How To Receive Payments Online

July 10, 2009 By 38 Comments

Update: PayPal now works in Kenya! You can also now withdraw from PayPal through Babawatoto or LibertyReserve.


Ok so you’ve decided to give this “make money online” thing a shot. You’ve figured out what you are gong to sell, to whom and how. Now one last thing remains. How will you get paid? How will you receive the chapaa? There are two ways you can receive payments online:

1. Having your own merchant account
2. Using third party processors

What is a merchant account?
A merchant account is a special kind of bank account where funds received from credit card transactions are first routed to the special account and held there before being remitted to your business account. You as an online merchant will need an account called “Card Not Present Merchant Account”. Merchant accounts are only useful when you are receiving payments on your own website (Get one!!) and have some sort of payment processing system already in place on the website (basically, a shopping cart system.

Having the merchant account is, actually, the first step in processing credit cards online. You will also need a payment gateway. A payment gateway is a service provided by billing processor which allows real time authorization of online transactions.The payment gateway you choose to work with has to be compatible with your shopping cart. Three top payment Gateway providers are AuthorizeNet, Verisign and USAePay. All payment gateway providers have their own merchant solutions. Most banks, today, work with partner payment gateway providers and are fully capable of furnishing with a merchant solution.

If you are just starting an online business and you don’t think that your sales will generate more than a thousand dollars a month, you will be better off with a third party processor. However, once your sales become really high, you will save a bundle by switching to a merchant account.

PayPal
With 72 million accounts worldwide and payment volume which is growing at a rate of 44 percent each year, PayPal by far is the most popular third party processor on the Internet. PayPal is a simple and affordable payment solution for those online merchants who are unable to or don’t want to go through the complex process of setting up a bank merchant account. Merchant losses from fraud on PayPal are now only 0.17% of revenues, vs. 1.8% for online merchants that accept credit cards through merchant accounts. This gives one more reason to use PayPal.

Paypal is also perfect for receiving small payments. For example, if you are a freelance writer and you do some small job, you don’t need a big huge merchant account – just request to be paid through Paypal. Once the money is in your Paypal account, you can use it to pay for things online, or you can request Paypal to send the money to you.

Getting a Paypal account in Kenya used to be impossible but they opened that up and you can get one right away. The bet way to use Paypal from Kenya is to use it in tandem with a Debit card. Basically, get a Debit card (I got mine from KCB) and then link it to your Paypal account – you will need to verify the card by entering into Paypal some code that will be on your bank statement. You will also need to verify your address by scanning and sending to Paypal a document (like a water of power bill) showing your name and address on the face. Doing these verifications may seem like a chore but, trust me, you will be love the simplicity and assurance that Paypal is known for.

ClickBank
Clickbank is a laaaarge marketplace where sellers list digital products for sale. The thing that’s special about clickbank is that hundreds of thousands of people ready to market and sell your product for you for a commission. By listing your product on clickbank, you access a huge market. For selling e-books, software and other similar digital products, ClickBank is probably your best option. ClickBank accepts all major credit cards and PayPal.

MPESA
Did you know that you can accept payments online through Safaricom’s MPESA service? Nice eh? I’m pretty new to it so I cannot really review it but here’s what you need to do if you want to accept payments online via MPESA:

  1. Send an email to mpesa@safaricom.co.ke requesting for the service
  2. Safaricom then responds with the requirements, tariffs and supporting Docs required.
  3. Agreements and contract drafted
  4. Allocation of code number, account creation
  5. Service Goes live

There are many other third party processing companies available on the Internet. Two of them worth mentioning are moneybookers and ikobo.

Filed Under: Make Money, Online Jobs, Small Business Tagged With:

How To Find Profitable Internet Business Models

June 29, 2009 By 1 Comment

So, the much-hyped fibre optic cables are finally here! I don’t know about you, but I’ve been waiting for them for years… Why? The cables are very likely to change the way the internet is accessed and used in Kenya. The main benefits are going to, eventually, be cheaper and faster access to the internet. This probably means that:

  1. There is going to be a sharp increase in the number of people who access the internet
  2. There exists a big HUGE opportunity to make money online in Kenya and this opportunity shall increase as the number of internet users increases.

So, the big question (apart from reading Like Chapaa regularly – subscribe for free if you haven’t yet) is: how do you make money online? There exists big opportunity, but how do we take advantage of it? What can you do to make money online?

How To Find Profitable Business Models
When thinking of starting a business, any business, the part where most people struggle is the conceptualization of the business model. They don’t know what kind of business to start, what market to target, where the revenues are going to come from and so on. The same applies for web businesses, perhaps even more so. People often do not know what sites to create, or how they are actually going to earn money.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a place where you can go to and study, in detail, successfully employed web business models? Is there any place where you can go to to generate web business ideas?

Yes there is, and it is: www.flippa.com

Flippa is a place where people buy and sell websites. The site has had a lifetime total of USD 24 million in sales so a lot of business gets done there! When you visit the site you will find lots of sites for sale. Obviously, some of them are not worth your time so you need a way to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. You can do it in two ways: click on “just sold” or “browse all listings“.

Clicking on “just sold” will let you view websites that people actually bought. These sites are obviously built on sound web business models as they would not have been bought otherwise. You can click on each site sold to learn more about it and, possibly, why the purchaser paid for and bought it.

Clicking on “browse all listings” is even better. It lets you see a long list of sites up for sale but not yet sold. The thing to do is to browse through the list and check on the number of bids. If people have actually placed a bid on a particular website, it means that they are prepared to buy it. This probably means that the website in question is built on a good and workable web business model. You can click on each listing to learn more about the website.

Now, this is where things get interesting. Since people genuinely want to sell those websites, they will give all sorts of information about them, including details of how they built them, where they get traffic from, where their revenues come from and so on. Better yet, you can ask questions about specific points and the seller will gladly respond to them. Think of the possibilities: you can learn the ins and outs of a web business and then just duplicate it elsewhere.

Just today, I learnt that you can actually be paid for offering free magazines to your website’s visitors. I sincerely do not know anywhere else where you can learn so much detail about existing businesses for free. It’s a goldmine.

I haven’t even touched on the very hot prospects of buying a web business and running it yourself, or improving it and selling it for HUGE profits. Therefore, stay tuned to this site…subscribe to receive free email updates. Or by RSS.

Have a question? Don’t hesitate to ask!

Filed Under: Cool Sites, Make Money, Small Business, Tips Hacking and Reviews Tagged With: ,

The 13 Principles of Starting a Start-Up

June 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Paul Graham shares 13 sentences on startups. (Click the link for more info).

1. Pick good cofounders
Cofounders are for a startup what location is for real estate. You can change anything about a house except where it is. In a startup you can change your idea easily, but changing your cofounders is hard.

2. Launch fast
The reason to launch fast is not so much that it’s critical to get your product to market early, but that you haven’t really started working on it till you’ve launched.

3. Let your idea evolve
This is the second half of launching fast. Launch fast and iterate.

4. Understand your users
You can envision the wealth created by a startup as a rectangle, where one side is the number of users and the other is how much you improve their lives.

5. Better to make a few users love you than a lot ambivalent
Ideally you want to make large numbers of users love you, but you can’t expect to hit that right away.

6. Offer surprisingly good customer service
Customers are used to being maltreated. Most of the companies they deal with are quasi-monopolies that get away with atrocious customer service.

7. You make what you measure
Merely measuring something has an uncanny tendency to improve it.

8. Spend little
Most startups fail before they make something people want, and the most common form of failure is running out of money.

9. Get ramen profitable
“Ramen profitable” means a startup makes just enough to pay the founders’ living expenses.

10. Avoid distractions
Nothing kills startups like distractions. The worst type are those that pay money: day jobs, consulting, profitable side-projects.

11. Don’t get demoralized
Though the immediate cause of death in a startup tends to be running out of money, the underlying cause is usually lack of focus.

12. Don’t give up
Though the immediate cause of death in a startup tends to be running out of money, the underlying cause is usually lack of focus.

13. Deals fall through
It’s very dangerous to morale to start to depend on deals closing, not just because they so often don’t, but because it makes them less likely to.

Filed Under: Make Money, Small Business Tagged With:

How to Start A Business With 3000 Or Less

June 10, 2009 By 8 Comments

Whether you’re starting a business on the side while still employed elsewhere, a student or homemaker looking for extra income, or unemployed and trying to figure out what to do, there are plenty of opportunities for you to start up a side business inexpensively. We’ll take a look at 10 such opportunities and, most importantly, tell you what to do with the 3K!

It’s unlikely any of the following will make you a living in the first few months, but they all have the potential to grow into full-time businesses.

1. Web Entrepreneur
It’s what everyone who’s ever surfed the Web dreams of — just stick a web site up there and watch the cash roll in! Well, that just doesn’t happen overnight, but the fact of the matter is it’s really not very hard to do. To do it right, start by picking a subject matter you know a lot about. Then get a domain and create a web site. It doesn’t even matter what technology you use — just make sure it looks good and provide plenty of original content. Now find some appropriate affiliate programs—that’s where your revenues are going to come from. Next, learn everything you can about search engine marketing and promote the heck out of your site. Last of all, set aside time every week to put new content on the site, delete dead links, and other maintenance. Now do this three or four times, and you’ve chosen your topics well, you might actually have some decent income from it.

Spend the 3,000 on: 800 or less for a domain and 1,000 for hosting. You can get cheap web design too (kitu 500).

2. Consultant
Getting into consulting is relatively simple. All you have to do is know how to do something better than most people do, and be able to either teach people how to do it or be willing to do it for them. Networking is the key to success in this business, so start by making a list of everyone you know and giving them all a call.

Spend the 3,000 on: 1,000 on a box of clean business cards and 500 buying your first prospect a cup of coffee one morning.

3. Housesitter /Babysitter
Nowadays, people feel an increased need for security, and house-sitting gives them some reassurance while they’re out of town. This one’s great because it basically requires no particular skills, just trustworthiness and reliability. Be sure to have personal references available, and you’ll also need reliable transportation. If you’re a baby lover, babysitting is an easy add-on.

Spend the 3,000 on: 200 on flyers to put up on bulletin boards and to pass around.

4. Professional Organizer
People these days are simply overwhelmed by their “stuff”. While there is an ever-growing trend of people wanting to simplify their lives, most of us haven’t done it yet. It’s not that people really have no clue how to get organized, it just keeps moving to the bottom of the stack, both figuratively and literally. There’s a prime opportunity for people to come in at a reasonable rate and get houses organized. And mostly it takes common sense, organizational skills, and a familiarity with where to get frequently used items cheaply. You can also do this online.

Spend the 3,000 on: Classified ads.

5. Independent Sales Representative
Sales has to be one of the most well paying ‘jobs’ out there. Just find a product you know people will love and sell it on commission. You can try this product, look here, or just ask around – the people you know are very resourceful, trust me.

Spend the 3,000 on: Possible sign up fees, maybe some samples; the rest on advertising.

6. Personal Services – Shopping & Errands
Believe it or not, there are people who are just too busy(or lazy) to do their own shopping. In addition, running petty errands is quite in demand – things like delivering small parcels and paying utility bills. Again, trustworthiness and dependability are the key traits for this. Also, make sure you know your way around the town/city you live in.

Spend the 3,000 on: 200 on flyers and the rest on classified ads.

7. Desktop Publishing
It’s amazing how many people have a computer and still don’t know how to do really simple stuff! If you’ve got a good design sense, are familiar with your word processor, and already have a laser or high-quality inkjet printer, you can get into desktop publishing. You can make fliers and posters for people. Create a really great-looking portfolio for yourself and go door-to-door.

Spend the 3,000 on: Some high-quality paper to create your samples on.

8. Tutoring
There’s an unprecedented need for tutors these days for kids of all ages—even adults! If you’ve got a topic you can tutor in, contact the local schools, particularly private ones, and even try door to door, and offer your services. Don’t be worried if your topic is highly specialized—even those are in demand.

Spend the 3,000 on: 1,000 on a box of clean business cards and 500 on flyers.

9. Online Freelancing
If you have a certain skill or if you can just do something really well, chances are there’s someone out there willing to pay you for it. Finding such people online is easy and all you need is the skills, the right attitude and reliability. Try look here.

Spend the 3,000 on: A nice looking website and reliable web hosting. Try these guys.

10. Secretarial Service – Typing / Transcription / Proofreading
Many small businesses and individuals have a need for these services, but not enough need to hire a full time employee. Assuming you’ve got a computer, a printer, and e-mail (and the necessary skills), you’re all set. Be prepared to charge by the job, not by the hour.

Spend the 3,000 on: 1,000 on a box of clean business cards and 500 on flyers.

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One last thing — beware of small business scams that promise overnight riches or ‘easy money’. Sure,one can get rich overnight but practically speaking, it just does not happen.

Be prepared to work, and work hard, for your money.

Note: This post was modified into Kenyan terms (as much as I could) from the original writing found here.

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With: ,

Starting Your Own Business; The Gruesome Details

June 6, 2009 By 2 Comments

Inari Media has an interesting series of posts on how to start your own small business. The series of articles is really very well written and should be helpful to anyone wanting to step out into the world of entrepreneurship.

Here’s how Inari Media describes the series:

As a freelancer, I deal with a number of small companies who have grown from circumstances very similar to my own: rather than submit to life on the corporate treadmill, they have struck out on their own to see if they can make a go of things while still keeping a happy work-life balance and a degree of personal autonomy. We only differ in that they hire me, while I get ansty at the thought of getting help with my accounts (there may be time later in the week for my confession of control-freakery).

Nevertheless, it has to be said that self-employment or running a business is not for everyone. Just as not every infantryman makes a good general, not every worker makes a good boss. While there are a number of brilliant resources out there, I thought that it might be an idea to put a series of posts together that detail the ins and outs of starting your own business, and how to proceed.

Interested? Go check them out:

June 23 2009: Added the rest of Inari’s articles. Stephanie has addressed the topic of starting your own business at length in the above series of articles. She gives a wholesome, well rounded description of what you need to know. I highly recommend you read up on what she wrote.

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With: