TGHarris Consulting

I am always paying attention to what business owners do to promote their businesses and I continually get amazed at how many of them have a FEAR of promoting their business. What is even more amazing is how comfortable they are promoting other businesses. I will see them wearing designer shirts , hats, glasses, jackets, t-shirts and carrying around a name brand coffee mug and so on. I think you get my point.

To really make my point I want to share a story with you that recently happened to me.

I was walking by a store front of a gentleman that I have over time become quite familiar with. He owns a franchise business that is fairly new to our area. Over a period of time he has asked me for some advice on promoting his business. I have given him about three ideas that would give him great exposure to his target market and would cost him virtually nothing but he has never acted on them. Anyway back to my story. This gentleman always has a cold coffee drink every time I see him, so I commented how he must love coffee. He then proceeded to give me a 15 minute commercial on Costco’s Kirkland brand coffee and how much better and cheaper it was versus’ Starbucks. As I listened to him endorse this coffee brand I kept thinking how I wished he would do the same type of endorsement for his own business.

You see he had never followed up with the promotional ideas I gave him because he was too EMBARRASSED to let the organizations I had referred him to know he was soliciting their help in the marketing for his own business.

Why are we so comfortable PROMOTING someone else’s business and so EMBARRASSED to PROMOTE our own?

In today’s economy SELF PROMOTION is not SHAMELESS it is SURVIVAL!

Please tell me your Self Promotion Story.

Terry

The Business Coach

I was talking with a client a while back and we were discussing her lack of follow through with her marketing efforts. I started to see a reoccurring theme with our discussions. She would start on a new marketing project, get it going and start to see some business from it. Then she would stop following up with it and move on to next Big Idea. This was happening over and over again.

I finally asked her why she kept starting and stopping her marketing efforts. She replied “I don’t know”. I looked straight at her and asked, do you have a Fear of Failure or Success? Fear of Failure or Success! Which one is it?

If you look at her track record it is clear that she does not have a Fear of Failure but a Fear of Success. Why do I say that? Because she comes up with a great marketing idea, acts on it, gets some positive results and moves on.

If you find yourself doing the same thing, ask yourself the question. Do I have a Fear of Failure or do I have a Fear of Success? Now here is the real trick, you have to give yourself an answer.

Do I have a Fear of Failure or Do I have a Fear of Success?

Sequencing Mothers
Regaining Your Career After Staying Home To Manage The Family
Written By: Terry Harris

Sequencing:The fluid work pattern which occurs over a number of years and at various stages of motherhood in which mothers move in and out of paid employment and/or opt for a variety of flexible work arrangements in order to successfully balance their work and family responsibilities.

Regaining your professional career after staying home to raise a family presents an often frustrating challenge for the stay at home mom. The truth is that the longer you are out of the workforce, the harder it is to sell yourself and your abilities in such a way that you can actually get an interview, much less a job.

The Good news is that according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of April 2007, 60% of married mothers with pre-school aged children are now back in the workforce.

Repeated labor shortages and periods of high unemployment work in favor of moms returning to the workforce. For the past several years many companies have been starting up programs geared towards the sequencing mother.

But Where do you begin to search for available jobs? How do you regain the self confidence to get your professional life back on track, and most importantly, get offered a job when you have been out of circulation for so long?

Networking is an important step in the sequencing mothers list of preparations for regaining her career. Seventy-eight percent of employers use employee referrals as their primary method of recruitment. Once you have made the decision to return to work you should start discussing your decision with anyone who will listen. You never know who may have a lead, or may have heard of an available position through the grapevine. Get in touch with old work buddies or coworkers and do lunch. If you belong to some sort of Mommy & Me group begin discussions with other mothers about their plans to return to the workforce, or start a blog on the Mommy & Me website where you can share information, personal stories, and tips about the job market. Join clubs and attend alumni events. Many of these organizations have online newsletters, communities, and job boards. Another really great source of information is job fairs and expos. Even if you don’t walk away with the job leads you were hoping for, job fairs and expos will give you the opportunity to ask questions and to get a feel for what companies are looking for these days. Use job fairs and expos as an opportunity to work on your interviewing skills by engaging in conversation with the people working the booths.

The most important thing you can do for yourself when trying to get back into the workforce is to make your intentions known. So get out there and get the process started!

Creating a winning resume and cover letter is also of major importance for the sequencing mother. It is here that you will get the opportunity to explain the gaps in your resume and sell your future employer on all the great skills you have mastered while staying home to manage your household.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the preparation involved in regaining your career, you may want to consider hiring an interview coach or consultant. An interview coach will help you to discover your hidden skills and create a job objective, write a creative cover letter and resume to get you noticed, and prepare you for the interviewer‘s difficult questions. Nothing builds confidence better than preparation, and nothing can prepare you for the interview process better than someone who has spent years mastering the art of interviewing. For more information on interview coaching go to http://www.TGHarris.com.

The biggest hurdle for mothers re-entering the work force, or sequencing moms, is their uneasiness about having been out of the professional world for so long. It’s really just a matter of changing your perspective and giving yourself a mental makeover about all of your wonderful qualities and all you have to offer your employer.

If you have a clear vision of who you are, what you are looking for in a job, and what your skills and strong traits are, then you will be prepared for the interviewer’s questions. Especially the ones directed towards sequencing mothers.