The next time you go shopping I want you to pay attention to something: what are most of the people around you paying with? You’ll notice very quickly that most people are not writing out checks, but instead they are using credit and debit cards. This is especially important to notice if you’re a business owner.

Too many home businesses rely on taking orders with just cash or checks. The problem with this is that these days most people place their orders with plastic. In fact, I heard a statistic recently that said that 80% off all phone and mail orders are placed using a credit or debit card. If you are not set up to take these orders you are severely limiting your business!

So how do you get around this problem? You just need to get a home business merchant account. And the good thing is that they are rather easy to get. If you go online you can find plenty of companies that will work with you to get set up.

Another common question that comes with home business merchant accounts is whether or not you need to have a credit card machine. Well, if you’re going to have people coming to your place of business you probably should.

But if most of your orders are coming via phone, internet, or mail you won’t need one. You can instead use a gateway online to process these orders with your computer. Doing things this way will also lower the expense of getting your home business merchant account set up.

If you are still just taking cash and checks you’re going to be completely outdated very soon. Now is the time to look into getting a merchant account if you don’t already have one for your home business!