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Sometimes business owners put up obstacles to their own success. Can you believe there are still some businesses that don't accept credit cards?

What if a customer wants to do business with you and doesn't have the cash with him or her to pay for your product or service? You could bill him or her, but then you have a collection problem and have to finance the receivables. In any case, you are missing selling opportunities by putting a barrier between you and the customer. You can't make it too easy to do business with you!

If your concern is losing some of your revenue to the merchant account discount, ask yourself how much revenue you could receive from the sales you didn't make. If necessary, adjust your pricing to recover the additional expense.

The fact of the matter is, people use their credit cards for everything today. They use them to buy beer at Seven-Eleven on Super-Bowl Sunday. They use them for groceries, for hair cuts, for lunch at a café, even for doctor and dentist visits!

You will want to accept all of the major credit cards - VISA, Mastercard, American Express and Discover.

Dan Kennedy shared an idea that we have been using with some success. For significant purchases, let your customers use more than one credit card to pay you. Many people have several credit cards that are close to the limit, that they track carefully for additional purchases. By helping the customer structure payment, you can get more sales or reduce collection problems.

Accepting credit cards is a "business basic" that should be adopted by every business. If you aren't accepting them now, set up a merchant account immediately.

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