Is self-employment right for you? Is now the best time to start your own business?
Questions like these are common right now. And the answer is: definitely, maybe.
Regardless of the type of business, self-employment isn’t for everyone. It requires passion, know how, and opportunity. It requires strategy and great timing. And it takes resources.
To be sure, there are many pros and cons to consider:
- With unemployment claims at 30MM in the U.S. and unemployment dropping to 10.2% (16.5% factoring in part-time employees), there is still a lot of volatility in the market.
- In the months of March and April the US economy lost more than 21MM jobs, and in May, June, and July, regained 9.3MM (about half of jobs lost). While this upward trend is good news, the question remains, what happens next? A lot depends on three things:
- The virus: While scientists are making great progress toward a vaccine, the number of new cases continues to grow.
- Consumer confidence and behavior: Some experts speculate that many people used the $1200 US stimulus check to pay-down debt, rather than stimulate the economy with new purchases.
- The government’s response: At the time of this writing, the U.S. government has not reached a consensus on a second stimulus bill. Of course, this is really only a piece of the puzzle in response to a global pandemic.
- For the unemployed, with no indication of a work return date, now is a great time to explore possibilities.
- According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, when people have a greater amount of time to find the right position (with the security of unemployment benefits to sustain them), they find a better fitting job. Sometimes, this means creating a job perfectly suited for them, while solving a problem for their clients.
Many leaders, executives, and managers secretly wish that they were self-employed. When they examine past career choices, future opportunities, and the reality that time is finite, they open the window to options and opportunities.
In Summary
Self-employment isn’t for everyone. It requires a great strategy, and a bit of serendipity. This article and Article Nuggets explore a shift to self-employment.
This is a brief synopsis of a 1,800-word article and 4-Article Nuggets*, suitable for consultants’ newsletters for executives and leaders in organizations. It is available for purchase with full reprint rights, which means you may put your name on it and use it in your newsletters, blogs or other marketing materials. You may also modify it and add your personal experiences and perspectives.
The complete article includes these important concepts:
- Are you ready for self-employment?
- Hone your value proposition
- Craft your business positioning statement
- Memorize your personal positioning statement
- Unleash your inner entrepreneur
- The mastery of mystique
- Serendipity, self-employment and success
And references to the following sources:
- Christian Busch, PhD, The Serendipity Mindset (Riverhead Books, 2020)
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Send us an email and let us know if you’d like to receive this article, Article Nuggets* or Newsletter (as applicable.) It is available in the following formats:
- A Shift to Self-Employment – 1,800-word Article, $57
- A Shift to Self-Employment– 4-Article Nuggets*, $64
*Article Nuggets: The same article broken up into 3-5 blog-style sections suitable for a series of blog posts or shorter newsletter articles.