The Square Card Reader = Awesome!

Tweet I heard about the Square credit card reader a few months back on Etsy.  Basically it’s a little tiny reader that plugs into your smart phone to read and process credit cards.  At the time, I had my Zach Morris flip phone, so I couldn’t use it (I decided to go with Propay, which is I’ve been happy with).  A few weeks ago I broke down and bought a fancy new phone, so I ordered a Square reader and let me tell you, I’m in love!

I got it in the mail last weekend and had to try it out, so I ran a charge on my credit card for $1.  I wonder how many $1 charges Square processes from everyone getting new readers and wanting to try them out?  Here’s how everything looks when you process a payment.  Sorry for the kind of crappy pictures – the screen on my phone is REALLY reflective and I was having a horrible time taking pictures without the reflection of our overhead lights.

Plug square reader into headphone jack.  Evidently this thing is called a dongle, which I find to be a very funny word.  I almost titled this post “Fun with my Dongle” but I was afraid of what kind of traffic I would get.  Anyway, make sure it’s pushed in all the way – my first try I didn’t push hard enough and it didn’t read my card.

Open the Square app.  I use a phone that runs on Android, so I just downloaded it from the Android Market.

Enter payment amount.  You can even take a picture of the product (or the purchaser, I guess) by tapping on the little camera icon.

Swipe the card with the magnetic stripe toward the thicker part of the reader (toward the back of phone).  A message will pop up that says “Authorizing”, but it was gone too fast for me to get a picture.

The customer signs the signature screen and taps “continue”.

Next, the customer can choose to receive an email receipt by entering their email address, or they can skip it.  Just a note – their email address (and credit card number) aren’t stored anywhere, so you might want to reassure the customer that he or she won’t end up on a mailing list.

The confirmation screen will pop up, and you’re all done!  You (the vendor) get emailed a payment notification and the customer gets an email receipt right away.  The customer’s receipt even has a map showing the location of the purchase!

It’s all super easy, and I’m really excited to try it out next weekend at the Ben Davis Homespun Holiday show.  The fees are low – 15 cents + 2.75% (or 3.5% for typed-in cards).  I have to say, from a vendor’s point of view it’s much easier – the money just gets deposited into your bank account after a few days. 

What do you think, if you were a customer would you be okay with paying on one of these? 

Business Cards, Wholesale, and Signing up for Propay

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I got these awesome new business cards in the mail a few days ago.  I know I've mentioned them before, but moo.com really does a great job.  This time I ordered the full-size business cards and put close-up product shots on the front.  I think they convey a lot more information than my mini cards - they'll be good for handing out to people who haven't seen my stuff.  There are six different pictures on the fronts, and the backs are all the same.

I'm excited to hand these out at the Rocky Ripple Festival in two weeks (two weeks?!  when did that happen?!).  I also want to put together a wholesale price list and some kind of little portfolio.  I'm not sure I'll need it AT the craft fair, but I've been wanting to get some wholesale info together since I started so this is a good time to do it.  However, I just wrote up an overly ambitious list of products I need to sew in the next two weeks so we'll see if the wholesale information makes it off my to-do list.

Speaking of the festival, I just signed up for Propay so I can accept credit cards.  It was surprisingly easy - it took maybe ten minutes - and super cheap.  If you sign up through this link I found in the Etsy forums it's only about $30 a year, plus a percentage of each transaction - maybe 3.5%?  I'm not sure how the money gets to my bank, so I need to dig around on the site before the show to figure out how everything works.  I know they do offer a debit card that you can use at an ATM.

Last week I dropped these super-cute aprons off at the Irvington Iris Tea Room.  I love how they turned out and I wanted to keep them all for myself.  Actually, the ruffle one and the full size one are copies of ones I made for myself a few years back.

After making these, I decided I wanted to make a few for the Etsy shop, so yesterday I whipped up a coordinating women's/girl's apron set.  They turned out so awesome.  I promised Bridget a sucker if she poses for some product pictures today, so keep an eye out for the set to hit the Etsy shop this evening!

I'm tossing around the idea of posting a book review every week on here - any thoughts?  I've been reading a good amount of crafty business books and marketing books lately, so I thought it might be helpful.  I'm reading Why She Buys right now, which is about marketing to women.  Being a woman and all I thought this book might not be much use to me, but turns out I'm learning a lot.

Have a great weekend!