Joe Rancier began his home business the way many people do; with a good idea and a small, designated work space in his office. Joe had an idea to use Autocad, an architectural program, to design custom glassware for both art and practical purposes. Joe, an amateur glassblower himself, planned to contract out custom glass designs to a small network of highly talented glass workers. The workers would carry out Joe's designs, take their profit cut, and then ship the finished product back to Joe where he could in turn deliver it to the client.

Jewel Cut Glass Design was incorporated in February of 2002. Business was slow at first. Joe and his wife Marnie worked the phones for sometimes ten hours a day, trying to find prospective clients for his business. They approached everybody from local houseware boutiques to pre-existing business contacts, and even national department store chains. The first two years were brutally slow. But after a time, a few small retailers liked Joe's glassware designs and believed in him enough to order a few sugar bowl and decanter designs. The third year saw Jewel Cut take in $9300 in accounts receivable. The resulting profits weren't nearly enough for the couple to quit their full time jobs, but from this modest success Joe and Marnie became convinced that they could succeed.

Jewel Cut Glass Design's big break came when they attracted the interest of Chimera Interiors, a large Pennsylvania based houseware chain. Chimera wanted to contract Jewel Cut for two different lines of glassware gift sets as well as a small table top design. The entire contract was valued at almost four hundred thousand dollars. Joe and Marie gleefully jumped at the opportunity and began production of the pieces even before the contract was signed. One evening, the husband and wife team were out celebrating their business breakthrough when the call came in. The news was bad. The legal department at Chimera Interiors deemed the work order could not be honored due to the face that Joe and Marnie did not have a merchant number. In order to contract business with Jewel Cut Glass, the company needed to have a merchant number and be able to accept electronic payments. Joe and Marnie could not honor this requirement and lost the contract. It was a horrible blow not only to their business, but to their morale as well.

Joe researched the issue and learned that many large companies have similar requirements. Joe quickly signed up with Electronic Payment Services, a credit card processing outfit that enabled Joe's business to be paid with one convenient swipe of a credit card. The following year Joe rekindled his relationship with Chimera Interiors and won a small contract . That same year Jewel Cut also secured a deal with Mordecai Holdings; a Canadian houseware company. Mordecai had the same rule as Chimera; they could only work with vendors that had a merchant number. But now, Jewel Cut was prepared. Jewel Cut's accounts receivable went from $9300 in 2005, to $120,000 in 2007. That's a profit growth of over 1200 percent.

Joe and Marnie not only viewed their switch to electronic payment processing as a big success, but they also recommended that all their small suppliers convert to credit card processing as well. Six months later, all of Jewel Cuts contributing artisans had converted to electronic payment processing. The result was a smoother workflow that left an electronic paper trail for easy accounting and record keeping, as well as less time and energy spent going to and from a bank, worrying about writing and cashing checks.

Credit card processing was the critical element that enabled Joe and Marnie Rancier's Jewel Cut Glass Design to get well on the road to becoming a multi million dollar company.