By Craig Attiwill, Founder & CEO, Peloton Technologies
It’s quite common for a growing business to find itself in a tricky situation due to the payment choices made when first starting out. We see this regularly at Peloton. A business owner reaches out because they are bound up in a service that has become too expensive, too restrictive, or too cumbersome. They have outgrown their payments provider, but they are stuck.
Typically, these business owners find their way to us through word-of-mouth. Instead of focusing on building a huge profile, Peloton has always focused on making our customers happy. That’s why many of our customers have been with us since we began – over a decade ago!
Usually, we can help, but often we discover that the owners have gone too far down a particular path to easily unwind themselves from their current payments provider without significantly interrupting their business.
That’s why we’re on a mission to catch small business owners BEFORE they go too far.
Payments are complex, so let’s keep it simple. Here are three things to consider before you sign on with any payments partner.
1. Future-proof your payment costs
There are some absolutely fantastic, out-of-the-box, all-in-one, service providers out there to help your business get started. Shopify is Canada’s best example. With Shopify, you get incredible ease, efficiency, and optionality… for everything but payments. Payments are a huge source of revenue for Shopify — and a huge pain point for you. Two to three percent of revenue may not hurt as much when sales are low, but it sure gets you in the gut when business is booming and your payments bill reaches six figures. Be very cautious of providers who dictate the payments story for you.
2. Keep your vendor list small and your bank trips short
Many businesses start their payments journey with an online or physical point-of-sale terminal with only that in mind. As your business grows, you can expect to enhance your payment interactions with payroll, domestic and international wire payments, vendor and bill payments through EFT or ACH, tax payments, and so much more. I can tell you from experience — that often means MANY different vendors or MANY trips to the bank. Seek out a payments provider that can meet all your needs and grow with you. One that allows you to stay on your own device at your business, rather than in a bank branch, and doesn’t require interactions with multiple vendors — or a new resource to manage all of them, for that matter!
3. Lean on a payments expert
Payments are important and, unfortunately, complex. They become even more crucial as you grow. An expert can help you understand everything from the technology to the costs, the restrictions, and the liability. They can help you understand the strategy of payments. It might not be clear to a daycare owner what they are liable for versus the credit card networks. A candle maker may not understand the restrictions around labeling and charging for their products. Even a law firm may not fully understand their liability when asking for credit card information on an intake form. And that’s okay — because payments are not your business. They are ours.
Here at Peloton, we are always happy to talk payments. If you need some guidance to get your payments journey started, don’t hesitate to reach out BEFORE you commit.
About the author
Craig is the Founder and CEO at Peloton where he has not only transformed the payments experience for SMBs, but has continued to play a hands-on role in innovation at the company. Prior to founding Peloton, Craig held senior engineering roles at Sierra Systems (now NTT Data), Visiphor Corporation (now I2 Group) – which supplies software products to the criminal justice system – and BAE Systems, one of Australia’s largest defense contractors. He has also served as senior technology consultant to Quartech, CGI and Deloitte. His background in serving both the public and private sectors, including in defense, has been key to the success of Peloton here in Canada. Craig immigrated from Australia in 2005.