The side hustle he started at age 15 has benefited small businesses by $4 billion: “They’ll give me a chance with my hard-earned money.”

In this Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A, Helsima payment processing company used by tens of thousands of merchants, including dental clinics, law firms, car dealerships, and more.

you started with side hustle. Can you tell us how that led him to found Helcim?
I started my first business when I was 15 years old.i knew how code and designI asked the locals. small business owner If you need a website. Many people said yes, from my barber shop to my local gym to the local computer store where I bought the parts.I was always shocked when they said yes – after all, I was just a random teenager walking into their store position.

I saw how hard they worked to make a living and was honored that they would give me a chance with their hard earned money. It gave me a sense of camaraderie and loyalty, and I quickly identified myself as a small business owner too, working hard to start my own small business.

Some of the websites I’ve built are: e-commerceThat meant we needed to find a way for our clients to accept payments online.

Related: Their “Magic Internet Money” side hustle reached $1 billion in sales. “Empty his six-figure cash on the counter.” The look on the bank teller’s face was priceless. ”

It was still early days. PayPalbut its reputation is already [that it was] A faceless service withheld funds without warning, leaving a trail of angry shop owners. The few bank processors available are even worse, with long contracts, deceptive sales, and hidden fees that would make carriers blush, as they have for decades.

The more I try to search payment solution For my clients, it showed how poorly payment processors treat small businesses, not just online. These merchants were even squeezed when it came to in-store payments. High fees, poor service, and retained funds were the norm in the industry.

Even first-time businesses couldn’t accept credit cards unless they agreed to hand over several thousand dollars as a “deposit” to open a sales account with a local bank processor. The credit card processing industry has proven to be in dire straits for all merchants, large and small.

That was the spark.Looking at my journey as an entrepreneur, I website design From coding an e-commerce project to eventually starting a payment company.

Where did the inspiration for Helcim come from? What did you want to achieve with it?
everyone says i love you Small and medium-sized enterprisesYet, most service providers continue to treat them poorly. Helcim is on a mission to change that, and it starts by completely reinventing what it means to be human. small business champion. When I was just starting out, local small business owners took a chance on me. They deserve a company that gives them a chance.

Our mission doesn’t end there. We start by offering affordable and transparent payments, but we’re always looking for ways to give small businesses an advantage through easy-to-use software and financial products.

Related: ‘Fun’ side hustle started by college friends ended up on ‘Shark Tank’ – now the idea is helping dozens of people make extra money: ‘Start saying yes’

What was the first step you took to get your business off the ground?
I was still in college when I decided to start my first payments company. It took us a long time to find a bank that would allow us to sell merchant services, but after almost a year, we finally found one that did. So my first payments experience was actually as a bank reseller.

I went back to the same place as them small business Owners took a chance on me and registered as sellers. Over time, we were able to hire several employees and our company built a unique reputation in the industry. We were honest and trustworthy. This is unusual in payments.

Our reseller business continued to grow and gave us the resources to develop our own operations. After many years of being a reseller, in 2020 we became our own processor and launched our own payment service. That’s the Helsim we’re looking at today.

What were the biggest challenges you faced when building your business and how did you overcome them?
Banks in the payments industry were not very tolerant of new entrants, especially when I started 15 years ago. I had a really hard time convincing just one of them to accept me as a reseller so I could step into reselling.

Still, it was an ongoing battle. We aimed to strengthen our tools and increase transparency. Small and medium-sized enterprises we served. However, our efforts have sometimes led to unwanted changes within the industry that resist our presence.

It took another 10 years of effort to become our own payments company. relationship building And a firm determination. There are a lot of gatekeepers in this industry, from credit card networks to big banks, and we’ve had to fight hard for a seat at the table. But ultimately we remembered that we were doing this to provide better solutions for the small businesses we support, and that kept us going.

Related: The sweet side hustle she started at the old CVS made her $800,000 in one year. Now she is repeating the same success with her daughter and has already surpassed eight figures.

How long did it take you to start seeing consistent revenue every month? What is your current growth and revenue?
Helcim currently serves tens of thousands of businesses in the United States and Canada. Settlement volume in 2023 will reach nearly $4 billion, and this year he expects it to more than double. In terms of revenue, I would like to share that we have grown to: attracted investorsAnd we closed our Series B round earlier this year.

What do you enjoy most about running Helcim?
Payments are at the very heart of commerce. The core of business is the exchange of value between parties. Every day, billions of people exchange money for goods and services. As a payments company, we can be at the center of it all and have a front row seat.

My team and I can talk to any company you can think of. We can chat with dentists, barbers, drivers and educators. We’ve been working with charities to look at ways to make it easier for people to support their work and working with bakeries to look at ways to sell more muffins. Over the years growing Helcim, I have had the opportunity to: build great relationships Restaurant owners, auto mechanics, locksmiths, etc. The scale also varies widely. To help accept payments from microbreweries that need quality malt to use in their beer, I visit large global wheat distribution centers, talk to fellow microbreweries, and develop more regular customers. We brainstormed ways to get customers and make that malt good. use.

As someone who loves business, I can’t imagine working in a more business-oriented industry. It’s truly a privilege.

Related: He started his extravagant side hustle at age 13 – a business that now brings in more than $10 million a year: “People want to help you while you’re young.”

What advice would you give to people who want to start their own side hustle or full-time business and be successful?
It will take time, but if you really want it, you will succeed. hard work And patience. It may sound cliché, but it’s so important to hear this these days. I’m always a little surprised at how much of the “get rich quick” mentality still exists in the world, but that’s just not the reality.

The reality is you slip through hundreds of no’s until you get a yes and believe in the vision of making the industry better despite behind closed doors. setback. One day you will look up and realize how far you have come.