Career – Page 8 – Career Coaching and Healthy Life Strategies

An idea and glimmer of passion lead to bliss

All change starts with an idea and a glimmer of a passion… Finding a Future in Doggie Day Care A Telecommunications Executive Follows Her Bliss to Become a Successful Franchiser By Elizabeth Garone When Amy Nichols says that her career has gone to the dogs, it’s a good thing. Ms. Nichols, a former telecommunications sales executive, is the founder of Dogtopia, a national chain of upscale day-care centers for dogs. Ms. Nichols approached seven banks before she secured a loan for Dogtopia Ms. Nichols always knew that she wanted to work with animals. “I didn’t want to sell animals. I wanted to be caring for them,” she says. But, after college, she thought she should get a “real job.” Following in her father’s footsteps, she chose telecommunications. In the late 1990s, she built a career working for a number of the big players: Bell Atlantic (which later became Verizon),… Read More

Managing Your Career as a Business

Entrepreneurial Edge: Managing Your Career as a Business By James Flanigan Amid job uncertainty, more people are finding online employment sites and social media a way to take control of their own careers. EMPLOYMENT experts have some advice for the many Americans either looking for work or fearing they soon will be: Consider yourself an entrepreneur — of your own working life. The term entrepreneur is usually applied to people seeking to start their own small businesses. But those in the recruitment and employment industry say the uncertainty in the current economy means that workers need to think of their careers as their own small businesses. “The lesson of today is that you’re working for yourself,” said Janice Bryant Howroyd, the founder and chief executive of Act 1 Personnel Services, a staffing and employment company. “Most people say they’re giving their lives to the company, but it’s more of… Read More