The availability of high-tech software to smaller businesses has certainly been impactful. For years traditional Point of Sale systems that manage inventory, receipts and if you were lucky customer databases, were only affordable to those larger multi-location restaurants or retail chains. Now with the advancements in software and cloud technology, point of sale systems with 20 times the capabilities of the older legacy systems are able to be implemented by small business owners and for a fraction of the price.

A recent improvement that garnered the most attention was the rollout of EMV/Chip technology which by design should ward off most if not all of the large-scale type of data breaches of the past. However, behind the scenes, there are numerous consistent changes as the industry consolidates upon itself. Various large processors and banks have been merging to form huge conglomerate companies as of late. In an industry where service and availability are crucial, these larger operations often fall short once the dust settles. It’s always interesting to see who is going to get gobbled up next. However, being locally focused and relationship-driven, the large scale consolidations have played out well for us.

Educating our customers.

Knowing our customers.

Being available for our customers.

Well, let’s face it; with seasonal fluctuations and a diverse demographic, southwest Florida doesn’t typically fit into the standard loan underwriter’s approval box. Just as community banks tend to prefer loans for applicants they are more familiar with, knowing our customer and many time our customer’s customer, certainly helps when they reach out needing a $100K short-term loan to carry them through offseason. I’m glad we are in a position to offer that service.

The payments industry is incredibly competitive. Although I enjoy the competitive side of things, I’d prefer to compete with companies or merchant account representatives that operate within the confines of actual math! The commission-driven salesperson with a creative and smooth presentation, unfortunately, doesn’t always have the business owner’s best interests at heart. I’d love to see more background checks before salespeople get hired in this industry.

Southwest Florida as a whole is like a little big city. It’s great to live and work in the same community. Everyone on our team regularly bumps into merchants of ours out on the town while at restaurants with their families or food shopping, etc. It’s those impromptu encounters that keep my team motivated knowing that the services we provide directly impacts families in our community.

I’m a Good News junky. I’ve managed to whittle down my social media contacts to only businesses or people that post positive or inspirational things. Congratulations if you’ve made the cut! I try to perpetuate that same positivity and inspiration into everything around me. I get a good amount of inspiration and ideas from reading quite a bit, usually Brendon Burchard and the like.