More bad news in the press today, redundancies and lay offs.
The working world is changing, when I was at school the advice was to get a good education, get a good job with a big firm and keep your head down and wait for retirement in 50 years time. I grew up in Birmingham, centre of the English car manufacturing industry. The best companies were British Leyland, Rover and any of a number of firms making parts for the car industry. Local to where I live now every boy knew he had a job for life down the coal mine as soon as he left school. None of these jobs exist now, they went in less than 20 years.
There are no jobs for life these days, and we have to get used to that. We cant rely on corporate Britain, or America. There is only one person we can rely upon and that's our self.
It's important that we 'brand' ourselves.
Normally I hate the business speak cliches such as 'branding' but I am happy to make an exception for this.
'Branding' ourselves simply means making sure we stand out from the crowd. We have to accept that we are and always will be self employed regardless of who we work for. You have to make sure that you are more important to your employer than they are to you.
When the industrial revolution first started working for someone else was seen as a short term measure until things picked up in your own endeavour, much as we think of social security benefits today. Over time we have lost that mentality and have slipped into a desire for security.
Now security is not a bad thing at all but it is dangerous when we rely upon someone else to provide our own security.
There are 2 ways to make sure we have control over our own security.
The first way is to make ourselves indispensable at work, to do this we have to offer more service than we get rewarded for. Too many people take the view that "I'm not paid to do that", this is not going to make you more secure at work. You also need to make sure you get the recognition, so for example make sure all of your customers, or anyone you provide a service to knows your name and asks for your personally. This is 'branding' your self above the firm.
Don't confuse any of this with grovelling or creeping up to the boss, this is for your interests first and foremost. The fact that it also helps your company only serves to make it more powerful.
The second and by far the better way to make yourself more secure is to start your own business part time. This is becoming very popular and the entrepreneurial spirit is really taking off. This is the one thing that will separate those that thrive in a recession from those that don't.
There are many ways to start your own business and it can be done for less than £1000, and involve less than 10 hours a week.
I have devised a fact sheet for anyone that is interested in how to go about starting their own business, what to look for, how to avoid the pitfalls and also my personal recommendations.
If anyone wants a fact sheet with a view to getting started on making yourself more secure drop me a line at - steve@ukwealthcoach.com
Posts
1 comment:
I've been self employed in my own business for over 15 years, which means I work longer hours than most employees. I'm in a very competitive business so I agree that branding was important for customer recognition. There are three important ingredients of any successful business.
1. It must have a quality product.
2. It must have good financial management.
3. It must have good marketing.
It is a fact that a good financial manager and a good marketing manager will not be found in the same person. In my business I was the marketer and my husband controlled our the finances. If you don't have these skills within yourself or a partnership, be prepared to pay others for their imput.
Post a Comment