Telephone inquiries, banking errors and consulting

Two events to report on that happened yesterday. First my cell phone rings and I glanced quickly at the screen and saw a number that looked like my wife calling me from work. So I picked up the phone and said "Hi sweetheart". Well turns out the number was not my wife's but someone inquiring about ad rates. What an embarrassment! So I tried to apologize and salvage the situation. The lady, Grace was her name, thanked me for the information and then hung up. I may just call her up sometime next week to follow up.

Secondly, I reviewed the bank statement for the magazine' bank account only to find that i had $115 in bank fees for the month of March. Needless to say I hit the roof. I calmly look for the documents governing the account to see the fee structure and sure enough the bank was wrong. This was supposed to be a free business checking account so I called the bank to straighten it out. The charges were reversed and the monies refunded but it got me thinking: this type of thing affects small businesses more than it affects their larger counterparts. Errors like this can result in bounced checks, ticked off vendors etc. So in addition to servicing clients, marketing their business they have to take care of the administrative side as well, which often gets overlooked. Which leads me to another point: given my accounting background I am contemplating starting my own accounting consulting business helping small business owners understand the value of their accounting system, how to get the best from it, integrating it into operations and I suppose if necessary run their accounting departments. Not sure how to take the leap but working on that plan.