PayWise Limited

What’s in it for me?

Entrepreneurs are told to talk to customers, talk to customers. Talk to customers to know the pain they experience and to identify the problem. Talk to customers to get feedback on the solution and confirm a problem-solution fit. Soliciting feedback from potential customers is not a straight forward exercise. Good feedback is received when persons believe the outcome is possible and they have a material stake in the solution.

Persons must experience pain or discomfort which allows them to identify with the problem. The degree to which the pain is experienced differs from person to person. Persons may experience pain but the problem may seldom occur. Hence, the discomfort is short lived and really not worth the time and effort searching for a solution or investing in one.

Some may encounter the problem more frequently and thus experience a higher pain level. The displeasure causes these persons to search for a solution. They investigate options but may not have adopted any solution for several reasons. Potential reasons are a lack of understanding of how the solution works, no immediate help, or a high learning curve.

There are those who experience acute pain and have adopted a solution. However, the solution may not be ideal and leave them wanting something that fits like a hand in glove. They continue to search for something better.

Obviously, the persons who have searched for a solution are your target customers. Finding them is a challenge. However, getting their attention is a bigger challenge. These persons are likely to be risk averse. Most likely, they seek a solution from an established and trusted entity. They want something that works from a reputable supplier. Getting a foot in the door is difficult for startups.

In order to get their attention startups first have to develop credibility. This can be achieved in several ways. Partnerships with reputable firms can alleviate this concern. Another tactic is framing your value proposition in such a way that usage is low risk or risk free. In propositioning your customers you must address the key credibility concerns. Can you deliver? Are you reliable? Are you safe? For businesses these are major concerns since they have to trust your service or product in their business processes.

People don’t have the time for you. They are busy and have enough on their plate, especially, when the engagement may be a continuous dialogue or a series of activities over a period. They want something to implement now. This does not mean that you cannot get their attention. To get their attention it must be worth their while. There must be something material in it for them; if not immediately, then certainly at the end of the process. Otherwise, they can simply wait for the final solution.

There are several ways you can answer the question: What’s in it for me? Use rewards to solicit meaningful involvement. Recognition is a powerful motivation. Crowd funding sites reward contributors with mentions or credits for their involvement. Rewards can be tangible with significant upside. One site offers a small share of equity in the business for persons who aid in key tasks. Information is a valuable tool. For example, in return for participating in surveys a firm conducting the survey offers participant a free copy of the survey report. Another approach is to convince persons of new business opportunities which they can take advantage of.

However you talk to your customers, you must first connect with them so that you get priority. Needless to say you have to be creative. Otherwise, you are simply wasting your time.

Want Staff? Hire the Best Apps

I just counted the number of apps that I use; 30. They include the popular mainstay apps such as Gmail and WordPress and also the relatively new like Tempo and Wave. Don’t get put off by the headline. I am not suggesting that apps should replace employees. Like employees, apps can help you accomplish certain key tasks.

For startups the decision to hire staff is usually postponed until resources permit. Until such time the job still has to be done. In that case, hire an app. Apps allow entrepreneurs to do more with the little resources they have; especially time and money. In many instances, apps lower the expertise requirement and allow the entrepreneur to achieve more with basic knowledge.

Apps can be free or paid. There are good free apps. One of my favorites is Wave. Wave is a free accounting package. If you can post a transaction you can use this app.

A mainstay is Elance. I use Elance to find freelancers from lawyers to graphic designers online.

Recently, I began using the indispensible Google Contacts. It will take a while to organize your contacts at first but it’s worth it. Emails are normally the first point of meaningful contact and the main basis on which communication occurs.

Google Contacts create the base contact record from the email information. Hence, providing the basic by which other contact information can be readily added. Since many persons have Gmail email addresses building the contact record is made easier.

The main point is to organize your contacts. Categorize them into groups or circles. Trust me your contacts spread across business cards, emails and on your address book become a gold mine for marketing when sanitized into one place.

Recently, I discovered Hootsuite. I write blogs and post articles to different social media. Previously, I posted the articles on several social media platforms and forums therein, one at a time. This took a few minutes well. With Hootsuite, I can post several many platforms from one source and get insightful metrics. This saves time.

For calendar and appointments management I use Tempo. Tempo is intelligent. For example, you can say ‘Call John Doe’ and Tempo will insert the contact information of John Doe from your address book into the appointment. So the phone number is right at your fingertips at the time to call.

Evernote is another mainstay. I use it to make notes, organize my ideas and maintain my to-do-list. It’s accessible on all devices and the information is synced across accounts.

For a CRM I just started using Insightly. I like this app because it is free and integrates into Google applications. It’s available on mobile too.

Bannersnack makes internet advertising easy. It has a really cool interface to create your own banners; powerful stuff at your fingertips!

A must have is Dropbox, the cloud based file storage system. Dropbox is becoming ubiquitous being integrated into more and more apps daily. This makes files accessible over a larger number of your favorite apps on different devices.

Other apps of interest are Optimizely, Google Analytics, Unbounce, and Pingdom. Check them out.

Each person needs are different so a different suite of apps may apply to you. To find great apps I use Get Apps. Many times I stumble across new apps while browsing the internet and from blogs that I follow.

The bias is always to get the free stuff. While some great apps are free the real benefits of others have a price tag. Many use a subscription model that keeps the price low and allows you to manage without necessarily hiring staff.

Overlook This and Your Website Will Fail

Building a website is quite common place today. However, getting the right website design is a challenge. Characteristics of a well-designed website are a clean, crisp and professional design, a strong call to action and relevant information on the appropriate pages. The most important page is the home page and the most important trait of a good website is identifying, crafting and communicating the right message to your audience.

The process of arriving at this point is no simple task. It is a work-in-progress. When we think about creating a website the first resource considered is a good web designer. However, a web designer is just one of the resources required. In my opinion, the most important resource is a copywriter to help craft your message.

The steps below will help you reduce the learning curve and time taken to define and communicate the right message to your audience.

Purpose of Website

So you are going into business. You know what you are about and what you want to achieve. You have a vision of the website and have identified other websites to use as examples. The main thing is to differentiate your website by what it offers, aesthetics (look and feel), ease of navigation, and clarify what your customers need to know.

Get a Copywriter

A copywriter is a person who will craft the texts on your website to clearly articulate your message, the information your customers need to know and the call to action. This is no simple feat so do not necessarily think that you can do it. Copywriting is a science and there is no substitute for getting the right message across to your audience.

Engage a copywriter and communicate what you want to the person. The copywriter must have experience working with websites and with your type of business.

The body of texts produced by the copywriter for inclusion in your website is called the copy. You can find a copywriter locally or on the freelance service called www.elance.com.

Do Mockups

Next engage a designer. Before he or she designs the website have the person do mockups of the site. A mockup is a basic sketch version of the site. There are online tools like www.gomockingbird.com that make the task fairly easy. The purpose of this exercise is to show the main pages of the site, layout and navigation. Here you can experiment with different draft layouts using the copy and understand how best to design the site. Include the copywriter in this process.

Select a Design

Select an appropriate design for your website store front. There is no need to build a store front from scratch. There thousands of themes you can select. They are readily available on the internet. An example of such as site is www.themeforest.com. It will save you time and money.

Work with the copywriter and the designer to select the best theme. If your website has many images it is important that you identify a source for your images. Options include a photographer and stock photos from sites like www.istockphoto.com. Unfortunately, online options for local photos are limited or non-existent. Copying pictures from other sites is a poor long-term strategy.

Next the designer customizes the selected theme. You and the copywriter will review the changes and give feedback until you are satisfied with the modifications.

Programme the Site

Once the design is complete the programmer will take over to write the backend code to add functionality to the website. Today, depending on the platform use, there are many plugins to make the process fast and less costly.

Having the right resources from the start is crucial to the success of the website. Normally, we focus on the hard skills like design and programming. However, the copywriter is a resource often overlooked to the detriment of the website.

Bull by the Horns

Many times we try to do the least to accomplish the desired results. However, this does not always work. Sometimes a Herculean effort is required. In other words, you have to take the bull by the horns.

Local online payment acceptance is a problem in Trinidad and Tobago. Enterprise is crippled by the absence of easy to use and affordable payment system to monetize entrepreneurial ideas. On accepting the challenge to create an online payment system the idea was to have a workable solution with minimum development work. There is nothing wrong with this philosophy at the onset. However, the nature of some projects demand a level of undertaking that goes beyond the minimum effort, in order to get off the ground.

The first version of Paywise worked as follows. Merchants integrated Paywise into their website. During checkout when the customer selected the Paywise payment option an invoice would appear stating the list of banks at which the buyer can deposit the payment to the merchant’s account. Later, the buyer goes to the bank of his choice and makes the deposit. Simple.

The system had several drawbacks. I recall having a long debate with a friend who was adamant that no one will not go and stand in a bank line to make a payment. I countered by saying persons do so now. However, she was right. This version did not offer much in a way of a solution to the problem. All it did was handed customers a list of payment banks. This is not what people were looking for in an online payment solution.

The version also required that merchants open and maintain bank accounts at each bank in the country. This was to facilitate customers making payments at the most convenient bank location. This posed another problem. Instead of one bank account merchants now had to maintain several bank accounts at all the banks.

No one used the system. They liked the concept. As entrepreneurs developing a solution you will soon understand that customers have a sense of how thing should work, even if they have not seen a similar solution. They understand this from the premise of several key evaluation points: ease of use, convenience and perceived value. This version of Paywise did not meet their expectations, especially when they have used similar systems.

The experiment cost a few thousand dollars but it was a learning experience. You cannot cut corners on a straight line. Some tasks are inherently complex despite being simple in concept. While this is true sometimes we only appreciate the full gamut of the undertaking once we have dispensed with our simplistic viewpoint. The initial Paywise was an experience that provided greater insight into what was needed and how to go about it. After all, the first car produced was not the Ferrari.

So the second version of the system was created. This was more akin to what the aesthetics, functionality and convenience of a payment system that people wanted. There was no standing ovation but at least there was appreciation for the strides made and a general consensus that it was more practical than its predecessor. We continue to make efforts to improve the payment experience.

The least effort principle should be used to test the waters initially. Once you have answered the relevant questions and understand what you are about…take the bull by the horns.

Your Experience is a Big Asset

Creating a startup requires a team of persons with different skillsets. Most teams start with at least two members. Paywise began with one person and, like other teams, will expand to suit the skillset requirement. This requirement is based on the application needs, gaps in the team skillset, the importance of the skill and the cost to acquire the skill.

Several skills are required to develop Paywise. These are programming, system design, transaction processing, accounting and finance. The development team handles the programming and the physical design of the system. The logical design and the other skillsets are handled by me. It’s quite a handful. If it were not for my past work experiences I may not have been able to do it.

My work experience spans many years and different careers. First I was a software developer in a bank. For many years I worked on transaction based systems. These systems comprised batch and online transaction systems. Some systems were totally software based and others were a combination of hardware and software. Here I learnt system design, business analysis in the IT context and how transaction systems work.

Afterwards I changed careers and switched to the finance. I always had a flair for numbers so after obtaining an MBA I followed my passion. I continued working in the finance industry, initially at a bank, in the area of credit. My banking experience covered personal, commercial and corporate credit and culminated in the investment banking area. This experience taught me the world of finance and provide a deeper insight into the banking and financial systems.

Subsequently, I worked in a smaller financial institution that specializes in financing small and medium size businesses. Here I met many entrepreneurs who were in the development and growth stages of their businesses. My eyes were opened to the challenges of entrepreneurs. These challenges were both financial and non-financial in nature. I gained a better understanding of starting a business.

Later, I changed my career again. I moved from the financial industry into tertiary education. The motive was to impart my knowledge of entrepreneurship to the young minds and encourage them to pursue entrepreneurial objectives. This has been an exciting experience. Here I changed my philosophy about entrepreneurship and adopted modern teaching approaches to starting a business. The results have been very encouraging as students are more confident to become entrepreneurs.

Many reasons sparked the start of Paywise. One was the need to be more relevant to my students. That is, I found it difficult to teach entrepreneurship without being one. There is something about being able to speak about your own experiences and thereby, give more life and relevance to what you are teaching. Since starting Paywise my understanding and insight of the subject area has deepened.

The following saying best describes my experiences and my journey: tributaries flow into rivers and rivers flow into seas.

I Never Meant to Do It

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Trinidad and Tobago has been without a local online payment mechanism for too long. Consequently, many entrepreneurs and established businesses have failed to undertake or could not fully realize online business opportunities. Many of my earlier business ideas crash landed for the same reason.

Many years ago I had an idea for a local mobile payment system. I did the business plan and then took it to a local technology firm. For the first time, the plan made contact with the harsh realities of the real world. After the meeting, I shelved it and pursued other ideas within my power to execute.

Paywise happened by accident. I wanted to start a crowd funding site to provide a mechanism for entrepreneurs to test their ideas for market acceptance. Of course, a payment system was required. I decided to use a payment gateway offered by a local bank. However, my application was rejected. Aggravated and frustrated I realized that something had to be done.

A few weeks later, I participated in the first Startup Weekend event. It was a thrill to see may great ideas developed within 54 hours. Like Silicon Valley many ideas were internet based and cutting edge. However, it was deflating to realize that despite their brilliance, young entrepreneurs had little or no chance in Trinidad and Tobago to make money online. This pained me and then I decided to create a local payment mechanism.

So Paywise was created. The prototype was an absolute flop. People liked the idea but it was too burdensome to use and required customers standing in a bank line to make payments. However, it was important for me to understand and assimilate the needs and requirements of a payment mechanism.

Paywise is a unique ecommerce solution. Firstly, it is a non-credit card based system. Payments are made using cash and LINX cards only. Secondly, it integrates seamlessly into your online store. During checkout Paywise captures the customer order information. Thirdly, it uses a network of retail agents to collect payments. Customers pay for their orders at the nearest Paywise agent. Afterwards, Paywise deposits the payments received into the merchant’s bank account.

The main benefits of using the system are low cost, next day settlement, wider market reach and ease of use.

In 2013, Paywise was one of the Ideas 2 Innovation awardees. The award was used to develop the current version of the system. This met its greater acceptance. We continue to improve the system functionality and widen its usage.

With Paywise entrepreneurs can now pursue their online dreams. Sure there will be challenges but a local online payment mechanism is not one of them.