Free Resources for WAHMs: Transacting Online
So you have taken the plunge and decided to start working from home, congratulations!
These are indeed exciting times!
You have a product to sell, and now you want to be able to sell to customers online. Fantastic. But what now?
When Work at Home Moms (WAHMs) start their own business, they very often do not know of many online tools available to help them.
Some mistakenly turn to some of the larger companies, who quickly quote and roll out very expensive, e-commerce and website options, and as a result, many small business are hamstrung right at the start by massive start up costs. If you just do a little research on the web, it is possible to discover your own way of setting all this up, without the need to sell a few vital internal organs in order to finance it!
Now is a better time than ever to start your own business from home, whether you decide to sell cosmetics, tupperware, scrapbooking supplies like Creative Memories or have your own line of products that you want to bring to market it is far easier than you think, and costs virtually nothing in terms of getting set up to sell these products on line, and better yet, accept credit card payments.
Contrary to popular belief you do not need a merchant account with your local bank, and you do not need a credit card machine sitting next to your phone in order to do this.
Get set up to sell your product online, and accept credit card payments, instantly.
With AlertPay!
Who are AlertPay, and what do they do?
Alertpay are a company that facilitate online transactions securely, much like the much more well known company ‘Paypal‘. However, the difference with Alertpay, is that they allow South Africans to receive money for credit card transactions, whereas Paypal, have restricted South African accounts to only be used for sending money using a credit card. So in otherwords, Paypal only allows you to BUY goods using their service, but Alertpay allow you to BUY and SELL goods using their service.
Here are the ins and outs of it in a nutshell.
Let’s say that “Jennifer” has just started selling Avon from home. Her friend “Alison” wants to buy moisturizer and lipstick from her and sends her an email (or orders by phone/in person i.e. it doesn’t matter).
Jennifer logs into her Alertpay account, and sends Alison a ‘payment request’. This is easily done with a few clicks, just like sending an email.
Jennifer fills in the amount that Alison needs to pay her for the moisturizer and lipstick and then hits the send button. Within seconds, Alison has received a secure email from Alertpay asking her to process the payment. The first time Alison does this, it prompts her to open an Alertpay account (free!), but once she has an account set up, it is a simple matter of clicking through the email, and logging in to her own Alertpay account. She can then simply send the money either using the balance in her Alertpay account (you can hold a balance in electronic funds) or by simply filling in her credit card details, and Jennifers email address. Jennifer receives the payment, and then sends or delivers the goods as per her arrangement with Alison.
It really is that easy.
Here are some answers to questions that people ask frequently:
- Opening an AlertPay account is free.
- There are three different types of accounts, Personal, Personal Pro, and Business.
- Transacting with Alertpay is secure. At no time does Alert Pay divulge the contents of your credit card details to the vendor. They are an accredited financial institution (based in Canada) who carefully verify each user. You are required to scan and send them a copy of your identity document or passport, as well as a current bill, as per FICA requirements, in order to be an Alertpay VERIFIED user. Being a VERIFIED user, gives your customers complete peace of mind that you are a real person and not a scam artist! I have personally been transacting with them for well over a year, and they are fantastic, efficient and really the answer to a WAHM’s prayers when it comes to accepting credit card payments online from customers!
- How do you get the money? Once you’ve opened an Alertpay account, you can link it to your bank account. Only YOU can choose to ‘upload’ or ‘withdraw’ funds, they are not able to access your bank account for any reason, merely verify that you are the owner of the account, so your Alertpay account and the bank account you choose must be in the same name.
- To withdraw funds is easy, once your bank account is linked (you can link a savings, cheque or credit card account), you instruct Alertpay to pay all or just a percentage of your Alertpay balance into your bank account. There is a set fee for doing this and it is withdrawn from your balance before they pay the rest into your bank account. It is very low compared to what you would pay if you had to go to the trouble of opening a merchant account, obtain the necessary machines to process card transactions, and then still deal with foreign currency exchange regulations as well – which brings me to my next point:
- You can accept payment from anyone in the world, and in a very large number of currencies. You can convert from any of these currencies into your local currency (at no charge) before withdrawing the funds to your bank account, saving you even more money.
- One of the really great things about Alertpay is the ability to send money around the world, quickly and easily especially to friends and family to and from overseas. All they need is an Alertpay account of their own, and your email address.
- If you hold funds in your Alertpay account, it does not incur any monthly fees, nor does it earn any interest. The amount remains static until you use it or withdraw it.
Alertpay is the fastest way to begin to accept credit cards and earn money through online transactions, and selling your own products and can be an absolutely invaluable tool to WAHMs starting their own business.
Why not sign up for an account now? Remember its free, and one of the most affordable ways of transacting! Your business is a drop in the ocean, and Alertpay is one of the tools that will allow that ripple effect to reach around the globe.
