You are a Business

For an individual, finding the right job is equal to a business finding the right customer.

Think of yourself as a business entity. Businesses provide products or services to its customers. However, they have to supply the customers with products or services that will fulfill the customer’s needs.

You are a product or service. The job you are searching for is your customer. It is your focus to fill a job vacancy with a skilled employee, who will in turn fulfill the employer’s needs.

In starting a business, hopeful entrepreneurs have an idea for a product or service. They create a business plan from information they have gathered from market research about:

 target customer base
 competition
 unique selling advantage
 experience or knowledge of the industry
 product or service pricing
 expenditures
 financial growth

As you are to look at yourself as a business, you too need to create a plan. You need to create a career plan where you gather information to research:

 Target Customer Base: Research employers that have positions that fit the type of job you want to perform. For example, if you want to be a chef research hotels, restaurants or businesses that have cafeterias.

 Competition: Review job duties and qualifications for the targeted companies. What are they looking for? Make sure you have all the minimum requirements, so that you are on the same level as your competitors. If not, find a way to minimize anything that may throw you out the game.

 Unique Selling Advantage: What makes you stand out from your competitors who are looking for the same job? What makes you a more desirable candidate based off skills, experience or education and that extra that another candidate might not have.

 Experience or Knowledge of the Industry: Research the industry. Make sure you are well informed about any developments that affect the industry, thus having an affect on the level of job opportunities that are available. For example, the health field is hot and they are always looking for nurses.

 Product or Service Pricing: Know your worth. However, more importantly research the salary range for the position you are applying for. So when you negotiate a salary, you aren’t going to price yourself above or below the going rate.


 Expenditures: Know your personal expenses. Make sure you accept a position that will be able to cover your needs.

 Financial Growth: Again, in researching the salary range for the position, it will also help you find out the growth potential with this career. Maybe there are small incremental growth rates with years of experience or there are huge growth rates. Find out what other education or skills you will need to acquire to consciously increase your income, also know in business as expanding your product or service line.

This may seem like a lot of work, and it is. However, it will help you narrow your job search to exactly what you want, instead of being all over the board. It helps you focus on your target market and supply them with the type employee they are looking for – you!