Are you a wannabe investor, or an aspiring entrepreneur?

There are now more ways than ever to get those valuable connections to make you and others money. The online crowdfunding world is a network of forward thinking companies and people who want to help them succeed.

In the second installment of our Future Finance series, focused on modern investment and millennial-friendly financing, we’re looking at the particular niche of equity crowdfunding.

In 2012, the total global crowdfunding industry estimated fundraising volume was $2.7 billion. In 2015, this had grown to $34 billion. The industry is booming and growing each year, so it’s about time we picked it apart for you.

In this article, we’re going to look at two key areas:

1. How you can become an investor through crowdfunding opportunities including platforms available to help you along your journey.
2. How you can raise investment for your startup through crowdfunding platforms, with expert advice from FlashFunders’s Evan Markiles.

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For a long time, the world of investing was limited to those with access to significant amounts of capital.

If you wanted to invest, you needed large sums of money. If you wanted investment, you needed someone with large sums of money.

The internet is changing this.

$30 million has been put into one micro investing app, $35 million in another, and a whopping $66 million in a further one. Investors see real promise in these micro investing opportunities, and it’s easy to see why.

These apps aim to open up investing to everyone, no matter your budget.

In the first of our Process Street Future Finance series, where we look at modern tech-driven investment options and how the millennial market is shaping the scene, we’re giving the ultimate introduction to micro investing.

We’ll tell you:

• What it is.
• Why it’s hyped.
• Where it’s going.
• How you can get started.

Hold on to your 401(k)s, we’re going in!

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You don’t have to be a consultant to get paid for recommending software. Instead, you can earn money or in-app credits by using a referral program.

In other words, you can earn money for referring products without paying a cent. Yes, I know that sounds like a “I earn $1,537.87 per day from home” clickbait ad, but it’s true.

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According to IDG Enterprise, businesses around the world spent $3.5 billion on video conferencing apps in 2016.

After years of waiting for video calls to take off, we’re finally living in the sci-fi future of face to face calls.

This isn’t new, of course. AT&T developed the earliest form of video call in 1927 and most of us have been using Skype or similar for years.

The difference now is that we have a lot of options on the market for video calling and many of them are geared specifically for video conferencing – making the video call a staple of modern business.

In this article, we’re going to break down the best video conferencing tools on the market and give you the information necessary for you to pick one which suits your business.

We’ll look at 6 key tools and give some special shoutouts to others:

• Zoom
• Join.me
• Skype for Business
• GoToMeeting
• Appear.in
• Google Hangouts

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Imagine my pain:

I wanted to pretend I was using the 1998 iteration of Google search, but couldn’t figure out how.

Since I’m a Google search pro, it was easy to find out and fix the situation so I was able to get some sleep that night:

Such search mastery. Do you want to be a pro like that too? 

On a more serious note, in this article I’m going to teach you everything you need to know about using Google (not gaming it, like we’re all usually trying to do).

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Over the last 6 chapters of our consultant’s guide to Process Street I’ve gone through the basic and advanced features, example processes, compared process documentation software, documenting client processes and monetizing our partner program (and the app in general).

In other words, you’re almost good to go. The only thing I have left to highlight are some extra small business resources for consultants to help you stay up-to-date on tips and tactics, improve your business practices in general, and to improve your toolkit.

I’ll be focusing on:

• Blogs and websites to widen your knowledge
• Ebooks to tackle complex topics and help you read more
• Podcasts to turn dead air into productive listening
• Posts to give concise insights into practices and principles
• Premade templates which are ready to use in your own organization, or to customize for your clients
• Tools to improve your stack

After all, it pays to be prepared.

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Are you using a messy network of spreadsheets and software to hold reports and get insights on your content marketing?

That kind of setup can leave you in the dark, or constantly spending time updating your records manually. No one wants to waste time on data entry, but everybody wants a place to store their content marketing data for analysis (and tons of cool automations).

So, what if you could compile it all into one database that integrates with over 750 other apps, lets you sort the data into views to generate reports, and acts as the ‘single source of truth’ for your marketing team?

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You might think that I’m going to say that Process Street is the only bit of process documentation software you’ll need, but you’re wrong.

A craftsman is only as good as their toolkit allows them to be, and thus a consultant can only create business systems effectivel and increase their clients’ efficiency if they know the limits of their tools. Microsoft Word, for example, is good for creating detailed formal documents, but it’s a nightmare to document and track your processes with it.

Hence why today I’ll be going over how to use Process Street with the basics of your toolkit – Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I’ll also be comparing them a little, as some tasks can be better and more easily achieved by using Process Street, such as:

• Documenting your processes
• Tracking your important processes
• Visualizing your processes

Basically, we don’t think you have to be some elite business process management hacker to see massive improvements – you just need to know how to use it with the rest of your stack.

Let’s get started.
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If you’re like me, your browser is at the center of your work.

I’m a Chrome user, and I was sold initially on their minimal design and layout, along with the speed advantages it used to have.

However, other browsers have caught up in many areas and narrowed Chrome’s competitive advantages. What Google’s product still offers which sets it apart from the rest, is a huge store full of extensions and add-ons. The extension landscape Chrome offers cannot be rivaled.

Many of these extensions changed my workflow and increased my productivity. They might be able to do the same for you.

So, we’ve decided to break down a host of extensions which can add value to your browsing experience.

We’ll include:

• Virtual office add-ons
• Handy day-to-day tools
• Language improvement aids
• Developer tools
• Productivity boosters
• Social media helpers

Let’s dive in!

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Learning how to live stream may be intimidating, but it’s insanity to ignore the marketing opportunities and advantages it creates for your brand and company.

Want to engage your audience beyond your written content? 80% of brand audiences prefer watching a live video to reading a blog post.

Reaching out through social media? Live videos get more than double (+135%) the organic reach of photo posts.

In fact, producing live videos:

• Lets you reach a wider audience
• Encourages active engagement with your brand
• Builds stronger relationships with your viewers
• Provides a wealth of content to repurpose
• Makes you stand out from the crowd

To help you take advantage of live streaming, I’ll break down the benefits of doing it, the platforms and equipment you can use, and the types of streams you can host. If you want to know why, what, and how to live stream to give your marketing efforts a boost, keep reading.
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