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?