Create career discovery website for career changers
Create career discovery website for career changers
Q1: I've started Metier Career Coaching on a shoestring, and would like to turn the website into a world-class online community for those looking at career changes. I haven't had the capital to do this. Winning the $10K would enable me to implement the site I'm dreaming of!
Idea Description
I would like to develop end-to-end online support for the career discovery process to my career coaching website, Metier Career Coaching.
It would be accessible from the Client Pages section of this site and would lead the client from initial setup as a client through an exploration of interests, strengths, accomplishments, abilities & skills, and life goals either as an adjunct to the coaching process or on its own for those who choose not to engage in one-on-one coaching.
What will you do if you win $10,000 for this idea?
I would develop a project plan and requirements document, and engage an offshore developer from RentACoder to design and implement a solution. There's a top-notch company I've worked with in the past who I would approach for this project.
Vote for it now.
Career counseling can be a challenging business for a variety of reasons. There are many other sources of counselors, such as college career offices. Clients often need services for a particular period of time, and once the transition is completed, may no longer feel the need for help. And, of course, people in career transition often don't have much of an ability to pay for counseling services.
You're farther along than a number of professionals in the field, though, in that you've already gotten a counseling degree, and you've added life coaching to your resume. So in some ways you're more prepared to deal with the needs of your counselees.
Where you've admitted some of your challenges lie is on the entrepreneurial side of things, and that's where getting consistent advice from business-savvy advisors on an ongoing basis will be a great help to you.
To your goal... As you've probably found, there are numerous career sites already, designed for many different kinds of people. The ones with the most traction are typically those with a strong fo…morecus, with a particular population in mind. That's the first area I'd suggest to hone your business plan; pick a group you're most familiar with, and passionate about helping, and create a service for them.
I'd also suggest that you use an existing online community site, such as Facebook or Ning, to start your online community. There's little reason nowadays to raise much money for your own site, when you can initially get something launched using some existing service. (Make sure you read up on best practices for online communities; you'll find that you'll need to constantly adapt to what the group wants to do, rather than just opening a site and hoping people will come.) Once you do get some scale to your community, you can then see if you want to create your own site.
You posted this nearly a year ago, and your blog hasn't been updated since May. I hope that doesn't mean you've given up our business, and that you're still working to make a go of it.
- gB