What's the first time you noticed your business was improving, after receiving your square account?

[Complme]

Hi guys, I'm Kristina, but everybody calls me Kris. I am wet behind the ears new to this rat race of merchant and buyer business thing. I'm hoping to hear how the square has benefitted them since receiving their accounts and devices. Like was there a turn around or a sort-of-uptick in your sales or overall production sales. What benefits have you received directly. I see all these stories of people who are convincing at making it look like, they're booming. But I think most of us are sustaining. It's a hard economy if you doing honest business. But I'm just curious 

[maxpete]

@Complme welcome to the Community and this is an amazing question! Tagging some folks who come to mind to hear their thoughts. 

@TheRealChipA, @Candlestore, @mksavage, and @Twpchair 

[isabelle]

Great question! Tagging some Square Champions to weigh in ✨

@Stacelyn24 @sugarlab @anucrown @timberhillwine @makedonas @Bronze_Palms 

[anucrown]

Hi Kris! When we started using Square for Anu’Crown Luxury Brims, we saw steady improvements in our sales and operations. The reporting feature was a game changer—it gave us insights into which products were performing best and where, helping us optimize our inventory and focus on what sold most. Plus, tools like digital receipts and loyalty programs helped strengthen customer relationships and increased repeat business.

The Square loan was another big benefit. It helped with cash flow during busy seasons and allowed us to invest in inventory without financial strain. Together, the reporting and loan features really contributed to our growth and success.

[Twpchair]

Welcome foremost and I agree 100% that the tools they provide to help you understand and see where you are at each and every day and what needs improvement and what doesn't is the first thing I look at the next morning. Square loans are great and I use mine in just about the situation as you are on extra inventory that's too good to pass up, advertisement, or extra lease payments for the winter months. There are so many new tools added often so keep your eyes open there. The same for different community threads to join and follow other businesses like yours and pick up some great ideas or new features that others are using and could come in handy. The community threads also come in handy when you need help! I yell help me with an app I’m using that froze up or stopped working and boom someone is there to walk you through it. It's the first place I go! It's nice to hear that everything is going well and keep up the great work!

[Complme]

Thanks Twpchair! I appreciate the nod to the community boards. I've never really been on a board or even really explored forums of this nature. So everything is eye opening  at this point, but, poignantly honest, and down to earth. All the things you've mentioned,  are the things I was curious about. So I'm gonna make sure I pay close attention to all those points. Thank you so much for your response!

[Complme]

Thank you for sharing your story! I've always wondered what things gave people clear insight and what things tend to fade in the back, once you start to see a positive pattern emerge in your production. 

I like how you broke down what things came to mind. Leaving the fringe right where it is, and giving me some clear examples of your growth. Thank you so much!

[Candlestore · Accepted solution]

@Complme ;

There is alot of benefits for using Square:

1. Inventory was a big one for me from my old cash register.
   1. Now I can see what is in Stock
   2. Quantity in Stock
   3. Get notified automatically of Low stock
   4. Faster Inventory Counting
   5. Faster entering new inventory to Square
2. Less Mistakes for entering Credit Card payments
   1. Old system had no Credit Card Processing connected
   2. I used a Tablet and Square Reader  Cash register would show total to Charge, enter amount on Ipad... almost accedentally charged $500 instead of $50..... bad for business.
   3. Square Stand sends the Full price over internet to be charged no retyping the amount
3. Using Square Stand and a scanner = faster and accurate checkouts
4. Easier process for calculating what I owe in Sales Taxes I collected for the month.
   1. I use to print out a stub from my cash register 
   2. Then read the small print to see
      1. Gross Sales
      2. Taxable Sales
      3. Tax I collected
      4. To calculate the Tax Due
      5. With Square these are all on a report I can look at while on a computer to enter in my States sales tax page
5. Bundles or Sell by Units
   1. Bundles I use for keeping track of items I sell as a Gift Set, Soaps Lotions and a candle.  When the bundle is sold each item in the budles is also reduced in inventory
   2. Sell by Units, I buy candles in bulk and sell the same item in different ways, I am able to keep these counts upto date with each sale

My biggest things using this system is the Inventory tracking and time savings I do when I count my inventory.  I also like that I can export my sales and other data to csv files and then upload this data to my Accounting Software.  Square does have some reports but the accounting packages have more details for keeping track of expenses and cost of goods.  You need to remember that a POS system keeps track of sales and is just one piece of a puzzle for your businesses finances.  

With Square as a Point of Sale you have to look at it like, do costumers really care what you register looks like or how their money is taken, no.  So just because you have Square will your sales increase, No.  You need to advertise, use the tools Square offers or has available. Such as Web Site, Customer Loyalty, Square Marketing, etc. along with having products or services the customer wants at good quality or making the customer happy.

[makedonas]

I’ve been using Square Pos for over 7 years and I’ve been in the restaurant business for 30+ years. 
I knew Square was the pos for me right away, because of all the various issues I had with legacy pos systems. 
i didnt like being locked in monetarily, contractually and hardware wise. I also noticed the pace of advancements were way ahead from other systems. 
The biggest kickers were the stability of the system, the ease of installation and maintenance. I’m able to do all of that on my own. I also noticed how my voice was heard (even tho it takes a bit of persistence lol). 
I luckily only had to use a Square loan once, but it was within 6 months after opening and it was very vital to having me stay open. The ease of use and payment plan worked perfectly for me. 
After about a year in they introduced Square for Restaurants, which we used immediately. The same stability and simplicity remained and all my items were ready to go. 
The biggest thing I can tell you is that it’s one of these things you get used to or comfortable with and dont realize it until you leave or dont have it any more. 
I dont miss those well known, older, and well established legacy systems. 

[mksavage]

Welcome @Complme! I think one of the biggest benefits to my business has been the efficiency Square brings. There is SO much that is integrated within this one platform -- Payroll, Scheduling, Time Card Requests, Loyalty, Email Marketing, Sales & Reporting, Invoices, KDS, Online Store, to name a few. We were trying to piece together these services from a variety of different providers, but it was clunky and confusing, and resulted in pretty sloppy work. The integrations have made things faster for our team (resulting in fewer labor hours and mistakes). @Candlestore mentioned a ton of other features/benefits, but I wanted to bring this one up, because sometimes saving time (which is money) and decreasing mistakes is as much part of success as making sales.

[Stacelyn24]

The first time I noticed my business was improving after receiving my Square account was when I started using the reports and insights feature to track my sales and performance. It gave me a clear view of my business health and helped me spot trends I wasn't aware of. For example, there were months I thought we had performed really well, but the insights showed we had actually done better the month before or even the year before. It was a game changer in understanding the bigger picture and making informed decisions for growth

[TCSlaguna]

The Square Dashboard app, which provides real-time data at the palm of my hand changed everything for us. We are making strategic decisions based on the data we receive daily. 

Having our Retail, Appointments, Events and Online Store all seamlessly integrated in one system has allowed us to offer new and exciting products and services such as bundles, subscriptions, and recurring events. 

I don't think there is one magically feature of Square that has led to our success, but rather the wide variety of products and services that increase our efficiency and allow us to make well-grounded decisions. Add to that the Seller Community, that has provided us with countless tips, tricks, advice and support. I couldn't imagine using something else. 

[MayuSilkArt]

I have an art-based business. Initially, we used Clover for our POS transactions, but switched almost immediately to Square when we learned there would be no charges until/unless we actually made a sale, and that I could use another vendor’s Square card reader if my battery died (the reader just connects the phone you are using with the reader and it is a one-way communication - it does not load any information into the reader from the phone). I’ve been using Square for my POS for almost 10 years now, so I can’t really remember that magic moment when we realized it was actually helping us grow our business, but I feel like it “clicked” for us right from the start. Over the years, we increased our usage to include Appointments, Teams, and Invoicing. I love the easy integration with my website (especially since Square acquired the Weebly platform). It is easy to use from my iPhone, iPad, or desktop, and I love that my team members can use the app on their phones to process sales, handle appointments, and contact customers using my messaging/Square phone number without my having to give them full access to my account.

Invoicing makes it easy for me to bill my customers and students, giving them options to use a credit card or ACH transfer, or to pay up front, or over time. I can easily update invoices if needed, and they can see the changes in real time. I can pre-set all of my items with detailed descriptions and options, track inventory, add or delete tax based on the type of sale, send marketing emails and texts, offer coupons and special discounts, and sell and manage gift cards.

Square makes it easy to track transactions, and see up-to-the-moment sales reports broken down by category, item, day/time of day, location, team member, etc. I also appreciate the ease in upgrading/downgrading/starting/stopping/pausing subscriptions to accommodate the seasonal ebb and flow of my small business, allowing me to save precious dollars when business is slow, and increase services when it is crazy busy.

This is only SOME of the things I LOVE about Square. I could go on and on…