Thursday, August 9, 2012

Business Even When it's Pouring Rain

Picture Courtesy of Sandusky Creations


Good Dreary Rainy Afternoon to my Detroiters and Michiganders. I certainly hope that in spite of the rain that today has been a productive day for you all, I know that it has been for me.

Picture Courtesy of Wikipedia
Today I went out in the pouring rain I must reiterate and did some follow-ups and some new drops. For those of you that do not know; drops are when you walk into a business during your prospecting. Today was interesting and this is why; It as previously stated is storming here in Detroit but I went out any way. It would have been really easy to sit here at home on my do nothing and do nothing but that's not where my heart is. Financial goals can not be reached if you do not work. So I did some minor work and I received some leads for a few weeks ahead of this time.

Picture Courtesy of Cartoon Stock
Now that is where demographics take place, I went and prospected an area of Detroit that population is Arabic. It is summer so therefore I was met with I say 98% of those drops where the owners are out of town. A lot of foreign Entrepreneurs here go back and forth from here to their Home Land. So I have a few follow-ups to complete in two weeks time. Even the business owners native to Africa here are away on vacation. Even though today I made no appointments it was still a good day because I still received times to follow-up with business owners. See, in this kind of business you have to search for the positive, for people like me who are naturally optimistic and upbeat that's no hard task at all. Put me in the middle of a hail storm and I will look around and the first thing to come to mind will be something positive. Life is all about what you choose to harp on and make it about. Life's to short to give away energy to the negative. Instead I like to feed off of positive energy, it makes life much more worth living.

Picture Courtesy of G3 Associates
On the other hand I did close a business owner today. For those of you that aren't aware; close in the selling sense means the individual you were presenting to chose to purchase your product. See if I had never gone out I would not have an appointment on Tuesday at 1pm to go and write up the application. This client was and wasn't easy to come by. The client said that she needed three days which I told her, " that is perfect " I'd even give her four. She was apprehensive because business is slow and she needs her money from her  processing next day and not in 48 hours. She pondered and pondered and kept looking at my business card saying she would give me a call. This is where you have to learn to read people and judge the situation. I sat there watching her think at times looking out the window and listening to the gospel music she has playing in her establishment. She got up a few times walked away and came back. And then she told me okay I will go with you, I'll give this a try. Her reason, " You told me the truth, you didn't lie to me telling me like the others that I can get my money next day when I can't." This is very important, honesty, always be honest with your clients. On yesterday when I talked to her she kept saying next week next week you'll come back with the answers to my questions, I repeated to her no I will stop in tomorrow with what you want to know. And even though it was pouring raining this morning I went to her today as I said I would. I had all of her questions answered that I told her HONESTLY I didn't know the answers to on yesterday. And HONESTY got me my client, and HONESTY will keep her. I can't stress enough how vital it is to your business for you to be honest. Word of mouth is the fastest way for news to spread so don't mess up your name by being dishonest.

Picture Courtesy of Urban Oasis
Another tip for you, put a picture of yourself with your best smile on your business card. Every time she looked at my business card I saw her eyes venture over to my face which is the same picture on this profile. I have gotten very positive feedback from this business card. People love a bright smile. Plus another advantage I have with her is that she is old enough to be my grandmother and I am young and look young so I remind older Business Owners of their grand children and their children when they were my age. Entrepreneurs want to see others succeed especially young people trying to make a living. So know that that is one of your advantages given you are in your twenties and early thirties. If not your advantage is that you are more experienced in life and therefore may be more grounded. We all have advantages and when you find that you are at a disadvantage in a certain area then find someone with the advantage and pair with them. No one gets any where without team work.

Picture Courtesy of Super Stock
Also make it your business to take some friends to your clients to shop or eat depending on what kind of establishment it is. Business owners really like that of course :-).

I hope that this helps somewhat with your closing ratios and your business all together.

Have a very productive rest of your Thursday.

Adrienne Johnson
North American Bancard
ALJ.CreditProcessing@gmail.com
Subject Line: Processing Inquiry
facebook.com/aljscreditprocessing

Business Ceasing the Day August 8, 2012

Picture Courtesy of Tree Service Los Angeles


Good Afternoon Ladies and Gents it has been a few days. I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend and productive week thus far.

Picture Courtesy of Detroit, MI Homes
Yesterday was a most lovely day here in Detroit, MI. The sun was shinning it was nice and warm but not too warm; a very good day to be outside making things happen.

Picture Courtesy of Johnston First GradeBe a happy bug
Business wise for me it was a good day, I did seven drops beyond my goal which is great. For those of you that do not know; drops are when you walk into a business while out prospecting. In this business unlike when I was in insurance sells even the no's are pleasant and the business owners are actually uplifting. So for those who may be afraid to hear the word no or may be afraid that you are bugging the people you are dropping in to see; know that a lot of times ( even when I was selling insurance now that I think about it ) business owners will thank-you for dropping by, wish you a good day or a blessed day, tell you you have a cute smile, and are genuinely thankful that you walked into their business offering them a service. Things in the business to business sells world aren't that bad, at least not in my demographic.

Also, one thing to remember is, as I am running into this quite a bit, to make a note of all the Entrepreneurs that share with you that they just switched and that you should check back in a year or two or three when their contract might be up. These owners are saying when the time is right I will consider you, this means you also need to set a reminder that in half of a year or half of two years send a flyer with your business card  reminding them of you. Don't let yourself be forgetable because when the time comes if you have been doing what they call a drip campaign when the person is ready to look at other companies you will be one of the first people to come to mind. We must not only prepare our schedules and income for next week but also for next year and further on down the line.

My results of yesterday

Picture Courtesy of Vertical Response
  • I procured 5 appointments.
  • 7 Follow-ups
  • 2 to 3 I just switched but get back to me in a year or closer to when my new contract will expire.
  • 1 I just renewed again check with me in three years when my contract is up. Now am I going to wait a full three years? Of course not. As previously mentioned for such potential clients I will be doing a drip campaign so that they will remember me.
  • 3 Are processing with family members. For such responses just offer the free analysis and let them know that you will give them your rate for their agent to match. Let them know that if they can not match the rate that you would be willing to talk to them about coming over to your processing company as an agent so that they can get the lower rate. Now is all of this in vain? Of course not, if the merchant decides they want to do so then you ask for two referrals and that is it. You make a good name for yourself and get business still out of the deal. It's a win win.
  • All of the other merchants simply weren't interested and that's perfectly fine.

Picture Courtesy of Zazzle
That is 17 good responses out of 27 drops. That's not bad at all.

A word for you to remember is; look at the positive and feed off of that energy. Never let unfriendly merchants get you down and remember that even a no CAN be positive. Also, ALWAYS ALWAYS be kind and smile. AND ALWAYS DO WHAT YOU SAY YOU ARE GOING TO DO!

That's all for now have a productive Thursday Afternoon.

Adrienne Johnson
North American Bancard
ALJ.CreditProcessing@gmail.com
Subject Line: Processing Inquiry
facebook.com/aljscreditprocessing

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Business August 2,2012- Conquering Your Fears

Picture Courtesy of Revue


Good Evening Ladies and Gents,

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thursday.

Picture Courtesy of The Great Start House
Today I got off to a great start. I woke up at 6am on the dot just as planned and was 22 minutes ahead of  schedule the whole morning. I got out of the house on time, I got into my car, I started up my car and drove off. At this point going through my mind is, " wow I'm actually about to do this." Well about half way to my first destination my broken car window decide to fall down. Now the fear of having my car stolen while I was out prospecting made it all too easy to turn back around, well at least that is what I would choose to believe if I believed in lying to myself. Honestly my fears are; stumbling over my words, or being choked up saying nothing at all, and bugging the business owners. These are things that will just have to be conquered by just walking in and blurting it out, then telling my mouth to slow down so my mind can catch up, and going oh that wasn't that bad, lol. Now have I done this before yes a few times but just like when I started singing in front of medium sized to large size crowds the fear was always there. That fear I did conquer so I know that this one I will conquer too.

How do I plan to do this??? Prayer and Denouncing those demons. We all fear something. Business owners fear people like me whose job it is for a living to walk into their businesses and offer them better services and prices. The fear is not us, it's the fear of making the wrong decision and being taken for a ride to victim-ville.

In other news...

Picture Courtesy of Barnatalent
I had a training today at 1pm that I attended that taught us how to make a Marketing Campaign using Google Documents. This training was awesome and I learned how to do something I've been wanting to learn how to do since the beginning of this week, how to put formulas into a spreadsheet. In this campaign lies four different campaign types; Walk-In Campaign, Telemarketing Campaign, E-mail Campaign, and a Website/Blog Campaign. In these campaigns you have preset numbers which are your goals, under the presets you have Actuals. Actuals are the fields where you put in what you have actually done. The Campaigns also predict your sells outcome. Of course you have to put in the formulas to do this, your formulas are your closing ratios. When starting out you can make a prediction of this, once you have been out for an entire week you can change the formulas to fit what your actual ratios are. As can be seen on my blog regarding Goals my campaign was extremely aggressive. I shared my Marketing Campaign with my Sells Mentor who has been in this business for years and told him to make changes where he sees fit and I would adhere to them since he knows what he is talking about. He did make changes and he explained them in a very encouraging manor. Here is exactly what he said

 "I always love an ambitious plan!  Let me give you a few numbers that may help you to develop numbers that are more achievable.  First of all, you can usually make a maximum of 3 good quality contacts per hour and there 9am to 4pm is about the only time you can make these contacts since most business owners are either unavailable or not interested in speaking after 4pm.  So, that leaves you with 7 hours per day to do prospecting.  If you use the early morning and evenings to do your organization and administration tasks as well as do your installs and follow up with clients, this means you can meet roughly 20 new business owners per day.
The other two adjustments you will need to make is that first of all, since you are starting from scratch and have to build up your pipeline it may take 3 to 4 days to get your first sale and then after that it will be more steady and also, if you are making a sale every day, keep in mind that this will take some of your prime prospecting time away from you which means less hours and less contacts as your customer base grows. 

I made a few revisions so let me know what you think of these.  If you can acheive these goals you will be one of my top agents, probably in the top 2 or 3 for the month.  I just changed the daily tracker tab so you can make adjustments on the other tabs as needed.

Thanks for sharing this and I hope you have a great day!"

Picture Courtesy of Wiki Motive
As I previously stated he's been in this business a lot longer than I have so I am going to listen. That's one thing that will make you an outstanding business owner, your ability to listen.

I want to thank-you all for taking the time out to listen to me.

My Strengths: Negotiating the best deal for you that I can, Giving you great Savings on your services and providing you with more knowledge than you might care to know but need to know.

So if you would like to request a FREE Credit Card Statement Analysis please do not hesitate to contact me.

Adrienne Johnson
ALJ.CreditProcessing@gmail.com
Subject Line: Processing Inquiry
facebook.com/aljscreditprocessing

 Receive a free phone swipe for credit card processing at www.phoneswipe.com/?source=21970.2



Wednesday, August 1, 2012

August 1, 2012 - Taking time to Gear up for August

Picture Courtesy of Net Animations



Good Afternoon,

Picture Courtesy of Oilers Nation
I hope everyone reading this had a most wonderful day.

My day started out really late. I had a lot of problems sleeping last night. The animals kept waking me up and then people getting up for work at 3:30am didn't help the situation either. But though I woke up late I was able to get some things accomplished.

I will be very honest with you, the hardest thing to do is work for yourself. Much discipline is needed to work for yourself and I am taking steps to add more discipline to my life. Ways that I do that is by scheduling. Now lets be honest when discipline is something you lack it's hard to follow a schedule that you are responsible for putting together yourself. I am doing good with adding structure to my days and discipline to my life in this area.

Like today for instance. I had a 9 o'clock phone appointment this morning that I kept and called at 9 o'clock on the dot. Now that is always something I have been good with, keeping appointments. Getting up and out to schedule appointments to be able to keep lol, not so much. But that's okay. We all have things that we need to work on and there are many ways to improve in these areas.

Picture Courtesy of Cartoon Stock
  • One way, accountability. Make yourself accountable to someone else. I am making myself accountable to the world by this blog.
  • Two, find out what motivates you. What motivates me options, no money means no options, have money and you have a myriad of options.
  • Three, find out what distracts you and "CUT IT OUT."  {For instance, Me, I put my friends over anything besides a scheduled business meeting, so if I get a phone call or a text and end up in a conversation ( which we know for us women and some men can be lengthy lol ) it throws my whole day off. So I am making during the day no personal text or calls time. I'm very easily distracted. It's a bad thing but it's a good thing to know this about myself so I can do what I need to do to make sure I don't get distracted. I am a person that is very easy to talk to so people get caught up with me on the phone, so I have this problem even when I'm talking to the people at corporate lol. Which is why I am not going to be talking to them until after 7 pm as well. Which is great because they are in the office until 9pm mostly and whatever is not addressed by phone I can shoot an e-mail. I have time scheduled for every morning Mon-Fri to check and respond to e-mails.}

Picture Courtesy of Cartoon Stock
Now I know in my previous blog post, posted the very last day in July, I said that I would be working two weekends out of every month. Well after making my calendar today and having no personal time at all during the week starting August 2, 2012, I decided that my time on the weekend is best spent catching up with friends and family, this includes spending time with my Fiance. I'm getting married July 2014 :-). Don't worry I have time scheduled at the end of each day, even on the weekends to come here and talk about my day as well as some other things that I think you should know or that I just would like to share.







Picture Courtesy of Odyssey
To better my chances of getting out and "pounding the pavement" as we say in business to business sells, I have made a very anal schedule. My schedule tells me everything I need to do from the time I wake up until I lay my head back down. Yes that means when I shower, brush my teeth, put on clothes, even making breakfast, a certain time to eat it, and yes I have the time scheduled to throw away the contents from breakfast. Seems extreme, IT IS EXTREME. Desperate times call for desperate measures and I need to fix me lol. I use google calendar and have all scheduled times set to send a reminder to my telephone via text from anywhere between 1 and 3 minutes within me having to switch tasks. My relax days and time all to myself during the weekend is also in my schedule.

You know they say it takes 21 days to form a new habit. I am going to be on this tight schedule for the next six months. Lets just say I have a lot of things I need to take care of. After six months I will relax my schedule, which just means cutting down my business hours to about 6, 7 hours a day; right now there are 13 hours in my day that I will be working; 8 hours and 15 minutes of those hours are business meetings and prospecting; the other 5 hours and some change are for paperwork and organization of my days and week. The hours I will be cutting from in six months are the hours I am out prospecting and holding business meetings. Of course if my clients need to schedule time in my off hours during the day I don't mind and I will accommodate; but my time will be much more relaxed other than that.

Picture Courtesy of Cafe Tax
My other goal besides the ones listed in the previous blog: Make my business my addiction; to always always be building.

My Ultimate Goal: To be a self made USA 1%.

Now will I get there doing just credit card processing? lol. Any thing is possible but I have other business ventures that I have plans for and will be getting off the ground soon. But this blog is only about one of them; Credit Card Processing.

May we all have a Productive end of the Week and a Productive August,

Adrienne Johnson
ALJ.CreditProcessing@gmail.com
Subject Line: Processing Inquiry
facebook.com/aljscreditprocessing

 Receive a free phone swipe for credit and debit card processing at www.phoneswipe.com/?source=21970.2

Durbin Amendment and How it Impacts Your Business



What Is The Durbin Amendment?
In July of 2010 President Obama signed into legislation
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Included in this Act is the Durbin Amendment named after Senator
Dick Durbin (R-IL) who authored this piece of legislation. Prior to the
Durbin Amendment, Visa and Mastercard had been free to set debit
card interchange fees as they wished. Senator Durbin felt that these
fees were unfair to merchants and consumers. His Amendment directs
the Federal Reserve to lower debit card interchange fees to a more
reasonable amount. Prior to this legislation debit card interchange fees
were set at around 1% to 5% of the sale amount. The Durbin Amendment
has reduced these fees by a considerable margin.

How does it impact my business?
Debit cards account for over 50% of all Visa and Mastercard transactions
processed by merchants across the country. If your business accepts Visa
and Mastercard, you could see a drastic reduction in fees. However, your
merchant account must be setup properly to receive the benefits.

Do Credit Card Processors and Merchant Service companies have to
pass along the reduced fees to merchants?

No. If your business is not setup correctly, you will not see the savings.
The legislation does not require that Processors pass on the reduced
 interchange fees.

When does the Durbin Amendment go into effect?
Oct 1st, 2011

Copyright © 2011. All Rights Reserved.


This article has come from Durbin Amendment

Receive a free phone swipe for credit card processing at www.phoneswipe.com/?source=21970.2

Adrienne Johnson
ALJ.CardProcessing@gmail.com
Subject Line: Processing Inquiry
 facebook.com/aljscreditprocessing

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Let's Talk About Goals

 Picture Courtesy of My Camera Phone




                          Goals: "Reach for the sky."                 
                               "The Sky is the limit."            



This is something that we hear quite often when we are growing up; and then when we get into the real world and our goals reach for the sky, we are told to make them more realistic.

Well lets talk about how to make your seemingly unrealistic goals very realistic.

I will start off by sharing my own personal  business building goals.

Picture Courtesy of Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting
My goal is to work on building my business 50 hours a week during the first two weeks of the month
70 hours during the last two weeks of the month ( That's 50 hours during the week and 20 hours during the weekend )
Daily my goal is to prospect 80 local businesses.
Weekly my goal is to prospect 400 local businesses.
Out of this activity I would like to accomplish 16 new accounts open a week. ( This goal I know is really low for the amount of activity and that's perfect because I know that it will be met + some. )
That is an average of 4 accounts daily.

My goals are seemingly unrealistic seeing that I do my own equipment downloads and delivery for my clients, and I do my own personal customer service. So how am I going to make these seemingly unrealistic goals more realistic!?

Picture Courtesy of Odd Muttering
Lets start by breaking down the day for starters.      


My day begins at 6:30am ( when I get to bed on time, just being honest )
Anything that needs to be done as far as organization and route setting is done in the early hours before businesses open. This frees up the time for when I can be out prospecting new businesses.
* Note business opening and closing times will change from demographic to demographic.*

Picture Courtesy of Give Me Back My Five Bucks: Time Management
If I schedule my time where I prospect 10 businesses in each hour ( this does not take a full hour at all ) this means that I have time for scheduled appointments and service calls. *To make sure you obtain this goal you should plan to prospect in the areas that you are going to be in at specific time frames.*
If I work eight hours a day out in the field I will be busy but I will hit that goal of 80 businesses prospected.
This break down will give you ( if you have the same goal ) 400 prospected businesses a week.
I don't have any children, so for me this is not unrealistic. Break down your days according to your life cycle.


Picture Courtesy of Kristinology
All of this can get really complicated so what I suggest is buying a binder and creating lead sheets. Lead sheets are sheets that you use to write down information regarding the businesses you have walked into. Rather or not you got to speak to the business owner, if the lead is warm, hot, or cold; the name of their current processor ( or whatever product and services you are offering ) etc...


To go along with the lead sheets create a spreadsheet that helps you to track your activity and your goals. This sheet should include the days of the week, how many businesses you prospected on each day, how many follow-up visits you made, how many statements you collected, how many applications you sent in for approval, how many appointments set, and how many presentations you have completed. Also you might want to track how many decision makers you got in contact with that day. All of this can help you become a better sales professional. How? Analytics! You can use these numbers to see where your problem areas are, what your closing ratio is at each stage and use those numbers to gauge where you need the most improvement.


Picture Courtesy of Sift Marketing Intelligence
Sounds tiring, I know, but trust once you get used to it it's a peace of cake ( your favorite kind ). Keeping track of all these things will also give you a better view of how your pay check is going to look or how your bank deposits are going to add up during the week. 


Picture Courtesy of Let's Talk Sells With Alice Heiman
As they say "show me your appointment book and I can tell you your paycheck" How? Because someone who crunches the numbers and figures out the ratios can tell by your activity what you will accomplish financially. You should be able to do the same thing. If you're not that mathematically inclined then ask a friend who is. It all is for the greater good of your pocket book and lively hood.


So tell me, what are your business goals?

Adrienne Johnson
ALJ.CreditProcessing@gmail.com
Subject Line: Processing Inquiry
facebook.com/aljscreditprocessing


Receive a free phone swipe for credit card processing at www.phoneswipe.com/?source=21970.2

That's my website so if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

July 31, 2012 - In office Productivity

 Picture Courtesy of The Feel Good Lifestyle- Article 3 Golden Rules to Boost Your Productivity ( A must read if you ask me )

Good Afternoon Merchants and Non-Merchants,

To day was an in office productive day as you all probably can tell  by the title.

Today I was able to set-up my website provided by our company which will be available in a few days. Adrienne Johnson's Credit Card Processing . So once it is what they call "alive" you all can go there to submit applications for your processing services; but I recommend that if you are currently processing that you e-mail me with a current processing statement so that I can analyze what you are already paying and show you the savings.

If you are not already processing but are somewhat privy to the different pricing structures and would like to request a specific pricing structure I do offer different structures. The structure set up for Merchants going through my website is 3tier pricing which has a rate of 1.09% .  Even if you have questions please e-mail me I can set you up myself and answer any questions that you may have.

E-mail: Miss.Johnson.A.L@gmail.com
Subject Line: Processing Inquiry

Picture Courtesy of The Parish in Transition


On another note;

Today I was able to learn a lot from a training that I attended via webinar. So yes, I am even more informed just for the sake of my clients and have many more webinars to attend. Lets see what all can I share with you ladys and gents...

  1. I learned that I can make personalized tickets for my clients. What is a ticket? A ticket is a small document generated that details an issue that is being had by the customer and the stage of progress to fix the issue by the representative. That's right I do my own personal customer service. The neatest thing about this function is that if you forget that you can just call me up and I come fix the problem and you call NAB Customer Service or Technical Support, they generate a ticket as well that comes up in the same system so that I can see who called, what the problem was,  and follow-up with my clients to make sure that everything was resolved and you were well taken care of. I will be checking this         system every day. I like to keep up with what's going on with my merchants.
  2. I learned that we have a form that I can send in with a new merchant application that will waive any early termination fees; which means if you cut out of your contract early you won't have to pay the cost. But the greatest thing about what I do with this company is I am able to offer you month to month processing, that's right month to month processing. This means you have no contract and are only billed the month you use the services. Isn't that wonderful. We know how much you all dislike being caught in those 3year contracts ;-). * note for this set-up you will have to contact me directly*
  3. Last but not least and not the last thing I've learned today haha; We have Merchant Tracking Reports. This means that I will be able to see how my clients business is doing and be able to offer tips and help. It only shows me processing data. This is good for you because I in the near future will be purchasing travel incentives and will be giving away FREE VACATIONS ( taxes apply ) to; 1). Those who become my clients. 2). The client who has the most processing volume at the end of each month. That's right every month so that means you can be given up to 13 vacations within the first year and 12 every year after that. Of course there will be categories so don't worry about competing with my larger accounts :-).
Picture Courtesy of Enjoy Kenya

All I do is to drive business to my clients and make the fiscal year more worth while. I will also at my clients request do @mentions on this blog. So if you would like for me to do a business review so to speak so that you can reach a vaster audience I am willing to do so. This will include company location, information regarding products and services, and my highest recommendation for my viewers to utilize your services. 



Please know that even if you do not contact me first before submitting the merchant application online that I will be contacting you. The system that we have allows me to see who opens an application, how far in the process they are with the application, and if it has been submitted or not. I am also able to see the status of those that have been submitted. I am about knowing who my clients are and establishing a relationship with them. That's the best way to do business and it's the best way to make sure that your experience with our company is as stress free as possible.                                                                               Picture Courtesy of Skalduggery

I hope that you all had a very productive and lucrative day.
Picture Courtesy of Lucrative

Until Tomorrow,
                                                                                       
Adrienne Johnson
ALJ.CreditProcessing@gmail.com
Subject Line: Processing Inquiry
facebook.com/aljscreditprocessing

* Learning Picture Courtesy of South Carolina State Department of Education *

 Receive a free phone swipe for credit card processing at www.phoneswipe.com/?source=21970.2

That's my website so if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me

Monday, July 30, 2012

Merchant Beware


Picture Courtesy of Gear Diary

Good Evening,

Tonight I would like to bring some things to your attention, some warnings so to speak; all of which will do nothing but help you if you choose to do something about them or the lack thereof.

For those of you that do not know I am Adrienne Johnson an Independent Agent with North American Bancard and I offer credit card processing services. Therefore this and any post on this blog has to do with Credit Card Processing.

The Things You May Have Been Told ( deception )
Picture Courtesy of Tech Yell
  • There is a necessary one time charge of $25 set-up fee from the IRS and it can not be waived
  • The rate for PCI ( Payment Card Industry ) Compliance is $129 every year
  • There is a necessary $4.95 a month charge in addition to your yearly fee and monthly statement fee from the IRS that can not be waived
  • That there is a such thing as Flat Rate Pricing
The Truth ( shining some light on the situation )
Picture Courtesy of Fox Haven Journal
  • A set-up fee from the IRS does not exist. Instead the processing company ( if applicable ) decides to charge you $25 to cover the filing of the proper papers to the IRS when you choose to process through them. Some companies like the company that I offer services through choose to eat this cost and not charge you for their having to file these documents.
  • There is a fee but the minmum is $79 for PCI on a yearly basis. Now you may have never heard of this before, why is in the next section; The Things You Should Have Been Told.
  • It has been said that there is a $4.95 fee per month from again the IRS this is not true. Now what exactly does the processing companies charging this fee do with the money, I honestly do not know. But I do know that if it was required we would charge it and we do not so it is not required. THERE ARE NO MONTHLY FEES FROM THE IRS TO YOUR BUSINESS FOR PROCESSING.
  • The truth of the matter is that you are not being charged one flat rate for all of your different types of processing discounts. Qualified, MidQual, NonQual... for credit and debit cards. Flat Rate pricing is very deceptive but if you do not work for a processing company and or do not know how to read and analyze a statement yourself you will not know that there are surcharges and that you are actually being charged, or that the company you are working as an Agent for is actually charging different rates for the above mentioned discounts and card types. 


The Things You Should Have Been Told ( saving your business ) 


You should have been told about Payment Card Industry Compliance. If in fact you are processing and have never been told about this you have every right to be and should be upset. This is why;


  • PCI Compliance is protection for your business. 
  • If you are not PCI compliant and someone gets a hold of your business receipts from credit card and debit card transactions and or obtains your customers credit and debit card information you will be charged $10,000 per incident. That means each person that is a victim of this theft will cost your business $10,000. This is something that can put you out of business. 
EG: Someone takes your credit card receipts, 10 of them. All 10 people have an incident of theft from their accounts. The cost to your business $100,000. 


                                  Picture Courtesy of NY Daily News


Can you afford to take such a hit? Even if you can, if you have good Business Sense you know that $79 a year is much better than $10,000 and beyond in fines for not being compliant. This is one area that you do not want to take a risk in. Get Compliant!

Hold your Credit Card Processing Vendor accountable for not sharing this information with you and if they try to deny knowing about this then make the switch to a processor that has an interest in saving you from going out of business.


For questions regarding your processing or processing period I can be contacted at:


Adrienne Johnson
ALJ.CreditProcessing@gmail.com
Subject Line: Processing Inquiry    
facebook.com/aljscreditprocessing
 Receive a free phone swipe for credit card processing at www.phoneswipe.com/?source=21970.2

That's my website so if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me

Week of July 23, 2012- A New Beginning

Picture Courtesy of Joes Gossip


Good Early Evening,

I know that I was supposed to start posting this past Sunday but life changed that for me. Here is how;

On Monday July 23, 2012 I was having some problems signing into my back office with the processing company that I just recently left. After having to call them three times, because I was being told that the problem was being fixed and it wasn't, I decided that I would look into another processing company. I am very happy I must say that I was prompted to do such a thing.

Well, the processing company I began to look into is one that I had actually been looking at for a few months, well i was looking at their training videos as the company that I had been with previously did not have any. I am very happy to say that I am receiving extensive training with the new company and am very very happy. More importantly I am able to offer my clients even better rates minus some fees from the other company that I was with.

I am now an independent agent with North American Bancard one of the biggest processing companies in the USA as of Thursday July 26, 2012. Even more wonderful is that I am able to receive some benefits that I did not have and would not otherwise have if I was with any other company.

Picture Courtesy of Consumer Electronics Network




Another change that is taking place is that I will be highlighting my day every day after I am done building my business in the field, instead of highlighting my week at the end of the week. However at the end of the week I will still on Sundays show the savings I was able to provide for some of the businesses that I have the great pleasure of doing business with.

Last week was a very anxious week as I was awaiting the decision from NAB longer than expected due to a minor non-issue issue that I had the pleasure of taking care of. All-in-all it was really worth the wait. :-D

Happy processing Merchants...

* Processing Credit Cards and Debit has the potential to increase sells volume by 30% - 80%, so if you're not consider doing so*

  • For any one looking to improve their profit margins by decreasing their processing bill.
  • For those just looking for cost comparisons.
  • And for those looking to start processing Credit and Debit.
Do yourself a favor and only go with the best! I can be contacted at ...

Adrienne Johnson
ALJ.CreditProcessing@gmail.com
Subject line: Processing Inquiry 
facebook.com/aljscreditprocessing 

I am also willing to answer any questions you may have about your current processing rates and fees.
Look at Merchant Beware to read about the things you may have been told that aren't true and about things that weren't told to you but that could cost you your business.




Receive a free phone swipe for credit card processing at www.phoneswipe.com/?source=21970.2

That's my website so if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me