How Networking Will Save Mario
Our local Italian restaurant is closing this week, after over thirty years. No great surprise you might think, family-run Italian restaurants, once a permanent feature of the British high street have been disappearing for decades. But this closure is a direct result of the recession, if you had told Mario last summer that he would be gone within nine months he would have thought you were mad. So what does someone aged fifty, who has run their own business since the 1970s do now?
The encouraging thing about Mario’s predicament is that he does see it as an opportunity. Whether he is just talking himself up or whether he really believes it is hard to gauge, but everything he says is positive. And it is his positive attitude that will ensure success. His choices are simple; get a job or start another business. And since he is bruised by what has just happned to him and there is no reason to believe that a new business will do any better than the old one in the current economy; the only choice he has left is to get a job. And when you are used to being your own boss, and for thirty years you have had no experience of the labour market, writing a CV or being interviewed, looking for and getting a job is no small thing.
But as a local restaurater Mario has one big advantage over most business owners. He has a clientele with whom he has built relations over a long period of time. People who choose to come to his restaurant because they like him and feel loyal to him. They are a diverse group of people, with a wide range of connections. They are his network. And they are on his side.
Mario has already had offers from customers who would like to open restaurants with him as manager, and has had other customers introduce him to their friends who are active elsewhere in the hospitality sector. It is these connections that will ultimately lead Mario to his next career, and why he sees the closure of his business as an opportunity. Just another illustration of why in this market, getting a new job is all about networking.
Related posts:
- Career Energy 15th September Networking Evening Should we take comfort from the fact that the rise...
- A Great Opportunity We have reached the point, common to all recessions, at...
- When Redundancy Is An Opportunity Sometimes it pays to take a contrarian view, to look...
- The Importance Of Plan B We face two economic, career-impacting possibilities as the second half of the working...
- Things To Do Whilst Looking For a Job There is nobody with a job in one sixth of...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Tags: Career Advice, Career Chnge, Career Energy, Getting A New Job, networking, new job, Redundancy, unemployment
Harry Freedman's new book How To Get A Job In A Recession is available now. Click here to buy.
Have the Career Energy blog sent to your inbox daily. Click on the Entries RSS link on the right of the page or set up a feed in your e-mail programme
Take our 10 minute career advice FaceBook quiz and find the right career for you. Click here.