Since 2008, when the current economic crisis began, banks and lending institutions have stepped up their practice of effectively handing people umbrellas when it isn’t raining. What this means is that if you don’t need money they will very likely lend you some but when you need it, they won’t.

Almost every week there is some news about well-established companies closing their doors with ensuing redundancies.  Unemployment is rife and the world seems a very scary place to be because most of us have never lived through a recession such as this.  However amid this chaos there is some hope for those who have the initiative and courage to start our own businesses.

Now is a good time to start a new business

You might imagine that starting a business with so many others closing is folly, but technology has provided a wealth of opportunity which means there has never been a better time to start a new business. But finance is required and since banks are not keen to lend money at present, where can it be found?

If you start an online business, your start-up costs may be very low depending on the type of business you want to go into. You will primarily need a website and apart from the cost of a domain name, it doesn’t cost much to make a start. There are ways that you can get a website and hosting for free, but if you want a more professional look then you will need to find some money. Naturally, if you are going to sell products you will also need money for stock. Here are three novel ways to fund a new start-up.

1)     Raise finance with a first order: it may surprise you to learn that Apple Computers started out in a garage. When they had built a prototype, a local store ordered 50 of them. Steve Jobs, Apple’s founder, could scarcely afford to produce that amount so he got the store owner to give him a written order and got a loan on the strength of that.  Apple is a shining example of how it’s possible to start a business with no money.

2)     Pro forma invoice: if you have a product that lots of people want to buy but don’t have the capital to buy stock, issue pro forma invoices to the potential purchasers. This means that they pay you upfront and you promise to deliver the products in a certain time frame. This allows you to buy the products using your customers’ money, remove your profit and deliver the goods to them. As your profits accrue, at some point you’ll be able to buy in your stock using your own money.

3)     Sell old clothes for cash: you can raise cash online by selling your old and unwanted clothes, DVDs and CDs, among other items, to Music Magpie at www.musicmagpie.com

This is a fast way to get cash and depending on what you have to sell, it’s almost certain that you’ll be able to raise enough money to get a website up and running.

Whatever you decide to do, make sure you beat the recession this year and become one of the thousands of successful online entrepreneurs.

Every trader and investor has his own individual strategy for researching investments, so this is by no means supposed to be a comprehensive, expert guide on how to do it.  However, I do want to point out a few popular tools to do investment research, and how it can help you be a better trader or investor starting immediately.  From Forex news and daily market podcasts, to comprehensive research tools, here is what you need to know!

News and More

The first thing you can do to research investment opportunities is to follow the daily market news.  I don’t mean listening to what every pundit and talking head on CNBC says, but rather, looking for current events and economic indicators that could shape the market and different stock sections.  For example, an oil spill is a bad thing for oil companies, but as the news starts talking about it being cleaned up, it could present an opportunity to buy.

Stock Screeners

The next step in the process is to find individual stocks and mutual funds that meet your criteria.  The most common way to do this is to use a stock screener.  There are a lot of different stock screeners out there, from free ones like Google Finance and Yahoo Finance, to ones that require a brokerage account, like at Fidelity or Scottrade.  Once you find a stock screener you like, you can select the metrics you want to search by, and get a list of stocks or mutual funds that match your criteria.  This is a great way to identify securities that match your needs.

Advanced Charting

Finally, once you’ve identified the stocks you may want to invest in, you could look at stock charts to see how the security has been performing over time, and if the price is currently higher or lower than in the past.  There are a lot of unique ways to look at stock charts, but many advanced traders rely on these charts when making a pricing decision about a stock they may want to purchase.

The following is a guest post.

Budgeting can be hard for people that have never had to do it before.  If you find yourself coming up short each month and having to rely on a personal payday loan online, you should consider putting together a budget so that you can better manage your finances.  Here are some tips to help you put together a budget so that you can get your financial house in order.

Getting Started

Getting started with a budget is usually the hardest part.  Bankrate has put together some great ways to get started budgeting, but here is what you need to know.  First, you need to put together a list of all of your income sources, and all of your expenditures.  This means going line by line through all your bank accounts, and seeing exactly where your money is going.  Without an accurate picture of your spending,  you will not be able to put together a useful budget.

Tools to Help

There are a lot of online tools that can help automate this process.  Programs like Mint can connect directly with your online bank accounts and download all your transactions.  It will then categorize all your spending for you, so that you can get an accurate, up-to-date snapshot of your finances.

If you don’t want to do it online, you could always make a spreadsheet using Excel to list everything out.

Balancing the Budget

Once you’ve laid everything on the table, it’s time to balance the budget.  This can be the hardest part, because it involves making difficult choices about where to cut spending.  It’s never easy, but if you have goals in mind, it can simplify the process.

The first thing to do is make sure that your income always exceeds your expenses.  If not, think about areas you can trim – dining out, shopping for clothes or other items, stopping at Starbucks every morning.  All of these non-essential purchases should be cut out so that you can bring your expenses in line.

Once your budget is balanced, you should look for saving opportunities so that you can plan for future goals.  Having a reserve is incredibly helpful for the future.