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What is a Merchant Account? A retail establishment is able to accept credit cards, debit cards, electronic gift and loyalty cards through the medium of a merchant account established with a credit card processing firm. Merchant accounts or credit card processing services are provided by merchant banks or Merchant Service Providers (MSP).

A merchant or retail establishment benefits from subscribing to credit card processing services by tapping into the huge potential held by sales generated through card transactions. Retail establishments with card processing services are a preferred choice among shoppers. Providing such payment options invite the shopper to spend a little extra than planned.

Credit Card Processing

The technology used to make acceptable credit card transactions involves a credit card terminal. This is a single piece of electronic equipment with a telephone like keypad connected to a power supply and a telephone connection. A credit card can either be swiped on this machine or details of the card can be manually keyed in. The telephone connection is required to verify the validity of the card and authorize the transaction. Advancement in technology allows the same verification process to be completed through the internet or cellular networks.

Credit Card Terminal

The credit card terminal assumes an important role in credit card processing. A credit card terminal can either be purchased independently from a credit card terminal supplier, can be rented, leased or offered at no cost by the service provider.

Charges Associated with a Merchant Account.

A Merchant Service Provider (MSP) provides credit card processing services to a retail establishment at a specific rate. This mutually decided rate could either be on a monthly basis, per item or as a percentage of total volume of business generated through card (credit, debit and gift, loyalty cards) transactions. The per-item or percentage basis transactions rely on a schedule of rates devised by Visa and MasterCard known as Interchange Fees.

The rates charged by the Merchant Service Provider vary with the type of card or technology used for the transaction. For egs: The rate for a specific card varies with the use of a swiping terminal and a manually keyed terminal. Merchant account services are also made available for different formats of business which includes online, mail-order and telephone businesses.

The merchant establishments are also liable to pay other fees that contribute to the authorization of credit card payments. Such fees include: authorization fees, statement fees, batch fee, chargeback fee and a monthly minimum fee.

Who needs a Merchant Account?

A merchant account is subscribed by different types of retailers and by different formats of business. Types of retailers include: restaurants, retail stores, petroleum junctions, lodging facilities, etc. Different formats of business imply physical stores, online businesses (e-commerce), mail-order and telephone order businesses.

Considerations in Subscribing to a Merchant Account

The financial gains and expenditures must be taken into account to devise a successful method to accept card transactions profitably or at a low cost. The key aspects that must be considered in deciding a favorable merchant account must include:

• The cost of the credit card terminal
• Charges or rates specified by the Merchant Service Provider
• Scope of Transactions
• Application and Setup costs
• Acceptability of major credit cards and
• Security of transactions

Scope of transactions implies the ability of the service and the terminal to accept transactions involving a wide variety of payment methods. Payment methods include: credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, loyalty cards, electronic cheques, private label cards or store cards and other smart card technologies.

Credit Card Transactions Inc. can help you set up a merchant account and you can then start accepting credit card payment online.

There is nothing more heartbreaking than to spend weeks and months, and thousands of dollars developing your bookkeeping, accounting or tax practice and seeing it languish as you struggle to attract new customers and clients.

You have knowledge and experience, and you have a passion that you wanted to share with the world but it was not necessarily what the world wanted to hear.

To avoid the waste of both time and emotional energy caused by failed projects you need to understand the mindset of a client. Your client doesn't care where your degree is from, or how good your grades were, they don't even care if you have a license or certification from the state.

All your client cares about is whether they can trust you to do your job.

And just exactly how do you get that across to your clients and your new prospects? How do they discover the trust you want them to have?

The easiest method is to become recognized as an expert. As an expert, you are looked up to and trusted.

But here, we're not just talking about being knowledgeable, we're talking about marketing yourself in a way that you are perceived as knowledgeable. We're talking about getting speaking engagements, writing reports, articles, and white papers. We're talking about becoming an author and getting published.

Sounds like a lot of hard work doesn't it? And then youre faced with the problem of how to create all the papers, speeches and other work product youll need in order to appear to be a knowledgeable expert.

You could try to hire yourself a booking agent to get you speaking engagements, plus a ghostwriter to prepare speeches, articles and reports.

Since a booking agent works on a commission, you'll probably have a hard time convincing them you have any value as a commodity. The typical booking agent is going to be looking for somebody who can start at $2,000 to $3,000 per speaking engagement.

It's pretty easy to find a ghostwriter, but quite hard to find a skilled and knowledgeable ghostwriter, who can write about bookkeeping, accounting or taxes. If you find a writer who is skilled in these fields, then you're probably looking at something like $1,000 a page to write a typical report. Certainly not the $5-$10 a page you find people quoting on the Internet.

When you are presenting yourself to your local market, you need to be able to present knowledge and expertise, whereas on the Internet it's mostly about having relevant keywords that match the search engines spider's algorithm.

You try giving a speech full of keywords (commonly referred to as buzzwords) to the local Chamber of Commerce, you will absolutely lose any credibility you may have had.

Probably the easiest solution is to find yourself a mentor, possibly a retired accountant or financial professional, with a penchant for writing. If you get lucky, they may even have a drawer full of old reports and speeches they developed when they were in active practice.

If so, then they may be willing to let you use their materials as a resource. Be prepared to pay a small price, either by purchase or royalty, if necessary.

Alternatively, you may be better off subscribing to an online resource, such as http://instantpracticebuilder.com and selecting from an inventory of pre-written speeches, articles, reports and other materials. When subscribing to an online service, you usually have the assurance that the material you receive will be the most up-to-date available, plus many such online services also provide Print-on-Demand services for your materials, as well as private label materials they provide.

Once you have developed or acquired an inventory of material you can use for articles, reports and speeches, your next step is to present this information in a way that will get you recognized as a knowledgeable expert, whether it is as a speaker in front of a group, such as a local civic organization, or in a printed form, such as a workbook or manual for business owners.

Many times, in addition to providing materials and resources, online subscription services also provide advice and guidance getting speaking engagements as well as methods on how to generate income from your speaking engagements.

By becoming recognized and remembered as a knowledgeable expert, either through your own expertise, or through the use of a volunteer or paid mentor, you will gain the reputation necessary to earn the trust in the minds of clients and prospects that should create a deluge of clients and fees.

Kirk Ward is a retired tax expert, accountant and auditor. He provides the same resources he used in building his practices to startup accountants through his website at http://instantpracticebuilder.com