We recently received an article on Swift Financial, contributed by a regular reader of CreatingBlueOceans.com, which, is “making buck by making banking easy.” Originally appearing in the November edition of Entrepreneur, the article describes how Ed Harycki, co-founder of Swift Financial, is creating his own Blue Ocean marketspace in the banking sector.
Not only is the bank an entirely ‘online’ bank, but it allows customers to deposit checks electronically. By eliminating the need for retail banking outlets (‘eliminate’ is the first action in the Blue Ocean Strategy four actions framework), as well as creating a new way for customers to deposit their checks seamlessly and effortlessly online (‘create’ is the fourth action in the Blue Ocean Strategy four actions framework), Harycki is changing the relationship between small businesses and banks. And as Harycki continues to simplify banking, his Blue Ocean marketspace continues to expand.
From Entrepreneur:
Launched in 2007, the online bank helps business owners improve cash flow with simple loan applications, free checking, next-day check clearing and the convenience of never having to drive to a branch to make a deposit. “Small-business owners spend over two weeks a year going back and forth to the bank just to hand [over] a check,” says CEO Harycki, 47, who founded Swift with Andrew McCarthy, 34. “You could spend that time at the beach; why would you ever want to spend it driving to a bank?” As gas prices spike, this problem resonates even more with entrepreneurs, he adds.
The solution—and the key to Swift’s success—is what’s called remote deposit. Swift mails a small check scanner to all account holders. With this free scanner, and a desktop PC, business owners can make deposits at any time of the day without ever leaving the office.
View the full article from the November issue of Entrepreneur magazine here
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[Image via Online Banking is the Future Blog.]