There are a lot of worries involved with running your own business. From wondering whether sales will meet expectations to dealing with employees, worrying about bad checks and verifying the age of customers so you aren't selling adult products to minors, there are many potential problems that could come up any day.
Fortunately, technology can get rid of some of these worries. While it can't solve your disputes with employees, it can make it easier for you to accept payments with confidence and monitor the age of your customers.
The first and most vital piece of technology for making your business life easier is a credit card terminal. If you're not accepting credit cards, you really should be. People these days love to pay with plastic, and you'll turn some customers off by not offering the option.
While you're looking at merchant accounts and payment processing equipment, see if you can get a card reader that allows customers to put in their PIN numbers as well. This will allow you to accept debit cards, providing even more flexibility for your customers (and lower transaction rates for you).
Next, if bad checks are a worry for your business, you'll want to look into getting a check reader. This is sort of like a credit card machine for checks. Just insert the check into the reader and the amount of the check is automatically debited from the customer's account.
You get the payment within 24 hours and it's deposited directly into your account -- you don't even have to drive to the bank and physically deposit the check! Using a check reader can give you peace of mind because you'll know before the customer leaves your shop if they can afford the check they just wrote.
A final piece of technology that is a great addition for people who sell tobacco, alcohol or other adult-oriented products is age verification hardware. Electronic age verification is done with the help of a device that looks like a credit card terminal and scans the barcode or magnetic strip on state-issued identification cards.
The machine then tells you whether the person is of age to consume whatever your product is. This takes the guesswork out of reading IDs and is a lot faster than having a person inspect each patron's identification and do the math to make sure you aren't selling to minors.
In some ways technology can seem like it makes our lives more difficult, always giving us more to read, watch and do. But in the case of your business, picking up some new technology can certainly make your life a lot easier.