Amanda McKay of Presents for Pirates is our guest blogger today with a great resource for all you vendors out there! Read below to find out more about Square credit card readers! What a way to make your life easier as a vendor! Thanks, Amanda!
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It turns out, I unknowingly married a techie. I don't remember hearing anything about this when we met 10 years ago, it just slowly became a trend I noticed about this guy. A lot of time is spent nodding my head, faux acknowledging that I have any idea what the specs he's rattling off mean, or have anything to do with anything that would apply to me, but sometimes, I luck out and an article he emails me actually makes sense! A product that is not only cool, but would be useful to me, in my business no less!It was actually one year ago that he sent me an article about a super sweet product - yay! That I couldn't use yet - argh. Little did I know, this company was hard at work getting their product ready to be accessible to a lot more of the small biz world. (They were initially useable only by iPhone customers, but now can also be used with Android phones and iPads).
The product I'm talking about is the Square credit card reader. They make accepting credit cards on the fly a piece of cake, and boy, do I love cake! I signed myself up the middle of last year to get mine - and the Monday after last year's super amazing Horseshoe Market, my new best friend the mailman brought me mine! I've since been using mine at craft shows and small business meetings and just when I'm out and about, and I have to tell you, it was worth the wait.
I did a bunch of research on merchant services beforehand to determine what was going to work best for me, and I decided that Square's combo of super low transaction fees + on-the-go accessibility made sense for me all day long. More info on the specs can be found here: https://squareup.com/features
I have sort of unofficially teamed up with Square to help distribute 100 of their readers to people in and around Denver! I don't get anything from it, other than the hope that by me getting more and more people to use their services, that they will be around for a long time and I will get the continued benefit of utilizing their services. Well, I think they may have said they would pay me back in hugs. Not sure what the conversion chart on that looks like, though. I still have a bunch of these super cute little credit card readers left to distribute to anyone that thinks they would like to give it a shot! You can find me on Twitter @piratelifeforme or through my Etsy shop.
Happy crafting!
this is so cool because Emily and I had both discussed getting these! My dad is actually in merchant services sales and he looked at Square and thought it looked good... taking that as a good sign! I am going to take advantage and message Amanda! I cannot wait!
ReplyDeleteI used the Square App at my booth during Horseshoe last year and it was great. I feel like customers expect markets and fairs to be cash only, so it is a nice surprise when we're able to take cards as payment. The iPhone/Android versions of the app are very user friendly and the iPad version offers additional usability. Plus recent updates to the software provides the option to text or email receipts to your customers.
ReplyDeletewe use one at Ink Lounge and it's awesome!
ReplyDeleteYay! Love this post. So good to know and so helpful for the little biz folks like me! Thanks mucho.
ReplyDeleteI have one, and I love it. I'd love another one, though, as my husband and I are both vendors. It really is the best deal for mobile vendors.
ReplyDeleteAm planning to get one if my vintage shop makes it into the Horseshoe Craft Market. It seems like the perfect solution!
ReplyDeleteAndrea
We just purchased an Ipad and got on board with Square. They have incentive to compete with other cc providers in order to corner the market on wireless, app driven commerce. The plug in hardware is free, but one note from a fellow user: free up to a point ($1000) and then you have a possible 30 hold on funds unless you upgrade your account. In all, still a great deal we can't wait to utilize!
ReplyDeleteHey, ya'll!
ReplyDeleteThe super cool folks who run the shop, Tomte, over at 4335 W. 41st Ave (41st and Tennyson) have volunteered to hang on to a handful of the readers for you to pick up there! I am going to drop them by their shop on Saturday sometime, so if you stop by next week, they should have them for you to snag! They are open 10-6 Wed-Sat.
Craft on, you crazy kids!
XXXOOO.
man
this is AWESOME! I just sent you a convo on Etsy. Thanks so much for posting this! -diane
ReplyDelete@bloggergirl feel free to stop by Tomte and snag another one for your husband! share the love!
ReplyDelete@everyone else, let me know if you have any questions or if you want to just pay for postage and i will mail you your very own Square reader!