Credit Card Payment

In a time where it seems like every business is now accepting credit card payment, you will want to know how to do the same. There are many different ways which you can go about processing orders/purchases via credit card. Whether you have a physical terminal in your store or a cyber terminal on your website, you will need a gateway provider. This is essentially the business that processes all of the transaction information related to the purchases your customers make with their cards. Because there are so many different companies out there that offer these services, you will want to think about which one you are going to choose.

You will want to take a look at many different things when it comes to choosing the proper gateway provider, including the types of payments or currencies they can process for you. You will want to make absolutely certain that the provider you choose offers your business the chance to process as many different types of cards and currencies as possible.

This will make transactions easier for your customer, and therefore a lot better for your business. People like to go on a website or walk into a store that accepts multiple forms of payment, so you should make sure that your provider allows you do that for your customers.

You will also want to make sure that the credit card payment provider you choose is compatible with the shopping cart system that you may already have on your website. Almost nothing is more important than making sure everything is compatible with your current setup. Many businesses across the world have discovered the benefits of accepting credit cards as form of payment, and as a business who offers this payment option, you should protect yourself as well as the customer.

This means taking all the proper and necessary steps to make sure that between the customer and merchant, there is an efficient system of processing transactions and payments. The e-commerce provider you choose will ultimately decide just how effective and efficient this payment system is that you will set up for your business. There is really no point in offering credit cards as a way of paying for an item if you aren’t going to benefit from it as well. This means that you should make sure that the rates the provider charges are fair, so you don’t end up getting ripped off.

Remember that this is meant to make things easier for both the customer and merchant. To ensure that this happens, do some of your own research into which are the best providers and e-commerce websites out there that can give you everything you need, so you can offer the customer what they want.

Cardsave offers the best rates available for you to accept a credit card payment, with quick and easy setup, low processing costs and 7 days a week support Cardsave is confident that you will select our services after reasearching other providers.

Tags: Credit Card Payment
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In any business, marketing is very important. In fact, according to some experts, the success of any business endeavor depends on its marketing strategies. This is probably one of the reasons why most establishments spend a considerable amount of money for marketing and advertising. After all, how could they possibly draw in customers if people do not know about them?

While there are many marketing strategies developed by gurus for the success of business endeavors, perhaps one of the most successful is online marketing. With the advent of technology, almost everything is accessible online. In fact, practically all sorts of products and services are being advertised and marketed in the worldwide web. Thus, the possibility of having a successful online business endeavor is most likely.

E-commerce is simply the act of buying and selling of goods and services over electronic systems such as the internet. In other words, products and services are being offered and can be availed of over the net. Now, isn’t this simply convenient? Moreover, having an online shop definitely have some advantages over conventional land based shops. To prove a point, here are some of the advantages of selling online.

Cost Savings – When selling products online, there is no need for premises rental and shop assistant’s salary. Moreover, other operational expenses such as electric and water bills are eliminated. Although there are still some expenses for online shops, these are very minimal compared to conventional shops.

Market Coverage. Online products practically reach all areas around the world which have internet access. With this, a wider market is made aware of the products and services that are being offered by these shops.

Convenience. One of the hassles of buying items from conventional stores is dragging one’s self to the store in order to buy the item. Online shops provide the convenience of shopping in the comfort of one’s home. Thus, selling online attracts more customers because of the convenience that it offers.

Round the clock accessibility. Most conventional land based stores follow standard operating schedules which allow them to operate at least 8 hours a day, or at most 16 hours a day. However, with online stores, products and items are accessible 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. There are no closing times and holidays to observe at all. Selling online is a round the clock business which observes no boundaries and no time frames.

Improved offerings. By selling through the net, improvement of offerings is very convenient by tracking the data gathered by tracking customer purchases. This system is very similar to an inventory which provides the data of the most salable items and products. With this, businesses are aware of the products which are very appealing to customers and would therefore serve as a basis for improvement and expansion.

Tags: Selling Online
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What is PCI DSS?

This stands for “Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard”.

It is a compliance requirement, which aims to ensure that all cardholder information is always stored, processed and transmitted securely.

Why has PCI DSS been introduced?

PCI DSS is all about the critical issue of cardholder data security. Cardholder data is a tempting target for fraudsters and we have seen a series of recent high-profile security breaches worldwide, highlighting the concern.

In January 2005, MasterCard and Visa combined their individual security standards for cardholder data to create a joint program, which is also endorsed by American Express, JCB and Diners.

The Standard requires everyone who stores, processes or transmits card data to comply with 12 requirements, covering both IT security and operational practices.

Who needs to become PCI compliant?

If your small business stores, processes or transmits any cardholder data – you must be compliant now. Depending on your level of card processing you should have carried out the requirements outlined in this guide.

What do I need to do in a small business?

The Standard divides businesses into four levels depending on the volume and type of transactions you process. The majority of small businesses will be classified as “Level 4” based on the following processing criteria:

• Less than 1 million MasterCard/Visa transactions a year
• For e-commerce less than 20,000 MasterCard/Visa transactions a year

For small businesses meeting the above criteria compliance consists of:

1. Annual Self Assessment Questionnaire
2. A Vulnerability scan at least annually

Annual Self Assessment Questionnaire
The PCI Self Assessment Questionnaire is an important validation tool that is primarily used by smaller merchants and service providers to demonstrate compliance to the PCI DSS.
See https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/index.htm for an example.

Vulnerability Scans
A way to detect weaknesses in computer systems and networks by deliberately trying to compromise data held remotely.

Small business owners need to understand what steps to take to ensure your business complies with these regulations and what is necessary to protect your customers’ card data.

What are the twelve requirements for PCI DSS?

Build and maintain a secure computer network

1. Install and maintain a security protection programme, known as a firewall configuration, to protect the card data you may hold
2. Do not use computer passwords that have been provided by external suppliers or businesses. Ensure you issue your own unique passwords and security measures.

Protect cardholder data

1. Protect all stored data but do not store card and transaction data unnecessarily
2. If you are sending out card data or sensitive information by email or on disc through the post, you must always ensure that you encrypt it before you send it. If you are using the postal system you should ensure it is sent at least by recorded delivery.

Maintain a vulnerability management programme

1. Use and regularly update anti-virus software
2. Develop and maintain secure computer systems and applications

Implement strong access control measures

1. Only access card data when there is a business requirement
   Assign a unique ID to each member of your staff who has computer access
2. Restrict physical access to the storage area where the cardholder data is kept
3. Regularly monitor and test your computer networks
4. Regularly check to see who accesses your computers and cardholder data that you hold
5. Regularly test your security systems and processes
   Make information security a priority
6. Create and maintain your own security policy to ensure you remain compliant with PCI DSS guidance

How to get started

There are a few simple steps you can take now to begin making sure that your business is compliant.

Read and understand the information on the PCI Security Standards Council website at https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/

Assess your current level of security employed and your processes used by completing a Self-Assessment Questionnaire and undertake an initial Vulnerability Scan.

The results will enable you to identify the work that you will need to do to become compliant; this will form your remediation plan. Once the remediation work has been completed, complete the Questionnaire again.

What happens for an online business?

If you use a Payment Service Provider (PSP) to store, process or transmit cardholder data on your behalf, then your PSP is responsible for complying with PCI DSS. However you still need to complete a Self-Assessment Questionnaire to ensure your business is compliant.

In the event that you use a computer programme that enables you to capture the card details on your systems, then your business will need to comply with the PCI DSS standard.

What support is available to help my business comply?

Full details of the requirements can be found on the following web site:

https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org

Additional help is available at:

https://www.mastercard.com/us/sdp/index.html
https://www.visaeurope.com/aboutvisa/security/ais

What are the benefits of implementing PCI DSS?

By following the requirements of the PCI DSS and ensuring compliance, your business can:

• Identify any risks in the way you store or transmit customer data
• Provide a clear plan of action to address any data security risks
• Ensure that your service providers do not put your business at risk
• Show your customers that you are serious about their data security
• Maintain customer trust and safeguard the reputation of your business

Most importantly by minimising the risk of data compromise, it could protect against potential financial liabilities including the cost of any fraud perpetrated on compromised card accounts and protect against the risk of investigative and legal costs.

Who can I speak to for additional guidance?

Call the Cardsave Helpdesk on 0800 0773 457 for further assitance or to get a PCI DSS complient PDQ machine.

Tags: PCI DSS
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Making the move from selling products in a shop to online has major advantages for businesses, often leading to increased profitability and decreased costs. This is a guide about taking a shop online, including things to consider when creating it and the consequences of getting things wrong. If you are considering hiring a third party to build an online shop for you, then this guide should help you know the important questions to ask.

The benefits of selling online are numerous. The costs associated with setting up an online shop compared to a real one are miniscule. There’s no shop assistant to pay, and no expensive high-street premises to rent. Online retail reduces order-processing costs, with online orders going straight to your orders database from your website. Rather than selling to anyone who walks down the high street, your market is global with an online shop. You are now open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and can receive fast payments from people who would not have necessarily entered a high street retail outlet.

Online shops work best for businesses with well-defined products and services that can be sold without human intervention at the sales level. It is much easier if all customers pay the same price for a product and service, and it’s important that the delivery is reliable.

The basic requirements of an online shop are fairly obvious, and a simple setup should allow you to sell a range of products with photos, descriptions and prices as well as an online order form or shopping basket.

The Website

Ideally, you want a professional looking, well organised and maintained website in order to have an effective presence in the online retail market. Website design should be simplistic, so as not to confuse your visitors. It’s worth considering how the site will connect with the shopping cart system, and it’s important to guide visitors around your shop, to ensure they stay and browse as long as possible, increasing the chances of that all-important sale.

It’s usually best to enlist the help of a professional web designer to do the initial site design, but ideally it should be designed in a way which makes it easy for you to update the site. This means that the design firm or designer should employ a type of content management system (CMS) which you can get your head around; otherwise you need to learn the web design software package for yourself and update it manually. If you have to call your website designer every time you want to change your website then it is going to cost you a fortune. It’s important that the designer knows the site is going to be handed over, and that it needs to be maintained by someone without the same level of technical knowledge and experience.

If you are planning on having a large online catalogue then ensure that you have a designer who has a good experience of database design. Organising products so that visitors can quickly find what they are looking for is often more tricky than you think.

Tags: Websites
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Call them chargebacks or deductions, but refunding credit charges to customers can slow down business and cut into your profits. Many retailers and vendors find chargebacks hard to deal with, often finding that individual chargeback requests are too small to research and look into individually, but collectively added up to a significant portion of potential profits.

Sometimes it is hard to know how to address chargebacks, since many parties are involved and there are several things to consider when trying to reduce your chargebacks.

Work out how to deal with each type of different chargeback you regularly receive. Identify the key questions you ask to work out whether you will chargeback without question, research, accept or dispute. Record how long it takes for each customer to provide the information or action needed to advance the chargeback resolution process. Be sure to know how long you have to dispute a deduction.

But the real key to minimising and avoiding chargebacks is to stop fighting the daily fight, and concentrate instead of which element of your business is weak and in risk of having further chargebacks. Identify the key elements of your business, from products to service, setting to delivery, and spend time on reducing the chances of chargebacks occurring in the first place.

When you start to look at where your charge backs come from and what the issues are which affect them and how you can work to minimise their impact on your business.

Tags: Chargebacks, Retail
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Retail businesses can vary hugely depending on what they sell and how they go about it but working with thousands of retailers we’ve noted some common themes in their problems which, if you can avoid, you’ll build your retail company on a strong foundation.

1. Know exactly what you’re going to sell – This may sound like common sense but too many retailers have too vague an idea of what they intend to sell. Women’s fashion isn’t precise enough, what makes you different to all the other retailers offering similar products in the same location?

2. Build relationships with your suppliers – Getting a heads up on a new product or negotiating a better discount will have a huge impact on your profit margin, so it’s important to foster good relationships with your suppliers. Take some time to get to know the companies and the individuals working there.

3. Find the right premise – The premises of location is of fundamental importance to the success of any business but in the world of retail it can decide the life or death of your company. Two identical retail businesses set up in two different locations could have wildly different experiences in business.

4. Understand the importance of cash flow – In a business where you are reliant on buying stocks of your products you have to have a really tight grip on your cash flow at all times. Most retail businesses go bust because of poor cash flow so make sure you know how to keep track of yours.

5. Sort out credit card processing – In the retail business it’s essential you have some kind of card processing facility, have a look at the options from Cardsave as they might suit your business’s needs.

Tags: Retail, Start-Ups
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If you’ve got a hobby of craft then you may be considering setting up as a business full or part time. We’ve helped hundreds of craft businesses start accepting card payments and they’ve shared some top advice on how to start a successful craft business that helps you make money and a living.

1. Know how much your mark up should be – A mistake a lot of craft businesses make is by undervaluing their products. If something takes you a week to make, you should charge more than the materials plus how much you would want to earn in that week. The mark up is the profit, and you need to make that profit to invest in marketing, materials upfront and all kinds of things essential to your craft business. You need to price your goods based on how much they cost to make rather than what you think someone is willing to pay. You can always alter the price a little to make it a round number but the last thing you want to do is charge five pounds when it costs you £4.75 to make.

2. Can you save on materials? As a craft business one of the easiest ways to make more money from your products is to reduce the amount you spend on the materials and components. There are a few easy ways to do this, the first is buy in bulk, most suppliers will offer a discount for larger orders, if you do this you’ve got to be aware of the impact it may have on your cash flow though. Another is just to negotiate harder, it may be difficult at first, but when you realise that a 5% discount might make the difference between being able to make a living from your business or not it’s much easier to push your suppliers harder.

3. Know where you’re going to sell – Are you going to sell through craft fairs and events? Get your products stocked in other shops? Set up your own storefront? Or maybe sell online? The decision of which route to market you are going to choose will have an impact on your business model so it’s worth thinking about this carefully.

4. What’s the most cost effective way to sell your products? Your route to market as a craft business will have a big part to play in how profitable your business is. It might make sense to sell directly via a stall at craft fairs but you may have to pay the hire fee upfront, and if you then don’t sell as much as you would like you may lose money. Getting someone else to sell your products in their shop or their stall might be less risky but they won’t have the passion you have so may not be able to sell as many.

5. Know Your Break Even Point – Break-even point is the number of sales you have to make to cover all your fixed costs and variable costs for that amount of sales. This is a number every aspiring business person needs to know, as it informs you how much you need to sell every month to start making a profit. Before you start buying materials or equipment you need to work this out, it may surprise you how many you need to sell, if that number seems insurmountable you need to go back to the drawing board.

6. How do want to accept payment? If you’re selling high value goods at events where your product maybe an impulse-buy it makes sense to try and make it as easy as possible for the potential customer to buy.

7. Consider a Mobile Card Terminal – If you’re going down the route of selling at external events you will increase your sales potential if you can accept cards, especially if you are selling high value items. You can actually get chip and pin machines that work with a mobile phone SIM card, which means as long as you can get a phone signal you can accept cards. This is a great option if you’re selling at craft fairs.

8. You need to be able to make enough to make a living – If you are considering your craft business as a full-time venture you need to be honest about the amount of items you will need to sell. You will know your variable costs used to make your product, you should have an idea of your fixed costs like equipment, so can work out a profit per sale. Once you have this you can work back the numbers you need to sell to make a living, is this sales number realistic? Sometimes it can be useful to work out how many sales a day this would equate to.

9. Work at ways to reduce your costs – As a craft business you will be using your talents to produce something. One of your biggest costs will be the elements used to create the product so anything you can do to reduce that cost will make it easier for your business to make money.

Tags: Craft, Start-Ups
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Do you have a passion for food you want to share with the world by setting up your own restaurant? It’s a dream of thousands so well done on taking the brave leap and making it happen, but if you’ve decided to set up a business, what can you do to reduce the risk of failure and build a renowned restaurant with thousands of satisfied patrons? If you’re planning on setting up a restaurant or cafe then there are hundreds of decisions you’ll have to make to get ready to launch your latest venture. We’ve dealt with thousand of restaurants at Cardsave and here are their top tips.

1. Don’t rush into choosing premises – Never underestimate the importance of your premises in the success of failure of any business. Location and footfall are huge factors in how easy you’ll find custom and the ambience of the place will have a part to play in whether those first time visitors become regulars. So even though you may be in a rush to get started, don’t go for the first option that seems feasible.

2. Do some market research, is there a demand? You should never start a business without carrying out market research. Survey as many of your potential customers as you can prior to launch, it’ll help you avoid making costly mistakes in your first few months of opening. The scary truth is a few simple misjudgements in the early days of a restaurant can make the difference between success and failure. Reduce your risk and understand your customers as early as possible.

3. Price on costs not gut feel – You might think a dish is worth a certain amount, but that should never be the way you price your meals, it should be based on the cost of the ingredients and factor in the fixed overheads of the restaurant. If that makes each individual dishes more expensive than you think they should be then you need to reduce your costs somewhere.

4. Understand what makes you unique – In every area of business you need a unique selling point. This is especially true in the competitive world of being a restaurateur. You need to have something that makes your business stand out and you need your customers to know and understand that difference. Being another Italian restaurant that is slightly better than the three your town already has isn’t distinct enough.

5. How are you going to promote yourself? Promotion is vital in the early success of a restaurant, if a potential customer walks past at a peak time and sees you have hardly any clientele they will assume that something isn’t up to scratch. In your first few weeks you’ve got to make sure you’ve got bums on seats and make sure they have a great time so they recommend it to a friend. If you can do that you’ll have a great success on your hands.

6. Understand how to price your dishes – This is one of the most important things to get right from the day you open your restaurant. There are lots of different models but one common and popular method is to make the cost of the food approximately 30-35% of the total cost of the dish to produce and serve.

7. Get your marketing sorted – You need to tailor your marketing to your restaurant, if you’re a premium occasion visit your marketing needs to reflect that or if your focus is more around volume you need to make sure your marketing is targeted to reach high numbers of people.

8. Know how many bookings do you need to break even – If you’ve priced your meals right it should cover most of the variable costs but you still need to know how many covers you need on a daily basis to cover your fixed costs. If you know what this number is you need to keep track of this daily, it’ll enable you to spot any problems quickly and help you solve them, i.e. if you never break even on a Monday perhaps you should consider a promotion on that day or closing on that day.

9. Sort out wireless card terminals – If you want your customers to be able pay on their table you’ll need some kind of wireless payment terminal, Cardsave have several GRPS models which might be a good fit.

Tags: Hospitality, Start-Ups
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The internet has given the world of start-up businesses an injection of excitement. A small business idea can quickly reach an audience all over the country and potentially the world, but it requires lots of planning and thought before you can hit the big time. Some of the biggest start-up businesses in the last ten years have come from the online space, so if you’ve got a brilliant business idea there is a good chance it may be an online business. At Cardsave we have worked with tens of thousands of off and online businesses over the years and have gained some great advice on how you can avoid the most common problems that online companies suffer from.

1. Consider bootstrapping – Bootstrapping is hugely popular in online business, this is where you take on as little finance as you can possibly survive on and then grow the company based on the revenue it makes each month. This can be great; it instils a focus on financial responsibility within the company and can avoid the conflict caused by having external investors.

2. Measure everything – The beautiful thing about running an online business compared to real ones is the huge amount of data you can gather about your business. You should measure everything, and your analytics package should become your best friend – it’ll tell you lots about your customers and the insight it gives can help you improve your business processes.

3. Have a traffic acquisition plan – Offline, if you got a shop or premises in a good location you could be fairly confident you’d get a good foot fall which would guarantee some interest and maybe some sales. Unfortunately you don’t get the same amount of good fortune online. If you set up a website, that doesn’t mean anyone will come looking for it, you need a plan to drive high quality traffic to the site. SEO and PPC are two popular options to getting traffic to the site.

4. Learn everything you can but don’t be scared to outsource – If you’re bootstrapping you may find all the work falls back to you: web development, analytics management, PPC marketing etc. Initially this makes a lot of sense, understanding this will make you appreciate the difficulty of the various tasks. Having said that, when you have the resource don’t be afraid to delegate or outsource to someone better qualified, then you can spend the time overseeing your business.

5. Know what makes you different and make sure you communicate it – You might have a great idea but how ‘unique’ is it in the eyes of your customers? And how obvious are you making that point of difference on your website and customer communication? Doing online business may have lots of differences to offline but there are some fundamental similarities you’d be mad to ignore. In many ways having a unique selling point is even more important online as you are competing against the whole world.

6. Make informed buying decisions – Unless you’re an experienced web designer there is a good chance you are going to need to employ someone to help you build your web presence. Be sure to read lots of blogs and websites about design first, as it’ll make you a more informed buyer and avoid you getting a website which doesn’t do what you need it to.

7. Explore your payment options – There are dozens of options out there for accepting credit or debit cards online each with their own pros and cons. At Cardsave we have several options that might suit your needs.

Tags: Ecommerce
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If you’re already working as a cleaner it can make a lot of sense to think about going out on your own and setting up a cleaning business. We’ve helped hundreds of business in your sector accept debit and credit card payments and over the years we’ve garnered some great business advice for cleaning business start ups.

1. Where are you customers going to come from? This is a fundamental question you need to know the answer to before starting any business, but it’s particularly key in the cleaning business as many potential customers will be tied into long-term contracts and it may be difficult to differentiate yourself against more-established rivals. Perhaps you already have some contracts and are planning to survive on word of mouth, or perhaps you have a clever marketing plan. Regardless of your approach, you need a clear answer to this question before making the leap of setting up as your own boss.

2. What equipment do you need and how much work will you have to do before you pay for it all? – What’s your planned capital expenditure? How much do you need to spend on items you need to go about your business? As a cleaner there will be some equipment you need to do a good job, these tools of the trade can end up quite expensive. You really need to know how much work you need to break even on the initial expenditure.

3. Know how many hours you have to work each month before you break even once you’ve paid back your equipment. Once you’ve worked out how long it will take you to pay back all your equipment costs it’s also good idea to work out how much work you need to do each week and month to hit a profit. Once you know this number you’ll know if you need to pay more attention to sales and marketing, for example if you’re below the break-even point.

4. Understand the benefits of payment upfront – Most cleaning companies that fail don’t do so because they aren’t making money, instead it’s usually a problem of cash flow, they spend their money before they receive it from their customers. I’d recommend trying to find out as much as you can about how to manage cash flow to help your business grow. The research process will probably encourage you to try and get payment as quickly as possible, maybe even upfront.

5. Don’t forget you holiday when forecasting revenue – If you’re effectively acting as a self-employed worker when running your business, you may not be able to make money on your holidays. Think about holidays when forecasting your revenue, you need to make more money on months when you aren’t on holiday to cover the shortfall when you are.

6. Know how many clients you need to break even – Every month you are going to have fixed costs (amounts you have to pay regardless of how many customers you have) and variable costs (the cost associated with a sale, like cleaning products, fuel to travel there etc.). You need to know how much profit you make from each booking after the variable costs. Once you know this number you then know how many bookings you need to take to cover the fixed costs. You might not do this from day one of the business but you will still need to know what this number is every month.

7. What does you ideal customer look like? If you can understand what your ideal customer ‘looks’ like then you stand a better chance of promoting your cleaning services to them. If you are targeting busy mums then maybe you want to put a poster in the window of the nearest organic food shop, if you’re targeting facilities managers of local offices, maybe you need to find their phone numbers in the yellow pages.

8. How big do you need to be before you take on additional staff? – Once your business is up and running you may find yourself in the position where you might want to take on an additional member of staff. This is a huge step and can have a significant impact on your cash flow, so make sure you’ve got the sums right.

9. Think about payments – Most cleaning companies will probably get paid by invoice, but this can mean you need to chase up the money and it can take a while to get paid. Having a card terminal can help solve these problems, if you think it’s something your customers may like.

Tags: Cleaning, Start-Ups
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