Have you ever been forced to make a major change when least expected? Have you ever lost the bulk of your income or even your job/business? It happened to me last year, and it can easily happen to you too. It caused me to take charge of my own economy and I survived. But, there is more than just losing your job that can cause you to take charge of your own economy.

Retrenchments/layoffs

Living in a country where unemployment hovers around 25%, layoffs are real. When the gold price drops, the mines can fire a few thousand people at a time. Companies can shift operations from one country to another in a matter of months, making staff in one country redundant very quickly. Small businesses are the biggest employer in any country, not the big corporates. In Canada, small businesses make up 98.2 percent of employer businesses. The failure rates of small businesses are 80%. So, there is a good chance that when you pitch up for work one day, the doors will be locked. What will you do then?

Automation

According to an article in USA Today , research done by two Oxford professors is discussed and it shows that if in future you do not have skills that compliment software applications, you face a 50% chance of having your job automated. The jobs most at risk all have one thing in common: they’re in occupations “mainly consisting of tasks following well-defined procedures that can easily be performed by sophisticated algorithms,” the pair wrote. Have you noticed there is always a drive in business to create ever better processes and procedures? Is it happening in your job?

As businesses strive for better productivity and cost savings, you can be sure that they may not have you in mind during future planning sessions. The only answer is for you to take charge of your own economy and start now.

“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” ~ Jim Rohn

Not enough money for retirement

I am in my 40’s and I have spoken to many people about retirement and most of them say they are not saving enough. According to a study in the USA 19% of middle-class Americans have zero retirement savings, while 34 percent are not currently saving for retirement. Do you have enough to retire on? What are your plans if you do not have enough? You will have to take charge of your own economy then.

Expenses growing faster than income

Education and other expenses seem to grow faster and faster each year and my children have bigger and bigger dreams of where they want to go and study. On top of that, median household incomes are steadily dropping. According to an article in the Huffington post, US household incomes have been steadily dropping since 1998. It seems that even if you work harder and try to climb the corporate ladder, you will eventually run out of steam (money). If you are a father like me, you will have to take charge of your economy some or other time.

Sudden business changes

That is exactly what happened to me. I own small businesses – remember most small business fail in the first 5 to 10 years. My one business was doing very well but most of the income came from one big client. I knew it would bite me one day, but I did nothing about it. For almost 3 years I lived in denial and inaction. And then it happened last year – the client wanted to leave due to strategic changes. I was forced to take charge of my own economy and fast. Lucky for me, I used my indivineur method to overcome that very quickly. It scared my wife when I told her we might lose the house. But I averted that and now my businesses are stronger than ever. Lucky for me, I survived, but only because I followed a proven method that enabled me to take charge of my own economy.

What can you do when you have to take charge of your own economy?

I am happy to say it is not all doom and gloom. You have what it takes to survive all of these events if you focus on yourself at first. When it happens, do not look at what you have traditionally done for money, that avenue just dried up. You have to look at ALL that you can do. If you are a parent of teenagers, then I am sure you are very good at conflict resolution. If you are a Toastmaster like I am, you will be good at public speaking. All these skills add up to open new doors for you.

I presented a talk at a big corporate last week and spoke to this very interesting gentleman from the US – we spoke about the indivineur method. He said that he applied this first step four times in his life with success. He has had four careers so far and in all of them he has been successful.

Make something bigger together

The BIGGEST mistake people make when they start a business venture, taking charge of their own economy, is to go at it alone. Have you ever heard people say: “I am quitting my job and going to work for myself”? That is absolutely crazy in my world. I believe in co-creation and co-creating new business ventures with others. Together we can make something bigger than we could create on our own. Many people have fears of partnerships and creating something together, most of those people end up owning 100% of a business that does nothing. We teach specific techniques in the indivineur workshops on how to establish powerful partnerships from the start. I use those same techniques with great success in all my co-created businesses.

Use the indivineur method

Using all your skills and co-creation are two parts of the indivineur method I used when I was forced to take charge of my own economy. I did it in 14 days. It is a quick, low cost and low risk method to take charge of your own economy by starting new business ventures to innovate and generate new income streams.