The second Fifty-Over-50 is Mindy Schwartz, owner of Full Circle Admin Services, Nashville, Tennessee. She has been selected because of her extreme success in making a career shift. That happened after a long stay in corporate America. As Schwartz puts it, "I got it that I was not The Professional Woman or what they used to call Organization Man." According to Schwartz, more and more Baby Boomer women like herself are accepting who they are, leaving rigid employment situations, and starting their own shops.
American-Idol style Mindy Schwartz auditioned for the Fifty-Over-50 last month. But I sensed she was going to make the cut when I first did business with her, before that. I needed a video trailer for my novel THE FAT GUY FROM GREENWICH. She delivered http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIWY1o2Efxk in record time, below the bid. Of course, that video trailer sold and is selling books. But, listed as part of my signature on email etc., it also has been giving me the edge in communicating to prospects that I understand how to position and package anything, be it a novel or me, in a visual age.
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Exclusive Interview with Mindy Schwartz, Owner of Full Circle Admin Services
JG: Mindy, we know you were not shooting to the top of organizational life. You broke open to another way of making a living. How did you navigate that? That's what followers on this site need to know.
MS: Well, like many of us who become self-employed, I had been a just-in-time entrepreneur for years. It's the way to learn the marketplace, build contacts, and still have the security of a day job.
One of my skills is photography. I seemed to have a natural instinct for selling myself on a free-agent basis. I picked up assignments for stand-alone photos, weddings, family portraits, and pitching in when enterprises needed another camera. No, I didn't go into my startup Full Circle Admin Services cold.
JG: But forming a company is not simply a straight line from freelance work.
MS: No, Jane. I had to figure out what I could market which would sell enough to at least pay the bills for a couple of years. As those seminars on self-employment tell us: Stick with what you know and make sure there's a need or a gap to be filled.
I knew the book business. My networks were full of literary types. I also knew that once writers published a work, the real work began. That is, the promotion part. Most of those artists were lost when it came to how to promote their books. Yes, there was a need.
By trial and error, I figured out the menu of services I could initially offer authors and at prices they could afford.
Then I was ready to put an ad on Craigslist. Immediately, there were two orders. One was for establishing and maintaining digital sites for an author. Another was for being the back-up on the administrative tasks related with promoting a book globally.
The business grew from word of mouth. It also expanded in the target market because there were requests for services beyond books. Small and mid-sized corporations were testing out the waters on video releases and video trailers. Job hunters wanted to experiment with a video resume.
Eventually, I hired contract workers to help me out.
JG: Obviously, your model is working. Can you describe that business model?
MS: In a word, Jane: Non-corporate. Just as THE CLUETRAIN MANIFESTO declared, business is personal. Full Circle deals directly with the prospect's or client's needs. There are no layers of jargon, procedures and policies. No supervisor of accounts. The whole team serves the account.
The other part of the model is a loose approach to strategic consulting. Prospects and clients tend to be scared. We the team move in slowly with suggestions about what could be useful, right along with the amounts that would cost. We educate. Sure, there will be those miscreants who just want to pick our brains and try to do it themselves. However, most won't waste their time that way. In addition, we provide follow-up. In three months, given this volatile economy, the marketplace could change. We might recommend: Have you considered several new video releases? Would a contest enhance brand recogniation and sales?
JG: Where's the demand right now in your business?
MS: A major request is for the team to create mailing lists for people who would be interested in the product or service that is being offered. For example, if a company is looking to sell beauty products, the team would create a list of places that sold those, places which could use them, and places which could enhance profits by adding them.
JG: For you, career shift seems like a piece of cake. Why did it go so smoothly - and fast?
MS: I don't hate change. In fact, I like it. Most people don't. That makes everything in today's work world very hard.
Another thing, I have had a healthy distrust of turning my financial survival over to an employer. In the back of my mind, I had been toying with the self-employment option for a while.
JG: Then what can the reluctant entrepreneur do to suit-up?
MS: Get out there. Attend those free meetings provided by organizations whose mission it is to help entrepreneurs. Find out where the networking groups are. There will be small-business people there. Then, try things out on a small scale. You might want to keep your day job or nail down a survival one. Move according to your own pace. Some of our clients didn't start a business until they were in their 70s.
Incidentally, Jane, who seems to be thriving when they make this shift are Baby Boomer women. They have been around long enough to understand the principles of business. In addition, we females tend to be devoid of ego. That beast of an entity doesn't tend to stand between us and the prospect or client. Clients need us to be totally there for them.
JG: What's next in your career?
MS: Since I have been in business, the marketplace presents The Next. I don't really plan it.
However, I have a hunch that more Baby Boomers, both male and female, will be setting up businesses and publishing books as a marketing tools. Full Circle will be accommodating both those needs.
JG: Mindy Schwartz can be reached at Mssphotography@aol.com. Here is her visual CV.
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Those wishing to become part of the Fifty-Over-50, please contact Mgenova981@aol.com.
If you want more wisdom on earning a living on your terms as you age, you might want to give yourself the gift of OVER-50: HOW WE KEEP WORKING. It's available online at Amazon.com.
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