No matter how important it is to the world of business, Payment Processing remains a mystery to many burgeoning entrepreneurs. That is why we’ve called in the big guns, Jed Morley, managing founder of Platinum Payment Systems (one of the most reputable merchant processing service providers in the industry), to illuminate the world of payments.

Learn more about the importance of payment processing and how finding a purpose can propel your business to the next level in the interview below!

Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your work at Platinum Payment Systems!

Jed Morley: Hi, my name is Jed Morley. I’m one of the owners of Platinum Payment Systems (also called PlatPay or PPS.) For the first few years of my career though, I had nothing to do with that side of the business. Instead, I worked as a real estate broker and developer and devoted my time to building up national properties all over the Western United States.

The rest of the PlatPay team started similarly. The team that we put together had different backgrounds and with those backgrounds came a diverse set of abilities and experiences that had almost nothing to do with the banking world. And yet, we made it work. As a team, we focused on creating a real, personable service that the merchant processing industry had never seen before. A feat that I’m not sure would have been possible without our unique set of experiences that set us apart from everyone else.

What was your first year like in the merchant processing industry?

Jed Morley: Well, when we launched Platinum Payment Systems, we started completely from scratch. We had no accounts, and we set aside our old portfolio. We wanted a fresh start that would allow us to build PlatPay from the ground up with our core values in play.

Of course, just like with most, our startup year had its ups and downs. But, within the following years, we were able to generate enough business to go from ZERO accounts to thousands! We were even dubbed as one of the fastest-growing Inc. 5000 companies in the country at the time, and in our home base of Utah, we were ‘THE’ fastest-growing payment processor.

What do you believe makes Platinum Payment Systems more successful than other competitors in the industry?

Jed Morley: Platinum Payment Systems stands out because… we are human. That might sound a bit ‘out’ there.’ But I mean exactly what I say. We’re human when we pick up the phone. We’re human when we share the knowledge we’ve built up for over a decade. And, we’re human when we travel around the country to meet potential clients face-to-face.

This humanity makes us easy to approach. And, it keeps us on top of our game when it comes to providing the best possible experience for our customers. We’re not some nameless, faceless merchant processor. We don’t just throw our clients into shark-infested waters after dragging them on board. As fellow humans, we support them throughout the process and make sure that we’re constantly available as an open and reliable source of advice in all thing’s payment processing.

How have you had to change your business process to account for the restrictions of the Global Pandemic?

Jed Morley: Before this year, we were pretty heavily reliant on generating new business through in-person events. As a company, we would travel nationwide and get to know all sorts of people from all sorts of industries up-close-and-personal, and we’d make our pitch to them in that way. But, with COVID-19, we’ve had to accept more virtual calls (Zoom, mostly) that would allow us to do the same thing, but remotely, so that everyone is staying safe and sound.

Despite the unfamiliarity of it all, we’ve found that it’s a pretty good way of generating business. It allowed us to talk to more people than we ever have before, which is why we’ve decided that in 2021, we’ll be striving to include more virtual events in our marketing ventures, along with our usual in-person events, so that we can have the best of both worlds.

What advice would you give to someone who is on the edge of burning themselves out?

Jed Morley: As a business owner, entrepreneur, or any person striving for success. It is important that you can focus and expend your efforts towards your goal. But, this kind of high-level engagement can be taxing for everyone. So, I think that it’s important that you have something to look forward to outside of your work. A passion or purpose that will allow you to continue loving what you do.

For me, I make sure to spare some time during breaks or the weekends on my passions outside of work. Whether it be horses, roping, or just straight up exercising. Whenever I do these things, it gives me a rush that always has me pumped up for the rest of the day or the week, allowing me to give my all 100% of the time.

The post Interview with Jed Morley of Platinum Payment Systems on the Subject of Payment Processing & Business Growth Strategies first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Sam Arnold

In 2012, over 65% of the respondents of a survey had believed that by the year 2020, mobile payments would have completely replaced the need for cash, or even, credit card payments. And while this is not true everywhere, this same project came back in 2016 to report that almost half of the surveyed consumers in the United States had admitted to making mobile payments on multiple occasions!

This shift, while perhaps not as dramatic as originally expected, makes it very clear indeed that, if your business is not taking mobile payments? You’re behind the competition.

Which brings us to our question for the day! How do you accept mobile payments? And, to that end, how are they meant to work?

What Are Mobile Payments?

Nowadays, you can walk into stores that no longer use cash registers or any kind of point-of-sale (POS) terminals. In its stead, merchants accept only mobile payments, which is a term that describes the process of ‘sending’ or ‘receiving’ money from smartphones and tablets through mobile payment apps, mobile wallets, and/or the internet.

It’s a very ‘on-the-go’ solution for accepting payments that allow consumers to pay directly and quickly from their phones without having to constantly carry cash, credit cards, or checks.

Recent years have seen this type of payment processing rise in popularity, facilitated by mobile wallets and mobile payment processors like Platinum Payment Systems (PlatPay), which allows their clients to accept in-person and remote mobile payments in a way that is safe, efficient, and simple.

And, it should be noted that this rise in popularity is not just limited to the US either. The estimated pay volume for global mobile payments is slated to increase to around $6 trillion by 2024, which only goes to show just how important it is that you start adopting mobile payments into your process ASAP, lest, as we mentioned earlier, you get left behind in the dust of your competitors.

How Do Mobile Payment Transactions Work?

This is the part where things get a bit trickier. You see, there are actually many ways that you can start accepting mobile payments in 2020. After all, the industry has seen a lot of evolution in the last couple of years, and more and more mobile payment transaction solutions are available.

To illustrate this, we’ve included a breakdown of all of the need-to-know point-of-sale technologies used in some of the more popular mobile payment solutions:

• Near-Field Communication (NFC) Payments: The most common and popular POS solution for mobile payments are definitely near-field communication (NFC) payments; a type of contactless data transfer system that allows for near-instantaneous data transfer between NFC-enabled card machines and phones. This technology is especially popular in the UK and Japan and is used in Apple Pay (one of the most popular mobile wallets.)
• Sound Waves-based Payments: Notable because they are newer than NFC payments and compatible with most of today’s smartphones. Plus, these types of transactions can be processed entirely without any internet connection. Relying, instead, on unique sound waves that carry the encrypted payment information required for the purchase. It’s also important to note that these transactions are considerably cheaper than other options, mostly because you will need to download extra software to run it — unlike NFC-phones, the technology for which needs to be built into the hardware of a device.
• Magnetic Secure Transmissions (MST) Payments: These types of transactions use phones as pseudo-credit cards and are considered far more secure than regular credit card transactions because of it. Despite its newness, it’s also compatible with a lot of the newer credit card terminals used today. Samsung Pay is also known to use this type of technology for facilitating payments (along with NFC technology.)

What Is the Best Way to Accept Mobile Payments?

As a merchant, there are plenty of ways to adopt mobile transactions into your day-to-day processes, but one of the most fail-safe ways of doing so is to partner up with a merchant processor, like Platinum Payment Systems (PlatPay).

In fact, partnering with a merchant processor like Platinum Payment Systems will allow you to accept a variety of payment methods: be it online payments, mobile payments, mail order payments, telephone order payments, and checks & ACH payments. You also get guaranteed 100% support in case you get into sticky situations and added protection from the risks associated with some of the more common payment types, which Jed Morley, one of the managing founders of PlatPay, claims is one of their top-most priorities as a merchant processing service. 

Of course, we recommend that you approach one of these merchant processors directly if you really want to know some of the finer details of their mobile payment processing systems, as many of them have different standards that they uphold and, at that, different services to offer.

The post How to Accept Mobile Payments | Platinum Payment Systems [2020 GUIDE] first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Sam Arnold