Let's talk business ... (page 3)

just fine

I have been successful in my chosen career. I have all the perks that goes with being an executive (salary, bonuses, stock options etc). One of the first things I did after leaving the cult was go to college and get a degree.

But I started a consulting business facilitating strategic planning meetings for small and medium size businesses, my main customers are banks and credit unions. The meetings are usually held on weekends at resorts. So my travel is all paid for by the customer. If it’s one day I get $1500, 2 days is $2500 plus travel expenses. There is work reviewing the customers financial and marketing plans leading up to the meetings. It’s fun, I can help some smaller businesses that need it and still keep my day job.

dubstepped

@truth_b_known - I've always thought that being a PI sounded like a really interesting career. Congrats on the impending retirement and new opportunities.

dubstepped

@just fine- Congrats! I'm super jealous of your consulting gigs. I love small service businesses and love marketing and being a consultant for that is a dream of mine. I've just learned from forums and info products and not real world experience so I lack confidence. I've done well in our cleaning business but am more of an offline marketing guy specializing in under promising and over delivering to build fans that promote us as free salespeople. I'm not sure that translates.

Anyway, good for you for making a successful career for yourself!

just fine

Tbh I didn’t realize how much money I could make at consulting. My first consulting job - I was going to ask $500 - but the business said they could only afford $1500 and hoped I would still take the job. I was like sure I can do that. Lol

dubstepped

^^^^ First lesson you gave them - how to negotiate, lol.

Della Street

hitting the wall and going to the hospital looks like not being able to move off the couch and then over dosing on pills. I was in and out of the hospital November - January. I'm still working on getting stable.

If you can, put in some stop gaps before you work yourself to the point that you can't function.

jwfacts

Sales is the highest paid job that often does not require a degree to get into. JWs are highly trained in sales. The word persistence is one of the key words that defines a successful sales person, and no one is more persistent than a JW that tried to sell God week in week out since the first time they opened their mouth.

I'm not sure with the new format CLAM though, it seems a lot of the sales training from the old TMS has gone.

nonjwspouse

I agree with JWfacts about sales. Plus, dubstepped, you have experience and a good business model. You can teach .Write an entertaining How To book. Teach a class at your community college about starting a small business.

Also, consider a trade school, The trades are a hot market now.

Classes in accounting and other business subjects could be very helpful for you. Getting a degree isn't always necessary. Experience counts too.

dubstepped

@Della Street - Whew, that's rough. I'm so sorry you got to that point. One thing I have written down on my daily notes list is that "Business Is There To Serve You" because I can often lose sight of that and become a slave to it. You're right in that I need to put measures in to stop it before it gets out of hand.

I think that growing up JW, with the constant activity in my family, has made me somewhat a workaholic. We were in school, then came home and studied or wrote talks or went out in service in the evenings. On the weekends it was service and meetings and more service. Constant moving, constant striving, never content to just "be".

dubstepped

@JWFacts - Ah yes, sales is a great field, a way to level the playing field as far as income goes. If you can sell and get into the right product or service you can do very well for yourself. I've never really tried it, other than for my own businesses. I really have to believe in something or I can't sell it at all. That's probably the reason I stopped going out in service close to a decade before I finally woke up to the cult I was in. I knew something was wrong and couldn't sell it anymore even though I didn't really consciously know it.

Let's talk business ...

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