Sunday's NY Times.
'Free Agents' Find Too Much Free Time
By EILEEN P. GUNN
As an independent consultant, Thomas W. Allen doesn't get pink
slips. But at times, he says, he has felt a lot like the more than
two million workers whose jobs have been cut in the last two years.
"It was easy to wonder sometimes if the phone would ever ring
again," said Mr. Allen, 59, of San Francisco, whose last big
assignment, as interim chief financial officer for a professional
services company, ended in early 2002, when the company shut down.
He said he immediately started cycling through his Rolodex to drum
up business, "but the market was dead, and absolutely nothing was
happening."
The economic expansion of the 1990's brought increasing numbers of
so-called free agents like Mr. Allen, professionals who left their
steady jobs to become independent contractors and who often had
enough lucrative projects coming in to turn work away.
It's difficult to gauge how many people are independent contractors,
but the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that about 6.5 million
Americans were self-employed when the economy peaked in 2000; the
current total, it says, is about 6.2 million. With the economy now
weak, many free agents are trying to find their way through a
nebulous zone that isn't quite unemployment, but is still nowhere
near the full-time business they once had.
Projects have become smaller and less frequent than they were two
years ago, said Robert Steir, the founder of MBA GlobalNet in New
York, a network of management consultants who bid jointly on
projects.
At Dice.com, which lists freelance assignments for technology
professionals, contract job listings fell 14 percent in 2002, after
declining 28 percent in 2001, said Thomas Silver, a senior vice
president.
According to the Labor Department, the number of self-employed
people working full time, or at least 35 hours a week, declined 5
percent in 2002 from 2000, while the level of self-employed people
working part time rose 9 percent.
"It's similar to being on unemployment," said Dr. Jo Ann Brusa, a
counselor and psychologist at Oak Consulting, a human resources
consulting company in Lisle, Ill. "You're dealing with loss in your
business and anger and possibly depression."
There are ways to get through this down cycle, which some career
experts and consultants expect to continue through this year. But
solo professionals also need to be at least a little creative when
it comes to marketing themselves and networking for leads.
The biggest challenge is financial. Free agents don't have
unemployment checks or severance pay to fall back on when work stops
for a few months.
Some independent consultants have had to take other jobs outside
their fields to carry them until business picks up. Todd Smith, 32,
a consultant in Jacksonville, Fla., who helps small companies
develop and execute business plans, hit a 10-month dry spell in
2002. Only two years out of graduate business programs at the
University of California at Los Angeles and Thunderbird, a graduate
school of international management in Glendale, Ariz., and still
carrying big student loans, he had no time to build a financial
cushion.
Fortunately, he had a real estate license, received in 1995. He put
it to work recently for the first time, helping clients buy and sell
property in the Jacksonville area and investing in houses with
partners who could provide most of the cash.
The plan was to fix up the properties for rent or resale. But with
no money to hire contractors and with plenty of extra time, Mr.
Smith said he "spent most of 2002 building decks and walls,
drywalling, tiling, carpeting and painting."
He periodically checked in with U.C.L.A., MBA GlobalNet or freelance
Web sites like Guru.com for new work leads. In the meantime, income
from the rentals and one or two quick sales helped make ends meet.
And the work got him out of bed in the morning. One of the hardest
things about being underemployed, or unemployed, is figuring out how
to be productive while also staying optimistic about marketing your
talents. That's why some free agents have decided that when they
cannot sell their skills, it may be worthwhile to give them away.
Mr. Steir of MBA GlobalNet is also the director of outreach for a
nonprofit group, MBAs4NYC. He connects experienced management
consultants who want to do pro bono work with small-business owners
in Lower Manhattan who have yet to rebuild after the Sept. 11
attacks. The volunteers help business owners cut costs and develop
marketing ideas, new products and new business channels.
"A lot of the volunteers are people who aren't working," Mr. Steir
said. "But helping people energizes them instead of decreasing their
energy. And it gives them something that they're doing in their line
of work to talk about," and to possibly include on their résumés.
Jennifer Mullens, 30, a freelance public relations consultant from
San Francisco, follows that strategy. "I never feel like I have
nothing to do," she said. "And volunteering lets me sharpen my
skills and develop new ones."
Working by herself gives her little opportunity to be a team leader
or manager, but last December, she took a lead role on committees
organizing two big fund-raisers.
Volunteer work also lets professionals meet people in their fields
or related sectors, which can lead to paying work.
"People I've met through volunteer gigs have approached me about
contract opportunities," Ms. Mullens said.
Julian E. Lange, an associate professor of entrepreneurial studies
at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. and a private consultant
himself, agreed that people who work alone need to make extra effort
to look outward when business slows.
"It's easy to get lulled into being very introspective and focusing
entirely on your problems," he said.
He said he encouraged both students and clients to talk to customers
and peers, asking them how the economy's twists and turns have
permanently changed their business. "If you use that free time to
rebuild your business around what they're telling you, you're ready
to expand in the right direction when the economy rebounds," he said.
It was such a course that snapped Mr. Allen out of his funk. "After
a period of denial, I realized this was a wake-up call that the
world had changed," he said. He said he did some research and
decided that while his consulting services were still marketable, he
needed to change the way he turned up business.
He gave up trying to find the one or two people in his Rolodex who
happened to know of work that would interest him. "It's a random way
to connect with people," he said.
Instead, he joined a support group for senior executives and a
business development network, where people exchange work leads. And
he started the Bay Area Consulting Group, a firm in which he and
five partners work together from separate offices. The firm also
sponsors a monthly networking meeting for other consultants.
"It's a more focused and purposeful way to network," he said. "You
meet lots of people at once and get good ideas from them."
The group networking is yielding ideas, and an encouraging amount of
work. "I have a project I'm working on," he said, "and several
proposals I'm working on with other people that I think will come
through."
