#wordpress esignature plugin

All of the global indicators point to the newfound popularity of paperless transactions and lightning-quick convenience that this new technology brings.

Unfortunately, there are still people that believe the  ApproveMe E-Signature revolution is just some fad that will pass with time. Business owners have quickly recognized how much money they are saving by using this new tool for quick, short and long-term results.

If your boss is resistant to adopting the digital signature technology, here are a few suggestions that might appeal to their logical sensibilities.

Return On Investment (ROI)

Anyone that conducts business understands that the money they spend on weekly and monthly expenses has an effect on the company bottom line. By showing your boss just how much the company is spending on paperwork and processing versus the cost of incorporating ApproveMe’s WP Digital E-Signature into their corporate structure, you will be showing them that you are thinking about ways to help the company, not only evolve, but make a bigger cash flow each month.

There are several questions that you can ask yourself that will help you in the way you address the topic with your boss.

* Are you having documents (i.e. Invoices, Bills Of Lading, Contracts, etc.) signed every month? If so, how often does this happen?

* How many pages do most of your signed documents contained (i.e. one sheets vs. multiple copies of a contract)

* How many documents do you physically mail out every month? What is the time to prepare the documents for mailing and the postage costs to execute this?

* Does your company use an overnight courier service? If so, how many times per month? What kind of expenses does that incur?

* How many documents are being sent via two-day or priority mail each month?

* Does your company still use a fax machine? How many faxes are sent every month?

* Is your company scanning documents? How many items get scanned every month?

* Does your company have a filing system? How many documents need to be filed each month?

By adding up all of these monthly costs, you will be able to show your boss just how much is being spent on doing things the current way. Based on research, our customers are saving $1,000 – $2 million yearly by adopting ApproveMe’s E-signature into their daily routine. Phasing out paper costs, office supplies and the labor necessary to keep it all organized is a simple process that can have amazing results for your company.

Outlining A Strategy

This simple math should get their attention. Explain in a simple way what would need to happen for your company to obliterate the costs on reams of paper, physical mail-outs and labor costs associated with getting the tasks executed.

A proposed budget with specific goals and targets that are easily traceable can not only propel your company into the digital age, but have a major impact on the bottom line, which could result in nice bonuses in the future.

ApproveMe will decrease the amount of time spent stuffing envelopes, dealing with FedEx, UPS or postage meters.

ApproveMe frees up time for your employees to work on projects and tasks that are important towards earning more revenue for your company.

What’s usually the big hold up in getting a deal completed? More often than not delays revolve around getting the customer’s signature. This might be because the customer is not ready to sign, in which case your salespeople have more work to do. But it is often because the systems are not in place to allow the customer to effectively sign off. A bottle-neck results while the paperwork is printed out, faxed off, and goes back and forth with amendments. With re-printing, re-faxing and re-signing, this really can take days.

E-signatures are a big step forward in making the process faster, more convenient, and just as legally binding.

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They can also help businesses ‘close’ deals quicker, improving cash-flow and increasing sales.

But the e-signature process needs to be prepared correctly in order for you to truly go paperless and reap all the benefits. Below we look at how to do that without the pain.

E-Signatures: The Technology

E-signature technology allows both B2B and B2C companies to prepare documentation, email it off to their customers and have it signed and returned literally within minutes. In retail situations, customers can sign up electronically to promotional deals instantly and without the need for long paper contracts.

The technology generally works using these four simple steps:

A document is uploaded to a website (either yours or a third party online e-signature service) and tagged with annotations to indicate where signatures will need to go

This marked file is sent to your specified recipients

The recipient signs it either by choosing a cursive font or by ‘scrawling’ with their mouse ( or finger on a tablet)

The signed file is sent back to you

This simple, electronic signature process is a long-overdue answer to the time-consuming and inefficient traditional methods of signing agreements; and the sector is booming – in fact it is on track to exceed $5 billion by the end of the decade.

Overcoming Legal Problems

The main obstacle to e-signatures is ensuring that they pass legal muster. Will they stand up in court, if challenged? Care and attention needs to go into the detail, and this is where some businesses fall down.

You can refer to this previous blog post about one such case where a well-known retailer hadn’t taken the necessary steps to ensure that the e-signatures they were collecting were legally binding.

We previously prepared a free download about how to make a signature legally binding. The seven main areas that you must address are: signature should identify

Know who signed the document – without possibility of forgery to either the signature or the content

Make sure you can prove that they signed it

Ensure that the signatory of the document intended their action

Include necessary disclosure and consent information

Ensure that the document has not been tampered with in any way

Make the document available to all signatories for a stated period of time (this may be regulated)

Make sure you use dedicated e-signature software rather than form-generation plug-ins

If you address each of the above then your e-signature will be as watertight as any paper contract.

In 2000, the U.S. government’s ESIGN Act ensured that e-signatures have the same legal weight as handwritten ones; indeed federal judges use PDF software to e-sign their orders; but it takes attention to the fine details to ensure that’s the case.

WP E-Signature provides the following features to satisfy all legal requirements:

Multiple, immediate, and online authentication add-ons that can be customized to fit the exposure of an agreement.

A detailed audit report with irrefutable analytics for each signed transaction.

A signing agreement worded in standard language, with a two-step authentication process for every signature.

A proprietary authentication process which tracks the original encrypted document contents using your website. The document will not be accessible if the original document data (in its encrypted form) is not 100% the same.

Once a document has been signed a copy of the signed document and a detailed audit trail is available to the signers using your website.

Can you use e-signatures for all documents?

You can use e-signatures for virtually all documents. There may be the one or two legal documents that you would prefer to keep on paper, such as a major financial transaction, last will and testament, or any document that needs notarization. But most business contracts can be finalized using e-signature technology.

Where notarization is required, you may find that e-signatures co-exist alongside paper signatures, and you may have to use both ways. Many organizations are in a state of ‘limbo’ with this at present.

Standard contracts prepared using the right e-signature software make life significantly easier for customers and business owners. It reduces waiting times, speeds up transactions, saves money and paper, and can increase sales.

Which e-signature software?

Most e-signature software charges monthly fees, limits user numbers, and forces customers to sign documents on a third-party website.

WP E-Signature by ApproveMe offers unlimited users on our business license, and allows you to get documents legally signed by your customer on your own website. It is also highly customizable, with add-on features that you can pick and choose as you see fit.

Find out more about WP E-Signature here

Sometimes, when jobs fall in your lap or your inbox is full of inquiries, freelancing feels like a walk through the park. You know, the kind where bluebirds tie your shoelaces and beautiful people with adorable dogs wink at you as they jog by? Those are the times when it’s fun to tell people, “Hi, yeah. I’m a freelancer.”

Other times, it’s like walking through an eerily empty park. During a storm, in the middle of a horror movie… and you’re hungry the whole time.

Those are the times when you don’t care what you tell people, so long as they buy you dinner or spot you $20 for your website hosting.

I’ve written before about finding freelance jobs, but it was a pretty broad overview. This time, I’m getting specific, and focusing on the best freelance sites available online. I promise, I’m not going to tell you to just “try UpWork!”

I mean, obviously you can give UpWork a shot… but I want you to know there are more options out there. A lot more options.

Go for your ideal freelance work niche.

You want to get noticed, right? Throwing your talents out into a pool of a million people trying to get hired for a million different kinds of freelance work is going to make that difficult. Throwing your hat into a smaller ring of similar job-seekers, however, is a much easier way to stand out.

Be aware of the types of freelance work sites out there.

Once you’ve nailed down the niches you want to explore, you’ll also need to think about the type of site you want to deal with. These sites can get confusing and overwhelming, so let’s walk through them.

The Basics

Even the lines between some of the best freelance sites can get a little blurry, so I’m going to break them down into four categories: Paid, Unpaid, Screened, and Unscreened. There are different terms I can use, like “Job Board” or “Job Directory,” but I want to keep this as simple as possible, so here we go:

Paid/Unpaid

Certain sites will cost you a little bit of cash in order to get you work. Now, I know that nobody likes spending money if they don’t have to, but these sites can have their advantages. Some ask for a monthly membership fee (and sometimes offer a money-back guarantee), others take a percentage of the earnings you make from anyfreelance work found on the site. Many of these sites actually manage the financial transactions, adding a layer of protection to both you and the people looking for qualified freelancers.

There are also plenty of options out there for totally free sites. Just like anything, though, these come with pros and cons. It’s likely that the free sites will be flooded with freelancers looking for work, and for businesses looking for cheap work. Again, it’s all up to you and your situation. When you’re scrounging pennies, even a $10 can be a big deal.

Screened/Unscreened

Prepare yourself, friends, because I’m coming at you with more pros and cons.

Some sites have a screening process tied to their services. This means that a team of people will comb through applications to ensure that featured freelancers (and sometimes even the entities looking to hire the freelancers) meet a specific set of standards. This makes it a little harder to get your work onto the sites… but if you do make the cut, it’s likely that the jobs you get hired for will be of higher quality (bigger jobs, higher pay).

Just like with the free sites, an unscreened site leaves room for lower-quality (smaller jobs, lower paying) clients… and sometimes that’s exactly what you need to get through a rough patch.

Alright, alright, already. Here’s a list of the actual sites.

I’m going to break these down into niche, and let you know whether they’re paid/unpaid/screened/unscreened, as well as any other info I find pertinent.

Ready? Let’s do this.

Web Development and Design:

Codeable — Codeable is a screened option that applies a 15% service charge to your final estimates. Remember, this screening process can be a big benefit to you, should you get accepted. This is what Codeable CEO, Per Esbensen, has to say about it:

“Online outsourcing has been bleeding for a long time (and still is) due to the bidding process and the lack of quality control. Codeable addresses both these aspects by providing estimates to customers and a thorough quality control approach. Actually, we recently renewed our original vetting process, which combines language and communication screening, test projects, as well as live code testing, to an extent that 2-3% of all applicants make it past the screening.”

Envato Studio — This is another screened option, and the company takes 30% of your final project earnings. Payment is collected by Envato and managed through an earnings account.

Smashing Jobs — This one’s a “job board,” which means that employers and business owners looking to hire freelancers pay to get their job listings posted on the board. Freelancers can look through the ads and contact the employers of their own accord. Not screened, and of no cost to you.

Behance, Dribbble — These two are fairly well-known portfolio/job board sites. Since I’m rounding up some of the best freelance sites that aren’t quite so talked about, I’m not going to spend a lot of time on them… but they’re definitely worth a mention.

Writing

ProBlogger — ProBlogger is a prominent blogging resource started by blogger Darren Rowse. The “jobs” section of the site is an extensive job board, similar to Smashing Jobs. There is no screening process for for freelancers or hiring companies, so ProBlogger warns applicants to use “due diligence” when applying for jobs.

Scripted — Scripted is another freelance marketplace, but specifically for writers. There is a screening process in order to become a Scripted freelancer, and you would receive payment from Scripted, rather than straight from the client. From what I can tell, there isn’t an official percentage taken from freelancers’ earnings, but there’s a chance that the payment transactions might incur some fees.

Krop — Krop is a combination between a job board and a marketplace. Clients looking to hire freelancers post jobs on Krop’s website, and the freelancers can contact the client themselves. Freelancers do, however, get to create a profile and add it to Krop’s database. No screening, no charges or percentages taken from earnings. Krop is a resource for almost all freelancers, with jobs in web design, copywriting, SEO, graphic design, and more.

Flexjobs — Flexjobs is a subscription-based job board. For a monthly, quarterly, or yearly subscription, you get access to Flexjobs’ job board, job search tips, and portfolio options. One notable aspect of Flexjobs is the company’s focus on the freelancer’s ease of use, rather than the entities posting the jobs. I always like that in a company, you know?

Graphic Design

AwesomeWeb — The folks at AwesomeWeb offer a paid service, but with a bit of a twist. For $27 per month, you can upload your portfolio to their “small, exclusive freelance marketplace,” with the safety net of a 90 day money-back guarantee if you don’t earn anything during that time.

Nicholas Tart, the man behind AwesomeWeb, believes fully in his model, and here’s why:

“AwesomeWeb is the site that I wanted as a freelancer. Every other platform was bloated with free accounts, restricted client communication, and wasted my time with cheap proposals. We believe the client should contact you, instead of you contacting them, based on the quality of your work. This minimizes bidding wars. Then every project should start with a call. 100% open communication. And successful projects should lead to long-term relationships with regular retainers. Freelancing should be a warm, human experience. That’s why we built AwesomeWeb.”

Toptal — This is a marketplace with a heavily-screened acceptance process. They accept applications from both Graphic Designers and Developers. Toptal handles all financial transactions, but there isn’t any copy detailing costs or fees.

Coroflot — Coroflot is a free job board that allows you to directly contact the parties looking to hire.

Authentic Jobs — Another job board that’s free to the job seeker, and from what I can tell, the freelancer communicated directly with potential clients. The sister site,Authentic Pros, is a directory that allows you to create a freelance profile.

AIGA Design Jobs — This is a job board available only to AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) members. Once you’ve become a member (memberships begin at $50/year), you’ll have access to a job board of listings that hiring companies have paid to list.

SEO & Marketing

Growth Geeks — This is a screened option for freelance marketers that allows you to become part of the company’s “network of experts.” You must submit an application and make it through the screening process, but since the site’s pricing structure is quite regular and package-based, you’ll likely have a consistent working rate. (There’s also a DesignGeeks and WordGeeks option.)

Inbound Jobs — Another job board, but with a fairly thorough application to fill out, if you find a job worth contacting.

GrowthHackers — A job board in which you directly contact businesses to apply.

We Work Remotely — Another straightforward job board that puts you in control of communication with prospective clients by applying directly.

Take a deep breath. Don’t freak out.

I realize this post, for a few reasons, might be a little… overwhelming. One, a whole lot of sites just got thrown at you. And, two, now you’ve actually got to sit down, create profiles, fill out applications, and go through screening processes.

This is a good time to remind yourself of why you’re a freelancer. You want flexibility, and you want to do what you’re good at. Sometimes, that takes a little leg work… or a lot of extra typing. Remember, being a freelancer means that you’re not isolated to the small handful of companies hiring in your area; there are roughly a million bajillion places you can find work, as long as you’re willing to put forth the effort.