Credit Card Fees? That is the Question
On Fridays I give you the four best workflow tips from inside my brain and around the web. And we call it Four for Friday. Welcome!
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How has your week?
Mine was a lot crazier than I thought it would be. We'll leave it at that! But in my CRM travels, there has been another interesting topic that has come up - credit card fees. Or rather, the various fees you incur from your payment processor of choice by letting your clients pay you by credit card.
Some of you shrug them off, some of you actively avoid them, some of you work around them, none of you like them. Here's four tips to make your chosen method run a little bit smoother.
#1.Shrugging them off
It's the price you pay to do business. What's 3-5% anyway? It's roughly $30 - 50 of of $1,000. Not but, but a month's worth of Starbucks, a visit to Target on a good day, half a tank of gas (sigh). But, this should also be your third quarter alert to raise your rates. The more you make, the less those fees are going to hurt.
#2. Credit card fees
For the lucky ones who are allowed to charge them. I'm in California, so I'm not! I also can't charge tax, but that's a different email. If you're not sure of the rules in your state, check. If you're good to go, warn your clients before you charge them, though.
...Unless they pay in cash or directly into your bank account, then those fees disappear. This works, but if you're using a CRM and you're making the full payment as "paid" and the actual amount was less than late, it could muff up your accounting. Honeybook's smart file proposals are editable after you send them, so that helps. But keep that in mind.
#3. Service fees
This is something you can charge in California. I'm generally a "shrug it off" girl, except in circumstances where I'm unusually dividing a retainer into separate payments. You can also pair this with a "cash" discount, but again, warn your clients.
#4. Zelle or Venmo
Venmo is a little sus these days, so I'm a bit reluctant to mention it! I think we might have been abusing it's "don't ask, don't tell" nature so much that it's going away soon! Zelle is solid, though, and I use it myself for wedding assistant and officiant gigs. I know a few people who ONLY use Zelle for payments. Great for getting money quickly, a little bit of an accounting and app scramble maybe, having to mark it in a couple of places, instead of just one? But as the baseball player said, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
The bottom line is that you should think about how you prefer to get paid, but also consider - and ask - how your client wants or needs to pay you, and go from there. You want to be paid by Zelle, they need to pay by credit card, charge a service fee or raise the price to cover it. That's your SOP.
What else do you need to create your dream business right now? Contact me to schedule a free consultation and get started!
I'll talk to you soon,
Elizabeth
p.s. Seriously, raise your rates for 2023!
