Consulting benefits???

Today, has certainly been an interesting day. It started early on in the day....

1. A friend of mine called at 7am this morning on her way to work venting about her employer stalking her, in a sense, by preventing her to move forward to move out in the field. She works for a home builder in Houston and works diligently and hard to accomplish her job goals for the employer, but, because she is a single Mom of two active boys, they view her as a casualty instead of an asset to being promoted to a field position. If they would just give her a chance… Actually, it isn’t so much her employer as it is her boss, who also told her that, if she were to leave the position that she had, she would have to find him a replacement and train that replacement. Even as hard as her boss is on her, he did give her the highest possible raise that he could give her; so, obviously, he does view her as an asset to the company to some degree! Anyhow, after I offered her some of my friendly advice, she asked me what time I had to go to work. I laughed and told her that I was getting off at 8am; I had been at work since 6pm last night!!! Even so though, I did have 3 stores to merchandise today, among other things on my agenda. She just said, “I just don’t know how you do it!!” Can’t share all my secrets, can I???? LOL....

2. Another friend of mine called and stated that he had been to one of those kiosk where you apply for a position at a department store. He really wants to be able to work at that store, but couldn’t get past the application process in order to get a foot in the door with the interview. In fact, he said that both of his parents took it as well and couldn’t get past the application process either. When he told me that, I thought to myself that this is a scary thought - there must be something wrong with the entire family!! lol… In fact, I might have jokingly told him so. Anyhow, he calls me today and attempts to take the test/application again. This time, he asks if he can have about 30 minutes of my time. I told him sure...I am good at multitasking. Later he calls me and asks me some of the questions on the test (some of the questions that weren’t a “no brainer” type of question). So, as I am merchandising at one store, he is calling me from their competitor store asking me those questions and I was to answer only - Totally Agree, Agree, Disagree, or Totally Disagree. He took what I answered into consideration and completed the test. He got a interview finally with this company scheduled for this weekend and, with all of his excitement, he asked how he could reward me. I told him (this time I was in my car), he could take me out to a dinner and a movie, then f*** me! He laughed. He said, obviously, the weather was clear and sunny!!! lol....

3. Went to the bank too and opened up a free business bank account so that I can be able to take advantage of some of the tax benefits of some expense write offs, etc. with my contracting jobs that I have. The bank officer asked me if I had a DBA (doing business as) name. I told her that I didn’t, but legally I don’t think that I actually need one so long as I use my name in the name of the business. She stated that she wasn’t certain about that and she would have to look up the requirements of the business account. I smiled at her and said, “You don’t believe me. That’s okay, I’ll wait while you look it up.” While she was looking it up, I took out my personal check book and added in some notations of expenses that I did that day on my debit card, took a call from my college and one from my daughter, and the bank officer finally said, “You are absolutely correct!” Like music to my ears!!! cheese “Now, what would you like to name it????” Well, I made it simple with my last name, followed by “Consulting”. I told her that it would leave it generalized enough that I wouldn’t have to limit my business to just merchandising/mystery shopping/etc. contracts. Teasingly, I also told her that it might allow me to charge for advice that I give my friends and family!!! She started laughing too...and stated that it would leave it open for many possibilities.

What possibilities do you think that it could be??????

Just curious....