Category: Business

Personalized Payment Page: PayPal.Me

PayPal has been widely used by freelancers and other businesses to send and receive money. Over years many such payment gateways have emerged and still PayPal is a prominent tool for most people.

Personalized Payment Page
Now you can set up a personal page(Payment Profile Page) to receive money from your clients. Visit PayPal.Me and create a username and upload a profile picture, so that your clients know who they are sending money to. Make sure the username(vanity URL) reflects your business(my personal view) For example: My username is technotip which reflects my business name. If you’ve built or trying to build personal branding, then go with your name(and sure name, maybe) Ex: book authors.

PayPal-Me-Technotip-Satish

Payment: One click payment
Once you create your payment page, you can append the amount along with the URL of your page and send it to your client. For Example: My page is at PayPal.Me/Technotip If I want to charge my client with $25, I would append it with the URL like this PayPal.Me/Technotip/25 and send it to him/her. Client can click the link and pay using his/her credit card or debit card or his/her PayPal account.

Why Personalized Page?
Some times we might type wrong email address / PayPal id and send money – this leads to days of back and forth email exchange to get the money back. I’ve an email ID with .org extension but sometimes(even after explicitly specifying it to clients) clients send money to .com extension and think I got the money. We need to bug PayPal support team to get back the money and channel it in right direction. With Personalized Payment Pages I can simply send the link and they can pay me in few seconds without any hassle.

Custom Email Address For Your Business

Are you looking for custom email address like your name @ your domain .com ? [name@domain.com] Something which works like gmail but has an email address with your domain name – that you can even distribute to your co-workers i.e., create custom email address for all your co-workers or employees. Also you wish to have a custom URL to log into emails, like – www.yourwebsite.com/email or www.yourwebsite.com/communication ?

google-apps

Business Needs
If you’re running a business you must have your own website, and for all your business communication its preferred to have your own custom email address which looks and feels professional to your clients/customers instead of simply having a general @hotmail.com or @gmail.com emails.

Also having a business/custom email gives a sense of security to your clients/customers or potential clients/customers, that the mail they’re sending will indeed reach only the authorized person within the company. Mailing to a general email address doesn’t bring in such sense of safety.

What we Recommend and use ourselves?
We have been using Google Apps for all our email needs from past 8+ years and we proudly/confidently recommend it to all other budding businesses. You also get a lot of tools to run your business with ease – tools like Calendar, online Docs, unlimited file storage etc to a few. Also you get all the Google Services with your Google Apps account that you’ll get while using Gmail. With Google Apps, you’ll have your company branding and premium service and customer support.

With the calendar we schedule all our meetings in real-time, it merges with clients and employees calendar in real-time lets us know who is attending and who is not and lets us see their schedule as well – of course the schedules which they’ve made public. These tools are such a productive ones for our business so far.

How much time we need to get used to?
Zero. Yes, if you’re comfortable using Gmail, then you’ll get started with Google Apps instantly. Everything looks and feels the same but you’ll have your company logo and name inside.

20% discount Rest assured, it has reduced the cost of our business operations and we do not mind paying a small amount every year. If you wish to make use of Google Apps then you can use the coupons we have got and get 20% discount for the first year. Here are the Google Apps coupon codes / discount codes with their expiry dates!

69YFFGCCM6KRTM – Expires on 09/2016
4RRX7MCDVEMYJG – Expires on 09/2016

Free Google Apps Account

How to set up?
It’s very easy with Google Apps. Once you create Free account(No Credit Card required – you can try it for months, after that you can decide if you want to continue or not), you’ll get some settings which you need to configure at your domain registration account. Everything will be present in the document provided by Google and if you do things as shown in the document it’ll take less than 5 minutes to configure it. But if you think its out of your hand to do those small technical things – you can simply copy the settings provided by Google and mail it to your domain registrar. The technical support team will do it for you in less than 5 minutes and you’ll be up with your custom email address and custom email login URL.

If it’s important, you’ll find a way

So often we encounter with situations wherein we don’t find a way to accomplish things.
We find ourselves in blocks! People name it depending on their work – writers block, creativity block, productivity block etc

My Own Story
I was so much pumpedup with the idea of working online and making huge money to live a life with ultimate financial freedom 🙂

Read some success stories, took notes from their success stories: by then I knew, taking action is the key! Couldn’t wait to get started. I had all these wonderful ideas for blog posts. Wrote all those articles one after the other continuously and then started checking the stats and even replied to those spam comments, which said, I’m not able to subscribe to your blog etc 😛

After some days I had no more ideas to write. (I was new to blogging)
Later on switched topics. As human beings, we’ve interests in wide area of topics. So I had knowledge in other areas which I started sharing on my blog. Next again changed topic!

Later on, with experience learnt that sticking on to particular topic with a domain works out better!

find-your-way

Similar things happen in all the fields: Business, Personal life, Relationships etc

We set some expectations, we do something, we fail, and then we learn, next if we don’t quit- we excel.

Now I can almost write endlessly on the topics of my interest. I can see something special in everything I encounter, that I can share with my readers in a relevant manner.

“Once you master a craft you can recognize it in anything you do.”

Then what is this BLOCK people talk about ?
If it’s important to you, you’ll find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.

Possible Solution
Be solution oriented, and not problem oriented.

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. – Albert Einstein

Find out what you absolutely love doing:



Stop telling stories which support your excuses.
Know that it’s for your goodness that you need to find a way.
If you keep giving excuses you’ll be cheating no one but yourself.
Be conscious of your steps towards your goal: Take the first step first.
Don’t keep postponing things. Have proper strategies and execute your plans.

Take The 1st Step First

Do not aim for perfection at first shot.
Remember the old saying: Rome was not built in one day.

Building your Blog / Business / Application etc
If you’re not already a celebrity like most of us, then you’ll surly have hard luck with most of the ventures. Many of them may even fail.

This fear of failure is what holds us back and keeps us resisting / postponing / not doing what we ought to do. Let me clear this once for all: Yes, you’ll fail.
It’s sure that we’ll all fail at one or multiple things in life before we succeed. But a person who never tried is always a failure.

take-first-step

Take The 1st Step

The glory of success lies in daring to start.

This might seem the hardest. The gravity seem to be more at this stag!
Lets see what might be holding us back:
1. I don’t have the proper resources to start with.
2. Not enough money.
3. No right set of people.

The common things:
4. He won’t let me do that.
5. She won’t let me do that.
6. They won’t let me do that ..

Yes, all these may be true. But still get started NOW. Start it anyway.
..and then figure out the solutions as and when you encounter the problems.

We all know that problems will always be there. The thing is, how we react( if at all ) and act( taking right decision ) and move forward( progress ) inspite of the problems which is trying to suck the charge out of us.

Set Backs
Yes, we’ll have setbacks once we start. I won’t be surprised with the set backs. You shouldn’t be either. Because we already know we’ll have setbacks.
We should have the right mindset and patience to even start all over again and never stop.

“Awake, Arise, Stop not til the goal is reached.”
– Swami Vivekananda

If you’re losing interest, then you’re not passionate enough in what you’re doing; and may be its not of that significance to the world and YOU!

Focus
1. Start ( ..with vision)
2. Fail (fail early)
3. Face setbacks
4. Figure out solutions
Be solution oriented and not problem oriented.
5. Concentrate / Focus on the right things.

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
– Stephen Covey

6. Start over again ( if needed )
7. Keep up the curiosity, patience, passion, and the spirit of creating positive impact.
8. Keep serving, keep growing.
9. Stay tuned.

Related Read: Tough Decisions

Have Guts To Take Tough Decisions In Business ?

Some times tough decisions are needed in business.
Some can be proved as wrong steps. But still they will be right for your business!

Confused ?

tough-decision

Let me explain:

Facebook introduced Facebook feed feature, and millions protested against it all over the world back then. But the user engagement had increased, so facebook continued with the feature, later after 4 years, on January 25th, 90k people agreed to turnout for the protest in Egypt. And they organized using Facebook and the same feature helped them get out their messages to wider community of users.

Ruchi Sanghvi, ex-Facebooker



Our Own Application, TwitFever.com
Its a retweet club community application where there are many members who write and submit tweets in languages other than English. I love those members, as they are active in the community. Sometimes I use Google translater tool to convert the writing to English and read their tweets and articles.

But that may not be true with other members of the community. They might find it intrusive 🙁

They may find it difficult and sometimes annoying to navigate inorder to digg English content and then retweet them.

In situations like this, we’ll have to follow the guts. I know, non-English speaking members will be really angry on me when I inform them the new rules of allowing only English content. But when you’re clear about your target audience, you’ll have to make tough decisions even if you don’t like to be rude.

Possible Solution:
Branch out the application and make sub domains or host the same application on other domains for each languages!

Now that isn’t feasible for a application like TwitFever.com
This solution may apply for a business which has bigger audience.

With this situation what I learn’t is being tough in decision is a must in business and some times in life too.
You can’t please everyone with your action/decisions.

What to look at?
Some people may say bad things about your application or business. But don’t lose your focus and forget all the other people who din’t say anything! Posibilities are they are actually loving it, but are scared to face the few others.

Always measure based on reality, statistics and not just by looking at a small group of people who are against it.
Its “ok” to treat it as a feedback: check it, if valid, act, if not carry on with your good cause.

Bad News: you’re not going to fit in with everyone.
Good News: people with big destinies never do.

Accept the things you can’t change;
have the courage to change the things which you can;
and have the wisdom to know the difference!

‘YOU’ Are A Big Deal

If you’re working on your own i.e., if you are your own boss, then you will have the risk of getting distracted or interrupted easily.

This new year, my resolution would be to focus on myself. i.e., You should start focusing on yourselves.

You: Person of the year!

YOU
You are the highest leverage thing in your business/life.

If you are happy, healthy, strong and in good mood, you can perform better and you will have a better result; and at the end of the day you would feel satisfied and thus feel more happy, healthy and strong. Yes, it’s a recursive process. If things don’t work properly, you would feel sad, unhealthy and weak; and there is more chances of getting bad results inturn.

In order to balance our life, we need to take care of 2 things: Profession and Personal Life.

Measure Your Work:
If you are not digging ditches or manufacturing tires or any physical goods for that matter, you will be able to measure the exact amount of work you accomplished at the end of the day.
For example: If you are into information business or if you are into some work which is directly related to information and there is no physical product involved; Like a software: it’s not a physical product.

Tip: Fix the amount of work that you want to accomplish for the day.

Solution:
Fixing a goal and working daily in chunks of fixed blocks of time to achieve the goal. Ex: If you decide to do Yoga, to help yourself with maintaining your health, then do it daily on a fixed time, for a fixed block of time.

Kill Multitasking
All these days I was efficient with multitasking..now also I’m! But if I focus on one specific task alone, I will get better results and finish tasks soon, one at a time.

Do not keep sms’ing, emailing, Facebooking, Tweeting all day or whenever you get distracted by it’s thought. Fix time for most of these things. Yes being in touch with friends is as important, but it’s not the only thing on earth. You dint start your business to end it this way, right ?

Solution
Kill unwanted distractions. I’m going to kill most of it. I’ll sms, email, Facebook, Tweet only once in a day, and not more than 20min for all these things.

And I would make sure, I WILL NOT INTERRUPT OTHERS.

Stop Unhealthy Habit
I’ll not drink caffeine, beer, wine etc. Will stick to healthy diet.

Good Emotional Habits
Yoga, Meditation brings good health to body and mind. It would surly help in the long run to maintain health and good state of mind. With good health and good state of mind, we have more chances of succeeding at whatever that we are doing.
Imagine, if you have some illness and your mental status is out of focus and you are attending a meeting to decide about the future of your company :p How worst the situation can be?

Do’s and Dont:
From now on, we have to do things which brings us closer to our goal. We need to eliminate the useless things which we regularly do, which neither creates value to us nor to others.

Enjoy Life
Regularly Take Break’s. Yes I get satisfied while working. I enjoy my work. But there is a life outside it. We have people who love us. and there are people whom we love.
We need to spend as much time as possible with them. These are the only things that will remain in our heart till the end.
Spend time with your parents, children, wife, girlfriend, friends etc. Remember the last time you had spent time with them, how happy you were.

We need to take time and regularly spend time with loved ones and never ignore them for the sake of business and money.

Reading Books:
If you fall asleep while trying to read books, then, try doing it at the end of the day.
Try to finish reading one book, … two books, .. three books. Take interesting books; things you like to know about.

Slowly you’ll fall in love with books. I’ll end my day reading atleast one chapter from my favorite authors.

Summary:
1. Wake up early in the morning.
2. Start the day with Yoga, Meditation.
3. Eliminate doing things which do not bring any progress in what you want to achieve.
4. Focus on things you want to do: one at a time.
5. Kill multitasking.
6. Take care of yourself. You are the most important thing in your business/life, nothing else. If you stay fit/healthy, you could achieve anything.
7. Your priorities matter. Don’t prioritize wrong things; and don’t ignore the right things.
8. Life has it’s up and down: Know this in advance and continue focusing on your values and do not get distracted.
“Don’t swell when you are happy, don’t dwell when you are sad”

I wish you all the success. Happy New Year. Remember, for all the reasons quoted about and more, ‘YOU’ Are A Big Deal.

Testimonials: Goldmine For Your Business

Have you ever got satisfied with any services or products?
If you said ‘yes’, then make sure to send your testimonial to that company. I’m sure, every business love their customers positive feedback. Irrespective of the size of the company, your testimonial will usually be highlighted. Because ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing is still the number one marketing technique and testimonials help serve the purpose.

word-of-mouth-marketing

You’re Famous
Make sure you’re providing real testimonials and not a fake praising to get highlighted!

Most of the web service or product websites display your testimonial along with your photo and a linkback to your website or blog, to let their prospective clients/customers know that the testimonials are from real people and that their products/service has demand in the market.

Testimonials are Gold For Your Business
If you are a company, then make sure to ask for your customers/clients feedback. Testimonials are gold. Positive feedback provide social proof; Negative feedback provide the opportunity to recognize and fix the problems, which helps in improving the business/service.

Use Our Services!
If you are never satisfied with any product or service, then use ours and send us a testimonial 😉 Technotip Services

Real Personal Experience
Just some days back I had to goto a local client’s office to talk about a possible deal. I talked a bit about our company and tried my best to represent Technotip and tried all means to convey the quality of our work. Client was ok with whatever I said; but once he started navigating our official blog and spotted some testimonials – he was surprised and impressed immediately. He was sold out to our service by just looking at the genuine testimonials we had listed.

testimonial-review

He handed over 6 projects immediately. and all without me taking the pain of trying to showcase the quality of our work. Let the testimonial do the work of impressing , you do your work which YOU ARE best at!

Testimonials are like sprinkling fairy dust from your magic wand..on your prospective clients/customers.

Related Read: 10 Nuggets of Gold To Improve Your Business