Self employment

From employment in the Arts to self employment

November 10, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Francesca was at a career crossroads having returned to work after maternity leave. We helped her create an exciting new family friendly business for herself.

Francesca, a working mother of 2 kids under 6 left her dream job in the Arts after returning from maternity leave after her and her employer agreed it was best to part ways.

With the support of 6 hours of coaching, funded by her employer, we helped her to set up a new business which was up and running within 4 weeks and with her first paying client within 6 weeks, an amazing achievement and testament to her hard work and dedication.We supported her through the transition from going to work as an employee to setting her own agenda as a business owner getting clients.

We helped her clarify how to design the business to both meet client needs and have a healthy work-life balance with quality family time. We shared useful resources about relevant networking groups, branding, target audiences, social media, marketing, giving confidence and clarity in self-promotion and the importance of making time to review, reflect and plan. In a short space of time the difficult return to work was transformed into a high of being an independent, successful and self employed business owner.

Francesca’s new venture works with one person businesses like herself and offers personalised technology consultancy, freeing them up to focus on other business issues.

“I worked with Rachel when I was going through a major career change and in the process of setting up my new business. She knew exactly the kinds of issues I was dealing with and her vast experience in this area meant we could quickly focus on those areas, which needed most attention for me. Its great working with someone who can offer you the perspective you need and thanks to her I was able to make a smooth transition to my new career and take with me practical marketing and networking tools to get my business off the ground. Thank you Rachel for giving me the wings to fly!”

Francesca Geens.

From employment to contracting

November 10, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Tony was an experienced I.T. consultant at a career crossroads following redundancy with 10 years left to retirement. Here’s how we helped him.

Tony was an I.T. consultant in his early 50’s with over 30 years experience, who like many other people, had been employed all his working life and was made redundant.

We helped Tony to see what was important to him – his values, what his unique skills and experience were and how marketable he was.

We shared new career options and ways of using his skills in different ways.

He launched himself as an experienced, personable business analyst/project manager who could also mentor teams and deliver workshops, providing huge value to cash strapped cautious companies wanting to realise efficiencies and have value for money from their investment.

We helped him to have both confidence and a strategy to market himself as a contractor, a wise move in the market conditions and a great way of using his vast experience and knowledge.

He secured high profile contracts including at the University of Oxford reviewing development lifecycle processes. This allowed the business systems team to provide the colleges with accurate and achieveable proposals and to manage projects in a more structured way.

“If you feel your core skills and expertise are not fuelling your career effectively, or if you just hanker for some sort of change of direction, Rachel’s guidance is invaluable. Her course helped me to look in on myself and understand what was important and what I was capable of. She gave me the courage to change and I can thoroughly recommend it.”

Tony Shaw-Williams

A mid life career reinvention

November 10, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Anne came across Energise in a guest blog I wrote for the advertising industry.

Our ‘Liberate Your Talent’ line and blog topics hit a nerve with her and the topics covered really resonated with how she was feeling, namely “yes I need to change careers but what can I do?”, “How can I best use my skills in a new area?” and “How do I overcome the fears I feel?”

Anne was a self employed market research consultant and prior to that, a beauty therapist, both careers she fell into.

I helped Anne to increase her self awareness including what her values are, what she wanted/needed from her work, what her skills were and how and where they could be used. We explored, tested, conversed and challenged different career ideas.

I helped Anne to see that she had successfully reinvented her career before, something she had not recognised herself. This was a shift and from this point, she made the decision to ”feel the fear and do it anyway” and to take the view, ‘what’s the worst that can happen?’ – simply that, she might have to rethink. She realised that achieving such a change would create a huge sense of achievement and used this as a motivator to keep going.

After researching the options. Anne chose to be one of only two people in the UK licensed to teach a routine of face muscle exercises which give a lift and tone to the face and neck, naturally, without invasive surgery or injections of various substances.

This approach completely fits with her philosophy and values, builds on her original career as a beauty therapist, and she is relishing the prospect of getting her new business off the ground. Her market research skills are coming in useful to gain insights about her potential customers too!

“Rachel has a wealth of experience and expertise and is very generous in passing this on. The depth of information available to anyone is testament to this. Her style is open, focused, challenging and encouraging. She understands career change and is expert at helping you think through the ups and downs.”

Anne Crotty

Turning an idea into a business

November 10, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Sometimes my clients have a clear idea of what they want from their career or business, it’s just getting it started.

Sarah had a young daughter and knew she wanted to make greeting cards.

Her friends kept on asking her how it was going and she got frustrated with herself that she had yet to start her business.

The major block turned out to be two things: having an inspiring desk where she could create the cards, and setting up a storage system for all the materials. When she felt ready to create, her working area was organised and uncluttered, which is important for her creativity to flow. I also shared useful resources to support her, including an introduction to another client at an early stage of her business, which provided them with mutual support.

Sarah secured a grant to fund production and created her first range of ‘sweet as cherry pie’ greeting cards. Her cards are stocked in national chains as well as being available for purchase on the Web.

“Rachel gave me consciousness of my capabilities within, and insight that I had the capability to do what I wanted to do. She worked her magic to unblock me and freed up the space in me to start my business.”

Sarah Grigor

Becoming self employed following redundancy

November 10, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

This blog shares an example of one of our clients – an employee who was made redundant and who successfully became a self employed consultant working with a number of customers.

From employee to self employed consultant – Chris

When we worked together, Chris had been out of work for some time following redundancy and was starting to get quite depressed about the whole situation and any prospects of moving his life forward.

We helped him to come to the conclusion that he needed to change his approach completely and to start his own business.

He was nervous about taking such a big step, but we helped him to see that he had skills that could be very valuable to various companies and to tackle any fears head on.

His choice to become self employed was a pragmatic one in a jobs market where many companies were reluctant to increase headcount and take on full time staff, so spreading his expertise at a lower investment working with a number of customers was a wise option for uncertain times.

The first few months were a steep learning curve for Chris and quite scary as he switched from looking for a job to seeking paying customers. He achieved customers using social media, a minimum budget, and using his initiative and persistence.

He is now in a position where he is working regularly for a number of companies and generating the same income he had in his last job, only without the commute to work.

He is now doing work he loves instead of work he hates. So redundancy, while challenging to deal with at the time, resulted in much personal growth, building emotional resilience, the ability to do marketing and sales and a great end result with many benefits.

“Life really has shifted for me and I wanted to say thank you for giving me the insight to see where I needed to go.”

Chris Ball, Social media expert

10 tips for happy self-employment – part 4 of 4

June 16, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Self employment is on the rise. This is a 4 part article series sharing 40 tips for happy self-employment.

Read part 1 https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/10-tips-for-happy-self-employment-part-1-of-4/

Read part 2 https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/10-tips-for-happy-self-employment-part-2-of-4/

Read part 3 https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/10-tips-for-happy-self-employment-part-3-of-4/

Design and print high quality business cards – they speak volumes about you
Networking selectively for your own specialism

3. Have a superb support system e.g. bookkeeper, proactive accountant, IT, virtual PA

4. Develop and hone efficient expedient systems, e.g. physical paper and computer file folders from the outset

5. Back date purchases before you set up your business

6. Be adaptable and open to new avenues and opportunities – learn as you go along, learn then teach to embed new learning

7. Create your own personal image – be authentic

8. Have a plan but be agile – see what clients/projects you attract

9. Set continual professional and personal development S.M.A.R.T. goals

10. Diarise time for the opposite of what you naturally are drawn to do. E.g. if you are naturally positive and think about what you HAVE done, make time to think about what you HAVEN’T done

Get in touch https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

10 tips for happy self-employment – part 3 of 4

June 16, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Self employment is on the rise. This is a 4 part article series sharing 40 tips for happy self-employment.

Read part 1 https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/10-tips-for-happy-self-employment-part-1-of-4/

Read part 2 https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/10-tips-for-happy-self-employment-part-2-of-4/

1. Follow up is key – don’t waste effort going for the ‘new shiny thing’

2. Be clear on your attitude to risk

3. Adopt smart tech to work expediently and plan IT reviews and updates

4. Create a financial ‘cushion’ for quiet times

5. Design your business and working environment around your personality type e.g. extrovert or introvert

6. Make the most of the quiet months (August/December/January) to think and plan, don’t worry that it is quiet – it is a gift!

7. Utilise the support of a Virtual PA – play to your strengths

8. Be honest with yourself – what do you really want, rather than what you think you should do?

9. Know the key words for your specialism – use Google Keyword planner

10. Define your personal brand and personal brand assets, e.g. avatar – this is increasingly important in the digital age

Get in touch https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

10 tips for happy self-employment – part 2 of 4

June 16, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Self employment is on the rise. This is a 4 part article series sharing 40 tips for happy self-employment.

Read part 1.

10 tips for happy self-employment – part 1 of 4

1. Utilise social media to create awareness free – be focused

2. Build your skills – gives you options to develop a portfolio career over time

3. Co-opetition vs collaboration – there can be a fine dividing line between people who do similar work to you being an opportunity to collaborate and being competitive

4. Protect yourself with legal docs e.g. web site terms and conditions, associate agreements etc.

5. Create case studies to demonstrate how you can help clients

6. Gain and share client testimonials

7. Design your business around your personal values – what is really important to you

8. Create a compelling verbal business card – what you answer when asked ‘what do you do?’

9. Support your clients in their roles/careers and they will support you

10. Timing is everything – monitor business and seasonal cycles which influence and affect decisions

Get in touch

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

10 tips for happy self-employment – part 1 of 4

June 16, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Self employment is on the rise. This is a 4 part article series sharing 40 tips for happy self-employment.

1. A key decision is whether you want to have your own business or be an associate of someone else’s business, or a mixture – time, money, control and self-marketing considerations of these choices

2. Use your career heritage as a springboard/foundation for change

3. Research thoroughly to ensure a robust decision

4. Have a coach, mentor and/or personal Board

5. Do things ‘just in time’ in response to client interest/trends, rather than having everything in place – let go of perfectionism

6. Make time to plan, reflect and review regularly

7. Pre-network before becoming self-employed

8. Have a clear niche/specialism that you love

9. Choose the right not wrong associates – do due diligence re referrers – many have established referrer relationships already – don’t waste your time with the wrong ones

10. Think ‘out of the box’ with your marketing and networking. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money

How can we help you? Get in touch:

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

The joy of freelance – a personal story

March 11, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

I can still remember the heady excitement of becoming self-employed over 17 years ago. I had planned it for 6 months, the market was ripe and I was ready.

I have always been independent, the no 2 child of 4, my Dad was self-employed, my Mum worked from home most of the time, so it felt like she was self-employed. I detested politics and ‘playing the game’. I didn’t and wouldn’t, it felt fake and realness and authenticity are important to me.

My career heritage is in marketing and brand strategy and communication, useful in marketing myself, and something I now help my clients with. I had researched the market thoroughly and knew that there was a shortage of strategic planners due to a combination of lack of training and recruitment in the late 80s/early 90s downturn and more communication agencies wanting to get bigger higher value strategic projects from clients.

I has also set up a database of contacts in Excel, my Mum created my first logo on her computer, I had saved a financial cushion of 6 months’ money to cover bills and I had low outgoings as I rented a room in my sister’s flat.

“What’s the worst that could happen?” I told myself. “You can always go back into full time employment.”

I especially enjoyed thinking through the strategic options for my business and what to call it, something I ended up doing a lot for clients as a freelancer. All the company names I liked and wanted were taken and I felt like I was going down a cul de sac with this important issue to sort.

Then one day, I was reading a document and this word jumped out at me: ‘Energise’. That was it. I then did an exercise with a career coach which helped me identify what motivated me and then distilled this down to ‘energising connector’. This later evolved into my personal brand ‘Talent Liberator’. I use this exercise with my clients today.

I crafted a letter and posted it to my database. I can still remember the joy, the relief, coming back home 2 days after mailing the letters to see my answer phone red light flashing. Not flashing a little, but flashing a lot; 18 red flashes in fact. I had not even done any follow up calls to the letter, and they were chasing me, wanting to speak and meet! It was going to be alright. Woo hoo! That moment, sending out my first invoice and being paid for being me and what I offered were wonderful moments that made all the hard work worthwhile.

The only thing I missed about being employed was my company car and the IT help line! Life as an independent contractor and being self-employed isn’t for everyone, but it does give you freedom, choice and the opportunity to control and influence your own future. That, for me, an independent spirit, is priceless.

3 ways we help our clients.

• Defining your personal brand – this is vital with more competition and a growing trend
• Crafting a compelling CV which helps you stand out and be noticed – we have 35 years’ experience doing this
• Self-awareness to maximise the fulfilment from your work

Read our client testimonials:
http://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/energise-client-testimonials/

View our LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/energiseliberateyourtalent

Discover your transferable skills with our free report:
http://careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport/