I have been selling some different products I have been making on the laser for a while now. As I am a student, I am often selling out of my backpack. I recently switched to the Square payment processing system (which is exceptional by the way!) for all of my credit card processing needs. Thier starter kit includes one of the little “Accepted Cards” plaques that you are supposed to stick on your shop door or window.
As I am selling out of my backpack, I had simply stuck the sticker to a thin balsa wood frame and pinned it to my backpack. Now that I have had time to experiment with my and have become better at designing files for it, I decided it was time for an upgrade. I scanned the sticker in and traced out the sections. It looks great and now people know exactly what I do. So I figured I would share the file with you all!
I’d make it bigger with your logo and a few tag words of what you make (or “Ask me about custom laser cutting”). Then people can see it and hit you up.
Great idea! Yeah, I drew it to the correct size in Affinity Designer and must have exported it at the wrong size! The actual sticker is not huge either. About 3 inches.
Ah, didn’t realize it was a sticker you were making. Then I’d step it up a notch with a laser cut wood with your logo and tag lines in addition. Maybe hang it on the backpack with a little paracord.
My brain took me to putting the Square logo on edge lit acrylic–and also that would be cool to have when do shows–you could get one of the edgelit lanyards (I got some from xstron.com), and hang it on your bag and turn the LED on for when you’re shop is “open” (though maybe avoid using the red when doing that due to connotations of “red light district”… )
I’ve been using a Square for >10 years and do love them, finally got the chip/touch sensor version last fall, though the little card swiper is still my go-to method.
You kids have it so easy. I still remember doing crafts shows where if you wanted to take credit cards you had to use a manual machine with your vendor info on one card and the person’s credit card in a flat slot, then you put a 3-layer carbon paper ticket over the two and shoved the pressure bar over it all (after manually writing the sales details. ). We called the machine the knuckle buster because you could really bang up your fingers on it. Also remember getting stiffed a few times because this was pre-cell phone days (yes, I’m that old) and we couldn’t call to authorize the charge out in the middle of nowhere. What I wouldn’t have given for today’s conveniences!
Now you count on your Square reader and get somewhere that has overloaded WiFi so no one gets good results and there’s no cell service so you can’t tether your phone and no one knows what to do so everyone loses sales.
But you’ve got the same problem as back when you couldn’t check on the card no? Somebody could have given you a cancelled or stolen card while offline.
Exactly. I don’t use offline features but my sisters shop would at market days. The town cell towers would be overloaded, WiFi would be overloaded, so you either lose the sale or run the risk of a decline.
One hint for those of you that are doing offline captures, bypass the PIN entry and run it as credit. It’s (typically) much more likely someone will mistype their PIN than be using a card without available credit.
and have become better at designing files for it, I decided it was time for an upgrade. I scanned the sticker in and traced out the sections. It looks great and now people know exactly what I do. So I figured I would share the file with you all!
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