February 5, 2008
Make PayPal Your Business Partner
These days, being able to accept credit card payment is important to almost any business (except somehow for Teriyaki Chicken Bowl, which I will never understand…). As a Virtual Assistant, it is critical. You want to make it as easy as possible for your clients to transact business with you because it will help keep the workflow coming.
Yet, getting your own point of sale terminal can really break the bank- not to mention it borders on overkill considering the number of transactions a VA is likely to have in one day. So what now? Enter PayPal. No, it is not just for ebay or online shopping- it can be your best business “friend”.
A PayPal business account is simple to set up and allows you to accept major credit cards such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. In addition to that, with your PayPal business account, you can also accept e-checks and payments from your client’s own PayPal account. The best part of it all, is the recipient of your invoice does NOT have to have a PayPal account in order to pay you.
There are fees per transaction, but personally, I find them nominal. It’s just the cost of doing business in my opinion.
One of the most convenient aspects of invoicing your clients through PayPal is that they receive the invoice by email and then have the option to pay you immediately by clicking a link that takes them to the payment screen. There are also lots of features and add-ins that they make available to you, such as integration with Outlook and QuickBooks. If you want, you can even integrate a shopping cart and sell gift certificates for your business!
Virtual Assistant said,
February 6, 2008 at 1:26 am
I agree with the fact that you need to make it as easy as possible for client. for some may not have the patience to wait.
Nan said,
February 6, 2008 at 8:16 am
I’m glad you mentioned in your post the fees. If you aren’t expecting it, it can be a bit of a surprise. But, yes I agree with you it is just the cost of doing business.
You’ve provided some really interesting options I hadn’t though of. Thanks.
rjcartw said,
February 6, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I use PayPal also. The invoicing feature is very useful. In addition to considering fees as a cost of doing business, I consider it as fees for guaranteeing the payment will not bounce. When accepting checks, there is always that possibility that it will bounce.
Rosanna, share seven random or weird things about you with the Virtual Assistant world. Consider yourself tagged with this meme: http://rjcartw.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/i-have-been-tagged-7-random-things-about-me/