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I was surprised when I asked parents to tell me the life skills they wish their kids knew, and there was a resounding request for kids to learn how to open a bank account.

Similarly, there was a huge call out for:

• How to budget & balance accounts
• How to write checks and pay bills
• And how to start saving for retirement

It seems some of the things we take for granted are, as a result, missing from what we teach kids.

This article is the first article in the four-part series and will discuss the best and simplest way to get started with opening a bank account.

It seems easy, but there are several questions many people never think of that we’ll address in this article:

1. Which bank?
2. Checking or savings account?
3. Are there fees or minimum balances?
4. Should I get a Debit Card too?
5. Should I have my name on the account with my kid?

1. Choosing a Bank

When you choose a bank, there are a few criteria you’ll want to look at:

1. Location
2. Number of branches
3. Ease of access

The location should be convenient to your home, but also have enough branches so that – in the case of an emergency – you can get to your bank.

I opened an account with Elevations Credit Union when I was attending CU Boulder. It was convenient and credit unions are really great to bank with. However, after I graduated and moved, there were no branches around me, which made things very inconvenient. I ended up opening an account with US Bank since they are in about every King Soopers, where I do my grocery shopping.

This is especially important with kids because you don’t want them to have to drive too far just to bank.

Similarly, ease of access into the branch is important. I remember having a Norwest (now Wells Fargo) account, and getting in and out of the bank’s parking lot was terrible. I had several near-miss car accidents and dreaded even going to the bank.

2. Checking or Savings Account

As you’ll learn in the future article about saving and budgeting, there should be an account that is used for saving and investing.

That means it’s important to have BOTH a checking and savings account.

The reason a checking account is important, is so that kids can learn how to write checks, and have a designated spending account aside from a designated savings account.

Checking accounts are important for paying bills (be it online or via mail) and will give kids the opportunity to learn how to write checks. Even if check writing isn’t as prevalent as it once was, it’s still important.

I was shopping one day and realized I forgot my wallet, which had my credit cards and cash. I started to panic because I needed some food. Fortunately, I keep a couple of checks in the car and was able to save myself by writing a check… they still come in handy!

3. Fees & Minimum Balances

Some banks have fees to have an account and others don’t. Obviously get the one that doesn’t since your kid shouldn’t have a huge account. Likewise make sure there isn’t a minimum balance or a very small ($10 or less) minimum balance.

Just as important is how overdrafts are handled!

When I was in college, it never failed: my peers (who hadn’t learned how to balance an account) would routinely trigger their overdraft protection and the hefty fees that went along with it.

They would look at their balance online and it would show $10. Then they’d check it again a few days later and it was at $30.

It was the magical growing bank account; and they never wondered where the extra money came from. Until the end of the month when they had over $200 in overdraft protection fees!

I would suggest NOT getting overdraft protection and instead making darn sure they can balance their account (which we’ll cover in a future article).

4. What About a Debit Card?

Here’s my thoughts on kids having debit cards: it makes it much, much harder to balance the bank account while making it much easier to overspend and run into trouble.

Are ATM machines convenient? Yes, but I have never once used one in my entire life. Part of teaching kids life skills is to teach them to be prepared. I keep an extra $10 in cash plus a few checks in my car. It wouldn’t bother me if it got stolen.

If you’re determined that your kid gets a debit card, wait at least six months after opening their account so they can learn “the old fashioned way” and understand how the debit card affects their account when they actually start using it.

5. Should I Be On The Account Too?

I think it’s a very good idea for you to be on your kid’s first account so you can monitor their spending and make sure they don’t cause a train wreck.

It’s good to get statements so that you can use that as a learning experience to go over them with your kid and teach them how to properly dispose of them (in a shredder) so that they decrease their risk of identity theft.

Come up with a time frame or benchmarks until you pull yourself off the account and let your kid take on the responsibility of an individual account.

Opening a bank account is a huge step into a new world for kids and it should be a great experience. Walk your kids through the setup and look for the learning opportunities along the way.

Does your sign up rate sucks? Are you having a hard time convincing your prospects to take advantage of your consulting services? Are you losing hundreds or even thousands of prospects to your competitors? Then, this article is for you. In here, I will share the 4 targeted secrets that you can use to easily promote your consulting services over the internet.

1. Showcase your expertise. The first thing that you need to do is to convince your prospects that you are really knowledgeable on your chosen niche and that you are capable of providing them their learning needs. Doing this can be pretty simple although time-consuming. Start by writing articles (at least 2-3 per day) and distribute them to submission sites (example: EzineArticles and goarticles). Make sure that your articles are closely relevant to your consulting services and that they speak volumes about your expertise. You can also create a blog and publish your own ezine. The more information you share through these mediums, the higher your chances of earning the trust of your target market.

2. Keep in touch. It’s possible that you will not be able to convince people to sign up the first time that you offer them your consulting services but that doesn’t mean lost sale. You can still get these people to work with you later on by building an ongoing communication with them. Encourage them to send you an email when they have a question or call them from time to time. Through this, your prospects will learn to like you and later on, trust you. This is what you need to finally convince them to swipe their credit cards.

3. Selling partners. It would work to your advantage if you can get people to help you promote your consulting services. You can tie up with other online entrepreneurs who are selling products or services that compliment yours. Let me give you an example; if you offering internet marketing consulting, you can tie up with website designers who can cross sell your services to their clients while you do the same for them.

4. Affiliates and previous customers. Hire affiliates to market your services for commissions and encourage your previous customers to recommend you to other people by launching exciting referral programs where these people can get monetary rewards, vouchers, discounts and exciting gifts each time they successfully bring business to your doorstep.

What is an IT Consultant ?

Put simply an “IT consultant is someone that focuses on advising businesses on how best to use information technology to meet their business objectives. In addition to providing advice, IT consultants often implement, deploy, and administer IT systems on businesses’ behalf.”

Notice the key here - they advise businesses on how to meet their business objectives using IT – not the other way around.

What should I look for?

First and foremost, ask for references, and check these – if the consultancy firm is nervous about giving references then be very cautious. You want to work with someone who has delivered for other clients.

Ask them about there personal credentials – this may be experience or it can be academic – although ideally they will have a good academic or professional background, backed up with good experience. Also ask them about a project or client that they have recently worked with and what effect they had on the business.

They should ask you a number of questions about your current systems, and what you want to achieve – these should be linked to business objectives, which are met through IT. Be wary of anyone who jumps straight into a solution or a product without first taking the time to understand what you want to achieve. If they fail to understand your needs and requirements properly, then it is likely that the solution provided will fall short of what you require.

By it’s very nature, IT is a complex world, but a good consultant should be able to “interpret” for you from the technical. They should explain things clearly – if they try and “blind you with science” or fail to explain clear benefits and then ask them to explain in English! Be very cautious about consultants who are really just engineers and can only speak “techno geek”

Be clear and about what you expect to achieve – be this a reduction in costs, improved reliability and efficiency, the ability to have remote workers. Make sure that the proposed solution will deliver the benefits you require.

Be wary of salesmen that say they are consultants – who will just put in the most expensive solution, or the one that makes the highest margin. Remember the definition of a consultant? Someone who “delivers business objectives, through IT”. The last thing you want is someone putting in IT for IT’s sake – you may not need the most expensive solution, or the latest new system. What you want is a solution that delivers the business objectives and brings the best Return On Investment.

Often, the consultant will provide a written solution, or a list of recommendations. Read this carefully, and ask them questions like – what are the hidden costs? What happens if there is a problem? If the project over-runs, what happens? Look for someone who will take responsibility, and gives you straight answers – rather than someone who dodges issues.

In the area of business consulting, goal-setting theory is the most useful in predicting behavior in the business environment. Most business professionals believe that people who intentionally set goals for themselves and focus their behavior to accomplish their goals tend to be more successful. A basis for motivation and directing behavior are the two functions of goals.

You may possibly know that within your past work experiences, a goal you set for yourself was usually accomplished after making a specific goal, a detailed plan to achieve that goal, and following the plan. For example, when you have needed to have employees or contractors prepare for a specific business project, you possibly made a plan for how long to prepare and determine the skills needed to complete the project successfully, when to practice the skills, which skills to practice, and a practice assessment to measure their knowledge and keep track of their progress.

Research into business consulting has found that when a goal is more specific, the individual’s effort is more deliberate and the behavior is better directed and they are business environment. Receiving feedback about performance is very important. This shows the person whether or not they should work harder or stay at the same pace. As mentioned earlier, when giving practice assessments to the employees or contract workers, the results would be your feedback to let you know if a needed to work harder in preparing for a successful project completion.

Goal setting is effective in groups as well. It can be difficult to achieve at times because the overall success of the group depends on more than just an individual member. For example, you may possibly work in a business environment that requires a lot of group work and culminates in a group project that requires team building. If some of the team members do not carry their weight, the group will not be as successful. Each member in the group needs to have clearly, defined roles.

People do not make a conscious decision of dedicating themselves to be a failure. But, people can fall into this mindset if they do not set certain goals for themselves. When people do not meet their stated goals, then the goals should be revised. Business research shows that the goal-setting theory is one of the most legitimate and practiced theories of motivation in the business setting.

If you are out to increase the effectiveness of your online exposure and attract prospective online customers, you owe it to yourself and the financial future of your business to learn everything you can about effectively using a business consultant to facilitate company growth.

Do you want to increase the effectiveness of your online marketing techniques to dramatically grow your bottom line?

If so, read about and download my new free eBook How A Business Consultant Can Increase Your Marketing Effectiveness

Understanding cash flow in your small business is important and if you are not financially savvy, a business consultant can teach you how to handle it. Cash flow is basically the transfer of money within your business. Payroll, taxes, contract labour, vendor and supplier payments, rent, utilities and much more fall within this area. Many businesses fail though due to inferior cash management skills.

Importance of Cash Flow

Given the global economic recession, the business marketplace has become quite a challenge, one that will impact your small business structure and operations for years to come. A negative flow of cash can only be sustainable for a short time, particularly for small businesses, before something happens such as foreclosure. As the owner, you must have a tight reign on your finances, particularly cash flow management. You need to hone your forecasting skills and identify key areas that can be improved to turn around that negative trend.

A business consultant is a smart investment if you notice that your finances are not headed in a positive direction. A consultant can help you identify weak areas within your business and they also can find patterns in the cash flow management that can be an indicator of future problems. They can teach you those valuable forecasting skills too.

Typical Steps

Getting to know your customer files intimately will help you with payment scheduling, invoicing and other cash flow duties. Do you notice a trend in your customer payments? Do they pay at a particular time each month? If you can identify when your customers pay you each month, you can then create a payment schedule for your suppliers. In addition, you will then know when to follow up with those customers who do not pay in time.

Using the approximate schedule of customer payments as well as that of your own suppliers, you can extrapolate that information out for several months. Also called forecasting, you will have an approximate answer for what to expect in terms of cash flow. This information will help you with scheduling staff to expanding your business operations.

Quality control is an important facet in cash flow management. Do periodic checks on your invoicing system to ensure that sales invoices are being tabulated correctly. Reinforce your payment guidelines; a consultant will tell you to not be afraid to send a delinquent account to collections or to a solicitor. After all, you are in business to make money, not enable your customer’s bad paying habits.

When you have a good handle on cash management, you can confidently plan for business expansions or save resources to tide you through the slower times of year. A business consultant can help you with forecasting and assessing your cash flow issues if you are not quite yet comfortable with handling that aspect of your small business on your own.