Fund commercial projects with the EB-5 Program

By EB5 Investors

China’s emergence in the last decade as an economic power has created a class of wealthy entrepreneurs, and the EB-5 program has given them the opportunity to invest their capital in exchange for gain green cards for themselves and their dependents in the United States.

Through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, several Chinese investors have poured 30 million dollars into the charter school system in Florida and are planning to invest more. According to Ilona Vega Jaramillo, director of international business development for Enterprise Florida, the state’s economic development division, this group of investors is looking to bring an additional 90 million dollars into the system next year.

The EB-5 program is directed by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USICS”) and allows investors to be eligible for visas under the fifth employment-based visa category. Created by Congress and enacted in 1992, with the purpose of stimulating the economy through foreign investment and job production, the program requires an investment of at least 1 million dollars ($500,000 if investing in a “targeted employment area”) and the creation of at least 10 jobs. In return for their investment, the foreign investor will gain legal residency in the U.S. for themselves and their dependants if they meet all of the program’s requirements.

One of the requirements is that the money be invested into a commercial enterprise. While schools are not traditionally commercial in nature, the EB-5 program is flexible in its determination of what constitutes a commercial enterprise. In the case of the charter schools, they create jobs for teachers, custodians, bus drivers, administrators, and also indirectly create jobs for local businesses that will see an influx of new customers as a result of the schools’ establishment.

Another group of 12 Chinese investors has taken advantage of the “Regional Center” program and each placed their $500,000 ($6 million dollars total) into an aquaculture project in Fellsmere, FL. A regional center is a business designation given to some investment vehicles by the USCIS that operate in commercial entities that promote economic expansion and job generation. The Regional Center is charged with the project’s administration and compliance with USCIS regulations.

The Fellsmere aquacultural project is a sustainable Pacific white shrimp farm. The farming process allows for the shrimp’s by product to be filtered by feeding it to oysters. The filtered product would then be used in a lined open pond where sea asparagus is grown, all without discharging the waste into the environment. The shrimp and oyster production takes place in an enclosed, insulated building, allowing for farming 365 days a year and results in 10 times the amount of product than from traditional farming processes.

Currently, the project has $10 million raised, but is in the process of qualifying an additional 32 investors through the EB-5 program so that construction can continue without interruption. They are slated to break ground in January.

Change your mindset and make money on the go

By Chris Smith

Beg, borrow or steal, what are my choices?

Before we try to create an Excel worksheet to demonstrate to the lender about our past and future funds flow let me take you in an entirely different mindset. Most times we do not need money for our own necessities but subconsciously are trying to borrow to fulfill the need of a close friend or relative we feel obligated to provide for.

Have you ever thought that our own direct needs get subconsciously budgeted in our present income? And most of the time we are borrowing for others or our unwanted priorities.

1. Before driving to a place ask yourself a simple question if that trip is the top priority which needs to be accomplished at this point of time. Is this trip out of your home going to bring in some revenue or is it going to be a drain on your existing well balanced budget.
2. By personality some of us are job seekers and go forward and earn revenues where as others have a minor urge to be mini entrepreneurs by selling their unused items on ebay.co.uk

Once you have identified these two above traits within you, you shall see an immediate improvement in your financial standing. If by your personality trait you are a traditional job seeker than each trip out of our house has to be for a job that produces revenue and only for those trips out I need to stop by to meet a friend or buy groceries.

Charity begins at home:

My son always buys his college books on halfprice.com and he always forgets to sell back his books on Bookfinder.com. A few days back I took him to my local library and showed him the section where the library has a collection of books that they do not need and want to throw them away.

I asked my son if he can identify even one book per day from this library trash section than each trip to the library may make him richer by few bucks. After several hits and tries my son identified some DIY books that he could sell at halfprice.com as a price higher than those books had printed price on them.

Today he makes sure that any DIY book available in any of the library in the entire UK is redirected to him so that he can make a small fortune out of it. His earlier trips to library were to hang out with friend or play computer games. His same trips to library that were a drain on his pocket are a source of revenue for him and some of his friends who now consider themselves at guru in making money out of “halfprice.com.”

In Conclusion:

Essentially moving from a mindset of making a trip out to spend verses changing our mindset to taking a trip out to produce revenue shall allow you to spend the money you get the way you want to spend.

Chris Smith has been writing financial related articles for the last four years hoping to help people better manage their finances and make informed and smart decisions when money is an issue.

Guest post: Smart Money: Time Management Tricks

Guest post submitted by Doreen Martel; syndicated courtesy of Freelancing and More

We need to be honest with ourselves when we are self-employed and make sure that we are making the most of the hours that we invest in our business. There are some tasks that simply do not provide a good return on our investment of time and in some cases, they will never provide a good return for the time that we invest. In order to make the amount of money that you need to make, you need to make sure that you are managing your time well and investing the hours that you have well.

First set income goals

One of the first things that you need to determine is what your monthly income goal need to be. If you need to earn $1,000 a month and someone else needs to earn $2,000 then your time management techniques are going to be significantly different. If each of you is working 40 hours a week, your “hourly” earnings have to equal $6.25 (net) hourly for $1,000 a month but $12.50 for $2,000 a month. This can be problematic if you have to scrape around for assignments to meet that goal.

Set your hours

Clearly if you need to work 40 hours a week, you need to have some sort of schedule. There are so many things that can distract you during your typical work day including social media, email, Skype calls and so much more. You have to set your work hours and make a plan to stick with them in spite of any distractions that you may encounter. Do not forget to include time for sensible breaks, social media and other interruptions.

Pick your poison

There are countless ways to make money online, if you are careful, you can do fairly well. Make sure that you watch out for work at home scams and people who will take advantage of you. Find writing assignments that match with your own personal style of writing, participate at revenue sharing sites where you can write and earn ongoing revenue and find personal clients or use freelancing sites.  If you find the right “mix” of assignments between content farms, revenue sharing sites and micro tasks, you will be able to earn steady freelancing income.

Do not put all eggs in one basket

Too frequently, writers find themselves lulled into a false sense of complacency and think they can make all of their income from one or perhaps two websites. Do not do it!  If you do not take the time to expand your horizons, chances are that you are going to run into problems. Many writers suffered at the hands of Demand Studios when the First Look program went into effect, others took a beating with Suite 101 and still others lost out when Helium stopped paying up fronts. Try to make sure that you plan your time so that you have a steady stream of income coming in at all times. Your schedule might look like this:

       •  Monday – Private Clients
       •  Tuesday – Revenue Sharing Sites
       •  Wednesday – Blogging
       •  Thursday – Paid to write sites
       •  Friday – Micro sites

Using this type of a mix will allow you to keep a flow of income for both long and short-term needs. Using the micro-sites at the end of the week will allow you to play “catch up” if you have fallen a bit short on your other earnings goals or will allow you to make a few dollars to go out and play on the weekend.

Remember that only you can set your own time frames and schedules, you are going to have to find out what works best for your individual time and earnings needs.

About Doreen Martel

Well-rounded freelance writer who contributes to various blogs, paid to write sites and revenue sharing sites. Doreen is legally blind and has worked at home for more than 10 years. She uses the lessons learned from this experience to enhance her writing and share information with others.