One of the most popular stories that our licensed funding specialists hear on a regular basis here at Synergy Merchant Services involves the nightmare that Canadian business owners go through in order to secure loans from their banks. Even though many of them have longstanding relationships with these banks, they apparently are still forced to go through a laundry list of requirements in order to even be approved for any money.

Especially in today’s economy, with it still searching for recovery from a global recession, banks have become less likely to approve Canadian businesses for loans than ever before. This has been documented a number of times on this blog, but it still seems to be something that business owners struggle with understanding.

They feel that if they have developed working relationships with banks, that they should count for something in their times of need. The truth is, however, banks are even less likely to provide money to those who actually need it. Instead, the more a business owner can prove that he or she doesn’t need the money, the better the chances are that he or she will be approved to get some. Weird, right?

NewYorkLife.com, the website of a New York-based insurance company, puts it this way: “Want to feel stupid, incompetent, and a bit foolish? That’s how some business owners describe themselves after meetings with lending institution loan officers. Like beggars, they complain, they must plead their cases, jump through hoops and just about put up their first-born child as collateral.”

Needless to say, it is difficult for business owners to get bank loans on both sides of the border. Securing a line of credit is becoming more and more commonly known to be a “frustrating ordeal”. As the site notes, it is often “hard for lenders and business owners to see eye to eye.”

As they say, “the only thing lenders care about is your ability to repay the money”. This is why collateral is often requested of a business owner trying to secure a loan. It is a bank’s way of saying that if you have any trouble paying them back, they will own something that belongs to you. The risk is placed on the shoulders of the business owner, not the lending institution.

This is why Synergy is so proud of its policy to receive a payment only once a business makes a sale. The numbers that matter to us the most are the ones that represent your average monthly credit and debit sales volume.

As NewYorkLife.com mentions however, “most lenders are number crunchers. They’ll want to study the figures. Put together a balance sheet or income statement and a summary business plan (description of why you want the money).” We still can’t understand why so many entrepreneurs go through all of this hassle.

Thankfully, many of our clients have the opportunity to add another story to their portfolio once they have received a quote for a merchant cash advance from Synergy. That, of course, being how simple and easy the process was and the fact that they are relieved that there are other options to attain working capital out there.

We accuse Synergy Merchant Services’ Vice President of Marketing, John Meloche every now and again of being a “gentle giant”. At 6′ 7″, John is obviously a big guy, but he loves to have a good time, often joking around with members of his staff and other associates at Synergy. But, you wouldn’t want to get him angry!

Apparently, Toronto’s Wildfire Steakhouse & Wine Bar didn’t get that memo. Getting a head start on Valentine’s Day last night, John decided to take his fiancée Kathryn out for a romantic dinner. In order to make sure that everything went smoothly for the couple’s plans for the evening, John called ahead to book an 8:00pm reservation for the swank eatery.

He was sure that he and Kathryn were in for a treat. Why wouldn’t he? The restaurant’s website provided a vivid description of what their patrons would be in store for: “At Wildfire Steakhouse & Wine Bar, we bring you the very best of hardwood charcoal-inspired cooking to offer exquisite food and exceptional service in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. We are committed to providing a memorable dining experience to each guest and we make your satisfaction our top priority.”

To John’s dismay, when he and his soon-to-be-bride arrived promptly by 8 for their reservation, they were told that they would have to wait by the bar while their table was being prepared.  A full twenty minutes later, John and Kathryn were finally seated. In an attempt to not let the minor setback in satisfaction ruin the evening, the couple went ahead and began to order their appetizers, drinks and main courses.

If you know John, you know that he’s hungry…a lot. So keeping the big man waiting while he salivates in anticipation of his meal is not exactly a wise choice. Someone should have mentioned that to the staff at Wildfire Steakhouse & Wine Bar. A more than perturbed John didn’t take his first bite of food until minutes past 9:00pm. We’re talking about his appetizer, by the way!

As Kathryn excused herself from the table for a moment, John couldn’t help but stop his waiter, who barely even made an attempt to attend to the couple as they waited patiently to be served for over half an hour. When asked where his food was, the waiter simply replied that the restaurant was having a busy night. Still without food, John questioned when it would be arriving at his table.

The waiter promptly presented an opportunity to speak to a manager. This manager, however, wasn’t much help. A meager “sorry” was offered, but nothing more. Thankfully, the food found its way to the table soon after. But by 9:30pm, John and Kathryn had already spent over 90 minutes in a restaurant that purports to offer “unparalleled service and breathtakingly intimate ambiance (that) set the stage for an unforgettable evening.”

Well, the evening was unforgettable alright. John wholeheartedly admits that the food was “absolutely fantastic”, but the wait to receive it was “ridiculous”. Worse, however, was the indifferent service that was offered to the couple. When your customer service is advertised as “exceptional” and “unparalleled”, it really better live up to its billing. If not, chances  are your customers will not return.

It cannot be stressed enough that excellent customer service is the key to running a good restaurant. That being said, John is more than open to accept the invite of any restaurant owner in the Greater Toronto Area for dining at their establishments.

He will only be too happy to offer his honest opinion about your restaurant’s food and service. He has the belly to prove it!

In order to ensure that a Canadian business owner is eligible to participate in Synergy Merchant Services’ unique cash advance program, there is one very important criteria that must be met. The business must accept credit and/or debit cards as methods of payments at their locations. The program is based squarely on a company’s ability to process Visa, MasterCard and/or Interac transactions.

In this day and age, it actually amazes us that there are still merchants out there who do not have a relationship with a point-of-sale processor and therefore do not accept any of these cards as forms of payment. Interestingly, The QMI Agency reports today that the use of plastic is only becoming increasingly popular in North America.

In an article posted on The Toronto Sun’s website, it was revealed that debit cards are especially becoming more widely used for everyday purchases throughout the continent. Says the report: “Debit cards are increasingly propping up the bottom lines of credit card giants MasterCard and Visa, reflecting a shift in spending habits…MasterCard reported a 25% jump in fourth-quarter profits.”

The article, in fact, goes on to note that the use of MasterCard debit cards are increasing globally. The credit card giant reports worldwide purchase transactions of $2.8 billion US last year – a 16.5 per cent jump from the year previous.

Patricia Preston, head of MasterCard’s U.S. debit product management and development division reveals that consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable with plastic. She notices that they generally tend to use debit cards for everyday purposes while credit cards are most often used for larger ticket items. The use of cash and cheques for most purchases is slowly becoming a thing of the past.

She explains that debit cards give consumers a sense of control over their spending as they acknowledge that it teaches them to only spend what they can afford. Meanwhile, as successful as MasterCard continues to be, its biggest rival Visa also reports major profits boosted by debit card use. A 33 per cent spike in profits was reported for their latest quarter.

Visa CEO Joseph Saunders agrees that a shift towards greater debit card use has helped to foster this growth. As The QMI Agency reveals: “Visa debit transactions rose 17% in the quarter that ended Dec. 31 compared to the year-ago period. Debit purchases now make up 54% of total U.S. payment volume.”

At present, Visa maintains a larger debit card presence than MasterCard although its competition remains confident that it is cutting into Visa’s market share. Nevertheless, this is all very good news for merchants who accept Visa and MasterCard as forms of payment in their establishments.

Of course, Interac or debit card usage in Canada continues to be very popular. We strongly advise any merchant not currently accepting plastic to look into getting a payment processor as soon as possible. Your acceptance of plastic will greatly increase your sales and obviously allow you to then take advantage of Synergy’s merchant cash advance program.

Get swiping!

Last year, the Canadian economy took a great hit due to the global recession. As a result, the Canadian news media was wrought with stories about job losses, bankrupt businesses and financial despair for a good portion of the population. With the turn of the decade however, the nation appears more optimistic than it has been in over a year about the future of Canada’s economic status.

The Synergy Merchant Services Blog has kept on top of a number of surveys that were conducted over the course of 2009 that took a look at the feelings among Canadian business owners and their views about either the decimation or growth of their staff. Today, the QMI Agency reported on The Toronto Sun’s website that small businesses are becoming increasingly optimistic about their hiring practices in the first half of 2010.

According to the report: “Three-quarters of business owners in this country said staffing levels will remain unchanged over the next six months and another 22% plan to hire in near term. Only 4% plan to slash employees in the first half on 2010.” It goes on to note that employers intend on investing more in their businesses this year as well.

The success of small businesses in Canada is no small deal. The QMI Agency reveals that small business makes up a whopping 98 per cent of Canada’s 2.3 million businesses. They are, says the report, “the backbone of the national economy”.

The Synergy Merchant Services team remains proud of the fact that they have worked diligently to ensure that numerous small business owners throughout the nation have our innovative merchant cash advance program to thank for assisting the growth of their companies. We are even prouder of the fact that we have had the pleasure of developing strong working relationships with Canadian entrepreneurs who are such huge parts of what drives the national economy.

Derrick Ragland, the global head of Business Banking at HSBC acknowledges the importance of small businesses throughout the world in the strengthening of the world’s financial situation after the recent crisis.

Said Ragland: “There is a rebalancing of the world economy, and emerging markets are becoming more and more important as a driver of growth,” said Derrick Ragland, global head of Business Banking at HSBC…Small businesses are at the heart of this growth, driving local job creation, investment and productivity.”

Synergy provides working capital to small to medium-sized businesses all over Canada. If you process Visa, MasterCard and Interac transactions at your location, we would love the opportunity to offer you a free, no obligation quote for a merchant cash advance in the hopes that we may assist your business in helping to grow both the national and global economy that much more.

The first step to receiving a merchant cash advance is the qualification process. This is one of the most evident signs that Synergy Merchant Services is nothing like a traditional bank. There is no need for you to get a new haircut, put on a sharp suit with shiny shoes and walk into our offices for an appointment that you needed to book a week in advance.

Instead, you simply need to spend a couple of minutes on the phone informing one of our great staff members about a few simple details. They include how many years you have been in business, which company you process your credit and debit card transactions with and what your average monthly credit and debits sales volume is.

That’s it! Now if you have been in business for at least one year and make a minimum of $5000 monthly through your Visa, MasterCard and Interac transactions, you are qualified to receive a free quote from one of our licensed funding specialists. Notice we didn’t even mention who your process with? That is because we are still happy to offer you a quote with no obligation to participate in the program regardless of who provides you with your point of sale terminal.

The quote involves you faxing in a copy of your monthly merchant statements provided to you by your processor. In fact, our funding specialists do not even require entire statements but instead are only looking for the summary pages. This is generally the first page of each month’s statement which lists the totals of your credit and debit transactions for the month.

Once this information is received, our funding specialists will be able to determine all of the important specifics about your merchant cash advance. Your quote entails three detailed pieces of information. Firstly, you will be informed of exactly how much of a cash advance your company is approved for. All companies are different, and as such we may be able to approve you for anywhere between $5000 and $125,000 depending on how much you process each month in credit and debit sales. We generally offer up to 110% of your monthly average.

Secondly, you will be informed about precisely how much the cash advance costs. We provide you with what is called a “discount fee”. In other words, you will be informed about the exact cost of the cash advance in an actual dollar amount. Notice again, another significant difference between Synergy and your bank? There is no accruing interest rate, so therefore your balance will never get higher.

Finally, we come to what we consider the best part about our program. And that is how you pay it back. You will be told your “withholding percentage”. This is not an additional cost, it is not a charge and it is not a rate of any kind. Very simply, this refers to the portion of your future credit and debit card receivables that will be used to pay back your cash advance.

There is no fixed repayment schedule. Therefore, you will never be considered late on a payment, avoiding the possibility of late fees or accruing interest charges. To make payments, all you have to do is continue with business as usual. We only get paid when you make a sale.

With this information, we are confident that you will be able to make an informed decision about what source of extra capital is right for your company. If you are looking to grow your business through expansion, renovations, advertising or the purchasing of new equipment and/or inventory, Synergy’s merchant cash advance program may just be what you have been looking for.

Having developed great relationships with numerous business owners all throughout Canada over the past several years, there is a trait that we have come to realize binds them all. Owners of small to medium-sized business are very detailed, determined and diligent when it comes to making successes out of their companies. They are all bound by “The Three D’s”, if you will.

In yesterday’s edition of The Toronto Star, however, an article highlighted the fact that there is a missing “D” in the minds of business owners. Apparently, typical entrepreneurs generally have mapped out each aspect of their businesses with the lone exception of what they will do when they are done. (The fourth “D”, we suppose).

Interestingly, most business owners do not contemplate their retirement. While they are able to make crucial decisions about their businesses at present, it appears as if most have no plans for what will take place with their businesses once they retire. Notably, a BMO survey, that was released last fall, found that half of small business owners over the age of 45 plan on retiring in the next ten years.

Says Tina Di Vito, director of retirement strategies for BMO Financial Group: “If you ask a business owner about their business plan, or where they want to take their company, they’ll be able to explain it because they have to have that information prepared when they go to the bank for financing…But if you ask that same business owner about his or her plans for retirement, they probably would not even have started thinking about it.”

It makes one wonder how entrepreneurs neglect to contemplate what will happen when they leave the businesses that they have worked so hard to create, build and help flourish. The survey found that an astounding “81 per cent of owners do not have a formal succession plan in place (and) as many as 40 per cent said they plan to just shut down the company when it’s time to retire.”

Di Vito notes that this type of improper planning can have drastic effects on the economy. The closing down of businesses, she says, can severely impact their respective communities. Of course, her recommendation is for business owners to begin seriously thinking about their successors once they retire.

Needless to say, owners should consider the amount of time, energy and money that they have invested into their businesses so that they do not let it all go to waste. They are encouraged to build an advisory team to help with both the personal and business side of retirement, perhaps utilizing the expertise of a lawyer, accountant or financial planner.

Clearly, there are very important decisions for business owners approaching their retirement ages to make. They include whether or not the company will be sold, passed on to family members, split into pieces or dissolved altogether. Such planning is crucial and as such, should not be taken lightly.

With the recent tragedy that is taking place in Haiti, both Canadian citizens and businesses have been donating generously towards helping those in the impoverished nation who so desperately need it. Since last Tuesday’s earthquake, donations have been made by Canadians from all over the country to help the Caribbean nation with the relief effort.

And while donating money towards this cause is a very noble and generous action, may business owners rightly consider the benefits that such donations may have for their businesses. In a December 2009 article in The Toronto Star, the many benefits associated with small businesses giving to charity were discussed.

According to the article, experts believe that companies who donate to charities are not only generous but are also making good business sense. Becky Reuber, professor of strategic management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, believes that donating can raise a small company’s profile in the community.

“You might get some media coverage from it, which would bring attention to your business,” says Reuber, noting that involvement in the community can allow small business owners to gain access to networks that “could play off…later on.”

Boosting employee morale is another benefit to giving a portion of your profits to charities, according to Eileen Fischer, a marketing professor who holds the entrepreneurship and family enterprise chair at York University’s Schulich School of Business.

Says Fischer: “There’s a sense that employees want to feel they are part of something that matters to the world.” She adds that creating relationships with charities can “make the workplace a much more meaningful place for employees. So it may be easier to attract employees and…keep employees.”

Fischer also believes that donating to worthy causes can help set your company apart from its competitors. Supporting non-profit organizations, she says, may help reinforce your brand.

The Toronto Star article notes that some business owners have personal reasons for donating to charities which are generally the most important reasons to do so. Charles Bybelezer, president of S.I.R. Waters International, donates a portion of his earnings from ELLE Water to the Canadian Cancer Society. He does so in support of breast cancer research because his mother and grandmother are breast cancer survivors.

Meaning “she” in French, ELLE water bottles are decorated with pink ribbons which are associated with breast cancer awareness. Five percent of all proceeds from the sale of these bottles are designated towards his charitable donations.

It is never a bad idea to consider donating a portion of your proceeds to a charity of your choice. Needless to say, the benefits of doing so are plentiful. For both personal and professional reasons, it may be one of the most important business decisions you can make.

We like to be asked questions. If it’s one thing we love here at Synergy Merchant Services, it’s to be asked as many questions as possible by curious business owners from all over Canada. What better way to give us the opportunity to discuss our unique and innovative merchant cash advance program?

Have you ever heard the expression that “there is no such thing a dumb question”? Well, we firmly believe that around here. That’s because we recognize that most entrepreneurs and consumers alike think first of a bank when considering getting themselves some extra money. So when a merchant cash advance company comes along and reveals that it is no longer necessary to go to a bank in order to get money, it is understandable that there is some skepticism.

We more than welcome the challenge. In fact, our licensed Funding Specialists take great delight in the many fascinating questions that they are asked. The most popular perhaps is “How can you be giving out money with no interest?”. Well, of course, we recommend that you give us a call so that one of our talented staff members can fill you in and give you all the details on how our merchant cash advance program works.

But since we love this question, here’s our answer: Synergy charges no interest rate on a merchant cash advance because unlike a bank, the money we give our customers is NOT a loan. Instead, it is a purchase of a merchant’s future credit and debit transactions. It is a payment from us to them. It is not borrowed money.

Of course, it isn’t free money either! Instead of having an accruing interest rate, we charge a one-time discount fee that simply represents the total cost of the cash advance. As a result, our clients may rest assure that their balances will never get higher as nothing grows on top of their balances over time, regardless of how long it takes for the cash advance to be paid back.

“So how is it paid back?”. Another great question. Perhaps our favourite. This question gives us the opportunity to divulge what we believe is the BEST thing about our program. Merchant cash advances are paid back through a small percentage of a merchant’s future credit and debit card sales. If no sales are made, no payments are made either. We only get paid when the merchant makes a sale.

That way, our customers have the peace of mind in knowing that they will never be late on a payment. In addition, they will never have to make payments that they cannot afford. There are, of course, so many other questions that we are asked as a result of skepticism. With merchant cash advances having been in the Canadian marketplace for only a few years, we know that business owners across the country are still getting used to this relatively new concept.

But that’s just fine by us. We love the questions. So keep them coming! Give us a call today and ask away. You may just find that a merchant cash advance is the ideal source of extra capital that your business is looking for.