Garden of Words

The New Office in its Orange Glory

If I painted all four walls vibrant orange, I would go insane within a day.

I'm in the process of relocating to a permanent office space, a suite that I'm subletting from Zeigler|Dacus Marketing at 110 East Cary Street. My new space is relatively large -- perhaps 16x20 -- which gives me room for a couple of desks and a small, casual conference area.

Step one was getting a wall painted.

Step two will be organizing my books, files and assorted desk items.

Step three? The impossible task of furnishing a casual conference area with smart, stylish furniture on the cheap.

Recess in the Recession: Website Designs

I am pleased as punch with the new draft design of the Floricane LLC website. Top Dead Center Designs took my feedback -- delivered late Friday morning -- and delivered a site that really sings to me. It should be live by the end of February, but you can click the image above for a clearer look at how it's shaping up.

Recess in the Recession: A Full Week of Work

This week was the fullest week of work I've had since I officially launched my new business at the beginning of January.

It started with an opportunity to do some contract work with another consultant, who'd done work for my team while I was at Luck Stone. Dave had a Fortune 500 client in lovely Appleton, Wisconsin, whose 60 person marketing team was beginning to use a style assessment tool known as Insights Discovery -- Dave and I both have worked with Insights Discovery for years, and he felt having a second facilitator with such a large group would be a good idea. We talked about the work on Monday.

On Tuesday, I sent out an Evite to almost 400 people -- friends and relatives; former colleagues from the Times-Dispatch and VCU and Circuit City and Luck Stone; business friends and contacts; other consultants. The invitation was to a cocktail party on March 5 formally launching Floricane LLC, thanking those gathered for all of their support, and explaining what exactly my new business is all about.

As soon as I sent the Evite out, I began to mentally wrestle with whether Wisconsin was the right decision -- it was scheduled two days before 200-300 people were going to be gathering for the business launch. And the day after the third session in a significant Chamber of Commerce program I'm facilitating.

But the clock didn't wait for me to ponder. I had work happening.

Wednesday, I headed over to the Virginia Museum to talk to a few folks there about that institution's strategic opportunities -- essentially, how to simultaneously move the needle on cutural change within the museum; respect the aspects of the existing museum culture that have helped it succeed; and engage the external community in new ways. The Sigmoid Curve was a helpful point of reference in the discussion.

I also pulled out of the Wisconsin gig on Wednesday.

Thursday was slammed. Thea woke us early, and then I raced out to Short Pump for an all-day facilitation session with 30 employees of a statewide nonprofit organization. Already exhausted, I dashed to my car at 3:20 and raced to Hopewell for a 4:10 appointment with another nonprofit to interview for a year-long piece of work. The four-person panel had already interviewed five other consultants or consulting firms by the time I sat down, so all of us were a bit tired.

The interview went great. From my side of the table, the best aspect of it was that their questions (24 very focused, intentional questions) really pushed me to think through some aspects of my business -- what it was, and what it wasn't.

Friday, I finished a batch of copy for my website, sent an assessment out to the 30 folks in Thursday's session, wrote thank you notes to the interview panel and -- before I could even mail them -- found out that I made the cut, and woud be going on to a final interview.

Recess in the Recession: Flowers

The week before last, I had my first paid piece of work -- facilitating a two hour management meeting for a local nonprofit. When I came home, my wife had placed a bouquet of flowers on the table with a note that read, "Congratulations on today. I am so proud of you. I love you so much." I was in such a hurry for us to get out of the house for our first significant date night since Thea was born that I didn't even notice them! But once I slowed down, and she pointed them out, I appreciated them immensely.

Recess in the Recession: Press

Well, I'm doomed. Floricane LLC has now found its way into the newspaper, which means there's no turning back. Not that I wanted an escape hatch.

NEXT STEPS, the new Greater Richmond Chamber program that I developed and will be facilitating in February and March, landed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Henrico Citizen today. More press is sure to follow -- no one is offering the sort of space we're creating to help recently unemployed workers pause and take stock before wading back into a very challenging employment market.

The Henrico Citizen essentially quotes chapter-and-verse from the press release distributed by the Chamber:

The Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce next month will host a four-week pilot program designed to assist workers laid-off by Chamber member businesses.

NEXT STEPS, a four-week pilot program developed in partnership between the GRCC and organizational consultant John Sarvay of Floricane LLC, will launch at the Greater Richmond Chamber offices at 600 East Main Street on Feb. 16.

The Times-Dispatch piece is a little more in-depth, though it misses its opportunity to tout my new enterprise:

Monday mornings can be pretty discouraging if you don't have a job.

To ease the burden and help keep people motivated, the Greater Richmond Chamber is starting Next Steps, a pilot program to support workers who have been laid off.

The four-week course will challenge participants to acknowledge their strengths, seek out career options and pursue job leads.

Up to 32 people will be accepted in this session.

The hope is that participants will act as a peer group and keep each other motivated and engaged, said Stephanie Brenner-Kirksey, the chamber's executive vice president for programs and services.

"It's so easy to get discouraged, which is getting the best of some really talented people right now," she said.

The program will consist of four two-hour sessions, each focused on a different topic, such as taking stock and crafting a vision.

At some point, all of these posts will make their way to the new Floricane website. Because you want to go to four different weblogs to find out what I'm doing.

Recess in the Recession: Looks Like Recess Is Over

This just went live. It's going to be a fun engagement, and will hopefully lead to some amazing opportunities to help individuals work their way through some meaningful transitions. It's official. I'm in business.

Recess in the Recession: It's Official

I'm not sure why waiting for the friggin' State Corporation Commission to process my paperwork has been driving me batty. Maybe it's because until Floricane is officially declared a Limited Liability Corporation I'm unable to get a business license from my friends at the City of Richmond, or open a business checking account.

Well, the SCC finally sent an official package to the house yesterday, notifying me that effective January 10, 2009, Floricane LCC was a recognized business.

The web team got busy on Friday, making design plans and helping me move my domains (floricane.com and northrichmondnews.com and sarvay.com) to a new host. A new business site will sit at www.floricane.com in a few weeks.

On Monday, I'll receive 2,500 business cards. I saw a finished sheet of them on Friday, and they look utterly amazing.

On Tuesday, I'll quietly slip into City Hall at the crack of dawn to register my business with the mayor.

And in the spaces between, I'll continue to plug away at the five jobs that have landed in my arms before I even got my act entirely together. I've got training to develop, workbooks to design, strategies to plan and communities to build.

My goal is to have a dozen clients by springtime.

My head tells me to build slow. My gut says go fast.

I think it's a good time to listen to my gut.

Recess in the Recession: Floricane Is Launched

With minor modifications on the way, here's a glimpse of the new business cards (front and back of the cards) for my business:

Nothing like an identity to make you feel official.

Recess in the Recession: Rebalancing

I've had to make a hard-to-starboard turn this week as my workload suddenly shifted from networking and foundation building to actually doing work. It's been a challenging transition, one that I didn't actually expect to have to make until mid-January.

Not that I'm complaining.

When I started down the path of creating my own business, I got plenty of advice from smart people. One of the pieces of advice that really resonated with me -- "Take the time on the front-end to create a solid foundation for your business, because once you start working it'll be impossible to find the time to go back and fix your bad accounting system, or crappy website," several people told me. It made sense, and so I gave myself until mid-January to finish my networking conversations and do all the tactical work required to set the business on a solid footing.

It was working until I suddenly found myself chasing four pieces of work -- a training session for the Virginia Association of CPA's; a four-week workshop for a large non-profit; turning some ideas on a napkin into a presentation on business reinvention for a large regional corporation; and a proposal for a non-profit in the Tri-Cities area.

Until this week, my typical day involved three-to-five business conversations and an awful lot of emailing. I've been nibbling around the edges of filing for a business license; opening a business checking account; setting up a website. I've got the wheels turning on a visual identity for the business, including a logo, business cards and a website design. I'm beginning to make loose plans for a launch party for the new business that will provide space for several hundred people to connect, get an introduction to the business, and experience firsthand the work I hope to do. Let's not mention the challenges of teaching an eight-month-old how to put herself to sleep, or the approaching holidays.

And so when real work actually showed up on my desk, I realized that it was time to reorient myself. Fast.

Easier said than done. My calendar remains pretty loaded with meetings through the middle of January, and there are still lots of loose business pieces that still need to be coordinated.

Enter the world of the virtual assistant.

A former coworker -- the training coordinator for my old team who also lost her job in November -- has been mulling the idea of providing administrative support remotely. It's an increasingly popular concept, and has been made simple and practical by the slew of Internet technologies that enable what I call "back office driving." Carey and I talked last week about the possibility of her providing coordination and admin support for the business set-up; the launch event; and the identity and website work. We hope to nail down specifics and "ink a deal" after Christmas.

Fortunately, two financial windfalls of sort landed in my mailbox this week.

The first was an option to cash out my pension from my former employer -- something our financial adviser suggested I seize (for a variety of reasons). A portion of that will roll into my new business account, and support the tactical costs of starting up.

The second was more of a surprise, and a bit humbling. It came in the form of a sizable check from two important people in my life to help grease the wheels and get things rolling. It was unexpected, generous, and a bit overwhelming. It continues to surprise me when people step into the breech to support me; I spent most of my life rolling my sleeves up and going it alone. While I'm not sure I'll ever get used to people genuinely wanting to help me succeed, I'm certainly glad I'm able to understand, appreciate and value them for their support.

I have cash. I have clients. I have work. I suppose this means that it's a done deal.

I'm in business for myself.

Recess in the Recession: Work!

In the past several weeks, I've been energized by four pieces of work that I've landed -- or that have landed in my lap. Energized, and a bit overwhelmed. I have another proposal in the hopper, and a sixth potential slice of work to chase down.

All before I've even picked a new logo! (Take a look at my current options here: Download Floricane-logo_ideas_1. Have a favorite? Post it in the comments.)