While having a consistent stream of client demand for your freelance work is a key factor to your self-employment success, a large part of that work’s value is whether you’re compensated appropriately and quickly enough to support your personal and business cash flow needs. Here’s a look at five payment methods all freelancers can easily implement, to provide a seamless payment experience for customers.
Accept credit or debit payments with
your mobile device.
If you have a smartphone or
tablet and a bank account, you’re just a few hours (and in some cases, minutes)
from being equipped to accept customer payment by way of debit or credit card
using a mobile payment processor. Once your merchant account is established,
simply plug a small device (called a dongle) into the headphone jack of your
mobile device to swipe the customer’s payment card (in person), or manually
enter the information through the payment processor’s mobile app if your
interaction with your client is limited to phone or mail. Clients can choose to
receive a receipt for their payment by text or email; funds are typically
transferred to your bank account (minus transaction-based processing fees) in
about 48 hours.
Accept credit cards with your camera. If you meet with your clients in
person frequently, mobile management apps can equip you to process customer
payments by scanning the customer’s credit card number using the device’s camera.
(Images of the card aren’t saved, and transactions are encrypted.) Many such
apps are also designed to sync with popular accounting tools to streamline
accounts receivable activity. Like a “traditional” mobile payment processor,
fees are assessed per transaction.
Equip your website for payment acceptance. If you have a website associated with your
freelance business, transform it into a secure payment processing tool that
allows your customers to issue electronic payment by credit or debit card
online. Simply establish a merchant account through a secure payment gateway
provider, and paste a bit of provided HTML code into the backend of your site. Because
of the online nature of this payment method, customers can pay their invoice at
their convenience, sparing you the time and effort associated with collecting
and depositing paper checks. Like mobile payments, funds are generally
transferred to your bank account in a few days.
Electronic invoices with credit card
capability. There are
many Web-based accounting systems (many of which are available for free basic
use) that equip freelancers to send electronic invoices to clients, and accept
subsequent payment by credit card, allowing the customer to pay his or her
invoice the moment it’s received via email. Additionally, such systems allow
you track whether your emailed invoice has been received and viewed by the
client.
Virtual currency. Though virtual currency like Bitcoin remains
a relatively new form of currency among the masses, it can be a viable means of
accepting payments, especially if you have international clients who use
different currency, or you want to avoid paying the fees associated with
electronic payments that involve a traditional financial institution. Once you’ve
established your own virtual wallet, paste the provided HTML code into the
backend of your site. In turn, it will display a button signaling to customers
that you accept virtual currency as a form of payment.
Though
converting virtual currency payments into cash requires that you first “cash
out” your virtual wallet and transfer funds to your bank account, virtual
currency makes it simple to exchange international payments into the denomination
of your choice. Fees are low, and in some cases, non-existent, based on how much
you sell. Funds transfer between virtual wallets often takes place in less
than 24 hours.
Virtual currency takes less than 24hrs? Are you nuts? Takes less than 1 hour usually. And it depends which cryptocurrency are you using, some are even faster.
You're right, cryptocurrency is a very fast option, often much faster than 24 hours.