Episode 1: How to Find the Perfect Bank for Your Creative Business

Hello, fellow dreamers and doers you’re listening to the creative minds smart money podcast. I’m your host, Samantha Eck, your guide through the financial fables and ledger legends. Today, we’re on a quest to find the best bank for your creative empire. Ready to roll the dice? Let’s dive into the adventure.

  Selecting the right bank is crucial. It’s like finding a trusted ally in the realm of business. Whether you’re enchanted by the charm of traditional banks or thrilled by the magic of online banking, I’m going to guide you through this to find your perfect match for your business.

Your bank should be more than a financial treasure chest for your gold. It’s a powerful tool that can amplify your financial operations, streamline your cash flow, and help you save on those pesky dragon sized fees. Let’s break down the essentials, shall we?

Look for a bank that casts powerful spells to streamline your cash flow, offering efficient transfer systems, and comprehensive online banking to keep your finances crystal clear. Having an account at the same bank as your personal one can allow you to easily transfer back and forth, simplifying owner’s draws. A lot of times my clients have questions for me on how to make a owner’s draw. And the easiest way to answer that is to have a bank account that also has your personal just because , when you have both it’ll give you the opportunity to be able to get into your bank accounts and transfer money back and forth really easily.

Now, seek out banks that conjure up lower fees and more generous interest rates, turning what could be a financial curse into a boon for your business. Consider a bank that also has a high interest savings account to build your business emergency fund. It’s important to note that when we’re thinking of a business, what’s most important is saving up for taxes. So having a bank account that has an interest savings account, would be a definite boon but you want to keep in mind what you’re saving for and realistically what you’re saving for is taxes.

A lot of times, my clients won’t save for taxes. They won’t open a bank account that is separate for saving for taxes and that is so important because when you are a sole prop or an LLC, you don’t realize how much taxes you’re actually going to end up paying at the end of the year. So it’s really smart to actually put aside that money throughout the year, whether it’s 15%, 20%, 30% just to make sure that at the end of the year, you’re not panicking to come up with all of this money that you need to pay the IRS. So having a bank that can also have a savings account that you can easily transfer some money for taxes is very essential.

Ensure your bank offers Phoenix, like responsiveness and customer service, ready to rise to the occasion and help when you need it most saving you time and vanquishing any stress you might have. This is important because you’ll never know when you’ll need to talk with customer service. There are too many times when I’ve had clients who have had to stay on a call for 2 to 3 hours and just don’t have time to fix the issues that we need to fix. My one client worked with a company where they had to call every month to get their statement and oftentimes they would have to sit on the phone for three to four hours without a response. So making sure that you find a bank that has good customer service is so essential because you never know when you might have a situation where you really need to talk to someone.

Now, for those who treasure personal connections , traditional banks offer a cornucopia of benefits. You’ll be able to forge strong alliance with bank staff who can provide personalized service and support often offering sage advice tailored just for you. They can get you exclusive offers and oftentimes give you access to rates you may not get otherwise. I’ve personally experienced this recently when we switched to chase for our personal and business bank. The lady that we were speaking with was able to offer us certain deals that we might not have gotten from opening a bank because when you think of an online bank, most of the time, when you go to apply for an online bank, you just apply and you get an account.

There’s no ifs, ands, or buts you just apply and open an account. That’s not to say that you can’t connect with someone on customer service and see if they can do something for you. But if you really want someone to build a relationship with, then you are definitely going to appreciate what a traditional bank has to offer.

With a traditional bank, you can also benefit from hands on services like notary and cash management, which are crucial for certain business transactions. If you deal with a lot of cash, a traditional bank is more likely to be favorable since they have readily available ATMs and tellers. This is important because if you run a store or you have a business that you’re going to markets a lot and you deal with a lot of cash, having an ATM that you can pull cash and put cash into is so vital.

A lot of people when they look at online banks, they’re like, oh, they have access to this network of ATMs. 90 percent of the time, those ATMs are only ATMs that you can pull money out of, not necessarily put money back into. And a lot of online banks will actually charge you a fee for putting money back into the bank because you have to go through some sort of like CVS or something like that.

So it’s very important that you take a look at that when you are actually, analyzing that. If you deal with a lot of cash, obviously, it’s going to be more beneficial, but I would also like to note that some of those traditional banks do charge a lot of money when you’re dealing with loads of cash.

If you’re a smaller business, you’ll probably never meet the threshold that they put on those cash transactions, but if you’re a larger businesses, and you have a lot of cash transactions, sometimes they can charge you fees for Like an over abundance of cash, which is specifically because most banks nowadays will only want to deal with digital transactions.

Traditional banks stand like ancient castles in the landscape of finance, offering a foundation of security and trust. Oftentimes they’re well established enough that they can guarantee availability for your money.

Now what I mean by this is that oftentimes what we’ve seen in the past is smaller banks have had to close their doors because they just don’t have the funding. A lot of these larger, more established banks have been around for years they have enough money that they can support people who take out large amounts of money.

That is not to say that no bank is susceptible to being shut down, but it is worthy to note that probably a bank that has more established and larger is going to be more beneficial to you. Also the fact that a lot of my older clients just find going into a physical location and having someone they can go and talk to or building that they can see to be more of a sign of trust because it’s somewhere physical that they can go.

Now, if you’re more modern and you want an online bank that might cast a spell on you, you’re going to want to look for banks with lower overhead fees That offer minimal fees, keeping your coffers fuller. Some even offer no fees and refunds on ATMs. It’s important to look at this as you begin your search.

You really need to analyze what’s important to you, whether it is having absolutely no fees, or if you don’t mind paying for ATMs if you’re not around an ATM that’s within their network, if you can go to just a random ATM and pull out money, It’s important to look at their fee schedule and understand what you’re really getting into.

With online banks you can enjoy potent interest rates that let your money grow faster than a beanstalk online banks often offer higher interest rates for both checking and saving accounts. If it’s important for you to grow your money, it’s a smart place to bank. Certain online banks as well, offer really great savings benefits some of them 5%, things like that. So it’s worth looking at whichever one you want there.

So you’ll want to be able to command your finances from anywhere. This is ideal for a busy creative, always on the move. Online banks usually have really well built apps. It’s as important that they can be accessed from anywhere.

If you’re in the middle of a market, or you are going on vacation, and you want to be able to check if your Etsy money is hitting your bank account, or if your stripe funds got into your bank account, you want to be able to have a really good clean app that’s very responsive and that you can utilize from anywhere.

If a bank account doesn’t have that, then they’re probably not the best place for you to be, especially if you value that ability to check in on your finances from any point in any time.

With online banks, they often pioneer the latest financial tech, enhancing your financial efficiency. Take relay, for example, you can automate your profit 1st pipeline.

If you don’t know what profit 1st is, it’s usually a mentality where you put the profit of your business 1st and you split your money into different categories. There’s a whole book on it. So if you want to look up the book, it’s definitely worth reading. I actually run my business on a profit 1st basis, if it’s something you want to look into, it’s definitely worth it. A lot of businesses thrive on profit first. And if you want to operate your business on a profit first basis, relay takes the guesswork out of transfers by automating that entire process.

Now, as you navigate this search for a banking landscape, you want to keep an eye out for banks that integrate smoothly with your accounting software, simplifying your financial management.

Sometimes certain banks just don’t play well with software, so you want to do your research. One of the banks that I know that really doesn’t play well with software is Amex. And Amex is great for a little while but every couple months there is a disconnection from QuickBooks and that can cause a lot of issues because one, sometimes your transactions will just not all import.

So we could be missing transactions. And two, it’s a hassle to always have to reconnect the account. Because usually as bookkeepers, we don’t actually have the clients Banking information. So when you try to connect it to your account, and if it’s consistently disconnecting, your bookkeeper is going to have to consistently be bugging you and saying your AmEx account disconnected again can you please reconnect it?

So looking at that and making sure that it can integrate well, not just with QuickBooks, but with whatever accounting software you choose to use, whether that’s Xero, FreshBooks, HoneyBook, whatever it is that you choose to use as a bank and accounting software. So definitely just do your research on that.

A lot of these different banks can be ideal for profit 1st, you want to select a bank that allows you to manage your various different accounts effortlessly, especially if that’s something that you’re interested in doing. Traditional banks, often charge fees for accounts, making this much harder, but online banks with free accounts, give you flexibility to open multiple accounts.

Now, what I mean by that is, for example, I bank with chase, which And Chase has a 15 a month fee if you don’t have 2, 000 in your bank account. And one of the couple of the profit first accounts actually end up going to zero multiple times I would be charged fees for those two accounts. So it’s best to look at a bank account that does that.

Or if you’re utilizing a different app to do the profit first, that also works. But it is always best to analyze that and understand what you want to do. Some banks will allow you to open multiple accounts. Some won’t. So you want to definitely do your research when it comes to that.

You want to ensure your bank offers a powerful arsenal of online and mobile tools to manage your finances on the go. You’ll need to be able to access your money, whether you’re at a craft show, traveling or need to pull money out to make a business purchase. A good example of this is Chase they do offer a POS system. They also offer merchant processing systems. So if you’re someone who’s like, I want to have all my eggs in one basket, looking at that might be worth it to see what banks offer those types of things.

I know in Texas here, Frost also offers something similar. I’m not sure about Wells Fargo, but perhaps they also offer something. So, if you want that entire personal arsenal, that’s something that you really want to look at when you’re analyzing, which bank you want to go with.

Now, you want to look for a bank that offers a full range of services, including credit options and good business advice, tailored to small businesses if having it all is preferable to you analyze the services, each bank offers and ensure it’s a fit that you’re looking for.

And what I mean by this is, if you are interested in having your bank account at the same bank is your personal account. You want to just analyze how that will work. Perhaps maybe you purchased a house recently and you’ve had your mortgage for 26 years at Chase. A good option for you might be to open your business bank account there because then you’ll have everything in one place it just makes it much easier and you don’t have to run around and do a whole bunch of different things with different banks.

Again, you’ll want to opt for Banks that are, really well known for their customer service, ensuring you have the service you need and the support you need whenever you need it. Do your research and ensure the customer service is responsive and available. No one wants to wait on the phone for 45 minutes to get their problem solved. Like I said, my client had to wait four hours over three different days if that’s something that really bothers you and you’re like, I Just don’t want to do that. I can’t even bother doing that. Then you might want to look at a bank that has really great customer service.

Oftentimes this means talking to people who already bank there and asking what their experience has been like with their current bank so just doing a little bit of research and inquiring about that with other people is really great. Now, I want to make it clear that no one else should decide what bank you bank with.

Just because you are curious and you ask those questions doesn’t mean that they should be the decision for who you bank with. It’s very important that as a business owner, you analyze what is best for your business. And choose the bank based on what’s best for you, whether that means talking to multiple people across multiple different banks, or meeting up with different bankers to discuss the different benefits they offer. You want to make sure that you’re picking a bank that works best for you and your business and what you value.

Choosing the right bank should align with both your business needs and your personal adventuring style. Whether you opt for a sturdy traditional bank or a fast online bank, the choice should bolster your business’s growth and smooth out your financial path.

Now, I would like to discuss just a couple of different options based on personal experience. I myself have hopped from bank to bank trying to figure out what bank works for my business, so you can benefit a little bit from my experience. I have 2 really great business banks that I always recommend to my clients who are looking to open a business account.

The 1st, 1 is definitely blue vine. As I said, blue vine does offer a interest rate on their checking accounts when you maintain a certain amount within their checking up to a certain amount. It’s a really great option. If you’re looking to have multiple accounts, I believe they have up to 20 and they’re really great they have an automated verification letter. If you need 1 for your payment processor and their customer service is really fantastic the only reason I switched away from blue vine was because I had wanted to try relay.

And when I switched to relay, I did have a really good experience. Relay has a lot of great different options, including different virtual cards and a physical card with the virtual cards. You can actually set up limits so that whatever merchant you’re working with can only charge you up to a certain limit, if you’re looking at early on in the days of my business, I had a lot of marketing people contact me and ask me about certain things if I wanted to advertise for them, if I wanted to advertise for this local football team, things like that a lot of them, I was very unsure of when it comes to banking, I found it very valuable that relay had that option because I, this person could tell me, okay, your ad is going to cost 250. And I could set up a virtual card and they could charge that card and I could deactivate it and they’ll never be able to charge me again. So it just gave me a little bit of a peace of mind aspect because I didn’t have to think about, oh no, this company is going to come back and might try and charge me.

That might seem a little crazy to you, but you never really know in this day and age who could be using you to try and get information out of you or something like that. So, having that security and that, safety and that feeling that your money is secure is always a great option . Like I said, it helps you automate profit first and that’s actually a new feature that they have. So whenever you have money coming in, whatever your percentages are in profit, first, you can actually have it already set up so that relay will just split those for you and put them in the proper categories that way there’s no thinking involved it just automatically happens.

Now, in terms of traditional banks, I personally bank chase and I use YNAB to do, like, all my profit 1st things. But YNAB is, like, my main budgeting application.

Now, chase is great. It does offer. Like I said, a fee. If you are under 2000 dollars, there is a 15 dollar fee and they do offer wire transfer fees. However, me and my husband have their personal accounts there. So it’s very easy for me to just transfer money from my business to my personal account in a matter of seconds to be able to have that money available.

So, that is also something to note. Blue vine and relay do not offer personal accounts. So, if you are thinking about. Someone who wants to have your money readily available, then that’s when you’re going to want to look at something more traditional or an online account that also offers a business account.

When I am in need of funds for my business, I don’t want to have to wait 2 to 3 days for it to get to my account. I want to just be able to transfer it so I can deal with the money right then and there.

So chase is a great option because it can connect with your business bank accounts. I loved that it was a physical location because my husband and I often have you know, we sell a lot of our collectibles and stuff like that.

So we have cash and we need to go somewhere to deposit that cash and chase is right up the road from us. They’re also great if you you know, value having someone you can speak with personally, it’s a really great option for you as well. The other bank account that I know of is Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo I’m not a big fan of. I don’t like their UI. I don’t really like just I’m not a big fan of them, but if you are a Wells Fargo fan, I completely understand and you can work with them and do something similar where you have your personal and your business account set up together.

And then the 3rd traditional bank that I often see my clients use is Bank of America and Bank of America also has some great connections and things like that. They have credit cards and then they, I think they do have physical people, but they have these really great ATMs where you can go in and pull out cash of different amounts.

So if you’re a really big market person. Bank of America might be a really good option for you because it will allow you to pull out bills of different amounts.

Now, when you’re looking for a bank account, I really want you to think about what works best for you and not allow anybody else to tell you what works best for you.

You can ask all you want about who has experience with this bank or what bank do you find best? And I often see people doing that, but I don’t think you should ever let anybody decide for you because you don’t want to be bank hopping from bank to bank. I personally did this. I had shiny penny syndrome.

So I saw a new bank and I was like, Ooh, a bank. Now me and my husband are with Chase and we will stay with Chase for the foreseeable future. The reason being is because it’s a lot. It takes a lot of work to change everything and you have to change all your subscriptions, you’ve got to change the place where your money is being deposited with your merger processing system.

So, if you are looking for a bank, take your time and think about it. Do your research, ask if they have a customer service, ask about their fees, ask about all the services that they offer. Do they also offer personal accounts that make it really easy for you to transfer back and forth so that you can just have that ease of service.

And really think about what you’re looking for as a business owner to get out of a bank. If you want something more personalized, your traditional bank is going to be better off for you. If you want something, that’s a little bit less personalized and you just need a bank account that you can put your money in and make sure that it’s separate from your personal.

Then go with an online bank, just make sure it works for you and make sure it does stay separate. If you’re someone who needs to have that completely separated, you’re like, I can’t even have my personal my business bank at the same bank because that would just blow my mind. Then absolutely have an online bank some people can’t differentiate between what their business card is and their personal card is and that’s where you really need to just sit down and figure out what is going to be the best option for you.

Again, I don’t want you to be influenced by myself or by anybody else. I did give you some options that you can research and analyze, but perhaps you find something else. Maybe you find a local credit union that you’re like, this is the bank for me they offer really great services. They’re, they’re doing things right. I think this is where I want to be. Then that’s where you go. What matters is that the bank is going to support you for the rest of your business and that you’re going to be somewhere that you can find reliable.

We never know when the banks might end up shutting down or changing things or shifting. So you just want to find somewhere that you support. And think about more than just like their base features. Think about who the people are behind the bank. Cause that can also be something that you find valuable. If you don’t like what the bank’s been doing behind the scenes, maybe you want to find a bank that you do like, and you support doing that stuff.