Yup, sure did. And boy, am I glad. Here’s Part I of the story:
Background
This past summer, I folded my business into my distributor’s (a move we’d been discussing for two years) and I went to work for her, doing the same thing but as an employee instead of as an entrepreneur.
It was a very small company, and for whatever reason, the job never really gelled. Maybe it was because the president of company was rarely there or because she provided no leadership, but regardless it was a nifty job just two miles from home.
The signs were obvious to me something was wrong, but no one else seemed to mind – the phones didn’t ring and when they did, the orders were so small as to be ridiculous. The receptionist quit/was fired and no one was hired to replace her.
That meant that yours truly was taught how to enter orders and play receptionist, and that meant I couldn’t do what I was hired to do.
And – from a salesperson’s perspective this was deadly – no one was out selling. Not me (I was too busy answering the phone and doing data entry), not the other two account managers (one of whom did nothing and the other was vastly overworked), and not the president.
But hey, I was getting paid with a great benefits package, and that was all I cared about.
The Layoff
On December 17, 2007, the president called the three of us (and the accounts payable gal) into her office and essentially said that she was out of money, we had $600,000 in uncollected receivables and we all need to get on the phone and start getting the money owed us, and even if we did, she couldn’t guarantee she’d make the next payroll.
“If you’re not willing to give 120% to collections, tell me now,” she said. “We could use the money we won’t spend on your salary.”
No, I was not willing, and I was therefore out of a job. Well, that job, anyway.
Unlike most people when they get laid off, I had an entirely different reaction. This is what went through my mind as the president was sharing the bad news:
“Okay, Spirit. I thought this was my demonstration of prosperity, but obviously it’s not. That must mean this was just a step on the path to my greater good, which I can’t see at the moment.”
Now, when you’re on a path and want to move forward, the first thing you do is assess where you are and then look at what’s immediately in front of you. So I looked within and knew that at my core, I am a salesperson/publicist for specialized small businesses.
And I thought about what was on my desk – binders of the 40 or so vendors I was working with, nearly all of whom were niche manufacturers of specialized medical products.
BOOM! I could see my new business in a flash – I would be a combination sales rep/publicist for a select number of these companies: I’d be paid on commission plus pick up fees for writing.
So by the time the president was finished laying out the gruesome details of just how bad things were, I had already decided what I would do next and was eager to get started.
TO BE CONTINUED
Background
This past summer, I folded my business into my distributor’s (a move we’d been discussing for two years) and I went to work for her, doing the same thing but as an employee instead of as an entrepreneur.
It was a very small company, and for whatever reason, the job never really gelled. Maybe it was because the president of company was rarely there or because she provided no leadership, but regardless it was a nifty job just two miles from home.
The signs were obvious to me something was wrong, but no one else seemed to mind – the phones didn’t ring and when they did, the orders were so small as to be ridiculous. The receptionist quit/was fired and no one was hired to replace her.
That meant that yours truly was taught how to enter orders and play receptionist, and that meant I couldn’t do what I was hired to do.
And – from a salesperson’s perspective this was deadly – no one was out selling. Not me (I was too busy answering the phone and doing data entry), not the other two account managers (one of whom did nothing and the other was vastly overworked), and not the president.
But hey, I was getting paid with a great benefits package, and that was all I cared about.
The Layoff
On December 17, 2007, the president called the three of us (and the accounts payable gal) into her office and essentially said that she was out of money, we had $600,000 in uncollected receivables and we all need to get on the phone and start getting the money owed us, and even if we did, she couldn’t guarantee she’d make the next payroll.
“If you’re not willing to give 120% to collections, tell me now,” she said. “We could use the money we won’t spend on your salary.”
No, I was not willing, and I was therefore out of a job. Well, that job, anyway.
Unlike most people when they get laid off, I had an entirely different reaction. This is what went through my mind as the president was sharing the bad news:
“Okay, Spirit. I thought this was my demonstration of prosperity, but obviously it’s not. That must mean this was just a step on the path to my greater good, which I can’t see at the moment.”
Now, when you’re on a path and want to move forward, the first thing you do is assess where you are and then look at what’s immediately in front of you. So I looked within and knew that at my core, I am a salesperson/publicist for specialized small businesses.
And I thought about what was on my desk – binders of the 40 or so vendors I was working with, nearly all of whom were niche manufacturers of specialized medical products.
BOOM! I could see my new business in a flash – I would be a combination sales rep/publicist for a select number of these companies: I’d be paid on commission plus pick up fees for writing.
So by the time the president was finished laying out the gruesome details of just how bad things were, I had already decided what I would do next and was eager to get started.
TO BE CONTINUED
