Intuit Payment Network Just Got Better

Over the last several weeks I have been looking for another credit card payment alternative to PayPal for clients who prefer to pay by credit card.  Up until about 2 months ago I was crazy about PayPal until they put a limit on my account because they questioned a transaction, and although I provided them with all the proof they requested I am no longer able to use PayPal.  All this and I have to wait 180 days before any money left in my PayPal account will be returned to me.  Of course through this ordeal I did some research and found that I was not alone as there are many many other unsatisfied, angry past PayPal customers who have found themselves wrongfully blacklisted from using PayPal services and having their funds held hostage for 180 days.  I won’t bash PayPal, because although I don’t agree with their decision to limit my account, PayPal did provide me with the ability to allow clients to pay me by credit card using their services.  That coupled with the fact that you can’t beat the cost when you compare it to having a merchant account.   This ordeal did however give me the nudge I needed to start looking into some other alternatives.

I have been using the Intuit Payment Network to invoice clients electronically and they in turn pay me electronically directly from their bank account to mine.  That’s right, automatic deposit into my account in as little as 1 day.  Now of course there is a fee, but at the rate of .50 cents per deposit in amounts of up to $5,000, it’s well worth it.

For instance compare the cost of a client paying you $1,000 via PayPal to the Intuit Payment Network (IPN).  PayPal charges a .30 cents for each transaction and a 2.9% transaction fee based on the amount being paid.  So what you’ll actually get paid when you bill a client $1,000 is $970.70.  PayPal’s fees will add up to $29.30.  With the Intuit Payment Network you’ll get $999.50 and your funds are deposited directly into your bank account.  The transaction fee of .50 cents is taken prior to the funds being deposited into your account.

So why did the Intuit Payment Network just get better?  Now when you invoice a client through IPN they have the option to pay you by credit card.  You do not have to sign up for a merchant account.  There are no monthly fees, no monthly
So in case you missed it, the benefits of the Intuit Payment Network are: quotas, and no contract.  You can cancel at any time.  The transaction fee is higher than PayPal’s, however at 3.25%, it’s worth it, especially if you compare that to the cost of having a merchant account.

• Most payments are deposited the next business day
• Automatic payment from payer’s bank to receiver’s bank
• No set up, monthly, or cancellation fees
• Set recurring weekly and monthly payments
• You can add a payment link anywhere you want
  • Facebook page
  • Website
  • Email
  • Quickbooks statements
  • Donate buttons for non-profits
  • Create ecommerce buttons
• Best of all it integrates with Quickbooks

So far this has been a great cost effective alternative for me in my business.   I love not having to run to the mailbox and then to the bank to deposit checks. And the fact that I don’t have to wait 3 business days to transfer funds to my bank account is a bonus.  Although not all my clients are paying their invoices via the IPN system, my goal is that one day they all will.

The one thing I will really miss about PayPal is the PayPal debit/credit card.  Oh yeah….there’s an alternative to that too.  When it saves me time, it saves me money.

Tax Free Retirement – Tune In

As small business owners we know the importance of saving for our retirement.  Patrick Kelly, best-selling Financial Author will share with you the secrets to a Tax-free retirement via Live HD Broadcast on Thursday, October 20th, at 8pm (EST)/5pm (PST).  Simply click here to watch Patrick speak live via the web to a small and exclusive group of small business owners.  In this 25 minute Live HD broadcast, Patrick will show business owners how they can:

• Create a tax-free retirement
• Utilize a savings plan that does NOT require employee contributions
• Create an instant, income-tax-free estate
• And best of all, how to create a bucket big enough to accept all the proceeds from the future sale of a business that can be accessible tax-free for the business owner’s life

This 25-minute broadcast will change your financial future.  Even if you’re not able watch this live broadcast, you can contact Mark Nardelli of Nardelli & Associates to get a copy of Patrick’s new book – “The Retirement Miracle”.

To receive your FREE copy of Patrick Kelly’s Book simply call 919-729-5312 within 24 hours and Mark will send you his book.

P.S. Click here to read Patrick’s recent article “Is It Time For A Reboot” on FoxBusiness.com

Networking With Your Peers

The power of networking with your peers.  I have been a member of the Yahoo Association of Business Support Services International (ABSSI) group for years.  I first joined ABSSSI back in the early 90s when I first started my part time “Home-base Secretary” service.  ABSSI provided me with a lot of the information I needed to know to grow my business.  Over the years, even after the association dissolved, I kept in the loop by joining the Yahoo ABSSI group and would read the emails and find great tips and information that I could use in my business.

I love the Virtual Assistant industry because we are more like collaborators than competitors.  Basically we have each other’s back and you just can’t beat that in the business world today.

This week I received an overwhelming amount of transcription from several different companies all needing fast turnaround.  So while sitting in my office around 10pm or so I thought about ABSSI and the numerous times I have seen people post that they need help.  So of course I decided to give it a try.  Of course at this time of night I wasn’t expecting much in a response, but to my pleasant surprise I received emails and phone calls of transcriptionists offering their help.  Why didn’t I think of this sooner?

I can’t wait to see how this all works out, but tapping into your network of fellow VAs is definitely a great support system when you have occasional work overload.

Processing Credit Cards with Square

As business owners we are always looking for ways to cut costs. The cost of having a merchant account with the monthly fees and other expenses that go along with it, whether you use the account or not leaves little to be desired.  That’s what makes PayPal appealing as you only pay fees on money you receive, no monthly service cost, no contract.

Square is a free pocket-size credit card reader that plugs into the audio jack on your phone. There are no monthly fees, and no contract. Each time you swipe your card you pay one fee of 2.75% and 3.5% + $.15 if you need to manually key in the credit card number. You can accept credit cards quickly and easily with no extra cost for equipment as your phone becomes your credit card terminal.

You can download the Square app to your Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch.

Square meets all industry-standard security practices to ensure safety for you and your payers. Square’s software is developed using industry-standard security best practices.

If you are pouring money down the drain by paying fees for a merchant account and equipment you rarely use, now you have access to an alternative which can be a cost effective alternative. To find out more about Square and get your free card reader sent to you in the mail visit https://squareup.com/ and order yours today.

Transcription: A Poem for an Undying Industry

Many times when online I come across companies and individuals who use sites like Freelancer, Guru, and Elance to post their projects for audio or video transcription.  Sometimes I laugh out loud at the audacity of some who want to pay $10 for an hour of audio to transcribe.  Unless you’ve ever sat down and actually tried transcribing just a 15 minute audio you’ll find it takes close to an hour or more to transcribe.

Each minute of speech takes 3 to 5 minutes to transcribe.  Now there are more factors included here than just the speed of the person transcribing.  The number of speakers, the accents, the background noise, speakers within mic range, mumbled voices or voices that start out loud and then go down to a whisper, all of these factors feed into the amount of time it takes to transcribe an audio or video.  If names are to be captured, that extends the time.  If time codes must appear throughout the document, that too extends the time to transcribe.  Poor audio will cost more that a clear audio to transcribe.  So here are some suggestions to getting the best results for audio or video you need transcribed:

• It is smart and cost effective to invest in high quality recording devices, preferably digital to transcribe you audio.
• Remind participants to speak loud and clear and to say their name each time they speak when there are more than two speakers and you want the names captured.
• Many times companies prefer fast turn around (24 hours or less).  The preferred turn around is 3 to 5 business days.  This is because many services that provide transcription have more than one client and they all have deadlines that seem to be rushes.  If you have 8 hours of audio, it will take up to 40 hours to transcribe (again depending on other factors, best case scenario it could take several hours less, worse case, several hours more).  You cannot expect to get 8 hours of audio back in 24 hours unless you hire a service that has a staff of at least 6 to 8 people who are not already working on other transcription projects.  You should prefer well rested transcriptionists to transcribe your audio, proof read and get it back to you without staying up all night.
• Use digital files which can be submitted via a service like YouSendIt or send via mail on a CD, DVD of flash drive.
• Provide formatting instructions.
• Provide what your preferred deadline is to give your service provider the opportunity to let you know whether or not they can meat your deadline.  Any time you need your audio transcribed in less than 3 days you should let the service provider know up front.
• Know that if your audio if poor, your final document will reflect that.  A transcriptionist can only type what they hear.  If they can’t hear it, they can’t type it.  If they can’t understand it, they can’t type it.

Luckily I’ve seen the best and worst in audio to be transcribed.  Luckily I have more good experiences than bad.  However, when I come across these posts for bids where they person lists the amount they are willing to pay and it’s actually less than minimum wage, I just really want that person to sit down and try for just 15 minutes to transcribe their own audio.  $10 per audio hour may sound good to some.  But per audio hour is actually 3 to 5 hours so you’re actually paying someone somewhere between $2 an hour to $3.33 an hour.

I wrote the poem below because honestly I couldn’t find one on the internet to express what many transcriptionists can relate to.  So for all you transcribers out there, I just want you to know I feel your pain.  I don’t have a title for this yet.

No Title Transcription Poem

Spoken words to typed text

When one dictates, transcription is next

The transcriber knows what this process will entail

That’s why electronic delivery is better than mail

Each minute of speech takes up to 5 minutes to transcribe

Matching minute for minute, the fastest of typist can’t provide

So that 1 hour audio they want to pay $10 for

Takes the most seasoned professional 3 to 5 hours or more

So many aspects will affect the time it takes

To transcribe a file and clean up mistakes

From number of speakers, audio length, and background sound

To static, time coding, and how fast they want it turned around

For quality work 3 to 5 days is desired

But for rush jobs in 2 days or less, the rate goes up higher

You get what you pay for…a saying that is true

So $10 for an hour of audio….I won’t ever work for you!!!!

Odetta Taylor

Quick Access to Your Documents

If you’re like me, there are documents you access on your computer quite often. Wouldn’t it be nice to access these documents quickly without having to search through your folders to get to them? Well you can!

The Push-Pin feature works in MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint. This feature let’s you keep your documents readily available and avoid the extra steps of searching for them when you need them.

Fig. 1 – Click to see larger view

Of course you already know about the MS Office feature that lists your most recently accessed documents. When you click on the Office button at the top left of your screen you should see a list of documents you recently opened. Next to each document is a Push-Pin.

By simply clicking on the Push-Pin next to the documents you want readily available, that document will always appear in this list until you click the Push-Pin again to disable it.  (The grey sideways Push-Pins are disabled and those document will eventually go away.  The green Push-Pin is an active document that will stay in this menu until you click it to disable it.)

Fig. 2 – Click to see larger view

Another option you have for accessing documents you’ve recently open is to change the number of recent documents that appears in this list. You can either increase or decrease the number.

Click on the Office button in the upper left corner of your screen and select Word Options at the bottom of the menu.  In the Word Options dialogue box selectAdvanced in the left column and then scroll through the list of options to the Display section. The first item in the display section allows you to increase or decrease the number of Recent Documents that will be shown in your menu list when you select the Office button.

Payment Options: The Benefits of PayPal

As business owners our goal is to build long lasting relationships with our clients.  We make adjustments and changes along the way, but the bottom line is getting paid on time, every time.  From time to time you may find that you have a “slow pay client”.  You know the client that takes more than 30 days to pay or takes longer than whatever your payment terms are.  How do you handle this?  Have you considered possibly offering the client more payment options?

Alternate Office Solutions offers several forms of payments for clients.  Of course the old standard pay by check is the first option.  However we also receive payment via Direct Deposit and PayPal.  I like Direct Deposit because funds are available sooner, and it eliminates a trip to the bank to make the deposit.

PayPal offers another quick and easy form of payment in the form of credit card payments.  You have the convenience of sending clients an invoice via PayPal and when they receive it, they can decide to either write a check and mail it to me, or use the link provided in the emailed invoice to pay via credit card online.   We have actually received payments as fast as 15 minutes after we have emailed the invoice via PayPal.  It was a nice unexpected surprise.

PayPal is a great resource for those business owners who do not have a merchant account.  This service allows you to accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover card payments for those clients who prefer to pay by credit card.  Not only can you receive payments with PayPal, you can also send money with PayPal.  An added benefit to having a PayPal account is you can request a PayPal Debit Card which acts just like your personal debit card.  The PayPal debit card comes with the MasterCard logo on it and allows you to make debit and credit purchases.  When clients pay you via PayPal your funds are deposited directly into your PayPal debit card account.  You can choose to get cash from the ATM, use the card to make purchases or transfer funds of equal to or lesser value than the amount that’s available on the card at the time.  Transfer of funds from PayPal to your bank account takes 2 to 3 business days.

As a virtual business support service provider PayPal comes in handy at those times when extra expenses are incurred for a client.  Whether sourcing for photos or running to the local office supply store to pick up needed supplies for a client’s project, I can ask the client to send money to the company PayPal account and use the card immediately to make the purchase.  There are times when I may just make the purchase with my own funds and bill the client later, but for those times when you to incur the extra expense, PayPal really does come in handy.

Benefits of use PayPal:

• No monthly fee for the service
• The fees charged by PayPal are tax deductible
• A great way for clients to quickly send you money when additional expenses arise
• Less expensive than having a merchant account
• Doing your part in helping the environment by saving on paper
• Provides client a way of paying your invoices with a credit card

The bottom line is your bottom line.  If offering your clients different options to pay allows for your invoices to get paid on time or even faster, then why not?  The 2.9% fee plus .30¢that comes out when you receive payment is well worth it.  For example, if you are sent $100.00 USD by credit card, the fee would be $3.20 USD ($2.90 + $0.30).

Remember with today’s economy being able to accept credit card transactions as a form of payment helps your bottom line.  You in turn can also use PayPal as a way of paying your vendors and sub-contractors.  It’s a win/win for all.  For more information on PayPal’s business services follow this link to their website: https://merchant.paypal.com/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=merchant/home&nav=2.