For entrepreneurs or the lean startups just starting, life can be tough. Things as simple as marketing, hiring people, and selling online can all be an uphill struggle. It is no surprise that many don’t make it in the business world.
For the point of sale (POS) company Square, however, the plight of entrepreneurs hadn’t gone unnoticed. The payment processor company realized that entrepreneurs needed a way of accepting card payments while they were out and about, trying to drum up support for their products.
The problem until 2009 was that there weren’t any secure electronic point-of-sales solutions on the market that untrained entrepreneurs could pick up and use. Often, startups and marketing masterminds had to turn away people if they couldn’t pay by cash.
Square, however, set out to change all that. With new wireless technologies and payment software, there was no fundamental reason why small-scale merchants could accept card payments. A change was needed.
The growth of Square was extraordinary. By 2013, 250,000 business locations in the US and Canada used the company’s products, and by 2017, Square had total revenues of $460 billion.
The block payment company formerly known as Square is now known as Block. It is a financial technology company that provides tools and services for merchants to accept payments and manage their business operations. The company was founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey, who also co-founded Twitter, and was initially named Square.
In 2021, the company changed its name to Block to reflect its broader mission to provide financial services beyond just payment processing. Some of the company’s services include point-of-sale hardware and software, payment processing, loans, and payroll management.
The company is now widely seen as a leader in the payments space an taking payment processing to new heights in 2023. If there is going to be a further revolution in how we pay for goods and services, the expectation is that it will involve Square to some degree.
A point of sale (POS) is the location or device where a transaction takes place between a customer and a merchant, typically for the purchase of goods or services. A POS system can be a physical location, such as a cash register or a checkout counter in a store, or it can be a software application running on a computer or mobile device. The system records and processes transactions, calculates the total cost of the purchase, and manages inventory and sales data. POS systems can also support various payment methods, such as cash, credit cards, and mobile payments. POS systems are commonly used in retail stores, restaurants, and other businesses where goods or services are sold to customers.
Square now does much more than offer companies point-of-sale services. It is expanded into many other areas, executing everything from payroll to loans. Square wants to be a kind of one-stop-shop for small businesses all over North America. Take a look at the company’s incredible story in the following infographic. Block is big time and building blockchain as well as profitable payments!
Infographic by University of Alabama Birmingham
