Saturday, 28 March 2015

How to Start an Online Business?

If you're ready to be in charge of your own destiny, but don’t have the capital to buy a franchise or open up a storefront, consider starting an online business. When your store is online, you can reach millions of customers instead of whoever happens to wander in - plus, you don't have to pay for retail space. However, like with any business, you'll need an excellent product and a solid marketing plan. See Step 1 to learn what it takes to start your business online.

Part 1 of 3: Setting Up Your Business

Define your product or service. Starting an online business gives you the benefit of having access to millions of customers, but you also have a lot more competition. No matter what you're trying to sell, you can bet that hundreds more online retailers have a similar idea. What differentiates your product from everyone else's? To help your product stand apart from the rest, you'll need to find a niche.^[1]

Let’s say you make jewellery—but so do a few million other people. What makes yours different? If one-of-a-kind jewellery (or another product) is your gig, make sure it's truly original.
Offer expertise in an area. Even if the product itself isn't very unique, your expertise might be a strong selling point. If you're selling a line of skincare products, for example, it helps if you have a degree in a field related to skin health.
Check into the competition. Figure out what isn't already being offered, and find a way to fill the hole with your product.

Register your business. Your business needs to be registered according to your state's laws. Choose an official business name and fill out the appropriate paperwork to make your business official.

Before you register your business, it can help to have a business plan laid out. Consider your production costs, shipping costs, taxes, and web hosting fees.
Know the business regulations in your state, and be sure to comply when you get things up and running.

Register a domain name. Like the name of any other business, go for something short and catchy that will be easy for people to remember. Visit the website of a domain registration company and test out some of the names you're interested in to determine whether they're available. Once you land on a good name, go ahead and register it.

Get a web hosting service. There are free hosting services to be found, but if you're serious about running an online business longterm, consider paying for one that offers all the services you need. You'll be less likely to run into problems when your business starts to take off. Choose a hosting service that allows for growth.^[3]

Some hosting services are highly structured, allowing you to choose from among different templates to create a website quite easily. Others allow you to do your own programming, giving you greater flexibility.

Part 2 of 3: Creating Your Online Store

Create a stylish and functional website. Elegant or funky, classical or hipster, your online store should reflect what you’re selling. No matter what your style is, it's important to give of a professional air. Since you won't be able to earn people's trust in person, your website will have to do the selling for you. Your site should be engaging, and most importantly, easy for customers to use when they're ready to make a purchase.^[4]

Make sure your site design matches your product. For example, if you make traditionally styled diamond jewelry, having a website that looks like shredded cardboard with edgy fonts and images taped to the cardboard would tend to drive away your potential customers.
Consider setting up an online portfolio. Whether you are a programmer who specializes in Javascript, a graphic designer who works on commissions, a plumber who is on call 24/7, or a copywriter who will write about anything at all, having an exemplary website where potential clients can evaluate your work is crucial to your online business success.
You don’t have to design the website yourself—there are professional designers who are more than up to the task, plus ecommerce websites will offer dozens of appropriate templates for you. If you know in advance what you want, you’ll make selecting a designer or a template that much easier.
When designing your site you need to remember to focus on what is important. Your ultimate goal is to make your site simple and easy to use.
Your customers should have to make no more than 2 clicks in order to land on the page where they can make a purchase.
The top of every page should have a link to your shopping cart if its an ecommerce store
Buttons should be large and clear to read and input boxes should be large and easy to enter your information
Less is more. Don’t be wordy when you don’t need to on payment pages
Make sure your logo at the top of the page always links to the homepage
If you have dark backgrounds use light text and vice versa.

Get ecommerce software. You'll need this so your customers can view your products, enter their information and make a secure purchase. The software safely stores customer information. Don't skimp in this area, since the ecommerce software you choose will make a big difference in how easy it is for customers to feel secure buying something from your store.

You can also use an all-inclusive ecommerce web service. Sites such as Shopify and Volusion offer competitive packages, with free templates, custom packages, credit card processing, and more. Ecommerce web services makes it easy to sell your products on the web, without a lot of overhead. There are no custom interfaces or templates to work with; you simply create an online storewithin the framework of the service.

Set up a merchant account. Service businesses in the past had to generally rely on cash or check—setting up an entire credit card processing system was a thankless, expensive task at best. Using a service such as PayPal makes it possible to accept virtually any form of credit or debit card for your services, and includes dispute resolution should the need arise (and it will arise).

Part 3 of 3: Selling Your Services

Add catchy content to your site. Focus on your key areas of expertise, and display them professionally. Much like you would do when having potential employers contact references, put your best foot forward for potential clients. Include descriptions, where appropriate or necessary.

Don't use jargon. If you are offering technical expertise, include descriptions that appeal to your client base, not your peers. For example, if you are showing that you can code with PHP and AJAX, don't say "in this case, if the input field is empty (str.length==0), the function clears the content of the txtHint placeholder and exits the function." The person who needs you to work on their site will just scratch their head and say "huh?" Say, instead, "Start entering text into this field, and it will auto-complete."

Be social. Whatever your business, whatever your venue, keeping your name in the the air is key to internet success. Have a business account on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If your business is graphically oriented, have accounts on Flickr and Tumblr as well. Whenever there is news of any kind—a new contract, a new page, a new entry, a new photo—cross-post it to all your social media sites. Also make sure those sites link back to your main website, and that your website has links to all of them.

Become an affiliate marketer. There are many companies and webmasters who use affiliate programs to boost their online sales, and most of these affiliate programs are free to join. When you sign up for an affiliate program, an affiliate link with a unique affiliate ID will be assigned to you. The affiliate link is used for marketing the products of your merchant. When a visitor buys an item through your affiliate link, you earn affiliate commission.

For example, if you are an affiliate marketer for Musician's Friend, an online musical instrument retailer, you can advertise their products on your site. If a person visits your site, and clicks on the link that takes them to the Musician's Friend website, and they purchase an instrument within a certain amount of time (24 hours or more, typically), you get a commission on the sale.

Add Google AdSense advertisements to your blog or website. Google’s AdSense is a revenue-sharing opportunity for small, medium and large web sites that places ads for goods and services that are relevant to the content of your site, targeted to the people who frequent your pages. In turn, you get paid a small amount when the ad is either displayed on your page, or clicked on.

How to start an online businesses? Retrieved on 28 March 2015 from http://www.wikihow.com/Start-an-Online-Business

Last updated: 28 March 2015

Tuesday, 24 March 2015

What is GST

GST (Goods & Services Tax), which is also known as VAT or the value added tax in many countries is a multi-stage consumption tax on goods and services.

GST is levied on the supply of goods and services at each stages of the supply chain from the supplier up to the retail stage of the distribution. Even though GST is imposed at each level of the supply chain, the tax element does not become part of the cost of the product because GST paid on the business inputs is claimable. Hence, it does not matter how many stages where a particular good and service goes through the supply chain because the input tax incurred at the previous stage is always deducted by the businesses at the next in the supply chain.

GST is a broad based consumption tax covering all sectors of the economy i.e all goods and services made in Malaysia including imports except specific goods and services which are categorized under zero rated supply and exempt supply orders as determined by the Minister of Finance and published in the Gazette.

The basic fundamental of GST is it's self-policing features which allow the businesses to claim their input tax credit by way of automatic deduction in their accounting system. This eases the administrative procedures on the part of businesses and the Government. Thus, the Government's delivery system will be further enhanced.

GST is to be levied and charged at the proposed rate of 6% on the value of the supply. GST can be levied and charged only if the business is registered under GST.

GST shall be levied and charged on the taxable supply of goods and services made in the course or furtherance of business in Malaysia by a taxable person. GST is also charged on the importation of goods and services. A taxable supply is a supply which is standard rated or zero rated. Exempt and out of scope supplies are not taxable supplies.GST is to be levied and charged at the proposed rate of 6% on the value of the supply. GST can be levied and charged only of the business is registered under GST. A business is not liable to be registered of its annual turnover of taxable supplies does not reach the prescribed threshold. Therefore, such businesses cannot charge and collect GST on the supply of goods and services made to their customers. Nevertheless, businesses can apply to be registered voluntarily.

Types of Supply

Standard-rated supplies
Standard-rated supplies are taxable supplies of goods and services which are subject to a proposed rate of 6%. A taxable person who is registered under GST has to collect GST on the supply and is eligible to claim input tax credit on his business inputs in making taxable supplies.
Zero-rated supplies
Zero-rated supplies are taxable supplies of goods and services which are subject to GST at zero percent rate. In this respect, businesses do not collect any GST on their supplies but are entitled to claim credit on inputs used in the course of furtherance of the business..
Exempt supplies
Exempt supplies are supplies of goods or services which are not subject to GST. In this context, businesses do not collect any GST on their supplies and are not entitled to claim credit on his business inputs.
Supplies not within the scope of GST
Supplies which do not fall within the charging provision of the GST Act include non-business transactions, sale of goods from a place outside Malaysia to another place outside Malaysia as well as services provided by the Government sector.

Why GST?

Lower business cost
Under the current system, some business pay multiple taxes and higher levels of tax-on-tax (cascading tax). With GST, businesses can benefit from recovering input tax on raw materials and incurred expenses, thus reducing costs.
Increase global competitiveness
Prices of Malaysia exports will become more competitive on the global stage as no GST is imposed on exported goods and services, while GST incurred on inputs can be recovered along the supplies chain. This will strengthen our export industry, helping the country progress even further.
Enhance compliance
The current SST has many inherent weaknesses making administration difficult. GST system has in-built mechanism to make the tax administration self-policy and therefore will enhance compliance.
Reduces red tape
Under the present SST, businesses must apply for approval to get tax-free materials and also for special exemption for capital goods. Under GST, this system is abolished as businesses can offset automatically the GST on inputs in their returns.
Equity
With GST, taxes are leveled fairly among all the businesses involved, whether they are in the manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing or service sectors.
Fair pricing to consumers
GST eliminates double taxation under SST. Consumers will pay fairer prices for most goods and services compared to SST.
Greater transparency
Unlike the present sales tax, consumers would benefit under GST as they will know exactly whether the goods they consume are subject to tax and the amount they pay for.

GST: GST TIMELINE IN MALAYSIA. Retrieved on 24 March 2015 from http://www.gst.com.my/what-is-gst-goods-and-services-tax.html

Last updated : 5 April 2015

Computer

Computer

Source

A computer is a general-purpose device that can be programmed to carry out a set of arithmetic or logical operations automatically. Since a sequence of operations can be readily changed, the computer can solve more than one kind of problem.

Conventionally, a computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central processing unit (CPU), and some form of memory. The processing element carries out arithmetic and logic operations, and a sequencing and control unit can change the order of operations in response to stored information. Peripheral devices allow information to be retrieved from an external source, and the result of operations saved and retrieved.

Mechanical analog computers started appearing in first century and were later used in the medieval era for astronomical calculations. In World War II, mechanical analog computers were used for specialized military applications. During this time the first electronic digital computers were developed. Originally they were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers (PCs).[1]

Modern computers based on integrated circuits are millions to billions of times more capable than the early machines, and occupy a fraction of the space.[2] Simple computers are small enough to fit into mobile devices, and mobile computers can be powered by small batteries. Personal computers in their various forms are icons of the Information Age and are what most people think of as “computers.” However, the embedded computers found in many devices from MP3 players to fighter aircraft and from toys to industrial robots are the most numerous.

How Important Computer is Nowadays?

In this modern era, technology has important key to do human's activity. It replaces human's work like computer. Computer is one example for technology's changing. Some people in urban city need it to help their work more better and faster. They think that they can do all activity in on time. Hence, all of them makes computer as priority to work. Individually, I agree that computer changes people's behavior and there are some explanations why computer becomes popular.

Firstly, computer helps human's job more efficient and effective which relates to time management. Researcher find out that people who use hand to write need more time than people who use machine to help it. Thus, using computer is more faster to finish job, especially while you are in hurry and should collect report within due date. It is really helpful.

Secondly, computer is easy to use and have many function, like typing on microsoft word. They do not need much time to learn how to use it. Another is if people write their job like report on paper, sometimes other people will difficult to read what they write about. It happens because some people do not have distinctly and clearly hand-writing. So, they really appreciate for computer because they can adjust the font by themselves without worry a lot about hand-writing.

Lastly, computer affects paperless. Today's hot issues that our earth has thin ozone because of human's activity like people who throw rubbish such paper every where. One of the cause is paper which is cannot be recycled. Thus, using computer is one approach to reduce paper. It means that no more paper on their desk so it saves our earth from global warming issues.

How Important Computer is Nowadays? Retrieved on 24 March 2015 from http://portal.postloop.com/index.php?threads/how-important-computer-is-nowadays.4709/

Computer. Retrieved on 24 March 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer

Last updated : 9 April 2015

Friday, 13 March 2015

Mylife

Enjoy my last year of University's life

I am currently in semester 6. I will graduate next year and end up my 8 semester's life in Universti Utara Malaysia. Apart form studying in UUM, i would like to enjoy my university's life with wonderful memories.

14.3.15 Celebrate friend's birthday