Arrgh. Here we are again in another recession...victims of bad policies and greed. So is it all that bad if all the readers of this blog have jobs? Maybe it is a good buying opportunity...
Anyway, I am one of those unfortunate statistics and find myself looking for work after a private equity funding source crumbled under the weight of IndyMac's collapse and the general problems in the banking industry. So now, some days I wake up ready to pursue the world of job hunting and other days I am discourage by the hole that is called online application submission.
But wait! Didn't I just talk to some guy that was all cheery about having hospitals competing for him as he got near to completing his nursing degree. Not that I would be such a great nurse (probably spend too much time at the nursing station chatting!) but it made me think about why the same types of jobs come up as "in demand" and how I manage to take some other route. Back to my point...is it the economy?
I venture to say that my personal recession is probably due to ignoring the wisdom of the pundits and even friends in the know and doing what I love the money will follow. OK, so lesson #1: listen to the gurus if you want to be employable and go into long term or medium size rising businesses.
You even need to keep an eye on finding some other source of income all throughout your career. The reason I say that is because I understand most of the jobs are created by small business...so that must mean that big employers are not the real drivers. Enjoy the security of a permanent job and the benefits packages but be ready in case that goes away some time. You may need to rely on your own ability to create work at some point in your career.
Read this CNN article which conducted a study with ADP the big payroll company. And, by the way enjoy the extra cash from a side job consulting or whatever but put it away in savings! Good luck to you all during this recession.
Is it the economy?
Small Start Ups Need Funding
It has been an interesting time begin involved with many micro start ups in the capacity of senior financial officer. I can never get over the unwavering confidence of the perceived success of the entrepreneur's product.
When I asked a founder one day what he thought made someone a successful entrepreneur he stated simply that it is the belief that the product will work, be accepted in the marketplace and somehow get funded. As for the functionality and market acceptance I am not sure I could be visionary enough to lead that every day.....what I do however is raise money for these people. And, when it comes to micro caps the need to raise funds is often a life and death situation because they have often tapped out all the friends and family money and are fighting to survive.
So how do we get the message out? Of course the first thing in my mind is to model the business' flow of funds....how do they generate enough revenue to cover the fixed and variable costs. In this process, with the aid of a few pie charts (can't resist graphics), we work on getting a better understanding of the business.
I can say that few entrepreneurs fully understand their product mix and have really thought about the contribution margin of the products they sell. Once this is done in enough detail we know that the business is well enough understood so that when we are pitching for funds we won't get blind sided by some savvy investor asking a basic question about the business that we can not answer.
So what presentation do we use? Often a 10 slide PowerPoint, a one page summary of the business and an executive summary. Now it is off to network to find investors who will listen. That is the big challenge. There are angel investor groups, people who want to take you public into a pink or OTC stock. Now you have to learn about what their reason is to invest the money versus what your objective is for using the money. Before we get into that in a later post consider how well you could explain the detail of how you turn a dollar of revenue into some net income.
photo from merchantfunding.org
The Personal Part
Each day I try to push myself away from my focus on career. Whether it is to spend an hour to play piano or guitar or to hang out with some friends doesn't matter. The reason I do this is that it is important to find a diversion that brings fresh perspective to the day.
It is too easy to be busy all day long; work; commute; eat; chores etc...but often the things that mark time best of all in the long run are the extra curricular activities. I can remember work in general as blocks of life, but the real differentiators have been the fun stuff like playing in a band; putting a 110% effort to help do something for a friend that made a difference; going on an unplanned trip etcetera.
I think this lesson should be applied to the career as well. Namely spend an hour a day to do something that gets you ahead instead of being just busy. I can always respond to emails; tweak an analysis a bit more; have another meeting but not really get ahead. Now I try to spend some time networking with people that is outside of my direct needs; keeping old contacts current; reading articles or books that change the way I think or work. I make people a priority as well as making sure I complete requests that are made of me (usually :).
Using this strategy has given me an edge by being ready for new tasks and more importantly I am mentally more confidant to take on new tasks. Delegating might be necessary to be ale to get a block of time opened up or maybe even it is required a bit of time in the evening. Whatever it takes, give it a shot and see if at the end of a month you really did force yourself to do something new and unique that will stand the test of time.
