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Author: Shepherd Yaw Morttey

  • How Smartphones are Changing Business

    How Smartphones are Changing Business

    The rise of smartphones changed the world forever. Gone were the days when all your phone could do was make phone calls and send texts, now you had a small computer in your hand that could do almost anything. 

    Smartphones changed how businesses operated too, whether it was to improve themselves, online shopping, the online gaming industry, medicine, and multiple other industries, all were changed and improved due to smartphones. Here are the top ways smartphones have changed business. 

    Accessibility

    Smartphones have most certainly made a lot more things accessible. Online shopping, social media, the list goes on and on, filled with stuff you needed a computer to do before, but now you just need your phone. 

    This means that many more websites and businesses are now available to people who before, weren’t able to get to your shop or store or whatever it may be, or had no idea you even existed. 

    Advertising

    Advertising is probably the area that has had some of the most significant leaps thanks to smartphones. Businesses no longer need massive budgets for TV commercials or billboards, and can now spend less on online advertising, but get their business in front of many, many more people. 

    Online advertising is quietly literally everywhere. No matter what website you’re on or search engine you use, you will be inundated with advertisements. Focused advertising has also helped businesses gain more attention and waste less money in the long run. 

    This focused advertising is one of the biggest difference makers. Companies can now find out what their customers like and want, and then place those ads directly onto their phones. 

    Continuous Online Presence

    Smartphones have also increased the amount of time people spend online. Once again, you don’t have to wait to get home and hop onto your PC to go on your favorite website, it is in your hand, and this continuous online presence is great for businesses.

    They have more opportunity to get their service or product in front of you, more advertising as mentioned before, and they can just do more, run more specials, giveaways, competitions, all these things can be done quicker and easier. 

    Shopping Made Easy

    Online shopping is now the new norm. If it wasn’t popular before, the current pandemic most certainly made it more popular than anyone could have ever imagined. Companies needed to adapt and ensure that they could offer their services or goods online.

    Online shopping has definitely made shopping easier, and considering how many people do it, it has actually raised sales for businesses, as people no longer need to come to them, they can just buy from a particular business from the comfort of their home. 

    Constant Communication

    Tying back into the fact that people are online more due to smartphones, this has also led to an increase in communication. People are now always available, through messaging apps, social media, whatever it may be, you are always available. 

    Businesses now use this aspect to stay in contact with their customers, sending emails you read just as you get them, seeing their new Instagram or Facebook post and sharing, liking or commenting on it. 

    This increase in communication between brands and their customers has led to a closer relationship of sorts between the two, more brand loyalty, more people finding out about your brand, and just a general increase of brand and customer communication and interaction. 

    Interaction seems to be the biggest draw for customers, the ability to comment on a photo or something and have the brand reply and a conversation could take place, this wasn’t possible before, and now this type of communication is valued very highly by customers. 

    Business Reputation

    Customers have also been able to use their smartphones to influence the reputation of a brand. You can comment a positive or negative review or comment on their social media, that won’t only be seen by them, but also by their lage gathering. 

    There is also no limit on when you can do this, you can post a review of a restaurant while you are still in it, record a bad interaction with staff as it is happening and post it to the internet immediately. 

    Businesses also know this, they know that any time if a customer isn’t having a good experience, they can take their phone out and let people know, therefore, businesses try harder to make the customer experience even better. 

    Smartphones have been one of the best inventions in many years. They have enabled a lot more people to get online, and benefit from the ever expanding world that is the internet, as well as how we use the internet in our everyday lives. 

    Businesses have also been ab; to benefit massively from this, as now, instead of just being visible if customers see a TV ad of theirs or a billboard, they can be seen right in the hand of their customers, increasing business and their reputation constantly. It will be interesting to see how businesses take advantage of the technology in the future, considering how much it could change in the coming years. 

  • Top places to buy Xbox and PlayStation Consoles in Ghana

    Top places to buy Xbox and PlayStation Consoles in Ghana

    Play Station is a Japanese video game brand that consists of five home video game consoles and a media center, an online service, a line of controllers, two handhelds, a phone, and multiple magazines.

    PlayStation consoles are costly, and as a result, complete care is taken in the purchase. There are shops around the country, including online shops where these consoles are being sold.

    Compu Ghana | Osu | 0243143143

    Compu Ghana is an IT retail center for the sales It products and offers IT services and accessories and audio and visual equipment, and home appliances.

    Other Compu Ghana locations: east Legon, Spintex, Marina mall, Achimota, A&C mall and Tema

    Games Store | Accra | 0265234653

    Games store is a video games shop located in Accra. It’s a shop where you can find various games and be trusted to offer quality products.

    They deal in the sales and repairs of video games consoles and accessories, sales of all types of gift cards being it PlayStation cards, Xbox Live, Nintendo e-shop, iTunes and many more we also deal in digital downloading of games on all consoles being it ps4, Xbox one,ps3, Xbox 360″.

    They’re located in Accra.

    PS Party shop | East Legon | 0553855256

    PS Party Shop in East Legon, Accra, Ghana provides products/services in Shopping. They’re into the sales of accessories and providing IT services, be it consoles or CDs or PlayStation cards.

    Also into party supplies and decors. They’re located on the La Bawaleshie Road, opposite Palace Chinese Restaurant, East Legon and Comm 19 – Lashibi on Nii Ankrah Road, Regimanuel Estates.

    Best Price Ghana limited | Kokomlemle | 0246430667

    Best Price shops limited is a multi telco shop involved in the sales of all kinds of accessories and technology devices. PlayStation devices available with them come in all types, including PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, and Xbox the Xbox One and Series X.

    They also have PlayStation cards and CDs available in their shops. You can reach out to them online on their website or go to their shops located at Accra New Town near Joy Multimedia and West Legon.

    Game | Achimota | 0302740000

    Game-Achimota is a departmental store that offers the widest variety of merchandise at the most competitive prices.

    Game is driven to make the shopping experience very simple for buyers. You can find all sorts of modern gaming devices and consoles there. They’re located at Achimota on the Accra- Kumasi road.

    Jumia Online | Ghana | 0302740642

    Jumia is an online shopping platform where a variety of products are sold on. It’s one of the best online platforms to buy your PlayStation and Xbox consoles if you’re looking to buy online.

    If you want to shop on Jumia, you need to download their app on the google play store or the Apps Store on your iPhone, register an account with your details and select the items you want to buy.

    After you go through all the necessary procedures after selecting the console you want to buy, a delivery guy will bring it to you on the decided date. Very convenient.

    Gadgets palace | Ghana | 0540222652

    It is an online shop for all kinds of gadgets and accessories. Deliveries are made to all capital cities in ghana and free deliveries in Accra.

    Get4less Ghana | Osu | 0591549361

    They are a wholesale and retail shop that sells quality and affordable products ranging from gaming devices, electronics, Home Appliances, Furniture, amongst other Consumable Products.

    They’re located at Osu Oxford street. They offer delivery services too.

    Best Buy Ghana Limited | Dome | 0270008300

    It’s a shop located around Dome road in Accra. They’re into the sales of all kinds of accessories, including gaming devices such as PlayStations and Xbox consoles.

    You can go to their store and shop or order your stuff online for delivery services.

    Geostoresgh | Nungua | 0209133372

    It’s a game store located in Accra. At Geostoresgh, you can find whatever gaming device you need.

    Be it game CDs or consoles, or PlayStation cards. They are located at Nungua.

    Conclusion

    Purchasing such expensive devices as consoles needs to be done right. That’s the reason you need to buy them from top shops.

    These shops give you a good service including warranties, that’s why they’re known to be too shops nationwide.

    The delivery services of these shops are also very safe. You can trust them to deliver the product you ordered without any delay in delivery.

  • Ways you can save data while watching YouTube

    Ways you can save data while watching YouTube

    YouTube as a medium is a means of entertainment for a lot of people worldwide.

    People tend to get so engrossed in what they’re watching and forget their internet data. Meanwhile, there are ways we can save data while watching videos on YouTube. If that sounds like the sort of thing you need in your mobile life, read on for practical tips on minimizing YouTube’s data “sucking.”

    Most users have been looking for a way around their YouTube data usage, especially those who watch movies on the platform. So join me, and let’s take you through ways you can save data while using YouTube on your phones and PCs.

    Restrict HD streaming on your mobile phones

    HD streaming is a high video quality that drains a lot of your data when streaming. HD videos can clean out your mobile data in a hilariously short time, and you’ll be left in awe, wondering how it happened.

    However, there’s a way you can restrict this HD quality in your settings when your phone is connected to WiFi. Tap on your YouTube app settings and scroll down to select (play HD on WiFi only).

    This function enables you to watch videos in normal quality, which is not so prone to data draining. Also, it’s a good idea to turn off the Autoplay next video option in case you play a video and happen to leave your phone unattended for some time.

    Lower the video quality

    When you launch YouTube to stream videos, they give you the best video quality for you to stream on by default. But sometimes, you can manage a normal video quality if you’re looking to save some data.

    You can do this in the app by tapping on the video playing so that the controls appear at the top of the video. Then, tap on the three dots at the top right corner.

    The first option will be Quality. So in the options that will show, try to pick a video quality that’s ok for you to stream videos in. I use 360p when I want to save data; that video quality is very good to watch videos without even noticing that it’s not the best quality. You can also go for 144p, which barely uses any data at all.

    Limit your use of data

    You can directly put a limit on the data you can consume with your device.

    To do this, on an Android device, go to settings and the data usage option, select the maximum amount of data you can use in a month, and when you want Android to notify you that you are approaching that limit.

    Setting a data limit helps in many ways, as you’ll be monitoring the amount of data you use. 

    Save videos offline when connected to WiFi

    You are downloading YouTube videos to watch them offline. You can save YouTube videos in advance when you use WiFi. Or you can download Youtube videos in lower video quality.

    Let me take you through the steps to download videos from YouTube;

    Step 1. Launch the browser app to access YouTube and copy the URL of the video you want to download.

    Step 2. Open the YouTube downloader – y2mate.com and paste the link in the search box. Then it will take a few seconds to convert the URL automatically.

    Step 3. When the process is done, choose 360p from the following video quality and click on Download. 

    You can watch these videos offline later in your gallery. 

    Download the YouTube Go App

    YouTube Go is an Indian-inspired app designed to help users with a low data plan. It also lets you preview a video before watching it.

    This helps so that you don’t waste your time watching a video you’re not interested in. With the preview, you see what the video is about. The best part about this app is how a person can choose a particular amount of data that will be used to view the video.

    The app also gives the user an option to download videos that they can view later. It also possesses a special feature where users can exchange videos with nearby people without spending excessive data or even a WiFi connection.

    Conclusion

    Data is one of the things most mobile phone users complain about the most these days. They claim it’s so expensive and drains very fast. Well, indeed, it drains fast a lot. In this article, I’ve discussed how to prevent your data bundle from draining fast when watching videos on YouTube.

    It’s as simple to do this as all you have to do launch the YouTube app and open settings to make those changes.

  • The best Networks to use for Calls, SMS, Data & Mobile Money in Ghana

    The best Networks to use for Calls, SMS, Data & Mobile Money in Ghana

    When it comes to telecommunication services in ghana, one can say that some of the services are very good while some too very poor. Some have outstanding services in specific aspects of their services.

    Telecomm services have become very expensive over the years, so users tend to love reasonable offers and advantage.

    This article will talk about each telco in ghana and its stronghold in each aspect of telecom service providers. 

    Mobile Money – MTN

    MTN has a motto that says “everywhere you go,” and that’s a fact with this telco’s financial service.
    They’re everywhere and very convenient. One thing they can assure you is that you’ll never be in the lacking when you want to make a transaction with their service.

    They also have cool terms and conditions and offers. You pay no fees when making transactions to other MTN MoMo users (up to GHS 100 daily) and pay regular interoperability rates when sending money to different networks.

    Some people might argue that Vodafone is the best because it doesn’t charge you for any transaction whatsoever, be it to the same networks or different networks.

    But are they available everywhere? Are they reliable? Are they convenient?

    I’ll arguably say no, they aren’t. MTN Mobile Money is currently the best for availability everywhere and reliable services when it comes to Mobile Money Transactions in Ghana.

    Data Bundle – Vodafone

    Data is one of the most important services these telcos provide us.

    This is because most of us use smartphones, and we need data bundles for our phones to function. Vodafone has some very cheap and amazing offers which come in different types.

    They have the “made4me” offer, which also comes in different types. They have GHS 5.50 for 5 GB. This is non arguably the cheapest data offer you can get anywhere in the country. They also have special offers. Which also comes in different types. These are:

    • GHS 2 for 300MB daily
    • GHS 2.15 for 400MB daily and
    • GHS 3.25 for 1.5GB daily.

    All these offers will make a user switch to Vodafone if he’s already using a different network.

    MTN also has one of the best midnight bundle offers, but midnight bundles don’t matter like the ones we need during the day.

    Airteltigo also has amazing no expiry bundle offers, but in my opinion, none beats Vodafone’s bundle packages. 

    Calls and SMS – AirtelTigo

    When it comes to calls, some people talk a lot on their phones.

    Sometimes it’s business calls or talking to their lovers. So in cases like this, they need offers that can enable them to speak without worrying too much.

    AirtelTigo offers such best offers, even including international calls offers. SMS packs, either weekly or monthly or no expiry, all exist on AirtelTigo.

    They even have call bundles to call all networks with no expiry, which only exists on one other telco across the country.

    They also have reasonable offers at affordable prices, such as GHS 2, GHS 5, GHS 10, and GHS 15, which also come with data packages.

    Conclusion

    Every telco has a stronghold in each service that they render to customers.

    Like I’ve said earlier, MTN mobile network is best known for their mobile money services nationwide, whereas Vodafone’s data packages are one to talk about proudly.

    Very affordable SMS packs and unlimited, non-expiry call bundle packages are for AirtelTigo only.

    Not saying other networks are deficient in the different aspects of their services, but their competitors are arguably better than them in other parts of their telecommunication services.

    One might say from an observation that you need more than one SIM card to enjoy telco services in Ghana.

  • 5 useful things you can do with Google Maps right now

    5 useful things you can do with Google Maps right now

    Google maps are just used to help move around with ease.

    But there’s more to it than we know of, such as checking current and future traffic, adding stops to your trip, and showing you a way to navigate around a building, amongst other fantastic stuff it can do. 

    Add stops to your trip

    As a traveler, you can’t make a 4/5 hour trip without a few stops on the road to take a piss or have lunch or fill your fuel tank.

    Once you program the destination of your trip using the map in your car, you can also add stops on the map and choose from various Gad stations and grocery shops and restaurants to stop at on the map.

    For planned stops, tap on the three dots in the top right corner of the app and select “Add stop.” Tap on the empty slot, and you can search, add from the map or select from “Gas stations,” “Groceries,” “Restaurants,” “Cafes,” “Fast food,” and “ATMs.”

    Check current and future traffic

    If you want to check the traffic in your area, you need to turn on “traffic” by tapping on the diamond-shaped layers icon on your phone app or by selecting the menu button (three bars) on your desktop.

    The main reason for doing this is self-explanatory as one would not love to be late for to anywhere at all they are going to.

    For computers, you’ll see a box with “Live traffic” and an upside-down triangle. Select the triangle, and you can choose “Typical traffic” to see what traffic will be like later in the day or week. 

    Avoid paying tolls

    It also helps you in saving some money on a trip.

    Usually, on a trip, you might meet about 3-4 tolls on your way, but instead of going to pay for those tolls, you can tell your map to show you free access routes.

    Just tap “Route Options” while searching for directions and toggle “tolls” off. Be careful, though: This could add a lot of miles to your trip!

    Share your location

    There are certain times that you want to share your location with someone who wants to come to your current location; you can send them your live location using Google Maps to get the directions to where you are quick.

    Also, when you are somewhere, and you want others to see where you are, sometimes in cases of safety.

    You can also share your location while you’re driving. Once you’ve started a trip, swipe up from the bottom, and you’ll see “Share your trip progress” as your first option. 

    Save your favorite locations

    You visited a place one time without planning to, and you loved the place and so would love to visit again but don’t want the risk of forgetting the name of the location or routes to the place?

    Or want to save information about a store or restaurant to review later? You can save the location on your google map. Maps lets you set Favorites by selecting the “Save” icon. Choose it as a “Favorites,” “Want to go,” or “Starred places,” and it will show up on Google map.

    And you want to consult your list, head over to the left menu inside the app, then choose “Your Places” and “Saved” to consult your lists.

  • How to become a successful YouTuber and earn money

    How to become a successful YouTuber and earn money

    YouTube content creation has also become one of the fast-rising digital marketing ways many people earn money through these, be it young or old persons.

    People miss a few things in trying to create content and make money off it and end depressed and give up in the end because they realized it’s not as easy as it looked. 

    It would be best if you were very patient.

    Being a YouTuber is not something that will get you money at once; it requires a lot of time and patience.YouTube is such a competitive platform that demands much patience to get to your destination. Having patience and so much focus is very painful on YouTube.

    You should be able to learn new stuff as the days go.

    It would help if you considered learning new stuff from those in the game before you for a new YouTuber. Watch the videos and see how they do things because they’ve been around for a long and are making huge numbers. Watching other videos can teach you a thing or two on how to be successful as a YouTuber.

    Develop unique content.

    YouTube is full of similar videos of what you want to do, so what you’re bringing is nothing new to the viewers. But that doesn’t mean you break out and also be successful.

    It’s all about craft and how you do your work. It would help if you had a different approach to your content, for example, creating a breakdown of music videos. Know that hundreds if not thousands of YouTubers are also into the analysis of music videos.

    And the possibility of another YouTuber breaking down the video you’re planning on working on is very likely, but still doesn’t you can’t work on that exact video. You can work on that same video, and that’s where you have to prove your uniqueness to your viewers.

    Set up SEO

    YouTube is a very sophisticated search engine, and people use it a lot to discover new content. Because people are always searching on YouTube, you have a better chance to be found, seen, and enjoyed by choosing the right keywords.

    If there are videos similar to the one you’re looking to create, look at the exact words you typed in for the results. Then try a different one to see how the results change so that you can see what a word or two of difference can make. Research the keywords you’d like to use, their popularity, and the keywords your competition uses.

    All this is done just so when users search for videos on YouTube, and your similar content will also pop up as a suggestion.

    Don’t be a time waster and make the video boring.

    Some YouTubers spend minutes explaining a simple thing that can take just seconds sometimes. If you do that, most users will be bored and search for another video to watch.

    For instance, you make a video on how to make a fruit smoothie. You don necessarily need to make a 15-to 20-minute video explaining teaching how to make a smoothie.

    You can make it a short video of a maximum of 3-5 minutes because many YouTube users don’t like to waste time on a single video like that, most times because of data usage.

    Identify a topic or aspect not majored by anyone and make it your major

    Do you have a skill or knowledge of a specific topic that doesn’t already have a significant YouTube channel dedicated to it?

    Or maybe you love assembling and dissembling a computer, and you feel like not many people prominent in that. Focus on that with good tactics. You’ll soon attract people who love the anatomy of computers to your page. 

    Make sure you get the tools/gear to make and edit YouTube videos.

    Another essential part of establishing yourself to be a successful YouTuber is to make sure you have a set of tools ready to record your videos and edit them.

    Having these tools will enable you to make your content how you want it at its total capacity. Having your tools and editing skills is vital because many YouTubers don’t have their gear, so they go out to borrow.

    What happens when you don’t the complete kit, but you record the videos anyway because they come out with low quality. No YouTube user would watch a video with low quality when they can get other videos with good quality.

    Know how to monetize your page

    First, you create a channel and give it a name. Secondly, you need to have an Adsense account, sign the terms and conditions, and comply with YouTube’s community guidelines.

    After all that, you must have at least 1000 subscribers and reach 4,000 valid public watch hours in the past 12 months. Those are the main things you require to join YouTube’s partner program and earn money through your YouTube channel.

    Conclusion

    YouTube content creation can be very lucrative if taken seriously. Know the requirements needed to monetize your channel, have a different style with your content, try not to be a time-waster when explaining things in your video, go straight to the point, and don’t make the video too long to lose viewers and subscribers. 

  • Ways your local business can benefit from digital marketing

    Ways your local business can benefit from digital marketing

    The digital world has been advancing at a fast rate ever since the Covid-19 came into the system, and one might say that’s a good thing, or another might also oppose that it’s a bad thing.

    As a local businessman or woman, you’d realize that many people have taken their business to the digital world; you’d ask yourself why? Well, people love to feel comfortable and safe, and digital marketing gives them.

    In this piece of work, I’ll be discussing with you ways in which your local business can benefit you if you move it to the digital world.

    The mobile phone advantage

    Without a doubt, mobile phone users have grown to outnumber any other technology device users worldwide.

    And for your local business to grow in the digital world, you need to reach out to the mobile phone users who do their buying online on their phones.

    That’s currently the new trend. They discuss the price and everything with the vendors and then get a dispatch rider to deliver their said products to them at their said locations. With this, if you build your digital marketing website or platform mobile phone friendly, you’ll tend to reach out to 1000s of users who might be interested in your product.

    For example, a make-up kits vendor online. As such a business owner, all you have to do is get a good advertisement for your business and set a friendly atmosphere with users who patronize your business online. In terms of the cost of establishing your business, this is less expensive and very effective, and very comfortable for the business owner as they can also go about other companies while running the company online.

    It allows you to target a specific market.

    Reaching your targeted people in a marketing campaign is one most important aspects of your business as a marketer. This also depends on the tactics you employ in your marketing campaign.

    For example, we call an SEO (search engine optimization) which allows your website or platform to be found in search engines. It will enable local companies to optimize for location-specific keywords for their specific type of business so that when users type them in a search engine, it will readily serve up the information they need.

    And if your business is at or near the top of that list, users will likely click on it, and you will have reached your target customers, all because you optimized your website for local SEO. The positive of this SEO is self-explanatory as it gives your business exposure for customers to reach out to you.

    Lower cost

    A good and well-organized digital marketing campaign can be less expensive and less time-consuming than the traditional way of opening a business.

    With traditional marketing, you have to find a good location for your market, put a shop building that will be your shop or office, and employ a few workers you’ll be paying monthly. Calculating the cost of all these is quite expensive.

    But with putting your business online, all you have to do is have social media presence, develop good marketing tactics for your business, pay for a few advertisements on tv or with social media influencers. Your business is set and ready for the world.

    You interact with your consumers

    Interacting and providing your customers with good engagements helps you to know what your customers want. With online marketing, you’re on a platform where you can directly interact with 1000s or your customers simultaneously.

    This interaction is essential because you wouldn’t know what your customers want from you without it. You can also create polls where customers review and let you know what they like and dislike about your products, which gives you an insight into what they want and what to bring into the market next time.

    As you know, it is more expensive to attract and convert new customers than it does to retain existing customers.

    Customer loyalty can be challenging to establish, but as you take on the habit of interacting with them, it will be long before you gain their trust.

    Gain brand credibility with your local business

    No one will come to the marketplace and shout for the whole market to hear that you’ve got the best product out there, so people should patronize you.

    If any business brand is to gain credibility, it’s going to happen online. For instance, as fast food online vendor, how good your food is and how good your customer services can gain you a lot of credibilities. Useful and interesting content helps a company to gain the trust of its customers and industry experts.

    It can be effective to the extent that competitors start to reference it also in their content. How will you know you’ve gained in the industry?

    Well, you can see it in the search engines. You’re a reference to customers in the market if your brand ranks on top in search engines on google. High rankings on search engines attract more people to patronize your business.

    It provides fast income generation

    With online marketing, your money comes as your products are going. You also have no employees to pay salary to. It all depends on how well you brand your business and run it.

    And whatever profits you get on your sales on solely yours alone, and if you have a business partner, it will be for you and your partner. That’s one of the advantages of taking your local business online.

    Conclusion

    Suppose a company lacks a solid digital footprint. In that case, it severely hampers its ability to communicate with existing customers and find new ones, and one can get used to the traditional way of doing business.

    Still, that lack of a digital presence also leads to a lack of trust in the brand. However, suppose a company implements a robust digital marketing plan covering areas such as social media and content marketing. In that case, it can have a positive impact on a brand’s bottom line.

  • Mistakes to avoid when applying for online/MoMo loans in Ghana

    Mistakes to avoid when applying for online/MoMo loans in Ghana

    Loans aren’t always a bad idea if you go about it right. As a businessman, taking a loan could be one of the best decisions for it.

    The problem is that many business owners don’t know how to go about it when applying for a loan. While physical loan applications at banks are time-consuming and full of procedures and on top of that stressful, online applications are far easier.

    Technology has presented us with several online platforms to submit loan applications. Financial mistakes almost always end up costing you money, so I’ll discuss with you a few mistakes to avoid when next you apply for a loan online.

    Don’t settle for a high interest rate

    Fees, terms & conditions, and other extras are all well and good, but no matter how nice they sound, you should never settle for a high-interest rate. There’s just no need! And yet, it can be all too easy to lose sight of the rate you’re going to end up paying.

    When looking for a loan, consider what you’ll be using it for. Maybe you’ll be putting it towards getting your license to start a car business. Once you know what you’ll be spending it on, you can track down a loan that fits the bill and still offers a great rate.

    You don’t repay the loan on time

    The loan process doesn’t end once you’ve been given the money. At a given specific time, you’re going to have to pay the money back. It might sound simple, but you’ll be surprised at how the days will go by and easy it will be to forget that you have a loan to repay.

    This mistake is especially common if this is your first time applying for a loan. While a seemingly harmless mistake, but it could adversely affect your credit score and your chances of landing another loan in the future. 

    Mark payment dates in your calendar, throw a reminder on your phone, or better yet, set up an automatic transfer via online banking so that the payments take care of themselves. It’s that simple!

    Consider your budget

    What are you planning on using this money for – Paying off medical bills? A loan may help you out of a rough financial situation, but it also leaves you with outstanding debt and interest to repay.

    But it can be all too easy to get caught up in the loan pre-approval process and find that you haven’t asked – or answered – the most important question of all: will you be able to repay it. You shouldn’t take loans you can’t be able to pay back just because you can take the loan.

    Consider MTN quick loan; for instance, taking a loan as fast as that can offer you exciting possibilities to take care of whatever you’ve got.

    But borrowing more money than you can afford can quickly see your expenses getting out of hand, which is the last thing you want. Instead, check your budget, add the repayments, and run the numbers. If the application is successful, will you be struggling to keep your head above water? Or will you be able to manage it easily?

    Make such calculations and ask yourself those questions and decide if you need to take that loan.

    Ideally, any personal loan repayments shouldn’t come to more than 15-25% of your income. If it’s more than that, it might be time to consider other ways you can get the money together. Perhaps you could find ways to save a little cash. 

    Don’t apply for loans from multiple online sources

    As easy as taking a loan sounds, you shouldn’t take multiple ones at a time.

    Because even if you take them within a three-day space, it’s still going to be a problem for you when it’s time for you to pay. A business person might argue that the business that he’s going to operate with loans will pay off so he can pay back from loans on time.

    But that’s not true why because even if you’re a salary earner, taking two loans from two online platforms can be very hard on you when you pay back with your salary money. You might end not paying on time because you’ll be contemplating using the money on something else, and that’s going to attract penalties. For instance, there are a couple of online loan platforms in ghana, like Mtn quick loan, Fido money loans and Vodafone loans which was recently introduced.

    Taking loans from MTN quick loan is very simple; you have to follow a few prompts, and you’re done. The same applies to the other loan platforms, so the simplicity might tempt you to apply from all three agencies because you can, but that can cause serious financial problems soon.

    Thinking you can take the loan and refuse to pay

    Most people think because the loans are applied and not in person, they can run away with the money, but they’re wrong. This is because they apply for the loan with your details and these agencies have access to your details, which they can use to trace you.

    Some of these agencies online even make you add a guarantee’s number in the unlikely event that they don’t hear from you. And some people don’t inform the people whose details so when the time for the money comes, and the agencies start calling them, they’ll also be frustrated and give away your location.

    By then, you would’ve incurred a lot of penalties on top of the initial interest, which I’m not sure you thought of when you planned to run away with the money. So basic ideal thing you have to do is take a loan you can afford to pay and make payback at the right time to avoid penalties that you can avoid.

    Conclusion

    Ever since being introduced, online and Mobile Money loans have helped pay fees for students, starting a small scale business amongst others, but for some, it has become a devil to them rather than the angel it is.

    And that’s because they made some mistakes they could’ve avoided, so read through this piece of work and learn some mistakes to avoid when applying for online loans in Ghana.

  • 7 ways students can leverage technology to make money in Ghana

    7 ways students can leverage technology to make money in Ghana

    Modernization has brought a lot of change to things in society. One can say the availability of technology is one of the post changes it has brought.

    It has developed culture so that one can make a living out of technology and build a life for himself. 

    Being a content creator on YouTube or any social media platform

    Being content can be very lucrative, considering you put much effort, time, and dedication into it. A content creator on YouTube or any social media platform like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or tik tok can make you a lot of money.

    Content creation is making funny videos, tutorials, or any creative thing to catch viewers’ eyes. For example, you can decide to make a video with steps to prepare jollof rice at home. Content is how good the creator makes it.

    So your uniqueness needs to be your tool for working. And be aware that there are other content creators out there who also do what you do. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to be successful in your work. As I said, content is how good and unique the creator makes it look.

    Small scale e-commerce

    With this, you need capital to start it and a social media platform where you sell your products online.

    You get a trusted buyer and make sure you have a good market for your products so that when the products are ready to be sold, you’ll not have a limited market and make them lose their value.

    For instance, you buy a sneaker at GHS 200 and then sell it at GHS 250, so that’s GHS 50 profit off one sneaker, so imagine selling 20 sneakers in a month. That’s a GHS 1000 profit from the sales of your sneakers alone.

    One thing about being an online vendor is that you need to have various products to sell. You don’t have to sell just one product because the market for one product might be down during a season and when that happens, and you have other products to sell, you don’t have a problem, unlike being in the trade of only one product.

    Freelancing

    If you have a skill that you think people can pay for, then freelancing is the choice for you. It doesn’t require any form of investment or capital or build a presence. Returns from freelancing can be near-instantaneous.

    As an online freelancer, you get access to all sorts of clients worldwide, provided you build your online platform properly and make the name with your craft to attract clients. When you start, it is helpful to focus on building your profile. Your profile will be more robust by getting more positive reviews, and you will get more gigs.

    A lot of people around the world are freelancing full time to earn a living. It pays very good to make a living out of, and there are massive opportunities. As a freelancer, you should choose a skill where you have a great deal of knowledge and confidence. 

    Become a social media influencer

    Building a presence on social media with a large for business purposes can be a very successful venture if taken seriously.

    Building a platform with a large following means many people have access to the stuff you do on the platform, so people can trust you sell ads for them. Building the brand is an essential part of selling ads on social media.

    There are many social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, amongst others. You first have to build the brand you want to portray and attract many followers to the brand. Create an interaction on your platform with your followers. For example, making a unique platform on Instagram with about 20,000 followers and interacting with them about the usual stuff like sports, entertainment, politics and promoting businesses.

    A robust personal platform gives whoever wants you to sell ads on their products confidence that you’d be able to deliver the service with ease.

    Become an affiliate marketer

    Affiliate marketing has also been a very lucrative venture from which many people make money these days. One might not know what affiliate marketing means but might be practising it.

    “Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays commission to a person for sales generated from its referrals. With affiliate marketing, sometimes it doesn’t even require any capital; you arrange with a retailer to sell their stuff and get a commission after the sales.

    You can even be able to add up some value to the commodity’s price to get more money from that particular sale.

    Content writing

    Content writing is the creation of articles, create written materials for websites and blogs. To be a content writer, you need to have good grammar, good writing and research skills.

    And to write content in a specific field, you need to research to have accurate knowledge in the field of content you’re writing. This content can include text for graphic, podcasts and e-books. As a content writer, you should also be able to use modern word formatting tools.

    So basically, content writers are responsible for vividly explaining topics on a website. 

    Find a remote job

    You can stay at home and be employed remotely. As a remote worker, you can even work for companies outside the country and still get paid for your work.

    That means if you work for a company that’s based in Toronto, you’ll get paid based on what’s typical for that area rather than where you live. You can earn an NYC salary while living in Accra.

    It had many advantages because you can still go about other stuff you’ve got going on in your life, and even travel and carry your work along with you. It has a very flexible schedule too. 

    Conclusion

    Technology has advanced, and so has our minds. The latest covid -19 restrictions have, in a way, opened people’s minds to the idea of leveraging technology to make money out of it opening online businesses, working your jobs from home, amongst other lucrative ventures one can venture into to make money digitally. 

  • Why SHS students in Ghana should start considering a career in Software

    Why SHS students in Ghana should start considering a career in Software

    Currently, globally the software development career has been high in demand and produces many prolific individuals in our society, including a billionaire.

    And there’s no denying that as a student in senior high who’s about graduating should consider this as a career for yourself. 

    The high availability of jobs

    Currently, many businesses/individuals are looking for young people to fill in technology roles. Log onto your go-to jobs site and type in the word “software”.

    How many jobs popped up? Probably thousands. The thing is, software development skills are no longer confined to the tech industry. Having these skills is a bonus for most jobs. All good businesses have websites and apps, and the requirement for IT know-how is huge.

    So SHS students who’re yet to graduate and are thinking of a career to choose, I’d advise that you consider software development.

    The remoteness of the profession

    If you are someone who does not like the routine 8 to 5 work schedule, software development will offer you many remote work opportunities even here in Ghana.

    As long as you are producing code at an adequate rate and creating what is required timely, it is not uncommon for many code workers to work remotely.

    Such is the coding landscape when the opportunity to freelance and offer contract services to companies is higher. Likewise, many software developers have seized the opportunity to create their own companies and businesses because of the skills gap.

    Some students might think it’s a difficult career because of how coding looks on screens, but the only thing I can say is that nothing is too difficult or easy.

    You need to put in effort and dedication and do the work to your full capacity.

    You can be your boss as a software developer

    As a software developer, normally, you work as a freelancer. Companies can contact you to develop something for them. Such contracts expire after your services for them has been granted.

    This allows you to also work on your personal projects. You also decide what to develop without being directed what to do. I know most young people love to feel free and do things on their own, so this poses a great opportunity to be your own boss as a developer.

    As a freelance developer, too, you have the liberty to look through the tech environment and see what innovations are in high demand at a point in time. For example, currently, mobile phone applications like games and sports apps are on the rise, and as a matter of fact, a young developer like you knows what the young market consumers like yourself want.

    Continuous learning opportunity

    As a software developer, you’ll always be on alert to learn new stuff as the days go by due to the gradually evolving technology.

    With this, you can choose not to learn any new stuff and keep on with your old work, but as the technology ecosystem continues to evolve, you’d find yourself having no choice but to join the ship and learn new stuff eventually.

    As a young senior high school graduate coming into the software developing industry, you have the upper hand in learning new stuff because your mind is still active ready to accept new knowledge.

    Software development also requires teamwork to be really successful, and as SHS students, teamwork is not something you’ll be new to. As a matter of fact, teamwork is one of the major things you learn in school when you come together with your colleagues to do project works.

    Technology has become the standard of our economy

    Technology is extremely fast-moving, so as a Software Engineer, you need to be able to learn new programming languages and technologies and adapt to the continually changing environment.

    Alongside learning about technology, developers will often have the opportunity to develop their knowledge about the business and sector they are working in, as these are also ever-changing.

    And what more great opportunity is there for young high school students like this? As a young graduate, this constant change is an amazing learning opportunity, keeping your mind fresh and the job interesting! What better reason do you need to get started in Software Engineering?

    Conclusion

    Software, as I said, has become the job haven across the world, and most people miss out on that opportunity to join ship because they have no idea what it is and what it entails, so I hope the idea of a freelancing job as a software developer, the opportunity to learn more on the job and the ultimate idea of being a billionaire if dedication, innovation, and hard work are put in work.