I'm sure many of you have seriously tried to get a credit card
merchant account through your local bank. But, regardless of your
near perfect credit, the banks still will not accept most home
type businesses, BBS's, or mail order business. You normally need
to have a storefront building to qualify or you need a large volume
of sales
How to cash in on today's cashless society:
"as a guerrilla marketer, you take credit cards - all of
them". Jay Conrad Levinson wrote those words in his book,
Guerrilla Marketing. Those words have never been as true as they
are today. To prospects, it means convenience, and they appreciate
you for making it so easy to buy from you.
of course, in reality, it isn't easy for
many small businesses to get merchant status. And if you run your
business from your home, you can just about forget it. Just ask
around and you'll find that most banks don't want to take a risk
on new, home-based, or mail order businesses. Their reasons are
because of the short track record and lower sales volume. Also,
mail order has more fraud associated with it.
So, now that we know it's not always easy
to get merchant status, let's look at the reasons why you should
do everything you can to get it very soon:
Increased profits: Profits are the bottom
line for every business. Almost any type of business will benifit
from taking credit cards. But not all of them. If, for example,
you have a very high priced product or service geared towards
very large companies, taking plastic may not increase sales very
much. But assume you're selling a product or service to small
businesses or inderviduals. Your profits can increase an average
of 30 to 80% according to accepted industry standards. If you're
selling by mail order, your sales will be substantially higher
