If you were hit by this recession and lost your job, or fear losing it, what can you do to regain some control over your career and financial life?
The best answer is to start your own business(es) or build on a small one you already have. The next thing you need to think about is how to have multiple streams of income so if one goes away, you have other sources and the financial hit won’t be as bad. Ideally, no more than 10% of your necessary living expenses should come from a single source.
I assume that if you are reading the posts on this blog, you have some kind of home office. I’m pretty sure you didn’t set one up just to have a fancy place to write the checks and handle your personal business. Or maybe you did. No matter. It’s time to look forward and make that home office a profit center in your house.
Small businesses are the fastest growing segment of the commercial market. More jobs are created by the small business sector than in any other area, and more people now own and work for small businesses than for major corporations.
I have only one warning for you. You must work for yourself like the boss is watching you every second, because if you don’t do your work, it never gets done and the business never takes off. Owning your own business is work, but it can be work you love and a pleasure to get up to each day. You have to work much harder for yourself than you did for an employer. If it’s something you love, it doesn’t feel like hard work. And I personally love the commute…three steps from the kitchen and coffee pot to my desk! Goofing off or playing Solitaire at your computer instead of working takes away from your bottom line. If you want time off, take it, but don’t think you can act like an employee when you’re in charge.
Decide What You Want to Do
- If you want to find another job working for someone else, that is a very legitimate choice, but in the future you must be prepared to jump when the waters begin to stir instead of waiting for a wave to hit you. Find another job, but always be looking, and change jobs if there is something better on the horizon for you. The only loyalty you should have is to yourself, your family and your friends. No company will be loyal to you, and no one is ever irreplaceable or worse, the company may find they can eliminate your job altogether.
- Do you want your business to be online or offline?
- Are you or were you doing something that you can market and become a freelance consultant?
- What are you good at doing? Math? Writing? English? History? Singing? Reading construction plans? Leading others? Building furniture? Plumbing? Painting? Cutting grass? Cleaning and organizing? Websites? Design? Video games? Graphic arts?
- What do you love to do? Work with your hands? Work outside? Be the idea person? Be the implementation person? Volunteer and help others? Work with kids? Crafts? You get the idea.
- Do you know how to do something you could teach others to do?
- Is there something you have always wanted to try but didn’t have the time or energy when you were working full-time?
- Can you try it on a shoe-string budget?
- Could you start out part-time and grow it until it is earning enough to support you full-time?
- If you worked on it full-time, could you make it work to earn a great income and give yourself the freedom and control you always wanted while you were working for a boss?
- Do you need more education, a degree or a certificate so you can pursue a new career?
- Can you work at a flexible, part-time job to cover your financial responsibilities while you explore business opportunities? Pizza delivery, throwing boxes at UPS or FedEx, mentoring or tutoring etc.?
If you have no idea what you might like to do, see the resources at the bottom of this post for some books you can read to help you decide what you would be happier doing.
If You Already Have a Business
- Do you want to continue that business or do something else?
- Do you want to take your offline business and add an online component?
- Do you want to take your online business and add an offline component?
- Do you want to use the internet to add marketing resources to your offline, local business and your bottom line? There are several free things you could do right now to improve your existing business. See this resource at Affordable Local Business Internet Marketing.
- What would need to happen to make your hobby or part-time business a viable, full-time income?
It’s time to sit down with some blank paper and start doing some stream-of-consciousness writing and brainstorming. Draw pictures and diagrams if words aren’t your thing. Use butcher paper or shipping paper if you need large pieces to draw and write on. Use colored markers, pens, pencils and even paint to give your ideas the right emphasis. Let your ideas flow and don’t throw any out until you’ve done all the brainstorming you can and have found your niche.
This may take several efforts over several days. It takes each of us a different amount of time to get up and step all the way out of our boxes and open ourselves to the possibilities. If you’ve been working for someone else and were laid off, there is a good chance you were somewhat pigeon-holed and now you may feel unwanted. When we’ve been doing a job for a long time we tend to adopt a certain mindset, and we have to relearn how to think outside of that mindset again.
You may have several fits and starts, but don’t allow a project you try that doesn’t work define who you are. A project may fail because it’s not the right thing for you at the right time. Go back and start over until what you are doing feels right and works.
It took Thomas Edison thousands of tries to invent the incandescent light bulb. He looked at it by thinking and believing he discovered thousands of ways NOT to invent a light bulb. He looked at all his setbacks as lessons. We learn when we don’t succeed and we learn when we do. The important thing is to never give up.
Is having your own business worth it? Does it really pay off? Absolutely, as long as you are doing what you love, working like you want to and earning enough money to meet your needs and some of your wants. It’s even better if you can put some or all of your business on autopilot eventually. If you do something that you put a lot of work into up front that will continue to pay off for a long time, that’s even better. You may create an income source that will pay you like you’re still working while you’re retired. Or you could semi-retire early. You could even get rich if that’s your goal. Each of us defines “rich” in our own way, and not all definitions mean lots of money.
The only thing you can count on in this world is change. So why not embrace it and become your own knight in shining armor instead of continuing to be a pawn? Create your own business and your own world of work on your terms. What could be a better job than that?
If you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life and you’ll get paid to have fun. – Wish I knew who said this…
Resources:
48 Days to the Work You Love
48 Days Workbook
No More Mondays
All by Dan Miller
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