3D Printing, Copywriting Are Among the Top Outsourced Jobs

If you’re a freelancer and looking to find out which skills are currently hot, it helps to look at freelance marketplace Freelancer.com. And the latest data on outsourced jobs from there reveals a huge rise in trending tech, with particular demand for 3D printing, and copywriting. The Freelance Fast 50 report analyzed over 270,000 job listings on Freelancer.com for the first quarter of 2014.

3D Is Scorching Hot

Everything connected with 3D seems to be a hot specialty right now, thanks to the Facebook acquisition of Oculus Rift, a virtual reality head-mounted display, designed for 3D gaming (among other possible uses). 3D printing. 3D modeling. 3D rendering.  All things 3D saw a dramatic 48% increase in jobs.

3D printing is fast becoming the latest craze, as these printers are capable of making solid objects at the click of a button - and the downloading of the appropriate computer file. A simple Google search for 3D CAD files turns up countless possibilities, and as soon as the file is downloaded, you are all set to print.

We recently wrote about the first consumer 3D printer called Micro, which is raising funds on Kickstarter, with the total currently standing at $2.8 million.  When it eventually goes on sale (perhaps in time for the 2014 Christmas shopping period), it will cost a very affordable $299, making 3D printing even more of a viable small business proposition.

Android Is Hot, Apple Is Not

Or at least …not quite as hot.   The number of Android mobile development jobs has overtaken Apple jobs.  Why?  Partly because Android is hot in Asia, and mobile is growing there.

Mobile phone app development is strong, too. Game and app makers are obviously inspired by the phenomenal success of apps such as Flappy Bird and Candy Crush.

Content Makes a Comeback

Writing and content jobs have rebounded after declining a few years ago, in the wake of the carnage left by the Google Panda and Penguin algorithm updates.

Copywriters are being re-employed, as business owners start to regain their confidence and hire writers to write their blogs, and put original content on their websites and social media.  Writing related jobs are up nearly 18%.  Content is back, baby!

Companies Need Logos

Lots of other jobs show surprising growth, such as logo design (up 33%).  It just goes to show, the old tried and true skills can be almost as much in demand as the trendy ones.

Image: M3D

Dispop: One-Stop For Creating and Placing Banner Ads

If you advertise your business online, you have probably considered the idea of creating a banner ad to be placed on similar sites to your own. But how do you go about making that ad? How do you make sure that visitors aren’t bombarded with your banner 24/7? And what about tracking the ones that got away?

It’s enough to make your head spin. However, a company called Dispop provides a service it says looks after all this for you.

Dispop is a direct targeting and retargeting platform, which allows businesses to launch and manage effective banner campaigns in the easiest possible way. The company claims it has 2,000 customers mainly based in the US. Signing up is free.

The banner building tool makes launching an advertising campaign seem very easy indeed. In an interview with Small Business Trends, Guy Falkovitch, COO and Founder of Dispop explains:

“Appearance is everything when it comes to driving clicks. We provide our advertisers with the expertise both on campaign optimization and banner design. You can have great targeting, optimization and tracking, but if you lack the know-how of how to design your banner you’re not going to attract customers.”

With an army of designers standing by to create your banner ad, Dispop also caters to small businesses that sometimes need help creating and managing their display campaigns too. This could be due to a lack of experience in running an online banner campaign. Or you may simply have no time to get involved in creating a campaign yourself and want to hand that project off to someone else to manage.

Whatever the reason, Dispop claims it has created a solution that frees you to manage other aspects of your business.

When creating a targeting campaign, the business owner has to decide some variables, before the ad goes live.

This includes how much in total you want to spend. But it also includes the CPC (cost per click - how much should be deducted from your budget when someone clicks your ad). You also pick targeting criteria such as geographic location, demographics, and the types of sites the ads will appear on.

The next stage of the process involves deciding which type of banner and what design they wish to have. If you need a banner designed, users can upload logos and images they want included, or the designers can provide designs of their own for you to choose from. If the user already has their own pre-made banners, they can upload them to be used right away.

First-time clients who are starting their first campaign with Dispop can enter the promotional code “SuperPromo88″ at checkout. This will give you a free set of banners to get you started.

Retargeting campaigns (where ads follow prospects who have looked at your ads without buying), involve the same set up. But this type of campaign involves entering a special tracking code in the header of your website to go after people who didn’t do anything on your site the first time. When they go to other sites on the Internet, your ads will follow them for up to 90 days.

Once your banners are ready to go, it’s time for Dispop to decide where to bid for their placement. This can include places such as AppNexus, OpenX, Right Media, AOL, Rubicon, Pubmatic, BrightRoll, Google, and Facebook Exchange. You can also ask for your ad to be sent to Facebook to appear in the right hand column of someone’s news feed.

Once the ad campaign goes live, the next stage of the process is analytics and seeing how well your banners fare. Dispop provides you with a graph showing daily stats and you can see at a glance how many people are clicking through to your site, and how many customers you are getting from it.

Dispop is a really easy way to ensure that your ads are looked after, and that you have high quality banners to begin with. The Internet abounds with badly designed banners which reflect badly on that company. Dispop offers an alternative that seems to do it better.

Using Retirement Accounts to Fund a Business Startup Draws IRS Scrutiny

The IRS is increasing scrutiny into a complex practice for using retirement accounts to fund a business. The practice may trip up business owners who take advantage of it.  In the end, it could cost them not only their retirement nest eggs, but open them up to paying back taxes and large penalties to the IRS.

The practice is called Rollovers as Business Startups (ROBS). The business owner takes his or her tax-deferred retirement funds and uses them to start or buy a business or franchise.  The practice is being pitched by several financial companies toward Baby Boomers and others who are looking to start or buy businesses after leaving corporate jobs where they may have amassed 401(k)s and IRAs.

By using a ROBS plan, the would-be business owners are able to tap into their own retirement monies to fund their businesses, without paying taxes or early-withdrawal penalties.  The business owner simply forms a new corporation, and rolls the retirement funds over into a new 401(k) in the new corporation.  Then the new 401(k) invests in stock in the business owner’s own corporation.  The 401(k) money then goes into the business in payment for the stock, giving the business the use of the funds.

As far as the original retirement account is concerned, it is treated as a rollover.  Therefore, no taxes or early-withdrawal penalties need to be paid by the business owner.

It’s all perfectly legal.

And clever, right?  You use your own money, you don’t have to incur the expense of a bank loan, and you avoid early withdrawal penalties and taxes.

Not so fast. . .there are specific compliance rules for handling ROBS retirement accounts and how you can use the money.  Those rules are easily violated and can trip up business owners.  For example, the new retirement account must remain a qualified retirement account, which involves administrative responsibilities.  If the plan gets disqualified, penalties and taxes could be owed. Also, the funds may not be used to pay a business owner a salary.

The IRS points out in a memo that ROBS aren’t exactly a violation of tax law, but the IRS is making clear that it considers the plans questionable:

“ROBS plans, while not considered an abusive tax avoidance transaction, are questionable in that they may serve solely to benefit one individual’s exchange of tax-deferred assets for currently available funds.”

Two pending lawsuits highlight the disastrous consequences if ROBS plans fall out of compliance. In Peek v Commissioner (PDF), two Colorado entrepreneurs used ROBS retirement funds to guarantee a business loan. The Tax Court said using the funds to guarantee a loan is prohibited, and claims they owe over $500,000 in taxes and penalties.  In Ellis v Commissioner (PDF), a Missouri entrepreneur used ROBS money to rent space and pay himself a salary. The IRS says those are also prohibited uses for ROBS funds.

One CPA calls the lawsuits “ticking time bombs.”  In an article in The Franchise Times, Steve Hamilton, a certified public accountant with Schmidt and Associates in Cincinnati, is quoted as saying:

“The lawsuits show that the Internal Revenue Service is looking deeply into these transactions.  If it blows up, participants can be looking at millions in back taxes and penalties.”

Another concern is that the practice may put entrepreneurs’ retirement security at risk simply because of the high failure rates of businesses.  According to the IRS memo issued in January:

“Overall, the research we conducted and the responses we received to the compliance checks indicated that while some of the ROBS were successful, many of the companies in the sample had gone out of business within the first 3 years of operation, experiencing significant monetary loss, bankruptcy, personal and business liens, or had their corporate status dissolved by the Secretary of State (voluntarily or involuntarily).”

Younger entrepreneurs may have enough years to recover from business failure and rebuild their retirement funds.  But the ROBS technique is especially risky for older entrepreneurs who face losing their retirement savings at a time when they may no longer be able to recover, if the business fails.

The IRS wants business owners to understand what is involved with complying with ROBS funding plans â€" and the risks.  More at the IRS site.

“The Obstacle is the Way” Gives Unusual Advice for Success

How many times have you said, or thought, “This is HARD!  I don’t want to!” If you’re like most entrepreneurs (and you’re honest with yourself), this conversation happens multiple times on a daily basis.  Most of the time, it’s in your head and most of the time you push through it anyway. So what is ...

The post “The Obstacle is the Way” Gives Unusual Advice for Success appeared first on Small Business Trends.