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Growing up my Dad always told me that we make our own economy. He watered our souls with phrases like, you can be anything you want to be and do anything you want to do. He prepared our spirit with life truths like, you get what you pay for and hard work always pays off. For the most part, my Dad was spot on. His words of wisdom have served his family well. But today we are in a different and strange season- nothing makes sense and everything seems to be jumbled up. Right, wrong, respect, courtesy, and the things I was raised with seem to be standing on the sidelines of some Twilight Zone reel- wondering what in the hell happened. I’ve always been a glass half

In his book ‘The One Thing’ Gary Keller mentions that a BALANCED life is a myth and I think that we all really know this instinctually. But there is a still, small voice that keeps calling us to be balanced– to make sure we are not spending too much time at the office or too much leisure time (yes- that’s a thing). Being ‘balanced’ has a nice- even ring to it- ‘I am so balanced’ (if you stand there for a minute and just close your eyes and repeat that statement you will see that it even FEELS good to say it!) Now open your eyes and let’s have a REALISTIC chat about this so-called ‘balanced life’. The truth of the matter is that any career path (business

Selecting a Merchant Services Partner for the RIGHT Reasons Lots of industries struggle with extreme competition. In some cases, there is so much competition that the impacted industry, products, and services become somewhat ‘commoditized’. They are relegated to the long list of items and services providers who no longer care about your overall experience. Webster defines a commodity as: com·mod·i·ty noun \k?-‘mä-d?-te\ : an economic good: as a product of agricultural or mining : a good or service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (service, brand, etc) other than price. In other words, things like service, reputation, and overall product satisfaction cease to carry much importance as price becomes the main determining factor for consumers of the product or

In order to reach our goals and dreams, oftentimes we have to venture outside of our comfort zones because that is where life gets interesting! You might be thinking ‘interesting’- GREAT! I do not need any more ‘interesting’ in my life and operating every single day is tough enough without moving outside of my comfort zone! But hear me out- there truly is LIFE: Outside of Your Comfort Zone. COMFORT ZONE DEFINED: (Psychology) a situation or position in which a person feels secure, comfortable, or in control. I’m Doing Fine in My Comfort Zone: How bad could it be? Secure, comfortable, controlled? If you think your comfort zone is exactly where you should be operating- then its time to ask yourself a few questions. Have you taken your

Years ago, I was introduced to the POWER of writing down your goals and visualizing the way you want your life to play out. Ever since that time, I have enjoyed the exercise of creating a vision board that speaks to me, gives me hope, and gives me a focus for the upcoming year. (my home office vision board is pictured below) For the past several years, my team has participated in this exercise at least one time and often twice per year! Here are some of the benefits of putting together your vision boards as a team. Getting To Know Each Other When you spend this kind of quality time together, you get to know a different side of your team members. You begin to understand what

As complicated as the credit card processing industry can be, there are only 3 things you REALLY need to know. #1 Understand The RatesThere are 500+ tiers of pricing, when you combine all credit/debit card types. It is important to familiarize yourself not only with the pricing but also how the pricing relates to your specific business. Card pricing rates vary based on card type and how the cards are processed. Take some time getting to know both VISA INTERCHANGE and MASTERCARD INTERCHANGE rates. Remember that Interchange is the cost before any markups and before the costs or markups associated with capturing, authorizing and settling each transaction. When you have a great understanding of the various card types and the actual costs, you can make better decisions related