Mango Business

Archive for August, 2009

Exploring Work from Home Business Opportunity takes common sense. Those who think its some rocket science are ill-informed. My story about how I found my work from home business opportunity is kind of mixed – strange and interesting.

There was a time when I thought computer was either for clerical staff or software engineers. Those – who made softwares, and those who used them. Now when I think of it, I realize I was so strongly opinionated, close-minded, and had my own ideas about things and people.

Then, I met two people at the gym who were pursuing work from home business opportunity and earning a living from it. Since these were real guys, not making any tall claims and looked like regular ordinary people, I decided to make friends with them and explore what they exactly did a little further. But before talking to them I tried exploring it a little myself to get a basic hang of things. And I typed out phrases like `Work from home Australia’, `Australia Work from home business opportunity’ (since I live in Australia I thought I might as well look for something that will work here) etc and I found some great websites talking about working from home.

The next thing I did was a discussion with my gym friends. They gave me some valuable insight about work from home business opportunity and also how it was possible for everyone to do it. A Work from home business opportunity could be pursued by young and old, men and women, part time or full time and with and without computer knowledge… by now my head was spinning! Could it be true! Then they took one leaf from the book at a time and explained everything. Facts began to settle down.

Work from home business opportunity is not restricted to `Work from home Australia’ alone, you could belong to any place in the world to be a successful internet millionaire. It required patience and perseverance, and willingness to work hard. It is true that work from home business opportunity requires no minimum or basic qualifications but you have to remember that you will be required to learn a few new skills to acquire a status of work from home entrepreneur.

If you want to start with something as simple as filling online surveys and making money online you can do that. It requires no skills. Except may be ticking suitable options given in the form. You can earn money filling surveys; can things get any easier than that? Later on you can move to many other things. Do data entry work online, medical transcriptions, become virtual assistant, or stat writing. You can also slowly move to something more advanced and complex like becoming SEO, i.e Search Engine optimizer – helping people write content and market their websites. You could become a web designer and so on…. This is just the tip of iceberg.

There are hundred other `work from home business opportunities’ you can pursue from the comfort of your home to succeed online. In my case, I explored `Work from home Australia’ I came across many opportunities that were interesting, challenging and had a scope to help me earn a full time living online if I kept up with it. I decided to pick up and pursue more than one `work from home business opportunity’ and I am doing it successfully till date!

 Everything took me time- learning new skills, earning my first check, and sometimes I also had to do some unlearning. But at the end of it there was indeed a rainbow. For me now there is no commuting through the traffic to office, no meetings, no more mood swings of bosses… my quality of life is so much better after I’ve started to work from home. 

The more I work, the more I earn. My charges are quality based. Meaning, if I do a good job I get paid well. For a bad job I end up with peanuts. I have no complaints. I can happily and confidently announce to the world that this is where I ever wanted to be. I am grateful for that blessed moment when I typed the phrase `Work from home Australia’ on my computer and found the work from home business opportunity I wanted to go with. I wish you all find yours too. If you seek help, give me a shout!

If your business still does not have a merchant account that allows you to offer full credit card services, you are turning your back on profits. Just take a look at all of your competitors. All of those that pose serious competition accept credit card payments. Those that do not have credit card services do not have great sales figures to show, either. Even statistics point to the fact that companies that have credit card services earn much more than companies that do not have credit card services. The average credit card sale is $40 while the average cash sale is only $9. That means you are losing potentially $31 per sale.

You may also be spending more by accepting only cash and check payments in your business. The processing of cash and checks has been found to be more costly, requiring more manpower in handling. Studies have shown that the average processing cost of credit card payments is only 2.7% of a transaction while the average processing cost of checks is 4% of a transaction and the average processing cost of cash is 4.8% of a transaction. Once again, you are leaking profits by refusing to accept credit card payments.

So how do you accept credit card payments in your business? This is where credit card services come in. The old route is to apply for a merchant account in a bank. You will then have to lease the software and equipment necessary to actually process payments and send the data to your account. If you want to accept credit card payments online, you need to apply to a payment gateway that allows real time credit card authorization for online transactions. You should ensure that your payment gateway is compatible with the bank or financial institution where you have your merchant account, and with the software and equipment you have leased.

In choosing the bank or financial institution for your merchant account, consider their expertise in combating fraud and reducing chargebacks. Also make sure that they are experienced in handling merchant accounts with online transactions.

If you are a small business owner, stick to a bank or financial institution that caters to small businesses rather than large companies. You may be able to get better rates and packages designed for your specific niche.

There are options for credit card services that offer everything you need in one easy package. You will not have to deal with various entities or go through various procedures. Often, these options also have added benefits, among them, quick reporting on your credit card sales figures. They may also offer interest on your credit card sales income, even up to money market rates.

One very important feature of your credit card services that you may not know of is that it can automatically qualify you to avail of small business loans. Once you have established a record of sales through credit, most credit card services will allow you to make cash advances that are practically like getting previously approved small business loans without having to put up any required collateral. The credit card services consider your future income through credit card sales as your collateral. This can go a long way in further growing your business.

Payment will not be a problem, either. For as long as you have sales through credit payments, you automatically get to pay your small business loans. It does not matter how much your sales are. Your payments are automatically deducted as a percentage of your sales. You are always covered.

Now do you still need further convincing on the benefits of credit card services for your business?