Friday 24 February 2012
ending this blog
as nice as it has been to post about the business side of things, my new website design has a blog page included in it all. Since it is part of my main customer store front, it will be more from that side of things than this has been, but I will leave these posts online for now in case anyone finds them for reference. Please feel free to keep up with me on my website at www.perrynoia.ca, www.facebook.com/PerryNoiatheClown, or on twitter @PerryNoiaClown
Wednesday 15 February 2012
Payments
Before I start this blog post, I want to preface it with the fact that I was not asked to promote anything and do not expect any kind of thanks for mentioning anything either.
When you have a home business, you start out on pretty much a "cash only" basis. Not much choice really, right? I started with just cash or cheque for my options. Then I added paypal for deposits. That was ok for a while, but they recently changed some stuff with the way "requests for funds" works and now the email that I send doesn't have the big, friendly yellow button that says "Pay Now" and instead just gives them a link to sign in to their account or create one. So I had to put a button on my website instead which is, sadly too complicated for some customers to figure out compared to an email directed at them with a big, shiny button on it.
I was drooling!! Soooooo incredibly jealous of my USA neighbours who had access to the Square reader. Canadian versions of such a thing required buying an expensive reader and paying $30+/month!! No fair!!
Finally!!!! There is something like it in Canada!!! There are promises of one on the intuit website, but no dates announced (you can wait for them if you want, no monthly fee, but different rates for swiped or keyed transactions)... too late, I got one from PAYD. It is affordable for a home business (very low monthly fee, free reader and the same transaction rates as pretty much all the others) and it WORKS!! I promise you, this recommendation was not solicited and I don't expect any thanks for the recommendation either... but I hope that it might help some of you that read this. The PAYD card reader is run through Moneris and Royal Bank (these should be familiar and trusted names to you if you are in Canada) and the reader works very well.
I can't have my bumper cover on my phone when using the reader, but my bumper is huge, so that's no surprise. I also have to be a LITTLE bit careful when swiping that I don't press too hard on the reader and accidentally press the power button with it, BUT you can turn it sideways off of the button or hold the reader more than the phone while swiping to avoid that too. I have to keep in mind that they made it for android phones as well as iphones, so some of the androids might not have a power button in the same place as my iphone. It is a great reader, it lets you key in transactions from people who aren't with you at the time (same rate as swiped), you can also access it from your home computer or ipad (over wifi) to key in transactions while you are on your phone. The reader plugs into the headphone jack and even comes with a neck strap so you can keep it handy without keeping it plugged into your phone all the time as well as a nice little plastic case to keep it safe and clean.
As a clown, my business is pretty much everywhere BUT home (with the occasional exception of taking a deposit or someone picking up balloon sculptures), so being anywhere with my phone and being able to say, "Yes, I can take credit cards!" Is awesome.
Happy Clowning!! :oD
Perry Noia the Scaredy Clown
When you have a home business, you start out on pretty much a "cash only" basis. Not much choice really, right? I started with just cash or cheque for my options. Then I added paypal for deposits. That was ok for a while, but they recently changed some stuff with the way "requests for funds" works and now the email that I send doesn't have the big, friendly yellow button that says "Pay Now" and instead just gives them a link to sign in to their account or create one. So I had to put a button on my website instead which is, sadly too complicated for some customers to figure out compared to an email directed at them with a big, shiny button on it.
I was drooling!! Soooooo incredibly jealous of my USA neighbours who had access to the Square reader. Canadian versions of such a thing required buying an expensive reader and paying $30+/month!! No fair!!
Finally!!!! There is something like it in Canada!!! There are promises of one on the intuit website, but no dates announced (you can wait for them if you want, no monthly fee, but different rates for swiped or keyed transactions)... too late, I got one from PAYD. It is affordable for a home business (very low monthly fee, free reader and the same transaction rates as pretty much all the others) and it WORKS!! I promise you, this recommendation was not solicited and I don't expect any thanks for the recommendation either... but I hope that it might help some of you that read this. The PAYD card reader is run through Moneris and Royal Bank (these should be familiar and trusted names to you if you are in Canada) and the reader works very well.
I can't have my bumper cover on my phone when using the reader, but my bumper is huge, so that's no surprise. I also have to be a LITTLE bit careful when swiping that I don't press too hard on the reader and accidentally press the power button with it, BUT you can turn it sideways off of the button or hold the reader more than the phone while swiping to avoid that too. I have to keep in mind that they made it for android phones as well as iphones, so some of the androids might not have a power button in the same place as my iphone. It is a great reader, it lets you key in transactions from people who aren't with you at the time (same rate as swiped), you can also access it from your home computer or ipad (over wifi) to key in transactions while you are on your phone. The reader plugs into the headphone jack and even comes with a neck strap so you can keep it handy without keeping it plugged into your phone all the time as well as a nice little plastic case to keep it safe and clean.
As a clown, my business is pretty much everywhere BUT home (with the occasional exception of taking a deposit or someone picking up balloon sculptures), so being anywhere with my phone and being able to say, "Yes, I can take credit cards!" Is awesome.
Happy Clowning!! :oD
Perry Noia the Scaredy Clown
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