Manage Your Career Like a Small Business
It is all too common for job seekers to focus on the hunt, constantly seeking new opportunities, when they may be missing what is truly important for their future careers. One way to ensure your future success and help you find the job of your dreams is to start looking at your career, and yourself as a small business.
This strategy helps you manage your future and will help steer you on the right path. If you have not yet read the book, The Start Up of You, this is an excellent opportunity to do so and gain some powerful insight into how managing yourself can help you turn yourself into a powerhouse in the business world.
Let’s look at a few ways that you can start managing your career like it is a small business.
1. List your current assets. We’re not talking money here, we’re talking the skills you have and what you bring to the table. Make a list of your current skills and your strong points. Once you have a better idea of what you have, you can make a plan to help you showcase these assets. It’s also a good idea to look at your weak points to target what needs improvement.
2. Set concrete goals for your future. Just like a business plan for a small business, set some goals for yourself, both now and in the future. Be realistic and really think about where you want to be five years from now. Once you have these goals in mind you can begin to create a roadmap that will help you reach those goals more efficiently.
3. Create an actual business plan for your job search. Not only is this a great exercise, it will help you see yourself as an actual business — the start-up of you. You’ll find ways to market your skills and learn what sets you apart from other candidates out there. This is a wonderful opportunity to take a hard look at your future and start making plans for right now for what you want to achieve. This is also a very good tool that will help you hold yourself accountable during and after your job search.
