Point of Sale for Restaurants and RetailWhat you Need to Know About Starting a New Business - Choosing Your Point of Sale:
December 29th 2008 08:39
Choosing a point of sale system is certainly important but it can be daunting and time consuming. To make your life easier, we've put together some helpful tips to help you organize your schedule and understand a little about what you'll go through. We add a lot to our site on these subjects, so if you find this useful, check us out at <a www.cafecartel.com.
When should you choose?
You have a time line, an opening date, you are racking up bills. Your right eye is watching your budget. Your left eye is watching the construction. You’ve got a lot on your plate. Do you find a consultant, or search through lists of point of sale companies. What about surveillance, internet, phone systems, and TV?
I mentioned Phone Systems, Internet and Surveillance all at once in the last sentence. How do these relate to Point of Sale? In the beginning they can relate a lot. These points need to be decided on early on in the renovation; at least before you've dry walled for new sites, or before you've finished the painting for renovations. So the answer to when you should choose is early on.
Who do you choose to do what?
You should choose early when you are just concerned about wiring and surveillance. When you meet with your Surveillance Provider, and your POS Provider, they are going to want to be involved in the wiring, in fact they may want to do it. There’s good reason to let them. Electricians aren’t often skilled at running network cabling, they may say they are, but here’s a simple scenario: You don’t call your cable company to run your electrical lines, and you don’t call your electrician to run your cable. Our experience is, the network specialists aren’t good at running electrical lines, but they are great at networking, and the reverse holds true for electricians. What this means is, you are ripe to choose now.
Do you have a delivery service? Are you going to use a phone system. Well when you choose that phone system you should already know what your Point of Sale System is going to be. Why, because if you choose right, then they can connect. We offer Caller-ID, but not for all phone systems. We do offer a many integrated solutions though; so it’s important you contact the POS reseller to find out how they can integrate.
There’s still more to it then you might have thought:
Now, you’ve got your phone guy, your electrician your surveillance provider and your point of sale provider. You’ve got a team here, along with everything else going on. This is getting expensive. How about consolidating? That’s what we do, and it greatly reduces costs. We focus on acquiring installers, and consultants who specialize in networking, surveillance and point of sale. These three specialties go hand in hand. Quite often we work with surveillance, since it works with security. In fact we target resellers of surveillance because they are so often familiar with point of sale.
Is that enough for you? Here’s just a few more bullet points:
• You are going to be signing up for a merchant account for credit cards. This can take some time, and you’ll want to make sure it integrates with the POS. We offer several low cost merchant services. We make sure they have great service, then we let them compete so you get the best price.
• You are going to be buying a computer for your office. You might think this could be your server. Chances are, that’s not a good thing. Depending on your surveillance choice and POS needs, you might need a server for the POS, the Surveillance and a separate office computer.
Your text goes hereSo we got through the who and the when. How should you purchase?
The two options are the same as always: lease, cash or credit. We offer leasing. You have to have good credit to make it worth it, but if it is worth it, you should definitely lease. It will increase the quality of the product you can purchase, or allow you to add more terminals, or peripherals. For example, you wanted to add that KDS system for your kitchen, but it was $1800.00. On a lease that’s only about 100 dollars more a month; you’ll be green (no paper for the printer), and you’ll have exactly what you wanted. You might not get a lease, but you should sign an application as soon as you see one. They can take a while to process, and sometimes a few days to check through several lenders to find the best rates.
Do it yourself, or use an installer?
If you are thinking this is a lot, and your budget doesn't include all this expense. There's alternatives. We leave this to the next article. Sign up for our news letter at www.cafecartel.com, or just give us an email with your questions.
When should you choose?
You have a time line, an opening date, you are racking up bills. Your right eye is watching your budget. Your left eye is watching the construction. You’ve got a lot on your plate. Do you find a consultant, or search through lists of point of sale companies. What about surveillance, internet, phone systems, and TV?
I mentioned Phone Systems, Internet and Surveillance all at once in the last sentence. How do these relate to Point of Sale? In the beginning they can relate a lot. These points need to be decided on early on in the renovation; at least before you've dry walled for new sites, or before you've finished the painting for renovations. So the answer to when you should choose is early on.
Who do you choose to do what?
You should choose early when you are just concerned about wiring and surveillance. When you meet with your Surveillance Provider, and your POS Provider, they are going to want to be involved in the wiring, in fact they may want to do it. There’s good reason to let them. Electricians aren’t often skilled at running network cabling, they may say they are, but here’s a simple scenario: You don’t call your cable company to run your electrical lines, and you don’t call your electrician to run your cable. Our experience is, the network specialists aren’t good at running electrical lines, but they are great at networking, and the reverse holds true for electricians. What this means is, you are ripe to choose now.
Do you have a delivery service? Are you going to use a phone system. Well when you choose that phone system you should already know what your Point of Sale System is going to be. Why, because if you choose right, then they can connect. We offer Caller-ID, but not for all phone systems. We do offer a many integrated solutions though; so it’s important you contact the POS reseller to find out how they can integrate.
There’s still more to it then you might have thought:
Now, you’ve got your phone guy, your electrician your surveillance provider and your point of sale provider. You’ve got a team here, along with everything else going on. This is getting expensive. How about consolidating? That’s what we do, and it greatly reduces costs. We focus on acquiring installers, and consultants who specialize in networking, surveillance and point of sale. These three specialties go hand in hand. Quite often we work with surveillance, since it works with security. In fact we target resellers of surveillance because they are so often familiar with point of sale.
Is that enough for you? Here’s just a few more bullet points:
• You are going to be signing up for a merchant account for credit cards. This can take some time, and you’ll want to make sure it integrates with the POS. We offer several low cost merchant services. We make sure they have great service, then we let them compete so you get the best price.
• You are going to be buying a computer for your office. You might think this could be your server. Chances are, that’s not a good thing. Depending on your surveillance choice and POS needs, you might need a server for the POS, the Surveillance and a separate office computer.
Your text goes hereSo we got through the who and the when. How should you purchase?
The two options are the same as always: lease, cash or credit. We offer leasing. You have to have good credit to make it worth it, but if it is worth it, you should definitely lease. It will increase the quality of the product you can purchase, or allow you to add more terminals, or peripherals. For example, you wanted to add that KDS system for your kitchen, but it was $1800.00. On a lease that’s only about 100 dollars more a month; you’ll be green (no paper for the printer), and you’ll have exactly what you wanted. You might not get a lease, but you should sign an application as soon as you see one. They can take a while to process, and sometimes a few days to check through several lenders to find the best rates.
Do it yourself, or use an installer?
If you are thinking this is a lot, and your budget doesn't include all this expense. There's alternatives. We leave this to the next article. Sign up for our news letter at www.cafecartel.com, or just give us an email with your questions.
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