Yesterday afternoon, my boss brought the editorial staff of Mahalo into a meeting and announced with great regret that layoffs have become necessary.

I won’t get into the details of how many stayed and how many went — I’m sure others will jump on that before the end of the day — but I am among those who went. Yesterday was my last day in the Santa Monica office; Thursday will be my last day on the payroll.

In the current economic climate, anyone in a start-up right now, whether venture capital-backed or bootstrapped, has to be ready for this kind of thing. The writing has been on the wall for a few weeks. Through the month I’ve watched companies large and small, including Lulu.com, Myxer, Wikia and of course Yahoo! cut rank and file and executive jobs. Friends of mine have been personally affected. Cuts at Mahalo didn’t really come as a surprise to me.

I hope Mahalo weathers the storm — we’ve been doing some really interesting stuff in the last few months, and there’s lots of excellent stuff on the table, so stay tuned there.

Meanwhile, what am I doing to weather the storm?

I’ll be doing freelance work for Mahalo to keep some income flowing. I’m seeking other opportunities, both short and long-term, freelance and permanent. Since I’m a couple hours outside of Los Angeles, central Orange County and San Diego, I’m especially interested in remote work.

Today begins the process of updating my resume and spreading the word. I’d like to continue working in information tech and content creation — I’m a writer and editor with experience managing content producers and online communities. I’m a recognized authority on social and new media with an emphasis on podcasting. I’ve done a fair bit of freelance fiction and non-fiction critique, counseling and editing. I enjoy these endeavors, so if you need someone we should talk.

I’ll be rolling out some income-producing creative projects — writing, podcasting, and video. Some of these things have been kicking around in my head for a few months; I now have the time to put them into action. No one thing will financially sustain me; the goal is to set up several steady streams of incremental income with long-tail value. For more on all of that, watch this space for announcements, or subscribe to my occasional newsletter.

Speaking of time, I’ve gained about eighty hours a month now that I’m no longer driving to Santa Monica five days a week. This means, quite suddenly, that I no longer need to record podcasts while I’m sitting in my car… and so I no longer need / want the Zoom H4 portable digital recorder I was raising funds to acquire. Granted, I’ll have to dedicate a lot of time to the pursuit of gainful employment, but I should be able to podcast more often, and from my home.

In the interest of generating income with my creativity, I’d like to return to composing and recording music. I’m most comfortable doing this on acoustic guitar… but I haven’t owned an acoustic guitar for over a year. So I’m changing the donation campaign goal from a portable digital recorder to a decent acoustic guitar. The campaign will run until November 14 — whatever you can provide large or small, I appreciate. If I don’t raise $300.00 before the end of the campaign, I’ll give every contributor a refund. It’s all or nothing… I hope you’ll help!

That’s the news! I’ve got some anxiety — it took a while to sleep last night, and I woke up very early this morning — but there are a lot of folks much worse off than me, and I’m optimistic by nature and confident in my abilities. Time to get busy.

Possibly related posts:

1. How’s The Day Job..? Super! Mahalo For Asking!
2. My New Day Job
3. Featuring the Day Job
4. Freelance Writing Job
5. Mahalo Designer Wanted