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Guest Post: Opportunity Knocks — Starting a Business in Egypt

December 28, 2012 — Leave a comment

Looking for somewhere unique to set up a business? Egypt is one place to consider. Steps to privatize and deregulate the economy, along with the Central Bank of Egypt’s supervision of local and foreign banks in the country, have allowed Egypt to withstand the international economic turmoil easier than other countries.

If you know where the opportunities lie and where to bank, you can capitalize on this to make your business a success.

Business Banking in Egypt

When you’re setting up a business, you need business financing and a business account. International banks like HSCB are a great option because they provide all kinds of payment and cash management services that smaller banks in Egypt don’t. They can also offer you better terms and conditions on loans.

Where are the opportunities?

One of the main sectors where there’s considerable potential for success is the financial sector. Lack of consumer knowledge about products and services such as banking and insurance has created lots of opportunities due to a low penetration of the market.

So they’re just in the financial sector, then? 

Not at all.

An expected population increase to 82.8 million people is pushing up demands for ICTs. And with more than half of the regional business community consisting of SMEs, the software market could be especially lucrative for anyone who can develop it, since smaller SMEs have problems securing access to credit from banks.

Meanwhile, training is a great business opportunity, in which regard the gas and oil industry contains lots of opportunities. Training aside, other opportunities can be found in onshore or offshore exploration, HSE services, field development and machinery, and capacity building in this sector.

Thanks to a shift in focus, education holds a similar wealth of opportunities. E-learning and English language tuition have become exceptional avenues as languages and the digital world become ever more important in the working world.

If you’re setting up a technical business or specialize in engineering project management, the environment and water sector has lots of business potential. The Egyptian Government wishes to provide water and sanitation services to 217 cities and 4,600 villages in Egypt. Your business could help.

Retail is the final sector. Demand and consumer interest in international brands, in value-added services and in quality products are all growing. Despite several international brands launching branches in Egypt, the retail sector is still not saturated.

Being Polite 

Setting up a business is one thing. Doing business is another. Business professionals should respect the business culture of their location to keep potential clients or business partners onside. Here are some tips to help you do just that:

  • Let your business partner or client offer their hand first before shaking hands
  • Dress formally and keep visible jewelry out of view
  • Make a polite greeting in Arabic

And here are some tips to avoid winding them up:

  • Never rush the person — Egyptians take their time when doing business
  • Don’t ask lots of questions about the other person’s family
  • Avoid baring the soles of your shoe or crossing your legs — they’ll find this rude!

Knowledge is power, especially in business, so make the most of it to start a successful business in Egypt. Of course, it takes more than just knowing where the opportunities lie.  You have to know how to do business. Being polite is part of this. Follow these tips and you’ll be thanking people for doing business with you much more.

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Guest Post: Managing and Updating your Facebook Profile

January 12, 2012 — 2 Comments

About Guest Author: Kelly Jones writes for www.ocnissanirvine.com. She writes for blogs as a hobby and enjoys exploring new avenues in the social sphere. Her interest encompasses a wide range of subjects ranging from technology to cooking and traveling.

facebook-logo

With the ever increasing dominance of Social Media and our lives being all over Facebook, one needs to take some measures to analyze your Facebook profile periodically so that you can keep on using it without any adverse effects on your public profile.
It is always beneficial to review your FB profile as the site keeps on changing and we keep on adding friends, posting pictures and updates without thinking on a long term basis.

Some steps that will help you in managing your profile and cleaning it up include:

1. Editing Friends
Nowadays, we keep on adding friends and the more the number, bigger is the ego boost. We should try to cleanse the friend list periodically. One should always question do we really need that person whom we only said a cursory hi at a party as a friend and do we want him to view our Holiday pics. If you delete people from the friend list, they would not know and you can get rid of unwanted baggage.

2. Friend lists
You should use the Friend Lists feature judiciously to arrange posts, pictures and updates so that only the people you want to share can actually view them. You can defines posts based on location, school family, work etc and this helps in keeping things private and public at the same time. Create groups and use them to refine your profile.

3. Sharing Info
Always keep you profile info updated as Facebook suggest lists based on the latest info. Keep you bio updated along with the personal choices and info shared. If you want, you can also hide info that you want to keep private like religious and political views.
Check you like pages and see if you want to update them and let go of some. Facebook uses this to show ads to your friends so be careful.
Get rid of the apps that you no longer use as they have access to you data. Refine the notifications list. Then update your privacy settings to refine what you want to share.

4. Review the changes made
Once you have made all the changes and updated the profile, then test and review the updated version.

As Facebook keeps on making changes on a regular basis, one should review and update our profiles on a monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or an annual basis so as to keep our profiles updated.

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Guest Post: 3 Smart Ways for Small Business Viral Growth

December 31, 2011 — 2 Comments

About Guest Author: Victoria Kushner is a blogger and PR manager at Freemake.com. She writes about top multimedia apps and tech startups.

Nowadays everyone is talking about word of mouth promotion success. Viral marketing is a promising method, especially for small business and new companies. As matter of fact, viral campaigns bring substantial traffic, attract new audience and help build warm business-friendly atmosphere. Each business owner dreams about vast public support and good attitude to his/her startup.

However, many useful social media tools are still rarely implemented by small business. The reasons for such viral marketing reluctance are lack of knowledge, fear to fail or viral concept misinterpretation. Let’s dispel myths around viral marketing and explore 3 real viral growth cases that every business owner may apply to own company.

Cool Infographics

Infographics is a powerful viral tool. People love to share it. You can see thousands of Twitter updates with word “infographics”. If you plan to boost your company name mentions in social media – design impressive infographics.

First of all, you need thoroughly research your industry-related topics that may be interesting to wide audience. Visit such popular infographics galleries as visual.ly, Killer Infographics, or Daily Infographics and view ready infographics for your niche.

Then, work out ideas and connect them with your company product/services. Hire a designer and make your infographics dream come true.

Next step is to place your excellent infographics on your website and supply it with social sharing buttons. Don’t forget to promote it among your existing customers via newsletters, Facebook, Twitter feeds or offline announcements.

After that pitch bloggers and suggest your slide for magazines. If you target right journalists and make appealing image, people will talk about it. For, instance, “YouTube Killed TV” infographics has numerous tweets that reached people worldwide.
YouTube Killed TV
By Freemake, proud developer of YouTube Converter

Great YouTube Video

For complicated products or services, just an infographics will not do. In this case, try demo or promotional video. There’s no need to hire Hollywood producer or New York Video Agency. A video can simply show your company internal processes or have a video message from CEO. Audience is always excited to learn inside information and to meet real people who stand behind a small company.

Make your video unique, short and outstanding. Compare other YouTube videos and write compelling video title and description. Add as much information as your want. It’s important to put your website, social media links and contacts. Then, buy YouTube ads to drive extra traffic to your video channel – it’s cheap and does not require much online advertizing skills.

A vivid example of this viral tool success is Orabrush “Bad Breath” video that gained 16 million views and lots of comments.

Catchy Social Networks

Invite your current customer to join your Twitter, Facebook or Google+ pages. Offer incentives, coupons and exclusive bonuses to your social networks buddies. Logos Bible Software generated over $300 000 through Facebook promotion. They prepared custom discounts for each fan. The campaign resulted in mass social message distribution and additional orders. Follow Logos way and create active social community.

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Guest Post: Facebook updates and changes are annoying, why change?

December 30, 2011 — 2 Comments

About Guest Author: Chris writes at all hours of the day and can’t stop. He is a webmaster junkie and thrives on throwing bulks of information on the web.

Facebook has been changing so many things that I can even keep up. Just like everybody else I’m addicted to this social network called Facebook. As a webmaster though, I wonder why they are changing so many things. They have us all addicted in doing what we are already doing. We all knew how to do everything on Facebook and we liked it that way. Now the network keeps changing so much that I’m not sure I’m not even doing the right things.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, I think one something as beautiful as Facebook was you don’t change it. People are addicted to cocaine as a drug, are you going to try to change that.. No. Why change something when it’s doing better than it ever has and people enjoy what it is. I understand the idea everything can be bigger and better, but for a website like Facebook to do what it did is breathtaking.

With such a beautiful artform, I would not change it for the heart of me. So I guess this is me somewhat ranting on how I hate the new changes in how they even think about keep changing everything. I really disagree with how they change things and now I don’t even know how to use Facebook.

If you go all the way back to the my space age, this is basically what is happening them. They kept changing everything and allowing spam and HTML to no limit and now they do not even exist on the platform. Do you want to become a MySpace? Facebook was simple and easy just like a textbook. Now it’s integrated like a viral network.

I’m adjusted to see who has to say what on the new Facebook and how you feel about the changes they keep making.

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Guest Post: 5 Apps to Help You Reach that New Years Resolution

December 28, 2011 — 2 Comments

Guest Author:
Nancy Evans is a freelance writer that specializes in technology and business.

New Years Eve is just around the corner, and for many that means trying to come up with a list of this year’s resolutions. It seems like every year, nearly everyone you know comes up with a long list of resolutions designed to make them a better person only to have many off those resolutions pushed into nonexistence or rolled over on to the following year’s list.

While resolutions aren’t always easy to stick to or achieve, there are several ways that technology can actually help you stay true to your goals. The apps available on smartphones and tablets have become increasingly helpful when trying to better organize and manage our lives, and there are a few apps in particular that can make adhering to your New Year’s resolutions, even those hard-to-do ones, much easier and even rewarding. Such apps include:

LunchMeet
For those who are wishing to become better connected in the professional world in hopes of finding the job of their dream or to simply find a partner for a business venture, LunchMeet is just the app to have. LunchMeet connects to LinkedIn and allows professionals to meet with one another face to face in their available locations. Through the app you can locate other professionals of interest and list your location as well as any time you are available. You are then free to contact others which may just land you that job you always wanted – because as we’ve all heard, it’s not what you know, but who you know.

Mint
If you have found yourself surrounded by debt over the last year, your New Year’s Resolution probably has something to do with paying off those credit cards and loans. If this sounds like you, then Mint is your app. Mint automatically syncs all your bank accounts and other financial information, such as installment loans and credit cards, to help you monitor all of your spending in one easy-to-use place. The app will let you know where you are spending too much, and will also let you know when you are going over budget – making sure that you are spending and saving in all the right places.

Today’s Plate
Maybe you have got the job you’ve always wanted and your feeling financially stable so those two resolutions, which are at the top for many, don’t have a reason to make your list. Instead, however, you are growing wearisome of the spare tire sitting around your waist. There is no other resolution that makes the New Year’s lists more than losing weight, and for those who are finally serious about shedding those extra pounds, Today’s Plate is for you. One of the predominant reasons why people struggle with losing weight is because of their diet. With today’s plate you can keep track of all your calories on the go. The app even calculates restaurant meals so that you can always keep your diet in check ensuring that you will get that thin body after all.

MyQuit Coach
MyQuit Coach is the serious app for those serious about quitting smoking – which is a common New Year’s resolution for thousands of Americans. MyQuit Coach offers a personalized and highly customizable plan for quitting smoking, and will help you stay on track by alerting you to how many cigarettes you should be smoking a day in order to reach your goal. The app will even award you badges for quitting milestones, and will also tell you how much money you have saved to date by not smoking.

Quitter
While MyQuit is a little bit more intense as far as quitting smoking apps go, Quitter makes quitting, well, a little more enjoyable. The app provides you with a count of how many days you have gone without smoking, and congratulates you for reaching certain milestones. Instead of a coach, it is more like having your own personal anti-smoking cheerleader.

Following through with those New Year’s resolutions isn’t always easy, but thanks to a few selected apps, it can sure be a lot easier. Now if only one of those apps could actually create your New Year’s resolution list for you, you’d be golden.

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Guest Post: A Driving Force in Mobile Technology

December 14, 2011 — 2 Comments

Social media has already been firmly established as the new paradigm of electronic communications, and in 2012 it is expected to become even more prevalent thanks to the rapid development of mobile applications which will allow us to constantly receive update in real-time, wherever we may be. Online social networking is moving towards an “always-on” model; an efficient way to be tied-in to the people and organization that matter most in our lives.

Smarpthones are the new de rigueur electronic platforms for receiving social media updates. Twitter, the leading short messaging and micro-blogging social network, is constantly being redesigned to improve user experience on mobile devices such as an Android phone or Apple's iPhone. Other popular online social media platforms like Facebook and Google+ are also experimenting with different new features for their mobile apps that take full advantage of the improved functionality of smart handheld devices.

Both Apple and Google are engaged in a veritable arms race for mobile operating software (OS) dominance. Apple's iOS 5 and Google's Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich Android recent upgrades were focused to accommodate the advanced multitasking capabilities of smartphones and tablet computers. Both mobile OS platforms are centered on the idea of social media being keenly integrated in users' lives. The ability to receive and create social media updates is taking center stage in the new mobile OS offerings and their third-party apps. Thanks to the vastly improved hardware features in video, audio and connectivity, users of the next-generation mobile devices are poised to become the most prolific group in terms of contributing social media content.

Internet and software giant Microsoft is also actively engaged in transforming its ubiquitous Windows OS into a premium platform for providing a rich social media experience. The upcoming Nokia Lumia lineup of Windows-powered smartphones promises to be a solid contender in mobile social networking. Microsoft's social media strategy is not limited to its partnership with Nokia. The company's next iteration of its flagship OS, Windows 8, is being developed with a strong social media and cross-platform functionality in mind.

Disclosure: Sponsored post

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Guest Post: The Great Debate: Are Meta Keywords Worth Your Time?

December 14, 2011 — Leave a comment

Guest Post Author:

Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from social media to background checks. She gives advice to entrepreneurs for the leading business directory, Business.com.


Photo Credit lyntonweb.com

To get straight to the point, I think Meta Keywords are annoying. For those who are unfamiliar, as you create and design your website you will be prompted to insert Meta Keywords. These keywords, words that are most relevant to describing your site, are hidden from the public because of what we call Meta Tags, or pieces of code seen only by search engines. The keywords are generally placed between the HEAD tags in your HTML code, and each keyword is separated with a comma. The idea is that these keywords will help your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

Believe it or not, most people I talk to also find these keywords annoying, and many are now saying that they are completely useless. However, these Meta Keywords are easy to type into your website or your article, so businesses have been filling in these blanks since search engines become popular ten years ago. Although it only takes two minutes, there is no sense in bothering, even for two minutes, with something useless. If you are going to do something for your website, it is important to know what the benefit is (if there is a benefit at all), regardless how long it may take. Consider the history of these Meta Keywords and how their role has evolved over the last ten years:

Meta Keywords Then and Now

In the 1990’s, it worked like this:
1. A website would place these keywords on their site to signify its main and relevant topics
2. Search Engines would then use meta data to classify and index a website
3. A website with correct meta elements would then rank highly in search engine results

Today, the Meta Keywords work very similarly, but with one major difference:
1. Business owners place these keywords on their site to signify its main topics
2. Businesses began to take advantage of meta keywords, and sites then began to appear in unrelated search engine results
3. Major search engines no longer use keywords to classify or index a website

Now that the biggest factor, Google and other search engine page rankings, is no longer, many businesses are wondering whether or not Meta Keywords are worth their time. Although it is simple to add in Meta Keywords, the whole concept can be a bit confusing to a startup company or employees new to the SEO world. At first glance, most would say these keywords have lost their value. After all, Google is the end goal for an SEO director. However, there are a few reasons that these annoying little words are still worth your time:

Google Doesn’t Want Them, but Meta Keywords Are Here to Stay

• Smaller search engines still use Meta Keywords

It may seem like Google and Bing rankings are the only way to get ahead, but many companies are realizing that local search engines also bring in business. After all, creating dishonest keywords was worth it for companies looking to rank on Google, but now that this is no longer available, smaller search engines have nothing to worry about.

• Directory sites still use Meta Keywords

Directory sites often use these Meta Keyword tags to help categorize your website. These sites will need to know where to index your site, and they are more likely to do so if you make it easy on them through Meta Keywords. Think of it as a document management tactic for directory sites. In other words, your site will appear much more often in directories when compared to sites without Meta Keywords.

• Meta Keywords work well for internal uses

Tagging specific keywords works well when it comes to documenting each page. As your company grows, your pages and your team will likely expand. If you have a Meta Keyword in place, future employees looking to develop pages will know the goal of each page exactly.

• Preparation if major search engines ever go back to the Meta Keyword system

This is unlikely to happen with Google simply because they have new algorithms for ranking pages, but it could very well happen with other major search engines. If done correctly, this system is an easy way to help index a page. It only takes a few seconds to set up a keyword tag, so it can’t hurt to get ready for the unexpected.

As I said before, I will be the first to admit that worrying about Meta Keywords is a bit annoying. However, once you know that this habit has positive effects, you can begin to think of these keywords as just another way to increase popularity in your company. Although they may not yield quite as obvious results, they cannot hurt your company. In other words, they are still worth the extra two minutes.

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