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.
Wonder how long it’ll take to improve your credit score? Learn what you need to know in our guide!
Both Stripe and Square offer powerful, full-service third-party payment processing APIs. Square has a pretty clear edge when it comes to processing in-person payments and being ready to go right out of the box. Stripe’s robust multicurrency and payment method support, on the other hand, can give it an edge in international eCommerce. Read on for a full comparison.
PayPal is synonymous with P2P payments and digital wallets for consumers. Over the years, though, PayPal has also dabbled in creating options for users to pay with their PayPal balances in brick-and-mortar stores. PayPal users can now use NFC technology to spend their balances at shops in the offline world.
Are you curious about how much Stripe costs, and what makes it different from other processors? In this post, you’ll learn about Stripe fees and features, so you can find out if this is the right fit for your small business.
AgDirect is an Omaha, NE based equipment financing program offered by a network of specialized lenders called the Farm Credit System (FCS). AgDirect is a convenient way to access the benefits of the Farm Credit System quickly and easily, and should probably be somewhere near the top of an agribusiness’s options.
Square offers several time-saving benefits for small business owners looking to start processing payments, including no credit checks, a free magstripe reader to get you started, and a free Square POS app that enables you to start taking credit card payments right away.
PayPal Credit is a line of credit issued by Synchrony Bank. Approved PayPal users can use this virtual line of credit which functions similarly to a credit card, letting you pay for online purchases in installments rather than upfront in full. Wondering if you should sign up for PayPal Credit? Learn what you need to know about its terms, fees, and how it works here.
Stripe Payments is the obvious choice for global eCommerce and startup businesses, thanks to affordable pricing, international currency, and powerful tools. But if you don’t want to (or can’t) use Stripe, check out these developer-friendly alternatives instead.
Even if you have a steady income and a high personal credit score, additional requirements such as time in business or a business credit score make it a tough task to get a business loan. This can be a problem, particularly for startups. Using a personal loan for business allows you to bypass some of these restrictions to get financing for your business.
If you are a business owner or entrepreneur that wants to purchase and develop property, a hard money business loan might be the solution. Hard money loans are short-term bridge loans that are ideal for poor-credit borrowers, entrepreneurs without proven experience, and other people who want to purchase real estate for business purposes. Find out […]
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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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