New business - collecting payment

Associate
Joined
2 Oct 2004
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Hi all,

Wife is setting up a new small business running baby and toddler activity sessions and needs a way to collect payment from parents. It will be for differing amounts based on a few variables so ideally she’ll be able to send an email to a parent for the exact amount, she said she has experienced something similar from a class she’s been to before but not sure what platform it was.

Has anyone got any suggestions for companies/services for me to look into?

Much appreciated and thanks in advance.
 
Soldato
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17 Jun 2007
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Paypal business . She can invoice direct

Or she could get an app done and take card payments that way.

but if she's a very small business then I'd probably just go with PayPal Business
 
Soldato
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Surrey
Make sure she's got a business account set up with someone like sterling Bank. Keep the business finances separate from her own otherwise headaches ensure when it's tax return time.

As for platform, no idea, she could give out her bank details on an invoice, that's what I do.
 
Associate
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GoCardless:
Online sign up where customer enters bank details.
Allows you to set up recurring/ one off direct debits for differing amounts
 
Soldato
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Deep North
Just email account number and sort code. Surely everyone has a banking app these days.

Other than that use Stripe to send invoices and collect card payments.
 
Soldato
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I work in this industry, the key question is how much is she expecting to take in a month & what will the average transaction value be?

Absolutely do not just jump in and use Paypal, Stripe, Sumup, iZettle etc without properly costing this up as the fees on those per transaction are ridiculous.

Best bet would likely be a Virtual Terminal/pay by link facility linked to a proper merchant account, the fees for which will vary somewhat depending on the answers to the question on the first line of my post. This would allow her to send e-mails/invoices which contain links to parents, parent clicks on the link & it takes them to a page to pay, parent pays & your wife gets a notification.

If you can answer the question in line 1 of my post i'll point you in the right direction.
 
Soldato
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A separate personal account will do, she is after all a sole trader by the sounds of it.

As am I, I have a business account with Starling, it's free so you might as well. A bushes account helps you get business rates on things eg phone contracts. I think it's also against most banks t&C's to use personal accounts for business use (at least that's what HSBC told me).
 
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I think it's also against most banks t&C's to use personal accounts for business use (at least that's what HSBC told me).

It is, but everyone does it and the banks know but don't care that much. They even had a section for the Covid Bounce Back Loans which was "I am a sole trader using a personal bank account" to still be able to apply for one :p
 
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