Small Business Success Strategies

Profit from Experience: The Key to Your Right Livelihood

Profit from Experience: The Key to Your Right Livelihood May Be Right in Your Own Backyard

We all know the story of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Swept away to the enchanting but forbidding Land of Oz by a tornado, Dorothy endures all manner of challenges in an attempt to achieve her one and only dream of returning home to her family in Kansas. It is not until the end of her frightfully wondrous journey that Dorothy has an epiphany. "…if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again," she tells Glenda, the Good Witch of the North, "I won't look any further than my own backyard." More often than not it’s the same way with career options.

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Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

An Interesting Business Opportunity for People with an Eye for Home Design

When I was a child one of my favorite games was "house." I was forever re-decorating my bedroom, turning corners of the attic or basement into imaginary abodes, and re-arranging the doll's furniture. Given that the dolls themselves were optional suggests what I was really playing was the child's version of interior decorator.
As an adult I still love home decorating, but when it comes to making major design decisions, I always call on my friend Gail. Gail's house looks like something out of a magazine. Although her job-job is installing computer networks for a major airline, Gail's passion and gift are home and garden decorating.

Read Valerie's entire article An Interesting Business Opportunity for People with an Eye for Home Design

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

Creative Income Streams for People Who Love to Cook

To an "opportunity analyst" like me, words like, "All the good ideas are already taken," or "I had a great idea but then I found out someone else was doing it" are the career equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. With a U.S. population estimated at close to 300 million and a world’s population of six and a half billion – it’s a big world out there folks with plenty of untapped ideas and opportunities to go around.

To say all the good ideas are taken is like saying, "I was going to write a cookbook but then I went to the bookstore and found someone had beaten me to it." Have you looked in the cookbook section of a large bookstore these days?

Read Valerie's entire article Creative Income Streams for People Who Love to Cook

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

How Much Do You Need to Know Before You're an Expert? Part 2 in a 2 Part Series

In the last issue we explored two common obstacles to striking out on your own to start your own business -- the Expert Trap and the Expert Myth. In this issue we're going to expand the definition of expertise.

A white paper by the National Speakers Association on "The Expertise Imperative" offers some fascinating observations about expertise. For example, being an expert goes beyond building knowledge. According to the article, in addition to having more knowledge (with the Internet there is no excuse for not accumulating a basic base of knowledge) one difference between experts and non-experts is that experts organize what they know in ways that make it accessible quickly.

Red Valerie's entire article How Much Do You Need to Know Before You're an Expert? Part 2 in a 2 Part Series

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

How Much Do You Need to Know Before You're an Expert? Part 1 in a 2 Part Series

During a recent visit to the dentist, my hygienist Anne asked about my recent speaking tour in California. When I told Anne I'd spoken on the Impostor Syndrome to over 600 people at four universities, including Stanford, her response was, "Wow, you must be a real expert." While that term doesn't always resonate with me, I suppose I am an expert.

But what does it mean to be an "expert"? Naturally you do need to know something about the topic at hand. But how much knowledge do you actually need to consider yourself an expert?

Read Valerie's entire article How Much Do You Need to Know Before You're an Expert? Part 1 in a 2 Part Series

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

Afraid to Take the Leap? Simple Ways to Face Down Your Fears

The so-called safe path is always "easier." Just ask Ursula Clay. Ursula tried to take the secure career path her immigrant parents had chosen for her. In fact, she worked incredibly hard to achieve a level of financial success and security her parents, both high school dropouts, never had. Says Ursula:

"I worked very hard to get through law school at night, all the while working full time and struggling financially. When I finally achieved what I thought was the brass ring - i.e., good salary, fancy title, etc. - it was a thoroughly disappointing revelation that this was the end result of all the hard work. It felt very empty and meaningless, further made so by the birth of my two beautiful children. I just felt as though I could not possibly have been put on this earth to toil way for 12 hour days at a job that kept me away from my family, and which I dreaded going to every day."

Read Valerie's entire article Afraid to Take the Leap? Simple Ways to Face Down Your Fears

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

 

What Does Gratitude Have to Do With Career Change?

As I drove alongside the Connecticut River today, I spotted two snow-white swans gliding elegantly atop still waters. I felt so blessed to have been in that place at that time to experience such a serenely beautiful moment. I feel lucky that way . . . a lot.

I don't think I happen upon these moments any more than anyone else does. I just "see" them more than others do. I believe that's because gratitude is so central to both my life and my work. I also happen to believe that maintaining a state of gratitude is fundamental to the process of changing course. Yet, I'm not sure I've ever heard another career counselor talk about gratitude as an essential element of career change. Come to think of it, I'm not aware of any career related books that talk about the importance of being thankful either.

Read Valerie's entire article What Does Gratitude Have to Do With Career Change?

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

Don’t Quit Your Day Job: 3 Ways to Keep Criticism from Getting to You

There are two kinds of negative feedback, the kind that -- as painful as it is -- is generally accurate and helpful and the kind that is totally without merit. Let's look at this last kind of criticism first.

In an interview in YM magazine screenwriter, director, producer Kevin Williams talked about a high school teacher named Mrs. Tingle who whittled away at William's confidence to such an extent that he says he "didn't write another word for 10 years." Williamson says, "I always feel like a fraud. There's always that 'Mrs. Tingle' thing lurking in me."

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Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

Business Planning 101: Keep it Simple

In a famous Far Side cartoon a school boy asks to be excused from class because he says, "My brain is full." Whose isn't? In today's information- and communication-heavy world most people are operating on perpetual overwhelm. So it's no surprise that if something feels even remotely complicated our unconscious kicks in to steer our already too full brain to less taxing waters . . . like lying on the couch watching (and then subsequently feeling like) the Biggest Loser, playing mindless computer games, or compulsively checking email.

Even people who desperately want to ditch their day job and work for themselves procrastinate because it feels too . . . well, hard. All that paperwork, the government red tape, all the complicated legal and accounting issues, writing a big business plan, getting a loan . . . Ai yi yi!

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Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

Those “Crazy” Business Ideas Often Turn Out to Be the Best

When Bob Page told his friends and family he wanted to quit his auditing job to start his own business, they were less than encouraging to him. Well, that's actually an understatement. Basically what they told him was he was crazy.

Fortunately he didn't listen. Instead he figured that if he could devote time to doing what he loved, he could make money -- even if it was less than what he was earning at a CPA. Bob was right on the first count. When you love what you do, it's hard not to make money. What Bob didn't realize at the time was that his "crazy" idea would wind up making him more money than he'd ever dreamed of.

You see, today Bob's company, Replacements Ltd. is the world's largest supplier of discontinued china, glassware, flatware, and collectibles.

Read Valerie's entire article Those “Crazy” Business Ideas Often Turn Out to Be the Best

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert