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How to Monetize Your Talent

Tag: tips and tricks

How to Monetize Your Talent
Mohab Events 0

How to Monetize Your Talent

Whether you are a genius in the kitchen, or you can weave magic with your knitting pins, there are always ways to turn your talents into viable business opportunities. Though this is not always easy to do, it becomes all the more challenging if your talent is still hidden and needs to be brought out. So, here are the top tips to help you bring your talent to the fore and enjoy its full potential.

  1. Identify Your Talent: Have you been complimented for your elegant choice in clothing often? Then probably you have a hidden talent for identifying fashion trends and translating them into practical ideas. Even if you lack formal training in fashion, you may have a special knack for cuts, styles, colors and patterns. So, take a close look at yourself and seek out the things you are good at. And while some talents may be a little more difficult to monetize than others, don’t let money be the main criterion for identifying your passion.

 

  1. Design a Business Plan: You can start with building a business plan which will help you identify your end goal. For example, you will be able to decide whether you want to pursue your hobby as a full-time business or as a part time money generator. It will also let you identify major expenses associated with your potential business and the means to fund them. You can also think about taking the assistance of professionals to ensure that all the rules and regulations are complied with. You can get such advice at the upcoming Uncover Summit, where Aliaa, the PayTabs QA lead, will be speaking on relevant topics.

 

  1. Think Out of the Box: Monetizing a hobby is a complicated task which requires patience and some innovative thinking. By working in a step by step manner, you will be in a position to draw up a practical and manageable way to execute your vision. By thinking out of the box, you will be able to come up with new ideas to monetize your hobbies. For example, if you are looking to convert your hobby into a business without leaving your current job, you may have to think about alternative ways to manage your time to accommodate new activities.
  1. Create a Brand and Promote: Once you have decided the talent you plan to bank upon and have drawn a business strategy, it is important to create a brand. In today’s highly competitive world, it is important to have unique propositions which will help you in carving a niche for yourself. Come up with a descriptive business name and an attractive logo to help people retain information about your business. Designing a comprehensive marketing plan will also allow you to utilize your resources in the most efficient manner. Further, network as much as you can to create a pipeline of resources and market opportunities.
  1. Be Prepared for Challenges: While turning your hobby into a business may seem like a dream way to earn a living, the truth is somewhat more modest. Before taking a plunge, you need to ensure that you are truly devoted to your craft and that materialistic goals will not negatively impact your passion. The added pressure of generating revenue from a hobby may leave some people frustrated and unmotivated. Also, be prepared for the setbacks in terms of acceptance of your work and reviews.

 

Overall, you need to start acting like a businessperson to make your talent flourish. This road will not be always smooth, but with determination, planning, and creative thinking, it can take you to a very pleasant destination indeed.

5 years ago
5 Emerging Trends that will Influence E-Commerce Businesses in 2018
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

5 Emerging Trends that will Influence E-Commerce Businesses in 2018

Setting up an e-commerce store is not just about creating a website, uploading images and descriptions, integrating a payment gateway, and waiting for the customers to come and buy from the store. The times are changing, and you should too. As per Statista, the global retail sales via e-commerce platform will be worth $653 billion by the end of 2018.

E-commerce business is constantly undergoing evolution, just like other industries. One who adapts according to the emerging trends will reap the benefits. Have a look at the latest trends to strategize your e-commerce business strategy.

Shop on Social Media

According to a report on social media, a person had spent 135 minutes daily, on an average, on social media in 2017. This depicts the influence of social media on our lives. The e-commerce businesses can exploit the potential of social media for driving sales via their online stores. The social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and others offer a shopping option.

The users can inspect products from their social media accounts, click on desired products, and check out on the e-commerce website. Facebook Shop and Pinterest’s Shop For Look are examples of social media shopping. Whether you opt for paid marketing or showcase products to your followers; social media can be used for boosting e-commerce sales.

Chat Bots

People prefer one-on-one interaction that can impart a personal touch, a customized experience. The probability of sales increases when you personally cater to your audience. You can enable chatbots on your e-commerce store so that anyone can initiate a conversation with the representatives. There are various live chat tools that offer feature-packed services to engage your customers. You can also use Facebook Messenger for conversations. As most of the users are on Facebook, this seems a viable option.

Mobile Shopping

According to eMarketer, mobile e-commerce accounted for 58.9% of sales in 2017. Undoubtedly, this number is expected to grow across all continents. You should strategize your e-commerce business around mobile, be it developing a mobile app, investing in mobile advertising, or installing secure online payment systems.

We have one-click payment systems that simplify payment processing, thereby, rendering a seamless user experience. The ease of payments via mobile is a major driving factor for the increase in mobile shopping trend. Further, as users tend to spend more time on their smartphones and tablets, it becomes obligatory to target mobile audience.

Voice Assistants

Do you that know that 40% millennial rely on voice search when making online purchases on mobile?  As voice search is convenient and more accurate than text-based search, users are opting for voice search. Moreover, mobile users are increasing at an exponential rate and voice search is perfectly aligned with respect to linguistic search. These all factors compel e-commerce business owners to integrate voice search in their online stores.

Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Microsoft Cortana have made it clear that voice search is the future. Further, voice-based devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home rely on voice search mechanism for solving user’s queries. Optimize your e-commerce business around voice search to harness maximum benefits.

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

Once a buyer visits your store and buys a product or service, you can showcase similar recommendations at the same time or send automated emails regarding same or similar recommendations. Other than this, you can deploy artificial intelligence for showcasing retargeted advertisements on social media and search engines. The voice search and live chatbots work on the same principles of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and there are endless possibilities for engaging with the visitors and increasing your sales if you lay emphasis on these two parameters.

 

With increased digital exposure, e-commerce has tremendous potential. If you can utilize the right tactics at the right time, you can take your online business to the next level. Optimizing according to the latest trends will assist you in preparing for the future. Therefore, you will always be one step ahead and will be able to maximize online sales via your e-commerce store.

6 years ago
Top 7 Most Common Merchant Account Complaints that Can be a Red Flag
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Top 7 Most Common Merchant Account Complaints that Can be a Red Flag

While choosing credit card processors, it is important to determine the value you are going to drive from them. Simply considering the lowest price quote may not lead to good value for your money. Rather a lower price quote can be a big trap. The overall experience and value offered by your payment processor is something that counts in the long run. So before you take any decision, properly assess the potential risk and rewards associated with your decision. In order to assess the risks associated with a processor, the best way is to browse through the online complaints against the processor posted by the merchants.

Yes, when you analyze those complaints, you will find that some of them are regular complaints, whereas some might be genuine red flags. Here, you should focus your attention on the red flags because these are the things that will help us take an informed decision.

1. Complicated contract cancellation

Many processors charge an early contract termination fee, but it happens when they charge an annual fee. If the processor doesn’t charge an early cancellation fee, they might be charging on month to month, which is far better than the annual contracts, if you are using their services for the first time. Charging an early termination fee is actually an unfair business policy. They make their cancellation process so complicated that when you decide to cancel, they keep you bouncing from department to department till you finally give up. It is also important for the merchants to get the contract cancelled in writing, because sometimes the processor will continue to charge you despite your verbal agreement to cancel the services.

2. Volume and nature of complaints

The ratio of number of complaints to the processing volume also does matter. While scanning through complaints, it’s important to remember that payment processors with 1000 clients and 100 complaints cannot be compared with a payment processor with 10000 clients and one hundred complaints. Also have a look at the common complaints. If you happen to see a number of complaints around a common issue, it can be a red flag.

3. Misleading advertising and unethical sales practices

These are some of the most common complaints made by the merchants all over the world. The underlying reason for these practices is the excessive focus of payment processors on sales. They have tiered pricing systems and the advertised rates are often not the effective rates, because many merchants are disqualified for the advertised rates. These are some of the most deceptive techniques used by the salesy payment processors. It is advisable to go through the fine print and not rely on what their sales representatives claim or say, because these guys are under extreme sales pressure and they often provide false facts to the customer. The same is true about independent retailers. Beware of their deceptive sales techniques.

4.Unresponsive customer support

Sometimes the independent agents promise a lot while closing a sale, but once they close it, the focus shifts to the next sale. They ignore their existing customers, so the customer support takes a backseat and the merchants are thrown from department to department for minor issues. It leads to huge frustration. So never go for the lowest price quote; take the feedback from your friends and colleagues and also browse through the reviews online, so as to make sure that the payment processor you are dealing with offers handy customer service in time of need.

5. Non-cancellable lease agreements

Leasing POS terminals or payment gateways can actually turn out to be far more expensive than buying them. Certain processors force you to make the payment for the entire lease term and therefore they make the contract non-cancellable. Ultimately, their actual cost turns out to be many times more than the actual buying cost of the gateway or processor.

6. Unfair charges and high fees

Most of the complaints revolve around unfair fees and charges. Some payment processors charge their merchants on the pretext of early termination or PCI compliance. For example, the standard fee for early termination is around $400, but you will find several merchants complaining online that they have paid much more in the name of early termination.

7. Keeping the charges hidden
One of the most deceptive techniques used by these payment processors is that they keep many of the charges and fee structure hidden and undisclosed. These charges come as a surprise to the merchant.

If you research a bit, you will find that many payment gateway providers are happy to offer you no PCI and no early termination fees. There is no point paying this fee, which can turn out to be too high if calculated as a fixed percentage of the actual contract.

Final Thoughts
The payment gateway provider is also a business owner with possibly a lot of issues, sales pressure and unethical practices by their staffers; so discuss everything during the negotiation and see the fine print. If you are not happy and satisfied, decide not to sign the contract.

6 years ago
6 Money Saving Tips for Your Small Business
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

6 Money Saving Tips for Your Small Business

If you are the owner of a small business, chances are that you are always searching for creative ways to save money and keep your business afloat. Even if your business is doing well, it always makes sense to spend frugally. Whether you are looking to cut costs or improve profitability of your business, here are some creative ways that make the entire idea of saving money painless and easy!

  1. Avoid having a full-time office space

Thanks to the advancement in technology, businesses today can be run from any location. Barring a few sectors, try to rent as minimal office space as you can.

Offer people work from home options and get only the core team to sit at office. This way you can cut down on not only office rent but also small overheads like paper, electricity, food and gadget expenses etc.

  1. Try inbound marketing rather than keeping a big fat sales team

Try attracting your customer online by implementing a good content marketing strategy. Focus on your SEO strategy, build on social media and invest in search engine marketing. Also don’t ignore your company blog, since that has a lot of potential in getting you traffic. This might work better than outbound sales, especially if you are trying to sell a product or service online.

  1. Consider used furniture

If having an office is the only option you have, consider buying equipment and furniture that is pre-used. You can find office chairs and screen at nearly half the price from most second hand or refurbished goods store. Delay gratification. What you offer to your customers is much more important than a fancy looking office.

  1. Outsource as much as possible

Full time employees do not come cheap these days. Add to it the additional benefits like leaves, medical expenses and provident funds, you might just blow up all your budget. So, if possible, hire independent and reliable freelancers to reduce cost. Needless to say, by hiring a freelancer you will also be able to save a lot since they are already an expert in their field while a full time employee would need to be trained.

  1. Do not shy away from negotiating

As a small business owner, you should definitely avoid paying retail prices as often as possible. So, try to negotiate with vendors, consider bulk buying to save on shipping charges or tie up with wholesalers. Figure out ways to save money on your buying charges. You can also barter with some companies and save further. For example, you can purchase raw material for your bakery at a lesser price and in exchange offer to provide free cake on the dealer’s celebration occasions.

  1. Hire a good tax accountant

No one likes paying taxes. So it makes sense to hire a good accountant who can help in claiming certain tax rebates and allowances that you might not be aware of.

To be honest, when it comes to saving money, there are numerous things you can try. Every business comes with its own needs and priorities, so you are the best judge of what works best for you. Having said that, always remember, if it saves money, it is worth it!

If you are looking for a reliable way to accept online payments and have a competitive advantage, you can visit www.PayTabs.com.

6 years ago
Four Pillars of a Solid eCommerce Customer Experience
Mohab Customer Experience 0

Four Pillars of a Solid eCommerce Customer Experience

Is there a thing like loyalty when it comes to online shopping? In a world driven by discounts, sales, comparison shopping and endless scrolling, it is difficult to grab customer attention. The same sellers present their wares across multiple sites. So people move to check each site to see where the particular product is available at the best discount. In such a scenario, does customer experience really matter?

It matters more than you think. Imagine this – discount can’t be a competing factor because everyone is offering a lot of it. What matters then is customer experience. In fact, customer experience is considered to be a product in its own right.

In order to decipher what type of experience your customers are looking for, it is important to understand their journey and understand what they need at each touch point. Most companies try to concentrate on the customer life cycle which is a complex task, especially with omni-channel marketing. Instead, experts now suggest keeping focus on one customer journey at a time.

Here are the four pillars of a customer experience journey

  1. Make it simple to use

Buying from an eCommerce website should not feel like rocket science. You need to make it intuitive for customers to browse through your product range and get to a sale point. Most eCommerce shops follow a set pattern from discovery to the sales funnel to after sales service.

But a new app on the horizon – Elanic, is doing things differently. It has included an intuitive chat feature that allows buyers and sellers to interact before closing the sale. The chat is pre-programmed with common questions from the buyer like quality, size, condition of the product and more. This strategy is also followed by sites like OLX which sells seconds. In addition to the public comment feature, the site also allows customers to make an offer. The whole process is intuitive and automated which makes it easy to handle. Many sellers vouch that this feature has helped them close sales effectively.

  1. Make it personal

This strategy goes beyond knowing your customer’s name and saying ‘Hey xyz’ in your email. According to Campaign Monitor, 96% visitors to your website aren’t ready to buy. But they’ve shown some basic interest in what you have to offer and may probably come back if you communicate properly. Use retargeting to encourage users to pick up from where they left off. And don’t forget to inform them when the products they want are on sale.

  1. Stop them from abandoning cart

In 2016, as much as 69% of carts were abandoned! Can you imagine the billions lost because eCommerce portals did not work hard enough to push the sale? Constantly use A/B experiments to test what makes users stick or leave your website. In case they still abandon cart, make sure you send them a customized email reminder to pull them back

  1. Use the right payment gateway

Other than being secure, the right payment gateway will allow customers to pay in their own currency, using the wallet they prefer without making them work too hard. And of course, it should aid express checkout.

Conclusion: Don’t forget to constantly ask your customers for feedback and also incentivize them for providing it. There is no better way to enhance your customer experience than listening to them carefully – after all they are the heroes and champions for your brand.

6 years ago