Are you using a physical credit card terminal? As we fall back into Eastern Standard Time, it is important to check your credit card terminal to make sure the time is correct as some terminals need to be updated manually.
Note: This applies to terminals only. Software and gateways adjust automatically.
For Verifone VX Terminals:
Press the green button – setup – Password is 1 alpha alpha 66831and click enter – Click The left purple button for more options 4 times – Click date and time and enter the correct date: mm/dd/yyyy and time: military time with 00 for seconds
For PAX Terminals (all models) Menu then 5 and press “enter” – enter today’s date MMDDYYYY > type in time in military time (HHMMSS) – “enter” – press “menu” to go back to main screen
Feel free to contact us if you need any help updating the time on your terminal
When emailing people outside of our company, clicking send at midnight is questionable. Common advice is to save the email as a draft, and send it in the morning. Except we are prone to distraction. Even if we plan to send an email the next day, we’ll probably forget.
Imagine this scenario.
It’s 11:47pm and we’re catching up on email. We missed an email from a prospective client earlier, but we feel awkward hitting send at 11:47pm. So we save it as a draft, telling ourselves we’ll send it in the morning.
The next morning as we’re walking into the office, our manager grabs us as at the door. There’s a critical situation. The project we were working on has a major bug. Our biggest client is about to drop. So we hustle to solve the problem, doing everything possible to avoid this catastrophe.
Two days later, the problem is solved. BUT OH!!! WE JUST REMEMBERED WE HAD THAT EMAIL IN DRAFT!!
Except now it’s too late.
Since we saved the late-night email in draft, we lost a prospective client.
We can avoid this mistake entirely by leveraging technology to schedule emails for the next morning. With an email scheduling tool (like Boomerang, Newton Mail, or simply selecting ‘delay delivery’ under your Outlook OPTIONS tab (see image below)), we can write emails at 11:47pm – or whenever we’re most productive – and then schedule them to send at any hour the next morning. All with the click of a button.
This brings up yet another interesting question: What’s the point of sending emails at night, anyway? Aren’t people too busy to check their email at night?
Some people are more likely to read emails at night.
A study by Experian showed the highest email open rates were between 8pm and 11:59pm, at 21.7%. Whereas the second highest open rate was between 12am and 4am, at 17.6%:
This validates that people will open emails late at night, often more frequently than they open emails during the day.
In conclusion, if you’re writing emails in the middle of the night, schedule to send them early morning.
For those who have attempted to obtain any type of funding from a bank, but felt like the poor fellow in the above cartoon, you are not alone. With interest rates at record lows and the economy a lot stronger, the demand for business loans is at an all-time high. Yet banks remain tight-fisted and choosy with approving small business loans.
Merchant Cash Advance
As an alternative, if your business is seeking a short term cash infusion, a merchant cash advance may be the answer.
A merchant cash advance is an advancement of funds based on future credit card processing. For example; a business that processes $35,000 per month in credit card transactions would be able to obtain $50,000 in upfront funds deposited into their account. Going forward, a small percentage of each credit card transaction would go towards paying off the balance. Within a few months, the loan is paid without the business owner having to pay a lump sum at once.
Cash advance rates are not cheap. Rates can vary from 1% to 5% per month. However, for some business owners this is the smarter and better option.
Some businesses have a “buying season.” Buying strong and in quantity can make all the difference as to whether the season will be profitable or not. A short term cash advance (from buying season until selling season) will enable the business to buy smarter and yield a larger profit for that year.
A business may need to renovate or invest in capital improvements. A run-down retail store is not an inviting environment for customers. A 6 to 12 month cash advance would allow the business to stay alive and make the necessary improvements.
A business owner with an urgent need for cash may resort to finding an investor or partner thus giving up equity in his business forever. On the other hand, a merchant cash advance – as costly as it may be – is a short term ‘partner’. After 6 to 12 months the advance is paid and the business owner retains 100% equity in his company.
To find out more about our merchant cash advance program, please email us at MCA@Banquest.com.
Happy Tuesday & Happy Selling!
Kevin
A recent example would be Bella’s Pizzeria in Caldwell, NJ. For years, customers have been asking for ice cream. Bella’s did not have an ice cream machine. The owners simply could not afford to spend $28,000 to purchase the machine. The owners estimated the profits from selling ice cream would be $50,000 per year. With Banquest’s Merchant Cash Advance they were able to purchase the ice cream machine and still make a profit the first year.
