Being in business for yourself enables to carve out exactly what you want to do. Career changers, creatives, and others who are drawn to varied list of tasks often get frustrated with the traditional job search that often favors cookie-cutter job descriptions. Starting a business enables you to pick and choose exactly what sector you’ll serve and what you’ll be doing.
For the unemployed trying to find a job, there are advantages to making your own job by starting your own business.
Your business opens immediately and might relieve immediate financial obligations. If you pick a business with little upfront investment, such as freelancing or consulting, you can start earning right away. In fact, for my clients with little severance or savings, I often advise taking paid projects to relieve the money anxiety, since a thorough job search can take several months or sometimes over a year. One immediate client to pitch is your former employer – just because they don’t have the budget for a full-time employee doesn’t mean they can’t afford project help.
Making decisions for your own business forces you to think about your unique market value. When you draw that paycheck day in and day out, sometimes you don’t know exactly what you are doing that adds to the bottom line. When you’re out on your own, you have to bring in the money so you’d better know. Starting a business causes you to think about your skills and experience in a very tangible way.
Being in business for yourself enables to carve out exactly what you want to do. Career changers, creatives, and others who are drawn to varied list of tasks often get frustrated with the traditional job search that often favors cookie-cutter job descriptions. Starting a business enables you to pick and choose exactly what sector you’ll serve and what you’ll be doing. However, it doesn’t have to be either/ or. You can stay active in your job search while you also build a business on the side. Launching the business gives you a great answer to those prospective employers when they ask you what you’ve been doing during your unemployment. It also enables you to keep your skills and networking current.
Is Your Job Search Flexible or Just Unfocused?
As a recruiter, I’ve seen lack of flexibility on the recruiting side with employers clinging to every last detail in their ideal spec while perfectly good candidates get overlooked. As a career coach, I see jobseekers prematurely dismissing possible targets waiting for that perfect job. It’s true that you want to be focused in your job search (otherwise you dilute your efforts and come across as scattered and possibly desperate).
5 Questions to Test If Your Resume Is Recruiter-Proof
After recruiting in search and in-house for over ten years, I have read thousands of resumes. Due to sheer volume of resumes received and all the other things that vie for the recruiter’s attention in the hiring process – scheduling, interviewing, networking, reference checks, client debriefs, and more – the resume review process is ruthlessly quick.
How Do You Score On Employers’ Top Five Desired Skills?
Even if you are happily employed, work environments and priorities change. You want to make sure that you are not getting complacent and allowing your skills to rust. The above five skills are always valued, but the standards by which they are measured change over your career. Maybe you got to where you are now because of superior analytical skills and despite below average communication skills, but now you are a manager.
