Alternate Payment: Try a Square Reader!

It's a quick response, used both as a sigh of disappointment and as an excuse to not buy your band's merchandise:

"Sorry, I don't have cash; all I've got is a card!"

Well, here to solve that pesky little sentence forever is...

Square is a portable card-reader that you link to your business' name and can use without monthly fees or extra charges. The device itself costs ten dollars to buy at a store, and is free if you ask the Square website to mail it to you. The only 'cost' is the percentage that Square takes of your card-based transactions, which is a little less than 3%.


You've probably seen a Square in action by now,  either conspicuously plugged into a vendor's smartphone at a downtown festival or cleverly hidden in the wooden Ipad stands that many hip coffeeshops and mom-and-pop stores are using instead of cash registers.



My first experience using Square was in March, when I agreed to run the merch table for a friend's band at their album release show. I was a little nervous at first, but it was easy.

Easy to register under the band's name.
Easy to set up with the Ipad.
Easy to arrange a menu of items. Easy to apply discounts.

And, best of all, easy to 'settle' at the end of the night (Square tallied everything up, showed how much of which items I sold, and even had a function to help me tally how many items had been sold with cash instead of a card-swipe)!

The good experience I had with Square is what compelled me to buy one for myself this past week.

My experience this second time was exactly the same: easy all-around and so very convenient. I highly recommend this useful device!