Is blockchain’s open financial tools and services an opportunity for entrepreneurs?

Outside of the novelty and consistent price speculation of cryptocurrencies, one trend that has fast materialized is for an open and more accessible financial ecosystem.

With the expansion of regulation and infrastructure, facilitating open financial tools loom large, and while this innovation is for the greater good, many entrepreneurs are stuttering at the scale at which this sector is growing. From open source tools to standardized identity protocols like anti-money laundering, the digital asset market is slowly converging with different economic structures that will help entrepreneurs in the long run.

Open and integrated finance

Decentralized or open finance is a type of interoperable financial system that involves transparency, standardization, financial inclusion, and increased accessibility. This opens the opportunity for financial tools to play a more crucial part. For example, crypto traders are using trading tools and indicators to check the market condition before investing. Tools like BTC Profit System offer the most accurate information of the currencies and their expected behavior by using a combination of algorithms.

This approach has also helped many cryptocurrencies to lower their barrier so that investors can access transfer mechanisms and value storage. The currencies are trying to create a separate class of assets and remove intermediaries that exist outside the existing financial system.

One of the most significant aspects of this movement is the emphasis on different financial tools built on blockchain protocols for digital assets. Since these projects are expanding on the basis of blockchain technology, they are useful to build open financial instruments that offer more transparency to entrepreneurs; something that they had been looking for all this while.

Open financial tools

The introduction of open financial tools is providing secured lending services. This sector has a massive potential to benefit new entrepreneurs as it constitutes the biggest part of the open finance structure. However, other financial systems that are also gaining ground are decentralized prediction markets and security tokens, especially after utility tokens saw a downfall in the last couple of years.

Although the potential of various open protocols is still there, experts believe that the market is highly unlikely to experience a wholesale transition when it comes to financial instruments operating on the blockchain.

What is more likely to happen is the introduction of a hybrid ecosystem involving digital assets and open protocols with integrated businesses and traditional financial systems. It is still early days to consider a paradigm shift from traditional to digital in the next few years. So, a convergence is what everyone expects to happen.

If an open financial system has to exist, it will require a lot of innovation and proper infrastructure in different sectors. Financial and regulatory institutions in the United States are approaching a more mature market before jumping into the concept of digital assets. More startups are shifting their attention from ICOs to regulatory-compliant digital assets and transparent security tokens. Even ICO models are now focusing on anti-money laundering and KYC processes to reduce this transition and regain the market they have lost. So, entrepreneurs can be assured that the open financial tools and services will work in their favor instead of going against them.

Boris after Brexit please focus on business rate crisis

As Boris Johnson takes over the helm as the next British Prime Minister, the Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, and John Webber of Colliers International call for the Government to finally address the “Business Rates” crisis

Real estate firm Colliers International and Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce are calling on new Prime Minister Boris Johnson to make tackling business rates a top priority.

John Webber, head of business rates at Colliers, says  Johnson must take action and understand the negative impact the 2017 Revaluation process has had on UK companies.

Some companies, particularly retailers in Central London, have seen their business rates rise at unprecedented levels, while others, who should have seen their rates bills fall, suffered from the policy of transition and are still paying bills higher than they should be, or can afford.

Webber said, “The move to four-yearly revaluations is all very well, as is the move to link business rates rises to CPI as opposed to RPI increase.

“But in themselves they will not solve the crisis. Nor will the decision to give business rates relief to the smaller traders do anything to help those big retail chains that are suffering.

“It’s the Debenhams, the House of Fraser, the M&S’s that are either on the CVA list or closing stores and cutting the jobs and none of them come in the under £51,000 RV+ bracket, which is where the last Chancellor has provided the most help. I just don’t understand why nobody in Government has clocked this.”

While a parliamentary select committee is currently looking at business rates and is expected to announce its findings before the Autumn Budget, Colliers and the GBCC have urged the Prime Minister to take drastic action.

They are calling on Johnson to:

• Immediately freeze any further business rate increases next year. Few businesses can cope with yet another rise on top of unprecedented rises in the last few years.
• Immediately remove downward phasing of business rates payments enabling rate payers to pay their true rates liability now and not wait four years to do so.
• Review and implement a policy to reduce the multiplier from 50p to 34p in the £1. The current level is effectively an unsustainable 50 per cent tax.
•       Reform the whole systems of  complicated reliefs to avoid business rate deserts in some parts of the country. All businesses should pay something for the services they receive, but if the multiplier was reduced to a manageable level, it would not provoke the crisis it is at the moment.
•      Look at  other reliefs, such as agricultural reliefs which may need reforming, spreading the load more evenly across the UK economy.
• Reform the appeals system, providing more support to the VOA to deal with existing appeals’ backlog. It is essential that businesses have a true and fit for purpose appeal system, if they believe they have been assessed unfairly.
• Plan to Move to Annual Valuations. Annual valuations are ideal, but can only be achieved with a fully funded VOA and an appeal system that is fit for purpose.

Paul Faulkner, CEO of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce said, “Coupled with uncertainty created by Brexit, firms up and down the country are facing severe price pressures right now and it was no surprise to see a sharp increase in the number of companies concerned about rising business rates in our latest Quarterly Business Report.

“While Mr Johnson is understandably fixated on securing Britain’s withdrawal from  the European Union, it is essential that he also concentrates on fixing the fundamentals of the domestic economy in a bid to strengthen its competitiveness.

“Introducing a freeze on rates, simplifying and making this outmoded system fairer would be a good start and to echo the sentiment projected by the incoming PM in his victory speech, the hard work needs to start now.”

Webber added, “Business rates contribute £26 billion to the country’s coffers and is a vital source of income for local authority funding. Putting the burden of who pays it on an ever-decreasing number of companies is both fool hardy and dangerous, particularly if such bills are the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.

“The new prime minister has said he wants to support business and as Mayor of London he did call for a cut to business rates. I really hope he can navigate us through the Brexit negotiations and then turn to the choppy waters of Business Rates – before they finally overturn the ship, lifeboats and all! Let’s see if he follows through when he gets his hands on the tiller. The jury is indeed out!”

Preparing for CRM so implementation delivers business objectives

Getting CRM right is a tough task – one that requires a substantial amount of time, effort and commitment. 

From experience, I know this to be true. I also know that this investment is a sure fire way to ensuring that your CRM implementation ultimately delivers against anticipated business objectives.

Unfortunately, all too often CRM project teams take their eyes off the main prize. Unsurprisingly, it’s easy to become overly distracted by the technology aspects of the CRM solution itself – comparing feature sets and undertaking deep dives into the respective offering of individual vendors, for example.

But without first understanding what’s important for your organisation – selecting the right solution for your needs or measuring ROI post implementation is going to be a big challenge.

From the outset, what’s needed is a methodical plan. 

As Winston Churchill famously said, “He who fails to plan, plans to fail” – and that’s especially true when it comes to plotting your path to CRM.

Step 1    Build your team

Whatever you call it – a steering group or project team – you’ll need to include cross functional representatives from every group that will ultimately use the system. That means sales, marketing, customer support, customer service, management, IT and finance. These key business users will provide those all important insights on what’s needed – and what will work and what won’t.

Make sure you have an executive sponsor who is a board level member. Getting senior management buy in will be essential to maintaining organisation-wide visibility and back up.

Appoint a project manager who will manage all communications internally and externally and coordinate activities between team members.

Finally, nominate a CRM administrator who will oversee the IT side of things – licensing, client installs, tech support – and all things data – data entry protocols, importing leads, global updates to records.

Step 2    Define your vision

With the team assembled, you’re ready to start defining your CRM strategy and vision. 

This might include helping sales people easily close and manage opportunities, running and tracking the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, or the provision of better service for customers.

Having defined your objectives, set down the specific and measurable goals that will enable you to see how you’re performing against these goals; for example – 90% of all service calls will be responded to within a two hour SLA.

Step 3    Prioritise your CRM goals

Maximise your chances of success by initiating a phased CRM implementation, putting areas you’ve identified as offering easy quick wins top of the list.

Being realistic, structured and orderly will pay dividends and ensure that resources aren’t over stretched in the early phases of your go live. Get sales teams up and running first with the CRM system and once everything is running smoothly here – roll out to your service or post sales teams.

Step 4    Map your processes

Undertake a formal analysis of your processes and identify potential pain points and exceptions – for example, do you treat phone leads and web leads differently? 

Create process maps and evaluate these with stakeholders – what could be improved or automated?

Mapping current and intended processes helps eliminate ambiguities and will help with the creation of templates that ensure your CRM platform is tailored to the exact needs of users.

Step 5    Data fields

Think about the forms and data fields that will be required – what data do you need to track on each type of CRM record? For the sales function this may include product range, line item, time frames (start/end dates), allocated sales person, sales stage and so forth.

Try not to over engineer at this point as over complication can create a barrier to user adoption. As Einstein elegantly put it “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Focus on the minimum requirement to achieve your goals.

Step 6    Identify your data sources

Don’t underestimate how much time this will take. Just for starters, you’ll need to consider:

• What data needs to be imported – where is it currently stored?
• Which departments already have data bases – what format is it in?
• Which record types do we need to consider?
• How much historical data do we want to include – is it worth it?
• Do we have a budget for data cleansing and de-duping – who is going to do this? 

Creating a trial import for validation purposes will be crucial.

Step 7    Integration

Integration with backend systems is a sure fire way to boost ROI. Integrating your order management, accounting and shipping systems will make it easy to deal with customer queries in one streamlined call, for example.

You can also use integrations to push data from your CRM system to other areas of the business – for example, the automated creation of a customer record in the accounts system when a new customer comes on board. Or synchronise your CRM with a third party email marketing solution provider. CRM data integration solutions abound, it’s a matter of thinking about the right one for your business needs.

Step 8    Security and data visibility

Your organisational structure will influence who can see what information and how data is shared across the business. For example, you’ll need to make decisions about how much data you want regional divisions or independent business units to be able to view or share? 

Similarly, how much access to data will you award individual user roles?

Want to find out more about how to plan for CRM?

Regardless of whether your CRM initiative is going to support 10 or 1000 users, your CRM strategy will make the difference between failure and success. I’ve just covered a few of the steps you’ll need to take when planning for CRM – but don’t despair. To help you brainstorm exactly what’s involved, why not watch my video to get more useful ideas.

Why is education in the US in decline

For many years, the United States has won the admiration of other countries in the world for many reasons, one of which is their excellent educational system, which they have been able to maintain for decades, until recently, when there seems to be a change in the storyline.

Little wonder why it became common practice for parents in other countries to send their children to America for higher education so they could compete favorably in the market and land great jobs.

Renowned scientists and scholars who came to America for higher education can attest to the smooth educational system that existed a few decades ago. Just like their counterparts, they also discovered opportunities for growth and better living, they exploited it and gave us the technology we enjoy today. Thanks to America’s sound educational system.

What is the cause of the suddendecline of education in America?

But what has happened now? Why are American students in disarray? Is there a possible remedy to the solution? All these will be the focus of this writing.

International students have an edge in terms of access to affordable education over American students; this is because education is almost free in most European countries such as Denmark and Finland. It is so unfortunate that American citizens are fast becoming strangers in their own land, paying through their nose to go to school. How did it degenerate to such an extent?

Nowadays, the average American graduate doesn’t even see reasons to go to graduate school any more. By the time, 40% of students graduate, they are already drowned in student debt. A debt that they might end up paying up till their 40’s when they already have full-time jobs and maybe their own families as well. The sad reality is that they would be paying off such debt alongside car loan and mortgage, making them live a life twisted in debts that can even last till retirement age if not handled carefully.

After spending four years as an undergraduate in the USA, the average American graduate is broke and saddled in debts. Worst still, there is likely no chance of recovery in a few years to come. Hence, the hope and dream of reaching out to career advancement are shattered in the air, never to be realized unless the debt is paid. As a result, the educational decline has continued to grow worse because of the little successful transition of each student from college to post-graduate studies.

What is a society without educational advancement and career growth? How can American citizens achieve greater heights when they only go to school halfway and turn to pay debts for the rest of their lives? These are questions that do not just cry for urgent answers but explains the primary reason for the education decline staring at us right now.

How to handle everything in time?

Going to college is hard because it marks the foundation of every successful career. And also it is the best place to develop your writing skills. We are talking about the numerous assignments, essay questions, research paper, and other tedious tasks that the average student has to be hammered with while studying as an undergraduate. Little wonder why a lot of undergraduates visit websites such as https://phdessay.com/ for help – to enable themselves to write effective essays while in school. The service does not just help them to write effectively; it also saves them valuable time, which can be invested in other areas. But the sad reality is that, at the verge of graduation, it will dawn on most students that they may not be able to go to post-graduate school.

Then, they will turn and face their student loan, which is already as high as the mountains. In a bid to pay such loans quickly and be free again, most graduates learn the art of writing and focus on sharpening their skills before they struggle to get well-paid jobs in the US. This process can span from a few months to several years after leaving school.

The psychological effects of debt can be devastating, especially for college and university students. It’s a sad reality that the quality of college education declining is as a result of the inability of undergraduates to afford the fees needed for higher education.

No future without money

What is the fate of the American student who yearns for a sound educational system and hates to reminded that he has a student loan to pay immediately after college? It is therefore no longer shocking to think that the American educational system needs a rebirth. It needs to be wakened from its slumber and re-modified to the advantage of American citizens.

To do this, Congress needs to take a bold step by making education accessible and affordable for all citizens. About 44 million Americans need debt relief urgently. Most of them won’t be able to finish paying their student loans in the next ten years. And as the number of debtors increased, the nation’s reserve is sinking.

Many undergraduates in the USA look forward to the time when they will no longer be scared of postgraduate school. Imagine a time when every American citizen has an equal right to affordable education – only then the education decline will be brought to an abrupt end.