No matter what type of service or product you provide, at some point you will need to decide how you will handle accepting payments from clients, whether by cash/checks, credit cards or both. Most brides and grooms will expect to have the option to pay you using either method, so it’s in your best interest to make sure your payment options are set up in advance of booking that first gig.
accepting credit cards
While credit card processing will cost you a small fee, the benefits of accepting credit cards in your business should normally outweigh the cost:
- You can receive payments instantly instead of waiting for checks to clear.
- You avoid the potential hassle and cost of bounced checks.
- Your clients may appreciate being able to use their credit card to accrue airline miles, etc. when they pay for your service (or simply being able to use credit, period), leading to more work booked.
Note: If you’ve surfed around a bit, you might have come across some vendors who accept credit card payments but add on a 3% (or similar) fee to their clients if they do want to pay by credit card, to cover the credit card processing fee. While this might seem insignificant to some clients, others might be turned off by the fact that they have to pay an ADDITIONAL fee on top of the rest of the bill. Outside the wedding business, it’s rare that you’d be asked to pay this fee – would you want to use your credit card in a restaurant or a department store if you had to pay extra just to do so? Don’t make your clients pay extra either. Instead, this is one of the costs (overhead) that should be built into your pricing structure to begin with (see How to Price Your Wedding Services).
using PayPal to accept payments
For many small wedding business owners just getting started, PayPal offers a good alternative to the more expensive option of setting up a merchant account to accept credit card payments.
While you won’t be able to accept credit card payments over the phone using PayPal’s least expensive solution (your clients will have to submit their payments via a Pay Now button on your website which links to PayPal’s site), there are no setup or monthly fees and you and your client can be assured that the entire transaction is secure and that you will get paid immediately.
For each transaction processed, PayPal will deduct a small percentage of the amount of the payment as the transaction fee (2.9% and .30 per transaction as of this writing) and the rest of the total will go into your PayPal account which can then easily be transferred to a business or other checking account. Should you need to issue a full or partial refund to your client for any reason, you can do so for up to 60 days from the date you receive payment.
If you offer a monthly service (personal wedding websites, for example) you can set up a subscription in PayPal to charge your client’s credit card monthly or as needed.
Tip: Buyers do not need to have a PayPal account to purchase from you – PayPal does not require users to create an account in order to process the payment.
If you do not want to add a Buy Now button to your website – for example, if your fee will vary based on travel costs, time booked, etc. – you can also opt to send clients a detailed invoice right to their email inbox from PayPal, and you can customize it with your logo, contact info and terms and conditions.