The least enjoyable thing I do is business, but right now its taking up most of my days and nights. My wife asked me to speak at her school’s career day but I was too busy-and I didn’t want to depress her students! Even though the creation process can be very slow and tedious, it is a familiar process with both predictable and satisfying results. I’m happy, the clients are happy, the recipients are happy-as they say- “its all good!”
Then there’s business. In my last blog I talked about ‘new tricks’. I don’t mind new tricks, I’m always intrigued by new technology that improves some aspect of my life, and the website under my own control fits into that category. Now its time to set up my website’s store and that includes deciding on a payment method. My web team suggested using Paypal. In its day I used it and thought Paypal was pretty good, but now it has followed in the lead of its arrogant big brother, eBay. My research has uncovered horror stories from the seller’s side of the ledger and I just won’t subject my clientele to the hassle of their sign up system and the constant concern of having the control of my site’s billing in their hands. That pretty much narrows it down to merchant accounts, which is the ability to take credit cards on-line.
Merchant accounts are fairly expensive to set up and use. They’re also somewhat difficult to integrate with my rather complicated shopping cart, which is the main reason the store is not up and running yet. The worst part of a merchant account is shopping for the right one. So far, the process is a lot like shopping for a car, with all of the same problems-fast talking sales people, hidden fees, hidden contracts, a variety of options and a lot less honesty than I’d like. I’ll let you know who I finally decide on, and we’ll both find out if it was good decision or not. Since most of the work folks will be ordering gravitates to hockey themed art, and unless you’re a Pens fan or a fan of the Detroit Dead Things ( I kid because I’m jealous!), we’re well into the off season and I don’t know how much of my work will be selling.
I love doing art. I hate doing business.
