When I launched my business, my knowledge level of payments and collections was limited to PayPal, checks, and cash. It seemed that only people who had the direct payment option was big companies, such as Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus. Since then, there has been a surge of ways for businesses to collect payments regarding merchandise, invoices and more.
Wave App
Was introduced to me by my old website developer. He was sitting next to me in a crowded Starbucks, talking to a client about their invoice he had sent through Waveapp; in regards to their WordPress design. I had never heard of the company. In a short 15 minutes he showed me how to use the free platform. This program makes it super easy for me and my assistant to send invoices to clients. No matter the size of the client, be it a small independent business owner or a city library, they can all receive invoices from this platform. Sign-up for Waveapp.
PayPal
As many of you know I am not the hugest fan of PayPal because I feel they have given up on innovation and working with the seller. I am all for helping out the consumer when I am the consumer, however, most of the time I am on the seller end of the equation. Last year PayPal changed their policies. On the other hand, they are known worldwide. When I first started selling my digital products I had people constantly seeking PayPal as an option. Which was something I really didn’t want to do. Since then, I have launched on Etsy to expand my audience and it offers this as a payment option. Sign up for PayPal.
Go Daddy Bookkeeping
When the company was originally, Outright, I was rather in love with them. However, when they were acquired by Go Daddy the service level went down several levels. Out of all the bookkeeping options on the market it is still my favorite to use though. The simplicity of the system is great for newbies or advance business owners. You can see your income, expenses, taxes and more in one place. I generally spend my Monday’s making sure everything is categorized correctly. Sign up for Go Daddy Bookkeeping.
Stripe
Has become the holy grail of payment gateways for my company. I was instantly in love with the company Patrick had built for a payment gateway. Around 2013, I was looking for another payment gateway option outside of PayPal or merchant accounts. Stripe allows direct checkout on my website. See most of the time, people offer PayPal as an option from a third-party site you have to go to while shopping. This causes a high bounce rate on most websites and risk the chance for your consumer to forget they are shopping. High abandoned cart issues. Stripe deposits funds into your business account. Sign-up for Stripe.
Square Reader
Genius is the one word I think of with the creation of Square by Jack, as a way for merchants to collect the money without a merchant processing terminal. A simple adapter to your phone. You can swipe your customer’s card on the spot. Then they will receive an email after their purchase. You can also invoice people from your Square account. My only turn off by the company is unlike PayPal is they do not have telephone technical support. Sign-up for Square.
There are so many options for small business owners to do payments and collections for their small business. Most of the above accounts can be set up in 15 minutes or less minus the deposit that they do to confirm your accounts.
