by Seth Temko
There is a tiny revolution going on right now. Credit card processing is fast, cheap, easy and universal. So much so that individuals can now start using tiny card readers on their smartphones to collect that IOU from a friend. It can be used by any car based service, girl scouts selling cookies, or even at a lemonade stand. It's definitely worth examining for your existing business or for yourself.
Square kicked off the market with a simple to use app for smartphones, free card readers and a whole lot of venture capital backing. Seeing an immediate threat the likes of Paypal and RevCoin entered the market with similar offerings. There are scores more either touching down or in the works for this space.
Here's the deal:
I've spoken to several small business owners using these services. It's easy to notice them when they swipe your card with their phone. They report great things. The only reported problem I've heard about is working at a trade show or other large building with poor cellular data reception. That will stop you cold on transacting the payments. Its best to check your phone's signal reception as soon as you get to your tradeshow booth. If you have poor reception then consider moving before you get set up. As an alternative you can check out portable cellular signal booster. You can find them online at Amazon.
Here are a couple of of the main players but do your research there are lots of players in this space and it changes all the time:
Square
Paypal
Pay Anywhere
RevCoin
There is a tiny revolution going on right now. Credit card processing is fast, cheap, easy and universal. So much so that individuals can now start using tiny card readers on their smartphones to collect that IOU from a friend. It can be used by any car based service, girl scouts selling cookies, or even at a lemonade stand. It's definitely worth examining for your existing business or for yourself.
Square kicked off the market with a simple to use app for smartphones, free card readers and a whole lot of venture capital backing. Seeing an immediate threat the likes of Paypal and RevCoin entered the market with similar offerings. There are scores more either touching down or in the works for this space.
Here's the deal:
- Free hardware
- No individual transaction fees
- Transaction commissions under 3%
- Payments deposited straight into your bank account
- Volume over $1,000/month gets you discounts
I've spoken to several small business owners using these services. It's easy to notice them when they swipe your card with their phone. They report great things. The only reported problem I've heard about is working at a trade show or other large building with poor cellular data reception. That will stop you cold on transacting the payments. Its best to check your phone's signal reception as soon as you get to your tradeshow booth. If you have poor reception then consider moving before you get set up. As an alternative you can check out portable cellular signal booster. You can find them online at Amazon.
Here are a couple of of the main players but do your research there are lots of players in this space and it changes all the time:
Square
Paypal
Pay Anywhere
RevCoin
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