RVANews

Founding Fathers: self employment and the work/life balance

John Sarvay — Fri, 13 May 2011 16:00:01 +0000

The first year was awesome. Sort of.

The upside of starting a consulting business at the height of a recession is that there's always plenty of time to spend with your wife and young daughter.

The downside risks are that you continue to have plenty of free time and you run out of money, or the business takes off and all of that spare time evaporates.

Welcome to the last three years of my life as a father, and new business owner.

Knowing it's coming doesn't make it easier. Neither does seeing your wife and eight-month-old daughter waiting for you at the door.

On November 12, 2008, I wrapped up a twelve year run with Luck Stone Corporation. They gave me a generous severance check and the option to extend my health care benefits – for slightly more than our monthly mortgage.

Bear in mind that this was when more than a million people a month were hitting the streets. The recession was just gaining strength.

I was lucky. Within a week, I had interviews with two of Richmond's top employers. I was on the phone for several hours during one interview, and when I hung up Nikole – Thea bundled in her arms – asked what I thought.

"It's an industry I know well, it's in the midst of major change, they need someone with my skills," I said. "The job is tactical, not strategic, and won't stretch me, and the salary is about 60% of my last job. And they expect another round of layoffs in two months."

Awesome.

It was at that moment that I realized my 15-year run with corporate America – essentially limited to a stint at Circuit City and my long stretch at Luck Stone – had come to an end.

Nine days into my new job as an unemployed American, I decided to start my own business.

By nature, I'm a planner. I map things out. I ponder and sketch out ideas. I decided to take a few months to regroup and develop a solid business plan.

A tiny voice in my head whispered, "Run like hell."

I used to ignore that voice. Not this time.

There was no business plan. Within 60 days, I'd networked my way through coffee, lunch or dinner with more than 250 people around town. I had a snappy logo, vibrant business cards and a website. I even had a paying client.

I ran. I sprinted, really. And I haven't stopped – even now I'm moving at a good new-business-marathon pace.

That's how Floricane, a strategic planning and facilitation consultancy, was born – and has stayed alive. Thrived even.

Being a business owner has changed everything. It transformed my relationship with Nikole and Thea.

The first year was the best – we essentially lived off of a generous severance from Luck Stone, a major slice of my 401(k), a community benefactor, and one good contract with a nonprofit in Hopewell. I'd never been to Hopewell before 2009.

I used to leave for work every morning at 6.30am, and often didn't get home until after 6.00pm. This new life meant an extra four hours of day with Nikole and Thea.

It really was the perfect time to have more time – Thea was entering the toddler phase of her life, and was much more interesting, and interested.

We ate breakfast and played together every morning while Nikole got ready for the day. I came home early on sunny days so we could hit the playground.

Life was grand until July of that first year. That was when the money dried up.

It started with a phone call from Nikole. "We have $200 in the bank," she said, " and our mortgage is due in a week."

"Awesome," I replied. "I have about the same in the business account."

Suddenly, running a business felt real.

After an exhausting weekend of honest conversation, we decided to stay in the game. And I decided to stop treating it like a game.

One client turned into two, then three, then four.

Floricane rolled into 2010. By Thea's second birthday, I was staying on track with our morning breakfast dates, but more and more evenings were devoted to clients, proposals, and emails. More weekend hours were being spent at the office. I was barely keeping pace with my #GardenWars competitors at RVANews.

So, I staffed up. Not fast enough.

By the end of year two, I was juggling several dozen projects simultaneously with my new team. My brags of a 40 hour work week evaporated. I was beginning to feel the effects of the marathon pace.

I made a quiet commitment at the end of 2010 to begin to reclaim my family life.

No more than one half-day a weekend would be spent at the office. No more than two nights a week with clients or networking events. More blocks of time focused on Nikole and Thea.

My new team has stepped into the breach. We're managing our clients more effectively.

For Christmas, I gave Nikole a calendar with six long weekends blocked out between January and July. We've had a "staycation" and family trips to North Carolina, celebrated our birthdays, even gone on a few dates.

We planted a garden together last week.

I wouldn't trade the last three years – with my wife, our daughter, and our new business – for anything.

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Virginia’s Presidential Primary: When Duty Is A Yawner

John Sarvay — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:20:52 +0000

On Tuesday, February 12, dedicated Virginians of all political persuasions will head to the polls to cast votes in the Democratic and Republican primaries. Unfortunately, the votes aren’t likely to count for much.

As an exercise in democracy, the national primary system – established after the chaos of the 1968 Democratic National Convention when Hubert Humphrey won the nomination despite the popular support for anti-Vietnam War candidate Eugene McCarthy – is traditionally exciting only for the month of January. That’s when most of the second-tier candidates tend to vanish from the scene.

The trend is holding.

By February 12, all of four (maybe six) of the 12 candidates whose names will be printed on Virginia’s primary ballots will remain realistic contenders for the White House.

That’s because the majority of delegates will be selected by February 5. It began with elections in Iowa, Wyoming and New Hampshire. South Carolina, Florida, Nevada and follow suit over the next week or so. Then 25 states throw down their votes in February (22 of them on February 5).

As it stands now, only three Dems remain standing – Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama. On the Republican front Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Mitt Romney are likely contenders. Libertarian Ron Paul also continues to play hard.

And yet by the time the voters of Virginia weigh in, it will either matter a little or not at all.

In the first case, there’s an off chance that both parties will enter Virginia’s primary with candidates fighting for delegates – everyone wins enough between now and then to bank on a fight for the nomination at the parties’ respective conventions. If everyone limps into Virginia with the nomination just out of reach, every votes will matter – a little.

Odds are strong that the February 5 Super Tuesday will balance the scales – pushing a candidate from both parties to the front of the pack. If an early February vote gives one candidate a significant edge, Virginia (along with DC and Maryland, who both have primaries on the same day) will just be window-dressing.

Some Primary Basics

Since voting is en vogue, here are a few things you should know about Virginia’s primary.

In order of appearance on the ballot (the order was determined by a random drawing in December), Virginians can cast votes for:

The Democrats: Barack Obama, Dennis Kuchinich, Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden or John Edwards. (Richardson and Biden have withdrawn from the race.)

The Republicans: Ron Paul, John McCain, Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney.

The primary rules are simple. Virginia does not register voters by party affiliation, so if you are registered to vote you have the right to vote in the Virginia primary. Primary voting will be held in the normal polling locations.

The Republican winner will take all 63 delegates in the Republican primary.

The Dems play it with a bit more complexity. Only 54 of the 103 Democratic delegates will be apportioned by the primary vote in each congressional district; another 29 will be assigned based on statewide results. Another 18 unpledged delegates will be selected at the Virginia State Democratic Convention in June.

How Two White States Choose Our President

John Sarvay — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:00:18 +0000

There’s something both disconcerting and fitting about Iowa and New Hampshire setting the tone for the entire nation during a presidential election.One state is flat. The other is not. They rank among the least populous states in the nation (30 and 41, respectively). Both are frigid cold this time of year and predominantly white – white snowy landscapes; white yogurt in New Hampshire and Iowa white corn; and all the white you need for the world’s largest Wonder Bread sandwich.

That two of the least diverse, more rural states were the presidential pace cars for the country during the homogeneous 1970s made some sort of sense. On the surface, America still lived in a Betty Crocker dream world.

Times have changed. Even the updated 1996 version of Betty Crocker is an amalgam now.

Even the candidates for president are diverse.

This election cycle boasts – for the first time – a female candidate; two African-American candidates (including a viable candidate); a Hispanic-American candidate; a Mormon and a Southern Baptist minister; a made-on TV minor celebrity; a war hero and torture victim; a libertarian dressed in Republican clothing; and an Alaskan. Hell, one candidate’s father was a Nigerian Muslim.

Talk about different.

The most diverse presidential field in American history is being pared down from 16 to something less than half that by a predominantly white (not to mention predominantly male and predominantly older) handful of voters.

In Iowa, about 350,000 people turned out for the January 3rd caucus. In 2004, upwards of 70% of Iowa caucus goers were over 50 years of age. Talk about your proverbial drop in the bucket.

Today, six days later, New Hampshire gets into the act. In sheer numbers, at least New Hampshire manages to act democratic – no one has to stand up in their neighbor’s living room and announce that they’re supporting Ron Paul.

And, like Iowa, New Hampshire primary voters aren’t the most diverse bunch in the nation – the state is 93% white. But upwards of 25% of expected voters in the primary will be first-time primary voters – and almost half of New Hampshire’s 1.3 million residents are relative newcomers to the Granite State, arriving since 1987.

That a few hundred thousand people in two fairly unrepresentative states have the power to eliminate half of the presidential field in the span of a week borders on the absurd.

On the plus side, it looks like the survivors will include a woman, an African-American, a Mormon, a Southern Baptist minister, a war hero and a libertarian dressed in Republican clothing.

What are the odds that the least diverse states in the nation would give a thumbs up to the most diverse presidential field in history?

Between now and February 5, another 26 states get a shot at thinning the field. By the time they get to Virginia on February 12, it’ll all be over but the shouting.

And We’re Off!

John Sarvay — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:14:12 +0000

On Thursday, Iowans will gather in their living rooms and church basements for the biggest social event of the winter – the Iowa Caucuses. The caucuses (from the Algonquin word for “gathering of tribal chiefs”) are sort of insane, but they’ll make or break a handful of the candidates – 1,993 precincts at a time.

In the past, even candidates who struggled to break from the pack in Iowa had time to regain their footing before the long string of primaries that followed. That was before the states made a mad rush to schedule primaries earlier – 27 states will hold primaries on or before February 5. This gives second-tier candidates – like Democratic Senator Chris Dodd or Republican good old boy Fred Thompson – almost no breathing room to move their cash-strapped campaigns to other states, or to raise money for the next round of primaries.

All of which means that limping out of Iowa Friday morning (destination: New Hampshire) will depend on two things – cash-on-hand and beating the bookies’ odds in Iowa.

The starting point is knowing who the 16 candidates duking it out in Iowa actually are:

The Democrats: Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson

The Republicans: Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson

Three days before the first votes are cast, the race couldn’t be much tighter.

On the Democratic side of the equation, it may well be a surprise fight for first place between populist John Edwards and change agent Barack Obama. Polls have the two neck-and-neck with Hillary Clinton, who odds-makers believe might actually place third in Iowa. Clinton’s national aura of inevitability has lost a bit of its luster in Iowa; expectations are higher in New Hampshire.

Inevitability is a thing of the past for Republicans as well. A man from Hope (Arkansas) has leapt to the front of the pack in Iowa; voters have found Mike Huckabee’s social conservatism and friendly shtick to be at least as appealing as Mitt Romney’s polished executive look. But the once mighty Rudy has all but given up on Iowa – he and Fred Thompson are casting their hopes way out to South Carolina’s late January primary. And while John McCain trails with hopes for a fourth place finish in Iowa, there is a chance he’ll take New Hampshire for the Republicans next week.

And so while Iowa will prove interesting – and may cull some tier two candidates like Biden, Dodd and Richardson from the running – its New Hampshire where the first real cuts will take place.

My incredibly uneducated stab at Iowa results call for an Edwards/Obama/Clinton trifecta on the Democratic side, and a Romney/Huckabee/McCain finish for the Republicans. The outcomes will shift slightly in New Hampshire, I think. That primary will see a Obama/Clinton/Edwards finish – leaving all three strong for February’s 22-state throw-down, and a Romney/McCain/Huckabee finish on the Republican front.

Going into the January 29 primaries in South Carolina, Florida, Nevada and Wyoming, I think the Dems will be in a three-way race with no clear leader. And while Giuliani and Thompson will try to stay in the game into February, I think the contest will tighten among Romney, McCain and Huckabee.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the Iowa/New Hampshire contests is how at odds they are with national polls – most of which have Clinton and Giuliani with commanding leads (as of early December).

The Downtown Crupi Master Report Plan

John Sarvay — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:30:46 +0000

It's a bit prosaic that the Richmond community received two distinctly different reports on either end of a long Thanksgiving weekend. While both reports share a few common themes, they are utterly distinct in terms of vision, content and value.Strategic consultant Jim Crupi's "Putting the Future Together" report on the Richmond region and urban planner Victor Dover's "Richmond Downtown Master Plan" were delivered within a week of each other. Both make a case for a new Richmond -- one from a regional perspective, and the other from an urban vantage. Both make for good reading, challenge the status quo and make a major case for new approaches to building community.

One report delivers what could be considered a transformational vision for our community's future. The other invites a different sort of conversation about our shared future. Let's take a quick look each of them.

The Crupi Report

The Crupi Report, a 55-page report chartered by an anonymous group of Richmond executives and delivered by the same man who briefly lit a racial fire with his 1992 report, examines the challenges and opportunities facing the Richmond region. And while its strongest feature is a healthy indictment of Richmond's reclusive and exclusive corporate and political leadership, much of the media attention has been on Crupi's laundry list of action items that he suggested could transform the region.

Like Jim Bacon at Bacon's Rebellion, I believe that Crupi weakened his hand by criticizing Richmond's leadership for its too-tactical approach life and simultaneously providing more than 40 pages of extremely tactical suggestions to improve the region -- few of which could be succinctly brought together in any semblance of regional vision.

It didn't help that Crupi's report on the Richmond region dealt almost exclusively with the suggestions to strengthen the City of Richmond -- saving the core of the regional apple is important, but ignoring the rest of the apple is a sure-fire way to ensure that more than a few key voices will be reluctant to show up for the next round of regional conversations. Here's Bacon:

"The inability or lack of willingness to think and act strategically is a major problem," Crupi wrote. "The default position among area leaders is to make individual, tactical, project-oriented decisions without the framework and benefit of an overarching strategic vision and plan. There is no compelling picture of the future that gets people excited. One could almost say that the Richmond area is blessed with many great managers, but few leaders. It has people who are strong on execution but weak on seeing how the pieces should fit together."

Thwap!! The sound you just heard was that of the arrow squarely hitting the bulls eye. Having made Richmond my home for more than 20 years now, I can aver that Crupi nailed his target.

Alas, there is one huge drawback to the Crupi report: The author offers no compelling vision of his own -- not even a set of criteria for developing such a vision ...

And even Crupi's attempts to address a key question for the region about the types of transformational projects that can improve the region's competitive position feel a bit staid and lost -- high-speed rail, tourism, taking advantage of the crescent of military development stretching from Norfolk to Petersburg to Washington. It all has a bit of a "been there, done that" feel. A big-ticket solution to regional challenges may not be realistic, and finding the right solution -- one that brings Chesterfield and Henrico and other counties to the table -- will require more vision than Crupi delivered.

At least one element of Crupi's report deserves some traction. At the core of the report is a demand that Richmond's largely corporate leadership create more room at the table for diverse voices, and to value leaders who bring intellectual or creative or social capital to the table. As I wrote soon after the report was issued:

It will also help if Richmond's future leaders (the incredibly talented and relatively marginalized leaders of the area's non-profit and community-centered organizations; young artists and small business owners; and emerging media talent) stop waiting for someone else -- Jim Crupi, Jim Ukrop or Gene Trani -- to give us our leadership.

Crupi calls it a leadership gap. Another way of looking at it is that Richmond suffers from a long-imposed sense of patriarchalism, where sometime well-intentioned businessmen take care of the rest of us. And if we're interested in our community looking and feeling like "Daddy's Richmond," the best thing we can do is sit back and be passive. Rest assured, there are plenty of people in positions of power across the region who would like nothing better than maintenance of the status quo...

In other words, those on the margins can wait for an invitation, or they can issue their own invitations. Either way, it's time for the conversation to change -- and the best way to do that is to invite new people into the conversation, and to ask different questions.

Several corporate leaders told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that they're ready for a broader, more diverse discussion to happen.

"It can't just be the business community, it can't just be nonprofit leaders, it's got to be the whole community talking," (businessman Jim) Ukrop said. "I don't think it can be one of those things where you have 1,000 people and a lot of flip charts," he added. "It's going to have to be very serious talking."

When the conversation changes, the culture changes. And if that's all we learn from Jim Crupi's latest report, it might just be worth its cost.

The Downtown Plan

If the Crupi Report relied on an expert to come in and synthesize the thoughts of a select group of Richmonders (110 business, political and community leaders were interviewed for Crupi's report), then the Downtown Plan may just be its polar opposite.

The Downtown Plan, shepherded by Richmond's Department of Community Development and Miami-based urban planning firm Dover Kohl, relied on experts, as well. But it used those experts to facilitate conversations with a broad range of stakeholders -- from professionals and developers to policymakers and curious residents. Over the course of several months, downtown planners educated and informed the community about planning basics and Richmond's urban fabric, and asked the community about their dreams, desires and intentions for a downtown different than the one most of us experience every day.

The process was unique for Richmond, and it turned what historically has been a dull, closed planning process into the light. Hundreds of residents turned out for three large, public sessions to give their input to the planning team.

The team took all of that information -- along with input from the city's planning staff -- and turned it into a detailed, 187-page planning document. Despite its length, it's hard to find extraneous information in the Downtown Plan.

If the new draft report does not have any large projects that will shake the earth and transform the world, it does have a serious and mindful approach to transforming Richmond's downtown through careful planning, intentional policymaking and an implementation plan that is thoughtful and well-planned.

More importantly, the Downtown Plan has a vision:

"The plan for the future of Downtown Richmond is both a physical plan to guide appropriate growth and development and a policy document to serve as a blueprint for action for city leaders, residents and downtown investors."

Beneath the vision, a series of seven guiding principles (or the foundations of the plan):

Embrace variety and choice in downtown Richmond.
Celebrate the planning elements of a traditional city.
Create a fully green and environmentally sustainable downtown.
Make the James River a central, celebrated feature of downtown.
Promote consistent and historic urban architecture.
Take advantage of Richmond's rich history as part of design.
Make room for mixed-income and economic diversity downtown.

As the report begins diving into details -- specific ways to recapture the vitality of Jackson Ward, for instance, or repair and enhance Manchester's mixed-use nature -- it threads all seven guiding principles throughout. There are no grand schemes anchoring the plan; rather, the Downtown Plan relies on a series of deliberate actions designed to heal decades of inattention and build a new downtown that can truly transform not just Richmond, but the entire Richmond region.

Now that's transformation.

The Contrast

Jon Baliles at River City Rapids recently posted about the contrast between the two plans:

The scary thing about the Crupi Report is he expects the leaders to take the reins - which they did not really do so after his first report in 1992 - and as of this early point there is just talk and hope. Stay tuned.

This Downtown Master Plan is different - it provides the reins and the horse, we just have to say giddie up. From what I have skimmed so far, it lays it out in fairly nauseating detail and while it does not have all the answers, it plants the seeds in our minds to begin our investigation and determine what is the best course...

One piece of good news is that this is not an either/or exercise.

The Crupi Report has the potential to change our community's conversations. If approved, the Downtown Plan has the potential to change the landscape of our community. Together, if well-led, the Richmond region of tomorrow will be very different than the one we experience today.

Photo credit: Daniel Farrell