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MenuHow can I test payment models for an app without having a company to get an account with payment processors such as Stripe?
I have decided to postpone the launch of my company until I know I have something worthy of making such an investment. I want to make sure people will be willing to pay and that I have some numbers to analyze before bootstrapping it any longer. Thanks for helping!
Answers
If you're asking about processing point-of-sale payments, have you considered using the smart phone tools available from Square, PayPal or QuickBooks? You don't need to have a formal business entity structure to use these. A sole proprietorship is a viable business model to conduct some sales and test payments.
Depending on the size of your test you could always establish a "TEST" account with a gateway/payments provider that understands this is a primary step for your proof of concept.
If I understand your question correctly, you could test with Stripe or PayPal without any extensive development, cost, or commitment. Otherwise, you could just use a secured form to test conversion.
To be honest, if your product targets the high value use case, people will pay whatever you charge. http://avc.com/2015/07/bootstrap-your-network-with-a-high-value-niche-use-case/
The other thing you could do is look at competitors and see what they charge, and how are they missing out.
Related Questions
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For a SaaS, I find that Stripe is not available to Indian companies. What are other Stripe-like payment gateway options for Indian companies?
there is Balanced, Dwolla, Braintree but none of them seem to work in India yet.HJ
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How can I make sure that my customers pay in a timely fashion?
What you are seeing is a pattern for a business that is experiencing a cash flow issue and ultimately will go out of business as suppliers will move them to prepayment or COD. One solution to protect your business is to accept a credit card for payment of the invoice within 7 days and let them manage their cash flow challenges behind the scenes with their issuing bank. The other option is to offer prepayment and if they are not in position for that then I would no longer sell product/services. Sometimes it takes one supplier to force the inevetible, but you have to protect your business and resources as well.RK
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Which is the best payment model for a services marketplace?
There are several questions/pieces of information you would want to consider to know which avenue to go down (a few highlighted below): - which platform are you going to be on-boarding and connecting students/tutors thoughts? web, mobile, hybrid or brick & mortar (includes actual phone calls etc) - how often are disbursements of funds going to happen with a typical transaction period (say 1 month)? - what is your service fee/cut for the work completed? are you working on a %/commission basis or are you generating funds from clients in another way? - which party shoulders the service fee your charge? Is it just one party or both? - is the transaction always intending to be a 1 to 1 relationship (i.e. would a group of students be able to hire a tutor for an exam review session and split the costs etc?) those are just a few things that should be top of mind as you consider which ways and means you intend to collect/process payments for your service. I'd be happy to jump on a call and walk through these and other questions to help get you on the payment model/processor right for you. Just click below and request a call to get started. https://clarity.fm/jcgarrettJG
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Holding funds in a 2-sided marketplace?
Check out https://www.balancedpayments.com/ They are made for marketplaces. Airbnb CEO among others invested in them and they have some of the best pricing/payout fees. Also some good info on http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/2013/10/08/online-marketplaces-are-hard/ One of Balanced Payments co-founders is writing this blog series on marketplaces.MA
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Should a business have a chargeback policy?
When a credit card is used to make a purchase/payment the cardholder has the ability to chargeback that transaction for up to 180 days with the issuing bank. If they have not received the product and/or service as promised they will contact the issuing bank.RK
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