Months ago at the Grow Conference I was chatting with a friend who lives and works in Silicon Valley and as we were getting coffee he said "Y'all don't have Square up here yet, huh?", to which I responded "No, what's square?". His vague explanation was that "It's changed everything for us down south. You're gonna love it."
Months later (a couple of weeks ago) I received a press release announcing Square's release in Canada, and immediately I signed up so that I could take it for a test drive.
Make no mistake, Square is the best new tool made available for small and micro-sized businesses in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»since Chargex was introduced in 1968. It has broken down a barrier that even Paypal couldn't do, allowing every single business owner/crafter/market vendor the ability to process credit cards on their smartphone. Gone are the days of having to apply for expensive merchant accounts and paying for equipment which you'd have to have a brick and mortar store to use. Gone are the days of monthly fees. Behold Square, pictured plugged into the top of my phone below. It's free.
iPhone with Square installed - recycled cardboard and plastic cover customized by my 3-year-old sold separately
The credit card scanner hardware pictured above is free and it works with iPhone, iPad and on Android devices with a free app. There's no monthly fee and the pricing is 2.75% per transaction. So on $100, they take $2.75.
I decided to take it for a spin today and sell our receptionist her own rubber stamp, just to see how things worked. First we input the price ($1.00), then we took a photo of it and added a description.
Next we swiped her card through the hardware and she signed her name on the screen using her finger.
She clicked CONTINUE above and then we had the option to either email her or TXT her the receipt.
That's it. The money (97 cents, as I charged her one dollar) is deposited into my account the next day. On the back end I can log in to my account through their web site and see my transactions etc. It's all very simple.
I probably don't need to point this out but this is such an incredible leap for payment technology in local farmer's markets, craft fairs etc. Where before you had to pay cash only, this puts a whole new power in the hands of small and micro businesses all over town. Honestly, tell me you can't remember a time when you went to some sort of event and they took cash only, you didn't have any on you so you said you'd go to a bank machine and get some but then something came up or you were just plain lazy and never returned to buy that product? That's gone. The future is here. And it's square (er, Square).
Visit and sign up if you run your own business. Tiny, small, heck I could see a use for this at even medium sized businesses. Very awesome.
