Personal finance is something many people do not take very seriously. That is why so many people are fighting with debt problems. Personal finance is about keeping a balanced debt to income ratio and ensuring that expenses never exceed income. Personal finance is crucial to keeping a good credit record and maintaining credit worthiness.Personal finance starts with a budget. Every person should have a budget to track and mange their income and expenses. A simple budget lists all income and all expenses for a month. The bottom line of a budget is that the income should never be less then the expenses. Should the expenses exceed the income the person is going to have to cut back on expenses. They should start by cutting out non-essential expenses. This can be difficult, but for someone wanting to be serious about their personal loans, it is important. Budgeting takes a lot of self control and little sacrifice.The next step in finance is managing debt. Most people have some debt. Debt is essential for building credit. However debt should never become overwhelming. A person should make a list of all debt. The list should include the name of the creditor, the amount of credit, the amount of debt and the interest rate. If there is any debt problems they should be handled immediately.Next is credit. If a person is easily handling their budget and their debt then they can consider getting more lines of credit. However, if a person is not handling their debt and budget then getting more credit is out of the question. A person should also make sure they understand all of their credit obligations. This includes all terms and conditions.After a person has all of their personal loans in order they need to look them over. They should check to see if they are struggling with anything. If they are then they need to manage their finances to get them back in order. This may involve some credit counseling or debt consolidation. A person should be committed to whatever it takes to get their personal finances back in order, so they do not suffer damaged credit or financial difficulties.Now that a person has organized their personal loans, they need to manage them. Managing personal finance is about sticking to a monthly budget, keeping debt under control and not getting overwhelmed by credit. Management of personal finances is on going. A person has to review every month to ensure they are not over extending themselves or breaking their budget.Personal finance is an important topic. It is something everyone needs to think about and something everyone needs to control. Too often people let their personal loans get out of control. It is this that leads to debt problems and eventually financial difficulties.A person that controls their personal finance will be using their monthly budget, keeping up on debt and not over extending themselves credit wise. A good, well managed personal finance is going to produce someone who can afford their lifestyle and who benefits in the form of a good credit record.
The History of Italian and French Gardens
The Italian Renaissance saw a dramatic development in the whole concept of gardens. In the early fifteenth century, as trade started to flourish again, merchants in the hot city of Florence began to build villas or farms on the surrounding vineyard hills where it was cooler. The earliest Renaissance gardens were at first in the formal, enclosed tradition but gradually a view was allowed into the garden through a hole in the wall. As a natural view became more important the enclosures were swept away and the hill side gardens were allowed to stride down their sites through olive groves and vineyards.During the sixteenth century the initiative passed to Rome, where the architect Bramante designed a papal garden within the Vatican. This was forerunner of the High Renaissance style, with a magnificent arrangement of steps and terraces, which became a prototype for everything which became followed. From then on gardens became even more ostentatious in design, with terraces at different levels retained by walls and interconnected by grand staircases. Water again became a major feature, as it was in Islamic gardens. It was pressurized and used spectacularly, progressing down an incline or displayed in an elaborate fountain. While these Renaissance gardens were still places for cool retreat, with shade and water of great importance, they were also showplaces where the site and its vegetation were deliberately manipulated. The Italians were really the first to make decorative use of plants, with hedges, for example, used to link the house and garden structurally.The Renaissance movement originating in Italy spread northwards, together with increased knowledge about plants and their cultivation. In France the small formal gardens within the walls of moated chateaux moved outside, becoming much grander in scale and scope. Unlike the Italian hill side gardens, the French ones were flat and straight, most of them situated in the flat marshy areas to the south and west of Paris. The style was still very geometric, as the original pattern of formal beds within a grid system of paths was simply repeated in order to enlarge the garden.In the seventeenth century Andre le Notre changed French garden planning significantly. With the opening of the chateau garden at Vaux-le-Vicomte in 1661 he established a style which was to influence the whole of Europe for a century. His gardens were still basically formal and geometric in character but they became much more elaborate and interesting with long magnificent vistas, pools or rectangular canals and grand parterres. Parterres were both larger in scale and more intricate in detail than earlier knot gardens. Another distinctive characteristic was the hedge lined avenues which fanned out through the surrounding forest known as pattes d’oie (goose feet). Le Notre was appointed royal gardener to Louis XIV and the garden at Versailles is probably his best known creation. In concept it was a vast outdoor drawing room, intended for the entertainment of a court of thousands.Though most of Le Notre’s gardens were unashamedly for show they were still not places for colour or floral display; canalized and playing water, clipped and trained vegetation, statuary and elaborate parterres provided the visual interest, along with people walking about in them. This stylized layout, originally designed for large chateaux, was adapted to quite manor house. Like the grand Italian gardens, as they became out of scale with the use of the individual, a smaller secret garden had to be created within them for family use.At this stage garden design was fairly international in character and more or less uniform throughout Europe. The Germans imitated the Italian Renaissance style but readily switched to the grand geometric French style when it became dominant. The main historical contribution of Germany has been a numerical one – in the sixteenth century there were more gardens in Germany than any other country in Europe – and a certain exaggeration of the elements in any style they adopted. The French formal style of gardening also flourished in the sandy soil of Holland, on a smaller and less sophisticated scale but with more emphasis on hedges, fantastic topiary and decorative planting. Their box-edged formal beds were filled with tulips in the spring, brought back from the Middle East. The Dutch were responsible, through their trading and through their rise as a colonial power, for the introduction of much imported plant material – from China, America, South Africa and many other countries. They introduced the lilac, the pelargonium and the chrysanthemum into Europe and popularized tulips and many other bulbs.In the same way that English medieval gardens remained pale counterparts of the elegant and colourful enclosures found in Europe, the gardens of English royalty and aristocracy developed on the lines of Italian and French Renaissance layouts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They were, however, less rigorously formal, since the English climate is more conductive to mixed plating. There was also a developing interest in horticulture and a new emphasis on flowers grown for their appearance rather than for culinary and medicinal use.One of the first gardens in the grand formal style was Hampton Court Palace, later emulated by all Tudor nobility. The flower beds were laid out in a knot garden pattern and other characteristics included mazes, labyrinths, gazebos or pavilions, topiary, sundials, trellis and arbours. Vegetable gardens were usually walled and separate from the main garden. After 1660 the influence of Le Notre made itself felt briefly: grand parterres replaced simple knots and vast lakes and canals replaced gentle fountain, while broad beech-lined avenues stretched out to the horizon. Though the English could not match the Italians or French designers, not the Dutch as growers, the closely-cut lawn was one feature of English gardens which attracted international admiration.The seventeenth century was a time for pioneers on the English gardening scene. The first gardening text books appeared, the interest in horticulture increased and a great search for new plants began. The earliest botanic gardens were opened and there was an increasing use of orangeries and conservatoires to protect tender plants. Men like London and Wise set up the first commercial nurseries and began selling plants throughout the land.
4 Digital Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
Why Digital Marketing?
Nowadays lack of online presence can kill the business growth and hammered your business badly. With the increasing number of internet users and the number of online searches for services, online presence becomes the need of every business. But all businesses, especially small ones can not afford to hire an agency for online marketing services. So, here we will discuss 4 budget-friendly digital marketing strategies that can be implemented on your own.
Digital Marketing tips for small business
First, identify
What is the demographic base of your customer?
Which online platform uses search for products similar to your products?
What do your competitors offer to users?
What is your budget for online advertisement?
Answers of these questions help you to build and implement digital marketing strategies more effectively.
Digital Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
Google My Business
Google My Business is one of the powerful digital marketing tools for small and local businesses. Ranking in Google My Business listing improves your business online visibility and sale. If you are running a business that targets the local people then Google My Business is the first tool of your list to make an impact on online searches.
For example, if user search for “digital marketing training institute in Mumbai”, Google shown result as,
Google My Business
Google My Business not only helps users with businesses related to the search query but also guides them with maps to reach at particular locations and provide contact information for the businesses.
GMB is the best way to gain online visibility and credibility for the business in a short period of time. If you are running a local business then It should be top in your list.
How to optimize GNB profile and rank your business
Fill up all details of your business.
Include Keywords in business title and description.
Update your business opening hours accurately.
Update your business location correctly.
Add photos as much as you can.
Manage and respond to customer reviews.
Let users contact or message you.
Add a local post regularly.
Add product catalogue for the users.
Remember, your business listing ranking will be improved when you get the good reviews and update the post regularly. Google My Business listing is absolutely free of cost service from Google.
Facebook Marketing
Facebook advertising is also a great option to reach more people and improve your business social presence. Facebook marketing can be done in two ways, either organically or paid advertising.
What is Organic posting:
Facebook organic posting means creating user interested content regularly and posting it on your Facebook business page in order to gain more followers and likes to your business page. Though organic posting takes more time to get the result, consistency and patience are important to get good and long term results for your business. You can also add offers on your business page inorder to get more visibility and user engagement.
Paid Advertisement:
Facebook paid marketing
Facebook paid advertising is widely used by many small and medium businesses to get the result instantly. With Paid advertising you can select which area and interest of people want to display your ad. Based on your ad objectives the cost will vary for advertisement. For lead generation campaigns cost be higher compared to the awareness and reach campaign.
Facebook paid advertising is marked as a “Sponsored” post when showing for the targeted audience. You need to create the Facebook ad account in order to start with Facebook paid advertisement.
Facebook paid advertising helps businesses to reach more users in a short time, with targeting to specific location, gender and age groups but it is bit costly service for local small businesses.
Google AdWords
There are thousands of search queries made on Google every second. No other advertising option has the potential to get the quick and good result for your business than the Google Adwords.
Google Adwords is like the Good father of all online marketing strategies. For a long time it’s competitive, it’s expensive yet to be an effective online marketing strategy. Adwords goal is to deliver the relevant search results for the queries and it will be less expensive when you set it up and optimize properly. Adding negative keywords and a detailed audience can help you to get a good click through rate.
The question is, how does it work?
Adwords display your ad for the query searched related to your product or keyword you mention. These results are shown at the top of search engines and at the bottom as well. When a user clicks on your ad then the amount will be debited from your ad spent whether the user goes with your service or not. That’s why right targeting and optimization of campaigns is important.
How to Set up a result driven AdWords campaign?
Map your campaign strategy.
Targeting the right keywords.
Targeting the right audience.
Check competition of keywords.
Competitors analysis to build result driven ad copy.
Optimize your campaign for the best time of search.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is a long process and it takes time but once you rank for the particular keywords then the result will be given for a long time. Search engine optimization is not instant result and it needs knowledge of search engine and Google algorithms, how it works? That’s the reason businesses go with consultants to search engine optimization strategy.
SEO
SEO means ranking for the search query on top of the search engine results. When users search for any queries, they hardly check the first page of the search result. So it is important to rank on at least the first page for the relevant queries. Ranking is dependent on the search volume and competition of keywords. Large search volume and high competition keywords are difficult to rank and it takes more time.
Takeaway
These are the commonly used digital marketing strategies to improve the online visibility of the business. Based on your business type, the user can go with the strategy which is best for his business and give them a good result. For small and local businesses Google My Business and Organic posting on social media is the best strategy to go with.