In this clarifying episode, Jeff Maine, CEO and President of Pay Proudly, shares how he is devoted to revolutionizing payment processing while making a tangible impact on society by offering clear solutions, personalized support, and a dedication to social responsibility.
You will discover:
– Why the payment processing industry has earned a bad reputation
– What you can do to build a more effective payment processing strategy
– How you can partner with your clients to support charitable organizations in your community
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello, and welcome. Welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast and I am here with yet another high demand coach. This is a really fascinating guests that we have with us today. It is the one and only Jeff Maine who is the founder of Pay Proudly. And his mission is twofold to provide business owners with payment clarity and to support communities through charity. Payment Processing is the lifeblood of just about any business. And Jeff and his team are passionate about educating business owners on the importance of a suitable payment processor for your business pay probably leverages its 25 plus year of industry expertise and reputation in the payment space to provide financial clarity to businesses and charity to nonprofits each quarter. Well, Jeff, I’m excited to have you on love, love what you guys do at pay proudly? And want to dive into that. And why don’t we just start with that? What is it? If you introduce yourself to a business owner for the first time? What is it that you guys do? And why is it so important to them?
Jeff Maine
Yeah, you know, thank you so much, Scott, for having me on your show today. And you know, payment, obviously, is a very important part of businesses, right of how you’re going, how are you going to get paid, and electronic payments is, is the number one way to get paid today. So. So you know, it’s really important for business owners to be clear about how to take credit cards and what type of payments they need. And this industry, I think a lot of people, you know, over the years, it’s kind of gotten a bad name. And it’s gotten a bad name, because there’s so many salesmen out there that, that just rely on kind of the one size fits all for all businesses. And that’s just not the backs and this in this industry. And the difference maker that we’re we’re coming out, you know, the first part of our mission is just really bringing clarity, the business owner and understanding how do they take? How do they need to take payments? And what you know, what do they need in their payments solution? And do they need to be able to track inventory? Do they need to be able to do online payments? Do they need to be able to do mobile payments, what do they need in their business, and we want to offer solutions that actually help them run their business in a better way. And so we’re trying to ask more questions, and we are just listening that you know, them just listening to our sales pitch. And, and so that’s, you know, that’s the differentiator between us and these other payment companies.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. What would you say? You kind of speak to the bad rap what would you say is the major challenge that the industry is facing? And and how can a founder or CEO listening today diagnosed that they’re they’re actually suffering from it whether or not they knew it before?
Jeff Maine
Yeah, I think it’s I think the biggest thing in this industry is you know, you sign up and we talk to business owners every day of new businesses that we don’t do business with and we hear over and over and over again we don’t even know who we process with we haven’t talked to them in years and you know, so many businesses set up with a processor and then just go do their business and that’s something they don’t ever go look at again we we contact our merchants we try to touch every single one of our customers at least once a quarter that’s that’s a goal of ours right is touch our cup customers, we want to do a rate review with them once per year, every single customer we take a lot of pride I always tell my employees it’s easier to keep the customers we have than go find new business and and you know so the way you keep the you have is you stay in the front of their mind, right you’re talking to them you’re reviewing their rates and things our industry changed so rates can change and you know, the way you process credit cards can change and if I’m not talking to my customers about that another salesperson is going to be in there talking to them about that. So we just want to stay in front of the industry we want to stay in front of our customers and we want to bring to light what what’s changing in the industry and how they should be taken payments and what what options out there they have here.
Scott Ritzheimer
What are some questions? Maybe maybe we’re in the process of setting up for the first time or maybe like you said we’ve not talked to him in about 18 years? Yeah, and probably ought to go back what are some questions that we should be asking our payment processor?
Jeff Maine
Well I mean one thing if you haven’t talked to him in a period of years and years, you know I can tell you right now and when we hear that that’s like music to our ears right? Because we know most likely you’re not going to be your your one probably overpaying at this point in time and rates and fees and and you’re and but but I think the big questions are you know, based on your business right your Are you dealing with with your is your customer base business customers is your Are you selling a product that you’re in high competition environment with the Amazons of the world are you Where are you at and what are you selling because based on that is where we’re going to come in and drive you. You know, if you’re if you’re a business to business, we’re going to set you up in a business to business environment. If you’re in a highly competitive environment, we nit may not suggest surcharging or charging a fee to take credit cards. Yeah, there’s options out there today that you can, you can not pay your credit card fees. And you can pass those on you can have, you know, what’s what we call either a dual pricing environment or a surcharge in an environment where you’re surcharging on certain types of credit cards. And we’re going to talk to you about that and bring you up to speed on where you’re, you know, we’re, you know, what do you need? Or where are you in an environment that you do recurring, you know, billing or US billing your customers over and over again? Well, we can set all that up, and we can make all that very user friendly for you. And even things like QuickBooks. So you know, do you use QuickBooks, do your billing and your invoicing. But there are integrations to that stuff today that we can integrate to. And we can save these businesses a substantial amount of money and offer alternative payment methods to their customers. But if we’re not asking those questions, we would never know we’re just calling you and saying, Hey, we just want to stick a credit card machine in there and take credit cards, we’re not spending the time to really learn about your business, and make a difference in your business. Because your business and the type of customers you have is different than my business and the type of customers I have.
Scott Ritzheimer
Right. Right. Now, the payment processing big part of it, and the clarity on that side is important. But another big tenant for you guys is charity. So you know, shout it out of those two put together in the context of your work. And what did you start it out that way?
Jeff Maine
Yeah, you know, my wife and I, and we were, you know, we’ve been through a few different credit card companies in the last 25 years, and we’ve sold a couple and we started and sold a check company. And then we were at a at a kind of a divide that road of of having an opportunity to come out of a partnership and either start a another credit card company or do something different. And so we were sitting at a table and we were talking about, you know, what are the what are the issues in this industry. And you know, we started that’s where clarity came out, you know, business owners just aren’t clear on their payments of what they’re doing today. And so we said, alright, well, let’s write a mission. And the first part of the mission was talk about clarity and, and then just a personal family, you know, plan of ours is being charitable to our community, being good back to the community has treated us so well. And, and it was a it was really something that was just important to us, it was something we wanted to do, we wanted to start a business with a charitable aspect built into it from the first dollar that we made, and build the business around that. We never thought that it would turn into what it’s turned into. And when I say that, it’s it becomes where we wanted to talk more about the clarity. And what we’re doing for merchants, we end up talking more about the charity and who we’re giving money to, and how we’re supporting causes and what businesses we had that are jumping on these causes. And doing because it’s such a big deal today. And especially with this younger generation that are coming up, we’re getting people that want to work for us because of our giving, never saw that coming. That’s uh, that’s that’s just, you know, but I get it, you know, people look at companies doing what we’re doing. And they’re say, hey, they’re a good company. It just brings, you know, credibility to us. But a lot of that is just organically happened. Because we were doing it wasn’t the intent. But it’s been great. And it’s what we do. It’s who we are. Some businesses will say to us, hey, we’d rather you save us more money, than give away money because of us. And we say, well, that’s it. It’s not, it’s, you know that your savings is still gonna be there. But it’s money that’s coming to us. We are not a not for profit business. We are a for profit company. But we’re taking a percentage of those profits. And we’re giving back to the unit to causes and we’re giving our business owners the credit for that. Because if they weren’t our customers, we wouldn’t be doing this. So they deserve the credit. We would rather them have all the credit to be honest. Because without them, we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing. We’re just the vessel that write the check.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. And the thing that I love about that, and it came through really quickly, as I was researching the episode is that kind of role of partnering together to do something right. There are lots of businesses, it’s quite common for either the business or the owners to have some type of charitable giving built in and to various degrees of involvement within the organization. But it’s less common. And I would even go so far as to say rare to use your business to help other businesses engage in charitable work as well. What have you, why is it important? That is not just what you guys do? How has like, why has it evolved into that partnership? And why is it so important for you to continue to foster that?
Jeff Maine
Yeah, you know, I think we’ve had business owners actually say to us, I feel like I’m giving because of what we’re doing with you guys because we’re processing through you. And we know that a percentage of these transactions are being given. And, you know, I think I think life, you know, always brings you different things and different challenges and there’s different things that are superimposed Word it to you and to your family. And our faith is very important to us something that we rely heavily heavily on. And and as we were building this business, we wanted to make a difference. We want to you know, we want to build a legacy right of what what are you known for? What are you what’s what’s going to be said about you and generations through your grandchildren, great grandchildren of, you know, what kind of person you were and what you did, and we’ve been blessed him, we’ve built successful businesses, and we wanted to do something to give back and we wanted to do it in our business, and we wanted to, you know, make it where it, you know, other business owners could participate. I actually wrote it, I wrote a paper about what what would it be like, if all businesses did what we’re doing? And, and it it, you know, it would fund every nonprofit in America, if all businesses were doing what we’re doing. And you know, and I believe because of that, all that money that’s been funded into these nonprofits is supporting local communities is just going to roll right back into the business owners pockets, it would be a complete wash, because that money just rolls back in. And so I wrote this, this is a TED talk about it. And I was never able to give the TED talk because it I had a schedule conflict that I could not get out of, but but it was, but it was fun to write it and just get my mind kind of wrapped around, you know, what we’re doing is making a difference. And, and I hope we’re influencing other businesses to make the same tip.
Scott Ritzheimer
What would you say secret bring up a great point. And that is it kind of this idea of connecting the business and nonprofit world as a business owner? What would you say to a nonprofit leader? Who’s who’s looking to forge that relationship from their side?
Jeff Maine
Yeah, so you know, we have, and we, we do business with a lot of nonprofits today. Obviously, nonprofits, you know, we’re, you know, they like us, we’re writing them checks, and we’re doing a lot with them. And, and we try to sponsor a lot of events and different things, because it gives us some branding recognition, and our businesses see our name out there and see us what we’re doing. And but, you know, we talk to nonprofits all the time, they are business owners as well, and they take payments, and they need to have that same clarity under around payments that that you and I need to have in our businesses. And so we talked to them about that. And we talked to them about different ways that they could take credit cards through giving buttons on their websites, through phone apps, when they’re at events and through different mechanisms. There’s not like I said, In the beginning, there’s not a one size fits all, and we want to make sure that we’re giving them, you know, multiple solutions that they can go take payments in. And we also talk about volume, right? If, if they’re a small nonprofit, and they’re not taking a lot of credit card volume, they really don’t need to be dealing with a company like ours either. Because then they’re spending money that they don’t need to spend, they need to have more of like the square type options out there that don’t have the monthly fees and different things. And so we never, we never want to sell somebody something that they don’t need or that they’re going to utilize. So we really want to look at the whole picture and see what what’s important and where, where do they come in at and what can be beneficial to them.
Scott Ritzheimer
It’s fantastic. So definitely a question I like to ask all my guests. And is this, what would you say is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Jeff Maine
Yeah, you know, that’s such a big question. Right? I have so many different types of answers. And and I think if I boil it down to my industry, I think it’s knowledge of just I think there’s so many business owners say the majority that do not take the time to learn and understand what to me is one of the more important aspects of their business of how they’re getting paid and what they’re paying to get paid. Business owners don’t like talking about credit card processing, it’s a it’s a fee, they don’t understand it’s a it’s something they don’t want to think about. They don’t they just it works. I’m just going to leave it alone. And I wish that they knew and had the knowledge around that there are options out there. There’s different ways to take credit cards, there’s different things you can do. There’s money that can be saved. There’s, there’s ways that we can make it easier for you. I mean, we you know, we take businesses and they can, you know, take people and put them in other areas because we can make we can automate things and we get there’s a lot that can happen. And so my answer is knowledge in our industry, just that I wish people would understand and take the time to learn about the business.
Scott Ritzheimer
Excellent. And Jeff, if folks are sitting there Listen, man, it’s been years. Since we set this up. We really do need to talk to somebody in some way that we can trust. Or maybe we want to partner with you guys in the charitable work that you’re doing absolutely as as giving organizations as well, how can they reach out to you again, they find more out about the work you do.
Jeff Maine
We’d love to talk to them, you know, check us out on our website at payproudly.com Look me up Jeff Maine on my LinkedIn Pay Proudly has also got a LinkedIn page. And you know, send me an email [email protected]. But you know, there’s there’s all kinds of ways we’ve got a contact us page on our website as well. But we would love to have a conversation with you, you know, we’ve got a completely AI driven proposal tool that we can take statements and we can turn around proposals and and if you just take those back to your current processor, and you take 10 minutes and spend some time with us and learn a few things, and you help your business, it’s a win for you. And we’re willing to have those conversations at no cost to anybody. So just reach out and let’s have a conversation.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s great. Well, Jeff, it was honor privilege having you on the show. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for sharing both your mission and and skill with with each of us something we desperately need. And for those of you watching, listening you know that your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I can’t wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Jeff Maine
Jeff Maine founded his company to take the payment processing industry from transactional to relational! Jeff is the founder of Pay Proudly, and his mission is twofold: to provide business owners with payment clarity and to support communities through charity. Payment processing is the lifeblood of a business, and Jeff and his team are passionate about educating business owners on the importance of a suitable payment processor for your business. Pay Proudly leverages its 25+ years of industry expertise and reputation in the payment space to provide financial charity to non-profits each quarter.
Want to learn more about Jeff Maine’s work at Pay Proudly? Check out his website at https://www.payproudly.com/
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