Basic Introduction
My name is Muhammad Ali. I am a Pakistani proud Muslim.
Qualification
I completed Master of Science in Business Administration from National University of Modern Languages (Islamabad) in 2016.
Profession
I have studied in the field of management but I am professionally an IT expert. Providing IT services in Pakistan, UK & Canada.
Doing the online business is not an easy task. I have experienced so many challenges in this business. Major challenges were International rules & regulations and payment method issues. In Pakistan, there is no proper way to get online payments from abroad. Paypal is available almost in every country but unfortunately not in Pakistan. This is a big hurdle for every online businessman. First we have to earn money and then we have to think how to bring that money to Pakistan. Now a days few organizations are providing these services, they take paypal payments from us and give Pakistani currency but they charge much for it. Exchanges are available internationally but they don’t accept payments via paypal. Freelancers and online businessmen create paypal through many fake ways but as a result they loose their money when paypal ask for identity confirmation.
However, now the payoneer has made the freelancer’s life easy! They are helping thousands of freelancers in Pakistan to transfer their money from abroad to local Pakistani Banks and micro banks such as Sadapay and Naya Pay are also working on it to facilitate the freelancers in Pakistan. That is a good sign for the progress of IT industry in Pakistan.
Career Story
No doubt! Job Hunting is a difficult task specially in Pakistan. When I completed Master of Commerce in 2014, I started my search for a Job. I tried my best to get an appropriate job but unfortunately got failed to find any suitable job. Most of the employers were not offering me salary more than 10,000 Pakistani Rupees per month. However, I always wanted to become a businessman. I did a small business in my University during my studies as an experiment. That was profitable for me and I learned a lot from that business. But, it was not long term business therefore I kept my struggle continue to find the appropriate job. I applied for a job in more than 500+ companies but did not get any response. Then fortunately a private bank offered me job as a Banking Service Officer. I was very happy at that time because everything was almost done. I passed the entry test, interview and bank checked my educational documents, health report etc. But on the day of training, Bank did not called me. I contacted to that bank, they told me that someone else has been hired in place of me. Allah knows what happened, May be someone used strong reference for that job or did bribery. It was totally unfair with me. I got upset, asked for the reason behind rejection but bank could not tell me any single reason. I was highly disappointed at that time. Still I prayed to Allah to do whatever is good for me. Then I started an online business in 2010 and Alhamdulilah after extreme hard-work I got success.
My Advise
Never loose hope, always keep trying. If you loose something in your life, that means there is a space available to get a better one.
My Suggestion to the beginner Freelancers:
Many of the freelancers don’t know how to open bank account to send/receive international payments. Normally when we go to any bank they ask physical business proof to open an account in Bank, But there is an account available in all the banks of Pakistan, that can be opened by anyone without any business proof. It is called “Current Asaan Account” & is free to open. You can open Current Asaan Account in Meezan Bank and HBL bank to send/receive international payments.
Micro Banks such as Sadapay, Naya Pay are also trying to facilitate the freelancers. But having Current Asan Account in Meezan Bank or HBL bank would be more reliable.