I never really gave a lot of thought to the reach and immediacy of the Internet until a friend took a two-year assignment in New Zealand and we started sending IMs back and forth during the day. We had a level of communication in real time that was not possible 10 years ago. So I got to thinking the same global reach is there for my online business. Anyone anywhere who has a credit card is my potential customer. And that is just too weird to think about, but it does reinforce my belief that all online businesses should have merchant accounts.