Readers:
Dr. Randall Hansen, a nationally recognized career expert, is the Career Doctor.
Discover more about Dr. Hansen, read about the purpose of this column,
and find previous issues of this column at the home of The Career Doctor.
If you have any college, career, or job-related questions or comments that Dr. Hansen could
provide valuable assistance with, please
feel free to email him at: careerdr@quintcareers.com.
Dr. Hansen writes this column on a biweekly basis.
Clare writes:
I’ve always kind of had an entrepreneurial spirit and am really tired of
working for someone else with so little say on what goes on. Rather than
starting my own business, I have kind of been thinking about buying a
franchise. What’s your thought on staying where I am, starting my own
business, or buying into a franchise?
A:
The Career Doctor responds:
There is most definitely an entrepreneurial trend emerging with younger job-seekers
and with disgruntled older workers who feel their companies have let them down
in one or more ways. The allure of being your own boss and running your own
company is powerful.
And owning a franchise is often a much less risky move into entrepreneurship than
starting a business from scratch. However, while the success rate for franchise-owned
businesses is significantly higher than for independent businesses, no individual
franchise is guaranteed to succeed.
According to the International Franchise Association, the estimated number of franchised
locations in the U.S. is almost 400,000 in 75 industries, employing almost 10 million
workers. More than 2,500 companies offer franchising opportunities from fast food to
security services.
In deciding whether franchising is right for you, the key is conducting research. If you
like the idea of owning your own business and don’t mind having some decisions
dictated from the corporate headquarters, the franchising might be a good choice for you.
Once you’ve made that decision, you’ll need to examine how much you can afford to
invest; initial franchise fees can range from $1,000 to more than $200,000 -- and
that’s just the fee and does not include all the other start-up costs you’ll face.
You’ll also want to think long and hard about the type of business that interests you
most, that best fits your lifestyle. (For example, if you’re a fitness buff, then perhaps
a fitness franchise would make sense.)
Finally, there are a number of pros and cons to franchising… too numerous to mention
here, but worth your time to research.
Glenis writes:
I read your column regularly but recently it has become of more interest
to me because my son is job-hunting. He has been a financial aid counselor
at two universities, having moved to take the position at the last one
because it was a career advancement. Unfortunately his position was
eliminated due to budget cuts.
After being unemployed for a 6 months he decided to take whatever
employment he could get just to help pay the bills, which happened to be
at minimal pay. He has not included this employment history on his resume
because he feels it would not look good. He has interviewed with 2-3
universities but so far no offer of employment.
Do you think the lack of employment information for the last year is affecting
his chances of being hired?
A:
The Career Doctor responds:
I hope by the time you are reading this column that your son has a
new job in his career field, but if not, let me make a few observations.
I think there is a possibility of three things happening here that your son
needs to address.
First, the stigma of being fired. We can fall it something prettier -- his job
was eliminated -- but the bottom-line is that he was forced to leave his place
of employment. He needs to focus on this issue and make sure he is totally
over the trauma of the experience -- especially since he was let go through
no fault of his own. He obviously has valuable skills since he was able to
move forward in his career.
Second, he needs to deal with his resume -- and the reality he is living. A
lot of displaced job-seekers in this current economy have been forced to
take survival jobs so that they don’t end up homeless and bankrupt. Most
prospective employers would rather see an applicant that has been doing
something productive -- even if outside his or her field -- than a large gap on
the resume. Of course, if he has been doing any kind of consulting or
volunteer work in his field, he should put that on his resume.
Third, perfect interviewing skills. If he has gotten a few interviews, then at
least some of the colleges are not bothered by the gap on his resume
enough to not interview him… so, if he is not having success in the interview,
then he is either not interviewing well or not following-up his interviews. He
may want to conduct a mock interview with a career professional to judge
the quality of his interviewing skills.
Julie writes:
My friend and I are 15 and interested in starting a pet sitting business.
We would like to know how old we have to be to do this job, and how
we should get started.
A:
The Career Doctor responds:
Many teens -- your age and older -- are starting their own businesses
rather than work for minimum wage in some part-time job. And the skills
you develop in starting and running your own business will have long-lasting
impacts.
There are a number of considerations for you and your friend to contemplate,
but the most important one is whether one or more adults are willing to
support and assist you in your plans. I am not saying the adult should
run your business -- just that you have an adult’s approval and support
when needed (like when dealing with an angry customer).
So, what are the keys to starting your own business?
Here are a few rules you need to follow to ensure some level of success:
You must be able to promote the business to potential customers and
clients -- thus, you need to be able to talk with people and be able to try to
sell them something.
You must be able to make a profit with your business. Sounds kind of
obvious, right? But it is sometimes harder than you might imagine.
You must know one of the most important rules of marketing (and one I
force my students to chant) -- you have to satisfy the customer! You must do
a good job in your business or you are going to lose customers.
You must avoid serious errors -- in actions of judgment -- in running your
business. If you do something wrong, regardless of whose fault, it can cause
anger, disappointment, bad publicity, and at the ultimate -- a lawsuit.
You must be prepared to work long hours at establishing the business --
and then even more hours running the business. They call it work for a reason --
you need to be truly dedicated and determined to establish your own business.
Mike writes:
No too long ago, I used one of your samples for resume and cover letter writing. I must say, they really helped me.
Thanks.
A:
The Career Doctor responds:
OK. So technically there is no question here, but I wanted to address this
issue because I had been recently interviewed on the subject of job-seekers
borrowing too heavily from samples found on job-search Websites and
books. And by the way, I am not saying that Mike did anything wrong; I
am assuming he used the samples correctly.
Why do career professionals provide samples? I know I do so as a learning
tool. I want you to be able to see what a good resume, cover letter, thank-you
letter, etc., looks like. I have seen so much poorly written job-seeker
correspondence, that I thought it important for you to see good examples.
But I do not expect job-seekers to copy phrases or sentences word-for-word…
in academic circles, we call that plagiarism, and if I were a hiring manager, I
would call it a reason not to interview or hire you. Borrowing someone else’s
work brings into question your ethics -- and work ethic.
So, please use the samples you find as guidelines for what your resume or
cover letter should look like and sound like, but do not lift whole chunks and
use them as your own. And be sure to read the accompanying articles that
describe in detail how to develop your job-search documents.
One final point. Someone raised the question of the difference between
borrowing a sample resume versus hiring a professional to write the resume
for you. The difference is one is stealing someone else’s work (that may not
even apply to you) and the other is paying a professional to develop a
document specifically for you.
For those interested in samples, check out the many sample job-search
materials we have in this section of Quintessential Careers:
Job-Hunting
Samples and Examples.
