Paulette Steele

A few years ago when I wanted a part time job that would give me a regular income while I was building my own business, I didn't bother applying on job boards. I simply went & let my friends know what I was looking for. One day, a friend of mine happened to mention this to his wife, who had the perfect job opportunity for me. I ended up doing it for 4 years. A strong network of people is important all the time, not just when you need a new job or are facing a challenge. A network is one where you give to others and it's not to be thought of in terms of when you want to use it for something for yourself. It should be seen as a reciprocal network of people who give of themselves and sometimes you may be on the receiving end of the giving.

Communication is the key to knowing and understanding each other and in a world where there are so many ways to communicate, our communication skills should be better than ever. In fact, we communicate less with each other now than in the past. How often do you see a couple of people together yet instead of speaking with each other they are all on their phones with someone else or doing something else? And the best way to communicate is to take the time to listen! You've heard the expression that's why we have two ears & one mouth, so we can listen twice as much as we talk. Face to face communication, even on a video call, is the best of all as you can read people's expressions on their face and through their body language.

Keeping things simple when dealing with everything including problem solving is my way to handle things. I find it's easier to start at the end and work your way back. That's how it's done in project management. Recently, I got involved in the planning of a major event for next year which this organization has been trying to put together for the last two years. My first question was do you have a date in mind for it? No? So I got the calendar out and we selected one and then we worked back from there. In 30 minutes, we had completed a lot of the initial planning for the event and various tasks were allotted to people. It was so simple yet no one had started with what I thought was the most important. The date to hold it!

Have you noticed how everyone seems to be becoming a consultant these days? It's a great way to go if you're committed to doing it and have enough knowledge in your area of expertise. I'd recommend that it may be best to start part-time while you're still in your full-time job. The idea being to work out the nuts & bolts of your consultancy business & get some traction. You want to be in a financial position to support yourself while your business grows as there are ups & downs with any venture. Be prepared to invest in yourself by doing courses to gain more knowledge in your area & into systems to make your business run smoothly. Your consultancy is a business like any other so be prepared to spend a bit of money to set up properly.

Being self-employed sounds fabulous and it certainly can be. However, it takes determination, consistency & obviously a passion for what you're doing to succeed. As they say, if you love what you do it's not work. Self employment also takes good time management because although you might run your business out of a home office, you have to do work & can't be having big chats on the phone, be on social media, or having coffee with friends all day. Also, if there are family members at home, you have to make it clear you're there to work & not run errands or do babysitting whenever they want you to. Other than that, marketing is absolutely crucial so people know you're in business & of course giving the best service is the best marketing.

I was talking with someone today who is looking at a change of direction in their career after a career failure & I know of others close to me who are having thoughts about their future path. Sometimes this can be brought about by being with a company where the senior management is disorganized. As we know when this happens, it creates work for everyone else. Other times, it simply didn't work out as you expected it would. Your hopes were destroyed! Things to consider when looking to change or pivot your career are you may only want a break from it for a while, do something else & then come back to it. If it's a total change, then explore what you enjoyed doing in your previous work and look at how you can do something relating to that.