In this segment, we’re going to talk about career pathways, career strategies, and potential solutions for some of today’s career dilemmas.

This slide is a graphical representation of what we call the career path of yesteryear. It represents what Boomers—my generation, maybe your parents or grandparents—went through when we started our careers. This is what we were told our career path would be like: stay, grow, retire. In other words, get a job, grow, progress through that job, and at the end of your career, retire. Stay. Grow. Retire.

What does that look like? After we graduated high school or university, we got employed in a traditional career path, usually with a big company. As we progressed in that company, we got better at what we did. We got lateral transfers, promotions, and we grew. As we grew, our income increased, our cost of living rose over time, and life was good. We were progressively saving towards our retirement.

This career strategy—this career pathway—was what enabled most people of my generation to achieve their professional, personal, and financial goals. Unless you’re in a public sector or union environment, this is really the career path of yesteryear, isn’t it? Even in those two sectors, there is starting to be a lot more career risk.

Now we’re dealing with the career path of today. What we have to deal with and manage looks very different from what we saw traditionally. There are a lot more twists, turns, detours, and road closures. And we have to navigate all the way through that.

Rarely are people able to stick on one career path today with one company, where you’re there forever and the working conditions are favorable and progressively growing. Often, working conditions are becoming less and less favorable.

So let’s talk about the types of things we’re hearing from our clients in today’s corporate employment sector.

There’s a lack of control. Some companies are making short-term financial decisions, which end up in job losses and cut tenures. There’s a lack of flexibility in the contracts—this is what we call the gig economy. Gig economy jobs often require very specific hours, very specific locations, and frequently conflict with our lifestyle goals. That’s the work-life balance challenge.

The work is a lot less fulfilling. I often hear: “I feel like a cog in the wheel.” People feel stuck and unsure of the contribution they’re making to the corporation. Worse, they feel like they’re in a cubicle farm environment.

Lots of people are experiencing job transition and downsizing, where part of that transition includes moving to a different part of the city or a different province. That disrupts many aspects of life.

One of the big concerns we hear is that there’s not a lot of passion for the work—or the work is a lot different than what they thought it would be.

In other words, with all these different factors—some of which you’re probably experiencing yourself—there are a lot of things outside of our control causing our career pathways to take turns off the main road. That’s getting us into the side roads.

What we hear from people who are getting taken off track from their main career goal is that it’s harder to find the ideal career and achieve the goals they hoped to accomplish through corporate employment. When we look at all of these components, what we hear is that it’s very difficult for our clients to see that final destination of comfortable retirement through corporate employment—and how they’re going to get there.

What we’ve come to realize—and probably what you’ve come to realize as well—is that there are very few, if any, guarantees in corporate employment or self-employment. If anybody tells you there are guarantees, you should run the other way.

First of all, you have to assess your goals and objectives and define them as clearly as possible. Then you have to look at the best potential pathways and strategies to achieve those goals. As we’ve already discussed, there are really only two: corporate employment and self-employment.

Let’s look at the career path of today. Let’s face it: the rules of corporate employment now are very different than they were ten years ago. Unless you’re in a public sector or union job, job security rarely exists.

A CBC article from December 2018 stated that 75% of Canadians would leave their job tomorrow for a better opportunity. So, there’s a lot of dissatisfaction in the corporate world, isn’t there?

People regularly tell me they’re tired of the “do more with less for less” syndrome. More work. More responsibility. More time put in to get the work done—but with fewer people to do the work, less support, and fewer financial and operational resources. And it feels like less compensation.

Let’s look at risk from several different perspectives.

First, the perception of risk around a corporate job. I think, as you look at the questions people ask, none of them can be answered with a confident “yes” anymore. We’re hearing a lot of concerns with the risk of corporate employment.

As you’re moving along in your career journey, along comes a technological disruptive force that has a major impact on your role, department, or division. Leadership makes a decision, and it leads to reorganization and job loss.

Or, your company merges. Suddenly there are two people doing the same role, and leadership decides who stays. Again—reorganization, job loss.

You continue moving through your career, and now you start to dread monthly birthday events. You don’t want your age announced. This is ageism in the workforce. A recent Globe and Mail study identified ageism as the most socially acceptable form of discrimination in North America—more so than race, religion, or gender.

The reality is that many people who expected to have control over their career paths are experiencing anything but that. The new reality is: the longer you stay in a job, the more the risk increases. With current and future uncertainty around employment—and gaps in between jobs—a different strategy needs to be considered to achieve financial goals, long-term wealth, and retirement.

One of the possible solutions you may not have thought much about before today is business ownership.

In corporate employment, you’re reliant on the job—for as long as you have the job. With business ownership, you can create a business that provides income over a lifetime and builds equity for long-term wealth creation. It can lead to a really nice retirement down the road.

As I’ve said, there are no guarantees in business ownership. Many people choose not to do it because it’s risk-for-reward. That’s the decision you have to square off with: is there enough reward for the risk?

When business ownership is done right, it can be an exciting and lucrative path. We’re going to talk a lot about business ownership—and the focus on franchising—throughout the rest of this presentation.

If you’re between jobs or contracts, instead of using that gap to find your next 6-month or 2-year contract, we recommend using part of that time to thoroughly research business ownership options. It only takes 8 to 15 weeks to research your options.

If it’s the right business, you can decide if now is the right time to buy. If not, you’ll be more focused in your corporate job search. If you do buy the business, instead of using those unemployment gaps to look for another job, you’ll be leveraging that time to build your business, derive value, and build long-term equity. That creates long-term career security.

You need to be aware of the timeline. Depending on the business, it could take months to find a location, a few more months to get it ready to open, and several more months to reach breakeven. That’s where revenues cover expenses—and eventually, you start paying yourself. This is the ramp-up period.

We advise clients not to take income out of the business during the first 6 to 9 months. That doesn’t mean the business isn’t profitable—it means the profit is being reinvested to build a strong foundation.

We call year one the sacrifice year, year two the build year, and year three onward the stride years.

After two years, you should be fully ramped up and running the business at full pace. If you’ve bought the right business, it should meet and exceed your lifestyle and financial goals.

Notice something: after the 2-year mark, you don’t see any employment gaps. You’re in control. You set the pace. You decide how involved you want to be. You control the size and type of team. You decide when to sell or bring in a manager and step back.

That’s complete lifestyle flexibility.

Let’s talk more about the risk of time in business ownership. Yes, it can be scary. But if you run your business well, the risk typically reduces over time. That means being well-capitalized, understanding customer needs, and serving them well.

The longer business owners are in business, the less risk they feel. That’s because they build systems from success and from mistakes. They build relationships. They become more efficient. All of that creates greater safety and continuity.

Imagine if you had a successful business. How would your life be better?

There are two primary motivations we see for why people go into business:

1. Career pain – Moving away from something that’s no longer serving them.
   
   
2. Career gain – Moving toward something better or more meaningful.

Here’s an important exercise: Take a blank sheet of paper and write My Career Strategy at the top. Divide it into two columns: Pain and Gain.

On the pain side, list anything in your current career that’s not working. On the gain side, list what you hope to achieve—financial goals, flexibility, lifestyle. Then identify the must-change items and the nice-to-change items.

This is your roadmap.

This exercise is foundational. Most people don’t do it. But if you’re looking for a business—or even a new job—you need to know what you’re really looking for.

Successful people do this work. They know why they’re going into business. They know what success needs to look like for them. They don’t rely on “I’ll know it when I see it.”

You wouldn’t go house shopping without knowing what you need in a home. Yet people do that all the time when looking for a business or career change.

This roadmap works for job searches too. If you decide not to pursue business ownership and stay in the corporate world, this exercise still gives you clarity.

There’s no perfect business. Instead, aim for the optimum business—one where your must-haves and nice-to-haves are satisfied.

The final thought: Moving away from pain should not be the reason you buy a business. It’s the reason to start researching. But before you buy, make sure the business can deliver enough of the gain—and especially the must-haves—to make it worth it.

That concludes our segment on career paths, career strategies, and the roadmap exercise. Next, we’ll look at why business ownership.