2010 is a tough year – but I’m still alive

2010 so far has been quite hard on me. Business has almost dried up thanks to the last waves of the financial crisis, coupled with the general elections held in April – general election years always start slow.

So for the last 4 months I had no contract at all, only vague promises, maybes and “come back in half a years”.

It was awful, and I have been on the brink of bankruptcy.
However, at the same time I am grateful for this.
I’ve gone independent only a year ago, forming my business, and having this crisis so early is a good thing. Drives home a few points, and I have had some necessary lessons very early, which is better than having the same lessons says five years into the business.

What were the most important lessons?

1. Minimize your dependency from your bank. They won’t help you when you need it, and when you hit hard times, an outstanding loan makes it even harder.
   Yes, that means cutting up credit cards too. That will force you not to count on them as a “last resort” financing option.
   N.B.: Here the annual interest rate of credit cards is 40-45%. If yours have a better interest rate, then maybe you shouldn’t get rid of them. Your choice.
2. Don’t depend on one client. If you can, have more than one, even if individually all are smaller clients.That’s something difficult to achieve in my field, I usually work on a project 40 hours a week as a business analyst. Then again, it can be that I have a small sample yet.
3. Even when you are in a really tight spot, don’t roll over for your client. They won’t acknowledge that it was just out of necessity that you worked for so little, or with such bad conditions, and they will expect it.
4. Don’t accept favours from your client. They will bring it up over and over again, trying to use it to bargain for lower prices.
5. When you say no, people are prone to get offended. Tough. Actually, if someone gets offended because you said no, it’s just as well, you wouldn’t want to work with them anyway.
6. People will try to take advantage of you. And sometimes they will go snarky and nasty with you when you don’t let them, sometimes going to such a length as to call you an ungrateful sod. Deal with it. And if you can, stop doing business with them.

Now looking over these lessons I can tell you that they are geared toward a certain, “can’t trust anyone” kind of market, not the?Seth Godin kind. I really like him, but to reach the permission and trust based market, now that is a difficult thing around here.

So far, I came out alive. I can see the end of the tunnel, not quite there but close.
And looking forward to what the rest of the year brings.