this week in with mark suster

Comments (Archived):

1. Great show this week!

   1. thanks. unfortunately it cuts off at the end but you get the gist.

      1. Don’t know what happend to your version but it doesn’t actually cut at the end. If you have any problems try this link. It works perfectly here: http://www.youtube.com/watc…

      2. Your welcome

2. Enjoyed the interview Joanne.Very cool! Dana

   1. Thanks. It was really fun

3. Fun interview.Chopping up work into smaller project-y bits a la Catchafire but for for-profit businesses is actually happening a lot but there’s no marketplace for it at the right level. This is not elance.I’ve been calling it “momsourcing” and have thought about it a ton, as it’s all around me. Probably enough for 10 blog posts or even a book. So sorry this is gonna be a rant!Anyway momsourcing = inexpensive, top-quality work. And they speak excellent English. :-)Many moms do need to be bringing in income and already do a ton of volunteering for their kids’ schools. They need to cram paying work inside of the school day, to avoid the expense of daycare or a nanny, which can break the budget.The majority of moms I know in my community work, many on a project basis. A small number have traditional 9-5 jobs. Most have startups, independent consulting, stores/retail or are dentists, vets or doctors running their own practices…and do it locally, so they are present. We just did a fundraiser for our school and almost every mom on the committee was like this. What I love about these women is they’re so “let’s get the job done”. No cattiness at all.Now — project work — I know that world well. When it goes well it’s great, especially if it’s supplemental income and you already enjoy health insurance. But there is a chunkiness or ‘feast or famine’ cyclicality that can be really dangerous when it’s for core family expenses. 2008-2009 were like this.Many moms I see here in the trenches do pro bono with the hope of it converting to paid. It rarely does, and they need to be realistic about this. Also pro bono often has ‘scope creep’ that needs to be aggressively managed. Also, if it’s important, one should check that a volunteer organization allows you to solicit its members, and what do they define as ‘solicitation’. Many women’s ‘volunteer’ organizations are very black-and-white about this, much more so than men, who do this routinely. I once quit the board of an organization which wouldn’t let a single mom who’d just launched a business to offer a discount coupon to the 100+ members. They lambasted her for being ‘inappropriate’, as if she were an adulteress. I think not supporting ‘our sisters’ businesses is borderline criminal activity. This mindset has to change.Also I’d say that, as in other negotiations, women typically don’t ask for enough pay for the projects. It hurts them doubly because they lowball their previous salaries and yet they’re not getting insurance, 401k contribution matching, and cover the troughs between projects. This sets them up to grow old with very little saved. All women who ‘eat what they kill’ (project people, realtors, MLMs, etc.). I’d say as a rule of thumb their realized RPH should be about double what they used to net per hour at a full-time job.Anyway — all to say — I totally agree, there is a huge opportunity for all parties to have moms do project work. And it’s happening. But they need tools and skills to manage the “business” of their projects so they are profitable and growing.It can’t be ‘fun money’ — it needs to be real money. Hacking this “working mom” issue would be transformative to our economy, our children, and our future.

   1. Totally agree Tereza. There is no reason that catchafire could be aseparate for profit biz helping women stay in the marketplace and get paidfor it.In terms of payment, most short term jobs have a price put on them but Iwould ask for an hourly wage based on your last job and what you would havebeen paid then. Professionals can make anything from 500 to 1500 an hour.Ask for it

      1. I’d probably start with that hourly plus ~20-30% for the benefit load your employer paid for you that you never saw but now you have to pay out of pocket at full retail (getting med insurance on the open market is a bitch).They might say yes and you deserve at least that. Otherwise with a particular client it’s hard to get more than inflation-based rate increases.Although bigger picture personally I recommend not a RPH but rather a fixed fee or a fee plus commission depending the nature of the work. Or a retainer is nice.I’d keep the hourly calculation private (to manage my time and pulse-check) but it’s not useful to have a client in your pants on your hours spent. It’s the wrong metric, they need to think about the value you delivered.If they feel they’re paying for your hours or minutes then you’re a mechanical turk and replaceable.BTW I really like how you said that the 10 years of experience being that mom and running the house counts for a lot. Unfortunately the market not only does not value it, it even discounts it. And yet, parents grow their management skills by leaps and bounds. We make tough decisions that matter…every single day of the year. The ultimate battlefield promotion!

         1. Interesting thoughts about hourly and set price. I totally agree with youbut I will say that you should read the reality of the situation. Marketprice is market priceIn regards to motherhood being a resume it absolutely is. Challenging yourmanagement, marketing and finance skills on a daily basis.

            1. so true about the market.if the market doesn’t pay what you ask, you have to take what you get or find greener pastures

   2. I totally agree Tereza that women, all freelancers really, need to have a very entreprenurial approach to make things work – whether it be project work or a full time lifestyle business. Just dabbling makes for a lot of frustration in low pay and missed opportunities and leads people to think their ideas aren’t good or that being a part-time or project-based freelancer isn’t a viable option, when in reality many companies could benefit from the skills these women bring to the table.Joanne, as always I love your approach to entrepreneurship – getting behind so many different ideas and finding the common thread and the beauty in someone with their nose to the grindstone, trying to make things happen. A strange aside is that my mother is fro Bakersfield too, and I went from college into a retail training program then buying (Nine West) with a lot of people who’d come from Macy’s.

      1. the world is one degree of separation. nine west must have been aninteresting place. their biz has completely changed and grown over theyears.

4. Love the thoughts about sales. So right on. Like Tereza and you, I think a lot about how under-utilized the mother workforce is. So much talent that is either out of the workplace entirely or under-utilized because both women and businesses think it has to be all or nothing.

   1. or nobody has figured out how you can do both.

5. Did I hear that mentoring is your biggest interest in blogging? Cool!