>Some of the slack in residential construction employment is probably being
>offset by hiring in commercial building, which is still very strong, isn't
>it? (We'll see what the coming weeks and months bring.)
Met a client last year. He'd made tons of money -- mansion and bentley money -- in commercial. His big plan was to take advantage of the slump, teaching residential real estate agents how to do commercial, since commercial isn't sliding at all and stays relatively steady, from what he said. He basically had like a pyramid scheme. He taught them how to deal in commercial and then he acted as loan originator -- if i recall correctly. For every book he sold, he reckoned that he'd make $15-$20k. So, he wanted me to create a business plan, run this business, and increase his sales.
Interesting guy but among the three people that almost made me jump a cliff in so far as his big plan involved asking me to donate my labor as an investment in his web-based business. I.e., he wanted to pay me zippo while working forty hours a week in the hopes that, in a year, I'd make some esy cash. He never asked this outright, so I spent two weeks on a proposal for what basically amounted to running his business. When he saw the price, he said, "Oh must have been some mistake. I was planning on paying you a $150 for each book sold, not a salary." ($150 was the price of the book, which sounds nice, but even if I tripled the sale of the book, I wouldn't have covered my labor costs. He, on the other hand, was confidant that for each book (A PDF!) that he sold, he wouldn't make $15-$20k. Somehow, I was supposed to be incredibly grateful for $150! aiyiyiyiyiyiyi.
Somehow, it's cool to invest in commercial real estate as part of the cost associated with turning a profit. Investing in labor to actually product, market, and sell a product isn't worth the investment. Better to find chumps because they have nothing better to do than investment their labor times in the hopes that they'll make some cash. Who's paying the rent or mortgage while they do that, I dunno. But these entrepreneurial types are real assholes.
Bitch | Lab http://blog.pulpculture.org (NSFW)