If you think about what things are available faster in your life, compared to ten years ago – it’s pretty fascinating.
I used to have to get in my car, drive to Blockbuster, browse each section, pick out a movie, stand in line, present my card, pay my late fees (blah), and then pay for my rental. Now, I can truly be watching a movie of my choice in a second’s time or instantly from the comfort of my home. While I miss some of those late-night trips to the movie store – instant movies are so convenient.
Everything seems to be at our fingertips – everything from our bank account balance, music, movies, games, where our friends are, what they ate for lunch, and their unwelcome political opinions. Everything it seems except that which enables all, or most, of this – our pay.
Why does it take two weeks or thirty days to get paid? Or, if you’re a gig worker – why doesn’t money show up until tomorrow, or three days from now when you process a payment? Why do we only get paid twice a month, or once a week?
Well, some answers to these questions are reasonable – but it doesn’t change the fact that YOUR money isn’t in your pocket (or bank account) or available to spend.
This is where we come in.
At OfficeCard we’re passionate about improving YOUR financial world. One way we can help is by getting you paid instantly – whether you’re a contract worker, employee or window washer making some side cash – we want you to get paid when you work. Not in ten minutes, not via check that you have to cash at the bank or scan with your phone and wait to have clear, not via ACH – where “payday” isn’t actually the day you get money…not later that evening or tomorrow morning – our vision is to get you paid in seconds…instantly.
Instant can be used loosely sometimes. For example, when I heard about Instant Pot and the way people raved about it I imagined Dumbledore from Harry Potter snapping his fingers and a fully cooked meal appearing before my eyes. Not so. It turns out the Instant Pot isn’t truly instant. But relative to the fact we’re used to having chicken done in an hour – fifteen minutes seems “instant”.
So what do we mean by instant? We mean Dumbledore making food appear NOW…..but we’re Dumbledore and the food is money; your money!
Let’s look at a few examples.
Lets say you sell hand and face cream to your friends for some side money. The company you sell for uses OfficeCard to pay you instantly. So, you set up a lunch with some of your friends to show them the latest products. They order products through you – at lunch – and then you use some of the commission from that sale to pay for lunch.
Then I think of a single mother – maybe she’s a nurse and sells consumer products on the side to help support her three children. Lets say it’s her ten-year-old son’s birthday and in the midst of working insane hours at the hospital, she forgot about his birthday, which is tomorrow – Saturday. It’s three days before payday and she is out of extra spending money. But because she’s a hero single mother (they all are IMO) she sets up an impromptu Facebook Live event for Saturday morning in hopes of making enough money to do something for her son on his birthday. Luckily, the company she sells for pays her through OfficeCard. So, she hosts her party, makes some sales and gets paid instantly on her OfficeCard. She immediately orders pizza using the commission she just earned, texts her son’s friends parents and invites them for a surprise party for her son that afternoon. She runs to the store and buys the present he’s been asking for, and because she got paid instantly ON SATURDAY, she has enough money to make her son’s birthday special.
Lets look at one more situation
Say a young man took a summer job selling pest control. He’s a student, and just got married and had a baby within ten months. BOOM! Life is coming at them fast. The opportunity to sell pest control for two months away from home between semesters is appealing so they do it. His first week he knocks on hundreds of doors – no sales – so he wants to give up and go home to his wife and baby. He talks to his manager and expresses his concern. His manager encourages him and reminds him of the built in incentives for doors knocked – and he gets paid instantly on his OfficeCard. So the next day he knocks on more doors, walks faster, refines his pitch – and finally, his first sale. He’s processes the customers first payment and hears a ding on his mobile phone. He’s walking away and pulls out his phone and sees a text message…Congratulations, your OfficeCard has just been loaded with $$$. Awesome – money is in his pocket and blood is in the water! The next week he makes more sales and he’s off and running. He gets a call from his wife. She needs money to buy clothes for the baby – so he uses the OfficeCard app to create a virtual card, which he sends her. She adds it to Apple Wallet and uses it at the store to pay for clothes. The next day he goes to lunch with some coworkers but forgot his wallet. His friend pays and he uses the OfficeCard app to pay his buddy back with the P2P option.
These are just a few of the applications where OfficeCard can really make an impact for you and/or your workers. Our initial launch will only be available for contract, or 1099 workers. We do envision a W2 worker clocking out of work and their phone pings with a text notifying them they’ve been paid for the day – not available to send to your bank – but available for you to use. Or…maybe you will log in to an app and see your pay accruing by the second. It’s coming and it seems crazy now – but it will just be how it is. Just like streaming movies instantly seemed crazy back in 1999.
