What I’ll Do If a Fortune Telling Witch Says I’ll Be Fired Within the Next 6 Months

These days, you just never know what will happen.

Truth be told, I don’t have a pretty crystal ball.

I cannot read Tarot cards, too.

And this is my point.

We just don’t know what is going to happen.

Is the recession coming? Many forecasters have been wrong. It did not stop them from maintaining their forecast. And they continue to be wrong (thus far).

But.

A big but.

Are they, really?

Let’s review the headlines.

• Elon Musk made a pessimistic note on the economy and suggested Tesla price cuts.
• Nokia hit the news today (October 19, 2023), announcing up to 14,000 job cuts.
• Chipmaker TSMC registered the biggest drop in profits in 5 years.

The list is long. I will stop here. It can be demoralizing.

As far as I know, the global economy is strong for everyone up there and weak for everyone else.

What Does It Mean for Us?

Small businesses, 1-person businesses, freelancers, and employees share the same boat. When the global economy is weak, we get sick.

In times like this, only 3 possible outcomes may emerge.

• Status quo (Bad but not Limbo-Bad).
• Recovery (Thank God!).
• Gets worse (Sigh…).

The best part? We will never know.

Therefore, we must prepare for a possible turbulent future.

What Inspired Me to Write This Article

I work in a scale-up for my 9–6.

This YouTube clip, “Start-ups struggling to repay loans as funding dries up”, caught my attention this morning. Naturally, I got worried.

Many startups and scale-ups depend on funding of all sorts to survive. Financing is a daily issue because we do not have enough sales revenue to keep us going. Yet.

But when the funding pool dries up… we will be caught swimming naked.

I have been working with my C-Suite to secure lines of funding (venture debt or equity) from private and institutional investors. We went from door to door, pitch to pitch, and chart to chart.

No one, not even the established ones, is interested in backing us with funds.

The reason?

Well, there are many.

• Tapering and stagnating sales revenue trajectory.
• Operating costs cannot be lowered any further.
• An opportunity pipeline buried in deep winter.
• High client churn rate.

Interested investors zone out by the second meeting. I guess I will, too. There are too many uncertainties this scale-up must navigate through.

Who knows if we go bust?

Investors will lose it all.

And not just that.

We will lose our jobs.

And by my calculations, this scale-up will run out of cash by the end of 2024.

The Inevitable Plan B

It is time to dust the dirt away and revisit your contingencies.

The usual suspects include,

• Your resume.
• Your LinkedIn profile.
• Your contact list of Human Resource Consultant who knows who’s who.

Spiders understand that it takes time to spin a web. They also understand the importance of having one.

It does the hunting for them.

I read their minds and port their ideas into mine.

It is not easy to search for and secure a job these days. Many people I know have been released from their jobs. And the supply of job hunters is constantly increasing.

The power of the employment markets sits with the employees now. They can be picky. They can depress the price of labor.

“Hey, unhappy with my offer? You can leave. I have 100+ candidates to interview.”

I expect to hear that.

And so, I tell myself to be patient.

I will get out, meet all the headhunters in my contact list, grab a cup of black with my ex-bosses to catch up on weather-before-business, and figure out where the green shoots are.

These, to me, are the standard Plan B items.

By standard, I mean conventional methods.

There are unconventional ways, too.

For me, I prefer to work with people I know. Therefore, I will spend more time with my current portfolio of clients. It is easier (for me) to find out if there are any openings in the making via small talk.

If the opportunity looks good and the price point matches, I will silently send my resume across.

I know my clients, their tricks, and their approaches to work. I can fit in.

Of course, I can double down on my monetizable content as well. This can be tricky. Platform algorithms change all the time. I might be flying today, and I may crash to pennies tomorrow. Who knows?

Yes, I will try to monetize better. But I am not counting on it.

And then, there are my business ventures.

My current portfolio of small businesses has been holding up well for the past 2 years.

Recession or not, parents pursue educational support for their children. I may have issues raising prices, but I have no problem adding new clients. That is a relief.

The digital marketing agency has survived the carnage, too. It was a surprise to me. Kudos to my partner for making this happen. He convinced other small business owners that spending more during downtimes will pay off handsomely when the big players are slashing budgets.

They are convinced. We get our annual service subscriptions. They scaled their revenue. We keep our clients.

Maybe… I will spend more time securing new clients. Maybe. That way, I can fall back on higher client revenue when I am eventually asked to leave my 9–6.

The Close

No one knows what will happen in the near or distant future.

No one. Not even the smartest pal or gal on the telly.

What should we do then?

Preparing for a range of outcomes is my recommendation.

You want an alternative ready when you have been ejected from your workplace. It takes time to build these alternatives. Better start now.

Yes, now. Not tomorrow, not this weekend, next week, or next month.

Because you do not want to hit the panic zone when the skies are falling.

I do not.

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Oh, oh, you can buy me a cup of black too! Thank you!