Failure is good.

How many times have you been afraid to try something because you might fail? Contrary to how it sounds, failure is good. Think about it. Through failure we as humans learn how not to do things wrong. Eventually, we then figure out how to suceed. Take a look at babies, they do not come into the world and start running around the delivery room. They arrive and eventually their parents teach them to stand. This is a long process which includes hundred of failures and much falling on our rears until we learn to balance. Then we start on walking, leading to more failures until we finally learn to take that first step. Well this is not a blog about baby care, it is a blog on Networking and Merchant services. And this applies to networking very well. We learn to network in business and to find and pass referrals to our contacts by failing. The key is to figure out why you failed, when you do, and then not make the same error the next time. Eventually if you hang in there, and don't become afraid to keep trying, you will start to succeed. Many self made people failed before they succeeded. Its like the sayin that it's not so much how many times you fall down that matters, it is how many times you get back up. So remember if at first you don't succeed, then come at it from another direction and TRY AGAIN.

Low Low Low credit card Rates!!! yeah right.

You see it all the time. A Processor says “we have the lowest qualified rates around.” The problem with that statement is that low qualified rates may or may not do you any good. To start with lets ask the important question of what is a qualified transaction that will be charged the qualified rates? There are some company specific rules here but usually there are a few things which will make a transaction a Non-Qualified transaction. The first is usually some sort of rewards card. Miles or points it doesn't really matter. Another thing is when a merchant hand enters the card information. These things usually downgrade a transaction.
Another important question is how does your business interact with the customers? Do you see them face to face? Or are you working off of order forms or over the telephone? IF you are set up to do face to face you should usually have a lot of qualified transactions. But if that is not how you interact with the customers you could be paying a premium for those transactions. This is because there are Mid and Non qualifying fees which could be assessed.
All of which means that you probably should be asking the following questions. “What are the Mid and Non-Qualified rates? Are there other fees that apply? Do some transactions incur both fees and discount rates? These are the points that should help you make your merchant services/credit card processing decisions.

New Year, New Beginnings

Happy New Year, So how many resolutions have you already shattered? I lost most of mine already but there are a few that are holding on. One of my New Years resolutions is to work on my saving. I have taken several steps to save more and spend less. Why am I mentioning this in a blog? Well, it's because lots of businesses make the same resolution over and over. Not just for New Years. Then they do not do anything different. Well, now is the time to do something different.
Look at your expenses and get quotes from competing companies. A lot of times that can save you money in a hurry. I am in Merchant Services, I do free analysis' for companies all the time. It always amazes me when they get the analysis, find out they are paying more than they have to and then.......do nothing. Make no changes, keep on paying too much. Wondering why they can't seem to save a little more. There is a story about 5 frogs sitting on a log, 4 of them decide to jump off the log. Guess how many are now on the log? That's right, 5. There is a big difference between deciding to do something and then doing it. Start your year off right decide to make a change , then actually do it.