I don’t normally review sites or services of other businesses, especially competitors, but there are a couple sites that are worth sharing if you need affordable credit card processing from someone you can trust.   Both usa-merchantaccount.com and fastestmerchantaccount.com have an impressive reputation for quality, for having the fastest merchant account approval as well as for having an honest service at good rates.    Everything from check service to EBT acceptance are available through their services also. 

In this down economy, it feel it is important to get the best service possible and I hope that my recommendation helps you and your business thrive for years to come.  If you have had any positive experiences with a merchant account provider, please feel free to comment below to let others know.  

If you want to build a structurally sound house, you first need the forethought and plans in place in order to lay the foundation and construct the building itself.  The same is true with your business.  If you want to have a strong, healthy and profitable business you need to have a good business plan.

A business plan is great to help you get a small business loan from the bank, but more importantly, it helps you think through the processes of how to start your business and what it takes to run it as well as what it takes to make it a financial success.  It is an essential step no matter how big or small your business is.  Unfortunately, this step is skipped far too often and the business owner likely suffers and even fails from lack of insight into what it takes to run their business.

A good business plan includes things like an estimate of your start up costs, financial forecasts, an effective marketing strategy, expenses, analysis of your competition and any strategies needed to reach your goals.

Your working out a business plan can help you to have a clear view of what you will need to succeed but it is also possible that while working on your plan you could realize that this particular venture may not be the wisest choice since you will be able to uncover the potential challenges and financial requirements to start and grow your business.   They may be a lot more than you had initially anticipated.  

With the economy down sharply, there has been a shift in consumer spending in a few sectors.  Liquor stores, bankruptcy attorneys and massage therapists have all started to see an uptake in business.  While it’s fairly obvious why liquor stores and bankruptcy attorneys are seeing bulging profits, you may be wondering why massage therapy is booming also.

Many people are no longer financially able to take expensive vacations and are looking to less expensive luxuries to fill the void.  Massage therapy happens to fill that void very nicely.  All that stress that used to take a week long vacation to melt off can now be worked out in less than an hour and for just a fraction of the cost.  It makes sense since more people are adopting sound spending practices but yet still want to treat themselves every now and then.

Since the downturn seems like it will last for a few years, massage therapist who find ways to capitalize on this shift will find themselves growing their business in a market where most are struggling to just survive.  A “you deserve a get-away” marketing approach could be the boom your massage therapy business needs and the vacation your stressed out client longs for.

Well, that is a perfectly good question.  The answer won’t make you feel any better but at least you will understand the reasoning behind why you are being charged this fee.

Basically, to sum it up, Visa is requiring this to be done by credit card processors.  Credit card processors have to contact a third party scanning service to verify account compliance.  The third party scanning service does tyhis for a fee.   Since all merchant accounts that the credit card processor has have to be monitored, the processor has a choice.  They can either charge some of their merchants a really huge fee monthly or annually, or they can charge everyone a much smaller fee monthly or annually.

Threfore, since you will more than likely be paying for PCI compliance, you might as well shop for the cheapest.  I recommend finding one that is billed annually.  The lowest I have seen is typically around $30.00 to $45.00 per year.  And even though it is just another fee that you hate paying, if you think about it, it’s only around $3.00/month.

And remember, if you think you are paying too much for your PCI compliance, you can do one of two things.   Ask your processor if you can use your own scanning service or switch to another processor that uses a cheaper one.

Well, first of all, let me congratulate you on making a sound business decision.  You will no doubt get many more customers giving you their business by providing them the option to pay with plastic.  But making that decision was the easy part.  The harder part is picking the right merchant account to fit your catering business.

Below are 3 reasons you may want to consider getting a small business merchant account that allows you to accept credit cards on your cell phone.  This type of account is traditionally called a “Dial Pay” account.

1.  It is a mobile solution.   You can accept payment at your customer’s location or over the phone.  This gives you added flexibility with your customers.

2.  Your transaction cost does not downgrade to higher rate with your customers that use “corporate” or “business” credit cards.  Visa and MasterCard require processors to charge more on transactions that fit this type.  With many dial-pay accounts the processor eats the cost on these.  Of coarse, you will want to check with the processor you are looking into to and make sure they do.

3.  Low monthly fees.  These types of accounts usually just have one low monthly fee and do not include a monthly minimum or annual fee. This is great for catering businesses since there may be some months that you don’t even accept payment with cards.  Why pay a bunch of monthly and annual fees if you don’t use it all the time?

4.  Save money on processing equipment.  If you already have a cell phone like most people, that’s all you will need.  You will avoid paying hundreds of dollars needlessly.

5.   If you also have a restaurant it keeps the larger catering transactions separate.  Some restaurant/catering business owners run into this problem.  Because your catering transaction sizes are so much larger than your restaurant transaction sizes, the processing banks can get nervous and can even hold the funds for the higher catering transaction and require additional steps from the merchant.  Having a separate Dial Pay account for this will prevent this unexpected and potentially damaging occurrence from happening.

Having wisdom is having insight into a matter and I hope this post gives you some insight into finding the right merchant account for your catering business.

Who needs an imprinter or “knuckle buster” as some call it?  It is true that not all businesses need one as a practical matter.  If you have the type of business that does a large number of transactions each day, your credit card terminal is much more beneficial than an imprinter.  That being said, even if your business fits this description, a manual imprinter while come in handy if your credit card machine goes down for any period of time.

Now if you have a small business merchant account that uses a cell phone to process transactions, you will most certainly want to have one.  Below are some ways to see why if you accept credit cards by phone you’ll want to have one.

Record of the Transaction

Keeping good records in business is as basic as simple as being able to read or write if you plan on being an author of a book.  You just can’t run a business effectively without them.  And what is more important than keeping a record of your customer’s payment to you.  Not to mention that your customer needs a receipt for their purchase.  Am imprinter does just this.

Great for Return Business

When your merchant account is first opened, you receive a nameplate that fits into the imprinter.  The nameplate has your business name, phone number and address.  So your customers will have your contact information after every purchase and can use it to make another purchase or to refer another.

Professionalism

Having an imprinter is not “high tech” by any means but a printed receipt is expected by any customer.  By not providing your customer a printed receipt you are sending them the message that your business is not very professional.

Disputing Chargebacks

In the chance that one of your customers tries to do a chargeback.  A copy of the transaction will be what you need to help dispute the chargeback.  Without it, it will be very difficult to fight.

1. Incorporating your business adds a certain level of professionalism or credibility to your business.

2. There are some tax advantages associating with incorporating.

3. It eliminates the risk of exposure to lawsuits that could cost you your personal property, possessions or assets.

4. Becoming a corporation or LLC also gives you the ability to raise money fairly quickly by selling shares to investors.  This is a great way to expand your business without having to front a bunch of money.  In a time when credit markets are tight and getting small business loans is increasingly difficult, incorporating your business can allow you to have funds to market your business more aggressively.

5. Having a corporation allows you to establish credit in your business name.  This can be advantageous if your personal credit is not the best.  In some cases you will need to submit both your social security number and business credit for a background check when applying for loans or for credit.  However, this is not always the case and even so, your business credit carries weight to offset your personal credit if it is not so strong.

6. Changing or transferring ownership of the Incorporated business is much easier and smoother than it is if you are simply a sole proprietor.

7. You can also choose the option to incorporate offshore.  There are several advantages to doing so but one major advantage is protection of your privacy.  It is much more difficult for someone to conduct an investigation into your business.  You can also keep your personal identity protected when incorporating outside of the United States

1. Focus More On Customers That Count

More than likely you have a handful of customers that provide the bulk of your business.  Spend a little more time and money on marketing  to them.  You can offer them added services at special rates or you could even pay them for referrals that they send you.  In fact, you could even offer to pay them a modest amount for every time their referral pays you for your services.  That would definitely be a motivating factor in getting them to send you a lot of referrals.  Also, since they are typically your happiest customers, they will give you the warmest leads.

2. Have A Newsletter

Never underestimate the power of newsletters.  This could be a physical newsletter in the mail or an email newsletter.  Email newsletters are much less costly.  Send it out once a week to your customers.  Include tips on body care and occasional throw in special discounts if used by such and such date to include a sense of urgency.  For email newsletters, you can use constantcontact.com for premade email templates and email sending services.  Makes it very easy for you.  Be sure to always ask for your customer’s email address so that you can send them notices of special discounts and useful information.  This is also a great way to get the word out on your retail products.

3. Accept Credit Cards

Many of your competitors do not offer this service.  This will give you a competitive edge.  It also gives your clients an opportunity to pay when they are short on cash.  A good move especially in a down market.  A Dial Pay account you can use with just a cell phone is usually an ideal fit for a message therapist.  You can use it in your place of business or at a clients location.  When you accept credit cards by phone, it is also less costly on the monthly fees.

If you are a small business that accepts tips and are not a restaurant, then it is a bit different of a process.   Many non-restaurant small business merchant accounts try to set up their accounts as “Restaurant with Tip” but this is against Visa regulations and causes all transactions to downgrade to Non Qualified which can increase transaction cost by 50 to 100%.   So How do you accept tips then?

First, you will need to let your credit card processor know that you are setting up your account as “Retail plus Tip”.  The procedure for processing the tip is not like that of a restaurant but still very simple.  When you accept credit card payment from your customer you will need to ask them if they would like to leave a tip.  If they do, enter the amount on the terminal and the card will be charged for the purchase amount plus the tip amount.  Tear off the receipt and give it to the customer and you are done.

Making sure your merchant account is set up properly will prevent you from paying needless high fees and save you lots of headache.

How so?

Really, it is very simple.  Always ask for your customer’s email after the close of the sale.  Let them know it is to send them updates on industry tips and strategies or for ways for them to save their business money.  You can also use their email address to send them notices about any special promotions you may have in the future.  Most of the time, you will find that your customer will readily agree to give you their email.

Now What?

Next, go online and find a good all in one email sending service.  I prefer to us Constant Contact.  They have templates you can use and can be customized for your business.  It even allows your customers to unsubscribe from the list (a must for proper email etiquette).   Once you compile your email list and set up your customized template you can now add money saving tips or advise.  To do this, go to any article directory on the net and you can find an article you like and copy it to your newsletter.  The directories allow you to do this as long as you keep the author’s website link at the bottom.

Send your customers one of these newsletters every two weeks to a month.  Every now and then write your own article relating to a special promo you are running or perhaps you could even advertise a customer referral program.

The key is to do this on a regular basis.  Waiting longer than a month to send emails to your customers could be viewed as spam so be sure to stay on top of it.