Opening a business
A better business,
one decision at a time.
Most of what goes wrong in year three was signed in week one — usually by someone who had never signed one before, in a hurry, with the equipment already on the counter. Here is what to settle first, in the order it matters.
Nothing on this page requires you to talk to us. If it saves you from one bad agreement, it has done its job.
Before you sign anything
Eight decisions, in this order.
The order matters more than it looks. Decide the first two and the rest get easier; decide them last and you will be talked into whatever was easiest to sell.
- 01
How your customers will actually pay
Before anything else. In person, online, on account, on a recurring plan, or some mix. Everything downstream — the hardware, the pricing model, the software — follows from this one answer, and it is the only question on this page you can answer today without help.
Words you will hear: Merchant AccountPayment GatewayACH
- 02
What the system has to do besides take money
Taking a card is the easy part; every system does it. The differences are in the rest — inventory, tables, appointments, tickets, tips, multi-location, accounting. Buy for the work, not the payment. A system that fits the work and prices badly can be renegotiated. A system that prices well and does not fit the work has to be replaced.
Words you will hear: POS System
- 03
How the pricing is actually structured
There are only a few shapes, and the rate you get quoted is rarely the number that matters. What matters is the effective rate — everything you paid divided by everything you processed. Ask for that number, and ask what it was for a business your size.
Does this lock you in? Nothing here locks you in, which is exactly why it is worth understanding first.
Words you will hear: InterchangeInterchange-PlusFlat-Rate PricingEffective Rate
- 04
The contract, before the equipment
This is where the money is. Term length, what happens at the end of it, what the provider may change without asking, and what it costs to leave. A fair agreement is one you could exit — you probably never will, but the ability to is what keeps everyone honest.
Does this lock you in? Yes. This is the single most binding thing you will sign, and the one most often skimmed because the equipment is sitting on the counter.
Words you will hear: Early Termination Fee (ETF)Anti-Assignment Clause
- 05
Whether you are buying or leasing the hardware
Terminals are worth what terminals are worth. A lease can quietly cost several times the purchase price over its term, and equipment leases are frequently separate agreements with a different company, on different terms, that do not end when your processing does.
Does this lock you in? Very often, and separately from your processing agreement. Read them as two documents because that is what they are.
Words you will hear: Equipment Lease
- 06
What the fees will be when nothing happens
Monthly minimums, statement fees, batch fees, compliance fees. Individually small, permanent, and rarely mentioned in the quote. Ask for the full schedule in writing and ask what a month with no sales would cost you.
Words you will hear: Monthly MinimumStatement FeeBatch FeePCI Non-Compliance Fee
- 07
How quickly you get paid, and what could hold it
Funding timing is cash flow, and a new business feels it hardest. New accounts also go through underwriting, and a business with no history can face a holdback on early deposits. Better to know that in advance than to discover it in week two.
Words you will hear: Next-Day FundingUnderwriting
- 08
Whether you intend to pass the cost on
Some businesses charge card users more, or discount for cash. It is legal in most places with conditions attached, and the conditions are where people get caught — signage, receipt disclosure, caps, and rules that differ by card brand and by state. Decide deliberately, not because it came switched on.
Words you will hear: Cash DiscountDual Pricing
The vocabulary problem
You are about to be sold to in a language
you have not been taught.
Not by accident. Interchange, downgrades, tiered pricing, PCI, reserves — the words are real and the meanings are knowable, but the jargon does most of the work in a sales conversation. The Fair Payments Alliance publishes 182 of these terms in plain language, with what each one means for a business and how to check it on your own statement.
Read the glossaryPublished by the Fair Payments Alliance, not by Vigilant. We did not write it and we do not administer it — we point at it because you should be able to check the vocabulary any advice is written in.
Beyond payments
Payments is one decision of about thirteen.
Most of what a new business gets sold on day one is not payments, and most of what actually goes wrong is not payments either. Here is the rest of the foundation, and roughly when each part earns its place.
Before you open
None of these can be added later without unpicking something.
- Business banking
A business account, separate from your own. Everything settles here.
- Accounting
Where the numbers land so you are not reconstructing the year in April.
- Taking payment
The account and the plumbing that let money reach your bank.
- Where the sale happens
The till, the terminal, the tablet — whatever a customer stands in front of.
- Security and compliance
Card data handled properly, and the paperwork that proves it.
Depends what you sell, and how
Essential for some businesses, noise for others. The honest answer is that it depends.
- Selling online
A store, a payment link, or a checkout on your own site.
Only if you genuinely sell online. Many businesses add this in month three, well.
- Ordering or booking
Customers placing an order or holding a slot without phoning you.
Depends entirely on the trade. Essential for some, noise for others.
- Invoicing
Billing customers who pay after the work, not at it.
Only relevant if you bill on account or on a schedule.
- Payroll
Needed the moment someone other than you needs paying.
If you are opening alone, this waits until your first hire.
Almost always later than you are told
Worth understanding now so you can recognise the pitch. Rarely worth buying at launch.
- Knowing your customers
Keeping track of who came back, and how to reach them.
The data matters from day one. The software to use it rarely does.
- Loyalty and gift
Reasons to come back, and money taken before the visit.
Almost always. Loyalty for customers you do not have yet is a cost, not a programme.
- Seeing what happened
Knowing what the day did without adding it up yourself.
Basic reporting comes with the till. Anything beyond it can wait for a question you actually have.
- Systems talking to each other
Sales reaching accounting without anyone retyping them.
Wire up the two that hurt. Leave the rest until the pain is real.
Nobody needs all thirteen on day one, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling rather than advising. The useful skill is knowing which four matter for the business you are actually opening.
Once you are open
What to watch, and roughly when.
None of this takes long. All of it is easier to deal with early, and most of it becomes invisible if nobody looks.
- First statement
Read all of it, once, properly
It will be the least pleasant twenty minutes of the month and the most useful. Work out your effective rate, and find any line you were not told about. This is the only month where everything is still fresh enough to question.
- Month 3
Check what changed without being announced
Compare statement three with statement one, line by line. Introductory pricing ending, new fees appearing, and rate adjustments usually show up around here, and almost never in a phone call.
- Month 6
Ask whether the system fits the business you actually have
Six months in you know things you were guessing at when you bought. What you sell, when you are busy, what staff struggle with. The question is not whether the system is good — it is whether it fits what you now know.
- Month 9
Find your renewal date before it finds you
Notice windows are commonly 30 to 90 days before the term ends, and they close quietly. Put the date in a calendar with a reminder ahead of the window, not on it.
- Year 1
Now you have leverage you did not have on day one
You have volume, a track record and a real statement. That is the strongest position you will have had so far — and the right moment to ask whether your pricing still reflects the business you have become.
If you would rather not do this alone
A better experience starts here.
We set businesses up for a living, and we are paid the same whether we recommend changing something or leaving it alone. If you are opening, bring us the quotes you have been given and we will read them with you.