Michael Lake is in the business of helping companies get their messages out. That puts him in the catbird seat to observe the modern town criers so critical to sinking or swimming: Web coders, Web designers, public relations personnel and marketers.
“The work is still there,” Lake said. “There has been no exodus of talent. The sky is not falling.”
But that does not mean Lake and Redlake Marketing, the 10-year-old company he owns and runs with his wife, Christine Regan, in Warwick, N.Y., is idly waiting for things to turn around. “Our slogan is that we”™re democratizing marketing,” he said. “Good marketing should be for all.” And that means a Web push toward marketing for those on a limited budget via www.redlakemarketing.com. “We”™re expanding with this online model because of our philosophy of democratizing marketing and to a certain extent because of the market now.”
Jeremias Stelter scans the same horizon as Lake. He has seen work demand slow, but not stop, and sees a light at the end of the tunnel.
Stelter seeks employment for creative talent including Web designers and graphic artists at Alden Staffing. He works at the 25-plus-year-old company”™s White Plains, N.Y., office; Alden also has offices in Shelton, New York City, New Rochelle, N.Y., and Paramus, N.J. He calls those looking for work candidates, saying, “We”™ve seen a huge increase in candidates walking through the door. Before, we might have had five candidates for an opening. Now we have 20 per opening. Those looking for work should be casting a very wide net.” Alden also staffs positions in arenas like finance and administration.
Stelter said, “We follow the life cycle of business very closely. They always need new Web designs.” He sees openings for mid-level candidates with three to seven years experience in IT or the creative side where he works. “For those earning $55,000 to $75,000, there are still jobs. It”™s more competitive, but we”™re still placing candidates on a weekly basis.”Â
A Redlake project begins with a client looking to advance a message. Redlake then works both in-house and hiring freelancers to make everything from Web sites to TV commercials to brochures. “Ad agencies can be a real bellwether of the economy,” he said. The problem Redlake runs up against is that some businesses see marketing as “an expense they can do without. But empirically, it”™s been shown that in bad times you should be marketing ”“ maybe more so. If you don”™t market, you can”™t sell. I can”™t think of a worse time to sell less than in hard times.”
People are listening. Redlake Marketing signed a pair of clients in the last month: one in commercial real estate and the other in environmental and engineering services related to real estate.
In Redlake”™s world, single decisions can affect an entire team of workers: “There is a bank that was going to do an ad and now they”™ve put off that ad till the summer,” he said. “That means the people I would hire for audio post-production and video post-house to translate data to tape won”™t be hired right now. It might seem small, but there”™s a trickle down.”
Stelter has been in staffing 10 years and at Alden for seven. “I think we”™re closer than most would think to the bottom,” he said. “I”™m seeing it get a little better even if the process of hiring is getting longer. Positions that took a week to fill now take three or four weeks, which creates the downside that you can lose candidates during that time.”
