This may seem like a silly question, what with the decreasing amount of paper money, but whether or not a hair salon needs a merchant account is certainly a valid debate. The short answer is yes; hair salons should be accepting credit cards. Credit cards have become the prime payment method for many customers and having a credit card is a matter of convenience for many people. Hair salons provide many luxury services, not only haircuts. Because of this, their clientele typically includes the exact sort of people who carry a credit card. A hair salon could lose out on quite a few customers by limiting their payment options.

Many women go to the hair salon for more than just a cut and style. They may also want to get a manicure and a pedicure. Many hair salons have become more like mini day spas, and many offer facials, peels, and massage treatments. After spending a day at the salon, a man or woman could rack up quite a bill. If the business doesn’t have a hair salon merchant account, they are limiting their payment options, and as a result they will seriously limit their clientele.

There is another side to this though, and we must keep in mind that having a hair salon merchant account can be a significant expense, and it is ultimately up to the hair salon whether or not they have one. It is important to weight the pros and cons carefully as to whether or not a hair salon merchant account is absolutely necessary. You should look at how many of your regular clients pay with a credit card, and also at whether the other salons (the competition) have hair salon merchant accounts.

If there is a salon across the street that offers the same services that you do, but they accept credit cards and you don’t, you could lose a lot of business to the competition across the street. This is just one reason that it makes sense to have a hair salon merchant account. It’s also a known fact that when you broaden your payment options, you also widen the demographic of potential clients. There is a definite advantage to having a hair salon merchant account, and that is guaranteed payment. Most businesses do not accept checks at all anymore, because there is too high of a risk of fraud. When your client pays with a debit card or a credit card, you are told immediately whether the transaction is approved or declined. This gives the business owner piece of mind in knowing that the money is in the bank. There is no waiting for the checks to clear. It is also a better avenue of payment than cash is, because having large amounts of cash on the premises can be a risk also. If you have a hair salon merchant account, there will be less cash to deal with, and less of those annoying bank runs. This all translates into a safer and more productive work place.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 1:26 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.