John Waldron is co-owner of e-onlinedata, inc., a credit-card merchant-account provider. e-onlinedata assists thousands of ecommerce merchants with domestic and overseas credit-card transactions, and he offers the following advice for merchants who wish accept credit-card payments from international customers.
Wellington, Florida, recently sent an enticing offer to 20,000 customers: $10 off any purchase over $30 using a new payment service, Google Checkout.
Traffic on his site more than tripled, and best of all, he said, Google picked up the tab for the promotion.
“I think it’s fantastic,†he said. “I’m selling the product. Google is getting tons of customers to sign up for Checkout. Customers are happy because they are getting a monster deal.â€
And Google is not charging merchants any processing fees through the end of 2007.
newyorktimes.com
26 Jan
Business Resources, Finance, Online Business, Strategies & Execution, Tools
What you don’t know can truly hurt your online business.
This has never been more true than when you set out to choose an Internet payment systems.
It’s not so much that making a wrong decision can harm your business irreparably (although, it can); it’s that there is so much information to process before you commit to a payment gateway and merchant account provider.
John Bodine, the vice president of sales and marketing for Authorize.Net, says business owners should choose a provider in much the same way they would any other vendor.
“Get an understanding of who you’re dealing with,†he said.
We did just that and came up with a list of common criteria businesses use to make payment gateway/merchant account decisions:
Make Mine a $Million™ is a program of Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence. OPEN from American Express is the founding partner. The program provides a combination of money, mentoring and marketing tools that women entrepreneurs need to help grow their businesses to a million dollars and beyond.
As a member, your business may be eligible to receive:
Visit Make Mine a $Million
Most business owners know that certain entertainment expenses are deductible under some circumstances, but judging by the large number of questions I get on this topic, I don´t think many people actually know the rules.
Like all business deductions, entertainment costs must be “ordinary and necessary” in order to qualify. If your business is a used furniture shop, it´s not very likely that the cost of taking one of your customers to dinner and a movie would be an ordinary and necessary business expense. On the other hand, it could be, if for example the customer you take out for the evening is furnishing a motel and is prepared to spend $45,000 on furniture.
Here is the information Sara needs to record in order for the cost of taking Emily to lunch to qualify as a deductible business expense:
Treasury Regulations state that this information must be recorded in a timely manner — in other words, you should record the information soon after the entertainment event rather than waiting until the day before an IRS audit.
The location, date, and amount spent are already on the receipt Sara gets from the restaurant, so all Sara needs to do is write Emily´s name and the business purpose somewhere on the receipt and make sure the receipt is properly filed.
Cash flow is a problem that plagues every small office from time to time. On paper you look like you’re doing very well. Your sales are higher than your expenses. Things look like you should be making a profit. But your creditors are breathing down your neck and you’re always playing catch up. What can you do about it? Here are some tips to get you moving in the right direction.
On-site workers (i.e. plumbers and electricians) and those who sell through trade shows have a wide range of credit-card processing options for immediate sales and possible data capture. As wireless technology evolves, you need to consider carefully which method serves you best.
Here are the advantages of mobile commerce:
Here are the most popular forms of mobile credit-card processing and some of the add-ons you may need.
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