One night last week, a free-lance writer I work with called me at home in a panic. She had been writing content for a locally-based Web site over the last few months, and suddenly, no one there would return her calls.
The editorial staff had vanished, and no one on the company’s corporate side was returning her messages. She feared she would be stuck with about $1,500 worth of copy that she would never be paid for.
Two things occurred to me as I listened to her story: No. 1, we had just written about this company in SBN Akron (May 2000). We covered four local dot-coms at various stages of development. Some, like Twinsburg-based PlanSoft, were proven entities — companies that were well-supported and profitable. Others, like Streetsboro-based PlanetKnowHow, the company my writer had been working for, had yet to emerge from their beta formats.
The second thing that occurred to me was how familiar her story sounded. She was the fourth friend who had lost a position or contract recently with a dot-com company.
While I understand there are at least two sides to every story, I still hope PlanetKnowHow’s founders (which include Pony Computer Inc.’s Joseph Chou) will make things right with the writers they hired. But I also understand that they are probably suffering a loss greater than a contract worth a couple thousand dollars.
No one can deny the risk involved in working for a dot-com, let alone, the risk of owning one. But as with any other endeavor, the greater the risk, the greater the payoff. In fact, I was offered a job about six months ago with a local dot-com. The salary they offered me was tens of thousands more than what I am currently making.
I declined, based primarily on the fact that I had new mortgage payments to make, and couldn’t afford to risk unemployment, even for a couple of months.
From what I have heard, PlanetKnowHow was paying its writers well above market free-lance rates. That’s a carrot few writers would resist. In addition to the financial benefits, most dot-coms are offering a work environment that is equally as attractive: fun, high-energy, loosely managed offices.
But I would think anyone who gets involved with a dot-com, whether as an employee or investor, would be well aware of the risk.
Ironically, PlanetKnowHow’s site still says: “If you come to visit us in our Northern Ohio offices — and you’re welcome to drop in for a tour — you’ll find ideas flying through the air along with foam footballs and friendly accolades.”
I wonder who’s tossing those footballs now.
Connie Swenson ([email protected]) is editor of SBN.
