The Female Founder Show

Driving Change and Empowering Women in a Male Dominated Business - Amberly Allen

• Bridget Fitzpatrick • Episode 15

Share episode

Send us a text

Ever wondered how to thrive in a male-dominated industry while balancing the challenges of single motherhood? Amberly Allen, a pioneering force in the automotive sector, shares her remarkable story of resilience and innovation. This episode uncovers Amberly's journey from her Dallas roots and Ole Miss days to establishing DI Marketing and Dealer Merchant Services. Get ready to be inspired by her candid reflections on overcoming the 2008 financial crisis, fueled by an unwavering entrepreneurial spirit rooted deeply in her family's legacy.

Amberly opens up about the delicate juggling act of being a single mom while scaling new heights in sales. From recovering from a life-changing surgery to finding motivation in the smallest gratitude moments, her story offers profound insights into setting boundaries and harnessing the power of mentorship. With a predominant focus on her female team at Dealer Merchant Services, Amberly reveals how books like "The Ultimate Sales Machine" have been instrumental in building a cohesive and driven team environment. Her vision includes not just success in the automotive world but potential expansions into RVs, heavy trucking, and more.

Listeners will gain valuable insights into navigating the complex landscape of female entrepreneurship. Amberly discusses the importance of not taking setbacks personally and the freedom in asking for help. She also highlights how Dealer Merchant Services is making a mark with their specialization in surcharging compliance. This episode is more than just a success story—it's a call to action for women to embrace leadership roles and pursue their entrepreneurial dreams with confidence and tenacity.

Thank you for tuning in to The Female Founder Show with host and entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick. If you like what you heard, please give us a review and let us know what you think?

Want to hear and see more great content to help you run your business more profitably? Go to ASBN.com.

If you want to watch the full video version of The Female Founder show, go to TheFemaleFounder.com

Voice Over:

This is the Female Founder Show with host and entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusively on ASBN.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Hello everyone and welcome to the Female Founder Show, a show where we share inspiring stories and advice to help you build and grow your business. It is my mission to help empower, inspire and motivate other female founders to be the best entrepreneurs they can be. I'm thrilled to introduce today's guest, A Allen. Amberlee is the managing partner of Dealer Merchant Services and the president of DI Marketing, with an impressive 22 years in the automotive industry. Her accomplishments speak volumes, being recognized in the Inc 5000 list, top 40 under 40, stevie Awards and Ernst Young honors, and this is just to name a few. Amberlee's journey to where she is today is nothing short of inspiring and I'm excited for her to share it in her own words. Amberlee, thank you so much for joining us.

Amberly Allen:

I'm so thrilled to be here. Bridget, thank you so much for having me. Yes, well, I'm really excited about today and all that we're going to talk about, but let's get to know you a little bit. Where are you from?

Amberly Allen:

Where did you grow up. So I was born and raised in Dallas. I Ole Miss, so I'm an Ole Miss Rebel, an SEC gal.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

So talk to us about when you were younger. Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?

Amberly Allen:

Well, so my parents and my grandparents were entrepreneurs, so it was something that they were always having us work within the business and get an understanding of. You know, earning our own money. You know we were stuffing marketing packets and things like that, Right? So I think I always knew I wanted to be in business for myself. I thought I would eventually work for my dad, but I realized that nepotism is great. We're better we're better friends than coworkers.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

So it was a marketing business. Yes, right, yeah, which is how you started as well, and when you on your entrepreneurial journey, that's right. But let's talk about from there. You went into automotive. How did you get into the automotive industry? It is predominantly male. It is there's not many females like us. I'm in the automotive industry as well, so how did that happen?

Amberly Allen:

Well, I started working in direct mail marketing and started when I first graduated from Ole Miss. I was selling beer and wine for the Gala Winery, which is a really fun job. But I started learning. I had someone kind of approach me and say you could really do great selling marketing to car dealers and I was like, okay, well, I'll try it. And I did. And then shortly thereafter I started my own gig. I thought, well, you know, I can do this better, I can do it with more integrity and I wanted to be on my own right. So I did that and I had. I started DI Marketing and I still have that company. But I started that when I was 24. And sold a ton of direct mail when that was more relevant than it is today. You know, three day, two night vacations and greeters and the whole thing. Now the company really does mostly digital. But right before COVID I started dealer merchant services.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

When you first started DI marketing. I'm sure all entrepreneurs have those challenges in the beginning when you think I'm done, I just can't do this, this is too hard. Can you recall a time when you may have felt that way?

Amberly Allen:

Well, I started it on a shoestring. And it's funny because when I went to my dad and I said I think I want to go out on my own, I want to start my own gig, and he said, well, hon, I just want to remind you this is really tough, right, this is hard work and once you kind of go down this path, it's hard to turn back right. And so you know, when push comes to shove and you're trying to grow the business and then you also have employees, you know you really have to pick and choose what's most important and there are certainly times, especially in 2008, nine and 10, where things really um dropped for all that. You know everybody in the automotive space and especially in marketing, right, so, um, when your back's against the wall, you just kind of have to power through, and that's really what it boils down to.

Amberly Allen:

They're definitely tough times and definitely when you're trying to do all the roles, you're trying to sell and operate the business and create the processes, and so there's so many challenges, even with my new business, right, it's growing and at a rapid pace and having so many employees, and I mean there's just there's challenges every day. It's like playing whack-a-mole youle. Which one do you focus on more?

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Do you find it any easier because you've been there in those early stages? Do you find it easier this time?

Amberly Allen:

I think it's easier simply because when you take on a challenge and you're trying to solve for it or you get a gut punch, you don't get a yes or something goes wrong. I think you can dust yourself off quicker. I think that's really what it is right. I don't know that it gets any easier per se the challenges get bigger but I think you've built a muscle in kind of dusting yourself off and picking yourself up quicker than maybe you could in the beginning.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, that's a great way to explain it. You talked about your dad a little bit. Did you have a strong support system when you were starting?

Amberly Allen:

I did in both my businesses, right? You know it's one of those things for us around the dinner table. You have an idea and in my family they're not batting it down. They're like, okay, well, how are you going to do that? How are you going to pull that off? You don't know anything about credit card processing. You know about marketing. Got the encouragement, at least from my family, not from everybody. There certainly were plenty of naysayers, but from my family they're all entrepreneurs, even my brothers, right? So it's something that around the dinner table they're talking through the issues.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

So, from marketing to credit card processing, those are two different areas. They are Strongly different. So talk to us about how you got into credit card processing. What was the inspiration there?

Amberly Allen:

Well, so I was doing direct mail for a long time and then that really kind of changed. You know, direct mail really changed and it went mostly to digital and I took a little time off. I had a couple of babies and I also had a brain tumor and so I had brain surgery. But what I realized after that is that I wanted to go back and get back into the car business. I was ready to kind of get back into my own gig again. And so what I did is I asked everybody I knew in the business, you know, what are you working on, what's working, what's not working?

Amberly Allen:

And I kept hearing this kind of term you know cash discount. You know cash discount, surcharging this and that. And so I went to my very best marketing clients and said, hey, would you have any interest in exploring this? And every one of them, thankfully, within those marketing relationships that I'd built over those 20 years, you know, they were at least willing to counsel me and give you know I could bend their ear about it. And so I would ask them and they said, look, we of course would love to save the money and and all of those things, but not to the detriment of our customers. We want to know about legal and compliance and accounting and those sorts of things, and so we just started taking down their questions one by one. And then I had my one marketing client that said, okay, I'll try it. And so he gave me a shot and I didn't know at all what we were doing. But uh, and then COVID hit.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Oh, my goodness yeah.

Amberly Allen:

So I said, okay, well, I've already burned the boats, I've started the company. Um, you know there's no turning back at this point. And so I knew, within Dallas where I, where I lived, I had about a three hour radius that I could drive to see dealers in person to take a meeting. And thankfully, I had a dealer group in Dallas-Fort Worth and they were one of the largest privately held Texas dealer groups. They took my meeting and they gave me a yes, and so they gave me their 12 stores on my credit card surcharge program. And then the rest is history. We have 825 stores now.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

That's huge For those of you that are not in the auto industry. That's a lot of dealers, so congratulations. Thank you, that's really exciting. Thank you Now, if you don't mind going back a little bit. Sure, you took your break. You went through a very serious brain issue. I did Talk to us about that. Did that talk to us about going through that and then thinking about starting a new business at the same time? I mean that had to have been quite a mixed box of emotions. Sure.

Amberly Allen:

So at the time I had a two-year-old and a three and a half year old and two kids, yeah, yeah. And so I, before my. So I had a massive seizure in the middle of the night, and beforehand I was having this kind of rushing feeling up one side of my body and back down again, and I really didn't know. I couldn't determine what it was. So I asked my doctor and she said it could be anything. It could be a pinched nerve, it could be an acute migraine, but I would really go to a neurologist.

Amberly Allen:

And that very same night I had a seven and a half minute seizure, and so the ambulance came. They took me to the emergency room and they found a golf ball size mass in my brain and thankfully it was benign. But they knew that it had to come out right away, and so I spent the next week in the hospital. They took out the tumor and frankly, you know, the most terrifying part is walking into surgery knowing that your life could be very different on the other side of it and you know I'm so lucky.

Amberly Allen:

But truly, you walk in and think I may never kiss my kids again. Right, those are really serious, serious things. But I woke up, the surgery was wildly successful and I spent the next three months really trying to figure out what I wanted the next 40 years to look like, because I knew I wanted to make some changes, and so that gives you a lot of perspective. Sure, right, and I'm I'm really lucky because I get to keep that perspective, because I do get to kiss my kids every day, and but I also knew that I wanted to.

Amberly Allen:

What I loved was being an entrepreneur. I just didn't know what that was going to look like, and so I spent the next 90 days, which were very tough recovery. Please don't kid yourself that I was like automatically ready to go. You know, guns blazing into a brand new business, some really, you know, kind of tough times in getting healthy. You know, mentally and physically I didn't have very much stamina, right, I had about two hours of stamina at a time, right. So before I, you know, just couldn't. And I've got two young kids right, they're used to me being a jungle gym. So anyway, all that to say I really just wanted to make sure that I took some quiet time.

Amberly Allen:

I guess is really kind of you know one of those things where you say, okay, what do I want this to look like going forward, and it was interesting because the surgery was successful, but they had me on all kinds of medication, and so it was like the hardware was good but the software was still in need of some work, and so we had to get kind of the medications right because apparently I was still having seizures some work and so we had to get kind of the medications right because apparently I was still having seizures, things like that, so all of those little components.

Amberly Allen:

And you know, I get to the beginning of the year, and that was about three months after my surgery, I couldn't drive, I couldn't do anything, right, so I had lots of time to sit, and really that's when I decided, okay, I don't know what this is going to look like, but I'm just going to take steps towards starting my own gig. Now, that was still, you know, went back into marketing and started looking at digital. So it was very much a year and a half later before I started, started dealer merchant services. I had to get some stamina for sure, yeah, so, and I'm healthier and happier than I've ever been.

Voice Over:

That's great.

Amberly Allen:

I'm lucky you can see some of the emotion coming out as I tell it only because it takes me back to, you know, probably the most difficult and you know, darkest days, you know, yeah, so we talked a little bit off camera and you just mentioned being feeling lucky.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Did you feel lucky immediately after the surgery or was it after a few more successes that came along?

Amberly Allen:

I think it was really about getting back on my feet, because, you know, that kind of surgery you don't, you don't really know who you are after that, right? Because the recovery was intense. Even though I could walk and talk, I couldn't. I wasn't as fast, you know. I mean, I'm in sales, right. So you know my candor wasn't as quick. You know the way I could react wasn't as quick. You know, I physically just wasn't very strong.

Amberly Allen:

But you know, once you come out of that and you realize, okay, I'm here, all of this can be fixed, Then you kind of know that amount of gratitude and kind of what it, what happens with that. And you, you also note the times when it's great. You know you, you take those wins when you can, yeah, and give yourself a lot of grace, Definitely. I would also tell you that I learned how to say no to a lot of things. It was the holiday season and there were holiday parties and things like that, and I realized none of those things are things I would want to do again. Nice, you know. So you learn how to say no to the things you really don't love to do. Yeah, cause it doesn't matter anymore, right.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

So and what. What kept you going? You have two kids. Obviously they were a big part of that, for sure, and you probably knew you had so much more to offer the industry and the world. So what? You had so much more to offer the industry and the world. So what motivated you to keep going?

Amberly Allen:

For sure my kids, right I mean, they were expecting me to get back to normal quickly and they, of course, were afraid right Half my head was shaved they didn't know what you know.

Amberly Allen:

This is a whole new person, you know, coming home to them. But at the same time they, of course, were my motivation. I mean there's no stopping, there's no backing down. You have no choice at that point. You have to keep going and then from there, you know, getting back into the business. I had great dealers, and I still do. They've always kind of spoken encouragement over me and, you know, really allowed me to try new things at their stores or bend their ear or seek counsel with them, and I think I think the dealers really were so helpful in in encouraging me, encouraging me to continue forward in my business, which is so helpful.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Would you consider some of them your mentors, or did you have mentors and talk to us about? About that?

Amberly Allen:

Well, I was 24 when I started my first business, and so I always looked to a business coach. I always felt like there was somebody, even though I could seek counsel with my parents or other business people that I knew. I always had a coach kind of holding me accountable, and I still do to this day. So within dealer merchant services, I have a coach that helps with you know, all of our leadership team and and making sure that we're making you know, making good on the promises that we've kept, not only to our own goals but to our team as well. So I've always had a business coach, and it's interesting how it kind of evolves over time. In the beginning, when you're a startup and it's my it was my first time as an entrepreneur that business coach would teach me different things than ones later on, so I've always had a coach of some sort in that regard.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Nice, nice. Now, we both are big readers. My favorite book is Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Godera. Talk to us about a book that you've read recently. That really helped you and might help our viewers.

Amberly Allen:

Well, my very favorite business book of all times is the Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. Now Chet Holmes has since passed away, but actually his some of the people that he was involved with when he was still alive are part of my business coaching today, so but Chet Holmes has a great way in which he kind of breaks down time management and how to market and you know how to really hone in on your customer base, finding that avatar, things like that. So from a business perspective, ultimate Sales Machine is one of my absolute favorites. I make everybody, when they start with the company, read the first chapter, which is all about time management.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Oh, that's great.

Amberly Allen:

Yeah, everybody needs that. And then for us within the company, we have a weekly book club. I'm sure some of my team rolls their eyes every week when you know we assign them a chapter, but we have a lot of fun because most of our team is remote and so it allows us an opportunity to get to know one another and you know what makes them tick. So we've read Atomic Habits. We've read Growth Mindset is what we're reading right now.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

So so great for culture. Yeah, that's great. Talk to us about the team that you have. You have a predominantly female team, correct?

Amberly Allen:

I do, yeah. So I started the company and then shortly after, I hired a gal named Laura Sherman. She's 32 years in automotive. She really brought some of that perspective to the company. We've created all of our intellectual property and accounting based on her knowledge in the accounting office and as a former controller. So it started basically women-owned and now our entire leadership team is women. We do have some wonderful guys on our team, certainly. We welcome it. It's just the way that it has evolved over time. So I've got 28 people on the team, a total of 355 automotive years between them. Some of them are 40 or former controllers, and all of this but mostly women Nice.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Now at Dealer Merchant Services. Is this an industry or a product that you could take to other industries?

Amberly Allen:

It is. We have really focused on automotive because of how complex the automotive business is, and so we focus. We can handle, like RVs, motorsports. We have those types of businesses. We've had offshoots of our dealers, businesses like one of them has a furniture store so we just helped him with his furniture store, things like that or a radio station. But for the most part it's automotive and there's still a lot that we can help. You know so many dealers, but merchant services, credit card processing could help anybody, but we also try not to be all things to all people. We've learned that the hard way.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Right Gets spread too thin. Yeah to all people. We've learned that the hard way, so we try to focus on dealers. Well, let's change gears for a second and talk about. Most high performing individuals have some kind of morning routine. I have one. I need my quiet time in the morning with coffee, then I work out and then I try to meditate and then get ready for the day. Talk to us about your morning routine.

Amberly Allen:

So I absolutely have to get up before my children. If I wake up and we all kind of stumble into the day, it's chaos. So for me, I get up every bit of an hour before they do, and I'm the same. I have to start with meditation and that has really been a practice since my surgery and really since making sure that I'm working on getting centered. I do it before meetings, I did it before my time with you today, and making sure I get centered and really focus on what my intentionality is. So I definitely meditate and depends on what I need. You know that day what kind of meditation I'm looking for. Sometimes I'll do a moving meditation which involves yoga and then but meditation is a non-negotiable for me. From there, I typically drink tea and take a little time and then some sort of physical you know whether it's stretching or yoga or you know something along those lines. Those two things are are non-negotiables, but and making sure I'm up before my kids.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, that's good. You have that time to yourself for sure. Yeah, Now two kids single mom told me before we started filming. Um, so many people hate the word work-life balance, but there there has to be some kind of balance there. How do you? How do you do it?

Amberly Allen:

Well, I don't really think there's much work-life balance. As the owner, I don't you never see an out of office from my email, right? That's not something that you'll see from me. But at the same time, I do my very best. When I'm with my kids, I try to be as present as I can be with my kids, and when I'm working, I try to be as present as I can be during those times. And do they intermingle? Of course they do, right, is there lots of crossover? Are my kids great about being quiet while I'm on a call? They know I'm on a work call, things like that, but I don't know that there really is much balance. I think it's more compartmentalization than anything.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a great way to put it. That is so talk to us. Maybe share some advice for those thinking about starting a business or for those just getting started in entrepreneurship.

Amberly Allen:

Well, I think the biggest thing is you just have to take the step. I tell my team, microsoft launched with 40,000 bugs, and so if they waited until all of those were fixed, we wouldn't have the computers that we have today. Right, and that's no different than anybody else. Right, you have to just look for the next logical step. You can't know everything, it can't be perfect, and so, for me, if you have an idea, you just have to start. And now you have to make sure you have a little financial runway to do so. Right, I think making sure that you're not naive to the fact that it takes time and effort and putting yourself out there and continuing to ask for the sale and knowing that you're going to get lots of no's, but making sure you're taking that first step, is the biggest thing.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Definitely.

Amberly Allen:

Both of these companies were started on shoestring budgets. You know, there's no, there was no investment, there was no capital infusion, anything like that.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

So bootstrapped the whole way, both of them. Yeah, very nice, absolutely Very nice. I'm sure you've had some people trying to come in and maybe become an investor or probably even acquire you. What's your thoughts about that?

Amberly Allen:

Well, I think that right now we're not quite ready. There's still so much of a runway and the potential is there. I anticipate another thousand dealers on the program in the next 12 to 18 months on the dealer merchant services program. So I think that we're just going to stay the course. We've had a few conversations, but we're going to stay the course. I think that's the right thing to do for right now.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

For sure. Yeah, now we've talked many times about the automotive industry being so heavily male dominated. Can you recall a time when you might've been treated unfairly because you are a female?

Amberly Allen:

Sure, I think some of that's inevitable. I think you have to be aware of the package that you come in and you have to take yourself and your business very seriously. And I would also say that you have to be aware that not everybody is rooting for you. You know you're going to have some naysayers. You're going to have some people that strong in your ability to be confident, in your ability to power through, and so there's certainly been some times. There's some big, powerful organizations that don't necessarily love to see the females coming onto the scene as quickly as we are Right, but at the same time, that can't deter you Right At all Right, you have to have enough determination and self-confidence to not let those get in your head.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, and sometimes it's hard. It's happened to me many times, sure, and in the beginning, when I started in this industry, I would take it so personal, of course, and then I would become very passive-aggressive and I wouldn't do anything about it. Right Now, as I've evolved as a human and as an entrepreneur, I definitely don't take it personal anymore and I try to have empathy with whoever is, either, whether they're insulting or, you know, leaving me out of a conversation or turning their back, or all of the things, all of the things. I now just try to understand where they're coming from. Sure, they probably were raised. They're typically older, that's just the way it is.

Amberly Allen:

And those gender roles that they grew up in. They're not used to seeing hardworking, intelligent women kind of powering through. But it's also a double-edged sword. It's also served me in so many ways, right. It's opened some doors in great ways too that I'm I certainly am not complaining about. So I just have to know how to take it, and I also have learned that you can't be overly emotional. You know working in this business, you know there's, there's I tell my team there's no crying in baseball.

Amberly Allen:

And it's true because you know, I know, that of course emotions come up and and people, you know, just like you said, get their feelings hurt. But you're gonna have to know how to hold on to that and, and you know, make sure that you, you power through right.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

so much in business is not taking things personal right, even if somebody doesn't do business with you. Sure, I used to take that personal. Why not? Why not me? You know, probably competitive as well.

Amberly Allen:

Right. I always want to win, so there's always a part of me that takes it a little personal, exactly.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Exactly yeah. So talk to us about what's next for you next five to 10 years. You and dealer merchant services.

Amberly Allen:

Well, luckily for me, my kids, I have great kids, so being a mom is such a huge piece of that. It's shocking how fast it happens, and you know we are one of the fastest growing businesses in the automotive sector. We are the fastest growing merchant provider that focuses on automotive, and my focus there is to be best in class, and I think that we're doing that. We were just recently picked up by Automotive News as the subject matter experts, things like that. So I want them to take the business very seriously, because we certainly do, and the next five to 10 years will be about growing that and focusing there.

Amberly Allen:

So I think, long term, though, I really would like to work with female entrepreneurs. I think there's just something I really would like to work with female entrepreneurs. I think there's just something that calls me to that. You know, I meet so many women that don't have the financial capacity to either take care of their kids or, you know, really move forward in life, and I think some of that is because they either don't have the capital or the knowledge or the know-how within the entrepreneurial world, and I would love to be able to help more women be able to do that. That really calls to me, and so there's somewhere.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

I don't know how it will unfold, but somewhere along the lines Well, maybe we can do something together later.

Amberly Allen:

I would love that, so something will unfold, because I think that there's incredibly smart women out there that have great ideas that just don't know how to start Right. That's for sure.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Now, amberlee, talk to us about um. Think about when you were younger. What advice would?

Amberly Allen:

you give to your younger self, knowing what you know now, well, I would say everything works out right. That's the biggest thing. Is that you're so afraid that it's not going to work out, but somehow some way. If you look back on it you you see that it did work itself out and it maybe wasn't how you intended it, but it typically even turns out better. And that I would also tell myself not to be a perfectionist and you know, people really aren't caring about what you're doing as much as you think that they are, and so not having to be perfect, those two things, I would think are the biggest. That's great, you know and give yourself some grace, yeah.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Right For sure. Yeah, definitely the perfectionism thing, I think, is a such a hot topic with so many entrepreneurs, because they do feel like everything has to be a certain way, but, like you said, nobody's paying as much attention as you are.

Amberly Allen:

Well, especially as women, right, and we're mothers, we're entrepreneurs they expect us to be able to do all the things and do? I believe that we can do all the things, of course, but I think you have to sacrifice certain things, like I personally have a lot of great people that will help, and you know, help with my kids or help with my house, and I also am not a great cook, so I have my, you know different people that can help me with that too.

Amberly Allen:

So you know, I think asking for help is is a big deal. It's hard for us sometimes to ask for the help, but I think that's a big component of it.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

The answer is always no, unless you ask right Right, so let's go back to dealer merchant services for a minute. Talk to us about um, maybe do you have plans to maybe branch out into another industry.

Amberly Allen:

Well, I think right now there's so many car dealers that we could still work with, but naturally it segues into RV. We also work with a lot of heavy trucking dealers, so but it branches out to RV, naturally boating jets, you know, motorsports, things like that. So I think there's lots of even we've gotten a few Harley Davidson stores. So I think there's still such a huge, wide open industry within automotive, as well as some of the ancillary and secondary markets. So lots of work still to do as far as that goes.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

And I know when you're out talking to dealers, one of their biggest questions is probably like well, what makes you different than everybody else? So talk to us about what differentiates you from the others.

Amberly Allen:

Of course, so every dealer has a merchant provider, a credit card processor, within their business. Obviously, right now, only 10% of consumers are carrying actual cash to pay for things, so we know it's all credit and debit. What's interesting there, though, is when surcharging came onto the scene, it was not legal for 40 or 50 years for you to change your prices if somebody used a credit card in your store, and so, in 2010, that started to change with the Durbin Amendment. It was a part of the Dodd-Frank Act. Basically, it started regulating debit card processing costs.

Amberly Allen:

Fast forward to 2017, there was a US Supreme Court case. Well, here we are today, 2024, only three states remain with a ban on surcharging. I tell you all of that to say that this is an ever-evolving, fast-paced kind of changing world as it pertains to credit card surcharging, but dealers are passing along these fees to their customers because it's one of their largest expenses, and so they can recoup somewhere around 70% to 75% of those fees. Average dealers can save between $5,000 and $15,000 per month per rooftop which is an enormous amount of money.

Amberly Allen:

We've had dealers increase minimum wage at their stores for employee retention or better insurance. They've even paid mortgages on a body shop, things like that. So these resources can be put in other places. And so, to answer your question, what makes us different is that we focus on helping dealers pass along these fees with these surcharges, but we help them do it within compliance. There's compliance regulations, there's legal regulations, but, most importantly, we help them do it without disrupting their CSI, and so our focus is really all on automotive. There's not another merchant provider in the industry that has launched as many dealers as we have on a compliance surcharge program. So I believe that we're the experts and so and our business has grown from referrals and we know that dealers care about telling other dealers right. So that's our biggest difference here is that we focus on surcharging and automotive and there's nobody else that has that same full specialty between the two. There's certainly merchant providers that can do surcharging and there's certainly some that focus on and have dealerships, but we are that's really our specialty is those two combined.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Well, this has been so great. I know you're going to be helping a lot of females watching today, so thank you so much for joining us, amber.

Amberly Allen:

I'm so thrilled to be here. Thanks for having me, I hope. If any women out there are looking to start a business, I would just tell them just to go for it. Yeah, great advice, yeah.

Voice Over:

This is the Female Founders Show with host and entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusively on ASBN. If you're a female founder and would like to help other female founders with your inspiring story, we would love to hear from you.