It almost goes without saying that every small business needs to decide how they’re going to get paid for their work. Nonetheless, this is an essential step in launching your business that needs thoughtful consideration and planning. This article will explain how to accept payment for small interior design business services, focusing on the importance of accepting online payments in modern business today and how to do so.
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Benefits of accepting online payments
You likely already know how to accept money for interior design services offline, such as by cash or cheque. But accepting online payments provides many perks for yourself, your customers and your bottom line. Let’s explore the benefits.
Staying Current
Accepting online payments will help your interior design business stay up-to-date with current small business trends, as well as service offerings in your field. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that by 2025, cashless payments will increase by 80%, with digital wallets being a big driver of change. The growing adoption of e-design — in which interior designers provide a completely virtual service for clients — has also necessitated the importance of online payments, and savvy business owners are wise to adapt accordingly.
Creates a Better Client Experience
Life moves fast these days, and it’s important to keep this in mind for your clients, too. With their busy schedules, clients want to be able to pay you in an easy, convenient way and cross one more thing on their to-do list. Providing online payment options gives clients more accommodating ways to pay while elevating your client experience and brand.
Faster Payments, Better Cash Flow
When clients have an easy way to pay, they’re more apt to make a quicker decision to move forward with working with you on a design project. That means you’ll be able to get paid faster and maintain a steady, healthy cash flow in your business.
Saves Time & Money
Processing cheques and depositing cash takes time (and money) out of your day as a small business owner. With online payments, the process is all done virtually so you never have to waste time heading to the bank and can focus instead on your design work and growing your business.
How to accept online payments for interior design business services
Interior designers have several different online payment options that can be incorporated into your small business. In this next section, we’ll discuss how to accept interior design payments online, outline your choices, and share the pros and cons of each.
How to accept interior design payment by credit card
A credit card payment allows your clients to leverage a line of credit from the card issuer to pay for goods and services while accruing debt to their account as the cardholder. Cardholders can then pay off the full amount charged to their credit card at the end of the billing cycle, or delay the payment by paying the minimum amount due and incur a predetermined interest charge on the remaining balance until they pay off the total.
Pros
- With credit card payments, clients don’t need to pay the full amount right away for design services or goods, but are able to spread out their payments as needed. Because clients don’t need the full cash funds up front, they’re able to start working with you sooner than later, and may even be able to afford to spend more in their design budget by spreading out their credit payments.
- While convenient for your clients, accepting credit card payments is also faster and more efficient for you with transaction funds typically arriving to your account within one to three business days.
Cons
- Though credit cards are a speedier way for your interior design business to get paid, this comes at a cost. Your credit card processor will charge anywhere from 1.5 to 3.5% or more on average for each transaction, which can really add up for small businesses, in addition to any merchant service fees you’re paying.
- Accepting credit cards as a form of online payment for interior design services can also make your business more vulnerable to fraud, data hacking and potential cancelled transactions from clients who refuse to pay.
How to accept debit card payments online for interior design services
Though they can appear similar, a debit card is very different from a credit card in that funds are directly, and fairly quickly, deducted from a client’s bank account instead of being able to be added to the credit card holder’s debt total and paid later.
Pros
- Accepting debit card payments can help your interior design business get paid even faster than credit cards, typically in just one to two business days.
- Fees for processing debit cards are also usually lower than credit cards, which means more money for your bottom line.
Cons
- Unlike credit cards, which allow clients to pay up to a certain maximum amount for their line of credit, debit cards only allow clients to use the funds they currently have in their accounts or else they’ll be issued an overdraft fee. This can potentially limit clients’ spending power if you only accept debit cards alone.
- As with credit cards, debit cards also unfortunately come with the risk of fraud and data breach vulnerabilities.
How to accept interior design bank transfer payments online
By providing your bank account and sort code, interior design business owners can enable clients to pay invoices using bank transfer through their own bank or credit union.
Pros
- Usually, there are no fees for transfers.
- Compared to debit and credit card numbers, which can be more easily obtained by cybercriminals, your bank account information used for bank transfers is harder to access.
- You are less likely to have a client dispute a payment or be unable to pay as their pre-verified funds are going directly from their account to yours.
Cons
- Versus debit and credit cards, funds from bank transfers can sometimes be a bit slower to arrive in your account, taking anywhere from about one to three business days, sometimes up to four.
- While bank transfers offer greater assurance of payment and are more secure than debit or credit cards, they are still vulnerable to risk as hackers become more sophisticated with their methods.
How to choose an online payment tool
Now that you know how to accept interior design payments online, and the pros and cons of each method, let’s get into what to look for when choosing an online payment tool for your business.
Customer Support
Having great customer support and being able to reach out to a live person as quickly as possible when questions or issues arise will be very important for your business. So make sure to read reviews and choose a company with robust support services.
Security
Keeping your accounts, banking and financial information secure and protecting your clients’ information is paramount for successfully operating your business.
Low Fees
It’s beneficial to keep operation fees for your interior design business as low as possible, so consider online payment tools that fit well with your budget.
Integrations and Ability to Sync Financial Information
You’ll also want to choose a tool that integrates with other financial tools like QuickBooks for more seamless accounting, and that can sync with your invoicing or purchase order tools so you have a single source of truth for all financial documents.
Automatic Payment Requests and Reminders
Save yourself time and encourage your clients to submit their payments with automatic payment requests and reminder features so you get paid faster.
Mobile Capabilities
Being able to issue payment requests, receive notifications and respond quickly to any issues is a huge help to your business if you can do so on the go via mobile.
Ability to Collect Deposits, Retainers or Set Payment Schedules
Your online payment tool should help make your business run smoother, which includes more than just sending invoices and receiving payments. Collecting deposits and retainers and setting up a payment schedule for clients are essential features to look for.
Financial Dashboards
Last but not least, you’ll want to have a built-in financial dashboard that helps you understand how your business is performing right within the online payment tool, and without having to transfer everything to another program or spreadsheet.
Conclusion
Knowing how to accept interior design payment in various ways online, which methods are best for your business and what to look for in an online payment tool are big steps toward getting your business launched. Check out our online billing and invoicing tools for interior designers that include online payment capabilities to help streamline your process.
Want even more tips for operating your business? Read our next article, “What to Do When an Interior Design Client Doesn't Pay.”
