Archive for the ‘Feature of the Month’ Category

In today’s economic environment, banks are no longer able to lend money to small businesses as they have in the past. Banks are absolutely flooded with applications from consumers and businesses, and at the same time they are facing record defaults on their existing lending. This leaves the banks with a mountain of applicants and a shrinking reserve of money to lend. Businesses that used to qualify are being instantly denied. it’s just the plain truth. Fortunately we can help!

Cash Flow Plus has allied with a company that can assist you with obtaining funds for your business needs almost immediately! For more information or to request a free funding analysis, visit the main page of our web site and click on the link for Unsecured Business Loans and Lines of Credit.

Cash Flow Plus is excited to announce that we can now provide next-day funding for your credit card transactions! We can also provide you with one consolidated statement for all Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express transactions. In the past, American Express transactions always arrived on a separate statement. Now you can see those transactions in the same place as the others – no more separate statements to wade through every month!

For more information, give us a call at 877-876-3791.

In a struggling economy, sometimes the small local businesses suffer the most. While it might seem like you can get a better deal on some purchases by ordering online from larger companies, it will help you and your community in the long run if you choose to shop with local merchants.  Here are some reasons to buy local:

• Shopping locally helps keep money in the local economy—money spent in locally-owned businesses has up to three times the impact on the community as money spent at corporate chains.
• Shopping locally keeps non-chain shops flourishing, which increases the diversity of the community.
• Local businesses offer a more refined expertise and base of knowledge about their product than large chain stores.
• Local ownership means that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impact of those decisions.
• Independent area businesses pay more local and state taxes than do mega-corporations, keeping the tax flow community-based.
• Supporting local businesses by shopping locally helps fund and maintain jobs in the area, preventing outsourcing and the outflow of economic wealth.
• Local stores are a place to socialize!
• Local businesses compete with one another for business, which gives shoppers many options.
• A healthy local shopping district brings in more local businesses, which grows the local economy.
• Local business owners are more invested in their communities than large chain stores.
• Thriving local shops reduce fuel requirements and eliminate the monopoly and high pricing of supermarkets.

*Source: blogcatalog.com

At Cash Flow Plus, we are constantly searching for products and services that will enhance the efficiency of your business.  One such system is a computerized point of sale (POS) system for the retail and restaurant industries. By combining POS computerized cash registers with bar code scanners, inventory control software and wireless handheld inventory tracking devices, you can measurably increase control of your business while cutting costs and increasing profits.

A computerized POS system provides a significant advantage over conventional cash registers by allowing you to:

• Speed Customer Checkout: With a barcode scanner and computerized cash register, you can checkout a customer in half the time required with a conventional cash register.
• Increase Accuracy: Checkout is more accurate because the price of every item is specified in Cash Register Express.
• Reduce Theft: By using a computerized cash register, you can reduce theft by an average of 2½% because every piece of inventory in your business is monitored.
• Control Inventory Shrinkage: By comparing on-shelf inventory to your computerized reports, you can monitor breakage and non-theft inventory that “walks” out of your business, as well as track new items as they arrive. Computerizing reduce inventory shrinkage by up to an additional 2½%.
• Manage Inventory Levels:  Computerized inventory reports allow you to track trends and seasonal sales to order more efficiently.
• Monitor Your Margins: Inventory reports can help you recognize and stock more products that bring greater profits and fewer products that carry lower profits.
• Keep Track of Your Customers:  Your best customers are your present customers. Customized mailings based on computerized contact lists can help keep your customers coming back.

Want more information?  Give us a call!

Cash Flow Plus strives to keep our merchants up to date on changes in the electronic payment processing industry.  One such change was recently announced, and by increasing your diligence when processing transactions, you will save your business money!  When processing a MasterCard transaction with a corporate or business credit card, issuing banks now require that you include the tax amount in the transaction. In the past, merchants were able to bypass this by simply pressing the “enter” key.  You will no longer be able to do this; however, by including the tax amount and processing the transaction properly, you will qualify for the lower rate and will not be downgraded. Visa transactions traditionally did not allow the merchant to bypass the tax amount entry.

Cash Flow Plus is offering the following events to our merchants this month:

Learn how to market your business more effectively in your local community! Join us for a brief presentation on a new community marketing system in Annapolis on Thursday, February 4, at 8 AM at the Eggcellence Breakfast Brunchery, 2601 Housley Road, and in Prince Frederick on Monday, February 15, at 9 AM at 141 Central Square Drive. If you want to super-charge your marketing in 2010, don’t miss this!

Everyone pays energy bills, and they continue to rise. Find out  how you can lower yours with no hassle! Attend an informational  meeting from 6:30 to 8 PM at the Saucy Salamander, 2661 Riva Road, Annapolis, on any of these Thursday evenings: February 4 & 18, March 4 & 18.

We’re joining forces with the  Calvert County law firm of Davis, Upton, Palumbo & Keffler, LLC to present a business forum on the topic of identity theft and PCI compliance—topics which ALL merchants should be concerned about! The seminar is free and will be held on Tuesday, February 23, from 9 to 11 AM at the Springhill Suites, 75 Sherry Lane, Prince Frederick. A  light breakfast will be available.

The seminar will cover the dangers of identity theft and fraud, review business obligations of protecting personal identifying information, outline Federal and State requirements, penalties and potential liability for non-compliance, and requirements  of PCI compliance. To reserve your seat today, please call 877-876-3791 or reply directly to this email. Seating is limited, so call today!

Cash Flow Plus is looking forward to 2010 and ways that we can help bring added value to you, our merchants – tools, concepts, and processes that you can adopt to improve your businesses and bottom line.  With this in mind, we wanted to make you aware of a system that we have discovered that you need to know about – one that offers an affordable and effective marketing solution that will help you bring more business to your door and take back the business that is going to Internet shopping!

In 2008, local merchants lost over $108 billion of business to online merchants like Amazon.com, eBay, and other big name online retailers.  It’s time to reverse this trend and keep consumers shopping locally! Please join us to hear about a solution that is unique, affordable, simple and effective.  The system gives local consumers an incentive to shop with you and keep retail revenue in our community.  It automates the process of:

Þ Getting access to more customers

Þ Increasing customer loyalty, new and repeat business

Þ Keeping customers thinking about you

Þ Competing effectively with businesses which advertise on the Internet

Þ Doing it all for less than a cup of coffee a day (the cheap stuff!)

Event details are as follows:

WHEN/WHERE: Monday, January 11, 2010, at 141 Central Square Drive, Prince Frederick, MD.

TIMES: Session 1 – 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM (a light breakfast will be served); Session 2 – 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM (a light lunch will be served)

RSVP:  Please email sales@cashfloplus.com or call us at 877-876-3791 to RSVP by Thursday, January 7, 2010.  SEATING IS LIMITED!

Halloween is still fresh in our minds, but the malls and stores are already decorating for the holidays, and soon consumers will be making their lists and setting out to shop! For some people, though, it’s hard to come up with a different gift idea every year for the people on their list, and many turn to gift cards.  Are you offering them the chance to do business with you with a gift card purchase?

Gift cards have become the number one gift for the holidays, outselling gift certificates by a 10 to 1 margin. Gift cards also offer many benefits to the merchants that offer them:

• The initial sale of a gift card is an immediate source of revenue for a merchant.
• The card acts as an advertisement for the merchant.
  Gift cards encourage repeat visits by customers who don’t use the entire value of the card on the first visit.
• Some cards can be recharged after the initial value is depleted, bringing customers back into the business to make additional purchases.
• There is a high potential for increased sales above the value of the gift card amount from customers who purchase items higher than the value of the card.
• Merchants offering gift cards typically realize an increase in overall sales and cash flow, sometimes as much as 30 percent or more.
• Gift cards are easy to issue, and transactions using gift cards are fast and efficient because no change is issued when a gift card is redeemed.
• Statistically speaking, merchants can realize an average of 15 to 20 percent pure profit on cards that are issued but never redeemed.

To realize the advantages of gift cards and grab your portion of the market, please contact us SOON for more information – so that we can get you set up in time for the holidays!

For those who weren’t able to attend our Educational Seminar on September 19, here are some important links to web sites that contain a host of information on Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards and Compliance:

VISA’s Web Site:  http://usa.visa.com/merchants/risk_management/cisp_overview.html

VISA Incident Response Information: http://usa.visa.com/merchants/risk_management/cisp_if_compromised.html?it=l2|/merchants/risk_management/cisp.html|If%20Compromised

MasterCard Security Site: http://www.mastercard.com/us/merchant/security/index.html

MasterCard PCI Manual: http://www.mastercard.com/us/wce/PDF/10172_MasterCard_PCI_Manual.pdf

American Express Security Requirements: https://www209.americanexpress.com/merchant/singlevoice/dsw/FrontServlet?request_type=dsw&pg_nm=pci&ln=en&frm=US

Discover article with levels and a link to their security program: http://www.paymentsnews.com/2009/01/discover-announ.html

JCB’s PCI Site: http://www.jcb-global.com/english/pci/index.html

With the decline in the current economy and expenses always rising, Cash Flow Plus would like to let merchants know that there are ways to obtain funds for your business to help you when you need that extra cash on hand.

Merchants using credit card processing systems can borrow as much as 125% of their average credit card sales for a 6-month period.  For example, if your business processes $10,000 in credit card sales per month, you can borrow as much as $12,500 to reinvest in your business or take care of other high-cost loans on your books. The loan is paid back by taking 25% of batches and is generally paid off in 6 months or less.

The benefits to borrowing against your credit card sales are several: you get access to immediate cash, as most loan checks are issued within 10 business days of application; there is no personal guaranty required; and exactly 25% of your credit card sales are collected as payback until the loan is paid off, whether you have high or low credit card volumes each month.

Contact us for more information!