World Business

If rampant airline flight delays are a disease, timely flight arrival/departure information — especially any changes to flight departure times and flight schedules — is at least a partial cure. Knowing in advance that a flight is delayed can save you a lot of time and aggravation, whether you are the passenger yourself, or you are picking up someone else. All you have to do is check flight departure times and flight arrival info for any changes.

Weather is a constant factor. But financial troubles and airline mergers are also causing carriers to change flight departures often, so the information you got at one point may no longer be valid. Accurate flight arrival/departure information can be hard to come by. Airlines aren’t always upfront with travelers, changing flight times again and again based on policies that sometimes mask what’s really happening.

Technology is coming to the rescue. The Internet along with smartphones, email, wireless laptop connections and other devices can arm you with the best flight schedule information available, on a moment’s notice.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Get real-time flight tracking information online
Several independent websites offer live flight tracking and aviation information

I recommend: FlightAware, for example, lets you quickly get unlimited live flight arrival and flight departure information for free. On any given day, the service tracks nearly 50,000 flights. Just enter the airline and flight number in the search box and get a full profile of the flight, including scheduled and estimated (actual) arrival and departure times, plus flight duration, aircraft type, current status and more. Registered users (also free) can also get a four-month history of a specific flight. FlightView, FlightArrivals.com and FlightExplorer also offer free flight tracking information. FlightExplorer tosses in some wind and weather information, along with the airport’s current FAA status (like a green dot for no delays).

Sign up for free email, voice, text message or AIM flight status alerts
Why put the burden on yourself when you can sign up in advance to get flight arrival/departure info to your computer, PDA, laptop or cell phone?

I recommend: Most airline mileage programs (such as Delta Skymiles, American AAvantage, United Mileage Plus, etc.) offer free flight notification services to members. Subscribe to updates on all flights, or get one-time alerts on specific flights. For regular information across different airlines, one of the free flight information services might be best. Free membership at FlightAware, for example, lets you create a personal profile of flights, airlines and airports you regularly use, and receive email and instant message updates on fllight times.

PayPal is a standalone company owned by Ebay and offers an online, email-based payment method that is an alternative to credit card transactions, although you can also use PayPal services to process credit cards. Basically, PayPal lets buyers and sellers create a PayPal account to hold funds for transfers between parties, in effect turning PayPal into a “middleman.” A PayPal account is not a bank account, but it is generally connected to a traditional bank account or credit card so that funds can move back and forth.

Due to PayPal’s low fees, flexible payment options, and strong user base, your business can benefit by offering PayPal as another buying option. To get started, you’ll have to:

1. Sign up for a PayPal Business account
2. Confirm your email address
3. Provide and confirm your bank account information
4. Add your Social Security Number
5. Set up PayPal as an additional payment option in your store

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Integrate PayPal into your Web site

To use PayPal with your existing Web site, you can choose between Express Checkout (better integration but more difficult) or Standard Checkout (uses simple HTML code).

I recommend: PayPal’s Additional Payment Option page will help you choose and implement your choice.

Bill customers via email

You don’t need a Web site to send your customers bills through PayPal – they receive an email payment request that prompts them to click and pay.

I recommend: Use PayPal’s Request Money option.

Send professional B-to-B invoices via PayPal

You can integrate QuickBooks invoices to automatically create email invoices with click-to-pay buttons.

I recommend: Use PayPal’s Payment Request Wizard for QuickBooks.

Accept credit cards

As an add-on option, you can accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express.

I recommend: Upgrade to Website Payments Pro or Website Payments Standard.

Sell via eBay

Because so many eBay buyers use PayPal, you can benefit by creating a dedicated eBay Store and selling on eBay.

I recommend: First register as a seller on eBay, then meet subscriber requirements to build an eBay Store.

Go on the road

PayPal lets you expand your online business to accept payments by phone, fax, mail, and in person at your offline store or at trade shows (but only in the United States).

Getting money to start your business is an important step in the process of assembling a business.

And probably the most limitations represents for entrepreneurs because they usually know the alternatives for that capital to enable them to take the first step.

My colleague Ali Manrique published on his blog an excellent item on 7 ways to finance the start-up of your business that I share with you today. Read the rest of this entry »

Promotion is the keyword to make sure that our business would be perfectly run. In order to make sure that the whole things would be perfectly done, we should make sure that we have already planned our promotion actions. There are many kinds of ways that we could do to promote our products. We could make some advertisements. We could also set some special offers for the customers so they would be interested.

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