3 Financial Startups to Help Your Small Business

Starting a small business is difficult enough without adding the financial stress. Getting ahold of your finances and good business practices from the beginning will help you launch successfully and stay on top longer. These startups created great apps, products, and features that will help any small business get things together from the beginning and can be used through the whole process from brainstorming to launching and expanding as the business grows.

BillGuard

In order to have a successful small business you need to spend money. BillGuard is a mobile app that not only helps you track your spending but also keeps track of everything finance related. They aim to help you in three areas: money, credit, and identity by focusing on tracking, protecting, and resolving any issues.

The tracking features include all your cards, accounts, and transactions. Spending can be viewed over time and by category, which makes comparing monthly spending easy. Certain memberships also provide your credit score and any key features to be aware of that may impact your score. The app can also track your card usage locations both where they’re used and if they’re used while you’re away.

Protection of your accounts comes in the form of alerts depending on the suspicious activity seen. Card and bank fraud alerts let you know if your card was used, charges occurred, or if there was a billing error. Credit monitoring alerts you if someone is trying to get a credit card or open a bank account in your name, and black market alerts let you know if someone tries to sell your personal information or social security number online. There’s even a data breach feature that tells you if a company you recently purchased from was hacked.

If something does go wrong their resolve features help you with the difficult things like replacing cards, or contacting a company. Card concierge helps you deal with merchants about suspicious charges, and lost wallet restoration and identity restoration help you cancel and replace your cards. There’s even an insurance feature that covers the costs if identity theft does happen.

BillGuard has a free membership so you can get to know the product firsthand, but in order to experience all it has to offer you can join for an annual fee of $84 or a monthly fee of $10. There is an in between membership that does not include all the features but the bulk of them for $36 annually or $5 monthly. For all the features it includes it’s definitely something small businesses should look into. It’s a great way to monitor and track spending, and is a great help if something does go wrong and things are stolen or breached.

Jumio

Purchases are a big part of having a successful small business. No matter what you’re selling, you won’t make a profit if your customer’s can’t make purchases. Jumio is one of the leading identity management and credentials companies that aim to help small businesses reduce fraud and increase revenue. One way they do this is with BAM Checkout, a mobile checkout app.

BAM Checkout is a checkout process that has integrated scanning a credit card and driver’s license to reduce fraud and decrease checkout time. The app can be added to your current online checkout process and is very easy for the customer. On their mobile device they hold their credit card and driver’s license up to the camera, which scans each in seconds and then auto adds the information to your checkout forms. This reduces user error and the time it takes to input all the information.

Use of both the credit card and driver’s license allows both to be cross-referenced and provides an alert to you if they don’t match or are inconsistent. With this method you also know that the customer has their credit card in hand at the time they made the purchase, which further reduces fraud since both the card and the license must match.

This is a great feature if online purchases are a large part of your business. While some clients may be wary of the scanning at first, it will save you and your client’s time and reduce fraud overall. This very well could be something many more small businesses use in the future, especially since cell phones are becoming the place people make purchases and are slowly replacing wallets with digital payment options.

Square

Not every small business operates online or has online sales, but you can still use technology and apps to run your business. The company Square, most well known for their Square Reader, has figured out a way that small businesses can accept credit cards with their smartphone. When you sign up for Square you get sent a free Square Reader. This device plugs into the headphone jack of your smartphone or tablet and allows you to swipe credit cards or read chip cards anywhere you’re doing business.

As a user you make an account for your business and sync your bank accounts with their app. Once that’s complete all it takes is to plug it in and use their Square Register app to accept payments and track your point-of-sales. This software also helps you keep everything in one place, like payments, receipts, customer feedback, sales reports, inventory, and employee log-ins.

The Reader encrypts the credit card information at the time of the swipe and only stores data on your phone until the payment is processed. Payments can even be accepted while you’re offline. The customer can sign and tip right on the smartphone or tablet screen, and a receipt is created that can be emailed or printed and provided to the customer.

There are some fees involved. It is free to make an account, to get the reader, and to use their software, but there is a 2.75% fee per swipe for all major credit cards. If you’re entering information manually, without the reader, it is 3.5% plus 15 cents per transaction.

Square is a great way for many small businesses to accept payments especially when a computer or storefront isn’t available. This technology has been around for a while and knowing that it’s almost free to try is a great feature for new businesses.

About the Author

Paul Scanlon, CEO of Prime Capital, is a seasoned financial expert and is currently completing a Masters in Political Economy at Sydney University. You can connect with Paul on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.