Ready to pack your bags and chase that seemingly out-of-reach goal? You can do it...
During my early twenties, my biggest dream was to one day earn a living by becoming a writer. With rabid optimism and little more than 50 bucks in the bank, i quit my days job as soon as I turned 24 - only to plunge headlong into months of unemployment. "It's not so bad," I'd think to myself between mouthful of corned beef. Suffice to say, things got rather bleak before they became better. In hindsight, it's obvious that some sensible planning would've made the transition a whole lot smoother.
Blake Beattie, motivational expert, believe that careful goal setting is essential to reaching your dreams - whether it be a career change, or picking up a new skill. By breaking long-term goals down to smaller chunks, you'll make things a more achievable. Some people wait too long to be ready and that feeling never arrives. Part of the reason is because stepping outside your comfort zone can often be unnerving, but it's something we all need to do.
So let the planning begin ...
live an expat life ...
we asked: Vern Narayan, marketing manager of employment services company Manpower
baby step:
- Brainstorm which country and industry you want to work in. Research the job market conditions - if it's flat, perhaps sit tight until the economy improves.
- Build connections. Join professional social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, and seek out unadvertised opportunities from colleagues around the world.
- Try international secondment. These can either be temporary assignments to a regional or oversea branch of your current company, or an assignment within a client's business.
- Happy in your current line of work? Consider relocation within your company. Many large multinational businesses have internal recruitment teams who promote and advertise roles locally and internationally.
- Not sure where to go? A recent Manpower study showed the top five expat hostspots are the US, UK, Spain, Canada and United Arab Emirates.
- If you are ready for a sea change, find yourself an awesome pad to rent on craiglist.org (an online classified)
we asked: Angela Vithoulkas, director of VIVO cafe group, and winner of NSW Telstra Business Owner Award (2007).
baby steps:
- Find a niche. Clarify what your business is - whether it's goods, services, wholesale or retail. Next, you may need to know who your market is, then create a detailed plan of how to reach them
- Research a company you like and study their business model.
- A franchise could be good if you want to be introduced to the systematic way of running a day-to-day business.
- Online companies usually have low start-up costs and can be a great way to distribute our product or service to a wider market.
- Once you have a rough business plan in hand, head to government websites for small business. These sites have lot of resources and structures for helping your company in its early stages and also during expansion.