Author: Stuff Business

As the saying goes, it takes money to make money. Having a great idea for a business is really just the start – it’ll take a lot of cash to get it off the ground, and sometimes, a lot more on top of that to get you to a point where your idea is actually profitable. But being profitable is a problem for many months down the line – the first hurdle to overcome is where to get funding for your idea. Fortunately, in South Africa, there are a good number of options, but not everyone might know about them.…

Having a great idea for a business and finding funding is only the start of your journey to success: once you have your business up and running, you need to keep momentum by developing the right daily habits and putting intelligent processes in place so that the business not only runs smoothly but grows over time, too. The TL;DR here is that you need to be organised, keep good records, know who you’re competing with, deliver great customer service, and be aware that you’ll probably work harder than you would for a boss. But it’s all for a good cause.…

A “virtual credit card” is a randomly generated card number that’s linked to a valid credit card account. Virtual cards are created inside internet banking apps and are useful in a variety of ways – including for business. The main reason to use one is that it doesn’t give the merchant you’re buying from any more information than they need to complete the transaction – handy when you’re buying from a new vendor, an unsafe website, or anywhere you suspect might be dodgy. Using it means they won’t have your billing address, your actual credit card number, its expiry date,…

About ten years ago, as the cloud gained popularity, it was theorised that someday we wouldn’t need anything more than an internet-connected PC and a browser to do all of the amazing things that software did at the time. Thanks to the modern cloud, that day has come. While the cloud hasn’t yet replaced all software, the number of services that can be accessed from a browser is increasing. Today, all you need is an internet-connected PC and a web browser, and you can do things that a few years ago would have required gigabytes of free space for a…

Ensuring that only authorised people can enter and exit your business premises, also known as access control, is the foundation of good physical security. Fortunately, it’s easy to do that today thanks to advances in security tech. Let’s examine five ways you can secure your business premises with smart technological solutions. Access Cards Cards with Radio Frequency ID (RFID) chips in them are probably the most popular form of access control. Cards can be coded to the user’s identity and swiped at electronic readers that read the information on the card and unlock the doors that the person has been…

When it comes to keeping unauthorised parties from accessing computers, passwords are just not cutting it anymore. Windows Hello is the answer. Remembering them is a pain, changing them every 30 days is a major inconvenience, and creating new ones that must include three capitals, two South Sudanese dog breeds, non-consecutive non-repeating numbers, at least one factorial polynomial, seven Hieratic hieroglyphs, and a partridge in a pear tree is about as much fun as a migraine. Face it, passwords suck The tech world realised this years ago and started working on ways to let people authenticate themselves on digital systems…

In case you are a small business looking for ways to send and receive international payments, this article will share five different international payment/money transfer services that you should look into. Some facilitate payments to and from South Africa, while others are receive-only or send-only services. All of the services on this list are properly registered with South African financial authorities and are backed by South African banks and companies. They use the latest in online security to keep your money — and the money of your customers and suppliers — as safe as possible. That should give you the…

It’s 2023, and it’s the Information Age, so it’s not a stretch to say technology makes the world go around. And if you run a business and you’re not keeping up with tech, you run the risk of falling behind competitors and losing customers who’d rather deal with a properly tech-savvy company. So, to help you not be That Guy, here are five modern information-centred technologies that we are confident will enhance the operations of just about any kind of business that adopts them. Wireless printers It seems obvious when you think about it, but having a printer (or printers)…

In South Africa, loads of SMEs have Windows 10 Pro and Windows 11 Pro on the computers they use. These are Microsoft’s “professional” operating systems, and they have useful built-in features that businesses can use in their daily operations without paying for third-party software. And when it comes to running a business, it’s a smart strategy to always be sweating your resources. Resources that aren’t sweating aren’t bringing you maximum bang for your buck. Nobody wants that. Using these features properly can help your business run more smoothly, but many business owners might not know about them. Enter Stuff. Here,…

Many businesses couldn’t run at all without being able to make and take phone calls. This means that most – if not all — businesses have some sort of telephony solution installed, and that said solutions make up a significant portion of their monthly expenses. VoIP But did you know that traditional phone systems, ones that use copper cabling and which require PBX (Private Branch Exchange) hardware to be on your premises, are not as affordable as digital solutions like those that use Voice over IP (VoIP) technology? It’s not just down to call costs, either. When you add cloud…