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If he/she had a client that could've benefited from my work. Then he/she would've got a cut of the job and vice-versa. Seems pretty easy to understand. "You scratch my back, I scratch your back" kind of deal. The problem is nobody wanted to hustle and generate business. It was all about what time do I come to work and what time do I leave. The long-term unemployed are like the last kids picked for the baseball team. All of you bashing my business plan fit right into the lazy category. "I have to do what??? Find clients myself???" That was the shock on their face.
Your so called "business plan" is called asking for referrals from actual professionals without offering any referrals in return. There isn't even the guarantee that YOUR work is of adequate quality to refer to another persons clients.
What you wanted was a commission only salesperson. If you'd been honest enough with yourself and with job hunters, you might have actually found someone willing to take on your proposition. You wouldn't have found anyone of quality unless your work is of a high standard and they would have a good chance of generating a reasonable income. Good salespeople won't work for shoddy businesses with weak propositions. It's a profession like any other.
You lied to people and now you are insulting them. Not surprising nobody is giving you leads. I wouldn't.
I hire Sam. Sam and me both want to use our unique skills to benefit each other. I get a phone call from some lady who wants to sell her house and needs some fine tuning done. Paint, cleaning, etc. I then let Customer A know I also work with an interior designer. Customer A is requesting Sam's interior design ideas as well. The job is done and Sam and I divide up the money. Does that make better sense???
Again...it was a pseudo business partnership. "You scratch my back, I scratch your back". My point is, everybody I interviewed wanted a 9-5. Nobody wanted to actually generate business.
I do nothing of the sort. As someone mentioned in another thread, I come in to sell; hoping that the company wants to buy.
I am very professional, show up 10 minutes early, never ask about the salary and have held jobs for years.
Stop stereotyping and accept reality that this economy blows chunks.
Amen to that! Seriously, why the f*** do people assume that if you don't have a job its because you do stupid things (e.g. show up late for an interview, bring a friend to an interview, dress unprofessionally).
To tell you the truth, I have been to several interviews and not once did I meet a person who does what the OP described!
Sure there are some losers but there are millions of unemployed with a great work ethic who can't get hired.
I don't really believe this because it is not even evident in the workplace amongst the employed.
I believe for the MOST part, work ethic and quality of work follows a normal distribution curve.
The vast majority are average. They show up get the job done. Sometimes-- they don't get the job done as required. Sometimes they perform 100 times better than what is expected. But most of the time they are average and are as influential as removing a hand out of a bucket of water. They cause little ripples and in the end the company and team continue to move right along without their absence truly noticed.
Then, you have a small percentage of workers who are just plain sorry. Do not remotely perform up to par but have not quite reached the point yet where they can be fired.
Then you have a small percentage of workers who are truly exceptional. Always exceeding expectations and empowering their roles by creating real value versus just disappearing into the team or the rest of the work group. These people can move up and handle most anything. They are real superstars.
When I managed a team, I had one superstar and one deadbeat. The rest for the most part were solid average performers.
So I don't believe there are millions of folks unemployed with great work ethics. I think there are millions unemployed who range between the three levels. I think the vast majority are average workers who could do a solid days work but they are not going to knock your socks off. Just like the vast majority of workers working now are average and not going to knock your socks off.
I hire Sam. Sam and me both want to use our unique skills to benefit each other. I get a phone call from some lady who wants to sell her house and needs some fine tuning done. Paint, cleaning, etc. I then let Customer A know I also work with an interior designer. Customer A is requesting Sam's interior design ideas as well. The job is done and Sam and I divide up the money. Does that make better sense???
If you get calls without interior designers involved, you would have the same outcome (you'd get paid for your painting).
You need an interior designer to generate those calls to you. You want the designer to do 2 jobs: sales and her expertise. See, people can see that. If you are hiring someone to do their job + sales (finding clients) they understand that you want a slave, since finding clients is the hardest part for a starting business.
To put it the other way: would you be willing to work for an interior designer who would be hiring you to paint AND to find her clients to start with?
If you get calls without interior designers involved, you would have the same outcome (you'd get paid for your painting).
You need an interior designer to generate those calls to you. You want the designer to do 2 jobs: sales and her expertise. See, people can see that. If you are hiring someone to do their job + sales (finding clients) they understand that you want a slave, since finding clients is the hardest part for a starting business.
To put it the other way: would you be willing to work for an interior designer who would be hiring you to paint AND to find her clients to start with?
To add to what Nuala said I will also say this. There are PLENTY of underworked or unemployed carpenters/ handy men. There are definitely fewer interior designers, and most interior designers rely on referrals to generate business anyway. They would rather not work "for you" in a sense. They could just as easily call you for a quote on the work and choose you if your cheapest.
The Interior Designer carries more weight which is exactly why I am not surprised you couldn't find anyone.
Amen to that! Seriously, why the f*** do people assume that if you don't have a job its because you do stupid things (e.g. show up late for an interview, bring a friend to an interview, dress unprofessionally).
To tell you the truth, I have been to several interviews and not once did I meet a person who does what the OP described!
Why do they do this? Because there are a chunk of people out there who are delusional about their own abilities. They believe that they have rightfully "earned" everything good that's happened to them in life and that luck has *never* been a factor, and this supports their smug and superior attitude. Nevermind how luck plays a role in everything from health to the economic status of the family into which one is born - for them, luck was "never a factor" in their minds.
The side effect of this is that they *must* hate the unemployed and unsuccessful people in general. If they ever stopped to realize how many of the unemployed are in that situation for reasons they cannot control: age, health problems, assorted economic issues, BS hiring requirement, etc., they would have to reflect on their own lives and realize that luck played a role in their success. Because they are delusional and need to maintain a sense of superiority to everyone else, they cannot consider this possibility; in their minds, "everyone always gets what they deserve," so the unemployed "deserve" to be out of work and "deserve" to die in poverty.
I was also looking for somebody to think "outside the box". Hiring somebody to come to work at 9 and leave at 5, wasn't what I was looking for. I needed an interior designer who had a client list and was able to generate more clients on her own. Which would compliment my aspect of the deal. In other words, I own a home improvement company. By her finding people looking to re-design, would in turn provide me with work. Painting, detail cleaning, etc. The second I told MOST people this, they got turned off and pretty much left the interview. The people that were interested were hired. Have you, this was two years ago. I still haven't gotten any leads. By them finding clients, they would get a percentage of the job or vice versa. People didn't want to go the extra step.
Shouldn't the interior designer be hiring YOU? Why would he/she want to go to all the work of generating clients and revenue for the sake of making you money?
Quote:
Originally Posted by HollaGeo
Again...it was a pseudo business partnership. "You scratch my back, I scratch your back". My point is, everybody I interviewed wanted a 9-5. Nobody wanted to actually generate business.
Are you assuming business can only be generated earlier than 9am or later than 5pm? Or maybe you just want to hire someone to be on call 24/7? Are you trying to imply that they should be working 12 hour days for you? Would you pay them overtime? Oops sorry, I hope I didn't offend you with that last question!
It really really sounds like you are trying to hire someone to work very long days and/or weekends and to do all the leg work for you. No wonder no one was interested.
I hire Sam. Sam and me both want to use our unique skills to benefit each other. I get a phone call from some lady who wants to sell her house and needs some fine tuning done. Paint, cleaning, etc. I then let Customer A know I also work with an interior designer. Customer A is requesting Sam's interior design ideas as well. The job is done and Sam and I divide up the money. Does that make better sense???
Except, this isnt what you wanted. You wanted Sam to come with a built in client list, and a tremendous motivation for drumming up business.
By the way, any clients you happened to get would mostly be worthless for the interior decorator (how many people wanting their walls painted also want decoration), while many of the interior decorators clients would be valuable to you (often part of the process of redoing an interior is painting).
Your intention was to piggy back off their clients, and then split the money (no doubt you getting a bigger share, since they are your "employee", even though they are essentially running their own business). Essentially, you were trying to "hire" someone, who would be better off running their own business, since being "employed by you" was benefiting them in absolutely no way. Even the dumbest of idiot could probably figure that out.
Maybe, you should just go to an interior decorator, and offer to give them kick back on referrals, thats what most associated businesses do.
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