How about a level below an outsourced CISO? As you noted, a lot of companies use static code scanning tools, but those generate a lot of “noise” data. How about you offer to go through that and identify what really is an issue, and mark off the ones that aren’t?

Do you have a notarized financial POA (Power of Attorney)? If so, take it into a local bank.

Do you want to do it in the psychology field? If so, you probably know the big academic conferences. Industry (companies) go there to hire. They may be exhibitors or there’s a career section.

Why are you calling in? Don’t they have online ordering, or you can order via Doordash or UberEats?

I order plenty of take-out and delivery, and I haven’t called into a restaurant in years.

Are these products to sell to customers, or products to use?

If it’s the former, try seller financing. Some companies will provide product on Net 30 terms. If it’s the latter, borrow products from the hairdresser at the chair next to you, and pay them back a day or two later.

Are you American? Go to the American Chamber of Commerce events in your city. They may even have a Thanksgiving event. There, you’ll meet business owners who are American, and are more willing to give a “foreigner” (American) a chance. Many Scandi businesses have their operating language as English anyway, since they get workers from all over Scandinavia and it’s the only common language.

How is your cash situation? Buying outright requires a big cash outlay.

One argument in favor of leasing is spread the costs out over time, so it aligns with your revenue flow. But of course you’re paying more (interest) for this privilege.

We do a lot of events and learn from experience. Some organizers are better than others. The first year of doing an event can be a real gamble to see if it’s worthwhile, but then you know whether to go again the next time they hold it.

If this is widespread, it may be time to change your pricing model, like instead of per-user than some other measure like number of projects set up or whatever is a usage-based appropriate measure.

Based on the way OP wrote it, they have no proof they are reaching the UPS store.

Does the client have some kind of tracking proof? If not, then from your side the check was never received. Ask for them to put on a stop payment and have a new check issued.

We get this now and then. We sell to business and sometimes the person paying accidentally uses their personal card (both are already set up in Stripe I guess). Or last week, we had one that overpaid by accident (they were looking at the wrong invoice).

Currently, we “eat” that processing fee cost on a refund instead of passing it on to the customer, but it only happens < 1% of the time so it’s not a big hit.

Get a company account for each, instead of having the company pay separate invoices for each person’s personal service. At least for the cell phones, all the major providers are eager to convert your phone to a business account, and the added benefit is you get a single bill every month for all company phones.

Great advice. Unless you’re making serious money, the effort to set up different citizenships and residences isn’t worth it to reduce your tax rate, if your overall taxes are low due to low income.