Financial payment systems have been going digital for the past 5 years and now has sped up since COVID. Unfortunately, so many small businesses are still behind in accepting all digital forms of payment that customers and vendors want to use and it’s hurting their company.
On The Small Business Radio Show this week, Kerry Hatch, President of Plastiq discusses how important and easy it is for small businesses to accept and pay with any form of digital payment for any customer or vendor.
Kerry was President at American Express Open who created the small business payments category and identified their importance to the American economy. Kerry said that American Express wanted to help this category since they were a powerful segment once you are able to communicate them.
Kerry Hatch of Plastiq on Digital Payments
While the landscape of the payments industry is changing, Kerry notes that there still are small business owners that only accept cash and checks. She cites Goldman Sachs that says while it costs $22 to process a check for a small business, 60% of them still accept it as a form of payment.
The shift toward digital payments has been hard for small business owners since many of them still use legacy processes. According to Kerry, small business owners have never had the same opportunity to pay by credit card to all their vendors as consumers always had because of the fee structure. Kerry notes Goldman Sachs’ prediction that $1 trillion in global value will be unlocked in the next decade through the modernization of B2B payments and financial systems.
This is why she got involved with Plastiq because with their service, small businesses can use their credit card where they want to and whenever they want to regardless of whether that company accepts credit cards. By being the digital payments advocate, Plastiq allows customers to pay small business owners using credit cards even if you don’t directly accept them.
Kerry says that by being able to use a credit card, a business can extend their cash flow by 30-45 days before that payment must be made. This is perfect for new companies that are starting out and have very little cash flow to get their product off the ground. Kerry adds that Plastiq also provides small businesses with the ability to alleviate significant up-front costs for production and inventory by “floating payments to us so that they’re able to see returns from sales before they’re payments are due.”
Listen to the entire interview with Kerry Hatch on The Small Business Radio Show.
Image: Kerry Hatch
This article, "How Your Small Business Can Accept Any Form of Digital Payment" was first published on Small Business Trends
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Small Business Radio Show, Khareem Sudlow
