With years of experience behind you, your business should be running like a well-oiled machine. That’s not always the case.
As a business continues to grow, the owners sometimes get so tied up in the day-to-day activities that they forget to step back and conduct a high-level review of how their business receives the money they work so hard to bring in.
Your merchant account program should be looked at periodically to assess where changes and improvements can be made. After all, it affects the most important aspect of your business, your cash flow.
I speak with business owners everyday who spend thousands of dollars monthly on different marketing campaigns. Whether it’s the yellow pages, online advertising, magazine advertising, or any other advertising medium, merchants display diligence attempting to reach out to their potential customer.
Many merchants expend large amounts of capital beautifying their business location, creating comfortable or specific environments for their customers, and creating a positive, professional, and valuable image for their business. Merchants are meticulous with most every aspect of their business, except for when it comes to their merchant account and what they are paying for credit card processing.
Approximatley 59% of business owners do not know the name of their merchant account provider or how to contact them. They also do not know how much they are paying to accept credit cards.
In many instances, when obtaining a merchant statement from a prospective merchant, during the analysis process, the first step is to open the envelope containing the merchant’s statement. Honestly, most merchants have not looked at their bill in months. This is not the standard process businesses use to evaluate invoices but credit card processing for some reason, is the exception.
It is unacceptable to not know what you are paying to accept credit cards. Often times merchants don’t know and don’t want to know.
It is important. It is very important. If you are in business today and want to be successful, it is imperative that you offer credit and debit card acceptance to your customer base. Whether you are a retail/storefront merchant, restaurant, online/internet merchant, business-to-business merchant or even a home based business, electronic payment capability is imperative.
However, it is not enough to just accept credit cards. Merchants must be sure the company they choose and the merchant account structure implemented for their business is suitable for their business type and transaction volume. Merchants must also be aware that their electronic processing vendor offers operational, and pricing programs specific to their business type.
If you choose the right merchant account provider, you will be able to utilize their products, resulting in business growth, greater efficiency, increased operational and back office coordination, and increased profitability.
Choosing the wrong merchant account provider will cost you thousands of dollars, wasted man-hours, frustration, and waste your time. After all, time is money.
In the next article, we will point out how to select a merchant account.
