You will need an Internet merchant account to make a payment gateway on your e-commerce Website to accept credit cards. You have a great choice when it comes to selecting a merchant account. Things to look for when making your choice are:

- Fees, such as transaction, set up and charge back - Reliable security features - Professional customer support - The Company’s reputation and stability

If you are not skilled in programming, you should seek a merchant account provider that will set up your payment gateway for you or provide a cut and paste code. Setting up payment gateway, to accept credit cards, in right place and integrating it into your e-commerce Website is essential to driving sales. The gateway must be secure and payment processing time must be fast.

Why you must Accept Credit Cards?

For online purchases, a majority of customers pay by credit cards. Thus if you do not accept credit cards you have reduced your customer base tremendously. Also credit cards promote impulse buying. You do not want to give your customers time to rethink their purchase when they are writing a check with all those zeros.

Also it can add credibility and professionalism to your business. If you accept credit cards, your site will look more legitimate and customers will have greater peace of mind when making payments. Your payment processor will be working and making money 24 hours a day, even while you sleep.

The benefits of accepting credit cards are many, even for on-site businesses. Credit cards are a convenient way to make payments. Customers do not have to carry cash around. Just slide card in processor and payment is done. The merchant can potentially see a great increase in sales.

To solve this problem? There needs to be strong leadership at start. Very clear standards required from outside contractors and severe penalties (yes, stop paying them even!) for under achievement. Corporate central contracts agreed there, but implemented and managed locally, leave a lot of space for waste.

And yes, in a small business, don't even think of doing bookkeeping yourself as soon as you can afford not to - do what you do best, value it and get on with creating business you love, not like struggling Sarah in book. But, get someone who you trust and who will deliver. Chris Barrow, of Million Dollar Coaching Practice fame, suggests that very first thing anyone going into a consulting business should do, is get a PA. And that modern day evolution, a VA (virtual assistant) has made this a real, low cost possibility for many.

Moral of story?

If you are going to outsource, especially if your business is big enough, where it's not only fashion, but it can have economic and logistic value, take following steps:-

1. Find best on market, not cheapest.
2. Set standards yourself, and don't take theirs.
3. Be very clear on expectations and outcomes if standards aren't met.
4. Keep in very business-like, however much you like/know/are related to them.
5. Have clear timescales for regular review.
6. Have a named and senior contact in organisation for whom there will be pain if they lose contract.
7. Keep contract length manageable.
8. If things start going wrong tackle them early, before too much money is wasted.
9. If 'Head Office' agrees contract, don't chase your own tail over non-delivery - get someone from there down as soon as there is a problem - you have enough to do.
10. Don't get involved in problems any local operatives might have - refer them back.