Money

Need help figuring out just HOW much money you will need? Where to get it? How to apply?
Check out SCORE, counselors to America Small Business! There is a wealth of information here.
Also check out The Small Business Association. They can give you great advice on starting a business, financing, outside and local resources, and this site also has a great search engine!!
Make sure you visit our other link: Business Plans, as when you are applying for financial loans, etc., you will need one of these!
At any rate, if you are going to be seeking money, keep in mind that you will need a Personal Financial Statement, with your pertinent information ready to be shown. (Some include this in their Business Plan)
Also, decide if you want to acquire an Equity Loan (where the investors own a party of the corporation), or a Debt Loan (where you pay the investors, and they are not a part of your establishment.) Or both. Whomever you get the money from, they will want to know what their ROI is (return on investment) will be. You may want to visit our Accounting pages, so you can come up with a Profit and Loss statement. Some also insert this projection in their Business Plans as well.

Banks and Credit Card/ATM processors
Check with your local bank, or a large bank chain for the rates and machines that they offer. Sometimes the better deal is on a used machine (you can save hundreds of dollars!). Your bank can give you Credit Card & ATM processing companies that they use for direct deposit, that you will have to enter on the machine on a nightly basis. Have this information handy when you call:
1. Know your average check. Based on your menu prices, what is the average cost?
2. Know your Gross income of sales, and what your % of your gross credit card sales are.
If you are a new business, try to guestimate.
3. Do they accept Visa/Master Card check debit cards?
Once you have your credit card application and direct deposit to your bank account set up, if you have a POS (point of service) computer, it may take the credit card purchases as part of its program, print it out, show up in its report and directly deposit it.
Once you have applied, call the credit card compies you are registered with (this information will be given to you, usually in a sticker form that you should attach to the machine) and ask them for their "freebies." (You may have to make several phone calls unfortunately until you reach the right department.) These include Check Presentation Books and Tip Trays.
(Creative Thought: If you get Tip Trays, have your staff decorate them, or you can paint them. Laytex paint works best)
SUPPLIES
You can buy your ink cartridges and paper from the credit card suppliers and they will ship it out. But it is cheaper to just purchase these items at an office supply store.
NOTE: Been there, done that - your electric has gone out due to a storm, (hope you have candles) the phone lines are down, you've run out of machine tape. Egads. Make sure you have a "knuckle cruncher" and credit card slips as a back up. Knuckle cruncher you say? What's that? Remember the manual contraption where you put the credit card in, the slip over it and run a big black thing over it all to make the carbon copy? Have one of these. Sometimes they are hard to find, make sure you ask your bank if they can supply you with one. If they can't, then at least make sure you get some credit card receipts where you can write in all the information for check presentation to the customer. Use the phone numbers to your credit card processing center to get authorization codes!! Later, when your credit card machine is up and running, you can enter all the information in for direct deposit.

Accepting Checks???
Make sure you get a Check Verification System (a machine), AND/OR (because of power outages) a stamper with pertinent information for customer to sign (usually for the company you sign with the authorization to collect on the check including NSF fee's) In this case, most check verification companies require the usual inforamtion: Driver's License or State I.D. # written on front of the check, (being the same person & address on the check) 2 phone numbers, (one a work number) no starter checks or checks under number 100, and a certain limit of number of checks per day written by a single person, as well as the monetary amount maximum per check accepted and guaranteed. The failure to follow all of their guidelines will not have it guaranteed. Make sure you staff knows this, notes payment type on guest check and IS responsible for non guarantee if proceedures aren't followed.