Professional painters rarely think about needing to accept credit cards. For years, most painters wrote up a simple invoice and had their customers write them a check. Today, however, the icrease in check fraud has made this way of doing business much more dangerous. In addition, many painters have discovered that they seem more credible and increase their sales just by accepting credit cards.
Unfortunately for many people in the painting industry, there are a lot of fly-by-night competitors who offer customers extremely low rates, then take off with their money without doing any work. Distinguishing a legitimate business from these scam artists can be hard. Most credit card companies, however, offer fraud protection on their customers’ purchases. That means that someone who needs their house painted is much more willing to take a chance on a new company if they can pay with a credit card.
Of course, being able to take on bigger jobs is crucial to any painting company that is looking to grow. Larger jobs mean more money, but it also means taking on customers who typically don’t have enough cash on hand to pay you all at once. For many painters, this means going into the temporary loan business, which can be disastrous. Instead, being able to accept credit cards means that a painter can take on the largest jobs he or she can hire the staff for, and let the credit card companies worry about when they’ll get paid. The painter receives all of the money upfront, and is able to buy supplies and pay staff while working on the job, without having to front the money out of his or her own pocket.
Finally, by being able to accept customer credit cards, a painter is able to give him or herself some extra security. Credit cards are almost always issued by banks that have some of the best fraud detection systems in existence today. This makes it much less likely that a painter will receive a bad payment by accepting credit cards than he or she would by accepting paper checks. Furthermore, all credit card transactions are handled electronically. That means there is no danger of getting robbed or losing a check.