There has been several crusades for unemployed persons to embrace entrepreneurship as an alternative. I am also advocating that self-employment is the solution to the monumental unemployment rate that is ravaging our nation even though I don’t think it’s for everybody. I do believe that over 60% of our unemployed youths are actually unemployable. I say this based on a first-hand experience because I interact with them every day. I am a HR consultant and I am no longer surprised by the quality of individuals that are harassing the labour market with their unimpressive personae, poor writing skills, horrible communication skill, lack of professionalism and their desperation to start feeding off someone else’s ingenuity and diligence in the name of employment. Predictably, the jobs are not forth coming. What do we do with such persons? Tell them to set up their own business? No.
I think what we should be advising a fraction of these of persons is to embrace education. They should be thinking of enlarging their capacity and working on their productivity level. If not, self-employment is not even an option they can fall back on. Securing a good job and setting up your own business has a lot in common. Therefore, if you have not developed yourself to be of value to any system that will engage your services, then you don’t even have what it takes to set up and run a successful business of your own. As a matter of fact, entrepreneurship places much more demands on your intelligence, creativity, skills and resilience. Below are some of the things Job hunting have in common with business startup.
Research/Feasibility: effective job hunting starts with a proper research. You are not doing yourself any good by applying for a job you know nothing about. Research is important in helping you with your preparation. Failure to research is why people show up for interviews clueless. That is also the reason young graduates enter the labour market clueless. Same
applies to Business startup. You must carry out your feasibility study. Every intending entrepreneur must carry out a market research to understand the terrain and the cost of his venture. It’s very important if you do not want to enter the market clueless too.
Career Plan/Business Plan: he who fails to plan, has planned to fail. That is the popular maxim. A majority of today’s job hunters enter the labour market without a plan. A well-defined career plan is basic in job hunting. You have to define the kind of job you want. Then you outline what the job entails. Then you start pursuing the needed skill set and certifications that will get you better equipped for the job. If you can’t do this, then entrepreneurship is not for you either. You cannot launch your own business without a comprehensive business plan. You must count the cost, you must do you projections and analyze your strengths, weakness and opportunities. It also applies to job hunting.
Professional Signatures/Company Signatures: image is everything in business and in personal branding. Before you start job hunting, ask yourself, are my professional signatures right? Starting from your choice of E-mail Address to your Linked In profile, Twitter handle, Facebook wall and your wardrobe. These things must look as professional as it can be. Do away with the youthful exuberances you display on social media and the funky usernames you put up. It does not go down well with prospective employers. For intending entrepreneurs also, you cannot run a successful business without getting your image right. You need a corporate logo, corporate social media presence, a corporate e mail and a corporate account. If you don’t understand this things as a job hunter, then you can’t possibly execute them as an entrepreneur.
Marketing/Selling: it is not just enough to be employable. You also need to learn how to sell yourself. You must discover platforms that can put you on the lime light. It is called strategic positioning. It could mean joining a good organization, club, volunteers, church, professional body and forums. The jobs you are looking for are in people’s hands and with the right positioning and networking you might just be talking to your next employer. Same applies to running a successful business. You must put into consideration the choice of location. You must learn how to build strategic business relationships and improve on your selling skills.
I can go on and on because both path have a lot in common. So failure on the other side does not automatically translate to success on the other side. Hope you understand what I mean.
In a nutshell, I need you to understand that before you start considering self-employment as an option, you must ensure you have what it takes to succeed in a paid employment. You must possess qualities that makes you productive and solution driven. You must be proactive, creative, diligent, skillful, professional, intelligent and consistent.
If you are still job hunting and you know of a truth that you have not yet consolidated on this qualities, you don’t need to start your own business because it will fail. That terrain is much more demanding and competitive. All you need is a little bit of personal development and learning.
Embrace education.
fantastic i love this
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