Setting prices
What You Need Before You Take Your First Payment
Before the payment button goes live you need a registered business, a business bank account, and specific details your processor will ask for.
You've got the price set, the photo up, and the "buy now" button in place. You test it yourself before announcing it, and that's when the question hits: which account does this money land in? Do you need to register the business before you can sell a single class? What does the bank or the payment processor need to see before they'll let you turn the button on?
Nobody runs into this while reading, they run into it while selling: the first customer has already paid, or is about to, and the money has nowhere to land. The short answer is that taking card payments isn't just a button, it's a business bank account that a bank or payment processor verifies before they let you touch that money. That check asks for specific paperwork. Have it ready before you open the shop and the payment gets turned on in a day. Don't, and the review drags on right when people are waiting to pay you.
What they'll ask for, in order
- 1Register your business
Sole proprietorship or LLC, depending on your situation, but registered all the same. Without it you can't open a proper business bank account, and without one no serious payment processor will approve you. It's the first paper, and it comes before anything else. - 2A bank account in the business's name
Not the account your paycheck lands in or where you pay rent. A business account, even if it's just you, because that's where every payment settles and what the IRS looks at if it ever reviews anything. - 3Your details and the business's details
Your ID, your EIN or Social Security number, a real address, and a phone number where you can be reached. It's the same check a bank runs when you open an account: proving you exist and the business behind it is real, not a website that popped up yesterday. - 4A description of what you sell that holds up
Whoever processes your payments reads your website before approving the account. If you sell pilates classes and the site says "various services," they review it by hand and it takes longer. The more specific what you sell, the fewer questions. - 5A visible refund policy
A short paragraph, right on your site, saying what happens if someone asks for their money back. Without that text, plenty of payment processors won't finish turning payments on.
The mistake that costs you
Register now or wait to see if it works
- You don't pay for a business license or LLC filing while nothing's selling
- But you can't issue a real invoice or open an actual payment account either
- Any sale you make in the meantime falls outside any paper trail
- You pay filing and licensing costs from day one, whether you're selling or not
- You're collecting money legally from the first sale, no surprises if it grows fast
- The payment processor turns on without friction because the details already match
Which one to pick: If your site is already live with a pay button, register before that first sale, the paperwork takes less time than your first notice from the IRS. Waiting only makes sense while you're still testing the idea without charging anyone yet, using a waitlist or free customers to see if there's interest.
What to have ready the day you fill out the paperwork
How long it takes if you show up with this ready
With all five points ready, registering the business is usually done the same day if you file online. The business bank account takes one to three days depending on the bank. And the payment processor's review takes twenty-four to forty-eight hours if the details you enter match exactly what your website says: same business name, same address, same description.
That's where time gets lost without you noticing: you use one business name on the site and a different one on the sign-up form, and manual review kicks in because they don't match. Check that the name, address, and what you sell say the same thing everywhere before you submit anything.
Once this is settled, what's left is the catalog and the checkout itself, which is covered in From catalog to checkout: four steps, not one more and A straightforward price and payment in a single step. This part, the paperwork, is the one you need to close out before, not after.
In Yodai the store comes with the Free plan, with a catalog, a cart and orders. See how to create your online store for free.
- Business registered, not pending, before you turn on any payments
- A bank account in the business's name, separate from your personal one
- Your ID and business details matching between your website and the sign-up form
- A description of what you sell and a refund policy visible on your site
- A sheet with your business name, EIN, address, bank account, and refund policy ready so you fill out the sign-up in one pass
Tell us what you do and your site is live this afternoon
Say it in one line, the way you would say it to a customer, and it goes live. Free, no card needed.
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