Checking Account

I hit the treadmill first thing yesterday morning. The iPhone music set-up worked pretty well, and I managed to get in about 20 minutes worth of a walk/jog before T called and I lost my momentum and my music. Ah, well.

After my semi-workout, I headed to the bank to set up my small business checking account. After the hassle of getting the fictitious business name statement from the county, the bank teller just glanced at it and said, "oh, thanks" and that was it. Setting up the account was fairly painless, until the teller guy had to check which category of their bank software program to list my small business under. There was no such thing as a listing for midwifery services.

But, here's the cool part. So, I specifically chose a bank that I already use for other accounts, and because I always go into the bank to do transactions, all the folks there know me and I'm familiar with all of them. I'm one of those people who chats at the window about all kinds of stuff and holds up the line. Anyway, I know that the bank teller who set up my account is ethnically Indian. When he couldn't figure out how to categorize my business, he called over the assistant manager, who is Mexican. When she didn't know how to list it, the African branch manager came over to help. All three of them stood there staring at the computer screen, mumbling to themselves and trying different keywords they came up with, like "midwife," "midwifery," "childbirth," "prenatal," "antenatal," "home birth," etc. They ran down the list of options under the health care category and then would tell me, "no, it's not childcare," "nope, not assisted living," "oh, definitely not labor union, not that kind of labor." I was quite amused. Especially since not one of them so much as blinked when I came in saying I was a midwife. They never asked the stupid questions I often get about whether I actually do this at home or whether it is legal. They never treated me like some kind of freak. Their shared frustration was that the American computer system didn't recognize what they all knew to be a valid internationally-recognized and respected profession. I loved it.

Eventually, we settled on listing my business under "nursing - other at-home services," even though we all knew that midwifery and nursing are NOT one and the same. They were very apologetic about the computer system and wished me luck with my practice. The teller even told me to bring in a stack of business cards, since he knew many potential clients at the bank.

Overall, it was a good experience. I'm just relieved it's done. I'll get my debit card in the mail in a few days, and then I'll be able to set up my online account and order pages of big, fancy checks that can be printed on the computer. It is yet another exciting step in starting my own small business.