Don't want to be promoted?
Hi Guys,
I am a 2nd year senior business analyst at a smallish low-mid boutique consulting firm and make about 75K base. I've been performing well and have had a promotion after the 1st year. I've just finished my 2nd year stint at the firm, and will be going into a performance review with my bosses shortly. One of them recently brought me out to some swanky fine dining place in his aston martin to talk about what are my career goals moving forward and he wants me to take on more roles (aka recruitment, side projects, some business development). Our firm is pretty small, about 50 staff. And there's just the analysts and MDs/VPs.
Here's the dilemma. I built an a indie fashion e-commerce business with my boyfriend before I took this job. Revenue for 1st year was about 75K with 20K net profit and 2nd year we grossed 180K with 45K net profit. We both put in about 15-20 hours a week now, combined. I think it could be so much better if we loaded on more SKUs, hired some part timers and scale the business.
I currently work about 60-70 hours a week and I'm afraid taking more roles would push me to work on weekends and will leave me not enough time for my e-commerce business.
What do you guys think? I need to meet up with him some time next week again.
Looks like your net profit margins are dropping. I would take the promotion and drop your start up based on this alone.
Ummm how so? 26.6% to 25% is hardly a drop IMO, plus I spent quite a bit on designers, IT, SEM/SEO and freelancers
how much does your boyfriend make? how much growth potential do you think ur e-Business has? how much extra Money will bring you the Promotion and the possible promotions afterwards? could you sell your Business? how many hours per week could you outsource? I think the Information you provided is not sufficient to give a perfect answer.
However, I would just try to outsource (hire part timers as you suggested) as much as possible. Paralelly you could determine to whom you could sell the Business. Then i would accept the Promotion, look how it works out and then , if it doesnt work out well and if you have the Option, sell the Business.
He makes about 60K/year with hardly any bonuses. The extra promotion will probably result in a 5K to 10K per year in extra income. Pretty low IMO. Don't think we can sell a 180K/year business at this point in time and havent actively sought for a buyer. But lets assume someone was interested, how much should I ask? 2-3X sales?
I don't think it makes any sense to sell yet, especially if you think you can grow it a bit more. I don't think you could get 2-3x sales, even with strong growth. Simply too small at this point in time.
I know company politics might be different at smaller firms compared to MBB, Tier 2, etc., but what's your firm's take on promotions? Do you use the up-or-out system? Is there anyone at the office (non-partner) who has been in the same role for several years?
No matter what, I think you should take the promotion and move on from there. Saying to your boss that you don't what to be promoted is most definitely a career killer at your current firm.
Take the promotion but be firm about rare weekend work. Nice thing about side income is it gives you the freedom to push back. This business should be priority number one.
take the promotion!
If I thought the business had potential, I wouldn't tie myself down with more responsibilities and restrictions unless I had room to hire more part-timers and delegate the work.
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