This week I made a tough but crucial decision- to hand my work notice in, giving me 2 months left of my part time job. For those who don’t know, I work(ed) filming footage, editing it and putting it onto a website. I’ve been doing that for 2 to 3 years now and have learnt an incredible amount….now I feel like it’s the right time to move on.
A part of this has been thanks to my mentor and good friend, Trudy Thompson of Bricks and Bread. Over the past few months, she has supported me in my decision to start my own business venture and to make sure I’m doing what I enjoy.
It soon became obvious that we both shared an entrepreneurial and pro-active outlook on business and over the last few weeks, we have worked hard and put our thoughts into next year. We wanted to combine our passions and outlook on business into something that would give back to the community. Mentoring young people has already been a successful part of Trudy’s work and so now both Trudy and I have teamed up to offer a unique and effective scheme- Change to Save.
Click here to read more: www.changetosave.co.uk
In 2013, we have pledged to give a percentage of our time to 4,000 young people who could benefit from our services for free! To fund this, we offer our creative thinking solutions to businesses and also, work with businesses with similar outlooks through sponsorship and donations.
This in turn will help fund the JoshingTalk projects. Fear not, I will, for as long as I can, be doing what I love. Mixing gadgets and exploration- two worlds so far apart yet when put together, combine to help us find and understand answers that wouldn’t have been found without the partnership of one another.
So why do I think it’s the right time to move on?
It’s near impossible to know what the right decision is in any situation but I often refer to my gut feeling (after I’ve eaten) and it seems to be effective in providing a solution. Being 22 years old, I know that I’m in a situation where, strange as it might sound, time is on my side.
I do not yet have to think about a family, kids, a mortgage or whether the dog has been confusing his food bowl with the now worryingly spotless potty….so actually, if any time is going to allow me to dedicate myself to work, it’s now!
I’ve always wanted to explore life and from an early age found this enjoyment in sports, music, nature etc.. Now that I’m a ‘big boy’, I still have a curiosity for the unknown and there’s a whole world out there…. You can find me on a remote island studying the archaeology of a yet to be discovered tribe of 10,000 years ago. Either that or I could be donning the leather boots and down at the local park kicking a ball around.
The future, I think, is all about bringing up your own business or collaborating with businesses to achieve common goals. There is no split audience of consumers and business. We are always both of these whether we like it or not! For example, I may be a business selling mentoring services but I am still a consumer of books or DVD’s. Alan Sugar has several businesses all selling well but I bet you he still wakes up in the morning and enjoys his bowl of cornflakes that he bought from the local Tesco (he does do his own shopping right?).
The lesson is not to be scared at the thought of not having an audience. There is a market for everything and it’s finding the right communication that gets you into the right position. If more people start their own business venture, we are offering more goods for the consumers and more goods for consumers, means more business for business and so on. It goes round in circles!
Well I could lecture on about business, what I think is right and what I believe in but that’s not for me to say….or anyone actually!
‘How To Run Your Own Business’ is a book only you can write.
And you’re reading Chapter 2 of mine right now.
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[…] few blogs posts back I wrote about how I was leaving my job in order to put more time and effort into JoshingTalk and Change to Save (a joint business with […]