Al's Big Update 2010 #1 - Work
I was just looking back through old entries, and it was just over a year ago that I last decided I was going to post again after being away a long time, and I posted 5 major life updates: on work, theater, family, health and Tasha.
Work sucks. If I could find a new job that paid halfway decently, I'd take it. We are doing some interesting work. Our last big projects were a strategic economic development plan for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (plus 2 adjacent Wisconsin counties) and a feasibility study for a business incubator in Southeast Iowa. We have a few smaller projects in the works now - an impact study for a proposed Madison public food market, a development plan for the Village of Pulaski, and a feasibillity study for a commercial kitchen incubator in Racine. The work is interesting, but that's not the problem.
We made a lot of changes last year to trim overhead. We moved out of our old office on the west side of town and into the Research Park's new satellite space in the old Marquip building on East Washington Avenue. That part, I like. Although in some ways I miss the west side, this location is a lot more convenient, as it is much closer to where I work. The big change is that we went from paying ourselves really well to paying ourselves really crappy, with the understanding that once the overhead is paid, everything else that comes in would be profit that we would split up.
We made the change in July, and since that time I have been trying to live on 1/3 of the salary I had been making for the last several years. Ouch. It's been a great move for the business. We paid off all our debt and now we operate pretty cheaply. The problem is that my partners are both in their 60s and not dependent on this job for their livelihood like I am, and so we have yet to take a single profit distribution. I recently took out a large loan from my 401(k) just to bail myself out of a bunch of debt, and I have already burned through it. I am not paying any bills except rent.
I did get a side gig as a blackjack dealer for private parties. That's kind of fun but it doesn't do much to supplement my income. It's nice because it doesn't require much of a commitment - I can sign up or not sign up for parties as they come up. The pay is a pittance, but every little bit helps.
In the meantime, I peruse the classifieds and keep hoping we'll be able to take a profit distribution one of these days.
Work sucks. If I could find a new job that paid halfway decently, I'd take it. We are doing some interesting work. Our last big projects were a strategic economic development plan for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (plus 2 adjacent Wisconsin counties) and a feasibility study for a business incubator in Southeast Iowa. We have a few smaller projects in the works now - an impact study for a proposed Madison public food market, a development plan for the Village of Pulaski, and a feasibillity study for a commercial kitchen incubator in Racine. The work is interesting, but that's not the problem.
We made a lot of changes last year to trim overhead. We moved out of our old office on the west side of town and into the Research Park's new satellite space in the old Marquip building on East Washington Avenue. That part, I like. Although in some ways I miss the west side, this location is a lot more convenient, as it is much closer to where I work. The big change is that we went from paying ourselves really well to paying ourselves really crappy, with the understanding that once the overhead is paid, everything else that comes in would be profit that we would split up.
We made the change in July, and since that time I have been trying to live on 1/3 of the salary I had been making for the last several years. Ouch. It's been a great move for the business. We paid off all our debt and now we operate pretty cheaply. The problem is that my partners are both in their 60s and not dependent on this job for their livelihood like I am, and so we have yet to take a single profit distribution. I recently took out a large loan from my 401(k) just to bail myself out of a bunch of debt, and I have already burned through it. I am not paying any bills except rent.
I did get a side gig as a blackjack dealer for private parties. That's kind of fun but it doesn't do much to supplement my income. It's nice because it doesn't require much of a commitment - I can sign up or not sign up for parties as they come up. The pay is a pittance, but every little bit helps.
In the meantime, I peruse the classifieds and keep hoping we'll be able to take a profit distribution one of these days.