Stratamize was founded here in Newnan by a retail operator who spent twelve years running stores, and for most of those years wrote a check to the card processor every month that hurt to sign. Hundreds of dollars, every month, for the privilege of taking a debit card. Nobody ever walked into that store and offered to make it go away.
That is the job. You walk into stores like that one and show the owner how to stop paying it. When they say yes, you earn a residual every month that store keeps running cards. One store doesn’t change your life. Stack enough of them and you have a monthly check that keeps coming whether you walked doors that week or not.
A $10,000 month is a big number, and we won’t pretend otherwise. Our team walks these same doors, and this guide lays out the numbers so you can see exactly what it takes before you spend a single Saturday on it. The figures come from real field work. They’re examples, not promises, and your results depend on your area, your pace and how steadily you work the plan.
You don’t need payments experience. If you’ve managed a store, driven a route, written insurance or built a network of people who trust you, you already have most of what this takes: showing up, being straight with people and coming back when you said you would. Our free, self-paced certification and the Agent Handbook: Your First Week teach you the rest, along with this guide, your scripts, maps and practice drills. Most people start part time and keep their current job until the checks are coming in. Start this week.
This is your business, on your schedule, with our back office behind it. You decide where you walk, when you work and how you win each store. We handle the operations: application processing and approvals (usually within hours, 3 days at most), your equipment (card machines, signage and receipt sheets), the tracking app, your monthly residual pay and statements, and answers on program rules and compliance. Submit a store’s statement and our team sends back the analysis within one business day.
The Stratamize team
$10,000 is a number of stores
Your monthly check is the sum of the residuals from every live store you signed. Get enough live stores and the check takes care of itself.
How you get paid. You’re paid on the stores you sign that go live. There’s no pay for recruiting anyone. Each live store pays you a residual every month: your split of what the program earns on that store’s card sales. You start at a 50% split, and your split rises as the monthly card sales across all your stores grow. When you move up, the new split applies to every store you have.
What a typical store looks like. About $30,000 a month in card sales, paying about $910 a month in fees today. On our cash discount program the posted price is the card price, and cash customers get 3.5% off. Owners usually adjust their posted prices when they start so the price covers what it costs to take cards. The fee money that used to leave the store stays with the owner: about $10,920 a year. That number is your whole pitch.
Why bigger stores get you there faster. Your residual follows card volume. A c-store, package store, auto repair or tire shop running $50,000 a month pays you more than a salon running $15,000, and it moves you up the split table sooner. Salons and boutiques are good stores to sign. They decide fast and they refer. Just don’t build your whole book out of them.
| Level | Your stores’ card sales | Split | Per typical store |
|---|---|---|---|
| Associate | Day one | 50% | ~$230/mo |
| Producer | $500K a month (~17 stores) | 55% | ~$252/mo |
| Senior | $1M a month (~34 stores) | 60% | ~$275/mo |
| Director | $1.5M a month (~50 stores) | 65% | ~$298/mo |
| Partner | Your own office, $2M–$10M | 70–80% | — |
Your $10,000 month lands at Senior: 37 stores × about $275. Your level is set by your stores’ average monthly card sales over the last three months.
- Some customers switch to cash once the discount is posted, so a new store’s card sales often settle 10 to 15% below the statement you quoted from.
- Not every store does $30,000. Your average only lands there if you mix in higher-volume stores on purpose.
- Plan on losing about 1 store in 10 each year. Stores close, sell or change hands. Keep signing after you hit your number.
- About 9 of 10 signed stores go live. Sign a few extra to cover the one that doesn’t.
Full time or part time. Both get there.
Pick the pace that fits your life right now. The only difference is how long it takes. Month one is slower on either track while you learn the words, and that’s built into these numbers.
Built around your job: Saturday mornings for cold doors, two afternoons or evenings for return visits and desk work. About 3 signed stores a month once you’re up to speed.
About 8 signed stores a month, two a week, once you’re up to speed. That’s the pace this guide plans on. It takes about 80 doors a week.
When the money arrives
Stores go live fast. Low-risk stores are usually approved within hours when the application is complete, and within 3 days at most. You install the next day. Residuals are paid monthly, for the month your stores processed, so your first check comes the month after your first store goes live. The first checks are small because each store adds a few hundred dollars. They grow with every store you add.
Getting through the first months. Keep your current job and start part time. Stay part time at least until 5 stores are live and your first checks have actually landed. Then look at your real numbers and decide whether to add hours. Keep signing through the early months, because every store you sign now keeps paying you every month after.
Bonuses along the way
A store needs to do at least $10,000 a month in card sales to count. Once a bonus is paid, it’s yours.
Get set up right, learn it on your own time, sign your first store
Do it in this order. You run this business yourself, so get certified, study the Agent Handbook: Your First Week and practice before you walk your first door.
Monday morning, do these five things
- Start your certification. It’s free and self-paced, so fit it around your job. If you don’t have the link yet, book a call with our team and we’ll send it.
- Open the Agent Handbook: Your First Week and block time on your calendar to read it and run the practice drills.
- Write down 20 business owners who already know you: stops on your route, your clients, old managers, your tire shop, your barber. These are your warmest doors.
- Load those 20 into the tracking app.
- Read your agent agreement and send our team any program or compliance question. You’re an independent 1099 contractor running your own business, and you handle your own taxes. Joining, certification and your kit cost you nothing.
Then, week by week
- Week 0, get certified. The program, how cash discount works, the rules and how to read a card statement. You can’t sign a store until it’s done.
- Week 0, pick up your kit. Scripts, maps, terminals, signage, receipt sheets and the tracking app. Keep a terminal, a few signage kits and 20 receipt sheets in your car.
- Week 0, finish a 100-door list. Start with your 20 warm names, then add independent, owner-run stores near you. Group them into clusters you can walk in one session.
- Week 1, study the First Week guide. Work through the Agent Handbook: Your First Week. Notice how short the opener is and how fast it asks for a number.
- Week 1 or 2, run the practice drills. Say the opener and the objection answers out loud until they sound like you. Practice on a friend or a store owner you know, then mark up a sample statement on your own.
- Then walk your own doors. Full time, work up to 80 a week. Part time, 30 a week. Warm names first, then your best cluster.
- Your first signed store. Full-time agents usually sign their first in week 2 or 3, part-time in week 3 to 5. Install it the day after approval and ask for referrals the same day.
- End of month one: full time, 2 to 4 signed. Part time, 1 or 2. Below that, the scoreboard shows which step to fix.
The funnel is steady enough to plan around
A statement is the monthly report from the store’s current processor showing card sales and fees. A proposal is what you bring back: their statement marked up and a receipt sheet filled in with their real numbers.
An experienced full-time week
About 40 doors per signed store. Your first weeks will take more. That’s normal.
| Weekly minimum | Full time | Part time |
|---|---|---|
| Doors | 80 | 30 |
| Owner talks | 30 | 12 |
| Statements | 10 | 4 |
| Proposals | 6 | 2–3 |
| Signed | 2 a week | ~3 a month |
A full-time day. Plan your cluster and confirm return visits by text first thing. Be in the field by 9:00. Do return visits and closes first, then new doors. Take a desk hour midday to work up statements and submit applications. Go back out mid-afternoon for a second cluster, restaurants and installs. Finish by logging every door, booking tomorrow’s returns and texting each new owner the receipt image.
Timing. Retail owners are easiest to reach mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Restaurants between 2:00 and 4:30, never during a rush. Monday, take a longer desk block for your pipeline and scoreboard. Friday afternoon, skip new doors and do returns and installs. Owners decide on Fridays more than any other day.
Part time around a job. Owner-run shops are often staffed by the owner on Saturday mornings, so that’s your best cold-door block. Weekday evenings are for desk work, texts and return visits you’ve booked ahead.
What to aim for. About 1 in 3 doors gets you an owner. About 1 in 3 owners gives you a statement. Most statements become proposals, and with practice about 1 in 3 proposals signs.
Owner in the building, decides alone, feels the fees
Start with people who already know you, then high-volume stores, because one $50,000 store does the work of three salons. Map each cluster, park once and walk the whole strip. Come back to each cluster every two weeks.
Walk in
- Owners who already know you. Route stops, your clients, places you’re a regular. A familiar face gets the statement on the first visit.
- Convenience and package stores. Thin margins, customers already expect a cash price. High volume.
- Auto repair, tire and transmission. A $400 ticket makes the fee visible, and owners hate it. High volume.
- Pizza, wings and local quick-serve. Heavy debit use, often month-to-month terms. Visit between 2:00 and 4:30.
- Salons, barbers and nail shops. Smaller, but owners decide on the spot and refer each other.
- Boutiques, gifts and antiques. Downtown districts, fast decisions.
- Pet grooming, dry cleaners, feed stores, flooring and pawn.
- Square users. A yes, not a no. No contract, and they pay a percentage on every swipe. They just need a terminal, which you have in the car.
Walk past
- National franchises. Corporate picks the processor.
- Stores on a built-in register system they love. That’s a register replacement, a longer sale. Note them for later.
- Businesses where most card sales are corporate or business-to-business.
- Stores doing under $8,000 a month. Fine as a referral, not worth a second visit.
- Vape, tobacco and CBD shops have extra approval rules. Check the program rules with our team before collecting paperwork from one.
You have ten seconds to earn two minutes
The opener has one job: get the owner to tell you a number. Use your own background in the first sentence. Owners listen to people who have something in common with them.
Your one line. Pick the one that’s true for you: “I ran a store for [X] years before this.” “I deliver to stores around here, you’ve probably seen my truck.” “I’ve written insurance for businesses in this county for [X] years.” “I live right here in [town].”
The one-paragraph explanation. “The price on your shelf is the card price. Anyone who pays cash gets 3.5% off. Most owners adjust their posted prices when they start so the price covers what cards cost them. It’s posted at the door and the register, it prints on the receipt, and the terminal does the math. Card customers pay the posted price, cash customers get a deal, and that monthly processing bill stops coming out of your pocket. Gas stations have done it for forty years.”
If the owner isn’t there. “No problem. When is she usually in? I’ll come back then.” Get a name and a time, write it down in front of them, and leave a receipt sheet.
If someone tells you to leave. “Sorry to interrupt, have a good day.” Log it and walk to the next door. Most doors are a no. That’s the job, not a verdict on you.
Reading a statement. On the summary page find two numbers: total card sales and total fees. Fees divided by sales is what they really pay. Practice on the sample statements in your certification first. When you have a real one, submit it and our team sends back the analysis within one business day.
Objections you’ll hear every day
“Your posted price becomes the card price. Most owners adjust it a little when they start so it covers what taking cards costs. Card customers pay the posted price, cash customers get 3.5% off. You set your prices, and I’ll show you the numbers both ways from your statement.”
“A few might ask. People know cash pricing from the gas station, and the sign plus one sentence from your staff, ‘we offer a discount for cash,’ answers most questions. If it turns into a real problem, call me and we’ll work through it.”
“Can I see it? Many are month-to-month after the first term.” Check for an early termination fee and whether the terminal is leased. Put both against their monthly savings on the receipt sheet, and bring any lease to our team before you promise anything.
“Good, keep them. I’m not asking you to switch today, I’m asking what you pay. If I can’t show you a real number on paper, I’ll leave you alone.” Then get the statement.
“Square’s fine and there’s no contract, so this is easy. Can you pull up last month’s fees on your phone? Keep Square for invoices if you like, and let this terminal handle the counter.” Have the terminal in your hand.
“Yes. It’s allowed as long as the posted price is the card price and the discount is for cash. That’s exactly how we set it up, with the signage included.”
“Sure. What would you need to see to say yes?” Listen. Then: “I’m installing this week. I can hold Thursday at two for you. If it’s a no, text me and I’ll give the slot to someone else.”
“You’re paying the fee on every one of those tickets now. On a $600 brake job, paying cash saves your customer $21. Some will pay cash to get it, and that’s even better for you.”
Close in the store, with a terminal in your hand
Owners say yes to a person in the room. They say “later” to a proposal in their inbox.
The return visit
- Walk in with their statement marked up and the receipt sheet filled in. Lead with the yearly figure: “You’re giving away about $10,900 a year.”
- Run a $1 demo sale so they see the cash discount print on the receipt. Hand them the signage.
- Ask one question: “Do you want to keep paying that, or keep it?”
- Do the application on the spot, under 15 minutes. Bring: driver’s license, voided check or bank letter, EIN letter, recent statements, photos of the storefront and inside.
- Set the install before you leave, for the day after approval. A complete application on a low-risk store is often approved within hours. If one takes longer than 3 days, tell us.
Install day
- PIN on debit. Set the terminal to ask for a PIN on debit cards, the way certification shows you. It’s a terminal setting, not a price. Run a live debit sale and check the receipt.
- Signage at the entrance and at every register. Take a photo for your file.
- Staff wording. Every employee learns one sentence: “We offer a discount for paying with cash.” Never “there’s a fee for cards.”
- Two referrals. Ask while the owner is happiest: “Who else around here would want to stop paying this?” If they’re in the same center, walk there that afternoon.
- Before you leave the lot, put a 7-day call and a 30-day visit in the app.
Follow-up: most stores sign because you came back
- Day 0
First visit. That evening, text the receipt image: “Good to meet you. Here’s what a typical month looks like.”
- Day 2–3
Return visit with their real numbers, terminal in hand.
- Day 7
Quick stop or call. Once you have live stores, bring a short quote from one of your owners.
- Day 14
Deadline visit. “I’m holding Thursday for you.” Still no? Move them to your 60-day list.
- Day 60
One more visit. Fees go up and owners get bad statements. Timing closes deals the pitch didn’t.
Referrals: your book starts to grow itself
Store owners know other store owners. They share suppliers, sit in the same chamber meetings and complain about the same fees. Plenty will say “let me think about who” and never give you a name. That’s fine. If your first 20 installs give you 15 names and 1 in 4 sign, that’s about 4 stores you didn’t have to find cold, and referred owners say yes faster.
After a store has been live a month, ask the owner for a one-line text you can show prospects, like “Been on it a month, customers barely noticed.” A real owner’s words close more stores than any number on a sheet.
- Ask for two names on install day, at the 30-day visit and every time you stop in.
- Walk referral doors within 48 hours, and use the owner’s name in your first sentence.
- Go to chamber events and downtown merchant meetings to meet people, not to pitch.
- Get to know a commercial insurance agent, a CPA and a commercial realtor. They know who just opened and who’s complaining about fees.
The road to $10,000, month by month
The month each residual check arrives, the stores behind it and the split you’re at. Residuals only; bonuses come on top. Examples at the planning pace, not a promise.
| Check arrives | Full time: stores live | Split | Check | Part time: stores live | Split | Check |
|---|
Stop and check at each milestone
- 5 live stores. You’ve earned the $500 fast-start if you got here within 120 days. Check every store’s signage, staff wording and PIN setting. Collect your first owner quotes. If your average store is well under $30,000, start walking bigger ones. Part-timers: look at your real checks and decide on your pace.
- 17 stores or $500K a month. You’re a Producer at 55%, and the raise applies to every store you have.
- 20 live stores. Review attrition: has any store left? Find out why. Do a service week: visit every live store, fix problems, ask for referrals again.
- $10,000 month. Count live stores and your real total in the app. Keep signing. Holding $10,000 takes steady new stores, and Director at 65% is closer than you think.
Your weekly scoreboard
Every Monday, fill in last week from the app. When signed stores come up short, find the step that broke and fix that one. Then go back to that step in this guide or the Agent Handbook: Your First Week and drill it.
A calendar problem, not a skill problem. Block the field time and protect it.
Wrong times or wrong stores. Go mid-morning and mid-afternoon, or Saturday mornings, and skip chains.
Your opener. Ask for a number sooner and offer to bring back their real number.
You’re slow getting back. Return within 2 to 3 days with their numbers filled in.
You’re closing by email or leaving the terminal in the car. Close in the store with a demo sale and a specific install time.
Submit complete applications so they’re approved in hours, install the next day, and call us if anything takes longer than 3 days.
Good people quit right before it starts working
Almost always it’s one of these.
- Walking too few doors. Doors are the one number fully in your control. Most stalls start here.
- Quitting before the checks add up. The first checks are small because each store adds a few hundred dollars. Every store you sign keeps adding to the next one.
- Leaving a paycheck too early. Going full time before checks land puts pressure on every door.
- Taking the no’s personally. The ones who last log it and walk to the next door.
- Leaving the terminal in the car, or emailing proposals instead of going back in person.
- Chasing “thinking about it” forever. After the day-14 visit, move them to the 60-day list.
- Signing only small stores. You need some higher-volume stores to reach $10,000 at a sensible count.
- Skipping install-day basics. No signage, untrained staff or a terminal set up wrong is a store that leaves.
- Not filling in the scoreboard. If you don’t know which step broke, you can’t fix it.
Done exactly right, every time
Cash discount is legal and widespread, and it only works if it’s done exactly right. These protect your stores, your income and our name.
- The posted price is the card price. Cash customers get 3.5% off. That’s the whole program.
- Never call it a fee, surcharge, service charge or card charge. It is a discount for cash.
- Never add anything on top of the posted price for card customers.
- If an owner asks who pays, tell them straight: the posted price covers what cards cost, and owners usually adjust prices to do that.
- Signage at the entrance and every register on install day. The receipt shows the cash discount.
- The program works the same for every card. Asking for a PIN on debit is a terminal setting, not a price.
- Never promise a specific saving until you’ve seen the store’s statement.
- Never promise anyone an income. There’s no pay for recruiting; you’re paid on the stores you sign.
- Never make up a program, bonus, rate or promise that isn’t in your certification. If you’re not sure, call us first.