business | Technology Bloggers

‘WorldCard HD’ – Manage your Contacts the Smart Way

17th October 2012 2 Replies RonF

Are you a business-oriented person? Then you would probably be meeting many people every day. It really gets difficult for you to manage all the business cards that pile up on your table and in your wallet. Here comes an app that helps you manage your cards. Yes, ‘WorldCard HD’ is an iPad app which is an intelligent business card manager.

This iPad application is the handiest tool for your business. With ‘WorldCard HD’, you can save contact information of multilingual business cards. This is an app that transfers your business card details to your iPad without manual typing, but by scanning them using the iPad’s camera. One of the notable features of ‘WorldCard HD’ is that it uses OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology to recognize the details. Once you capture the image, you just have to click on the recognize button.

Once you open the app, you see 3 icons, namely Contacts, Favorites and Maps. The home screen displays names in alphabetical order. Under the contacts option, you have several choices. Using them you can add a new contact by capturing the business card details through your iPad’s camera. The app automatically recognizes the name, company information, address, phone number etc. You can also add contacts from your album by enabling the ‘WorldCard HD’ local services in the system settings and can also import contacts from the iPad. You can check the contact details and edit them if required with the edit icon. You can export your contacts to cloud, email etc., with the contact management icon. The Favorites icon allows you to select contacts and add them to your favorites. With the Maps option you can select a contact and find out where he is located. It also gives you the GPS information of the contact.

The Settings option helps you customize your preferences. It has 3 main options namely, Display, General and Cloud and About. With the display option, ‘WorldCard HD’ allows you to set the display sequence of the first name and last name and the indexing criteria can be set as contact name or company name. With the general option, you can set the index to follow any of the orders like English alphabet, Chinese Stroke, Japanese Phonetics etc. The cloud allows you to share or backup your contacts via cloud services (iCloud/Dropbox) option. The help option of the app gives a clear overview of the various functionalities of the app.

‘WorldCard HD’ is available in languages like English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. It is a business app costing $14.99 that requires iOS 4.2 or later versions. The best part of the app is that you can scan multiple cards at the same time. You can also contact your friends through email, Facebook, Twitter etc. Except for the price, the app seems to be the ultimate choice for any business person. With ‘WorldCard HD‘ in your iPad, dealing with business contacts will definitely become easier.

Is the demise of big banks on the horizon?

20th July 2012 6 Replies Christopher Roberts

There are many ways you can grow your money.

You could invest in a project, such as installing solar panels, this can be really beneficial and can pay you back many times over the life of the panels, it is also green. Solar is a long-term investment though, so if you want quick returns, it might not be your thing.

You could buy property, become a landlord and earn income via letting it out to tenants.

You could gamble with it, which can have really high returns, however this is rare, whereas big losses arn’t.

You could invest your money in stocks and shares, and hope that the stockmarket value of them increases. This is a risky but potentially very lucrative way to earn money.

Alternatively you could put your money in a bank – or a building society or cooperative. This is probably the safest option.

Big Banks

In the UK, during the 1980’s many building societies changed into banks meaning they were allowed to float on the stockmarket, due to a change in British banking laws.

During this time, many of the banks we know today either turned from building societies into banks or took over smaller building societies. This created the ‘big banks‘ that we know today.

Bank on Dave

A recent television show I watched (called Bank of Dave) made me think about banking a lot more. In 2008 bankers were put in front of a committee of MPs and grilled, as a result of the global banking crisis.

Despite the massive losses many banks have encored, most have still awarded tens of thousand, hundreds of thousand and even million pound bonuses to their top employees.

In Bank of Dave, millionaire David Fishwick, used tens of thousands of pounds of his own money to set up a small cooperative cross building society, which he liked to call a ‘tiny bank’. The reason he did this is because he was sick of banks not lending, acting improperly/indecently/immorally and treating savers badly.

Dave owns a business dealing in minibuses, minicoaches and vans, and noticed that in 2008 when the banking crisis hit, many of his customers could no longer get loans to buy his products. This angered him and was another reason why he started his bank.

David Fishwick – the Yorkshireman who was fed up of the big banks, so set up his own.

In just six months Dave made almost £95,011 profit by simply taking peoples (and before he got all the necessary licences his own) savings (he couldn’t legally say ‘deposits’) and lending them out to local businesses and individuals who were unable to get loans from the banks. The profits (after paying the two employees and presumably himself) went to local charities.

Due to its low overheads and risk, the bank could offer savers an amazing 5% interest rate.

Dave persuaded his local MP to lobby for him and his venture in parliament. Dave also managed to get the Business Secretary Vince Cable and politician Alastair Campbell to appear on the show, both of whom agreed that it was the sort of business/banking that the country needed, opposed to the monopolistic big banks that we have today. Vince Cable told Dave that he would speak to the FSA to try to make it easier for Dave to operate, and more people to start up similar ventures in future.

Most of the businesses the Bank of Dave (officially Burnley Savings and Loans Ltd. for legal reasons) helped, were legitimate and honest local ventures, which grew and thrived when they received the cash they vitally needed either to stay afloat or expand. An amazing 98% of the businesses Bank of Dave lent to were paying back their loans on time at the end of the programme!

The show was a real eye opener to me, as to the way things are currently run and how they could potentially be run.

In the global economic downturn, the UK lenders that have weather the storm well are Nationwide Building Society and the Co-operative. These are not your typical big bank, they are more community focused, ‘friendly’ institutions. Why? Because they don’t pay crazy bonuses, don’t engage in unethical business and are more careful with what they do with savers money – i.e. don’t take high risk gambles.

The show Bank of Dave ended with the commentator saying:

“Could this be the start of a banking revolution?”

I think it could be.

Just yesterday, the ‘safer’ more responsible Co-operative bank made a deal to take a form of ownership of the not so stable Lloyds Banking Group. A big bank that has been cut down to size?

Bye Bye Big Banks?

Considerable awareness has now been raised about the way our banks operate, and whether there is a viable, better alternative.

My thoughts are that if institutions like the Co-operative, Nationwide Building Society and Burnley Savings and Loans Ltd. are doing so well, then they could well be the future. They seem to have greater public support, lend to more people, offer better interest rates, and are less risky.

I think a banking revolution is on the horizon – you heard it here first!

Utilising technology to its full business potential

18th July 2012 9 Replies Chadrack

There is no doubt about it. Technology has greatly enhanced how we carry out our businesses today. It’s just one of the beauties of the information age and for this, most of us cannot but thank modern communication technology for the opportunity to work and connect with the whole wide world!

But, think about this…

Is technology really a blessing to your business or you have become so obsessed with it that it has become a curse?

Have you become so engrossed and mesmerized by the tools of information technology that you have quickly forgotten why you bought them in the first place?

Have you forgotten that those tools were to leverage your time and help grow your business?

It’s really unfortunate that many online business entrepreneurs unintentionally have allowed modern technology gadgets and tools to suck the time out of their lives and add needless overhead to their businesses.

As a fellow web entrepreneur interested in your business success, I want to use this article to give you some basic tips on how you can truly make modern day technology a blessing in your online business. My desire is to ensure that you make every cent you will ever spend on your business count. Of course, this may not agree with many but that doesn’t really matter as long as you are able to gain with it. And so, I invite you to read this article all through.

The Story of the Japanese and the Texan

I don’t know if you have heard this story before, but I must say it is one that has a lot of lessons for us as regards what we want to discuss in this article. The story is about a Japanese man and a Texan who were passing through customs at an airport. The Japanese man was said to have with him two large suitcases and the Texan wanting to play the Good Samaritan, offered to help the Japanese move the suitcases toward the customs officers. Just as he was doing this, the Japanese man’s wristwatch started beeping and the man listened to the message and talked through a miniature speaker on the telephone in the wristwatch.

The Texan was amazed and right there offered to purchase the watch for $5,000. But the Japanese declined, saying the watch was not for sale.

The Texan now more interested in the Japanese man continued helping the man to push his heavy bags forward. A few seconds later the watch beeped again and this time the Japanese man opened the watch to receive an email message and then replied same using a small computer contained in the watch. The Texan, awestruck, again offered to purchase the watch but this time for $25,000.

“The watch is not for sale,” the Japanese man again replied.

Now, the Texan could not take the thought of the watch from his mind. To him that wristwatch is just want he wanted right now! And, then as he again helped push the enormous bags forward the watch beeped a third time. This time a long fax came out. The Texan, now more determined to own that watch, offered to purchase it for $300,000.

At this, the Japanese man turned to him and asked if he had the money there. The Texan quickly and eagerly wrote out a check for him. The Japanese man processed the check on the watch and then transferred the money into his Swiss bank account. After this, he took off the watch and handed it to the Texan and walked away.

As he was walking away the Texan realized that the Japanese man had left the enormous bags behind. Turning around he called out to him, “you’re forgetting your bags.”

“Those are not my bags,” the Japanese man shouted back. “They’re the batteries for your watch!”

Lol!

Alright, so how does this story relate to what I want to discuss with you here?

In many ways! Actually the moral of the story is that the Texan got caught on the wrong side of information technology! And so, my point here is that you should be careful that you don’t fall into the same trap.

To help you avoid this trap here a few tips on how you can make technology to work maximally for your online business.

1. Don’t Invest Your Time Or Money Except If It Adds Value

Every day new and enticing tools and software are being pushed into the market. You must beware that you’re not drawn by them. If you allow yourself to be obsessed or mesmerized, you will end up with gadgets that are nothing but fanciful toys.

Before investing your resources in any tool of technology, ask yourself if it will increase sales, help lower overhead or help in your business effectiveness. If any gadget fails in any of these areas then do not invest your time or money in it.

2. Do Not Become A Slave Of Technology

Many online entrepreneurs have allowed themselves to become slaves of online tools. I’m sure you are very much aware of the distractions we all face every day on the net. Online media, online games, online chatting etc, have become an obsession for many.

As an entrepreneur, you must understand that your time is valuable. You must therefore learn to master these tools so that they do not sabotage your productivity. If possible find ways of automating the use of these tools.

3. Use Inexpensive But Smart Tools Whenever Possible

Why rush to get any technological tool or gadget that hit the market? Do not be deceived, that tool may be the latest right now but with the rate these tools are being turned out, that latest gadget may just be obsolete even before you learn to enjoy its full potentials.

The solution? Decide on what you want done in your business and then go for the tools that will help you with that. The good thing is that there are smart tools that you can pick up online that will help you save both money and time and possibly increase your effectiveness.

4. If You Must Buy It Then Use It To The Fullest

This flows from #3 above. One thing that is clear is that most technological gadgets today can actually perform a whole lot of things. If you must invest your money and time on any of these, then learn to use it to the fullest. There are a hundred and one places online where you can learn about using these tools. There are free tutorials you can access online. Also blogs like the Technology Bloggers, can be of great help.

5. Don’t Get It Before You Need It

As an internet marketer I think I’m progressing in error here but I think your success as an entrepreneur is more important to me than any form of monetary gain.

If you’re subscribed to internet marketing newsletters or you spend a considerable time surfing the net, you will understand that every day new tools and “push button” software are being pushed at us left, right and center by smart internet marketers.

If you’re not focused, you’ll be tempted to believe that if you don’t own that latest tool or software, the world will just be passing you by!

But instead of falling into this trap, ask yourself if you indeed need that tool right now. If not don’t go for it. When you truly do need it, the right tool, and maybe something better, will be available for you!

Conclusion

In a rapidly changing world, technology is essential to effectively compete as a business however, not every tool of technology is worth your time. Spending your time and finance on technology for its sake, will end up as a curse instead of a blessing. Be disciplined and master your use of online tools and gadgets if you want your business to greatly benefit with the latest push button technology.

Over to You: Have you ever invested in a tool or gadget that you later regretted? Are you an online entrepreneur? How are you maximizing your use of technology for your online business? Share your experience with us in the comments below.

Technology Bloggers

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