Chris has been writing about small business topics since 2003. In 2015, he joined Merchant Maverick, where he writes about business financing, payment processing, and demographic trends in entrepreneurship. Chris has been featured in Fox Business, ABC News, Yahoo Finance, GoBankingRates, Newsweek, BizJournals, and other publications. He has a Bachelor’s of Arts in English Writing Arts from SUNY Oswego, and a Masters of Science in Interactive Media from the University of Central Florida. He currently resides in the Hudson Valley region of New York.
Despite tightening interest rates, companies founded or co-founded by women netted over $36.3 billion for the year ending in October, down from 2021’s $42.6 billion.
In Merchant Maverick’s inaugural data report on The Best States In Which To Survive Recession, our analysis found that the states in the best condition to mitigate the effects of a recession aren’t where you might expect. Most of them, as it turns out, are in the Heartland.
Stripe Payments is a powerful tool for some businesses that want to sell online, but it can easily be overkill for others. See whether the customizable checkout, extensive integrations, advanced invoicing, and recurring billing features are right for you.
Can you use Venmo for business purposes? The short answer is that businesses can take Venmo payments in three ways: online, in-app, or in-person. For most businesses, whether you should take payments through Venmo depends on your customer base.
GOBankingRates talks to banking expert Chris Motola about the benefits of credit unions.
Financial expert Chris Motola tackles why credit card rates dipped in 2020 in this article with GoBankingRates.
Business expert Chris Motola talks with Yahoo Finance at the height of the pandemic about the impact of government shutdowns on small businesses.
Loans expert Chris Motola discusses the paradox of obtaining credit cards with a high credit limit when building credit in this article from Medium.
When you take all levels of government into account, there is an overwhelming number of grant programs available to small businesses. As grants tend to be specialized, the trick is usually finding ones that fit the nature of your business.
Credit card decline codes are sent to merchants from credit card processors when a transaction is unable to be processed. Each numerical code corresponds to a different reason a transaction may be declined, such as the card in question being reported lost or stolen. Want to know more about how to deal with decline codes or what to do when one comes up? Read our handy guide to credit card decline codes.
Chargebacks can potentially turn the convenience of card-based transactions into an expensive hassle. If chargebacks having been eating into your profits, you’ll want to find a cost-effective solution that’s suited to your transaction volume and budget. Luckily, solutions are available at scale.
The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been harsh, particularly on small businesses. Fortunately, there have been a number of loan and grant programs open to small business owners to offer financial help during these tough times, one being EIDL.
Guidance for the new and improved program was released January 6, 2021, with the program expected to be online by January 21. With thousands of small businesses under unprecedented stress, you can expect demand for these programs will be extremely high.
While Braintree is fully integrated into the PayPal ecosystem, it does still have some unique properties that distinguish it from PayPal’s flagship service. Different types of businesses are likely to benefit more from one than the other.
Credit repair companies are considered high risk by most payment service providers, so finding someone that will work with you can be a chore. Merchant Maverick has found that the five services offering the best credit repair merchant accounts are PaymentCloud, Soar Payments, Instabill, eMerchantBroker, and PayKings.
The second round of PPP grants $284 billion to business owners in the form of forgivable loans. As government mandates continue to keep some businesses shuttered or under strict regulations, a PPP loan could be just what you need to keep your business on track in 2021, regardless of whether or not you participated in the first round.
Credit scores are a frequent roadblock for businesses when it comes to looking for financing in general, and equipment financing is no exception. Whether you’re concerned that you won’t qualify, or you just want to avoid hard pulls on your credit, you may be wondering if you can get equipment financing with no credit check.
Pitching competitions can be a great way to get your foot into the door to the investment world. You’ll have a captive audience and the opportunity to make connections that can aid your business endeavors far into the future.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
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