Craftsman
and Technician

What happens if we don’t just look for a job, but for customers with a challenge?

Tomasz Wierzbicki, 52, a master painter, spent twenty-six years painting sample panels for retailers. Now an app shows the color on a phone, and his job is gone. Leyla Aksoy, 34, a technician, explained to the new service provider why the filling lines stop. A few months later, its remote monitoring takes over her work.

Musterhalle 9, the cleared-out hall of their former plant in Germany’s Ruhr area, stays open until New Year’s Eve thanks to the works council, and on Thursdays people who have been laid off meet there in front of a board with this one question.

Tomasz realizes that property managers don’t pay for his hours, but for a quiet stairwell. Leyla realizes that a well-built prototype doesn’t bring in a customer yet. Both calculate, discard and calculate again, with family at the kitchen table and a deadline on the calendar.

Twelve characters, one goal: five times the value creation in three years, measured against roughly what the plant used to pay them. Only a few make it.

What you can expect

• a business novel from the Ruhr area about two start-ups after a layoff
• the business idea plans of Tomasz and Leyla from the story, each with three scenarios and the calculation shown, to recalculate
• practice sections after the chapters: what the characters calculate and, with sources, where the law draws limits
• a blank template to think through a business idea of your own, starting from the customer’s challenge
• a glossary for words like contribution margin, break-even or liquidity

Who the book is for

For everyone who asks, after a layoff or in the middle of their working life, whether their skills could become a business of their own: using two invented start-ups, the book shows which questions can be calculated and clarified for that. What fits you is your decision.

Written in Germany, for anyone who can do something

This is the English edition of Handwerker und Technikerin. The story stays where it was written: in Germany’s Ruhr area. Laws, authorities and institutions are German, German terms are explained where they first appear, and all amounts are in euros.

About the author

Rüdiger Krause is a Certified Business Administrator (Geprüfter Betriebswirt) and the founder of Quantwohl. His mission: value creation for small businesses.

Also by Rüdiger Krause: “Not Jobless. Founder.”, the 90-day plan to your own business idea, and the series EVERY DAY OF DELAY COSTS YOU with “Where Did the $4,950 Go?”, “What Is Your Problem Costing You?” and “Who Pays for What You Can Do?”.