SMHprojects is four years old today and still growing into a happy and healthy little company. Turnover is up again this year but more importantly it is that the profit that has risen modestly and will match the inflation that our home life is experiencing from ever rising energy bills and a growing teenager to feed.
New customers have appeared which is always great for your feeling of insecurity and worry that you are living on the halo effect of your past employed life. The forty something guy who used to work for Flamingo is not the reason I am employed anymore but is still a big part of why I am employable and should not be forgotten.
I have watched people that I know leave good companies and be successful consultants and we all need a good contract to start us off. It is almost invariably related to what we did while employed and when that contract ends our skills and relevance that made us attractive have also then faded. The year three slump that I feared as the initial start up contracts passed by has not materialised this year and I am feeling more confident for 2012. Around me the debt crisis, death of the Euro and impending gloom covers the daily news and feeds my paranoia that the SMHprojects train will reach the buffers but I simply have no evidence to back this assumption up.
I enjoy having a little company that employs a few people from time to time and has a certain scale and mass. Although much of the turnover is paid out to Air France or Hilton Hotels the passage of invoices through the company seems to keep pace with the money going out and leave some to feed family homer. Its not as if I have built anything that has any asset value or physical presence outside of the heap of paper on my desk but somehow the end of year statement is a little flag fluttering on my fragile sand castle for this year.
18 business trips since January has led to 87 days away from home which amazingly is three less days than last year but not a great deal better. The balance of the trips was actually worse as they were compressed into the first seven months which is reflected in why I was able to do a years turnover in only 9 months ! - 30% of your time away from home before the summer holiday arrives is a serious miscalculation by any standards and one lesson I have to heed next year.
For anyone counting the carbon footprint (which I don’t) I covered 110,839 miles in various airplane seats visiting 22 different cities and 14 countries but only ever passing briefly through a hotel lobby or darkened cold store or warehouse on my way to sending another invoice. It seems that I am unable to decouple the travel mileage from the company profit at the moment. I am sure it is still down to a lack of confidence in my ability to write down my expertise instated of “performing” at meetings that forces me to travel more than I should.
Despite some lessons and soul searching over the summer break it is starting to feel like this jobbing sabbatical may last longer than I thought four years ago. (First Day - New Job)
2012 is looking promising and I need to concentrate on quality rather than quantity. More work that pays more from less travel is the goal for 2012 and try and leverage my experience of the last four years into more paid work from paper and less from voice. – Easier said than done for sure but one that I have to remind myself if this is to be anything more than a fifth year of hamster wheel activity.
Comments