"The Job died in the second decade of the 21st century." - Human Resources Expert
The American Bar Association documented that 45% of the JD class of 2011 didn't get full time long term jobs practicing law. Sad.
But what neither the ABA nor the legal media such as Abovethelaw.com dealt with is this: What's the probability that the 55% who did nail down full time jobs will be in them three years from now? In essence, The Job, as we know it, has become an anachronism. This is the dawn of a new era in which all of us continually hustle to make a living. Each one of us is a Micro Business.
For this reason, I invited Kate Terricciano Sirignano to talk on the micro business. Her expertise is marketing, particularly for medium-sized and small enterprises.
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Exclusive Interview with Kate Terricciano Sirignano of Image Marketing Consultants:
JG: Are we all really a micro business?
KTS: Jane, that's the mindset we all have to have. Every morning, like the caveman, we have to go out there and hunt for our dinner.
JG: I agree, that's the necessary mindset. We eat only what we kill that day. Once I adopted that way of thinking, my own enterprise blossomed. But, what about the actual growth of the micro business sector per se?
KTS: The basic way of defining a "micro business" here in the U.S. is the model which has five or less employees and only requires about $35,000 in funding to get it going. That money might come from family and friends, credit cards, venture capital, or the growing field of micro loans. Conventional funding through traditional banks is difficult to obtain.
Do the math in Connecticut, where my own micro business Image Marketing Consultants is based. According to the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO), 87% of Connecticut businesss are micro. That is, of the 336,692 businesses in this state, 294,372 are micro. Across the Hudson in New York, 90% are.
JG: Okay, those numbers tell the new story of careers in America.
KTS: Jane, maybe we better reset that to "the world." Globally, micro business is how strivers, especially women, are putting together a way of making a living on their own terms.
JG: You're on the money, Kate. From the get-go, the chief opportunity as well as the number-one obstacle is marketing.
KTS: I frame "marketing" as putting yourself and your business out there. It's nothing more and nothing less.
JG: Yes, that's exactly what the New York City Bar is teaching JDs. Here is a white paper it prepared for those with a micro mindset.
KTS: That mindset consists of a determination to identify what will get the attention of prospects and then to create the communications vehicles which will carry the message. That means being willing to break open to the reality of what's going on in your particular marketplace. Books, seminars, conferences, certainly those can help. But where the rubber meets the road is you and the prospect.
JG: Can you give an example.
KTS: Yes. A JD has special expertise in mediation. There are two ways to enter the field of force which influences the prospects.
One is providing them the option to the expense and frustration of the legal road more traveled. The second is to touch the pain they have already experienced approaching a divorce or custody with an adversarial point of view.
That's where the JD focuses. Once that is done, then selection of vehicles comes naturally. Think about it, Jane. Human beings are born marketing animals. The infant knows exactly how to signal to be fed and changed. A hungry JD who understands the market segment will also.
JG: Wow. You're on the money. Will you return to Law and More weekly to help JDs and law students get into the micro state of mine?
KTS: That would be an honor.
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Kate Terricciano Sirignano can be reached at kate@imagemarketingconsultants.com. She welcomes interviews with media and invitations to address groups.
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