Hi from the UK!
I'm 29, always had big dreams when I was younger. All my life I wanted to be a fighter pilot, but medical circumstances conspired to make that or anything similar impossible. So, not having any idea of what else I wanted to do with my life, I went out into the world doing various odd temp jobs and - long story short - ended up working in recruitment. Being from a welfare family and not raised with any particular goals, entrepreneurship had never even entered my frame of reference. Fortunately managed to avoid the university trap at least.
I loved the job. I believed with every fibre of my being in the value of the work and, for a good while, actually looked forward to Mondays. I read everything, implemented what I had learned, and was fortunate enough to be trained by a superb company amongst an industry widely slated (largely correctly, IMO) for its lack of ethics and service delivery.
I stayed with that company for a few years, then decided to move on and try different areas as it was getting a bit stale. Since, had three jobs in two years - and a short stint in between working for myself at home with a VoIP phone, spreadsheets, virtual office address and Outlook 365. Unfortunately I couldn't keep that up due to cashflow - I sadly had no clue about how to actually use my money until recently, and I still owe £10,000 in credit card payments and vehicle finance, one paycheque away from broke.
And then it dawned on me...
Join new company > launch into it with enthusiasm for six months > get results > get bored and can't face having to go back and repeat the same tedious process all over again. Totally lost the love for it. As my eyes have been opened from reading TMF and various other entrepreneurial havens of the internet and book world, I no longer believe in the employment system. How can I devote the rest of my life to placing people in corporations, if I don't truly believe in "furthering one's career" as an optimal means of self-improvement?
I have also come to loathe the never-ending circular grind of calling hundreds of companies to win projects, then the massive undertaking of delivering that business, only to take a tiny percentage of the enormous fees and be back to square one again. And the ignorance of my overlords in insisting that relentless cold calling is the best and only marketing strategy. Maybe it was 20 years ago. More calls. More appointments. More projects. None of it leads anywhere or builds anything. No big reward, only the onerous restrictive covenants that ensure the company retains all future benefit of my work. The company does essentially the same thing as dozens of other companies do, in an ever-shrinking and ever-more commoditised market.
Most of all, I loathe feeling like a slave as I now do. And being surrounded by other people who have been beaten down into slave-dom; they hate it, but see no exit. It's true - jobs really do kill dreams. I would quit right now, without a moment's hesitation were I in the financial position to do so.
So, what now?
For months I got stuck on what to do. Where to get ideas. But as my thinking process has evolved, I see ideas everywhere. I thought of "Just Eat for taxis" then realised Uber existed. I've investigated dropshipping, and other simple web businesses as a means to make some side income until I can quit. Doesn't really appeal though; I prefer to go all in on something great than mess around with little bits and pieces. I know I definitely don't want to set up a traditional recruitment company (don't want the hassle of traditional employees at all if I can avoid it, let alone in such a volatile and "me-too" marketplace), or to simply become a self-employed headhunter and create a job for myself. Although it does merit some consideration as a short-term solution as I could live in a very cheap country and use Vonage etc. to do business with a rich country. Could build up a nice cash cushion - could also become complacement and keep perpetuating the cycle.
I have two potentials I'm exploring at the moment. One is a blog primarily about giving people the tools to proactively go and get whichever (relevant) job they desire, through the sales and marketing techniques I have learned all these years, rather than being stuck "sending out CVs". But also to give the inside scoop on what really happens in the recruitment process. Ultimately, it would be to build an audience from which to launch an eBook on a whole step-by-step structured process to achieve this goal. There's nothing like this in the mainstream. Careers writers trot out the same trite BS about "10 ways to get your resume noticed" day after day after day. No real talk. And I've used the same process myself to get every job I've ever wanted. So that has legs. And it's the kind of website which can be marketed by getting known for publishing posts on Linkedin...relatively simple massive audience.
The other is an online placement website which connects supply (substitute) teachers with schools directly. I used to work for a company which also had a temporary teaching division and it's a parasitic industry, taking up to 50% margins in some cases while adding little to no value, competing with all the other agencies for the same exact pool of teachers, setting up fake bookings to be cancelled at the last minute just to keep them away from the competition (!), enticing them away with higher pay and then squeezing the margins tighter and tighter when they're all settled in. The agency simply inserts themselves into the middle of an already existing transaction and takes money for it.
Usually I think recruitment automation is an awful idea, but in this case given the finite pool of teachers which the schools re-use over and over again via various agencies, an interactive registration and booking system could work fantastically if well executed and could be transferred to a passive income system (or big sale) relatively quickly with far fewer employees or liabilities than a traditional business. All whilst putting a lot more money in supply teachers' pockets and saving schools money and hassle.
I think my second concept has huge potential, although certainly challenges to overcome especially with regards to legislation. The other hurdle is that it is going to be a lot more costly to implement, whereas a blog and ebook would cost me little more than living expenses.
But, whichever route I decide to follow I am committed to the journey and look forward to the process.
What I would be keen to get some thoughts on above all, is how others have gotten over the financial hurdles in the early stages? I'm not convinced my second idea would work without a lot of investment at the front end.
Cheers,
Contrarian
I'm 29, always had big dreams when I was younger. All my life I wanted to be a fighter pilot, but medical circumstances conspired to make that or anything similar impossible. So, not having any idea of what else I wanted to do with my life, I went out into the world doing various odd temp jobs and - long story short - ended up working in recruitment. Being from a welfare family and not raised with any particular goals, entrepreneurship had never even entered my frame of reference. Fortunately managed to avoid the university trap at least.
I loved the job. I believed with every fibre of my being in the value of the work and, for a good while, actually looked forward to Mondays. I read everything, implemented what I had learned, and was fortunate enough to be trained by a superb company amongst an industry widely slated (largely correctly, IMO) for its lack of ethics and service delivery.
I stayed with that company for a few years, then decided to move on and try different areas as it was getting a bit stale. Since, had three jobs in two years - and a short stint in between working for myself at home with a VoIP phone, spreadsheets, virtual office address and Outlook 365. Unfortunately I couldn't keep that up due to cashflow - I sadly had no clue about how to actually use my money until recently, and I still owe £10,000 in credit card payments and vehicle finance, one paycheque away from broke.
And then it dawned on me...
Join new company > launch into it with enthusiasm for six months > get results > get bored and can't face having to go back and repeat the same tedious process all over again. Totally lost the love for it. As my eyes have been opened from reading TMF and various other entrepreneurial havens of the internet and book world, I no longer believe in the employment system. How can I devote the rest of my life to placing people in corporations, if I don't truly believe in "furthering one's career" as an optimal means of self-improvement?
I have also come to loathe the never-ending circular grind of calling hundreds of companies to win projects, then the massive undertaking of delivering that business, only to take a tiny percentage of the enormous fees and be back to square one again. And the ignorance of my overlords in insisting that relentless cold calling is the best and only marketing strategy. Maybe it was 20 years ago. More calls. More appointments. More projects. None of it leads anywhere or builds anything. No big reward, only the onerous restrictive covenants that ensure the company retains all future benefit of my work. The company does essentially the same thing as dozens of other companies do, in an ever-shrinking and ever-more commoditised market.
Most of all, I loathe feeling like a slave as I now do. And being surrounded by other people who have been beaten down into slave-dom; they hate it, but see no exit. It's true - jobs really do kill dreams. I would quit right now, without a moment's hesitation were I in the financial position to do so.
So, what now?
For months I got stuck on what to do. Where to get ideas. But as my thinking process has evolved, I see ideas everywhere. I thought of "Just Eat for taxis" then realised Uber existed. I've investigated dropshipping, and other simple web businesses as a means to make some side income until I can quit. Doesn't really appeal though; I prefer to go all in on something great than mess around with little bits and pieces. I know I definitely don't want to set up a traditional recruitment company (don't want the hassle of traditional employees at all if I can avoid it, let alone in such a volatile and "me-too" marketplace), or to simply become a self-employed headhunter and create a job for myself. Although it does merit some consideration as a short-term solution as I could live in a very cheap country and use Vonage etc. to do business with a rich country. Could build up a nice cash cushion - could also become complacement and keep perpetuating the cycle.
I have two potentials I'm exploring at the moment. One is a blog primarily about giving people the tools to proactively go and get whichever (relevant) job they desire, through the sales and marketing techniques I have learned all these years, rather than being stuck "sending out CVs". But also to give the inside scoop on what really happens in the recruitment process. Ultimately, it would be to build an audience from which to launch an eBook on a whole step-by-step structured process to achieve this goal. There's nothing like this in the mainstream. Careers writers trot out the same trite BS about "10 ways to get your resume noticed" day after day after day. No real talk. And I've used the same process myself to get every job I've ever wanted. So that has legs. And it's the kind of website which can be marketed by getting known for publishing posts on Linkedin...relatively simple massive audience.
The other is an online placement website which connects supply (substitute) teachers with schools directly. I used to work for a company which also had a temporary teaching division and it's a parasitic industry, taking up to 50% margins in some cases while adding little to no value, competing with all the other agencies for the same exact pool of teachers, setting up fake bookings to be cancelled at the last minute just to keep them away from the competition (!), enticing them away with higher pay and then squeezing the margins tighter and tighter when they're all settled in. The agency simply inserts themselves into the middle of an already existing transaction and takes money for it.
Usually I think recruitment automation is an awful idea, but in this case given the finite pool of teachers which the schools re-use over and over again via various agencies, an interactive registration and booking system could work fantastically if well executed and could be transferred to a passive income system (or big sale) relatively quickly with far fewer employees or liabilities than a traditional business. All whilst putting a lot more money in supply teachers' pockets and saving schools money and hassle.
I think my second concept has huge potential, although certainly challenges to overcome especially with regards to legislation. The other hurdle is that it is going to be a lot more costly to implement, whereas a blog and ebook would cost me little more than living expenses.
But, whichever route I decide to follow I am committed to the journey and look forward to the process.
What I would be keen to get some thoughts on above all, is how others have gotten over the financial hurdles in the early stages? I'm not convinced my second idea would work without a lot of investment at the front end.
Cheers,
Contrarian
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