How an Insurance Policy Works
Insurance is synonymous to a lot of people sharing risks of losses expected from a supposed accident. Here, the costs of the losses will be borne by all the insurers.For example, if Mr. Adam buys a new car and wishes to insure the vehicle against any expected accidents. He will buy an insurance policy from an insurance company through an insurance agent or insurance broker by paying a specific amount of money, called premium, to the insurance company.The moment Mr. Adam pay the premium, the insurer (i.e. the insurance company) issue an insurance policy, or contract paper, to him. In this policy, the insurer analyses how it will pay for all or part of the damages/losses that may occur on Mr. Adam’s car.However, just as Mr. Adam is able to buy an insurance policy and is paying to his insurer, a lot of other people in thousands are also doing the same thing. Any one of these people who are insured by the insurer is referred to as insured. Normally, most of these people will never have any form of accidents and hence there will be no need for the insurer to pay them any form of compensation.If Mr. Adam and a very few other people has any form of accidents/losses, the insurer will pay them based on their policy.It should be noted that the entire premiums paid by these thousands of insured is so much more than the compensations to the damages/losses incurred by some few insured. Hence, the huge left-over money (from the premiums collected after paying the compensations) is utilized by the insurer as follows:1. Some are kept as a cash reservoir.2. Some are used as investments for more profit.3. Some are used as operating expenses in form of rent, supplies, salaries, staff welfare etc.4. Some are lent out to banks as fixed deposits for more profit etc. etc.Apart from the vehicle insurance taken by Mr. Adam on his new vehicle, he can also decide to insure himself. This one is extremely different because it involves a human life and is thus termed Life Insurance or Assurance.Life insurance (or assurance) is the insurance against against certainty or something that is certain to happen such as death, rather than something that might happen such as loss of or damage to property.The issue of life insurance is a paramount one because it concerns the security of human life and business. Life insurance offers real protection for your business and it also provides some sot of motivation for any skilled employees who decides to to join your organization.Life insurance insures the life of the policy holder and pays a benefit to the beneficiary. This beneficiary can be your business in the case of a key employee, partner, or co-owner. In some cases, the beneficiary may be one’s next of kin or a near or distant relation. The beneficiary is not limited to one person; it depends on the policy holder.Life insurance policies exist in three forms:• Whole life insurance• Term Insurance• Endowment insurance• Whole Life InsuranceIn Whole Life Insurance (or Whole Assurance), the insurance company pays an agreed sum of money (i.e. sum assured) upon the death of the person whose life is insured. As against the logic of term life insurance, Whole Life Insurance is valid and it continues in existence as long as the premiums of the policy holders are paid.When a person express his wish in taking a Whole Life Insurance, the insurer will look at the person’s current age and health status and use this data to reviews longevity charts which predict the person’s life duration/life-span. The insurer then present a monthly/quarterly/bi-annual/annual level premium. This premium to be paid depends on a person’s present age: the younger the person the higher the premium and the older the person the lower the premium. However, the extreme high premium being paid by a younger person will reduce gradually relatively with age over the course of many years.In case you are planning a life insurance, the insurer is in the best position to advise you on the type you should take. Whole life insurance exists in three varieties, as follow: variable life, universal life, and variable-universal life; and these are very good options for your employees to consider or in your personal financial plan.Term InsuranceIn Term Insurance, the life of the policy-holder is insured for a specific period of time and if the person dies within the period the insurance company pays the beneficiary. Otherwise, if the policy-holder lives longer than the period of time stated in the policy, the policy is no longer valid. In a simple word, if death does not occur within stipulated period, the policy-holder receives nothing.For example, Mr. Adam takes a life policy for a period of not later than the age of 60. If Mr. Adam dies within the age of less than 60 years, the insurance company will pay the sum assured. If Mr. Adam’s death does not occur within the stated period in the life policy (i.e. Mr. Adam lives up to 61 years and above), the insurance company pays nothing no matter the premiums paid over the term of the policy.Term assurance will pay the policy holder only if death occurs during the “term” of the policy, which can be up to 30 years. Beyond the “term”, the policy is null and void (i.e. worthless). Term life insurance policies are basically of two types:o Level term: In this one, the death benefit remains constant throughout the duration of the policy.o Decreasing term: Here, the death benefit decreases as the course of the policy’s term progresses.It should be note that Term Life Insurance can be used in a debtor-creditor scenario. A creditor may decide to insure the life of his debtor for a period over which the debt repayment is expected to be completed, so that if the debtor dies within this period, the creditor (being the policy-holder) gets paid by the insurance company for the sum assured).Endowment Life InsuranceIn Endowment Life Insurance, the life of the policy holder is insured for a specific period of time (say, 30 years) and if the person insured is still alive after the policy has timed out, the insurance company pays the policy-holder the sum assured. However, if the person assured dies within the “time specified” the insurance company pays the beneficiary.For example, Mr. Adam took an Endowment Life Insurance for 35 years when he was 25 years of age. If Mr. Adam is lucky to attain the age of 60 (i.e. 25 + 35), the insurance company will pay the policy-holder (i.e. whoever is paying the premium, probably Mr. Adam if he is the one paying the premium) the sum assured. However, if Mr. Adam dies at the age of 59 years before completing the assured time of 35 years, his sum assured will be paid to his beneficiary (i.e. policy-holder). In case of death, the sum assured is paid at the age which Mr. Adam dies.
Developing Your Network Marketing Strategy
Here’s a very sobering statistic for you. 97% of network marketers, who attempt some form of network marketing business, where down-lines are your gravy train, fail in short order because they either cannot successfully build their down-line or they build a very weak down-line. Let’s call them the “97 percenters.” They quickly come and go in the business, with many of them turning to bad-mouthing the industry because they failed miserably, thinking they gave it a valiant effort, and it just didn’t work – heck after-all, it wasn’t their fault.Well, there are a few things going on here that many who understand the industry can easily explain. Since I was one of those “97 percenters” for a two to three-year span, I can empathize with them. However, rather than outright quitting after only a half-hearted attempt, I persisted, even though I kept making the same mistakes over and over. I’m sure you know the old saying, “the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and getting the same results.” That certainly was me at one time.As my attempts at network marketing continued their ascent into the abyss, I blamed the programs themselves for my failings. I just assumed that they weren’t as attractive to others, as they were to me. I thought maybe I was the oddball for seeing value in the product or service.Nothing changed in my attempts at success until my lightning-fast mind began to consider, maybe it wasn’t the programs after-all, but just maybe it was “me” that was the problem, and my lame strategies at attracting leads.Let’s start at the beginning and discuss the nature of a network marketing business.Many assume that because it is easy and very inexpensive to get into the network marketing business that they can just sign up with a NM program and the money will just come rolling in.Now in fairness, whether it’s intentional or not, that’s how many of these network marketing programs tend to mislead people to believe. Let’s face it – and this is not an excuse to mislead people because I believe network marketers, for their own reputation, should be upfront with the statistics of potential success and failure, and by law they should be – but if network marketers were to give these statistics, their prospects of accumulating leads would drastically be reduced.In the same token, as a network marketer, you want to keep you product or service reputable and not be looked at, as so many do today, as nothing more than a “pyramid scheme.” In some cases this label may fit, and you should certainly steer clear of those types of programs, where nothing of value is being offered. There is no product or service that one can get a benefit from.These programs certainly only benefit, monetarily, those who establish the program. These programs quickly “peter out,” almost as quickly as they started because most people want something of value when forking over their hard-earned money. Plus the fact that pyramid schemes are unlawful.However, network marketing is a very reputable and profitable industry if your product and/or service holds value in the eyes of the end consumer. The beauty of a good network marketing program is that consumers could benefit in a twofold manner. First, they can find benefit from purchasing the product or service, and then turn around and profit from it by establishing their own network marketing opportunity, utilizing the very same product or service – hence, multilevel marketing.But, that’s not the end all. You can have the best product or service on the market; yet, fail in your bid in marketing it yourself. This is what happens to many in the “97 percenters” category of failed network marketing businesses.With this post, I am beginning a series of articles aimed at the “97 percenters” and dissecting the reasons for their failure in growing a network marketing business. I mentioned earlier that I was, at one time in the not too distant past, a “97 percenter” myself. It wasn’t until I began to understand the nature of the business and that it has to be treated like any other reputable business opportunity, with knowledge of the industry and a developed skill-set to be successful.For example, you wouldn’t open a restaurant without knowing how to cook, or at least, hiring someone who does. You can go online and copy a recipe and attempt at opening a restaurant with that, but you still need understanding on how to improvise, as a good cook will in order to develop his or her own unique flavor that sets them or her apart from the rest.The same goes for a network marketing business. 97% fail because they just follow the same failed principles of those who preceded them. When you look up how to market a network marketing business, you will get the same failed examples of contacting (and ultimately alienating) friends and family and pushing yourself on them. Posting fliers on cars and local announcement boards in supermarkets or libraries, or wherever. These techniques just do not work.What a network marketer needs to do is attract others to themselves, rather than chase people down, begging them to sign on. This is the key to network marketing. Once you know how to attract people to you, it is then when you will watch your business take off.Now, don’t get me wrong, all those techniques above can help you develop your business, if handled properly and you use “out-of-the-box” ideas to attract attention to your product or service.In my next article, I am going to begin to explain how to approach network marketing and why you need to educate yourself with a network marketing business, just as you would any other business opportunity. When you follow the principles that I will lay out here in these articles to follow, your chances of exiting the “97 percenter” category and joining the top 3% will grow exponentially.Until next time, I wish you all the best of success in your Network Marketing endeavor.One last thing – if you have struggled to develop your down-line in any network marketing endeavor, don’t give up! Believe me when I tell you, that there is a lot to learn in this business, just like there is in any business. If you’ve experienced failure to this point, that’s a good thing.Yes, that’s right, I said, “It’s a good thing.” Look, many of the most successful entrepreneurs experienced failure many, many times before hitting it big. Why? Because with each failure comes experience and knowledge of what it is that didn’t work. If you analyze your failings and understand why your attempts failed, you will now have a clearer picture of what will work.I’ll end with this quote of inspiration… “Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.” ~Author Unknown
The Benefits Of Internet Marketing
Whilst it is fair to say that Internet marketing has certainly had an effect on offline trading figures, the comparisons are not directly proportionate for the simple reason that the Internet has opened up huge new markets which were not feasible before this ‘information superhighway’ was born. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, and the low costs involved in distributing information and media to a global audience, makes a very attractive platform for any business model, regardless of size. Latest figures from credit card companies report a 15 billion dollar turnover from Internet sales in the last year, and rising rapidly. So it is not surprising that budgets for Internet marketing are taking a bigger slice of the advertising cake and the numbers of individuals earning their living directly from Internet marketing are ballooning off the scale.Internet marketing draws together all the creative and technical aspects of the Internet, which include design, development, advertising and sales, and the techniques used in Internet marketing include search engine marketing, email marketing, affiliate marketing, online advertising and more recently, social media marketing methods as employed in blog marketing, and viral marketing.Internet marketing is the process of building, growing and promoting a business individual or organization through any online activity including websites, blog sites, article marketing, press releases, online market research, email marketing, and online advertising. In order to fully comprehend the huge benefits offered by the Internet marketing process, it is difficult not to draw comparisons with offline marketing methods, but it has to be remembered that one is not a replacement for the other. Internet marketing and offline marketing will both have an important part to play in the future of any business, assuming it is not purely Internet based. Let us now look at the benefits that Internet marketing has to offer..Low CostSince the Internet can be regarded as a ‘free for all’ activity center where information is shared freely with all interested parties, the cost involved in the overall Internet marketing strategy is relatively low. Apart from the obvious expenditure incurred in operating a web site, a large proportion of the budgets set aside for Internet marketing will typically be swallowed up by services and resources offering expertise in the various marketing techniques that fall under the Internet marketing umbrella. For example, Search Engine Optimization plays an important role in the positioning of a web site in search engine rankings and the larger organizations will often employ the services of a search engine optimization company to carry out this duty. Equally there are Internet Advertising Agencies available to handle all aspects of online advertising. Smaller companies or sole traders may carry out their own search engine optimization and advertising campaigns and would need only a few hundred dollars budget for marketing software tools. Either way, the overall cost of Internet marketing is much lower than the cost of a similar offline campaign.Work From Any LocationAll activities that fall under the Internet marketing banner can easily be organized from a laptop computer. Most communications are made using online contact forms, email or instant messenger, and payments for items such as web site hosting, internet marketing software tools and resource fees can all be paid online using a credit card. Web site design and management is also another area of Internet marketing easily managed from a laptop computer. The versatility of the ‘laptop’ means that these duties can be carried out from any location and therefore those involved in the Internet marketing fraternity can easily work from a simple home office, or even when away from home. Commuting is totally unnecessary.The Level Playing FieldUnlike offline commerce, the use of Internet marketing techniques now make it possible for an individual or sole trader to compete with the larger organizations in his online business. It’s true that a larger company whose name was on everyone’s lips would have a head start in the marketing of their web site, and a larger presence in the search engine pages, beyond that the doors are opened and it’s quite common to see a smaller commercial outfit riding higher than their much larger competition in search engine results. Yes the online advertising budgets would be much bigger for the national companies, but there are many Internet marketing techniques and resources available to the solo marketers that would help them to stay in touch. There are literally hundreds of new Internet millionaires developed on a daily basis.There are also many niche areas with good benefits derived from Internet marketing, but generally the process is attractive all round as a method of promoting any business, recreational or personal projects across the Internet. Internet Marketing is where the future lies for businesses large and small. The Internet has arrived and no-one can deny it!Trevor Taylor