What ONE question would you ask as a struggling business owner?

I mean, at the end of the day, we don't want things like "be positive" or "follow your dream". We want a real takeaway. Some small thing that we can do as homework and fix some key element in our business.

We are often told by people that they cannot read their merchant statements, which means they do NOT know how much taking credit cards and debit cards as payment is really costing them.

This is like a bomb technician. You don't want the intern. You want the 20-year veteran who smokes a cigarette while pumping gas (DO NOT DO THIS), because he has faced down scarier situations before breakfast. He'd tell you, "Cut the red wire."

Shouldn't that be a three-day seminar? He could make it that, but his skill level allows him to boil down an information reduction sauce.

Cut the red wire.

So, we tell men and women business owners all the time what to do here. It's easy. They can do it. They have hoed their own row long enough, now they need to fix the leak and it really is this simple:

Total Fees divided by Total Sales

Move the Decimal twice to the right = Effective Rate

If you are a retail location, that number should be at or below 2%. If you are online, it's 2.3% (barring high risk).

That's it, people. Cut the red wire.

Now, the number may be a little higher than your normal Discount Rate (the percentage on your paperwork), because it rolls all fees into one. This acts more like a radar.

And you can do it monthly in 90 seconds.

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