“I’ll NEVER have a total loss!” Have you ever said this, either to yourself or during conversation? Do you really believe it? Think back, I’m sure you know some who has had suffered a total loss, and I’m not saying just in the pawn industry. What makes you different? Take a step back and think about what’s really at stake beyond everything you’ve worked so hard to build. Recovering from a major disaster affects more than your bottom line, it carries out into your personal life as well.
Most, if not all, pawn shop collect and bin their scrap jewelry and eventually send this collection off to a refiner. If you’ve dealt in scrap jewelry before, there are a couple of words that you’ve definitely heard when it’s time to send your scrap off to your refiner; smelt and assay. Do you know the difference between these techniques and which each accomplishes? Jack Brown of Mid-State Recycling & Refining shared this video with PawnMaster that goes over the two most popular refinement techniques and how Mid-State helps their customers get the most out of their scrap jewelry and metals.
Choosing the correct vendors for your shop can seem like a daunting task, but you shouldn’t feel like you’re trapped when making your decision. We know that it’s a lot to take in, that’s why we at PawnMaster put together resources for people in the market to make a switch. When you’re entering into a SaaS agreement for the first time, you may have some questions or concerns. That’s normal. According to CIO Review, “The best means of protecting yourself is to carefully read and understand the terms of the contracts with your data vendors. Often these provisions can be negotiated–for example, you can require that your data to be anonymized when it’s used by the vendor.”
For most people, if you ask them about pawn shops, they’ll imagine something like the store from the TV series, “Friday the 13th” where everything sold is cursed. Or the shop from Stephen King’s “Needful Things.” Also cursed.
In reality, very little sold in pawn shops is cursed. Avoid the monkey’s paw, and you’ll be fine. To help illustrate the more interesting side of pawn shops, and to share stories from pawn shop owners, we’re starting this erratic series of … (cue scary music):
If I would have told you ten years ago that Facebook would become the third most visited site in the world and a major player in the world of marketing and eCommerce, you would have looked at me like I had three heads. But that’s exactly where we’re at in this ever-expanding digital age. More than 2 billion people use Facebook on a daily basis. That’s a little more than one fourth of Earth’s population. If you don’t have a Facebook page for your business, I have to ask; What are you thinking?!
Data Age Business Systems introduces their newest product, PawnPortal, to enhance their cloud-based pawn shop management software, PawnMaster Ignite. PawnPortal is a mobile-friendly portal where pawn shop customers can log in to make secure payments for renewals, redemptions, or layaways. The new product will allow pawn shop owners to send out mobile payment reminders so customers can log in right from their cell phone to make payments. It was developed to help pawn shops have more touch-points with their customers and give them more opportunities to keep loan payments current.
Data Age Business Systems, the developers of PawnMaster pawn shop software, are excited to announce their new integrated Facebook posting tool. It’s no secret that social media has become a prominent part in the everyday lives of consumers. Data Age saw the opportunity to offer the ability for their client base to connect with their own customers on a more personal level. (more…)
As a former business owner in the retail space, my partner and I knew what it meant to face challenges. These challenges could range from the day-to-day “running a business” issues, to people problems, to dealing with local ordinance, the up and downs of revenue, the list goes on. As we all know, small business owners wear almost every hat. Personally, what made jumping through all these hoops worth it was bringing in new customers while still collecting revenue from my returning clientele. Word of mouth was it as far as marketing went; you treated your customers well and people flocked to you. In 2018, it may seem harder than ever to find new clients, and we all know that competition is coming from every direction. There is a silver lining here, and that is there are a lot of online platforms that you can use to ensure that your brand is securing the visibility is needs to thrive.
PawnMaster is known for its robust reporting capabilities, and that’s why we partnered with Vernon Stading of Devoted Pawn Consulting to create three custom reports to better serve PawnMaster users. Vernon has been servicing the pawn industry as a consultant for years, and during his visits he saw where pawn shop owners could make, and in some cases, save more money if they had the tools to do so. Vernon approached PawnMaster with the idea of making three custom reports that would be available to all PawnMaster users; The Key Performance Indicator Report, The Employee Productivity Report, and The Employee Commission Report.
Data Age Business Systems introduces TxTPay – mobile payments for pawn shop customers. TxTPay is the pawn industry’s first mobile payment solution that identifies debit cards and prepaid credit cards in order to safely accept remote loan payments. (more…)