Video Transcript
Ken: With our favorite Nerd On Call with more.
Sue: Right? We all think about the side hustle. Face it, make a little extra cash because you’re probably spending more than you should be, right?
Ryan: I’ve seen Tina selling watermelons out of the back of the rover. You know, when she’s not on air, sometimes you’re making a few dollars.
Julissa: He knows, he knows. Alright. So if you’ve got your side hustle, you’ve gotta make sure you’ve got the right equipment. Right? So that you make sure you get paid. And of course that you don’t get in any legal trouble also.
Ryan: Yes. So let’s say you’re, you know, you’re Tina, and you’re selling fruit out of the back of the rover, whatever. First thing you’ve gotta do is you’ve gotta get paid. Because you can’t just take cash, and you can’t take checks, that kind of thing…
Julissa: Well also who carries cash anymore?
Ryan: Exactly.
Julissa: Right?
Ryan: Forget about it, it’s not happening. So take a credit card. Now, a lot of people have heard of square, where they can take the thing, and it’s the little white dongle. Well, this is even better. This one is called Pay Anywhere, and it’s free.
Julissa: Oh, love that.
Ryan: So you plug it right in and automatically just sign up, and they’ll send you…
Julissa: So the mag-strip…
Ryan: Yeah, and it only charges you, then, whenever you take a credit card. So 2.69%, which sounds like a lot, but it’s better than any of these other ones. There’s no contract or setup fees or anything like that. And if you wanna take Apple Pay or Samsung Pay it’s only 39 bucks for the little dongle. And if you got a storefront, they’ll give you a nice little tablet, so you can look super cool.
Julissa: Nice. Nice, okay.
Ryan: Now, let’s say you and I make and agreement.
Julissa: Uh-huh.
Ryan: And I’ve got five points on my agreement: you’re gonna go here, you’re gonna do this, you’re gonna say that, whatever. And then ten minutes later, you completely forgot what I talked about, right? Well, now there’s a signature, saying, “Hey, I agree with whatever you said,” and it’s legally binding. So this is called EverSign, and what you can do is you can get them to agree to whatever your thing is, they’ll sign it, and it’s legally binding.
Julissa: Oh, cool. Okay.
Ryan: You can also have a PDF of it so you can just go ahead and e-mail it to each other.
Julissa: Nice, nice.
Ryan: Boom. Everybody knows what they agreed on. You need a website, right?
Julissa: Absolutely, absolutely.
Ryan: So this is called Squarespace. We really like Squarespace because it’s so easy to use, it’s only $13 a month, and the designs are gorgeous. They have a bunch of different templates so you can make your yoga studio look good, or no matter what you’re selling. And it works with major payment processors, so you can just put your shopping cart on there, and people can buy stuff.
Julissa: Nice. Okay, alright.
Ryan: Alright, last but not least: social. You gotta be on Twitter, you gotta be on Facebook.
Julissa: I mean that is a full-time job, right?
Ryan: Oh, it is. This is called Hoot Suite, and it’s free. You post once, it spits it out to all the other social networks.
Julissa: Oh, okay.
Ken: Now we’re talking.
Julissa: Now can I use this too, even if I don’t have a storefront?
Ryan: You could, you could. So you don’t have to log into all these different accounts, you post it once. And here’s the best part, oh watch out: you can schedule posts. So you can set up Sunday night…
Julissa: That’s what I’m talking about.
Ryan: Yeah, Sunday night, write up a bunch of posts, post them all at once, and then they’ll trickle out over the week or month or whatever.
Julissa: Oh, that’s great.
Ken: Now we’re talking.
Julissa: Okay, and does this cost?
Ryan: This is free, for the free version. Now, you can upgrade if you have different social accounts, you wanna post more often, things like that. But the free version will get just about anybody what they need.
Julissa: Okay, okay, I like that. Okay, look at that, alright, we’re gonna link this up because I know a lot of people, you know, especially moms, right? They stay home and then they start making things, right? We get crafty, and then we wanna do a little side hustle.
Ryan: Yeah, you go to Etsy or something.
Julissa: Etsy, right. This is a perfect kind of a platform to get you started on some of those tools. So, fantastic, Ryan, thank you so much, you’re always here to help. So I’m very much looking forward to the next hour because you’re gonna…
Ryan: We’re doing karaoke, you guys.
Ken: Yay.
Ryan: We’re gonna sing. You don’t wanna hear this voice, but we’re gonna hear everybody else’s, so that’s gonna be fun.
Julissa: So you’re gonna tell us what we need to do a little karaoke in our car, and then we’re gonna put it to the test and in the 9:00 hour we’re actually gonna do a little carpool karaoke.
Courtney: Awesome.
Julissa: Coming up.
Ryan: I hear Bruno Mars is coming.
Julissa: I love it.
Ken: Oh. All right. Awesome. Thanks, Sue. Thanks, Ryan.
These days it seems everyone’s got a side gig.
Whether it’s selling your handmade soaps at your local farmers market or spinning tunes as a DJ on the weekends, we’ve got you covered with all the tech you need to succeed.
Getting Paid
If you’re still relying on cash and checks, you’re losing business.
Today’s customers are all about hassle-free payments and instinctively reach for their credit card or mobile phone to make payments.
PayAnywhere lets you process and settle accounts on the fly.
There’s no setup or recurring monthly fee and you only pay a 2.69% fee per swipe.
That may sound like a lot, but it’s way better than any other alternative in the market.
You’ll get the magstripe card reader for free so you can start accepting card payments right away. All you have to do is attach it to your phone and you’re ready to go.
If you want to accept chip or contactless payments like Apple or Samsung Pay, it’s only $40/month to lease the equipment.
This system works like a charm if you’re selling on the move as a local farmer, street vendor, or service provider.
Make It Legally Legit
Repeat after me: No more verbal contracts.
You want to make your terms of service solid and legally binding so that you don’t get stuck in a pickle if something goes amiss down the line.
Make sure you protect yourself with Eversign.
Simply upload a PDF document that outlines the terms and conditions you have agreed on with a client and get them to sign off.
eSignatures meet security and authentication requirements to make these agreements legally enforceable.
You can even create templates for the contracts or forms you use the most so that you aren’t wasting time with redundant tasks.
If you want to overview all your current or past agreements, you can access them from Eversign’s secure storage option.
Put Your Best Digital Face Forward
Nowadays, your business can’t survive without a website.
You know you need one, but yet can’t fathom how you’ll create it without knowing the first thing about code.
The good news is that Squarespace has got you covered.
It’s incredibly easy to setup a basic but beautiful website and only costs $12/month.
There are a bunch of website templates to choose from so that anyone can make a website without any programming knowledge.
Also, you aren’t stuck with the template you choose.
You can plug it in and play around to customize your site as to how you see fit.
Squarespace also includes eCommerce support with Stripe or PayPal payment integration so that you can sell your stuff online.
If you want social integration, you can easily link your social media accounts and auto-post your content from your site onto Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr.
Last but not least, websites with Squarespace are automatically optimized for mobile.
Get engaged without getting overwhelmed
Social media is a massive time suck.
Posting content, answering comments, and monitoring all your accounts is a full-time job you can’t choose to ignore.
Luckily, Hootsuite lets you manage these activities with ease.
You can easily upload content to multiple social networks with the click of a button and get notified whenever your brand is mentioned.
The free version lets you schedule posts at any time during the day.
You can manage up to 3 social media profiles in one place and oversee analytics.
This helps you determine which posts get the most attention so you can hone your content to grow your following.
Need tech help with your small business? Nerds On Call provide small business TI support and services.
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About The Author: Andrea Eldridge is CEO and co-founder of Nerds On Call, a computer repair company that specializes in on-site and online service for homes and businesses. Andrea is the writer of a weekly column, Nerd Chick Adventures in The Record Searchlight. She prepares TV segments for and appears regularly on CBS, CW and FOX on shows such as Good Day Sacramento, More Good Day Portland, and CBS 13 News, offering viewers technology and lifestyle tips. See Andrea in action at callnerds.com/andrea/.
