Money Facts

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Your mailing address can be either a P.O.Box or a street address. It is recommended that you use a street address for your business. Studies have shown that customers are more likely to order from a by-mail business with a street address than from one with a P.O.Box. Customers feel more confident about sending their hard earned money to someone they feel is at a relatively permanent address. This is probably because of the few "fly-by-night" con artist that have historically used P.O.Boxes as their storefronts. If you must use a P.O.Box it is recommended that you at least list a phone number in your advertisements. If you work out of an apartment, using the word "suite" before your apartment number will make it sound more professional.

If you prefer not to use your own street address, there are companies that will rent you the use of their street address for mailing purposes. Some of these companies can provide more than just mailbox rental. These extra services may include, sending and receiving fax, voice mail, pagers, copying, notary, packaging services, and supplies and authorized shipping outlets for some national shippers. Check your local yellow pages under "Mail Receiving & Forwarding Services".

You should also consider getting a separate phone number for your new business. It will help you keep in touch with the people who can make your new business grow.

After you have chosen a name for your business, properly formed and registered your business, and decided on a business address and phone number, you will need to open a business checking account at your local bank. You will need to bring in a copy of your fictitious business name application that you received from the county clerk.
Shop around to see which local bank offers the most services with the least service fee. An important service feature that you should inquire about from all the banks is how soon you can set up a credit card merchant account and what the requirements will be. As your business grows, you will want to be able to offer your customers flexible payment terms, including accepting credit card orders. Most banks do not like to offer this service to businesses that obtain the majority of their sales by mail or phone. If you don't get a credit card merchant account, don't worry about it. Once your business is more established and profitable, the banks are more likely to work with you. Most banks should allow you to set up this kind of service a year or two after opening the account. The sooner the better.

We at CRCI offer our clients ECC Processing (Electronic Credit Card Processing). For a small fee, we allow you to use our secure server to process your on-line credit card transactions though our system. You can contact our Sales Dept. for full details.