Acquiring first office clothes
While in the interview stage you need one good outfit. Take care of them and they will see you through this stage of the process. Shoes, ties, shirt, and a suit can all be purchased on sale. The fact that you have months before graduation give you time to purchase them when there is a sale.  Off-the-rack is good enough for a suit for this stage of your life. There is no need to go custom made when you are just starting out. In fact you may find you never need more than one or two suits, and they never need to be custom made. Like the other answers, I'm not entirely sure the equivalent exists in your country. But in the US there are thrift stores run by charities like GoodWill or the Salvation Army that sell clothes for very little money.  When my wife was in a similar situation very early in her career she learned the trick of driving to thrift stores nearest to the richest neighborhoods in town. She often found high dollar designer clothes that had been worn once (to an event or party) and then donated. Apparently it is quite gauche for the well-to-do to be caught dead in the same outfit twice. It wasn't uncommon for her to find clothes/shoes that retailed for hundreds of dollars for $10 or so. Sounds like you're a man, so you're in luck. Our formalwear all looks similar enough that you can get by on a very short rotation. You can buy 1 pair of decent slacks in a versatile color like navy or grey with a pair of brown shoes with matching belt then have as little as 2 button down shirts (white and light blue). You can help keep the button downs clean by wearing an undershirt. This outfit can even overlap your interview outfit if you want to save more (especially if you want a good jacket/sport coat). The real key is to just not pick anything flashy and nobody will ever notice. You'll be running to the dry cleaners every single weekend, but you won't have much in terms of up-front costs. For women though I have no clue how they manage this stuff.
"Suppose that I work from home, but do not qualify for a business use   of home deduction. As I understand it, this means I cannot deduct   trips from home to another work location (e.g., going to a client's   home or office to do work there). I do not think this is true. You cannot deduct trips to your main business location, i.e.: you cannot deduct trips to your office or client's location if this is your main client and you routinely work on-site. However, if you only visit your clients on occasion for specific events while doing your routine work at home - you can definitely deduct those trips. The deduction of the home usage itself has nothing to do with it. However, there's a different reason they refer to pub 587. Your home must qualify as principal place of business (even if it doesn't qualify for deduction). The qualifications of ""principal place of business"" are described in pub 587. ""if for some personal reason you do not go directly from one location to the other, you cannot deduct more than the amount it would have cost you to go directly from the first location to the second."" What is not clear to me is what exactly is deductible if there are   significant time gaps (within a single day) between trips to different   clients. You got it right. What this quote means is that if you have client A and client B, and you drive from A to B - you can only deduct the travel between A and B, nothing else. I.e.: if you have 2 hours to kill and you take a trip to the mall - you cannot deduct the mileage attributable to that trip. You only deduct the actual distance between A and B as it would be had you driven from A to B directly. The example you cite re first client being considered as the place of business is for the case where your home doesn't qualify as principal place of business. In this case you start counting miles from your first client, and only for direct trips from client to client. If you only have 1 client in that day, tough luck, nothing to deduct. Also, it's not clear whether stopoffs between clients would really be   ""personal reasons"", since the appointment times are often set by the   client, so it's not as if the delay between A and B was just because I   felt like it; there was never the option of going directly from A to   B. That's what is called ""facts and circumstances"". You can argue that you had enough time between meetings to go back to your home office to continue working. The IRS agent auditing you (and you're likely to get audited) will consider that. Maybe will accept it. Maybe not. If I had a gap like that described above, I could save on my taxes by   going to the park or a hamburger stand instead of going home between A   and B But then you wouldn't be at home, so why would it be ""principal place of business"" if you're not there? Boom, lost deduction for the trip to the first client. I suggest you talk to a licensed tax adviser (EA/CPA licensed in your State). You're dealing with deductions that are considered ""red flags"" for the IRS. I.e.: many people believe that these deductions (business use of your home/car) trigger audits. To substantiate business use of your car you need to keep very good track of your travels (literally travel log, they sell them at Staples), and make sure to distinguish between personal travel and business travel, keep proofs that the meetings took place (although keeping a log is a requirement, it can be backdated/faked, so if audited - the IRS will want to see more than your own documentation). A good tax adviser will educate you on all these rules, and also clarify the complexities you were asking about here. I'm not a tax adviser, so don't rely on this answer when you're preparing your tax return or responding to the IRS audit. In your edit you ask this: Specifically, what I'm wondering is whether it is possible for a home   to qualify as a ""principal place of business"" for purposes of   deducting car expenses but not for the home office deduction. The answer is yes. Deductibility is determined by exclusivity of use, among other things. But the fact that you manage your business from your kitchen doesn't make your kitchen any less of a principal place of business. It is non-deductible because you also cook your dinners there, but it is still, nonetheless, your principal place of business. The Pub 587 which I linked to has these qualifications: Your home office will qualify as your principal place of business if   you meet the following requirements. You use it exclusively and regularly for administrative or management activities of your trade or business. You have no other fixed location where you conduct substantial administrative or management activities of your trade or business. As you see, exclusivity of the usage of your home area is not a requirement here. The ""exclusively and regularly"" in the quote refers to your business not using any other location, and managing it from home regularly. I.e.: if you manage your business a day in a year - that's not enough for it to be considered principal. If you manage your business from your office and your home - you cannot consider home as principal." Former sailor here.  The blue and white crackerjack jumpers are  globally unique garments.  It is a dress uniform.  I have owned exactly two of each in my lifetime, and the second was because I changed sizes in my 20's.  Even the cloth is something that I haven't seen in any civilian clothes.  Occasional shortages like this are an expected consequence of having unique formalwear, and doesn't say anything about US manufacturing capabilities.  Note that the day-to-day working uniforms are still well stocked.  This is just a supplier EOLing a low-margin low-volume product.  Happens every day. If you budget for cloths and save up the money, you may be able to take advantage of sales when they are on.   However only buy what you will use! You need to ask yourself what value you put on cloths compared to other things you can spend the money on.   Also would you rather have money in the bank encase you need it rather than lots of cloths in the wardrobe? If the business is being investigated by your state's Attorney General's office, then your first call should be to that office.  They will be able to help you in a few ways, even if they can't explicitly resolve the situation, and they also would undoubtedly appreciate your information to add to their case as well. First, they may be able to tell you how other victims have had their cases resolved, particularly if any went to court on their own.  While they won't be able to provide you with personal information of the other victims unless it is public knowledge (via a court case), the information about how the other victims resolved the cases may be helpful - both to show what to do, and what not to do. Second, they may be able to put you in contact with an attorney who is handling other cases like yours. That may reduce the cost of the attorney (as they'll have already done some of the work), and may mean that the attorney is willing to work with no up front fee on the assumption of winning the case. Third, if there are options for getting your money back without a court case, the AG's office may be able to help provide those as well. If the Attorney General's office is unable to help you, then your best bet is to contact an attorney on your own - look for one who specializes in consumer protection and fraud.  This is the purpose attorneys exist for: pursuing your interests against another's.  Let them do their job.  Do make an effort to find a good, honest attorney; you may find some help on how to do this on law.se if you need it (not actual recommendations, mind you, just help with how you would go about finding one).  It sounds like your claim would be above and beyond the level of a small claims court lawsuit, but verify this in your jurisdiction; if small claims court goes up to $10,000, you may be able to pursue it there on your own - but I would still get some help from an attorney, at least finding out what you would need to win. The alternatives are practically perpetual with linen suits, the search is ideal for summer, pushing it flawlessly amongst shrewd and easygoing and offering so much adaptability. In case you're hoping to keep the look keen, then match your suit with a shirt and tie mix. "The actual process of ordering food is probably one of the easiest processes in a restaurant. What's not so easy is understanding the movement of your inventory and ways to minimize your waste to maximize what you order and reduce shrink. That comes down a lot to auditing your product (multiple times a day, even).  Make sure before you approach the owners that you develop a business plan. Jumping the gun too early and trying to get in on their operation will come off as naive. You have to deliver the value of having you as a partner/main franchisor. Check out the movie ""The Founder"" if you want to see some of that in action (and check out a pretty decent movie to boot). Business owners usually talk numbers so learn to speak their language once you're able to get a grasp on the finances of the business (which you'll more than likely get to do once you get more management experience)." My advice is to know what you need in an employee and ask straight forward questions to get the information you need. The time spent doing so is unimportant; as long as you get the information. Time is valuable, for both you and your applicants.   As another poster said, first impressions are important. It's also important to ensure you're getting a good fit. There have been times when I wasn't thoroughly impressed or decided upon hiring an applicant based on the first impression. It took some getting to know them to see the potential.   There is no written guide to the perfect way to interview. Ask the questions you think will get you the information you need. Dark navy or medium gray suit. Black is for funeral or formal evening (tuxedo) only. Regardless of suit price, budget $75-$100 for tailoring. You need to have the waist of the coat adjusted, sleeves proper length and pants hemmed for it to all fit correctly. If you're in good shape I'd suggest Suit Supply instead of Brooks Bros - with the former catering to a more modern and generally younger clientele, still with excellent quality (comparably). Jos A Bank if you're really on a budget but do a little research on suit fit, button stance, lapel width, and pants break and taper before you go in because they'll sell you garbage if you don't know what you're talking about. /r/malefashionadvice has a good sidebar and wiki if you want more info.