Hemali Dassani looked out over the empty desks in a cavernous office fronting Union Square and answered the reporter’s question: “Right here.”

That’s where she was going spend her day off yesterday, preparing like hell for a “casual lunch” today.

What’s a casual lunch for some is meat and potatoes for Ms. Dassani, a consultant who works by her own account seven days a week,” with passion and perseverance,” helping firms in the China trade.

“Passion and perseverance are what it takes to succeed in the China business,” she said, “and passion and perseverance are what made me successful.”

Her company, Dassani & Tan, is doing “very well” indeed, thank you, in helping companies start up in China, both those who want to sell into the 1.2 billion-person market, and those who want to reduce costs by producing there.

She said the company offers full service support through its expertise on China and a partnership arrangement that gives her access to more than 100 geographic and area specialists on the ground in China.

Ms. Dassani, who was raised in the Midwest, has been doing international consulting for 10 years, before and after picking up her MBA at Harvard Business School. She’s known to be a compulsive Rolodex. Her partner, Miranda Tan, a lawyer with a marketing background, does a lot of the marketing.

With Dassani & Tan in a “very aggressive sales mode,” Ms. Dassani says, she spends quite a bit of her before work, after work, and lunch time doing “business development,” which means she mines New York and its assets.

Typical week? Last Wednesday night she went to a VIP-only, “intimate” dinner for McGraw-Hill’s communications summiteers – one to which mere mortal consultants weren’t invited. She snagged an invite over drinks with a friend and a potential client at Del Frisco’s on Tuesday. Thursday night: drinks with a client at W hotel, dinner at Spice Market, and a nightcap at Gansevoort. Saturday night: drinks with yet another potential client in The Green Room. Monday she hired new folks. The company is expanding.

Friday night? Silly question. Chinese New Year dinner with a ton of Chinese friends. She was the only non-Chinese speaker there. But that’ll change: daily Mandarin lessons, 4 p.m. sharp.

“I emulate (real estate magnate) Barbara Corcoran’s ‘Use What You’ve Got,'” she said, “I leverage New York.”

“It is especially important for women to use what they’ve got,” she said. “I do that.”

And what does she do strictly for her own relaxation?

“I go to the gym a lot,” she said.