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Square beats a merchant account in a crisis

By Becky McCray

What is your backup plan,
if your phone line is ripped
out during the busy
Christmas season?

Here is another reason to consider Square for credit card processing over a traditional merchant account.

Yesterday, the phone line was ripped off of the back of our store. (It looks like it was snagged by a truck and drug down the alley because the end that normally connects to our service box is laying about 200 feet away from our building.) Our phone line and DSL service are out, with no repair planned until at least tomorrow. This is Christmas week, a critical time for our retail business.

When we were using a traditional merchant processor, we could not process credit cards at all without a land line. How many customers would we have to turn away?

With Square, I took my Android phone to the store, plugged in the Square reader, and we’ve used it all day. Having that as a backup option makes a big difference.

Read our story about converting to Square for credit card processing.

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Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.

www.beckymccray.com
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December 22, 2011 Filed Under: entrepreneurship

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Comments

  1. Paul Merrill says

    December 23, 2011 at 12:09 am

    Yay for Square!

    And merry Christmas, Becky.

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  2. Becky McCray says

    December 23, 2011 at 12:20 am

    Thank you, Paul. The same to you!

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  3. Linda Crim says

    December 23, 2011 at 11:42 pm

    Becky, I was wondering what device you normally run Square on..iPad??

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  4. Becky McCray says

    December 23, 2011 at 11:46 pm

    Yes, we normally use an iPad. Like this: iPad with Square in the liquor store photo

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  5. Becky McCray says

    December 23, 2011 at 11:47 pm

    Also, our phone line is back up! Yay!

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