Control your money with ease
4 merchants explain how SumUp tools help them run their business
How did you end up opening your business? Was it your life dream? Or simply a means to stay afloat? Let’s face it. Running your own business can be a struggle at times – customers to please, suppliers to juggle and employees to manage.
With so much for you to do, we at SumUp are committed to making your life easier. By developing business and payment tools, we aim to take the stress out of money management. And we have been doing so for almost 10 years.
To hear about some experiences first-hand, we sat down with a few of our merchants to talk about how SumUp helps them manage their business.
Julia, Café Miss Green Bean
Miss Green Bean is a beautiful café, situated in the heart of the historic city centre of Potsdam, a city in the east of Germany. Its founder Julia is a single mother of four, who used to work as a TV journalist before opening her own business. She is passionate about home-cooked food and treats her guests just like she would in her own home. The café is packed with cosy sofas, books and artwork and offers lots of space to relax and indulge in delicious and healthy meals.
When Julia opened her business in 2019, she knew she wanted to offer card payments from the start. So she got a SumUp card reader, which has been in use ever since.
“I'm totally the creative type, which means I'm a disaster when it comes to accounting. That's why I knew I needed this point of sale system. I also knew I definitely wanted to offer card payments because it's just easy.”
Are you in the market for a card reader? At SumUp, we offer card readers without monthly fees and no binding contract.
All payments in one dashboard
What she likes most about SumUp, she explains, is the fact that she is able to keep control of her daily earnings with ease.
“I find it very practical that it offers you a lot of ways to analyse your finances. I also knew of SumUp before and heard of many others who had already worked with it.”
She also finds it scary to carry large sums of money to the bank. "We get a lot of small amounts, a lot of 5 euro notes, and then I lug them to the bank at night and don't know whether the machine counts them correctly. One of the cash deposit machines broke down on me once while I was using it. That's why I really like SumUp.”
Did you know: The SumUp dashboard offers many ways of analysing your earnings and outgoings. You have the option to create custom reports, keep track of payouts and receive automated summaries via email.
Ted, Ted’s Veg
The Lincolnshire based farming company, is a family business through and through. First founded by Ted Dawson in 1999, it has already been run by four generations. Despite their traditional farming roots, the business has managed to go with the times and diversified into importing exotic fruits and vegetables from around the world on top of offering their own lovingly farm-grown produce.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, Ted had to move from his market stall operations to an online-first business model. However, the pandemic wasn’t the only driver to go digital. He also felt that the business had to further embrace modern technologies. "Today, youngsters want everything online", he says. That’s why he decided to start working with SumUp.
Ted’s Veg opened their first online shop, using SumUp as a payments partner. They also bought several SumUp Air card readers for their in-person operations and started issuing digital invoices with the SumUp Invoices feature.
Easy access to the latest payments technology
However, shifting from “cash and a big old school card machine” to SumUp has not changed how Ted’s Veg feel about the work they do. Having easy and flexible access to the latest payments technology has enabled them to scale up without losing their independence.
As Ted puts it:
“We can grow what we like how we like and don’t have to answer to any big corporate organisations”.
He is convinced that moving online was the right decision. “Give it a go, but not fruit and veg – leave that to us professionals.”
Did you know: SumUp offers much more than just card payment solutions. Create professional invoices and track their payment progress in real time with SumUp Invoices. Or open a free ecommerce website with SumUp Online Store and start selling online in minutes.
Gianluca and Alessandro, Bistro 11-Line
The two owners of Italian bistro 11-Line have been in business since 2009 and offer authentic coffee and food from their home town of Naples. Like so many businesses, they used the quieter time during the pandemic to further digitise their checkout processes. They bought a SumUp 3G, SumUp’s standalone card reader, that they simply connected to their existing register. For them, choosing a card payments provider was easy.
“SumUp is simply the market leader and that's why it was the obvious choice. They have really revolutionised the market in the last few years.”
Customers spend more
“Card payment has become much more established, especially in Corona times. We really wanted to join in and offer card payment because of that. Our customers definitely also spend more now that they can pay by card.”
Following their positive experience using their 3G card reader, Alessandro further invested in a SumUp POS for his second entrepreneurial endeavour with another business partner.
Did you know: SumUp also offers full POS systems that can be tailored to your needs. With table management, mobile ordering, delivery integrations and Click & Collect features for restaurants and advanced stock management, multi-user access and customer loyalty tools for retail businesses.
Do you need a point of sale system? Simply book a demo to find out more.
Philipp, Coffee Roastery Heilandt
Heilandt Kaffeemanufaktur was opened over a decade ago and offers specialty coffee and beans to coffee aficionados in and around the Rhineland area of Germany.
In an increasingly competitive market, Heilandt sets itself apart with their absolute commitment to quality and 100% sustainably sourced products. Today, Heilandt has four coffee shops in Cologne, one being situated in its very own coffee roastery.
Card payments are safer
In 2020, Heilandt decided to go completely cashless after one of its branches in Sülz had encountered eight attempted break-ins within only three years. One of those attempts was successful and resulted in huge cash losses. This, and the increasing hygiene measures during the pandemic, resulted in the move to an entirely cashless operation.
"The last 15 months have clearly shown us that you have to dare to take more calculable risks. There was naturally some resistance to the introduction of exclusively cashless payments. There were, and still are, negative customer reactions. But what we have gained in efficiency and in time for the customer is disproportionate.”
“We get the impression that SumUp is interested in the concerns of its customers and for that reason is always developing its products further.”
Did you know: To use a SumUp card reader, you don’t have to pay a monthly fee, just a 1.69% fee per transaction. This means that you have full control over your expenses and only pay when you get paid.
Want to find out more about SumUp card readers? Here's an overview.
