Thursday, March 10, 2011

Look Before You Leap at CDC 2011

This week at BCCDA’s Career Development Conference (CDC), Roberta Neault and Deirdre Pickerell introduced the Look Before You Leap: Self-Employment Survival Strategies project with flyers available at Life Strategies’ exhibitor table and a dedicated post-conference session on self-employment on March 9th.

Post-conference participants were not only introduced to the Leap project components, but also explored 10 strategies to maximize self-employment success. Each strategy, presented below, is explored in-depth within the Look Before You Leap: Self-Employment Survival Strategies book.
  1. Understand self-employment
  2. Know what it takes
  3. Put supports in place
  4. Do your homework
  5. Be strategic
  6. Brand your business
  7. Do the math
  8. Manage the details
  9. Get the help you need
  10. Monitor progress

A draft copy of both the book and a newly developed Entrepreneurial Characteristics Checklist were also available to post-conference participants.

In addition, the post-conference session served as the face-to-face component for the pilot course; online discussions begin March 16th. We’re happy to have five students joining us in the mixed-mode session. We’re still welcoming registrations for the fully online pilot expected to begin before April, email studentadvisor@lifestrategies.ca for details.

Looking for more information, check out the project website with new resources posted including 10 Tips for Self-Employed Consultants.