Summer break is upon us, which has led to college students everywhere breathing a collective sigh of relief. Finally, three months to relax, enjoy the beautiful weather, work to save money, and spend time with family and friends. However, along with being a college student comes inevitable financial stress. Not only do you have student loan debt to worry about, but you also have to find a way to make ends meet in your day to day life.

With the sun blaring down, the flowers in bloom, and the sound of children cheerfully prancing through the streets, summer has made its grand entrance at last. It’s time to put away the snow shovels and dust off the lawn chairs, so you can enjoy some much-needed relaxation in the sun. People are often more active in the summer, spending their free time enjoying the great outdoors and partaking in a variety of spontaneous adventures. Yet, these adventures can be costly. To truly seize the summer fun, you need to cut costs wherever possible, so you have the leftover resources to invest in the activities that count.

In June we ran a contest asking you to nominate a special teacher, so that we could award eighteen teachers with DollarDays shopping sprees. It is important to the DollarDays family to support educators every day and we thank the hundreds of wonderful people who nominated hundreds of teachers in our June contest! It is our honor to donate these shopping sprees so that they can continue supporting our children.

It's important to the DollarDays team to support nonprofits, and we need your help this month so we can give away shopping sprees to eighteen organizations that provide programs to children outside of the classroom. If you could take a minute to nominate a nonprofit in our Facebook Sweepstakes, we would be very appreciative (and so will they!). 

When operating a small business, the top priority is maintaining a high profit margin. In fact, studies largely indicate that a high profit margin correlates strongly to the success of a company. One of the best ways to create a high profit margin is by keeping overhead costs low, so operational costs don’t impede on your overall business profits. According the experts at Learning Burst Academy, 20 percent or less is considered a low profit margin and anything above 50 percent is considered high. Since small businesses often spend so much on office supplies, finding ways to reduce that expense is imperative to improving your profit margin.

In a business landscape dominated by big-box stores and major brands, small businesses can often feel like small fish in an oversized pond. Yet, small businesses actually have a lot of advantages over their larger competitors, not least of which is that customers widely report preferring small businesses. In order to make your company stand out, you need to focus on making your brand seem bigger than it really is. Here are some tips to inflate your brand within your region and draw more customers to your store.

Teachers hold one of the most important jobs in the nation. They help to shape the minds of youth, turning them into knowledgeable, socially conscious, and productive adults. Yet, despite their noble work, the average teacher earns only $44,821 per year. As the cost of living rises across the country, it’s becoming more difficult for teachers to meet their financial needs. To further contribute to that burden, many teachers are spending their own earnings on school supplies for their classrooms.

Have you ever wondered what defines a flourishing brand from a flop? How some brands seem to launch quickly and grow easily, while others are buried in their dust? Wonder no more, because some of the biggest brands in business are more than happy to bestow their secrets of success onto small businesses.

Have you ever wondered what defines a flourishing brand from a flop? How some brands seem to launch quickly and grow easily, while others are buried in their dust? Wonder no more, because some of the biggest brands in business are more than happy to bestow their secrets of success onto small businesses.