Posted by Chad Gardner

It is difficult to turn on the television or browse through most publications without finding analysts and professionals of all types declaring a gloomy outlook for the economy.  When coming across an article or post that may be negative, it’s important to remember that this is an opportunity to find solutions for the problems at hand.

For instance, there was a recent post on Small Business Trends discussing industries feeling the crunch the most that starts off:

“The year 2008 is turning out to be a tough one for small florist businesses. Sales are down nearly 15%.”

True, there are less consumers going out and purchasing flowers. But are these small businesses giving consumers more reasons to buy from them? According to research, online sales could increase up to 12% from last year — which is a market that needs to be tapped into if in-store sales are lagging.

As many companies trying online payments have discovered, not only do they provide convenience and cost-savings for the business and the customer, it also allows for you to be more resilient by improving cash flow. By increasing your portfolio of payment options (and even sales options if your business type fits), you’re increasing your probability to catch more sales.

The beauty of offering goods and services online is promotions can be changed very quickly to address those shoppers looking for value, especially during the holidays. Lisa also provided a great list of promotions that can be utilized last week. Ideas such as this may be the jump-start for sales that a small retailer is looking for.

With opportunity knocking, now is as good of a time as ever to try new methods to provide payment flexibility, increase on-time payments, and even increase sales. To make it that much easier to try, we’re offering free setup for the holidays. This is a perfect chance to give your customers more of a reason to buy from you, without taking on the risk of trying a new product.

Regardless of your industry, there is an opportunity to make some changes that could affect your company moving forward. Our CEO, Eric Remer, summed it up well during one of our Monday morning meetings that the actions taken by businesses in this turbulent period are going to separate the haves from the have-nots:

(This is a first video look into what goes on behind the scenes at PaySimple, and we hope to bring you more in the future.)

Let us know what are you doing to create advantages for your business.

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