If your company isn’t yet equipped to take customer payments via credit cards and debit cards, then it’s of the utmost importance that you remedy that situation right away. Although there may have been a point in the past when a small business or a tiny locally-owned establishment could get away with operating on a cash only basis, those days are moving further and further into the past. If you want your business to survive and continue to prosper into the future, it’s important that you realize this and take action.
Most people in this day and age make payments and conduct transactions almost solely via plastic means – either credit cards or debit cards attached to their checking accounts – and it’s not too difficult to see why. For starters, credit and debit cards are undeniably convenient. They allow you full access to your lines of credit and your bank funds so there’s no need to plan far enough ahead to draw out enough cash for the day or to make sure you bring your checkbook. Plastic offers a safer, more secure way to pay as well. If you lose your credit card and someone gets a hold of it, you’re protected against the dangers of fraud. This isn’t the case if you drop a wad of cash on the ground by accident! It’s simply gone and you have no way to get it back.
All this being the case, any business that hopes to stay afloat and continue to grow into the future must have a way to accept credit card payments and that means getting your hands on the right credit card machines and taking the proper measures to ensure that your business is able to use them. Consider the following in order to make sure your business is brought up to date when it comes to credit cards and merchant services.
How do I get my business set up to process credit card transactions?
In order to be able to process credit card transactions, you need to get your business approved for a merchant account. A merchant account is a special bank account that allows you to step outside the cash trap and start taking credit and debit cards as a means of payment. As is the case with other types of bank accounts, loans, lines of credit, and similar things, you must apply for a merchant account and submit to an approval process before you can begin taking advantage of the many perks attached.
This process consists of you providing your potential merchant services provider with detailed information about you, your business, and your business partners. The bank or other service provider then runs a credit check and assesses your application. They may interview your business partners or other provided references in order to get a feel for what you’re like as an entrepreneur as well. Once approved for your merchant services account, your business is assigned a merchant ID number and you now have access to all the perks that come with it. This includes the ability to process, accept, collect, and approve credit and debit transactions for your customers.
Before deciding on a particular merchant services provider to apply with, you should do your homework in regards to what the associated fees are for each. All merchant services companies will charge you a small fee per transaction in order to take advantage of the service in the first place. They may also charge you a percentage of your sales volume. However, not all take the same fees across the board.
How do I go about choosing a credit card machine?
Once you decide on a merchant services provider and get yourself approved for a merchant account and associated merchant ID, you’ll need to consider other practicalities in regards to how to process your credit transactions. This means getting your hands on a credit card machine that can get the job done. As we touched on above, this is the digital age we’re living in, so there are quite a few different options available to you.
Many small businesses still operate via the classic one-on-one interaction, meaning a customer secures the services or products they want via a face to face interaction with a sales associate at a designated point-of-sale (or POS for short). POS terminals generally allow for the sales person to swipe the customer’s card (or sometimes for the customer to do it themselves). The transaction then takes place and a receipt is produced. This is still the most popular option when it comes to most retail establishments, as well as a number of service-oriented establishments as well.
If you decide that the traditional point of sale terminal approach is for you, then you next need to decide whether it makes more sense for you to buy your terminals or simply rent them. Buying credit card machines and POS terminals can set you back any amount of money from a mere $100 to well over $1000 depending on what you want it to be able to handle.
Every model is different with newer, more efficient models naturally being more expensive. Plus, some models will come attached to associated costs of printers and other equipment as well. For this reason, many business owners decide it makes more sense to simply rent their machines (at least to start with) and invest in their own machines at some point down the line when it makes more sense.
To get the optimal use out of your new merchant services account, you will naturally want to make sure that any credit card machine or POS terminal you choose has at least the necessary bases covered. Many customers will want to use debit cards as well as credit cards, so you should make sure that your choice comes attached with a keypad that allows for the input of a PIN number. You might want to consider splurging a little in order to take advantage of newer technology that isn’t as likely to go obsolete so quickly.
Are there any alternatives to standard POS credit card machines?
Many small businesses choose to allow their office computers to do double duty as a point of sale terminal instead of investing in additional equipment, as this allows them to bring their business up to date without having to find too much extra room or funding for extra machines. This can easily be accomplished by installing POS software on your office computer that will allow you to process transactions using machinery you already have. Naturally, this is a popular option with many businesses for its relatively low cost, as the same software can be installed on as many machines as necessary. We see this option often in doctor’s offices, veterinary clinics, automotive garages, and much more.
The only additional items you would need to consider buying at that point would possibly be credit card swiping equipment if you would like your customers to be able to swipe their own cards and/or enter PIN numbers in order to use their debit cards instead. However, those are relatively inexpensive in comparison to full POS terminals. Also, even without such options, you’ll be able to process credit card transactions just fine by manually entering the credit card information directly into the computer.
It’s important to note that there are still manual credit card stamping machines available as well – the original credit card machines from back when credit was the hot new thing! While it’s not necessarily recommended that you and your business depend completely on these to handle your credit card transactions, as they’re slow and far less efficient than POS terminals or computer POS software, they’re still very handy to have around. Today’s top retail establishments and most successful businesses still rely on credit card stamping machines to accept payments from customers in the event the power goes out the computer systems crash or run into issues. They ensure that no customer is ever turned away no matter what the situation.
Is it possible to connect my business’s website to my credit card machines?
If your company ever does business online or via a website, it always pays to take the internet into consideration when it comes to making decisions about credit card machines or POS software to install onto your computer. In fact some businesses are even simply taking to their websites to process certain types of transactions, including those that come in over the phone or from long-distance customers. It’s as simple as logging in through your terminal and completing sales and credit card transactions via the tools on the website.
This is possible when you take the time to fully integrate your company’s website with shopping cart services offered by your credit card processing company. This can be accomplished by upgrading your website with your new credit card processing capabilities in mind – which would be advisable anyway – through a web development team that’s experienced when it comes to setting up the right web gateways and installing the proper scripts on your site.