This is the second part of the post on “How to Mould Your Second Career from Home”; you can read part 1 of the post here. As mentioned earlier, starting your second career from home will need a lot of researching and planning to make it successful. In this post, we will continue looking at the steps of doing so.

7. Make a Checklist
Coming out with a checklist will help you to stay organized and focus. Click here to see the “Checklist for Starting a Home-based Business”; it covers most of the items you need to consider before starting your dream career from home.

8. Find a Workplace
Once you have worked out the checklist, find a suitable and conducive place at home to be your home office. It could be your extra room, a corner of your house or share it with your bedroom. The workplace must be a place where you can focus and do your work productively and in peace. If you would like to know the Feng Shui of how to set up your dream office effectively for your home-based business then don’t miss out the post on “Setting Up Your Dream Home”.

9. Finding a Successful Home-Based Business Model
This could be one of the most important steps when you are starting a home-based business. It is a fundamental way of making money to survive and grow. If you have chosen the wrong business model, it will not only waste your valuable time and effort but also you will not see much profitability and growth for your home-based business.

There are many home-based business models available online so take your time to think carefully and pick the most suitable one. The beauty of online media is you can combine a few business models together at the same time to achieve the most optimal results and such model is known as hybrid model. For example, you can combine blog model with membership model to capitalize the interactivity of blog platform.

10. The Fastest and Safest Way to Start a Home-Based Online Business
If, however, you are still not sure what is the best home-based business model to start with? I would highly recommend you start with an affiliate marketing business model. It is probably one of the fastest and safest ways to start an online business at home, find out why by clicking here.

Nevertheless, affiliate marketing business model has its downside too. For example, over-dependent on the merchants for income could be risky as they might change their compensation policies or close down their affiliate programs suddenly without advance notice. Hence, weigh its pros and cons carefully before adopting it.

11. Why Finding a Niche Market is important for Home-Based Business?
One of the important criteria of starting a successful home business is to know exactly what your targeted customers’ needs. Some of their needs may be too specialized that is not being fulfilled by any business in the marketplace. For example in the baby market, you can find a niche market for twin babies. This market segment may be small but could be highly profitable. They will be your niche market if you can offer unique product and/or services to meet their demands. Learn how you can find a niche market here and once you know how to do it, you can eliminate competition easily and dominate in the niche marketplace. 

12. Build a Website to Showcase Your Products/Services
An online business cannot start without a website as it will be your web-based storefront. The website is needed to showcase your product and/or services plus other information such as tips, benefits, testimonials, pricing and your contact details. Your website is open 24×7 everyday for business and globally so you can expect sales worldwide unless you want to limit your business just locally.

Having a website may not be sufficient to grow your home-based business, you must actively market and promote it via online and offline channels.

13. Networking to Get More Business
Networking is one of the best offline methods to build business and find potential customers. It gives you the opportunity to interact with potential customers and at the same time, you may harvest good relationship with fellow networkers so that they can refer more business to you. Once you have established yourself in your group of network, you will find “word-of-mouth” can be a powerful way of getting steady stream and repeated business.

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Moulding your own career is not easy but controlling your own career success is now within your hands. You are now in control of your own destiny and no longer rely on others for job security and living.

If, however, you are concerned that starting an online business at home as an alternative career option has no prospects, then don’t miss these inspiring stories of billionaires who started their humble beginnings from home. They have achieved their phenomenal career success by working for themselves.

You can learn that a successful and fulfilling career does not necessary have to work for someone else, you can also mould your own career success, even from home.
 
As always, you are welcome to leave your thoughts and comment below.

In part 1 of the post, I’ve already covered some new breed of professionals who emerge due to the change of technology, business and economic today. In part 2 of the post, we will continue looking at the rest of the new professionals. If you read carefully, you may notice something interesting and common among these groups of professionals. There are 3 indispensable items that they cannot go without – premium coffee, smart phone and laptop with fast internet connection. They simply cannot function without all these items and inevitably they have almost become part of them and their identities.

Read on to find out who are these unique breed of professionals. 

5. Nanobots
One such group of professionals is called Nanobots and it stands for “Nearly Autonomous, Not in the Office, doing Business in their Own Time Staff”. They do not seem to be like the rest because they are considered to be more mature and highly talented than the others. They are also known to be self-motivated, self-starting, and positive high achievers. Their positions vary in the hierarchy of a particular organization: Senior Executives, Managers, IT professionals, and others.

While this is being done by a number of companies already before, the growing number of other businesses seem to be catching on. This new emergence of acceptance in the industry of this new phase of professionals is mainly due to the needs of certain businesses to increase the possibility of the company reaching its goals through these new types of professionals. Also, this reason can also lead to lessening overhead costs of the business, which would prove be very good for the company.

Nanobots earn their living by doing their work even if they are not present all the time at the office, and reaching the target or expectations of the senior management in the office when they show the results of their work. Work may involve solving problems or making negotiations. They spend more hours outside the office to work. Most of them are engaged in sales, consultancy services, maintenance, and others.

Nanobot also known as mobile professionals, their lives are dominated by cell phones, they roam the streets while doing business, and they enjoy remote access connected to their business network at the main office. They are the ones who typically work longer hours than the rest even though you may not find them at their desks. They keep the lines of communication open between them and their managers, and seamlessly maintain the status of a professional with a high achiever status. They also require the least amount of supervision in order to do the work right since they work outside the confines of the office environment.

Nanobots have to be highly trustworthy, self-reliant and result-oriented as they are often not within the visibility of their supervisors. They need to be consistent and show good results for their performance. 

6. Bedouins
The next group of professionals is known as Bedouins, they borrowed its name from nomadic Arab who roams freely in the desert. Unlike the Arabic, Bedouins roam from café to café freely with their laptop and mobile phone. They can work anywhere as long as there is Wifi connection and caffeine.

Bedouins do not confine themselves to home office or one working place so they do not face isolation problem as other home office based professionals. To them, the cafés have almost become their workplaces. They are not bothered with loud music or noisy environment in the cafes instead they feel such buzz will give them energy, inspiration and creativity.

They can easily connect with other Bedouins in the cafes and most could tap into each other expertise for their own projects. Some have even form excellent partnership to bring extra values to their customers. The typical Bedouins could be programmers, software developers, designers or online marketers.

While Bedouins could enjoy lively ambience and interactions with one another but it is also to their disadvantages as there might be too much distractions in order to be productive in such environments.

7. Knowledge Entrepreneurs
The last group is knowledge entrepreneurs or commonly known as knowledge workers by management guru – Peter Drucker. As the name suggests, knowledge entrepreneurs are highly educated and work primarily with information. They develop and use knowledge in the workplace to create new products or services.

Knowledge entrepreneurs are highly demanded in this information age; their specialized intellectual assets are highly valued in the corporate world as more knowledge works arise. They work with complex ideas and concepts and use new found information to solve complicated problems and issues.

Some good examples of knowledge entrepreneurs include: researchers, scientists, technical writers, programmers, academic professionals, systems analysts, lawyers and more.

Unlike the rest of the new breed professionals, knowledge entrepreneurs have to invest a lot of times on formal education and continual training. They need to constantly keep up to date with the latest technology and knowledge so as to continue excel in their jobs. They may not enjoy the freedom and flexibility in their works like other new breed of professionals but their rewards derive from great satisfaction of creating new things and solving problems for human lives.

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Do you see yourself as one of these new breed of professionals? Some of you may see yourself belong to different groups at the same time. How do you feel being part of them? Do you think they will evolve into another new breed of professionals in future? Please leave your thoughts and comments below.

The technological advances, globalization, increased education and change of economy have not only caused massive change to the workforce but also to the way we work today. Fierce competitions have forced many businesses to go for 24×7 operations. To reduce operation costs, some businesses have to outsource their non-core businesses to specialist providers while some choose to bring in specialists only on per project basis to reduce the need for permanent and full-time staff.

The need for efficiency, speed, mobility, flexibility and specialized skills has caused an emerging breed of new and extraordinary professionals to meet the demand. These groups of professionals are highly knowledgeable, creative, innovative and tech savvy. They are independent, flexible in their working time and place and adaptable to the constant changing business environment.

In the first part of the post, we will look at some of the new breeds of professionals who emerge to satisfy the technology driven and ever-changing business environment.

1. Flexi-Professionals
The first group is called the Flexi-professionals. They are very particular about flexibility in their work schedule and workplace because of their personal or family commitment. They are welcomed by businesses that only want occasional but specialized help in their businesses but could not afford full-time staff.

Flexi-professionals are excellent resources when businesses are tight in manpower. For example, they are greatly demanded during peak periods like festive seasons, new product launch or implementation of new projects.

They can be engaged on per project or contract basis. It is common for professionals like freelancers, contractors, consultants and advisors to fall under this category.

They are highly independent, specialized and adaptable as they need to work in different work environments and cultures.

Flexi-professionals enjoy the flexibility of time and work but unfortunately, they are normally not entitled to the same benefits as full-time staff such as insurance and health benefits.

2. Webpreneurs
The second group is known as Webpreneurs, they are highly tech-savvy entrepreneurs who operate web based enterprise or business online. More and more people are now turning to become webpreneur because of the ease of setting business online; another reason is due to the negative impact of the economic downturn. People are taking proactive approach to create jobs for themselves than waiting for jobs.

Thanks to information technologies, there are now plenty of opportunities offered online. Webpreneurs found that the job opportunities are no longer limited to their own countries but can be found globally. For example, selling affiliate products, setting ecommerce store, becoming a virtual assistants, selling unused product at eBay and etc. There are many untapped niches and opportunities online if one know the ways to do it.

Webpreneurs enjoy the flexibility to work where and when they wish as long as there is internet connection. Some Webpreneurs may have a team of people working with them but may not have met all their colleagues face-to-face as they are virtual team. Their teammates may come from different countries and time zone but have no problem working together remotely and virtually.

This is the beauty of being a webpreneur as it crosses the boundaries of space, time and culture.

3. Home Entrepreneur
The third group is known as home entrepreneurs. There are many factors that caused the emergence of home entrepreneurs. The main driver is the technological advancement which makes starting a business a breeze nowadays. Another main contributing factor is the inability to find similar job after laid off. So instead of joining the mad competition of job hunting, most prefer to take control under their own hands by creating jobs for themselves. They either sell their services back to their previous employers or to their competitors.

Unlike the other two professionals, home entrepreneurs have no bosses to report to so they have to very self discipline and independent. They need to work smarter than the rest as their success depend on how well they could work. They are thrived in multi-tasking and time management as time is money to them. They are also high energy, persistent and tech savvy.

Successful home entrepreneur know how to plan their time well, their shared goal is to have a good work-life balance and enjoy the flexibility without compromising on work quality and family concerns. However, there are some prefer to integrate work into their life as they enjoy what they are doing every day.

Working as a home entrepreneur can be quite lonely at time but smart home entrepreneurs should know how to leverage technology to network with their community online.

4. Lifestyle Entrepreneur
The next group is called lifestyle entrepreneurs; they are professionals who seek to make a living around their lifestyles. Unlike the rest, they do not work mainly for money; their work mission is either for personal or social cause. In short, they are motivated by lifestyle not money.

They prefer to work when and where they want or even who they want. Their main goal is to gain independence and personal freedom. Compare with other new breed of professionals, lifestyle entrepreneurs are not so ambitious to build a business empire for their businesses. However, there are still some lifestyle entrepreneurs who have found success in their businesses but their number one priority is still their personal life.

Not all economies favor lifestyle entrepreneurs because they are considered as laid-back business owners who are not aggressive enough for economic growth. Most of them just earned enough to survive and they are just happy with them. If a country is looking for exponential growth, this may not a good news to its economy.

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The above are some of the new breed of professionals who are found in the new economy, be sure to keep an eye on next week’s post where there are more new emerging professionals covered. If you have come across any new and interesting breed of professionals, please share it with us at the comments below.

We are so used to leaving our careers to our employers that we forgotten we have the ability to mould the desired career ourselves. This is evident when one is laid off; the first thing that came into his or her mind is to find another job immediately to replace what he or she has lost. But times have changed, economic is bad now and jobs are scarce so instead of thinking finding another job and leaving your career to the hands of your new employer, think again! You may end up underpaid, unhappy and under developed for your career.

We should stop relying on other and start taking responsibility for our own careers. In this post, we will see how one can mould out a second career from his or her own home after being laid off. Why from home, you may ask? This is to take full advantage of what you have and reduce unnecessary expenses. Since it will also be you long-term career, starting from home will be a good starting ground.

1. Set a Career Goal
First and foremost, set a career goal for yourself – see what and where you want to be in a specific time frame. Unlike in the corporate world where you can see a rigid career path with fanciful job titles laid out for you, there is, however, no such career path now. You are free to mould one for yourself. For example, if you have an interest in public speaking, you can set yourself a goal to become a highly demand and well-known speaker in 5 years’ time.

Once you have set your career goal, it will be easy to mould the steps toward achieving it.

2. Align Your Interest & Passion with Your Career Goal
It is important to align your interest and passion with your career goal so that your journey towards your goal will be a pleasant and enjoyable one. In addition, your interest and passion will help to sustain your enthusiasm when you encountered obstacles and difficulties. They can be excellent motivators during down times.

3. Take Stock of Your Expertise
Next, take stock of what are your skills, experience and expertise that you have. You can read the previous post “Laid-off Professionals: Discover Your Lifetime Goldmines” on how to do this. You need to understand your strengths and weakness so that you know how to best utilize both your good and bad attributes.  At the same times, it also helps to manage your personal expectation more realistically.

4. Utilize Your Expertise
Once you have identified your wealth of skills, experience and expertise, it is time to decide how you can utilize them to help you to achieve your goal. You can read the steps on my previous post “How to Convert Your Skills and Expertise into Goldmines”. The steps suggested are skewed heavily towards starting your own home online business and producing digital products. This is to leverage on the internet technology and low entry cost of online business.

5. Find a Suitable Industry
You can either continue in your existing industry or find a new industry that interests you. If your current industry is dying, you may consider switching to a new industry that can utilize your expertise. Many skill sets are still transferable if you know how to customize and upgrade them with some relevant training.

6. Check Your Comfort Level
Since you are creating a long-term career, you should also check you comfort level. Some of them include the following.

• Are you comfortable working alone with no support at home?
• Are you comfortable working with your kids around?
• Are you comfortable working with PC, laptop, computer programs and Internet?
• Are you comfortable dealing with customers and other business functions?

These are some questions that you need to think ahead before starting a second career as some of them may hinder your success toward achieving your career goal.

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