Taking payments from clients

doublewhammiesallround

I have a small hair extension business and take deposits clients via card machine from clients. The payments are taking two days to hit my account and if the client wants a next day appointment I have to order and pay for the hair that day, so in effect I am paying for the hair out of my own business bank account and then the deposit they paid hit the account two days later. I am wondering if there is an easier method than this to help me as sometimes the hair orders can add upto £600 plus. I obviously like to order the hair in bulk so it saves in phone calls and posted but I have to live and pay bills and shelling this amount of cash before all the deposits hit my account that I have taken from clients is having it's bearing in me.

Can anyone else think if there is some sort of a card system not really a credit card or anything. Any suggestions would be really helpful thanks

trailingspouse

Who do you have your bank account with? If you can use the Faster Pay system, money paid through BACS should hit your account within a couple of hours.

Alternatively, could you just refuse to do next-day appointments? Explain that you need to order the hair, so you need at least 48 hours notice? That sounds reasonable to me.

Having said all that, paying out up-front in the expectation of making a profit in the future is basically what all businesses do. I've just received payment for work that was done in December!!

doublewhammiesallround

Thanks for that I'm gonna rethink how I go about these
things

DKLS

I noticed in the latest edition of the Costco mag, they are promoting a take secure card payments with your smartphone, and chip n pin reader service.
https://www.izettle.com/gb/costco not sure if its any good or if it suits your business model but might be worth some research.

doublewhammiesallround

I have izettle and that takes longer to hit the account so I don't use it, think it's gonna be reschedule appointments for later dates.