It's Not One Saving, It's Several
Ask most business owners what they would change about the way they take cards and you get one answer: the rate. It is the number everybody argues over, and it is the one most owners assume is the only thing actually on the table. The equipment is what it is. The marketing is somebody else’s problem. You negotiate the rate and you live with the rest.
We would push back on that. We save a business money in several places rather than in one, and the rate is only the first of them. The equipment is the second. The marketing is the third. An owner who spends the whole conversation on the rate leaves the other two sitting there untouched — and those two are the ones that show up before you have taken a single payment.
So this is a short walk through all three, in plain terms, with no numbers attached to any of them. If you want the numbers for your own business, that is a conversation rather than a paragraph.
The Equipment Costs You Nothing
Start with the hardware, because it is the cost that arrives before you have taken a single payment.
To take a card at all you need a terminal: a reader at the counter, a handheld, or a screen that rings the sale up and takes the payment. Most businesses either buy that outright or lease it month by month, which means the outlay comes first and the sales come after. On a tight month that is the wrong way round, and it is often the reason an owner puts off a change that would have paid for itself.
With us, equipment is zero cost with a business account. The terminal and the kit your business needs to take cards costs you nothing to get started, so there is no outlay standing between you and the first sale.
Which piece you end up with is a separate question, and it is the one worth talking about. We are not tied to one brand, so the device gets chosen around how your business actually takes money. A counter with a queue needs something different from a food truck, and a restaurant with table service needs something different again. The conversation on a setup call is about what fits your counter, not about a price.
0% Fees With Cash Discount
The second place is the cost of taking the card itself, and this is the part owners usually want explained twice. Fair enough. It is worth understanding properly before you agree to anything.
On a conventional account, the cost of taking a card comes out of your revenue. You make a sale, and a slice of it goes to the processing side, so what you keep on that sale is a little less than what was rung up. With Cash Discount, the cost is handled through the program rather than taken out of your takings, which is why a business running one can say its card processing fees come to 0% — instead of paying a percentage of every sale.
At the counter, nothing about paying looks different to a customer. They see the total on the terminal the way they do anywhere else, they tap, and they go. The program is posted at the point of sale the way a business might post that it adds a charge for cards, so the pricing is visible rather than buried.
The one thing worth being careful about is how it is explained at your counter, because a member of staff who cannot answer the question in a sentence will feel put on the spot during a rush. We walk your team through that when we set you up, so nobody has to improvise.
What it comes to in your business depends on your numbers, and we would rather work those out with you than put a figure on a page. Send us a recent statement, or call and we will go through it with you.
Marketing That Doesn't Break The Budget
The third place is the one owners tend to skip, because marketing usually sounds like an expense rather than a saving. Done badly it is exactly that. Done properly, it is the difference between a good restaurant and a busy one.
The marketing we do is affordable, and 3 months free marketing is included when we set a restaurant up. What that period is for is the half of the job the payment side cannot do on its own: getting found.
For a restaurant it starts with a proper look at what you already have. We go through your website, which is what a diner lands on — usually on a phone, usually while deciding where to eat in the next half hour. We go through your Google Business Profile, which is the page most customers actually see before they choose: the hours, the phone number, the location, the photos, the reviews. And we go through your marketing performance, which is what has really been bringing people in rather than what was promised when it was sold to you.
From there the aim is simple, and it is the one every restaurant has: get found by the people who are already looking, and bring more of them through the door.
It is not a fixed package, and it is not the same thing run for everybody. Every restaurant is different, so we start by talking about where you are today and what you would like to change, and then we tell you honestly what we can do. If you run a restaurant you can start that conversation on its own — you do not have to be a payments client first.
Where To Start
Three places, then. Zero cost equipment, so the hardware costs you nothing to get started with a business account. 0% fees with Cash Discount, so your card processing fees come to 0% instead of a percentage of every sale. And 3 months free marketing, so a restaurant gets help getting found while it is being set up.
That is the whole of it. There is nothing hiding underneath those three, and no fourth saving waiting to be mentioned later.
The useful next step is your own numbers rather than ours. Call us, or send your details through the form on this site, and tell us how your business takes money today. If you are switching processors, one recent statement is all we need to start and we will go through it with you line by line. If you are taking cards for the first time, just tell us what you sell and how you take payment now. Either way you will get a straight answer, and there is no obligation to go further.
The takeaway
Most owners argue about the rate and leave the rest on the table. The three places we save a business money are the equipment, which costs you nothing to get started with a business account; the card fees, which come to 0% with Cash Discount instead of a percentage of every sale; and the marketing, which is affordable and free for a restaurant’s first three months. Send us your details and we will go through all three with you.
Read more about this on our Cash Discount Program page.