Not long after I opened my gourmet grocery in Brooklyn four years ago, one of my suppliers mentioned that the big-time deli owner in the neighborhood planned to open a huge deli nearby, offering pretty much everything I sold.

At about the same time, a nice woman walked into my store and asked if I wanted to buy an ATM. I was skeptical until she showed me that a store down the street was bringing in $4,000 a month in income from his ATM. At $2,800 for the machine, I was sold.

But like so much in the crazy world of entrepreneurship, the ATM became way more than an income generator.

As many of you know, handling cash is a huge pain. It is time-consuming to count and risky to transport. I’d rather pay the 3 percent credit card fee than have to deal with the stress of bringing $10,000 a week to the bank.

After installing the ATM, though, it became my bank. I put all the $20s from the register into it and undercut the competition by charging $1 instead of $2 to withdraw cash.

All of a sudden, our problem wasn’t too much cash in the store. It was too little. We now have an armored car deliver additional cash to feed the ATM, and we limit withdrawals to $100.

Overall, adding an ATM was a simple yet smarter business decision for us. Oh, and the foot traffic created by having the low-cost ATM in the neighborhood makes it a lot easier to compete with the deli owner down the street.

That long line of customers is a retailer’s dream and nightmare rolled into one.

Keeping the line moving means keeping customers happy and the revenues for your small business coming in. An easy way to make the line flow is by connecting your credit card system to your iPad point of sale.

At a basic level, integrating the two eliminates the extra step of ringing up a sale twice and adds speed to the process to get your customers on their way.

Also, with a single swipe of the card, cashiers no longer need to worry about punching in the wrong numbers by ringing up a sale twice. And at the end of the shift, there’s no need to compare and reconcile charges between the iPad register and the credit card machine either.

On the reporting side, you will be able to get breakdowns by tender type and card type right down to the customer level. And putting the two together also allows you to track tips by card type.

Lastly, don’t forget the amount of paper you’ll save! Instead of printing out as many as three receipts from the register and the card machine, with ShopKeep POS you need to print out at most one for the customer, and coming soon, customers will have the option of getting an email instead.

And best of all, there’s no cost to integrate the two.

It’s a simple solution to help you make better business decisions.

To learn more about adding credit card capabilities to ShopKeep POS, call our friendly team at 800-820-9814.

The Expo features a fantastic series of 20 information-packed workshops that directly addresses subjects important to your small business. In just 45 minutes, you can learn about things like how to Avoid Costly Legal Mistakes, tips to Drive Sales Off the Charts and Using Technology to Accelerate Your Business’ Growth. If you’re looking for investors, check out the workshop presented by The New York Angels on Getting Investors Excited About Your Project.

In addition to many of the big kids on the block like Google, American Express, Microsoft  and Citibank, the Expo Exhibitor List includes many other companies that can help you run your business better. You’ll find what you’re looking for whether it’s for employee benefits (Delta Dental, Emblem Health), great business advice (SCORE – New York City), graphic design (designcontest.com), real estate (Emerge212 Boutique Space) and lots more. And of course, iPad point-of-sale (ShopKeep POS – booth #119)!

Stop by our booth, #119, and say hello. You can demo ShopKeep POS, give us ideas for features and swap shop talk with our Point of Sale Specialists and Customer Care Advisors.

We love events like the Small Business Expo because there’s always at least one conversation workshop where we walk away saying, “Why didn’t I think of that.”

We really hope to see you there! Here’s more about the Expo: Small Business Expo NYC.

I just got back from this year’s Specialty Coffee Association’s conference in Portland. Despite the rain, over 700 exhibitors welcomed thousands of customers who came out for the show, many of whom drove for hours just to spend the day learning about advancements in specialty coffee.

I recommend attending an industry trade show for those new to the industry as well as experts who want to learn about the latest trends – there’s something there for everyone that can help you make smarter business decisions.

Coffee Trade shows are a great way to learn from experts, see all the latest trends and coffee contraptions, network with roasters and coffee business owners, demo products like our iPad POS system, and drink coffee (of course) – I certainly had my share!

Naturally a visit to Portland wouldn’t be complete without a visit to a customer!  We visited Claire and Molly’s at the Rain or Shine Coffee House and got a taste of their quiche, coffee and mouth-watering mocha with chocolate flakes!!

To all of our customers who visited us at our booth – thanks for stopping by and feel free to post your favorite part of the show in the comments below.

I hope to see you and others at Coffee Fest in Chicago in June where ShopKeep POS co-founders Amy Bennett and Jason Richelson will be presenting their expertise on starting a coffee shop business and how cloud-computing can help you run your coffee shop better! You can find out more here. Let us know if you plan to be there (email hello@shopkeep.com) and we can give you discount code for 50% off admission!

I’ll be there too, of course sharing the latest and greatest that ShopKeep POS has to offer – and drinking lots of coffee!

Like salesforce did for CRM, the iPad and the cloud are revolutionizing POS.

That is what is happening in the POS space today where incumbents such as ShopKeep POS are replacing the need for mom and pop stores to invest in expensive server-based POS systems.

A recent study by IHL Mobile revealed that retailers will be buying an average of 10 percent fewer traditional POS units in the next four years, choosing mobile, cloud-based checkout systems instead of boxy registers. Given current upgrade cycles and the mandate for more secure payment methods, at least half of the 8 million cash points in the United States will be running on tablets by 2015.

Not only are cloud-based iPad POS solutions cooler looking than the clunky POS systems in the past, but they can also be less expensive, more reliable because it is not dependent on a server, and best of all – with just a few clicks in the app store – easy to update to the latest software.

Read more about how cloud computing is revolutionizing the customer-retailer transaction here.

“ShopKeep has completely revolutionized uses for the iPad,” said the POS review site. “In my opinion, if you’re a small business that’s looking for a quick and easy way to operate your POS, ShopKeep is a no-brainer.”

Merchant Maverick gave ShopKeep POS five out of five stars in its review, touting our customer service, iPad cash register simplicity, BackOffice and continuous upgrades.

The review provides an in-depth analysis of key functionality and gives a shoutout to ShopKeep POS’s performance in our hometown, saying, “If ShopKeep can handle busy on-the-go New Yorkers, then you know it must be efficient.”

But what we love most about the review is that the writer knows what our goals are and how we’re going to reach them: “The fact that they actually listen to retailer suggestions is a big plus.”

To read the full review click here.

Apple knows how to get to the point with busy small business owners. The ShopKeep POS offers dozens of features that will make you want to toss your clunky cash register out the window, but in a short podcast, Apple has explained how easy it is to get started ringing up sales right on your iPad.

This quick step-by-step guide walks you through all the basics of registering and managing retail sales with ShopKeep POS.

In a matter of seconds, managers can learn how to open and close shifts and track cash drawer amounts, while employees can see how to sign in for the day, ring up transactions, calculate discounts and accept payments.

All this in under 90 seconds! Imagine what you can have your register and BackOffice tools doing in five minutes.

The podcast is called ‘Close and Manage Sales for your Store’ and can be found in the iPad in Business podcast.

Thanks Apple for showing us how simple it is to get started with ShopKeep POS!  For more information on how to set up and use our iPad POS, including inventory management tools, sales tracking and all the other great features, check it out here!

A new report will show you the dollar value of your overall inventory, broken down the way you want it. Filter the report to see the value of the “stock items” you have for sale or the “raw goods” that go into making those items.

Manage your inventory by the components that go into your products.

We’re now make managing complex inventories a snap. Merchants can break down their inventory into the raw goods used to create each product. When you sell an item, all of the components that went into making that item are tabulated and deducted from your BackOffice. For example, every time a coffee shop sells a latte, the amount of beans, milk, paper cup and plastic lid will be deducted from BackOffice. And when supplies are running low, ShopKeep will notify you that it’s time to reorder.

This new feature is quick to set up and will save managers hours. It’s ideal for all ShopKeep customers who needs to keep track of all the ingredients that go into making their products irresistible.

To activate Raw Goods Management, go to your Inventory, choose “Settings,” then “Inventory Settings” and check the “Activate Raw Goods” box.  For more information, check the ShopKeep POS help center.

Announced in early January, ShopKeep’s new remote printing capability is being widely adopted.  While ShopKeep was at the National Retail Federation BIG Show January 16th and 17th, CEO Jason Richelson discussed the newest feature with the editor of Retail Reseller News.  Richelson said, “by putting remote printing in our iPad product, we’re adding an entirely new level of efficiency and functionality for customers in restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops, retail, and other businesses,” noted Jason Richelson, CEO and Co-Founder of ShopKeep. “At peak times, for example, employees can now take orders from customers waiting in line using an iPad, and through wireless printing, merchants can instantly and efficiently relay orders to the kitchen or barista.”

Check out the rest of the Retail Reseller News here, and don’t forget to grab a remote printer for your store!