Archive for May, 2009
The Headaches of Contract Work
This post won’t change your life.
I am simply trying to tell a story. One that is often told with great anger and frustration. I will not offer any tricks into being a better consultant, freelancer, or contractor. But I will provide you insight into MY headaches and unfortunate series of events that have most recently occurred. In the end, you will hopefully have a better idea of what not to do and what TO do if you are faced with a similar problem. (Names have been changed to protect personal and corporate identifications.)
The old saying goes “Once burned, twice shy.” That easily goes hand in hand with my recent experience as a consultant. I took on a job to write a business plan for a digital advertising start-up, similar to a plan I wrote for an incubator about 2 years ago. When the offer first came to my table, I had a sense of unease. My gut instinct said DON’T take this job as The man (what I will call him from this point on) looked sneaky. So I put out an offer priced well beyond what I thought The man could afford, and to my dismay, he said yes. Well FRIG! I didn’t want to take the job, but I couldn’t say no.
So we started. Initial meetings were great. We were all enthusiastic. Morale was high and people honestly believed that the plan would be completed within 2 weeks…as per the contract. (See picture below)
Although payment was delayed by a couple days, we were still getting paid. So it kept the team confident. Then the meetings started getting more frequent, longer, and less productive. We were getting further from the end the more we met with the The man; Who I might ad was very unorganized, had an extremely short attention span, made rude comments, and openly said to me “You will get nowhere in your current position at company XYZ.” (My current fulltime job) — —> to the young folk, this should be the absolute LAST string and I would highly recommend terminating the contract then. But I stayed on.
Why? Because I had hired two college students to help me out and their reputation’s and money were at stake. I had a commitment to The man and these two students. So I bit my tongue and continued….
Names have been changed to secure the identity of people and corporations involved.
To be continued…
The Return of Mom and Pop shops
It has to be said; big box stores are still at large. They dominate urban landscapes, offer competitive pricing, great deals, low to high quality products and services, but they still cannot and will not replace the mom and pop shops. Home cooked food, detailed hand made products, service with a real smile, all the things that your friendly neighbourhood and locally owned Bob and Martha stores provide.
History repeats itself. Before the Walmart’s of today, business was social. Owners interacted and knew their customers by name. The butcher knew what cuts of meats their customers liked, the dry cleaners knew whether or not certain customers wanted their clothes folded or on hangers, and if there wasn’t something a store carried, it would surely appear on the next visit. Shop owners were once your next door neighbour, your ‘buddy’, your weekly friendly face.
It was once all about knowing your customers needs and creating a personal experience. We are slowly and surely heading back that way. Looking at the statistics, big companies are still laying off thousands of people each month. On a brighter side, more people are seeing the value in starting their own businesses. Most recently, the biggest employment rate and job creation has been through entrepreneurship and small business ownership. It could be said that it is easier to start a business now then it was 10 years ago. Perhaps this has influenced and helped people make that leap to entrepreneurship.
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Renée Warren's Blog 