"Consulting "
Since I was a teenager, I enjoyed helping others with their projects and figuring out solutions. I had done so on numerous occasions having never required payment for my efforts.
Six of our mobile homes back in Bozeman were on lots located in Belgrade Village Mobile Home Park. It was owned by a fairly well-to-do woman from California. We had rented these lots from her for about a year when she called me asking to meet with me. I agreed to and went to meet her for lunch.
She asked me various questions about Gallatin Valley’s economy and such. I was able to bring her up to date on the various issues she was facing. She then asked me if I would be willing to take a consulting fee of three hundred dollars per month, stating that all she wanted was the ability to talk with me when she had questions concerning the projects she was working on. I accepted via a verbal agreement and helped her work through those issues over the next six months. This was my first paid position as a consultant.
Subsequent to that venture, I started picking up other projects for pay. It helped supplement our income but most of all, I really enjoyed the work. In Lawrence, I was involved in several successful business startups, and back in Bozeman, projects from helping people purchase cars, to houses, and accounting, to tax planning. As I went, I climbed the food chain to bigger and bigger projects.