The other day I saw something that I haven't seen in quite a while, and I'm not talking about black and white television. I found a new online shopping site and their checkout page had directions on how to send in a check for payment.

I had two immediate thoughts. First, this might be an old version of the site because in my experience no one does paper checks online any more. Two, if it was current I didn't trust it. With merchant services so easy to establish why would anyone not accept payments online?

There may have been a time in the online shopping arena when only established larger businesses had credit card processing, but that time has come and gone. Consider the following examples:

• A buddy of mine buys and sells baseball cards, working from his extra bedroom, and he is set up to accept credit cards
• My uncle makes holiday ornaments from discarded aluminum cans and he accepts payments online
• The guy next door sells genuine BMW accessories online, working out of his garage, and he has credit card processing

The lesson here is that small online businesses - even very small online businesses - can benefit from having credit card services.

First, it makes their business operate more efficiently. Instead of dealing with the hassle of processing checks, all transactions are done in real time and organized for easy reconciliation.

Second, it gives people a greater sense of confidence when they deal with an online merchant. There are enough people that have been burned by sending a check to a bogus online business - including me - that seeing credit card services offers a greater sense of confidence when placing an order.

And third, with merchant account services so easy to establish and so available to e-store owners there just seems that something is not quite right about anyone who would make the decision not to accept payments online. At worst they might be crooks - at best they aren't very savvy about running an online business.

But if you are a small online business wanting to add credit card services you may be wondering how to best go about making your choice. You may have even entered "merchant services" into your search engine and found that there are hundreds upon hundreds of providers. And maybe you're feeling that you're in over your head.

One way to ratchet down the anxiety is by speaking with other small e-store operators that have made the leap into credit card processing online. They can help you navigate the processing of making a decision. Indeed, thy can show you where they may have stumbled during the process to make sure you avoid the potholes that can trap rookies.

If you don't have this resource, contact four to six credit card services providers and talk to them about what you need. See what solutions they offer and make side-by-side comparisons to see which one seems to be offering the best fit for your business.

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