Many mobile business owners and professionals struggle with payment options. While you’re on the road, moving from one job (or client) site to another, it can be difficult to keep things organized. Most small business owners have the luxury of a storefront, cash register, and credit card processing terminal. For them, there’s no guesswork or possible “evacuations” involved: either the card has funds on it or it doesn’t.

Mobile business owners such as landscapers, tradespeople, craft fair vendors and others simply don’t have these luxuries. Most are limited to accepting cash or checks; the latter with no guarantee that there are funds in the account. It can be difficult for them to find a payment method that is convenient for both them and their customers, especially for expensive items. Unfortunately, this can often mean that the sale goes to the brick-and-mortar merchant simply because they accept credit cards and/or provide a financing option that doesn’t involve some type of collection agreement.

(In other words, the credit card company acts as the “creditor” for them, in a sense, and provides the customer with a self-directed financing plan on their own terms.)

Are you losing sales because you don’t or can’t accept credit cards? This is a problem shared by many mobile business owners. Imagine the sales you could have had at your last trade show or job fair, if paying a large sum would have been easier and more convenient for your customer.

Customers carry less and less cash. We are fast becoming a plastic consumer society and few people like to bother with the hassle of cash or checkbooks anymore. They prefer the ease and convenience of their credit or debit cards. Are you losing valuable sales because you don’t accept this convenient payment method?

Many business owners also prefer credit cards. They offer the advantage of instant approval. There are no waiting days for a check to clear and money to be deposited into your account. Credit cards offer 24 hour payments in a 24 hour world. Payments can be processed quickly, on demand.

What if there was a way to accept credit cards from your mobile office or work site? This would allow you to build your business from anywhere, at any time. Why should brick-and-mortar businesses get all the customers?

What would this do for your business? Your business could potentially grow by leaps and bounds, and you’d be making life a lot easier for both your customers and yourself.

Here’s the good news: You do, in fact, have options. Here are two solutions you should consider:

1. Use a wireless credit card terminal.

If your typical business day consists of a large number of smaller transactions (for example, a pizza delivery business averaging 40 sales for less than $30 per day), then you should seriously consider getting a pizza processing machine. wireless credit cards

Your monthly fees for the business account (and equipment, if you lease it) will be average, as will the sales discount rate, but the convenience factor plus the potential upsell from customers who don’t necessarily have cash on hand probably more than make up for the monthly fees, and then some.

2. Accept credit cards over the phone

Now, if you have a business where you’re only closing a few sales a day, but at a higher price ($x00 – $x,000), then you’ll want to minimize your merchant account costs because your credit card transactions they will be more of an occasional occurrence, though it will certainly affect your business when it comes to convenience, efficiency, and potentially even sales.

For example, if you own a landscape business where the average transaction is $600, you’ll find that many customers will want to take advantage of their card’s built-in rewards points (like “airline miles”), flexible financing – or in most cases cases, these two additional benefits combined.

The benefit to you is that the credit does not “bounce” and, in most cases, you will have access to the funds much faster than with a check.

Now here’s the best part: you can accept credit card payments on the spot from any touch-tone phone, including your cell phone.

Also, the major “pay-by-phone” services available have very low monthly fees and work more like “pay as you go.”

This is the perfect solution for a mobile company, or professional, where occasional credit card transactions are necessary (and profitable), but don’t guarantee the hassle of using a traditional terminal.

Some services cost as little as a few dollars a month at around 4% per sale.

There you have it: two very viable options for the types of mobile businesses that would otherwise be stuck in the “dark ages” of cash and check payments.

Do your due diligence to see what service might be best for you and your clients.