Handmade and bespoke items are enjoying a resurgence in the UK, but many people still believe that buying handmade is an expensive option that they simply can’t afford. However, buying bespoke can actually save you money. Especially now that companies like Bespokee are now up and running. Take a look at these three reasons why.

1. Built to last

We all love a bargain and the chance to buy a super cheap piece of furniture, clothing or item for the home can be tempting, but as nay bargain lover will attest, often choosing the cheapest option is a false economy. The problem with cheap goods is that they are not built to last, partly because they use cheaper materials and less skilful manufacturing processes and partly because retailers want you to have to replace the items regularly so you spend more money.

Whether you find large bespoke dining tables, statement jewellery pieces, work or arts, or designs of clothing, bespoke ones in all these categories would be intended to last. This means that once you’ve bought the item you’ll have a much longer time frame before you need to replace it and in many cases, such as with handmade furniture, the item you buy may well even outlast you!

2. Personal touches

When you deal directly with a company like Jacobs The Jeweller (check it out), that is making your bespoke item it’s much easier to build a good relationship with them so you’re able to ask for money off or special deals. Although crafts like furniture and pottery making are becoming more popular, most manufacturers will still want to do what they can to get their items sold and to increase the chances of your repeat custom, so they’re much more likely to be willing to negotiate on price.

In addition, when you choose a bespoke item you can have complete autonomy about how it turns out and ensure that it’s completely personal to you, something that no amount of money would be able to get you in a high street store. Making sure that your item is completely right for you will also make it more likely that you’ll want to hold on to it for many years to come.

3. Easy Access

If you buy a mass produced item only to find that there’s something wrong with it, the process of returning it and getting a refund can be so long and laborious that many of us simply don’t bother, which means we end up throwing the item away and losing the money we spent on it. If you opt to buy directly from a craftsman or artisan, in the rare even that there is a problem with your item, it’s easy to let the person who made it know and get your item repaired or replaced.

In order to make ends meet, a person who is running a business successfully will find there are several strategies in which they can use to get their business on the right steps in the economy. With this being said, each business will find not all these tips will work for their business, yet they are going to give the business owner something to ponder as they try to outdo the competition for the lowest out of pocket price possible.

One of the aspects most businesses consider when wanting to save money is the option of contract hire and leasing with the fleet vehicles in which they are utilizing. This is extremely important to those businesses who utilize vehicles on a daily basis for transporting goods or arriving for service calls. The reason this is such a smart money decision is the fact since you contract this out, you can have it to where you only use the vehicles when you need to use them. Suppose, you need a fleet of forklifts, leasing or renting them will allow you to avoid spending a large amount of money on purchasing these vehicles. In addition, the company to whom you contract out your forklifts is going to be responsible for the maintenance, forklift battery repair, and upkeep of these vehicles. This will be one to-do aspect you can take off your list, to make your life a bit easier.

Another option for those businesses wanting to save as much money as possible is to consider business/fleet management services. Though these services are going to cost the business, for those who have no knowledge of what they are doing, the help these companies can offer is something, which will keep their business afloat. These fleet management companies like Lytx are going to work with you to secure vehicles, manage the arrival and departure of these vehicles, as well as the care for these vehicles. Even if the vehicles do not operate on fuel and fall under the category of electric automobiles, then also one can opt for ev fleet management from firms like Evenergi Pty Ltd and the one mentioned above. Honestly, business management services are going to do much of the same with the business as the fleet does with the vehicles or the like the company is utilizing.

For those companies who are wanting to save even more money, they should look at the work in which they have going on that requires only one person to do it, yet they may be devoting several job titles to this. This is known as overlapping coverage on a particular job and leads to the business churning out money in which they do not really have to be paying. This is one aspect in which all companies should be looking into to ensure they are not paying more for their business functions than what is necessary. This is something in which a business needs to look at every year to ensure they are not jeopardizing their company financially.

Saving money in the business world is not something, which is easy. It does require looking at every single detail of the company and revising this as needed. There are companies who have specific positions in which all the person does is analyze their finances, and this is a position the company will find well worth the salary being paid.

It’s easy enough to make your own body scrub, and this can be a cheap and fulfilling way of ensuring your skin is as smooth and glowing as possible. If you’re a dab hand at it, you may have thought about turning your hobby into a cash-generating business – read on to find out how to do just that.

1) Identify your best products

It’s not a great idea to sell everything you can possibly make – this can be rather expensive! Instead, just think about which of your scrubs is likely to sell the best among target market. For example, if your main selling point is going to be your use of natural ingredients, it makes sense to focus on products with the highest concentration of these.

2) Get pricing

Once you’ve completed step 1, make sure you know exactly how to produce the scrubs in question and where to buy your ingredients from for the lowest price. This, along with an estimate of how long it will take to churn out each scrub, will help you settle on a potential price point for each product. Don’t forget to include a mark-up if you intend to make a good profit!

3) Decide how to sell

Next, you will need to determine the appropriate sales outlet for your scrubs. You might decide to set up a stall at your local market, for example, or approach bigger retailers and ask them to stock your products. A popular route is to establish an online shop, which can be done pretty easily and at a surprisingly low cost.

4) Start marketing

Now it’s time to make your fantastic body scrubs known to the world. It’s likely you’re starting out on a bit of a tight budget, so turn to the internet for a cheap yet effective way of advertising your goods. Social media sites are brilliant for this sort of thing, as long you have the friends/contacts to help you spread the word! You can also use the local press (newspapers, magazines, radio, etc) if you want to target consumers in your area.

5) Watch sales grow…

…hopefully! All being well, you will eventually have a thriving business. If you find sales increase faster than expected, remember to expand accordingly. Don’t waste time filling containers by hand if you have lots of orders to deal with – consider investing in a bottle filling machine to help speed things up instead. Similarly, it could be worth spending more on your marketing efforts to both keep your happy customers and attract new ones.

General points to bear in mind:

• Make sure your body scrubs comply with the relevant legislation, especially when it comes to labelling and fair trading. If you sell your products over the web, you should also familiarise yourself with distance selling regulations.

• If you set up on your own, you will need to register as a sole trader and pay tax accordingly. Hire more people and your status will change – as will the tax you pay, so do your research as you go along.

• Don’t overreach yourself. Always thoroughly research the market before launching a new product. Fail in this regard and you could end up with some hefty bills to pay and not enough money to do just that.

Do you have any tips for people looking to launch their own body scrub business? Leave them in the comments below!

If you are new to investing then here are some guiding principles to help you make sound investing decisions. First though, some food for thought. If you set aside just 2,000 of your savings for investing on the stock market and achieved the historical average stock market return of 10% each year then in 30 years’ time you would realise 34,898.80. Want to find out how? Here are the secrets of sound investing.

Secret 1: Research

There is plenty of insightful investing advice out there that you would be a (motley) fool to ignore. Before you start have a read around.

Secret 2: Debt

Use your money to pay that credit card debt off first. With at least 15% annual interest rates on most credit card debts you will need to at least match this return with your investment to break even. Clear that debt before you start investing.

Secret 3: Risk

Investment experts like APT tell us that even the largest financial institutions no longer ask how much money they can make but how much they can afford to risk. This is secret number 3: only ever invest what you could realistically afford to lose.

Secret 4: Patience

Investing in the stock market is a long-term investment. You should only allocate funds that you won’t need for at least three years, and preferably five years or longer. If you are going to need that cash next year consider a shorter-term haven for it such as a money market fund or CD.

Similarly although it is advisable to play an active role in managing your investments you should avoid constantly trading in and out of the market. A well-chosen investment over a long term is the most prudent option. Weather those storms and you can avoid those fees that chip away at your returns and still come out smiling.

Secret 5: Stocks or bonds

It is true that one way to manage the risk metrics of your investments is to diversify. Never place all your nest eggs in one basket. A mix of investments from different sectors, markets and asset classes will help smooth the ups and downs. Having said this, when it comes to bonds and stocks you should alter the share of your investing capital according to your time of life. When you are young place most of your money in the stock market. You will have plenty of time to ride over any dips in the market. Switching to bonds later in life makes sense as you will increasingly depend on your investments for income.

Secret 6: Start small and safe

A sensible option for starting investing is a diversified mutual fund. There are many high quality, no-load funds that invest in larger company stocks and do not require a massive injection of cash up front. They have the benefit of spreading your risk across a number of companies so that you are not left dependant on the fortunes of individual stocks which could increase your potential rewards but only at the cost of much higher risk. You should use a company like SoFi (https://www.sofi.com/invest/) to make sure that you can monitor your investments through an automated system, which helps to reduce the risk when you first begin.

Secret 7: Be active (but it is alright to be passive)

You should always manage your investments actively and track their performance. However, there are two ways to actually invest. Active investment tries to beat the market by choosing individual investments it believes will outperform it and bring higher returns. A safer approach is to invest in holdings that simply follow an index created by a third party: this is known as passive investment. The final secret is that over the long haul, most actively managed stock mutual funds have underperformed the S&P 500 Index, the most popular and prominent benchmark for index funds.