Jim and Pete were self-employed in the same city, although they had very different lifestyles. For Jim, being the owner meant his desk was definitely the place where the buck stopped, at least that's how it was the last time he could actually see the top of his desk. Today, on his way in to the office, he had to swing by the mechanic shop to pay for more repairs on one of his three aging service vans. With another year of payments before he could think about replacing them, breakdowns were just a nuisance he'd have to endure. The best he could hope for was that he could keep the vans on the road without a major expense like an engine or transmission replacement.
Once he arrived at the shop, he checked his messages. Mrs. Anderson called wanting to know when he was going to clean the carpet after his plumber had dragged a leaky water heater down the hall. Jim sighed. The carpet cleaner was going to clean away any profits there might have been in the water heater job.