Q TIPS:
Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
Job-hunting tips from the January 31, 2005 issue of
QuintZine.
If you're a woman considering entrepreneurship as part of a portfolio career, these stats from
Nancy Collamer of Jobsandmoms.com via
Career Masters Institute should be of interest:
10.1 million firms are at least 50 percent owned by women.
46 percent of all businesses are at least 50 percent owned by women.
Between 1997-2002, the number of privately held majority or 50 percent women-owned firms grew by
11 percent, more than 1.5 times the rate of all privately-held firms.
The number of women-owned employer firms grew by 37 percent between 1997 and 2002, four times
the growth rate of all employer firms.
One in every 11 adult women owns a business.
Women entrepreneurs generate nearly $2.3 trillion in revenues to the U.S. economy.
One in five women-owned businesses is owned by a woman of color.
If you're thinking about entrepreneurship, Drake Beam Morin suggests considering nine realities
before starting a business and think in terms of the entrepreneurial lifestyle -- one that would be
very different from that of a corporate employee.
Time: No matter how diligently people work in a corporate setting, they are almost certain to work
harder and longer creating and building a business of their own. Seven-day workweeks are not uncommon,
particularly during the early years.
Accountability: For many entrepreneurs, a key attraction of starting a business is that they are ultimately
accountable only to themselves, which means that they can take all the credit for success, but it also demands
that they accept all the blame if things go wrong.
Risk: Entrepreneurs have to accept risk. When people think about the risks associated with running a business,
personal financial risk usually appears at the top of the list. Additional risks to consider range
from the risk of embarrassment should your venture fail to unanticipated legal risks.
Security: Employment at a large organization typically includes a range of real and intangible
security benefits: a regular paycheck, health benefits, backup support for especially inactive times, etc.
Consider if and how you can cover all the security benefits important for you and your new venture.
Feedback: At established companies, formal or informal systems usually acknowledge jobs well done
and identify sub-standard performance. Entrepreneurs may need to cope for long periods in which
they receive limited, irregular feedback.
Sociability: Loneliness is often a major component of entrepreneurial life. What's missing in the new
business is the social dimension of life in a large organization.
Support: Corporate employees tend to take the extensive support resources of company life for granted.
Calls are screened, copies are made, and bathrooms are cleaned while employees work. By contrast, founders of
new businesses are likely to serve as everything from CEO to maintenance personnel.
Identity: People often overlook another by-product of corporate life: the sense of identity it can provide.
Lifestyle: Successful entrepreneurs often demonstrate a real love, or even an obsession, for their businesses.
Work becomes their principal commitment, taking precedence over other aspects of their lives.
Also of interest to those seeking portfolio careers, America's staffing companies have nearly
fully regained the 28 percent loss in employment they experienced as a result of the past U.S.
economic recession, reports the America Staffing Association (ASA).
From July through September 2004, U.S. staffing firms employed an average of 2.6 million
temporary and contract workers daily, on par with the industry's peak employment in the third quarter
of 2000 and 14 percent more people than in the same period in 2003.
"It's good news for both employees and companies who seek flexible work arrangements,"
says ASA president and CEO Richard Wahlquist.
If you're a woman considering entrepreneurship as part of a portfolio career, these stats from
Nancy Collamer of 