Help needed!! Anyone know about ....

[Lamazed]

Mediation?

I qualified as a workplace mediator at the beginning of last year - I was already undertaking mediation work for the organisation I worked for but decided to get something on paper.

Anyway, bacame pregnant with second DC in January and DD was born in October just gone - her arrival meant that I would have 2 babies under 2 so work was no longer an option - it would cost almost my salary to put both in nursery so we decided that I would give up work and be a SAHM.

Unfortunately, things have taken a turn for the worse and bonus cuts (I promise DH is not a banker!!!) means that DH salary is no longer enough to cover the bills.

Do you think I would be able to get freelance work as a Mediator? I'm great at helping people resolve their workplace disputes but not so much on the business side of things - does anyone have any understanding of where I might be able to get work? How much should I charge? Where do I start etc?

Any experience/knowledge is very gratefully recieved.

Thank you in advance

I think it is worth giving it a go. Do you have any relevant contacts from your old job? Or people who you might know from other organisations? It is always easier to contact someone who knows a bit abt you already, however vaguely.
After that, I'd write down some of the benefits of using you and start contacting HR people. Start with businesses in the same fields that tyou worked in as your expereince there would be a plus point for them. Call to find a named contact and let them know that you'll be writing to them. Write to them - or email - then follow up with a call. you''ll need to work on developing a relationship and trust with these people so think of a plan to contact them every couple of months, maybe with tips on resolving workplace problems, so they become to think of you as an expert.
HTH
A

Thanks Amaryllis - that really helps! Getting my head around vthe budiness side of things is going to be the biggest obstacle but I do have contacts and this does seem to be the most apt. starting point.

thanks again

One thing you could do is find anyone else who is working in the same field and rummage around their websites/info and see what they are doing. And - if they're in a different enough field to you - even ring them up and ask them if they could spare 15 min for a chat.

Also (this tip from my friend who has just set up as a freelance exec coach), set up a blog, and regularly post articles about the benefits of mediation, related issues etc. Then you can point potential clients to this, and also email existing contacts when something new appears. Then link this blog to as many related blogs/websites as you can - it will make you seem prominent.

Good luck with it!

Great advice - thanks sixfold.

I've been thinking about this a little bit more.

The one really hard thing with setting up as a freelance in this way is that it takes a while for the money to start coming in, which probably isn't what you need right now.

It might be worth scouting around for companies/charities who work in this way and looking for work with them (whether as an employee or some kind of associate), as this will bring the contracts in a bit more quickly. And then you can do the freelancer setting up bit while you are also doing that.

hth

The only problem is that I'm limited in terms of how much work I can do - 9 week old baby and 2 year old. Becoming an employee again means that I'll be lucky to break even in terms of salary v childcare. Getting in contact with organisations who already undertake this sort of work, perhaps in other sectors might be a way in. Mediation isn't limited to the workplace, the process extends itself into other areas such as neighbour disputes etc so this might be an avenue to explore - great idea sixfold!