At this rate, the blog looks more like a semi-annual event than any kind of an update. Four months since the last update - so what's been going on?

I have continued to develop my consulting business, trying to established a brand name for my practice. I've discovered, as no doubt many before me have, that being a one man band presents a difficult challenge. While you are marketing your product you can't be doing any assignments, and while doing, you aren't marketing. The leads to peaks and troughs from an income point of view. There are a number of projects that I have been working on, others that I have been asked to look at, and a few that I think will have value, but are my own ideas. Way too much for me to deal with on my own, and as a result there hasn't been enough progress on any of them.

VISION WITHOUT ACTION IS DAYDREAMING

So how have I dealt with the situation?
1. Stopped talking about my ideas with other people until I am ready to convert them into reality. I have a recent example. I have been trying to get something off the ground since December and one firm that is a friendly competitor that I had mentioned it to, took the idea and executed. Initially I was upset, then I realised that it was a good idea and if I'm not going to get it done, someone else will.
2. Explored a way of increasing my ability to deliver on projects. I am not in a position to take on permanent staff, so I have formed alliances with a number of people that are in my industry, but looking for work. I have partnered up with them on specific projects. They are doing the core work on the projects, but I am setting the direction, monitoring the progress, and will ensure that the final project meets the quality standards I expect.
3. Tried to find the infrastructure. I am in the legal due diligence stage of purchasing a company that has people and premises. Most importantly, it is a neglected company with an established brand name. The current owner wants the company to continue and is being very reasonable about the terms. When acquired next month, it will give me a productivity boost and won't be a financial drain.

All of this is coalescing into an action plan and environment that will provide a platform for me to take the business forward. Eight months down the road, and it has been a long, tough slog - but looks worth it!

Missing for two months!

Hey, sorry it's been so long. I have had so much going on that I haven't really had time yet this year.

I set up my consulting company in December. I started marketing my services in January. One of the things they tell you about looking for a job is that you try to let everyone you have ever met know about what you are doing. Who am I to argue.

By the first week of February there still wasn't anything happening, and I have to admit I was starting to feel more than a bit nervous.

I reconnected with an old contact that has been running her own consulting firm for several years. It was just to say hi and let her know what I was doing.
A week later and out of the blue she called me up with an opportunity. A former colleague of hers referred a bank to her. She wanted my help as I have had more recent and direct experience of the issue. A proposal followed and I feel good about it.

I had met in December with an old colleague who I have worked with several times at different companies. He asked me if I was interested in doing training work. I had always expected this to be part of my arsenal of products, so I said yes. He reminded me about the occasional training that he did for a specialist education company. He was too busy to carry on with the work, so put me in touch with the company. They were interested and I have my first assignment from them in a couple of weeks. Then he reminded me he was just returning the favour ... I had connected him to the trainers many years ago.

I was walking down the street in the City and ran into another former co-worker. He was just coming out of an office building and running to a plane. He asked what I was doing and said he was thinking of calling me. Sure he was ... but you never know. Well, he did and if he gets the contract from his prospect, he will be outsourcing part of it to me as it is more my area of expertise.

Finally, I was invited for a sneak preview of new product features for one of the leading vendors in our business. In the end, they asked me to do a video review of the product enhancements. While I was there, I had a chat with a couple of others in the company. Turns out they may have some overflow work that I can help them with.

So March looks like it will have at least one payday. First one since the end of October. Not much, but it's a start and things are heading in the right direction and I am feeling a lot more confident. I have been getting up at normal times every day as if I was going into the City to a job. I work a full day, and because there isn't any travelling time, I often work as many or more hours than I have in the past.

Anyway, the advice I can give to anyone who is looking for work is to use your connections and keep plugging away.

Lots of stuff happening with the kids, but that's a story for another day. But not two months from now.

The toughest challenge yet!

What a year ... I started 2008 with great expectations. My new product was heading in the right direction and ended 2007 very strong (Good). My ex-wife was continuing to cause problems even though we divorced six years earlier (Anything to do with my ex is always Bad). My 3 kids were going to be turning 16, 16(my stepson) and 14 (Good bits and less good bits, but no Bad bits). My wife was going to be starting her interior design degree (Good).

How has it turned out? The economic crisis has claimed many victims including me - I'm unemployed. I haven't screamed at my ex-wife since December 19th. That turned out good - she picked up our eldest child from the airport instead of her just catching a cab and going to an unknown destination. Oh yeah, that is the daughter that decided to move back to England to live with me, my wife and my stepson. She has said that living with us is the happiest she has ever been. My stepson has navigated the very treacherous waters of being a teenage boy in London amazingly well. I wouldn't want to be a 16 year old in these times and I'm proud of him. My wife is doing really well on her degree, but it is consuming huge amounts of her time and energy. My youngest daughter has taken a mechanics course at school which she didn't choose - it was assigned to her. I'm trying to get her to change the oil in the car while she is visiting with us over Christmas.

We had my wife's family around for Christmas and had a great time, but you don't want to read about that.

But now ... today ... the biggest challenge I have faced all year ... Bigger the Credit Crisis ... more challenging than 2 young adults starting A Levels and a wife taking a degree ... Scarier than global warming/climate change (take your pick of description).

We are returning unwanted/wrong sized/damaged gifts into the post-Christmas sales! Oh my gawd! Who thought this was a good idea? Taking three teenagers into the melee! This might be my last post! What if I am trampled by the hordes that are chasing down bargain prices? What if I kill myself because I can't stand the crowds?

Wish me luck - it's not an assignment I have chosen, but rather one that I have been volunteered for. I will do my best for my people, that's all I can promise. (I will be taking my ice hockey elbow pads with me.)

19 Days to Christmas

Image via WikipediaAnd what is left in the cupboards?
There was a story carried by Reuters a few days ago that said 50,000 job losses have been announced in the financial services sector around the world - THIS WEEK! I always wonder where all these people go when there is such massive dislocation. They can't all sit it out and wait. I met one guy last week who is training for his electricians' qualifications. People have to find work somewhere and there are very few jobs going anywhere.
Well, I finally got my first assignment in my new consultancy company. It was part of my regular mailings out to my contacts and one of them hit home. This coming week I am also doing some training of a publisher's sales team. They are apparently very good sales people but they are trying to penetrate a new industry. It's only a couple of hours at the most, but it gives me some revenue to set off against my expenses! It will pay for the commuting charges over the past few weeks, so that's a bit of a bonus. Hurray!
My wife has been knocking herself out this week working on a project for her interior design degree. 11, 12, 13 hours a day all week long. It's Saturday morning and she is at it again.
Who knows what joys the children will bring us this weekend? The boss and I are off to get a Christmas tree later today, with a view to the kids decorating it tomorrow. Will they still enjoy it as much as they used to, or is it a ritual that means most to my wife? Hmmmm ....

Kids are a joy

Whenever friends tell me about how stressful it is having a new baby, I generally laugh and shake my head. It's only stressful because their kids aren't older yet. I am the proud "owner" of a sixteen year old daughter and a stepson of a similar age. I also have a fourteen year old, but she lives with her mother in Canada.
Great kids, work hard at school - which they love, and they are very kind and decent people.

Unfortunately they don't want to be locked in the house when they aren't in school. Apparently they think they are entitled to a social life. Last Friday night they went to a party at a social centre in South London. They took the train and we agreed we would order a taxi for them to come home.

First there was the negotiation via text message about the "closing time" when the taxi was to pick them up. Back and forth ... What logic is there in setting a leaving time other than the opinion and judgement of the parent? It's not like there is scientific measurment or anything. So finally I told them it was 1.30 and to get back to the party, enjoy themselves and stop trying to negotiate! What an exercise in time wasting. Arghh!

Anyway, my wife has a bit of sixth sense and although she is always worried when the kids are out, sometimes she has an extra bad feeling. Friday was one of those nights, but they got the taxi on schedule and were on the way home as expected. I guess she was wrong then.

They came to the door a little after two a.m. I opened the door and that's when I saw his face.

Three different bumps and bruises and some scrapes. He bumped into a guy at the club, spilling some of his drink and the guy gave him a few quick shots to the face. My son's friends and the crowd in general grabbed the guy and he got thrown out. Turns out the injuries were very superficial and today are almost all gone. While we were sorry that he got hurt, we were glad he didn't get into a fight with the guy because that is how things escalate with knives, broken glass, etc. and things can turn nasty.

Saturday night we looked after our 2 year old niece. The biggest issue we faced was reading her extra bedtime stories and listening to the Iggle Piggle theme song about a thousand times.

Yeah, those babies can be a real worry!

Things seem to be starting to come together finally. Yesterday I did a guest blog for IndexUniverse.com about my specialty subject - securities lending - and how it applies to Exchange Traded Funds - their area of expertise.

It gave me a good reason to go out to a large proportion of my contact base and let them know what I am doing. I've got a bit of a plan now for a few potential products/projects and now I've got to sell it!

This is the first stage - making them aware that I am here and give them a very high level overview. My experience tells me I have to start with anyone that MIGHT be interested. Right now that looks like 300 different institutions. I need to get some kind of expression of interest from this group. Maybe 15% of them will ask me to keep in touch - 45 firms.

Then Phase 2 - more detail and maybe some of the headlines and objectives to try to capture their interest. 15% of them will want to keep going making it 5 or 6 firms.

Phase 3 - ask them for sponsorship! That will separate those stringing along and those that want it to happen. That should get the numbers down to 2, or if it's a great idea 3. At that stage it's worth the money and I proceed.

The completed document is the final piece - Phase Four. Copies for the sponsors to distribute and I get happy clients for my website and referral business for the subject matter. Simple isn't it?

Post Budget Blues

Another day, another $800 billion dollar rescue plan announced in the US. The US government is going to start buying mortgage backed assets to get cash back into the system.

The credit markets reacted to yesterday's pre-budget announcement by taking the price for UK government credit protection to 86 basis points. For those of you not in the market, what it really means is that the view of "the market" is that Britain is significantly more likely to go bankrupt than the US, Germany or France. That will be reflected in the interest rate that the government will have to pay in order to raise all the gazillions of pounds which they need to borrow and announced yesterday. The bottom line from yesterday's announcements seem to be that anyone earning more than £40,000 per annum will be worse off. Not much of a stimulus is it? Vince Cable, a leading Liberal Democratic Party politician revealed that the cost to business to reduce the VAT from 17.5% to 15% will be £50 million. Not much help there either.

In the aftermath of yesterday's Pre-Budget Borrowing Bonanza, our "colourful" mayor Boris Johnson described Gordon Brown in the following way:"He is like some sherry-crazed old dowager who has lost the family silver at roulette, and who now decides to double up by betting the house as well"

Still, I'm unemployed - should I be better off today? I don't feel it and on the basis that I hope to be employed again some day, I am not looking forward to the increased National Insurance and tax increases that will be needed.

Today I finished writing a blog for a trade magazine that will be published Thursday. Not getting paid for it of course, just trying to keep my name out there. I got interviewed by a journalist for an article she is doing, not getting paid for that ... do you sense a pattern developing here?

Tomorrow is another day of thinking time. Today was very good as I achieved some tangible results.