Burnout beckons for those starting businesses

By: Matt VandeBunte

The Grand Rapids – Business Section

July 20, 2008

After more than a decade as a project manager in the tree care industry, Tim Scherpenisse was suddenly out of work.

Two years later, he is an economic forecaster, strategic planner, marketing director and human resources supervisor.

Specifically, he is a small business owner. And the transition has not come without challenges.

“It’s an obstacle not to let the business run you. If you’re not careful, it can consume you,” said Scherpenisse, owner of New Life Arboricultural Services in Grand Rapids.

(Dianne Carroll BurdickTim Scherpenisse, owner of New Life Arboricultural Services, said running the business will consume you if you are not careful.)

 

Scherpenisse is among a growing number of Michigan workers forging their own path in a shifting economy that has suffered eight years of job losses and now has the nation’s highest unemployment rate at 8.5 percent.

The number of Michigan’s small businesses has increased to 850,000 during that time, up 14 percent since 2003, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Of course, the smallest remain the most fragile, with companies of nine employees or fewer accounting for 75 percent of the state’s business closings each year.

As a result, Michigan’s economy has become increasingly reliant on the business savvy of emerging entrepreneurs stressed by long hours and no guaranteed paycheck.

For an entrepreneur to develop comprehensive business skills, while staying sane, is no small trick.

Burnout is a major pitfall.

“As that (skill set) is being cultivated is when I begin to see burnout occur,” consultant Carol Crawford said.

“You’re not crazy, and you’re not lazy. Sometimes it’s just natural that it occurs.”

(Carol Crawford)

Crawford runs The Alternative Board, a Grand Rapids Township sounding board that fosters discussion on business growth among non competing CEOs and strives to nip burnout in the bud.

Symptoms include changes in personality and behavior. They are “not a lot different than classic depression,” she said.

The cause of burnout often stems from a pressing need for entrepreneurs to develop broader skills as their businesses grow.

“It can’t just be me sitting in my office making widgets anymore,” Crawford said. “Owners don’t realize that they have to change. They follow the definition of insanity — thinking they’ll do more of the same and get a different result.

“Some people say ‘I’ve been doing it this way for 23 years, and I’m going to do it 23 more.’ Nowadays, that just isn’t the case. You’re either moving forward or backward.”

That has been the case for Jim Warner, 45, a 16-year Auto die worker who lost his job in 2002. Along with co-workers, he launched Die Tech Services Inc.

A kind of virtual die shop (”we’re a die shop, just without the die shop,” he explains), the company contracts skilled labor to manufacturers across the country and foreign markets, including Mexico and China. And it has grown.

On the job training

Starting with a handful of workers five years ago, Die Tech now employs more than 20 people and had $3 million in sales last year. But over the years, Warner has been learning on the job.

Burning midnight oil

Signs of burnout in the boss:

• Personality change
• Emotional exhaustion
• Abrupt professional and personal interactions
• Cynical attitude
• Lack of energy
• Quick temper
• Coming into work late
• Not returning phone calls

SOURCES: American Psychological Association, Carol Crawford

Some lessons have been in frustration.

“When you get into business, it’s all exciting and fun,” he said. “But then as you start growing the business, we got to a point where we needed to work on the business, not in the business.

“It’s just the growing pains of it,” he continued. “The numbers start piling up and you have the responsibility of ‘Now I’ve got to find work for this number of guys.’

“Instead of just thinking about a couple of things, you’re thinking about everything.”

Looking back, Warner wonders if he and his partner considered too much at times. He points to research that went into building a die shop down south, a project that never happened.

Had the company stuck to its core business plan, the money and energy could have been spent on that, he said.

“Once you start heading off track, you’re going down a bad road,” Warner said. “You’ve got to have yourself focused on what it is you want to do, what’s the goal.

“I think I’m over that hump,” he said. “I see a clear vision of where we’re going.”

At The Alternative Board, Crawford points out, “We don’t prevent” burnout, but “we help identify it in the very early stages.”

Burnout “enters at different stages for different people. It generally continues to deteriorate,” she said.

“We’ve got to get back to your north star. Where do you want to go with the business?”

(Emily Zoladz  Deb Bates said she has experienced at least four episodes of burnout since starting Choice Business Services Inc.)

Deb Bates has asked herself that question during at least four episodes of burnout in the 15 years since starting Choice Business Services Inc.

Sept. 11, 2001, caused one episode and, more recently, the state’s sluggish economy and a slowdown in tenant leasing sparked another.

“I just felt tired all the time. I was like a walking zombie,” the 55-year-old Bates said.

“I just was lackluster. I just didn’t have the getup and go.”

She felt she was operating on automatic. “Shuffling papers, paying the bills. But nothing innovative was coming to mind. I would come to work and go through the motions and go home and stare at the TV,” she said.

But she said personal regression repeatedly has sparked business renewal for her four-employee firm, a provider of leased office space and support services. As the market and available technology have evolved, so has Choice Business Services.

Staying flexible and making little changes to suit customer needs are key, said Bates, who also participated in Alternative Board meetings.

“If you don’t change, your company will die,” she said. “Burnout, a lot of it is wallowing in the past things that have happened and not looking at the new things that are happening and reinventing yourself.

“Just like Madonna, she’s 50 years old, but she’s always been able to come back and that’s what you have to do.”

Finding help

Along with The Alternative Board, local entrepreneurs get business guidance from Grand Rapids Opportunities for Women or the Small Business Administration’s Service Corps of Retired Executives. Others find help from the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center, which offers one-on-one counseling.

Fueling the fire

Kindle the future of your business from the start.

Make a plan: “Find out what it is that you bring to the table that adds value. The business plan forces you to look at all aspects of the business so you can have a game plan.” — Dante Villarreal, regional director for the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center
Set priorities: “Maybe a question before you start a business is ‘What do you want out of the business and what are you willing to give up?’ Success has to be more than just profitability.” — Tim Scherpenisse, owner of New Life Arboricultural Service and Global Green Roofs
Find a mentor: “Every individual has a different situation. We can help you walk through the process.” — Villarreal
Hire a team and delegate: “If you think that you can do everything, you’re lying to yourself, and sometimes you have to fall before you find that out.” — Deb Bates, owner of Choice Business Services Inc.
Manage growth: “(Small business owners) hire people way too fast because they’re in a pinch and then they’re reluctant to get rid of them. They’re very much caretakers.” — Carol Crawford, owner of The Alternative Board
Change plans as needed and seek new opportunities: “Markets change. It’s looking at your market and anticipating changes.”
— Villarreal

Take time to get refreshed: “Often, if the CEO is asleep at the switch, he or she is going to miss something. If the owner isn’t engaged, things will start to deteriorate.” — Crawford

Dante Villarreal, regional director of the center in Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon counties, said seeking help often differentiates the most successful business owners from those who simply carve out a job for themselves.

Many new entrepreneurs coming for counseling have been downsized from their previous job, he said, and expert guidance can help them craft a business plan.

Business owners often need help in managing growing pains or capitalizing on new market opportunities.

“Bottom line, this (analysis) is what drives the direction of your company,” Villarreal said. “(Struggling entrepreneurs) spend day in, day out putting out fires and just reacting to what’s going on.

“They’re not being proactive.”

Scherpenisse, 32, has gotten guidance from a consortium of fellow green industry pros as he strives to balance time spent running his business with planning time.

In addition to his tree care and landscaping work, he has launched a division looking to serve a burgeoning green roof industry.

Among the lessons he has learned is to manage growth by hiring part-time staff and subcontractors in the peak season and staying lean in the offseason.

He’s also getting over the idea that if something has to be done right, he’s the only one who can do it.

Of course, there is still the constant battle for peace of mind in a tough economy.

“A challenge in these times is the disappointment of ‘We didn’t get that job’ or ‘We didn’t get awarded that contract,’” Scherpenisse said. “Mentally, that can really get you down.

But he has become philosophic. “It is what it is. A closed door today leaves room for a bigger door to open tomorrow.”

Scherpenisse said he needs that kind of optimism to stay on an even keel. After all, with diesel fuel nearing $5 per gallon, financial stress rides along to every job site.

But with some guidance, the psyche doesn’t have to burn along with the gas.

“You have to surround yourself with a diverse set of people in different types of businesses that are willing to mentor you. You have to listen to what they have been through and learn from their mistakes,” he said.

“It’s been a long time since someone told me ‘Dude, you don’t look very good.’”

 

 

WORK & FAMILY
By SUE SHELLENBARGER
WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 30, 2008

Work at Home?
Your Employer May Be Watching

The clipboard toting, clock-watching, quota-setting productivity expert,
peering nosily over your shoulder at work, has been out of fashion in
business schools for decades.

Now he’s back, in electronic form — in the home office.

In a budding trend some employment experts say is invasive, companies
are stepping up electronic monitoring and oversight of tens of thousands
of home-based independent contractors. They’re taking photos of workers’
computer screens at random, counting keystrokes and mouse clicks and
snapping photos of them at their computers. They’re plying sophisticated
technology to instantaneously detect anger, raised voices or children
crying in the background on workers’ home-office calls. Others are using
Darwinian routing systems that keep calls coming so fast workers have no
time to go to the bathroom.

In a budding trend some employment experts say is invasive, companies
are stepping up electronic monitoring and oversight of tens of thousands
of home-based workers. WSJ’s Sue Shellenbarger reports.
Peter Weddle, an author, consultant and researcher on employment Web
sites, calls the trend “21st Century Big Brotherism” that risks being
“horribly intrusive.” Skilled workers “don’t need someone looking over
their shoulders,” he says. But while the monitoring can put a damper on
home life, many people are so eager to avoid commuting hassles that they
see the practice as an acceptable tradeoff.

The technology so far affects mainly freelance information-technology
workers, writers, graphic-design artists and call-center agents. But as
telecommuting grows amid soaring fuel costs, more people will find
themselves on an electronic leash. The monitoring itself may speed the
growth, because it tears down one of the biggest obstacles to working at
home — employers’ fear that remote workers will slack off.

Electronic monitoring is built right into freelance transactions at
oDesk.com, which links 90,000 computer programmers, network
administrators, graphic designers, writers and others with about 10,000
clients world-wide. The system takes random snapshots of workers’
computer screens six times an hour, records keystrokes and mouse clicks
and takes optional Web cam photos of freelancers at work. Clients can
log into the system anytime and see whether contractors are working,
what they’re doing and how long it’s taking them; clients’ weekly bills
are based largely on the data. A small computer-screen icon pops up at
the bottom of workers’ screens each time a screen shot is taken.

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Sue Shellenbarger answers readers’ questions about work-at-home
pitches, finding a trained emotionally- focused therapist, and
explaining résumé gaps during job interviews.ODesk Chief Executive Gary
Swart says a client paying a freelancer likes knowing, “You can’t play
Blackjack. You can’t watch YouTube. Why? Because I’m watching you work.”
When one oDesk client questioned an inflated bill from a freelancer, a
check of the screen shots revealed he’d been watching a cricket game
online. The freelancer reduced his bill.

One big oDesk competitor, Elance.com4, says installing “spyware,” as one
Elance executive calls it, is going too far. Elance recently unveiled a
monitoring system of its own that allows freelancers to document their
work electronically, but leaves control entirely in freelancers’ hands.
“We don’t believe in having a camera on your computer, taking pictures
and tracing every move,” says Elance Chief Executive Fabio Rosati.
Several of oDesk’s own programmers quit several years ago when the
company insisted they submit to monitoring.

At first, it seems like “Oh, this is Big Brother” watching, acknowledges
Russell Tweed, a St. Helens, Ore., computer-network administrator who
works on oDesk. But he says none of his oDesk clients has tried to
micromanage his work. Freelancers like oDesk’s payment system; it takes
clients’ credit cards up front and, barring a veto from the buyer, pays
workers promptly every week, eliminating slow-pay problems.

DOES WORKING AT HOME CREATE GLOOMY HOME LIFE?
How does working from home affect your home life? Do work pressures cast
a pall? Are your spouse or kids stressed by your workaday tensions? Or
have you found a way to keep home-and-hearth the relaxed “safe haven”
most people desire? Join a discussion on The Juggle, WSJ.com’s Work &
Family blog.7One oDesk buyer, Juliana Carroll, a Manhattan
financial-services consultant, says she has saved as much as 25% using
oDesk freelancers because they turn out more work faster than
contractors she has found on her own. Menlo Park, Calif.-based oDesk,
which charges clients 10% on top of freelancers’ fees, says its June
2008 revenue was 2.8 times year-earlier levels.

Corporate managers with work-at-home employees also worry about
potential slackers, and some have tightened ties with home-office
workers by monitoring their use of instant messaging or corporate VPN
links. However, employers typically resist Web cam or keystroke
monitoring of their own staffers as too invasive, relying instead on
screening telecommuters carefully and setting measurable work
objectives.

In another sector, call-center companies are tightening the electronic
leash on home-based agents, who handle calls for retailing, travel and
other clients. Call-routing technology at Arise.com8, Miramar, Fla.,
helps keep its 8,000 home agents so tightly tethered to their phones
that they have to schedule unpaid time off to go to the bathroom. Calls
flow fastest to the most productive workers. Arise home agents, who are
all independent business owners, have incentives to take a lot of calls;
their base pay starts at about $8 an hour, but commissions are added for
selling cruises, computers and the like. Top performers also get more
flexibility, in the form of first dibs on work shifts.

To keep calls flowing, Arise agents are discouraged from leaving their
desks. Instead, Arise recommends they anticipate when they’ll need a
bathroom break and schedule a half-hour off the clock, without pay, at
that time — usually every two to three hours.

Another call-center outsourcer, Working Solutions, which has 4,000
active agents, is applying sophisticated speech-analytics technology to
tune an omnipresent electronic ear into numerous home-office
conversations at once.

It’s not unusual for call-center companies to record and spot-check
agents’ calls by listening in now and then. Working Solutions’ new
system goes beyond that to instantly detect and flag such trouble
signals as cancellation threats or angry voices, enabling supervisors to
jump in on the conversations right away, says Tim Houlne, chief
executive of the Plano, Texas, company.

Home agents’ slipups, such as dogs barking or children crying in the
background, are frowned upon. Like most call-center operators, Working
Solutions says it has “zero tolerance” for background noise.

The trend suggests the home office, long regarded as a calmer place to
work, may evolve into just another office, fraught with the same
constraints as a corporate cubicle. Maggie Torres, a longtime home agent
for Arise in Southwest Ranches, Fla., says her children, 17 and 18, have
learned over the years to “stay out and be quiet” when she works. Even
her little dog stops running and jumping; “when he sees me go to that
seat, he goes to his bed and lies down and that’s it.”

But the rewards, she says, warrant the sacrifices. “If you do good on
all your stats you get to pick your hours early. I usually do — and
thank God, I get to pick the hours I want.”

Harder Consulting Celebrates 10^th Anniversary &

Announces New Banking Division

Harder Consulting has provided its clients with specialized staffing and recruitment services in the areas of accounting, finance, and human resources for the last 10 years.  In July 2008 Harder Consulting launched a new banking division devoted to the placement of banking professionals.  With certified recruiters on staff and more than 50 combined years of experience in the staffing industry, we have worked hard to build a reputation of treating our clients and candidates with honesty, respect and integrity.           

What we offer

At Harder Consulting, we present our clients and candidates with in-depth counseling services to drill down to their core needs.  Armed with extensive knowledge of today’s market trends and a candidate database that stretches across the country, our recruiters are able to source positions and candidates not found elsewhere. Whether you are a seasoned professional, recent college graduate, a company increasing its head count or a down-sizing organization, we are here to provide support from start to finish.                                                                              

Employers

We work closely with our clients to thoroughly understand the hiring manager’s needs. Our recruiters combine that client-based knowledge with our proven ability to source and attract the right candidate.  At Harder Consulting, we specialize in the proactive process, a system of recruiting whereby we have access to candidates not actively looking to move, often considered passive and overlooked by other recruiting and staffing firms. This method of sourcing allows us to provide a successful, timely match that is also cost effective for the client.  We provide our clients with a variety of hiring options, from short-term, temporary positions, to high-level direct hires.

Our Certifications

Harder Consulting holds the following certifications:  MBE, Minority Business Enterprise certified by the Central & South Texas Minority Business Council; WBE, Women Business Enterprise certified by the Women’s Business Council Southwest; and HUB, Historically Underutilized Business by the State of Texas.

Contact us with any questions regarding our various services.  We look forward to making you a valued partner.

Is our economy in trouble?  Are we in a recession?  

Regardless of whether we are or not, your attitude, behavior and mindset will determine the outcome of your company’s growth and profitability.    

There is no doubt that we are facing some very interesting economic challenges.  Choosing Success does not mean ignoring brutal facts.  But anyone can use economic facts to their advantage. 

We know the media mantra is “If it Bleeds, it Leads”, so for those of you who are having a tough time finding any silver lining in the relentless media barrage of doom and gloom, the following article and video clip will offer some alternative perspective. 

If we are facing a recession, I refuse to participate.  If you will join me, I’d love to hear from you. 

Choose Success!!! 

Joe Zente

http://www.abdmag.com/texas_is_the_lone_star_-_in_economic_survival.htm