Social Security is a federal government program that provides financial assistance during retirement, disability, or widowhood. To obtain these benefits, you need to have a Social Security number and have paid taxes during the years you worked.
Retirement Benefits
If you wish to obtain social security benefits when you retire, you must be 67 to receive full benefits and have accumulated 40 credits. For each year that you worked, you will receive four credits. In other words, that person must have worked for ten years, at least. You can receive benefits at age 62. However, the financial assistance you receive will not be complete.
“You can earn up to four credits per year. For example, in 2019, you get a credit for every $1,360 salary or self-employment income. When you have earned $5,440, you will have obtained the four annual credits, “explains the Social Security website.
On the other hand, it does not matter if you move out of the United States. You still have the right to receive the benefits. If you want more information, read this article: Can residents receive Social Security benefits outside the United States?
Disability Benefits
If you suffer from a physical, mental, or emotional illness that does not allow you to work for more than one year, you can apply for disability benefits.
“Normally, we give monthly cash benefits to those who cannot work for more than a year because of a disability. In general, the benefits continue until the person can return to work, “explains the Social Security office.
Benefits For Widowhood or Survivors
If a family member receives Social Security benefits and dies, they must report to Social Security immediately. In this way, the agency can make a report and decide if the immediate family (children or couple) can receive Social Security benefits. You must apply to the United States Social Security Administration (SSA) to receive survivor benefits. On the other hand, if you die, Social Security explains: “The benefits can be paid to your children and your spouse, if they oversee your children, even if you do not have the necessary number of credits. Your family can receive benefits if you have credits for a year and a half of work (6 credits) within three years just before your death. “
Taxes and Social Security Advantages
If spouses have joint income greater than 32,000 dollars or the income of an individual taxpayer is more than 25,000, they will have to pay off taxes on social security advantages. It relies on how much income you earn, but you can’t pay taxes more outstanding than 85% of social security advantages as it will regardless of income. Mostly, disabled people don’t have to pay taxes as a social security benefit. If survivors got such benefits, you would not consider the amount as your taxable income.
You can also receive the benefits if your former partner dies and you were married for ten years; you may receive Social Security benefits.
Under certain circumstances, stepchildren, grandchildren, or adopted children may also receive benefits.
The spouse or surviving child can receive a lump sum payment of $225 if they meet specific requirements, such as living with the worker at the time of death.
If, for some reason, you cannot receive Social Security benefits, you should consider saving money to be financially stable during retirement. Some savings or retirement accounts that you can consider are:
Synchrony bank
Synchrony Bank offers a savings account with an interest of 2.25%. You do not need a minimum balance to earn interest to open the bill, and you do not have monthly charges. Also, when opening this account, you can obtain a debit card.
Barclays
Barclays allows you to open a savings account with an interest of 2.20%. The budget does not require a minimum deposit to open it and has no maintenance charges. In the same way, you can make bank transfers without any cost from Barclays to another bank or vice versa.
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.
There are multiple ways to pay for higher education. You can pay for it through scholarships, savings accounts, jobs, or student loans. However, a student loan is the most common way to pay for college. This way of financing your education leaves you with debt before you begin the career you hope to pursue with your degree.
Though financing your education through student loans can burden you, there are several ways to structure the loan payments to give you peace of mind and not break your budget. When structuring your loan payments, you must consider a few things.
Consider how much you can pay back, how you will pay it before, and a timeline. Here are the four most common payment plans to repay your student loans and get you out of debt.
Standard Reimbursement Plan
The standard reimbursement plan requires fixed payments of at least $ 50 per month for a fixed period. The loan payment term depends on the same amount, but it will not be more than ten years. This plan will probably allow you to pay your loan faster, and it will cost less if you have the money to make the payments.
Extended Reimbursement Plan
The extended reimbursement plan requires fixed payments for a fixed period like the standard reimbursement plan. However, the period can be more extended than the standard plan. Although you must pay at least $50 per month, the payments are usually much lower than you would pay using other plans. The lower payment is because the term to pay is much longer, from 10 to 25 years. Of course, this increases your total interest, but you can make payments easier to deal with.
Step-by-Step Reimbursement Plan
If you currently do not have a lot of income but expect a higher income, this may be the best plan for you. As with the extended plan, the payment term is 10 to 25 years, but there is an additional protection interval because your payments start lower. The minimum monthly payment is only $25 and increases every two years.
Withdrawal Plan Conditioned on Income
Your monthly payments will depend on your income, giving you some security if you do not have a certain income amount. What you pay each year increases or decreases based on what you earn, and no minimum payment is established.
With this plan, the payment term can be up to 25 years. After the deadline, the government will cancel or forgive any unpaid amount, although you must pay the income tax for the amount forgiven.
What can You do if You do Not Have The Money to Repay The Loan?
If you have problems paying your student loans, you can request deferment of your payments for a set period if you are in college, at least at half time; you request permission to be absent from work to be a parent; you enter a public service organization, such as the armed forces or the Peace Corps; Unemployment, a temporary disability or other events may also entitle you to request a deferment.
If your loans are deferred, your payment program stops, and the balance does not accrue interest. If you do not have a valid reason to obtain a deferment but cannot pay your loans, you can request a forbearance. If this request is granted, you will not have to make payments, but the loans will continue to accrue interest. In some cases, it is possible to get your loans forgiven or canceled.
This loan forgiveness usually requires extreme circumstances, such as total disability or other life-changing events. The government sometimes forgives loans as a reward for working full-time in specific positions linked to people with disabilities, low-income families, education, or other public service areas.
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.
Empower Change Through Social Entrepreneurship Strategies
Social entrepreneurship is the practice of building mission-driven, financially sustainable ventures that use business tools to solve social or environmental problems at scale. The most effective strategies focus on clearly defining the problem, choosing the right business model, aligning revenue with impact, and rigorously measuring results. Unlike traditional charity that relies on donations, social enterprises generate their own revenue through products or services while maintaining their social mission.
As the founder of Complete Controller, I’ve spent over 20 years working alongside businesses across every sector imaginable. From tech startups to manufacturing firms, from nonprofits to retail chains, I’ve witnessed firsthand how the same financial discipline that keeps a company profitable is exactly what makes social entrepreneurship work in the real world. Good intentions alone won’t create lasting change—you need a solid business model, clear numbers, and strong management systems to turn purpose into sustainable impact. The global social enterprise sector now comprises approximately 10 million organizations generating $2 trillion in annual revenues while creating over 200 million jobs worldwide, proving that doing good and doing well can go hand in hand.
What is social entrepreneurship and how do you build effective strategies around it?
Social entrepreneurship uses business models to create measurable social or environmental impact while remaining financially sustainable, by aligning mission, market, and money
It differs from traditional charity by generating its own revenue through products or services, instead of relying solely on donations or grants
Strong social entrepreneurship strategies start with a clearly defined social problem, a target community, and a theory of change that connects activities to outcomes
Choosing between nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid structures—and the right revenue model—is critical to sustaining impact over time
Ongoing impact measurement, transparent reporting, and reinvestment into the mission build trust with customers, investors, and communities
Understanding Social Entrepreneurship: Foundations for Purpose-Driven Business
Social entrepreneurship sits at the intersection of mission, market demand, and financial sustainability. This unique positioning creates opportunities to address pressing social challenges while building viable enterprises that can scale and sustain their impact over time.
The rise of mission-driven business aligns closely with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), providing a global framework for entrepreneurs to target specific problems. Social enterprises now account for about 3% of all businesses globally, with one in two led by women—compared to only one in five conventional enterprises.
Defining social entrepreneurship and how it differs from traditional business
At its core, social entrepreneurship definition centers on using entrepreneurial principles to address social problems. Traditional businesses prioritize shareholder returns, while traditional nonprofits depend on donations and grants. Social enterprises occupy the middle ground, generating revenue through market-based solutions while prioritizing social or environmental outcomes.
The key distinction lies in how profits are used. While conventional businesses distribute profits to shareholders, social enterprises typically reinvest the majority of earnings back into their mission. This creates a self-sustaining cycle where commercial success directly fuels greater social impact.
Key characteristics of successful social entrepreneurs
Research from Oxford University analyzing over 21,000 founder-led companies found that characteristics of social entrepreneurs—particularly personality traits—are five times more predictive of success than industry type. Successful social entrepreneurs share several defining qualities:
Mission-first mindset with unwavering focus on social or environmental outcomes
Innovation and resourcefulness in finding new solutions to persistent problems
Comfort operating with constraints and turning limitations into creative advantages
Long-term orientation committed to systemic change rather than quick fixes
Collaborative leadership that builds diverse founding teams—firms with three or more founders are twice as likely to succeed
Major types and models of social entrepreneurship
Understanding different types of social entrepreneurship helps founders choose the right structure for their vision. The main approaches include:
Nonprofit with earned income: Traditional nonprofits that develop revenue streams beyond donations
For-profit with mission: Companies that embed social purpose into their core business model
Hybrid models: Benefit corporations, L3Cs, and other structures that formally balance profit and purpose
Transformational models: Organizations targeting systemic change in entire industries or sectors
Each model handles ownership, profit distribution, and governance differently. The choice depends on your funding needs, scaling ambitions, and the depth of social change you seek to create.
Social Entrepreneurship Strategies That Create Measurable Impact
Building a successful social enterprise requires more than passion—it demands strategic thinking and disciplined execution. The following pillars form the foundation of high-performing social ventures worldwide.
Clarify the problem and your theory of change
Effective social impact strategy starts with laser focus on a specific problem. Many social entrepreneurs try to tackle too much at once, diluting their impact and confusing their stakeholders.
Start by defining your problem narrowly:
Who specifically faces this challenge?
Where does the problem occur most acutely?
How does it manifest in people’s daily lives?
Next, build a simple theory of change that maps your path from activities to impact. Think of it as a logical chain: inputs lead to activities, which produce outputs, creating outcomes that generate lasting impact. For example, providing solar-powered medical equipment (input) enables nighttime procedures (activity), increasing successful deliveries (output), reducing maternal mortality (outcome), and improving community health (impact).
Choose the right business and revenue model
Your social enterprise business model determines how you’ll sustain operations while achieving your mission. Consider these factors when selecting your approach:
Structure considerations:
Nonprofit status offers tax benefits and grant eligibility but limits equity funding
For-profit models attract investors but face pressure for financial returns
Hybrid structures balance both but add complexity
Revenue strategies that work:
Subscription models create predictable income streams
Cross-subsidy approaches use profitable customers to support underserved populations
Fee-for-service aligns payment with value delivered
Licensing scales impact through partnerships
Impact contracts tie revenue directly to social outcomes achieved
Align product-market fit with mission-market fit
Finding social enterprise product-market fit requires balancing commercial viability with social impact. Your solution must genuinely solve the targeted problem better than existing alternatives while generating sufficient revenue to sustain operations.
Test your assumptions rigorously:
Does your target population actually want and use your solution?
Will customers pay enough to cover costs while serving those who can’t?
Can you reach underserved populations through tiered pricing, partnerships, or subsidies?
Consider whether you’re building a consumer-facing venture or targeting businesses and governments (B2B/B2G). Each path requires different strategies for demonstrating value and securing revenue.
Financing and Scaling Social Entrepreneurship Without Losing Your Mission
Growth brings both opportunities and risks for mission-driven ventures. Smart financing and scaling strategies protect your social purpose while expanding your reach.
Funding options for social enterprises
The social entrepreneurship funding landscape has evolved dramatically. The global impact investing market now manages $1.1 to $1.6 trillion, with projections of $1.6 trillion flowing into social enterprises by 2030.
Funding sources and their trade-offs:
Grants provide non-dilutive capital but often come with restrictions
Impact investors offer patient capital aligned with social goals
Crowdfunding builds community support while raising funds
Program-related investments (PRIs) blend philanthropic and investment approaches
Earned revenue creates independence but takes time to build
However, access remains unequal. Women-led social enterprises, despite comprising 50% of the sector, face significant funding gaps—they’re 2.1 times less likely to receive venture capital than all-male founding teams.
Building a sustainable financial model
Drawing from my experience at Complete Controller, I’ve seen that financial sustainability in social enterprises requires the same rigor as any successful business. You need robust bookkeeping, careful budgeting, and proactive cash flow management.
Key financial practices:
Translate social outcomes into unit economics (cost per beneficiary served)
Build dashboards tracking both financial KPIs and impact metrics side by side
Maintain separate accounting for restricted and unrestricted funds
Calculate the true cost of your programs including overhead
Set pricing that covers full costs while serving your mission
Greyston Bakery exemplifies this approach. Their open hiring model welcomes employees with barriers to employment without background checks or interviews. Despite higher training costs ($1,555 per hire), they maintain profitability through federal tax credits, reduced turnover (33% versus 42% industry average), and $15.8 million in annual sales growing at 18% yearly.
Scaling impact: Replication, partnerships, and policy
Scaling social enterprises requires strategic choices about depth versus breadth. Some ventures succeed by deepening local impact, while others replicate their model across geographies.
Scaling strategies:
Geographic replication spreads proven models to new markets
Partnership leverage amplifies impact through corporate, government, and NGO collaborations
Technology platforms enable rapid scaling with lower marginal costs
Policy advocacy creates systemic change beyond direct service delivery
We Care Solar demonstrates effective scaling through partnerships. By working directly with health ministries, they’ve distributed 8,350 solar suitcases to power off-grid clinics, improving care for 13 million mothers and infants through 276 million hours of medical lighting.
The Human Side of Social Entrepreneurship: Leadership, Burnout, and Trust
Behind every successful social enterprise are people navigating complex challenges. Understanding the human elements of social entrepreneurship leadership helps build resilient organizations.
Building trust with beneficiaries, customers, and funders
Trust forms the foundation of sustainable social enterprises. Transparency in financials, impact reporting, and governance demonstrates integrity to all stakeholders.
Build trust through:
Regular impact reports backed by independent verification
Stories that illustrate data with real human experiences
Consistent operational excellence in service delivery
Open communication about challenges and learnings
Community involvement in decision-making processes
Despite the global impact investing boom, over 90% of investors struggle to capture meaningful impact data. This measurement challenge makes rigorous tracking even more critical for building credibility and attracting aligned capital.
How Small and Midsize Businesses Can Integrate Social Entrepreneurship Principles
Existing businesses can adopt corporate social entrepreneurshipstrategies without restructuring entirely. Many of my Complete Controller clients have successfully integrated social impact into their operations.
Integration approaches:
Inclusive hiring practices that create opportunities for underserved populations
Ethical sourcing that supports fair trade and environmental sustainability
Carbon reduction initiatives that lower costs while protecting the planet
Skills-based volunteering that shares expertise with social ventures
Impact-linked pricing that makes products accessible to low-income customers
Start by identifying where social initiatives align with your core business strengths. Use your existing bookkeeping data to determine what’s financially sustainable. Set aside a specific budget for social initiatives with clear metrics for success.
Final Thoughts
Empowering change through social entrepreneurship strategies means engineering your mission with the same rigor you’d bring to any high-performing business. From my two decades leading Complete Controller, I’ve learned that sustainable impact requires clear problem definition, realistic business models, robust financial systems, and honest impact measurement.
The most successful social entrepreneurs don’t choose between doing well and doing good—they build enterprises where commercial success directly fuels social impact. If you’re ready to align your books, your model, and your mission, visit Complete Controller to discover how proper financial infrastructure can strengthen your social venture’s foundation for lasting change.
Frequently Asked Questions About Social Entrepreneurship
What is meant by social entrepreneurship?
Social entrepreneurship refers to using entrepreneurial principles and business models to solve social, environmental, or economic problems in a financially sustainable way. Unlike traditional charities, social enterprises generate their own revenue while prioritizing social impact over profit maximization.
What is an example of social entrepreneurship?
Examples include companies like TOMS Shoes, which pioneered a one-for-one shoe donation model, and organizations like We Care Solar, which uses solar suitcases to power off-grid health clinics. Another example is Greyston Bakery, which practices open hiring to provide jobs for people facing employment barriers.
What are the 4 types of social entrepreneurship?
Commonly discussed types include nonprofit social enterprises with earned income, for-profit mission-driven businesses, hybrid models that blend both (like benefit corporations), and community-based or grassroots social enterprises targeting local issues. Each type balances social impact and financial sustainability differently.
What are the main characteristics of social entrepreneurship?
Key characteristics are a strong social or environmental mission, innovative problem-solving, a sustainable revenue model, and a focus on measurable impact and scalability. Successful social entrepreneurs also demonstrate resourcefulness, long-term thinking, and the ability to build collaborative teams.
How do you become a social entrepreneur?
You become a social entrepreneur by identifying a specific social problem, co-designing a solution with affected communities, choosing an appropriate business and legal model, securing aligned funding, and rigorously tracking both financial performance and social impact. Start small with a pilot program to test your assumptions before scaling.
Sources
Brazer, Jennifer. Complete Controller internal client learnings and founder experience (referenced for bookkeeping, financial systems, and small business insights).
Braesemann, F., Stephany, F., & McCarthy, P. X. (2023). “Personality of founders could predict start-up success, finds new study.” Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/personality-of-founders-could-predict-start-up-success-finds-new-study/
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.
Jennifer BrazerFounder/CEO
Jennifer is the author of From Cubicle to Cloud and Founder/CEO of Complete Controller, a pioneering financial services firm that helps entrepreneurs break free of traditional constraints and scale their businesses to new heights.
Brittany McMillen is a seasoned Marketing Manager with a sharp eye for strategy and storytelling. With a background in digital marketing, brand development, and customer engagement, she brings a results-driven mindset to every project. Brittany specializes in crafting compelling content and optimizing user experiences that convert. When she’s not reviewing content, she’s exploring the latest marketing trends or championing small business success.
If your small business does not know its ideal client, it will not grow properly.
For a small business, knowing your ideal customer is essential. Suppose you do not know who to turn to in this situation. In that case, everything you do, no matter how good, will not make sense. You will lose it in the annual balance of the year, which will be challenging to be positive because it will be missing to dedicate time to those who want to know and make it grow, your ideal customer.
You can solve it by standardizing some forms to ask your best customers for the information you need to know to standardize your ideal customer.
Strategy
If you don’t have a strategy, your small business won’t grow
Small businesses focus on their daily work and do not have the time to plan a proper long-term growth strategy.
This strategy must be the fruit of observation. The results obtained so far provide clarity and efficiency in all the actions undertaken because of that moment to achieve the objectives set.
To know where a small business wants to go, it needs to know where and where to go in the short, medium, and long term. A strategy is nothing more than that.
If you want your business to grow, discover what we offer you below because it may interest you.
Modernized Brand Image
If they do not have a brand image according to the times, small businesses do not grow.
An outdated company image on the Internet (professional website) and in the real world is obsolete and unattractive to potential clients today.
Therefore, it will be interesting to change this image with renewed and modern airs that make the company live up to the current circumstances. Above all, awaken sensations that attract the attention of potential customers so that the small or medium-sized company can attract the attention of potential customers to grow and develop fully.
Times change, fashions change, and customers’ perceptions of them, and it is not about changing your logo every five years but considering if you have had the same for ten years.
It’s not about changing your logo every five years, but if you’ve had the same logo for ten years, consider it because small businesses don’t grow.
Lack of Investment in Marketing
If they don’t spend money on marketing, small businesses won’t grow
It can also happen that the marketing methods are outdated. The exact sales methods of decades ago are still used, which no longer work at the same level as in the past since the market, tastes, customs, and everything related to business has evolved.
Many companies are stagnant and have not adapted to the new reality of technology and online marketing.
To grow as a small business and evolve, it must have a dynamic, active, decisive spirit and adapt to the present in all senses. In this way, evolution will be possible, always accompanied by all those advantages that marketing offers.
Marketing is getting ahead of how you want to be seen by your customers, telling the story yourself, and not being told by others for you.
Search on Google
Small businesses do not grow when they do not appear on Google when potential customers search for theirproducts and services.
Another reason small businesses do not grow is the lack of investment in visibility in Google. If a company is not found by its potential customers in this search engine (when they search for its products or services), it is as if it does not exist.
Some small business comment: “Of course, I’m on Google. If I look for my company, I appear in the first results. “- Yeah, but what about those who don’t know your brand, products, or services? You do not appear in Google if you search for your product or service.
Increased visibility on the Internet through available and specific techniques for this, such as web positioning (SEO), make it possible for the brand image to be updated, dynamic, and visible because small businesses don’t grow.
It is a matter of time before all current small and medium-sized companies begin to modernize, become visible in the market, and use effective marketing techniques to attract customers as they should. As a result of all these advances, leading and updated small businesses will be obtained, as yours will become.
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.
Project management is an application of strategies, skills, and tools to achieve a specific goal, which is most often (drums drum!) a project.
Every project starts with the idea that needs to be planned, organized, executed, managed, tracked, completed, and measured for ultimate success. Project managers (like you!) oversee all of these aspects, plus the individual tasks, schedules, budget, scope, and resources needed to succeed.
Make a Project Plan
The first item on our list of project management tips is essential but often overlooked by some managers. It is necessary to have a well-structured plan to succeed in a project. For this, you need:
Identify who the customers and stakeholders are and understand their interests and expectations regarding the project; define the roles of each employee involved in the project; Establish relevant, achievable, measurable goals with well-defined deadlines; and set a budget for each action on the project.
Interestingly, the planning is done together with your team. Make sure all employees are involved and remain involved in the project.
More work will fall on you if you are the only person with “permission” to update the schedule. Find ways to let trusted project team members update specific tasks so you can split the workload.
Also, place the tasks with the highest degree of risk early in the project. Because if something goes wrong, you’ll have more time to solve the problem.
Understand The Purpose of Your Project
Your team’s understanding of why your project matters to the organization and how it fits into its overall strategic plan are essential to its success.
Relating your project’s success to all organizational goals and strategies effectively increases team members’ dedication, morale, motivation, and sense of importance.
Also, understanding and internalizing the project’s purpose makes it more evident where you want to go and what to do to reach the established goals.
Promote Efficient Communication
Communication between everyone involved is necessary for your project to be well-executed, consistent, and practical. It would help if you communicated new changes and demands to team members to avoid unpleasant surprises along the way.
As a project manager, ensuring that employees feel free to reach out to you with any questions or suggestions is most significant.
Ineffective communication often leads to project failure. So, ensure everyone has the information necessary to make decisions and move the project forward.
Hold Regular Meetings
Project management must rely on efficient regular meetings. The manager must show the team members how the project has evolved, what successful results look like, what work is needed to complete the job and each employee’s performance.
Periodic meetings are an opportunity for the manager to issue and receive feedback. Exchanging ideas and views makes it possible to make better decisions and improve processes.
See also: 5 project management tools to make your day easier and achieve great results.
Know Your Team’s Strengths and Weaknesses
The success of a project relies on the skills of the team members. An effective manager should know his team members’ inherent strengths and weaknesses to distribute tasks more assertively, taking this into account.
Leveraging team members’ strengths will ensure faster task completion and better time management. With everyone on a team putting their best into play and maximizing their strengths, the project tends to be successful.
Evaluate Your Project
The last item on your list of project management tips involves a crucial step: completion.
Interestingly, you measure everything you do, considering the successes and errors. Through this analysis, you will discover what to do and what not to do in future projects.
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.
Is the social media platform you’re using suitable for your needs? You may be wondering if there’s an affordable, user-friendly tool that covers most of the features you require. Additionally, you might need to plan content for a platform that’s not currently integrated with your existing tools.
With the right tools, you can save time and effectively manage your social media platforms, ensuring the success of your content strategy. However, how can you determine which tool is the best choice for you?
It’s important to feel confident that you have selected the ideal social media platform before investing your time and finances, so you can start seeing immediate benefits from your marketing strategy. If this is your first experience with a social networking platform, making a decision can be more challenging. Your previous experience with blogging or marketing across multiple services will also play a role in this process.
After conducting extensive research and interviewing businesses of various sizes, we have identified the most critical factors to consider.
Following Points to Consider to Opt-Out Best Tools
We must look for those tools that can support at least most social media sites, i.e., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
Easy to use: The first thing that needs to be considered is that managing these tools would not be challenging, and anyone can use them with little effort.
Engagement with social platforms: Second, these tools should respond to content directly from these platforms.
Publishing: It should allow publishing content directly.
Scheduling: You can schedule your post to publish at a later time.
Analysis and reports: It should contain a study and report section so that you can monitor and gain insights into your post and content.
Work as a team: These tools allow working as a team to communicate effectively.
Price: We look for a plan that is either free for some features or offers a trial to evaluate them before buying them.
Social Pilot
SocialPilot has a lot of collaborative functions as a social media platform for small teams. In addition, the program integrates with several social media networks, making it simple to keep track of your complete social media footprint in one spot.
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Google My Business are all supported by SocialPilot. You may use this tool to manage up to ten social media network platforms on the lowest account.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is not just one of the most popular social networking platforms, but it also has a comprehensive free version. It has been operating for a decade and offers a variety of tools for bloggers, small company owners, and even teams.
Using Hootsuite, you can post to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and your YouTube channel.
Sendible
Sendible is one of the top social networking tools on the market today, with a feature set that caters to many users. Sendible allows you to share content on major social networking platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube.
EClincher
EClincher is one of the most effective social media platforms for businesses, with beneficial features for brands and agencies. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn are all options.
You can also use eClincher to create postings for Google My Business and Yelp and connect them to Google Analytics for more data. You can effortlessly produce and manage material and reorganize your post schedule using a social content calendar.
Buffer
Buffer consistently tops the list for the finest free social networking tools (which is precisely where it should be). The free version has many features and is absurdly simple to use.
Buffer is easy and convenient to use. Its free edition lets you publish on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Each platform allows you to add several accounts. You will need to upgrade if you wish to post on Pinterest.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a well-known social media management solution for businesses and brands and with good reason. The tool offers a plethora of engagement, publishing, and analytics features.
Sprout Social allows you to plan and post material on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest, like other social networking applications. However, you can also use the Facebook Messenger system, a popular way for businesses to engage with customers.
In the basic edition of the program, you can only plan up to five social media profiles.
It is simple to post and schedule material on numerous social media platforms simultaneously. You can also use a social media calendar to view and organize content.
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.
Snov.io is perhaps the most comprehensive cold-release automation tool. You may use it to generate leads and send emails using numerous email-sending solutions to streamline your outreach activities. The all-in-one toolbox includes email search options, 7-step email verification, drip email campaigns, text personalization, an email tracker, and Pipedrive and Zapier integrations for continuous email export.
Recharge
This email marketing software is suited for early-stage product enterprises, such as mobile applications and SaaS solutions. It allows customers to convert more free trials and users into paying customers. You may utilize Recharge to integrate client data, create exact user segmentation, and send automated, targeted emails based on behavioral targeting, letting you engage the right prospects at the right time.
Recharge has deep native integration with various products and technologies, including Segment, Stripe, Intercom, and HubSpot. Consequently, marketers can quickly build event-based emails with as minimal developer involvement as feasible.
Cost: 14-day free trial. Paid plans begin at $49 per month and go up from there.
AeroLeads
AeroLeads is CRM software that allows you to integrate personal and IP-related data for more efficient cleaning. This lead generation program has a bounce analysis function. It makes use of the SMTP verification function that comes with the email address syntax checker. As a result of this program, you will also identify abusive accounts, bogus domains, spam traps, and disposable emails.
Paid plans begin at $49 per month.
Ontraport
You can create mobile-responsive letters and send them to any group of prospects instantaneously or on a schedule with just a few clicks. Use professionally written email templates that you can customize to your brand to get started quickly. To make your email copy more visually engaging, include visual components such as buttons, photographs, and videos.
The application also has a private IP setting to help users retain a clean email reputation and evade spam filters. Automated re-engagement email campaigns may help screen out unresponsive contacts while interacting with past prospects.
Cost: 14-day free trial. Paid plans begin at $79 per month and go up from there.
Lemlist
Lemlist utilizes email outreach to help agencies, recruiters, sales teams, SEOs, and small businesses grow. It allows you to make personalized images and videos instantly. You may use Lemlist’s drag-and-drop email templates to expedite and automate your follow-ups and create successful connections with customers by personalizing your cold emails.
Cost: 14-day free trial. Paid plans begin at $29 per month and go up from there.
Yesware
Yesware assists sales professionals in developing long-term commercial ties. It’s an inbox productivity software that transforms how you send letters. Yesware’s data-driven insights may assist you in working smarter using features like campaigns, templates, email tracking, and more. It saves time and eliminates guessing, making managing, organizing, and updating your contacts much more effortless.
The trial period is free. Please feel free to ask for help with any quote on premium plans.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a marketing and sales automation software firm situated in the cloud that focuses on email marketing and web analytics. Based on user data, the computer delivers personalized messages. It also has a live chat feature and a CRM messaging platform. Sign-up forms, drag-and-drop email design, detailed performance tracking, email segmentation, and A/B testing options exist.
The trial period is free. Paid plans begin at $9 per month and go up from there.
Customerly.io
This customer lifecycle management system may help firms maintain customer relationships, provide support, gather feedback, and automate company procedures such as email marketing and request routing. The all-in-one platform simplifies customer administration by including fully integrated live chats, surveys, customer intelligence, marketing, and CRM modules.
Customer offers a fully featured template builder that allows you to create your email design or choose from pre-existing themes when it comes to email marketing. The program also provides email campaign data such as open rate, response rate, click-through rate, etc.
The cost is nothing. Paid plans begin at $24 per month and go up from there.
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.
Food and beverage businesses constantly faced many adversities. Customer purchasing panic, rising demand for long-lived products, and the closure of the food service business forced food and beverage producers to adapt rapidly or risk withdrawing from the company.
Businessescan use real-time statistics to address some food and beverage industry problems during the pandemic. In the following, we will focus on some of these problems and how having access to good evidence can assist manufacturers in updating their operations and making better business choices in the coming years.
Food Business Challenges
The food and beverage industry challenges below are unique, but pandemics exacerbate many. Challenges such as regulatory changes, sustainability, and waste management are always important issues to account for to ensure success. However, this post will focus on three key challenges facing the industry.
Significant Changes in Consumer’s Taste
Customer tastes constantly change, but last year’s events have changed purchasing ways that most businesses weren’t anticipating. Before 2020, customers tended to move to products outside the grocery stores where fresh foods, for example, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meats, and fish, are commonly found.
The COVID-19 situation has reversed this trend as customers have begun to store their favorite and durable products. With the surge in demand for pasta, soups, and pre-packaged pantry items, food producers must find traditions to increase production in the global epidemic affecting workforce availability and supply chains.
Product Scarcity
In 2020, producers tackled a shortage of materials, from worldwide raw materials to packaging materials. Difficulty in global shipping and delivery means that producers who depended on ingredients from global providers had to vary recipes and packaging to address these problems.
Long-Term Economic Disturbance
As the pandemic continues, it is clear that some of the customer and producer changes that have occurred due to the coronavirus and the global blockade will continue. One change is the economic effect on customers who have lost their employment or are not making as much money as before the pandemic. As food values continue to increase worldwide, customers spend less on affordable products. The lack of consumer disposable income means that non-essential food and beverage producers will suffer greatly.
Health Problems According to Food and Market
Research shows that customers are becoming more and more conscious of diet-related complaints. As a result, the role of food in everyday life is shifting from taste to nutrition and health.
Many producers are known to add sugar and other sweeteners to their items. But, as additional customers read the item’s label, this becomes a problem. Increased diabetes, obesity, and allergies have reduced consumption of dairy, gluten, and sugar.
Absence of Transparency
With rising ethical anxieties, consumers want a relationship with a brand that maintains transparency and accountability. International and disjointed supply chains often create gaps in traceability.
Transparency includes effects from the origin of fresh food to the type of work, employees and their working conditions, types of processing, packaging, and more; this leads to a lack of business in the global food supply chain. The leading product in the food and beverage industry can close the gap, but Tier 2 and 3 brands face difficult times.
Items Menu
You might find an extensive menu more useful, but it can mean the following:
It takes a long time for a customer to place an order
Increase the ticket time in the kitchen.
The need to purchase more material
It takes time to serve each table
Packaging
Customers are ready to pay an extra amount for items in supportable bundling.
These are all reasons brands need to get imaginative quickly. Marks are reconsidering their methodology and feel comparative with ecological effect; this has prompted the advancement in eco-accommodating bundling material. While refillable holders and returnable/reusable bundling aren’t new, they make an enormous rebound.
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.
Where visitors come from and which articles they read, for example. With this data, this company can predict what sales will look like for the coming month.
Focus on The Changing Needs of Your Target Audience
With good marketing, you focus on the benefits of your product or service for the target group. In this corona time, these benefits may be slightly different than before.
Automate Your Marketing
Do you send almost the same email to your customers a few times a week? There is an excellent chance that you will save time and reach more customers by automating your marketing. For example:
Build Your Network
Too many entrepreneurs focus on direct business. In the long term, your reputation is essential. If you are known for something, people will approach you. That saves, for example, acquisition. So, it helps you enormously if you have an extensive network.
Set yourself a goal for your marketing communications on social media. For example, collect online email addresses of potential customers. Then, you build a relationship with those people.
Don’t just think of virtual networking through local business associations when you think of networking. Collaborating with other entrepreneurs on a specific theme is also an excellent way to expand your network. For example, I look at our supply chain to see how we can fight food waste together. It is interesting to see what other parties are doing and improve yourself. You can expand this further via Facebook and LinkedIn. There is always order.
Start With Your Acquaintances
Look especially at people who are already customers. Think about what else you can do for them. These people already know you; you don’t need to introduce yourself again, and they are familiar with your excellent service. Just now that you may be going through it for a while: dare to approach acquaintances, emphasizes. Not necessarily to sell products or services but to ask good customers, friends, and family to share something on social media.
Experiment and Duplicate Your Success
Repeat successful campaigns. That means testing, testing, and testing again. Do A/B tests, investigating which of 2 versions is most successful. For example, do you want to collect contact details? Then, change a sentence on your landing page, but the two variants live, and see which scores best. For example, make that sentence questioning so people think: ‘Do I need this?’ One sentence can sometimes make a difference of 10% of responses.
Don’t Save on Marketing
Experience shows that good marketing pays for itself. You may have to cut back considerably in this coronavirus era, but no marketing means fewer customers and less turnover. At the same time, your competitors may continue with their marketing activities.
Before you stop all campaigns, it is good to investigate what they have delivered. Following the previous tip, you’ll know which campaigns gave the most. Cut back on campaigns that were not or less successful.
Also, consider low-budget marketing, such as long-term search engine optimization and social media. Try to look ahead, beyond the coronavirus crisis.
Start Failing
When you first cycled, you probably didn’t like it. One learns by doing. Making mistakes is allowed. The trick is not to spend too long on a perfect first version. See what takes little time and what you can pick up quickly. That doesn’t have to be perfect right away. For example, on a white paper, you can completely write and design it, which might take a month. You can also run a campaign first. People who register will promise you a white paper in a month. You can also see which subjects are popular among your customers and which are not. Is there a need for a white paper?
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.
Wherever you are in the world, our hearts go out to you, your family, and your loved ones. To those whose families are committed to fighting the virus: give them a warm “thank you” from me.
The coronavirus is a nightmare; everyone hopes to put the pandemic behind us soon. Yet it is good – and even beneficial – to realize now what positive coronavirus could bring us in the longer term. Because if we succeed in turning the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity, it could become the long-awaited tipping point in our history. So here it is five transitions that we can start right now.
A New Economic System
While humanity stayed at home in masse, the Earth recovered. During the lockdowns, animals worldwide seized the chance to explore undisturbed streets, parks, and even shopping centers. After years of pollution in China, people are finally breathing clean air again. And the number of flight movements was historically low. The coronavirus has shown us how destructive our ‘normal’ lifestyle is. Now that the world is slowly starting up again, we are facing a choice: do we transform our economy or not? After all, this is the moment to restore the decades-long disrupted relationship between humans, animals, and the planet and create a society where social and ecological compassion are central.
The Basic Income
To save lives, many companies had to close their doors. From restaurants, theatres, and cinemas to hairdressers, freelancers, and sports clubs, tens of thousands of people have dealt with a significant financial blow because of the Corona. With this, the pandemic has confronted us with the facts: In times of crisis, an incredible number of people are vulnerable, even people you would typically not expect to have personal financial issues. A universal basic income that provides us all – regardless of the situation – with a subsistence minimum seems to be making more sense by the day.
In addition to security, basic income offers many other benefits.
The Proper Appreciation for Important Work
On Tuesday evening, March 17, the Netherlands clapped in masse for healthcare. The applause, honking, and cheering echoed through the streets for minutes. Realizing that some professions are more crucial than others seems to have hit like a bomb. This is a bitter realization, given that we have systematically undervalued and underpaid the nurses, cleaners, teachers, garbage collectors, police officers, bus drivers, and medical assistants of this world for years. At the same time, this realization offers an incredible opportunity. After all, now is the time to ensure that we show our respect not only with thunderous applause but, above all, with good working conditions, less work pressure, more confidence, and an appropriate salary.
More Solidarity and Cooperation
We usually deal with a select group of friends and family; we helped others across all kinds of dividing lines during the lockdowns. Young people jumped into the breach in masse to support (lonely) older people, we helped our favorite entrepreneurs out of the fire, and volunteers reported to their local hospital. And guess what? All these compassionate and generous initiatives made us extremely happy and happy. It’s a nice feeling to hold on to in times of and after Corona!
A Genuinely Inclusive Society
From one day to the next, our lives became entirely under the spell of the virus. The pandemic has shown us what it’s like to live in a situation you have no control over, a problem that puts you and your loved ones in danger. It is essential that we come together and support one another during these times of uncertainty.
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.
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.
