Do not create stressful situations

Doing things randomly Rather than in a specific way or order Helps by not awakening the OCD person in you. Doing so also does not let anxiety Keep you stressed up..

Am back?

It's been a long time since I last wrote here, more than 8 years have passed and a lot of things have changed and improved.  When  I first started out here, I was still just studying ASP for programming the web. Now I have become a PHP web developer and a WordPress Developer.

Anyway, I will try to post as much as I can. Adding to the tips for businesses and maybe do some free tutorials.

Stay tuned..

Problem with xoom.com

I couldn't resist telling anyone out there about a prospect i have for web designing. Well, it started almost a month ago when a person from europe emailed me and ask me how much i would charge for a certain kind of a website (a legal one ok? hehehe)

I gave him my price.. and in the course of our correspondence i came to know the guy and so did he.. in short... we became friends... our problem started when one day, when he was about to send me his downpayment... he suddenly was asking me about scams and so forth and so on... so to make the long story short, he was afraid i would scam him... geeesshh... not that i blame him... i understood him actually...

It took me more effort selling myself and showing him some assurances... like for example... i told him that the address i sent him was my home-office... i don't know of anyone stupid enough like me to give away my home address on the internet.. but.. in the interest of making a living... i do...

For weeks, it was on and off.. until finally he decided to pay 50% downpayment.. when i checked with xoom.com i saw that the transaction was cancelled... anyway i said to myself.. hmm.. this guy must really fear being scammed.. so i gave him some references... and to my knowledge, he did contact them through e-mail...

Since i am really a nice guy, i told him to instead send me 25% downpayment and we could do a progressive type of billing.. and he did.. the problem was that xoom.com cancelled the transaction.. i inquired and was told the following:

Subject
---------------------------------------------------------------
Inquiry
---------------------------------------------------------------
Xoom Corporation (Ray Almanza) - 07/24/2007 11:41 AM
Xoom.com has refunded this transaction, as the intended money transfer has been identified as a commercial transaction.

Xoom.com provides a person-to-person remittance service only.
lease contact www.xoom.com with any questions.

Xoom Corporation

to which i replied:

Thanks for the quick reply. But please someone point to me where it says that we cannot accept money for a commercial transaction. And please define commercial transactions. We are at a loss since on your site specifically there is a https://www.xoom.com/static/merchant-services.html or a merchant services portion. Though a website may not be totally tangible, still it consists of tangible, readable, viewable, executable files that we also give our clients as a required part of our serivce.

How can this be when your site specifically says and i quote :"Xoom now offers payment services for merchants selling goods overseas from the Philippines." and "Sell goods from your website or auction listing". We are a legal and non-scamming web design company here in the philippines are you implying that we are illegal and in the business of scamming?

We have been helping you promote your services to the local web development community and this is what we get?

I dont get it... i honestly don't... anyway.. it is for you the reader to judge... the insanity of dealing with people... by the way.. as of the writing of this... the xoom.com people have not replied... maybe they do not know the answer too?

haaayyy.. this is so disappointing... my prospect has not contacted me anymore because of xoom, do you think i can sue them for that? and how?

Web Applications and your business

Web Applications... What? Programs, scripts, and other form of structured or object oriented lines of codes found in different types of websites have been around since over a decade ago...

In the advent of the internet... websites were displayed as text which had "hyperlinks" to other webpages and so forth and so on.. thus: the World Wide Web. But that's ancient history you may say... yes it is... But from such a jurrasic concept... Those people who have IQ's far higher than your weight in pounds saw the need of the web to do more than just display "static" text and hyperlinks...

HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language was the front runner of the web's steady rise... With HTML, one could show text and/or images on their websites. Fine! then came Javascripts, Visual Basic Scripts... These scripts enabled web designers to become web developers. Later on, ASP and PHP were introduced. With ASP matching up with Microsoft's database technolodies and PHP with MySQL(both open source).

So what does all of these common knowledge have anything to do with a business or a business person? Well think of having your own website with a login page that leads to your inventory and sales system.... such a system would enable you to check and update your inventory stocks and sell the remainder stocks to your clients. Such a system would entail a lot of programming but would be beneficial to you and would enable you to take your office on the road...

Imagine the same system that enables your sales people to post or book their sales from within and arrange for delivery to their clients, the same system deducts the items sold from your current inventory online-realtime-anytime... Imagine, again, utilizing the same system, and creating an interface designed specifically to be used as a POS or Point of Sales system...

Now what would it benefit you to go for such a system as against your manual system of managing your inventory, writing out sales slips and order forms, and selling in a retail environment.

1. In running a business, whether retail, wholesale or services information is KING! We need to have the information we need, without the need to rely on anybody else.
2. Let's just say that you had to go home because of an emergency and instead of going back to the office and prepare your sales reports and sales quotations, you could do these at home and if needed you could go straight to your client directly from home?
3. With such Web Applications, your accounting and credit and collections departments would have all the information they need when they need it...

Web Applications are not limited to inventory and sales processes, some web applications function as CMS's or "Content Management Systems"... some as Blogs, such as this one, and some offer a repository of anything from audio to video to PDF files... Web applications can be in any form or presentation that you need them to be in order to work for you.

For those who need some affordable "Web Applications" programming please contact the author at alphonse.tan@gmail.com.

Why we need insurance

Most of the folks that I know, do not believe nor include insurance as part of their budget of expenses. To most, insurance is really an "expense" that they could forgo.

So what is insurance and why do we need it?

Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge risk of a contingent loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a potential loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium. Insurer, in economics, is the company that sells the insurance. Insurance rate is a factor used to determine the amount, called the premium, to be charged for a certain amount of insurance coverage. Risk management, the practice of appraising and controlling risk, has evolved as a discrete field of study and practice. against the Source- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurance

Ok, in Layman's terms, insurance is an instrument whereby one pays a premium to insure, for example, his automobile, that would pay for any losses he might incur in case an accident may happen. “Insurance provides indemnification against loss or liability from specified events and circumstances that may occur or be discovered during a specified period. ”

Now most people understand this concept and still believes that insurance is just an expense that they can do without. I remember during my early years in dealing with non-life insurance, I had a friend who had a vehicle and offered him comprehensive insurance (in the philippines, this means full coverage that includes own damage and loss/theft.) since his coverage was only CTPL (compulsory third party liability, again in the philippines this is a requirement prior to registration of motor vehicles and is quite cheap.) During the year, the vehicle met an accident luckily he did not hit any person he just hit a lamp post and got away with just a bruise on his pride. He thanked me for the additional coverage since the insurance took care of repairing his vehicle at a very minor cost to him.

Another incident involving motor vehicle accidents was when my son's godfather called me up and said he accidentally hit a drunk person crossing the street. The fellow died and left my friend in shock. The insurance took care of the of the burial costs. And other expenses my friend would have coughed up had he not taken the additional coverage.

Considering insurance as an expense may not seem fair since insurance not only would help a person in their time of need, it also helps them have the peace of mind that they deserve.

Should any of you be interested, I offer non-life insurance with a product line consisting of motor car insurance, Fire Insurance, Marine Cargo Insurance, Personal Accidents.

I am currently connected with Toko Marine Malayan Insurance Corp.

Starting a Small Web Design Business

If you know basic HTML, CSS, Photoshop you can start your own web design business. Unlike traditional businesses... Most people who would go for your service understand that you are some sort of a consultant and would ask more for samples of your work rather than your company's name.

The only piece of equipment you would need, which you probably have already, otherwise you would not have read this thread of mine, is a computer. Maybe even a scanner, a printer and that's it.

First Tip - Sample Work
If you have not done any actual web sites yet, it would be great if you came up with a sample. Basic HTML web sites may be placed on CD's or FREE HOSTING Sites. As long as your links work. Then you're in business.

Second Tip - Web Presence
Working on our first tip, might as well create your own website and learn to use FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Some FREE sites have their own file managers/uploaders but it would be better if you could use FTP since file managers/uploaders don't have the ease of use of FTP programs. I personally use WS_FTP.

Having a website, even on a free site is better since your work will be accessible to prospects 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week (24/7). Besides, without a website your like a carpenter offering his services without even owning a hammer. :) Also, get yourself an email address that is a little more professional. juan.delacruz@somewhere.com is far more professional than NiNo_da_Man@somewhere.com.

Third Tip - Know your suppliers
The only suppliers we would have in this industry are Web hosting companies. Most web hosts also offer domain name registration. One of my suppliers, located in manila that offer a not so bad pricing is www.1pesohosting.com. You need at least one of these suppliers so that when you offer your services, you already have an idea of how much to charge them aside from the web site design charges.

Fourth Tip - Advertising
Once you have your own site, decide whether you want to get local clients or foreign clients, either way, go and register your website in as many on-line business directories as you could. This way you could even get foreign companies.

Fifth Tip - Answering Inquiries
When answering inquiries, be sure to make certain that both of you understand what you are talking about before even giving your prospects a price quote. You must first understand that the client requires so much pages and so much graphics, etc. If prospects just want to ask for the price and are not willing to tell you much about their requirements, then they are just either canvassing or trying to put one over you.

For example, the actual work needs you to do some programming or flash animations and as far as you know, you only discussed about plain static pages in HTML and CSS.

I normally keep a file on every conversation or email i have had with my clients. With that, whenever they require something else, i always copy and paste our conversations. :)

Sixth Tip - Communications
Exchanging email with prospects is good, it is actually better. But for you to work better with clients, sometimes it is great to be able to chat with them either on Yahoo!™ or MSN™. To record your conversations here.. Just click "Select All" then "Copy", open your Notepad and "Paste". Save your file and you have a record of your communications.

Seventh Tip - Pricing
Always make sure that you make a detailed listing of the services you will be providing your customers. Send this price quotation through email and have them send this back to you as a sign of their acceptance. When pricing, always separate the domain name registration and web hosting costs. This way your clients would know what they would be paying the next time without you. You should also inform them that web hosting is paid yearly and domain name is paid annually (depending on the domain name registrar).

For foreign customers, you may give them a price in US$. Be sure to check the exchange rate first. For example, if you wanted to earn at least P750 per page and the current exchange rate is P 48.05 = $ 1. You might charge the client US$ 15.60/page (computed as P750 /48.05)

Eight Tip - Receiving Payment
The fastest way to receive payment is through Western Union™. All you need to know is the confirmation code, which the customer should give you once they have sent you payment. Prior to this, you should have at least two valid ID's when receiving their payment through any Western Union Agent(click on this link and click on "FIND AN AGENT" the Western Union website.) here in the Philippines. When going to any Western Union be sure to bring your ID's.

If you have a bank account, you could also go to xoom.com and enrol your bank accounts there. Although as of this writing only Equitable-PCI dollar accounts can be enrolled. Others banks would mean that your payment in US dollars might be converted to peso in your account.

But if you don't want that kind of hassle, just have your clients (for foreign clients) send payment through Western Union™.

That's all for now, good luck and welcome aboard!


Sample Quotation

Client Name
Company Name

Dear Sir/Madam: (or place the client's name here)

We are pleased herewith to present to you our best quotation for (Indicate the project name)
We hope that this would suffice in your personal evaluation.

Web layout and design P x,xxx /page
includes : uploading of files, setting up of email accounts, etc.

Domain Name Registration P x,xxx
WEb hosting 1year P x,xxx

Terms and Conditions:
Payment : Web Design 50% downpayment/ 50% upon delivery
Domain Name Registration and Web Hosting Fees %100

Delivery : Within (be careful about this) _____ days upon confirmation

Deliverables : 1 fully functional website, with 2 email accounts, etc., etc.

Very truly yours,


ME the WEbdesigner

Get Paid to Read Email... Easy!

Now a system that is easy and closer to home... Based in Singapore, EmailCashPro offers a system wherein all you do is read their email, click on their links and get credited and eventually get paid for doing just that.

You can request payments in either check or through your paypal account. EZ right?

How it works

Step 1: Sign up as a member for FREE
Join EmailCashPro as a member for free and select the kind of emails you are interested in receiving.

JOIN NOW!

Step 2: Read emails that you are interested
Receive Paid Emails that match your profile and interest. These emails will have subject headlines that start with **SoloAd**, followed by a description of the content of the Paid Email. Browse through the subject description. If you are interested in the subject, click on the link in the email to view the content. Click here for a screenshot of a sample Paid Email you will receive.
Once you click on the Paid Link and visit the advertiser's website for 30 seconds, your account will be credited with 1 point. Your accumulated points will then be converted into cash credits on the first week of every month. The conversion is done based on 40% of our total earnings for the previous month. This means we share 40% of our total revenue with our members! Our conversion for the last few months ranges from 0.55 cents to 0.75 cents.

JOIN NOW!

Step 3: Share good stuff with your friends
The most powerful part of EmailCashPro is our 4 level referral system. When you refer other people to join EmailCashPro, you will receive 50% of your referral's earnings on level 1, 20% of your referral's earnings on level 2, 15% of your referral's earnings on level 3 and 10% of your referral's earnings on level 4.

Never underestimate the power of cents. With our 4 level referral system, your income can easily be in the order of $100s a month!

“I’d rather have 1 percent of 100 people’s efforts than 100 percent of my own.” - J. Paul Getty, one of the world's first billionaire.

You can easily build your referral team by sending invitation letters, informing your friends about our latest members only offer or by sharing interesting Paid Emails with them. More details are provided in your Members Login Page.

Step 4: Receive cheque in your letter box
Once your account reaches our minimum payout of S$11, you can request for a cash-out from us. For Singapore members, you can cash out your earning through cheque or paypal. For International members, you can cash out through paypal. All payment will be made in Singapore dollars.

JOIN NOW!

Easttech Pte Ltd (ROC: 200301652W)

164, Kallang Way #07-21/24

Singapore 349248

Fax: (65)6842 6465

Internet Connection Woes...

Just recently most of the connections here in the Philippines bogged down because of the earthquake in Taiwan...

Most DSl and ISP's were caught with their pants down as most of them and their clientele were affected by slow and mostly frustrating connections... even for DSL providers...

This frustrated me, and i thought about a work around... there must be one... my friend john... who is an SEO person... remarked that the inefficiency of restoring regular connections was partly due to the dotcom crash in the 90's...

Anyway... based on my own knowledge about the internet... and just like traffic.. we can all reroute our connections... well, if i am not totally mistaken, by rerouting our proxy servers... i found a site... (all through the sluggish connection) that has listings of proxy servers around the globe... and i thought.. hmmm.. what if i could find a taiwanese proxy server... and i did... so i changed my browser's proxy servers to that taiwanese one... and voila... i had a somewhat faster connection..

The downside here is that i have to go back to the site directory and choose another proxy server as the latency* of each proxy server changes every day... at any rate... i don't mind as long as surfing is nearly normal, to me at least... :)

The url of the site i go to is http://www.xroxy.com/proxylist.php?port=&type=&ssl=&country=TW&latency=&reliability=7500




* This number gives the time that it took to fetch a very small, known-to-be-good html document through the particular proxy the last time it was checked. This value is mesured in milliseconds.

The test document is less than 1KB in size, and the elapsed time is measured from the moment the connection is made until the moment the document has finished downloading.

The latency data is extremely subjective, since it's a reflection of our connectivity to a proxy, not yours.

Generally speaking, though, proxies with lower latency should be more responsive.

Business Terms: Marketing Explained

The buzz word in today's business world is "Marketing". However, people often don't know quite what that is, and ask for a simple explanation of it.

Well, here it is... suppose:

You're a woman and you see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and say, "I'm fantastic in bed."

That's Direct Marketing.

You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a handsome guy. One of your friends goes up to him and pointing at you says, "She's fantastic in bed."

That's Advertising.

You see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and get his telephone number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed."

That's Telemarketing.

You see a guy at a party, you straighten your dress. You walk up to him and pour him a drink. You say, "May I," and reach up to straighten his tie, brushing your breast lightly against his arm, and then say, "By the way, I'm fantastic in bed."

That's Public Relations.

You're at a party and see a handsome guy. He walks up to you and says, "I hear you're fantastic in bed."

That's Brand Recognition.

You're at a party and see a handsome guy. He fancies you, but you talk him into going home with your friend.

That's a Sales Rep.

Your friend can't satisfy him so he calls you.

That's Tech Support.

You're on your way to a party when you realize that there could be handsome men in all those houses you're passing. So you climb onto the roof of one situated towards the center and shout at the top of your lungs, "I'm fantastic in bed!"

That's Junk Mail.

You are at a party, this well-built man walks up to you and gropes your breast and grabs your behind.

That's Arnold Schwarzenegger.

You liked it, but 20 years later your attorney decides you were offended, and sues him until he bleeds.

And that, of course, is... Profit.

source : http://www.fffast.com/humor-ethics/business_explained.shtml

THE BRICK
A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car pas sed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?" The young boy was apologetic. "Please, mister...please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do," He pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop..." With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. "It's my brother, "he said "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up."

Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. "Thank you and may God bless you," the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy! pu sh his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: "Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!" God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It's our choice to listen or not.

Thought for the Day:
If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.

If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.

He sends you flowers every spring.

He sends you a sunrise every morning Face it, friend - He is crazy about you!
God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow,sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.

(edited from email... author unknown...)

Upgrading and Saving on your IT Equipment...

If you are a startup company with basic equipment that is more or less outdated or doesn't fit your work requirements... Here are some tips on upgrading and saving some money in the process:

1) When upgrading, remember, Your hard disk, floppy disk drive, CD drive can always be used again on a newer model computer... by using them again, you could save almost (Hard disk Pesos 3K-4K, Floppy Drive Pesos 2H-5H, CD Drive Pesos 1K-2.5K)

2) Upgrades usually means upgrading your Processor (the brains of your computer ex. AMD Duron, Intel Pentium IV) and the Motherboard (Where everything is connected to on your computer...) Depending on your upgrade... sometimes you could still use the current memory (you could increase yours... ex.. from 64MB in older systems to 128MB... Windows XP requires at least 256MB) sometimes the casing and power supply can still be used... especially if it is an ATX or higher casing... Video cards may still be used.. depending on your requirements... if its just photoshop.. an AGP video card with at least 64MB of memory will already do..

3) When upgrading, it is advisable not to leave the technician alone with the upgrading... so that you can see what upgrades and what else he can do for your computer..

4) Monitors are usually sturdy and lasts a long time... but if it sometimes flickers for no reason at all... it is advisable to replace it...

5) while you may save on second hand computer parts... it is always advisable to get brand new or first owned (by you) parts... They will last you longer..


Up next, i will be taking about simple ways of determining your computer's parts...

Clients and Selling...

In marketing, the basic of all concepts is that of understanding your target market (or your clients)... For a formal web-development company or web developer, it would be kinda off to be selling your design services to kids...

When we develop a start-up business, we need to make our activities and image be centered arround our target clients... for example, if we have concluded our target market to be teenaged girls, most of our collaterals (brochures, calling cards, etc) would need to have a special design that would attract teenaged girls.

For simplicity of determining our "Target Market", we could come up with a target market demographic table or something, similar to the one below:

Demographics
Our market would be teenaged girls, who belong to the middle class, and can afford to spend a few hundred bucks a month on teen magazines... They would be living in the subdivision areas of southern metro manila. And they go to private schools.

Market Demographics is like telling a short story or description of who we are targetting... It specifies: gender, age group, social group... Once we have all of these, we can cater all our selling thrusts towards this group of people...

Here is an introductory piece for Selling or Salesmanship that i wrote in December 23, 2003:

Basic Salesmanship

Each of us, at one time or another, has had to sell something. Selling does not necessarily mean offering a product or service in exchange for a monetary consideration. It could also mean convincing people about an idea or thought or a concept. It could also be trying to get people to side with you.

The number one thing we must consider is this: do we know what we are talking about? Do we fully understand all the implications? Do we know how these would affect us or other people? They say the best salesmen are those who know their product well. Who ever said this was half correct because that is only part of the concept of selling. One might ask: “If we know the product we are selling, what else would we need to convince a prospect to buy our product?” The answer is simple. The other half of selling is “Honesty” and “Sincerity”.

No, we are not trying to preach the Gospel here, though that is not such a bad idea. Most people see right through a fake salesman; always in a hurry to close the sale making their buyers doubt in themselves and feel as though they were just “coerced” into buying.

We may read in salesmanship books that we need ingenuity, perseverance and the ability to create a need, to make the prospect want our products. These are all true, but my dear ladies and gentlemen, nobody talks about “Honesty” and “Sincerity”.

By being “honest” and “sincere” we empathize with our prospects, we try to feel how they would feel and to make them feel we understand their needs. When we go through the sales process, we would find it easier to close the sale if we took the time to explain the pros and cons of our product. If we made the prospect feel that we are not just selling “a product” to them, but rather, we are offering them a solution, then we are on the right track.

The best part of closing a sale is when we accept payment from someone who is not only satisfied with our product but also someone who can rest easy and not thinking that somehow we conned them into it.

I have once read that the number one salesman of all times is Jesus Christ, why? Because He knew what He was talking about, He was “Honest” and “Sincere” in all His dealings. So look at where His Product is now. The Church of God has withstood more than two centuries of faith. Isn’t that living proof of His salesmanship abilities?

Startup business tips..

Most of the time when someone decides he or she is an entrepreneur... they get so excited and plunk in all of their hard earned money into a business that, though they have studied very well, is still in its infancy stage..

I remember the dotcom bubble... people where investing heavily in IT people who used up all their finances on big offices, luxurious cars and other stuff business people could have done without...

The trick to startups, that is why they are called startups... is to start lite... in the beginning, one could use that old clunky pentium II or the AMD K6 series computer, or even that old typewriter that you used to lug around during your college days... for starters, the office could simply just be a vacant garage or room in the house.. remember, when we need to buy some things, it usually means that when we spend, this spending wouldn't set back our finances a few weeks... and the key is to only buy when it is completely necessary...

Once we have a decent working area.. the next thing to do, assuming that you have done your homework.. is to make out a decent set of calling cards and a letterhead.. all of this, (if you do have an old computer) can be done on your equipment.. of course prior to setting your startup date... you should have already registered your business and have all the necessary permits..

In my next post, I will be discussing about things like clients and the selling process...