By Casey Christopher, KeyBank Senior Vice President, Capital Region Business Banking Sales Leader
Small business owners faced many challenges in 2024, including political uncertainty. Despite challenges, they’ve displayed great resilience and patience navigating an election year. With the election now behind us, many business owners are planning for 2025.
Taxation, Regulations and Trade Policies are Top of Mind
A recent KeyBank Small Business Flash Poll* found 61% of respondents indicated they were likely to seek clarity and hold off on major business decisions until after the election, while only 12% said the election would have no impact on their 2025 planning. The poll also found business owners anticipate policy shifts will most affect areas such as:
- Taxation (45%)
- Regulations (34%)
- Trade policies (31%)
Despite challenges posed by pre-election uncertainty surrounding anticipated policy changes, small business owners are preparing for growth, with nearly one-third (32%) expecting to expand their staff in 2025.
Many anticipate Interest Rate Changes to Have a Positive Impact on their Business
KeyBank’s recent Small Business Flash Poll also showed higher interest rates have impacted small business owners in many ways, including:
- 38% of respondents faced reduced profit margins
- 37% faced increased borrowing costs
- 31% have deferred capital investment due to high interest rates
At the same time, more than half of respondents (56%) expect interest rate changes to positively impact their businesses. The poll found they’ve adapted to the rate environment by increasing cash reserves (43%), reducing reliance on debt (37%), and diversifying funding sources (32%).
Planning is Critical for Success in the New Year
As small business owners plan for 2025, it is important that they talk with their banker to develop strategies and explore solutions that can help them adapt to and persevere through potential policy shifts and changes. Banks are at a pivotal moment to help their business clients navigate cash flow and business operations concerns. Working with a trusted banker can ensure small business owners have the resources they need to prepare for whatever lies ahead.
Running a business is never business as usual and KeyBank can help you navigate challenges and opportunities throughout all business and political cycles. For additional insights and resources to help your business run better, visit KeyBank Small Business or connect with your local business banking advisors at a KeyBank branch near you.
*This survey was conducted online by Survey Monkey, including 1,796 respondents, ages 18-99, located in the United States, who own or operate a small-to-medium size business with an annual gross revenue of less than $10 million, completed the survey in August 2024.
Casey Christopher is Senior Vice President, Business Banking Sales Leader for KeyBank’s Capital Region. She can be reached at [email protected]. This material is presented for informational purposes only and should not be construed as individual tax or financial advice. KeyBank does not provide legal advice. Key.com is a federally registered service mark of KeyCorp. ©2024 KeyCorp. CFMA #241121-2899030
Digital Payments Reshape Restaurants
Ecommerce and mobile payments are driving the restaurant industry forward in a hurry. Fast, friction-free experiences are winning customer loyalty and helping revive the industry from the lull brought about by COVID-19.
On the flip side, digital holdouts have sometimes been left wondering where their patrons went and if they’re ever going to return.
Whether you’re thinking over your options or already using some form of digital payments, we want to share some ways digital payment trends are creating a brighter—and tastier—future for restaurant owners who aren’t afraid to plug in.
Contactless Payments
Mobile payments are made possible by evolving digital payment technology, mobile payment solutions, and related advancements like QR codes, digital menus, and near-field communication tools that allow tap to pay and other quick, cashless checkouts at the point of sale.
To the delight of diners, restaurant QR code technology, like QR code menus, makes eating out even more flexible. Replacing physical menus with a QR code menu enables many customers to use their phone to order. Scan the code with a phone camera to bring up a contactless menu and pay from the table or by text with mobile wallets—no server required.
Self-serve kiosks at fast casual restaurants enable customers to pay and order with the same level of convenience. They transform handheld POS systems into freestanding machines with a digital menu, improving table turn times and keeping staff members safe.
Integrated Payments
APIs, or application program interfaces, are aligning restaurant owners with customers and their banks in entirely new and exciting ways.
APIs are software go-betweens that open a direct line for two separate applications. They allow a device to communicate directly with merchant services, and merchant services to communicate directly with financial services. This creates a pathway known as “embedded banking.”
This connection lets money flow easily and quickly from online payments and wireless points of sale straight to bank accounts. So, when a diner taps to pay or scans a QR code at the end of the meal, the restaurant is getting that money much faster—and not just because the waiter doesn’t have to walk to the kitchen to scan a card.
Digital Security & Fraud Prevention
With financial uncertainty the norm at home and abroad, increased digital security and fraud prevention is a must for any business. Especially one with notoriously razor-thin margins.
Most restaurants are enjoying advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning in the same way businesses in other sectors are. As biometric and multi-layer authentication improve, so do revenues. That’s because the chance for fraud at point of sale goes down when you take advantage of these advancements by keeping your technology up to date.
Consumers also feel more at ease opening their digital wallets when they know their money is safe, even if they can’t see it. Fingerprint scanning, along with voice and face identification, offer an intimate and immediate promise that data is secure. And that makes all the difference in a world where data is crème de la crème.
If that’s a lot to chew on, don’t worry. Your banker can help you sort out the world of digital payments and find the cutting-edge solution that’s right for you.
