Observer | Writer | Vagabond

A New Transition: Preparing For My Job Search In 2021

Even if the event doesn’t come to pass, create action steps ahead of time

I’m afraid of my prospects when searching for a job in 2021. Just in March of 2020 alone, we saw a loss of over 700,00 jobs. Regardless of the industry, I’m certain that some of the people who were laid off were working in marketing.

Next year I will be competing with both new graduates, established professionals, and everyone who is just as (if not more) hungry as me for an opportunity to work for a team and to grow their brand. So the question is, “How do I position myself to stand out? How do I make myself more useful than my competition?”

I believe the first step in answering these two questions is to keep an abundance-mindset. Even though it seems as if there is little to go around and that jobs are and will be scarce, with enough creativity and content, I am sure I will have something to show. And that is what I need to focus on, what we should all focus on—showing our ideas, our thoughts and opinions.

We need to look past the resume

A resume will not be enough this year. And a resume won’t hold up against another 100 similar ones. A resume can’t hold up to an applicant tracking system that will mark it invalid if it is missing a certain number of “vital keywords.” What will hold up and stand the test of time is a personal brand that is both authentic and exciting. There’s no need to fake it till you make it, but we have to consider what is unique to us.

I’ll be focusing more and doubling down on my writing, since I consider it to be the skill I’m best at and best known for. Aside from other skills I have and new ones I’m adding to my tool belt, I’m also putting an emphasis on being as slow as possible. There is no need to rush my job search, rushing is how mistakes happen. If I don’t rush, I’m certain that jobs will come to me—making this process easier.

If I believe there is an abundance of opportunity out there, it will put my mind in a better place to find a solution to my problem. Let’s see what happens.

Image Credit: Unsplash

Creativity In Business: Connecting 2 Old Ideas In New Situations

You don’t need to consider yourself an artist to have creative and useful ideas

Creativity in business is best defined as, “novel associations that are useful.” In Rasputin for Hire: An Inside Look at Management Consulting Between Jobs Or as a Second Career, consultant Michael A. Goodman makes a point that creativity has to be useful in order for your ideas to be adopted by your client. Regardless of the type of business, you’re in, being able to provide a novel solution to a problem will always lead to future business.

People get paid to think and most of our work revolves around solving problems. Sometimes the best idea is an old one that is taken out of context and put into a new one.

Consider work you’ve done in the past—how can you use that past experience in a new situation? Can the work you’re doing now be used in a new industry? Is it possible to have useful ideas during the most uncertain of times?

There is definitely a way to make your unique perspective something of value, to someone who’s willing to hear what you have to say. They’ll even pay for your ideas if you present them in a way that excites them and causes action.

Image Credit: Unsplash

There Will Be A Cost To Begin & A Cost To Finish

What will it cost you?

There is a price you’ll need to pay when you decide to chase your dreams. After defining your fears and realizing that life will continue even if you experience them, the next step to chasing your dreams requires you to understand the costs involved with pursuing them.

These costs are largely discovered in hindsight so one of the best ways to accurately gauge what chasing your dreams will cost you is by studying other people who have successfully crossed the chasm from thinking to doing. Many people have had the same dreams that you have and they have documented how they’ve both succeeded and failed at trying to achieve those dreams.

Even when there are new events in the world, there are always lessons to be learned by studying history. Surely as time goes on, the biggest cost to not trying to realize your dreams will be boredom and regret. Any costs necessary for realizing your dreams will be cheap in comparison to a life of misery.

If you don’t know what it takes to start and to continue, that’s okay—know that you can and will muster what it takes. And if you fail, just try again.

Failures are necessary breaks, they are not conclusions.

Image Credit: Unsplash

Some Thoughts On Successfully Selling Socks Online

If you’re selling anything, sell it to people who are starving

Gary C. Halbert once wrote, “…constantly be on the lookout for groups of people (markets) who have demonstrated that they are starving (or at least hungry!) for some particular product or service.” Effective marketing has to start with the inception of the product or service you intend to sell.

To grow a successful business, this product or service has to be something that people want to spend money on. And the easiest way to know if someone will buy what you’re selling is if they have bought something like it in the past.

Unless you’re inventing a new category of product or service, your brand has to distinguish itself by other means. Let us consider the difficulties of starting a new direct-to-consumer sock store. There are basic requirements that you’ll need to meet before you start to get paying customers.

How do we begin with selling socks online?

The foundation of our new sock brand starts with having a clear and distinguishable quality that provides an immediate benefit to our customers. There are a variety of socks that you can start selling, but it’s vital that you start with one specific type. Running socks, wool socks, compression socks, socks for men, women or, kids—you need to start with a clear focus. You can expand your niche after your brand grows but, the customer needs to have a word associated with your brand when they think about you.

If our selling point is comfort, this will be a hard sell because comfort is extremely subjective and needs to be tested in person. The styles that the socks come in are easier to sell but, the benefit of these styles is also subjective and we’ll end up playing catch up with all of the other established clothing brands that sell socks with “unique and quirky styles.”

Even with great messaging on an e-commerce website, social media profiles, and email newsletter it will be difficult to convince someone to try the socks. Promising a logistical advantage in terms of speed of delivery, reliability, and durability can help however, customers expect this from any brand they spend money on.

There is also an opportunity cost of the time it will take to have the customer try on the sock—if they don’t like it—they then have to go through the return-and-refund process. Even if the process is easy, no one wants to add a new task to their day, they would rather spend money on a brand they already trust.

There is always an opportunity

So after thinking about all of these things, why would anyone try to launch a new direct-to-consumer sock store? The reason why someone can and should start a DTC sock store is that even if selling to the market is difficult now, the market always changes. New customers enter the market every year and this gives us the opportunity to enter their minds first.

Image Credit: Unsplash

Don’t Price Your Services Too Low

You are seen as a risk if you cheapen the value of your work

When pricing your services, it is extremely vital that you don’t provide a low price point because you’re afraid of losing the prospect. Yes, sometimes clients shop for price—these aren’t the people you want to serve. You want to work with clients that are shopping for value, that are willing to pay for the result of the work rather than the time it takes to get it done.

When you provide a low price, you cheapen the value of your work. You tell the client, “my work costs this much because I’m not confident that I will be able to succeed.” When you charge a premium price you are telling the client, “you are paying for the revenue that this work will get you.” This doesn’t mean that you can guarantee that you will bring your client more revenue, but the price does allude to the success you’ve brought to previous clients.

Can they afford your work?

When pricing your services, always make sure you have an estimate of their total budget. This budget includes the pricing of your services and all of the other costs involved in hiring you. In marketing for example, if you’re charging $2,000 a month to manage ads, that may be too high a price if the business only has a monthly ad spend budget of $300. If however, they spend $10,000 a month on ads then your services are reasonably priced.

There is a lot of thought that most go into how you charge your clients, but you should always try to avoid pricing your services by time spent. The only moment charging by time is relevant is if your physical presence is required for the job (or if the client’s brand is so big that working for them will elevate your own brand).

In most cases, if you are doing your work remotely, you’re a creative vendor, or you provide consulting services—you should charge by value and intended results rather than by time. And make sure the price is relative to the size of the client and how much revenue they make.

Image Credit: Unsplash