Laid Off and Loving it....

Summertime and no job. Life is good. I could get use to it.

Tomorrow I'm headed downtown for a 3-hour seminar put on by the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce on "Small Business Startup:101".

Mark and I are getting more and more serious and taking steps toward our dream of having a pottery studio/art gallery.

We looked at a house a week or so ago that has some potential for what we want. It's in the most sought after shopping area in Tacoma for small stores and it's about a mile from our house. But the owners are asking a lot of money for the house since it's zoned commercial and they bought at the height of the market and are trying to sell it for more than they paid, of course. Thanks to the Internet I know how much they bought it for and how much the City has assessed that property ...which is about $90,000 less than what they're asking. We got real excited about it for awhile, but after discussing it over several days we came to the realization that there's way too much work and too much $$$ to make it what we want. It would be years before we ever saw a profit on that.

There's a couple of other spots that we're looking at. We know the areas that are acceptable to us - all North end of Tacoma. One place is a small storefront in a funky shopping area, also not far from our house. It's for sale at a reasonable price, but Mark isn't sure of the location. It's almost too funky for him ;-) Although the area is really busy with new restaurants - so there are people investing money in the area.

The other place is a storefront for lease that we looked at over a year ago, and it's still vacant. It's in a great area near the waterfront with lots of foot traffic, although not much other retail - but there are restaurants and a few shops.

Almost every day I sit down with a book I got from the library called The Boss of You. I have a notepad and a pen nearby to take notes.

We have a pretty clear vision of what we want the store to be like - Mark is planning the pottery studio part where he'll give classes and people can come in to use the equipment. I am planning the gallery part of it - selling all handcrafted items from pottery to jewelry, to woodwork to glass....and maybe even some handspun yarn.

It's fun to dream about it.

I already got a job interview ....sort of

So, yesterday I decided to just apply for 3 jobs to get my weekly requirements over with for the unemployment office. I did a quick scan of job listings and sent off my resume to 3 places.

(I should note that I haven't updated my resume yet with all I've learned at my resume development class and conversations with my career counselor.)

Last night I got a response from one of them that said I was moving up the process. They wanted me to show up for an orientation / interview next Friday at 10am. But it sounds a little fishy. Apparently this is a group orientation because "nobody would be admitted after 10 am" ...? huh?

I sent off a reply that was pretty much "thanks, but no thanks". The job pays very little, so I think it qualifies as "The wages offered are lower than the wages common for that occupation in your area."

Unemployment

I decided to apply for unemployment, after being unemployed for about 10 weeks. I wasn't sure I wanted the "hassle" of applying for 3 jobs a week when I really don't want a job yet.

But we talked about it and decided that I might as well make some extra money to tuck away just in case.

I probably don't have anything to worry about - with the job market, it's not likely I'm going to find anything anyway. I've talked to some people that were released over a year ago and they've been collecting unemployment and applying for jobs, and haven't even had an interview.

Weird, but now I REALLY feel unemployed.

This afternoon I had a 30 minute phone conversation with my career counselor. I've been having a difficult time creating a new resume for myself because 1) I don't want the same type of job I had, and 2) I don't know what kind of a job I want.

She had some good suggestions including going through job listings. Open those that sound appealing or interesting and just see what kind of job qualifications or skills they are looking for. She said when she was trying to find a new career, she even went through the phone book and looked at companies and what they did, or got HR magazines and checked out the advertisers. She also did a lot of networking and talking to people who have jobs that she thought might be interesting.

She lives in Kansas City and said there were lots of job clubs and thought that there were probably similar job clubs here.

She also suggested I watch this movie, "Lemonade", on hulu.com

Encore Careers

Workers finding fulfillment in encore careers

I've never heard the term "encore career" before, but I suppose that's what I'm looking for. I tell people that the only thing I know for sure, is that I don't want to do what I was doing before.

I should have gone to college when I graduated from high school, instead of taking the easy/quick way and going to business college and becoming an "Executive Secretary" after a 1-year program. Not having that degree on my resume is going to probably keep me from a lot of job interviews, even though I have years of work experience.

I've made sure my children understand the importance of education. Two already have completed their bachelor's degrees and one is waiting to hear back from all the colleges that he sent in applications to.

I'm heading over to explore this site: Encore Careers

Career Assessment

Today was a 2-1/2 hour long Career Assessment webinar. As part of our prerequisite, we filled out a Birkman First Look assessment survey.

According to the survey:

My interests are creative activities. As I explained to the presenter, I liked my job of web development up until it became less creative. When I first started I had more autonomy in designing the websites and newsletters. But then we got bought by Mellon Corp., and I had to follow very strict guidelines set by corporate headquarters. It got to the point where I was merely updating code and not doing anything creative.

My usual style is reflective and creative. That also suits me quite well, I believe.

My ideal environment is that I respond best to people who are reflective and systematic. I need time for complex decisions and I like time alone. For about the last 10 years of my career, my manager was in a different city than me - for a few years, even a different country. So, I got use to working very independently. I would have a hard time working for someone who was constantly looking over my shoulder. I'm an adult and I can be trusted to complete a task as required.

My stress behavior shows that I become indecisive and fatigued, self-critical and moody.

My areas of interest came out to be Musical, Artistic, Social Service and Literary. Sounds like me!

My job strengths are Planning and Administrating (one-on-one relationships)

So, according to the Birkman assessment, I should have a job that's creative, low-key, innovative, and people-oriented. Jobs like consulting, education, training, and creative arts.

It was very interesting and I think pretty straight on for my personality.

A website that looks interesting to check out: onetcenter.org

Entrepeneur 101

Today I took a 90-min. "Entrepeneur 101" webinar through my career counseling service. We had 3 assessments to fill out to see if we have the characteristics of an entrepeneur. I fall just a tiny bit below the minimum. I think partly because I've never been really good about settting and writing down goals for myself. I have things in my head, but not written down. I know there's a difference in how likely you are to work for a goal when you write it down.

It gave me some things to think about - networking. business plans, getting professional assistance like attorneys and accountants.

It is something that can be done if you're willing to work for it and plan for it. We were reminded to not listen to people who say you're crazy to want to start your own business. Most likely, they have an "employee mindset" rather than an "entrepeneur mindset".

I have a list of books to read, including "Awakening the Entrpeneur Within" by Michael Gerber, and "Now, discover your strengths" by Marcus Buckingham. I also picked up "Wow! I'm in business : a crash course in business basics" by Richard Stim at the library.

Some sites to check out:
SBA.gov
onepagebusinessplan.com
wbdc.org (Women's Business Development Center)