What’s your working journey in 2011?

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and found fascinating the current TV series ‘Britain at Work’ hosted by Kirsty Young.

It has raised a huge amount of questions prompting many conversations with my Mum looking back over the years studying people’s attitude towards work over different generations.

One question raised this week with my Mum was why I couldn’t remember very much the 80’s miner’s strikes and the terrible times families suffered in the hands of industries being wiped out causing extreme unemployment with over 3 million out of the work. During this period when I was growing up as a teenager I remember well the scenario of Dad intensely watching the evening news when you dare not say a word or else you would be glared at and told to be quiet (which I wonder now how often this typical picture plays out in family homes). It occurred to me that because my parents were self employed and ran their own business what was happening around me, didn’t directly affect me as none of our family members worked down the mines either.

My parents were lucky to be in a position where financial independence was possible, certainly didn’t earn pots of money but they didn’t have to rely on an employer to provide the work and wage packet. Yes I do remember things being tough with not a lot of money floating around but we certainly didn’t go without.

This made me realise and ask the question about attitude to life and work and what impression parents and family make on you as you grow up. Definitely having a family that ran their own business made a mark on me, helped create my outlook and influences on life – having to stand on your own two feet and not solely rely on other people. My parents were very much about being an individual and not being a ‘sheep’, following the crowd. They knew life was going to get even tougher and having a certain amount of independence and self reliability was very important.

Over the last few months I’ve had an increased amount of people contact me interested in finding out how to become a home working virtual assistant – which has been fantastic.

As always I paint a realistic picture of what it’s like to start up your own new venture, all the excitement and buzz, opportunities of being your own boss and setting up your own virtual assistance business. What I always point out is the two sides of being self employed and what the real crux of running a business involves. You can be the greatest provider of your service in the world but if you can’t sell it then you’re going to have a hard time. When you say to someone that business falls into the 80/20 rule – 80% is running the business getting clients on board and 20% is doing the actual work, for some the idea of going self employed suddenly loses its appeal. Going self employed doesn’t automatically suite everyone!

Going back to the TV series ‘Britain at Work’ – a large percentage of people are brought up with the ideals of getting a job with the strong reliance of large companies and authorities to provide the work and the wage packet every month. A large percentage of people will be looking for something different, wanting to be their own boss, choosing not to be reliant on a company to provide the work but want to be financially independent and generate their own work.

But what is guaranteed these days – very little. So are we at a tipping point in society where people are being forced into rethinking their working life journey?

After watching the tragic aftermath of the peaceful demonstrations in Hyde Park this weekend followed by the violent disruption at Trafalgar Square with the small percentage of people intent on causing violent chaos – are we walking into a worrying period of repeated demonstrations with the rise of unemployment on the up.

Will we start to see a huge rise in more people taking up the self employment route – is it a survival strategy out of this mess?

Having the confidence to go it alone when you’ve always been in work where the responsibility of finding the clients/customers/sales has been the manager/owner/executive’s role is like tipping a working role scenario on its head. All of a sudden it’s your responsibility to find the clients that want the services/products that you’re selling – you’re forced into the driving seat of being the sales person – it can be an overwhelming place to be. All of a sudden you’ve got to wear the hats of about 10 different roles usually held by different people made up in a company. Having the ability, energy, enthusiasm, drive and sometimes the courage to try something new doesn’t automatically exist in everyone.

So who is going to provide the jobs for all these people who don’t fancy self employment?

Is it up to you, individually to create your own work, take a look at what skills you already have and think hard about what you could provide as a service or a product to sell?

What is the survival strategy – does anyone have the answer that’s likely to fit all the differing scenarios to look after all those millions of people out of work.

Whose responsibility is it?

Looking at the growing Virtual Assistance Industry – what’s happening in the US and what’s happening in my area?

Obama signed the Telework Enhancement Bill in December last year allowing federal employees to work from home 2-3 days per week – I’ve been looking to see what impact this is having on US federal workers and how this new way of working is about to be rolled out.

My family lives in Doncaster, South Yorkshire and suffer the horrendous traffic congestion on route causing absolute chaos and continuous stressful journeys for those travelling into the centre due to bus lanes being incorporated into the already congested 2 lane road into the bottle neck area of the town. I wonder how many of those driving into work, dropping kids off at school and child care facilities would relish the chance of working from home even if only 2 to 3 days per week.

There is more evidence of businesses and organisations seeing the benefit of virtual working and the huge impact this can have on driving to and from office premises. Apart from the environmental factors with councils desperate to get more cars off the roads especially those leading into city centres, there’s the cost of petrol and parking charges for workers.

When will more organisations and businesses see the huge impact and benefits of allowing employees to work from home along with using virtual assistants to take care of their day to day admin tasks – it makes such absolute sense!

The BBC has caught onto the fact and did a report on ‘Doing business in your pyjamas’.

Taken from the Loudon Times in the US, Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.), one of the authors of the bill and a longtime advocate for telecommuting opportunities for federal workers, applauded the bill. In advocating for the bill’s passage, Auten’s group pointed to research showing that a three-day-per-week teleworker can save almost $5,900 each year on commuting costs and prevent more than 9,000 pounds of pollutants from damaging the environment.

I loved Congressman Frank Wolf’s description found on a previous article he said there was no magic in strapping yourself into a vehicle and joining a queue of traffic every day when you can easily do the same job from your home office.

So what are we waiting for, if it makes so much sense to work from your home office why aren’t more people and businesses doing this?

I would love to do a survey and ask every driver that parks their car in the centre of cities and large towns like Doncaster on a Monday morning, just to see what their reaction was if they had the chance to work from home.

Watch this space!

What plans do you have in March for your business?

We’re always looking to see how we can help you with your monthly planning in the areas of administration, creative marketing and general awareness raising of your business.

Do you want to make further updates to your website with new content and pictures?

Do you need help with ideas for promoting your business on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter?

Are you intrigued as to how people make new business contacts online using LinkedIn and if these Social Media tools actually work?

What about creating regular content for a blog or newsletter – are you already doing this?

What about using your skills to talk to groups of students and going into schools and colleges giving your experiences on life in business. If you think about all those students who have families and friends who could equally run their own business and might need your support.

Have you got all your contacts and business cards in one central location so when it comes to sending out an email you only visit one database or spreadsheet – when was the last time you updated your contact list?

If you are interested in finding out more details about the services we can offer on an hourly rate please contact Tracey at tracey@virtual-administration.com