Two years ago, I was laid off from my job as an Internal Communications Specialist for an area hospital. Since then, I've been doing some freelance work and continuously looking for a job. I have sent out hundreds of resumes, and I usually don't hear anything back.
It's not that I haven't been successful. I built, branded and maintained the hospital's intranet on Sharepoint (which I had never worked with); chaired the communications committee; managed state grants, one of which was a very successful train-the-trainer program "Disaster Preparedness for People With Chronic Disease"; and wrote, edited, and published the weekly newsletter for the CEO.
I honestly thought I was invincible.
After two years of unemployment, I've been through depression, spats with my very patient wife, embarrassment, and a lot of fear. I also worry that I will lose the respect of my kids. Now, I'm just angry. I'm angry at the people who don't respond to my emails, I'm angry at Wall Street, I'm angry at George W. Bush, and most of all, I'm angry at myself. Why have I wasted all of this time hoping to find a job working for a bunch of corporate idiots instead of going out and making it on my own?
It's over. I will no longer be afraid to succeed and I have a plan. It's an easy enough plan to understand, but I'm sure it will be difficult to execute. Nevertheless, I'm up for the challenge. Remember me? I'm the guy who built a very complex intranet on a program I had never worked with before (actually, Sharepoint is pretty easy, but I added a lot to it).
I'm going to explain what I'm going to do for a couple of reasons. First, I really want feedback, suggestions, and ideas. Second, it can be replicated in other cities and if anyone is in the position I'm in, it might help.
My plan is to simply promote local businesses who can't afford the time or the money to market themselves. I will use what I consider to be group selling (not to be confused with group buying) to market the areas restaurants, clothing stores, services, etc.
Here's how it will work. Starting on Monday (when I will have everything ready to go, I'm going to start introducing myself to every business owner in my area. I'm going to get them to help me build an opt-in audience by giving me access to their customers, this is what I call customer sharing.
The idea is that each store has its own unique customers who shop in the area, as well as shared customers. My idea is to get all of them following a central site, Facebook page, and Twitter account so they can be alerted to every business' offers, special events, etc. At this point it becomes something like Groupon, but way less expensive and way easier to do.
When the audience is built, I will begin charging the businesses to post and Tweet their offers. I will also charge for write-ups for their business if they want one. The cool thing for them is, they'll be able to communicate to many more people than what they have in their social circle for a very reasonable fee (less than paying someone to hand out fliers).
Now, imagine a restaurant is having a slow night. They can contact me and tell me that they want to offer free appetizers for the next 20 customers that walk in their door. I post the offer and it then reaches people online and on their phone. In a perfect world, the restaurant spends $20 or $30 and they get $200-$300 in return. Not a bad ROI.
Naturally, not every deal would work that well, but it will still be inexpensive for the mechanic down the street to drum up business, with 10% off on brake jobs, or for the clothing store to run a weekend sale.
Will I get rich off of this? I doubt it, but I will make some money for me and for the businesses, in my area, while the customers save money. Not a bad thing in this economy.
After I learn by trial and error, I'll probably do it again with the community next to mine.
Wish me luck.