Build the Perfect Online Business with these 6 Tips In USA

Virtual market is growing bigger and bigger every day. Most of the population relies on the Internet to shop or get things done. From sending an e-mail to banking, shopping, purchasing services and packages, everything can be done in few clicks. This brings a lot of opportunities for new entrepreneurs, but to make the best use of this opportunity you have to follow the right track. There are few points that one should consider before starting an online business. These are:

Focus on Local market: You should not avoid small steps to achieve big goals. Instead of trying to reach the global market and providing everything, study local market, gather knowledge about demand and customer’s taste, and offer them something unique or different from your competitors. If you want to capture the market you should have something unique to offer, but before going further do check out copyright infringements.

Logistics: The product you choose at the initial stage of your online business, matters the most. You should be very cautious about it. The product should be:

• Non-fragile (it will end up in pile of damaged returns)
• Easy to make (so that it takes minimum time)
• Low making charges (so that you do not end up in investing huge amount)
• Should be easy to ship (should not be heavy or too big, as it will cost more).

It is not easy to manage supply chain and fulfillment of orders at the initial stage of business, but as you gain more and more experience you can try your hands on the variety of products. So it is advisable to start small and get adventurous later.Don’t opt for any popular product because someone is definitely providing the best of it and has probably already captured the market. It is rather a better idea to specialize in just one specific product and make a place in the market.

Understand your customer: Choice of the product as per the customer’s requirement is very important. Always focus on impulse buys and make sure you give satisfactory service to your customer because a happy customer always returns. Better the experience, more the chances of the customer coming back again and again. Once you have a good number of repeat customers, it is the right time to introduce a new product into the market.

Adding value to your product: Customers always like if they get something extra. If you provide extra service along with your product, it will not only help you retain your customer for a lifetime but also help you earn more customers. For example, if you are selling camera only, give offers like photography classes; which will be an add-on to your product and will also help in increasing sales. Similarly, if you are selling books on learning the particular language, start language classes as an add-on. These kinds of offers attract the attention of customers and might create customers for a lifetime.

Comfortable buying experience: If your experience is good, it is quite possible that you will visit again. It is very important that your process of making payment is simple and easy. It is advisable to provide a variety of payment options to the customer so that he/she can choose the method with which he/she is comfortable. If you do not provide payment options according to the customer’s choice, you might end up in losing the customer. It is very important to make the customer comfortable with the purchasing and payment method. For creating a smooth online shopping, it is important to work with a payment partner who provides you with features and services you want and in terms and conditions that are comfortable for both the parties.

Internet security: For an e-commerce website, it is important to take extra measures on Internet security as there are thousands of prying eyes looking for an opportunity to hack and misuse data or information. Customers are well aware of security threats and are quite cautious about making purchases online. Purchasing products or services online means that you are sharing your sensitive information like credit card processing number, address, phone number etc.; and if this information falls in the wrong hands, it will not only affect the customer but also hamper the reputation of your business. So it is important to take special measures to provide Internet security and make the website, and the payment process safe.

3 Questions to Ask Your New Credit Card Processor And Payment Gateway

If you are running a business that deals with sales and purchases, there might arise situations where you need to choose a new credit card processor, but it is not as easy as it seems. It is a big decision and before making a final call you should be aware of certain things, like Fee charged and contract, customer service department and cost-effective tool. Do the comparison, study the market and then make the final decision. Let us now discuss the 3 questions you should ask your new credit card processor before finalizing it:

Structure of Fee Charged

When you opt for such tools, you are charged with a certain amount of fee, but it is important to know what exactly those fees are, more commonly called breakage of the fee. The fact is that most of the high-risk merchants have no idea about the process and end up paying a high amount of fee without actually knowing the hidden high markups in their pricing structure. To process the transaction, an interchange part of pricing structure is paid to the card issuer. Apart from this,there is an extra fee that they put on the top of it to gain more profit. So, when you are applying for new credit card processor/merchant payment processor, request them to separate out the interchange fee so that you can have a clear idea about how much money they are making or charging you in total.

Contract and Time Duration

Whenever a merchant wants to opt for a new credit card processor, he/she needs to sign a contract, which will lock you with them for certain period of time. It is important for high-risk merchants to check for options when shopping around for new processor and also to finalize the processor with shorter time duration instead of multi-year contracts. The advantage of choosing a short-term contract is:

• They will work hard for your business to impress you so that you renew the contract instead of shopping for new credit card processor or merchant payment processor once the contract expires. If you end up signing a multi-year contract, you will soon be forgotten and ignored and service quality provided may deteriorate.
• If any serious problem arises and you have a short-term contract or non-existing contract, immediate help will be provided to resolve the issue so as to retain you as a customer, whereas, if you have a long-term contract, it might take some time to resolve the issue you are facing.
• If you are not happy with the services provided to you by your current credit card processor, you can try out the new processor, which can meet your needs, but if you have a long-term contract, you have no option than sticking with the same provider until and unless your contract expires.

Customer Service Department

Efficient and knowledgeable customer service department is like icing on the cake. Get the opinion of the current customers of the credit card processor and find out about their experiences with the customer service department.Look for the processor whose,

• Support representatives are knowledgeable and can tackle any kind of issue if arises.
• Call waiting time is minimum.
• Support representative should be able to resolve issues in the first call and in shortest time duration.

If you are lucky enough and end up buying a credit card processor or merchant payment processor for your high-risk business that fulfills all your needs and the fee charged is worth every single penny you pay, hold on tight to it and never let it go. If you are happy with the services provided and the fee charged, it would be a good decision to renew the contract with the same provider than starting the process all over again.

Build the Perfect Online High Risk Business with these 6 Tips

Virtual market is growing bigger and bigger every day. Most of the population relies on the Internet to shop or get things done. From sending an e-mail to banking, shopping, purchasing services and packages, everything can be done in few clicks. This brings a lot of opportunities for new entrepreneurs, but to make the best use of this opportunity you have to follow the right track. There are few points that one should consider before starting an online business. These are:

Focus on Local market: You should not avoid small steps to achieve big goals. Instead of trying to reach the global market and providing everything, study local market, gather knowledge about demand and customer’s taste, and offer them something unique or different from your competitors. If you want to capture the market you should have something unique to offer, but before going further do check out copyright infringements.

Logistics: The product you choose at the initial stage of your online business, matters the most. You should be very cautious about it. The product should be:

• Non-fragile (it will end up in pile of damaged returns)
  
  
• Easy to make (so that it takes minimum time)
  
  
• Low making charges (so that you do not end up in investing huge amount)
  
  
• Should be easy to ship (should not be heavy or too big, as it will cost more)

It is not easy to manage supply chain and fulfillment of orders at the initial stage of business, but as you gain more and more experience you can try your hands on the variety of products. So it is advisable to start small and get adventurous later.Don’t opt for any popular product because someone is definitely providing the best of it and has probably already captured the market. It is rather a better idea to specialize in just one specific product and make a place in the market.

Understand your customer: Choice of the product as per the customer’s requirement is very important. Always focus on impulse buys and make sure you give satisfactory service to your customer because a happy customer always returns. Better the experience, more the chances of the customer coming back again and again. Once you have a good number of repeat customers, it is the right time to introduce a new product into the market.

Adding value to your product: Customers always like if they get something extra. If you provide extra service along with your product, it will not only help you retain your customer for a lifetime but also help you earn more customers. For example, if you are selling camera only, give offers like photography classes; which will be an add-on to your product and will also help in increasing sales. Similarly, if you are selling books on learning the particular language, start language classes as an add-on. These kinds of offers attract the attention of customers and might create customers for a lifetime.

Comfortable buying experience: If your experience is good, it is quite possible that you will visit again. It is very important that your process of making payment is simple and easy. It is advisable to provide a variety of payment options to the customer so that he/she can choose the method with which he/she is comfortable. If you do not provide payment options according to the customer’s choice, you might end up in losing the customer. It is very important to make the customer comfortable with the purchasing and payment method. For creating a smooth online shopping, it is important to work with a payment partner who provides you with features and services you want and in terms and conditions that are comfortable for both the parties.

Internet security: For an e-commerce website, it is important to take extra measures on Internet security as there are thousands of prying eyes looking for an opportunity to hack and misuse data or information. Customers are well aware of security threats and are quite cautious about making purchases online. Purchasing products or services online means that you are sharing your sensitive information like credit card processing number, address, phone number etc.; and if this information falls in the wrong hands, it will not only affect the customer but also hamper the reputation of your business. So it is important to take special measures to provide Internet security and make the website, and the payment process safe.

The Startup Survival Guide: 6 Tips For New Entrepreneurs

Today’s world is a competitive world and everyone is looking for quick success. We normally look towards people who have achieved the certain milestone or are successful and try to follow their footstep. It has become a sort of fashion to read about successful people, adopt their principles and go as per to their opinion. It is always good to learn from others but your individual idea, vision, business goal, and principle are equally important. There are quite a good number of people out there in the world who can give you advice, teach you about business but until and unless you have a vision and ideas of your own, you will be lost in the mob.

Here are a few steps that every new entrepreneur should keep in mind in order to survive in this highly competitive world: –

Give your own meaning to success

It is important to get guidelines and inspiration from those who have achieved success, but it is not advisable to follow them blindly. It is not a good idea to spend much of your time in reading about successful people rather that time can be utilized in making plans and implementing them practically. Every entrepreneur has his own vision (where you want to see your High-Risk business), goals and principles (which he/she has set for his/her business) and most importantly the reason and motive behind the business, and these are the foundations of any business.Your idea, your success, your way.

Unique value/selling proposition (USP)

Due to intense competition in the market, it is important to set your business or product, unlike the rest.

To get a competitive advantage, you must have a unique selling proposition, which will boost your business and help you achieve your goal. You must keep in mind that your USP can be anything but price. It can be your location, time taken for delivery, a vast range of products, etc. As a business owner, you would not like the label cheap or low quality, because to which your USP should not be the price. Despite the bad reputation, pricing will also decrease your profit. Apart from being affordable, you should provide a good reason to the customers to return to you.

Your target market

Before setting up a new business, it is very important for every new entrepreneur to study the market. It is important to know the demand, advantage and disadvantage, and most importantly the buyer and their expectation from the product or business you want to start. Complete knowledge about the market will help you a lot to make plans and any necessary changes if required. That is why most of the entrepreneurs- new or old, like to conduct market research. Market research is not an expensive technique and it gives a broader picture of the market and will help in finding the real problem if any.

LLC or corporation

It is advisable to be a sole proprietor and use DBA (Doing Business As) name; this will make your business official. The extra step which is worth taking is to form an LLC or corporation because when you opt for DBA and you have a small business, a big portion of your profit will go in taxation. Instead, that amount can be used for expansion of your business or product range. So LLC is a great option, of course, it will be a little expensive as well as complicated but will help save much more in near future.

Mentor and advice

When you talk to others about your idea, you will get mixed opinions, but it is always good to listen to others. Share your ideas with friends and family, see if they can guide you or make you meet with a person who can be your mentor and help you in starting your business. Value every single piece of advice/opinion, no matter from whom it is coming. You should always be open to feedback and advice when you are planning to undertake a new project. Connect to mentor programs, join any social group, which is relevant to your business idea, and interact with them. You never know you might get lucky on funding

Make a Team

It is next to impossible to do everything on your own and start a business. You need a team to support you, implement plans and help you in starting up the new venture. Opening a new business is not a piece of cake and it is not possible to have knowledge of everything and manage it all single-handedly. It is important to have a team, whom you can trust, who has the knowledge, who can help you in the areas where you don’t have the expertise, who can focus on different areas/departments and can resolve issues if any.

These are few simple survival guidelines for the new entrepreneur, which should be kept in mind before starting up a new business, and to have a great startup.

Payment Processor Solution For Your Online Business

It’s era of technology, the era where most of our needs are fulfilled with just a few clicks. The Internet has made our life way more comfortable than we could imagine a few decades back. With the increase in technology, our lifestyle also changed dramatically and changed the way we do basic tasks like sending emails, banking, purchasing things, contacting people etc. The Internet has brought almost everything at our fingertips. As the use of the internet is increasing, it has provided an opportunity for business owners to grow their business worldwide, to reach customers they could not a few decades back.

For setting up an online business, all you have to do is follow few simple steps and instructions which we will discuss one by one in details and your business will be ready to enter the online world. These days it has become easier than ever to develop & design your own website and have it uploaded either for free or cost that suits your pocket. It is not important to have the complete technical knowledge to develop a website. Let’s move with few basic steps to get you started your online business.

Steps to be followed to open your online business are:

Choosing Domain name

Choosing the correct domain name is extremely necessary. It is ideal if your domain name is similar to that of your business name or your brand so it is simple for your sponsors and potential customers to find out your website. Once website name is finalized and it is up and running, you have to invest plenty of resources into promoting it and conveyance in traffic. Keep in mind to check the name’s accessibility to check whether the domain name of your choice is free to use or available. If the name is not accessible, don’t get demoralized. Often the owner of the domain name is willing to sell it and it’s simple to work out who owns the name by merely wanting it up in “whois” section on the domain registration portals.

Pick a Web hosting Service

Web hosting services offer space for storing and access to websites. Don’t get attracted by free internet hosts as they put advertising on your website to cover their prices. As a business owner, you must be searching for an internet host that’s esteemed and reliable. Before going for hosting services, it is important to have a rough idea about how much space your website would take and how much traffic you are expecting through your website (web hosts can help you with an estimation). Read the reviews of different clients to perceive how frequently they encounter downtime or technical issues and how rapidly those issues are resolved.

Design Your Website

Website designing was work professional as it was complicated and technology used to design these websites was not that advance as compared to the technology used these days and people had less knowledge about it. Today designing your website is less complicated than ever and can be done by an individual who has little knowledge about it. There are two methods via which you can design your own website:

First is to start from scratch and design your website which will include coding, complete technical knowledge and is very time consuming and can cost you the good amount of money as well.

The second method is way easier. There are plenty of professionally designed templates available, which are either free of cost or cost very less. All you have to do is choose any of the themes to design your website. Few of them also offer a live preview, so that you can check the chosen theme on demo website and ones you finalize the theme for your website add it to your cart and download the file. If you do not want anyone else to use the same theme as yours, you can become the sole owner of it by checking the option.

Shopping Cart

A Shopping cart is a software that provides facility to purchase products online and allows accepting payments under secure and safe payment platform. Distribution of payment information to the merchant, payment processor, and other parties is also organized by shopping cart software. So it becomes extremely important to choose best shopping cart software. There are mainly three features of shopping cart:

• Product information is stored in it
  
  
• Gateway for order and customer management.
  
  
• Provides product data and site information for user display

There are two types of carts:

Hosting Shopping cart (which is hosted and maintained by the third party and it is free of cost but the customer will be directed to different domain for payment)

Licensed shopping cart (This is hosted by the business owner and is much more flexible but is costlier)

Payment Processor Solution for your online Business

More payment options you give to your customer, more payment processing you will do. In simple words,  if a customer wants to buy a product or service and can choose the mode of payment of his/her choice, there are more likely chances that your product will be sold rapidly as compare to the scenario where customer is not comfortable with the method of payment and might search the same product elsewhere.

Payment options you can offer on your website are:

• Credit card
• Debit Card
• eChecks

Once you have got the website going, we’ll be happy to assist you set up an online payment solution that’s best for you and your business. Contact us to Merchant Stronghold & find out more.

Understanding and Process Flow of ECheck Payment Processing

How does an Echeck Payment Processing Work

If you have been executing a business for some time, the chances are high that a client has asked for to make payment utilizing an Echeck. Merchants frequently let their payment processors handle the details. Also, when disputes emanate later, the merchant is left with little to do, other than accept the processor’s requests.

As an entrepreneur (who starts a business alone), it is compulsory to have at least little grasp of what goes on when a customer pays through an echeck. Be that as it may, to start with, let’s answer the obvious question: what is an echeck Processing?

What is an Echeck Processing?

An electronic check is a type of payment process where a client’s assets are deposited into a merchant’s account over the ACH (Automated Clearing House) network. To process such payments, a merchant requires an echeck processing, through which payments made by echecks can be pulled back straightforwardly from the customer’s bank account.

E check Processing Merchant Account for High Risk Business

If your business already accepts credit and debit cards, your present Merchant account Provider might be willing to incorporate ACH preparing to your effectively existing system. Organizations, for example, Merchant Stronghold offers both cards and Echeck Payment Services to online businesses.

Once you’ve recognized a processing account that concurs with your requirements, the time has come to fill out the application. The data required will incorporate your evaluated processing volumes, and in addition the years your business has been in operation. The application process is normally quick and simple, and approval typically takes a couple of days.

How Echeck Processing Works?

In some ways, Echeck processing is like paper check handling, although it is faster and more efficient

Echeck Payment Processing generally takes place in the following steps.

• The purchase is Approved

To approve the purchase, a client can either round out an online form or converse with the merchant specifically through a recorded telephone call. Simply, after the approval, the merchant can pass the check data to the payment processor.

• Payment is Completed

The payment processor supervises the immediate withdraw of the funds indicated by the check from the client’s bank account, and prints out a receipt.

• Deposited Funds into the merchant’s bank account

It takes a few days in the wake of starting the transaction for the check to clear and the money to be deposited into the merchant’s record.

• Recurring payments with Echecks

Credit Cards and Debit cards may be the most widely recognized approach to make an online payment, yet with regards to recurring transactions, echecks make the sense. Thus, ACH billing is progressively picking up footing among property managers as a reliable approach to gather month to month rent.

Businesses that charge clients settled expenses at each finish of a specified term should, therefore, embrace echecks as an essential payment technique.

Extended Warranty High Risk Credit Card Processing And Merchant Account

Credit Card processing In case you are facing problems to find at ease and reliable payment gateway for your organization that takes care of extended warranties then service provider Merchant Stronghold assist you to out. we have the exceptional technology that makes use of safe and secure virtual terminal to let you process credit card payments in retail or online commercial enterprise.

CREDIT CARD PROCESSING SOLUTIONS FROM MERCHANT SPECIALIST

We understand that you locate it difficult to get approved for the merchant account from a reputed financial institution. but you don’t need to worry at all. We’ve connections with some of the best banks and could help you to get began with merchant account fast.

We have been dealing with extended warranties merchant accounts for so many years and our highly expert and skilled team is capable of designing flawless solutions for your business.

We have been dealing with extended warranties merchant accounts for such many years and are highly expert and professional team is able to design perfect solutions for your commercial enterprise.

We additionally offer numerous terminals relying upon the need of your enterprise. We also have secured virtual terminal that helps you to manage your payments via apple or android device. Using our services your commercial enterprise can get entry to main credit score card companies like Visa, American Express, MasterCard, and Discover.

we have affordable and reasonable prices which range as per the terminals. this could rely on the employer’s history and the risk factors concerned in investing with you. but don’t worry even if you are a high-risk commercial enterprise; we had been providing effective solutions to many high risk commercial enterprise as well.

We provide best customer support for all your queries and doubts. You can call us at 888-622-6875 OR email info@merchantstronghold.com

MCC 5932 For Antique Shops: Sales, Repairs, and Restoration High Risk Merchant Services

MCC 5932 is a retail store where a merchant can sell antiques at a local store or online. An antique shop can also be located in an antique mall where there are antique stores only. A аntiquе seller is always on a lookout for such items from people. These items may from a very low quality to a very high quality, and the cost of these items may vary depending on the nature and location of the shop.

Point of Sale is best for Antique Shops 

If you are willing to open an antique store, you must have a POS. POS is the payment service that accepts credit and debit cards. Nowadays, antique stores have started accepting payment through cards. POS helps in analyzing sales, keep sales data up to the mark, manage invoices and send emails, protect the business from money laundering and so on.

The merchant should decide the right POS software for antique malls and to keep their shops safe and sound.

Features of MCC 5932 Antique Shops

• Merchants can record the accounts on a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly bi-monthly.
  
  
• The profit on the antique business is made by buying and selling the products. The selling cost of the product is calculated based on its age, condition, scarcity and the uniqueness.
  
  
• Antique stores can be very small in size but the façade of a store is too large with few items. The antiques could not be physically available, but they can be made available online.
  
  
• MCC 5932 might also help such businesses to change locations while managing the and tracking the item costs and sale history.
  
  
• For antique business, Vеrifоnе VX520 POS could be ideal as it provides all the necessary functions for such business type.
  
  
• With Vеrifоnе VX520 POS the business would be able to record every detail of the item such as cost price, received date, margin, size, and other specification.
  
  
• A buyer can access the complete report of an item, review sales history, value etc at the point of sale.
  
  
• Each store has a different work environment and limited access to inventory information. If an item isn’t present at one of the stores, the buyer can always look for it online and purchase at the same time.
  
  
• Antique store merchant can also prepare a database and collaborate all the information about the products, clients and so on at one place.

Questions to Ask Your New High Risk Credit Card Processor

If you are running a business that deals with sales and purchases, there might arise situations where you need to choose a new credit card processor, but it is not as easy as it seems. It is a big decision and before making a final call you should be aware of certain things, like Fee charged and contract, customer service department and cost effective tool. Do the comparison, study the market and then make the final decision. Let us now discuss the 3 questions you should ask your new credit card processor before finalizing it:

Structure of Fee Charged

When you opt for such tools, you are charged with a certain amount of fee, but it is important to know what exactly those fees are, more commonly called breakage of the fee. The fact is that most of the high-risk merchants have no idea about the process and end up paying a high amount of fee without actually knowing the hidden high markups in their pricing structure. To process the transaction, an interchange part of pricing structure is paid to the card issuer. Apart from this, there is an extra fee that they put on the top of it to gain more profit. So, when you are applying for new credit card processor/merchant payment processor, request them to separate out the interchange fee so that you can have a clear idea about how much money they are making or charging you in total.

Contract and Time Duration

Whenever a merchant wants to opt for a new credit card processor, he/she needs to sign a contract, which will lock you with them for certain period of time. It is important for high-risk merchants to check for options when shopping around for new processor and also to finalize the processor with shorter time duration instead of multi-year contracts. The advantage of choosing a short-term contract is:

• They will work hard for your business to impress you so that you renew the contract instead of shopping for new credit card processor or merchant payment processor once the contract expires. If you end up signing a multi-year contract, you will soon be forgotten and ignored and service quality provided may deteriorate.
• If any serious problem arises and you have a short-term contract or non-existing contract, immediate help will be provided to resolve the issue so as to retain you as a customer, whereas, if you have a long-term contract, it might take some time to resolve the issue you are facing.
• If you are not happy with the services provided to you by your current credit card processor, you can try out the new processor, which can meet your needs, but if you have a long-term contract, you have no option than sticking with the same provider until and unless your contract expires.

Customer Service Department

Efficient and knowledgeable customer service department is like icing on the cake. Get the opinion of the current customers of the credit card processor and find out about their experiences with the customer service department.Look for the processor whose,

• Support representatives are knowledgeable and can tackle any kind of issue if arises.
• Call waiting time is minimum
• Support representative should be able to resolve issues in the first call and in shortest time duration.

If you are lucky enough and end up buying a credit card processor or merchant payment processor for your high-risk business that fulfills all your needs and the fee charged is worth every single penny you pay, hold on tight to it and never let it go. If you are happy with the services provided and fee charged, it would be a good decision to renew the contract with the same provider than starting the process all over again.

6 Reasons You Need A Digital Marketing Strategy in 2018

Website Analysis

Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of web data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage. However, Web analytics is not just a process for measuring web traffic but can be used as a tool for business and market research, and to assess and improve the effectiveness of a website.

Social media optimization

Social media optimization (SMO) is the use of a number of outlets and communities to generate publicity to increase the awareness of a product, service brand or event. Social media optimization (SMO) is a form of internet marketing where one can generate publicity through social media. The SMO process helps content get more widely distributed through social media networks.

SEO On Page

On-page SEO consists of all the elements of SEO you can control best. If you own a website, you can control the technical issues and the quality of your content.On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines.

SEO Off Page

Off page SEO refers to techniques that can be used to improve the position of a website in the search engine results page (SERPs). Many people associate off-page SEO with link building but it is not only that. In general, off Page SEO has to do with promotion methods – beyond website design –for the purpose of ranking a website higher in the search results

Content Marketing

Content marketing means attracting and transforming prospects into customers by creating and sharing valuable free content. The purpose of content marketing is to help companies create sustainable brand loyalty and provide valuable information to consumers, as well as create a willingness to purchase products from the company in the future. This relatively new form of marketing does not involve direct sales. Instead, it builds trust and rapport with the audience

Landing Page Creation

A landing page is a web page that allows you to capture a visitor’s information through a lead form. A good landing page will target a particular audience, such as traffic from an email campaign promoting a particular ebook or visitors who click on a pay-per-click ad promoting your webinar. It’s important to build a unique landing page for each of the offers you create.

Merchant Stronghold is Headquartered in Clearwater, Florida. It provides credit card processing services for businesses of all sizes.

Requirements of Getting High Risk Merchant Account And Payment Gateway in USA

In this rapidly transforming world, where businesses are regularly changing their process of dealing with customers. With the development of processes, the businesses now have started accepting the payments through credit cards. Although, of all the business process up-gradation with the help of technology, that eases the maintenance of business, accepting card payments is one of the steps that makes easier for customers to pay directly through their account.

But, many times merchants who are planning to start accepting card payments have very less knowledge about what is required for the establishment of a merchant account. As there are few requirements and prerequisite for getting and maintaining a merchant account that enables the business owner to collect payments via credit cards.

Typically a merchant never directly contact a bank for the merchant account initiation that should collect the card transactions. The reason for this there is a strong need for dealing with fraudulent and error transactions that need to be handled with the guidance of professionals. For a merchant account that collects card transaction, the merchant should contact a processing company that acts as an intermediate between merchant and bank. They help the merchant to deal with the card transactions effectively and help them to get funded by the bank against the legal transactions.

For merchants in the United States, we have listed the requirements of the account application that can help them to be ready with all sorts of documents that will help them to apply with correct documents while filling the merchant account application form:

All the merchants who are based in the U.S. they need to provide the general requirements that are listed below that will help the merchant to prove that she/he is a legal resident of United States:

• Registered business name in the U.S.: The merchant account applicant must be legally incorporated in the U.S. or at least merchant registered its business with the local governance that could give them “Doing Business As” name (DBA).
  
  
• S. bank account: The merchant should have a running U.S bank account, in which the merchant will get the funds for their transfers deposited.
  
  
• The physical address of merchant: A merchant must have a physical presence that is an address of living or doing business that can be verified.

The above document will help a merchant to show their legal presence in the United States, if a merchant has the above necessary proofs, they can apply in the bank for a merchant account that can help them to collect payment through credit cards.

Now for filing the application for merchant account the documents will vary with the businesses risk volume, that is categorized with the dependence of these factors including nature of the business, monthly processing, previous processing experience, etc. Although, the basic things a merchant needs to fulfill while applying for the account is:

• Application Form: The application form that will collect the basic information of the business and applicant. The information includes physical address, Tax ID, average sales, bank account details, web address, phone number, etc. There is an advance pricing agreement that is regarding the pricing of the products.
  
  
• Business license: The applicant’s business requires any kind of permit before being sold; the applicant needs to provide the appropriate license copy at the time of application.
  
  
• Incorporation proofs: if the applicant claims that their business has the existence in all over the world, then there is a requirement of providing/submitting the copy of incorporation paperwork, that proves that business is illegible to collect payment from around the world.
  
  
• Voided check: The applicant needs to submit the voided check of their business bank account, with the business name pre-printed on it, this is called permanent check. If the permanent check is not available, then the merchant will need to submit a letter from the bank stating the account details and have the bank authority signature on it.
  
  
• W-9 form: This is an application form for a Federal Tax ID. It’s not possible the form can be substituted with the SS-4 form with which a merchant can obtain the Tax id.

Personal guarantee: The processor tries to be safe from the risk of debt that occurs form the fraudulent activity that is the undeniable part of card payment transaction. The personal guarantee is basically required by the privately held companies due to the nature of the business.

Other than the document, the businesses that are listed in higher risk categories need to provide these additional details about their business:

• Business financial statements: Normally the details of last years of business transactions are required.
  
  
• Personal financial statements: Again the details of last two years of personal account details.
  
  
• Processing details: If the business has previously accepted the card payments, then at least of last three month of processing of payment details needs to be shared with the processor.

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High Risk Merchant Account Provide New Entrepreneurs

Today’s world is a competitive world and everyone is looking for quick success. We normally look towards people who have achieved the certain milestone or are successful and try to follow their footstep. It has become a sort of fashion to read about successful people, adopt their principles and go as per to their opinion. It is always good to learn from others but your individual idea, vision, business goal, and principle are equally important. There are quite a good number of people out there in the world who can give you advice, teach you about business but until and unless you have a vision and ideas of your own, you will be lost in the mob.

Here are a few steps that every new entrepreneur should keep in mind in order to survive in this highly competitive world: –

Give your own meaning to success

It is important to get guidelines and inspiration from those who have achieved success, but it is not advisable to follow them blindly. It is not a good idea to spend much of your time in reading about successful people rather that time can be utilized in making plans and implementing them practically. Every entrepreneur has his own vision (where you want to see your High-Risk business), goals and principles (which he/she has set for his/her business) and most importantly the reason and motive behind the business, and these are the foundations of any business.Your idea, your success, your way.

Unique value/selling proposition (USP)

Due to intense competition in the market, it is important to set your business or product, unlike the rest.

To get a competitive advantage, you must have a unique selling proposition, which will boost your business and help you achieve your goal. You must keep in mind that your USP can be anything but price. It can be your location, time taken for delivery, the vast range of products, etc. As a business owner, you would not like the label cheap or low quality, because to which your USP should not be the price. Despite the bad reputation, pricing will also decrease your profit. Apart from being affordable, you should provide a good reason to the customers to return to you.

Your target market

Before setting up a new business, it is very important for every new entrepreneur to study the market. It is important to know the demand, advantage and disadvantage, and most importantly the buyer and their expectation from the product or business you want to start. Complete knowledge about the market will help you a lot to make plans and any necessary changes if required. That is why most of the entrepreneurs- new or old, like to conduct market research. Market research is not an expensive technique and it gives a broader picture about the market and will help in finding the real problem if any.

LLC or corporation

It is advisable to be a sole proprietor and use DBA (Doing Business As) name; this will make your business official. The extra step which is worth taking is to form an LLC or corporation because when you opt for DBA and you have a small business, a big portion of your profit will go in taxation. Instead, that amount can be used for expansion of your business or product range. So LLC is a great option, of course, it will be a little expensive as well as complicated but will help save much more in near future.

Mentor and advice

When you talk to others about your idea, you will get mixed opinions, but it is always good to listen to others. Share your ideas with friends and family, see if they can guide you or make you meet with a person who can be your mentor and help you in starting your business. Value every single piece of advice/opinion, no matter from whom it is coming. You should always be open to feedback and advice when you are planning to undertake a new project. Connect to mentor programs, join any social group, which is relevant to your business idea, and interact with them. You never know you might get lucky on funding

Make a Team

It is next to impossible to do everything on your own and start a business. You need a team to support you, implement plans and help you in starting up the new venture. Opening a new business is not a piece of cake and it is not possible to have knowledge about everything and manage it all single-handedly. It is important to have a team, whom you can trust, who has the knowledge, who can help you in the areas where you don’t have an expertise, who can focus on different areas/departments and can resolve issues if any.

These are few simple survival guidelines for the new entrepreneur, which should be kept in mind before starting up a new business, and to have a great startup.

4 Steps to Better Offshore High Risk Payment Processing

When you set up a new business, along with many things that need to be sorted out you need to figure out how you would like to accept payment from your customers and this is one of the major obstacles, which most of the new business owner’s face. When you think about payment process, there are a few questions that need to be answered to find the solution. These questions are:

• Type of payments to be accepted
• Pros and cons of the chosen payment type
• Cost related to payment method.

When you are learning about payment processing, you should get knowledge about all the possible payment methods in detail. Out of various methods, Credit Card is the most popular as well as preferred payment method among customers. Let us discuss the basic steps you need to follow to get started with credit card processing: –

Setup a merchant account: To carry out online financial transaction, we need to open a bank account to be able to accept payment online in multiple ways (credit card, debit card, net banking). This bank account is called merchant account and the merchant. Merchant account is an account with a card merchant processor, who underwrites and settles transactions made online and payment processor is the company that underwrites or facilitates transactions.

Fee charged: When you open a merchant account and start accepting payments, banks charge you a fee. This rate varies from bank to bank. This fee is discussed at the time of opening a merchant account and it also depends upon the type of transaction you have opted to process.

Transaction type: There are basically two categories of credit card rates and these are:

• Physical presence of card: It is a method in which customer swipes his/her card on POS to make transaction. In simple words, it is a way of payment in which customer’s credit card is swiped physically through a credit card terminal/machine.
  
  
• No physical presence of card: In this method, card is not physically present at the place where payment is being done, rather it is done online or on phone or credit card details are typed manually to a credit card terminal. This method is commonly known as MOTO or Mail Order/Telephone Order.

The rates for both the categories are not the same and different merchant processors will offer different rates. So it becomes very important to know the rate provided by various merchant processors as well as which type of transaction method will be beneficiary to use in most of transactions.

Getting Tools: After opening a merchant account and choosing the type of transaction, the next step is to get started with the credit card processing. Once the account is opened and you start accepting the payment from the customer for the purchases they have made, it is necessary to manage the payment and for that you need proper tools. There are various software available in the market for payment processing, but you need to choose the one depending upon your business type and need, but before choosing any of the software be sure that it is compatible with your merchant processing account. These tools/software be any of the below specified tools:

• User-friendly software is better for online payment processing and order fulfillment.
• You can choose software which provides a better combination of receivable and payment processing so that you can manage both phone orders as well as recurring payments.
• POS or Point Of Sale is an easy-to-use and secure terminal for card reader processing.
• There are even softwares that provide almost all of the above features.

High Risk Merchant Account for Subscription and Membership

With the increase in technology, internet has become very common thing, and it has opened number of opportunities for business/entrepreneurs. These businesses can be product base as well as information base, out of which most of them provide memberships, which assure its customers exclusive experience. However it is not that easy to make this business enterprise work and even more difficult to make it profitable venture as it is way difficult to collect membership fee from customers online, which is done via credit card mostly.

Financial risk and reputation are always the main concern of any financial institutions. Any wrong practice can result in damaging the image of the business. Sites which offer memberships are regarded as high risk merchants, irrespective whether they practice illegal or shady things or not, due to which it becomes difficult for the business owner to find an institution willing to accept its application for merchant account and even more difficult to find an institute which will offer a reasonable terms on his account.

Why considered as “High-risk”

In the year 2010, the proprietors of many membership websites found their merchant account closed abruptly. The reason for this action was new guidelines released by MasterCard that put certain practices common to the membership site business model under much greater inquiry or analysis. Before MasterCard implemented new rules, many membership sites used techniques that were widely regarded as deceptive or even fraudulent. Not only MasterCard changed its policies, Visa had also issued similar guidelines. This resulted in conceding all the membership sites as high risk merchants.

Practice followed by Membership Sites

Let us discuss the points that make Membership sites as High risk merchant:

• Negative option enrollment: The customer makes a single payment for a product or service, but in doing so they are automatically signed up for a paid monthly subscription which they must actively cancel or opt out of to avoid being charged.
  
  
• Free trials: The customer or member is promised something for “free” (including “deferred billing” or “just pay shipping!”), but the process of obtaining the “free” item or service results in them unknowingly being signed up for a paid membership or subscription.
  
  
• Burying terms in the fine print : The membership site makes the terms of its charges and refund policy difficult to find by hiding them in the middle of a lengthy user agreement, or in tiny text in some obscure corner of the website.

Affect on business

Your membership site may be entirely forthright and honest with its members about any charges to their cards, but being part of an industry with a reputation for deception makes it harder to obtain a membership site payment processing account – especially one with decent rates and conditions. Being the part of industry with a reputation for precariousness makes it harder to secure an enlistment site portion taking care of record, especially one with respectable rates and conditions. Your best decision is to work with a charge card dealing with association that has some skill in high peril shipper accounts

How to start merchant account

Your best option is to work with a credit card processing company that specializes in high risk merchant accounts. Some of the payment processors willing to offer you an account may charge high fees or hold back an unnecessarily large percentage of your income as a “rolling reserve” to cover the risk of charge backs and other losses from unhappy members. While processing companies are taking a gamble by offering accounts for membership sites and need to protect them, these high rates can be painful for small businesses.

In high-risk business, best decision is to work with a charge card dealing with association that has some skill in high peril shipper accounts. A part of the portion processors willing to offer you a record may charge high costs or keep down a senselessly broad level of your compensation as a “moving store” to cover the risk of charge backs and diverse hardships from harried people. While dealing with associations are taking a wager by offering speaks to enlistment districts and need to secure them, these high rates can be troublesome for privately owned businesses. Dealer Stronghold-Merchant Services is cheerful to work with High Risk Merchant and tune in to their requirements to give sensible participation site accounts.

Our dedicated team has negotiated on behalf of more than 12,000 clients.  We understand the back and forth and give and take of negotiating processing accounts for high risk merchants, including hundreds of subscription service merchant accounts.

E-Commerce Business and Offshore High Risk Merchants Services

E-Commerce Business and merchants:

We all are very well aware that when Business and commercial activities are done Electronically it is referred as E-commerce. Sometimes back it was something which was considered as an advancement in the sector of Business and Commerce but now its a requirement and is taking over rapidly the whole of the market. Present and future of Shopping is online and will be completely online. And this the reason we are seeing numerous start-ups, entrepreneurs starting up with E-Commerce business and achieving their goals and growing globally. It has helped merchants to connect with their customers beyond the boundaries, and even made customer’s experience also fast, seamless, and most convenient.

A report says that E-Commerce Business sales will cross the figure of $638 Billion by 2018 in the only US using the Mobile devices. Now when you are dealing with an online business in order to take a payment from your customer through their card or electronic check you will essentially need a merchant account. A PCI compliant Payment gateway which and be integrated with your E-commerce based Business website and allow your Customer to make a transaction online and help in placing an order and paying for it online. And Here is an important Role of Payment service Provider (Merchant Service provider) who will provide an account or gateway for Merchant to take the payments online. Since an E-commerce Business can fall under either High-Risk category or a low-risk Category as per nature and transactions involved in Business a merchant applying for merchant account Must cross-check for the business category :

The following criterion is a perfect match for any business that falls into the low-risk category 

–

• Every month an amount lower than $20,000 is processed by you
• The average size of ticket that you possess is lower than $50
• Your chargeback ratio is quite low
• The industry that you cater to reflects a lower risk
• The country of your incorporation falls into a low-risk category
  
  

And following is a perfect match for any business that falls within the High-risk category –

• You have lost your previous merchant account due to high chargeback ratio.
• Questionable sales and marketing tactics
• Potential legal and financial liability
• Your credit is really bad.
• Industry is known for excessive chargebacks or fraud incidents
• Trial continuity business
• Previous credit card processing is not good enough
• You’ve been branded as the terminated merchant (TMF).

High Risk Merchant Services Provide Off Page SEO

Off Page SEO

Off-page, SEO refers to techniques that can be used to improve the position of a website in the search engine results page (SERPs). Many people associate off-page SEO with link building but it is not only that. In general, off Page SEO has to do with promotion methods – beyond website design –for the purpose of ranking a website higher in the search results

Benefits of ‘off-site SEO’ to Website

Increase in rankings – The website will rank higher in the SERPs and this also means more traffic.

Increase in PageRank – Page rank is a number between 0 and 10 which indicates the importance of a website in the eyes of Google. It is the system invented by Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google founders) and one of the reasons that Google was so successful in showing the most relevant results to the searcher.  Page rank today is only one out of the 250 factors that Google is using to rank websites.

More exposure – Higher rankings also means greater exposure because when a website ranks in the top positions: it gets more links, more visits, and more social media mentions. It’s like a never-ending sequence of events where one thing leads to another and then to another etc.

On- page SEO, Off-page SEO refers to activities you can perform outside the boundaries of your website. The most important are:

• Link Building
• Social Media Marketing
• Social bookmarking
  

Best Offshore High Risk Merchant Accounts for E-Commerce

E-Commerce Business and merchants:

We all are very well aware that when Business and commercial activities are done Electronically it is referred as E-commerce. Sometimes back it was something which was considered as an advancement in the sector of Business and Commerce but now its a requirement and is taking over rapidly the whole of the market. Present and future of Shopping is online and will be completely online. And this the reason we are seeing numerous start-ups, entrepreneurs starting up with E-Commerce business and achieving their goals and growing globally. It has helped merchants to connect with their customers beyond the boundaries, and even made customer’s experience also fast, seamless, and most convenient.

A report says that E-Commerce Business sales will cross the figure of $638 Billion by 2018 in the only US using the Mobile devices. Now when you are dealing with an online business in order to take a payment from your customer through their card or electronic check you will essentially need a merchant account. A PCI compliant Payment gateway which and be integrated with your E-commerce based Business website and allow your Customer to make a transaction online and help in placing an order and paying for it online. And Here is an important Role of Payment service Provider (Merchant Service provider) who will provide an account or gateway for Merchant to take the payments online. Since an E-commerce Business can fall under either High-Risk category or a low-risk Category as per nature and transactions involved in Business a merchant applying for merchant account Must cross-check for the business category :

The following criterion is a perfect match for any business that falls into the low-risk category –

• Every month an amount lower than $20,000 is processed by you
• The average size of ticket that you possess is lower than $50
• Your chargeback ratio is quite low
• The industry that you cater to reflects a lower risk
• The country of your incorporation falls into a low-risk category

And following is a perfect match for any business that falls within the High-risk category –

• You have lost your previous merchant account due to high chargeback ratio.
• Questionable sales and marketing tactics
• Potential legal and financial liability
• Your credit is really bad.
• Industry is known for excessive chargebacks or fraud incidents
• Trial continuity business
• Previous credit card processing is not good enough
• You’ve been branded as a terminated merchant (TMF).

What steps to be followed while going for an E-Commerce Merchant Account :

Once you are done with your business setup and you have found that your business is under which category all you need to follow these simple steps to get a merchant account.

• Choose the Right Domain
• Pick a Web-Hosting Service
• Design Your Website
• Shopping Cart for Online Business
• Payment Processor Solution for your online Business

Merchant Stronghold is one of the leaders in the merchant account industry. We offer payment Gateways and payment options that are ultimate. Before Opening a merchant account, you should know which account is best for your business. If you choose the right account, it will solve many of your problems and increase profit margin. An E-commerce Business merchant account with Merchant Stronghold will offer you these benefits:

• Reliable Merchant Account Services
• Merchant Account Pricing
• 24/7 Merchant Support

And above all, it will help you in growing your business smoothly.