Page 18 - GS221202

View

post-graduate studies, I’d still have a list of favorite
point of sale
ry
The ve
The very point of sale textbooks to reference in my research and business
writing. When I emailed LinkedIn customer service,
I was told the booklist was a trial feature that had
been scrapped.
• Trust but verify: Listening to your gut can be help-
ful when negotiating, hiring and vetting partners
and service providers but it doesn’t hurt to run a
credit check, read online reviews and look beyond
Pain is a powerful provided referrals, which will obviously have noth-
ing but positive things to say. Interview associates
and former employees before entering into a formal
currency • Do a trial run: Test driving a relationship instead
agreement.

By Dale S. Laszig of jumping in and hoping things work out, can save
DSL Direct LLC time, money and the pain of realizing your partner-
ship will never live up to its promises. A bit of pro
ain is a powerful currency. Lessons purchased bono can go a long way to showing how your work
with pain stay with you. Like most currencies, will be received and how your prospective partner
there are varying degrees and denominations. will show up. A trial client recently hired me for a
P My curated business booklist on LinkedIn that project, then skipped out without paying. I walked
disappeared one morning looks like small change com- away, grateful to have avoided a long-term commit-
pared to my years-long relationship with a bank that ment.
kicked my small business account to the curb. • Chase your own dreams: Supporting others’ vi-
sions is commendable as long as you don’t sacrifice
In both cases, I’d been an exemplary customer with active your own. I interviewed a company that had my
accounts and upwardly trending followers and revenue, heart and invested in continuous process improve-
respectively. But in the end, I was a fraction of a percentage ment. Relating to every value the organization em-
to these mega brands, not even a human being. bodied, I wanted to do more than write about it. Un-

Small change fortunately, my overreach cost me the relationship.
In my entrepreneurial journey, I’ve had to rely on others Embrace the suck
whose introductions and positive references helped me In her LinkedIn Live series, Gab with Garima, Biller Genie
win that first byline or close that first major account. Their President Garima Shah presented “Embrace the Suck” on
support inspired me to pay it forward to other startups by Nov. 17, 2022, pointing out we all learn firsthand about
celebrating their unique ideas and brand differentiators in the pitfalls of growing a business. All kinds of bad things
feature articles, breaking news and here, in this opinion can and will happen, Shah explained to her enthusiastic
column. audience, and she decided early on in her career to just roll
with it. It gets better, she said, especially when you apply
Along the way, I’ve also had to rely on technology hard-earned learnings to your business practice.
platforms that promised to give me a thriving ecosystem or
community forum where I could grow, learn and interact It takes resolve, agility and agency to compete in a world
with other payments professionals. The experience of of real-time payments and instant credit decisioning.
building my business on platforms that are far beyond my Some big brands may challenge this assumption, but most
control showed me the flip side of interoperability, namely MLSs would agree it’s difficult, if not impossible, for one
interdependence. individual or company to be all things to all people. Indeed,

Big learning most of us have found it necessary to share capabilities,
expertise and technology platforms as our industry
As most merchant level salespeople (MLSs) would agree, becomes more open, transparent and interoperable.
payments is a relationship business. Communication
skills and adaptability are as important as intelligence and Here’s to a happy holiday season and our continued
technical prowess. Hopefully these examples, culled from success in 2023.
my hard-earned lessons, will save you some grief. Dale S. Laszig, senior staff writer at The Green Sheet and managing

• Back up your data: Backing up data is a must. If director at DSL Direct LLC, is a payments industry journalist and con-
I had backed up the business book reviews I had tent strategist. Connect via email dale@dsldirectllc.com, LinkedIn and
shared on LinkedIn, most of which were from Twitter @DSLdirect. Banking on digital growth

18