Hi Danny,
Thanks for the advice. I have established a wallet and am waiting on my dwolla being confirmed. But then I find MtGox <-> Dwolla is maybe not what I expected (they seem not to play well together), so I come here reading forums and determine I "might" be able to secure some bitcoins via trading - but only after I leave newbie purgatory.
I would somehow hate for my customer base to have to rely on bitcoins to do business with me. Note sure if any of them would ever make it.
cheers, and thanks for your kindness.
berry
If you are in a hurry, I'd recommend using bitInstant. You'll pay a transaction fee, but they don't have the delays or complications that mtGox has. You also might want to take a look at localbitcoins.com. There may be someone geographically close to you who might be interested in exchanging in person. Such a transaction wouldn't have the trust issues you are encountering with trading online.
As for your concern about your customer base having to rely on bitcoins, you aren't likely to have a lot of customers go out and get bitcoin just so they can pay you (unless you offer a unique and highly desired product/service). However, you may have customers who already have bitcoin stopping by your business so that they can use them. Seems like an opportunity to increase sales a bit. As bitcoin catches on more, you may see increased comp sales as more and more customers engage in business with you.
If you can think of a faster easier way for a bitcoin seller to engage in transaction with a bitcoin buyer, then there is certainly a business opportunity for you, right? Once you obtain a large sum of bitcoin you can offer them with a slight fee for profit using whatever method/system you've thought of to reduce fraud issues while simplifying the process. If your system really is faster and easier than the current systems available, you'll likely find that bitcoin purchasers will be thrilled to give you their local currency in exchange for your fast and easy to obtain bitcoin.