Those of us who experienced the fall out during the 2008 financial crisis – which resulted in more than 1.3 million people losing their job – are desperate to have more control of their financial fate.
During this period, I was working as a regional manager for a well-known high street recruitment agency, running 14 branches within Central London and managing over 70 managers and recruitment consultants.
Now, this recruitment agency had a policy of letting people go just before Xmas as they had huge overheads to contend with and not enough money coming in during this so-called festive period.
So I was given a number of people I could keep or ‘Ring Fence’ was the phrase they used and the rest would have to fall by the wayside.
My number was 50, yes just 50 people I could keep and the other 20 people I had to let go, and to add insult to injury, I had two days to do it in.
Making people redundant is never easy. Anyone who has had to do it will tell you that it is one of the worst parts of their job.
Invariably, when making a person redundant there is always a painful or difficult reason– perhaps their wife is pregnant, they’ve just moved to a new house, partner has just been made redundant…the list is endless.
And the crazy thing about this whole exercise was that the following month, January, I had to recruit consultants to fill the roles of those who I had just let go.
Talk about short sighted!
And although it was sad to let people go who I had grown really close to over the years, I later found out when I was made redundant that being on the receiving end is 100 times more devastating, especially when you don’t see the writing on the wall.
I was made redundant from one company after helping to turn the business around; but that’s an object lesson for a future newsletter.
Redundancy is one of the most stressful events that a person can experience in their life. It’s right up there with death, divorce, moving to a new house, illness etc.
One survey of British workers even rated redundancy as a more stressful life event than divorce or moving house.
A study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) showed that two thirds of people made redundant were paid an average of 28 per cent less when they managed to find another job.
However, every cloud has a silver lining. With this in mind; it’s interesting to note that during the last depression, I am talking about the time when there was rationing of food and people having to use vouchers to purchase goods; there were more people who became extremely wealthy than in any time before.
Why, because they started their own business and worked extremely hard to make a success of it.
Likewise, in modern times, the advent of the internet has given 100s of ordinary people the opportunity to do the same and effectively create a new lifestyle around self-employment; in fact, many have flipped this on its head and now have an online recruitment business that operates around their family or other personal interests.
The UK now has more people working for themselves than ever before approaching 4.5 million of us earn our own crust and are officially self-employed.
The net result is that a staggering one in seven of the workers in this country is now working for themselves.
It’s something that has passed relatively unnoticed but it is worth considering how much more negative the overall unemployment picture would have been had it not happened.
If you’re like most people who dream about starting their own business, now is undoubtedly the best time to take the first step.
Starting a home-based recruitment agency on the internet has never been easier and the opportunities have never been greater.
The internet is a store that never closes. It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week and gives a business with an online presence a global audience.
It has truly levelled the playing field in the world of business; now home-based entrepreneurs have access to the same types of tools and marketing opportunities used by major corporations.
Today, you don’t have to have a traditional brick and mortar business to have a profitable business.
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994 as an online bookstore and it was completely run out of his garage.
Today it’s the world’s largest online retailer. The point is that everything starts as an idea. Every business has humble beginnings. So don’t think about where you start your business; it’s where you end up that matters.
Here are four compelling reasons to start a home-based internet business.
1. Very little risk – Starting a home-based recruitment business doesn’t require the high costs of a traditional brick and mortar business. You don’t have to dive into your savings, get business lines of credit or borrow from friends and family. You can get started right away without breaking the bank.
Whether you decide to operate from a spare bedroom or a garage, your new business can be up and running quickly and with very little risk.
2. Flexibility – Working out of your home provides much greater flexibility and control than starting a conventional business.
With an internet business, you can choose when you want to work and where you want to work. You’re not confined to a single location; you can be on the beach or on a plane and still be able to work.
3) Financial independence – When you learn how to generate profits online, you’re teaching yourself how to become financially independent. As you start placing candidates into jobs, you can quickly and easily scale up your business.
By repeating this process, you have the potential to create multiple streams of income.
With an internet business, your income isn’t dependent on the number of hours you work.
4) Personal fulfilment – Running your own recruitment business online can be a very rewarding and gratifying experience. No matter how big or how small your business is, by doing something you’re passionate about, your journey to success can be much easier and fulfilling.
Now what I have covered here should make you want to say to me, Joe; I’m in, how do I get started? But, in all likely hood, you won’t as you probably would have got started when you first heard about this business opportunity (I did forewarn in my previous blogpost that I would not be pulling any punches).
And the number one reason what holds people back is excuses. And that is what I will be covering next blogpost, in detail, why you should not let excuses hold you back from getting started.
P.S. What do you think is the number one reason why a person doesn’t start their own business? Now for many years, I thought it was just that a person did not have the funds or failed to take action. Procrastination; but it’s not… I will tell all in the next ‘101 Benefits’ blogpost.
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P.P.S. What are the top 20 reasons why you should be in business?
All will be revealed in the next blogpost- No.#2 – 101 Benefits for starting a home-based business….
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Thought for the day
Excuses are for people who don’t want it bad enough. Stop saying I can’t, I won’t, I might, I’ll try, maybe, possibly, later, tomorrow….
Start saying “I WILL” TODAY!