As we have more customers from the US and Europe, we were receiving more feature requests that are specific to these regions. One of them was a support for Stripe.
Stripe is widely used by many web based services and it is probably the simplest way to accept payment via credit card for the businesses located in the US and Europe.
While integration work itself was relatively easy for us, we had our own reason for why it took a while to implement this feature. As you may already know, we are located in Japan and Stripe is not available in our country just yet.
This made our testing process in the production environment a bit difficult, but it’s finally here.
In order to connect to your Stripe account, go to Settings > Payment Methods page and click on “Add Stripe” button as shown below.
Then you will be navigated to Stripe website where you confirm that you give us a permission to access your account data.
From Members perspective, they now have additional payment method when they pay their invoices. Members can make payment using their credit card and the money goes straight to your Stripe account. We don’t take a cut. The money is all yours.
At Coworkify we are working hard every day in order to make our software more affordable and usable to every space owner who needs a management solution.
The reason why we are doing this is that we strongly believe coworking can give so much freedom to the people in terms of their work-life balance and that we’ve seen for the past 3 years a huge growth in the number of people who switched from traditional working environment to coworking in almost every country where we provide our services.
With more coworking spaces being created, we were often asked by the space owners for a pricing that just fits their needs. A typical question we receive reads like this. “Hi, Coworkify. Do you provide custom pricing just for XX number of members?”
So starting from today, we introduce two new plans for the space owners who need an intermediate pricing. New plans can be found at our pricing page.
At the same time, we removed an unlimited plan. This is because the space that has more than 150 members usually require lots of custom development effort like printer management integration, which enables prints billing to be automatically added to the corresponding invoice. Hence, most of the time a quote varies a lot.
As always we listen you, a customer. Please send us feedback and let us know what you think.
One of the most frequently asked features from our customers was better integration with PayPal.
Until now, the only way to accept payment from your Members using PayPal was to use REST API, which requires a business PayPal account and you had to use PayPal’s Developer website in order to get API credentials. This wasn’t the easiest way for some customers.
Now that we’ve added a PayPal Express Checkout integration. With this integration, you can simply click on “Add PayPal Express Checkout” button in Settings page and then you will be navigated to PayPal website where you give a permission to Coworkify so that it can collect money on behalf of you.
It’s just a matter of few clicks and much easier to use. See the image below showing new Settings page.
When your Members receive an invoice issued by Coworkify, they can choose to pay using PayPal by clicking on a “Check out with PayPal” button. Below is a sample screenshot when you enable PayPal Express Checkout.
As a space manager, Invoicing and collecting payments are definitely one of the most time consuming tasks in terms of day-to-day operations.
Despite the fact those tasks require many hours to finish (or sometimes days depending on number of members), the issued invoices often contain human errors.
For example, overcharging, undercharging, forgetting tax, duplicate invoices are the common errors we’ve seen at lots of spaces.
You want to minimize time spent on these unproductive tasks as much as possible. Instead, you should spend time on more meaningful tasks like community building because people are the most important asset for successful coworking.
With Coworkify, you can let our software to issue a personalized invoice and collect payment on behalf of you. It can offload large amount of time from you and enable you to become more productive.
There are two ways to do so. The first way is fully automated. In fact, you don’t have to do anything at all. You just add a member and assign a plan to that member. Coworkify does the rest for you.
At invoicing day, which is 20th of every month as default, Coworkify calculates recurring charges, hourly charges of booked resources (e.g. conference room), and any option that member is subscribing (e.g. locker), creates a personalized invoice, and sends it to member via email.
Once member receives the invoice, he/she can make payment with the payment methods specified by you. If you set up PayPal as payment method, then Coworkify confirms payment and marks it as paid automatically when payment is made.
The second way is manual. You can create new invoice from scratch and add whatever items there. This is useful when you want to issue a non-recurring invoice to member.
Either way, Coworkify can automate the entire process from issuing invoice and collecting payment for you.
Below is an example of invoice issued by Coworkify.
One of the most requested features that we received during the beta period was showing a profile image in Member’s detail page. Therefore, we implemented it.
When Member has a gravatar account associated his/her email address, Coworkify automatically fetches the profile image from there and displays it as part of Member info.
Below is an example of Member’s detail page showing the profile image. This helps you as space owner recognize each Member much easier and faster.
One of the best ways to promote and cover an event is through a blog. A blog can help spread awareness about an event as well as serve as a recap for those who missed the event. However, many event bloggers fail to leverage some of the most important advantages that will make their promotion and coverage the most effective.
Here are three advantages that any event blogger should leverage when blogging about an event:
Incorporate Video Content from Speakers
What better than an actual video of the speaker? For those who either missed the event, or those who simply want to see it again (because it was just that awesome), a quality video of the speaker is crucial to creating a post that will generate traffic and shares. In order to make the most of the video, event bloggers should keep these two things in mind:
Host the video from your own site. If you host the video from your own site rather than uploading it to YouTube and then embedding the video on your site, Google will determine the original source of the video as your site, therefore ranking your site rather than YouTube. If you upload to YouTube and then embed the video on your site, YouTube will be determined as the original source and this will do nothing for your own page’s rank.
Make sure your video is optimized for the web. It’s important to remember that many people watching your video will be viewing from a laptop or mobile device, so you want to make sure that the video will be optimized for these devices. If you’re filming with a wide-angle lens, the speaker will hardly be visible on a smartphone.
Utilize Guest Posts from Speakers
Guest posts are huge for event bloggers. If your site isn’t getting a lot of traffic, having the speaker of an event guest post on your blog before or after the event can do wonders. Guest posts provide blogs with:
Credibility. If your guest poster is well known and has been featured on well-known sites before, you will seem more credible in your field than somebody who has never utilized guest posting before. As your blog post shows up in a Google search, people will see the name of the guest poster and automatically be more drawn to your article than many of the others around it.
Inbound Links. A guest post will usually include the writer’s bio and their social media URLs at the end of the post. These inbound links are extremely important in boosting organic search rankings, which result in better search visibility for the author’s website.
Networking. Networking that results from guest blogging can result in some valuable industry contacts. Every time somebody guest posts on your blog, you now have them as a contact. In addition, some people may begin to ask you to guest post on their blogs as well because of the networking you have been doing.
Determine the Popularity of Your Event
Do some research and find out if anybody is talking about your event. You can track online conversations with social monitoring tools to see what others are saying about your event. This research is extremely important in determining how successful an event will be, and here’s why:
It tells you what people are saying. If you know what people are saying about your event in advance, you are at a serious advantage. You can now make adjustments catered to any positive or negative feedback, which can totally change the outcome of your event. You can also see what people have to say after the event, and based off of that feedback you can make adjustments for future events.
It allows you to acknowledge those voicing their opinions. When people take the time to voice their opinions, its usually because they want to be acknowledged. Giving thoughtful feedback to people can help build your reputation and relationship with potential audience members. If somebody has a problem with your event, a response from you can change their opinion and possibly result in one more audience member.
When promoting or covering an event a blog is one of the best tools at your disposal, and when utilized properly, it can help you pull in a lot of traffic. These three strategies are just some of the ways that you can use your blog to boost your event’s overall impact.
Are there any other tips you would suggest for event bloggers?
For a startup or a small business, having the image of a big business can do wonders for your company. Just because your business is small doesn’t mean it has to look small. Image is an important factor when it comes to earning the trust of customers, and that’s why people tend to trust big name brands or companies. Here are some really great ways to make your business look bigger:
Jo Christian Oterhals via Flickr
Give Your Website a Makeover
Having a killer website is essential for making your business look bigger because your website is usually the first impression people get of your company. You don’t want your site to look like it was built by an average Joe with basic coding skills. An easy-to-navigate design combined with compelling content and visuals will give your website a professional image and make your business look bigger.
Build a Social Presence
Get your company name all over the major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pintrest, etc., and be active with them. Social Networking allows you build a strong customer-company relationship through daily interaction. You can post polls, ask questions, answer questions, and address concerns. By keeping up with your social networking you will build your company’s visibility on the web as well as foster a healthy relationship between you and your customers.
Get Your Name in the Press
Media coverage is a great way to boost your company’s image. If people are seeing your company or product featured in magazines or articles, you gain credibility instantly. You can’t go into a pitch with your eyes closed and guns blazing. The pitch is very important and you’ll need to be prepared to make your company seem worth writing about. Here are some things you should know before you contact an editor or a writer:
Why should anyone care about your startup? Are you fixing any problems?
Does your startup align with any current trends that people would want to read about?
Be able to answer the who, what, when, where, and why about your company.
Any sort of publication with a decent following, whether it be a magazine, article, blog post, etc., will help make your business look bigger. If people see other people talking about you, it will make your brand one that people can start to trust.
Setup a Virtual Office Package
If you are working from home and customers see a home address as your headquarters on your Contact page, they’re probably going to question how legit your business is. Signing up for a virtual office package that gives you a dedicated business address will quickly make your business look bigger and more trustworthy. Instead of seeing a mailing address in a local residence, you can use a professional business address for a surprisingly affordable price.
Many virtual office packages also include mail and phone handling, so your provider can handle and forward your mail as well as provide you with somebody to answer your calls for you. A combination of the professional business address and phone number will make your business look bigger to anybody that comes across it.
Whether you are a startup or a small business, it isn’t too hard to make your business look bigger. If you make the necessary image adjustments, your company will look way more professional and appealing to current and potential customers.
For a lot of companies, content marketing falls to the wayside. This is one of the biggest marketing failures a company can make. Why?
Most consumers do most of their research online without the help or influence of advertisements. People surf the web for information about products and services that they are interested in, and that information can easily be found within the body of some well-written content.
Instead of focusing the majority of your energy on advertisements that most people will try and avoid, why not create content that they will go looking for?
A Blog is Your Best Friend
While a blog can be extremely useful for SEO purposes, a blog can also be your richest source of content. Blog posts can be filled with extremely interesting and useful information that consumers actually want to read. Advertisements can be great for bringing awareness to your brand, but a lot of the time consumers are trying to close out of your advertisement as quickly as possible.
With a blog, however, you can provide all of the information that consumers are looking for! Write really great content and then include some really compelling Call-to-Action buttons on your page, which will help you drive those leads. Here are some interesting stats:
Blogs give sites 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links (Content+)
Companies that blog 15+ times per month get 5 times more traffic than companies that don’t blog (Hubspot)
Companies with an active blog report 97% more leads. (Content+)
Engage with Customers through Social Media
Social Media is a great way to share the content you are publishing with everyone who follows you on social media networks. It is also a great way to engage with customers who have questions about your company or products, or customers who simply want to compliment or critique you. When customers see that you are actively engaging with them, it will give your company a better image and help ensure more leads and even future sales. Did you know:
Content from reputable sources is most shared (UCLA)
90% of users listen to recommendations shared from friends (Voltier Digital)
Clicks from shared content are 5 times more likely to result in a purchase (Voltier Digital)
80% of users prefer to connect with brands on Facebook (Huffington Post)
People spend more than 50% of their time online with content and an additional 30% of their time on social channels where content can be shared (AOL & Nielson)
Save Some Money and Write More Content
Content Marketing is one of the most cost effective methods of marketing. Think about it. How much does it cost to write compelling content and distribute it? Virtually nothing when you compare it to the costs of advertising on Google.
Traditional advertisement methods are still necessary because they do work, but as many marketers are saying, “Content is King.” Content Marketing is cost effective, and it caters to the needs of today’s consumers by providing them with useful AND interesting information. Here is some food for thought:
Interesting content is a top 3 reason that people follow brands on social media (Content+)
70% of consumers prefer getting to know a company via articles over ads (Content+)
Sources providing full-text content are 2.3 times as likely to have users return for a second visit (Pulse)
People want to be in control of the content they receive: 86% of people skip tv commercials, 44% of direct mail is never opened, and 91% of email users have unsubscribed from a company email they previously opted into. (Content Marketing Institute)
Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing
What sort of content marketing strategies are you using for your business, and how are they working for you?
More and more companies are beginning to explore the idea of coworking – creating work environments with no walls that promote face-to-face collaboration. Some argue that coworking environments can be more distracting because of all the extra noise, but shared workspaces are actually increasing the bottom line for businesses.
Here’s why:
Shared workspaces are cheap
They help save on the costs of setup, as well as the costs of adding employees. A shared workspace provides plenty of floor space for extra workstations, and therefore fitting more employees into the same space. They’re efficient. As Will Ferrell’s eccentric character, Brennan Huff, from the movie Step Brothers would say when he and his brother convert their beds into bunk beds, “There’s so much more room for activities!” And he’s right. The open floor space creates much more room for employees, and it helps foster conversation, which is key to generating ideas and innovation.
Face-to-Face Interaction Increases Productivity
While a lot of companies are moving towards remote working and conferencing, they are losing out on that face-to-face interaction, which allows workers to brainstorm and bounce new ideas back and forth. It’s harder to create an environment that focuses heavily on collaboration and communication with remote conferencing. If walls are getting in the way, then so are the miles between workers when they are working from outside of the office.
ThreeFortyNine and Kap Design have put together this infographic which shows an increase in shared workspaces and a direct correlation to an increase in productivity.
Increased Resources
Home offices aren’t necessarily designed to cater to the needs of a startup. If your company involves more people than just you, a shared workspace provides you with a place for your team to gather, meet, and discuss outside of your living room or a coffee shop.
Shared workspaces also provide you with more resources than you probably would have access to in your home office. With your membership you will have access to high-speed Wifi, better printing capabilities, conference rooms, whiteboards for notes and planning, and a dedicated desk and chair in a professional setting.
Fan of coworking, or not, at the end of the day shared workspaces can actually increase the bottom line for companies because they save on the costs of office setup, and the costs of adding employees. A key thing to take away is that shared workspaces spaces not only help save on costs, but they create an environment where employees are more likely to collaborate and be more innovative, and you can’t put a value on that.
