Sunday, November 30, 2008

November Featured User: Jason C.

This month's Featured User is Jason C.

Jason spent some time going through the transaction process and placing an order with PeerFX on our Closed Testing platform. He emailed us several suggestions that we have decided to implement, which including the following points:

  1. Explain what an EFT is and how to go about setting that up. Jason actually went through the effort of speaking to his bank about setting that up. Our solution is to provide instructions on how to do that in the transaction confirmation email that we send out after you have a booked a tranasction with PeerFX.
  2. WHAT?! There are costs associated with sending you an e-mail money transfer? Yes there are. It can be up to $1.50 for an individual. IF you are a business and have EFT set up through your bank (PeerFX uses DirectLine for Business with the Bank of Montreal) then it can be $0.10 per transaction. Solution: We will also list the associated fees charged by your bank on the transaction confirmation page. We are all about transparency and agree that listing out potential fees charged by your bank is important. Keep in mind that the "hidden fees" are charged by your bank and NOT PeerFX.
We would like to thank Jason for his time and effort put into providing us with his valuable feedback. We look forward to having other users provide us with feedback - YOU included.

YOU can become a registered user today through sending us an email to participate in our Closed Testing system at info@peerfx.com.

Join us today in Changing Exchanging!


Friday, November 28, 2008

Tax Free Savings Account - Too Good to be True?

With the current economic conditions, efforts are being made to help people save money - such as this new financial product that I came across the other day.

New product from the government, my friend Alireza Fadaie of Investors Group Inc. passed this on to me:

"Put the money in the account and dont pay any tax on the interest and withdraw it without any tax consequences! Too good to be true?! Why has government become so generous?! The savings rate in Canada is horrific and has decreased significantly in the past 20 years. Now here is the great way to save!"

It does sound like something that everyone can use and if you are interested I can put you in touch with Alireza to learn more about the details. Here's some additional info I found through googling:

(Information from Department of Finance Canada)
http://www.budget.gc.ca/2008/pamphlet-depliant/pamphlet-depliant2-eng.asp

(Information from HSBC)
https://www.hsbc.ca/1/2/en/personal/chequing-savings/savings-accounts/tax-free-savings-account/how-does-tfsa-work

Hope this helps! Happy savings! :)



Sunday, November 23, 2008

Progress Update

Where are we now in terms of development?

The core service has been completed and select customers are conducting live transactions on the platform - tremendously exciting for us!

Plans are also underway to build the multi-currency peer-to-peer system. We've lined up a very strong and relevant team to manage this development process and we're confident that we will be able to launch the multi-currency system in Summer 2009.

The launch of our USD/CAD platform will be in Early 2009 as we continually tailor our services to meet the demands of SMEs. We really appreciate all the feedback that we are receiving from our test users. It has helped tremendously in our developent process. In fact, we will be featuring a PeerFX User each month that provides feedback we can actually incorporate into our development process. Your ideas are just as important as ours and you should receive recognition for your contribution!

We are strong believers in the theory that if YOU build it, YOU will come; the best place to find out consumer demands is ASKING THE CONSUMER. Not rocket science.

We will be developing a video that shows a demo transaction on our website and this will be posted on this blog and also on our website. We know that you want to see how the transaction process works before you actually place a transaction - we acknowledge that this is important to you and will have the video ready asap.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Angel Forum

So we presented at the 24th Angel Forum this past Monday. I would like to think that the presentation was AWESOME - I'm glad that it stimulated questions from the audience (so this means they were listening...YAY!) and we had a lot of great questions as well.

We placed 2nd place for best exhibitor and all of that is of course thanks to our designer Hubert Chan. Everyone has repeatedly said that his work is great and consistent.

All in all we had a great experience getting to know other businesses and also the angels. I would recommend that other businesses looking for financing give the 25th Angel Forum a try. The follow up of the forum is well-coordinated and hopefully we hear back from some of the angels over the next few days.

Some key things to note:

1) Angels don't like it when you tell them you need further investment after the Angel Round - even if you're being realistic; I guess nobody wants to know ahead of time that they are going to get diluted?

2) Make your margins high enough to sound like you're squeezing out every possible penny from customers. (I'm sure the investors would feel differently if they were the customers...haha)

3) Deliver your presentation with passion; after all, if you don't believe in your business idea do you expect others to? Investors are investing in YOU - and we all know there's a HUGE difference between someone that loves what they do and someone who doesn't (even if they're extremely smart and knowledgeable).

Back to work now.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Money Money Money

Yep. I'm sure that's going through a lot of entrepreneurs' minds right now. How do we raise financing in times of a tough economy.

I'm still optimistic. The good investors know that now is a good time to invest when the market is in the valley. They also know that when they see a great opportunity they shouldn't pass on it.

So how much time should you be spending on putting together the materials used for raising financing?

If you're serious about getting that money, put your heart into it. Investors sitting in on your presentation will be able to tell whether you have done your homework and are ready to have them pitch in and help you grow your business.

Spend some time rehearsing your presentation - remember it's you AND your powerpoint that combine to make the "performance" (I feel it's more of a performance to engage the audience than a presentation to "tell" the audience something). If your powerpoint is AWESOME but you're not...well, we all know what's going to happen.

Don't settle for the "at least I tried" outcome. Go in there knowing that your business is the greatest thing in the world and everybody should want a piece of this opportunity!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Conversations that Awake Passion

Q: "Why are you doing this [PeerFX]? Why are you so driven to succeed?"

A: "Because there's nothing that can't be done if I put my mind to it. I can do this."

This was part of my lunch meeting conversation today. I haven't had an advisor ask this question before, but I seriously felt the passion dance around in my eyes when I answered. This is when you know you truly believe in what you do. I know "awesomeness" isn't exactly a professional word; but that 30 seconds of conversation was pure awesomeness.

If you don't have one yet, find someone that will ask you those questions; every entrepreneur needs someone to keep them focused on the reasons why they pour their heart and soul into their business.

"Most people see what is, and never see what can be." - Albert Einstein