A Year-End Review: Tying Up Some of the Loose Ends From ’84 : Surviving in the ‘80s
Courage, determination and persistence continued to characterize the lives of the “Survival in the ‘80s” subjects, and in some instances the rewards became apparent during the year.
The story of Carol Kunicki was reported on Jan. 29. The manager of a market research firm, Kunicki, 31, said that “I went into Survival Plan 101” when she found herself “stuck with about $18,000 in unpaid bills.” She pushed her credit to the outer limits, paying the minimums on charge cards in order to keep “floating on plastic.”
Living on the edge of insolvency, Kunicki said at the time: “I knew it was all going to catch up with me eventually. First there were the ‘pay or die’ letters from the charge account companies. That got to the point where my sister Nancy and I would flip to see who went out to the mailbox, like maybe there was an arm out there that would grab us. We’d kid each other about Danny the Knee Breaker coming to get us.”
Some Times readers wrote to advise her to declare bankruptcy, but Kunicki declined because “that would be admitting defeat.”
She chose instead to make radical changes in her spending habits. “I don’t go into stores. I don’t even go window-shopping.”
Waging a steady battle against the urge to splurge, Kunicki during 1984 made a “substantial” dent in the mountain of bills, and she hopes to wipe out all debts by the end of 1985.
Another “Survival” subject, Gary Rosenberg (Feb. 13), faced a different kind of challenge during the year. A Los Angeles-based executive earning nearly $60,000 a year, Rosenberg had earlier declined his employer’s offer to transfer to New York and opted instead to make a fresh start by launching his own business in Los Angeles.
To establish himself as an arranger of conferences, seminars, conventions, trade association meetings, he estimated--in August, 1982 when he made the decision to go it alone--that he needed two years. “I figured the first year would be strictly building a foundation,” he said, “and the second year there would be some clients coming in.
“My calculation was that we had put aside enough to live for two years, not in the old life style, but frugally. If at the end of two years there wasn’t enough cash flow for a successful business, then I’d have to go back to working for somebody else.”
One major challenge along the way: “I never had to sell my services before; sales was something I always stayed away from. I had been uneasy whenever I tried to sell. . . .”
Rosenberg had earlier become treasurer of the Southern California chapter of Meeting Planners International, which has 350 to 400 members in the region. During 1984 he was elected president of the group.
He also gained substantial recognition among clients during 1984. “Earlier I had to initiate calls to solicit business, but now a great many calls are initiated by prospective clients, which means that I start from a stronger level.”
Rosenberg made his two year-deadline and he feels solidly optimistic about the road ahead. He estimates that his business grossed 200% more in 1984 than in 1983, and he sums up the future with confidence: “From here on I definitely see the light.”
Stand-up comic Martha Jane Urann, the ex-secretary who uses humor to raise feminist topics (Oct. 28), has been working nonstop in recent weeks. She reports (1) that she has landed employment with a chain of nightclubs; (2) that other clubs, where previously she had not been considered for employment, are now expressing interest; (3) that she has been signed for an appearance in a movie (tentatively titled “Summer Job” and scheduled to start shooting in January)--”I don’t know if it means a day or a week or what, but the pay is awfully good”; (4) that a TV job offer is “pending”; (5) that she has been approached by professional career managers.