About
Small Online Businesses
For
all of you who might be considering starting or growing your small
Internet business, I would like to share my experiences on the subject,
since I
procrastinated getting a merchant account at first. I was intimidated
by the thought and that was a huge mistake. My sales skyrocketed after
people were able to charge their purchases to their credit cards.
I
am here to tell you that getting started is easier than you think.
I will guide you step by step and hopefully, you won't make the same
mistakes I made!
Finding
a good Merchant Account can be a difficult experience. My first merchant
account was so horrible that I canceled after a year of abuse and
misery, and I was so traumatized by the experience that I did not
look for another one for a long, long time. Needless to say, I lost
a lot of sales and customers during that time. So
after a while, I did what many other small business do, get a Paypal
account.
Let's
face it, some people don't like Paypal, but I have never had any problems
with them. All my transactions with them have always been great. The
only drawback is that many people don't have a Paypal account, and
do not wish to get one in order to buy your products. So that could
work against you (more about Paypal later)
So,
we are back to getting a Merchant Account so that your customers can
use their Visas and Mastercards. (You can also contact Amex and Discover
to add them to your list of cards. They all charge some kind of percentage
and fees, of course.)
Now,
you can do all kinds of searches in the Internet, as I did at first,
for Merchant Accounts, but beware! you don't need ANY intermediary
person or company to get one. That was one my mistakes.
For
some strange notion, I thought I needed to have some kind of agent,
or broker, to get a Merchant Account. WRONG!!! You can do this yourself.
You don't need to pay all those extra fees to get some opportunistic
person to make a lot of money out of your inexperience.
A
merchant account is basically a company that will process your credit
cards for you. You contact them directly, and they will set you up.
Of course, this is not free. You will have to pay a monthly fee. But
is still worth it. Trust me.
Which
Merchant Account? well, that is up to you, of course. I can only recommend
the one that I am using right now which is called Pinnacle Processing
Group, and I have to say, I have received excellent service from them.
They have always gone out of their way to help me with any questions
or problems that I might have had. What a difference from the previous
one!!! You can find ways to contact them at the bottom of this page.
Now,
the other important thing that you will need is a Credit Card Machine
that you will use to transfer the credit card information from your
clients to the Merchant Account for processing. Once you do that,
it takes an average of 2-3 business days for the funds to be deposited
into your bank account. Pretty neat!
These
days, there are online processing methods and you would not need a
physical machine. I used to do that at first and it worked fine, BUT
the problem I see with it is that you have to pay a monthly fee to
have this service. Money that goes out the window because you never
get to own a physical machine. If you actually buy a physical credit
card machine, you avoid monthly payments that go nowhere. It is one
less expense that you get to avoid. That is, of course, unless you
are me...
Ok,
purchasing a Credit Card Machine was my second mistake (by the time
you are done reading this, you are going to be thinking that I am
half dumb... you will see)
AGAIN,
I didn't know anything about Credit Card Machines. I did a search
in the Net, but it was all so confusing... so I started asking around
my other friends in business what they were using etc. Well, one thing
I have to say is that, I, being an artist, have a lot of artist friends,
and you know what they say about artists... not very good with business
stuff....right? I hate to admit it, but maybe it is not a myth after
all...
The fact is that I ended up buying a machine from, yes, a broker of
some sort, who offered me a lease to purchase agreement to own a Credit
Card Machine. It sounded good at first because he told me that the
machine was over $800.00. He also told me he would take care of getting
me started with the merchant account, set up the machine etc. (remember
what I told you earlier? you actually don' t need any help setting
this up.... oh well.....)
As
everybody else in the planet but me would have known, this bounded
me to a 4 year contract and monthly payments, that converted a $200.00
Credit Card Machine (which is what they really cost) into a $1,500
one! when I brought this to his consideration, he explained to me
that it was the same as buying a car or a house, and he told me something
about payments, principal, and interest... I guess I should know these
things...
So,
here it is. I am using a NURIT 2085 machine. Look it up in the Net.
It is not expensive, between $150.00 and $300.00 depending on the
website. It is extremely easy to use. You can swipe a credit card
to process it if you happen to be at an event or some place where
you customer will be there, purchasing from you in person, or you
can enter the information manually from your office or home. It works
like a charm. The only thing you need is a phone line and an outlet
to plug it in.
BUT
PLEASE, go ahead and purchase it yourself directly. You will save
a lot of money!
Once
you get this machine, you call your Merchant Account Service Of Choice,
and they help you set it up. It is all done over the phone. They have
you enter some codes etc., and it is ready to go.
Last
but not least, a very helpful thing for me was to have an easy to
work with Shopping Cart.
In
the past, and yes, I am starting to sound like a broken record, I
have paid a lot of money to have a shopping cart in my site.
Now
that I am older and wiser, I have a FREE one! It is wonderful! I feel
so very clever!!!
Having
played with and paid for complicated shopping carts, this one is extremely
easy to set up and you can even customize it to match your site or
whatever you want! and have I told you already that it is free????
Can I tell you again how happy I am???!!!
http://www.mals-e.com/
You
can even add Paypal to the payment options, so, if you are in love
with Paypal, your customers can choose to pay by Paypal instead of
Credit Card. It works great!
I
don't know if you find any of this information useful. The companies
that I recommend are good, but I am sure that they are many more.
Do some research but, again, whatever you do, WORK DIRECT! don't pay
any commissions to anybody!!!!!
please,
email me if
you have any questions!
Pinnacle
Processing Group. Their toll free# is 877-850-7309 (recommended way.
It is always better to talk with a real person) but here is their
website www.pinnacleprocessinggroup.com
(no, they are not paying me anything to recommend them. I am doing
it because they are very nice people and it has worked so well for
me)
