JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

As a small business operator on a small sub-tropical island, one of the more difficult aspects of operation is the lack of basic supplies. A few times a year, I like to through minor surprise events which require a certain amount of decoration. We have the usual events, Halloween and New Years, and for the past two years I’ve also thrown in the Unofficial Start of Summer Celebration. When trying to order party supplies, I am faced with persons on the other end who lack international procedures. Not everyone is comfortable with using credit card information online, especially with so many security risks. Yet the sales personnel at these companies inevitably get totally confused when trying to organize a system which includes payment by international money order. With globalization through the internet, one would think it to be in the best interest of these companies to review their Standard Operating Procedures and set-up a SOP that includes the market of individuals at companies who prefer not to use credit card info over the net.