Latest / The GrowthPro Edge / Managing Float Without Losing Profit | The GrowthPro Edge
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to the GrowthPro Edge.
- 0:03We're here to help scale your business, build stronger teams,
- 0:06and sharpen your leadership skills.
- 0:10Hello and welcome to the GrowthPro Edge.
- 0:13I'm Denise Killian, your host with the GrowthPro Group and Trainer team.
- 0:18Whether you're looking to scale your business, develop high performing teams,
- 0:22or level up your personal leadership.
- 0:24You've come to the right place here at the GrowthPro Group.
- 0:27We know that growth only happens when you take a break from all the doing and
- 0:32spend just a little bit of time thinking.
- 0:34So each week we'll talk about issues that impact growth for our teams,
- 0:38for our business, and for ourselves.
- 0:41Before we begin, I'd like to thank our 2026 GrowthPro Edge sponsors, Embed,
- 0:47Party Center Software, A&A Global, Betson, Semnox, Schaffer, and Roller.
- 0:53We appreciate their support, which helps us to bring you a new episode of
- 0:57the GrowthPro Edge each and every week.
- 1:00I'm so glad that you're joining us today.
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- 1:11don't miss a single episode.
- 1:15Josh, welcome to the GrowthPro Edge.
- 1:19So thrilled to have you, Eddie.
- 1:21Thanks for having, uh, listen, before we get started talking about flow and
- 1:25all of those unused dollars out there, uh, take a moment to introduce yourself.
- 1:31I know you work with in Embed, but tell us about what you do at in Embed.
- 1:35Sure.
- 1:36Um, yeah.
- 1:36I'm Josh Atkins.
- 1:37I'm sales manager lead here at Embed.
- 1:40Um, been here for a couple years.
- 1:42Um, been in the industry for coming up on about 10 years.
- 1:46Um, so, uh, lead a team here of our, our sales division in, uh, north America.
- 1:52Okay, great.
- 1:53So we're gonna talk about Float today and, uh, you, you mentioned something
- 1:58earlier, I'm, I'm stealing it already.
- 2:02There's an estimated $21 billion in unused gift cards.
- 2:10Game cards.
- 2:12Activity cards out there.
- 2:13Yeah.
- 2:14Which is.
- 2:15A big chunk of money, right?
- 2:17Yeah.
- 2:18So that's kind of, uh, you know, the big picture, macro level of, uh, you
- 2:21know, when you look at retail and everybody involved, um, yeah, the, the
- 2:24recent report showed over 21 billion.
- 2:26So, um, when you kinda look down at the, the micro level at our, um, you know,
- 2:30our world, you're looking at game points and uh, tickets and that type of thing.
- 2:35But yeah, it's a part of that, that huge unused spend that's
- 2:38just sitting out there, um, you know, in the American pockets.
- 2:41So is this something, how much attention should retailers be and, and FEC
- 2:49owners be paying attention to this?
- 2:50Because at the end of the day, if I gave you a $50 gift card, or I walk
- 2:58into the, uh, FEC and I load my card up with $50 and I don't spend that $50.
- 3:06And I have a balance on that card.
- 3:08You've already got the $50.
- 3:10Sure, sure.
- 3:10So, so why is this something, is this something we should
- 3:13be really paying attention to?
- 3:15Yeah, I think it, there's a few different factors that come into play and, and
- 3:18also depending on your kind of setup too, you know, a, um, a more, uh.
- 3:25Like a tourist attraction.
- 3:26They're gonna have, they're gonna see more of that, right?
- 3:27Where the city customers come in and leave with it.
- 3:29So it might not be as big of an issue to somewhere like that, but your local,
- 3:32uh, centers and community based ones I think is something you definitely
- 3:36wanna monitor and, and keep track of.
- 3:38Um, I think if you use your reporting and your card reader system, you can
- 3:42kind of see what your average would be, um, for your, your kind of month
- 3:45to month and week to week balances, and it gives you a good idea of, okay.
- 3:50If worst case scenario, everyone came in to date with all of these cards,
- 3:52here's what I'm liable for, rider.
- 3:54Here's what point values are on those, uh, cards.
- 3:57So I think in our world, the dollar value isn't, um, necessarily as more
- 4:02important as maybe the ticket value that's on the card, knowing that,
- 4:05hey, there's, you know, this many tickets are out there and that's.
- 4:08Tied to real merchandise, right?
- 4:09Real dollars that you've spent.
- 4:11Um, but again, the dollar value is important.
- 4:13'cause you can look for, um, inconsistencies, you know, after time
- 4:16if you start looking at these reports, you can kind of get an average.
- 4:19And if, you know, your average is in, you know, 50 to $60,000 or something,
- 4:23and one week you look and now it's $200,000, something's probably gone
- 4:26awry in the system or, you know, other things that have gone wrong.
- 4:30So, um, yeah, I think it's something, you know, uh, FEC owners should definitely be
- 4:34looking into and, and taking a look at.
- 4:36Yeah.
- 4:37And of course we know that when people come in, if they do have a gift card
- 4:41or if they're like, oh, I still have a balance, uh, and they come walking in,
- 4:46we know chances are they're probably gonna spend more than that initial
- 4:49$50 or whatever that value might be.
- 4:52Right?
- 4:52Typically.
- 4:53Yep.
- 4:53Um, so how do you minimize that risk then with float?
- 5:00So there's a few different ways you can do it.
- 5:02So, um, one thing that a lot of customers will do, like a, like a half price
- 5:05Wednesday or something on the games, and that way customers that have those
- 5:08high balances, um, usually will draw them in and spend 'em pretty quickly.
- 5:12Um, another thing just kind of that ties in the whole ecosystem is, you know,
- 5:16from the beginning is having a good, uh, redemption, you know, price selection.
- 5:20You know, I think that's a big.
- 5:21Um, driver of the gameplay.
- 5:24And you know, when customers see that there's something they can attain and
- 5:27that there's valuable, um, high quality prizes, they're more willing to spend
- 5:31those tickets, you know, right away because they have options to spend it on.
- 5:33So I think starting with a strong redemption, um, and crane offering,
- 5:38you know, depending on your setup is a good starting point.
- 5:40And then again, offering some sort of, um, you know, half price games
- 5:45or some promotions to kind of drive those people to, to spend those points.
- 5:49Okay.
- 5:50And, and yeah.
- 5:51That what you, what you're getting for those points
- 5:54becomes really important, right?
- 5:56So, right.
- 5:57Yep.
- 5:57If you have a whole lot of high priced items, I mean, I know that there's a lot
- 6:01of places now that in their redemption, uh, centers and counters, they've got,
- 6:07you know, coach purses or Michael Kors bags, or, you know, these really high
- 6:12Christ items that takes people a long time to build up to get those tickets.
- 6:18Yeah, so if you've got a lot of those high priced items, you're probably
- 6:22gonna be carrying more in those balances than if you've got more items
- 6:28that are sort of, you know, not the.
- 6:31300,000 tickets to get the, you know, the Michael Kors first, right?
- 6:36Yep.
- 6:36Uh, so that how what your redemption makeup is can play a part in that.
- 6:41Okay.
- 6:41Yeah.
- 6:41And that kind of ties into, you know, wanting ease of reporting
- 6:44to kind of check your, um, ticket balances on customers, right?
- 6:47And see, okay, who has, you know, maybe over 10,000 tickets.
- 6:51And that way you can kind of dig in and see, okay, are they playing regularly or
- 6:54is it someone that's coming in and saving?
- 6:56Um, and it can also help uncover maybe fraud or that type of thing too.
- 6:59You know, if you see a. Someone has an exact even balance.
- 7:02You know, they've got exactly 20,000 tickets.
- 7:05You might look into that and see was that an internal error or was that
- 7:08somebody giving someone some tickets?
- 7:10Um, so there are some indicators in there that kinda help you
- 7:12uncover some other things.
- 7:14Okay.
- 7:15All right.
- 7:15Excellent.
- 7:17Uh, so
- 7:20what's the difference then in flow versus the credit versus cash than
- 7:25when you're talking about flow?
- 7:27Sure.
- 7:28So, um, of course in our, you know, in our world, a lot of times the points are just,
- 7:33uh, or the, the $50 you put on the card is gonna be used towards arcade games.
- 7:36Um, you know, not, not necessarily a physical item, but there are
- 7:40some customers that use, um, Ash where that card can be used for.
- 7:44Um, you know, either.
- 7:46Memorabilia or food and beverage and that type of thing.
- 7:49So it's not as common, but when you're, when you are using it that way, you're
- 7:52reporting and your kind of, uh, tax implications are gonna be different.
- 7:56So you're, you're definitely gonna wanna make sure you're, you're, uh, able to
- 7:59pull those reports and, and know what your float is when it's with the cash.
- 8:02Um.
- 8:04That being said, you know, each state and, you know, federal governments
- 8:07have different regulations.
- 8:08So I would definitely recommend looking and see what you have to report each year
- 8:12and kind of how your state, um, you know, requires you to recognize that revenue.
- 8:17Um, sometimes it's, it's only when it's spent, sometimes
- 8:20it's when you've received it.
- 8:21So it just kind of depends on where you're at.
- 8:24Okay.
- 8:25Alright.
- 8:26Um, so when we talk about the reports and, and the, and regulations.
- 8:33It's, it's got a vary state by state, right?
- 8:35Are there federal regulations in addition to whatever state you're in?
- 8:40Yeah, I don't think the federal regulations on this are too specific.
- 8:44I think it's gonna be more with your local or state is where you're gonna see kind
- 8:48the, the more minute details on this.
- 8:50So, um, but it really kind of comes to, you know, like your, your audit
- 8:54cycles and that type of thing.
- 8:55So I. If, you know, your audit is going to be every five years, you don't wanna make
- 8:59sure you're keeping those, all of that data within the, that timeframe, right?
- 9:03So, um, part of this is a lot of customers will set up, um,
- 9:07an expiry date for unused cards.
- 9:09So, um, you can set in your card system, if a customer hasn't used
- 9:13this card for two years straight, then it'll automatically be, um, deleted.
- 9:17Um, you know, and kind of in a balance deducted.
- 9:20So if you do have that in place, you wanna make sure that lines up with kind of your
- 9:23reporting needs and your audit needs.
- 9:26Okay.
- 9:26All right.
- 9:28So when we talk about that timeline of say, three, three years or five years or
- 9:34two years, is there communication that you should be having with those customers?
- 9:40Is there a way to.
- 9:42Connect that card to an actual person that you can send them maybe a text message
- 9:47or an email, say, Hey, remember us.
- 9:50Come back.
- 9:50You still have money?
- 9:52Yeah.
- 9:52Yeah.
- 9:52So, um, yeah, your card system should be able to register cards.
- 9:55So either at your kiosk or at the point of sale.
- 9:58Customers can definitely register a card and exactly tie it to them.
- 10:02Um, phone number.
- 10:03Um, what's also great with that is you can get their birthday and send
- 10:05them something on their birthday.
- 10:06Hey, here's free, some free tickets, and that type of thing.
- 10:09Um, and then, you know, when it comes to communicating that it's going,
- 10:13the card expires, you know, typically that's like on the back of the card
- 10:16or in the terms and conditions.
- 10:18Um, but you know, if you're in a a, an area where people are coming back over
- 10:21and over again, you really don't see that issue too much of two years without,
- 10:25um, activity, unless it's something like a gift or something like that.
- 10:29Um, yeah.
- 10:31Okay.
- 10:32Um, so see.
- 10:34Finding the card system that can help you do this is important.
- 10:37Right?
- 10:38So what are some of the other things that that card systems can help
- 10:42when talking about minimizing the risks and liabilities for float?
- 10:47Yeah, I think it really just ties back to all the reporting.
- 10:49You know, there's the, the card system's taken so much
- 10:52information and so much data.
- 10:54Um, so really, you know, reach out to your, you know, your card
- 10:58system provider and make sure that you're looking at the right reports.
- 11:00Um, you know, many of the systems have over, you know, a hundred to
- 11:04200 different kinds of reports, so it can take time to kind of weed through
- 11:06and figure out what you need to see.
- 11:08Um, but all of that data and all that information's there, so I think.
- 11:12Again, knowing what you, what you need to look at, like I said before,
- 11:15kind of seeing those, if that balance jumps drastically, or if you're seeing
- 11:19kind of all of a sudden a high ticket, uh, value on a card and they've only
- 11:23played one game, you know, there's a, all of that information's in there.
- 11:26Every single time that card's swiped or tapped.
- 11:28It's all in there.
- 11:29So it's interesting when you talk to people that, you know, run
- 11:32into customers that are trying to.
- 11:34If they try to loopholes or something like that, or they find a game that's
- 11:38not operating correctly and they're able to exploit it, it's like,
- 11:41well, all that, all that data and that electronic history is there.
- 11:44So it's just being able to drill down and, and find what you need.
- 11:47Okay.
- 11:48Fantastic.
- 11:49Uh, so what are some other ways that you can do to incentivize your
- 11:53customers to, to use that balance?
- 11:58I mean, I think, um, you know, a lot of times it's, it's just promotions,
- 12:01you know, whether it's advertising, um, through Facebook or through your social
- 12:05channels of the half price game nights, or some customers will do, um, I've seen
- 12:11recently is like a, a scavenger hunt.
- 12:13So like, um, you can take your arcade readers and they can
- 12:16change different colors, right?
- 12:17And so this is kind of a, a. A two-way benefit is, uh, maybe you
- 12:21have a new game that people haven't discovered yet, or maybe you have
- 12:24a game that's underperforming.
- 12:25You change that specific game reader to orange and you tell the kids,
- 12:29Hey, you know, if you find the orange game and play it two times or
- 12:33whatever it may be, um, you get a free catty bear or something like that.
- 12:37So one you can kind of get them to spend and then two, you can kind of direct them
- 12:42as to which games you want them to do.
- 12:43So it's something new.
- 12:44I kind of saw there kind of.
- 12:45Get people to play specific games.
- 12:48Um, but typically a half pricing night or something like that
- 12:51really gets to people coming in and spending their points pretty quick.
- 12:55Okay.
- 12:56All right.
- 12:56That's a fun idea.
- 12:57That scavenger hunt.
- 12:58Yeah, that's a really fun idea.
- 13:01Okay.
- 13:01Especially with the kids, you know, like, especially with like littler kids, you
- 13:03know, and if you're in an, you know, an area that's got a lot of games, they're
- 13:06kind of running around looking for 'em.
- 13:08You know, you could even have a bunch of different colors to kind of make it a
- 13:10little more challenging to find, you know, and so I think there's a lot of fun things
- 13:14you can kind of do, um, just beyond, you know, half price and that type of thing.
- 13:19Okay.
- 13:19Oh, that's great.
- 13:20Yeah.
- 13:20I really love that idea.
- 13:22So, um, okay, so what, uh, if there's one kind of parting thought about float, what
- 13:29is your recommendation for folks out here?
- 13:33I mean, I think it's just, um, again, it's, it's all about the data.
- 13:36I think going back, um, making sure you are aware of, of which reports to
- 13:41look at and comfortable with it, you know, work with your, your card system
- 13:45provider, you know, rep to kind of help you digest what you're looking at.
- 13:49Um, you know, as I said, there can be over, you know, hundreds reports in
- 13:51there, but I think that information.
- 13:54Um, you know, what you wanna see is nothing exciting, right?
- 13:58You don't wanna see all of this change in it.
- 14:00So that's, you know, what you want to see is some static information.
- 14:03And when you do see those big variables, that's when you can kind of dig in
- 14:06deeper and see what's causing this or why is, you know, why is no one
- 14:09spending money or tickets or, you know, why all of a sudden has our
- 14:13flow doubled in the last six months?
- 14:15Um, so I think it kind of, it helps uncover more issues potentially.
- 14:20And I think, you know, you, you raise a good point.
- 14:23We are in a world in which we have more data than literally
- 14:26we know what to do with.
- 14:28Mm-hmm.
- 14:28And a lot of times, you know, uh, any of the systems that we use, oh, we've
- 14:34got this dashboard and we can have this report and this report and this report.
- 14:37But if you don't understand what you're looking at, it's kind of a Right.
- 14:40Right.
- 14:41If you're not identifying, these are the, the KPIs.
- 14:44These are the key things that we know are the indicators for our business and
- 14:49how it's doing and what we need to watch.
- 14:51Then.
- 14:52You know, it's, it's, it's irrelevant.
- 14:55So making sure that you have that good relationship with those providers, that
- 15:00you can have those conversations and be like, dude, what am I looking at here?
- 15:03Like, what, right.
- 15:04Yes.
- 15:04What does the season mean?
- 15:05Right.
- 15:06Well, yeah.
- 15:06And a lot of owners, you know, where do they have the time to lose?
- 15:09Sit down, look at reports, right?
- 15:10So a lot of the owners in the FC world, they're in operate,
- 15:12they're working it, right?
- 15:13They're there the whole time.
- 15:14So, you know, I would like definitely lean on your card provider and
- 15:17help them, you know, your card system provider to, uh, you know.
- 15:20Speaking of those reports for you, I'd, you know, let them know exactly what,
- 15:23you know, what should I be looking for?
- 15:25'cause sometimes, you know, if you're new to this space, you
- 15:27don't know what you don't know.
- 15:29Right?
- 15:29You don't even know what, you could have all the reports in the world, but
- 15:31you don't even know what to look at.
- 15:32You don't know what's wrong or what's off base.
- 15:34So I think definitely leaning, you know, to your, uh, card system provider, they
- 15:38can, um, provide the expertise of, you know, years of experience of, you know,
- 15:43looking at the whole country and kind of give you that, that breakdown of,
- 15:45of what's important in those reports.
- 15:47Yeah.
- 15:48Yeah, that's a, that's a key point, right?
- 15:51Yes.
- 15:51Yes.
- 15:52Well, listen, Josh, as we're coming to the end of our time together, I
- 15:55gotta ask you the growth Pro edge question here at the GrowthPro Edge.
- 16:00We are all about growth.
- 16:02So what do you do to grow yourself, either personally or professionally?
- 16:10That's a good question.
- 16:11Um.
- 16:13Honestly, I just, I strive for just, you know, 1% better each day.
- 16:16You know, that's what I, that's kind of what I go for, you know, some
- 16:20days, um, it's, it's more than that.
- 16:22And you feel like you've made a great leap and other days it's,
- 16:25it's maybe just a little bit.
- 16:26But I think, um, just trying to find that little bit, you know, more each day
- 16:30or, or at least identifying, you know, where can I either be more efficient,
- 16:34uh, personally or professionally or kind of where can I change my habits?
- 16:38Um, so I think that's the big part is you just get set in your habit, right?
- 16:41It's like.
- 16:42This, it gets done, the task gets done because of this habit, but is
- 16:45that the best way to do it or are you just kind of going through the motion?
- 16:48So that's kind of the way I look at it.
- 16:50Each stage starts to try to a little bit better, 1% more,
- 16:53and eventually we'll get there.
- 16:55That's great.
- 16:56I love that.
- 16:57I love that.
- 16:58Uh, now Josh, tell us a little bit about in bed, what's going on in Embed
- 17:03and the services that Embed offers.
- 17:06Yeah, sure.
- 17:06So, um, we're just now introducing, uh, we've debuted at iapp, our
- 17:10new kiosk, uh, user interface.
- 17:12Um, so if you're current customer, definitely check that out as we
- 17:16can, um, upgrade that to the, to the new look and the new style.
- 17:19Um, we've also just introduced our new mobile, uh, tablet point of sale,
- 17:25so you're able to use the, uh, sales.
- 17:27Um, application on a tablet kind of roaming, you're able to do everything,
- 17:31card sales and everything through that, that you would at the, at the front desk.
- 17:35Um, and then of course, our mobile wallet feature is now included
- 17:39with our standard monthly license.
- 17:41So every customer has access to the mobile wallet, uh, feature where you
- 17:44can save a card to your, uh, mobile phone in your Google or Apple wallet,
- 17:48and then reload from your phone or, uh, use your phone to tap on the reader.
- 17:52Great.
- 17:53And that mobile wallet is super fun too.
- 17:55'cause you can do it before you even come in.
- 17:57Right.
- 17:57So if you've got a family, yeah, that's great.
- 17:59Yep.
- 17:59Right.
- 18:00Mom and dad can be at home.
- 18:00They don't even have to be in, mom and dad could be at home and reload it or
- 18:03they could be another part of the center.
- 18:04But yeah, that's what we see is the biggest use is people reload
- 18:07before they even get there.
- 18:08And that way they just go straight to the game and start playing.
- 18:10Yep.
- 18:11Yep.
- 18:11So mom and dad can go to the bar and have a beverage, kids
- 18:14can run off into the arcade.
- 18:16Everybody's happy, right?
- 18:17Yep.
- 18:17Yep.
- 18:18Then they just send mom and dad a text and they can reload the card
- 18:20and everyone just keeps on going.
- 18:21So yeah, there it is.
- 18:23Wonderful.
- 18:24Well, Josh, thank you so much for this, uh, it's really
- 18:27interesting and information.
- 18:29I'm still.
- 18:30Scratching my head at that $21 billion.
- 18:32That's just kind of Yeah, clear.
- 18:35It's kind of, yeah, it's sitting out there.
- 18:36And one part too, I read with, uh, with Starbucks specifically,
- 18:39they have almost 2 billion.
- 18:41Um, but they've actually, a lot of theirs is money that people have
- 18:44deposited into their app, and so they've actually earned interest on that.
- 18:49So they're making money on people.
- 18:52Not spending their money, I guess.
- 18:53So it's just, it's, yeah, it's, it's kind of crazy when you look at those numbers
- 18:57and how big it is and, and then, you know, drill down to our world, but Yeah.
- 19:01Yeah.
- 19:01I, I'm gonna go dig through all my old purses and see if
- 19:04I can find old gift cards.
- 19:05Right, right.
- 19:06Yeah.
- 19:06I'm sure we all have a snack somewhere.
- 19:07Yeah.
- 19:08You've inspired me.
- 19:09Uh, right.
- 19:11All right, Josh.
- 19:12Well thank you so much for your time today.
- 19:14I appreciate it and a lot of great information here
- 19:16to download, so thank you.
- 19:18Awesome.
- 19:19Thanks knees.
- 19:19Thanks for having me.
- 19:22Well, I hope that today's conversation helped give you the practical tools for
- 19:26a mindset shift to give you an edge.
- 19:30If you enjoyed today's show, please take a moment to rate
- 19:32and review on Apple and Spotify.
- 19:35Your support helps us reach more business leaders just like you.
- 19:39And don't forget to visit the GrowthPro group.com.
- 19:43To access show notes in a transcript and the video of today's episode.
- 19:49If you are ready to grow your team, your business, or yourself, contact us at the
- 19:54GrowthPro group.com and set up a great free growth call with one of our coaches.
- 20:00Once again, as special THA star sponsors Embed, Party Center Software, A&A Global,
- 20:05Betson, Semnox, Schaffer, and Roller.
- 20:09For all that they do to help us bring you the GrowthPro edge,
- 20:12we certainly appreciate it.
- 20:14Until next time, I'm Denise Killian with the GrowthPro Group.
- 20:18Keep learning, keep growing, and keep striving for the extraordinary.