Yes, you can create steady income from self-employment, based on what you already know and do well.
Yes, you can build a long-lasting self-employment career without spending time and money to retrain and reskill.
Yes, you can blend your professional goals and your personal financial goals to achieve financial independence on your own terms.
Imagine this…
You stop worrying about job security and whether or not you are next on the corporate ‘hit list’ of layoffs.
Your experience and age work for you to win clients, not against you to repel job offers.
You have strong momentum that you are confident will carry you across the retirement finish line – a line that seems to keep moving further and further away if you stay on the traditional employment career path.
That’s a lot to not worry about. And aren’t you tired of worrying?
Of course, career and financial uncertainty are not your fault. There are so many factors you simply can’t control: the economy, your employer’s financial situation, the public health crisis and other massive trends that threaten to sweep away the financial stability you have already built.
None of this is your fault. But all of this is your problem.
What if there was a way to start now to build the life you’ve always wanted: more control over your time and energy while steadily earning, saving and building lifelong economic independence?
You can achieve this through a strong, steady start to sustainable self-employment, using the skills and expertise you’ve gained throughout your career.
Through fulfilling work that puts your goals and needs on equal footing with the work you do for clients or customers.
But how?
How can you design the integrated career and life you envision without starting from scratch?
One thing’s for sure: you won’t get there by following the traditional path to self-employment.
The mythology of successful self-employment is that ‘taking the plunge’ involves a flash of inspiration PLUS hard work to get a new idea off the ground, PLUS plenty of luck.
The truth about successful self-employment is this: it’s almost always based on career experience of 20 or more years.
The ‘secret sauce’ is this: combining your deep knowledge of an industry with your ability to ‘skate to where the puck is’ based on what and who you already know.
Done right, transitioning to self-employment is low-risk and high return.
Done right, self-employment opens more career options than sticking with a narrow path.
Self-employment might mean forging a path that leads you to and through retirement. It might take you back to a better staff position than the one you left. It might lead to a growing business that employs others – if you want.
The key is to remix what you’re already good at and what you already like to do.
Ready to get going? Click here.
It’s not about ‘starting over.’ It’s not about ‘reinvention.’
It is about gaining a better and different return on the career you have been investing in for decades.
How do you turn years of career experience into a thriving self- employment business with minimal financial risk and maximum chance of success?
This course, ‘Staff to Self-employment,’ breaks this process down into seven manageable steps.
I’ve designed this course to equip you with the insight and action to transition from the staff job you have or recently had into lucrative and satisfying self-employment.
This course is based on over 20 years of research and consulting with companies and individuals and my own personal experience.
I’ve combined the best wisdom from people in a variety of industries who have engineered smooth, low-risk, high-return transitions to self-employment with the smartest advice from career experts. All of this made my book, The Career Lattice (McGraw Professional, 2012), the go-to guide for college and workforce career counselors.
And I’ve lived my own advice, too. Twice, I’ve transitioned from self-employment to staff positions and back again.
I know how it feels to have the economy crumble under your feet.
In 2008, I was laid off from a staff job at a newspaper, right as I was trying to get my last child through college. Thankfully, I never stopped freelancing.
Even in the depths of the recession, I was able to ramp up my income to nearly replace my staff salary.
I know how it feels to want and need to get income flowing soon and steadily, through self-employment.
I’m Joanne Cleaver. I’m a business journalist-turned-career researcher and consultant.
Since 1998, I’ve been running major research projects for magazines and associations that analyze the deep drivers of sustained career success. In 2008, when companies were starting to figure out the power of lateral career moves, I was the first independent researcher to drill down to the deep drivers of career lattice success for individuals and for employers. Since then, I’ve been applying d what I’ve been learning about career lattices to my own work and my life.
Twice, I’ve cycled to and out of traditional employment: What I knew as a freelancer made me a better staffer, and what I learned as a staffer helped me quickly regain momentum as a full-time freelancer
Now my mission is to help others in the same boat – and right now, it’s a pretty big boat, and we’re all in it. I help individuals and employers make the very most of career lattices to build resilient careers that withstand economic upheaval.
Enough about me. This is about you and your goals. If you’re ready to get going, click here.
What a Longtime Business Startup Coach Says About ‘Staff to Self-employment’
When I lived in Chicago, I often presented this course offered right here, right now, ‘Staff to Self-Employment,’ to aspiring entrepreneurs through the Women’s Business Development Center.
Here’s what the Meg Herman, then the Director of Entrepreneurial Services, has to say about the career strategies in this course:
“Joanne Cleaver is a superb facilitator of learning conversations for people and organizations who are going through professional and organizational change. She has relevant and timely research at the ready to add value to those latticing their way to a new future in their industry/profession. This workshop fills a crucial gap to bridge to success for people considering entrepreneuring in their future.
Here’s exactly how ‘Staff to Self-employment’ equips you to design the self-employment platform that will deliver your lifestyle and income goals, sustainably:
- Break the ‘chicken and egg’ dilemma that cripples many aspiring self-employed professionals at the starting gate by learning how to gain the perfect first clients that you need to build sustainable income
- Crack the code for converting current and recent employers, colleagues and contacts into clients and referrals
- Detect underestimated, overlooked skills, expertise and experience that indicate your strongest platform for self-employment
- Understand how to remix your career proficiencies and accomplishments to craft a resilient self-employment practice that will weather economic ups and downs
- Gain confidence and ability to weave your personal short and long term financial goals with reliable self-employment income
- Accelerate your transition with proven templates, formulas and pricing tools so you can start out with your ideal clients
If this gets you to where you want to go, Click here.
Here’s How Staff to Self-Employment Helps Your Career Deliver the Life you Envision
If you envision a strong, steady start to sustainable self-employment, based on your proven career accomplishments, ‘Staff to Self-employment’ is for you
If you want to design self-employment that centers around your own financial and personal goals equally with the needs of your clients or customers, ‘Staff to Self-employment’ is for you.
If you want to cherrypick the projects, people and priorities that you know pay off in profit and peace of mind, ‘Staff to Self-employment’ is for you.
Got specific questions about how Staff to Self-employment can help you achieve your own goals? Please read this extensive FAQ, which also includes terms, conditions and guidance for
If you have questions about what’s included in the course that are not covered by the FAQ or in the course descriptions below, please email me at [email protected].
Today’s fragile economy leaves no room for career missteps.
If you have more questions, click here to go to our FAQ page.
Enroll now to power your financial and personal freedom. All the details are below. I look forward to meeting you in the ‘Staff to Self-employment’ classroom!
Course Information
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Workshop
- Forever access to the course, including tools, worksheets, videos, and resources. The course is continually updated with new materials, insights and access to information relevant to sustainable self-employment.
- Career Lattice monthly newsletter