There is this little device called Square, this tiny little device is scaring the big bad banking industry according to a recent article on TechCrunch. Square is a payment processing hardware device that connects into a jack on your smartphone or tablet device that allows customers to pay you for whatever it is you do. Basically, banks are losing about $600.00 a year per Square user. According to the same TechCrunch article, Square is doing significant business, but not significant enough for a bank to worry, yet... What happens in the article is all of these big banks were sending people to a cupcake bakery in Ohio to convince her, even pay her, to
This is where the TechCrunch article ends and this is where I'm going to pick it up. The first time I heard about Square was only about 2 months ago from a colleague of mine while working on a project for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the Center for Information and Communications, Ball State University. We were working as e-commerce advisors to the IMS. We decided and presented as a cost-saving and income producing that the IMS use Square for bleacher concessions. Some other really cool services Square provides is it emails receipts with product descriptions (if you choose), allows you to download payments into whatever accounting software you use, and track purchases.
The first time I heard of Square, I saw the value and after looking into it a bit, suggested it as a potential business model for an established organization that holds the Indy 500. Since then, I've looked into starting my own business. I bet you can guess which payment processing system I decided to use. That's right, Square. I even signed up for one. I ended up putting my business idea on the back burner.... however, the point of this story is that Square is an amazing user-friendly device, that allows your business to be both stationary AND mobile! It is great for any business that provides a service from a bakery, to a motor speedway, to a taco truck or your landscaper and everything in between.
While Square may not currently be doing enough business to make a dent in the banking industry, myself and the banking industry, sees where this is going and it's going to be big.
The banks are not worried about the $600 per user they are currently missing out on. They are worried about the $600 per user they are going to be missing in two years, but the number of Square users, I predict, is going to grow substantially and it's going to happen fast.
This is where the TechCrunch article ends and this is where I'm going to pick it up. The first time I heard about Square was only about 2 months ago from a colleague of mine while working on a project for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the Center for Information and Communications, Ball State University. We were working as e-commerce advisors to the IMS. We decided and presented as a cost-saving and income producing that the IMS use Square for bleacher concessions. Some other really cool services Square provides is it emails receipts with product descriptions (if you choose), allows you to download payments into whatever accounting software you use, and track purchases.
The first time I heard of Square, I saw the value and after looking into it a bit, suggested it as a potential business model for an established organization that holds the Indy 500. Since then, I've looked into starting my own business. I bet you can guess which payment processing system I decided to use. That's right, Square. I even signed up for one. I ended up putting my business idea on the back burner.... however, the point of this story is that Square is an amazing user-friendly device, that allows your business to be both stationary AND mobile! It is great for any business that provides a service from a bakery, to a motor speedway, to a taco truck or your landscaper and everything in between.
While Square may not currently be doing enough business to make a dent in the banking industry, myself and the banking industry, sees where this is going and it's going to be big.
The banks are not worried about the $600 per user they are currently missing out on. They are worried about the $600 per user they are going to be missing in two years, but the number of Square users, I predict, is going to grow substantially and it's going to happen fast.
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