(Note: This story appears as the cover story for the January 2021 issue of ED Magazine)
Chuck Freihofer has one request: For you to “Join the Rebelution.”
No, that’s not a typo.
Freihofer is the president of Rebel, a company that bundles credit card processing, funding and internet marketing services. And the only radical thing about his Rebelution is how beneficial it can potentially be for you.
“Joining the Rebelution means a business owner can now take advantage of what would normally be on their P&L as a hard cost — the cost of processing credit cards — and by partnering with Rebel, we can take those costs and channel them into revenue-generating channels, such as building a free website,” says Freihofer.
Rebel utilizes fees generated through processing and membership to forward to your operations in other areas. Oftentimes, those fees would go nowhere.
“It’s a one-stop shop to help grow your business,” says Freihofer. “That’s the beauty of joining the Rebelution.”
NOW THAT’S A CAPITAL IDEA!
Ninety to ninety-five percent of Rebel’s customers come to them looking for payment services. Customers typically find Rebel through internet ads promising a better deal on credit card processing, but they soon find out that Rebel can offer them much more.
“Once our members get on the phone and find out all the benefits and features they get by joining the Rebelution, a lot of them open their eyes to other ways to grow their business either through marketing or expanding with access to working capital,” says Rebel’s Jason Mayoral.
Freihofer points out how during times like these, where businesses have been severely impacted by the current pandemic, owners are especially focused on their finances and managing the cost of doing business. For some club owners, especially those who are either still closed or only open in a very limited capacity, this could mean a need to have access to capital.
“In a situation where they need capital because they’re on their last 30 days of operating cash flow and they need the money now, kind of like the J.G. Wentworth commercial, they can reach out to Rebel and get their money now.” – Rebel’s Jason Mayoral
“One of the really nice things about being a part of the Rebelution, when you’re working with someone trying to get capital, it is definitely helpful to have someone who’s processing your credit cards so they can show the actual volume your business is doing on a daily basis,” says Freihofer. “There’s proof when you’re working with someone who’s trying to find you lenders that lend in a non-traditional space.”
As you’re probably well aware, club owners tend to have to jump through extra hoops that other “traditional” business owners don’t have to jump through. “There’s help when you have someone on your side that’s processing your payments,” says Freihofer.
Rebel prides itself on its speedy ability to turn loans around.
“Depending on the type of loan that they’re looking for, whether it be collateralized against their payments or a line of credit, a term loan, we can typically turn a loan around between 24 hours to, tops, 14 days,” says Mayoral. “In a situation where they need capital because they’re on their last 30 days of operating cash flow and they need the money now, kind of like the J.G. Wentworth commercial, they can reach out to Rebel and get their money now.”
As Mayoral suggests, Rebel is providing a service that is not very common in this industry. By doing so, they aim to have a leg up on their competition.
“The beauty of Rebel is there aren’t many competitors in the industry doing what we do,” Mayoral says. “Typically, in our space, our competitors are simply offering one or the other service. The fact that we’ve combined our services and made it easy for our members to access, that’s what separates us from any competitor out there.”
REBELUTIONARY MARKETING
COVID closures have forced all types of business owners to wring out creative ways to fiscally endure, and the gentlemen’s club industry is no exception. It’s why Freihofer stresses professional guidance in times like these.
“In a marketplace like this where sales are down and capacity is down, new customers have never had more value to a business than they do today,” says Freihofer. How do you bring in these “new” customers? As Freihofer suggests, you do it through targeted club marketing. You can either throw a lot of money at it … or spend the right amount of money, in the right channels, in the right way.
“By delivering an effective message over the proper medium at the right time to the right consumer, you can acquire new customers for significantly less money,” Freihofer says.
“In a nutshell, you can make one phone call and grow your business on the financial side. Your club can move payments over, work on website-building and internet marketing. And if you need cash flow to expand your business — you want money to buy new equipment, pay for extra marketing or anything like that — we have all of that under one roof.” – Rebel’s Chuck Freihofer
Sure, Freihofer makes it sound easy. But he feels that he and Rebel have the ability to utilize data and analytics to create websites and a web marketing strategy that can work for clubs.
“It has never been more important to find an organization, such as ours, with people who understand how to analyze data and turn it into profitability for your business,” Freihofer explains.
A lot of website-building tools are, by design, basic. Generic templates, cut and paste, import a logo, simple. Rebel can, instead, inject its resources and professionalism into the creation of a website that is designed to one thing: Bring in more customers, and by extension, more revenue.
“One thing we see fairly often in the club industry is that their websites have become neglected,” Freihofer says. “Clubs are missing out on the chance to reach new customers, and this is an area where our expertise is vital.”
The internet is constantly changing reflexively to search demand. Google, and subsequently other internet search providers, tweak their search algorithms accordingly. So, a neglected website can spell ruin for a business owner if it’s failing to keep up with internet trends.
“You have to change your website and the way your site is built so that the new search algorithms will find you and keep you at the top of search results if you’re not doing paid marketing,” advises Freihofer.
That’s the kind of insight that website-building platforms can’t, or don’t, necessarily provide. Rebel pays attention to SEO (search engine optimization), H1s (a heading tag for SEO purposes), and getting the data to match what your actual individual market’s search behavior is.
“If you cater to what your market it doing, it’s important to analyze search behavior,” says Freihofer. “If you’re in a tourist market or more of a local-traffic market, you have to build your site differently and build your content differently. At the end of the day, if you have a competitive club in your market doing it right, that club is going to show up above yours every time somebody does a (Google) search.”
Basically, outside of searching for you specifically by name, new customers may not be alerted to your presence if they’re searching “gentlemen’s clubs near me.”
“When someone searches for what you do and not who you are, that’s an opportunity to catch a new customer,” sums up Freihofer.
When Rebel builds these websites, they keep this invaluable nugget of information at the fore: 93% of visitors to any business in 2019 Googled that business first.
“If 93% of people coming in the door are doing a search for you, all we need to do is optimize your website’s ability to show up in search,” says Freihofer. This service is included in the “Rebelution” even if you originally only consult them about processing.
“In a nutshell, you can make one phone call and grow your business on the financial side,” says Freihofer. “Just by calling your concierge at Rebel, your club can move payments over, work on website-building and internet marketing. And if you need cash flow to expand your business — you want money to buy new equipment, pay for extra marketing or anything like that — we have all of that under one roof.”
Rebel is thrilled to make its appearance at EXPO 2021 in Miami and share its vision and proficiency with you.
“What sets us apart is we’re an ecosystem for our members,” adds Mayoral. “Our competitors are simply a service provider.”
For more information, visit rebelcapitalpartners.com or call (888) 818-4930 or visit them at booth #79.
