Make it convenient for your clients to pay you. The more ways you accept money, the more money you will make. If you have a strict payment policy, (i.e., only accept cash, or only use PayPal), your clients may choose a competitor who accepts all credit cards, including American Express. Even though AMEX charges more than Visa and Mastercard (and, of course, you are paying those fees), you are making the sale by accepting it.
Studies have shown that most people do not carry cash, prefer awards programs of credit cards, and are sometimes forced to use credit cards by their companies.
There are many companies that offer this service, and typically there are two methods: purchasing a point-of-sale (POS) machine, or processing transactions through a web interface. For more specific types of situations, there are specialized machines that you can purchase to fit your needs — for example, they sell wireless card swipers for contractors who are on-location (wedding vendors, farmer’s market vendors, Salvation Army workers).
The latest trend is to bypass all of these methods and just use a merchant account application on your iPhone. Intuit is a great solution, and is only $9.95/month (plus a per sale fee) and it is compatible with Quickbooks. Ask your bank for a merchant account (you will have to qualify credit-wise); they go through a third-party. For $85 I got a USB card reader for the laptop so I can swipe the cards, which saves time and increases accuracy as I do not have to enter client billing information. The online credit card services also keep records and store your sales so you can search for specific customers.
You need a credit card service for your business — even the guy I bought my furnace from swiped my credit card on his handheld in my garage!
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