Self-employment | BizSieve.com

Help And Ideas On Becoming Self-Employed

It’s a very difficult time for people to find work, particularly for students entering the job market and those who have been made redundant or out of employment for a long time. It’s an accomplishment simply to be invited to interview and on average only 1 in 10 companies offer a “thanks but no thanks” response to applications. This is very depressing for people who have been seeking work for months or even years. Many people resort to taking jobs for which they are highly overqualified or to accept part-time work to try and make ends meet. Some people take out online loans while they seek work, retrain for a new career or as an investment in a new business.

One option for those who are out of work is to look into becoming self-employed. But where do you start? Just finding a job which is suitable can be daunting. Read on for inspiration.

Look Online

Try investigating online to see what other people are doing. Use a search engine and look for articles, blogs and forums where people recount their own experiences and offer advice and inspiration. You could also try on line quizzes and tests to find out what type of jobs suit your personality, interests and skills. Try brainstorming, keep notes and record every type of job that is appealing to you and then keep on researching.

Look at government websites to get information on becoming self-employed, including legal advice and information on self-assessment tax returns.

Look on job sites where people advertise their services to see what is available. Freelance websites are growing all the time; spend some investigating the work that is offered and also what services others provide. If you have a skill, such as writing, art, crafts or photography – look at what others are doing to make money from their abilities.

Talk to Other People

Ask around and find other people who are self-employed, they can be a great source of information and inspiration. Perhaps you have employed the services of someone who is their own boss, or perhaps you have other acquaintances who are self-employed. Ask your friends and family if they know anyone who might be willing to have an informal chat or give you a few pointers.

Talking to friends and family about your interests and skills is also a brilliant way to stimulate ideas. Sometimes you can overlook the obvious and an outside perspective might help. Your perfect job may turn out to be something you have never considered before, or even a job that you didn’t know existed!

Government Initiatives and Career’s Advice

Look for Pathways to Work or other similar initiatives provided by the government. Visit your local job centre or seek out a career’s advisor. If you are at university, careers advisors will be based on your campus, try to start thinking about your career options long before you leave. Being self-employed for a period of time is a valuable way to get work experience and looks great on a CV as it shows you are responsible and have initiative. If you have already left university, try contacting the careers advisors where you studied, it is likely that they are still willing or even obliged to see you as a graduate.

Local Media

Look at the types of work undertaken by self-employed people who operate in your area by looking in local and national newspapers or business directories. You may be surprised at the amount of different self-employed job opportunities that exist, in a range of different professions. They can range from routine and manual work to highly skilled professional roles. Don’t feel disheartened by the amount of jobs that you aren’t qualified for, just focus on what interests you. It is never too late to retrain or embark upon a new career. Also investigate funding that is available or the possibility of free or discounted courses that are available, particularly as a job seeker. Even some university courses are free, particularly those related to healthcare – where there is a desperate need for staff.

Retrain

Investigate courses that are available, either online, through private companies or at local colleges. Find out which colleges offer adult education or professional qualification courses in your area, then look at their website or write to them to request a prospectus. If you are interested in retraining, you could look into online loans as an option for funding you studies.

About the Author: Wendy Derbyshire is a blogger who understands the current challenges of the job market. If you are considering taking a course or starting up your own business, why not investigate online loans to fund your new career?

The Three B’s You Need to Become a Great Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur runs a business or businesses by selling their product or services for a price, can afford to pay rent, wages and interest on the capital and still gain a profit in the end. An entrepreneur is also unafraid of the challenges and risks that are typically associated with the business on a day-to-day basis. To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to have three important traits that can put you ahead of the competition. Brains, bravery and business coaching are three skills that will aid you in getting your business off the ground and moving toward a financially sound future.

Brains

Many business owners learn their skills through schooling and experience, but others are inbred with successful traits and were born to be leaders. Intelligence is always considered a key to any financial success, and entrepreneurs must have their share. However, knowing how to work smart can separate successful entrepreneurs from those that find it difficult to overcome the typical business hurdles. An intelligent business owner knows that being a strong leader can make or break a business, especially when they lead by example. Financial geniuses are also smart enough to realize that they need to be disciplined enough to do whatever it takes to reach the finish line.

Bravery

It’s a fact that solid rewards can come with hard work and dedication. But a person who is brave and unafraid to take risks can achieve greatness in the business community. What separates the regular business owner from the successful entrepreneur is the gift of taking risks in order to make a fortune. All transactions may not be profitable, but it takes a skilled entrepreneur to handle that risk, calculate the gains and reap the rewards. If you’re only willing to make a modest income and never be brave enough to go above and beyond to reach your goals, you’ll likely not see overwhelming success in the independent business world.

Business Coaching

In order to achieve greatness with your own company, you need to formulate a plan. Many people are ensconced in their dream job, but they are unsure of how to reach beyond and achieve higher goals. A business coach can help an owner achieve success by organizing a plan, observing the strengths and weaknesses of their strategies and holding them to their final goals. Executive coaches are trained to aid you in your career from platforms of psychology and organizational development to human resource management and adult learning.

Bottom Line Benefits

Successful entrepreneurs that use business coaching see this as an investment instead of an expense because of the way their revenue can grow consequentially. An online directory of coaches is one of the best resources for those interested in learning more about this unique service. Here you will find a variety of people that are experienced and knowledgeable in this field, and you can choose the one that you will feel most suited for your executive career needs.

Most entrepreneurs in the world today have made it as far as they have by hard work, diligence and confidence. However, the three B’s of bravery, brains and business coaching will always separate the top producers from the rest of the crowd.

Ann Bailey started her own art business and shares these inspirations for other business founders seeking a step up. Noomii, a go-to online directory of executive coaches, is available to help any client ready for the next level of business guidance, encouragement and success.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradmontgomery/8192544700/

Living the Solopreneur Life

You have a great idea for business and you decide to strike out on your own. But your dream isn’t to build a conglomerate with hundreds or even thousands of employees. Your dream is to work for yourself. Becoming a solopreneur is the way to realize your dream of going into business for yourself.

Independence

When you are a solopreneur, the vision for your company is your vision. You don’t have to run each idea by a board of directors or gain the approval of stockholders. If you don’t like the direction your company is taking, you can change it.

While you may need to appeal to customers or clients to gain their business, you choose the means and strategy that you employ to do so. In fact, you even choose which potential clients or customers you choose to target. If for some reason certain customers or clients become more trouble than they’re worth, you can drop them without the need to justify your decision – except to your bottom line.

solopreneur
Image by Mikael Altemark

Flexible Schedule

A common misperception is that solopreneurs snooze until noon and lounge around all day in their jammies once they’ve made it out of bed. Anyone who actually works as a solopreneur knows better. In fact, one danger facing many solopreneurs is that they are nearly always working.

Nonetheless, one of the great advantages of becoming a solopreneur is the freedom to dictate your own schedule. Of course, you need to be accessible to customers or clients, but your actual work schedule is your own. If you need or want to take time out to run an important errand or just enjoy a beautiful sunny afternoon, you can do that, without making up an excuse to your boss.

Making It Work

It may seem ironic, but every solopreneur needs help to make his or her life work. Going it alone in business doesn’t mean doing it all by yourself. Knowing when to get help is one mark of a savvy solopreneur.

If you’re a writer and savvy about the web and social networking, it may make sense for you to create and maintain your own website and social networking presence. On the other hand, if you are a nutritionist, your time and efforts may be better served by concentrating on attracting and keeping clients – and contracting with a professional web designer and one or more social media experts.

Clerical tasks may be another area where delegation is a wise strategy for a solopreneur. Virtual assistants can take care of tasks ranging from writing correspondence to maintaining your schedule. Contracting the services of a virtual assistant need not involve paying someone full time; many virtual assistants have several clients for whom they only work a few hours per week.

Isolation is another problem faced by many solopreneurs. Find an organization that addresses the type of work that you do and attend meetings and networking events. Take your computer to a coffee shop or to the library to work for a morning or an afternoon. Take advantage of the flexibility and freedom of working solo to meet a friend for lunch or surprise your partner with a romantic dinner.

On the other hand, you may also need to be firm with family and friends who believe you’re freely available to run errands for them. Kindly but firmly remind them that your working hours are just as important as their time in the office or at school. Sweeten the message by reminding them that the sooner you’re finished with your work, the sooner you can enjoy their company.

For Further Reading

The Five Rules of Solopreneur Success
inc.com/marla-tabaka/the-5-rules-of-solopreneur-success.html
How to Become a Successful Solopreneur
chasethepaper.com/2011/how-to-become-a-successful-solopreneur/
International Virtual Assistants Association
ivaa.org/
Three Strategies to Help Solopreneurs Tackle the work/Life Tug of War (and Enjoy More Life!)
selfgrowth.com/articles/3-strategies-to-help-solopreneurs-tackle-the-worklife-tug-of-war-and-enjoy-more-life
What Is a Solopreneur?
freefrombroke.com/what-is-a-solopreneur/

About the Author: Guest post contributed by Stacy Pruitt, a freelance finance writer. Stacy writes about entrepreneurship, advanced trading and forex indicators.

The Beginner’s Guide to e-Commerce

In the current economic climate where employment opportunities can be scarce at best establishing a small business can seem like a tempting proposition. Being self-employed can free an individual from the endless process of job hunting and provide much desired independence.

However, establishing a business is not as straightforward as some may presume. There is a lot more involved in creating and managing a business than may at first be imagined. The owner of the company is not only responsible for day to day operations but also for managing the business itself.

A working business idea

In many respects coming up with a working business idea can be the most difficult part of establishing a new business. The majority of entrepreneurs approach this problem from one of two very different directions: having a business idea and creating a business based upon it or simply having the desire to create a business with a working business idea yet to be created.

Either way, caution should be exercised. In the first instance the prospective entrepreneur must ensure that there is a market for the business and that they do not simply press ahead with the idea based upon passion and emotion. This would be a sure route to failure.

In the second instance the prospective entrepreneur should ensure that the business idea that is adopted is of course viable but they should also ensure that they have sufficient knowledge and enthusiasm for the product. This is essential to succeed.

The basics of e-commerce

Once the newly established business has a product with which it can proceed, the next challenge is to create the infrastructure necessary to sell the product. This generally starts with a website. For more sound business cases this may involve designing and building a professional website or having one created on the business’ behalf.

If the desire is to simply test the water before committing significant resources many companies have found eBay to be a good starting point. Products can be advertised and sold on eBay for minimum investment and maximum return.

Of course the business should ensure that it has sufficient stock to be able to sell to clients, whether using eBay or a professional website. Moreover, the business should consider supplies of consumables including cardboard boxes, jiffy bags and other packaging. The business should also consider the creation of address labels, packing slips and invoices.

Business development

It is always a fine balance between failing to take advantage of a market and overreaching too soon. The business should be ready to take full advantage of the market if it is available and the sale of the product is successful.

However, the business should also ensure that the infrastructure is in place to support this expansion to prevent overreaching. The company should aim to expand progressively in a controlled and calculated manner. By doing so, the owner of the company can ensure continued success and this will allow the business to grow naturally.

Working at Home – Know Your Stuff and Avoid the Scams

Having the opportunity to work from home is a dream for many people. Some people choose remote working as a way to earn a little extra money while looking after their kids, while others opt to work from home so that they can avoid the daily commute, or just structure their work day a little differently to the average 9-5 job.

Because remote working is so popular, this has led to a lot of scams job advertisements cropping up. Job sites do their best to try to remove the scams, but it can be difficult for them to stay on top of the sheer number of job postings that are submitted. If you want to avoid dodgy work-at-home advertisements, try the following tips.

work at home

Remember That Real Jobs Don’t Cost Money

If a job posting asks you to pay money up front, steer clear of it. A real employer would not charge money for training materials or equipment. Never hand over cash when you apply for a work-at-home job. You won’t see that money again.

Don’t Expect to Get Rich

Avoid listings that promise good incomes for part-time hours. Those listings are almost always pyramid schemes, MLM, or something similar. Work at home jobs are still jobs, and you’ll have to put in real work to earn real money.

Read the Advertisement Carefully

Before you apply for any remote working job, make sure you understand exactly how it will work. Many jobs work on a commission basis, or a revenue sharing basis. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re a scam, but it does mean that your income isn’t guaranteed. If you need a fixed income to pay the bills, be careful applying for commission related jobs.

Common Scams to Avoid

Until recently, assembly related jobs were a common work-from-home offering. These jobs tend to require fiddly, difficult assembly work. You can expect to work long hours to meet your targets, and will then have a sample of your work quality tested. If any of your work fails the test, you won’t get paid for that batch. Home assembly jobs might sound nice, but you’ll probably do a lot of work for very little money.

Another common remote working scam is data entry. While fast typists can do very well financially from real data entry jobs, in the work-at-home world, data entry is a euphemism for posting spam advertisements on forums and job boards. Your income (if you get any) will probably come from scamming other people into paying to buy the “data entry” start-up kit that you just purchased yourself.

Finding Real Work-at-Home Jobs

The best way to approach the work from home job hunt is not to look for jobs that advertise themselves as “Work from Home”. Instead, treat it like a normal job hunt. Figure out what your marketable skills are, and look for jobs in those areas. Jobs such as tech support, public relations, accounting, and software development all support working from home these days. Look for jobs with well known, reputable employers, and negotiate remote working with them if you want to avoid scammers.

About the Author: This post was written by James Harper on behalf of Maintel the remote working experts.

Image: Eric__I_E / Flickr