CEO Rebecca James discusses how hummpro revolutionises cash flow solutions for QSRs

Find out how QSR owners can access readily available funds in less than five minutes.

With or without a pandemic, QSR’s brands need cash flow solutions that provide them with quick yet flexible access to funds. This can be challenging - especially for small and medium businesses - as big banks can require tons of paperwork and approvals could take weeks or even months.

Enter humm®pro, which small and medium businesses in the QSR industry can now use to access funds in under five minutes with just a few taps on a smartphone.

According to Rebecca James, CEO of hummgroup, players within the QSR industry grapple with a lot of fixed and variable expenses which they can use hummpro to pay for, simply and quickly. They can also set flexible payment terms without the sky-high interest rates and fees they might see with other providers.

In an exclusive interview with QSR Media, James reveals some of QSR’s greatest pain points when it comes to cash flows and how hummpro provides the best solutions to address these concerns:

Please tell us about hummpro and the role it plays within the QSR industry.  

hummpro is a fantastic new cash flow solution that we've recently launched in Australia and New Zealand, and we've created it to address the cash flow needs of small to medium businesses. 

One of the first pain points that we really tried to address with hummpro is the access to readily available funds for small businesses. hummpro is app-based so you go to the Google Playstore or App Store, look for hummpro, download the app, answer a couple of really simple questions about the business and you're instantly decisioned on the spot. What’s even better, you don't have to wait for a card to come in the post. It's instantly provisioned straight through into your Apple or Android wallet, and you can start paying for business expenses there and then. The whole process from start to finish takes no more than five minutes. So we've really looked to address that pain point regarding access to funds.

The second thing is that we put the business owners in absolute control of the way they want to manage their cash flow. As the business owner, you can choose whether you want to pay your bills at the end of 30 days. Or you may say, “Actually, I've had a few large expenses, cash flow’s a bit tight for me this month,” and you can choose to pause your repayments for another 30 days. Or maybe you've just bought a bigger piece of equipment and you want to pay that off over six, nine, or 12 months. You can choose to do any of that with hummpro, so you're absolutely in the driver's seat of your business cash flow.  

How did the pandemic highlight the need for QSRs to have more control over their cash flow? 

We've all had to adapt so quickly to changing environments, whether that be going into lockdown or having to limit the number of people you can serve within restaurants or seeing significant outlays in order to prepare and ready your environment to be able to serve customers through a pandemic. And so I think what businesses need right now more than ever are flexible tools that can work within each of those different scenarios and help smooth out any lumpy bits of the cash flow. And that's where hummpro can help. 

What do you hope to achieve with hummpro? 

We really believe that this product will be a game changer for small businesses. We want to help as many small businesses as possible to be able to smooth out those cash flow peaks and troughs. That's what motivates us every single day. 

Small businesses are the backbone of the Australian economy, but they're often neglected by the major banks. When we were designing hummpro, we interviewed hundreds and hundreds of small business owners and the common theme was, “It can just be so hard for me to get access.” We had a number of prospects that said to us, “I've tried to apply for a business credit card or credit card in my business name and it took over a month to get that done. And the interest rates when it did finally come through, were just absolutely excessive.”

And so we've really tried to address the businesses’ access to funds with us being able to instantly approve applications with no paperwork whatsoever. It’s all done within the app. And the second thing that we've tried to address is for the business owner to really be in the driver's seat around when they can repay and not be so heavily penalised with huge interest rates for the privilege. 

You mentioned there that it's increasingly difficult to get access to capital. Do you think that that's changed over the course of the last 12 to 18 months? 

I think it's become harder for some businesses and actually, that shouldn't be the case given that the economy, particularly in Australia, has fared so well throughout this pandemic. But we're seeing the big major banks retreat from the sector and that's why we're so excited about hummpro and the service that it can provide to businesses.

From your vantage point, what are some of the opportunities and challenges QSRs should watch out for in the next couple of years? 

First, I believe the demand for home delivery is not going to slip back anytime soon. I think Australians and New Zealanders are really driven by that demand for convenience, and QSRs have needed to respond to that, and we'll need to continue to do so.

Secondly, within the dining environment itself, I think we're starting to see the use of technology such as being able to order at the table. A lot of these things entail initial outlays and expenses that QSRs are going to have to make in order to ensure that they're keeping up with these latest trends in a dining experience and hummpro can help finance some of those investments. 

What are your key business philosophies?

A wonderful question, thank you. I think within business you can spend a lot of time obsessing about the competition, and you absolutely need to be aware of what your competition is doing. But this obsession needs to be when it comes to your customer and understanding your customer, what pain points they have, what drives them, what motivates them, how they would like you to meet their needs. And so my number one business philosophy is that absolute focus on the customer. 

We have a value at hummpro called “feel their world,” which is all about walking in the shoes of our customers. We encourage all of our team members to use our products, ask customers and merchants for feedback, and I think that's absolutely key.

My other philosophy is, you've got to keep moving. You cannot stay still. I think every single day, no matter what field you're working in today, there are probably a couple of kids in a garage somewhere who are building a product or a service or a feature that is potentially going to be the next big competitive threat to your industry. So you've got to keep improving and striving to improve your service on behalf of your customers.  

Anything further you'd like to add?

Just give hummpro a try. You'll find the hummpro app in both Android’s Google Play and Apple’s App Store. We would love to help as many QSR owners as we can.