Always wanted a career that allowed you do well and do good? Whether that be tutoring, promoting the use of green energy or helping people cope with aging, franchising offers many opportunities to advance your career while satisfying your spiritual goals.
For starters, you can enter a career based solely on interests rather than experience, allowing you to make a clean break from a 9-to-5 existence that provides no personal fulfillment and toward something about which you care deeply.
So if you hate spending your days looking at spreadsheets full of numbers or selling the latest throwaway widgets from China and wish you could have a direct impact on people's lives, a franchise can give you the tools you need to succeed in this entirely new line of work.
A good franchiser will help train and guide you in your new profession and offer a proven system for operating your business. You will also gain the advantage of a network of franchisees, who can offer additional support and expertise.
By contrast, with an independent startup, you would have to figure out your operating model from scratch and guess how much working capital you will need to succeed.
With a franchise, you can get answers to your questions: How much money will it take to get your business up and running and how long will it take to get to profitability? And you can find out well before laying out any money whether you have the skills and the inclination to operate this type of business.
5 Steps To Feel-Good Franchising
In five simple steps, find your way to a feel-good franchise that is right for you.
1. Set Your Goal
You need to figure out exactly how you want to have an impact on your world. Look around and notice the arenas in which you might have the most to contribute, whether this connects more to personal skills, such as sales expertise, or interests, such as working with children. Browse the web. Make lists.
2. Inventory Your Personal And Professional Strengths
You may not want to stay in your current career, but what skills have you gained that can transfer well to another field: Are you good with people? Do you have a knack for the mechanical? Are you detail-oriented? Or do you prefer to work on your own? You will likely fare better in a field where you can draw on strengths you've honed over years of professional development.
3. Research Franchise Categories
Let's say you want to help improve the environment but know nothing about environmental science. Did you know there are franchises that help people adapt their homes with everything from insulation to solar panels. Or maybe you want to work with children. You'll find everything from tutoring to child care among franchise opportunities.
4. Meet With A Franchise Coach
Get a whole extra layer of extra vetting through the franchise coach, whose profession it is to study different franchisors and whether their support systems are up to snuff. Their experience matching clients with franchises makes them a font of expertise about why some systems work better than others.
5. Talk To Franchisees
Once you have selected a franchise or two to research in depth, get their Franchise Disclosure Documents — which they are required by law to provide to prospective franchisees — and find the list of franchisees, currently operating and defunct. Write up your list of questions — you may want to consult your franchise coach for help with these — make your calls. Politely ask them for their time, then, at their convenience, learn how they're doing, whether they would buy this franchise again, and how long it took for them to start operating in the black.
If you're ready to find meaning in a career of your choosing and expand your financial horizons, start your five steps to feel-good franchising today!
Ready to make your dream of becoming an entrepreneur come true? Get your free evaluation today! Contact Dan Citrenbaum to help you create the career you've always wanted. As a business coach, Dan brings years of experience helping people select and buy a franchise or existing business. You can reach Dan at dcitrenbaum@gmail.com or at (484) 278-5489.
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by a CAREEREALISM-approved expert.
Is your job search turning into a grind with no end in sight? It may be time to take a step back and reevaluate your entire approach.
In cold weather climates, the beginning of spring is a time to clean the house and get organized—a practice known as spring cleaning. Through the years, spring cleaning has taken on a larger meaning with people using the time to organize and declutter things in their lives.
For professionals on the job hunt, a little spring cleaning (metaphorically speaking) could be a great way to reinvigorate your job search. Here are a few strategies your job search spring cleaning should include.
Reevaluate Your Job Search Approach
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Make a list of the last handful of jobs you applied for and see if you can identify any positive or negative trends. Consider things like:
How did I learn about this job?
How did I apply for the job?
Did I earn an interview?
What was the ultimate result?
A lot can be learned about your job search approach just by answering these questions and identifying patterns. For example:
Negative Trends
You discovered five jobs through job boards, applied to all of them via the job boards, and never heard back from any of them.
The common pattern here is applying through job boards. This isn't to say that job boards don't serve a purpose in the job search process, but they have their limitations, and you can't run your job search entirely off of them. When you apply through a job board, there's a good chance that your materials will never get past the applicant tracking system (ATS) and never be seen by an actual person.
One simple fix is to research who the hiring manager or recruiter is that posted the position and email your materials to them directly.
The more efficient fix would be to take a proactive approach by putting together a bucket list of companies that you want to work for and start making connections on LinkedIn with people who work at those companies. You may already know some people who work there or have connections that can refer you to some individuals.
This is a great way to network your way onto a company's radar.
Positive Trends
You applied to three jobs via referral, were invited to two job interviews, and made it through multiple rounds of interviews for one of the jobs before being passed over for someone with a little more experience.
The pattern here is that getting referred to a job by a professional acquaintance is a great way to land a job interview. This indicates that you're leveraging your network well and you should continue to focus on your networking efforts.
The next step is to review the interview process and determine what went well and what needs to be improved. Sometimes the interviewer will provide feedback, and that feedback can be valuable. However, not everyone is comfortable with giving feedback.
Chances are you probably have a good idea about areas of improvement and the skills you need to gain. Put together a plan for addressing those shortfalls.
The good news in making it deep into any interview process is that it indicates that the company likes you as a potential employee (even if the timing just wasn't right) and the experience could be a roadmap to a job with that company at a later date, or another similar opportunity elsewhere.
Give Your Resume & Cover Letter Some Much-Needed Attention
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Are you continuously sending similar resumes and cover letters to each job opening with only minor adjustments? If so, your strategy needs some serious spring cleaning.
The reason why it's so important to tailor your resume is that throughout your career, you acquire numerous skills, but the job you're applying for may only be focusing on 6-8 of those skills. In that case, those skills must rise to the top of the resume with quantifiable examples of how you successfully used those skills at previous jobs.
Remember, recruiters go through hundreds of resumes. They need to be able to tell from a quick glance whether or not you're a potential candidate for the position.
While updating your resume, you could also spruce up your LinkedIn profile by highlighting the skill sets that you want to be noticed for by recruiters.
As for writing a good cover letter, the key to success is writing a disruptive cover letter. When you write a disruptive cover letter, you're basically telling a story. The story should focus on how you connect with the particular company and job position. The story could also focus on your personal journey, and how you got to where you currently are in your career.
If your resumes and cover letters aren't unique, now is the time to clean things up and get on track.
Build Your Personal Brand
Just because you're looking for work doesn't mean that you don't have anything to offer. Use previous career experiences and passions to build your personal brand.
Ask yourself, "How do I want other professionals to view me?"
Pick an area of expertise and start sharing your knowledge and experience with your professional network by pushing out content on your LinkedIn and social media accounts. Good content can include blogs, social media posts, and videos.
By sharing content about your experiences and passions, you slowly build your personal brand, and others will start to notice. The content could lead to good discussions with others in your network. It could also lead to reconnecting with connections that you haven't spoken to in years, or making new connections.
You never know when one of these connections could turn into a job lead or referral. The trick is to get on people's radars. So, when you're cleaning up your job search, be sure to build a plan for personal branding.
Maintain Healthy Habits During Your Job Search
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Your job search is important, but it's even more important to know when to pull back and focus on personal health and spending time with family and friends.
There are actually things that you can do for your own enjoyment that could help your job search in the long run, such as:
Grab coffee with a friend - It's good to engage in light conversation with friends during challenging times. And if your job search does come up, remember that most people have been through it themselves and you never know when a friend may provide you with a good idea or lead on a job.
Volunteer - Volunteering is a great way to get involved in the community and help others. In addition, if you develop a little bit of a career gap while looking for a job, you can always talk about how you filled that time volunteering, if you're asked about it during a job interview.
Continue to focus on other passions - Are you a fitness nut? Blogger? Crafter? Continue to do the things that bring you happiness. And if you're in a position to profit from your passion through a freelance job or side hustle, even better!
Spring is the perfect time to clean up and improve your job search so you can land the job you want. If you're struggling to find a job, follow the tips above to reinvigorate your job search—and watch your career blossom!
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.