you need to take to make your project a success. The club membership also includes a web forum to ask questions, phone consultations, monthly newsletters, teleseminars, teleclasses and written evaluations of member estimates and contracts.This club guarantees to short cut the time homeowners need to learn how to complete any home improvement project. You are shown what to do and what to avoid. All the information that you receive from this club you could spend months trying to find, but by joining this club it is at your finger tips 24/7.To do a home improvement project correctly you need to follow five (5) steps. These steps are:1. Define your project based on your needs, finances and structural constraints.2. Determine who can complete the project.3. Evaluate perspective candidates (including yourself) who you may want to use to complete the project.4. Prepare a contract that is “thorough” and protects you from poor home improvement situations.5. Completing certain tasks when the project is being built.These five steps seem relatively easy to understand but it’s the “particulars” (exactly what to say and do) of each step where most people fall short. Knowing these “particulars” are what makes or breaks your project. Membership to this club will guide you to completing a home improvement project without all the problems and aggravation that most people go through.If you are interested in protecting your home from the home improvement nightmare, than visit The Home Improvement Success Club of America Website. Joining this club is the next best thing to getting “Home Improvement Insurance”. All Club memberships come with a 30 day money back guarantee.By Hank Jaworowski, CR
Founder and President of The Home Improvement Success Club of America(TM)The Home Improvement Success Club of America(TM)
http://www.homeimprovementsuccess.com
e-mail:[email protected]
631-360-7722
Quick Guide to Google Voice for (Very) Small Businesses
Introducing Google Voice. Whether you have heard of Google Voice before or not, it may be time to take another look. Stop using your cell phone or personal home phone number as your business line. It isn’t professional and it isn’t necessary. Plus, Google Voice offers a TON of other awesome features that once you try them, you might not be able to live without.Google Voice is a service that sits on top of your existing phone services. That means you don’t have to purchase anything to get a new business phone number. Once you sign up for the free service, you will be assigned a phone number to start using. This is your new business phone number. Setup your voice mail and forwarding options (which phones you want to ring) and you can immediately start giving this phone number out to people as your business line.When people dial your new Google Voice number, they are immediately routed to whatever phone or phones that you choose. For this example, lets say you setup Google Voice to route to your cell phone, and your home phone. When people dial that phone number, both your cell phone and home phone will ring simultaneously. The call is routed to whatever phone you pick up first. You can setup the service so the caller ID tells you the call is coming from your Google Voice number. This way you always know whether you are getting a business or a personal call.Talking on your home phone but want to talk on your cell phone instead? Just hit the “*” button and transfer the call. You can also record calls if you want to, or opt to send a caller directly to voicemail.So right off the bat you can see why having a Google Voice number can make your business life a little easier and definitely more professional. If that wasn’t enough to get you excited, check out these other awesome features you can’t get anywhere else:Online Voicemail & Voicemail Transcriptions – Google Voice keeps all of your voicemail in your online account. Log in via your web browser or use the App on your Android phone. All of your voicemail messages are stored in an email like format and allow you to play messages, add notes to the message, email or download the voicemail as an attachment, or even embed the message as an multimedia component on a website or blog. If you don’t want to hear from this particular caller again, just block the caller right from the voice mail and your phone will never ring again if they try to contact you. Comes in handy for psycho ex-girlfriends or solicitors.Setting Hours & Do Not Disturb – One of the best features for your business hands down. If you want to set hours that you are available, now your phone can help you out. Easily setup schedules for when your phone rings and when it doesn’t. If you only want to be available from 8am – 5pm then your phone will only ring between those hours. If you only want to be available on the weekends, that’s easy to do as well. Furthermore, you have an option of setting your “Do Not Disturb”. This will temporarily (for whatever time period you specify) route all incoming calls to voicemail. Very handy when you have a deadline and need to focus without interruptions. This by far is one of the best things for your small business because it allows you to separate business life from personal life and never the two shall meet (unless of course you want them to).Text Messaging – In addition to phone calls and voice mail, Google voice also allows you to send and receive text messages from your account. If you have integrated your Google Voice account with your Android phone, you can send and receive text messages directly from your phone as well. All text messages are saved online for look up and review later on. I love this feature because I can text message my wife directly from my computer without needing to divert my attention to my phone.Integrated with your contacts – If you already have a regular Google Account, all of your contacts will show up in your Google Voice account as well. This means if your friend Jim calls your new number (and you have Jim’s number saved) his name will show up on your caller ID. Similarly, all voice mails and text messages sent and received from Jim will be attached to his contact record for future reference. This comes in handy when you want to look up that phone number he left for you a few months back on your voice mail. Got a call from someone new? Easily add a name to their phone number and all future and historical calls will now have that person’s name attached to it.Unlimited Custom Voicemail Greetings – This feature is both useful and fun! Create custom voice mail greetings for a specific person, or for people you assign to a group. This means if your best friend Joe calls you, you can have a completely customized greeting for him and him only. Similarly, if you group all of your vendors in to a “Vendors” group, whenever anyone from that group calls, they will get a custom message you’ve created just for those types of contacts. As you can imagine, this can lead to all sorts of interesting things you can do with your voice mail that up until now has never been possible. Go ahead and have fun with it!There are definitely a few other cool features that I’ve deliberately left out of this quick guide. After all, what fun would it be if you didn’t get to do a little exploring on your own eh?If you are a small business – especially a one or two person business – its time to give Google Voice a try. Its simple to use, will increase your professionalism, and also help you separate your business world from your personal world. Oh, and its free so there really is nothing holding you back. Setup your account today and use the comments section below to let me know your experience with it!
What are anti-ligature blinds?
Anti-ligature blinds are becoming increasingly popular in a range of different settings. The way these blinds differ from traditional blinds is that they are designed to prevent suicide by hanging.
Initially, uptake for this type of blind was largely restricted to high-risk environments such as psychiatric hospitals and prisons, where suicide is common. In mental health environments and detention centres, suicide via hanging is common and preventative measures must be implemented. A huge range of objects could be used to create a ligature point, meaning anti-ligature systems are highly important.
Over the years, anti-ligature blinds have been supplied to hospitals, schools, student accommodation and even hotels.
How do they work?
There are a range of different systems on the market, but the most reliable could well be the magnetic anti-ligature system. YewdaleKestrel® products utilise load release magnets which separate when a downward force is exerted on the product. This means that the product falls to the ground safely and prevents suicide via hanging.
The magnetic systems used in Yewdale’s products are highly reliable because magnets don’t lose their strength for hundreds of years, guaranteeing a lifetime of lifesaving functionality.
Anti-ligature blinds usually have a magnetic connection point above the blind’s barrel. The blind is easy to reconnect to the magnetic bracket after it has fallen to the floor.
If you are considering an anti-ligature blind, Yewdale is a highly recommended company. Based in the UK, Yewdale produce a wide range of anti-ligature products, commercial blinds, and healthcare products including hospital cubicle tracks and medical curtains.
Yewdale produce other anti-ligature products too including a soft, lightweight en-suite door and other accessories such as soap dispensers, toilet roll holder, shelves and artwork. You can see the full range on the website using the link below.
Complete weight loss strategy
For those who want to lose weight
Research on the causes of obesity, knowledge about weight loss, and various diets for weight loss are updated every year. However, with the update of knowledge and the release of diet pills one after another, the obesity rate continues to rise every year, and there is no sign of wanting to decline. I used to be very, very fat, and I am also a person who is prone to obesity.
So I understand the voices of fat people, I really want to lose weight, but I tried many ways to lose weight at that time without success.
I have tried the common boiled meals on the market, eating less and moving more, but it was not until I tried other diets that I managed to lose weight. After I lost weight, I began to study the essence and method of losing weight, and wrote him in this weight loss strategy article, hoping to help you.
A few key myths about losing weight
The weight loss myth of eating less and moving more
The phrase “eat less and move more” is actually true, but most people do it wrong. Many people think that they should eat less of everything, so they limit their calories to a very low level, and it feels a bit like eating an ultra-low-calorie fairy meal. Then, for the hyperactive part, the first thing that everyone thinks of is aerobic exercise such as running, cycling, etc., but in fact, this is a very short-term and easy way to regain weight, mainly because eating too little is an easy way to lose weight. The reason for the loss of muscle mass, coupled with the fact that aerobic training is not helpful for muscle mass growth, causes the metabolism to drop too much.
Maybe you can lose 5 kilograms in this way, but if your metabolism declines, you will easily regain the weight. And it’s all the fat that gets back up, not the muscle you lose that makes you look fatter than before. This is what we call the yo-yo effect, lose weight, get fat back, get fatter than before, lose weight, get back on Fat, get fatter than before.
Stop taking diet pills and meal replacements
At this time, you may start to seek other ways, eat weight loss meal replacements, taking diet pills, and so on. But believe me, most diet pills will inevitably hurt the body, especially the gastrointestinal tract. You may actually lose weight in the moment, but when your gastrointestinal tract is damaged, you will be fatter than before.
The key to understanding how to lose weight
You must have thought, why some people will not gain weight no matter what they eat, while some people will gain a kilogram the next day after eating a little bread? What is the cause of obesity? This is not a simple answer that can be solved!
You can see the link to the picture below, mainly talking about the influencing factors of obesity, which are very, very complicated.
Image source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/296290/obesity-map-full-hi-res.pdf
In the middle of this picture is the heat balance
So we can know that calorie balance is very important
But this article doesn’t keep preaching that calorie balance is the key to losing weight like other sites
If you don’t know what calorie balance is, you can probably imagine that our body has calorie consumption (exercise, thermogenesis, basal metabolism), and calorie intake (eating).
When calorie consumption exceeds calorie intake, the weight will drop, so the truth of weight loss is to eat less and move more, very simple. In the short term, it is really possible to simply achieve weight loss by eating less and moving more, but simplicity is not simple, because the operation of the body is very complicated. Many people think that they can control their calorie consumption, that they can achieve a lot of calorie expenditure by running all the time, and that eating fairy meals (low-calorie meals) can reduce calorie intake and then easily lose it.
However, according to research, 90% of people who use calorie control, eat less and move more to lose weight will fail or regain the weight.
Because eating less and moving more for too long, metabolism will easily drop, hormones will easily become imbalanced, and muscle mass will easily be lost. Even if you lose 10 kilograms, you will easily regain weight.
When losing weight, the body is like a factory
For me, the key to long-term weight loss and maintaining good posture is the environment in the body, such as hormones, the level of inflammation in the body, and the gastrointestinal system.
Think of the body as a factory
-Your hormones are the managers and workers of factory operations
-Inflamed condition is how good factory machinery and hardware are
-Calorie intake is wages for factories as well as fuel
If the manager of this factory is an idiot, or if the hardware in your factory is completely rotten, then no matter how it works, it will create a pile of waste. Just as our hormones are already out of balance and the level of inflammation in the body is very high, no matter how much you eat, if you don’t solve the existing problems, it will easily accumulate into fat. It may be easier to understand with a few examples.
Hormones vs Weight Loss
This study looked at the effects of sleep and weight loss
Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20921542
Both groups of humans were calorie-restricted, but one group slept 5.5 hours a night and the other 8.5 hours. Both groups lost weight, but the group that slept less lost 55 percent less body fat and 65 percent more muscle mass than the group that slept more. It is equivalent to losing weight, but most of the loss is muscle mass, which reduces metabolism and makes it easy to regain weight later.
There is such a big difference mainly because poor sleep has a negative impact. The imbalance of the secretion of these things will easily increase fat and reduce muscle.
This next study looks at the effect of insulin sensitivity on body composition!
Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19471290
Basically, many chronic metabolic diseases, obesity, and poor muscle-building effects are closely related to low insulin sensitivity. Insulin is an anti-catabolic hormone whose main function is to store nutrients in cells. For example, after heavy training, our muscles will be more sensitive to insulin, and the nutrients we eat will be more easily absorbed into the muscles. When insulin sensitivity is low, the nutrients we eat are more likely to be stored as fat rather than absorbed into muscles.
We can simply say that the nutrients in the food eaten by people who are insulin insensitive are more likely to be stored as fat, and the relative fat mass will be much higher than the muscle mass.
To put it simply, the key to losing weight is actually to improve hormones, improve inflammation in the body, and add an appropriate calorie deficit. It is not difficult to achieve a calorie deficit. What is more difficult is how to choose the type of food that suits your body to improve hormones and achieve a long-term good body.
If you only pursue short-term weight loss and rely on a lot of calorie deficits to achieve the effect of weight loss, and then the hormones are still the same after the loss, then I can guarantee that you will gain weight very easily.
With so many ways to eat on the internet, which diet should I try?
When talking about losing weight in Taiwan 30 years ago, everyone would definitely want to use boiled meals
When it came to losing weight five years ago, everyone might think of using a low-sugar diet. When it came to losing weight in the past two or three years, everyone might directly think of the ketogenic diet.
I lost 30kg in 3 months on a low-sugar diet myself for the first time, so I used to believe that a low-sugar diet was the best way to lose weight
But after my long-term understanding of weight loss-related research, genetic cognition, and observation of students, there is no diet that is most suitable for everyone! Although it is said that high-carbohydrate foods will most stimulate insulin secretion, which in turn promotes the storage of nutrients into fat, some people are naturally good at metabolizing carbohydrates, so they can still be healthy and strong after eating high-carbohydrate throughout their lives.
For example, this study compared the responses of people with high and low insulin sensitivity to high- and low-carb diets.
Research source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/oby.2005.79
The study concluded:
-For people with high insulin sensitivity, eating high-carb and low-fat to lose weight is very helpful
-However, people who are insulin insensitive use a high-carb low-fat diet to lose fat, but the weight loss effect is not so good.
But on the contrary, studies have also shown that people with low insulin sensitivity have a very good weight loss effect on a low-carb high-fat diet, which shows that improving insulin is very important for weight loss, and it also shows that people with insulin insensitivity are more suitable
Lose weight with a high-carb diet.
So if you have been obese for a long time, you know that you eat carbohydrates easily, or you know that you have diabetes in your family and want to lose fat, then I would suggest that you can start by reducing carbohydrates, which is what we call low carb diet!
The Negative Impact of E-Levy on Mobile Banking.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Mobile Banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution that allows its customers to conduct financial transactions remotely using a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet.
Electronic Transaction Levy or “E-Levy” is a tax applied on transactions made on electronic or digital platforms.
ADVANTAGES OF MOBILE BANKING
Mobile banking offers numerous benefits such as ease of transaction, convenience, time-saving, managing your finances, and budgeting. Some advantages of Mobile Banking in remote areas include:
Financial Inclusion — mobile banking offers convenient and easy banking services to people in remote areas. Thus, it allows banking on the go and offers all benefits of a banking system to rural areas without the presence of a financial institution.
Accessing the bank 24/7 — Mobile banking provides ubiquitous banking services without the need to visit the bank to have access to services. This offers time to benefit and ease of transacting at a distance.
Cost-benefit — Mobile banking saves the banks the cost of building physical infrastructures (branches) and maintaining branches and staff. Also, reduced costs on the customer side since the burden of visiting the bank for services is eliminated.
Improving resilience in the face of poverty — Mobile money acts as both a savings vehicle and a means of transferring funds during times of economic or environmental shocks.
Strengthening the formal economy — For many micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), opening a mobile money account can facilitate access to formal financial services. Mobile money is well placed to address the issue of informality that blights many developing economies and hampers domestic resource mobilization efforts. Mobile Money enables ease of transacting, thus increasing business profits for MSMEs.
Facilitating economic growth — Mobile money has been shown to contribute to economic growth by increasing both productivity and per capita incomes
DISADVANTAGES OF E-LEVY ON MOBILE BANKING
The design of mobile money taxation policy appears to be the antithesis of a well-designed tax system. The disadvantages include:
Inequity — Mobile money taxes as currently structured to create inequity in the tax system. As the tax is mostly borne by the poor and users of the services are subject to additional taxation (unlike bank or cash transactions), the principles of both horizontal and vertical equity in the tax system are contravened.
Uncertainty -. Uncertainty and lack of transparency over taxation systems can have a direct impact on the operations of the tax authority, increasing enforcement costs, as well as discouraging investment.
Inconvenience — The administration of mobile money transaction taxes creates an inconvenience for MMPs who must calculate and collect the tax on the revenue authority’s behalf. There is an additional inconvenience for users of the service for whom remote digital transactions become more expensive or out of reach if they revert back to cash.
Inefficiency — Badly designed mobile money taxes have been shown to have a distortionary impact on demand for mobile money services. This in turn has had negative impacts on overall tax takes, as well as impacting the attainment of national economic and development goals.
EFFECT OF MOBILE BANKING — CASE STUDIES
The decision to impose taxes on mobile bank transactions will trigger so many problems.
Ghana — According to The Fourth Estate Ghana; Although the government projects a 24% decline in transactions when the levy is finally implemented, preliminary findings published by the bank of Ghana indicate the value of mobile money transactions had dropped by 3.2 billion in December 2021, less than 2 months after the proposal to introduce E-levy.
Uganda — An e-levy of 1% introduced in 2018 has led to an overall drop in the person-to-person transaction by more than 50%, and a 24% drop in industry transactions within the same year the tax was introduced according to a report by Global system for mobile communication (GSMA).
Congo — An e-levy of 1% was introduced in 2019. The government had to reverse the tax on cash outs only due to negative results of the levy on Mobile money users such as a decline in mobile money agents (unemployment) and high-value withdrawals by people.
Other countries include Benin (5%) and Cameroun (0.2%). In all these countries, the e-levy has imposed a negative effect on the economy and people. If we want to ensure the financial inclusion of people in rural areas, we need to ensure that we encourage mobile banking by withdrawing the e-levy tax.
Reference:
https://thefourthestategh.com/2022/03/16/e-levy-this-is-what-happened-when-other-african-countries-passed-it/
Purohit, S., & Arora, R. (2021). The benefits and challenges of mobile banking at the Bottom of the pyramid. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government Vol, 27(1).
Charles G. Kpan, Jr. is an Information Technologist with over 5 years of experience in the provision of Information Technology Services and an emphasis on Web Development and Visual Branding. He’s the managing Director of CYGEC IT SOLUTIONS INC. and holds a bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology from Blue Crest University, Liberia.