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October 10, 2024 15 mins

For Week 13 of Prep for the Holidays we're talking about how to accept payments at your holiday events, markets and pop-ups. You're going to need a payment processor! And if you've already got one, you've probably had at least one freakout moment with your payment processor hardware or software. 

So, let's talk about what you'll need and a quick checklist of what double (triple, quadruple) check before each market so you can avoid those panic inducing moments of wonky tech and instead, focus on market customers!

This episode is brought to you by our Premium Subscriber Community on Patreon and Buzzsprout

You can find Melissa at finelimedesigns.com, finelimeillustrations.com or on Instagram @finelimedesigns.

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And She Looked Up Creative Hour Podcast

Each week The And She Looked Up Podcast sits down with inspiring Canadian women who create for a living. We talk about their creative journeys and their best business tips, as well as the creative and business mindset issues all creative entrepreneurs struggle with. This podcast is for Canadian artists, makers and creators who want to find a way to make a living doing what they love.

Your host, Melissa Hartfiel (@finelimedesigns), left a 20 year career in corporate retail and has been happily self-employed as a working creative since 2010. She's a graphic designer, writer and illustrator as well as the co-founder of a multi-six figure a year business in the digital content space. She resides just outside of Vancouver, BC.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of
our Prep for the Holidaysmini-sewed series.
I think this brings us up toepisode 13, and it is a very,
very warm October day today.
That's hence the tank top todayand no hoodie.
And I have to apologize, I'vegot all my windows in the studio

(00:22):
open because it is quite stuffyin here today and there's a lot
of construction going onoutside.
My mic is usually pretty goodat filtering that out, but if
you do hear a bit of hammeringand stuff, that's what's going
on.
So, on that note, let's get onwith this week's episode.
So, if you're new here, our Prepfor the Holidays mini sewed

(00:44):
series is a series of very shortepisodes that we have been
running since the late summer tohelp you get ready for the busy
holiday season, whether you area maker, an artist, a content
creator or a creative servicesprofessional.
Q4 is a big time of year foralmost all of us and there's a

(01:05):
lot of prep that goes into it,especially if you want to have a
smooth season where you canfocus on selling, packing,
shipping, all those things thathelp bring in the dollars.
So the more prepared you can beahead of time the better, and
today's episode is very specificand if you are not, this is

(01:26):
more aimed towards the makersand the artists in our group
here.
If you are a creative servicesprovider, this may not apply to
you, and if you're a contentcreator, this is probably not
the episode for you.
But if you are a maker or anartist and if you're a creative
service provider who is going tobe doing any kind of events or

(01:49):
markets or in-person sessions,this may work for you as well,
because we're going to betalking about payment processors
.
So payment processors are thecompanies that you use to be
able to accept payments atmarkets and, in some cases, on
your website as well, dependingon the type of setup you have,

(02:12):
and there's a number ofdifferent payment processors out
there.
I am not familiar with them all.
The only one that I use isShopify, because I have a
Shopify website, so I useShopify's POS and their payment
processor.
But there are others out there.
There is Square, there isStripe and I believe there are a
few more.

(02:32):
Particularly if you're in theUnited States, I think you can
also take things like Venmo,which we don't have here in
Canada.
There's also e-transfers, whichCanadians love but aren't
particularly well suited tomarket situations, but they're
definitely a way that you canaccept electronic payments.
So that is something to thinkabout.

(02:54):
I wanted to bring this one upbecause at every single market I
do, I have a freak out momentover my payment processor, and I
just did my first market of theseason a couple of weeks ago.
It was a pop-up and there wasat least three, maybe four other
vendors at this pop-up and itwas a small pop-up.

(03:16):
There was only 12 or 13 of uswho also had some minor payment
processor freak out moments.
So if you are doing your firstmarket and you haven't figured
out how you're going to acceptdigital payments, this is
something you want to thinkabout.
And even if you already areaccepting digital payments
through a payment processor,just a few things you might want

(03:38):
to add to your checklist sothat we can minimize the freak
out moments at our markets.
So, if you're brand new to this, most markets now people expect
to be able to pay with theirdebit card, with a credit card,
and now even more so with thingslike Apple Pay, google Pay,
those types of services.

(03:59):
So it's very rare these daysthat I am offered cash, although
I did notice at my last marketand this was very interesting
that many people asked me whichI would prefer cash or card, and
I am always of the opinion thatwhatever is easiest for the
customer is easiest for me.

(04:19):
But you should be aware thatwhen you accept payment via card
, there are processing fees.
You can't escape it.
It doesn't matter whichplatform you use, there are
processing fees.
Anyone who runs a bricks andmortar shop has been dealing
with processing fees for decadeslike since credit cards came
into existence, probably.
So you will always lose a smallpercentage of the sale to those

(04:42):
processing fees.
Usually there's a transactionfee and then there's a
processing fee, and it's usuallysomewhere in the two to three
percent range of the overallpurchase.
So that is something to keep inmind.
However, it is a very expectedway to pay.
Today.
A lot of people don't carrycash, so not being able to
accept cards can limit who canpurchase from you, and a lot of

(05:06):
people don't even carry theirwallets anymore.
They just have their phone, andso they want to be able to use
things like Apple Pay or GooglePay, so being able to offer
those is a bonus for you.
So if you have markets comingup this season and you haven't
figured out how you're going toaccept digital payments, now is
the time to do that.

(05:28):
It does require that you have adevice that can be tapped.
So I don't have mine handy hereor I would hold it up.
I have a Shopify's wiseterminal terminal.
It just it's just a littleterminal I hold up and people
just tap their card to it.
They also have the option toinsert their chip card and key

(05:48):
in their, their pin number, andthe same with square it's also.
It's just a small square thingthat you tap and you pay, and
it's very simple.
It means you don't have tohandle of the day for my
bookkeeper to reconcileeverything, and I can see

(06:20):
instantly at any point duringthe day how much I have done in
sales without having to keeptrack of it manually.
It's super simple.
If you don't have a Shopifystore, you obviously can't use
Shopify, and so in those casesyou'd be looking at something
like Square, which I think isprobably the most commonly used
one at most markets.
So you will need to first applyto be able to become what's

(06:44):
known as a merchant on theseplatforms, and then you will
have to purchase your equipmentthat people will be able to tap
and swipe their cards on, andyou'll have to wait for that to
arrive.
So this is not something youwant to do the day before your
first market.
It is definitely something thatyou need to plan in advance for

(07:04):
, and I would say that if youare listening to this right now
and you don't have a paymentprocessor set up and you have
markets coming up and you wantto use that, you need to get on
it today.
So, yes, now if you alreadyhave a payment processor system,
then you know that things canhappen.

(07:30):
It's technology and so younever know.
It's always really great to beprepared.
When I did my most recent marketa couple of weeks ago, I
remembered the night before thatI hadn't used my Shopify
terminal in since the spring,when I did spring markets, and

(07:52):
so I reminded myself I needed topull it out and charge it,
which I did.
I plugged it in and charged it,and I was very proud of myself
for remembering to do that andthinking I was ahead of the game
.
The market just happened to bedown the street from my house
and we had a very generous twohours setup time before we
needed to be ready to go, andinitially I was thinking I don't

(08:15):
have, I'll show up an hourbeforehand.
You know, I don't have a lot toset up.
I have a smaller table thisyear, etc.
Etc.
And it's very close, but Idon't know.
There was something nagging inthe back of my head that said
just go, just make sure yourtech is working.
And I'm so glad I did, becauseI completely forgot when I was
charging my terminal.

(08:36):
I didn't actually test it outat home as I should have done.
So this is tip number one Makesure you test your tech before
you need it.
So like the night before.
So when I got to the venue andI turned it on and I always do a
test transaction with my owncard on something very small,

(08:56):
just to make sure that thetransaction goes through and I
went to do that and nothinghappened.
And then I got a message sayingthat the terminal needed to
update its software, which issomething I always do the night
before.
But for whatever reason, Iforgot this time.
So that is something youdefinitely want to make sure you

(09:16):
do before you head out to amarket the night before.
Make sure that the software isall updated, make sure that it
hooks up to your device.
So whether I hook mine up to myiPad, you might hook yours up
to your phone, your device.
So, whether I use, I hook mineup to my iPad, you might hook
yours up to your phone.
Whatever it is that you hookyour device up to make sure it's
hooked up to it, make sure thatit sees it, make sure that you
can run a transaction through,and it will tell you if it needs

(09:40):
to do a software update.
The thing with software updatesis you need to be able to plug
the device in while it'shappening.
You may not have a lot of accessto electrical at your market
and if you do, a lot of peoplemight be trying to share it.
You don't know how long it'sgoing to take for the software
to download.
You don't know what the wifisituation is going to be.
That's another thing.
You need to have wifiaccessibility to be able to use

(10:04):
your payment processor, so youneed to think about that.
In this case, the venue offeredus access to their wifi, but
very often I have to set up myphone as a hotspot in order for
this to work.
My iPad does not have data andso I need to set it up my phone
up as a hotspot.
My iPad talks to the hotspotthat's how I get my data and

(10:30):
then my iPad talks to the littledevice, and so you want to make
sure that's all workingsmoothly.
You want to make sure you havea backup plan.
If there's no Wi-Fi at thevenue, can you use your phone as
a hotspot?
Do you have another device thathas data that you can use?
Those types of things?
You want to make sure you havethat all working and, like I

(10:50):
said, you don't know how long asoftware update is going to take
.
In this case it took about 25minutes.
So if I had shown up when I hadoriginally planned to show up,
I wouldn't have finishedupdating before the event
started.
But because I had gone earlierthat little nagging feeling I
was able to get things hooked up.
Sometimes the devices aren'treally good at telling you where

(11:11):
they are in the process, so youdon't know and you're just
sitting there hoping it's goingto work and it's just always.
There's just always some nigglylittle thing that happens with
them.
So you definitely want to makesure that you give yourself lots
of time to test it out.
Test it out at home first, whenyou get to the venue, test it

(11:31):
out right away, make sure it'sworking.
It will just give you so muchpeace of mind, because I don't
know about you, but every timethere's an issue I just feel
that sheer panic in my in mychest that you know.
Oh no, I'm I'm screwed.
My very first market where thishappened.
I was woefully unprepared.

(11:52):
I fortunately had a friendhelping me out and between the
two of us and Googling a lot, wefigured it out and got it
working.
And, as I said, at this pastmarket, several people had
issues getting theirs to work aswell, especially if it's the
first market that you've done ina while.
If you do markets every week,you're probably good and you

(12:12):
probably know the drill.
But if you only do springmarkets and winter markets and
you take the summer off or anyof those types of things, yeah.
So make sure you're charged,make sure your software is up to
date, make sure you'reconnected properly, make sure
that you have a backup plan forwifi and test it out with a
transaction when you get to thevenue just something small, a

(12:34):
dollar and make sure that itworks so that you are ready to
go.
And if you can't make it work,make sure that you are prepared
for cash.
That's the best you can do inthose circumstances.
So that an oddly specificepisode this week.

(12:55):
But I wanted to make sure Ibring it up because I just I
know how terrifying it can bewhen something's not working,
but also because every market Ido, there is at least one or two
people that has a moment wherethey're trying to get their
payment processor to work, andit's a struggle.
So the more prepared you can be, the better.

(13:17):
This is also another greatreason why it's so great to get
to know other vendors at marketsso that if you are struggling,
you can ask for help.
Markets so that if you arestruggling, you can ask for help
.
There's not a lot of Shopifyvendors at the markets I do, but
I know who the ones that useShopify are.
So now if I have an issue, Iknow I usually know the people I

(13:38):
can go to who might be able tohelp me.
So that's really handy too.
So you know.
Another great case for gettingto know your booth neighbors at
events.
So that is it for this week'sPrep for the Holidays episode.
If you are enjoying this series,please give us a like on your
favorite podcast app or a starrating and if you are watching

(13:58):
on YouTube, please give thisepisode a thumbs up and if
you're enjoying the series,please subscribe.
And if you have friends orfamily who you think would find
this really useful, pass theepisode along to them and ask
them to subscribe to the podcast.
We are well into season six nowand we are well on our way
through to getting through thisparticular Prep for the Holidays

(14:20):
mini-sode series.
Also, I will just mention onYouTube, because this is the
only place that I can really dothis, but on we have a playlist
with all the Prep for theHolidays episodes that you can
listen to if you are late to theseries or if you just want a
refresher on particular episodes.
That's a really great place togo, where you can access all of
them very easily on our YouTubechannel.

(14:42):
So that is it for today'sepisode and I will be back next
week with another prep for theholidays mini sew series.
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