setting up website- receiving payments?

[changeofname]

I've changed my name for this but am a regular poster.

I want to start working as a consultant. I would like to market myself mainly through the internet, as would like to work almost entirely from home. Some of my clients will (hopefully!) be from the States, so I would like to be able to recieve payment by credit card.

Has anyone else done anything similar? I would like start up costs to be as low as possible. Is it best to just buy a domain name and allow people to pay by something like pay pal, or is it better to pay for hosted e-commerce - eg bigstep or something.

Has anyone tried anything like this?

Hi changeofname - I've been thinking about the same thing. The advice I've been given so far is that you may have to register as a mail order company to allow payments to be made over the internet (have to investigate that one a bit further). I've also thought about emailing some small companies I've purchased products from to see if they'll offer any advice, or to contact the pay company they're using directly for info.

HTH and good luck! It would be lovely to work from home (ie. other than being a mum!) and get an income from it!

Hi changeofname 1 and 2.

AFAIK you do not have to register as a mail order company in order to take payments over the internet. I think it's relatively easy to use Paypal to take payments, but it has a slightly amateurish ring to it IMO, so if you're concerned about looking more professional you will need to set up a merchant account with a bank and use an online service like Worldpay or Secpay to process the payments.

I'm a web developer and have worked on numerous e-commerce sites, but my colleague is the one who always deals with this specific aspect so when he gets into the office later I'll ask for more info from him and post here.

HTH

secpay website

We've used secpay a lot - their charges are relatively low and they transfer money into your bank account daily (whereas many other companies transfer it weekly or monthly). I definitely recommend them (not employed by them, honest!).

Sorry, I forgot to add that I don't know anything about hosted e-commerce services - I imagine their charges are quite high, but then if it offers a complete service and takes the hassle out of it for you it may be worth looking into.

ooh thanks for that. I've organised paypal in anticipation and will look into secpay. I don't want to spend too much while I test out the waters so cheaper the better. I've decided against hosted e-commerce as it seems more set up for small shop type businesses, rather than consultancy. Managed to find a decent web host for a pretty reasonable rate, have secured some domain names and am currently building the website (bit of a learning curve)- and am currently using Mozilla - as the site doesn't have to be too flash - and again I don't want to fork out very much.

Thanks for the tips. Good luck with yours con2! (oh dear "con"- maybe I should change my change of name)

Thanks Spacemonkey and con1 ! There's so much to think about isn't there...

I almost used that acronym when I posted and realised what I was typing too!