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3. Field Guide Enterprises LLC is continuing to be present weekly trends, and absolute understanding of regulatory
at regional trade shows and building our visibility with and compliance demands for consumer protection.
new website and social media presence. They are payment guarantee and debt collection. From
a demographic standpoint, the need for our solutions is
4.I don't believe raising tariffs helps us either as a growing. More and more Americans need someone to
negotiating tactic or as policy for working with trade stand in at point of sale in real time and approve a high
partners. dollar check for a payment that absolutely positively must
be made today, or the sale is lost.
5. Get qualified help in determining how to spend your
investment dollars. There are many good payments People still need to buy a car, fix a car, pay the vet, pay the
industry consultants. Choose one that has been consulting funeral home or pay for emergency home repairs. They
full time for at least 10 years. Also, if you are looking for do not need to get trapped in a "debt trap" where they will
outside investors for your ISO, plan to spend at least six to be revolving their loan at 26 percent from now to the end
nine months to find an investor with the money you need of time. We provide an alternative that does not charge
and who will be a good partner. the consumer. We have been doing this for 35 years, so
we have some understanding of what we need to pay
Brandes Elitch attention to with our merchants.
CrossCheck Inc.
It would be almost impossible to start up a business like
1. Optimism. As you point out, this is the longest bull ours today. Our biggest challenge is communicating to
run ever for the stock market, including the S&P, DJIA, merchants how and why our products will increase sales
and NASDAQ. The economy has been expanding for 112 for them, and for this, we historically rely on ISO and MSP
months. At some point we will have a market correction, salespeople.
defined as a drop of 10 percent. We just don't know when
it will happen, or what will cause it, but it will happen. 4. Cautionary signs. Most consumer-based economic
There have been 36 corrections in the S&P 500 since 1950, indicators are flat. Consumer spending numbers were
or about one every two years. driven by the cost of healthcare. There are plenty of
cautionary signs: tariffs, trade wars, oil price stability, the
Currently, leading economic indicators such as inventory value of the dollar, issues with emerging nation economies,
and manufacturing are strong – exciting news for the and others. A sustainable growth rate for the economy is
10 percent of Americans who own 90 percent of the around 2 percent, not the 3 percent number you hear from
publicly traded securities, but not much news for many Washington.
other consumers. A 2017 Gallup poll showed that only 54
percent of U.S. adults owned stock, and most of that was 5. Advice. There are some developments in the payments
in a 401k or IRA. A third of Americans have no retirement space that you might want to consider. For example, today
accounts or pensions. less than a dozen large banks control both the issuing
and acquiring business in the United States and have the
Less than half of consumers benefit from any increase vast majority of the DDA accounts. These banks tell their
in the market, so this is not going to affect you or your customers that they can serve all of their financial wants
merchants except to the extent that the top 10 percent and needs. However, we see a wave of fintech upstarts
spend their money in your store. beginning to compete with these banks using technology
to deliver products in a more decentralized manner.
2. Positive economic environment. The stock market is
not the economy. GDP growth is over 4 percent, which is The upstarts are seeing initial success in providing
generally considered the sign of an "overheated" economy. services for the unbanked, cross-border, P2P, ecommerce,
This is probably due to the badly timed combination of a and online lending. There are many new players trying to
healthy economy, a trillion-dollar tax cut, and a ramp up revamp the B2B purchase order and invoicing process. It
of federal spending. is not a bold prediction to say that traditional credit card
processors are going to be disrupted by the likes of Alipay,
It is not good economic policy to provide a fiscal stimulus Stripe, Apple, Google, Samsung and dozens of emerging
and tax cuts during a strong economy. Large tax cuts will fintechs, or techfins as some people call them.
at some point trigger vastly larger deficits. The global
payments industry is a $100 trillion-plus market. Today the Consumers will use these new payment applications
major banks are better capitalized and are less susceptible at the point of sale, on the web and at brick-and-mortar
to the shocks that caused the last recession (excessive debt, locations, and they may or may not originate from their
checking account or with a credit card. We know that Visa
asset pricing bubbles, imprudent shadow banking, Ponzi will expend vast sums of money to maintain its tollbooth
finance, and weak oversight and regulation). model, but ultimately lower-cost solutions will prevail
because merchants do not want to spend 3 percent or more
3. Company actions. At CrossCheck, we have two just to receive an electronic credit.
businesses that require strict attention to daily and

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