There’s no doubt that business coaching is a lucrative career. It’s a service that reaches any and all business types. From startups looking for help on maximizing growth to established businesses seeking assistant with staying relevant, there’s always a market.
As the world moves furthering into remote and online-only experiences, having an online storefront for your business coaching services is incredibly important. While there are many easy ecommerce site builders like WordPress, not all payment gateways work with business coaches which are high-risk.
Coaching Businesses Are Considered High Risk
Many Business Coaches Sell High Ticket Programs
There are several reasons why a business type might be labeled high-risk. For a business coach, one of the biggest reasons is because of high ticket services. When selling an expensive service online, there’s a greater risk for loss when it comes to chargebacks. That’s a red flag for banks and credit card processing.
Chargebacks occur when a customer wants to request a refund directly from their bank or payment service (e.g., PayPal) without contacting you. The bank issues a refund to them, takes the money from your account along with a fee. That fee is exceptionally high for high-risk businesses.
Chargebacks also occur with businesses that aren’t labeled as high-risk. So why do they treat your coaching business differently?
Because You Sell Intangible Services
In fact, business coaching can easily be described in more than one category that constitutes high-risk businesses.
You’re selling a service, not a product. There is a risk associated with selling something that can neither be physically received nor objectively validated. Essentially, the reputation of your company rests on how much your clients enjoy your service. If a client did not get the outcome they expected from your seminar/meeting/program, then they often request a refund through their bank. That can lead to chargebacks which banks want to avoid at all costs.
Selling subscriptions or tickets to future events (i.e., setting up a meeting that’s been paid for in advance, or tickets to a future seminar) is another red flag for banks. If the customer isn’t receiving their product right away, then there’s potential for cancelations that lead to chargebacks.
Both of these paint business coaching or high-risk businesses, in general, in a completely negative light or as if chargeback ratios are through the roof. That’s not necessarily true and you shouldn’t be deterred from starting your business. Merchant accounts designed for high-risk businesses should have chargeback and fraud protection, like what you’ll find with DirectPayNet.
There Are Great Fluctuations in Sales
Following high ticket services, many high-risk businesses have great fluctuations in sales. One day you might sell hundreds of thousands worth of products/services followed by a heavy drought. Again, the biggest issue with this is chargebacks.
Businesses that aren’t labeled as high-risk also have fluctuations in sales, but not as drastically. Banks want some level of steady income so when a chargeback occurs, there is money in the account to withdraw from. With high-risk businesses, banks might have to withdraw from a depleted account or send a positive account into the negative, and that’s not good for their bottom line.
High-Risk Merchant Accounts Ease the Restrictions (and Fees) for Businesses
Services like Stripe and PayPal are convenient and well-known across the world. But they enforce a lot of restrictions and charge high fees for high-risk businesses. Stripe suspends merchants often if there are a couple of disputes. So, while it is possible to use these services to some extent for your business, it will more than likely be met with account freezes and severe losses in profit. Read more about the risks of working with Stripe here
To remedy this situation, high-risk merchant accounts offer the same ease-of-use customers enjoy without the constant fear of having your account closed. They allow you to scale your business without worry.
All Major Credit and Debit Cards Are Accepted
With merchant account services, you can expect your site’s checkout to allow debit card and credit card payments from all major providers. Mastercard, Visa, and even bank account transfers are possible.
The attraction for sellers to use a service like PayPal is often related to its convenience and familiarity. But PayPal is rarely the only option available on any online storefront for buyers. Many of the issues faced with Stripe, arise when dealing with PayPal. You don’t want your PayPal account frozen because of a misunderstanding with a customer. Also, buyers expect multiple payment methods and not all buyers even use PayPal. So, your safest method is to use a merchant account that can cover the most widely used payment systems.
Merchant Accounts Offer Fraud Prevention
One of the biggest pain points for issuing banks and other services is the risk of fraud and chargebacks associated with high-risk businesses. Specifically for the business coaching industry, performing business online or over the phone increases the risk of fraud.
Your coaching merchant account portal and representative will help you avoid fraud. Designed around high-risk merchants, merchant accounts are adept at identifying fraudulent behaviour and suspicious activity before it’s too late. You’ll be protected against fraud, not punished if it happens.
You Have the Flexibility to Grow
One of the greatest benefits for operating an online business is the potential for exponential growth. Merchant accounts help you scale—even worldwide, whereas many other online payment gateways either don’t have global functionality or force expensive upgrades.
With a high-risk merchant account, payment processing solutions match your needs as a business owner. Your representative will work use their ongoing relationship with banks to provide the functionality you need.
Your monthly volume limits can easily increase as you continue to produce low chargeback ratios, which the right merchant account provider should assist with.
Chargeback Protection Is Included
A good high-risk merchant account includes some level of chargeback protection. After all, chargebacks are one of the deciding factors payment processors use against you. Merchant account providers, including DirectPayNet, help you stay on top of chargebacks to ensure they don’t hinder your growth. You can flag suspicious sales and utilize metrics like fraud or chargeback ratios to help you stay aware.
Security for Your Business and Your Customers
Payment providers often put protection for the customer above everything. And that’s a great thing, on the surface. But in the end, the bank or provider is what allows a chargeback to happen by accepting the request from a customer. Customer support should be available for both parties: the seller and the buyer.
To manage this risk on the seller-side, merchant accounts give you quality analytics of performance, buying, and safety metrics related to the payments you receive (e.g., credit card transactions. In addition, a good merchant account representative will help you craft and enforce a strong refund policy. Your policy should reflect the needs, concerns, and trends of the customer while protecting your business.
Don’t let banks hold you back. Use a merchant account for your coaching service—whether it’s as a business coach, life coach, relationship coach, or otherwise.
DirectPayNet’s merchant services services will help your business stay live, online, and scale. With the right tools, there is unlimited potential for growth. Tools not only include consumer-facing payment options, but also protections for your business. Our representatives will analyze your business needs and use their connections with issuing banks to give your business the payment gateway it deserves.
Contact us today and we’ll guide you through the merchant account application process as well as inform you of the benefits you can expect for your growing business.
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