As reported on Moms Today, Kathy Kepler won a Kick-Start Your Life with Marlo Thomas contest and on June 20, 2011 she appeared on the TODAY show. In the article, she wrote how Marlo Thomas had helped kick-start her empty nest life. As she reported it, “I enjoyed helping my daughter plan her wedding so much that I didn’t want it to end! Many of my daughter’s wedding vendors told me that I was more organized and prepared than many of the wedding planners they have dealt with, and that this is what I should be doing.” She’s now becoming a wedding planner.
You may be in any number of positions where you need to kick-start your life. In the Daily Beast’s business section write-up of the last decade’s 10 Best Career Moves, Millard “Mickey” Drexler’s firing as CEO of the Gap is chronicled. He bounced back when J. Crew hired him. “My vision of the future was so compatible with what I thought J. Crew could be,” he said with passion. Susan Lyne, fired from ABC Entertainment was also profiled. She joined Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, before starting the members only Gilt Groupe, “an online sample sale that attracts the young and trendy with discounts on the latest fashions.” Commenting on the experience, she said, “I love the excitement of a turnaround or a startup. That allows me to take a different kind of risk than a lot of people are comfortable with.”
So, one alternative for kick-starting your life is a career change. While it can be risky, you should follow your passion; perhaps turn it into a career. But how do you do it?
Listen to Yourself
Robert Pagliarini, writing in Pick the Brain, repeats the old saying: “Do what you love and the money will follow. If you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work.” He provides an exercise to help you discover what he calls “your highest and best use.” You start by writing down:
- all of the things you are good at — everything that you do well and that you have mastery over
- everything you enjoy — hobbies, special interests, games, TV shows, etc
- everything that gives you a sense of meaning and purpose
Then you look for common elements across all three lists and focus on them.
Preparation
You may need to get more information or extra training. An article by Youlin Peng suggests important steps to take in preparation for your life kick-start:
- conduct some research to identify the options
- find people you know in the career you are considering
- identify the skills you need to add and where from
Researching a Venture Idea
When you have some knowledge (e.g. financial planning and forecasting) it is time to find an idea for a venture. Most potential small business entrepreneurs think that there is only one way to get into business: Start an enterprise from scratch. They think that one must come up with a business idea and build it into a going concern or just open a store and develop clientele one by one. But there are many ways, depending on how creative you get. You can do the following:
- Franchise- it is like starting a business of your own except that the franchiser has gone through the trouble of establishing the business and you piggy-back on that. But there are pros and cons.
- Buy an existing business- there must be someone somewhere who has developed the business and now he or she wants to get out. In some cases you can pick up many established small businesses with regular, loyal customers for half of what it would cost you to start one from scratch. Again, there are pros and cons.
- Consulting business- you can become a consultant operating from your home. If you have a specialized expertise you can sell it to others in the form of advice to others.
- Licensing-if you see a promising product sold in another area, contact the manufacturer to buy a license for maintaining and selling it where you live. Your business will be that of a distributor or a wholesaler.
Mistakes to Avoid
An article by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D. in Quint Careers suggests ten career-change mistakes to avoid. You want to make your career transition as seamless as possible, and you will if you do the following:
- have a plan
- don't leave your present job too soon
- don't base your career change solely on money/benefits
- don't change careers because of outside pressure
- don't go it alone- without a network
- examine all the possibilities
- do a thorough self-assessment
- don't base your change on the success of others
- acquire the necessary experience, skills, education
- gain adequate prospecting skills
Sources:
- Kathy Kepler. How Marlo Thomas ‘Kick-Started’ My Empty Nest Life. Moms Today. June 20, 2011
- The Decade’s 10 Best Career Moves. The Daily Beast. Dec. 20, 2009
- Robert Pagliarini. Discover Your Passion. Pick the Brain. May 2010
- Youlin Peng. Preparing for a Career Change. Groper.
- Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D. 10 Career Changes Mistakes to Avoid. Quint Careers.
James Gibson - James Gibson is a retired teacher and small business owner. He is a published writer and has a wide spectrum of interests.
Join the Conversation