New Directions
It’s very disheartening
being unemployed and over 40 or 50 years old. Ageism seems to be ingrained in
employers’ minds and no matter how hard you try it sees impossible to find an
employer who will give you a chance. You live in hope though. You might find
another job you could try for; you have the right skills, you have the
experience, so you write up the application and send it off. You hope for a
interview at least. You hear nothing. So you ring up the contact person and
find out that the job has been taken. By someone younger. And you didn’t even
make the interview stage. Depression sets in. And so the cycle goes. Perhaps
you do even get some interviews, but never land the job. You might have sent
off hundreds of applications, but still nothing.
Feel familiar? But there
could be hope.
If no one will give you
work, then are you in a position to make your own? Do you have the skills and
experience which you can turn to your benefit and become self employed? Go into
business?
Of course it will depend on
your financial situation. It does take quite an amount of money to go into
business.
However you could start
looking around at the possibilities. There is the NES Scheme. If you have a
business idea you can join the NEIS Scheme and complete a Certificate 4 in
Small Business Management. In this process you create your business plan. The
NEIS allowance is the equivalent of Newstart for over 22 year olds and you
receive it for 39 weeks. However, the proviso is that your business needs to
make a certain amount of profit. You also receive business advice and mentoring
for the first year of your business. When you are working on your business plan
you need to be realistic. It’s always going to take longer to get into the
market than you expect. Marketing is the key and you should try a number of
possibilities before you give up. Persistence is important and so is having
monetary reserves to tide you over.
Hopefully if you have the
contacts and the ideas you will come up with customers or clients that will
start you on your way.
Another possibility is to
buy into a franchise. This takes a lot of money and you need to be able to do
the work related to the franchise and you should actually love doing it or else
it will be a waste of money. You should in this instance consult with a lawyer
so that they can look over the contract and find anything that might otherwise be
a nasty surprise for you.
If you are creative or have
access to various products, you could do the market rounds. This is unlikely to
make you huge money but it might make you a reasonable living. You would need
some money behind you to tide you over the not so good times. You could set
yourself up with a business name, public liability insurance, the right shelter
and transportation capabilities.
Where these above three
options are out of the question then perhaps you could take another look at
your interests and skills and think about other areas of work you haven’t yet
tried. Perhaps you have some transferable skills you could apply in a
completely different area.
Whichever option you are
interested in you are welcome to explore in my one day workshop called New
Directions. For a small investment of $100 you will be able to discover a new
hope and reenergise your search for a new direction in your life.
Even if you are employed and
facing work changes New Directions will help you explore your options and sort
out your skills and interests so that you can face the changes with an
optimistic frame of mind.
The workshop will be run
throughout the year. The next one is on Saturday March 28th. The
venue is Safe Place Training, 147 Goodwood Road, Goodwood, in room 2. (Next to
the Capri) Cost includes catering.
New Directions Facilitator –
Diana Hutchison
Diana Hutchison is a life
coach with a psychology degree, a graduate diploma in life coaching and
personal experience in changing her career direction in later life.
To book in today and reserve
your seat (maximum of 12 participants) go to http://www.trybooking.com/118805
For more information phone
Diana on 0417 295100
Website : http://www.directionscoaching.net.au
Looking forward to meeting
with you.
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