I have a sister that would like to start selling items at craft shows. She would like to use an Ipad (either a full size, or a mini) to keep track of inventory, sales, and cost of materials. She would also like to use the Ipad to take credit card payments, most likely at shows that have limited web access. What Ipad would be the best choice? Has anybody here had any experience with using an Ipad for business? Please, any advice i could give her would be greatly appreciated.
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iPad Ipad for small business
- Thread starter karl33
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Well the full size iPad is much faster and would be able to do all of these tasks with ease. If she is going to be traveling a lot with it, the mini may be the way to go, it is much smaller and more lighter. It's really just personal preference. Does she want to be looking at a larger, better screen or is she going to be bringing it everywhere? You can buy the ipads with LTE so the limited web access wouldn't be a problem either then and is a fairly cheap month to month bill.
My best guess is she would be leaning toward the mini. After checking IPads out, she thought the mini was cute, and the LTE versions were the ones I would suggest to her as well. My real question would be, is the Ipad good to use for business? Does anyone here use it for that purpose? Thanks for any input.
yes it is, i've been using my mini with square up for credit/debit card transaction for the past few months. No problem what so ever.
Although i haven't yet used my iPad(i use the computer) to keep track/record inventory, i see no problems with it considering all the apps that are available.
Although i haven't yet used my iPad(i use the computer) to keep track/record inventory, i see no problems with it considering all the apps that are available.
There are def pos system type apps in the App Store, apps that work with bar code scanners and credit card scanners and receipt printers over Bluetooth (although I highly suggest try to get the customer to let you email the receipt, it's green, costs you nothing, and you get to log an email address for future email marketing). The common Mac based one is Lightspeed although it is expensive and i think you need a mac to set it up/act as the server. I'm sure if you shop around you can find a great value on a pos type app. Go for the mini it's cheaper and smaller, the full size one is kinda hard to hold when running a buisness that requires showing products to people. Get the model that takes a SIM card so you'll have Internet everywhere, but make sure you get a good deal on a data plan, most usa data plans these days are highway robbery IMO. I think the best deals you can get on tablet data plans are when you tack them on to family plans. Even with the data plan try to be on wifi whenever possible. Oh and watch that ipad like a hawk when out in those farmers markets, even in the friendliest of environments the ipad is so coveted it has a way of making honest people dishonest.