Be a mature self-employed success
Jasmine(not her real name) is a 53-year-old, highly experienced manager in a large organisation.
Recently, she has been thinking about the idea of being self-employed. This is for many reasons, not the least of which is her growing consternation at how her company treats mature workers.
For a couple of years now, Jasmine has noticed that the company, and many of her colleagues have started treating her differently.
Little comments here and there about her age. Birthdays cards with ageist themes. Little things that in isolation wouldn’t normally bother her.
She has been offered less opportunities to join training programs, or to participate in internal project teams.
Jasmine has started to question her value. She has started to worry if she has been secretly marked for exit, or redundancy. Or worse, is there a co-ordinated effort to make her feel unwanted or uncomfortable so she will leave of her own accord and save the company the redundancy payments.
Jasmine is not alone. This is a similar story for several tens if not hundreds of thousands of mature men and women in today’s society.
We understand that being discriminated against can be frustrating, and concerning and make you feel like you have less power, status and security.
When someone like Jasmine comes to us, we schedule an appointment and we discuss the best solutions for her situation. We’ll benchmark skills, remind them about the wisdom and experience they have. And often the conversation will turn to self-employment. Either freelancing or contract work, or even starting a business.
Over the last two decades we’ve surveyed over ten thousand existing business owners, and then worked with thousands of individuals who were thinking about freelancing or starting a business. We’ve used the business owners we surveyed as guides to develop the best, most practical training and skills development tools. All with the aim of helping people like Jasmine be successful at self-employment.
Jasmine, like those before her has gone from being worried about her status, and her future to having lots of options on the table for earning an income. This might include self employment using all the tremendous skills, knowledge and experience she has, or Jasmine may indeed start her own business.
More than 1 in 2 mature people around the world report experiencing ageism. It is a hidden and sinister discrimination that the World Health Organisation calls a ‘scourge on society’.
Your financial security — I’m sorry to say — is at risk from the purveyors of this behaviour and attitude. In fact, you probably wouldn’t believe me that less than 20% of organisations even include Age in their diversity and inclusion programs. So they don’t care.
It is time to prepare yourself. To wrest back the control of your future security. Don’t leave it to chance. Build your skills so you can be successful in self-employment. They are skills that will serve you well, even if you continue to be an employee.
But with 80% of organisations saying they want a more freelance workforce in the future, I dare say, these skills are going to be useful to more and more people. Including the more mature amongst us.
I want you to be confident in your own future, competent and smart in these skills, added to the enormous value and wisdom you already have.
This is my purpose, and I’m happy that we can guide so many people on this journey.
If you are considering self-employment, then reach out and organise an appointment. I’d love to chat to you.
You can book in a time by sending us an email here. https://www.silverandwise.com.au/
