16th October, 2018
We’re now at a point where merchants offering multiple types of payment options for their customers isn’t a luxury – it’s necessary.
Take the case of Bianco Latte.
It’s a gelato business, obsessed with providing great gelato on par with what you’d find in Milan or Naples.
“We started because we couldn’t find any good gelato in Melbourne, so we decided to start our own business and start making gelato,” said Andrea di Fiore.
“I was very into making gelato since I was a little kid. I always wanted to make it, and I love eating it. Once I got here in Melbourne, I couldn’t find it, and I was really angry, so…that’s how we started.”
Once the cart was up and running, the next step was getting their accounting software sorted – something which was a game-changer.
They said before they got accounting software, with Bankfeeds, it used to take 30 hours to get all their transactions checked off.
It now takes five minutes.
While that made their business more efficient, it was using MYOB’s invoicing solutions which really took their business to the next level.
While Andrea and Camille made a living with great gelato, they were losing work because they couldn’t offer card payments.
“Before we had all those options, people were definitely asking for all of those [payment] options,” said Camille. “‘Can we pay by credit card…have you got this, have you got that?’.
“I definitely think we did lose jobs.”
One key sector the business couldn’t crack in a substantial way was the lucrative corporate gig sector – with corporates keen to provide gelato for their events, but unable to pay in a way Andrea and Camille could process.
“They tend to be paying by credit card so…when we didn’t have credit cards, they said ‘Listen, yeah, how can we do this, we really need to pay by card’. We probably lost a fair bit of jobs,” said Andrea.
Corporate expensing systems are quite often tied to credit accounts rather than a direct bank transfer – meaning that if you can’t take card payment, you may miss out altogether.
Offering multiple payment options also put big corporate clients at ease.
“A lot of people are used to paying by credit card, some they are very familiar with bank transfer, some other just Bpay…and it also makes you look like you’re very professional, like it’s a very professional business.,” said Andrea.
Not only did offering a different mode of payment open up a new market for the business, it saved the business a lot of time.
“Even just getting payments, I used to get people calling me, and I was on the go trying to pay an invoice, and I was like maybe driving, stopping, getting a piece of paper, finding a pen, writing down the credit card details, then go back to the office, process the payment,” said Andrea.
“These days, they call me up and they say, ‘I want to pay an invoice,’ I just say, ‘Listen, just click on the link in your email and you can just pay online’ and they’re pretty impressed. It makes my life a lot easier too.”
The time saved on admin work and processing payments offered by MYOB’s base accounting software and time save on invoices meant the company was given the time and space to think about more strategic matters.
“Having more time allowed us to expand the business,” said Andrea.
“We do big marketing activations across Australia, so we work in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, pretty much everywhere. We’re doing big jobs across the country. It’s quite hard to organise them, so having more time means being able to organise these jobs.”
What began as a reaction to not being able to get good gelato in Melbourne is now a multi-city operation with corporate clients offering work by the scoopful.
It was all possible because the business got its accounting systems and payment options up to date – making it clear that not only does offering multiple payment options make life easier, but it can hold the key to business success.
You can learn more about setting up invoicing payments in your MYOB accounting software here.