Career Network Plus

Many who are unemployed or just want to supplement their income turn to self-employment. The first and most important step is to treat the activity like a business.  

Plan and research the proposed activity. When you start, keep record of your time and expenses. Open a business checking account. Self-employment is hard work, and to be a success is even harder work. But the rewards can be substantial.

Here are a few recent examples of individuals that achieved different levels of success.

Jack wanted to supplement his income. His career was progressing but he couldn’t seem to find the money to fund his retirement plan. He learned of a manufacturer’s rep opportunity. He is paid a commission and he could work as much or as little a he wanted. He carved out a small customer niche, worked about 10 hours a week and currently earns over $450 a month. More than adequate to fund his Roth IRA. In addition he’s actively looking at other opportunities to sell other items to sell to his customer base.

In another example, Julie is a stay at home mom. When shopping at a local Tuesday weekly farmers market she saw an opportunity. Using her grandmother’s recipe she baked 10 loaves of German rye bread. They sold in less than an hour. Now six months later she starts mixing the dough on Sunday, bakes over 120 loaves of bread on Monday night to be sold on Tuesday. With her custom orders she plans on earning over $15,000 this year.

Still working out of her home, with her families help, but she has her eye on a store front location. The move may be a year or two in the future but the option is something to consider.

Finally, Margaret started making and selling jewelry items at local craft fairs. From this modest beginning she now has over 50 wholesale accounts and over 10 full time employees. She still enjoys designing new jewelry items. This year her business will gross over $1.5 million.

So it may be selling someone’s product, making the item yourself or providing a service but self-employment opportunities are everywhere. Do your homework, follow your passion, be flexible and success can be just around the corner.

In my previous post I made the point that the economy is changing as so are career and jobs. This potentially massive change in careers will hit those over 50 the hardest. So now is the time to begin developing your career and job hunting action plan. Those that plan and prepare will move smoothly in a turbulent sea of job changes and dislocations.

Your first step will be to take a career and job related inventory. In any journey, you must know your starting point so you can gauge your progress. On a blank sheet of paper list your skills, knowledge and strengths. Write out what is unique about this combination of skills, knowledge and strengths. What are your interests? What are you passionate about? What type of business or organization do you work best in?

Now take another sheet of paper and list the opposite of the above. What skills need improvement? Are there any gaps in your knowledge? What are you weaknesses? What do you not want to do under any circumstances?

I’m sure you will come up with a number of categories not listed here. Your goal is to honestly and candidly look at your career and your personal interests.

Finally, do you have any interests or hobbies that might lend themselves to starting a business? Many budding entrepreneurs started small money making businesses as teenagers. Recently in talking to a friend, he told me he ran a very successful Christmas wreath business. He started when he was 12 and make several thousand dollars every year until he was 15 when his family moved. If you have this sort of spirit maybe a business is the way to go.

The important thing is to explore every option. The more options the greater the chance for success.

Stay tuned for the next time when we’ll discuss how to take your inventory and turn it into an action plan that will guide you on your journey.

You’ve worked in your present career for a number of years and your current employer for over 10-15 years. Is your job and career safe? Is it safe enough that you will be working in your present position for the next 10-15 years? If you said “yes” don’t bet the farm on it.

As they say in the song, “the times they are a changing.” 

We see it every day in the stock market. Car dealers are going out of business in unprecedented numbers. The car makers are going hat in hand to Washington for money to keep operating. With money from Washington comes oversight. Someone said with the government running the car companies the next models will probably look and run like the Yugo.  Or maybe the old East German Communist, cardboard body, 3 cylinder, 18 hp oil smoke belching Trabant-high on the list of the 50 worst cars of all time.

Clearly careers, employers and finally jobs, or the lack thereof will be changing. And if you are 50 or older making a career or job transition will be even harder. It’s probably been many years ago when you had to look for a job. So your job hunting skills will be rusty, some job hunting skills out of date.

So over the next several posts I’ll be reviewing, how you can assess your current career and employer, some tips on jump starting your career planning and some career ideas that will move you to the top of the list of candidates looking for a particular job. I’ve had the misfortune (or fortune) to lose three jobs after age 50, of course I worked hard and found three jobs. Along the way I made some mistakes, and hopefully, I can show you how you can keep from making the same mistakes. Talk with you soon.

Career planning and advancement does not have to be a chore.

Take some time to visualize what and where you want to be in small bites. Three months, six months up to a year. What additional knowledge do you need to acquire to reach these career goals?

If you career plan, for example, is to add career related knowledge, in bites of reading two books a month. Get started now. If you can’t find time to actually read the books, buy the CDs of the books a listen on your comute. Keep notes in a journal along with ideas about future learning.

Take advantage of related training offered by your employer. Is there an area in your career that you are weak? Build a plan to acquire the necessary knowledge and experience.

From your journal take time to look back on your progress. Use this analysis to plan your next few months.

If something pops up that piques your interest, take the time to learn more. This additional interest may lead you into a new career or career path. Be flexible and you’ll take your career ideas and career plan into a level of job satisfaction where it will be a joy to go into work every day. Good luck on your career planning.

At one time or another in our careers we find a need for a second income or at least an additional stream of income.

Yes, we may get a job at the local big box store. However, your income is limited and you are at the mercy of your schedule of work. How then do you add a second money making career?

Let me tell you about Lillian. She worked as a receptionist and her husband had a promising career. They found they were not saving as they should even though they put their credit cards in a drawer and rarely used them. In other words they were running in place and didn’t seem to be getting anywhere.

A friend told her about selling on ebay. After some study Lillian bought herself a good digital camera, and started selling extra things from around her house. After a few months she had made a number of sales but based on the time required she was making something short of minimum wage. Lillian didn’t think her time was wasted as she was learning how to take effective pictures and write copy that quickly sold the item.

She kept her eyes open for possible things to sell. One day in a high end home accessories store she found some lamps and lighting fixtures selling at deep discounts (less than 10% of retail). She took a giant leap of faith and bought for about $300, lamps and lighting fixtures, that had a retail value of over $3600.

After two months she sold most of the lighting products on ebay for over $1400. The balance she sold at a flea market for about $200.  She had found her niche. She began buying lamps at garage sales, and deep discount lighting products at several area high end speciality stores.

After one year she netted over $15,000. Not bad for a part-time second career. Lillian now could fund a Roth IRA for both herself and her husband. She now had the flexibility if she ever lost her job, she could crank up her second career and replace most if not all of her lost income. In addition, her family was now more financially secure.

Do you have a back-up career? Look around-opportunities are everywhere. The teacher that found she could make $3000 a year ghost writing articles for the internet. The warehouse worker that worked every other weekend as a pet food represenative (he was learning the ins and outs of marketing a consumer product).

The key to this approach is what are you doing with these additional career skills? Is the extra income being invested? How about the extra knowledge, can it be leveraged to improve your current career prospects?

Do you have a back-up career? A hobby that can be turned into a stream of income? Keep your eyes open and you can match or exceed what Lillian accomplished.

How important in a job interview is an applicant who is commited to the career and the job opening?

The answer: everything. If an applicant is searching for a career that they have researched, studied and planned they have an advantage over the casual applicant. Their interest in the career will come through in their job interview answers, in their questions about the job opening and in their overall interest in the job.

In contrast the less than committed applicant will just be looking for a job, just something to make some money. This attitude will come across in the interview. So it’s not hard to see who will get the job.

Do your research on the career you want. Study the employer and the industry and prepare for all possible interview questions. Do this and you’ll get the job your want in the career that you planned to work in.

You’ve done the required career planning to change careers. You’ve done the required studying to acquire new skills. You think your resume is top-notch. You’ve researched the industry and the job that your are shooting for. But after several months you’ve had three interviews but the response has been “thanks but not thanks.”

Maybe it’s time for a career change tune-up. What you have to realize is no interviewer or company will ever tell you what you are doing wrong, or the mistakes you are making that keeps you from getting the job offer. If they did they carry a huge risk.

In fact many applicants who are changing careers may be carrying a number of mistakes throughout their job search that costs them job after job.

A job hunting tune-up may be in order. First, review every step in your job hunting process. If you are not getting a reasonable number of interviews based on the number of resumes sent out. Redo you submission materials. Have a friend or spouse critique your resume. What is it saying in 5 seconds or less? If they can’t tell you, rewrite and pare it down to the essentials.

How about telephone interviews? How many move you to the face-to-face interview? If the number is less than 50% you need to redo your approach to telephone interviews.

If you are getting an acceptable level of job interviews but strike out every time, review the interviews. How do you present yourself? What do you say about former employers? Are you positive? Do you need more interviewing practice?

Put yourself in the hiring official’s shoes. Were you confident, positive and did you make a good impression?

You are changing careers is your reason for the change positive? Practice your response. It will pay dividends.

Just like the tune-up for you car will make it run better a job hunting tune-up will help you more quickly snag that ideal job.

Are your career prospects frozen in place?

How about some ideas to unfreeze your situation and get on    with your career?

First, do you have a plan? It doesn’t have to be elaborate. But it must be written. And you must be doing something on the plan every day. Even if it is only to download and read a short article on your proposed new changed career. Or researching a prospective employer. Or reading a chapter or two in a motivational book.

All this daily action (no matter how small) will thaw out your career. As you begin moving in the right direction, things will become in sharper focus.

Remember, do something related to your career everyday, no matter how small. Write out your career plans and keep your goals small at first and expand them as your journey continues.

Good luck on you efforts.

My granddaughter is 5 and starting kindergarten next week.

Since she only has one chance to make a good impression on her new teacher we went over how she should introduce herself to adults. She immediately understood the importance of a good handshake. After some practice she came accross like she was a pro.

How often have you interviewed someone for a job and their handshake was like the experience of shaking hands with a wet towel. Immediately the job applicant had a strike against them.

How long does it take to practice a firm authoritive handshake. Not a macho thing but frim, hey glad to meet you type of handshake.

Heck if my granddaughter can pick up the concept (I will concede she is very bright) in a few minutes don’t you think it’s something you can practice before your next job interview.

Don’t let this one small but important part of the job interview, sink your chances of getting the job you want.

All the athletes on the team are working hard and doing their best, except one.
The one cuts corners, and they don’t complete the exercise. They have to go to the bathroom when things get particularly tough. When a drill or exercise is going to be difficult they question the coach. The coaches attempt to correct the child to conform to the teams rules and the practice sessions but the sloppy behavior continues.

And to top things off the child’s mother complains to other parents. So rather than being a supportive parent the mother is setting up the child for failure. As we all saw with Michael Phelps in the Olympics the difference between winning and losing can be the very thin. In a few years no one will remember who came in second. He won those events because he was willing to do the little things that over time gave him the edge. It’s the same with your career do you do the little things that over time will give you the edge? Do you have a career plan? Do you work the plan? Do you have a reading and study program? How many books have you read in the past year?

Don’t be like the athlete who cuts corners, and complained because they thought the coach was picking on them. Who on the team will have career success, those that worked hard and did the little bit extra or the negative complainer? I think you know the answer.