Hey Ya’ll, this is my first post at Proformative, so be nice!
I became a “reluctant
People today forget how tough it was back then. We were shaken by 9/11 and lots of my former coworkers found themselves personally questioning their decisions and values.
I was questioning how I was going to pay off the little house I’d bought and keep my two dogs in the style they’d grown accustomed to. I was also wondering when I’d be able to settle down and have a real family. Even though the economists said the recession ended pretty quickly after 9/11, I remember feeling that big financial service firms would never hire at the rates they had again. (Sound familiar 2011?)
Even if they did, the seniority I’d banked wouldn’t be an asset. I knew they’d be hiring kids right out of school to fill out their ranks.
I was a mess for about two months after my termination. I wasn’t drunk all the time or passed out on pills (though plenty of my former teammates I knew were!). I was a mess psychologically. It was the end of June, so on the outside, I just carried along like every day was a weekend. I ran along the promenade each day with the pups and got into good shape. I’d meet with friends whenever I could and took to eating super-healthy (this was before Atkins caught on). I looked great and my body felt better than it had in years. This was around the time I met my future husband too.
But on the inside, I was in turmoil. I spent my nights surfing the net, sometimes for hours, shopping for things I could no longer afford. “I wonder what a week in Venice would cost right now?” or “Maybe I should buy a new car, how about a new Mercedes convertible?” I didn’t look for jobs. I didn’t brush up my resume. I just sat there and waited for the karmic wheel to turn. I convinced myself that I was working on “my things,” which included the relationship I had started.
Well two months turned into six months. Then it was eight months and I still hadn’t found a job. As the one-year anniversary of my unemployment loomed, I felt a unique sense of terror. Others from my working group had moved on, many had joined small companies to run their finance
I kept hearing how great working with these small companies was for them. They got to be in charge of something and directly support the operations of a real business.
One of my friends joined an import-export business that was anything but fancy. He invited me out to lunch in Ybor City one afternoon and took me over to his offices afterward. It was a dump, packed into the second floor of a warehouse close to the boatyards—a far cry from the view we’d had on the 23rd floor at our old office. But he loved it. Gone were the obsessive middle managers. Gone were the ridiculous quotas and pressures. Gone was the need to boast of ever-more extravagant vacations and wristwatches. He felt liberated for the first time in his
I wanted that for myself. I’d worked with many entrepreneurs, family business owners and small operations when I was at my old job. I always looked down on them as somehow unprofessional or amateurish. We were encouraged to always be hunting for bigger accounts, so I gave these guys as little attention as I possibly could.
I saw the whole equation with new eyes after that day. My friend and I had been screwed by a big business—set out on the street with yesterday’s garbage. He’d decided he was never going to be in that position again. His new employers value and utilize his skills and he’s become an integral part of their business. He’s helped them grow and cut overhead costs and spearheaded expansion.
On the drive home, I thought about what I’d seen and decided then and there to start my own business, one that would allow me to help people just like this each day. I started Zeidler Associates to focus on the small business and give them the financial services, consulting and
I’m excited to be joining the Proformative community because I see each day how much small business owners and their bookkeepers need good, relevant information on the art of finance. Since my layoff and epiphany, I’ve gotten to know these people and come to understand the difficult business decisions that they have to make. Big service firms, banks and consultants typically ignore these opportunities—but I believe they’re the lifeblood of our economy.