Investing in real estate is seen by many to be a sure way to build wealth. While it may be a tried and true method, it isn’t something you can just decide you want to do and expect to find success overnight. You need to develop skills that will enable you to follow the path to the financial success that investing in real estate can provide.

Communication Skills

For many investors, real estate investing involves renting your properties out to tenants. Unless you’ve outsourced the majority of everything to a property management company, which is unlikely when you’re starting, you’re going to have to do a lot of the legwork yourself. Being able to communicate effectively with your tenants will come in handy, especially as you seek to build positive relationships with them. As you take steps to improve your communication with your tenants, you can expect to see those relationships strengthen, which is often reflected in how well they take care of your properties.

Bookkeeping

Managing your finances is one of the other things you’ll likely handle yourself to some extent in the beginning. Managing a property means keeping track of everything from income to taxes. Bookkeeping skills can be a real lifesaver when it comes to tackling all of that yourself. You’ll need to balance your income and expenditures, perform cost analyses, and document everything in an accurate, organized fashion. It’s a good idea to have a well-organized and defined filing system as well. You’ll want to hang onto your financial documents for at least a few years in case any problems come up with your taxes down the line.

Critical Analysis

Critically analyzing properties to decide if they’re a good investment is crucial to becoming a successful real estate investor. Rules of thumb can help, but they aren’t enough on their own. Influencing factors include things that go beyond the property: the location, proximity to schools and businesses, the neighbors, etc. You’ll need to analyze these and other factors and extrapolate from your observations to determine if a property is likely to be a good investment.

Investing in real estate is anything but a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes work and dedication to develop the skills you’ll need to succeed. Among the essential skills are communication skills, bookkeeping, and critical analysis. Make sure you take the time to invest in yourself as well as in real estate so you can become the best investor you can be.

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It’s no secret that being a lawyer is challenging. It takes a lot of work and schooling to become qualified and eventually begin practicing. While there are many challenges to being a lawyer, there are three major challenges to consider.

Preparing Convincing Arguments

To win a case, you need to have a convincing argument. This sounds obvious, but it is one of the most difficult things to do. When forming an argument, there are many factors for you to consider and it’s easy to become overwhelmed. When forming a convincing argument, it’s important to remember the main issues and ideas you want to present. You shouldn’t be focused on covering things in a certain order or sticking to a structure. It is most helpful to understand the law, how it relates to your case, and how you can build your argument around that. Practice your argument as much as possible to increase your understanding and build your confidence in the issues.

Keeping Up With Legal Changes

Whatever the level of government may be, laws are subject to change. If you are not aware of these changes it can be detrimental to arguments you make in your cases. You need to find ways to keep up with current news. There are many great legal podcasts you can listen to in order to keep up with changing laws. These podcasts can be simply informative or they can even provide discussion surrounding these changes. Listening to discussions can help you create your arguments and improve your understanding of the changes.

Competitive Job Market

Unfortunately, the legal job market has become increasingly competitive. This is largely because a large number of people are studying to become lawyers. However, there is not enough demand to meet the supply of lawyers. There is also the addition of new technologies that reduce the need for lawyers. If you hope to find work as a lawyer, you may need to take some extra steps. This can include increasing your skills and seeking out other certifications. You can also make yourself more essential by going into a very niche legal market. Finding a niche as a lawyer will make you more desirable as a lawyer and you can potentially see more work in a competitive job market.

Being a lawyer takes a great deal of hard work. There will be many challenges you’ll need to face and at times it can be discouraging. However, being aware of common challenges can help you equip yourself to overcome them.

Read this next: How to Apply Your Business Degree to Real Estate

Driving for a rideshare platform is a great way to make some extra money. However, it isn’t as easy as it sounds. It is possible to be removed from a rideshare platform, so it’s important for you to know what efforts you should be making.

Maintain a Good Driver Score

According to HyreCar, rideshare platforms look for good drivers and individuals who can maintain a good rating. These ratings can be based on many factors, but overall they indicate customers’ satisfaction with their experience in your car. To maintain a good score, you need to cater to your customer. Make them comfortable and happy. The number one priority is making them feel safe and secure while you drive. Some ways you can achieve this by buying a phone mount so you can keep both hands on the wheels, know where you’re going, and keep any road rage to yourself. Another way to appeal to your passengers is by providing amenities such as water or charging cables.

Keep Your Record Clean

If you want to be a driver for a rideshare platform, you need to keep your criminal record clean. Unfortunately, having a criminal record causes businesses to have reservations about you and it may hold you back. In the rideshare community, the thing that will hold you back the most is having a DUI. According to Rogers Beltran, a DUI can have significant long-term consequences for your ability to drive. In many cases, having a DUI can disqualify you from any jobs that include driving. This is because your past behavior marks you as an unsafe driver and it can create trust issues as well. If you want to be hired as a driver, you need to practice safe driving and work to keep your record clean.

Follow the Policies

Most rideshare platforms have specific policies they expect to be followed. If you don’t follow these policies, passengers can report you and your account may be activated. Some of these policies deal with discrimination. You can’t refuse a ride to someone based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. You also can’t refuse service animals and you can’t drive unaccompanied minors. According to the Ride Share Guy, you should be aware of your platform’s policies so you can know what behavior to follow.

Your behavior and abilities play a role in whether or not you can continue to drive for a rideshare platform. It’s important to know what is expected of you beforehand. This can help you work towards the standards the platform is looking for and avoid being kicked off.

Read this next: What to Consider When Leasing a New Car

Even after achieving an associate’s degree you may feel that your career options are limited. Entering the workforce in a field you are passionate about is always doable! In order to get there, some extra training in other educational formats may provide that extra edge or extra knowledge to get you through the door you want into the industry you want to be in.

Learn to Code

The technology and information systems industries are ever growing. This is an exciting field for anyone computer savvy with an interest in developing websites or programs-- companies are constantly looking to improve their online presence, so coders are an asset to business teams.  Coding bootcamps are quick and affordable, and teach you the basic skills of coding as well as specialized skills requested by certain employers or careers (depending on the course.) Because this is a topic that is based on and provided through one of the fastest developing technologies in the world, you can feel confident that your education is up to date with current necessities for the coding world.

Get Your Real Estate License

Getting your license in real estate is a relatively short and simple process, requiring only a few months of classes on average. Online courses are an easily accessible source and provide a level of flexibility in the training and education that is beneficial for those needing to set their own pace. Keep in mind, many real estate courses are full of dense text and haven’t adopted videos, so their content might not offer visual aids or be as current as you would expect in an online course. Look into different courses to determine the best fit for your vision of your real estate career—the market you intend to go into, the success rate of the school in question, and the compatibility of the course to your resources and schedule.

Vocational School

Vocational schools provide specialized programs that give hands on experience, making you an experienced worker right out of graduation! These careers often pay very well and are always needed, so you can feel confident in your job security. Although these courses are more difficult to find online (especially manual labor related courses due to their physical requirements), they are still usually flexible with schedules and long term plans.

Your associate’s degree will give you a base knowledge that will be beneficial to you regardless of the career field you are interested in. Furthering your education through training courses opens opportunities for specialized and rewarding jobs, beyond what you may be able to accomplish otherwise.

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Graduating in business provides you a vast array of career opportunities. Among this vast ocean of options, real estate seems like an incredibly attractive option. The housing market is incredibly competitive and the opportunity to make money is huge—particularly with commissions. Here are a few careers you might want to investigate.

Start a Real Estate Brokerage

If you are into entrepreneurship, you might love starting your own brokerage. Your job would be to find the perfect home for your clients. Real estate agents interact with the seller, advertise the target house to interested buyers, and assist in the transaction of the home. Your brokerage would hire agents that make your company money!

Have you just graduated from college? Before you can make use of your business degree as a broker, you have to get further educated and acquire a license. Then you can use your networking magic to connect with people who are trying to sell their homes. It may take a while to get there, but owning your own business can be empowering.

Source: https://www.collegeconsensus.com/degrees/best-degrees-real-estate/

Become a Property Manager

If you don’t want to work as an agent but you love real estate, you might want to become a property manager. In this position, you will need to advertise, enhance, and make dedicated financial plans on behalf of a landlord. A business degree will make you a more attractive candidate for a property management position.

Keep up with the latest interior design trends. Work with local contractors and landscaping teams to manage the way your apartments appear to renters. You can find contractors through different apps and websites that review different services. As a business graduate, you should feel confident in taking this type of job.

Source: https://www.podium.com/article/how-to-become-a-property-manager/

Pursue Development

Another alternative you can opt for is a development job. While some of these could be government jobs, many also belong to construction companies that constantly build on land they own. A development job is for someone who may not like getting their hands dirty, preferring to analyze plans from behind.

Your job would likely include the evaluating of properties in the city, the cost of building new homes, and acquiring the proper permits. You may need to advertise the new housing development long before you expect to see the resulting money. The job is a little bit safer than the other two, but who doesn’t like stability?

Source: https://gowercrowd.com/real-estate-syndication/development-process

These are just a few ways you can use a business degree in the current job market. You have tons of career options available with this kind of degree. Figure out what you like best, and go for it.

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When you are passionate about something, it is a pretty good sign that you would enjoy doing it for the course of your career. For some passions, like a passion for music, it can be hard to see the path forward, but there are lots of options that can help you to put your passion to good use in a lucrative career. 

Build a Network

The first thing you need to do to start working towards taking your musical hobby into a career path is to start networking with people who are already in the field. Building up your network will help you to gain access to opportunities that you may have missed otherwise. Once you have contacts in the industry, you will have the chance to get noticed for shows or other musical opportunities that can help you get on the map and start making money as a musician. Whether you want to be on stage or behind the scenes, having a strong network will help you to get the gigs you need.

Become a Producer

One pathway into a music career is to become a producer. There are plenty of options for how to pursue this kind of career, including a traditional education. There are many career possibilities from an audio degree. Getting experience as a producer through an education or simply a lot of practice and practical experience can open doors for you and help you to build your career as a person in the music industry.

Get Out There

Building a career on your musical passion can't happen withoutsome serious footwork. It is your job to get out there and start performing or producing so that people become more familiar with your name and you can improve your resume. Once you have a network established, it is a good idea to connect with them for leads on gigs and other opportunities so you can actually get out there and make music. It can be scary to take the leap but if you are really passionate about your future in music, you need to take advantage of any opportunity you may have.

Making it as a musician can be tough, but it is also rewarding, especially when music is your passion. There are many musical directions that you can take your career and with the right motivation, you can make it happen.

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Finding a job that aligns with your passions can be a big challenge, but it will pay off in the long term. If you are interested in a career in one of the creative industries, you probably already know that it can be tough, but by taking the right first steps, you can find yourself a job that helps you harness your creativity and build on your career so you can have a successful future.

Tap into Your Network

Starting with a strong network is important for any field, but it can be especially useful in the creative industry. Even if you haven’t been actively networking, you likely have connections in the industry, so don’t be afraid to use those connections as you look for a job. Networking comes from many different places at this point, so using social networking, reaching out to acquaintances, and joining groups can all help you to network effectively and start finding leads for jobs in your creative field. The more people you build connections with, the easier you will be able to accomplish your goals and get work doing the things you love.

Build a Portfolio

Building a portfolio is an essential part of your success in a creative field, whether you are an artist, a writer, or in another creative profession. Your portfolio is the biggest reference point potential employers use to evaluate your skills. By compiling a portfolio of your work, you are creating a collection of pieces that speak to you as an artist and show potential employers the breadth of your work. Choose quality pieces that show off your skills to build your portfolio and make sure to include elements that relate to the specific field and jobs you are looking into.

Prepare for Interviews

In the course of your job search, you will need to do interviews and those interviews are often where you can really shine if you are prepared. Do a little research before your interview so you know a little bit about the company or person you would be working for and what the job entails. Also, look at the creative work they are doing so that you can choose items for your portfolio that make sense for the particular job. When you are prepared for your interview, you will have fewer nerves and be more able to show yourself effectively.

Regardless of what people may have told you about not being able to find a job in the creative industry, it’s definitely possible. All you need are the right tools and preparation. Finding a job in the creative industry can be done if you take the time and effort to get ready in advance.

Read this next: How Young Women Can Build Careers in the Video Game Industry

Getting home from military service is already enough of a life change, but launching into a career can feel especially daunting. Most veterans have only worked in the military, so how should they assimilate into civilian life? Thankfully, there are numerous ways they can plan a career in their post-military world.

Use Financial Benefits

There are many financial benefits after you have retired from military service. For example, veterans who want to pursue higher education can receive grants to help them through school. If they don’t qualify for grants, they can request tuition assistance. It severely reduces the burden of school debt placed on them.

On top of this, there are loan repayment programs that can guide military families during their tumultuous college experiences. Many of these benefits can also help the veteran’s family and children. Talk with your financial advisor to see what benefits you can make use of when you are in school.

Take Advantage of Your Skill Set

If school isn’t your passion, you might be able to carve out your career using the skills you obtained during your military service. Small businesses are the backbone of America, and taking steps to make your own can be liberating. Those who are passionate about military lessons often find purpose in these sorts of niches.

For example, creating your own gun store or indoor gun range can be a great way to use your space. Be warned, however, with a highly-regulated industry like firearms, you need to stay compliant with ATF regulations. Not keeping these laws can force you out of business and create legal pandemonium.

Don’t Wait Too Long

It is pretty common for recently returned veterans to have problems transitioning into a new lifestyle. While it is perfectly acceptable to have a couple of weeks to spend with your family, you can’t let this hesitance drag your career mindset through the mud. The best way to move forward with a career is by getting yourself out there.

Decide what you want to do with your life. Work is an excellent option, but if you don’t have an idea of what to do, you may want to refine your education. Plan according to your family’s needs, and things will all work out.

Navigating your post-military life may be confusing, but you can make it work with proper planning. Consider what you want to do in life, and then start with the plans you can do at the moment. Your future is only just beginning!

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