If your business needs to process payments, you will need to invest in point of sale equipment (POS).
Examples of point of sale equipment include credit card machines, cash registers and check printers. It is basically equipment that is needed whenever money or any other form of payment exchanges hands.
Many offline and online businesses perform transactions with people but what types of businesses require this equipment? Keep in mind that the most important thing for any business is for the transactions to take place in a secure and accurate manner. If this does not happen then it could open up a series of issues.
Does Your Business Need Point Of Sale Equipment?
If you are a retail outlet, then you need POS. The cash register has been around more than 100 years so there’s no reason why your business shouldn’t have one.
You can find the simplest cash registers from your nearest department store. It does not matter if you are a startup or an established retail outlet; you should have point of sale equipment.
If you own an online business on the other hand, point of sale equipment can be found online. That’s right. There are plenty of software programs you can embed within your website to help you process debit and credit cards.
These programs are safe and the manufacturers have taken extra steps to ensure they are secure enough to process online transactions. The point of sale equipment you find online doesn’t operate like the one you can find in a physical store but the good thing is that it doesn’t take much to manage them.
The only people who probably don’t need to have point of sale equipment are those who do yard sales. No one expects you to have POS at a yard sale simply because you are accepting cash for smaller transactions.
Where Can You Find The Equipment?
For your physical store, you can find cash registers at your local office supply store or at your local department store. If your business accepts credit cards and debit cards, the better it will be for you because many customers walk around with their credit and debit cards.
You can get credit card terminals from a number of companies but you will have to pay a small fee. That is how these companies make their money. This is not a loss on your part because accepting credit cards is very profitable. You’d be surprised at the number of customers that walk away when you say that you don’t accept credit and debit cards.
Although not many people accept checks, it is important for your business to have check printers. Use check printers and a system that cross references the customers’ ID number and the checking account number just to ensure they don’t have bounced checks.
Consider Leasing Your Point Of Sale Equipment
In today’s business environment, you have to keep up with your competitors and this may not be possible if you turn customers away because you cannot afford point of sale equipment.
Through a leasing program you can acquire this equipment at a relatively cheap price and preserve your working capital. Leasing benefits your business by:
- Providing better inventory tracking
- Losing fewer sales because you have a variety of payment methods
- Increasing sales
Many customers will become return customers because of the convenience your payment systems provide. The quicker you can respond to your customers’ needs the more sales you will make.
Another advantage of leasing your equipment is that you won’t have to worry about upgrades, servicing and maintenance. Usually most equipment leasing companies include these costs within the lease contract.
You don’t need to have large amounts of money upfront as you would need to when you are going to make a purchase. This way, you can free up your working capital and use it for other business operations.
If you want to own the equipment at the end of the lease period, you can negotiate an end-of-lease-option with your lessor. This is whereby you can agree that you will either purchase the equipment at fair market value or at $1. Word of advice, always ensure your lawyer or financial advisor goes through your lease before you sign it.
For more information on leasing point of sale equipment, simply CLICK HERE.