“Entrepreneurs and Freelancers and Life Coaches – Oh My!”: The Changing Workforce and Higher Education
Careers are changing.
People at all stages of their lives are increasingly choosing to go their own way to make an income. Along with analysts and specialists, we now have entrepreneurs and life coaches. Young professionals having trouble breaking into a corporate career or who want to avoid sitting in a cubicle all day are choosing to work for themselves. Seasoned professionals are tired of the traditional nine-to-five daily grind and use the expertise they have built over the years to make an income outside of an office.
Last year, the NY Post wrote about how Americans now care less about the “American Dream” and more about freedom. Increasingly, the American workforce is looking for nontraditional ways to earn an income where they feel more fulfilled.
That doesn’t mean the independent route is easy. To be successful, you have to be willing to work hard and know how to market yourself well. You don’t have a team of people around you to help bring in clients.
What are Nontraditional Workers Doing?
Take a look at LinkedIn these days and you’ll see a lot of interesting job titles. Everything from ‘freelancer’ to ‘entrepreneur’ to ‘solopreneur’ is now considered a job title. And have you noticed the increasing number of ‘life coaches’ and ‘consultants’ out there?
Right now, LinkedIn has over 510 million users and roughly 8.25 million of them use the words ‘freelance,’ ‘freelancer,’ ‘entrepreneur,’ or ‘solopreneur’ in their job title. Add in over 1.25 million life coaches and about 21.3 million business owners and we’re starting to get a sizeable percentage of the workforce on LinkedIn – not to mention the many unique job titles out there for independent business owners.
Freelancers could be marketers, writers, life coaches, business consultants, designers, strategists, small business owners – and let’s not leave out the growing industry of real estate agents who have to have that entrepreneurial spirit to bring in their own clients and drive business, even if they work for a large brokerage.
What Does This Have to Do With Higher Education?
While experience makes a big difference, you will also see many who have gotten one or more Master’s degrees. What is the most common? Master of Business Administration (MBA).
That’s because to have your own successful business, you have to understand how to set budgets, monitor efficiency, and use effective marketing. That may seem straightforward but an MBA is helpful in understanding how to build a business model that will bring about your goals.
The most common causes of small business failure are incompetence, unbalanced experience or lack of managerial experience, neglect/fraud/disaster, and lack of experience in their chosen line of goods/services. Whether or not you have experience related to your new business, an MBA helps give a solid foundation of business knowledge that can help you last long-term and grow a successful independent business.