If you have the freedom to choose, or design, the way a company operates why not go with what would make you happy if you were a client, employee or vendor of your company?  I really believe this is the only way to go when building a business. One characteristic I would love to see as a customer of any business is transparency.

To me this simply means telling the truth about your business to every party involved.  Is your business young, small, under capitalized, struggling, in a law suit, etc. Let everyone involved know what really is happening.  Have you screwed up, made a mistake, even failed?  Then brag about your experience and tell people what lessons you learned.  In other words turn supposed weaknesses into strengths.  When you do your company will stand out as unique and special in a sea of half-truths and exaggerations.

We practice transparency by telling our clients what our costs are and what are profit is by having them as a client each month.  It is a simple thing to do but since no one else does this it makes us stand out.  I have noticed that standing out is usually a good thing.

Practicing transparency at this very moment, I will say that as I write this post it is 10:30PM and I am a little tired so I am going finish right here and go to bed.  I’ll pick this topic up in another post.  I will conclude by saying isn’t transparency easier? How about refreshing?  So why not give it a try?  I think you will like it.

I been noticing a clear trend in recent weeks - selling my services is getting much, much easier.  When I was an employee in the merchant account industry I worked for one of the best companies in the industry.  Heck, they are the ones that introduced me to “Straight Pass Through” pricing and “Interchange Plus.”  Even though we were always the good guys with no hidden fees and quality service, it was often a challenge to stand out amongst our competitors.

With my own company and a few adjustments to the way we do business things are almost getting easy!  As an employee our pitch was all about our pricing.  Now pricing is just one componant.  Today, I was talking to a business woman who’s company just purchased a hotel property that is part of a national chain.  During our conversation I listened to what I was saying and these are a few of the things that came out of my mouth:

1. We only price clients with Interchange plus (no hidden fees)

2. We want out clients to call us first; let us know the issue and we’ll get it fixed.  We don’t want you calling a call center and being on hold for one minute; let us be on hold in your place.

3. We have no contract term with a early termination fee; if we stink you can leave whenever you want.

4. My costs are…my profit margin is…so my company will make approximately…

5. Did I mention the funds from your transactions will be in your bank account the next business day?

6. From the moment I have your completed application it will take 24-48 hours to have you up and running.

7. No, I don’t need a personal guarantee.

8. No, I don’t need financials.

9. Of course I am familiar with your payment gateway company.

10. Ok, I’ll have the paperwork over to you with in a few minutes.

Man, I love being in control of how we operate!  No wonder adding clients to our roster is getting easier!

Bottom line: Be the very best you can be.  Be transparent, fast, fair and simple; then adding clients will get a lot easier for you.

I know yesterday I wrote I am not really into posting videos; I guess I have changed. Last wee ABC’s Night Line was at the offices of Zappos.com…you know the online shoe company? If you are not familiar with them now, you will want to be after watching the video NightLine produced.

The reason I am posting it here is because Zappos.com is a model of what I think a business should look like. If Tony Hsieh, can build a great company then so can others. I want to be one of those “others.”

Here is where to check out the video:

NightLine Video - Zappos.com

Here is Inc. Magazine article about Tony and Zappos.com:

How I Did It: Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com

• Finishing the last tasks of the first version of my biz web site. Here how it looks currently - http://tinyurl.com/5457lz. #
• Just posted a great little video, if you need something to smile about check it out http://tinyurl.com/583ql3. #

I received a call from a reporter at US News an World Report two weeks ago. His name was Matt Bandyk, a business writer for the magazine. He had found me through my other blog straightpassthroug.biz and he had some questions about how businesses could lower their merchant account processing fees.  We talked for over a half hour and the I provided him contact information for two of my favorite clients who he also interviewed for the article.  That is enough of my story, here is a link to the article:

How to Deal With Credit Card Mumbo Jumbo

I was just investigating a social media platform for this website and came across this video.  Now I rarely share video on any of my blogs so you have to know this is special.  It’s about an autistic kid who is a ball boy/manager for the high school basketball team.  This video tells the story of what happened when the coach decided to let the young man play in the last game of the season, enjoy:

The two things that stand out to me on this video is:

1. His passion and commitment created the opportunity to get into the game.

2. When the opportunity to play came went all out and held nothing back.

May we all live like this kid!

• Myself and two of my clients just showed up in a US News and World Report article about credit card processing http://tinyurl.com/6rv2s4. #

• Still working in the website. I figure it takes me 30 minutes of design work what it would take a true geek 5 minutes. But hey I’m trying! #
• Just wrote two quick posts - http://cocardsynergy.com/blog/. #
• Up and running, could not stop thinking about cool things to work on today so I got up and poured myself a cup of coffee. #

I have to admit that I am stealing the base design of our website.  From who?  A company that I love and that we are a client of - 37 Signals.  I thought I should bring this up to alleviate any guilt I have for not being completely original.  Don’t “they” say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery?  Well let me clearly flatter 37 Signals; we use three of their products, Highrise (CRM), Backpack and Campfire (chat) and love each one of them.  We tried Salesforce out and found it to be just too complex for most of us.   Each of 37 Signals products are simple and easy to use and therefore they are utilized by each member of our team.

If you do go to their website be sure to check out their book, it’s about how they build products and run their business.  The book is called Getting Real and you can find it here.

link

Thanks for everything 37 Signals!  You are truly a business to imitate and admire.