Finance
PRnewswire | July 20, 2023
It's been a challenging few years for small businesses, with pandemic-related shutdowns followed by periods of high inflation. Yet small business owners across the U.S. continued to face these challenges head-on, providing much-appreciated goods and services to their local communities and beyond. GOBankingRates is recognizing these deserving businesses through our third annual Small Business Spotlight.
As part of the series, GOBankingRates asked our readers to nominate their favorite small businesses. We received hundreds of nominations, and are proud to be highlighting our readers' favorite boutiques, restaurants, coffee shops, fitness studios and more across the country. Nominated businesses this year include a luxury leather brand, a children's store, a personal chef service and a specialty cupcake bakery.
GOBankingRates is honored to share a behind-the-scenes look into how these businesses were built and continue to thrive.
"These entrepreneurs gave us the fascinating stories behind the businesses they've built," said Greg Garrison, Editor at GOBankingRates. "They were refreshingly open about the struggles they faced and the journey they took to become successful business owners, and I think their stories can serve as an inspiration to others." The 2023 Small Business Spotlight also includes guidance for aspiring small business owners, advice for those who are already on their small business journeys and tips for consumers on how to best support small businesses. In addition, the series features an exclusive survey on how Americans "shop small," the biggest barriers to aspiring small business owners and more.
About GOBankingRates
GOBankingRates.com is a personal finance news and features website dedicated to helping visitors Live Richer™. From tips on saving money to investing for retirement or finding a good interest rate, GOBankingRates helps turn financial goals into milestones and money dreams into realities. Its content is regularly featured on top-tier media outlets, including MSN, Yahoo!, FOX Business, CNBC, Business Insider, USA Today and dozens of others. GOBankingRates specializes in connecting consumers with the financial institutions and products that best match their needs.
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Finance
Fintech Futures | August 01, 2023
Bluevine, the leading provider of small business banking solutions, today announced the launch of its new accounts payable (AP) offering to help business owners and their teams simplify business payments management from within their Bluevine Business Checking accounts. With accounts payable through Bluevine, business owners can now easily automate each step of their AP process, including bill capture and storage, approval workflows, payment scheduling, automatic accounting reconciliation, and user provisioning and management. As SMBs grow, keeping up with bill payment and management is as much a source of pain as it is essential for optimizing cash flow.
With few alternatives available to businesses of this size, the seamless addition of a robust AP feature set and easy-to-use dashboard to Bluevine’s all-in-one digital banking platform reinforces the company’s commitment to helping SMB owners save time and money by applying innovative solutions to everyday problems.
For nearly 10 years, Bluevine has been dedicated to building all of its banking and financial service products with small businesses in mind, tailoring the capabilities and user experience to their specific needs.The company’s focus on business payments is not new. In 2022, Bluevine introduced its initial bill pay offering, providing free ACH and low-cost wires along with the convenience of a payments dashboard to send, track, and manage payments. Earlier this year, Bluevine announced the launch of international payments, enabling SMB owners to send payments globally at competitive rates. With the launch of its accounts payable solution, Bluevine further empowers customers with new bill management and payment features, such as:
Unpaid Bills Dashboard, Your New Digital Filing Cabinet: One place to upload, view, and store all of your bills and invoices. Quickly add bills to your dashboard by taking a photo or uploading a file, then Bluevine captures the data from your bills through optical character recognition (OCR) and presents them to you for one-click confirmation.
Secure, Delegated Access for Team Members: Add anyone in the company who needs to be involved in your accounts payable process, and set their permissions to reflect exactly what you need them to do.
Route Bills and Payments for Review and Approval: Digitally submit bills and payments for review and approval to one or multiple team members, including setting the logic for the sequence of approvals to optimize how you run your ideal accounts payable process.
Easily Send Payments. Schedule payments from your dashboard with options that meet your preference, whether ACH, Check, Wire, Credit Card, or International Payments – and take advantage of Bluevine’s low-fee payment options. Also, easily track payments to verify when your vendor has received what you owed.
Automatic Reconciliation with QuickBooks Online: Minimize manual data entry, reduce the risk of fraudulent and duplicate payments, set up recurring payments, and streamline approvals with workflow automation designed to cut down back and forth.
“As small businesses scale, often they face more complexity in managing their operations. Our accounts payable solution is purpose-built to strike a balance between providing a robust set of AP automation tools, with the ease-of-use that our customers have come to expect from Bluevine,” said Charles Amadon, SVP, GM of Banking at Bluevine. “Every decision we make has the SMB at the heart of it, starting with the essential question – will this help them grow and run their business easier? Based on customer feedback we knew AP automation was something they wanted and needed. Putting all that power right into their checking account dashboard is an exciting step forward, and further differentiates Bluevine Business Checking with even more added value.”
Small business owners normally face high transaction fees from traditional banks when paying bills, especially via wire, ACH, or international payments. With Bluevine’s transparent fee structure, free ACH, and low-cost wires, customers enjoy simple, upfront pricing. Additionally, Bluevine Business Checking offers unlimited transactions, live support, and no monthly fees while giving customers the opportunity to earn 2.0% interest on balances up to and including $250,000.
“As my company has grown bigger, I certainly encountered the need for more advanced bill payment and management features to handle the complexities that come up as you scale,” said Cayden Young, founder of Tech Leaf, a Utah-based renewed electronics provider that helped flagship the eBay Refurbished Program and has experienced upwards of 120% growth in annual revenue over the past three years, requiring the company to triple its warehouse space over the same period. “With Bluevine, I get accounts payable features that are fully integrated right into my checking account. The smooth user experience allows me to save the equivalent of a full 8-hour work day per month because of how easy it is to add vendors, upload bills, access payment histories, and sync with my Quickbooks Online Advanced account—in addition to paying and tracking both domestic and international payments.”
About Bluevine
Bluevine provides small businesses with streamlined banking solutions built for them. Since launching in 2013, Bluevine’s innovative and intuitive products, including business checking, bill pay, and line of credit, have helped over 500,000 entrepreneurs save time and money so they can focus on what matters most: growing their business. Bluevine is backed by leading private and institutional investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, 83North, Citi Ventures, ION Crossover Partners, SVB Capital, Nationwide Insurance, and M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Arm). Lines of credit are issued by Celtic Bank, a Utah-chartered Industrial Bank, Member of FDIC. Banking Services provided by Coastal Community Bank, Member FDIC.
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Technology
Businesswire | July 14, 2023
Sendle, the most affordable delivery service built for small business, has beefed up its portfolio of shipping services designed to help small businesses succeed with the launch of Sendle Three-Day Guaranteed. This new, expedited shipping service offers small businesses a reliable, cheaper option to United Parcel Service (UPS) for fast, national package delivery. Proving that affordable shipping does not have to be slow, small businesses throughout the U.S. can now take advantage of Sendle’s expansive national network for even more efficient package deliveries that save them more time and money.
With Sendle Three-Day Guaranteed, all small businesses can now get their goods picked up from their doorstep and delivered in three business days or less to wherever they need to go in the U.S. – with no extra fees or contracts. There is also no minimum pick-up quantity required. If a Sendle package isn’t delivered within three business days, Sendle will refund the small business the cost of the delivery – no questions asked. The Sendle Three-Day Guaranteed service includes tracking and $150 cover, and is 100% carbon-neutral at no extra cost.
“Small businesses deserve more choice and fairer pricing when it comes to parcel delivery. That’s why Sendle is leading the charge to shake up the logistics space by delivering quick, reliable, and cheaper shipping services tailored specifically for small business. Today, we are proud to introduce a game-changing alternative to UPS that is guaranteed to get goods delivered in three days or less, at an unbeatable price,” says James Chin Moody, Sendle CEO and co-founder. “We are on a mission to liberate small businesses from the burdens of logistics, allowing them to focus on what truly matters. By unlocking precious time while saving them some money, we’re empowering small businesses to thrive. This is just the beginning – you can expect to see even greater innovations from us as we relentlessly fight for the success of small businesses.”
Complementing Sendle Saver, the company’s best value shipping option, and Sendle Preferred, which offers delivery in one to five days, the new Three-Day Guaranteed service provides the same, easy and reliable service Sendle’s small business customers have already come to love – and now at an even faster pace. Sendle handles the end-to-end journey of every parcel shipped, offering dedicated customer service by real people, as well as a powerful online dashboard where customers can track and reschedule their deliveries, and more.
“Brush Club operates in the sustainability sector and fast and reliable deliveries are integral elements of our brand promise. Customers value our commitment not just to their dental health, but also to the environment. A crucial part of that commitment is ensuring we deliver their sustainable dental kits in a timely and reliable manner,” says Santiago Martinez Oropeza, CEO and founder of Brush Club. “Sendle understands that small businesses like ours have to work fast. And now, with their Three-Day Guaranteed service, we can promise delivery times and keep them, and that builds trust with customers, sets us apart in a competitive market, and greatly enhances our customer retention.”
Small businesses can sign up for fast, more affordable shipping now
Sendle Three-Day Guaranteed starts at $4.59 and small businesses in the U.S. can immediately sign up and start using the service at sendle.com. “Sendle’s new Three-Day Guaranteed Service will benefit us and our customers – especially with our refill option taking off,” says Yvette Nathalie Brown, celebrity tea tender and founder of Tshikovi Tea House. “Our customers can refill their orders by sending their canisters back to us, and the sooner we get them back, the sooner we can refill them. Faster and more affordable shipping means our customers won’t run out of their favorite teas and our business can continue to grow with increased customer retention.”
The new Sendle Three-Day Guaranteed service is also available as an option to shipping and e-commerce platforms through Sendle’s new Digital Partner Program (DPP) that was also announced today. More information about Sendle’s new DPP can be found online.
About Sendle
Sendle is the first carrier in the United States specifically designed to serve the needs of small ecommerce businesses. Sendle levels the playing field for small businesses by offering simple, affordable shipping across the U.S. and internationally, with no hidden fees, subscriptions, or warehousing required. Merchants simply purchase a label and schedule a pickup from Sendle, and their package can be dropped off or picked up from their front door. Sendle is also the first 100% carbon neutral shipping carrier in the U.S. and is a Certified B Corporation and Climate Neutral Certified. The company was founded in Australia in 2014 and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia; Seattle, Washington; and Toronto, Canada.
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