Your phone rings one afternoon. It's been a regular day at the office--you've been busy looking over last month's sales figures and paying the bills. It's just an hour or so since you had lunch so you're a little drowsy as you pick up the phone.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The caller on the other end sounds a little irate. It seems she's saying that one of your service trucks had hit her car and drove off causing some damage and now she wants to know what you're going to do about it.

"The big bumper on the truck dented in my door as your driver was backing out," the caller says. "I didn't get the plate because I was writing down the phone number on the back of the truck. And the truck had a number on the back. It was 315 and ..."

And so forth.

Your afternoon in the office taking care of administrative tasks has just turned into an exercise in putting out fires. And it looks like this little blaze may cost you a pretty penny because the lady on the phone says her Mercedes is hurt pretty good. It's looking to be potentially a long and costly afternoon.