{"id":3949,"date":"2013-04-08T05:52:11","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T10:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/?p=3949"},"modified":"2014-08-27T07:44:50","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T12:44:50","slug":"square-changes-the-way-small-does-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2013\/04\/square-changes-the-way-small-does-business.html","title":{"rendered":"Square changes the way Small does Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Small businesses used to have a hard time getting approved to accept credit cards. Getting set up for a merchant account involved passing a credit check, agreeing to a long-term contract, paying monthly fees even if you didn&#8217;t accept any payments, and acquiring specialized equipment often with another monthly payment.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3945\" style=\"width: 461px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/bjmccray\/8629747862\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3945\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3945 \" alt=\"Mobile hot dog vendor accepts a credit card payment with a Square reader. \" src=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Pay-with-Square-Bravas-Dogs-2.jpg\" width=\"451\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Pay-with-Square-Bravas-Dogs-2.jpg 451w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Pay-with-Square-Bravas-Dogs-2-270x300.jpg 270w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 451px) 100vw, 451px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3945\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brava&#8217;s Dogs in Fort Wayne can take cash, but they&#8217;ll also take payment by Square. \u00a0Tip: try their lemonade. Photo by Becky McCray.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Square and its competitors have changed all that. Easy to get set up. No long-term contract. No monthly fees. &#8220;Equipment&#8221; is just your phone and a tiny plastic doohickie.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3947\" style=\"width: 298px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/bjmccray\/8628364245\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3947\" class=\"wp-image-3947  \" alt=\"Signing my book at Social Media Tulsa Conference, after accepting payment via Square.\" src=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Becky-McCray-book-signing-SMTulsa.-Photo-by-Sheila-Scarborough.jpg\" width=\"288\" height=\"510\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Becky-McCray-book-signing-SMTulsa.-Photo-by-Sheila-Scarborough.jpg 600w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Becky-McCray-book-signing-SMTulsa.-Photo-by-Sheila-Scarborough-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Becky-McCray-book-signing-SMTulsa.-Photo-by-Sheila-Scarborough-577x1024.jpg 577w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 288px) 100vw, 288px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3947\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tools of today&#8217;s book author trade: payment by Square. Photo by Sheila Scarborough, used with permission.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This has been a game-changer for small businesses, making many location-independent, letting others take cards &#8220;every once in awhile.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Food vendors can go mobile.<\/li>\n<li>Farm stands don&#8217;t have to get a phone line.<\/li>\n<li>Service providers can take payment on any site.<\/li>\n<li>Small town businesses aren&#8217;t constrained by the lack of local banks or merchant services.<\/li>\n<li>Fair and festival vendors can finally take cards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At a recent conference, I had a few books on hand that I wanted to take reimbursement for. Square worked perfectly, and I even borrowed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sheilasguide.com\/speaking\/\">fellow speaker Sheila Scarborough<\/a>&#8216;s Square credit card reader since I forgot mine. (I already had an account, I just forgot my reader.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Want more info? Read our <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2011\/12\/converting-to-square-for-credit-card.html\">Square credit card review<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tell us in the comments: how have mobile credit card devices changed your small town business?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Small businesses used to have a hard time getting approved to accept credit cards. Getting set up for a merchant account involved passing a credit check, agreeing to a long-term contract, paying monthly fees even if you didn&#8217;t accept any payments, and acquiring specialized equipment often with another monthly payment. &nbsp; Square and its competitors [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35,8],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Pay-with-Square-Bravas-Dogs-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3949"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3949"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6880,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3949\/revisions\/6880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}