The Merchant Services & Business Insider

This four minute video from PPC Hero shows you some simple steps you can take to grow your business through display marketing.

Strategies like this can help your business grow like the growth we have seen at Choice Merchant Services.

In business we are often faced with a decision on if we should find an expert, or an outside consultant to help us find the answer to our question of the day.  Sometimes these questions are significant to the future of our business.  Other times, the questions are important but not as significant.  Yet the answer as to when to find and expert and when not to may surprise you.  In this video Noreena Hertz gives us insight on how to know when to use experts and when not to.  Watch How to Use Experts & When Not To and learn.

This morning at 8 AM, my grandmother of 97, almost 98 years, passed away.  She had been suffering from the effects of a stroke in a nursing home for about 4 years.  Yet through it all, although human, she smiled, was a joy to be around, and had an enduring and very real faith in Jesus Christ. 

Yesterday, suddenly, she suffered a major stroke which put her unconscious.  Our family was called by the nursing home staff and we came to see her.  Her family came to see her and many of those out of the local area called to pray and tell her that they loved her. 

Around her deathbed were many members of her family who stayed with her for hours praying, talking to, and being with her.  During this time of prayer there were many Rosaries said, many Divine Mercy Chaplets prayed, the Anointing of the Sick, Litanies of the Saints, Prayers for the Dying, and reading of scripture.  We loved her deeply and we were very sure that God was there to protect her and bring her home.  I am also sure that her late husband of 20 years was there waiting for her as well, yearning to be with his beloved wife once again.

Yet, as I saw my near 98 year old grandmother lying in bed and struggling for life, I reflectively saw her as a little girl, skipping, jumping, and being an adorable and playful child.  Then I snapped back to the present moment, and I saw my grandmother covered in the love of her family and the faith that she had taught us through her example.  As it winded down to near 11 at night, quietly, and reflectively I kissed her forehead, thanked her for being a great mom to her kids and grandmother to her grandkids and I told her that I loved her – knowing this would probably be the last time that I would be able to do so.

As I drove home, a bit overwhelmed in emotion I reflected. 

First, I rejoiced in the love and faith that surrounded her as she lay dying.  As I talked with my wife when I got home, I told her that I hoped that when she died some day, I wanted nothing more for her than what my grandma had – to be surrounded by those that love her and those that are praying fervently for her. 

Second, her life made me want to give that gift of love and faith to a child, maybe a child without a Mom or Dad, because I knew that those gifts are the best gifts anyone can receive and my family is always there to give it in a deep and profound way.

Third, her dying moments taught me the same thing that she taught her kids, grandkids, and everyone around her – nothing is more important that faith & love.  If you have faith & love and nothing else – you have everything.

Thanks Grandma.  We love you.  We’ll see you soon.

Google Adwords is the most potent weapon a small business can use to grow its business through the use of advertising.   Why:

#1: The cost – no matter what your budget is – just $300/month or $25,000,000 per month – there is a way to advertise there.

#2 It’s simple to get started.  Just go to http://www.google.com/ads/adwords2/ and follow the prompts to get setup.  Your 1st campaign could be running within 20 minutes.

#3: You can tract the Return on Investment.  Simply paste the Google Conversion Code from your adwords account on your thank you page after someone fills out a lead form or makes a purchase online.  You can then know your exact Return on Investment.

#4: The Return on Investment is Usually Great.  The ROI from online marketing is usually much better than any other form of marketing you can do to grow your company.

The key is that as your AdWords account grows, you want to make sure you are spending your advertising dollars well there.  Once you are spending in excess of $5,000 per month in AdWords spend, you should partner with a leading online marketing firm like Fathom.  Then, no matter what your business whether you sell merchant services, merchant equipment, or business consulting you should see good results.

There is a simple fact that can explain how people get to the top of their field, the top of business, the top of sports – the top of anything.  So I ask you to look at the following names and ask yourself what they have in common.

George Washington
John Adams
Tim Tebow
Bill Walsh
Steve Jobs
Warren Buffet
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The answer:  Work Ethic

More than anything else these people have one thing in common.  They worked harder than just about anyone in their field.  The answer is in their success.  Work ethic got them ahead – despite many handicaps.

George Washington took a rag tag group of under paid rebels, with weak to no supplies and defeated the greatest armed forces in the history of the world as of 1776.

John Adams grew up dirt poor and worked so hard as to become one of the most influental people in history.

Tim Tebow worked his entire career harder than just about anyone to become great.

Bill Walsh took one of the worst NFL franchises in the history of football, and turned the San Francisco Forty-Niners into the best NFL sports franchises in history.  He traiend everyone within his organization on the Bill Walsh work-ethic.

Steve Jobs was up against the monopoly of Microsoft and through tireless innovation was able to grow Apple to be the dominant player of the future in 2011.

Warren Buffet was able to become the richest man in the world even through he came  from humble origions.  He did this by spending decades tirelessly teaching himself investing and learning from mentors while he took just about every penny he made and reinvested it back into his business.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was able to take an oppressed race and give them equal rights against a nation that hated him and black people simply becuase of the color of their skin.  He did this by working incessentanly through just about every kind of persecution a person can endure – including assisination – yet he still won.

So if you ever wonder why somone has so much and how they accomplished so much.  Look at their history and you will almost aways find work ethic as the #1 cause of their success.  If anyone tells you work ethic is not how to win – then you can pretty well ensure that they aren’t successful.

Finding the right merchant services provider that offers you a good price and gives you the tools you need to do merchant services processing fast and efficiently is not an easy task.

In this guide, you will find out 10 simple, yet important characteristics to look for in your merchant services processing partner.

Download A Guide to Merchant Services Processing: Finding the Right Merchant Services Solution For Your Company and find out the answers to questions such as:

• How do I know when I have a good deal on merchant services?
• How do I know which merchant services provider I should use?
• Can I really get free merchant equipment and free merchant services software?
• Which merchant services providers are trustworthy?
• Which merchant services solutions can fit my needs?

Download A Guide to Merchant Services Processing: Finding the Right Merchant Services Solution For Your Company.

Finding the right merchant services provider that offers you a good price and gives you the tools you need to do merchant services processing fast and efficiently is not an easy task.  In our new guide we give 10 simple characteristics to look for in your merchant services processing partner.

Download A Guide to Merchant Services Processing: Finding the Right Merchant Services Solution For Your Company.  On Monday we will be releasing this new guide to the general public.  Yet, since you are a loyal blog, Twitter or Facebook follower of The Merchant Services & Business Insider, we are giving you the full guide early! 

Download A Guide to Merchant Services Processing: Finding the Right Merchant Services Solution For Your Company and find out the answers to questions such as:

• How do I know when I have a good deal on merchant services?
• How do I know which merchant services provider I should use?
• Can I really get free merchant equipment and free merchant services software?
• Which merchant services providers are trustworthy?
• Which merchant services solutions can fit my needs?

Download A Guide to Merchant Services Processing: Finding the Right Merchant Services Solution For Your Company.

It was announced today that the Super Committee appointed by both houses of congress and both political parties have failed to cut  $1.2 trillion dollars in debt from our budget over 10 years.  That’s just $120 billion per year that they had to cut and they could not do it.  Pathetic!

Can we rely on our national leaders to get us out of the brink of economic meltdown as the Federal government piles trillions of dollars of debt on top of  trillions of dollars of debt?  Nope.  Apparently they are too busy doing nothing to actually get the job done.  So take matters into your own hands – grow your business and cut costs, that that you can do your part to help cut the national debt.  Here are 5 simple tips to grow the earnings of your business.

Tip #1: Use Internet marketing.  It is the lowest cost and highest ROI form of marketing and you can literally track your ROI to the penny.  In other words, you can tell if I put $1.00 in I get $10 in return.  Partner with an industry leading internet marketing firm.

Tip #2: Hire top performers.  The economy stinks.  That means that top talent very well may be underpaid or stuck in a bad compay.  Now is the time to implement the hiring techniques of Who and get top talent into your company to help take it to the next level.

Tip #3: Cut Wasteful Spending.  Merchants across the nation pay too much for merchant services processing, partner with a good merchant services company that gives you a low 1.05% rate and free merchant equipment.  It could save your company up to 40% per year in credit and debit card processing costs.

Tip #4: Farm Existing Accounts. Your existing customers are your easiest customers to grow revenue with.  Make sure you have additional quality products and services to offer your customers. If you don’t have them now, develop them.  Once you have them put together an aggressive plan to farm your clients and grow them into bigger clients.  Selling happy existing clients on something else of additional value is the easiest sale you will ever make.

Tip #5: Put a Client Retention Plan Into Place.  Build a bonus plan for your people that will reward them for improving client retention, as retention improves your growth will accelerate and so will your profitability.

On November 16th, Fox News broke an amazing news story Newt Gingrich is now the GOP front runner.  The former House speaker is at 23 percent, essentially tied for the lead with Romney, with 22 percent.  What are the top 3 lessons from this can we apply from this to business?

1) Credibility is key.  Rick Perry & Herman Cain lost their credibility within the past two weeks.  Herman Cain lost his credibility due to lack of character and Rick Perry lost his credibility due to being horribly unprepared for a debate.  In business, we develop credibility by operating our business with integrity and with simple and effective solutions to complex problems – then we make sure all of our target clients know about it.

2) If you lose face, you can recover, with time.  Newt Gingrich fell from grace when he slammed GOP darling Paul Ryan, then had his entire campaign staff quit, and had some bad press about his extravagant lifestyle.  With time he delivered intellectually sound arguments in a forceful way and when Rick Perry and Herman Cain fell flat, his past was pretty much forgotten.  In business, if we can consistently deliver great customer service, if we make a mistake we can recover by continuing to deliver great customer service.

3) Never give up.  Newt was considered down and out, yet he kept fighting and now he is back leading the pack.  In business, work hard and keep working hard and you will get ahead.

One of my favorite business mentors is Jack Welch.  He wrote a book called “Winning” which is great for any career oriented person, executive or CEO.  One of the points he stresses in book is the importance of having candor in the workplace.  Want to know more about how to have candor in the workplace and the power it can unleash?  Watch this video to hear Jack Welch, in his own words, talk about the greatest dirty little secret in business.