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

For many business owners (contrary to popular belief) CHARACTER is one of the pillars of successful businesses today! The Merchant Services industry has long been known for its lack of character- which is precisely why Dean and I began our venture over 23 years ago. Today, we still feel that Character counts in the business world and we are passionate about making sure that Character is always an intricate part of who we are as a company. It is interesting to note that many businesses tout Character and Service externally but internally, it is a different story. Business owners need to ask themselves a couple of questions to make sure their organizations are still on track: How do we make sure that what we promise is what is

Accepting credit cards can be an amazing tool and a double-edged sword! Amazing because consumers who use credit cards, spend more money, more often than their cash paying counterparts. Sword-like because the various risk issues associated with card acceptance can cause business owners unwelcome stress. Let’s look at a few of the ways we can minimize our exposure to the risks related to card acceptance. Proper Account Underwriting/SetUp/Maintenance One of the easiest ways to prevent stress and risk is to make sure the provider you are using has underwritten your account properly. Because credit card transactions are NOT CASH, a merchant account is approved for certain ticket sizes, monthly & annual volumes. Another critical underwriting parameter is the amount of time a business owner is permitted to charge