I spent some time last week speaking with a fellow who is trying to change his life. I meet a lot of those folks in my franchise consulting role. They’re tired of working for someone else and want to invest what they’ve saved in creating a new, better life for themselves and their families.
One thing we talk about early on in the process is the skill set the candidate is bringing with them. Have they managed people? Do they like selling? Do they know about technology? It’s not that any skill set is better or worse. It’s simply about identifying what they bring beyond financial resources as we examine the hundreds of possibilities out there.
The fellow I spoke with last week works in auto repair. He’s a “body man.” Unfortunately, many of the auto body repair franchises are well beyond his financial abilities so we talked about some others. I also brought up a franchise that’s involved in drywall repair. He said he didn’t know anything about drywall and he didn’t have those skills. I reminded him that this, like most other franchises, offers a lot of training but putting that aside, I asked why repairing drywall is that much different from repairing sheet metal. He’s now considering the franchise but it raised a good point that we all need to remember.
Many of us focus on the trees and not on the forest. We think about learning a skill in a vacuum instead of the broader application that learning may have. Learning to code, for example, can teach project management, since you can’t perform either one well without a great plan and a flow chart of sorts. It’s also a good reminder that learning the “broad” skills of communication, problem-solving, and teamwork have application across the board. That’s why so many of the business opportunities I deal with emphasize they want candidates with those skills and will train them on the specific skills needed to be successful.
Unlike Napoleon Dynamite, we all DO have skills and most of us have more of them than we think. What are yours?
Consult Keith 