Career Transition Sins - and how to avoid them

Sometimes a career disruption is actually a challenge for us to find the meaningful way forward in our lives, and get off the job treadmill

Career disruption is something many of us are learning about the hard way this year. My career disruption happened when my 25-year career in radio advertising came to a halt. The U.S. Congress changed how radio stations were owned, and over the next few years the industry shifted to corporate ownership, with a few media giants owning all the radio stations in the country. The business had lost all the entrepreneurial features that I loved about working in radio. I’d invested 25-years into a career that no longer existed… as I knew it.

 I was introduced to franchising over dinner by a friend after church one night and with nothing to lose… I said “tell me more”. What I learned in the next days, weeks and months of 2004 was that there are systems in place for everything in franchising. Systems for choosing the right franchise to suit not only your career goals, but also your lifestyle preferences. I found systems to get a business set up, systems to get the business launched, systems to manage the business and systems to grow and scale the business. Long story short, I ended up working with a world-class franchise company for the next 4 years.

 Then, at the beginning of 2009, with some changes happening in house, the time was right for me to branch out on my own. Not a great time to start a business right? On the contrary, it was a great time because of all the uncertainty with a teetering economy. I was in a position to help people find their feet again during a difficult time and let’s face it, what good is anything we do, if it doesn’t benefit someone else? And here we are again in a teetering economy.

 “What good is anything we do… if it doesn’t benefit someone else”

 While sheltering in place, many are looking inward to ask the question, what’s really important? What is “it” that matters most to me? At the end of the work day, what really matters? And what am I willing to do to make these values my top priority coming out of this unsettling time?

How Risky is Your Family Time

As people spend much more time at home with their families, many are conflicted wanting to get the economy restarted but loathe to restart a challenging commute or silly air travel schedules. All that time away from home, from your family to attend an international meeting or conference - is it really necessary? Is it worth it? The time commitment, the exhausting travel schedule, the endless hours away from your family? Are you watching your kids grow up on Facebook?

 Once I worked with a prospect whose wife had to Photoshop his picture into their daughter’s 8th birthday party pictures because he was in China on business for his corporation. Global corporate travel demands an absurd time commitment. As corporations look to get back to business, you may not feel comfortable taking those international assignments anymore. Plus, the health risk is not just yours, but your family’s as well. Could your career put your family at risk?

 Have you Hit Your Glass Ceiling for Earning & Career Goals

Globally business will have to get more efficient post pandemic. Expect to see mergers and acquisitions as revenues falter, profit margins disappear and businesses struggle to survive. Sadly a corollary to this may be capped earnings and stifling corporate politics will also rise.

 Who will be protected when the axe falls? You? Your boss? Your boss’ boss?

 Last year, I worked with a millennial power-couple who were making high-six figures combined. The husband was the #1 sales person in the #1 corporation in the field and he had made the same income for 3 years in a row, i.e. capped earnings. Every time he found a new customer, his accounts were “rearranged” and “distributed” among the other sales staff, effectively putting a lid on his earnings.

 Recently I spoke to a lady in the medical device field, with a stunning resume of sales success at every company she had ever worked for. She is a single mom with two young boys who had been laid-off before the pandemic struck because her employer told her she was perceived as a risk-taker. OMG!!! A “Risk-Taker”. In interviews, employers have intimated the same concern!! She not only experienced an earnings cap, but she also came face-to-face with a behavioral ceiling. Her entrepreneurial instincts resulted in a corporate “time out”.

Ask yourself, where will you fit into the new corporate world that will evolve from the pandemic and the resulting economic challenges? And will there be room for your dreams and aspirations in a corporate world tightening its belt?

Does Your Job Give you a Sense of Purpose & Fulfillment

We’re so caught up in thinking of work as something that pays the bills, we often give little thought to how we would really like to live, work and play. If you could design a life and then find an income solution that fits your vision of live, work and play? Would you explore?

 Is there a social connection you get at the office? That can be replaced. Is your job one that makes you feel valued and appreciated? That can be replaced. Does your role provide an arena for you to do your best work? That can be replaced. Are you in alignment with your team for common goals and do you all celebrate shared successes? That can be replaced. Does your job give you a sense of belonging? That can be replaced. And what about fulfillment? Have you ever described your job to someone as “fulfilling”?

 If you’re answering “no” to these questions, is it time to explore how work does or doesn’t fit into your life ? For all the time you spend at work, shouldn’t you get more out of it than a paycheck? Isn’t your time and your hard work worth something more? Only you know how your heart answers that question.

 When You Take Time to Breathe, What Do You Dream About

At some point in your life you’d have had some vision for your future. Not necessarily a mansion and a sports car, that’s not for everyone. What was your vision? Career success? Time with your family? Financial security? Mortgage free living? How does your current reality align with what you dreamt of ?

 What is your vision for how you want to live, work and play ? Many don’t realise they have choices. Work is not meant to be drudgery - you can change that.

 What do you love to do? What are things that feed your soul? What is the thing you can do for hours and lose track of time? Do you still have hobbies, or have you given them up? Why? How do you want to spend time with your family?

Here’s the Dirty Little Secret… Corporate doesn’t care 

When was the last time your boss asked you if you felt fulfilled ? During your last annual review, did the topic of how your work fits into your life come up?  Has the promotions committee brought up how your dreams align with your job? Can your current career path even accommodate your dreams? One way to take control of your life, your time, your income is to be a small business owner. But how do you even know what business is right for you? Or if you’re even cut out to be a business owner? What sort of business could you run? How much time can you commit?

 Don’t jump ahead yet, keep thinking about the possibilities and don’t skip forward to the hurdles. There’s a 20-year-old proven system you can use to answer these questions and 100 other questions that you haven’t even thought of, so relax and hold onto the picture of your dream.

 Since 2004, I have worked with professional business people to help them see the potential of tying their passion to their income. Once you see the possibilities, I can be the pilot light for your dreams – where… “live, work and play” takes on an entirely different meaning, where no one is arranging your schedule, no one is controlling your time, no one is limiting your income and no one is telling you how to watch your kids (or grandkids) grow up.

How to Hire Your Best Boss

My experience includes thousands of conversations with people who know there’s something better than the draining corporate game that you’ll never win. You may be in the lead now, but the rules of the game keep changing, and they don’t always let you know when it changes, do they?

 The people that I work with have usually thought about owning their own business for several years. They tell me the reason they have never really investigated that idea is they just don’t know where to start.  But the idea that you can be your best boss, that working for yourself allows you to solve most of the issues we have mentioned, and that you would hire yourself if you could just find the right business keeps coming up every time you you find yourself in a job-loss scenario, doesn’t it ?

 Using a step-by-step system that has been tested and proven successful over the past 20 years, I work with business professionals to help them put their vision of how to live, work and play on paper.

 Next we schedule a strategy session and we talk. I have lots of questions about finding the right business and you have lots of answers, (you just don’t know it yet). After this session, I write your strategy and send it to you. You enhance, add to and/or approve your strategy. Then I show you businesses that match your strategy.

 This is the template that will allow you to explore hiring yourself to live life on your own terms.

The V-S-V System Costs You Nothing – It’s Always Free

Vision = Create the vision   Strategy = Define the strategy   Validate = Validate the options

 Would you like to learn about a hand-selected portfolio of franchise companies that are looking for entrepreneurial talent ? This portfolio has taken 20 years to build and it is actively being refreshed to add today’s hottest franchise opportunities. Our fee is paid by the franchisors. They respect the process we follow and they recognize the quality of the candidates we refer. This is how our service is “always free” to you.

 We are very much like executive recruiters for franchises. Last week a gentleman said to me… “you’re kind of like a head hunter for businesses”. I replied pretentiously, that I would prefer the label “executive recruiter” and we both had a good laugh at the expense of my ego! He nailed the concept exactly! Whether you take advantage of our expertise or work with a franchisor directly, the franchise fee you pay is exactly the same. Why not let us help you? The only thing you have to lose is your dreams !

 Terry, Franchising… Really ?

A franchise is a great way to go into business if you’ve never owned a small business before. The franchise model is designed to teach, train and support people with ambition, business skills and capital to invest how to duplicate what the franchise company has done in other markets.

 There are thousands of franchise companies in the marketplace. Sorting through this huge collection of opportunities can be a daunting task. We have carefully pre-screened hundreds of franchise companies – some very large and established and other newer, exciting concepts.

We work with a variety of franchise companies including home-based, business-to-business, retail, residential services, professional services, business-to-consumer, and educational franchises just to mention a few.

 Most people are surprised to learn franchising is within the financial reach for many middle class Americans. You don’t need $1,000,000 “cash on the barrel head” to afford a majority of franchise investments. Some…yes… most… no.  Funding options are plentiful so you can invest in a franchise, hire yourself and become a small business owner.

 Our V-S-V system guides you through the decision making process to help find the right franchise for you. The due diligence that we insist on will help you make an informed business decision and guide you to the answer that’s right for you and your family.

Are You Interested In Living Life On Your Own Terms

If you want to live life on your own terms instead of having a boss, who has a boss, who most likely has a boss, it may be a time to have a conversation about hiring yourself. This conversation won’t be a thinly veiled sales pitch, because I have nothing to sell. Our time together will be a Q & A call to explore possibilities, and to see if business ownership could be a fit for you.

 Again, my services cost you nothing - I am an advisor focused on identifying the right fit between franchise companies and individuals looking into small business ownership as a career alternative.

 Now it’s time to make a decision. Would you like to have a confidential career conversation and explore the possibility of hiring yourself so you can live, work and play life on your own terms?

 https://calendly.com/terrycoker/30-minute-discovery-call

 Thank you, for the time you invested in reading this report.

"Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago" 

- Warren Buffet -