Thinking about Starting a Business? Seven Ways to Derail Your Career Why You Should Keep a Work Diary Job Hunting? Protect Your Current Job First The Ship Is Sinking. Are You in Denial? My Advice Is . . . Thinking about Starting a Business? You see it or hear about it every day. You probably know someone who's taken the step: self-employment. Many have gone that route because they've lost their jobs. Many are concerned they might lose their jobs so self-employment is a pre-emptive strike. And many are just fed up with "the system." The fact is, more and more people are going to work for themselves. Do you long to be self-employed if only you had the nerve, the capital, and the idea? We can't help you with the nerve but you can get a loan (or use severance) for the capital - especially if you have a good idea. The idea doesn't have to be the next big thing but it does have to be something you like doing or you'll flounder in no time. If you're passionate about it, all the better. Here are some ways to generate - or refine - ideas for self-employment. Start with a growing (or at least healthy) industry that you have an interest in and look for a niche. It doesn't necessarily have to be an industry with which you are exceedingly familiar as long as it attracts you. Sometimes it's an advantage to know less; you may identify needs that insiders don't. Remember the oldest and best advice: "Find a need and fill it." Many Fortune 500 companies started by filling an unmet need - providing a service or product - that appealed to a broad section of the population. McDonald's and Ford Motor company are two examples. Ask your local Chamber of Commerce about business "incubators" that offer space and basic administrative services. Some may assist with marketing or help to find financing. All serve as support communities, energizing their members and providing opportunities for brainstorming. Many, many people start a business from a hobby and a surprising number of them actually make money doing it! The March 21, 2004 edition of the Chicago Tribune had several profiles of successful entrepreneurs who "turned their passion into profit." One man who threw wonderful parties left his corporate job and now makes a nice living helping other people throw wonderful parties. Another man got hooked on rugs after he saw a gorgeous carpet in an antique shop. He now has a large operation in Boston's Design Center. A fairly new business idea - one that we are still scratching our heads about - is based on scrapbooking: selling the supplies (don't you just need a book and glue?) and offering instructions on how to do it. Other examples of businesses which started from hobbies are, Newman's Own Salad Dressing, Mrs. Field's Cookies, Zagat's restaurant guides, any number of adventure travel companies, coins shops, sports memorabilia stores, vintage clothing stores . . . we could go on and on. Some people invent new products. Many, many products - lowly (lint rollers, Velcro) and lofty (the airplane, the auto) - were invented by basement tinkerers. Some sold the idea or the patent to a corporation. Others started their own businesses. (Patenting and launching a product can be daunting and expensive but that's what patent lawyers and venture capitalists are for.) Check out Turn Your Idea or Invention into Millions by Don Kracke. (Book description is below. If you bring the book up on Amazon.com, you'll see several other books of interest to budding inventors.) People with real vision see the big socio-economic picture and are able to determine how they might profit from current trends, even if it means turning on a dime. For instance, instead of wringing hands over the trend to outsource jobs overseas, several large, established consulting firms and a "rapidly growing number of upstarts" (Crain's Chicago Business, March 22) are profiting by assisting the process. They find new homes and low-cost labor for firms that want to move various functions to offshore locations. Talk about taking a lemon and making lemonade . . . ! That's a perfect example of lateral thinking. Another example: Charles Howard, owner of Seabiscuit, started with a pittance and opened a bicycle repair shop. Things were getting a little slow when he persuaded General Motors to give him the exclusive rights to distribute Buick in eight states. Consider the following emerging markets. Can you develop a product or service that would appeal to one of them? Baby Boomers. Never has there been a group of people more obsessed with prolonging their youth. They'll do anything: exercise, surgery, neutraceuticals, drugs. What could you do for them? Weight Watchers? Jennie Craig? Seattle Sutton? Day spas? You've heard of "Curves" haven't you? It's the fastest growing franchise in the country. It's a storefront gym for women that provides a circuit they can do three times a week for 30 minutes for about $40 a month. Many Baby Boomers are caretakers for their elderly parents. How could you assist them? Adult drop-in or in-home day care? We've heard of people making a good buck just deciphering and filling out medical insurance forms. This demographic will be retired - or at least semi-retired - within 10 years and looking for activities and learning opportunities to keep them entertained and enlightened. Can you teach them something? High School extension programs are filled with offerings and most of those instructors lack teaching credentials yet they have knowledge that others will pay for. As Baby Boomers retire, many will devote more time to their hobbies. Think about how you could enhance those hobbies. Children currently under 12-years-old. More than 30 percent of these children are "onlies." They need a great deal of entertaining since they lack siblings to learn from/spar with/compete with. What products or services could you provide to entertain and/or educate onlies and improve their social skills? The thirtysomethings. This group, too, is obsessed with fitness: personal trainers, Seattle Sutton Healthy Eating, exercise equipment, eco-tourism, etc. They are also big consumers of products and services that will save them time: drop-in day care for children and pets, grocery delivery, online purchasing, high-quality take-out food, at-your-door pet grooming, just to name a few. Some are looking around - like you - wanting to start an online business. What services could you provide for them? Don't assume they're all computer whizzes. All know the basics but may need help beyond that. Sometimes an idea comes from simply listening to others' complaints about products or services, witness the success of "Angie's list," (www.angieslist.com) a web site that lists recommended home improvement services and contractors in specific geographic locations. It was started by a woman who was a dissatisfied consumer and knew many other dissatisfied consumers. The point is: Keep your mind - and your ears - open. Turn Your Idea or Invention Into Millions, Don Kracke. Allsworth Press An inventor whose product ideas have generated over one billion dollars in retail sales shares his success secrets for aspiring inventors! In Turn Your Idea or Invention Into Millions, celebrated inventor and best-selling author Don Kracke begins with the first flash of inspiration and guides readers, step by step, through the adventures, passions, and pitfalls of launching a new product. This entertaining, humorous, and incredibly informative guide reveals hundreds of insider tips on researching, patenting, manufacturing, funding, and promoting an invention. Don Kracke shares his success secrets to help fledgling inventors take ideas from their imaginations and bring them into the commercial marketplace. Readers will discover what to do C and what to avoid C when getting an invention to the retail shelves, calculating wholesale and retail prices, and using advertising, packaging, and publicity to sell the product. Plus, they'll learn how to determine if their idea has any market value, target the right audience, leverage a marketer's interest into free help, and much, much more. TOP Seven Ways to Derail Your Career 1. Working for a boss you actively dislike. Your boss is the ultimate dimwit. Every decision he's made was (in your opinion) wrong. His boss has begun to look at him with a mix of incredulity and horror. You can almost hear the crash coming. But enough about him. Why are you still there? Don't you know your skills and ego are shriveling as we speak? How long before he decides that as long as things are going badly he might as well take you out by pinning the blame on you? He will. Don't give him the opportunity. 2. Confiding personal doubts, problems, or work-related opinions in co-workers. Everything you can/do say can and will be used against you. Say nothing to anyone at the office you wouldn't want to see block-printed on your office wall. 3. Dissing the organization to its competitors. We'd bet at least half of all employees have serious doubts about the viability of the organization they work for. That's probably appropriate and we assume it motivates them to work harder to keep the worst from happening. What's totally inappropriate is sharing your doubts with competitors. Even sharing them with co-workers can come back to bite you. "If you're so sure the product is a loser why are you here?" That's never an illegitimate question. In fact, when you talk about the organization as loser the first question is always, "If they're so stupid and you're so smart why don't you move on?" 4. Competing with your boss. So you boss is younger and less experienced. She's the boss. If you work to show her boss she's incapable and you should replace her - however subtly you think you're doing it - don't be surprised if she retaliates and her boss backs her. Yes, your boss can fire you for insubordination. While you may believe nothing is sacred in the organization, hierarchy is honored more often than any other shibboleth. When you make your boss look bad you're criticizing her boss's judgment. That's what will get you fired, not showing up your boss. Always honor the hierarchy. Never worry about who has the title. If you can't, move on. 5. Using the office computer for your own email or surfing the Internet.Many organizations monitor telephone and online activity. Everyone under 25 knows this and has both a cell phone and a laptop to protect privacy. Don't even consider using the office computer for personal correspondence unless you don't care what they find out about you. 6. Not developing an exit strategy and the resources to execute it. Some people can't seem to develop a rhythm in their careers because everything is an emergency. They don't know they're in trouble with the boss until the axe falls. They don't know the organization is going broke until it does. How about the hapless folk at Worldcom and Enron? They were hit by a moving train, according to them, even though the grapevine had been alive with cautionary tales for months. Unless you keep up your contacts and have strategies in place to get a new job in short order, you're waiting to be victimized. Ditto if missing one paycheck would push you over the edge financially. People who are compelled to take a job - any job - because they can't be unemployed for two minutes will end up in more unhappy situations rotten bad jobs than people who have the wiggle room to be more discerning. They will also work for less money because desperation is communicated to the hirer. One of the strategies of twentysomethings seems to be to under-consume (which often means freeloading off their parents) until they've "made" it, however they define that term. That's a good strategy for anyone. 7. Getting emotionally involved with co-workers. Whether it's love or like it doesn't mix well with work. Find friends and lovers elsewhere. What if the relationship is too important? Then one of you moves on. Emotional relationships, especially lasting ones, interfere with office politics. People begin to treat you and your significant other as a unit. You don't get all the news because one of you might be hurt. Nothing hurts you more than being out of the loop. Never underestimate the level of retaliation on those who develop exclusive and excluding relationships. TOP Why You Should Keep a Work Diary No matter what you think today, you're probably going to change jobs more than once in the next 10 years. It may be because of a better opportunity, a boss's retirement, a consolidation, or a downsizing. It makes sense not to rely on your employer for record keeping; get your own system going. Here are the "thou shalt saves": - Written compliments from bosses, co-workers, or clients - All performance reviews, memos, or written comments about your performance. - Copies of all financial documents. Even if you don't keep your tax returns more than seven years, keep copies of your W2s. Here are the things "thou shouldst consider saving": - Significant learning breakthroughs. Do you remember when you finally nailed a process or procedure so well that you could teach it to others? This information will also help you determine your learning style. The next learning opportunity C perhaps a more difficult one C may be just over the horizon. - Significant disagreements with bosses or co-workers. Most people work to forget unpleasantness in the workplace. Don't do that until you've gotten the lesson. Document what your conflicts are about. Are they people problems? Are they fairness issues? Knowing what bugs you is just as important to your career as knowing what makes you happy. Do you want to make serial bad job choices? People who don't recognize - or won't admit - what elements make them unhappy are doomed to repeat the experience. - The parts of your job that have given you the greatest satisfaction. Cudgel your memory and make notes. Don't let your sources of satisfaction evaporate unless you don't want to factor them into your next job choice. We have clients who claim they've been on a job for ten years and haven't had one triumph! They either have amnesia or they are letting the way they currently feel about the job color all their other memories. That's why making notes when you get the rush is so important. - Who your favorite boss was and why. What characteristics, habits, and attitudes did he have? When you are interviewing for your next job, the hirer is also on trial - or should be! Remember that most people spend more time with a boss than they do sleeping. Shouldn't you have a wish list of qualities that person should have? While you're making diary entries, make it a habit to consider the future of your industry. Is it growing or declining? Can what you do be outsourced to India or China or some other as-yet-unknown place? Middle-level knowledge workers arise! Start thinking about job security for yourself. A union can't save you but a career change might. Do not wait until someone tells you that your job is moving to Mexico. We are amazed by the number of educated, high-level people who just assume their jobs are safe. The back room operations in India are not there solely because the Indians work cheaper. Believe it or not, there is a looming labor shortage in this country. It makes sense to many companies to outsource everything that can be done cheaper elsewhere and keep critical jobs for the workers available here. Pick up any business magazine and you will read that American workers must learn to think innovatively. They must "retrain themselves for the jobs of the future." (Unfortunately we haven't read what most of those jobs will be but that doesn't stop people from writing about the problem.) None of this is going to make for pleasant bedtime reading but the alternative is stark: Events will land on you just as the sky fell on Chicken Little - a culture hero not worth emulating. Promise yourself you'll think about these issues once a week - on company time preferably. You'll be rewarded with insights into yourself, your role, and your industry. TOP Job Hunting? Protect Your Current Job First You know you'll be out the door at the first reasonable job offer. You're working at the search nonstop, including any moments you can snatch from your current job. Beware. Don't get so caught up in the search you put your current job at risk - or much worse - so enrage your boss she vows to give you a dreadful reference every chance she gets. People don't mean to make these mistakes but they do. Here are some tips from savvy job hunters on how to keep your job hunt below the radar of your boss and co-workers and how to make a smooth transition into a new job. Strengthen your relationship with the boss. Don't withdraw from ordinary activities in the office or appear distracted. The more obvious your attitude, the more your boss is motivated to make your life difficult. What does she have to lose? Ask for a new project. Show an interest in next quarter's results. Talk about the future. Show at all times that you are committed to doing a good job for her and the organization. Don't you want people to be genuinely sorry when you depart? Don't interview during the work day. Take a vacation day instead. Sure, you can make up a trip to the dentist or a doctor's appointment but why bother? You'll negotiate more vacation when you move and you can take time between jobs if you want. Once you start sneaking out for interviews (that's the way your boss will see it) you will be vulnerable to your boss's punishment. Likewise, don't change clothes in the office restroom. Even if it's past 5:00 p.m. it's a signal that you're off to an interview. Most people only wear suits to interviews - and only first interviews at that! Don't tell anyone what you're doing. Two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead. If you confide in your best office pal, the grapevine will pick up the news and your boss will question you about your intentions. Many organizations are beginning to fear mass worker defections if the job market improves significantly this spring. So far, they haven't done anything to keep restless workers but they will punish defectors if they can. Why hand anyone a weapon when it's unnecessary? The first your boss should hear about your departure is when you give notice. Be as flexible as possible when you give notice. Giving notice has become negotiable. From time immemorial two weeks notice was considered sufficient for all but the CEO. Now, more organizations want to negotiate departures, especially if they'll need to replace you with someone whose skills are in high demand. If you think your boss might want you to stay four or six weeks it would be prudent to prepare potential employers for this possibility. Say, "Much as I look forward to starting my new job, I can't leave my boss in the lurch. I may have to start three days a week and work two days training my successor." If the new boss won't hear of it you'll want to think hard about taking the job. Employers who are the most inflexible tend to also be most demanding when you move on from them. Repress any urge to vent during the exit interview. Don't trash your boss or the organization on your way out. The exit interview is the devil's tool and only the most naive worker would consider saying anything negative. Don't be tempted. There is no confidentiality. Your boss will hear every word you said - if you're lucky. More likely is the possibility that your boss will hear HR's version which may be highly embellished. You do not owe the company any facts that they should have uncovered on their own. If they can=t manage the place effectively it's their problem. Most employees move on quietly to protect themselves. Whistle blowers may be treading the moral high ground but they also have a death wish. After you've departed, honor confidentiality to a fault. Five years from now, at the job after next, if asked for any proprietary information about your current organization don't give it. Never mind that it might seem out of date and who cares. It's about your reputation as an honorable human being. Don't point out idiocies of former bosses or organizations. Err on the side of glossing over rather than dishing dirt. Not one of these practices will guarantee your employment with your dream employer. Any one could casually kill you. Employers are even more paranoid now than in the past and even less inclined to give candidates leeway. They will, when the feel severe worker shortages, but why have to depend on that? Instead, work with your boss and the organization for a pleasant transition. TOP The Ship Is Sinking. Are You in Denial? Six months ago your company announced that it was considering relocating its headquarters - which is where you work - to Seattle. You were devastated because you wouldn't dream of leaving friends and family here - this is home. However, since the original flurry of rumors and speculation the grapevine has been silent, making you suspect the move will not take place after all. Don't bet on it. There is always a silence following the first announcement of a major change. Whatever motivated top management to consider a move undoubtedly still motivates them. Top management is laying low because they know that some people - they hope a lot of people - will leave sans severance as they see their jobs moving westward. They also know that many employees won't even start a job hunt, much less leave, until the relocation occurs. This latter course of action is foolhardy and guarantees financial danger for those who choose it. Why? Layoffs and relocations no longer merit press attention or government hand-ringing, even in an election year. That means counting on generous severance right now is stupid. Companies can safely disregard the need for distributing "conscience money" to those they will layoff. If yours is a big company you may get 60-days notice unless they file for Chapter 11 in which case you may get no notice at all, much less severance. Your situation is dicey at best, positively dangerous at worst. Even if the relocation doesn't take place, are you willing to gamble they won't move in the next five years? There are many reasons companies relocate and one is that they realize they're running a comfort zone for lots of people and relocating is a great way to get rid of dead wood. Comfort is the enemy of effectiveness. When people settle into jobs and wallow in them they rarely are as effective as when they are running to keep up or catch up. What creativity is there is maintenance? If you want to test this theory, think about this: If they really want people to move they'll sweeten the pot for them. Those who refuse to move may not get anything - or very little, say a week's pay for every year of service. So, your choice is not between a long, paid vacation (a.k.a. severance) and relocation, it is between long unemployment and relocation. Once you understand this emotionally you will adjust your thinking accordingly. Get back in touch with the grapevine. Long-term employees have extraordinary success at reading top management's collective intentions. If you hear anything that suggests the move is still on, begin job hunting this minute. Expect that finding a job you like will take six to 12 months and even that's optimistic - unless your skills are in very high demand and you live in a large metropolitan area. Rev up all your contacts, polish your resume, reactivate your association membership and start attending the meetings. Don't worry that you haven't been there in five years. If you pay your dues, you're a member in good standing. Don't spend time mourning the potential loss of your job. Focus on the future. If you do get lucky with a large severance package you'll be that much ahead. TOP My Advice Is . . . "My boss is having marital problems and has annointed me her confidant. She invites me for a drink after work almost every day and tells me how badly her husband is behaving. I'm 22 years old and my agenda is to see my friends as much as possible which I can't do when she ties me up until 8:00 p.m. I'm also missing out at the gym. Any ideas on how to get out of this without losing my job or making her mad?" What you need is a compelling reason to go home ASAP after work. Some suggestions: a new puppy that needs to be walked; a family emergency of your own; helping a friend with child-care problems or anything that's recurring and absolutely important. It is universally known that day care centers C and puppies C wait for no parent. Am I suggesting that you lie? You bet. You are in a classic no-win situation. There is no dicier situation than having a boss confide personal problems (unless it's a confidant who comments or takes sides). If she and her husband reconcile, she will deeply regret having given you so much information. She'd like to forget it and she absolutely wants you to forget it. Bosses punish subordinates who know too much about their problems, especially when they cease to be problems. At the least, she may avoid you. At worst, she may try to get rid of you C get you transferred from the department, for instance C so she won't be reminded of the late unpleasantness. Of course it's freakingly unfair but it happens routinely. Worse than your boss's embarrassment will be the loss of trust from co-workers. They will never believe that the boss imposed on you. They'll think you're a suck-up who's garnering political power by spending way too much time with the boss. If they decide, individually or collectively, that you must be punished, they can isolate you from the grapevine and/or cause you to make mistakes by withholding C or giving you false C information. They can develop all kinds of original torture to make your worklife a burden. You have an absolute duty to protect yourself from all these eventualities. The only way to do that is to find C or invent C a compelling need to be elsewhere. Remember this rule: Never listen to information, fact or fiction, that could be used as a weapon against you later. Being able to say, convincingly, "Who knew?" is great protection. "Do companies still make counteroffers to keep employees? I haven't had a raise in two years and I've out-performed everyone in the department. I want more money and I want it now. Any ideas?" How hard have you campaigned for a raise? Have you listed your accomplishments and their relative dollar value and handed the document to your boss? Have you done some market research so you can prove you're underpaid? If not, you're more likely to irritate your boss by presenting a counteroffer than motivate him to match it. Unless you're prepared to campaign for a specified dollar increase you aren't prepared to job hunt for a better offer. How much more than you're earning now is worth the move? Is the devil you know better than the one you haven't met yet? If you're determined to try the counteroffer tactic, there are rules of engagement: Don't present any offer you wouldn't enthusiastically accept. If the boss says, "Take it. We can't/won't match it," you will have to go. You can't say, "Hey, I was just testing the waters." The deal is done. Second, if you are dissatisfied with what you're actual doing on the job, a counteroffer will only result in more money. It doesn't change other aspects of the job. If you really want a job redesign, that's what you campaign for. Finally, if you believe that the only way to get more money from your boss is to threaten to leave you should be job hunting for real. How unpleasant will it be to replow this ground every time you want a salary adjustment? "No matter how I try, I can never see my boss alone. I'd like to discuss my career with her but she refuses to see me in her office without her admin there. I'm a 40-year-old male. We've never had a cross word but she's very wary. I do not understand this. What is her problem?" We don't know what she's thinking but we'll bet she=s had problems with subordinates in the past. You don't mention her age but I wonder if she has a sexual harassment complaint in her past? The grapevine might know. If she worked other places in the past former co-workers would know. It doesn't matter how the complaint was resolved because it's clear she has no intention of a repeat. Most people who've been involved in such incidents, even if found innocent, don't recover internally. They hate accusations of sexual harassment because it's potential public relations disaster. Get comfortable speaking in front of the admin or seek career information elsewhere. This boss is probably not a long-term career booster for you anyway. "I'm in an industry where all the big players are going overseas. I've been in niche markets for the past four years. I just got laid off and although I got a generous severance package, I'm 58 and it's not enough to keep me until retirement. Besides, I want to work as long as I can. I've always been good at sales but my industry is so specific I fear I can't find a job outside it. What should I do?" This is almost too easy. You have a successful track record with the most in-demand skill set - sales. Direct selling may no longer be an option within your industry but there are plenty of others that rely on sales people entirely. Begin looking around for an industry that would interest you at least as much as your current one. Go to the public library and peruse the past five years of Inc. magazine. What are the new fields that need salespeople? You could be a great asset to a smaller, newer company because you don=t need training. This means the company increases sales much faster. Where are these companies? They're in the yellow pages. They're online. Once you pick an industry, the trade association(s) for that industry can tell you who's hot, who's growing, and who the comers are. Call on the companies that interest you. If you've done your homework you'll get an appointment. Individualize your pitch. Nobody likes to be sold more than sales people. TOP
| Home | E-mail | Kennedy's Bio | Speaking Topics & Fees | Our Client List | Contact Us | Newsletter | © 2004 Marilyn Moats Kennedy, Career Strategies, All Rights Reserved. Web Site Development: ProPlanet Internet Solutions, Inc.