Entrepreneurial endeavors

This post has been a draft that I never got around to completing…until now.

A couple weeks prior to filing bankruptcy and, subsequently ending my employment, Noble executives held a company meeting in which they detailed the difficulties and financial hardships we were enduring.  At that time they announced that it was only a matter of time before heavy layoffs (or “right-sizing”) were to occur.

Shortly after this meeting a coworker friend and I were talking about the future and what our plans were for securing new employment.  He kind of wondered out loud about who from our company would make it big.  He remarked that there is usually someone that comes out of circumstances such as ours to go on to great things.  I pondered that for a while and thought ‘why not me?’.

I don’t want to spill the beans exactly as I’ve got a couple of rough ideas that I hope can turn into an opportunity on my own.  I mentioned the Fasttrac workshop in an earlier post which I will attend later this month.  I am excited to learn more about entrepreneurship while there and discuss my ideas with experienced business owners.  There will also be an opportunity to practice business pitches during one of the seminars.

I think it would be great to own a business.  Granted, it takes a lot of effort and risk, but the rewards would be handsome.  I keep coming back to the thought of ‘why not me?’.  I appreciate the inspiration that my friend was in kicking off my rêves de grandeur.  I’ll be sure to post more as things progress.

New School

Last week I found some great opportunities to continue my education while I search for employment.

First, I learned that Walsh College is offering free summer workshops sponsored by Ford Motor Company. Please see here for details and courses offered. I have registered for the Accounting Fundamentals and Statistics for Business classes.  They will run from mid-July through mid-August.  It has been quite a while since my last accounting class and I have rarely had any practice in application so it should be a good chance to acquire some new skills.  I am taking the stats class because it’s something I enjoy and can learn more in the process.

Also, I registered through MichiganWorks for an orientation on the No Worker Left Behind program.  If you’re not familiar with this, it is a program that the state of Michigan has started to help laid off workers acquire new skills to be able to secure employment in the future.  The individual can receive $5,000 a year for two years to use toward education in an emerging field.

Lastly, I’ve been looking into entrepreneurship as a potential avenue for my next professional endeavor.  Wayne State University is hosting a day-long workshop event in conjunction with FastTrac and sponsored by The Kauffman Foundation.  This special event is called FastTrac to the Future.  There will be four workshop sessions to attend and a list of twelve topics from which to choose.  The keynote speaker will be Chris Gardner who is most widely known for his book, and the subsequent Will Smith film, The Pursuit of Happyness.  On top of all this, there will be plenty of networking opportunities.  I’m really looking forward to attending this event.

As you can see there have been lots of new, exciting developments recently in my job hunt strategy, particularly from an educational perspective.