Author: Igor

  • tom àdam’s Berlin

    tom àdam’s Berlin

    Tom Adam Vitolins is the founder of tom àdam, a responsible and conscious men’s underwear and swim shorts brand based between Paris and Berlin, and manufacturing in a small factory near his hometown in Latvia. A family business – above all, a friendship between a son and dad – tom àdam‘s vision is to create garments that allow ethics and aesthetics to co-exist.

    We asked Tom to share his favourite places in Berlin with us.

    www.tomadam.fr

    Bichou

    My favourite French cafe in town – watch out for Marion & Thomas because they are the sweetest. Their brioche orange is impeccable and it’s the perfect place where to go for an espresso with friends or lunchtime coq-au-vin with your parents.

    www.instagram.com/bichou.berlin

    Schönstedtstraße 14, 12043

    Rosa Wolf

    Perfect if you end up in Prenzlauer berg, and have forgotten to take your favourite indie magazine with you. I tend to have a problem, to go out of this place with only one magazine in my hands. The photo is misleading and I took some other magazines as well. Nonetheless, both Record Magazine & Rosa Wolf, are highly recommended.

    www.instagram.com/rosawolf_berlin

    Eberswalder Str. 33, 10437

    Michelberger Hotel

    From playing table tennis in their courtyard during the day to having a glass of “Jaspidem- Rosato di Sangiovese” and catching up on the book which I always carry in the pocket of my jacket to listening to their concerts on the weekend and having some proper, fine-dining experience. Anytime, any day. They don’t disappoint. It serves as well as a very nice hotel, which I tend to forget about.

    www.instagram.com/michelbergerhotel

    Warschauer Str. 39-40, 10243

    Körnerpark

    When you want to see Jardin de Luxembourg in the middle of Neukölln, this is the place. Perfect for playing Pétanque in front of their art gallery & café.

    Schierker Str. 8, 12051

    König Galerie

    It was founded by Johann König in 2002. It’s located in a former church, St.Agnes, which is a great example of “brutalism” architecture and the very high ceilings give a very unique surroundings for the artworks.

    www.instagram.com/koeniggalerie

    Alexandrinenstraße 118-121, 10969

    James Turrell Lichtinstallation

    *Insert a lot of praise for James Turrell here*. Although my favourite was his exhibition in Jüdisches Museum, this one takes place in a cemetery (I am seemingly a big fan of churches & cemeteries) and starts half an hour before the sunset. Perfect for immersing yourself in the shadow-less beauty that James Turrell has crafted.

    Chausseestraße 126, 10115

  • Is the Investment Worth It? Exploring the Real Estate License Texas Cost

    If you’re looking to build a career in Texas that will offer you almost limitless earning potential, freedom to work as per your own schedule, and to choose the line to pursue, then you should consider a career in real estate. However, before you can start practicing as a real estate agent, you will need to get your Texas real estate license.

    Therefore, it is crucial that you know the Texas real estate license cost to make sure that prepare yourself and budget accordingly. You need to do this before you start your licensure journey. In this article, we will try to help you find the answer to the question, “How much is a real estate license in Texas?” to help you make an informed decision.

    Pre-licensing course cost

    The Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) requires all aspiring real estate agents in the state to take a 180-hour pre-licensing course offered by a pre-approved provider. As you go about choosing a pre-licensing course, you’ll need to address the question “How much is real estate school in Texas?”

    The cost of the course will differ depending on several factors—including the real estate school you choose, the mode of course delivery (online or class-based), and other things. You can expect to part with somewhere between $400 and $1,000 for your real estate education.

    It would help if you took advantage of the discounts and bundled deals that some providers offer to cut your education cost. You can also consider taking online classes to save expenses, and you can find out more here about one of the best online real estate schools.

    Exam fees

    Another component of the realtor license cost in Texas is the exam fee. All aspiring real estate agents in the state must take and get at least a pass mark (70%) in the licensing exam in each of the two sections. The exam comprises the state and the national portions and you must take the exam in person. Pearson Vue is the body charged with administering the exam.  At the moment, TREC charges $43 for every attempt.

    Besides the exam fee, you may incur costs in the range of $50 to $300 for exam preparation. Consider buying revision and exam preparation materials, and this will also form part of the real estate license Texas cost. Some providers offer good materials as part of their pre-licensing education package so you can take advantage of those resources to cut your costs.

    License application fees

    After you’ve completed your real estate education, you’re good to submit your real estate license application to TREC. So, as you try to compute the real estate license cost in Texas, you must consider the cost of the real estate salesperson license application itself, which is $185. In addition, you need to pay $38.25 for fingerprinting as you undergo a background check, which is a mandatory part of the application process.

    Other addition costs

    You can incur extra costs as you work towards getting your real estate license in Texas. These costs may include membership fees for real estate associations to help you build networks in the industry and other expenses in your preparation for the licensure exam. All these make up the realtor’s license cost in Texas.

    Conclusion

    The investment in obtaining your real estate license in Texas is worthwhile because it allows you to practice as a legally recognized professional. Also, your clients and peers in the industry will treat you with the proper regard and you will be able to close deals and build a successful career. You need to plan well, allocate enough resources to the process, and choose the best real estate school. Finally, make sure that you put in enough effort so you pass on your first attempt.

  • The Best Things to Invest in as an Entrepreneur

    As an entrepreneur, you need to make smart investments to grow both your business and personal wealth. With limited resources, it’s crucial to put your money into assets that will provide solid returns. The savvy entrepreneur diversifies their investments across different areas to balance risk and reward. So, what are the best investment options to consider if you want to boost your entrepreneurial ventures? Let’s take a look. 

    Your Own Business

    First and foremost, investing in your own business should be a top priority. Using profits to improve operations, hire new talent, develop products and services, or acquire capabilities like technology and IP will fuel business growth. Investing in R&D, new equipment, office space, and marketing can pay huge dividends down the road. Employee satisfaction and company culture are just as important. Are you confident that your diversity and inclusion policies are doing everything they could be, for example? Divrsity is a fantastic survey platform to help you gain insights into caring responsibilities. Remember: every pound you can put back into making your company better is a smart investment. 

    Property

    Both commercial and residential property have long been sought-after investments, especially in the UK. The combination of rental income potential and property value appreciation over decades has proven to grow wealth substantially. As an entrepreneur, investing in your own commercial space brings the added benefit of housing and controlling business operations. Residential buy-to-lets can provide fairly passive and stable income streams. Location and timing the market correctly are key, but the leverage and equity gains produce the best rewards.

    Gold Bars

    Owning physical gold is a classic inflation and crisis hedge because it retains its value over the long term. Gold bars are easier to store and sell off than other forms of gold. The 24-carat purity means gold bars have strong resale demand. Most banks offer certified gold bar products, but you can also buy gold online. The downside is that owned gold does not generate income and has storage/security costs. But as a way to diversify and shield a portion of entrepreneur wealth, allocated gold bar investment is worth thinking about.

    Stocks

    Although they are more volatile, investing in stocks provides exposure to equity markets that, historically, have offered solid long-run returns. Stock dividends can produce regular income for investors as well. Stocks help diversify beyond one’s own business and other assets. Using stocks to generate wealth, which can eventually be leveraged to fuel large-scale business growth, is a tactic that many entrepreneurs have utilised. Savvy stock investing requires some skill and developing a prudent strategy around issues like risk tolerance. But even modest stock investing early on can reap rewards for entrepreneurs down the road.

    Savvy entrepreneurs invest their surplus profits back into their ventures to reach scale and maximise growth. But diversifying across other assets like property, gold, and stocks builds wealth more securely. A balanced and disciplined approach to investing in areas with track records of long-term gains and wealth protection is key. Do your due diligence, develop investing skills, and remain patient and consistent. The entrepreneurs who become the richest self-fund their ventures and build substantial assets through strategic investing.

  • Lockdown Stories: Trace Collective

    Lockdown Stories: Trace Collective

    Lockdown Stories is a series of short interviews with creative entrepreneurs and businesses that have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Since its beginnings, the main goal of Future Positive has been to share inspiring projects happening all around the world and, during these strange and difficult times for independent businesses and creators, we want to continue providing support and visibility. If you’d like to be featured in this series, please get in touch at hello@thefuturepositive.com and tell us your story.

    Trace Collective
    Founded by Antonia and Aroa, Trace Collective is a London-based sustainable brand for women and men using fashion and radical transparency as a tool for environmental regeneration.

    Location: London, UK
    www.thetracecollective.com

    When did the lockdown start for you and how has your business been affected?

    Our supply chain extends across different European countries, so lockdown measures started impacting us early on in March – when the Italian factory where part of our organic linen was been dyed closed down. At the beginning we tried to continue business as usual, which seems unbelievable right now but I guess that like so many business owners we were not willing to understand what the virus was going to mean for business – and life – as we knew it. However, the impact soon cascaded down to all other points of our supply chain until our production fully stopped in mid-April.

    As a small brand, this affected us deeply. We had to send hundreds of individual emails to our Kickstarter backers explaining them that we were not able to fulfill their orders as we had promised, and that we didn’t know when we would be able to do so. We were left with very reduced stock to sell, which put an incredible strain in our cashflow. And we had to cancel our PR launch for our first collection, which was planned for April and backed by several events across London. We saw months of hard work disappear and, worst of all, we couldn’t do much to mitigate the damage.

    Have you found any new ways of working or have come up with new product ideas during this time?

    Yes. We had our first “crisis meeting” early on in March and have changed our approach to work and business development since then. We started working with almost daily goals and check-ins, which have allowed us to be much more responsive to societal changes. And we’ve shifted the focus of our work from sales and brand development to community building and awareness-raising educational events, which are another of the main avenues for us to achieve impact. We were also able to take step back from the extremely fast paced days that come with entering the market as a new brand, and to spend time developing and landing many of the innovations that were in our to-do list.

    What are some of the positive takeaways you have experienced during this time?

    This crisis has made us more agile, more innovative and more determined to persevere in our mission. Curiously, it’s also brought us closer to our impact and reminded us why we started Trace. The “no-sales anxiety” was getting really high when we remembered that at we’re not in the business of selling clothes – we’re in the business of changing how the fashion industry works and how communities purchase clothes. Selling pieces that are designed for circularity and drive environmental regeneration is one of the core ways that we can do that, and a really important one. But it’s not the only one, and this period has forced us to refocus on other areas of activity that we had abandoned a little bit. Re-connecting with this mission was incredibly refreshing and has brought us immense energy to keep doing our work.

    How do you see your business evolving over the next few months?

    At this point we’ve learned not to plan too much ahead, and who could anyway! We have clarity on our impact goals for the next year, that’s our north start and the most important element for our business strategy. Then we have canvased different activities that will help us get there, and we’re testing every week what works and what doesn’t, and pivoting quickly to the next one. What’s sure to come is some exciting new services and a new community platform. This period of forced digital interactions has reassured us of how important face-to-face connection and community building is, so we’re working on ways to be accessible in physical spaces across Europe as soon as it’s safe.

  • Lockdown Stories: Slowwavy

    Lockdown Stories: Slowwavy

    Lockdown Stories is a series of short interviews with creative entrepreneurs and businesses that have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Since its beginnings, the main goal of Future Positive has been to share inspiring projects happening all around the world and, during these strange and difficult times for independent businesses and creators, we want to continue providing support and visibility. If you’d like to be featured in this series, please get in touch at hello@thefuturepositive.com and tell us your story.

    Slowwavy
    Slowwavy is a new e-commerce platform, which is an invitation-only curated marketplace of selected artists and brands dreamed up by two artists, Rachel Rivera and Claire Ouchi, who wanted to connect the world with rad work.
    Location: Vancouver, Canada
    www.slowwavy.com

    When did the lockdown start for you and how has your business been affected?

    It started for us while we were out of town in a different province painting an interactive mural under our moniker WKNDRS (@wkndrsforlife). It was such a crazy time because the mall we were painting in was slowly shutting down, and we had to expedite our painting process, as well as change our flights to come back home earlier (since flights were getting cancelled at the time).

    We travel a lot for work and this epidemic has definitely changed that dynamic. We had three large art show events in California lined up a few weeks after our mural painting (in April) and we unfortunately had to cancel those projects (or move them out in the calendar).

    Have you found any new ways of working or have come up with new product ideas during this time?

    Yes, it’s been quite an interesting time for this as well, because we are a creative duo that work on multiple types of projects.

    We are very excited to announce that we soft launched our latest endeavour, a curated online shop called SLOWWAVY, housed with independent makers and brands from all over the world. This is our latest endeavour and are so happy we can support artists during this time and onwards.

    What are some of the positive takeaways you have experienced during this time?

    We’re all doing our best in this time and staying creative has definitely started to look a little differently than working side by side together in our joint studio. Making recipes at home, working on some paintings and taking photos has been a great way to stay creative. It’s kind of a nice time to explore other creative outlets, or just being okay with being still (which is a hard one).

    How do you see your business evolving over the next few months?

    As we just launched Slowwavy.com, we are working on our first phase, which is helping our artists and designers get their work up in the shop. We’re then planning to showcase their creative talent with a number of interactive projects where people can view their work and process, as well as interact with them digitally, and from a distance.