Businesses Can Get Significant Relief on Operational Costs

Todd S. Whiton, CEO, Capital Payments, LLC

The past few months have been a difficult time for many businesses trying to navigate the turbulent waters of today’s economy. Being proactive in reducing operational costs to dramatically increase cash flow has been a key initiative to survive. Simply stated, more cash flow translates into more time to concentrate on one’s core business; more time to focus on marketing, strategic planning and client needs.

It is absolutely critical to maintain a healthy cash flow by securing revenue as efficiently and quickly as possible. By now, most businesses realize credit and debit card acceptance is a major component of good cash management in today’s economic environment. However, it’s also important to realize that not all merchant services providers are created equal. At the risk of sounding cliché, “caveat emptor” can easily be applied to the merchant services business. In “Dirty Little Secrets of Merchant Services,” a whitepaper I wrote in 2007, I talk about the elements of deliberate obfuscation, a ‘hit and run’ sales mentality and the fine print terms and conditions that separate one merchant processor from another.

Capital Payments typically saves businesses 10-40% of merchant processing costs. Many businesses don’t realize that 70% of credit card processing costs are variable – and, therefore, manageable. Unraveling the complexity of payment processing costs in terms of interchange optimization is one of the founding principles of Capital Payments. As an example, through an analysis of their businesses’ current credit card processing situation, one of our CPA partners was able to present two of their B2B clients a combined percentage savings of over 25% -- equating to $42,000 annually. Money saved and quickly put back into managing their businesses. Another partner saved 26% in operation costs, and was afforded a cumulative merchant services savings of 11% on five retail businesses he owned.

There’s no denying that in today’s economy, it’s prudent for businesses to re-evaluate their payment card processor – to take a closer look at what they are gaining, and potentially losing, with the status quo. If a business is with the right merchant processor, there’s money out there to be saved.

Introduction to Capital Payments’ Blog

There’s no denying blogging is a major social, political and economic phenomenon. According to Blog Pulse , there are more than 105 million blogs on the internet as we speak, with a new blog coming to life every two seconds. With numbers like that, how can we deny our participation in this vast pool of knowledge? So, we decided to start a blog of our own. One that will explore current merchant services and credit card issues and events to educate, inform and, maybe, from time-to-time, even entertain. Our blogging qualifications? An eclectic group of industry veterans with decades of credit card processing experience in working with small and midsize businesses and their banking entities, CPAs, accountants, attorneys and other trusted advisors.

Capital Payments, LLC is a leading provider of merchant and electronic payments solutions. We’re uniquely focused on working with the trusted advisor community to help them navigate their business clients through the increasingly complex world of merchant services. For all of our merchant accounts, we provide transparent and competitive pricing, very fair terms and conditions and best of breed payment products and services. We offer a full range of electronic point-of-sale and online payment solutions and deliver a fully comprehensive suite of leading edge credit card processing payment products and services that address the needs of businesses in all industries.

Some of the names you might see? Todd Whiton, President, CEO and co-founder, an energetic, results-oriented visionary (yes, it’s true) who is responsible for driving our success. Pat Keller, CFO and co-founder, is our numbers guru who can realize credit card processing cost savings for our clients at a glance. Craig Stokum , CPA, Senior VP – Business Development. Craig is a highly effective speaker whose innate sales ability makes him a formidable presence in the merchant services industry. Natalie Silva, VP – Marketing and Program Management, is our marketing maven who delivers our message with unsurpassed energy, enthusiasm and product knowledge . We couldn’t do it better with a Times Square billboard. Christine Curzio, VP – Operations and Systems, embodies the perfect blend of people skills and technical expertise to effectively support our customers.

So, there you have it. Capital Payments abridged. Research shows a 96-second blog reader attention span; we didn’t want to overstay our welcome the first time out.