Life after Redundancy for this Baby Boomer
Life after redundancy for this baby boomer has actually been pretty amazing. The wiki definition for baby boomers is those born between 1946 and 1964 by the way – Born at the tail end of “64 I just scrape in. There seem to be a lot of us. It’s Definitely been an emotional and financial roller coaster but even though I’m not quite there yet business-wise, I have to say that It’s been the best thing that could have happened to me. For one thing it gave me the final push I needed to stop just fancying the idea of being my own boss and actually do it.
Whilst I was putting the various business wheels in motion I did at first also continue looking for work. I was hedging my bets really. I soon realized however that life after redundancy for me had to be very different to what I’d done before. Even If I genuinely wanted to just find a replacement job it was obviously going to be tough to find one.
My age was against me for one thing. For another I’d worked in a very niche industry and found I just didn’t have answers to the sorts of questions I was being asked in the few interviews I managed to get. Although I had been in business development and had been pretty good at it I had never been given targets to reach and had to Google KPI to remind myself what it meant!
Choosing a New Life After Redundancy
For some people life after redundancy might not change that much. If you’re young enough and have a good track record in a less specialized industry it might just be a little blip in career path. I was actually laid off twice and the first time that’s how it was for me – a competitor took me on while I was still on garden leave. For older people it’s going to be much tougher.
So the options as I saw them were to either just keep trying for a job or to learn some new skills either as career change or for use in my own business. While I was thinking all this through and looking at various options I found that some support was available both financial and training wise should I go for the self-employed option.
Being made redundant actually opens a few doors in terms of grants, funding and discounts. I qualified as a TEFL teacher for example at a reduced rate. When I decided that it had to be self-employment for me I was able to apply for an enterprise allowance and a couple of small grants to buy business equipment.
I can only really talk from experience about what funds and support were available to me in my area in yours it may be different. What I would say though is that you should definitely look in to it. Many people these days are looking at life after redundancy and there is help to be found. Start at the job centre and ask an adviser about self-employment. That’s what I did.
If you decide that life after redundancy is going down the self-employed business owner road there a few things to consider. Although there will probably be funding available it probably won’t be all that much. I was able to get a 6 month allowance of £70 per week, a grant for £500 and a very low interest loan of £1000 – helpful but hardly enough to live on.
My situation at the time offered a fair bit of breathing space. My redundancy payment, a useful PPI payout and some existing savings meant that I could stay afloat for a couple of years while building a business. I chose an online business so had very few overheads. My partner’s business was doing well too so the mortgage and other essential bills were covered.
Life After Redundancy – An Opportunity for Baby Boomers
The Six Figure Mentors
Personally I would advise anyone who is faced with life after redundancy to grasp it as an opportunity to completely start again and not just try to find a carbon copy of what you had. Everyone’s situation will be different of course but if you have some back up money, a partner who can continue bringing income in this could be opportunity knocking. In this day and age starting your own business doesn’t have to mean lots of expense, equipment, premises or staff. You probably already have everything you need to build an online business. You just need to skill up.
For me life after redundancy involved a complete transition from the traditional economy to the digital economy and from an employee to a business owner. If I’m honest that’s what I always wanted – to be in charge of me – anyway but without the kick in the ass that redundancy gave me I doubt I would have done it.
Mt decision was to go online and although I had some previous experience I needed new skills as well as systems and resources. As it turns out, my particular mixed bag of interests and experience – both work and life has come in handy in my new chosen path. If you are considering changing your life after redundancy and like the freedom, low start-up cost and huge income potential that an online business offers then I’d recommend you sign up for a series of free videos about the platform I used. Just click the button below.
