Some of you might know that thanks to an incredibly awesome lecture by Dawn Shields, the super sponsor of said lecture, Black River Imaging and the fast feet and generosity of one awesome Betty, Heather DiPiazza, I won an iPad at WPPI. Quite possibly the coolest moment I’ve experienced in a long time. And since then, I’ve been working hard to figure out all the innovative new ways this device can become an indispensable business tool. For those of you who have one, you probably know that list gets longer and longer every day. But here’s one way I’m making it work for me and loving it:
I’m a walking transaction machine.
With the app-combo of Square and Zosh, I can now meet with clients and close deals instantly, from the contract to the deposit.
So picture this: You’re meeting a client you’ve spoken to on the phone who seems interested in your packages. Loves your work, wants to meet in person, is still considering all their options. You’re hoping you’ll make a connection – and a good impression. You order your Starbucks soy latte and and you wait for them to arrive. But today, you’re armed with your iPad and a few nifty apps that are going to help you close the deal. Just as you’d hoped, you and the couple have chemistry and you think they’re sold. Before this particular meeting, at this point in the game you’d have an awkward exchange about how they didn’t remember their checkbook and you didn’t have all the information you needed to complete the contract before you left the house so you both walk away and you continue pursuing the “sale” for a few more days, chasing paper and waiting for that deposit check to arrive in the mail.
Not today.
Today, you whip out your happy-little-light-box (as my husband likes to call it) and pull up their contract with Zosh. You make a few additions to the wording, add a couple of specifics on the location and perhaps make some tweaks to the package and then hand it to the client – to SIGN. No stylus, just with their finger. Then BOOM. Transmit the doc and you both have a copy waiting in your inbox. Signed, sealed, delivered.
Then, you plug in your Square card reader, make the swipe and take the deposit to hold the date. You are now, in a matter of seconds, BOOKED. And the client is impressed, by the way. You look so. darn. legit. Even if you are meeting at a coffee shop to do business.
How it works.
Square enables everyone to accept credit cards – not just entrepreneurs. 
A simple and painless set up process online with a bank account verification and you’re in business. They send you a credit card swipe device for free which plugs easily into your iPad headphone port (or you can type numbers in manually allowing you to take payments over the phone). The money is deposited into your personal or business checking within 24-48 hours.
And Zosh is an e-signature application that allows you to make additions (unfortunately, not fully edit yet) PDF documents that you can pre-load onto your mobile device. 
Using your finger on the touch screen, you can capture signatures onto contracts and transmit them via email – eliminating any paper exchange. Simplifies the process while also being a great Green alternative!
There are other applications like Zosh out there such as Right Signature, Docusign and Autograph, but I chose Zosh because it was free and allowed the most features. The company has plans to add other types of document formats to their repertoire soon and expand their editing capabilities.
Don’t have an iPad yet? Good news – you can do everything I mentioned above on your iPhone and most smartphone devices!
So what are you waiting for? Get out there and book ’em, Danno!!
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