Is this type of bill-pay service leverageable for small and midsize businesses?
The answer is really both yes and no. There is certainly a correlation between small businesses’ behavior and consumer behavior regarding utilization of banking services, including online payments. That correlation does not always extend to medium enterprises, however, because a business’s behavior and needs begin to change at some point as the business grows. (Most definitions of a medium enterprise begin at annual sales turnover of $10 to $20 million, and many extend up to $250 million.) According to Census Bureau data, there were roughly 21 million “nonemployer” firms—that is, self-employed individuals—in the United States in 2006. Adding firms that employ four or fewer people increases the number of small businesses by another 3.5 million firms. These numbers amount to about 25 million people running very small firms. These enterprising individuals often intermingle their personal and business finances. A common example is the use of personal credit cards for vital short-term busin
