Restaurants & Bars in Eastern Iowa
Your card fees shouldn't take the first bite.
I help independent restaurants and bars in eastern Iowa find out what taking cards is really costing them — and fix it if the numbers are there. The statement analysis is free.
Two kinds of owners
A restaurant doesn't take a card once in a while. It takes cards on every ticket and every tab, all night, every night. What that costs you depends on which kind of owner you are — and I work with both.
If the fees come out of your end: a small fee problem isn't small. It's a cut of every plate that leaves the kitchen and every drink that crosses the bar, month after month. On margins as thin as yours, that cut matters.
If you pass the fees to your customers — dual pricing, a surcharge, cash discount — the processing line may look like zero. It isn't the whole bill. The annual and monthly fees don't pass through. The charges for your POS system don't pass through. And the program itself has to be set up right, or it's a problem waiting for a complaint. Passing the fee on is a fine way to run — it just isn't free, and nobody has probably ever shown you the part you're still paying.
Either way, most owners have never had anybody walk them through that statement, line by line. Their processor never volunteered. The longer a place stays with one setup, the more the extra charges creep in, and nobody takes a fresh look.
Restaurants and bars are already part of my local book here in Cedar Rapids. I'd like to take the same honest look at yours.
I'm not a 1-800 number.
I'm Karl Kinch, and I'm based in Cedar Rapids. Owners work with me because I'm a local person — I'm your main contact, and you'll have my personal cell phone number: 319-270-9337.
That's true whether your place is across town or 60 miles out. I work in Cedar Rapids, Marion, Hiawatha, Robins, Fairfax, Mount Vernon, Vinton, Belle Plaine, Anamosa, Manchester, Independence, Dyersville, Williamsburg, Washington, Tiffin, North Liberty, Coralville, Iowa City, Waterloo, and Cedar Falls.
A restaurant runs on efficiency — front of house and back of house moving together. Staff, table turns, inventory, a kitchen that has to fire on time. Payments should be a seamless part of all that, not another hurdle. Too many owners are fighting an outdated or confusing system, fees that keep rising, and a call center when something goes wrong.
I take the time to understand how your place actually runs — the floor flow, the staff roles, how tipping works, how the kitchen coordinates — and then I match the system to it. The right setup helps the operation. It doesn't get in its way.
Who this is for
- Independent restaurants and diners
- Bars and taverns
- Cafés and coffee shops
- Pizza places
- Breweries and taprooms
- Food trucks that take cards all day
Especially if you've been with the same processor or system for years and nobody has ever walked you through your statement, line by line.
A straight word about your system
Which system you run decides what's possible, so here's the honest map of the ones I see in eastern Iowa:
Toast, Square, and SkyTab (Shift4): your processing comes bundled with the system. You can't keep the system and move the processing somewhere cheaper, and I won't pretend you can. For Toast owners, I can show you the system that replaces it and what a fair deal looks like — that story is on my Toast page. For all three, the move is timing: know your number before your contract renews, not after.
Clover, Lightspeed, SpotOn, TouchBistro, and Aloha: a change is often possible — sometimes keeping the system your staff already knows, sometimes with new equipment where the fees make it pay for itself. Which one applies to you depends on exactly how yours was set up, and I'll tell you straight once I've seen it.
What I can put in: Figure, FRI POS, and Lavu systems, and Dejavoo terminals for simple counter setups — matched to how your place actually runs, full-service, counter-service, or bar.
Whatever you run, what I can always do is read your statement and show you, in plain dollars, what the current setup is costing you — the part you eat, the part you pass on, and the part nobody told you about. Then you decide, with real numbers, whether a change is worth it.
How it works
1
Send me your statement. Use the form on this site — it takes a minute.
2
I run the numbers. Free, within 2 business days.
3
I show you what I find. If there's real money to save, I'll show you exactly where it is. If the numbers aren't there, I'll tell you that too, and you've lost nothing.
Free: check the Google profile your guests find first
When someone searches for a place to eat or grab a drink, your Google profile is what they see — the stars, the photos, whether your hours are right. I built a free checkup that reads your profile and tells you plainly what's helping, what's costing you customers, and the first three fixes worth making. One free checkup per business. No catch — it's the same look I'd give it if we were sitting together.
From Karl Kinch, SolidCore Payments — Cedar Rapids. The checkup is free; if you want it fixed for you, we have a conversation. You won't be required to pay anything.
Forty years in sales, one rule — every number traces back to the source. — Karl Kinch · karl@getsolidcore.com · 319-270-9337