Okay, so I am getting close to being ready thanks to so much help from y'all. I am slated for my "virgin" show and two others this year just to get my feet wet.
my question to the veterans is this:
We all need to take credit cards....Can you all help me out on a good merchant for the arts and crafts business?
Thanks so much
Marjorie
marjoriebowers.com
Replies
I put a post up last week about how Square saved me at a show when my terminal died. If nothing else it is worth getting one and carrying it with you if you have a smart phone of any kind in case of a terminal malfunction. I was up and running in literally 10 minutes, maybe less. I put through over $800 in charges (manually) on Monday evening and they were in my account by Wednesday.
Question - American Express and I have issues. They have never approved me to accept their cards. With the square can I now take them?
Square allows all four major cards to be taken: Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and AMEX. Another neat thing about square is that it allows you to automatically add sales tax. In the app on your smart phone you can also track CASH sales. Also, when you log onto their web site, you can down load a CSV of your sales records that is in a nice little spread sheet that includes: Date, payment type (what kind of card), how it was processed (Swipe or manual input), tax, and a link to the online receipt. It really helps with record keeping!
John
I see that someone mentioned square and intuit already. I have seen both of them used at shows as well as pay anywhere. I personally liked pay anywhere the best it had a cool look to it and the owner said it was super easy to use. I am waiting for my next expo to try it out for the first time. If you want to check it out here is the link. http://payanywhere.com/ hope you are accepting credit cards by your next show!
Jake
Depending on the value of the sale payanywhere is more expensive than Square. Example $100 sale Square = $ 2.75 Payanywhere = $2.69+.19 total $2.88
Tried to look you up on Google to see your art but all I found was postings on lots of sites where you tout Payanywhere. It's ok if you work for them or sell there services as a reseller. How about being up front about it like our friends at 1NB or others that advertise and post here?
Click the red box where we post out pictures of ourselves. You'll see he's a "painter" and he been in this business for one year. No website or anything like that.
Also when someone just posts about one thing and one thing only, I too get leary. He may indeed be a shill for the company. All the more reason for me not to consider them.
So Jake, tell us about yourself. What kind of "painting" do you do?
Hi Marjorie! I am no veteran as I am also going to be doing my "virgin" show Labor Day weekend... and I realized I should start accepting credit cards & did some quick research - I opted to go with Propay as it is fairly inexpensive - there is only an initial fee - they have different plans starting at $40 - If you have an Etsy account, you can get their upgraded plan that is regularly $80 for $40 - then there are transaction fees which all seem similar. Other plans seem to have monthly statement charges, etc. To take the cards @ the show, you either need to have a smartphone - which I do not have- or you can either write down the info, get a "knucklebuster" which is one of those old fashioned charge card impression makers (which I got today online for around $20 including 100 slips) - or an electronic hand-held one that sells for around $90 which you plug into you computer (when you get home) and it downloads the info. The kind I got has to be entered in by me manually when I return home from the show... but after all of my expenses for this first show, it was not so bad...
Hey- did you buy a canopy? That's the thing that's consuming me right now!
Lisa, Thanks so much. Thanks to you all! Really, you guys are the greatest!
Lisa I did buy the tent. I bought it from Flourish and set it up with its mesh panels (attached) in my back yard. I gotta tell you, the experience I had with Flourish is about the best experience I have ever had. At first I was going to go EZ up but heard horror stories. But Flourish (Chris) was going to work with me to do "convertible" panels. But I changed my mind time and time again. I felt like those guys gave me the facts and the honest facts. Not trying to up sell me and, in fact, sometimes was not in their best interest but in mine!
There was a video on how to set it up...every piece was there, everything was labeled. It was pretty easy- especially for the first time. Please let me know how it went for you, Lisa. I am so excited for my September 16th show. I also attached one of my pen and ink drawings that I will be "exhibiting"!
So much to think about - Please, I would like to see you art - Margie
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