Payment methods

[Stormcrow]

I've just gone through and read all of the threads in this forum, and there is a great deal of good information and observations. I wish there was more, but I think most knifemakers are focusing on the creative and technical sides of things, like I typically do when I browse the Knife Network.

But now I'm wanting to start doing relatively low-level production of a sharp-and-pointy product for sale, and I want to do it as a business. Which means that I'm doing research in an area that I've never much looked into.

I'm certain I'll have more questions later on, but I just wanted to throw out a question about how y'all do payments for what you sell.

Cash is obvious, and personal checks or money orders get cleared by the bank before anything is ever shipped, well and good, but what about more modern methods? I'm not quite a Luddite, but I have yet to use Paypal. How does it work? What will it do for me that makes it advantageous? What about getting set up to process credit/debit cards? Everything nowadays can be bought with a swipe of plastic, nearly, so how do you go about getting set up to be on the selling end with Visa, Mastercard, and company?

Thanks guys, and in the meantime I'll keep reading the Small Business for Dummies book I bought this weekend.