As I sat on the couch this morning, I had the opportunity to listen to Hubby carry on a few phone conversations in regards to his work. Hubby owns his own company and does BEWTIFUL work; however, the "business" aspect of the business is what causes him constant frustration. Between wages, insurance, and taxes, he's about ready to pull out what's left of his thinning hairline. We've quickly discovered that the government does not make it easy for small business owners to maintain or at least make a profit . I'm sad but not too surprised when I hear of so many new businesses going out their first year. It's an inevitable fact that most small business owners are set up for failure; practically before they even sign their first set of paychecks.

Back to the story at hand...this morning Hubby was dealing with two main issues; one being a a bill that he needed to pay and the other a policy he needed to cancel. He had attempted to at least address the bill using the Internet but stopped when they wanted to tack on various fees and charges for the "luxury" of using their website. What?! He's saving them a ton of time on processing a mailed payment? He's also acting as a defender of Mother Nature as I'm sure at least one tree was saved by his lack of envelope usage. So he called....and was told that the fees would be doubled if he paid them by phone. What?! Does that make sense? Are we paying the calltaker an extra dollar per spoken word? Needless to say, the tree was chopped and the USPS was again supported by our family.

Still stinging from the potential fees he dodged, he then placed a second call in order to cancel a policy he no longer needed. Not finding any appropriate forms on their website, he called customer service only to be told he had to draft a letter. The worst part about it, was that the representative was not forthcoming with the information he would need to write in the letter. He had to practically go over each line with her and then wait for her response as to whether or not certain information was needed. Good Lawd! Can't somebody throw that poor guy a bone?!

In this day and age of computer technology - specifically with the luxury of the Internet, you'd think more companies would get on the bandwagon and at least update some of their business practices. Let's try something new...make it easy on the consumer! Wow, what a concept! As a small business owner, that's exactly what my Hubby does; he tries to make it easy for his customer to be satisified by supplying excellent work at a reasonable price - not an easy thing to do lately especially with the rising costs of gas and supplies. It's just not fair that the favor isn't being returned by larger companies.

I guess I should be relieved that he at least doesn't need to use rice in his daily work functions... good grief, I could go on forever.