No matter what your business is; whether you are selling a product, a service or helping promote someone else’s business, you will need a secure and stable payment method in place.
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Your business’s well-being will rely almost entirely on the back and forth cash flow, and you will need a system in place that allows you to keep a detailed record of any cash that leaves and enters the company. But it’s not just your business’s needs that you need to consider when implementing a good payment system; you also need to consider what will work best for the customer, too.
Here are a few examples of different payment options you might want to consider, and what their pros and cons are.
In-Store Payments
If you are a business that operates partially or even entirely out of a physical store, you will need a good till system that enables you or your staff to easily manage financial transactions.
Traditionally speaking, you have two different options here: either a basic cash register or an electronic POS system.
Cash registers are cheap, so this makes them a perfect option for startups, and they also have a long shelf life (usually around ten years). However, they are also limited in their functions, such as dealing with the financial information issues by card providers and running database analysis. You can only really get these services from a POS system, so if you already know you will need access to these things, it may be better off to invest.
Setting Up A Merchant Account
If you are going to trade online, as most businesses do these days, you will need to set up a merchant account.
This is a key component of e-commerce and allows the user to save details of their credit cards in the system so that they can make quick and easy payments.
Your website will need to have a shopping cart where customers can place their desired items, but unless you have a merchant account linked to said website, they will be unable to complete the transaction.
Some web providers have e-commerce features already built into them, but the merchant account is a completely separate thing, so bear in mind you will need to sort this out before your site goes live.
PayPal
If you’ve been anywhere near the internet during the last few years, you’ve probably heard of PayPay. People tend to either love it or hate it – with a lot of people swearing by it thanks to its ease of use and security, and others not being entirely convinced by it.
The efficiency and safety of PayPal are what makes it an attractive proposition for many business owners, and it can be a secure way to set up standing orders to your regular bills (as you can create recurring payments on there).
However, you could be limiting your company’s reach by only accepting payments via PayPal, so consider carefully if this is something you would want to go ahead with.
