AIBU to ask you what career advice you would give a 24 year old?

[dancingstarlight]

I am very confused about my career. I have come for relationship advice before so hope someone can help me.

I think I would really like to be self employed, work from home, run a small business helping to inspire women.

How do I do this?

My advice to anyone in their 20s would be to ensure they are well provided for when they can't work (pensions, sick and maternity pay). Unfortunately that doesn't often fit with self-employment.

The first thing is to decide on how you want to help inspire women. Without an idea, you haven't got a business. Work out how you want to help, how you want the business to look in ten years, and only then can you work backwards to decide on the steps to getting there.

What other businesses are doing a similar thing to what you want to do? Maybe you can rip off their ideas, or work for one of them to gain experience before venturing out alone.

Trying not to sound harsh or put you off, but being self-employed is very hard work. It's a good long-term goal, but to begin with it's safer to get a normal job (doing something in the field you want to work in, if possible) and start up your own business on the side. When your own business is big enough to support you, then move to it full time.

You need to think about what you actually want to do! Sitting at home and inspiring women isn't something that can just happen because you think it sounds nice it's too vague. Do you have anything your passionate about? What experience do you have and in what areas? Are you really good on social media, do you post about make up or books, do you have children with specific needs?

How do you want to inspire women? What do you want to inspire women to do? What is it about you that is so inspirational, and how do you plan to monetise that?

I probably wouldn’t find a 24 year old very inspiring because most 24 year olds have very limited life and career experience.

In all honesty, I’d recommend finding a job that you can tolerate that has good annual leave, sick pack, pension contributions and (if you want to have children one day) maternity leave. Build yourself a solid financial base and then think about becoming self-employed.

Write a business plan first so you have a goal you can focus on.
Do you have some (ex) collegues that know you well and that you trust ?
Perhaps having a brain storming session with them about this idea is a good plan.

I'd side with @Touloser. Being self-employed is a long hard road - my parents both do it and for many years their businesses weren't profitable and it can be very stressful. You don't have a safety net at all in times of sickness, and when you are at the point of having staff, the pressure of meeting payroll can be crushing when there are gaps in cash flow.

My advice would be to take a job in a field that does interest you and make as much money as you can. This will allow the the option to either a) start a business on the side and support it financially while it grows and b) stil provide you with opportunities to support women.

Some of my most satisfying moments in my job have been interviewing and employing women into junior roles, mentoring and supporting and teaching them. I've still managed to have a career that has fulfilled me - I didn't sell out completely for money, but I also had an eye on what I was taking home and the benefits package. Arguably not enough to be honest.

My other bit of advice at 24 is don't stay too long in your first jobs - loyalty tends not to be rewarded in many companies. Try and get promoted frequently and be in a job where you have a supportive boss who encourages you into opportunities. If you feel this is lacking, start looking for something else.

My final bit of advice is to negotiate salary (a recruiter can help with this) and to pay into a pension from day 1, preferably at a higher rate than the minimum, and look into salary sacrifice. The more you pay in while you're younger, the more work your money does for you without you having to do anything. It's harder to catch up later. Paying in an extra £100 a month from day 1 won't be noticeable if you aren't used to the money to start off with. Try and increase your contributions by 1% a year or a portion of your pay rises.

RE working from home - I reckon this will become more normalised now. Maybe not 5 day a week WFH roles, but definitely part of the week as companies look to downsize office space. It's definitely something you can negotiate at offer stage rather than exclusively looking for fully home based roles.

I mean this politelh but why do you feel you’re inspirational? And to such an extent you can start a business and charge for it? What have you achieved? It’s not really clear from your post?

Is it lifestyle, educational, over coming obstacles? What qualifications have you got in this arena?

Can you make an appointment to speak to a qualified careers adviser?

Your ideas seem quite vague at the moment so you need to do some work on the 'whys'.
Why self employed? Why WFH?

And in what way do you want to inspire women? and why women? and how how can you do this.

You want to be self-employed, wfh and run a business inspiring women and you are then looking to others for inspiration because you have no idea how to? 😂😂😂

My advice would be that you aren't ready to run a business or inspire women to do anything. We all have pipe dreams. This is what this sounds like as this stage of your life.

You haven't even told us about any talents you have or what you have achieved with your life that women could aspire to.

Do you know how to set up a company?
Do you have any finances? A business plan? Any ideas at all of your own that we could advise on?

Mine would be choose something you enjoy and feel passionate about (or if not passionate at least motivated by!). A lot of people fall into careers and realise a few years down the line that they hate it & if you work out how much time and effort you end up spending on work it’s a great idea to do something you love or it can chip away at your soul (speaking from experience here!! Plus multiple careers..)

There was, possibly still is an amazing grant that the Princes Trust were doing for young entrepreneurs - with funding for 18-30 year olds who have a business idea to fund start ups with lots of support, definitely worth investigating as you fall into the correct age category?

Sounds like you want to set up a MLM.
You need to think of your own idea for a business and see where it goes.

My advice would be try something that appeals to you, but if it doesn't work out, don't be afraid to try something else

You can't keep chopping and changing, but for many years, I was unhappy at work and didn't have the confidence to try something else. With hindsight, I do regret that I didn't go for it

Owning your own business only works if you know what you want to do. From what you've said that's a question mark still.

At 24 you're entering the stage where you need to make a bit of a jump and stick with it. What do you want to inspire women to do, how will you do it, have you done any research into whether this is something which will work in the market you're in?

Happy to talk and help you clarify your ideas. I’m an accredited independent career coach.

You’ve had a range of responses but there is literally no reason why you shouldn’t be able to go self-employed and inspire other women. I felt just the same for years and it was only this year that I faced the fear and did it anyway! Don’t feel you have to wait without good reason. You can do this. We just need to work out the details of how you’ll inspire other women and what your offer will be.

Drop me a message and let’s talk.

I think I would really like to be self employed, work from home, run a small business helping to inspire women.

Inspire them to do WHAT?

This is all amazing advice everyone thank you

@contrmary thank you, yes thats what I am doing, I am in a 9-5 job in a nice company with a nice team, and fairly enjoyable work, but I just don't feel super excited for work. I will start up my idea alongside my job.

@Jo2187 I have run a successful business in my early 20s. I wasn't passionate about it. Managing employees, and all the admin, I hated it. But I really like the idea of just working one to one with women inspiring them. I am figuring out my niche but I think helping women get the perfect work life balance or finding the perfect career, or building confidence. I am not sure but I would like to work with ambitious women. I know I need to be more niche and I will figure it out, I am happy working on this for a while before I expect magic.

@Bluntness100

I already ran a business for a few years and had seven employees. It was very successful but not enjoyable because I am a quite person who didn't enjoy the chaos. I also lead and ran a conference for women in business. Do you think people may be interested in this?

@SueEllenMishke it's a lifestyle choice and it would be the perfect job to make me feel fulfilled in every aspect. I know it will be very hard work getting there. I know running a business isn't easy. I ran a conference for women in business and its a passion of mine to help inspire women.

@chipsandgin thank you that sounds amazing!

@Sciics no no definitely not an MLM

@MirandaWestsNewBFF thank you for the encouragement

@Butchyrestingface I have answered above I know I am young, but I have seen younger women do similar

dancingstarlight it sounds like you want to be a careers adviser/careers coach working specifically with women.
There are opportunities to do this WFH and in a self employed capacity but you'll need credibility and networks.

Undertaking a specific qualification in career guidance and development will help with both of these things.

Is there a corporate role you could move into in the meantime to build up your experience whilst solidifying your plans and boosting your financial buffer. Maybe worth exploring HR or Diversity and Inclusion roles or training in that field?

I'd also start following people you can see working in this field and look at how they run their businesses - credibility, authenticity, offerings, niche, marketing etc
Most I know do a huge amount of work to generate their leads in various groups and forums.

My concerns with your replies you want to inspire women when you didn't manage to inspire yourself.

I wouldn't be taking guidance from someone who quit running their own business because they didn't like it

Putting aside "inspire" (wtf) All I know about entrepeneurs is that they are risk takers. Most of them have several business failures before they get some successes. Some of the successes eventually become failures. Look at Philip Green. So that's the attitude you take, always angling for opportunities and extremely resilient.

@SueEllenMishke thank you I really appreciate this guidance

@Botanica I am in a similar role to described now but the pay is really low. I enjoy it but I am going to build up my business alongside and leave when I can. Thank you for your great advice

@cherrypie111 I was very inspired initially and I am very proud of myself for what I have done. I probably won't inspire everyone but I can inspire someone. There are people with far more experience doing my dream job but also people who started with far less

dancingstarlight feel free to pm me if you want any more information.
I do a lot of work and research on women's career development and would be happy to send you some information on specific qualifications.

Sounds like you want to get into life coaching or similar? 'Inspiring women' sounds very vague.

If you are coaching or similar I would target people around your age and younger (16-25) because I'm 34 and I wouldn't take advice from a 24 year old who didn't have that much experience.

@Botanica

Is there a corporate role you could move into in the meantime to build up your experience whilst solidifying your plans and boosting your financial buffer. Maybe worth exploring HR or Diversity and Inclusion roles or training in that field?

I'd also start following people you can see working in this field and look at how they run their businesses - credibility, authenticity, offerings, niche, marketing etc
Most I know do a huge amount of work to generate their leads in various groups and forums.

This is good advice