You are unemployed. You’ve been looking for a similar job and have discovered all your friends in the same industry are either paranoid about losing their job or have recently been terminated. You spend hours consoling many of these friends. You send out resumes but no responses. Now what?
Instead of commiserating with others which only makes you feel more depressed, you need to consider self-employment. But you have no money. Fine. If you still own a computer and have an internet connection, the global market is available to you.
Step one: Make a list of the problems you solved during your employment. Your first list should be more than 20 problems.
Step two: What solutions did you create that had the most value for your employer? Rank all your “solutions.”
Step three: Make a list of all the businesses you can drive to where you still have contacts.
Step Four: Get on your social network and ask your network if their employers have issues with any of the problems you have identified.
Step Five: Can you initiate a survey of businesses to see how they cope with those problems? And offer a free article on the results of your survey with tips on solving the top three problems …
Now you are on your way to being offered a consulting job or contract labor job.
The reality to this recession is that businesses have cut so deeply that they are not looking for their employees to solve all problems. They are willing to hire “contract” labor to fulfill niche needs. They know that contract labor or consultants may charge a little more per hour, but they don’t have to offer benefits and they get “solutions” rather than clock watchers. This is why some companies are showing profits with higher sales even during a recession. They have discovered the leverage of their financial capital when used to buy solutions rather than full time employees.
But I can’t sell – you say. Maybe, but can you solve problems? The answer is your key to becoming self employed.
