A TALE OF HOPE AND GLORY (AND THE POWER OF NETWORKING)

A TALE OF HOPE AND GLORY (AND THE POWER OF NETWORKING)

As a Job Search and Career Transition Coach much of my time on LinkedIn is spent trying to help Job Seekers improve the effectiveness of their job searches. My heart goes out to everyone who is searching right now. It’s a tough market in a difficult and uncertain time. To give you an alternative slant and a potential alternative option I thought I’d share this personal story.

In 2007 I unexpectedly lost my job along with a couple of other colleagues. No redundancy package, no help or support from anyone and critically for someone working in Financial Services in the UK, no agreement from my employer to provide a reference (although that’s another story). With just my last month’s salary to see me through, I was scared. What was I going to do? I was the main breadwinner.

I knew I was good at what I did, I hadn’t heard of impostor syndrome back then. I knew I was respected by colleagues and suppliers. I had a strong reputation across two industries, Insurance and Contact Centres. With the ferociousness of a Tiger, my Chinese zodiac sign, I was determined not to let this situation beat me. I needed to pay the mortgage and put food on the table, and I had the germ of an idea.

Using the words from a song in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang I told myself that ‘from the ashes of disaster, grow the roses of success’. Strange how the words from a song you associate with childhood can motivate you just as much, if not more strongly, than quotes from revered business leaders.

I decided to contact one of the colleagues who was in the same boat as me to see how they were getting on. Our initial call was a little awkward he was feeling the same scary emotions I was experiencing. Immediately I knew I wasn’t on my own and I suppressed my own fears as I tried to offer some comfort and support.

With my germ of an idea nudging me, I suggested we meet up and discuss our options, perhaps we could come up with ideas to overcome our situation and help each other.

A week later, with a far more optimistic outlook, we met up at a beautiful local pub. Over some delicious coffee and cake and while basking in glorious sunshine, we analysed our skill sets and sketched out a set of services we could offer as Consultants. My background was Marketing, his was Compliance.

A few days later we had created a document presenting our services, we had a name for our company, a logo (created by my new business partners wife), and a list of people to contact taken from our contact lists and LinkedIn network. I was working on a spare laptop borrowed from my colleague, we had the old Nokia phones (mine was the bouncy kind that builders used) and we were using our living rooms as work spaces.

Now we needed to get clients.

Taking the subtle approach, I suggested we speak to the contacts we had the strongest relationships with and ask if they would meet us for coffee. Our strategy was; we would tell them we wanted to ask their opinion of our services and show them our presentation. This would give us great feedback so we could refine our services and test the water.

With no office space, we offered to meet our contacts at their offices and found other spaces. I got to know my way around London with my new business partner, choosing places like the British Library, train station cafes and pubs to meet up. Who can resist a business-related visit to the pub? Obviously, we can’t do that right now but there are new ways to meet and you can still have a Coffee or Tea together.

Our contacts were unbelievably helpful. Within a week we had five or six meetings booked. Asking for their opinion seemed to make our contacts (or friends) feel they had a stake in what we were doing. They offered helpful suggestions about how to refine our services, gave us their opinions on which companies to target and even suggested additional people we could contact and, in some cases, made introductions for us. A bonus for our shrinking bank accounts, we rarely had to pay for the Coffee.

We couldn’t believe it, the week after we started our business development drive, the first contact we approached offered us some consulting work. The second one did too. These wonderfully supportive connections had really thought about what we could offer and bring to their own businesses and wanted our help.

Seven months after launch we had 20 Clients some regularly giving us work and some we worked with on retainers or interim contracts. We also had affiliate relationships with other Consultancies filling in the gaps in their services or providing expertise for specific projects.

It’s a good job we stayed in touch with our old colleagues too because before long we needed to bring in additional Consultants to expand our areas of expertise and to service the products, we had created at the request of some of our Clients.

We did all this without borrowing money or obtaining investment. By the end of the first month of trading we had enough income to pay ourselves and keep a roof over our heads. We’d created our website, bought new laptops and we each had a shiny new BlackBerry. Some of you may remember the model with the roller ball in the middle.

Our business development drive had taken us all over the country and afforded my business partner the great delight of buying a blow-up Sheep from a Sheep dispensing machine in the gent’s toilets in a pub in Accrington Stanley of all places.

I’m not going to lie and say it was all easy, we had to work hard finding new Clients after our initial success. We had to ensure we completed the work we had won to a very high standard and we were often delivering hours way above what we had priced for. There were disagreements and compromises, prospective Clients we didn’t win as well as Clients who we had to chase for payment.

So, what’s the point of this story? Well, if you feel like your banging your head against a brick wall with your job search try thinking differently. Do you have a great skill set? Could they form the basis for you to become a Consultant or build your own business? Are you leveraging your network?

And if you need a little motivation how about these lyrics from the song by Destiny’s Child:

I'm a survivor (What?)

I'm not gon' give up (What?)

I'm not gon' stop (What?)

I'm gon' work harder (What?)

I'm a survivor (What?)

I'm gonna make it (What?)

I will survive (What?)

Keep on survivin' (What?)