TIme for a new career?

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AntAltMike

SatelliteGuys Pro
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Aug 28, 2005
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Looks like it may be my turn to diversify or die.

In recent years, well over two-thirds of my business has come from retirement homes managed by one company. Because this kind of work is extremely convenient to schedule and perform (no appointments, easy parking, I even have keys to some headends and can drop in at midnight if it suits me), a couple of years ago, I dropped all my Yellow pages advertising and stopped sending out sales letters to my other customers.

Over the last few months, I have submitted system upgrade proposals (broadcast HDTV, Ka DirecTV community antenna, etc) totaling maybe $40,000 to these properties. Over the last decade they have paid me well over a quarter of a million dollars, and have previously made single purchases as large as $30,000.

But I hadn't received any follow-up calls regarding these proposals in the last few weeks, which is strange, because I knew that the residents were figuratively, "chomping at the bit" for new TV services.

Well, today I got a call from one of these properties and was told that they wanted to turn off their SMATV system at the end of April. They said their management company had developed its own SMATV system that would cost a lot less for programming than they were paying 4COM, and wanted to confirm that there was no obstacle to a system shutdown on that date. I have a hunch I will be getting similar calls from half a dozen of their other properties in the near future.

In the short run, I will ramp up my broadcast HDTV add-on marketing to highrise apartments and condos that have VHF MATV systems. That might carry me for a year or two, but the way I design these systems, they are passive filtered systems and so there is very little follow-up service work from them, as compared to headends with strip amplifiers, demod-mod pairs and heterodyne processors, which often generate a thousand dollars or more in annual repair charges.

This will be the third time in my working life that a business I was in declined to the point where it was no longer viable. Around 1980, when I was in the coin operated games business, my largest arcade closed, my most lucrative bar account was bought by someone who had borrowed money from one of my competitors, and the drinking age had crept back up from 18 to 21, cutting down the traffic at my few remaining accounts. It got to the point one summer where I was down to just two accounts: a bar and a summer beach hotel. One evening I drove to the beach hotel to cash out the games, but didn't see its lights as I approached from the distance. As I got closer, I smelled lingering smoke. It had burned to the ground, leaving me with a weekly income of about $50.

A few days later, I met a world class flim flam man at a Howard Johnson's at 3:00 AM and we really hit it off. (It is easy to hit it off with world class flim flam men. That is part of what makes them world class flim flam men). He invited me to come to his place of business to see what kind of business relationship we could work out. I spent two days chasing him around (he was a human whirlwind), when he said. "Can you drive me to the airport? I have to go to Brazil at once!."

As I drove him to the airport, it was the first time I had his undivided attention. He told me of problem after problem that would go unaddressed while he was gone and I suggest some possible alternatives. Then he said, "I have an idea. Why don't you just run all my businesses for me while I'm in Brazil?"

It was an offer I couldn't say no to, because I didn't even have enough money in my pocket for gas to go home. I slept on his office floor for a few days and answered the phone every time it rang. Nearly everyone who called was figuratively or literally threatening to kill him for something. I didn't even know what business he owned that I was running. There was someone being thrown out of the World Trade Center who has subleased an office from "us", and someone else who had been flim-flammed out of over $100,000 in a futures trading scheme, and lesser people showing up at the door with a sheriff to try to collect judgements (fat chance).

The guy's primary business was now becoming making bootleg video games (Pac Man, Defender, etc) using knock-off circuit boards that he had smuggled into the country. I somehow lasted four months in this asylum before I had enough walking around money to go off on my own. I wound up working regularly for some of his customers who also were in legal businesses.

About twelve years later, I had become so close to one of these customers that he was providing over 1/3 of my income. Then, out of the blue one day, he told me that he was selling his business to a competitor, with whom I had some business relations but who would not need my services. The real problem for me was that about another one third of the work I was picking up was coming indirectly from my relationship with this customer, since it put me in contact with other businesses who needed other services I could provide, so basically, I lost two thirds of my income.

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I was in western Massachusetts, which eastern Massachusetts doesn't even know exists, but I saw the Washington Sunday Post in the library when ti arrived on Tuesday or Wednesday and a lot of companies were looking for a technician just like me. I answered a few classifieds and was invited to one for an interview. I gave the right answers to the two most important questions for anyone applying for a field service job: Do you have a drivers license, and can you start right away?

Like most companies that need someone to start right away, this company was a disaster. The president and general manager were fighting for control of the company, and three other employees were scheming to be the most powerful, and these people out and out sabotaged each others installations to help themselves look better by comparison. I left after four months and went to work for a competitor of theirs, which was a nice company but they were committed to exiting the antenna business and specializing in fire alarms, and since seniority meant everything to them, I didn't see a path that would allow me to ascend fast enough.

I then went to a third company that did antenna service. The owner of that company was the angriest, most bitter person I have ever met. She believes that every time a technician fails to successfully complete a job, he deliberately failed so as to antagonize her. She seems to think that somehow, he benefits by failing. This company sends out untrained "technicians" in their own cars, with no tools, no parts inventory, and no description of the work to be performed, and when they fail, her common refrain is, "He f**ked us." "That no good son of a bitch f**ked us"

Every time a customer refuses to pay a bill, which happens more than once a week, she'd write the technician's first name on the invoice in black magic marker, and covers the invoice with an angry diatribe about how the technician fiucked up. Then she docked him for those hours. I only lasted one month at that job.

So I took what little money I has (less than $1,000) and checked into a fleabag motel in which the running toilet flushed itself once every few hours and the cockroaches were as big as me, and I took their Yellow pages and copied out the addresses of 100 apartments, 50 condominiums and 50 hotels and sent out a typed letter that said, "I'd like to service your antenna system" One of those letters went to the desk of a young man who had been hired to manage that property that very day. He thought it was fortuitous that after he received his first call from a resident for service to her TV reception, he gets a piece of mail from someone who could do that for him.

I discovered that condos were more receptive to direct mail than the other classes of customers, and wrote a better sales letter and got eight responses. The rest is history. I then told my former fire alarm employer that I was available if they had any work they couldn't handle in-house, and they told me they had decided to exit the antenna business completely and asked me to make them an offer for their inventory. I made a very modest offer and they jumped on it, but then I told them I didn't have any money, so I'd have to pay them in installments, and they went along with that, and then I told them I couldn't make the first installment unless they let me sell off some of their inventory first and they went along with that.

My business has come a long way since then. In 2000 and 2001, I sold nearly a dozen headends for prices ranging from $5,000 to $30,000 each. I average less than one unpaid invoice a year doing commercial work only.

But now, at age 55, it looks like I'll have to shift careers or emphasis one more time. My connections give me an "in" to furnish security systems, but that equipment changes so fast, whatever I knew a decade ago is useless, and I think the economies of scale require that any such firm have multiple employees. Maybe, I can get one of these properties I have done business with to hire me as a building engineer. As long as I have control over my own time, I might be able to basically cherry-pick satellite and antenna repairs on the side and have more stability than I've had in a long time.
 
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join the crowd:( I had my primary customer a single account buying over 90 grand a year from me go from 30 employees in the department to just 5:( they were very worried, it looked like the parent company would contract out the work. all the remaing employees were 25 years and up, high pay when your there that long.

Well as part of cost cutting and a attempt to survive they now buy the stuff directly from the manufacturer....... the only good news was the sales had shrunk a LOT, before the crash came.

Its been rough, I went out and found other customers but less profit:(

Why dont you find out what system they are moving too? any chance of competing? rather than a door closing it MIGHT be a door opening:) do service for the new supplier? some bucks better than no bucks.........

Honestly having done machine repair since 75 and in business myself since 84 its a PIA.

one time I saw just about ALL the machines I serviced become obsolete, and copiers moved to mass merchants and become effectively disposable:( I specialized in small copiers.:(

maybe 5 years ago my primary supplier effectively went belly up, 150 employees to 12. I depended on everything from them:( never be too dependent on any one customer or supplier!

well the machine I was slling near 50 units a year, the new model was pure junk!! I couldnt and wouldnt sell it, cost me big bucks! and mad customers since I NEVER sell something I KNOW doesnt work@

At 50 I still like fixing machines, my customers are largely my friends:) But its a struggle right now I have a big pile of bills, and customers way behind paying me, they owe me at least 5 grand.......

Maybe we should both start bagging groceries?
 
Quite the life story you have there, I really enjoyed reading it all so much so that you I think you should write your life story out. Have you considered looking into other regions for the work you do now such as the southeast? There is alot of residential and business growth going on in the Atlanta area ( average about 5k people a day moving in right now ) and there are alot of tech jobs popping up here to.

I can understand where your coming from, I put six years into working for dish network directly as an inhouse tech and took to heart that at the time Charlie Ergen was wanting to make a diference in the pay 2 view tv market and I worked hard to become the best technician and face to face instant salesman that I could. Over the years Charlies mission statement changed gradualy and then suddenly it really changed last year when quality work became a thing of the past and the company was now pushing for its techs and subs to crank out quantity, needless to say I only made it four more months as I refused to jeopridize the quality of my work and not screw over my new and existing customers with substandard work.

Now Im in a completely diferent field altogether and when you change out of one field into another your probably going to start out at the bottom in every aspect. I got lucky enough to hire on with the biggest company in the world so I have considerably better chances at better positions and Im making better money than anyone else in the industry working for its competitors but I still miss my old job. Ive tried to hire on with cable last year but because I have problems with any math over basic stuff ( yet I can do hexidecimal and binary so go figure ) I failed the math tests that comcast had. There was a while there where I thought that directv had its own inhouse installers but it turned out that it was nothing more than directv requiring its subs and rsp's to have fleet vehicles with directv decals only on them so I am out of luck as I refuse to do sub contract work.
 
I might have to save this thread. Just in case I ever consider becoming an entrepreneur. :rolleyes:
 
AAM - I guess it all comes down to what you really want to do. I'm in a situation where I need a steady income (dependents) and good benefits (wife's health situation), so doing something I'd rather do but that has more cashflow risk is not an option at this time. If that's your situation you should consider getting a steady job, perhaps only part time, and continue to pursue these other interests as a sideline until you find something more reliable again.

You mentioned the security field, one with which I'm familiar. It's highly competitive and you can only make money by signing-up the recurring business like the monitoring and/or maintenance agreements. For a small guy, his whole equity is his repeat customer list. So you start out small and build it up over years of hard work. The guy for whom I worked suffered with it for about 8 years but then sold out. He couldn't compete with ADT and others...

Do you have a business plan? IMO it all starts there. Define what your "core competencies" are. Presumably those are the business opportunities you want to pursue - if you're not passionate about any part of your business then get out of it! Then look at each possible segment individually. What is the total potential market that you can serve. What will that cost, and is the potential profit margin worth the cost and risk? You can do this on an individual customer basis, but as you have learned, you can't depend on only one customer. (My wife did that and it worked well for several years. Then the ownership changed and she lost the business on a whim. Bad situation.)

If you haven't already done so, hook up with some small business consulting (outfits like "SCORE" will give you a lot of help for free) to explore the possibilities in today's market and climate. As you know, it's dynamic and you need to continually reassess where you are, where you need to head, and what it will take to get there. A current, active business plan is the right tool, and the SBAs will help you establish and manage one.

Good luck...
 
Maybe we should both start bagging groceries?

Whats wrong with working in a grocery store? Everyone needs to buy food, and it's honest pay, I might not be the richest person in the world but I support my family.

Do you think your that much better of a person then me because I work in a grocery store?

Being one of the managers in a store is hard work, you shouldn't make fun of people and there jobs, even if they seem minuscule to you.:mad:
 
Whats wrong with working in a grocery store? Everyone needs to buy food, and it's honest pay, I might not be the richest person in the world but I support my family.

Do you think your that much better of a person then me because I work in a grocery store?

Being one of the managers in a store is hard work, you shouldn't make fun of people and there jobs, even if they seem minuscule to you.:mad:
I took his comment quite the opposite of how you took it. My thought was that he was basically saying that grocery sackers seem to be well in demand and have a steady/reliable future. Most people I know that have worked in grocery stores for any amount of time, ended up being there "forever" because it's steady and reliable work. True, you won't become a millionaire sacking groceries, but there isn't as much competition and stress for the general grocery sacker positions either.
 
Being one of the managers in a store is hard work, you shouldn't make fun of people and there jobs, even if they seem minuscule to you.:mad:
They couldn't pay me enough to be a store manager, I couldnt deal with the bitching customers. :)
 
I'm working on finishing up my Bachelor of Science for IT degree. I have 10 assessments to go out of 27, and my goal is to be finished by the end of August of this year. :)

I'm hoping this will advance my career.
 
Whats wrong with working in a grocery store? Everyone needs to buy food, and it's honest pay, I might not be the richest person in the world but I support my family.

Do you think your that much better of a person then me because I work in a grocery store?

Being one of the managers in a store is hard work, you shouldn't make fun of people and there jobs, even if they seem minuscule to you.:mad:

SORRY​

In no way was I knocking grocery stores, fact is I worked at festival foods during its grand opening till it was preparing to close:( I worked stock, did some bagging during emergencies:( Cleaned up the rear area, and was offered full time as receiver but couldnt as I have my primary job, and they needed me daylight...

Good thing I didnt take the job, that store didnt last long. I felt bad for the managers, they all got screwed, and not in a fun way:(

NEVER WORKED SO HARD IN MY LIFE during the grand opening it was a million dollar weekend.

Actually I enjoyed the job other than being called stock boy:(

I did it for EXERCISE, and extra money. If they hadnt closed I woulkd still be there, although 2 jobs were tiring.

Grocery store managers have a hard job......... I have reamed out a few over the years, ALWAYS for good reasons!
 
...I think you should write your life story out....

I may yet do that. It includes a partnership with someone who had previously been a gun runner for Fidel Castro back when the CIA was helping him to overthrow Batista, a business relationship with a guy who looked so much like a pirate that you couldn't plausibly cast him as a pirate because he would seem overdressed for the part, an ongoing probate estate fiasco that, so far, has resulted in the resignations of two judges and an elected Register, the recusal of a third judge, the disbarment of three attorneys (one of the disbarments was actually reported on the front page of USA Today back in 1992, but the docket is still open) and one of my former customers, who munches on big Havanna cigars, got drafted right after Sam Bowie...
 
Oh my god, this is another person thats a good example of why I brought up the idea for a members spotlight! I really do think that we have people here that are more interesting than watching a hot blond try and work her way out of a revolving door.

Scott I want a raise!!! :D
 
SORRY​

In no way was I knocking grocery stores, fact is I worked at festival foods during its grand opening till it was preparing to close:( I worked stock, did some bagging during emergencies:( Cleaned up the rear area, and was offered full time as receiver but couldnt as I have my primary job, and they needed me daylight...

Good thing I didnt take the job, that store didnt last long. I felt bad for the managers, they all got screwed, and not in a fun way:(

NEVER WORKED SO HARD IN MY LIFE during the grand opening it was a million dollar weekend.

Actually I enjoyed the job other than being called stock boy:(

I did it for EXERCISE, and extra money. If they hadnt closed I woulkd still be there, although 2 jobs were tiring.

Grocery store managers have a hard job......... I have reamed out a few over the years, ALWAYS for good reasons!

Ok were still cool.:cool:
 
Glad my wife and I both have jobs working with people. We will never run out of screwed up people. In fact, life today is increasing our potential client base at a huge rate. :D
 
I work fixing computers. As long as Microsoft keeps putting out buggy operating systems, I figure I'll have job security for life. *grin*
 
I work fixing computers. As long as Microsoft keeps putting out buggy operating systems, I figure I'll have job security for life. *grin*

I used to think that until MS didn't release any patches this month! It was kind of scary not to have any patches to deploy on Patch Tuesday.
 
My son will graduate from HS in May, but he started classes toward a computer degree in January. The colleges in Iowa are turning out a fourth to a third of the computer degrees they were six or seven years ago, and it isn't because there isn't a market for people with the training. In a recent article in the Des Moines Register one of the schools spokesperson said they are graduating 200 people a year, and they could easily place 400. One of the other big state schools used to graduate 6-800 a year, and now only have about 2-300 in their program.
 
During the 1966-1967 academic year, I went to an engineering department exhibition at a state university that was celebrating its 100th anniversary and saw the IBM 360, punch cards, tape drives and all.

I could solve math problems faster than people could enter them into the computer, and I could beat it at any game except tic tac toe, at which we always played to a draw. I concluded that this behemoth would go the way of the hula-hoop and passed on the opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
 
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My son will graduate from HS in May, but he started classes toward a computer degree in January. The colleges in Iowa are turning out a fourth to a third of the computer degrees they were six or seven years ago, and it isn't because there isn't a market for people with the training. In a recent article in the Des Moines Register one of the schools spokesperson said they are graduating 200 people a year, and they could easily place 400. One of the other big state schools used to graduate 6-800 a year, and now only have about 2-300 in their program.
Wonder if its because the field is still stagnant in growth aside from the security portion of it ( you cant really bring up games anymore as a growth field unless you want to move to Korea and work on online game design there ).
 
Time for a new career!

Made this major choice twice in my life. Once at a very young age of 18. I had dreams of becoming a CBE of a radio station and worked hard at that goal, completing my AS in Broadcast engineering at age 18 as I started it while still in highshchool. (lied about my age and HD diploma to gain admission :) ). Well one night as a baby sitter engineer at a local radio station I got fired because I deserved it! (Religious station and I snuck in some Iron Butterfly misic at midnight) Anyway, I decided to study Chemistry and engineering in college rather than Broadcast engineering, but I still completed my FCC exams once I turned 21 ( no lieing there!). The Army got in the way in '67 and I had to take a short break to serve my country's desire to mess with Viet Nam. As soon as I could I went into the Reserves and back to work and school. I got a scholarship to studdy ChE and work part time as a lab tech in an experimental field for a couple of years, I was offered a new job as a Process engineer in NY and moved there with my new wife of 3 months. Worked at this chemical company doing everything from developing timed release Vitamins to hair shampoo to monomer amines, the really nasty stuff. One day the plant exploded and I was blown out of the building, burned about 25% of my body and out of work for about 6 months during recovery. I decided to stay in chemicals but go with a company that worked on primarily water based (non flammables), unfortunately that goal was only partially realized as the Army decided I was needed no longer as a combat support medic but now to retrain as an explosives "Powderman" in an engineer rock quarry unit. Luckily, I never got blown up a second time in the military but rest assured, I was very careful with all that Dynamite and C4 we had to use. The new Chenical career was going good and in 3 years I was discharged from the (now NY National Guard) and got promoted from Production Manager to Plant manager and Chief Engineer. WE built a new plant and I expanded my staff to over a 100 people. I was now at age 33 and learned that being the "big boss' with all that responsibility was not what I had dreamed it was. Lots of no win decisions. I was really unhappy. My wife had worked for a company that promoted her to a sales engineer after she completed a number of engineering courses in night school. It was OK but not what she really liked either. Most of all my hobby of scuba diving was not located in a part of the country I really liked but I did advance and became a scuba instructor at two YMCA's and at the local 2 yr college, teaching marine science and underwater lab with PADI certification. After one vacation to Florida, we decided that I would approach the company president with a 9 month notice that I would be leaving for a new life in Florida. (Why 9 month's? My wife was pregnant with our first child so the timing seemed right) Well, at first, my boss had that deep frown on his face and then like a lightbulb coming on he broke a big smile and said I was really trying to figure out how to tell you. I want you to go to Florida and find a location to open up a new branch for the company, You will be a small blending and packaging operation for our southeastern customers. As you know 80% of everything we ship is water and shipping water around the country is too expensive these days. So I was promoted to GM of the SE branch plant of the company. :) No career change here. Just a fabulous transfer. My wife was ecstatic as we were really worried about both starting a new job and buying a house , payinmg to move etc. In 3 days I was on a plane to Florida, first Tampa and then to Orlando and then to Jacksonville to find a location to build our new plant. Ended up in Jacksonville. I spent 2 weeks in Florida supervising construction and 2 weeks in NY breaking in my replacement each month. I found a house, and just had one little snafu. I couldn't sell my house in NY. It was now on the market for 7 months and still only had one person look at it. I went through 2 realestate agent contracts. The third cycle I decided to do a FSBO at the advice of a masonic brother who would mentor me through the process. Still no takers until one day I get this guy from Long Island who came to look at the house with his wife and kid. They offered a $1000 cash deposit and I was relieved. He wanted to close in October. So still traveling back and forth and my wife and baby daughter were staying at the house. Time to move was near. One Saturday was moving day. All went well and I sent my wife and daughgter back to NY to complete the deal with the closing the following week. Because of my travel, I hired a trusted brother as my attorney and signed a POA so he could complete the deal in my absence. Closing day arrived and I had to be in Florida. He said he would keep me on the phone to hear everything that was going on. In walks the buyer with a suitcase full of cash! My attorney refused to accept the cash pointing out the contract clearly stated a Bank check certified funds. There was a bit of arguing going on and my attorney convinced the buyer to walk across the street to the local bank and exchange it for a check. In about 15 minutes, several police cars arrived at the bank and went in with guns drawn. This buyer had robbed a bank in Long Island that morning. Thank God my attorney didn't accept the cash. So I got to keep the $1000 deposit, for a short while but then some really bad people began to inquire abut getting the deposit money back. My attorney suggested we comply based on who these people represented. I agreed although I could really use the money. So now I had two houses and no money to pay the mortgages on both. I needed to act fast. I took a huge cut in the sale price and sold the house to an investor who bailed me out in about 3 days! Fortunately, I could afford the loss of profits as a price to get my family together again. So back to work in Florida and all was uneventful over the next 13 years. My hobby of scuba diving grew into a nice side business teaching, shooting film and doing small commercial underwater jobs. But in 1990's trouble started brewing in the chemical company and we started to get lots of Federal inspections and beginning in 94 the crack down was severe. huge fines were levied for admin violations. It broke the company and the owner, my boss, shut it down with no notice. The following day I was in the unemployment line for the first time in my life. I wasn't too worried about income as my wife's career in Insurance was beginning to take off. So after some brief job hunting in the chemical engineering field, at the advice of some friends who were broadcast engineers, suggested I start my own business being a freelance cameraman and editor specializing in broadcast television. It was slow going for about 3-5 years and then took off. I actually formed the company to do underwater video in '85 but only in '95 did I really get serious and did the work full time as a home based business- services for hire. MY wife is still doing Insurance specializing in Large Group Health insurance and Employee benefits packages. She is really quite good at it and is recognized by her peers as such.

I guess the moral of these stories, everyone's is, when you get fired or find yourself out of work, don't be afraid to venture into a career change if you have something to offer. Switching from Chemicals to TV production was not without some background as I had credentials I really never used. But one needs to take stock in their assets and make a decision they can stick with long enough to make it work. It's all about choices. We all have them and it is important to make the right ones each step of the way.
 
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