Issue 144

July 6, 2006

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Changing Course is dedicated to helping you:

~Live Life on Purpose ~Work at What You Love ~Follow Your Own Road

Inside Today's Issue

Opportunity Knocks

Look Before You Leap at that Business Idea   

Featured Resource

Guest Article

Ways to Make Money

Work at What You Love Workshop Updates

Upcoming Workshops

The View From the Other Side

Resources for a Change

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way. ~ Babe Ruth

Opportunity Knocks

Have a Great Idea for a Business?
Test the Waters Before Diving In

By Valerie Young 

Now and then I meet someone (usually a young person) who tells me they really like helping with people, so they’re thinking about going into Human Resources or HR as it’s commonly referred to. They imagine themselves sitting in their large private office eagerly awaiting a long line of interesting employees with interesting problems in need of interesting solutions.

Ask most people who are already in HR though and they’re likely to paint a very different picture. Instead of spending time helping people, most people in HR spend the better part of their jobs days dealing with the "administrivia" of the business
world – hiring, terminations, benefits, pensions, payroll, and all too often, petty grievances.

A lot of jobs seem different from the outside. Think about your current career or job. Now that you’re there, is it what you thought it was going to be? Probably not.

Fantasy vs. Reality

Entrepreneurs are not immune to this "leap before you look" syndrome. Take the classic bed and breakfast fantasy. Clients often tell me they love the idea of selecting the colors and the furnishings, picking fresh flowers from the garden for the breakfast table, greeting the guests, and generally making everyone feel at home. Once the guests check out, they picture themselves settling into a big comfy chair with a good book or perhaps puttering in a Zen-like perennial garden. Utter bliss.

Once the real estate is purchased, most people don’t have the capital to hire others to do the cooking, cleaning, and bookkeeping. As a consequence, once the decorating is done and the garden is planted, they realize they’ve become a combination short order cook/chamber maid/bookkeeper!

Every business has its more mundane parts – especially in the beginning when you’re bootstrapping your business or are a "solo-preneur." But still, the goal is to love more of the work than not. So, before you leap, you need to check out just how wide the expanse is between fantasy and reality.

How do you test out a business idea? Well, if you truly do want to run a bed and breakfast (and for people who are natural hosts, there are lots of wonderful aspects of running a B & B) the best way to get your feet wet without taking a financial soaking is to become a B & B sitter. Just like it sounds, sitters take over the day-to-day operations of established inns so the owners can go on vacation or otherwise get away. Companies like Deserve a Break actually match B & B owners in Australia and New Zealand with experienced relief workers. Similarly, in the UK, farmers can turn to a decades old company called Loring, King and Loring for relief and contract milking and agricultural staff.

Another option is to go to "school." Sticking with our B & B example, you don’t need to earn a four year degree in hotel and restaurant management to learn how to run an inn. Many B & B’s offer weekend workshops for aspiring inn-keepers and some owners do individual consulting. If there are no classes in your area, contact a local B & B and ask if they’d let you intern with them in exchange for some free staffing time once you’re trained.

Getting Prospective Customers to Put Their Money Where Their Intentions Are

Even large, well established companies look before they leap. Last summer hotel giant Hyatt ran an ad in the New York Times Magazine for its new Life Care community in Briarcliff Manor, New York. What caught my eye was not the fact that a hotel chain is branching out into senior housing, but rather the clever way Hyatt went about testing the waters before making a significant financial investment. Here is the fine print:

Through this marketing material, Classic Residence by Hyatt is exploring the market demand for a Life Care community in Briarcliff Manor. By joining the Priority Reservation Program, you are expressing your interest in future residency at Classic Residence by Hyatt at Briarcliff Manor. A Priority Reservation agreement is not a Continuing Care Residency Agreement. All deposits will be held in escrow at Bank of New York. You may obtain a full refund of the reservation system deposit, with interest earned at the prevailing rates at any time for any reason. If a refund is requested, however, you forfeit your priority number and benefits. Your status in the program is subject to the terms of the Priority Reservation Program, which are explained in the Priority Reservation Agreement. Classic Residence by Hyatt is currently under development, with a proposed opening date of 2009. Hyatt is a registered trademark of Hyatt Corporation.

How smart is that?

Think you’d like to borrow from the Hyatt model to explore market demand for your own high priced product or service? Before you start cashing any checks, keep in mind that the people sending you money are not investors. And as such you can’t use prospective customer’s money until you actually decide to move forward with your enterprise and your customers have signed a clearly spelled out agreement on the front end. This is definitely one place where you’ll want to employ the services of an attorney. But still, if your business idea lends itself to a similar approach, it’s a fascinating example of testing the waters by getting prospective customers to put their money where their intentions are.

There are lots of ways you can look before you leap into a new business. For example, you can:

• Talk to people who are doing the kind of work you think you’d enjoy. Find out what they love – and don’t love – about their work, what a typical day is like, and what they would have done differently if they had to do it all over again.

• Read "how to" books. It may not give you the total picture, but at least you’ll know more than you did.

• Search for "how to" web sites. As with reading books, it is not the same as test driving a business idea, more like sticking a toe into the information pool.

• Work for someone else in a similar business. Depending on the business, you may be asked to sign a non-compete clause. Then again if your goal is to start a specialized summer camp, the smartest way to see if you’d like running a camp is to first work at one.

• Take classes. Check with your local adult education program, do a search for schools specializing in your area of interest, or seek out online courses. You never know what’s out there until you look. For example The Institute of Culinary Education in New York City offers courses in how to write a proposal for a cookbook, breaking into food writing, and how to be a food stylist/ photographer (ICECulinary.com).

• Join an industry association. In addition to getting their publications, most associations offer conferences, seminars, and other opportunities to learn from and connect with people in your prospective line of work.

• Hang out with people who are already doing what you think you’d like to do. If you’ve got an inventive mind but have never acted on it join a group like the Inventors Network in Minneapolis (InventorsNetwork.org), Washington, DC (DCInventors.org), or Springfield, MA (IRNetwork.org). You’ll find a list of networks by state at InventNet.com.

• Find a mentor. Some people will mentor you for free. However, depending on how much time and training you need, you should expect to pay your mentor. If that person is successful in the business you’re considering, it will be well worth the investment.

• Volunteer, intern or apprentice. I had the opportunity to chat with Steve Curwood, host of Living on Earth, an engaging environmental news and information program heard on over 300 National Public Radio stations. Naturally the first thing I did was pump him for information on how someone would go about getting their own program on public radio. Before trying to pitch an idea, Steve urged anyone interested in being on the air to first volunteer at their local station so they can learn first-hand how public radio works.

• Take on a few clients or assignments for free. In addition to gaining experience, building confidence, and developing a portfolio or track record it’s a great way to see how you like the work before making a larger investment of time and money.

• Start small. Everyone wants to go from nothing to having their own full blown business in a day. Not only is it not possible but you’d miss invaluable lessons. But perhaps most importantly, starting small once again allows you an opportunity to dabble in a new enterprise before deciding if it’s right for you. Small steps add up. Changing Course began when I sent away for a cassette tape on how to break into the newsletter business. That was 10 years ago. Today I have over 25,000 subscribers. The key is to just begin.

Do you have a great idea for a business? There are lots of ways to test the waters before you dive in head first. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."

About the Author

Outside the job box expert, Valerie Young, abandoned her corporate cubicle to become the Dreamer in Residence at ChangingCourse.com offering resources to help you discover your life mission and live it. Her career change tips have been cited in Kiplinger's, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today Weekend, Woman's Day, and elsewhere and on-line at MSN, CareerBuilder, and iVillage.com. An expert on the Impostor Syndrome, Valerie has spoken on the topic of How to Feel as Bright and Capable as Everyone Seems to Think You Are to such diverse organizations as Daimler Chrysler, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Harvard, and American Women in Radio and Television.

Find more articles written by Valerie at ChangingCourse.com/articles

 The only thing that will stop you from fulfilling your dreams is you. ~ Tom Bradley

Featured Resource

Do You Need to Change Jobs Before
You Can Change Course?

If you're in a job that's sucking the life force out of you but for whatever reason you are unable take the leap to doing your own thing right now, then, for you, the road to right livelihood might begin by freeing up some time or psychic space by getting a better job.

To help you change jobs before you can change course, I’ve put together a free resource page. You’ll find:

• 5 Reasons to Start With a Job Change

• Barbara Sher’s criteria for the “Good Enough Job”

• Some great places to look for a better job

• And more…

If you need to change jobs before you can change course (or know someone who does) click here: ChangingCourse.com/careerbuilder.htm
 

You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do. ~ Henry Ford

The Changing Course Newsletter Copyright 2006 Lisa Tarrant, Editor Valerie Young, Publisher info@changingcourse.com www.ChangingCourse.com 7 Ripley Road Montague, MA 01351

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Rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction.
~ Kenichi Ohmae

Guest Article

Ways to Make Money

By Debra Lea Thorsen

What are the best ways to make money?

If you answered, "a job", then you have been brainwashed like most Americans into believe that working for a company is the best way to make money. It is absolutely NOT one of the best ways to make money. Why not?

Most jobs have the following problems:

1. The time trap. You are trading your time for money. Even if you are a salaried employee, you are accepting a salary for a set number of hours that you will work each week. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid. Most companies want you to work the most amount of time for the least money and you want to work the least amount of time for the most money. The job game is a lose-lose game.

2. No passive income. If you stop working for any period of time, you stop receiving paychecks. Your money doesn’t work for you.

3. No intellectual capital. If you are an employee, your company owns your intellectual capital. It’s like your company owns your brain. You cannot sell or share your ideas and earn money.

4. No control. You have no control over your work life and therefore your life. You cannot choose where you work, when you work, or who you work with. Most companies require a lot of "face time". Even if you could get your work done in 4 hours each day, you usually need to spend 8-10 hours onsite to prove that you are a "loyal employee". You have no control over most of the decisions that are being made at your company. Bad decisions made by others could put your company out of business and then you get "downsized" or "rightsized" or simply laid-off.

5. No leverage. Entertainers and professional athletes make lots and lots of money because they have leverage. Millions of people watch them. They can make one movie or play one game a week and make buckets of money because they are reaching a huge audience with a few hours of their time. In a job, your efforts reach a limited audience. You cannot give a speech to your department and record it and then turn it into a teleclass that you sell over and over again on your website. You have no leverage.

Better Ways to Make Money

So, what are some better ways to make money without going to a job?

1. Start a business. Yes, lots of businesses fail. But small businesses are the engine of growth in this country. It took Bill Gates 10 years to become a billionaire with Microsoft. It took Michael Dell 5 years to become a billionaire with Dell. What you need is a solid plan and then the courage to execute the plan and the discipline to market your products or services consistently. There has never been a better time to get rich by starting a company. What are your goals? When do you want to achieve those goals?

If you want to start a business quickly and don’t have the necessary business fundamentals or want a pre-designed, proven system, then look into joining a network marketing company. If you can find a product you love, a company with a proven marketing system and a management with integrity, you can develop a great passive income stream.

Do your own research and see if it makes sense for you to start your company from ground zero or join a network marketing company. There are lots of good network marketing companies to choose from. (There are also lots that aren’t such good bets.)

2. Real Estate. Isn’t this risky? There are no risky real estate investments, only risky investors. You can minimize risk through education and experience.

Don’t you need money to get into real estate investing? For most commercial real estate deals, yes. But you can succeed with no-money down investing in the residential arena. In fact, it may be better to start out investing with no money of your own because you will only do great deals. You will not waste any of your money chasing marginal deals.

Land is in limited supply, especially near the oceans. Land will almost always increase in value. There may be some small "corrections" in the short term, but if you invest in the right areas, chances are they will appreciate. Plus, you can learn to make money in up and down markets.

3. Investing in other companies. Many people put their money in a mutual fund or index fun and are happy with 5-10% appreciation each year. But, there are other ways to invest. Investigate individual stocks. What products and services do you love so much that you tell other people about them? Remember, you make a profit when you buy not when you sell. It is impossible to know what the future holds. Do your homework. Find stocks that are bargains today.

4. Selling your intellectual capital. Another good way to make money is to develop products and services around your ideas. These could include books, tapes and CDs, workshops, videos, etc. This is a great way to create passive income streams.

My purpose here is not to give you a roadmap for becoming a CEO or a successful investor but to open your mind to the possibilities. There are so many great opportunities. If you are staying in a job that you hate because you think it is the best way to make money, then, think again.

Go forth and prosper!

About the Author

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. ~ David Brinkley

Work at What You Love Workshop Update

Madison Update

Seats are going fast! If you’re ready to fast track your dream I encourage you to act today to reserve your spot at what promises to be an amazing event.

To read about the results workshop participants experienced literally within 48 hours of attending the recent Ventura, California event read my article The Three Simple Things You Need to Do to Realize Your Dream at ChangingCourse.com/articles

If you want to be an entrepreneur you have to start "hanging out" and learning from entrepreneurs. To read about the fascinating people who will be joining our Inspired Entrepreneurs panel read the Madison Updates in Issue 142 and Issue 143 at ChangingCourse.com/archives

Northampton Update

A Moving Success

If you’ve ever had a career consultation with me or attended one of my workshops, you’ve no doubt heard me talk about Barbara Perman and her business, Moving Mentor. But it’s not until you read how this fascinating educator, speaker, family consultant and professional organizer herself talks about her business that you realize this is no ordinary moving service. Barbara writes:

"Getting ready to move is challenging and can often be overwhelming. It can also launch us into a new phase of life, providing new hope and setting the stage for life-renewal. Think of moving not just as something to 'get through,' but as an opportunity for growth, a journey of self-reflection, a chance to be reminded of who you really are and what is really important to you.

Moving always awakens feelings from the past. Telling stories helps resolve and complete things. Even if you don’t know where and when you will be moving, starting the process of getting ready can be important. In fact, the process of sorting and organizing can help you learn more about where and when to move. It can keep you working toward the move while waiting for just the right place.

Once you begin to view your move as a door opening on a new phase of life, you’ll see that many things now belong only to the past and can be let go of. When you let go, you find new possibilities opening up in your life."

But then Barbara is no ordinary moving consultant. For starters, her company specializes in a very specific niche market. She and her staff help seniors who, willingly or reluctantly are packing up, selling, and moving from homes they’ve lived in for decades often into assisted living or some other kind of retirement community. One of the best business models is to somehow combine services and products. Wisely Barbara also provides products in the form of booklets, audio, and videos for those who either live too far away to use her services or "do it yourselfers" looking for tools to make the transition smoother for themselves or a family member.

There are lots of dream busters out there. A common one is what I call being a "job snob." Being a job snob is very often what keeps the engineer who dreams of being a landscaper or the attorney who wants to be a personal chef miserably stuck in careers they no longer enjoy because they don’t want to "waste their degree."

You don’t need a Masters Degree from Oxford University and a doctorate in Psychology from Edinburgh University in Scotland like Barbara to be a moving consultant. However you do have to love the fact that Barbara is applying her education to help people in such a practical way. Then again, when you’re in the business of helping someone sort through old letters and other remnants of a well lived life, helping skills and a fundamental understanding of human nature are essential.

Barbara has generously agreed to join us this August in Northampton to share what prompted her to use her gifts for organizing and consulting to help seniors to in her words, "move through change in productive and rewarding ways." The process she used to find her calling is one just about anyone looking for a business idea can replicate. Barbara will also share her advice for starting and building a small business. In the meantime you can learn more about Barbara and her unique and timely business at MovingMentor.com.

Hotel Update

The special rates we set up at a number of the other local hotels expire on July 10^th or 11^th, so be sure to book your room soon to take advantage of the Changing Course discount. I know that The Hotel Northampton, where the event is being held, only has three rooms left for Thursday and Friday and two rooms left if you plan to stay over on Saturday. The Clarion has more availability.

For more information on accommodations, air and ground transportation including special Changing Course discounts visit ChangingCourse.com/workshops/noho.htm

When inspiration does not come to me, I go halfway to meet it. ~ Sigmund Freud

Upcoming Workshops

Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind. ~ Leonardo DaVinci

The View From
the Other Side

Resources for a Change