Scaling back
I just canceled my credit card processing merchant account for Little Pagans and Mother's Hearth. I originally got a merchant account in the height of supporting the businesses, because I was losing a lot of business through the PayPal interface. People would place an order but not get as far as actually paying because they became frustrated with the checkout process.
But that was 5 years ago. Right now, I'm not doing the volume to justify the monthly fees and premium cart account costs. I'm also not doing very many live shows, during which the credit card processing's pretty necessary for larger purchases. So I'm going to go forward only with options that don't have any associated base costs, just costs associated with each sale, like PayPal or Google Checkout.
I'm still actively running both businesses and maintaining inventory, so feel free to keep purchasing stuff and sending your friends. Hell, feel free to send me so much business that I regret canceling the card processing.
This is kind of sad for me, the scaling back. Whenever things you've put a lot of energy into shrink instead of growing, it's sad. But this kind of gives me permission to put this further back on the mental shelf, for the moment.
But that was 5 years ago. Right now, I'm not doing the volume to justify the monthly fees and premium cart account costs. I'm also not doing very many live shows, during which the credit card processing's pretty necessary for larger purchases. So I'm going to go forward only with options that don't have any associated base costs, just costs associated with each sale, like PayPal or Google Checkout.
I'm still actively running both businesses and maintaining inventory, so feel free to keep purchasing stuff and sending your friends. Hell, feel free to send me so much business that I regret canceling the card processing.
This is kind of sad for me, the scaling back. Whenever things you've put a lot of energy into shrink instead of growing, it's sad. But this kind of gives me permission to put this further back on the mental shelf, for the moment.