Time is money. This common idiom, widely attributed to Benjamin Franklin, is what drives a great deal of innovation in today’s tech-meets-business world. Mr. Franklin could not have anticipated mobile payment apps, but I bet he would recognize what they mean for today’s on-the-go entrepreneur slowed by the invoicing slog.
Invoicing creates bureaucracy and doubts over when and how (and sometimes even if) entrepreneurs will be paid. All this uncertainty causes worry about cash flow. For entrepreneurs providing services like home repair, lawn care, or house-cleaning, visiting multiple locations each day, invoicing is often done in the car between jobs or at home after a day filled with work.
In today’s mobile world, your business should instead automatically and instantly receive payment the moment the work is done. Mobile payment apps make the payment process easy for you and your customers. With payment apps, you can easily collect payments from your customers or clients.
Popular apps like Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Cash App, Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and PayPal, are increasing for people to swap their wallets for smartphones. These technologies are building momentum within the service professional community, allowing no-touch transactions promptly after service delivery. There’s no invoice, no drawn-out payment cycle, and no harassing follow-up calls to clients who are late to pay (think Uber). Some payment apps even come with physical card readers to process credit card payments in person.
As an example, think about how you might currently invoice your clients. You have to log into your PayPal account, create an invoice, and send it to the client through PayPal. Once they get the invoice, their team can immediately pay the invoice with their PayPal account or they can follow the specific payment instructions outlined in the invoice. Another example is the increasing trend of retail business using services like SquareUp‘s Point of Sale system (POS) to handle payments. Customers in their stores can use the Square Reader to insert their credit cards and make a payment.
Not only do new tools exist for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs to streamline their billing, but many consumers are already using the technology. Mobile payment apps might just be the nimble entrepreneur’s new best friend, and one of his or her most valuable tools for building a successful business.
Want to use one of the best payment apps around? Check out PocketSuite on the App Store and Google Play to collect payments and help grow your business.
How Payment Apps Benefit Your Business
For many service-oriented businesses, client payments can get complicated. Creating invoices, sending payment reminders, collecting credit card info, and other monotonous tasks eat up valuable time for both you and your clients. Payment apps make payments much easier. By just sending an invoice to your client’s email address or phone number, they can make immediate payments to improve the payment process. Payment apps provide numerous benefits including:
Accept online payments anywhere
Perform a service, get paid. That’s how mobile payment apps drive business, disrupting traditional invoicing so there’s no cumbersome process or the ongoing game of chase-and-remind for clients who are behind. With payment apps, you can get paid digitally and customers can use their credit cards or bank accounts to pay you through their mobile device. This instantaneous payment frees up small business owners to put their time where it counts – on their actual work. With extra time on their hands, entrepreneurs can finish more projects and win more clients.
Payment apps keep your cash flow flowing
Business credit has been tight since 2008, making it hard for entrepreneurs to rely on credit to support their operations. Being paid immediately means more small businesses that rely on their cash flow will survive, grow, and thrive, while more accurately monitoring their balance sheet to simplify budgeting. This opens the door for tenacious entrepreneurs ready to take the startup leap.
Business payment apps are affordable
Typically, business owners who accept credit and debit card payments have to invest in a merchant processor account. These accounts come with a number of baked-in costs, including gateway fees, statement fees, monthly minimum fees and transaction fees, totaling between $25 to $35 per month depending on who you use. Mobile payment options allow entrepreneurs to process credit and debit card transactions without a merchant processor account and receive payments in their bank accounts within a few business days. Many of them have monthly fees along with fees for each payment processed.
Mobile payment options free entrepreneurs from long-term contracts and numerous hidden fees, offering clear pricing and fast deposits for a fraction of the cost. These services still come with a small processing fee, but as the space becomes more competitive (as I anticipate it will), those fees will shrink.
Payment apps are convenient for you and your clients
Payment apps are loved by businesses and clients because of their ease of use. While you’re enjoying life without invoicing and waiting for payments, your clients will enjoy a life with a lot less check writing, cash withdrawing, and reminder pinging. It’s freedom for both parties. At the same time, mobile payment apps can help entrepreneurs protect themselves from the repercussions of cancelations by automating billing on their cancelation policies.
Mobile payment apps make life easier for today’s entrepreneurs but they will also launch more small businesses into existence. Professionals will find the independence, flexibility, and support they need to take back their time and turn it into success.
The Features Every Business’s Payment App Needs
Most payment apps come with the very basic feature of sending or collecting payments. Apps like Venmo, Cashapp, Zelle, Google Pay, and others are more consumer-focused. They’re not focused on building the features needed to support businesses. For businesses that want to get paid, you need specific features. For example, Cashapp is great for sending and collecting money from friends and family, but it’s not an app designed for businesses to use. Here are the features to look out for when researching payment apps for your business:
Client invoices
Invoice your clients at any time and send them through email or text. Clients can pay their invoices through their phones and won’t have to rely on using cash to make payments.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions are a very popular payment option these days. Clients can pay a pre-determined amount each month without having to worry about keeping up with payments. For example, if you run a personal training business, you can use subscriptions to automatically charge your clients for their workouts at the beginning of each month. You can even give discounts to clients who sign up for long-term subscription plans.
Packages
Does your business bundle services and products together? For instance, estheticians often sell products while providing beauty services to their clients. With support for Package features, you can create a package to sell both your services and product in one simple pricing plan, rather than creating individual line items for each service and product sold.
Start Collecting Payments with PocketSuite
There are plenty of good choices available for payment apps. But most payment apps are just that – they only focus on collecting payments. Wouldn’t it be great to have an app that handles payments, but also helps you run your business? That’s where PocketSuite comes in!
PocketSuite is a leading mobile app for any business with clients. PocketSuite makes it easy for your clients to regularly book you, pay you, contact you, and more. With PocketSuite, you can do the following to run your business:
- Appointment scheduling
- Payment processing
- Manage and send invoices
- Create a POS solution
- Manage subscription/membership payments
- Send automatic appointment reminders
- Message clients
- Marketing campaigns
- CRM database of all your contacts
Get started with PocketSuite today on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
