The bond is a form of financial security, utilized by the obligee, that holds the principal liable to operate in accordance with the city, county, and/or state laws applicable to their permit, certification, registration, or license.

If the principal fails to comply, a claim can be filed against the surety bond which will be paid out by the surety company to the person or entity financially harmed. 

Surety bonding is required in many different industries and is a powerful way to instill trust in the person or business in operation. A few industries/professions that commonly utilize surety bonds include construction, transportation, and banking/finance. This article simplifies the entire surety bond process so you can get the coverage you need quickly and focus on your work! 

6 Easy Steps To Obtaining A Surety Bond

Step 1: Understand the Bond Requirement 

Start by researching the bond that is needed to operate your business. This may be a requirement to obtain a permit for a specific project or to be a licensed professional or business. There are several bond requirements (over 9,000 to be exact), so it is important to be certain of what you need before you move forward in the process. 

Some bonds have several categories and varying bond limits. For example, Oregon contractors are classified based on the type of work being performed (residential, commercial, specialty, general, limited). While a residential general contractor must hold a $20,000 bond, a commercial specialty contractor needs a $50,000 bond.

The bond limit is determined by the obligee based on the risk presented, which is true for all types of surety bonds. Not only is the right type of bond important, but also the correct bond amount. 

Step 2: Find a Surety Company 

Do your research! There are tons of surety companies out there. When choosing a place to get a surety bond quote, ensure the company is licensed to do business in your state and has a good reputation. Pick a surety company you can trust—checking customer reviews will set you in the right direction. 

Step 3: Complete an Application to Get a Quote  

Most surety companies have an online application to keep the process as quick and simple as possible. Each bond application requires specific information about you (the principal), including business name, address, phone number, and social security number for a soft credit check.

The soft credit check is utilized for almost all bond types across the surety industry which helps underwriters determine what rate the principal will be approved for and their likelihood of paying back a claim, should one occur—don’t worry, though, it will not affect your credit score. 

When getting ready to apply, make sure to have all of the necessary information ready to make it a seamless process. Sometimes, depending on the riskiness and amount of the surety bond, further information will be asked of you by the underwriter, such as business and personal financial statements.

Following your application submission, there are a few scenarios:

1. An approved rate will be ready for purchase.
2. The application will be sent to an underwriter for review and a rate will be delivered shortly after.
3. The application will be sent to an underwriter for review and the underwriter will request additional information/documentation. Once that is received and reviewed, a rate will be delivered. 

Step 4: Pay Your Bond Premium

The cost of surety bonds is generally between 1% to 15% of the bond limit and is determined by the amount of risk your company has based on the information provided in your application.

With most surety companies, you are able to complete your bond purchase online. License bonds are typically paid for in a lump sum for a one-year term. However, some companies provide financing options, which may work better if you have a large bond limit and/or high premium.

If it’s a permit or contract bond you’re after, financing options are not generally available due to the short duration the bond is needed for.

Once you complete the payment, the surety company will provide you with a receipt and send you the bond form so you can continue the bonding process.

Step 5: File Your Surety Bond 

The way your surety bond is filed depends on the obligee’s requirements. Some obligees require the original hand-signed bond with a surety seal to be mailed and kept on file at their office.

Other obligees allow for electronic filing via their website or email. The obligee will usually have bond filling instructions on their website or other licensing documentation.

Step 6: Stay In Compliance

The surety bond must be kept active for the duration of the permit, license, registration, or certification. For most bond types, the bond will need to be renewed on an annual basis, but some surety companies will allow you to purchase multi-year terms.

While most surety companies will notify you of your upcoming bond renewal, it is recommended that you keep track of it on your own to ensure there is no lapse in coverage. Also stay on top of license, registration, or certification regulations that apply to you as they can change at any time. 

Another part of staying in compliance is addressing complaints or disputes that may arise to avoid a surety bond claim. Bond claims that are paid out by the surety company on your behalf are not a handout.

Unlike a typical insurance policy, the bond only pays out for negligent or fraudulent acts that the principal fails or refuses to address. Because of this, paid-out claims must be paid back to the surety company. However, bond claims can be avoided by following all legislation, contracts, and obligee rules.

Surety bonding doesn’t have to be complicated. It is a necessity to make sure you are trusted by the public and to mitigate any potential financial damage that could occur.

More Reads:

• 7 Tips to Reduce Your Surety Bond Costs
• Limited Pay vs Regular Pay Term Insurance
• 5 Types of Business Life Insurance Policies To Consider

Author bio: Maggie Accardo is a lead content creator for Jet Insurance Company. With a passion for learning new skills and helping others, Maggie’s niche is in writing original articles and creating infographics for the surety industry.

The post How To Obtain A Surety Bond For Your Small Business appeared first on Fincyte.

The esports industry is a market largely ignored for its potential to channel growth for small businesses, perhaps due to its nature of focusing on competitive online video games which may seem arbitrary and immature, especially to those who are not familiar with gaming and online video game interaction.

Few recognize the esports industry for what it is: an up-and-coming million dollar market with global audiences and a wealth of job opportunities across all sectors.

As the esports industry grows, there is an accompanying demand for employees in job fields including management, marketing, finance, design and even translation services. Esports has emerged as an international phenomenon involving huge online audiences from all countries. It has even led to the creation of location-based communities that rally to support players, watch games online or try their own hand at gaming. Developments such as this have led to an increased interest in esports-related content on social media, as well as live events and sponsored functions.

Naturally, the huge amounts of money being pumped into the industry from sponsors and viewers alike has made it a lucrative sector with competitive salaries and great benefits such as international travel, career development and exposure to the latest technologies worldwide.

This infographic from Computer Planet provides wonderful insight into some of the many available jobs in the esports industry, as well as the experience that each one entails and what you could expect to earn in the various job roles.

It also serves as a reminder that it is imperative for small businesses to realize the impact of this upcoming sector and the potential that it holds for both business owners and their employees.

Career Opportunities in the Esports Industry

Author: Marcus Clarke

The post 17 Career Opportunities in the Esports Industry appeared first on Fincyte.

With continuous innovation and new developments, companies must invest in technology to ensure they are using the best tools available to them. But with so many options, how do you choose which technologies are right for your business?

One option for determining the right tools for your business is to examine what technologies other successful companies are using. To discover which tools are popular among the fastest growing private companies, GetVoIP conducted extensive research on the top 1,250 businesses on the Inc. 5000 list.

Tools for Fastest Growing Companies

Through this research they compiled usage rates within a variety of technological categories. The data revealed which tools these leading companies used for things like:

• Content management systems (CMS).
• Content delivery networks (CDN).
• Email services and supplementary email tools.
• Hosting providers.
• Advertising platforms.

By using a business intelligence tool, GetVoIP analyzed the data and reveal which tools were most commonly used by these successful companies.

One key takeaway was that Google offers some of the best business tools around – at least according to the fastest growing companies. Google’s tools were largely popular in many of the different categories, including:

• Email services – Google Apps for Business (42% of companies use).
• Advertising – DoubleClick.net (48% of companies use) and Google Re-marketing (14% of companies use).
• Analytics – Google Universal Analytics (65% of companies use) and Google Conversion Tracking (21% of companies use).
• Content delivery network – GStatic Google Static Content (44% of companies use).

It might be worth looking at Google’s suite of tools for your own business.

Another takeaway from the data was that most of the companies researched (73%) used SPF email validation systems. This shows that implementing SPF into your own business should be a priority.

It’s also worth noting that WordPress was by far the content management system of choice with over half (58%) of the fastest growing companies using it as their CMS. This was not surprising as WordPress has a user-friendly interface and a healthy number of plugins to ensure it works exactly as you want.

To dive deeper into the data, check out the infographic below.

Author: Andrew Dennis

The post Which Technologies Do America’s Fastest Growing Companies Use? appeared first on Fincyte.

So in order to achieve efficiency, many companies today outsource their labor-intensive, non-essential jobs to third-party service providers so that they can retain their focus on more important aspects of their business. Doing so not only helps the improve the core areas of their organisation, but also ensures that their outsourced jobs is being handled accordingly by professionals.

Data entry is one of the jobs that many companies choose to outsource these days. If you own a company that processes tremendous amount of information every day i.e. bank, insurance, retail, audit firm, then outsourcing this line of job is practical move for you. However, there are some considerations that you need to check first to ensure that this strategy is the best solution for your business.

To help you out, here are the key takeaways from the infographic below which discuss the questions you need to ask when planning to outsource the data entry tasks of your business. Asking these questions will not only help you assess your current operational efficiency in relations with data entry but also help you identify the right outsourcing firm that will fit your business needs and preferences.

Ask 5 Questions Before You Outsource your Data Entry 

1. Are your operating costs on the rise?
2. Is your business equipped with the necessary skills and tools for the job?
3. Are you efficient in data management?
4. Are your employees motivated for the task at hand?
5. Do you spend too much time on data entry?

To learn more, check out the infographic below from Global Outsourcing.

The post Should You Outsource Your Data Entry? Here are 5 Questions to Ask! appeared first on Fincyte.

Perhaps you don’t know a lot about business. Depending on the effort you want to invest, online business can help you to generate some income on the side with little effort, or you can turn it into a full-fledged, six-figure income with some dedication. For those without a lot of business expertise but an interest in the industry, an online business that is expected to grow $6.5 billion by 2021 is affiliate linking. All that is required is simply posting a link of a company’s product on your blog. Of course, this option is only viable for those with a blog readership, but the point is that online businesses are not necessarily difficult.

With a little more effort, you could get into the business of selling products like your crafts, clothing or jewelry on Etsy. When it comes to selling on Etsy, 18% of users have already been able to turn their online shop into a full-time business. Indeed, when it comes to revenue potential, Etsy may be in the lead. Etsy shop ThreeBirdNest is a prime example of this, generating $80,000 monthly by selling socks, scarves and headbands – the founder’s former hobby!

From drop shipping to selling patterns and designs, there are a lot of online businesses you could start today without a experience or education in business – and yet, the revenue and growth potential is just as great.

Are You Taking the Right Decision Regarding your Online Businesses?

Related Posts: 8 Top Small Business Ideas for Beginners in 2017

Author Bio: Rebecca Hill works as a blogger and outreach co-ordinator. She’s a graduate from York University, Ontario, and loves all thing tech, science, sports and DIY.

The post 5 Best Online Businesses to Start in 2017 [INFOGRAPHIC] appeared first on Fincyte.

But that is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to the advantages of social media for businesses. Aside from updating your business’ followers on the ongoing news and progress that your business is making, is it also a useful tool in order to drive targeted traffic to your online domain, or essentially, your website. This gives your website a tremendous boost in SEO – and as ContentFac puts it, “A killer content strategy for SEO is the most important part of earning top spots in search engine rankings, but driving traffic to your optimized pages will cause them to climb much faster in the search engine results pages (SERPs).”

Social media allows you to have a meaningful connection between your business and the market in which it operates in, as well as learn from your consumers, the industry leaders, and the influencers that your consumers listen to. Even simple engagement opportunities and activities such as liking posts, comment replies, retweets, commenting, sharing, pinning, and the like, when it matters, can lead to a “reel relationship building”, which is essential for your business. It can help retain customers due to the relationship you have managed to establish with them, as well as form important connections with the industry leaders who may be willing to help your business grow.

Many marketers and consumers alike do not consider social media as a mere communication tool or a simple advertising tool – it is, in their perspective, a way to connect with authenticity, which is a huge advantage that your company will greatly benefit from.

Read Also: What is Content Marketing?

These advantages only prove how indispensable social media is as a part of your marketing strategy. And with 2017 currently running its course, social media activity and consumer preferences are bound to bring forth changed social media trends, which are bound to affect your strategy in more ways than one.

Here are social media marketing trends 2017 with in-depth infographic shared by CJG Digital Marketing.

8 Social Media Marketing Trends 2017

The post 8 Hottest Social Media Marketing Trends in 2017 appeared first on Fincyte.

Some of the prime examples of this phenomenon include brands and businesses such as Apple, whose competition lies with other big-name brands such as Samsung and Lenovo, and is still being matched by fast-rising brands such as Oppo and Xiaomi; Google, who has become such a pivotal part of the virtual life with its search engine, email platform, and other features that has managed to overtake Yahoo!, who has been the prime email services provider before the rise of Gmail; and even Sony’s Playstation, which continues to be a heavy contender within the gaming console industry despite the presence of equally-powerful brands such as Microsoft’s Xbox and Nintendo’s Wii and other consoles. Playstation even congratulated Nintendo for the release of Switch, along with Xbox, which speaks for how it isn’t intimidated but rather motivated by its competition.

These brands are among the big names that have considered the presence of their competition as opportunities rather than obstacles on their path to success, as they find them as a way to showcase the best services and/or products that they can offer to the market that they are targeting. They are brands that have managed to learn from the nature of their niche, and when combining this with the movements of the business rivalry, this becomes the key part of their strategizing on positioning themselves in the most optimal way. Studying how their competition also allows them to know how and where they are lacking, which allows them to figure out where to develop further.

How Competition Makes Your Business Stronger?

Regardless of how aggressive your competition may be, this is your chance to improve your business and make your performance better and smarter, which can allow you to outgrow your competition sooner than you expected. To learn more about this, check out the infographic below:

Guest Post By Garret Norris

The post 8 Ways Competition Makes Your Business Stronger appeared first on Fincyte.

Aside from the environmental benefits that paperless offices carry, they also cut down on costs that are associated with paper usage. When there is less paper used, the lesser the need for other paraphernalia that makes paper useful for the company. This includes printers and inks, steel filing cabinets, folders, pens, paperclips, highlighters, and the like. There is also less need for maintenance of paperless files – digital files are not prone to be eroded over time by mold, chemicals, and parasites.

A paper-based approach also boosts productivity significantly. While paper documents and forms needs to be physically organized, filed according to the company’s specific system in the specific space that the storage is located, and be manually searched for when they are needed again after some time from their last usage, paperless offices benefit from doing all these without needing to step away from an employee’s desk. They can organize and store files on computer or cloud system folders, and search for them instantly by using the Search bar instead of manually referring to the storage system.

However, there still are some companies and industries that rely on paper-based approach for their operations. This may be the result of lack of budget and funds that can cover the purchase of necessary programs for a company’s specific processes, a complex filing system that isn’t easily translatable to a digital format, or even lack of information on what programs and systems they can utilize.

These obstacles do make it seem like the transition to a paperless office is a complicated method and it may lose its appeal because of this, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s impossible for any company to still make the transition no matter how difficult it seems. Here’s an infographic by Law in Order on successfully implementing a paperless system:

Paperlite and Environmental Sustainability

Author: Peter Hartley

The post Moving Towards Paperlite and Environmental Sustainability appeared first on Fincyte.

One of the common mistakes beginner entrepreneurs have encountered is that they were not able to validate their startup idea. They simply launched the project, hoping it will become an overnight sensation. You don’t need to take the same path, but what you can do is to learn from their mistakes. Before taking the plunge into the business world, read the ways of validating your start-up ideas below, first.

If you are new to the world of entrepreneurship and are apprehensive about it, get a mentor or advisor. Seeking the help and advice of seasoned entrepreneurs could bring in a new perspective into your new start-up idea. It is always beneficial for you to learn from them, get new knowledge on how to run things in the world of entrepreneurship, and get the feel of what it is like to become a successful entrepreneur.

There are other ways to validate your business ideas. Simply put, we have compiled them and created an infographic for you. Simply scroll down below and view our colorful and well-put graphic highlighting the necessary ways in order to find out whether your start-up idea could succeed or not.

Read Also: 7 Horrible Mistakes Tech Entrepreneurs Make

Be inspired at how the successful ones were able to make it big without wasting too many resources and simply channeling their energy into the product or service. You can be one of the successful ones. Simply read the graphic and be equipped with the tools to succeed.

9 Steps To Validate Your Business Ideas

Guest Post By Scott D. 

The post 9 Quick Ways To Validate Your Business Ideas Right Now appeared first on Fincyte.

Enterprise Resource Planning For Startups

For starters, ERP is a business process management software that integrates various business functions into a one, solid system making the backbone of the daily operations of most of the companies today. It only started as a program that aimed to streamline the manufacturing process in the ‘90s, but due to changing demand in many industries and advancement in technology, Enterprise Resource Planning is now a full-functional system that integrates office functions such as logistics, finance, human resource, marketing, information technology, material purchasing, manufacturing, inventory, accounting, and many more.

Most of the modern ERP software in the market today are also capable of electronic banking and can be deployed through cloud technology, making it more affordable for small and medium scale business who cannot afford to install ERP on-premise. Once a business decided to use ERP as a core part of their operations, they can experience a much efficient operation, allowing them to make a timely decision and giving them a competitive edge in the market. Enterprise Resource Planning nowadays are also integrated with Customer Relationship Management system, allowing them to strategically manage their customer database for better customer experience and retention.

    Aside from better customer management and increase sales, it is also interesting how ERP improves the morale and productivity of our workforce. Check this infographic and learn how ERP delivers ROI in your human resources.

Top 5 Ways ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Can Deliver 

Guest Post By Kristel

The post The Five Ways ERP Can Deliver (INFOGRAPHIC) appeared first on Fincyte.