The Joys of Business Ownership
and Other Weirdness

So I'm running this huge sale on ACS, and everything is going along great... and then last Thursday my credit card processing stops working. I've been with Nova for almost 8 years and have never had a problem. It takes me a day and a half to figure out that the problem is not with my customers' cards, but is actually on my end. Here I am, in the middle of my most successful sale ever and ...WHAM! I slam face first into a wall. Phone calls to Nova ensue.

"I'm sorry, you're reached your maximum monthly volume."

huh? "Maximum volume? What are you talking about?"

The Nova rep is polite, but insistent, "You have a cap on your monthly volume. It's in your contract."

I don't doubt the guy. I haven't looked at this contract since I signed it 8 years ago. At the time I opened the account my income was microscopic. I'm sure any caps seemed like pie-in-the-sky dreams at the time. If I thought about it at all I'm sure it was something like "I should be so lucky as to reach that cap!"

"uh... Ok, this may seem a little obvious, but you guys do realize you get a slice of every transaction I process, right?"

"Yes, we know."

They were able to give me a small temporary increase "to get me through the rest of the month". ho ho ho... I blew through it in two days. More phone calls... but it's the weekend now and there is not much they can do. I had to take VeriSign offline and start collecting the CC info manually, running it through my trade show account until I could get this mess straightened out.

Fortunately the story has a happy ending. They were able to push through a permanent increase in my cap, more than doubling it from what it had been before. All is cool now, but it was a surreal experience. I had these visions of myself on my knees before Nova saying "Please!! Let me give you more money!"

Steve, my dear husband, commented "I hope the increase is enough". Not me! It was a weird thing to happen, but if you're going to have problems, these are the kind you want! I'd rather have too much success over failure or mediocrity any day.

Pam

Art Clay Silver currently on sale for 10% to 34% off with quantity discounts! Offer ends 9/30/05. Click here for details

Art Clay Silver Competition:
Honorable Mention

My piece, "Through the Storm", won an honorable mention in the first annual North American Art Clay Silver Competition. Click here to see all the winners.

"Through the Storm" is a lidded box. It weighs 70 grams and measures 3" in length. The entire piece is composed of fine silver. The color was achieved through a liver of sulfur patina. To view a larger image of the piece click here

This was the first time I've entered a competition, and I learned a lot from the experience. One of the main things I picked up was to focus not only on the piece itself, but on the overall presentation. I put a lot of time and effort into the box, but then just strung it with a bit of chain and a leather cord. The top winners put as much time and energy into spectacular bead work, collars, or other presentation, as they did the centerpiece itself.

I think I've been bitten by the "competition bug" now. I find myself searching the internet looking for more "calls for entry"!

Pam

Art Clay Silver currently on sale for 10% to 34% off with quantity discounts! Offer ends 9/30/05. Click here for details

Welcome to my Blog! Here you get to find out how Pam East's brain works... in theory anyway. lol. It's a work in progress. I'll just post my random thoughts and we'll see how it evolves.

Pam