The upside

I got a call from a recuiter about a position at a bank. It's a BI job (since nearly all of my readers have seen my resume you know that's what I generally do). It was sold to me as a PM job by the recuiter but when I spoke o the client they billed it as more of a tactical role. When I expressed confusion they were confused and asked which role I'd like to be doing I told them that tactical was losing its luster and PM is where I want to be. "Interesting" they said. No indication of "good interesting" or "bad interesting". From there I had two more technical interviews with Infrastructure and BI Champion which makes me assume it was more toward the "good interesting" side of things. Things went well and then went quiet. That's usually not a good sign. I called the recruiter a few days later and he said they were interested and would meet my quote (huzzah!). But...(you knew that was coming didn't you?) they had to rewrite the requisition as a PM role not a tactical one. This takes time. Now I must wait for the Great Wheels to slowly churn out a new requisition. HR being HR also required signatures from the CIO, BI champion and J.D. Salinger. I'm exaggerating but only slightly. Last wrinkle; this is "all inclusive". Aw crap. "All inclusive" is technorecruiterspeak for "you are going to have to incorporate." Fine, whatever. I just need to get back to work and this looks like a good gig. In the end this is actually going to be helpful. The hassle of paperwork and hiring an accountant and financial outlay notwithstanding, it's more cost effective than if I worked W-2.

Why so?

As an LLC I bill my client (That Other Bank) one flat fee. I then get to deduct all sorts of things as the cost of doing bidness that you lumpenproles don't. Things like gas, mileage, car repairs, health insurance, attentant health care costs, bidness equipment, home office space, interweb access et al.

The downside is that I have to pay out of pocket for the following:
Health insurance
Business Insurance (both general liability and worker's comp)
Accountant

The process of incorporation was mercifully easy. (In a challenge to my libertarian/government is by nature inefficient sensibilities I have nothing but praise for the expediency and efficiency of DE government to the extent that I've dealt with them.) Initially I called around to sharks attorneys to see what they typically charge for incorporation. They wanted $200 on average. Um...no. I called my friend who is already incorporated for exactly the same reason and lo and behold he said he would send me the link he used to incorporate. He didn't. I went to Delaware.gov and they have a one stop registration page. The whole thing took about 20 minutes and the most difficult part was coming up with a name. The cost? Twenty seven and a half dollars. A savings of $172.50! Hilarity ensued when I had to select a title for myself. They had a dropdown menu with "bookeeper", "Chief Financial Officer" and so on. I made myself CEO. Yes, that's right, I am now a corporate fat cat alley cat. "Look on my Works ye Mighty, and despair!"

Frankly having a CEO for an LLC of one is silly but only slightly moreso than the other options they gave me.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you for the good wishes, offers to help, submissions of my resume and general inquiries about my/our well being. I am touched and appreciate it more than I can say. These are indeed humble beginnings for my little enterprise but with any luck I can keep this thing rolling and build it into something with multiple clients. I don't expect I'll ever hire anyone (I doubt I'd ever want to) but it would be good to have multiple clients and not have all my eggs in one basket.

Up next: my first day at That Other Bank