One of my first post's on this platform garnered a decent response and I'm sure it was due to an emotional life even we all fear or can relate to, and how I handled it to get where I want to be in life. It's something millions of people on this planet strive to manage and understand everyday. Because this original posting got such a response I thought I owed it to everyone to kind of update you on how everything turned out, and it's probably better than you would imagine. Below is my original story and I will continue after with the update at the bottom.
- Original around 7 months ago
So a while back I started working for a digital advertising agency and they spent a lot of money to educate me on the subject. I would guess they focused on this more than their strategy to recoup their investment in me because about 3 short months after I hit the ground running they laid me off.
This is the second time in 2 years I have been laid off from an amazing job. It was quite devastating this time more so than last because I had just emptied my bank account 3 days prior and moved into a new house. I spent all my available cash flow on deposits and things we needed for the move. Well, when I went back to work on Monday they informed me they were making budget cuts and that I was no longer needed. To add insult to injury I was a remote employee and they made me drive over an hour and a half to the office to tell me the bad news, and then again to pick up my tiny severance package that failed to cover more than 3 days of pay.
So here I am driving away from a good job that I was excelling at and making money to feed my family and keep my employer happy, more importantly, all the hard work I was doing for my clients to help them grow their bottom line and achieve their goals.
I was heavily involved in the success of my clients because if they succeed it meant that I was succeding as well. So again I'm driving away from this massive building with tears in my eyes trying to think of a way to positively articulate to my fiance that we are doomed. I could see dark clouds rolling in as a storm headed its way towards me on my drive home and I could smell the odor of rain pushing over industrial workplaces and permeating my vehicle. I truly felt as if I was just as screwed as the industry in the little town I was leaving.
Then it dawned on me that my employer had mentioned that my competition was made up of a workforce of young eager sales people that were whitelisting services from large providers, and I started thinking back to all the pricing discussions I had with clients. They thought my price structure was high because my competition was offering the same services cheaper.
So I go home and start looking at these whitelist services and notice that the pricing is far cheaper than what I had been offering. So naturally, a lightbulb appears and my mind starts racing.
I'm going to start my own company, not only for myself but to get into the pocket book of the companies that wronged me. I quickly understood their strategy and downfalls and how to overcome the hurdles of doing this on a very small budget.
The next day I started contacting designers, whitelist services, web development providers and registered my domain.
After a few short nights of designing the website myself and deciding what services were most important I'm now sitting here with a functioning website, with my own domain, my own services to offer and a brand identity being crafted.
All of this happened in one week, and in that week I acquired a lead position at another company that was ok with me running my company while working for theirs. Life happens whether you want it to or not, I figure it's how you pivot to increase the probability of success. I will now own my own company, decide my own fate, and ultimately do right by my clients in the long run.
Now I have been signed to a consulting agency that receives government grants and tons of funding. They have informed me that they will be handing me clients and believe fully in what I'm doing and are hanging on its success as a case study for future agencies.
I have been blessed to have a solid vision and chase it, I highly recommend if any of you have an idea to start a business, don't wait. Do it now and don't look back. My personal stress level has gone down and I feel like I have real purpose again. Regardless of what happens my heart is in the right place for this business, and I'm happy I had the oppurtunity to share this story with steemit.
- Update 2018
So just a little update on how things panned out. The consulting company needed me to pad their numbers and fell through on their promises to help me get clients. So I had to do this on my own, and I currently have 3 clients, which may not seem like a lot, but I can assure you with a full time job, 3 clients is plenty for one person.
One of my clients actually dipped out for about 6 months and instead of harassing her like a businessman, I simply sent her a few emails and told her to get back in touch when she could. Turns out she had been in a car accident and was going through surgeries. She just recently got back to work and go her account back going and so I have been doing pretty well for myself. We still live in the same house, I still drive the same car, and all our bills are paid. With me doing this and holding strong through it all, I have found ways to invest what I have into crypto so that I can manage to build a retirement.
Just recently I pulled two 401k's early and they took and hefty amount, however when I noticed that the amount of return was only 1.2% over 4 years I'm really glad I started working for myself and was ultimately forced to really consider my retirement fund being devised by myself and not a mutual fund or investment company based out of wall street.
It looks like the world is going digital first and I don't really think there is any stopping it at this point. So I appreciate all the upvotes back then and followers, if you have had some similar life letdown like this share below, I would love to hear about how you recovered and made it work for you.
Thanks!