How Square Mobile Can Help Close the “Local Divide”
Do you have a favorite local restaurant or street vendor that always has your favorite items? But your biggest frustration is that they only take cash and you always forget to grab some on the way. There is a new company that is aiming to end that problem. Square, founded by Jack Dorsey, the guy who created Twitter, allows anyone with a mobile device to accept credit and cash payments and give receipts.
If you have have an iPad, iPhone, or Android phone then you can carry a virtual cash register with menu items etc… I recently watched a demo of this technology online at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference. See the demo below.
Watch live streaming video from Disrupt at Livestream.com
After seeing this, I immediately began to think of hundreds of minority-owned businesses that I know that for the cost of an iPhone or iPad could take advantage of this right now. This eliminates the barrier of the merchant account needed to accept credit card transactions. (which is not an easy process and is one of the reasons many of these businesses don’t have them now). There are already coffee shops, candy stores, food trucks and traveling sales reps that are using Square today.
While this can potential be a game changer for businesses, I thought of all the great local minority-owned businesses. How would they find out about it? When you think about it there is really is a “local divide” when it comes to connecting technology and small minority-owned businesses. There are countless tools out here today that could easily help them improve their business immediately. Sadly, a lot of them will not hear about them until they are so mainstream that they no longer give them competitive advantage in their area. Even more will never adopt the tools because they don’t see the value. How can we help minority-owned businesses become early adopters of technology like this that can help them scale their business while still providing that personal local touch we love?
I’m putting out a challenge to all of the reader’s here. Find a local business you love and tell them about Square. Maybe even take the extra step and offer to help them get set up. If we each do that then we will be well on our way to closing the “local divide.” Come back here and share your stories about how you helped your local businesses learn about this powerful tool or others you may have told them about. I’m going to do my part by heading over to my favorite lunch spot today and tell them about Square. I’m also going to grab a catfish sandwich and some sweet tea while I’m there because what they do to food over there is unreal!!
You can follow me @navarrowwright on Twitter, hear my audio casts at http://www.cinchcast.com/navarrowwright or on my blog http://www.navarrowwright.com
Category: Apps, Featured | Tags: broadband, internet, iPad, iPhone, iPhone apps, small business, Square
About the Author Navarrow Wright is the CTO of Interactive One, Interactive One is a digital and print media company focusing on the African-American and urban market. As CTO Wright is responsible for the technical strategy of all the Interactive One online properties which include Hellobeautiful, The UrbanDaily, NewsOne, Elev8 and BlackPlanet. He is also responsible for the technical management of the Radio One Network’s radio sites Navarrow was formerly the President of Maximum Leverage Solutions ( http://maxlevsolutions.com), An internet technology consulting firm. Wright is the Co-founder of Globalgrind.com with Russell Simmons and The former CTO of BET.com. Navarrow blogs about issues in technology that affect entrepreneurs, minorities and urban youth on his site at http://www.navarrowwright.com
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Great post Navarrow. Another example of how Black media is dropping the ball on a chance to inform its audience (I haven't seen stories in any of the mags or on their sites), and why BW20's different perspective is so important.
If you have a business checking account the processs is easy. The credit check is in place more to make sure you are someone credible and only because it cost them money to create the readers that they are sending out for free. No where near as painful as the process you have to go through to get a merchant account.
Ive got square on my iPad and you can use it without the reader, you will just be charged a slightly higher fee if you enter the CC number vs. Swipe.
Im still waiting on my reader too!
I've been following Dorsey's progress on this for awhile; I agree that it may open opportunities for small and minority-owned businesses. Still awaiting arrival of reader in the mail. To obtain Square though, it requires a “credit check”; I'm interested in collecting data on how this affects our community as well (i.e., number of minority businesses “declined” vs. gen pop). Will report any info I gather.
I've been doing this ever since they started letting people sign up. I've been telling churches, relatives, community centers. I'm still waiting on mines to come in the mail. Once that happens I plan on promoting the benefits of it (garage sales, fundraisers). I hate how it is 2010 and I still can only use cash at a lot of businesses that are in the black community. This is definitely a disruptive technology.