How to Succeed in Business and not Die Trying

Any of you out there who have been in business for yourselves know that it is tough and challenging at moments.  There are alot of things that cause problems, but, in my humble opinion, accepting credit cards is the most nightmarish problem of all.  So you find a processing company you think maybe you can trust... it is okay, quite a bit more expensive than the salesperson led you to believe (he lied alot), but your clients love the convenience, so you grit your teeth and absorb the expense.  Then you stumble upon another company that is, by all appearance, a godsend, so you give it a trial run.  Saving money means not raising prices, right?  Then enter the hapless victim/client.  You charge her the amount for the item/service she receives, but the processing company hold extra funds to make sure the correct amount goes through.  The client innocently checks her bank balance and finds this extra "pending" amount and freaks out, calls her bank and reports the transaction as fraud.  She then calls you to find out what is going on and you explain the situation and that the processing company does this to secure funds.  Eventually she calls back, says the transaction went through before she reported supposed the fraud, so all is well.
The moral of this tale...Accepting checks is safer than credit cards and a whole lot less expensive!!  And have your Flying Monkeys ready and don't be afraid to use them!!

Happy Tuesday, everybody!
Tish