Transitioning From the Corporate World to Self-Employment
Posted on August 08, 2013 by Curtis Songer, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
By 2030, there will be more self-employed people in the workforce that there will be full-time employees. Are you prepared for this new economy?
Corporations today are doing several things to make self-employment for attractive than ever. First they are flattening their organizational structure, providing fewer opportunities for getting promoted and moving up to a more senior level. Second, as they are retiring employees at a younger age. Most corporations now are targeting age 55 with severance and early retirement packages. Third, as they eliminate the jobs at the top, they only create new lower-paying positions at the entry level. Fourth, lacking faith in the economy and their sales/marketing functions, there is a conscious decision by most corporations to under-employ. That means they plan to staff a maximum of 80% of the employees they think they will need and fill in the gap with sub-contractors. This makes down-turns in the business much easier to manage. These strategic forces are combining to move our economy to one where there will be more self-employed people in the workforce than there are full-time employees by 2030. Will you be one of them?
Do you have what it takes to be self-employed? The answer to this question is a function of several things: your personality and gifting, your marketable skills and abilities, your passion for autonomy, your financial situation, your energy levels, etc. These “soft side” issues are really more important than your knowledge for how to get started. But once you have assessed that you do have what it takes to be an entrepreneur, you have to get organized. That takes the form of developing a business plan.
Once you understand why you need a business plan, you’ve got to spend some time doing your homework by gathering the information you need to create one. Then it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get everything down on paper. There are seven essential sections of a business plan.
Key elements of a great business plan include:
1. Business Concept
2. Marketing & Sales Plan
3. Organizational Plan
4. Operating Plan
5. Current Business Position & Outlook
6. Major Achievements
7. Financial Features
But a great business plan alone will not ensure business success. Much more importantly, there must be a process for Assessing where you are today, Assessing where you want to be in the future (by defining Mission/Vision/Values & aligning those with Goal Setting & Strategic Planning), then developing supporting Action Plans (the plans mentioned in #2, 3, & 4 above), and finally, implementing the processes and systems that will make the future state a reality.
What’s interesting to note is that this Business Coaching process for organizations is not much different from the process for Life Coaching an organization. In fact, dynamic synergies result when you put the two processes together: Business Coaching a small to mid-sized organization with Life Coaching for the owner(s) and the management team. It turns out that, due to the organic nature of businesses, they respond much like a living organism. And when the living organisms that manage the organization are transforming along with it, amazing results are achieved. I have developed a unique, proprietary process for coaching both simultaneously. Contact me for more information.
