Author: Min Tang

Categories
Finance & Capital

Switzerland To Become Crypto Friendly

Switzerland continues to expand its position as a crypto and fintech location. New legal changes are expected to pave the way for the development of blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT).

More legal security, fewer obstacles for blockchain applications and the minimization of abuse – these are the cornerstones of the new blockchain laws in Switzerland. Already in June 2020, the National Council had approved amendments to the law, which should improve the framework conditions for the blockchain industry.

Now the Swiss parliament announced on September 10th, 2020, that the Council of States (the second chamber of the Swiss Federal Assembly in addition to the National Council) has also approved the bill. With this, the Alpine state once again proves its innovation-friendly attitude and its potential as a fintech and crypto location. Cryptocurrencies are already accepted as means of payment in many places in Switzerland.

If you want to read more about the new blockchain law Switzerland has and to find why Switzerland is one of the most crypto-friendly countries, download for free our companion app. The Born2Invest mobile app brings you the most important financial headlines in the world, for you to stay informed.

Fewer hurdles means  more innovation!

For example, it should be easier for companies that only offer financial services to institutional or professional customers. In future, they will not have to join an ombudsman’s office. In order to limit the risk of abuse, a new category of authorization is to be created for the commercial operation of DLT infrastructure providers. Furthermore, the separation of crypto-based assets from the bankruptcy estate will be clarified by law.

Switzerland has always been one of the most crypto-friendly countries. Especially in the canton of Zug a flourishing crypto scene has established itself. Numerous companies, associations and organizations around Bitcoin and Blockchain have settled in Zug, including the Crypto Valley Association. In future, citizens in Zug will even be able to pay their taxes in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

Switzerland strengthens its position as a crypto friendly country

With the new framework, Switzerland intends to further strengthen its position as a crypto-nation. Among other things, startups should benefit from the changes in the law. Especially in the current economic crisis, increased legal security is important here, as was already stated in June when the National Council discussed the changes.

The coronavirus has made the situation even worse for many companies. According to a survey by the Swiss Blockchain Federation, almost 80 percent of the startups in the Swiss crypto industry expect to go bankrupt.

Last but not least, the removal of hurdles for blockchain applications and higher legal security should also attract foreign investors and companies to Switzerland.

Since last year, through a collaboration with the European payment and transaction service provider Wordline, the crypto broker Bitcoin Suisse started to increase the acceptance of cryptocurrencies in Switzerland. The companies have entered into a partnership to provide crypto payment services for merchants in Switzerland, as Switzerland Global Enterprise reported on November 11th, 2019.

Switzerland strengthens its position as a crypto friendly country [Born2Invest]

Categories
Uncategorized

The Future of Business Travel

Business travel has always required a certain degree of planning and intentionality. But in today’s post-COVID-19 world, the need for strategic forethought is more important than ever before. How you prepare will dictate whether or not it’s a safe, healthy, and productive trip.

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Travel Industry and Business Travel

Few industries have been hit as hard by the COVID-19 pandemic as the travel industry. This includes airlines, hotels, resorts, cruise lines, rental car companies, conference centers, and popular tourist attractions.

Just how hard has the travel industry been hit? Consider the latest data points and statistics from the U.S. Travel Association:

  • Total travel spending in the United States is projected to drop 45 percent by the end of the year. (Domestic travel spending will fall by 40 percent, while international inbound spending will shed 75 percent of spending.)
  • Whereas the U.S. economy is in a recession, the travel industry is officially in a depression. Overall unemployment is hovering around 51 percent – twice the unemployment rate of the worst year of the Great Depression!
  • Since the beginning of March, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused more than $250 billion in cumulative losses for the U.S. travel economy.
  • While road travel levels are nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, it was down 73 percent in the first week of April.
  • For much of April, daily TSA screens at U.S. airports were well below 100,000 – a decline of 96 percent from pre-pandemic levels.

These are just a few of the most striking data points. They show just how seriously the travel industry has been impacted and how much ground must be made up in order to get back to normal.

Certain types of travel will take a while to return to full strength. International leisure travel, for example, will be slow to bounce back. Business travel, on the other hand, is viewed as being much more important. So for companies and their employees, the question becomes: What does the future of business travel look like?

The New Normal for Business Travel

Whether it’s for business or pleasure, business travel will never look the same. The only thing we can equate this situation to is 9/11 when the entire air travel industry changed in a matter of days. Prior to the terrorist attacks, security was lax, kids could visit the cockpit during a flight, and there were no major concerns over air travel. But within hours, the entire TSA process changed, cockpits were locked down, and multiple systems were put into place to identify possible threats.

The travel industry is about to undergo significant changes again. Only this time around, the changes are intended to stop an invisible, deadly virus, rather than terrorists. A new normal is on the horizon and here are some developments and trends we can expect to see in the world of business travel:

1. Business Travel Will Become More Intentional

By some estimates, there will be a 5 to 10 percent permanent loss of business travel. (This means roughly 50 cents to $1 out of every $100 spent on business travel is gone forever – never to return.)

There will be a further dip related to failures. Numerous airlines, hotels, and travel companies won’t survive the economic effects of the pandemic and this will result in less inventory and opportunities for business travelers to utilize the resources they accessed prior to COVID-19.

Most importantly, each individual business will revisit its current approach to travel and make intentional decisions regarding what types of business travel are worth resuming.

“Sales and certain other kinds of business trips likely will remain essential and continue to be big revenue drivers for travel companies,” Dan Reed writes for Forbes. “But lots of businesses are learning right now that they really can get more done, and do so at much lower cost, via teleconferencing than they previously believed.”

In other words, all of those fluffy business trips where people travel just because “it’s the way it’s always been done” will need rethinking and retooling. Some businesses will choose to resume to normal, while others will leverage their newfound affinity for Zoom to cancel the bulk of their travel.

2. Domestic Travel Will Outpace International Travel

As current data already shows, domestic business travel is going to outpace international travel. We’ll see an uptick in ground travel first, followed by regional air travel, followed by cross-country air travel, and then by international travel.

Whether grounded in factual data or not, there’s a perception that it’s safer to travel within the United States than it is to travel abroad – even if COVID-19 numbers are higher in the U.S. Plus, there’s always the possibility that other nations shut down American flights into their borders.

3. Foreign Travel Restrictions May Linger

Presently, the CDC makes it clear that, with few exceptions, foreign nationals may not enter into the United States if they’ve visited China, Iran, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Brazil, or the European Schengen area within the past 14 days. And it’s likely that travel restrictions will continue to linger for a few more months (at the least).

As restrictions are lifted, expect an increased focus on documentation. ESTA for business purposes will become more important than ever, as will medical records. (Proof of antibody testing and/or vaccination – if one becomes available – are all possibilities.)

4. Companies Will Enact Strict Policies

In large businesses that have hundreds or thousands of employees traveling the globe, expect stricter company policies that dictate the precise expectations and processes for employees. Videos, handbooks, and training on things like hygiene, packing, and human-to-human interaction will all be revisited.

How Will Changes Impact Your Travel?

Every situation is unique. It’s futile to cast a wide blanket across the business world or travel industry and say, “This is how it’s going to be.” So much about this pandemic is fluid. Circumstances and predictions seem to change on a daily basis, which leaves many businesses in challenging situations where they have to blindly balance risk and reward.

As the virus (hopefully) continues retreating and we get closer to a vaccine or cure, the expectation is that we’ll slowly resume to some sense of normalcy. But as suggested by the latest trends, “normal” is likely to take on a new definition for business travelers and the surrounding industries.

What Will the Future of Business Travel Look Like? [SmallBizTrends]

Categories
Business Ideas

Top 5 Digital Banking Ideas

Advancing technology has taken all the industries by storm to bring digital transformation, and the BFSI sector is no exception! In fact, technological advancements are more useful in the fintech industry to ensure the security and accuracy of online transactions. It is fair to mention that the profitability and lucrativeness of the business model in the fintech sector depend solely on the security aspect.

If you own a fintech startup or want to venture into the digital solutions for the fintech sector, here we give the top five digital banking ideas.

P2P payment solutions

These days, P2P payment app development gains ground in the fintech sector. Peer-to-Peer payment solutions go beyond average banking apps. Venmo, SnapCash, and PayPal are some of the big names in the peer-to-peer mobile apps. It is easy to get a higher ranking on the Google Play and Apple App Store with a seamlessly-performing and feature-rich P2P payment apps.

These apps facilitate users to transact online without logging into the bank accounts. The apps have linked all the accounts and users can readily use their money to pay bills and help friends.

Stock market advisor apps

Millennials love to invest and trade in the stock market. However, they have no idea of finance management and investments. The stock market advisor app can help them get insights into stock markets and assist them to park their money into various investment options.

These days, many blogs and content are available online that guide us about the stock market and various stocks. However, such huge stuff is sufficient to confuse a newbie or a beginner who wants to decide a particular stock for a medium to long-term investment. There, the stock market advisor app can suggest some of the best investment options and guide users to make a portfolio. The advanced version of the app can have features like a financial planner, Demat account linking, and online trading.

Banking app

People have accounts in multiple banks. How about having a single app that includes all these accounts? A banking app acts like an online substitute for all bank accounts. It enables users to get rid of downloading all the apps of related banks to make online transactions. Users can also eliminate the complexities result because of multiple accounts through this app. A single banking app can direct users to multiple bank accounts and users can easily track and transact from all their accounts anytime.

Money manager app

Irrespective of time and region, people want to manage their expenses wisely but most of them fail simply because they have no control over where the money is going. Talking about Millennials, they do not know how to save money. Irresponsible and random spending leads to bankruptcy like situation. There, the fintech company or startup can help people by releasing the finance management or money manager app. This digital solution can help people especially Millennials.

The financial management app can help people manage their expenses through innovative features like monthly budget, calculation of the bills, splitting expenses, and comparison of expenses between two to three months. Additional useful features can be expense classification into various categories. Moven is a highly useful money management app that facilitates the users to keep track of their finances and cut down on unproductive expenses. The fintech startup can also incorporate a feature like ‘debt track’ to attract more users.

Mobile loan app

Thanks to advancing technology and increasing digitization, many online businesses and startups have paved a way for success. But then, the fund is necessary to expanding any business. However, typical banks take a long time to grant loans and make funds available to the business. Also, it is possible that the business person’s application gets rejected because of some silly reasons. It can ruin the dreams of entrepreneurs to expand their business. Here, the mobile app for loans comes into the picture. It not only provides loans instantly but also enables entrepreneurs to track the status of their application.

Mobile loan app solutions are designed to leverage the advantage of AI and Machine Learning. These apps can fetch and analyze the credit history of the applicant in a short time. In a way, the eligibility of the applicant is determined almost instantly and the applicant can get the loan accordingly. The machine learning enables the system to analyze the data and create customized loan options for the users. These apps save a lot of time and effort of entrepreneurs and ensure business growth. What’s more, the mobile-based loan apps can act as a useful source of working capital or operational expenses for a short to medium term. It fulfills the need for urgent funding to keep the processes running smoothly.

Concluding lines

A mobile app development company that offers blockchain and AI app development services can help you come up with innovative digital banking solutions. It is better to consult a reputed app development company to know more about digital banking ideas or implement them to make a user-friendly digital payment app solution. All you need to remember that security and convenience should be the top priority while developing a digital banking app for the fintech company.

Top 5 digital banking ideas from today’s most innovative fintech companies [Born2Invest]

Categories
Communication Skills

Making Zoom Meetings Enjoyable

I think it’s fair to say that we are all sick and tired of zoom meetings.

Meetings, in general, are mostly a waste of time but at least you get to interact with other humans in person.

Covid-19 has turned meetings on their head and they have become a drudgery of time.

Tips for Enjoyable Zoom Calls

Here is how to make zoom meetings actually enjoyable.

Email It Over Zoom It

We’ve all been in those zoom meetings where you sit there thinking “this all could have been sent in an email.” This is the fastest way to lose attention and turn it into drudgery. The key to success is to email ahead of an agenda and keep the meeting succinct.

As Andrew Roderick states

“Make the focus around teamwork, and give each person a section to present a project/issue/anything they are working on for 5 minutes, and allow a 5-minute discussion afterward where everyone can help, offer support, feedback on what’s being done. Hosting your team meetings in this way allows you to ensure each team member is actively engaged and involved, while also making sure priorities from each team member are discussed.”

As an additional note make sure to set a hard out. A time that the meeting ends and you don’t go over. Respecting peoples time is a great way to keep people engaged.

Practice Your On-Camera Speaking Skills

Nothing is worse than having a boring presenter be it in person or on camera. Just like public speaking, presenting on camera is a learned skill anyone can achieve if they have the right guidance. Here are 10 tips to speaking on camera

Dress to Impress

Even though no one can see what you are wearing below the computer desk, you want to suit up.

Know what makes you look good too. As Dagmar Spichale says “Patterned tops make me look more awake and refreshed, and patterned button-downs are especially flattering because they create an elongated neckline that doubles to showcase subtle jewelry to its best advantage. My secret hack is wearing perfume and/or my favorite heels — no-one notices but I KNOW!”

Use Interactive Whiteboard Tools

As Mollie Suggests “To make things interesting in our collaboration sessions, we use Mural in Zoom for whiteboarding. It’s an interactive software where everyone could help in mapping out and bouncing off ideas about a project. We use photos, sticky notes, and doodling tools in brainstorming and getting things together.

Kevin builds on this idea “Sometimes, you just have to draw something out on a whiteboard to help everyone else understand what you mean. Using a tablet for your Zoom calls makes it much easier to sketch out diagrams and flowcharts to engage the other meeting participants.“

Start With A Common Interest

With the plethora of various TV shows, Netflix movies, and online entertainment. Its good to engage people in a common interest. As Jason VanDevere states “I discuss with my team a TV show we all agree on that’s worth watching. After a new episode, we spend the first five minutes of the meeting openly discussing the show. Did the episode ending surprise you? Were you shocked a particular character got killed off? How would you rate the episode?

This can be any television show, sports game, Netflix series, or YouTube show. With all the content out there, surely there’s has to be something out there your team can agree on. Participation is also optional. Employees that prefer not to participate may simply log in five minutes later.

I find that everyone appears to be more engaged in the meeting after coming off a discussion of a common interest.”

Use the 8% Rule

As Michael, the CEO of Teambuilding explains “Any Zoom meeting should have at least 8% of its time dedicated to non-meetings activities. This time could include icebreakers, trivia questions, dance breaks or any other light activity. This “off-time” can quickly reenergize attendees to participate in the more dense content of the meeting

Engage with Outside Interest

Willie Greer states “I always make time for stories. Zoom fatigue is real and can take a toll on a person’s mental and emotional aspect, so relaxing time is a must during meetings. Personally, I ask my employees how they are, is there anything they want to share, like their new hobbies during the lockdown, or online businesses they want to promote. It refreshes their minds after work and before leaving the meeting.”

A lot of people who are working from home are also starting side projects, and side businesses.  You never know what interesting hobbies people have or side business they create. Some of the most used Google Tools have started as side projects of employees. What is your side project? For example, I’ve created an entire side project focused on Unicorns.

Rotate The Hot Seat

Getting everyone to talk can be a bit of a challenge, but an easy way to do that is to call on participants throughout the meeting. Call on the first person and let that person choose the next person to speak. It keeps everyone alert and focused because they could be next!

Use Visual Cue Cards

We’ve all experienced an interruption during a meeting. Your speaker is presenting when someone pipes in with their 2 cents. This can be fine when you are in person because we can naturally slip in with perfect timing but due to the delay of zoom, it throws everyone off.

That’s where visual cue cards can come in and keep the rhythm of the zoom meeting flowing. I use visual cue cards made by DigiCards.

They seamlessly integrate with my digital team and keep meetings running smoothly. I especially love the timing cards to let me know there are a few minutes left in the presentation.

These are just some of the best tips when it comes to making your zoom call more enjoyable. Let me know what I missed or if there are any other suggestions to make zoom meetings actually enjoyable.

How To Make Zoom Meetings Actually Enjoyable [Smallbiztrends]

Categories
Starting Up

What Drives Your Entrepreneurial Spirit?

Are you trying to find the inner drive and inspiration to be become an entrepreneur? We surveyed over 1,200 American adults from diverse backgrounds all over the country, seeking to understand the factors that lead people to pursue their entrepreneurial goals.

Our big takeaway? It isn’t all about money, or success, or even business.

It’s this: If someone feels that their life has meaning, they’re more likely to become an entrepreneur.

And it goes even deeper than that. When we looked at the people who said they want to start a business, we saw a pattern: The most energized, confident, and goal-focused of them all also believe they have the ability to live meaningful lives. In fact, regardless of whether or not they have plans to start a business, survey respondents who believe strongly in their ability to live meaningful lives also had the most positive views about entrepreneurs.

In short, meaning in life inspires the entrepreneurial spirit—as well as the public opinions needed to make our society supportive of entrepreneurship.

So, what exactly is meaning in life?

When we say “meaning in life,” we mean that you feel that you play a significant role in the world. It’s a sense that you have a purpose. To feel meaningful is to believe that you matter, that you can make important contributions to your family, friends, communities, and broader society.

It has powerful implications for physical and mental wellbeing, for confidence and motivation, and for optimism about the future. Decades of research in psychology has shown the importance of this feeling of meaning in making people resilient and focused in difficult times.

And here’s why this is so important to understand now: If we can take advantage of the power of meaning, then aspiring entrepreneurs can rise up, and provide the resiliency and focus necessary to help us all navigate these difficult times.

How entrepreneurs can harness this power

No matter where you are in your entrepreneurial journey, start by taking the time to focus on what currently gives your life meaning. Then, think about how your entrepreneurial ambitions build on that. For most of us, meaning is found in close relationships, by connecting with and serving the ones we love. Therefore, it may be helpful when developing a business plan to think about how it will not only help you pursue your own ambitions, but can also benefit those you care about most.

For example, are you building a business that can provide opportunities for family and friends? Will your business give you the ability to spend more time with loved ones? Or might it offer new ways for you to be better able to be there for them?

More broadly, think about how your future business can help make significant contributions to your community, and perhaps even the broader world. Focusing on the meaningful role you can play may not only help give you inspiration, it may also help you generate novel ideas and innovation solutions to challenges you and your community face. You may be the one that helps make important breakthroughs, the one who finds a way to help vulnerable populations in the community, or the one who finds a new way to deliver goods to meet people’s needs during social distancing.

Eventually, when our global challenges have passed, an economic recovery will depend on the entrepreneurial spirit and business innovations to help our society flourish. As people continue, at least in the short term, to reduce their travel, limit their retail shopping and dining out, avoid attending large events and meetings, and continue other social distancing behaviors, businesses will need to continue to explore new ways of delivering and producing goods and services.  New opportunities will arise for those that are able to innovate in this environment. In addition, individuals will need to support entrepreneurs and their businesses in order for them to rebuild and thrive.

Believing that your life is meaningful, that you have a significant role to play in the world, can help you cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit and innovate in ways that not only help you fulfill your need for meaning but also help shape a flourishing world where others can do the same.

Want to Be An Entrepreneur? Focus on What Gives Your Life Meaning [Entrepreneur]