Business Services

Three Distinct Benefits to Using a Digital Wallet

Digital wallets offer a completely new take on paying for goods and services, and could soon become an ubiquitous part of life. These applications allow the secure transfer of money over a network, and through a mobile device. No more cards to carry, no more wallets to worry about. If you secure your device, your digital wallet will be available anywhere you can find a network connection. Here are three distinct benefits to adopting this new technology, if you’ve not already done so.

Security

Right now, you carry your wallet or purse, and your cell phone. Imagine if you could consolidate all of that so you need only a single device. That single device is secured by fingerprint, face imaging technology, passcode or any one of dozens of means. That access point is going to be far more secure than your wallet is today. Even if a thief attempts to steal your phone, you can still login to your wallet and change your password to secure your wallet’s contents.

Speed

Good bye long lines, hello mobile checkout that meets you where you are in the store. Imagine transferring money by just standing next to the cashier, who is already engaging with you regarding your purchase. This is already reality in major retail chains, and it’s sped up the checkout process like never before. Transactions take little more than a few taps and they are done.

Modern Novelty

What better way to say “I live in the future” than to interface your phone with an NFC terminal to transfer money from one account to another. Craft businesses will be able to accept cards, and businesses who offer digital wallets as a valid form of payment will see customers flock to their doors for a faster and more secure way to pay for the goods they are already buying.

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Charge.com has more than 20 years of experience in credit card processing services, and remains one of the most efficient methods to move money online.

Practical Tips on Reducing Financial Risks to Your Business

When you are running a business of your own, there are always risks involved. The first thing that probably comes to mind is your cash flow. When you run out of money or credit, your business ceases to operate until you begin funding it again. Risk management is one of the most important elements of a startup business. This separates the great from the successful.

When you are dealing with a limited amount of funds, you’re going to need to cut out non-essentials from your business. Things like fancy desks or expensive computers will only leave you struggling in the first few months of your startup. Your goal is to obtain positive monthly returns and by setting yourself up with all these “necessities”, you’re taking steps backwards.

Whatever helps the company services or products are what you should be focused on. Amenities will come later once you’ve reached the point where your investment has been covered and solid revenue is being produced.

Maintain a proactive approach by calculating your burn rate, which is how much money you are losing per month. By keeping a constant tab on this, you can determine how many months or years you have left with money still in your reserve.

Financial risks are always going to be associated when you create a startup business. The approach to this is appropriately preparing for what’s to come. The glory days will come in due time. The sacrifice leading to success is what makes this journey so worthwhile.

Bio: Ferhan Patel, formerly with AlertPay has implemented his certifications and skill sets to become the Chief Compliant Officer and Director of Global Risk and Compliance for Payza.

 

 

From Grocer to Pipe Maker: John Joseph Eagan

By Samuel Phineas Upham

John Joseph Eagan, born in April of 1870, went from grocer to pipe maker, becoming co-founder of the American Cast Iron Pipe Company.

He left school at 16 to go and work at a grocery store. His uncle offered him a job at his tobacco store, and John took it. The two worked well together, and John felt fairly steady. He inherited $6,000 when his grandmother died, a modest sum, but he was able to re-invest and grow it. By the time he was ready to venture on his own, he’d amassed $73,000 by age 29. He inherited an additional $750,000 from his Uncle Russell, and Eagen took his earnings into real estate. He also put money in stocks and funded a few businesses hoping for something to pan out.

Having received two blessings, Eagen felt humbled and charged himself with doing something positive with the money he’d earned. One of the methods he used to accomplish this task was to tithe the church. He also donated extensively to charities that worked on behalf of the poor. Eagen was so devoted to this cause that there was a journal entry he’d written, dated May 13, 1900: “O Lord show me how to invest Thy wealth to promote Thy glory, so that I may bear much fruit.”

Eagen felt like life and God were calling him to the fields, where he could have the most impact. He partnered with Charlotte and James Blair, who were working on the interests of Southern businessmen. The brother/sister team wanted to build a pipe plant in Birmingham, considered a great location because of its access to railways and resources. Eagan chartered the company and served as its president, an office he held until days before his death in 1924.

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About the Author: Samuel Phineas Upham is an investor at a family office/ hedgefund, where he focuses on special situation illiquid investing. Before this position, Phin Upham was working at Morgan Stanley in the Media and Telecom group. You may contact Phin on his Twitter.

Amar Bose: A Dedicated Audiophile

By Phineas Upham

If you’ve ever heard the sound of a Bose speaker and nodded in appreciation, you can thank Amar Bose. Bose had always been fascinated by electronics, even as a young boy. He would disassemble and reassemble all manner of radios and other gadgets from around the house.

This talent would pay dividends when America went to the Second World War His father’s business was facing hard times, so young Amar would fix radios for locals after school. The extra money kept the household afloat and gave his father a realization. His son had a talent, and he was determined to put that talent to use.

Amar was sent to MIT, where he took to academic life swimmingly. He graduated and became a teacher there, holding a faculty position for 45 years of his life. He also continued his research into mechanics, especially with regards to sound.

When he attempted to purchase an expensive sound system that promised quality audio. Being something of an audiophile for classical music, Bose was eager to give it a try. But he was disappointed to find that the sound was inferior to others at a lower price range. This got him thinking about what makes a stereo good quality.

After some study, he produced a speaker that utilized several small speakers to produce better sound. His mentor encouraged him to pursue his research into audio equipment and acoustics, which pushed him to incorporate Bose in 1964. His inventions were wildly successful, and his work has helped audio engineers create amazing displays. Bose pioneered software that could simulate sound from any seat in an auditorium, technology the Staples Center uses to arrange its shows.

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About the Author: Phineas Upham is an investor at a family office/ hedgefund, where he focuses on special situation illiquid investing. Before this position, Phin Upham was working at Morgan Stanley in the Media and Telecom group. You may contact Phin on his Phineas Upham website or Facebook page.

H&M and the Concept of Fast Fashion

By Phin Upham

H&M has been growing in popularity all across America, but it’s a Swedish brand. Today, the company employs more than 100,000 people all over the world, and it has 3,500 stores spread across 55 countries.

It was opened in 1947, after Erling Persson took a trip to the United States. Either our fashions were behind the times or too expensive, because Persson got the idea to offer affordable high-fashion. He began with a shop called “Hennes,”which means “for her” in Swedish, and sold women’s clothing only.

Upon acquiring the hunting apparel company “Mauritz Widforss,” H&M began its earliest iteration. The hunting apparel company brought men’s clothing to the store, and the company officially changes its name in 1998. Signified ritualistically with the purchase of a domain name.

The company did not pioneer fast-fashion, but it has shown to be quite adept at it. The practice involves fashion that moves quickly from catwalk to consumer, and it’s typically fashion made cheaply. This is why H&M offers such bargain boutique prices with clothing that feels new. H&M’s design team in Sweden controls all aspects of production. They outsource most of their work, but the planning and sale of merchandise is handled primarily by the company itself.

H&M also offers accessories, including jewelry and purses, in addition to its clothing line. It also announced plans to sell furniture in its stores as of 2009, but none of the H&M Home stores are available in America. The closes, should one feel so inclined, would involve a trip to Mexico.

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About the Author: Phin Upham is an investor at a family office/ hedgefund, where he focuses on special situation illiquid investing. Before this position, Phin Upham was working at Morgan Stanley in the Media and Telecom group. You may contact Phin on his Phin Upham website or Twitter page.

Hollywood Accounting Explained

Written by Phineas Upham

When Winston Groom sold the screenplay for Forrest Gump to Paramount pictures, he agreed to take a share of the profits from the film as payment for his work. It must have come as quite a shock to him when a movie so critically acclaimed ended up losing money. Groom did write a sequel, but refused to sell. He said that it would be a waste for his work toward another unsuccessful film.

But, was the film that was so beloved by both audiences and critics really so unsuccessful?

This is a textbook example of what is colloquially known as Hollywood accounting. It’s a shady practice that may or may not be illegal, which seems to depend on a case-by-case basis. Here’s how it works.

It all begins with a shell company set up by each studio. These companies exist whenever a new film comes into production, so the Next Hobbit film or even Star Wars Episode VII is likely to follow this model. The studio then gives the production money to the shell corporation to manage the funds for production.

Then things get a little gray.

As this money is transferred, the studio also levies fees against the shell corporation. These fees are supposed to represent real expenses the company has to put out. In the case of production, these expenses might cover costumes or lighting equipment in addition to hiring actors and actresses to perform.

The problem comes when studios charge fees for things that don’t actually affect them. For instance, when a studio like Paramount “pays” to advertise its films, it may actually be paying itself for distribution on its own platforms. These accounting practices turn a film like Harry Potter, a beloved blockbuster, into a loss for the production company.

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Phineas Upham is an investor from NYC and SF. You may contact Phineas on his Phineas Upham website

Top Reasons to Accept Credit Cards Online

If you have a presence on the web, you can take advantage of the space to accept credit cards online. But surprisingly many companies don’t provide this service. Why? For many business owners, credit card processing rates are simply too high. For others, getting setup to accept payments on the web is a complicated process, one that they don’t have time for.  Whether you own an ecommerce website or a brick-and-mortar shop, it’s important to accept credit cards online via your website. If you’re not convinced, here are the top two reasons to accept credit cards online.

It Boosts Sales

Perhaps the most important reason to accept credit cards on the web is a boost in sales. With online payment processing software, you’re almost guaranteed to increase your cash flow. In fact, accepting credit cards online has been shown to increase sales by a whopping 50 to 500 percent. Who doesn’t want an increase in sales? If your business isn’t doing so hot, consider accepting credit cards online.

It’s Convenient

Online credit card services are convenient for the consumer as well as the business owner. When it comes to the consumer, it doesn’t get easier than paying with plastic. A credit card is still the preferred payment method for most consumers because it’s easy, fast, and convenient. Even if they can’t afford it, they can buy a product with a credit card.

But accepting credit cards online is also convenient for the business owner. With the ability to accept credit cards, you no longer have to worry about bounce checks and your funds are FDIC insured.

It Sure Is Sweet

Candies have become a crucial part of everybody’s life at least at one point in their childhood. We all remember that sweet or sour or tangy flavor exploding in our mouth and for those short moments, we were in heaven. One thing that always gets neglected about candies is the wrapper that it comes in, either wrapped in paper, in a blister pack, wrapped in foil or even in plastic packs. We never really cared about these things so long as the candy itself tastes the same. To these candy manufacturers however, their packaging makes all the difference.

Candy manufacturers produce tons of candies every day, and their choice of packaging dictates how much money they will make at the end of the whole project, it is no question as to why they would often opt for the cheaper alternative. In recent years however, manufacturers have been shifting to more sustainable packaging like the use of candy trays instead of individually wrapped candies. This would reduce the volume of waste and the negative impacts on the environment as the candy trays can often be reused for other purposes, unlike its disposable predecessor.

EDI Like it

When setting up shop in multiple locations, nothing can be quite as hassling as managing inventory and tracking sales. From multiple location inventory management, to stock and sales consolidation, no task is quite as harrowing as managing a business from multiple locations. Granted with the eve of modern mobile telecommunications, the ability and speed of intercontinental contact have been made much much simpler, the actual task of consolidation many inventory and sales log into a main, centralized location  is still as taxing as ever.

Article submitted by Act Data Services, Inc. 1-800-ACT-DATA, a trusted edi service provider.

The Many Options You Have with Plastic

It’s hard to think of a more versatile product than plastic. No matter what you need, plastic can almost always accommodate. In fact, in this day and age, if you can’t find the plastic product you need, you can almost certainly have it made for a reasonable price. You can’t say that for many other materials.

Look at party plates, for example. When you’re serving a large number of people, it’s unlikely you want to clean up the mess that comes with it afterward. While some of that is certainly unavoidable, clearing and cleaning dishes doesn’t have to be with the right party plates. While you can go to any store and purchase plates for the job, you can also have plates custom-made for the event. There might be a particular shape you want, for example.

When it comes to storage, you have a number of plastic options a swell. But what if your storage is also meant to display? Again, thanks to modern technology, you can purchase plastic boxes that are the perfect size for whatever you need. If you have a large collection or line of products that are all about the same size, wholesale clear plastic boxes are the simple solutions. You’ll get the material you want at the size you need and a price you can easily afford.

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