For many, the most difficult issue of all is finding the right job. Some lucky people with an existing skill, hobby or interest can capitalise on that and step seamlessly into their new life. For the rest of us, it’ll probably mean a lot of soul-searching and nights spent staring into the bottom of a wine glass. And that’s before you’ve even started on the practical side. ‘How much money am I going to need? Where are we all going to live? And how long can we survive before I start making a profit?’
Narrowing Down Your Options
If you really haven’t a clue where to start and you only know that you have to get out of whatever it is you’re doing at the moment, then there are some basic questions to ask yourself.
First, decide what your endgame is, your ultimate aim.
Hobby Job
You may decide you only need a part-time job to bring in a bit of extra spending money. You may even be lucky enough to be able to do something because you enjoy it and any money coming in would be a bonus. But you’d still like to maximise your opportunities.
The Breadwinner
You may have a family to support, a mortgage to pay, and your new job has to be a success virtually from the beginning. Much will depend on whether you can change careers and stay in your own home or whether you’re downsizing from a city lifestyle and planning on relocating the entire family.
Global Domination
Or you could have bigger ambitions still. Perhaps you’re so confident in your idea that you want to lay down the foundations of a large business that you can nurture, grow and one day sell on as a going concern. This is playing the long game.
That Eureka Moment
The very good news is that you don’t need one. Not everyone can invent the internal combustion engine, internet or even the clockwork radio. Millions still make a very good living out of doing something that lots of other people already do. It’s just a question of spotting a tiny little niche that you can carve out for yourself.
- It could be a new product.
- It could be an existing product with a new twist.
- It could be a new way of selling it.
- Or you could be selling it in a place where it isn’t available at the moment.
- You could re-brand or re-package something.
- Or perhaps offer it cheaper than anyone else.
- Maybe you can combine two existing products and come up with a brand new one.
- Maybe it’s a new manufacturing process.
- Or a new creative process.
- Perhaps using different materials.
The variations and twists are endless.
Try applying the above points to whatever is in front of you now. Say the kitchen table. People have been selling kitchen tables, or at least making them, for hundreds of years. It’s one of our most humdrum possessions. Yet a few people are still out there, producing them and presumably making a good living from them. And all those people did was to pick an everyday object, do something slightly different to it and sell it on to a waiting public.
What Can You Do?
This is the bit where it’s difficult not to sound like a school careers adviser, but if you don’t have a clear idea of what to do then you have to sit down and either consider your SWOT analysis or start a fresh list of options.
You could pay to see a private careers adviser. There are many out there, but serious and tailored one-to-one advice over a period of time can be expensive, running into many hundreds of pounds. It’s probably better in the first instance to see what you can come up with yourself, using the internet, book shops and the local library, before resorting to professional advice.
But before you do anything, ruthlessly condense into no more than three short sentences:
- What you can already do.
- What you’re good at.
- What you really want to do.
This does focus the mind and forces you to think of the realistic options open to you. Aim to end up with something like: ‘I’m an accountant. But I know I’m good at teaching. I really want to spend my life sailing so I’ll start a sailing school.’
Before you can get to your three short sentences you need to take a long hard look at your life so far.