Work Around the Clock

The best benefit of being an IP, aside from actually liking your boss, is flexibility. You can keep strange hours so long as they jibe with client needs. That means you can be home to greet the plumber at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, though you may have to skip the opening of that movie you've been dying to see on Friday night. Lavin says she has no set routine. "I'll see clients at midnight on a Thursday, early on a Sunday morning, and at nine o'clock on Monday morning. Whatever works for them," she says.