Business Partnerships Archives -

If you’re going to read any articles from the How Payments Are Done blog, these five are it. Some clear up the confusion around specific payment processing jargon and technical complexities like “What’s the difference between a surcharge and a convenience fee? Who can charge what?”.

Other articles cover critical, need-to-know payment challenges like how to reduce the chance of chargebacks from occurring.

Check out the most popular posts of the year … share them … then let us know which one’s your favorite by commenting below.

Take Charge(back)! How to Proactively Prevent Credit Card Chargebacks [Infographic]

If you accept credit cards at your business, it’s nearly impossible to rid yourself of chargebacks. The good news? There are steps you can take that will drastically reduce the chance of chargebacks from happening.

Check out this handy infographic for seven proactive pointers — perfect for sharing on your social pages, with colleagues and at your next team meeting.

8 Elements Every Great Business Partnership Must Have

“Great partnerships just don’t happen.” Research shows there are elements that are essential for creating great alliances.

In this article, Constellation Payments CEO, Steve Pinado, outlines the eight components of effective partnering as identified in the book, “Power of 2: How to Make the Most of Your Partnerships at Work and in Life” by Rodd Wagner and Gale Muller, Ph.D.

What better time than now to measure your partnerships against these components and see how they stack up?

Convenience Fees & Surcharges: What’s the Difference? What’s Permitted? What’s Not?

How does a convenience fee differ from a surcharge? What if you’re a government agency, a school, college or university? What’s allowed?

This post spells out the differences between the two fee types, the rules around each and what businesses are allowed to charge extra — a great primer providing clarity around what can be a very confusing topic.

Understanding Credit Card Processing Charges? A Look at Interchange, Tiered and Flat Rate Pricing

Trouble reading your statements or evaluating rates? This article explains — in simple terms — the different pricing options and methods of billing available for merchant processing services through Constellation Payments.

Glossary of Payment Processing Terms

That payment processing jargon I spoke of earlier? Here’s a great go-to resource worth bookmarking. This glossary defines the most commonly-used payment processing terms in simple, easy-to-understand language.

So, what do you think? What’s your favorite article? Have a topic you want to see covered? Comment below and let us know.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the How Payments Are Done blog and look forward to sharing more payment education, strategies and insights in 2017.

Kristen Campbell is the Marketing Brand Manager at Constellation Payments.

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Teaming up with others is a part of business. You partner with colleagues, with employees, with other organizations.

But are those partnerships great? Do they include the elements of effective partnering?

One title I really enjoy and often recommend is: “Power of 2: How to Make the Most of Your Partnerships at Work and in Life” by Rodd Wagner and Gale Muller, Ph.D.

The authors studied the dimensions of partnership, and through their research, set out to determine what separates a great partnership from a poor partnership.

What they found is that “great partnerships don’t just happen.” Powerful alliances include eight essential components. These elements can be used to make the most out of your business partnerships and the partnerships in your personal life.

8 Elements of Successful Partnerships

1. Commitment to a Common Mission
While basic, it’s essential. Successful partnerships need to rally around a common goal and commit to it. That means understanding the goal … believing in it … living it.

2. Complementary Capabilities
This is one of the most powerful reasons for partnering. Focusing your time on what you do best and allowing your partners to focus on their strength makes a well-rounded team.

The element of complementary strengths can be seen in the partnerships we form at Constellation Payments. Software providers team with us to integrate their solution with our payment technology. We focus on the payment processing needs and PCI compliance requirements, while our partners focus on their core competencies in software development and delivery. Together we provide a well-rounded software solution.

3. Ongoing Communication
Continuous communication is an absolute requirement for successful partnerships. Without it, your mission and vision can become lost. Worse yet, team members can end up in silos, rather than staying focused on the key objective.

4. Acceptance of Differences
Everyone is different. Each person has their own personality … perhaps a unique way of communicating, a different workstyle or way of presenting. Effective partners accept habits and quirks for the better of the organization. The differences need to be accepted as long as they don’t negatively impact the team or deter the team from its mission.

5. Fairness
There is an instinctual need for fairness and equality among all humans. No one wants to be part of a one-sided relationship or feel that they’re getting a raw deal. Successful partnerships require balance. Effective partnering requires fairness.

6. Forgiveness
We all make mistakes. If we don’t, we are not trying hard enough. Effective partnering requires that we move on after mistakes are made and not harbor ill feelings. We must forgive our partners – and ourselves – when we make mistakes.

7. Unselfishness
The power of cooperation is well known to all of us. True collaboration to accomplish a great goal together can be hugely fulfilling. Even more fulfilling and effective are working relationships where partners are truly happy seeing the other succeed.

8. Trust
Business partnerships require trust that is built upon mutual respect, honesty and demonstrated integrity. Without this, all is lost.

I’m very fortunate to be part of so many great teams and to have solid business partnerships at Constellation Payments and Jonas Software. Together, we’ve enjoyed strong business growth – as well as professional and personal growth. We continue to grow through hard work, discipline and a focus on these essential partnership success drivers.

Steve Pinado is CEO of Constellation Payments. He also leads several Jonas Software portfolio companies within the fitness, payment processing, online registration and association management verticals. Steve has over 20 years of experience in technology-enabled financial services. Prior to being named CEO, Steve held executive roles at several Fortune 500 companies.