Two good days in a row?
What the hell is going on....
Anyway, it wasn't super amazing or anything like that, but finally (it hasn't been that long) I was able to spend some time with an old client and get the ball rolling on some consulting work for him, and then with 5-10 of his people. They are having some internal process challenges that I can hopefully help them overcome, and bring them more into alignment. It isn't going to get me near to where I need to be financially, but it is a step in the right direction and gets me closer.
I am taking the wins wherever I can get them.
I figure that this gets me to about twenty percent of the way to cover the loss of income from the end of my last role, and hopefully it will lead to some word of mouth growth within the organisation there, because they are massive, and global. Not that I am looking to operate globally myself, but it means that they need various kinds of support to facilitate them, and as a business English trainer in another life, it gives me a small edge in some instances, as clients are able to both talk their industry with me, and develop their language skills simultaneously.
Now that the first slice has been made, I need to keep cutting away at the deficit until I can pull even or ahead. Like many, I suffer from being content too fast, rather than continuously chasing for growth. It was part of my problem earlier too, because I wasn't comfortable enough to push my way into different parts of an organisation, because it felt somehow like begging. But if it is one thing I have learned from the last few years enabling the sellers, is that you often have to be bold, and just open up the conversation. It isn't begging, it is trading value. If I have no value to provide, or they can't afford to provide value in return, no harm no foul.
It is tough times for many out there, but desperation is not going to work. It would be like a guy going up to a girl in a bar, confessing how much of a loser he is and how he just really wants to have sex - and expecting her to be impressed.
Maybe it works sometimes?
From a workload perspective, I don't need that many contact hours in order to make ends meet, but getting enough hours is a challenge at the moment when so many companies are making cutbacks in personnel and overheads. I talked to one old client the other day, who even though he would like to get some support for his people, for the time being, his hands are tied. It is always interesting because the cost of my service over the space of the year is so, so little in comparison to what they are spending on pretty much anything else, and it brings value back to them and can often save them money. But, someone who might not even be in the same country, and has no idea of the day to day operations, makes the call.
Possibly, if I am able to get things moving on a couple other cases in the next couple months, I might not have to spend any time at all getting any kind of support from my unemployment fund. That would be better, because while it is "free money" for a period of time, it will also be reduced for anything I earn from my business. This means that I will effectively be working my business and not getting paid. So ideally, I will get enough to make it "worth it" in the short-term, as well as the long. I will still be looking for something that provides an extra income on the side, but having more income coming in means I can take my time with it so as to find something that is both suitable for me, and still allows me to continue my consulting on the side.
There are so many things going on all the time that I am trying to consider, but it is made even harder where it feels like there is a ticking clock in my ear. But with another win today on the back of some social wins yesterday, the tick is a little fainter tonight.
But it is still there.
Taraz
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