Enjoy Better Quality of Life with Business Management Technology: A Guide

What is customer financing? Customer financing breaks down the total cost of expensive goods and services, enabling customers to make smaller loan payments according to a set schedule. Rather than paying the full retail price at the time of purchase, customers make regular payments on a monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly basis. In most cases, customers are charged interest as part of their loan payments. Interest rates vary depending on the terms of the loan, and in some cases, merchants will offer zero-interest financing as an incentive to potential customers. Should you offer consumer financing? Often called By Now Pay Later (BNPL) consumer financing does have some distinct advantages for a business and a consumer but is it right for you? Let’s start with the fact that it is not free to you or your customer.  So, the question is does it meet a need for your business.  For example, are there times when a customer needs your product or service out of the blue and they’re not prepared?  Or, they really want something but the price is just a bit out of reach?  Those are really obvious situations where a consumer financing option would be a win-win as long as the process was easy, and the cost was reasonable. In most cases, customers are charged interest as part of their loan payments. Interest rates vary depending on the terms of the loan, and in some cases, merchants will offer zero-interest financing as an incentive to potential customers. What should you look for in a consumer financing program? For the consumer, look for a program that offers multiple, flexible solutions instantly so a decision can be made right away.  Rates and features should be transparent with no hidden fees.  Approvals need to be swift, usually in less than five (5) minutes. For you, make sure the program is a frictionless and seamless part of your sales and provisioning process.  If there are fees charged to you, you may want to pass them along to the buyer. If so, be sure there is a built-in process to do that.  If you have large ticket items that require installation over time, a pre-approval process might be needed.  Last, make sure you are getting paid quickly and that there’s a strong support team if you or more likely your buyers need it. How we can help you create a financing program for your customers? We have 2 programs which may fit your needs. Delay Pay from GPI and powered by TUA technology. GoKnow from Know Technologies, Inc. GoKnow from Know Technologies, Inc. You can use one or both depending upon the circumstances. To learn more, please contact us through our live chat, appointment scheduler, or call 899-966-6111 for free. Bottom line In today’s economic climate, many customers don’t have the funds necessary to make large purchases. Customer financing gives shoppers the ability to pay off large purchases over time while increasing their sales and transaction values.

Creating a Connected Work Environment There are a lot of enlightened big corporation definitions of a Business Management System but for us, it’s much simpler. It is: The combined processes and functions, e.g., Customer Engagement, Sales, Provisioning, Finance, etc., are necessary for a profit-oriented business to run efficiently, effectively, and legally. The fact is every business has one, it’s really just a question of whether or not the system that is in place is in fact a good thing, a bad thing, or something in between. In a small business that generally means, at a minimum, are we making money and paying taxes. If you’re reading this, you probably want to add more to that equation. Perhaps growth, efficiency, or more family time. Our vision is to provide you with a connected workspace that impacts all of those things. What’s in the way? Typically, a business has evolved and has a mishmash of tools and processes that require manual entry, double entries, misalignment of information, and lousy communications. At the very least this has created additional complexity if not internal friction. A good Business Management System is one in which the ownership, employee, and customer experience align creating a seamless and frictionless experience. What that means is an experience where duplication of efforts is eliminated, errors are reduced, communication is fluid and in a means which works best for all stakeholders. What does a Connected Environment Look Like? The objective of a connected workspace is, in large part, to create efficiency and accuracy by avoiding duplication of efforts. Secondly is to eliminate friction especially as it revolves around communications. As an example, in a highly effective environment information is entered once and is automatically recorded in all the systems that need to use that information, and is easily accessible from any appropriate device. When this does not occur, as I frequently the case, you end up with multiple databases that are difficult if not impossible to keep synchronized creating a high risk of errors and omissions. Why is a Connected Business Management System important to a Small Business? For exactly the same reasons a large company, efficiency, which means savings of time and money. But there’s more. Here are some fun facts you should know. Small businesses that use technology to create a connected environment earn two times more revenue per employee, experience four times more revenue growth annually, and are nearly three times as likely to add people in any given year. About our Business Management System We have created a Business Management System that provides the tools necessary to achieve the goals of a seamless frictionless, connected environment for owners, employees, and customers. Its impact is felt from the start of the business cycle, a customer appointment, through provisioning of your product or service and accounting for it. We strive to ensure nothing is touched twice. Anything that is entered in one part of the system is also added in the others whether that is the field app, office app, virtual payment terminal, or bookkeeping. Additionally, communications, especially to and from customers, is automated and supports the most desirable formats, SMS text messaging and email. A major advantage of our BMS is that we marry our software, developed from over 15 years of cloud software experience, with those from our partners to provide the benefits of a single location to access your programs but the flexibility to grow and add as you need to. At the outset, we integrate core software from Xceleran, Global Payments Integrated (GPI), and Intuit into a cohesive platform that has flexible design options and is very cost-effective starting as low as $39.50 per month. Together we feature: Customer management Appointment scheduling, by customers or internally. Automated communications in text or email. Field agent software for job management, invoicing, and collections Full bookkeeping system including payroll services Sophisticated payment processing system integrated across all platforms The result is a frictionless, seamless, connected environment.  To learn more, visit our Business Management System page.  How can a Business Management System help you? Here’s another opinion from Home Business Magazine: 1. Improves Employee Efficiency and Productivity If you want to be a good business owner, it’s important to provide the right benefits and essential business tools to your employees. In order for your employees to be more efficient and productive, they need quality tools.Once you streamline your workplace, your employees will work better, harder, and faster. That’s the reason why using business management software can be beneficial. It adds a certain level of accountability to your employees while helping them work better and much easier. 2. Helps You Avoid Errors When information is transferred from one platform to another, there’s a risk of encountering some errors or losing a part of your data. You may either tolerate such errors or spend plenty of resources and time fixing and checking everything.With the use of business management software, you don’t need to import the information a few times. The only thing you’ll need is to import your information and your software will do the rest. For instance, if your company uses cloud services, all of your data will be available and secure for all of your team members. 3. Provides Important Communication Tools When it comes to the business industry, communication is considered paramount as it’s the key to efficiency and success. This is why using business management software may come in handy since it’ll provide you access to the best communication tools you’ll need.Oftentimes, business management software includes communication tools, such as central message centers, text messaging, and email that everybody on the team may see. Since such apps are cloud-based, such communication tools are accessible on any connected device, regardless of whether your employees are working remotely or not. 4. Helps Your Business Build Trust and Improves Customer Relationships This may sound a little strange, but the use of business management software may help improve your company’s customer relationships. The software has features that enable you