Ed Bakeman is a cook at Applebee’s who can barely make ends meet.
John Henneberg just opened the Henneberg Tavern in downtown Cazenovia and employs eight people.
Ken Walseben started The Hamilton Group in 1994 and has funded over 200 companies, providing them with more than $300 million in financing.
Among them, these three Americans paint the different portraits of today’s economy and the state of the American dream.
The cook
Ed Bakeman (Tom Magnarelli)
At an income of about $21,000 a year, Ed Bakeman said, he can’t get ahead financially.
“I’m always behind on my rent, my expenses outweigh what I make,” said Bakeman. He works 36 to 40 hours a week at Applebee’s. His take-home pay is around $300 a week.
Here’s Bakeman’s economics: $548 a month. Another $360 a month for expenses like gas, electricity, his car and cable TV. That leaves for his food and everything else: less than $300 a month.
Bakeman is a classic example of a modern financial bind. The federal poverty line is $11,170 for a single person. So his income is too high to qualify for public assistance but too small to save for his future.
“Try to have a family? I definitely can’t afford to do it,” said Bakeman. “I can barely feed myself,” he said.
The small-business owner
John Henneberg (Tom Magnarelli)
Small businesses run America, said John Henneberg. He and his wife Maria have recently opened Henneberg Tavern in Cazenovia.
“If I have to work a 20 hour day, I’ll work a 20 hour day to get it done. This is our lives,” Henneberg said.
The couple opened the tavern in August. In their first eight weeks, the tavern only saw two or three weeks with a profit. That’s partly because of large upfront expenditures, like a $3,000 deposit for electricity.
Every week seems to be getting better but people’s mindsets have changed since the recession, Henneberg said. “People are now more saving-minded. They’re not going to go out. They’re going to cut back and eat at home,” he said.
Henneberg has eight employees. He pays the waiters and waitresses, who also get tips, a little more than $3 an hour. He pays the rest of the staff makes about $8 an hour. The Hennebergs are required by law to pay themselves. They make about $400 a month.
He has gotten use to working 18-hour days, sometimes seven days a week, Henneberg said. He sometimes lies awake at night, he said, his mind running over what he forgot to do.
“When you’re in a job your worried about your boss, if you screw up, you’ll get in trouble with your boss. What’s the worst that could happen? You get fired and you find a new job,” he said. “We don’t have anything past this.” If the business fails, he said, “We’re in a world of hurt.”
The financier
Ken Walseben (Tom Magnarelli)
Having passion is the best advice Ben Walsleben, the founder of The Hamilton Group, can give to young people looking for work or starting a business.
“It is said if you enjoy your job, you’ll never work a day in your life,” he said. “If you don’t have a passion for what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, it’s pretty hard to be successful in the long run.”
Like a lot of business people, Walsleben learned that lesson the hard way. His first business – in equipment leasing – lasted only two or three years. It failed, he said, because he didn’t know what he was doing.
Now, The Hamilton Group is a success at helping other businesses with their finances.
Walseben is also an adjunct professor at Syracuse University, teaching the capstone course at the Whitman School of Management. But he doesn’t think college is the answer to everyone’s career needs.
“You can get better experience in the real world than you often can getting an advanced degree,” he said. “These days it’s all about what value you can bring to your employer. Find a way to continue to add more and more value and you will be compensated for it.”
Some ways of making an impression on an employer, he said, are working an unpopular shift, learning how to do the ordering, working as a shift manager or expressing interest in management.
Employers, he said, are constantly asking, “‘What have you done for me lately’?”
(Tom Magnarelli is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism.)
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