Are you frustrated by your bank? Many small business owners are. Ironically, many do business with the same bank as consumers and are happier with that side of the relationship.
But here’s something your bank may not be telling you: As a small business owner, you’re potentially worth far more to the bank than you are as a consumer. And that gives you leverage to ask for — and expect — more.
A recent report, The Multiplier Effect: Visa 2026 Small Business Banking Report, found that many banks are unknowingly treating small business owners like retail customers, even though those relationships generate five times more revenue on average.
The disconnect stems partly from the way banks see their customers. Small business owners don’t experience their personal and business finances as two separate lives. As Visa puts it, “the same person making payroll is paying a mortgage.” But banks often keep those relationships in separate silos.
That means your bank may not fully understand how valuable you are as a customer. And if it doesn’t, you should make sure it does.
Why the Gap Persists
The report asks, “If SMBs are worth this much, why aren’t more banks treating them that way?” The answer: Because “consumers who also own a business are invisible in many bank data architectures.” The challenge is that banks track a consumer account customer, a business loan customer, and a card customer in separate systems and never look at that individual’s full potential value.
For many banks, the business owners first come to them as consumers. And “the bank serving their consumer needs often has no idea it’s also serving a business.” Visa suggests to banks that “capturing this opportunity doesn’t necessarily require new customers. But it may require a new way of reading the customers you already have.”
Use Your Leverage
That puts you, the business owner, at a distinct advantage. If you’re one of the 72% of SMB owners who use the same primary bank for your business and personal banking, you need to make sure that bank knows you have both accounts and that you expect more from them.
Here’s a fact sure to help plead your case. Globally, 44% of SMB bank revenue comes from credit cards and related products. And small businesses with business cards use twice as many banking products as those without them.
The report explains that “the card doesn’t just generate direct revenue. It deepens the entire relationship, driving adoption across lending, deposits and beyond.”
Ask More From Your Bank
Visa is essentially telling banks to get better at identifying the small business owners already in their customer base and offer them the products and services they need. You don’t have to wait for your bank to figure that out.
If you have personal and business accounts at the same bank, make sure the bank connects the dots. Ask what additional services, credit products, cash-flow tools, or business cards are available to you. If you’re a sole proprietor or have a side hustle, tell them. And if you don’t have a relationship manager, ask for one who can help as your business grows.
The Visa report was designed to help banks better know and serve their customers. As Jonathan Kolozsvary, Visa’s Global Head of Small Business, says, “Too often, a business’s needs evolve faster than the financial services available to support it. Small businesses are not simply ‘super consumers’ — they want payment tools, cash-flow visibility, employee controls and access to working capital that evolve alongside their businesses. Our research shows that stronger, more tailored banking relationships can create greater value for both entrepreneurs and the financial institutions that support them.”
But now that you have some inside info, you can use it to demand more from your bank. And if you don’t get it, another bank can likely give you what you want and need.
Rieva Lesonsky is the founder of Small Business Currents, a content company focusing on small businesses and entrepreneurship. You can find her on Twitter @Rieva, Bluesky @Rieva.bsky.social, and LinkedIn. Or email her at Rieva@SmallBusinessCurrents.com.
Photo courtesy Getty Images for Unsplash+
