Velocity Merchant Services

10/16/2026

We said healthy potluck, and everybody delivered. 🌱

Fresh dishes we're brought in from the team, catering from .manakeesh in Lombard, and enough food to make "healthy-ish" feel official.

10/16/2026

We said healthy potluck, and everybody delivered. 🌱

Fresh dishes we're brought in from the team, catering from .manakeesh in Lombard, and enough food to make "healthy-ish" feel official.

10/16/2026

A grocery store coded as a "general retailer" can pay more on every single card sale.

The culprit is a four-digit number most owners have never seen: your merchant category code.

In Visa's published U.S. interchange schedule, many standard credit cards run roughly 1.2% plus 5 cents at qualifying supermarkets, versus about 1.5% plus 10 cents at general retail. On $60,000 a month in card sales, that gap is more than $2,100 a year.

Same store. Same customers. Different four digits.

The wrong code can also get company cards declined at your counter and confuse customers when they read their statements.

Do you know which code your processor gave you?

https://www.getvms.com/merchant-category-code/

Your merchant category code sets your interchange rates, risk rating and which cards work at your counter. Learn how MCCs work and fix a costly mismatch today.

10/15/2026

Most w**ery owners think their club grows because of the w**e.

The w**e matters. But a lot of members are won or lost at the register.

Wineries shipped about 967,000 fewer cases direct to consumers in 2025, a 15% drop and the steepest decline on record (Sovos ShipCompliant). That makes every tasting room guest worth more than ever.

Where sales quietly slip away:
A line three deep at one register
Club signups on a paper clipboard
Release-day charges failing on expired cards

Fix those three and the tasting room starts doing the selling for you.

What is the biggest bottleneck in your tasting room on a busy Saturday?

https://www.getvms.com/w**ery-pos-system/

A w**ery POS system ties tasting fees, bottle sales, w**e club billing and age checks into one place. See what to look for and grow your w**e club today.

10/14/2026

How many times does your best server walk to the register on a Friday night?

Take the drink order. Walk. Take the food order. Walk. Bring the check, run the card, walk back, wait, walk again.

That walk costs more than you think. In one QikServe survey, 12% of diners admitted to leaving without paying, and more than half of them blamed waiting too long for the bill or not finding anyone to take payment.

Tableside ordering fixes the walk. Orders go to the kitchen from the table. The check closes at the table. The card never leaves the guest's sight.

Would your servers rather walk less or turn more tables? (Trick question. They get both.)

https://www.getvms.com/tableside-ordering/

Tableside ordering lets servers send orders and take payment right at the table. See how it speeds turns, cuts mistakes and lifts tips. Get the guide today.

10/14/2026

The most expensive mistake a small business owner makes with staff? Never asking why they might leave.

Gallup found 52% of people who quit said their manager or company could have kept them. And 51% said nobody talked to them about their job or future in the 3 months before they walked out.

Replacing one employee can cost half to two times their annual salary. For a $32,000 shift lead, that is $16,000 at the low end.

The fix usually is not a big raise. It is predictable schedules, real training in the first 30 days, accurate pay and tips, and tools that do not freeze during the rush.

What is the one thing that kept your best employee around the longest?

https://www.getvms.com/reduce-employee-turnover/

Want to reduce employee turnover? See what each exit really costs, why good staff quit, and simple fixes that keep your best people. Get the playbook today.

10/10/2026

Quick test: can you say how many sales your shop needs this month just to cover its bills? If not, you are not alone, and it is the most useful number in the building.

It is called your break even point. A small coffee shop with $9,500 in monthly fixed costs and a $5.91 profit contribution per sale needs about 1,608 sales to break even. Add one dollar to the average ticket and that drops to roughly 1,375 sales, without a single new customer.

We walk through the formula, a worked example, and five ways to lower the number, including the card processing cost most owners never add up.

What is your daily break even target?

https://www.getvms.com/break-even-point/

Your break even point shows how many sales cover your costs. Learn the formula, run the numbers, and see how VMS helps you reach profit faster. Start today.

10/09/2026

There is a lot of pink in the office today. 💗

Breast cancer affects people in every community, and this was our simple way of showing support for those facing it and the people standing beside them.

10/09/2026

Thanks Mike!

10/09/2026

A cloned card gets swiped at your counter on a Tuesday. Six weeks later the chargeback shows up. Who pays?

Under the EMV liability shift, that bill can land on you if your terminal never reads the chip. Visa has reported that counterfeit fraud at chip-enabled merchants dropped roughly 87 percent, which means thieves now head for the shops that still swipe.

Our new guide explains who pays when fraud walks in, how to audit your own setup in fifteen minutes, and what an EMV-ready checkout looks like.

Read it here:

The EMV liability shift decides who eats the cost of counterfeit card fraud. See if your terminal protects you, then talk to VMS about a Clover upgrade.