Business Coaching

Shama Kabani started her own company.

College grads or young people with jobs have been the first let go in this economy in most cases, and those who are on the hunt for a job are out of luck even with service industry jobs.

But the positive spin – some young people did something about their rejection and tough job markets.

They simply started their own business.

Shama Kabani is just one person who, when she wasn’t hired at big consulting firms like McKinsey and Bain & Co., decided to venture out on her own.

While completing her master’s degree in organizational communication at the University of Texas at Austin, Kabani wrote her thesis on Twitter and other social networking sites and their benefit.

She became convinced businesses could use the tools to market their products and services. But when she applied for jobs and gave interviewers that pitch, she was rejected.

Nobody really cared for social media at that point in time.

But Kabani believed she was on to something, and founded her own full-service online marketing firm in March 2008, called Click To Client.

It provided several Web and social media services to clients, like building Web sites, managing SEO, and creating and managing social media campaigns.

The six-employee business now takes on about 25 one-off projects a month and acts as an online marketing department for six regular clients on a retainer basis.

Kabani said Click To Client had about $120,000 in revenue in 2008, and she expects $280,000 for 2009, and is shooting for $1 million in 2010.

If she can do it, why can’t you? Why can’t anyone? Especially with the help of an ActionCOACH Business Coach.

Would you choose passion over a steady paycheck?

On Friday, we wrote about how hiring for jobs is up, but only in terms of temp jobs.

A whole other crop of people are saying to themselves, “Hey, if I can’t get a job doing what I love, I’m going to do just that, instead of wasting away and bouncing from temp job to temp job.”

With the unemployment rate apparently stuck at or near double digits, more people seem to be choosing a passion over a steady paycheck. Rather than waiting for companies to open up their payrolls, these people are taking matters into their own hands and defining their own jobs, going online to find each other, leverage each other’s capabilities and services, and learn faster by working together.

While this is a big risk, but these people realize that they’ll be far happier if they can find something they love doing and figure out creative ways to make a living from it. Focusing on work that offers greater meaning makes it easier to withstand the perils and roadblocks they will face as they leave the corporate fold.

Read the whole article over at Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Some temp jobs are better than others.

Good news! More U.S. companies are hiring.

Bad news: Many of these positions companies are hiring for are temporary.

While this isn’t uncommon for an economy in the early stages of recovery, it is frustrating not only to those looking for work, but also companies.

According to an article in this week’s Bloomberg BusinessWeek, iring of temp workers had been rising each month since October 2009, until they dipped in July by 5,600, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. From October to January, employees at staffing agencies like Manpower and Robert Half

Given the depth of the recession and concerns about a double-dip, companies are seeking more proof of customer demand before doing much permanent hiring. In a robust economy, the acceleration in orders at GE Transportation could have led to hiring full-time workers, says Stephan Koller, the company’s spokesman. Proof of sustained demand hasn’t yet appeared.

But like most things are moving in this recession, it will most likely be a long ways away until lower unemployment stats. The jobless rate won’t budge from 9.6 percent this year, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. While growth in gross domestic product of about 3 percent is widely expected for 2010, Oppenheimer Funds corporate economist Brian Levitt says it would take at least 4 percent to make a dent in the unemployment rate.

Read more from the full article here.

If you think franchising can only leverage and optimize revenue and profit for you, think again. It can also help boost jobs in the U.S., according to an article by Jane Applegate, the president and CEO of The Applegate Group.

Applegate tells the story of Jeff Haas, who bought a CertaPro painting franchise last year. The former Chrysler exec who resigned instead of waiting to be downsized, bought the franchise by tapping into his retirement savings at a time when the stock market was hammering his portfolio.

Rather than go it alone, he agreed to let the former owner stay on to work as an outside sales rep. It was a good move for both of them: the former owner now focuses on bringing in new business, while Haas manages the day-to-day operations and supervises the painting crews. Haas has 30 employees, including his wife, Gwen, handles customer service, sets up appointments and offers interior decorating and color consultations.

All in all, buying a franchise turned out to be a good thing for the Haases, and while it does take dedication, a successful franchise can ultimately help the economy, because it’s creating new jobs.

People who buy franchises are among those creating new American jobs—about 36,000 this year, according to the International Franchise Association. The trade association, which represents about 1,250 franchise companies and 10,000 individual franchises, recently reported that new job growth this year contrasts with the loss of 400,000 franchise jobs in 2009.

Read the full article here. Do you agree that franchising might be a good way to increase job growth in a still-shaky economy?