Rise and grind—small biz-style

Step into the life of a business owner

October 22, 2024

• 6 min read

It’s Monday morning, and Sam, our fictional go-getting small business owner, is gearing up for a jam-packed week. As Sam strives to take her small business to a new level, she is ready for both the big wins and the challenges. With bold determination, Sam has enlisted the help of Chase for Business, harnessing their cutting-edge tools to leap over hurdles to reach her business goals.

To keep track of her career journey, Sam has been journaling. Follow along as her day unfolds with a series of must-read entries that are filled with both the mundane and the magnificent, including some game-changing tools—like streamlined Invoicing, Customer Insights¹, and Faster Payments²—that make a real difference.

Running a small business may often feel like a marathon. But with the right tools in hand, you can succeed. Read Sam’s journal to get the scoop on how to level up your own small business.

…

Monday

9:00am

I pull up to the office, coffee in hand, with that queasy feeling of Monday morning to-dos fresh on my mind. Still recovering from the busyness of the weekend with the usual—non-stop kid activities, some weekend work and grocery shopping—last work week was also a whirlwind. Not sure I’m ready for a redo with more onboarding meetings with new employees, cash-flow headaches, invoicing glitches, customer requests—all day, every day kind of tough stuff.

That said, today marks my first day working with Chase for Business, which I’m hopeful about. Between dealing with inflation and supply chain disruption, I’m at a bit of a crossroads in my journey as a small biz owner. Lately, it’s become clear that I just need something more. More strength, more help, more of what matters. Chase seems to understand what it takes to run a small biz, so I’m hoping they can help.

But enough musings for now. I have a million emails to respond to.

10:00am

Whew—an hour straight of responding to requests, supply chain reps, and marketing to dos. Now I need to tackle an invoice I’ve been dreading. I heard Chase has a new digital Invoicing tool that lets me send fast and easy mobile invoices. We’ll see if it makes my life easier. Fingers crossed. Will report back soon.

10:25am

THAT. WAS. AWESOME. Chase’s Invoicing tool seriously took things up a notch. No more manually creating, sending, or reconciling my invoices. All I have to do now is create an invoice straight from my Chase Business Complete Checking® account and press send. It then sends my invoices through a link by text or email.

And here’s the cherry on top: After I send the invoice, I can track payment activity and progress—all in one super-intuitive and transparent place. I feel like I already have better insight into my cash flow. All right, score one for Monday (and Chase). Huge upgrade. Mobile is the way to go.

10:50am

Early lunch date with another small business owner next door who’s been having similar issues running their biz.

12:15pm

Lunch was A+, and so was chatting with my neighbor. Get this: She uses Chase for Business to run things, too. Here’s what she had to say, “We use Invoicing as another flexible payment type. When we are collecting payment from our wholesale customers, we quickly create an invoice within our Chase Business Online account, it’s emailed directly to them, and then they pay it on their time.”

We’ll see if Monday keeps ticking upward, though, because now I have to do something that (low-key) always haunts me: sitting down and reviewing our previous month’s sales, planning for the month ahead, and seeing where we can do better. Need to make payroll and pay rent.

Scanning spreadsheets, making sense of sales numbers, comparing data points—not my particular skill set or the kind of things that are enjoyable. More soon.

1:00pm

Scratch that. Got distracted by more emails. Let’s try this again.

2:15pm

Numbers usually take me three-plus hours. But Chase has come through again it seems. They’ve got their own business intelligence platform called Customer Insights that gives easy-to-read, actionable insights to help me make better business decisions. I feel more equipped to make better decisions about our budget and compensation. This is huge.

I finished early for once. I’ll take it.

3:00pm

Had some time to catch up on Chase for Business and chat with co-workers. We’ll chalk it up to a boost in company culture. I even found more good stuff on Chase from another small business owner, “Customer Insights has made us better. It has allowed us to understand our numbers. I have a finite ad budget, and Customer Insights helps me better target my advertising.”

Is this real life? Chase could seriously upgrade my biz.

I still need to tackle something I’ve been putting off for a while, which is finessing our payment processes. They need to be faster and more versatile, and Chase for Business seems to have promising upgrades here, too. Let’s see if they’ve got what it takes.

4:30pm

And another win for the day! My team and I spent the last 1.5 hours switching all our payment processes over to Chase, and we’re already seeing results.

We officially have an online payment center that gives us the flexibility to choose different ACH payment options to pay vendors and employees. I’m pumped because now we can:

Send large sums of money quickly and securely.
Cut out all check writing and mailing.
Let our people choose their delivery method (standard, same day, or real time).
Pay as we go (per payment) vs. paying a flat monthly fee.

The list will go on, I’m sure. I’m done with work about 30 mins early. This is a first in a looooong time. Gonna prep for tomorrow.

4:55pm

Prepped for Tuesday and even had 15 mins to spare. Had a quick chat with co-workers about how Chase for Business has already been a game changer and found out one of my employees has also used Chase at a previous job. They said, “ACH empowers us with the agility to swiftly process payments to our valuable business partners, no matter where we are. It's a great tool ensuring we meet critical deadlines and maintaining solid business relationships.”

What a solid finish to an excellent start to the week.

5:00pm

Heading home. This was a stellar Monday. More of these, please. Take it from me and level up your biz with Chase for Business.

¹ Customer Insights is generated from a variety of sources, including but not limited to certain transactions processed by Paymentech, LLC, also known as Chase Payment Solutions. Portions may also include intellectual property from Esri and its licensors and are used under license. Copyright © 2024 Esri and its licensors. All rights reserved.

Timing & privacy

We continually update your insights, but there’s typically a delay of a few days between the transaction date and inclusion in your insights. We’ll show information for the time period indicated, and all data is aggregated and anonymized to protect customer privacy.

Informational purposes only

Customer Insights has been prepared for your general informational purposes only and is not designed to fully take into account all individual client circumstances, objectives or needs and therefore is not intended as a recommendation of a particular product or strategy. Customer Insights may not be relied on for tax, legal, investment or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction. We are not liable for decisions made or actions taken in reliance on any of the information presented herein. The information or insights presented are intended to enhance your ability to reach all individuals regardless of age, income, gender or any other attribute and should be used in compliance with laws and regulations.

²Standard ACH, Same-day ACH and Real-time payment transactions each count toward your total daily limits for transaction amounts.

Real-time payments: Your payment generally arrives moments after you send it. We review all payments before we process them, and we may require additional information which could cause some delay. If you use Chase dual control, we will begin to process your payment, once an authorized user approves it. Enrollment in ACH Payment Services is required to activate real-time payments. There is a fee of 1% of the payment amount, up to $25 per transaction for a real-time payment. Real-time payments are unavailable from 2-6 AM ET on business days and cannot be cancelled or reversed, once processing begins. Not all payees’ banks support real-time payments. Real-time payments use The Clearing House network to process payments and are not subject to Nacha rules and are not ACH transactions.

Same-day ACH payments: Your payment generally arrives by end of day, when authorized before the 2:00 PM ET cutoff. Most payments scheduled after the 2:00 PM Cutoff time will arrive the next business day by 1:00 PM ET. We review all payments before we process them, and we may require additional information which could cause some delay. Enrollment in ACH Payment Services is required. There is a fee of 1% of the payment amount, up to $25 per transaction for a Same-day ACH payment. Same-day ACH payment delivery is available during business days only. Final availability of the funds is subject to the recipient’s financial institution. Same-day ACH payments are subject to Nacha rules.

Standard ACH, including file uploaded payments must be approved by 8:00 PM ET (on the send on date) and arrival time is as early as 1 business day. Standard ACH payments authorized after the cutoff time will be processed the next business day. You can cancel a Standard ACH as long as you do so before the 8:00 PM ET cutoff time. We review all payments before we process them, and we may require additional information which could cause some delay. Standard ACH payments are subject to Nacha rules.

*Additional information including transaction limits can be viewed in “Learn more” within the Business Payment Center

All products are subject to approval.

JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC.

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