You might recognise entrepreneurs Lauren Davie and Elena Andoniou from their mobile iced tea company, Those Girls. When they’re not popping up at festivals and markets across Victoria, they have been successfully pitching their business to entrepreneur and investor Steve Baxter on Shark Tank Australia. In their down time, they’re working on expanding the company through a growing fleet of iced tea carts.
With customers nowadays carrying less cash, Lauren and Elena took it upon themselves to find a simple tool that allows them to accept any payment that comes across the counter. Enter Square Reader — the smallest, most mobile and most affordable card payment reader available. It even allows them to accept credit or debit cards directly from their smartphones.
Running a small but powerful mobile point-of-sale system simplified their counter-facing business operations, and integrating their Xero accounting software with Square allowed them to automatically import, summarise and populate their daily transactions to the appropriate account in Xero’s general ledger. Time saved, thanks to Xero and Square.
We spoke to Lauren and Elena about how business has been going since they started using Square Reader.
Prior to Square, you didn’t accept card payments. Why now?
It was never worth the time, effort or money for us to invest in cashless transactions. Square offered a system that was easy to set up, so we saw an opportunity and we took it. It has been great since then and it means we never have to say no to a sale. In small business, that’s huge.
What sort of impact has accepting card payments had on your business?
We love using Square Reader, because when we process transactions our customers are so impressed. You used to always need cash at festivals and markets — now we’re able to take cards. We also love the portability. Because we transport a lot of equipment, it’s great that it’s so small.
How is the Square-Xero integration helping you save time?
The main benefit we have seen through integrating Square and Xero is the reduced amount of time needed for managing our sales data. It has helped us create a streamlined process for our bookkeeper, and it means that we’re more confident in recording our sales during busy times! It has allowed us to expand, and to act like a more professional business.
What’s ahead for Those Girls?
We are incredibly excited to launch a variety of wholesale iced tea mixers and hot apple cider. We have worked really hard to create a product that has the same great taste and quality as our fresh iced tea, but is convenient for cafés, restaurants, pubs, clubs and venues to use. We can’t wait to share the love with more Australians and make our products more readily available.
Are you a mobile business looking for a simpler, more affordable way to accept debit and credit cards? Look no further. Square Reader is now available in Australia, and only costs $59 with a low 1.6% per transaction fee for any inserted or swiped Visa, MasterCard, eftpos, American Express or JCB card.
Square and Xero work together, syncing sales and business data seamlessly from point of sale to accounting to make business easier for sellers around Australia. Learn more about how you can integrate your Square account with Xero at our Support Centre.
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