2005 - 09-15-05

And the same thing will happen with the mail
orders. Either you have to pick up the mail yourself or have
an employee do it and someone has to deposit all those
checks.

And someone has to fill all those orders.
Again, it's either you, your employees you're having to
supervise, or some fulfillment agency you're watching.

Of course, you'll also have to have a merchant
account to process your credit card orders. And that, my
friend, is when
you will find how delicate that particular link in your
chain of success is. There's a very good possibility your
merchant account (even if you've had it for 20-years) will be canceled... without any warning
whatsoever. This might result simply because you did
something that caused a legitimate but abrupt increase in
your income flow. Or it might be canceled because a few nut cases
have called the bank operating your merchant account
with irrational complaints about your company.

Or, your merchant account might be canceled, believe it or not, for no
rational reason whatsoever. Maybe
some underpaid clerk at the bank was having a bad hair day
and resented the idea you were taking in
a lot of money.

Most of you think if you run your
business in an ethical and upright manner you'll never have
to worry about customer complaints. You couldn't be more
wrong. Customers (and even non-customers) will complain about
anything imaginable. Once, I mailed one of my semi-famous
dollar bill letters to a lot of people and the first line of
the letter read:

As you can see, I've attached a nice, crisp
$1 bill to the top of this letter.

And you know what? One
guy sent me a very hostile complaint letter because the $1
bill I sent him was a little wrinkled and not crisp and
neat. This is a true story. Can you imagine that? Here's a
guy who receives absolutely free money in
the mail and bitches about the fact the dollar he
received was not in 100% mint condition.