Find Great Merchant Services That Intersect With What Your Customers Want

I got a great piece of advice from a retired businessman who has become my mentor and is helping me get my online business going.

He told me that many businesses fail because while the impetus may be the owner's passion, they still have to make their customers happy. He spent some time living in Canada and he became a big fan of Canadian football. But he made the point that if he launched a football paraphernalia business and all he had was CFL stuff he's probably go belly up.

But if he would stock NFL and American college football gear he could also stock his CFL stuff because he'd have a wider selection and a better chance of his site intersecting with the kind of things football fanatics were looking for. It is that intersection between the owner's vision and the customers' wants where money gets made.

Then he suddenly asked me if I was planning to accept credit cards. I told him that I wanted to get a base of business before I did so and that, in my current business plan I was going to install merchant services around nine months in.

He smiled in a very understanding way and asked if I knew what the statistics were on online credit card use and I told him the figure I saw - 80 percent of everything bought online is paid for using a credit card.

He then asked me how Internet shoppers were supposed to know the difference between my new business and the competition. I didn't have an answer for that one, which led him to his next point. While there might be some sound thinking in delaying the cash-outlay for credit card merchant services from a business standpoint, no one shopping my site would care.

They would only see that they shopped on a site that somehow got their interest, but didn't have credit card processing. And they would probably not ask when they should come back - they would click away and never return.

It was all about the point of intersection making a difference - they want to pay by credit card and I have an ecommerce merchant account capability. And then he really drove his point home.

While my business was my passion, did I want to make money? He knew the answer, but the point he was making was that online credit card processing is a proven way to drive business, sales and profits. And since a vast majority of online purchases are made using a credit card wouldn't it make sense to make a leap of faith and have credit card processing from day one?

The more he talked the more I was starting to look at my business like a 'net shopper and not a 'net store owner. When I shop online I almost always pay using a credit card. In fact, I can't remember the last time I used anything but a credit card. So why would I not offer the same services I look for?

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