Whether you’re side hustling or self-employed full time one thing remains true if you want to succeed: you need to make it easy for people to pay you.
We live in a world that values ease and speed, and nowhere is this more true than when it comes to buying something. Below you’ll find some ways you can ensure that it’s easy for people to pay you.
Accept credit cards
The most effective way to make it easy for people to pay you is to accept credit cards. Unfortunately, many people still try to avoid this because they are afraid of processing fees, so they try to get people to pay them with checks. This results in various problems:
- Your clients give you the age old excuse, “The check is in the mail.”
- You don’t get paid fast enough because you have to wait for the check to get to you (and then clear).
- You could be losing a good amount of clients because they either don’t use checks or would rather get rewards points by using their credit cards.
Yes, fees are a pain. But consider the alternative: Let’s say you are charging $2,000 for a service. Wouldn’t you rather lose $50 to fees than lose the whole $2,000 because your client keeps forgetting to write a check until they decide they no longer need your service?
Furthermore, wouldn’t you rather have the money in your bank account in a couple of days rather than possibly having to wait weeks for a check to get to you?
Fortunately, you don’t necessarily need a credit card processing machine to start accepting plastic. There are several services online that will help you accept credit cards as soon as you sign up including Stripe, PayPal and E-Junkie.
Make it convenient by giving people options
This is a lesson I personally learned the hard way. I used to send coaching clients a PayPal link I would create so they could pay for their sessions. I soon realized not everyone has a PayPal account or feels like figuring out how to use it. In the time it would take to explain how PayPal works I could have easily lost money.
As a result, I signed up for Harvest Invoicing which gives my clients the option to pay me immediately with either PayPal or credit card via Stripe. It’s easy and it’s fast for my clients. Best of all, it’s easy for my team to use, so I can focus on other aspects of my business.
Accept payments on the go
We’re living in a world where we can accept credit card payments with our cell phones. The truth is you never know when you’ll meet a great client or customer, so having the option to pay you on the spot makes things easier for everyone.
You can get a Square reader for free by requesting one from their website. PayPal also has it’s own version of a credit card reader.
In this day and age it’s almost more difficult not to get paid. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you’re doing everything you can to make it easy for people to pay you.