What's in a business plan?

When I started asking around for advice about working for a start-up, everyone said "Look at the Business Plan." That's nice seeming advice, but considering my first experience with one is the one I am making a career choice on, I'm not sure if that actually puts me in a good position to judge.  Seriously, what is normally in one of these?

A business plan (esp for a company looking for investors, or anticipating growth), should include everything from the mission statement to the revenue streams and expected profitability timeline, and provide an indication that each of the major issues for the business have been considered and addressed.  There should be some indication that both the Market (who will buy what you have to sell?) and Finances (can you make it for less than you'll sell it? How much outlay is required to make it?) have been considered. For example, it might include the expected clients, or investors, predicted areas of growth or challenges.  In a science field (I'm clearly thinking about biofuels, but this holds true for biotech as well), these is probably some oblique reference to the whiz-bang science that is going to move the company forward.  If it doesn't sound believable, you should be able to get references about it.

The part that is a little confusing is that a business plan is normally written for investors, either the bank that will make a loan or venture capitalists.  As a result, everything is couched in the language of "Potential Success and Profits!" It's hard to look past the "uniquely qualified team," and their "cutting edge approach," despite their "deep understanding of market realities" to see if there is a good idea down there. And working for a start up might not be like a normal job, where you know if you show up and do your thing, you'll have some stability.  It's riskier, and as someone who doesn't like job hunting much, I want to be sure the job I take is one I'll still have in a few months.

I'm not really sure how one balances all that, frankly.

The one other think I have to add was this funny acronym, EBITDA- earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization which is a nice way of making earnings look as GIANT as possible, even  though that isn't a perfect reflection of the final take home.

Equity and other Business Jargon

I am currently pursuing a short term contract with a start-up. I will share with you the magic phrase that opened up this opportunity, and then try to explain why this is a double edged sword.  "I would consider working for equity."  My Dad told me to try this, so I blurted it out when asked about compensation, even though I don't really fully understand what it means.  Well, now it looks like I'll have the opportunity to learn.

The phone interview was really winding down in a "don't call us, we'll call you" kind of way, but I mentioned I'd like to tour this facility, and I'll be in the area for a while.  For some reason, this got the CEO interested again, but when I uttered those magic words, he said "You are getting gold stars for that answer."  Why?  As a start-up, I know that he has limited funds.  He is seeking investors, but it isn't clear that the money has arrived yet.  Working for equity is a delayed (and risky) promise of money.  That is, this privately help company will someday have a public offering of these shares (go public), and if the market has confidence in the business, the shares will increase in value.  Hooray!  However, if the company never gets enough investors to develop enough to go public, the shares don't really have value. Or the markets deems this a terrible business, the shares may loose value.  Many companies will offer partial equity to employees ("employee-owned"), as a way of helping them being equally invested in the success of the company.

This contract I am trying to get is a "high-risk" contract; it's 100% equity.  I'm hoping that a short term contract with a start-up will give me some business cred and help me get my foot in the door somewhere. It's giving me the opportunity to learn some of this business jargon I've never considered before.  I signed a non-disclosure agreement.  I am trying to figure out the difference between Founder's Shares and regular Shares.  I am trying to imagine how many shares there might be in one company, and what it means to spin-off the investment arm of the company.

In which I acknowledge my two-body problem

Some big changes are happening here.  Not because I've finally cracked the job hunt, but my husband did. Yes, it should come as no surprise that I am married to someone who also has great career prospects.  It was going to be very hard for me to find a job that would tempt him away from his professional life (NIH payscale? ha!), and it turned out this is a good time for him to seek a promotion. This is great news for us personally, but changes a lot of things for my job hunt.

We are moving across the country to the Seattle area.  I'm glad to be closer to my family, but months of job hunting have confirmed that Seattle doesn't have the strongest biotech market in the country.  However, being able to focus on a single place may help me to be more creative in my job hunt.  My problem lately has been trying to convince employers that not only do I have the skills they want, but I am such a phenomenal candidate, they should put up with me having to relocate.  I felt limited to apply only to positions that narrowly fit within my experience and education.  (And only those in an area it seemed likely there could be a second career.)  With luck, I can be a convincing candidate for a wider variety of jobs since that major barrier, geography, has been reduced.

Now I am trying to figure out how to focus my job hunt in one geographical location.  Now it should be easier to actually do face to face networking.  I'm looking forward to meeting the Washington Biotech Business Association, catching up with my alumni group and meeting old friends, both from college and high school, who resettled to that area. I can't say I know lots of people in the biotech industry there, but I am hoping to make the case that my education proves I can learn quickly, work on dynamic teams and deliver ambitious goals, be that in drug discovery or biofuel or science education or any other industry that is willing to consider me.

For fun- search terms that fail

My job search has been a derailed a little lately (more on that later), so rather than highlight the super productive things I've been doing, let me just tell you about the search terms I always think will land me my dream job.

I'm a virologist, so I always search for the variations of that term, virology works, virus doesn't.  It suggests computer science jobs.  And antiviral is pretty much a nonstarter, I have no interest in working for McAffee or Norton or any of those software companies.

I've also spent a lot of time looking for drugs (antiviral drugs).  Drug discovery and drug development work, but just "drugs" suggests a lot of jobs in the non-profit sector.  In drug counseling mostly.

And then sometimes I get frustrated wading through tech positions, and I'll just search for phd- don't do that.  There are scads of chem or computer science jobs that require a PhD and makes buckets of money.

I promise more on search terms that are working for me soon.  Much busy-ness here, I have 5 more papers to edit and am taking another "networking field trip," this time to WA.

Science Bloggers for Students

Although I am never sure who reads this blog, I'd like you all to know about a really exciting challenge I am participating in on the other blog I write for, Steel City Science. We are in a challenge with other science bloggers to raise funds for Donor's Choose, an organization that helps teachers get funds for projects in their classrooms.  If you are interested in supporting the needs of Pittsburgh's teachers, or really any science teachers anywhere, please follow this link and make a donation of any size to support the next generation of scientists.  We've got until Oct 22 to show the ChemBloggers that Pittsburgh is a city with a big heart.  Thanks for your generosity!

The Benefits of Volunteering

Volunteering gets a mixed wrap in the job hunt.  There is one school of that that volunteering can help you build contacts and experiences to bolster your resume, and another that if you volunteer too much, people will wonder why you never got offered a job. Before we get too far into this, I think volunteerism of any kind is great, and taking the time to give of yourself to others is fantastic, regardless of whether it helps your career.  But  if you want to use volunteering specifically to help your career in someway, you might want to be careful about how you proceed.

I am currently volunteering at our Science Center.  I wanted to find something to get me out of the house while I am otherwise a full time job hunter, so I looked for opportunities that would add to my skills, while taking advantage of my background.  The science center is great for that, they love that I am a Scientist, but I predominantly provide "customer service."  Trust me, this was nowhere else on my resume.  But there is a real shift in attitude when you aren't just feeding figures and data to your boss with candor, but instead trying to figure out how to make people enjoy themselves more.  I am liking it a lot.  I also get to meet some really cool people, and don't get me started on how awesome it is to play with the exhibits all day.  This is good fit for me, because as great as the experience is as a volunteer, I think that it is pretty clear why I am not ever going to get a job offer from them.

In addition, as a volunteer, I have a lot of flexibility.  The science center has lots of volunteers; there are old folks who like to sit by the door to greet people and give them maps, and there are high school kids who like to do the demos.  Personally, I spend half my day walking the exhibit floors, and half my day working with the Girls Math & Science Program.  Right now, I am developing a big event to help introduce girls to careers in Chemistry.  I'm working out some demos, I need to solve some problems with rooms, I've got a budget and expect 100 girls in 6 weeks.  Again, this is experience that I don't have on my resume- but as a grad student who has had to juggle the logistics of scheduling committee meetings, experiments and teaching, I feel I have the skills to succeed here.

While I feel my experience as a volunteer is adding to my resume, I'm not really that sure it is going to be the magic bullet that lands me a job somehow.  I don't think anyone should approach it as if it would be.  But it is making it much easier to keep up my enthusiasm and stay creative about my job hunt, so I still think it is worth the time I spend.

Networking- go meet some strangers!

I'm learning a lot of things about networking these days.  I'm trying to be clear about what I need (a job, preferably on the West Coast) and what I have to offer (great technical background, and a Ph.D. in molecular biology) to all kinds of people: people who can help, people I don't think can help but let me practice my spiel, people I don't know- ALL kinds of people.  Very rarely (um, not yet once?) has anyone said, OMG, really?  Because we've been totally looking for a molecular virologist/blogger to start ASAP!  And that's ok, I'm really not expecting job offers to show up at cocktail parties. 

That being said, there is something to getting out there and mingling.  This fantastic networking story came while I was visiting my brother in Austin TX.  Austin is about the only place in Texas I would consider living, it's fun and my brother is there, but... it is crazy hot, and us Alaskans melt.  When he dragged me out to a Roller Derby Party, I was certainly not thinking too hard about launching a career there.  But he mentioned to the stylish group of girls that I was here because I'm free for employment!  Anyone need a newly minted Ph.D.?  Which of course prompted our host to ask, what is your Ph.D. in?  And I said, sheepishly, because these grrls are all tough and I am clearly bringing the dork to the party scene, "Oh, molecular virology.  I've been doing drug discovery, so I thought I'd find a job in pharma..." Which prompted this Betty Paige look alike across the room to say, "You want a lab job?  Let me give you my card, Life Technologies is hiring..."  AND THEN later, when we were laughing about Roller Derby was the key to the Austin Biotech market, the girl I was sitting next to said, "Actually, I work for a firm that does educational science publications..."  And of course they hire occasional freelance/contractors.  Brilliant!  (I should probably mention that although my sister-in-law considers most of these girls to be friends, she knows them all by pseudonym, so it isn't surprising to not know what their day jobs are.)

If nothing else, this just proves that it was a good idea to get myself some business cards printed.