Thursday 24 January 2013

Living the dream – is it a good time to contemplate changing employment status?



Living the dream – is it a good time to contemplate changing employment status?
By Ian Ronayne

At some point in our working lives, many of us will dream of being our own boss. It may be a long held ambition or a spur of the moment consideration, perhaps following yet another tactless managerial dressing down for some trivial incident or after we find ourselves labouring on in the office long after everyone else has departed. Yet whatever the catalyst, for most full time employees the dream of a what seems to be a more fulfilling working life will remain just that – a dream. And that’s absolutely fine.

For others, however, the self-employment option will move from dream to opportunity (or is it threat?). Maybe it’s through personal choice - I really don’t want to work for someone else anymore and I can see the chance to do something for myself. Or maybe it’s through redundancy - I don’t really want to work for myself, but personal circumstances mean it’s going to be difficult to get back into gainful full time employment. I suspect the latter is a very real and very disconcerting scenario for more than a few people in Jersey today.

But whether through design or fortune, is now a good time to try turning that opportunity into self-employment reality? And if it is, how easy is it for former full time employees to change to self-employed status?  

Thinking about the former question, it seems logical that the same factors pushing full time employees out of organisations are creating professional skills gaps that need filling, although not on a full time basis of course. Spare internal resource capacity has diminished but the work still needs doing. Contracting someone in – for a few months, a few weeks, a few days or even a few hours – may be an attractive choice for many organisations, so the opportunities must be there for the flexible small business or sole trading freelancer.

But if the opportunity exists, is it easy to move from full time employee to self-employed entrepreneur in order to take advantage of it? The answer, in my experience, is yes … and no.
Let’s deal with the “yes” first. I say yes because there are plenty of States run or sponsored organisations offering advice, leaflets and websites on how to become self-employed. They are able to explain technical details such company structure and social security contributions, and offer templates for business cases, marketing plans, cash flow forecasts and the like.

But here comes the “no”. While this may be interesting information, it does little to prepare people for the self-employment life, or help them turn a dream into the reality of finding fulfilling work that offers a degree of security and a decent living. And I think this is what many people who would work for themselves are looking for. Ok, there are those who want to start their own business in order to become the next Mark Zuckerburg or Alan Sugar, but for many others it’s a lifestyle career choice. Having turned our back on the full time corporate world, the thought of creating another of our own is not particularly desirable. 

So if official channels don’t offer much, where can would-be self-employed find help to get them started. I think the answer lies in speaking to others who have gone before them. Glean whatever hints and tips are available, and learn what works and what doesn’t. Really try to understand the demands and stresses of working for yourself, as well as the benefits and rewards. Wherever possible, use the acquired knowledge of others to assess your skillset against the market demand, identifying what you have to sell and – very importantly - how much others will pay for it.  

Where to find this information? Well unfortunately it’s not straightforward. While plenty of forums and networking clubs exist locally, none is dedicated to the self-employment world, and therefore meeting the right people is something of a hit and miss affair. A pipedream would be to see this addressed in 2013, so that more can turn their self-employment dreams into reality.  

Ian Ronayne
January 2013

ciChange is interested in helping [c]orporate and [i]ndividual change – c.i. Change and would be interested in workshops, seminars, blogs or any support that might be offered to help small or start-up businesses. If you are a small or start-up businesses looking for support or a professional, trainer or mentor able to provide support please contact me and we can see if we can set-up a suitable event.

We would also be interested in using www.ciChange.org to make information available, including possible links to JerseyBusiness (http://www.jerseybusiness.je/get-going) whose mandate includes to support business growth in Jersey.

Tim Rogers
Founder ciChange







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