Whatever It Takes

“Whatever it takes.“

Just three little words, they came to me in a department store.

I was talking to a saleswoman I’d come to know because she recognized me from a weekly column I’d been writing for years in the local daily newspaper, where I was also the features editor. She knew I had left my job at the paper a year before to start a restaurant, and wondered how it was going.

The back story is that as the newspaper’s features editor, I was also the food editor. On top of that, I was an avid cook. It wasn’t uncommon for me to whip up a multi-course dinner to serve in the high school hallway for the 80-member cast and crew of the fall musical. I also had very strong opinions about quality and service.

And after 16 years at the paper, I had been ready for a change. Researching a concept and working with a state Small Business mentor, I developed a business plan, found a location and opened a restaurant in May 2008. My intent was to get it going, pay myself back, start saving money and eventually, look to expand with additional locations.

We started strong. But when fall came, business — mirroring the economy — fell dramatically. I wasn’t able to pay myself as my plan had forecast, let alone cover all of the operating costs with revenue. My financial resources were dwindling.

I was also growing increasingly unhappy. Running a restaurant is not only very hard work, it‘s unrelenting, especially if you don‘t have a partner to share the load. I was starting to feel crushed by the weight of it all. Finally, I decided to sell.

Fortunately, someone who worked for me was interested in buying. She has quite a bit of restaurant experience and had long held a vision for a place of her own.

Now, just like that, coming out of the chute at the other end, I was unemployed.

After the saleswoman inquired how the restaurant was faring, and I told her I’d sold it, she asked what people always do: What will you do now?

I told her I was looking for work. With newspapers cutting staff and services, while I can dream, and try, I’m not holding out a lot of hope for another editor job. Public relations, where I also have experience, is a possibility, I told her. In addition, I earned a real estate license back when I was getting ready to start the restaurant and was thinking of trying to do something related to that. I don’t want to look like I’m flitting from one thing to the other. However, I have a singular goal, I told her, and that is to get income flowing again, “Whatever it takes.”

These are not normal times to be job hunting. I’ll write on what it’s like to be looking for work in this economic climate, at a time or place in your life that seems more filled with obstacles than opportunity, and of how we sometimes have to reinvent ourselves to do it.

Simply, this column will focus on whatever it takes to get a job and to pay the bills. I’ll be talking to experts, sharing my own observations and looking for reader interaction, hoping to hear about your experiences and ideas that work — and don’t.

One thing I truly believe: We are all in this together. And together, maybe we can help each other.

Whatever it takes.