Sarah-Jane Lampe: What drives you?

James Frost: Working with Worldpay’s small business customers and seeing how the innovation and technology we are developing helps these entrepreneurs grow and succeed. UK small businesses are the backbone of our economy and the creative industries are one of the UK’s greatest success stories, growing at almost twice the rate of the wider economy and worth a staggering £84 billion a year. This dynamic sector is driven by talented and innovative creatives and we’re glad we can play a part in their success with My Business Hub.

SL: How did My Business Hub come about?

JF: Our customers were telling us that they struggle daily with the administrative burdens that come with running a business. It was distracting from their focus on growth and customer service, and so we struck upon the idea for My Business Hub – an intuitive, all-in-one tablet-based point-of-sale solution.

My Business Hub brings to business owners the ability to reduce the daily admin burden by automating the reconciliation of cash and card payments. Operated with a detachable Android tablet, it gives business owners the freedom to take payments anywhere around their business. This flexibility means they can spend more time with customers, enhancing the overall in-store experience, while also helping to reduce congestion at busy times by serving away from the till.

SL: How does it help owners connect more deeply with customers?

JF: One of the benefits of My Business Hub is that it gives small businesses a mobile point of sale. As they are able to serve customers anywhere on the shop floor, staff can provide a more tailored service and spend time speaking to customers. The product is designed to evolve with businesses as they grow. Worldpay understands that business owners need time back, so they can focus on their customers and creating a great business.Not only can users cut down on administration from fast reconciliation, but the system allows business owners to perform lots of other duties such as ordering stock or checking emails and responding to customer enquiries. The user can also view and compare sales trends, access transaction history, keep on top of cash flow and view invoices on a simple and easy to use platform.

SL: What is the biggest day-to-day challenge small businesses face?

JF: The run-up to Christmas is traditionally one of the busiest times of the year for businesses. It’s a time where every resource should be focused on delivering a great experience to the influx of customers wanting to buy items during the festive season. Yet in truth, it’s also a time when even the most capable business owner can find themselves drowning under the pressure of having to juggle the demands of paying clients, with the everyday admin associated with running a business. For sole traders,processing a large number of transactions each day and reconciling that information can result in late nights and early mornings cashing up.

Another challenge to running any small business is accurate record keeping. According to Worldpay research, just over half of small business owners are unable to pinpoint their busiest trading day of the month and nearly two-thirds are unable to name their top three selling items. Meanwhile 40% of business owners couldn’t call up an accurate record of profit and loss.

SL: What is the most important thing to keep track of in business and why?

JF: Most entrepreneurs set up their own business because they are passionate about something whether that’s making artisan candles, selling knitting patterns or creating bespoke stationary – but between the pressure of ensuring their business is successful and dealing with the daily administrative burden they can lose sight of this. That’s why investing in technology like My Business Hub that helps business owners run more efficiently is really important.

My Business Hub comes with the innovative online tool My Business Dashboard - Worldpay’s insights tool for small businesses giving access to the full detail of all their card transactions online. Hub users will be able to see both cash and card transactions in their My Business Dashboard account, saving them time, whilst also enabling them to track performance, view sales trends and gain valuable insights about their business.

SL: What support do you offer to retailers who work with you?

JF: What’s great about My Business Hub is that it’s an all in one solution – giving businesses a mobile point of sale, card reader, printer and cash till. It’s easy to set up and the till is really user friendly and intuitive to use.

What’s more, we offer our customers 24/7 support along with a range of other products and services designed to meet the needs of small businesses, whether that’s pay as you go pricing for online payments, flexible financing to grow your business or access to a range of discount and complimentary businesses related services through our award winning Worldpay Benefits Club.

SL: In one sentence, describe My Business Hub?

JF: My Business Hub is an intuitive all in one POS solution for business owners looking to reduce the administrative burden, gain insight into their business and serve their customers better.

Contact: 0808 278 1140, www.worldpay.com