Admiration is often heaped upon Female Submission Wrestlers and Session Providers because they are risk takers and travel the world.
Another reason might be due to the fact that many of them are small business owners.
A unique company with a simple name and dynamic vision is making life easier for both the proprietor and customer.
“If you open up the mind, the opportunity to address both profits and social conditions are limitless. It’s a process of innovation.”… Jerry Greenfield
Have you herd of Square Inc.?
Square, Inc. is a financial services, merchant services aggregator and mobile payment company based in San Francisco, California.
The innovative company markets several software and hardware payments products, including Square Register and Square Reader, and has expanded into small business services such as Square Capital, a financing program, and Square Payroll.
Square Register allows individuals and merchants in the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia to accept offline debit and credit cards on their iOS or Android smartphone or tablet computer.
The application software (“app”) supports manually entering the card details or swiping the card through the Square Reader, a small plastic device that plugs into the audio jack of a supported smartphone or tablet and reads the magnetic stripe. On the iPad version of the Square Register app, the interface resembles a traditional cash register.
Square was co-founded by Twitter creator Jack Dorsey.
Mr. Dorsey also serves as chief executive officer and Sarah Friar serves as chief financial officer.
Square’s office is located on Market Street in San Francisco. Square has more than 1000 employees.
On March 24, 2016 the New York Times reported, “Square has long pitched itself to small businesses as a one-stop shop for processing customers’ credit cards. Now the company wants to help get more of those customers in the door.
On Wednesday, Square announced a new integration with Facebook. Under the integration, small businesses that use Square to process payments can buy and target Facebook advertising using Square’s software. Square will make subscription fees off the new product.”
On March 21, 2016, another market watch publication fastcompany.com shared, “It’s rare for any startup to have as symbiotic a relationship with a single hardware device as Square has had with its credit-card reader. The original version, which debuted in 2009, democratized credit-card acceptance by building a magnetic-stripe reader into a tiny square gizmo that plugged into a smartphone’s headphone jack. Combined with Square’s app and payment-processing service, which charged a flat rate per transaction, the reader let even the smallest of small businesses easily take plastic for the first time.”
As of March 2013, Square provides its magnetic stripe card readers to users for free.
Square charges $99 for Square Stand and $29 for its chip-based Square Reader. The Square app is also freely downloadable from the App Store and the Google Play Store.
It appears their desire to move forward as an innovative change merchant still burs hot.
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”….. Steve Jobs
The consensus is that small businesses can benefit from the move because Facebook ads bought through Square’s platform are directly connected to sales activity and data, Square said.
This will allow business owners to understand whether their Facebook ads are working effectively to attract new and repeat customers.
The media appears to be impressed with their efforts.
What are some of their customers saying about their experiences using their product?
Some interesting experiences are shared at their site squareup.com.
Here is one.
Lindsay and Kallie Wesley graduated from college into an economy where no one was hiring. The sisters put their heads together and realized they could execute their own creative vision. They thought it would take years to build a business plan, but a beautiful little space opened up in Tampa, Florida, and they decided to dive in head first.
Juxtapose was born, and now they sell everything from women’s clothing to accessories, artwork, and home furnishings.
Making it easy
When they first opened, the sisters used a different point-of-sale system. They say it was confusing and expensive. “We didn’t know that we had signed on two merchant processing accounts when we had one store. We were paying double the fees and we never even knew until we went to go cancel.”
They were canceling their account because their old POS went down during the holidays, their busiest time of year. They describe Square as “really user friendly. They do a great job of making everything super-simple.” Taking payments, training employees, getting paid—“it’s super-straightforward. Square feels like a partner in our business.”
“Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.”…. William Pollard
Once again here is a testament to Square’s continual need to improve.
Kallie appreciates that Square is continually developing new tools that help make running Juxtapose easier. “They’re evolving with us rather than being this stagnant point-of-sale system. They launch new features and you realize they’re going be timesavers. So we’re kind of growing together.”
Kallie and Lindsay enjoyed a successful three years in Tampa, and they wanted to expand to a new location in St. Petersburg. The only question was how to finance the new store. They went to banks thinking that their sales history would be enough to earn a small business loan, but they were turned away. Then they were offered a Square Capital cash advance.
The pair accepted the offer at 6:00 p.m. and the money was in their bank account the next morning. Lindsay likes that they don’t “have to write a check back. It just automatically pays back on its own. I never have to think about it. I just do business as usual and go about my day. It’s not a bill owed.”
Kallie appreciates Square’s confidence in Juxtapose. “They were saying ‘We’ve seen your growth and we believe in you and here’s some capital.’ So it was awesome. It allowed us to have more employees, tailor our buying, do the build out, and, yeah, open the second store.” Lindsay agrees. “To have someone believe in our business besides the two of us is huge.”
Welcome to the world of Square Inc.
As your world continues to evolve and your business needs expand, you may have just been introduced to your partner of the future.
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Sources: brainyquote.com, Wikipedia, fciwomenswrestling2.com, FCI Elite Competitor, photos thank you Wikimedia Commons.
https://squareup.com/stories/rire-boutique
https://squareup.com/stories/juxtapose-apparel-and-studio
http://www.fastcompany.com/3057852/startup-report/the-design-challenge-behind-squares-new-reader
