How to take your customers' money

Small business owner C.J. Liu "does not need an assistant to send out invoices or to track accounts payable and receivable. She never has to wait for checks to arrive in the mail, and she does not have to visit the bank."

That's because Liu uses PayPal. "More and more," this story continues, "small businesses and sole proprietors...are using PayPal as their back offices."

It's a no-brainer: What more could a small business want than a simple, few-click option to get money and move on? Yes, there's a fee, but it's a fee you only have to pay when someone's paying you. And it's cheaper than most credit card fees.

Sure, you could go through some cost-benefit analysis and figure out whether you'd save time and money by implementing some other third-party solution, especially as your business grows much larger. But, for now, who has the time for analysis?