Secure Your Mortgage Rate and Your Personal Information

According to Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac, “Newly released housing indicators contain positive signs that the worst may be behind us.” And the National Association of Realtors just announced sales of existing homes rose more than expected in June, so the race to secure a great rate is on, but how secure is the financial information you’re providing?

Remember to securely submit sensitive financial information when applying for your loan. Consider MyFax if you’re sending personal information and signed documents.

MyFax, the world’s fastest-growing Internet fax service, protects against prying eyes around a common area fax machine. When users send a document to a fax machine, it sits there until the person it’s intended for picks it up, or the document is delivered. In the meantime, anyone walking by can see what’s in it. With MyFax, the documents are sent directly to the email of the receiver, maintaining the ultimate level of privacy for financial information.

For those who only occasionally fax, MyFax also offers a free service. MyFax Free allows users to transmit two faxes per day of up to 10 pages without going through the fuss of setting up an account or providing a credit card number. Good luck securely obtaining those rates!

What’s your “can’t live without” technology?

I recently found a new blog: Small Business Center which has a section dedicated to technology. The author writes, “For many professionals, work is a place to go. However for a growing number of professionals work is really what you DO. Not where you are or where you go. When I think of my backpack - it has just about everything I need to be “at work” - wherever I am.” His list includes a laptop with a video camera, wireless broadband and a flip video camera. I wonder if Internet faxing is on his mobile device.

What technology do you always have with you while working?

Best Industries (and Tools!) for Starting a New Business

I came across Inc. Magazine’s “The Best Industries for Starting a New Business Right Now” slide show the other day and was happy to see a handful of industries like healthcare, consulting, accounting and green construction on the list. We’ve found those industries are among those that rely heavily on faxing.

Even MyFax’s industry is included on the list: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Since MyFax is available online and doesn’t require any software downloads, it falls under the SaaS category. According to Inc., “Although software spending is expected to increase just 5 percent through 2013, the software-as-a-service niche is forecast to expand by nearly 20 percent annually over the same period, as companies continue to see the benefits of on-demand, flexible applications, according to Gartner, a market-research firm.”

We hope your business is weathering the economic storm. What industry are you in and what Web-based tool helped you start your business?

Business Communications: Back to the Basics

I just learned that Freedom from Fear of Public Speaking Week was July 1-7. Stress and wellness specialist Beverly Beuermann-King has some good public speaking tips: keep it to a few good points, don’t expect perfection and keep the caffeine to a minimum as it’s an additional stressor. If you want people to know about your business, you have to communicate. Speaking is a very effective way to promote your business. Promoting your expertise is a way to build trust and long-term relationships.

Protus, the provider of MyFax, my1voice and Campaigner is all about small business communications. Whether face-to-face or via technologies like phones, faxing and email marketing, one of our goals is to work with small businesses to grow and prosper. What are some of the unique ways you communicate with your customers and clients? What works? What doesn’t?

Our First Podcast! Real Estate Pro Uses MyFax to Gain Edge in Tough Economy

We’re so excited to share the first of many podcasts we’ll be conducting with our Director, Product Marketing and various customers. We hope to inform, educate and give you a peek inside MyFax.

Our first podcast features how Chris Prescott of Coldwell Banker, who uses MyFax to streamline his real estate business operations.

Listen, and let us know what you think of our first run at a podcast, and what topics you’d like to see covered in the future!

The Heart of MyFax

Typically we use this blog to share tips and tricks about MyFax and small business communications. Today I’d like to do something a bit different and give you a personal look at all of us at MyFax and at our company Protus.

I am really proud of the people I work with. We provide great products. We all get great satisfaction from hearing this from our customers. But at MyFax, this isn’t all we live for. Our company has chosen to work with the Canadian Cancer Society and its Relay for Life program. We’ve been involved for the past five years, donating time, money and as of this year, sponsorships. This year we raised over $30,500 for the Canadian Cancer Society.

We began fundraising several weeks prior to the annual 12-hour relay at the Nepean Sportsplex on June 12, 2009. The company raffled off retreats with executives. We paid to throw pies at our bosses and watch the accounting department shave their heads. We had a lot of fun voting with loose change on daily opinion polls that often pitted one department against another. And we held silent auctions, a garage sale, cook-offs and all sorts of other food-related fundraising. As a result, Protus raised the most funds as a team, totaling nearly $150 per employee. In fact my co-worker Pat Risdon raised the most money by an individual for the Ottawa-Nepean community.

Personally, something really struck me this year as we celebrated our efforts at our picnic. Protus has retained its personal approach and commitment to this annual event. This effort started from humble beginnings based on a very personal journey of one employee. Despite our growing size, everyone still embraces the company’s charity of choice as their own. I am really honored to be a part of this professional family. There truly is a heart behind the company.

Relay For Life is a celebration of survival, a tribute to the lives of loved ones and an opportunity to fight back in the battle against cancer. Teams of 10 take turns running, walking or strolling around the track in this non-competitive 12-hour relay. Taking part in this heart-warming event creates a strong community of people striving to reach a common goal – to beat cancer. The Canadian Cancer Society is the largest charitable funder of cancer research in Canada. The funds raised by Relay For Life are used to support life-saving research, provide information on cancer prevention and to offer support services to those living with cancer.