Create a Business Plan – Creating a solid business plan is the first step toward success in your business endeavor. A business plan can be your guide to keeping your business on track from obtaining funding to hiring employees to planning for expansion. Your business plan will help keep you focused on your goals and helps you figure out where your company is going, what it needs to succeed, and how it will overcome any potential difficulties.

Find the Right Location – Choosing a business location is perhaps the most important decision a small business owner or startup will make. Investigate possible sites looking at demographics, scoping the competition, staying on budget, and while reviewing local and state laws and taxes. The location should be consistent with the brand image you want to establish, and could ideally be near complementary businesses to generate traffic to your location. Employees should be able to easily access your location and live in close proximity. Perhaps you anticipate further growth and your space should have room to expand easily. Suppliers should be able to find you and the location should be in a low crime area so your employees will feel safe walking to their vehicles. And perhaps most importantly, will zoning regulations allow your business type to operate without impediments.

Purchase Equipment and Inventory: Look at the options available for leasing or purchasing equipment, you want to be absolutely sure that you do all you can to get the best deals for your money. You can go a long way toward achieving this goal by simply taking the time to comparison shop. Used equipment can save you money. Negotiation with prospective sellers can also bring savings. Financing is often available for equipment purchases. Tax incentives may be available for purchases and help with the cost outlay. Using Harbortouch POS systems FREE hardware and software will help stretch your equipment purchasing dollars!

Establish a Merchant Account & POS System – A Merchant Account involves an arrangement with a bank or merchant account provider that allows you to accept credit card payments into a bank account. The results of any credit card transactions passed through your authorization company are then, credited to your account once the transaction is approved. Having a Merchant Account is the most cost effective way of accepting payment by credit card.

Getting the money from your customers credit card and into your account involves several steps. The first is actually approving the sale and taking the customer’s credit card details on your POS System. The card will be verified and approved, and checked to be sure it’s not been stolen. After the card has passed the security checks, your merchant account provider then passes the details to their credit card processor who debit the customer’s credit card and deposits the money into your bank account. This process takes between 1 and 3 days with most merchant account providers.

Harbortouch POS Systems offer an ‘all-in-one’ solution and handle both your merchant account and the processing of the credit card orders, efficiently depositing the proceeds into your bank account.