As the child of two entrepreneurs, Daphne Barron was inspired by her work experience and her parents' entrepreneurial mindset to venture out on her own and create something new. Despite initially planning to study medicine, she quickly found a different calling: social media marketing.
Daphne had always loved spreading messages on social media, and she began to provide social media marketing services as a freelancer. She believed social media was a way to amplify her voice and the voices of other women. Wanting to have a bigger impact, she founded Serotina Media, a woman-owned, inclusive, Toronto-based social media agency specializing in social strategy, content production, and social media management.
Today, Serotina provides services to various companies, with a focus on small to mid-size businesses. However, that growth came with some unique learnings — especially when it came to financial operations.
While Daphne is a natural communicator and entrepreneur, when it came to diving into the financial intricacies of startups, she knew her limitations. As soon as she could, Daphne hired a bookkeeper to help streamline Serotina’s payment operations.
“At first, we had a different payment solution,” Daphne said. “It was convoluted, clunky, and did not work for us.”
Serotina also used disparate payment solutions like PayPal, Visa, and e-Transfer to pay its various vendors and contractors.
During this phase of trying different options, Daphne’s bookkeeper introduced her to an all-in-one payment automation solution: Plooto. Even though she may not count financial management among her top strengths, she still found the platform to be intuitive and easy to use.
“I like aesthetically pleasing software,” she said. “I like it when an interface feels right to me and feels as modern as the other products in our tech stack. Plooto checked all those boxes — and at a comfortable price point.”
Today, Serotina pays all its vendors and contractors through the Plooto platform.
“All of our non-payroll-related payments go through Plooto,” Daphne said. “Our financial operations are centralized. Now, rather than going into different solutions to make payments, the bookkeeper sets up the payment for approval, and then I just go into Plooto twice a month and approve our payments. Simple!”
Streamlining Serotina’s payment process has saved Daphne time and money.
“Plooto has been a complete game-changer for us in terms of time and efficiency,” Daphne said.
Instead of dedicating that time to her books, she can focus on creating efficiencies in other parts of her business and on helping other businesses succeed in marketing their products and services.