For all of you small business folks, crafts people, artists, consultants, tradesmen, I have found a sweet sweet way to make your lives easier.

If you have always wanted to be able to take credit cards or you have a merchant account and it is so expensive that you hesitate to do business with credit cards – take a look at Squareup.com .  This is a small device that is used with your Android or iPhone with a free application that you can download to those phones.  It enables you to swipe a credit card and process it, for a flat rate, using a little white square that plugs into the earphone jack of the phone.

The process is painless:

1. Go to the website.

2. Sign up for free.  They will send you a verifying email and also verify the bank account that you want to have your money delivered into.

3. Within a week, the little device shows up in your mail.

4. You go to the App Store for your phone and download the free application and log in to your account.

5. You are ready to go.

There is no minimum usage.

There is a flat rate for the four major cards: Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover.

Your money gets into your bank account the next business day.  Your login (from when you signed up) allows you to monitor what you have processed and see when it was transferred to your account.

One of the best deals EVER for sole owners, small business, and anyone who needs to be able to take credit cards (think how handy this would be at the next fundraiser for your church or school).

And to you who are celebrating the Year of the Water Dragon – Gung Hay Fat Choy!