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Guest Blog Post: Machen MacDonald- ProBrilliance.com Welcome aboard the change ship. The quality of your life is in direct proportion to your ability to handle uncertainty. The only thing that seems to be certain these days is change. Why is it that some people seem to adapt really well to change while others get stopped in their tracks from it? The differentiator for people dancing more effectively with change is simply one thing. Those that seem to navigate well through the sea of change take responsibility for making sure they have a winning hand. Here’s how you can deal yourself a winning hand of 5 Aces. Alignment, Awareness, Attitude, Action, and Accountability Alignment – Regardless of what may be going on currently, get clear on what you want for yourself, set your intention to line up the next 4 Aces to move you in the direction of what you want for yourself. Awareness – This is where you must start looking for evidence that what you want does exist. Think about how Google works. Imagine Emily who owns a small boutique who’s sales have been off target for the last few months. She types following into Google: why have my sales been flat? What’s going to come back in that search? Not the answer of how to grow sales but rather all the reasons why sales were flat. Her awareness did not change . A better search would be: How do I increase sales? Notice that we are always asking ourselves questions. Become aware if you are asking the most empowering questions of yourself to get the answers you need to get the results you desire. What do you need to be aware of that would help you get what you want? What are people, who are getting the results you want, aware of that you are not? Attitude – This is your approach to the situation. Are you running toward what you want or away from what you don’t want. If you are running toward what you want, it almost creates a vacuum that pulls you toward what you want and what you want toward you. Running away from what you don’t want is like running from the boogie monster in a dark forest. Looking back over your shoulder as you are running away, you are pretty sure to either trip up or run smack into a tree. Action – Just having awareness of what must be done and having a healthy attitude about it won’t bring about the change you seek. Once you gain new awareness of what needs to be done and adjust your attitude you must take the action to move in the direction of what you want. Remember, we do live in a cause and effect world. Accountability – This is where you keep your commitment to yourself of continually increasing your awareness by being curious about your success and asking better questions that will direct your mind to getting the answers you need. Maintain the right attitude, perspective and direction. You can only see a sunset if you are facing west. To manifest the results you want you must take action based on your new awareness while maintaining the right attitude. It’s important to know we may not always be able to control the situation or circumstances we find ourselves in. However, it is imperative to know that we always have the power to choose the most healthy perspective from which to view the circumstance. It’s kind of like looking at the glass either half full or half empty. However, there are always more perspectives than the one we may be viewing. One of those is just being thankful to have the glass. Deal yourself your 5 Aces daily and gain more certainty while affecting positive change for yourself and enjoy a smoother journey. About Machen MacDonald>

Payment Processing companies have a bad reputation when it comes to ‘fine lines’ and ‘hidden fees’. At Pay it Forward Processing, we are looking to break that trend. With our servant leadership philosophy and moral compass pointed in the right direction, we help merchants save as much as they can on monthly processing costs- no more surprises! 7 Reasons to Analyze your Payment Contact 1. Rates It’s unfortunately common for payment processors to offer extremely low rates to get you ‘locked in’ and then slowly increase those rates or charge hidden fees. The only rate that your business should pay for is called interchange. 2. POS vs. Recurring Any transaction done through a POS is always going to have an associated cost. A swipe transaction shouldn’t cost you more than 3.25% (variant based on card) 3. Submitted vs. Collected Processing costs should reflect funds processed, not total amount submitted. 4. Credit Card Decline Fees Here’s a common hidden fee- being charged every time someone’s credit card gets declined. If you see this on your statements, then you should consider contacting your processing company. 5. Automation Fees Updates are a part of our ever increase technology world, but that doesn’t mean you should pay tons of money on system updates. Appropriate charge: $0.10 6. Every Decline Has a Reason Don’t let your business be charged multiple times for resubmissions. The card associations and Federal reserve regulate re-bills, retries of credit cards and ACH. 7. It’s All About Cash Flow If it’s taking 2 weeks for you to get your money, it’s taking too long. Your business should never wait two weeks to get your deposit. Full article> What can make this even better? Our Every Swipe Benefits Innovative Give Back Program.

Guest Blog Post by Account Manager Mick Collins The Credit Card industry has a bad reputation. Many sales reps of processing companies only care about locking your businesses into a lengthy contract that will only sweeten the deal for their commissions or end of year bonuses. To get that ink on paper, they will say or do almost anything just to get your signature. Free hardware, isn’t actually free A typical offering in the credit card processing industry is offering ‘free’ hardware in exchange for a 2-4 year (sometimes longer) contract. But here is what they don’t tell you. The cost of that hardware is recuperated overtime through the transactions costs and processing fees. So in essence, you’re still paying for your own hardware, and it was never ‘free’ in the first place. Lesson: READ THE FINE PRINT! If the rate is too good to be true, it probably is. 1.59%… can it be? No, it can’t. I hate being the bearer of bad news, but when a sales rep says they can get you a ridiculously low rate, what they are actually saying is the rate only applies to ‘qualified transactions’. In my experience, you will not see any transactions that ‘qualify’ and you will get hit with unnecessary surcharges. It’s a game used to gouge merchants with hidden fees. Lesson: READ THE FINE PRINT! Other tricks of the trade I can’t stress enough the importance of READING THE FINE PRINT. The phrase ‘let’s lock you into a 3-4yr contract’ may sound like just another cliché sales phrase, but there is actually more truth behind the face value of the statement. If you decide to break contract, it could cost you a nice sum (usually over $300) to get you out of the agreement and there will probably be built in renewal clauses that you were also unaware of. It’s time for a change Time to switch to Pay it Forward Processing! The other truth behind processing companies, is besides working hard to get you to sign, they don’t work hard for your business at all. Pay it Forward Processing prides itself on quality customer service, and genuinely wants to help your business succeed. What good is processing transactions if there are no transactions to process? Big changes are coming to the credit card industry as business owners become more savvy, educated and liable. Pay it Forward Processing wants to be on the forefront of that change by delivering honest, ethical, and quality service to ensure that your business can operate efficiently and effectively.

What is EMV? “EMV is a technical standard for smart payment cards and for payment terminals and automated teller machines which can accept them. EMV cards are smart cards (also called chip cards or IC cards) which store their data on integrated circuits rather than magnetic stripes, although many EMV cards also have stripes for backward compatibility. They can be contact cards which must be physically inserted (or “dipped”) into a reader, or contactless cards which can be read over a short distance using radio-frequency identification technology. Payment cards which comply with the EMV standard are often called chip-and-PIN or chip-and-signature cards, depending on the exact authentication methods required to use them.” – More on EMV

Pay it Forward Processing in the News At the recent Pay it Forward Processing Christmas party held at the Rancho Bernardo Winery, the Arthritis Foundation, San Diego office, was presented with a check for $3,226 from nonprofit Every Swipe Benefits Charity give-back program. The ESBC is a program that allows businesses to benefit their business, customers and the community. Through Pay it Forward, a national credit card processing company, net proceeds are donated from each business account to a charitable organization, at no cost to the business. Since ESBC’s inception two years ago, the program has generated more than $100,000 in donations to a carefully vetted group of more than 25 local and national charities. The Every Swipe Benefits Charity arose from the ashes of Witch Creek Fires in San Diego in 2007. Renee VanHeel, founder and president of Pay it Forward Processing, lost her home during this disaster. As a result, she, along with a number of other fire survivors, formed “Fired Up Sisters,” and raised $5 million to help fellow fire survivors. Five years later, VanHeel founded the Every Swipe Benefits Charity program with the idea that if so much good could result from tragedy, much more could be done in good times. To date, the two-year-old charity has given more than $100,000 to 25 nonprofits. Visit pfprocessing.com/giving-program. Link to article – San Diego Business Journal – 02-15-16 Eleven Non-Profits

A local San Diego Magazine (92128) makes time for Renee VanHeel of Pay it Forward Processing “I was raised in a family business so I have been self-employed my entire life. I knew at age 10 that I would own my own business!” – Renee VanHeel Read the complete article here – 92128magazine.com

Congrats Ralph! – From all of us at Pay it Forward Processing. “The fundamentals he was committed to maintain at the company – honesty, integrity, and industry knowledge.” “My father holds a high integrity with employees, customers, and suppliers.” The words “very gentle”, “careful” and “positive guidance” stood out. Through the years, I’ve met and had conversations with Ralph during weddings and birthday parties. He listens…and I mean truly listens to what you have to say and he takes it to heart through observation. Know that David VanHeel’s mom is the sister of Ralph Notch.” Significant contributions to the pressure cleaning industry unite the 27 winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award, which the Cleaning Equipment Trade Association (CETA) established in 1995. Ralph L. Notch, the 2015 recipient, exemplifies the combination of professional and personal attributes that make recipients leaders in their industry. Notch is perhaps most familiar to CETA members for his role in establishing A.R. North America, Inc. in Fridley, MN as the North American representative for Annovi Reverberi S.p.A. in Modena, Italy. That happened in… Read the complete article HERE About A.R. North America, Inc. – Learn More AR North America (ARNA) is an independently operated division of Annovi Reverberi (AR), the world’s largest manufacturer of pressure washer pumps. AR, based in northern Italy, is a privately owned company which has been product orientated right from its humble beginnings in 1958. Designing, developing and building pumps for almost 6 decades with passion and integrity: these have been the milestones of AR’s success. Millions of AR pumps are being used every day all over the world, in a multitude of applications, from pressure cleaning in Australia to crop spraying in Zaire.AR’s success was further enhanced with the founding of ARNA, back in 1989, under the expert guidance of Ralph Notch. What started out as a one-man operation, today employees a dedicated and experienced staff of 43, housed in a recently expanded 110,000 square foot facility just north of Minneapolis. From this location we are structured to guarantee excellent customer service and technical support, not just for the AR pumps but also for our full-range of Blue Clean electric pressure washers, Mec-Line high-pressure accessories and all related spare parts. Our inventory levels run into many millions of dollars at any given time.

Anew Day Mission… Anew Day is a faith-based organization that provides healing and hope through lay counseling for those who are hurting. Anew Day Vision… We provide a safe environment which enables our clients to face life’s ups and downs. Partnering with our clients, we meet them where they are and with whatever struggle they are going through. We provide answers, hope, direction, and the skills to deal with today’s pain as well as tomorrow’s.

As a business owner, I’m sure you are all sick and tired of hearing about EMV Compliance. It has been everywhere for the last year, and nobody seems to know what is going on. Nobody understands the purpose of it and nobody cares. I mean the deadline was supposed to be October of 2015 that everyone had to be EMV Compliant. But that was nine months ago, and still, nobody cares. Does it matter? Is it worth the cost? What’s the point? Why the big change? Should I care? The EMV shift is EXTREMELY important. The Government has put a couple of extensions on the deadline due to the amount of work needed to make this change was a larger challenge than expected. But even more important than it being a government mandate is the benefit you are providing to your customers. Below are a few frequent questions I get when talking to people about EMV. I hope they help you understand better the benefits of being compliant. So what is different with the Magnetic Strip to the EMV Chip? The Magnetic strip has a standard set of information that is used over and over again on every transaction, Whereas the EMV chip creates a unique transaction code every single time it is used that cannot be reused or duplicated. That means if someone hacks into your terminal all the information they will find is useless, and they can’t use to steal client’s credit card information. Is it important to make the switch? YES! Overwhelmingly yes! If you are not EMV compliant, and you have someone come into your store with a stolen credit card and runs a transaction YOU as the business owner are liable. If you are compliant, then the liability falls back on the bank and processor. Is the EMV role out of cards done yet? For the most part, all banks and credit cards should have sent out replacement EMV cards over the last year, but there are still some that haven’t been able to get everything out yet so be patient if you haven’t received your chip readers yet. My ATM and Gas station don’t take EMV Cards. Why not? Gas pumps and ATMS have extended deadlines to be compliant; Banks are supposed to be complete by the end of this year, and Gas pumps by 2017. Is the transaction longer with EMV then with the Magnetic Stripe? Yes and no, Depending on the machines you are working with some are faster than others but overall the time it takes is about the same. However as companies get more familiar with this new system, the speed of the transaction should improve quite a bit. Does EMV help reduce fraud? YES! Over 80 countries around the world have switched to using EMV cards over the last 15 years, and each one of them has seen amazing results. Countries like France and Canada saw drops in fraud around 70-90% since before they used EMV. Since October Visa and MasterCard are seeing about a 20% drop already. I hope these answers helped you understand the benefit of using your EMV cards personally as well as through your business. If you have any further questions, I am more than happy to help and provide any equipment necessary to get your business on track. This blog post brought to you by Your Village member: Pay It Forward Processing The original post was an interview with our very own David Whistler.

Sue Talks: Leadership My Way Join Us May 11, 2017, for an incredible Connected Women of Influence event. Hear talks from Sherrie Berry, Joanie Connell, Ph.D., Kathy David, and more! In case you missed it, here is our founder, Renee VanHeel when she gave her SUE Talk.

Program is now on amazonsmile! Click the link to buy your Mom a gift and a portion of your purchase will go directly to our ESBCharity program where business owners can choose what charity benefits from the donation. Some of the charities include American Institute for Cancer Research, The Arthritis Foundation, and many more. Click: smile.amazon.com/ch/20-4266594 – Make sure to select “Gold Coast Foundation – I Have Adream San Diego” Want to be involved in our program? Click Contact to learn more about what we do and why we give.

We are proud to announce Pay It Forward Processing was The Union’s Best of Award Winner (For Merchant Services) two years in a row! We want to thank Mick Collins for all his diligent work in Nevada County! You are a real STAR. Each year the Union Newspaper puts out a ballot featuring several categories asking readers to vote for their favorite businesses/people in those categories (Best local band, dry cleaner, charity event, from retail to services, restaurants, bars, thrift stores, vets, you get the idea). And we won in a write-in online ballot system!