Blake VanHeel is a direct account officer for Pay it Forward Processing, a Cave Creek, Arizona-based company that makes payment processing easy for companies.
A Twin Cities native, VanHeel went to college at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, where he studied business management, and ran a lawn care company.
“I was running that lawn care business and also going to school to learn business,” VanHeel says.
“In that sense, I was able to apply the concepts I learned in the classroom to my actual company.”
Eventually, VanHeel graduated from university, and later he graduated on from his lawn care business, opting to sell the company to go work at Xcel Energy, spending time there until he was promoted to a position doing emergency gas response.
His bills paid but his body taxed (VanHeel was working 70-hour weeks at Xcel), the longtime Eden Prairie resident sought a change, and one night, that change came in the unlikeliest of forms when his aunt and uncle serendipitously dialed him.
“They offered me a job as a direct account officer at Pay it Forward, their payment processing firm, and without hesitation I said yes,” VanHeel shares.
Pay it Forward Processing, much like VanHeel, had its own unique entrance into the payment processing industry.
The company’s founders, Renee and David VanHeel (Blake’s aunt and uncle, respectively), started the company after routinely experiencing horrible service from a major bank whenever they had questions about payment processing for their business.
“My aunt and uncle, they had no one they could go to when they needed help, and they were getting charged crazy fees,” Blake VanHeel explains.
“That’s when their entrepreneurial sides came out and they decided to break into the space. They wanted to be a payment processing company that would prioritize their clients.”
For context, payment processing involves facilitating money that goes from the credit cards to the banks, and then ultimately to the business owner’s account.
In other words, every time you swipe your credit card, a company is getting paid to make sure both banks and merchants are receiving their money.
At present, there are a host of companies who offer this service, but with 23 years of experience, Pay it Forward Processing has proven to be a reliable and cost-efficient way for business owners of all sizes to be able to perform credit card transactions.
Part of what makes Pay it Forward Processing unique is that a direct account officer like VanHeel is always available to help answer questions and assist with any issues that may arise.
“And if for whatever reason I can’t answer someone’s question, I will relay their inquiry to our main office, and they will make sure we get our customer a response within 24 hours,” he says.
Pay it Forward Processing also consults the businesses who partner with them to ensure that the fees associated with each transaction are being properly added into a company’s price structure, ensuring that costs are passed down to the end-consumer and not negatively impacting their bottom line.
“I can work directly with a business owner to factor our fees into their price so that they’re accurately accounting for credit card fees when they price their goods or service,” VanHeel affirms.
“Oh, and every swipe benefits charity.”
VanHeel then outlines how roughly 10% of Pay it Forward Processing’s profits are funneled to charities of their merchants’ choice.
To date, about $528,000 has been distributed to charities around the country.
Renee VanHeel, the aforementioned co-founder of the company, integrated this philanthropic endeavor after her family’s San Diego home was destroyed in a perilous fire years ago.
“It wasn’t just Renee’s home that was affected either. After that unfortunate sequence of events, she formed a group called Fired Up Sisters, which consisted of 600 women that lost their home. Fired Up Sisters went business-to-business and asked people to support the cause. Together, the group raised over $3 million in goods and services to support the families who were displaced. She wanted to make sure those people got shelter, and rebuilt their homes,” Blake VanHeel recounts.
“Over the course of time, her efforts helped countless families, and so while I don’t want to understate how important profits are to remaining viable in business, it is equally crucial to mention the philanthropic work that Renee and the company have done, and how it’s changed lives.”
For business owners currently looking to optimize their payment processing methods, VanHeel indicates that his clients can expect to spend about 1.1-3% of their total credit card sales volume on fees, which again, if properly factored into a company’s pricing model, won’t derail their revenue stream or profit margin.
“Sales volume matters too. Some people in my position won’t tell their clients this, but merchant pricing is negotiable. If a merchant is growing like crazy, and is processing ten times the amount of transactions than they initially did, then we will look at their rates and see if we can get them a better one,” VanHeel transparently reveals.
“At Pay it Forward Processing, we never do contracts. It’s an at-will relationship with our clients, where we are constantly earning their trust and business, as opposed to forcing them to work with us.”
While Pay it Forward Processing helps businesses nationwide across a variety of sectors, VanHeel notes that auto mechanics stand to benefit immensely by undergoing a revamp in their payment processing.
“With auto shops, it’s an easy sell,” VanHeel says.
Numbers-wise, VanHeel just signed on an auto shop that processes roughly $100,000 in credit cards per month. They will be saving around $8,000 a year, per location. With having five locations, that business owner is saving approximately $40,000 per year.
In the coming years, Pay it Forward Processing, like nearly all businesses, is striving to expand their operations to assist more auto shops, bakeries, and whomever else would benefit from their services.
“Pay it Forward Processing is not going anywhere, and neither am I,” VanHeel emphasizes.
“Working here is fun. I love meeting with business owners and helping people save money and become more efficient, and it feels like myself and the company have a lot of big things coming our way.” QS
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