How do I take card payments as a one-person business?

You need to take a card, and the reason isn't convenience — it's the job you don't get because you couldn't. Nobody drives to an ATM for a driveway quote. Every processor works the same basic way: a reader or a link, money in your account in a day or two, and a cut off the top.

That cut is real and it's worth saying plainly. On our own barn boards, the card company takes 2.9% plus 30 cents a transaction — we publish it right on the ledger instead of burying it, because a neighbor would. Whatever processor you choose, ask for that number in writing, and price your work knowing it's there.

What matters more than shaving a few tenths of a percent: getting paid at the job, while you're standing there and they're happy. A card link on an invoice, a reader in the truck, and a booking page that takes a deposit will do more for your cash flow than any rate negotiation.

In a barn raising, card payments are the last gate — the one that means you're open.