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Telpay Payment News
Bringing You Payment Insights, Trends and Best Practices

Pillars for Business Growth: Sales

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The series is from Chartered Accountant, consultant and author, Jeff Borschowa, from his book, 8 Pillars for Exponential Business Growth. The series is focused on how to find new and better ways to integrate innovation and technology to enhance the customer experience and improve efficiency in the accounting process.

The sales process focuses on closing deals, signing up new customers, and maintaining relationships with existing customers. Basically, this is the activity that converts your marketing leads and prospects into paying customers. If you are not comfortable with sales and negotiations, you need to gain some level of comfort and experience quickly. I recommend sales training programs for all of my customers and students, regardless of industry. I believe that our sales ability determines the level of success that we achieve in life. If you view “sales” as a negative concept, change your perspective to focus on relationship building and exceptional customer service.

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Telpay Payment News
Bringing You Payment Insights, Trends and Best Practices

Pillars for Business Growth: Marketing & Networking

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The series is from Chartered Accountant, consultant and author, Jeff Borschowa, from his book, 8 Pillars for Exponential Business Growth. The series is focused on how to find new and better ways to integrate innovation and technology to enhance the customer experience and improve efficiency in the accounting process.

Marketing encompasses all activities that encourage a prospect to contact you in the first place. In my experience, it is hard to stand out or make any significant gains through traditional marketing, such as television, radio or newspaper advertisements, mainly due to the fact that mass media is exactly that – directed to the masses. For the most part, you target a medium’s entire audience and hope that they identify with you.
Random marketing can produce random results. Before you start marketing, you need to clearly identify the characteristics that represent your ideal customer. Creating a clear picture of the person you will ultimately target with your marketing will drastically improve your results, especially your return on investment for marketing effort and dollars. Your ideal customer will form the basis for any subsequent marketing plan that you develop.

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Telpay Payment News
Bringing You Payment Insights, Trends and Best Practices

Want to Move to the Cloud?

cloud-computing

We are excited to share Cloud insights from our guest contributor, Kerri Bouffard of
Add-Vantage Bookkeeping. Kerri will be providing advice and solutions to help you determine if the Cloud is right for your business. 

Originally posted in the Add-Vantage Bookkeeping Blog, republished with permission.

It seems that no matter where we turn we are being bombarded with the word “CLOUD”! Cloud Servers – Cloud Software – Cloud Storage – Cloud Everything! Cloud does not seem to pertain to the weather any longer!

It is popping up everywhere and many businesses, accountants and bookkeepers are contemplating taking that big step and transitioning their accounting and bookkeeping to the cloud. But just because you want to work in the cloud doesn’t mean it is an easy transition. Often once you start the process you will have one question answered but seven more will pop up!

I have been working completely in the cloud – very happily – for almost three years now and I could not imagine working any other way. I have such peace of mind over the safety of my data, but also the ease of use I have for accessing my data whenever I need to do so. This however was not a step I took lightly and there are still a lot of things I have to consider on an individual client basis and what their specific needs are.

My recommendation would be to really analyze what you are hoping to accomplish with moving to the cloud – be it better security of your data, having someone else look after your technology, ease of access so you can get out of your office, collaboration with clients with their bookkeeping, etc. Once you determine your top five reasons for wanting to move to the cloud – then you will need to analyze the different offerings that are out there. Would Cloud software suit your needs better than a Cloud server solution? Would a Cloud server solution offering direct support to accountants and bookkeepers be preferable to a Cloud server solution that offers space on their server farm but you are responsible for everything else? For this you need to analyze your requirements – as well as your client’s.

As I mentioned – one question will lead to seven more – and one solution is not a one size fits all solution. You could determine that you will use a combination of all three!

Over the next several weeks, I will tackle some of these questions and solutions to help you in determining what may work best for your individual situation! If you would like a more personalized approach please feel free to contact me by email to have a private cloud consultation!

The Cloud is a wonderful thing – let’s clear up some of the unknowns together!

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Telpay Payment News
Bringing You Payment Insights, Trends and Best Practices

Happy Travels: 8 Tips on How to Work Remotely

1-Bea+family (2)Guest Blogger:  Bea Dabrowski, BA CPB, Co-Owner of CertPro Accounting Team Inc in Winnipeg.

What’s your passion in life?  Mine is travel.  And I don’t mean taking short little holidays here and there.  By travel, I mean uprooting my family for several months or longer and living like a local in a foreign culture. Having grown up in three different countries, having attended schools in all of them, and having had to learn a new language each time, I don’t see any other way to live for me.  This is my normal.  And now my family’s as well.  My son, when not in Canada, attends a local school in a local language, learning a new culture.

If this sounds outlandish to you, you are probably thinking, how can a person make a living and be successful and financially stable, while leading a seemingly chaotic lifestyle like mine.  Well, let me tell you, I am not the only one and not the first one to do this.

If living elsewhere for even part of the year (perhaps to avoid the insane Canadian winter), has ever crossed your mind – let me tell you, it is quite feasible.  The person who inspires me the most and will surely inspire you as well, is the American author/life hacker Tim Ferriss (you can check out his blog here: http://fourhourworkweek.com/4-hour-workweek-tools/).  His blog and book contain all the steps you need to take in order to “escape” the office.

But what tools do you need in order to work remotely?

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Telpay Payment News
Bringing You Payment Insights, Trends and Best Practices

Growing Your Business Internationally

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Guest Blogger:  Paul Rechner, President, Payline by ICE
Working in a variety of roles in the Canadian corporate foreign exchange industry for the past 10 years, Paul Rechner has brought to Payline by ICE a vision for growth and expansion while holding firm to our primary tenets of ethical business practices and customer service.

Most businesses need growth to survive. Few survive the test of time without looking at new products, new processes and new markets. All of these can be intimidating by taking us out of our comfort zone, but what could be more foreign than expanding into markets in other countries with different norms, practices, consumers and prioritization of needs? You wouldn’t likely be making the expansion if you didn’t have good reason to believe that your product would be valued there, but as with all commerce, it will require the efficient flow of funds for a venture to be successful.

Payline by ICE and Telpay have partnered for years to provide clients with access to Telpay’s International Payments Module. This software allows for you to send payments in over 140 currencies to most countries around the world, with transparent pricing, and all the convenience you have already come to expect from Telpay. Tired of wire fees ranging from $20-$75 or more? International payments made through Telpay cost only $2 per transaction, and the exchange rates are, in most cases, superior to those offered by your bank.

As you look to expand into new territories, there are often exploratory and set-up costs associated with the venture. As Canadians, we have it ingrained to go to our bank for most every financial transaction. The general rule is, the more you send, the better the pricing. Most businesses don’t send enough to benefit from special rates and fees. By working with an International Payments specialist like Payline, we aggregate the transactions of numerous clients, and take that to the bank to get better pricing than the individual transactions would receive. We pass on a portion of those savings, allowing us to demonstrate cost-savings to our clients. The best part is that it’s made easy and convenient, working through a system that you already know and understand.

As your business grows in new markets, you will presumably start receiving foreign revenues from those territories. Through your account with Payline by ICE, you’ll be able to access our help in converting those back to Canadian Dollars, or into another currency as you expand into yet further territories.

While there are many stresses involved with growing your business internationally, dealing with the movement of funds doesn’t have to be one of them. Visit International Payments for more information about getting started.