Can Square help your small business grow?
Need to provide your small business a boost? Why not try Square? You might not know what Square is, but know this: Square will assist you to attract new customers to your business by making it simpler for these customers to buy your goods and services. Square is a tiny, rather stylish, credit-card processor -- square-shaped, of course -- that allows merchants to close credit transactions by using their own iPads, iPhones or Android devices. The device gives you the opportunity to take on credit-card purchases while not having to invest in a more complex system. But Square does come with a cost: You'll have to pay a bit with every transaction you close through the service. Is the cost worth the expense? That's something you need to decide.
How it works
Working with Square is an easy process. First, plug the small, square, Square Reader device into the audio jack of your tablet or smartphone. Then, simply swipe your customers' credit cards through the reader. The reader will then scan the credit card and process the sale. If, for whatever reason, you can't swipe a customer's credit card, you can also manually close the transaction by entering the card number using Square. The Square Reader is free. The app that makes the reader work, Square Register, is free, too. You can download the app from the Google Play store or the App Store.
The Biggest Positive of Square
Square is very user friendly. This is why it's perfect for overworked small business owners. There is no lengthy instruction book to pore through. There are no complicated installations. This is the reason Square has grown to become so popular among business owners. A recent story in USA Today reported that more than 800,000 customers are using Square today. The system is also easy for consumers. Using it, even the smallest of business entrepreneurs can accept credit-card transactions. You won't have to send your customers to the corner ATM for cash.
The Downside to Square
There are fees, though. Each time customers swipe their credit cards through your Square Reader, you'll have to pay 2.75 percent for the transaction cost. If you need to manually enter your customer's credit-card number, you pay Square, Inc. 3.5 percent of the transaction. Entrepreneur Magazine in a recent review of the system also said that human customer support is shaky at best for the product. Still, despite having these cons, it's difficult to deny that Square can dramatically boost the efficiency of small businesses.