It turns out there is an art to being a small business owner. Primarily the art of turning future earnings into bill paying money. I still haven’t found a creditor who likes to hear me say “I have several cases ready to settle and should be able to pay you in five months!!”

I have been working a contract job doing document review and while the work does occasionally cause me to think longingly of flights out of the twenty-two story window it also pays the bills. I have been tossing the business building in at night and on weekends. The problem with this set up is that I rarely see the kids and little Otter is a very sad boy when he doesn’t get to see his mama.

Which is how I ended up agreeing to work a hot dog cart for a weekend or two a month.

Yes, that’s right. This lawyer is going to be slinging hot dogs during bar rush to bring in the cash instead of slowly killing myself reviewing 300 documents a day. (My contract job makes the positions in Office Space seem like interesting career paths.) It turns out there is a fair amount of money to be had from the hot dog cart business if you happen to know a guy and I do. I can make more in a weekend night selling hot dogs than I can sitting in an office all day clicking buttons. My daughter can come along to keep me company and earn a little extra cash helping me out, well until bedtime comes around. Maybe she can earn that DSI she has been begging for.

The best part will be telling this story to incoming associates once the firm is established and profitable. “You all have it easy! Back in my day we worked hot dog carts to bring in extra cash while we built this place up from nothing!”