Monthly Archives: June 2021

There are several ways through which college students can earn money while studying. This is often done through running side hustles. Therefore, as a college student with a side hustle, you should develop ways to retain more money from your business. Here is how to get the most money from your side hustle as a college student.

Buy Items in Bulk

It is fairly cheaper to buy items in bulk compared to buying individually. In most cases, product suppliers are willing to negotiate prices with customers who buy items in bulk. Therefore, when shopping for items to use in your side hustle, or materials to make something you sell, you should consider buying them in bulk. Buying items in bulk means paying a significant amount of money, and you could spend more on the additional transactional charges. However, to save money when making such payments, you can opt to go for platforms like Green Payments, which does not charge the typical fees.

Negotiate with Vendors

Besides buying items in bulk, it would help if you negotiated with vendors to get better prices. As a student running a side hustle, you should have the skills to get the best supply deal with vendors. You can agree on a certain price for a start but adjust it as your business relationship with the vendor grows. When you become a regular customer, vendors will be willing to negotiate better prices. Most vendors will agree to reduce the product price rather than lose a regular client. Depending on the side hustle you are running, make sure that you get the best deals on product prices. This will help you retain more money instead of spending it on sourcing for highly-priced products.

Cut Unnecessary Subscription Costs

Most college students sign up for monthly services and rarely use them. It is understandable to make such mistakes; perhaps the deal was too good! Mostly, monthly subscriptions start with a free two-week trial, a strategy used to lure most people into signing up. What you may not always know is that when your free trial ends, your account gets debited every month. You can imagine how much you could be wasting if you have several subscriptions you need.
As a college student with a side hustle, you can lose a lot of money from your business on such subscriptions. Therefore, you should review and cancel all the subscriptions you rarely use. Besides, it would be best if you devoted more free time to running your side hustle. As much as you should find time to do your personal activities, devoting most of your free time to running your side hustle will help grow it. Most college students admit that they tried running a side hustle but failed because of lack of time, don’t be one of them!! Canceling subscriptions will help you save some money and create time for you to work on your business.

Avoid Unnecessary Spending

Now that you have a side hustle, you might be tempted to spend more. This shouldn’t be the case. Find a way to cut on your spending to retain more money from your side hustle. Avoid unnecessary costs like going on vacations and buying luxurious products; this can run down your business in no time. If you have to spend, it should be absolutely necessary. This will not help you retain more money but also boost your business. You can save the money or use it to expand your side hustle.

One unnecessary expense to be mindful of is paying expensive payment processing fees to accept payments from your customers. One size does not fits all when it comes to accepting payments. Seek out a payment processor such as Green Payments that offers competitive payment processing rates priced accordingly for your business. Green Payments also offers a payment processing program where you could pay virtually $0 in credit card processing fees on his cash discount program.

You should take advantage of your status as a college student to enjoy discounts on various products and services. College students can save a lot on food, travel, retail, and software. Several companies offer discounts to college students. Take advantage of such offers and save more money.

Eliminate Debts

If you have any debts, pay them. This doesn’t refer to huge debts like student loans, but random loans you can owe a friend or an institution. Running a side hustle with debts will not yield the desired results. You will always be spending the little you get from your side hustle to settle such debts. This shouldn’t be the case. Find a way of clearing all debts for a better side hustle. Besides, you should also learn to manage your finances. Have a clear plan on how you will spend your money. Allocate a particular amount to settling debts and find a way to retain more. This will ensure you have operating capital.

Finally

Having a side hustle can be a bright idea for college students. This article has discussed several ways to retain more money from your side hustle and implement them for gradual growth!

Until recent years, brick-and-mortar businesses in the U.S and beyond could count on consistent revenue from steady sales of consumer-packaged goods (CPGs) at their stores. Consumers would happily walk into these physical stores and shop for their everyday consumable products.

However, with the growth of online shopping and increased competition in the marketplace, retailers have had to pivot and adapt their strategies to stay relevant during the modern retail apocalypse. In today’s ever-changing digital world and crowded marketplace, CPG manufacturers, retail chains, and online merchants can no longer only compete on price.

Any digital marketing agency that specializes in food industry ecommerce sites, understands consumers have become omnichannel shoppers and are increasingly looking for convenient service options and a seamless shopping experience. As such, if you are to succeed, you must not only be where your customers are but also effectively engage them to increase sales. Here are the top five strategies you can utilize to set yourself apart in the CPG industry and boost sales:

Embrace the Omnichannel Experience

You can’t succeed in the consumer-packaged goods market if you aren’t providing your customers with a fully unified experience across every touchpoint. This is what it means to operate an omnichannel strategy. A consumer interacts with your brand both offline in your physical store and digitally on your e-commerce site. And regardless of their location, they expect consistency in their shopping experience. In other words, there shouldn’t be any difference between a customer’s online and in-store shopping experience.

As a retailer, you want to capture traditional shoppers who want to come to shop from your physical store and the rising population of consumers who prefer ordering all their products online. Make sure your consumers can view your products online and have real-time options for shipping items to their location or picking them up in-store.

Offer a Subscription Model to Increase Conversions and Sales

Online retailers are increasingly adopting subscription models to not only enrich and streamline their consumers’ purchase process but also keep a consistent and steady form of revenue from online sales. Offering a subscription model can help your customers save time and money. Furthermore, it reduces the effort consumers need to put in to remember to purchase CPG products. They need to rest assured they’ll receive their goods in a convenient and timely manner without any complications.

Subscription models are a powerful tool that can help you reduce the cost of sale while increasing conversions and sales. However, you must commit to offering high-quality consumable goods and a seamless end-to-end experience if you want to connect with your customers and keep them aboard.

Build Loyal Relationships with Your Customers

With the rise of social media platforms, store-based and online retailers have a direct line to consumers and vise versa. You’ve probably already come across customers who use their social media pages to promote products they love or even share their hate for a brand.

Genuinely connect with your target audience by establishing direct consumer relationships on social media sites and creating content around what they want. By doing so, you’ll get insights into individual consumer preferences and needs and gain a strategic advantage of businesses and brands that do not.

Harness the Power of Data

The power of data in online shopping is enormous. Gone are the days when retailers could make business decisions based on their gut feeling. As consumers increasingly move to digital and social platforms, retailers and CPG companies have to harness the power of data to gain insights that can inform their decision-making process.

As an online retailer, you can offer incentives and rewards that help capture customer data and information to promote a product later in the pipeline. Customer data can also help you regenerate shopper personas in all your major locations within a specified period to understand changes in consumer preferences, how different products were sold, and if there’s a need to adjust prices.

Focus on Promoting Your Best Brands

The average online retailer may have dozens of CPG products under their business. And while it’s possible to equally promote and market each and every brand in your business, you may not have enough time and resources to achieve that. Furthermore, there will be nothing that gives your brand relevancy and recognition in the market.

Instead, choose your strongest brands and focus all your efforts on promoting them. Your goal should be to establish a strong digital presence and develop marketing campaigns that will help boost your brand recognition. You should also take time to create high-quality content that your consumers want to promote these brands. Establish a consistent brand identity by sharing authentic stories and company values in all the different aspects of your CPG products. This will not only increase brand awareness but also boost customer loyalty and grow your business.

As we return to our normal lives this summer, take caution with you into the water. Whether you are stepping into a swimming pool, a boat, an ocean, or a hot tub—keep these basic tips in mind and you’ll find yourself having fun and being safe while you play. According to Florida drowning accident lawyer Brandon Stein of SteinLaw, “One of the easiest ways to avoid accidents on the water is education before going out. Simple steps can make all the difference between surviving and tragedy.”

Learn About Your Water Area Before Going Out

With a few thousand people drowning every year, and about 800 of those deaths being children, it’s clear that there are some important safety issues that are being assumed. For example, depending on the type of water and the geographic factors of that area, your approach to the water should change. It’s fine to cannon ball into a clear public or private pool, but it’s dangerous to dive into what is perceived as a lake. There have been incidents of young teens diving into a ‘lake’ and finding themselves in the hospital because of spinal injuries—the ‘lake’ was actually a puddle with strong reflective qualities. Other times, children and weak swimmers are dragged under water by heavy unseen currents. Or they dive head-first into a wave and are trapped under the wave pattern, resulting in severe injury or drowning.

Keep an Adult Near and Actively Watching

Even for older teens it is helpful to keep a strong swimming adult on watch when playing around in water. Having a designated look out helps to stop issues before they have a chance to happen, and it relieves anxiety for many people. Further, keeping the designated adult within arm’s reach of children or weak swimmers, helps to foster a safe environment while they learn how to survive the water. Just make sure to change up the designated adult, since complacency comes with comfort.

If Someone Falls In, Don’t Go After Them

In movies, many people see characters jumping into water to save drowning victims. In reality, jumping in after someone puts two people at risk, and may result in two deaths. This is why there are lifeguards and professionals meant to save those who fall into water. Situations where people have fallen into water and there wasn’t anyone around to help, does not call for a movie-style save; it calls for throwing in things that float, or getting things long enough for them to reach. What’s more, is that if there is no immediate way out of the water, and there is no professional around to help if things go south—strongly reconsider swimming in that area.

Do Not go in the Water at Night

Even the most confident of swimmers are careful to enter the water at night, especially if it is open water that is dark. From nocturnal animals awakening to different water currents, the world of water is a holistically different monster than during the day. Keep children away from the water, even the water’s edge, if there is a minor chance that they won’t be watched. Further, keep in mind tides, as entire houses and vehicles have been swept out to the ocean for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you do consider getting into the water during the night, make sure it is in a well-lit pool, not the ocean or any other type of open water, and there are still people around to help if needed.

Make Sure Everyone Knows and Understands the Situation

It can be hard to have serious talks with family and children but ensuring that everyone knows what to do and what their role is during an emergency can help to make all the difference. A good rule of thumb is that if a child is able to swim in the water, they’re able to understand the strategy during an emergency. For example, if there is something that goes wrong, have them immediately exit the water and go to a designated meeting area if they are separated.

Speak with family members and friends about what to do if there is an emergency. Adults are the path to safe water time, so making sure that the right people are where they need to be and doing their jobs is an important thing. You wouldn’t want someone unreliable watching the youngest kids, even if they were within arm’s reach. Further, make sure that keystone adults know CPR and basic medical strategies for if things become unsafe.