A rapid-fire round through the year’s hottest 10-Q stories

Let’s hit the 2024 highlights!

2025 is here, and with it comes the excitement of fresh starts and new horizons. But before sprinting into the future, let’s take a thoughtful pause to reflect on last year’s journey.

Join me as we explore the highlight stories from the 10Q universe and celebrate the close of 2024!

The Case for Connected Experiences: U.S. Bank’s vision for SMB growth

Back in February 2024, I spoke with Shruti Patel, the Chief Product Officer for the Business Banking Segment at U.S. Bank. We talked about all things SMBs — what’s working, what’s not, and how financial institutions can step up their game.

One thing that really gets me is the sheer tenacity of small business owners. Balancing responsibilities and confronting obstacles daily, they persevere with unwavering hope for better financial opportunities. Where does that confidence come from?

According to Shruti, SMB owners are resilient, adaptable, and always ready to tackle whatever comes their way. They chalk it up to their work ethic, leadership skills, and adaptability. And they’re pretty good at managing stress too.

In a U.S. Bank survey, small business owners revealed some of their secret stress-busting hacks:

• Reminding themselves why they started their business (aka the “this is my dream” mantra)
• Making work fun or meaningful (because why not?)
• Setting boundaries (read: not answering emails at midnight)
• Regularly tweaking their business strategies (change is good)
• Hiring help to lighten the load (delegation can be a superpower)

But here’s the rub: Small business owners wear all the hats — CEO, accountant, HR, janitor — and their biggest pain point is a lack of time. Enter digital solutions, the capes SMBs need to wear to save the day, according to Shruti. She shared that 82% of small business owners believe investing in digital tools could reduce their stress, and 42% say it would free up time for more strategic work.

Historically, banks have given their SMB customers more and more money movement solutions for accepting payments and for making payments (POS, ACH, Zelle, Wires, RTP, BillPay in banking app). The real puzzle isn’t just about building the tech — it’s about translating it into SMB-speak. For many small business owners, payment rails might as well be train tracks to nowhere. They’re burning $200 a month on a jumble of tools and sacrificing up to 40 hours playing admin instead of entrepreneur, explained Shruti.

Shruti’s take? It’s time for financial institutions to step up and deliver smoother digital tools that bring everything together in one place. This could be a central dashboard that connects all the dots — front office, back office, and everything in between — combined with other measures.

Partnerships: The Good, the Bad, and the “What were we thinking?”

Last year, partnerships have been front and center — some thriving, others combusting (hint: Apple-Goldman). With collaboration such a hot topic, I reached out to industry pros to get their take on how to prevent cracks in collaborations.

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