Am I the only person on the planet who can go in to get her starter fixed on her vehicle and come out with a job?

They mechanic offered me the desk chair to sit in behind the counter while he worked on my van, and I could see how disorganized the office was at a glance. The owner was in his office punching away at his calculator and emitting quiet curses at it from time to time, so before I was ready to go, I poked my head in and said, “Excuse me, sir, but would you happen to need any help here in the office, with billing and finances and paperwork, etc.?”

He looked at me like he was a dying man and I was his last chance, and said, “I’ll pay you $20 right now if you can add the numbers on this page. I took it, sat down at the computer, opened Excel, and made a quick spreadsheet with all of his expense categories and totals. He then handed me 4 more pages and then a quick list of the totals for the last half of 2007. I figured them all up, and he said, “I’ve got to have my taxes done by about 3pm today…. do you think you could help me?” I said it would be no problem and set to it. I went through his 2006 tax return and entered all of the info and then finished the figures for this year, and he ended up owing less than half of what he did last year. He said, “We’re well beyond $20 now, I’ll make this worth your while if you can work for me.”

So it’s not going to be full time for now. That’s ok, I can live with that. I still sub teach for now, but it’s going to pay more than sub teaching does, and it’s accounting, which I’m good at and, being the nerd I am, I actually enjoy. He had to leave the office before I finished up, but he told me to come in tomorrow morning and we’d figure up how much he owes me - which I’m going to mostly put towards the work I had done on my van if it’ll cover it - and then we’re going to work out my job.

His wife kept coming in over and over saying, “God sent us an Angel today. Gary’s blood pressure was through the roof he was stressing out so bad over those taxes. Thank you so much!” and she gave me a big hug before I left. I’m really looking forward to this job, hopefully it’ll work out well for all of us.

That's awesome, kiddo!!
It's also a good example of being a good person paying off. Most folks would have ignored the poor guy or snickered at him. You performed a random act of kindness and....POOF.....a job appeared. very cool

Aw, that's great!

Congrats! That is great

Angela......

You're inspiring. I needed your story today.

I keep hearing various people getting the pink slip this month... even where I work and it's driving me insane!

I'm going to concentrate on what Bin said so I can do something more positive.

Thank you all so much! Like I said, it's not full time, but I'm really excited. I can still substitute teach on the days I'm not working at the shop, so I'll have decent money coming in. I was just worried about what I'd do when school gets out and I have no job.

This was a real answer to prayer on both sides - they said they really needed me, and I really needed this job!

Well done young lady

Awesome story!

That's awesome! Congrads!

Hey thats great...this is a cool story...good for you...
Tell him to fix the car for what you saved him on taxes....

That is so cool. And I'm with HB on this one.....I figure the car repair should be part of the benefits package.

This morning he looked at my bill from fixing the starter - $65 - he said, "We'll call that even, and what do I still owe you for the taxes?" I told him that was more than enough for me, I didn't want to be greedy. Now I'm just hoping he'll cut me a break on the intake manifold job. $680 is a LOT of money!! He told me he'll give me the parts at cost and we'll work out a deal on the labor.

Things went really well today - several regular customers came in and saw the job I'd done just cleaning and organizing the front counter area and said it didn't even look like the same shop. I got most of the files in order, and now I just hope I can get everything computerized so they can handle it. He's about to file bankruptcy because he can't figure out where all of his money is going and where he can cut back and who owes what, so that's why I'm coming in.

I'll update more when I have time!

Oh how I wish you lived closer to me. I am great at my job but hate hate hate the paperwork. To a small business owner you are truly a God-send. Do not sell yourself short. Check out what office managers make, hereit is atbout 20 bucks an hour. He will do so much better since he'll be able to focus on what he does.

Yay you!!!!

For the next 2 weeks we agreed on $50 a day - which is $5 more per day than I make substitute teaching, so that's ok for me. After 2 weeks we're going to see how much he will need me, how much money I can save him with my work, and then adjust my salary accordingly. I only worked from 9 to 3 today, so $50 for 6 hrs of work is pretty good for Oklahoma.