Sharing thoughts, facts, ideas, and best practices for business owners of all kinds.
Credit Card
Partnership
Point of Sale
POS
Once you complete a sale and sign an agreement with a merchant, it’s often easy to just move onto the next one and focus on finding more of them to sign. Merchants you’ve signed tend to stay happy and complacent as long as their hardware and software are functioning properly…
Read ArticleCash Register
Touch Screen Cash Register
It seems everything nowadays is so much easier than when I was a kid, especially when it comes to computers. This great contraption called the touch screen cash register is no different. Computers used to be such a foreign object so few people knew how to use. You were…
SMS Marketing
Text Marketing
What is text marketing? It’s the act of a business communicating with its customer base through cell phone text messages to inform them of deals, specials, promotions, or other important information. How does this help grow your business? Exactly what this article is about. But to make it short: the…
SMS Marketing
Text Message Marketing
Text message marketing is when a business communicates with its customers through cell phone text messaging to let them know about promotions, specials, deals, or other any other relevant information. The customers who receive the text messages have opted in, or given the business permission to communicate with them this…
Gift Cards
Custom Gift Cards
I’m sure you’re a very busy business person and this may be an afterthought for you, but do you think custom gift cards could potentially help your business? Let’s back up for a moment and first talk about what they are. We all know what gift cards are. There are…
Inventory Control
Inventory Control Systems
The only way to have a proper handle on the volume of merchandise or products you sell (or go missing) in your place of business is through inventory control systems. Instead of “kickin’ it old school” and physically counting every single item in your store every day or week, an…
Credit Card
Credit Card Machines
Credit card machines accept credit card payment for your business. Pretty simple, right? If you don’t have a way to accept payment by credit or debit card in exchange for your goods or services, then… you’re missing out big time! Deciding on a credit card machine may not seem like…
Merchant Account
High Risk Merchant Accounts
High-risk merchant accounts allow “riskier” businesses to process credit cards. The “high risk” of these types of businesses (discussed below) are: the payments or funds may not go through, they have a higher history of fraud, they receive numerous chargebacks, they sell services which are not tangible and cannot be…
Partnership
Non-profit Partnership
“It’s not personal, it’s business.” Most everyone has heard this expression, right? Non-profit partnerships like to flirt with this distinction. If they had their own saying it would be more like, “It’s always personal, with some business mixed in.” Most non-profit organizations start when people sharing one goal join together.
EMV
EMV Terminal
Have you ever heard the term EMV terminal before? It’s not a trick question, and don’t feel bad if your answer is “no.” Simply put, it’s a credit card processing machine for our new, more secure EMV credit and debit cards. EMV is the label of a new form…
Customer Loyalty
Rewards Programs
You’ve probably heard of rewards programs before. Your local coffee shop has one. Your grocery store has one. Maybe your local BBQ joint has one. As a member of a rewards program, you receive special discounts and points towards future purchases as reward for your continued patronage. Each program has…
Affinity
Affinity Partners
Affinity Partners can help your business make more money and spread awareness about your brand, products, and services. Likewise, you help your partners do the same. The relationship is a two-way street, mutually beneficial to each party. Let me explain… When you form an affinity partnership with another business or…
Affinity
Affinity Partnerships
Affinity partnerships two or more organizations or groups working together around a common interest or cause for mutual benefit. Often, this mutual benefit extends beyond the partnership itself and helps the community as well. If you’re thinking about whether or not to join or start a partnership, there are a…
The world of payments is rapidly changing in front of our eyes. Massive consolidation is happening at a record pace, and this will inevitably impact your business as a merchant services agent.