Top 3 Best Small Business Apps for Accepting Payments

You need to get paid, and that’s easier than ever thanks to today’s payment apps. Whether you’re accepting point-of-sale payments or getting paid online, the market is crowded with apps that will help you get your money. Here are a few of the best options:

Square

If your business depends on point-of-sale purchases but you have a limited budget for payment systems, Square could be a life-saver. Plug in a small card-reader to your smartphone or tablet, and you can swipe credit cards and process payments just like any established retailer.

You don’t have to be connected to the Internet, you can use email or text messages to send receipts, and the system can even allow customers to leave a tip of 15%, 20%, or 25%.

There is no monthly fee; instead, you’ll pay 2.75% of each transaction, or a bit more if you have to manually enter payment information instead of swiping.

PayPal Here

PayPal Here operates a lot like Square — you use a small card reader with your device to receive payments.

Each swipe costs 2.7%, which is a bit lower than Square. However, PayPal Here has a few added features, including the ability to process checks, electronic invoices, and payments from a customer’s existing PayPal account.

One potential downside is that you won’t receive your payments directly in your bank account — you’ll get it in your PayPal account, and will then have to transfer that to your bank account, which can take a few days.

Dwolla

Dwolla doesn’t offer a card swiper, but if your business doesn’t rely on point-of-sale purchases, it’s a compelling way to accept payments via bank transfers. That’s because it’s free.

You can accept or request mass payments, set up recurring payments, and customize your fees. Dwolla’s basic services are free, while enhanced business versions with features such as faster transfers and higher transaction limits start at $25 per month.

Top 3 Best Small Business Apps for Customer Relationship Management

Even if you’ve tamed your own to-do lists, many businesses need an in-depth system to help them keep their customers straight. Customer relationship management apps, or CRMs, help you keep track of everything related to your customers — contact information, past and pending purchases, and anything else it’s essential to know about a client. Here are a few solid bets:

Streak

If your small business uses Gmail or Google Apps, Streak is a great little CRM that integrates with both. Instead of organizing customers by contact, it lets you keep track of where you are in your business relationship.

For instance, perhaps you’re just beginning a pitch, or maybe you’re finalizing a deal. You can view all emails associated with each client directly within Streak, and a newsfeed can keep everyone on your team updated on the status of everything in the app.

Streak’s basic service is free for up to five users. Beefed-up plans range from $19 to $119 a month per user.

Insightly

Insightly is a relationship manager that also boasts a lot of project-management features, which could make it a one-stop shop for some small businesses.

You can categorize contacts with tags, integrate their social network profiles, and manage leads. You can also create tasks for team members, set up pipelines to track the status of those tasks, and create email reminders to keep everyone on time.

Though there is a free basic version, you’ll have to pay at least $12 a month per user for access to the app.

Nimble

If your business has a prominent social media presence, Nimble might be the CRM for you. It gleans data from your contacts’ social profiles, updating itself so that you don’t have to do it. It even analyzes shared interests and integrates with Gmail, Outlook, Hootsuite and many other services.

Nimble also learns what relationships you value as you continue to interact with it, making it more likely to highlight future opportunities. Pricing starts at $15 a month per user.

Top 3 Best Small Business Apps for Team Communication

Though project management apps let you stay up to date on who’s doing what, you may still need a more immediate way to get in touch with employees — especially if your email inbox is a nightmare. Here are a few options:

Slack

The Simple Dollar team has used Slack for quick questions and answers. Though it’s not the most intuitive app from the get-go, it allows for easy filtering and searching that make finding what you need a snap. You can create channels for just about any conversation theme: particular projects or clients, general water cooler chat, or whatever else works best for your small business.

Notifications are highly customisable, so you can stay in the loop when you need to and filter out unnecessary noise when you don’t. The best part is that basic Slack is free for an unlimited number of users. More advanced features, including unlimited searches and app integration, start at $6.97 per user per month.

HipChat

HipChat has a shorter learning curve than Slack, and it’s certainly cheaper — you can use the basic service for free, or pay just $2 per user per month if you want features such as video sharing and screen sharing.

HipChat organizes conversations by rooms, allows drag-and-drop file sharing, and archives conversations for easy searching. Emoticons and GIFs help keep the mood light, too.

Skype for Business

Skype is a familiar name to just about everyone who has wanted to make a free video call online, but Skype for Business offers meetings with up to 250 people, integration with Microsoft Office, chat, file transfer, and more.

Pricing starts at $2 per month per user. For $5.50 a month, you can add features including group HD video calls, meeting recording, and remote control of others’ computer desktops. And yes, if you don’t need all that, Skype-to-Skype video or voice calls are still free for up to 25 people.

Top 3 Best Small Business Apps for Time Tracking

Whether you’re a freelancer who needs to track your hours or simply a small business owner who wants to keep yourself (or your team) more accountable, these productivity apps can help you see where your time is going:

RescueTime

If you know you waste too much time on digital distractions like Facebook, Twitter, or online shopping, RescueTime can hold you accountable. It breaks down where you spend your time by application and website and lets you set productivity goals. A premium version even lets you block certain sites, track offline activity, or set notifications (like if you’ve spent too much time on one activity, for instance).

The basic version is free, while premium will set you back about $9 a month. Though RescueTime is available for Mac, PC, and Linux, its app is only available for Android phones.

Toggl

With one click, the Toggl timer tracks where every second of your time is going, making it ideal for anyone who needs to log billable hours. You can track as many projects or clients as you want, view colorful graphs, export timesheets, and sync your numbers with several project management apps.

Best of all, all of your employees can use Toggl, and you can divide them into different groups to stay organised.

Toggl is free for up to five users, while a Pro version allows unlimited users and adds billable rates, subprojects, and other features for $5 per user, per month.

Eternity Time Log

Productivity extends beyond your work life, and Eternity Time Log recognises that. Your day is first broken down into three broad chunks: Work, play, and sleep. Within those groups, you can further track your time with different labels and tags, even running multiple timers at once.

You can view the results using colorful pie charts and reports that can be exported to any device. Eternity Time Log will set you back $4.99. It’s only available for iPad and iPhone.

Top 3 Best Small Business Apps for General Productivity

Before we jump to more task-specific apps, we wanted to touch on a few popular productivity apps that are useful for any small business owner, regardless of their business type or size. Here are a few apps that can be as helpful personally as they are professionally:

Evernote

With Evernote, you can clip bits and pieces of information from the web, tag them for easy searching, and alter any of them by adding to it, condensing it, or embedding pictures, tables, audio, video, and the like. You can also use Evernote for organic notes and journaling, to-do lists, recipes, contacts, and even storage for tweets or emails that you want to keep handy.

All of that is free in the basic version. Evernote also has a business version that costs $12 per user, per month with several added features including administrator controls and unlimited space for uploads.

Wunderlist

Simply put, Wunderlist is a to-do list, but a highly effective one. You can create an endless number of task lists and share them with whomever you want. Lists sync automatically so that others can see which items have been completed.

Wunderlist has even launched a higher-powered business app that lets you delegate tasks to team members, break them down into subtasks, add notes, set deadlines, and program reminders. Basic Wunderlist is free, while Wunderlist for Business is $4.99 per user per month.

Pocket

How many times have you run across something interesting, but you didn’t have the time to read it right that instant? If Evernote feels overwhelming to you, Pocket makes it easy to save videos, articles, and whatever else you find online so that you can peruse them later.

When you’re tired of social networking but still want to wind down at night with something interesting, Pocket might be your best friend. Even better, you don’t need an Internet connection to view what you’ve saved. Pocket is simple to use, and best of all, it’s free.

Top 10 Blogshops in Singapore

Blogshopping can be frustrating cause HALF the blogshops has closed/no longer active or active in what 2011? but they come out in google search. So i hope this list will help you to shop.

1. Megagamie

sells decent priced, good quality clothes. Bought a military vest from them. Size is accurate, material is thick (very good, a lil too thick for Singapore i feel personally but love the design!)

Here’s a screenshot from their Facebook album of the vest I bought – 

2. Thread Theory

I love their clothes! very whimsical, but have not been finger fast enough to get my hands on one. seriously, do girls just sit there at 8pm and wait for the launch?! I guess its partly due to the fact that most blogshops launches the preview on Facebook one day before.

Here’s a screenshot of their facebook page – 

All their clothes are nice! If they do a back order, I’ll definitely buy! the next time they launch, im going to camp with my laptop. 

3. Momoteapots

Really love this skirt! But it sold out EVERYWHERE. sigh pie.

4. Chacey Love

only 2 likes for the military dress?! then how come its sold out?! *ROAR. Anyway, i realised that they co-manufacture with Fairebelle. so if you can’t find the design you like in any colour on Chacey Love, you can try Fairebelle.

5. Hollyhoque

Hollyhoque. Bought from them a long time ago. They are ok. Like their basic stuff.

shirt dress again. so in love with these.

Ok, in summary – 

1. Megagamie

2. Thread Theory

3. Momoteapots

4.  Chacey Love

5. Hollyhoque

Other recommendation

6. Earl Grey Party (never bought from them, they are very cheap but dresses are all too short for me)

7. Tres Love Chic (own by a friend-in-law, just purchase a piece from her! but the updates are very very sloww… guess she’s busy).

8. Everyday Life Store (for quirky clothes, jap clothes, muji style, here you are). 

9. Amber Avenue

10. Her Velvet Vase

11. The Twelve Inch

12. Intoxiquette (strictly dresses only! bought from them 3 times? decent material, reasonable pricing *Recommended* but i dont really like their style)

13. My Little Bow 

14. The White Alley

15. The Closet Lover

17. The Tinsel Rack

16. The Stage Walk

Ok thats all ladies. 

Source: allthatjest.wordpress.com

TOP 10 Tropical and Exotic Fruits of the Philippines in ASIA

The tropical climate of the Philippines makes it possible for the soil to grow some delicious exotic fruits. Most of these exotic fruits are of South American origin and brought here by the West Indies, Spanish or the Americans. These heavenly fruits can be found fresh in the local market for cheap prices. Some of the fruits mentioned are only available seasonally.

1. Philippine Mangoes
- undeniably Philippine mangoes are the sweetest and juiciest in the world. Recorded in the 1995 World Guinness Book of Records as the sweetest fruit. The sweetest mangoes come from the province of Zambales and Guimaras in IloIlo.

There is a wide variety of mangoes in the Philippines but the most popular and the sweetest is the "Kalabaw" variety. Locals eat unripe green mangoes with bagoong (shrimp paste) although this maybe an usually acquired taste. Green mangoes are great with vodka as cocktails!




2. Rambutan - sweet and juicy when fresh. Rambutan literally means hairy caused by the 'hair' that covers this fruit.
   
   
   
   
3. Avocado - very refreshing as fruit shake. Try if you can find avocado flavored ice-cream in the local groceries. Arce is a good brand of local ice cream. They use local fruits as flavor. Avocado is cheap in the Philippines. You can buy them at 1$USD for a kilo and when in season they can go as low as .50$USD per kilo!
   
   
   
   
4. Lanzones - sweet and succulent little round fruits. The sweetest lanzones come from the province of Camiguin, where they hold an annual festival celebrating the lanzones fruit.
   
   


5. Durian - the king of Tropical fruits found it's way in the Philippines through our neighboring countries. Known for its large size and unique aroma. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The 19th-century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace famously described its flesh as "a rich custard highly flavoured with almonds". The province of Davao in Mindanao is home to durian farms.
   
   
   
6. Langka (Jackfruit) - when ripe this fruit is very sweet and has a very aromatic flavor. It also widely used as cooking ingredient for local desserts such as ginataan and turon.
   
   
   
7. Atis (Sugar Apple) - very sweet and creamy. It's a little bit of effort to eat this fruit as they have a lot of seeds. The fruit flesh is sweet, white to light yellow, and resembles and tastes like custard. The edible portion coats the seeds generously; a bit like the gooey portion of a tomato seed. Sugar-apple has a very distinct, sweet-smelling fragrance
   
   
   
8. Chico (Sapodilla) - It's aroma can be compared to beer but don't let it fool you for it is tasty. The flavor is exceptionally sweet with what can be described as a malty flavor. Originally known to have come from the West Indies
   
   
   
9. Watermelon (Pakwan) - though widely available in many parts of the world nothing beats the refreshing taste of a succulent, sweet and juicy watermelon in the summer months.
   
   
   
10. Santol (Wild Mangosteen) - available during the summer season. The taste is sweet and sour. The bigger variety called "Bangkok" is sweeter, the smaller variety is on the sour end. It is also used as souring agent for some Filipino dishes like sinigang.

MORE EXOTIC FRUITS FROM THE PHILIPPINES....


Kaimito (Star Apple)



Duhat (Java Plum)



Guyabano (Soursop)



Balimbing (Star Fruit)



Chesa (Lucuma) It has the texture of squash or the yolk of a boiled egg.



Aratiles (Jamaica Cherry, Muntingia) These cherries are very sweet. The sweetness brings with it an excellent taste, because it has a lovely fragrance that makes people keep on eating them. These cherries are often eaten by children because they taste quite like cotton candy.



Sinigwelas (Spanish Plum) It does taste like plum but it has less flesh and more seed.

Top 10 Fighter Jets in The World

1- The F-22 Raptor Fighter Jet:

The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is a single-seat, twin-engine, all weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF). The aircraft was designed primarily as an air superiority fighter, but has additional capabilities including ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence roles. The USAF considers the F-22 a critical component of its tactical air power, and claims that the aircraft is unmatched by any known or projected fighter. The Raptor's combination of stealth, aerodynamic performance, and situational awareness gives the aircraft unprecedented air-to-air capabilities. The high cost of the aircraft, a lack of clear air-to-air missions due to delays in Russian and Chinese fighter programs, a ban on exports, and development of the more affordable and versatile F-35 led to the end of F-22 production. A final procurement tally of 187 operational production aircraft was established in 2009 and the last F-22 was delivered to the USAF in 2012. More details

2- The F-35 Lightning II Fighter Jet:

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II (also known as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter) is a family of single-seat, single-engine, fifth-generation multirole fighters under development to perform ground attack, reconnaissance, and air defense missions with stealth capability. The F-35 has three main models; the F-35A is a conventional takeoff and landing variant, the F-35B is a short take-off and vertical-landing variant, and the F-35C is a carrier-based variant. F-35 JSF development is being principally funded by the United States with additional funding from partners. The partner nations are either NATO members or close U.S. allies. The United Kingdom, Israel, Italy, Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Turkey are part of the active development program; Japan has ordered the F-35, while Singapore may also equip their air force with the F-35. South Korea decided to purchase 40 F-35s in late 2013. More details

3- Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA Fighter Jet:

The PAK FA is a fifth-generation fighter programme of the Russian Air Force. The T-50 is the aircraft designed by Sukhoi for the PAK FA programme. The aircraft is a stealthy, single-seat, twin-engine jet fighter, and will be the first operational aircraft in the Russian Air Force service to use stealth technology. It is a multirole combat aircraft that can be used for both air superiority and ground attack missions The T-50 is intended to be the successor to the MiG-29 and Su-27 in the Russian Air Force and serve as the basis of the Sukhoi/HAL FGFA being developed with India. The aircraft combines supersonic cruise, stealth, maneuverability, and advanced avionics and software to overcome legacy fighter aircraft as well as ground and maritime defenses. The T-50 prototype first flew on 29 January 2010 and the aircraft is slated to enter service in the Russian Air Force in 2016. The prototypes and initial production batch will be delivered with heavily upgraded models of Su-27 power plants as interim engines while a new clean-sheet design engine is currently under development. It is expected to have a service life of up to 35 years. More details

4- Eurofighter Typhoon Fighter Jet:

The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine, canard-delta wing, multirole fighter. Development of the aircraft effectively began in 1983 with the Future European Fighter Aircraft programme, a multinational collaborative effort between the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Because of disagreements over design authority and operational requirements, France left the consortium to develop the Dassault Rafale independently instead. A technology demonstration aircraft, the British Aerospace EAP, first took flight on 6 August 1986; the first prototype of the finalised Eurofighter made its first flight on 27 March 1994. The name of the aircraft, Typhoon, was formally adopted in September 1998; the first production contracts were signed that same year. The Eurofighter Typhoon is a highly agile aircraft, designed to be an effective dogfighter when in combat with other aircraft; later production aircraft have been increasingly better equipped to undertake air-to-surface strike missions and to be compatible with a likewise increasing number of different armaments and equipment.More details

5- Sukhoi Su-35 Fighter Jet:

The Sukhoi Su-35 Also known as Super Flanker, is a designation for two separate, heavily upgraded derivatives of the Su-27 'Flanker'. They are single-seat, twin-engine supermaneuverable multirole fighters, designed by Sukhoi and built by Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KnAAPO). The first variant was designed during the 1980s, when Sukhoi was seeking to upgrade its high-performance Su-27, and was initially known as the Su-27M. Later re-designated Su-35, this derivative incorporated aerodynamic refinements to increase manoeuvrability, enhanced avionics, longer range, and more powerful engines. The first Su-35 prototype, converted from a Su-27, made its maiden flight in June 1988. More than a dozen of these were built, some of which were used by the Russian Knights aerobatic demonstration team. The first Su-35 design was later modified into the Su-37, which possessed thrust-vectoring engines and was used as a technology demonstrator. A sole Su-35UB two-seat trainer was built in the late 1990s that strongly resembled the Su-30MK family. More details

6- The F-15 Eagle Fighter Jet:

The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter designed by McDonnell Douglas to gain and maintain air superiority in aerial combat. It is among the most successful modern fighters, with over 100 aerial combat victories. Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas' design in 1967 to meet the service's need for a dedicated air superiority fighter. The Eagle first flew in July 1972, and entered service in 1976. The F-15 was originally envisioned as a pure air superiority aircraft. Its design included a secondary ground-attack capability that was largely unused. The design proved flexible enough that an all-weather strike derivative, the F-15E Strike Eagle, was later developed, and entered service in 1989. The F-15 Eagle is expected to be in service with the U.S. Air Force past 2025. F-15 versions are still being produced for foreign users, with the F-15 production line set to end in 2019, 47 years after the type's first flight. More details

7- Mikoyan MiG-35 Fighter Jet:

The Mikoyan MiG-35 is a further development of the MiG-29M/M2 and MiG-29K/KUB technology. It is classified as a 4++ generation jet fighter by Mikoyan. The first prototype was a modification of the aircraft that previously served as MiG-29M2 model demonstrator. 10 prototypes have been built so far and are currently subject to extensive field trials. MiG Corporation first officially presented the MiG-35 internationally during the Aero India 2007 air show. The MiG-35 was officially unveiled when the Russian Minister of Defence, Sergey Ivanov, visited Lukhovitsky Machine Building Plant "MAPO-MIG". The single seat version is designated MiG-35 and the two-seat version is MiG-35D. The fighter has vastly improved avionics and weapon systems, notably the new AESA radar and the uniquely designed Optical Locator System (OLS), relieves the aircraft from relying on ground-controlled interception (GCI) systems and enables it to conduct independent multi-role missions. More details

8- Chengdu J-20 Fighter Jet:

The Chengdu J-20 is a stealth, twin-engine fifth-generation fighter aircraft prototype being developed by Chengdu Aerospace Corporation for the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). The J-20 made its first flight on 11 January 2011, and is expected to be operational in 2017–2019. The J-20 design is of an air-to-air fighter with an emphasis on forward-aspect stealth, high-speed aerodynamics, range, a modest internal payload, and adequate agility for self-defense. This fits into China's anti-access/area denial strategy based on regional geography and ambitions. American and neighboring tactical fighter have a combat radius of around 600 mi (970 km), so they would rely on aerial tankers and long-endurance intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft with control-and-communications functions to perform air operations. The J-20 could use its speed and stealth to penetrate combat air patrols to threaten the vulnerable tankers and ISR/C2 platforms, prompting them to stay further outside its range, which would decrease an opposing force's radar coverage and strike range. China's J-20 platform has the potential to be a capable, long-range strike system in the Asia-Pacific region, but a number of technical challenges will need to be overcome before production can begin. More details

9. The F-16 Falcon Fighter Jet:

The General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful all-weather multirole aircraft. Over 4,500 aircraft have been built since production was approved in 1976. Although no longer being purchased by the U.S. Air Force, improved versions are still being built for export customers. The Fighting Falcon has key features including a frameless bubble canopy for better visibility, side-mounted control stick to ease control while maneuvering, a seat reclined 30 degrees to reduce the effect of g-forces on the pilot, and the first use of a relaxed static stability/fly-by-wire flight control system helps to make it a nimble aircraft. The F-16 has an internal M61 Vulcan cannon and 11 locations for mounting weapons and other mission equipment. The F-16's official name is "Fighting Falcon", but "Viper" is commonly used by its pilots.More details

10. Dassault Rafale Fighter Jet:

The Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engine, canard delta-wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. With a high level of agility, the Rafale is intended to perform air supremacy, interdiction, reconnaissance, and nuclear strike missions. Introduced in 2001, the Rafale is being produced for both the French Air Force and for carrier-based operations in the French Navy. While the Rafale has been marketed for export to several countries, it has only been selected for purchase by the Indian Air Force. The Rafale has been used in combat over Afghanistan, Libya, Mali and Iraq; features such as the SPECTRA integrated defensive-aids system have been crucial advantages in Libya. Several upgrades to the weapons and avionics of the Rafale are planned to be introduced by 2018. More details