Reply #14: This is gonna sound off-topic, but it's not...please bear with me...

[Amerigo Vespucci]

I have a client who is a dentist. I have my own strategic marketing firm, and Web Site design plays a big part in it. My client wanted to add a blog to the site. I'm in the middle of making that happen. I said:

"I imagine that cosmetic services are down right now, but if people chip a tooth or have a toothache they're still coming in, right?"

She said "NO."

I said "You're kidding, right?"

She said "NO ONE is coming in."

I have an appointment with her this coming Tuesday, because...as she put it..."there are no patients on that day so we won't be interrupted."

OK, here's my point, which is basically your point too (as I understand it):

Right now, I cannot afford to "not produce zip."

I need to identify the critical needs of my clients, as well as my potential clients, and deliver solutions that meet those needs, that they can afford, which will ultimately enable me to meet MY financial obligations. It isn't easy and quite often I can never charge a fee that adequately covers the "legwork" I do for my clients. But they DO know that I bust my ass for them, which is why they remain my clients.

And we don't know the degree to which Paul Nawrocki "gets" that.

If he really is an out-of-work 50-something paper pusher, yes...Elvis has left the building regarding job opportunities. Without judging him...if I were in New York and could walk up to him right now on the street...I'd hand him a piece of paper with the name and contact info of a low-or-no cost career counseling center that could help him deconstruct his years of experience and re-assemble them into a credible job search strategic plan.

My church has a free program which specializes in finding jobs for what society would consider the "unemployable"...people who have just been released from jail, people who have had substance abuse problems, you name it. They average one job per day, every day...last year they put 380 "unemployable" people back into the work force and they are on track to equal or surpass that number this year.

How do they do it? They work the phones. They have a list of EVERY online job resource, NOT just Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com, and they update this list regularly. They turn over every rock they can find and then they look for more rocks. And in doing so, they find steady, paying work for the "unemployable."

:patriot: