Becoming self employed

Career cul de sac?

November 18, 2013 By // by DigitalJenIPC

This is a guest blog from one of our clients, Rick Cotgreave. We helped Rick discover his second career at 40.

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” Maria Robinson

These are Rick’s words below:

“What can I do? I’m 40 years old, I’ve lost the enthusiasm I once had for my work, there must be more to life. How can I use my skills more productively? What opportunities are out there?

These are just some of the questions I had when I met Rachel in 2010. I was taking a sabbatical from work and was feeling lost. The future looked uncertain, staying in the same job and ticking down the time until retirement was terrifying. Surely there was a more productive, a more exciting, and a more rewarding way to make a living.

I had been given a gift voucher to see Rachel as a Christmas present. We arranged to meet and spend some time exploring how to combine my skills, experience, and passions to create a meaningful career. At the time I had no idea that just a two hour meeting would create such a significant shift in direction for me.

With skill Rachel coached and advised me to examine the things that really mattered to me to take a fresh perspective on my experiences and to bring them together in a way that was both relevant and of real value in the wider market place.

My background was predominantly in sport, I’d played lacrosse internationally and used that build my first career doing sports coaching and teaching Physical Education. Sport provided a great foundation for a mind-set keen to constantly look for ‘better’ and ways to develop and improve. I’d also studied yoga and meditation for many years which gave a balance to the competition of sport and helped provide an insight into the mind-set of contentment and fulfilment. Teaching had been a great way of sharing my passions with other people, but I sensed that there were more opportunities beyond the world of education.

Rachel broadened my perspective and allowed me to see how my skills could be applied in the corporate world. I began to see that a keen understanding of performance excellence learned in sport was a transferable skills that could help businesses improve individual and team effectiveness. An understanding of mindfulness could help raise awareness, manage stress and improve performance under pressure. It was this knowledge combined with the passion for sharing, teaching and coaching that would provide the building blocks for my second career.

In just two hours with Rachel, my eyes were opened to new possibilities. I subsequently resigned from my role, gained extra training and qualifications in coaching and began to build my business, Mobius Performance. I chose the name Mobius to represent the fusing of the inner and outer worlds – bringing together the performance excellence seen in sport and the personal excellence discovered in meditation.

Since meeting with Rachel I have been able to create a career that is much more rewarding. I learn something new every day and develop my skills further than I ever had the opportunity to do before. I have had the privilege to work with some brilliant people and share my passion for human development in businesses all over the world.

It might have only been two hours, but the meeting with Rachel was the start of something that continues to grow. It’s a constant reminder to me of the power of coaching – the right person, at the right time can make a massive difference to someone’s life. We all have something inside of us, it sometimes takes someone else to give us a gentle nudge so that we can grow and blossom. “

For more information about Rick, click on this link:

http://www.mobiusperformance.com/about-us/rick-cotgreave/

Imagine what an Energise gift voucher could do for you or someone you care about? Click on this link to find out more about our services/enquire about Energise gift vouchers:

http://careerstrategies.co.uk/careercoaching/what-next/

For more insights, tips and inspiring client examples, follow Rachel on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/talentliberator

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” Alan Kay.

What could your second career be? Download our free Skills report as a first step:

www.careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport

My inspiring clients. Part 1 of 4.

October 27, 2013 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Most people don’t realize how amazing and talented they are, and hide their light under a bushel. My job is to help them to see their talent & uniqueness, work with them to define a career vision, strategy and plan and support them to market themselves and get to where they want to be, overcoming actual and perceived hurdles.

My clients inspire me so much and I learn a lot from them, getting new ideas that help myself and I can share with others. This is a 4 part blog series each sharing 5 current client scenarios and 5 success stories to inspire you.

5 current client scenarios:

• A female lawyer with a young baby who doesn’t want to return to work in private practice but wants a prestigious career which can be combined with growing her family

• A salesman in his 30s’ who has never enjoyed his career and wants to work out what career would fulfill him so he can enjoy the rest of his working life

• A finance manager in his 30s who chose to leave his job in the city because of a values mismatch and to become self-employed with better work life balance

• A female in her 60s who ran her own successful law firm for 30 years who now wants to enjoy a different second career rather than retire

• A talented female lawyer in her 20s with a young baby treated badly by her employer wanting to rebuild her confidence and find a new firm where she will be happier

5 inspiring client examples:

From employee to self-employed consultant (Chris)
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1108094305074.html

A mid life career reinvention (Anne)
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1108092201346.html

Child friendly self-employment and getting started (Sarah)
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1106786138068.html

Defining USP (Alison)
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1106787432800.html

Employment to contracting (Tony)
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1106770362848.html

Are you ready to create your own success story? Get in touch.

For more useful insights, follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/talentliberator

10 tips for happy self-employment: part 2

September 22, 2012 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Here is the second of three parts with tips for happy self-employment. We have been self-employed for over 14 years, and were employed for ten years before that, so can see work from both sides:

Make technology an enabler
Have a good support system
Do ‘wants’ not ‘shoulds’
Get a virtual PA
Apply the 80:20 rule
Go for ‘Bull’s eyes’ – make the most of the time you have
Be courageous/fearless
Ask for help/support when you need it
Ask for feedback
Never stop learning

What would you add to the list?

10 tips for happy self-employment: part 1

September 14, 2012 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Official stats out this week show that more and more people are choosing self-employment. I have been self-employed for over 14 years – here is part 1 of 3: tips for happy self-employment:

Design it around your values – what is important to you
Delegate the bits you hate/aren’t good at
Make time to think, reflect and plan
Invest in your skills
Make time for breaks
Have a separate work space
Maintain clear boundaries, time and space, if you work from home
Switch off your Blackberry/Ipad/Iphone
Invest in your knowledge
Get a coach/mentor

Part 2 next week will share 10 more tips for happy self-employment.

Have you read our Career Strategies bulletins? Follow this link for more useful advice:. Topics include work of passion, career vision, flexible working.

http://www.liberateyourtalent.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79&Itemid=106

Are you completely unemployable?

May 1, 2012 By // by DigitalJenIPC

I am completely unemployable. I have been self employed for over 14 years. When I left employment, the only thing I missed was the IT helpline, my company car and the salary. I still remember the excitement of getting my first invoice paid! My Mum designed my first logo, my office was my bedroom and I didn’t have any business cards for the first 2 years, just a freelance-focused CV.

Are you considering self employment or do you know someone who is? Perhaps you are finding the current jobs market frustrating and challenging.

Employment no longer provides the security or certainty it once did. The world of work is never going to return to what it was, pre-credit crunch, and many mature workers will need/want to earn for longer before retiring. Many people have misperceptions about self employment, so don’t consider it as an option. In the UK, over million people are now self employed (Source ONS).

Self employment isn’t for everyone, and if structure, hierarchy, belonging, financial security and teamwork are important to you, it may be your idea of hell! For many, redundancy provides a push and financial cushion to try self employment.

What are the pros & cons?

Pros: what you put in you get out; design to suit you; freedom, choice & flexibility; no politics; tailor to your values, needs, wants and strengths.

Cons: less certainty of income; need to market yourself which many hate; multi tasking – being cleaner, project manager, new business person all yourself; funding your own training, holidays, sickness and pension; long hours especially at the beginning.

What types are there?

There are lots of different types with varying degrees of security/need to market yourself, including; freelance; contracting; interim; creating a business & building a brand by yourself or with others; buying a franchise; a home based internet business; part of a portfolio career; information marketing and being an associate for someone else’s business.

We have made sure we have updated our skills, experience and knowledge to be useful to help our clients in the fast changing world of work. In the self employment sector, we help our clients:

Set up a business for the first time
Reposition an existing business
Existing business owner changing direction
Become a freelance/contractor, define a personal brand and market themselves

We LOVE helping people become self employed because it utilises all of our skills. It is really satisfying helping people to believe in their talents, increase in confidence and overcome blocks they have about marketing themselves, especially in a downturn.

5 Common mistakes

Mistake 1): You don’t check whether it fits your values, needs and wants and make a hasty decision e.g. setting up a business with the wrong people for you. Solution: evaluate your options with a career coach and ensure your decision fits you and will give you what you want/need.

Mistake 2): You try to do everything yourself rather than playing to your strengths. Solution: Be realistic; get good support – people you trust e.g. a virtual PA; do skill swaps to save money.

Mistake 3): You focus too much on earning rather than creating and evolving your strategy and plan. Solution; block out time in your diary and do planning away from your usual work base and get a business mentor as a sounding board to help you get your niche right and stay on track.

Mistake 4): You dislike marketing yourself and don’t continually evolve your strategy, so sabotage your own success. Solution: Get a marketing mentor and explore your blocks about marketing. This is one of our specialisms – we do talks and articles about ‘blowing your own trumpet’ as well as coaching.

Mistake 5): You focus on the short term instead of longer term to create a sustainable success. Solution: Save a fixed amount of your income to fund training, holidays, pensions, sickness and quiet periods; get a coach/mentor and block out time regularly to review, reflect, plan and refocus.

If you are considering self employment or know someone who is, you might like to read about some of the clients we have helped to change career and become self employed. Click on this link:

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1106786138562.html

If you are pondering self employment, why not get in touch? Rachel@liberateyourtalent.com

Pondering Becoming Self-Employed? Part 2.

January 11, 2012 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Here is part 2 – more top tips to help you from members of The Chartered Institute of Marketing. (CIM)

“I would focus on the vision and proposition of your business first and then optimize your network, and use your contacts to get referrals/introductions, generate word of mouth and help create awareness and interest in your business. You should never underestimate the power of networking as a marketing tool.”

“Do not venture out on your own if you don’t have active customers/clients in hand and then build from there. For a small start up, word of mouth marketing is probably the soundest way to go.”

“Work out what knowledge you have that a group of people (your potential customers) are willing to pay for, collate contact data on the group so you can reach them, and then ask them how they would like to hear about what you have to offer. The above is much harder than it sounds. Bernadette Doyle of Client Magnets has excellent advice on how to do this http://clientmagnets.com/ She has helped me enormously over the last couple of years.”

“Develop a thick skin too. That need not be as painful as it sounds. Also, obtain testimonials – be direct and ask for them if necessary – particularly if you’re offering a service and if that service is yourself!”

“Very few people get the success right first time but if you do a bit of research into what you think are your segments, talk to key stakeholders in those markets, create a ‘niche’ for yourself and do a 2-3 year marketing plan as identified above covering – external environment P.E.S.T.E.L., the specific market you are going to be trading in, your products/services, S.W.O.T. analysis, are you going to have the capital to sustain the business given the difficult economic challenges you face and a contingency plan if things start to go pear-shape? It’s not easy to go out there and crack it but you really need to ‘market’ yourself and your products well. Get out and talk to people, network, fish around in the small ponds to get known and established. Most of all, believe in yourself and your products – even when things don’t seem to be going right!”

“Be creative, follow your instincts and have fun with it. You are allowed. Everything else is a process and sensible.”

“You can sub-contract much of the marketing – even get people to help you with strategy.”

“The one thing you MUST DO yourself is take total responsibility for SALES.
It doesn’t matter if you employ a sales manager (or even director) get good at sales.”

“The hardest thing is to employ yourself, anticipate the staff you will need and start setting out the culture of your organisation drawing up job & people specifications as you are actually doing the job.“

“BRAND the business. Plan it based on future expectations.”

Source = Chartered Institute of Marketing LinkedIn group January 2012

Here are some client examples of people who we have helped become self- employed.

Becoming self-employed as a working mum:

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1106769308248.html

Evolving a business with changing market conditions:

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1106770475879.html

Turning a passion into a business:

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1106787631322.html

Self-employment in your 50s:

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1106768912605.html

Why are we useful to help people become self-employed?

Background in marketing, brand strategy and communication; design, innovation and advertising
Helping people to ‘blow their own trumpet’ is a specality – we have published articles and done events on this topic
Good at coming up with insights and ideas to help you achieve results fast
We have been self employed for 14 years including doing contracts, freelance and marketing a service
Certified coach so help you focus and overcome actual and perceived blocks
Lots of practical tools and tips giving you more for your investment; 60 articles, 40 career guides and Energise bulletins on Self Promotion, Career Strategies and Smart living and working topics
Great connector of people and resources to save you time
Energise ‘Marketing what I do’ on-line prgramme, e mail us for details:

rachel@liberateyourtalent.com

Click here for details of our service setting up your own business:

http://www.liberateyourtalent.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22&Itemid=37

Thanks!

Rachel

Pondering Becoming Self-employed? Part 1

December 31, 2011 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Just before Christmas, I gave a talk to a group of people who are part of the government’s Enterprise initiative about ‘becoming self-employed.’

It reminded me that the only thing I missed about employment apart from the regular salary 14 years ago was having an IT helpline to mop up my IT incompetence.

Giving the talk got me thinking afresh about self-employment and what advice to give people now. My marketing training was in the dark ages, otherwise known as the 1980’s so I thought I would ask via LinkedIn what members of the Chartered Institute of Marketing thought. The question I posed was:

“What advice would you give about marketing to someone becoming self-employed for the first time?”

In case you are thinking of jumping into the world of self-employment or perhaps being pushed, as after all, it is a young industry, here are their tips:

“Make sure you offer something that is different and be prepared to change and update what you offer as your market whatever you choose will evolve.”

“Draw up a business plan and keep within a budget. Network and build up your contacts carefully, targeting your chosen market carefully.”

“Business is about making money and protecting margin. Get your pricing, costings and overheads right, choose the customers you want in the location you want them, don’t be frightened to lose them and keep your promises. And most important – get some of your own money behind you to weather the downtimes.”

“Think niches. Think networks. Think partners. Think elevator pitch. Think about what the customers’ hurts/needs and wants are and how you can engage with the customers. Get some good books written by small business people for small business people.”

“Be concise and give a prospect a real reason to choose you.”

“Be prepared for the quiet periods and have a plan to identify opportunities in a downturn. It’s great to get a regular salary however when you are self employed income can be very irregular. Also, use your contacts to identify opportunities and network where your customers are likely to be. Have plans for worse the case scenarios.”

“Take your time. You don’t have to do everything straight away. It’s better to do it right than just to do it.”

“Have a plan in mind and listing it down on a paper is very important. You should be very clear about your Target Segment, narrow it as much as you can. Also, one more important step in marketing is to know the Opportunities and possible Threats. And not to forget depending on your business prepare the Marketing Plan!!”

“Prepare a simple marketing plan and revisit/update often. Do a SWOT on yourself, your business and your main competitors. Take a section of the plan at a time to work on, develop and understand more fully. Know your competition and identify how you stand out from them. Learn the marketing basics from webinars and meetings. Consider carefully your communications options and don’t rush into any major spend. Test and measure.”

“Build profitable relationships in the sector where you are a real “expert”. Hopefully you have some work/clients coming with you but you should also build your base. And don’t do work for free in the hope that one day it’ll come right – we all do it and it’ll suck up your time.”

“Rehearse an Elevator Test to ensure that you dont miss any points when talking to prospects. Use your track record/expertise to give credibility to your pitch. Attend any events where your target is likely to be – expect to build relationships first before a sale.”

“You are the whole company; you are the personal assistant, the secretary,the financial accountant, the driver, the messenge, .but best of all you are also the shareholder,all profits and proceeds come to you..Never ever ever underestimate the power of marketing.”

Source = Chartered Institute of Marketing LinkedIn group December 2011

If you are pondering becoming self-employed, you might find:

1) Our bulletins useful:

http://www.liberateyourtalent.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79&Itemid=106

2) These client examples inspiring to make that leap, even in a downturn.

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1106786138562.html

Wishing you a successful 2012 personally and professionally.

Rachel