planning template and process for career change, self-employment or new business start-up

People who are successful and happy usually work at something they love.
We rarely achieve great happiness and success working at what we dislike.
Also, what we love doing we often do very well. In turn we love it more because we are very good at it.
These inter-related 'secrets' of success are often overlooked, as many people find themselves doing work which they dislike, or even starting a business which they will not enjoy.

Often through necessity our work is not our ideal choice, but there are many times when we can choose a new direction, or maybe start a new part-time venture while keeping the 'day-job'. Through life we have more opportunity to choose a new or additional direction than we might realise. Sticking to habits or the expectations of others can prevent discovering greater success and fulfilment. If you want to make a change, consider this model.

enjoyment, passion, natural inclination, and love of something → effort, determination, practice, knowledge, and experience ↓ ↑ reward, satisfaction, independence, and free choice ← expertise, quality, reputation, value, and efficiency

Being good at something enables high quality results to be produced for customers - in a way that competitors have trouble beating. When we excel and work hard at something we inevitably become better at it. We develop expertise and specialisms. We innovate and create. Making constant improvements in work or business happens much easier when we enjoy and love what we do.
This effect enables many people to build successful businesses around their hobbies or passions. If you build a career or new business plans around a personal passion, or an activity or interest that you love, you will tend automatically to harness several vital elements for success:

• you will work very hard and be determined and persistent
• you will constantly improve your skills and knowledge, which will improve your product/service quality
• you will have a smile on your face, and your enthusiasm will transfer to staff, customers, suppliers, supporters, etc
• you will quickly build a strong reputation - especially for reliability and quality
• you will treat mistakes and failures as lessons learned and challenges to be met - instead of obstacles and problems
• you will keep up to date with trends, and you will increasingly lead new trends
• you will build competitive advantage - especially in quality, customer service and value
• you will be efficient and so make profits easier
• you will be happy in your work - which helps sustain success and life-balance

These principles underpin the processes and template below.

process and template purpose

These process and template methods are designed to help identify, plan and achieve a career or business, for example:

• starting a career, after school or college
• career new direction and/or change
• new business start-up
• buying a business or franchise
• starting a part-time business or second job
• or becoming self-employed or freelance

The tool and process are for people facing or seeking a career change, especially a move into self-employment or starting up their own new business. Redundancy, for example, or losing a job for other reasons, is a difficult experience, yet can offer a great chance to find a new and better direction.
The materials and methods can also be used with groups of people seeking career change, direction, or help with planning self-employment or new business start-up.
The ideas could be helpful to you if you've googled search terms such as:

• career planner
• find my ideal business
• career plans template
• find the right job for me
• find my ideal career
• decide my career
• what's my my ideal job?
• decide a new business direction
• business start-up process tips
• achieve success and happiness
• be happy in my work
• start a new (whatever) business - the 'whatever' being your passion
• be my own boss
• fresh start after redundancy

passion to profit planner

The exercise is not a substitute for conventional 'outplacement' counselling and training support, or for new business planning.
It's an additional (quick and early) planning tool - perhaps to open more possibilities - which for some people is helpful beyond traditional career advice, or complex business plans, since it focuses on making the most of your own passions and strengths, rather than being influenced by the job market or other market pressures.
The process also enables more creative ideas and possibilities than are normally encouraged in traditional business planning.
Here is a quick simple outline of the process and template:

1		2		3		4		5		6
your passion or passions	+	your strengths and your preferred working style	+	some research	+	shape it all into something that people want	+	time to grow and develop	=	your new career or business, your independence and security

Here is the process explanation in more detail.

new career/business planner - basic principles

• You will be successful and happy at work if your work is built on your own strengths and passions.
• Successful self-employment or freelance work is ideally based on your own personal strengths and passions too.
• So too would a successful new start-up businesses, if that's what you'd like to do.
• On the other hand, conventional miserable employment tends to be built on received or inherited or conditioned ideas of what work should be: the need to get a job, any job; the obligation to pursue aspirations of parents or other authority figures; the reluctance to or fear of change; and habits of lifestyle, social circles, spending patterns, etc., which constrain personal freedom and thinking.
• Employment is traditionally considered (and advocated by parents and teachers, etc) to be safer and more secure than self-employment and running your own business. Usually it's not, especially today. Being in control of your own work as a supplier or freelancer, or running your own business, is commonly the most reliable way to earn a living and build financial security and confidence.
• Whether you pursue your career through employment or self-employment or by starting your own business, the vital change is to see yourself as - and act like - a supplier, fulfilling a function which makes use of your passion(s) and strength(s).

This process seeks to:

• Suggest a more satisfying idea of what work is and can be.
• Reduce or eliminate dependence upon an employer for work and financial security.
• Offer a path - in achievable stages - away from miserable unsatisfying employment, especially if required due to redundancy or an unacceptable work situation (stress, travel, life-balance, or the simple need to be happier, etc).
• Encourage and enable self-determination, self-reliance, and independence.

The process is contained in the template below, and essentially follows the passion to profit formula above:
For the purposes of this exercise, 'passions' are the things you love and enjoy, and typically that you are naturally good at too. 'Strengths' are your working and thinking styles - for example whether you are good with people or not; whether you are good with numbers, or machines, or processes; whether you are a logical or an intuitive thinker, etc. You will know your passions. The Multiple Intelligences Self-Test and the VAK Self-Test can help to confirm your natural strengths and preferred thinking and working styles. There is some overlap between passions and strengths, but essentially passions will tend to suggest what you can do and offer, whereas strengths tend to suggest how you will provide whatever offering you develop.
Experience, knowledge, skills and attitude can feature in, and for many people contribute to, both passions and strengths, but for the purposes of this exercise are best considered within strengths.
My personal situation provides an example of how a passion and strength can combine to create more meaningful work and a new business. One of my own passions is personal development. One of my strengths is writing. The combination of these two enabled me to develop this website. I am a better writer than a face-to-face trainer (although it took me a while to realise it). I know now that I can make very effective use of my passion by channelling it through written delivery. The internet offered a way to turn this into a new business. I'm not a web designer or programmer, but the combination of a passion and a strength proved powerful enough for me to overcome the technical challenges. This sort of approach is possible for anyone: combine a passion with a strength, and amazing things can happen. I've seen it in very many people and the formula always seems to be similar.
Here's a different hypothetical example:
You might be stuck in work you hate. You might have a passion for working with animals. You have strengths in working with people and organising and scheduling. Just a little research will confirm the enormous potential for all products and services related to animals. With some creative open-minded thinking, and adding in your other passions and strengths (all you are good at and love and enjoy - plus relevant experience, knowledge, skills and attitude), many possibilities for a new business or freelance service - working with animals and related products services - will begin to emerge. If you commit your time to develop and allow these ideas to grow (which is the essence of turning ideas or dreams into reality), then real choice and change inevitably follow, and an exciting new business if you want.

passion to profit template

action	your own notes, aims and commit- ments*	guidance notes
1. List your passions. In no particular order or structure - passions are what you love and enjoy, and will tend to be things that you are good at.		Everyone loves and is very good at something, and generally two or three things. Keep an open mind when you consider your own passions. It is possible to make a new career or business out of anything. Passions are not necessarily related to conventional work and how we imagine work to be, and yet every passion can be a career or a new business. A hobby is often a passion. A yearning or feeling drawn to a natural capability is often a passion. Get feedback from positive friends about your own passions, especially if your confidence is at a low ebb. Everyone is fantasticat something, or potentially so. A passion (or combination of more than one passion) is the root of a truly successful new venture - be it a career change, becoming freelance, or starting a new business.
2. List your strengths. Strengths are your preferred working styles, including the way you prefer to connect with people.		Measure your Multiple Intelligences and your VAK style, to see your basic strengths and working style preferences (e.g., inter-personal, or numerical, or words and language) which will indicate your most natural and effective type of work and ways you can do and provide the work. Get feedback from positive friends, especially if your confidence is at a low ebb. You experience (including hard knocks and tough times), your knowledge, skills and attitudinal strengths are all part of your strengths
3. Combine your of passion(s) and strengths. Look for combinations which could work together to produce an offering that people want or need, in a way that you can provide it enjoyably.		Mix and match your passions and strengths to create combinations which would work together as products or services, or a special expertise which others might need. Brainstorming is very useful for this stage of the process