Congrats on striking out on your own and enjoying the freedom of it! Please stay in touch.

Thanks, again!

I would especially like to help you with the “double edged sword” you mentioned. There are specifics when it comes to harnessing business chaos that we haven’t covered yet. I hope to, soon.

In the meantime, I’d recommend that anyone on your team (including yourself!) who hasn’t completed the “Time Management Fundamentals” course on lynda.com please do so. That will help you free up some time to workON your business instead of just work IN it.

I’m starting a new business in Web design and development. My biggest challenge is to be able to find GOOD clients that are worth working with them. How to qualify better clients and make them choose me for their web projects.

- What do you love about your current job? What do you hate about it?

I love that I can work from home and I’m my own boss (I’m not too concern about the millions I can get, I like freedom, that’s what I want). I hate the need to be too analytical, organized and logical to be able to do an awesome job, as I always pretend to do.

- What motivates you at work every day?

I do web development to have enough money and freedom to give my gift to the world, compose music and write my book. My current business is a part time job that lets me achieve my deepest felt purpose in the long term.

- How entrepreneurial are you? Are you considering breaking out on your own?

I’m on my own, no doubt, nobody gives a damn about me. If I’m going to make it, I know it’s going to be up to me.

- What keeps you awake at night about your work?

How can I be perceived as the best in my field and charge my clients according to that.

- What would you like to change about your professional future?

I wabnt to become a music producer and a sucessfull writer (not in that order). In order to do that, I’m being a FREE lance.

Good luck with your next release!

For the last nearly quarter of a century I have been a writing journalist, most of that time I was based in Africa, reporting on news, features and trends. However, with the demise of old-fashioned print journalism, and the slipping away of clients, I have had to make a radical career change – which seems as if I’ve only started, three years down the line.
The complications lie in mastering whole new sets of techniques in telling stories in a way that is “21st century proof”. Words no longer are what keeps the “consumer” stay with a story. He/she wants to be informed in much shorter manners, with more moving imagery, on platforms that have nothing to do with paper.
Getting those techniques right, so people are moved by the stories told, is the hardest part. In the last few decades, all I had with me was a fountain pen, a notebook (of the paper kind) and my senses open to all and everything around me.
That no longer suffices. No matter how deep in the bush, I need to be somehow present on all possible medias, in the most captivating ways. It raises the bar, and sometimes does so – I find – at the expense of quality. There’s hardly time for reflection and silence, so insights can rise, and contemplation can ripen the story.
Technique is too important, I often feel.
Yet, there’s no other way than forward.
Without ever letting techniques get so far as to dictate what the heart of the story is.

Thanks,
Aernout

This is a bit tricky not knowing exactly what’s taking place in the interview. You’re clearly qualified, so my best guess is that completing the Savvy course would help.

Here’s how:

1) If you improve your understanding of the position prior to applying, you can customize your resume to that position. Many people “over qualify” themselves by putting many different skill sets on their resume that are unrelated to the position. Remove or re-spin any job experience not directly related to the position, so that it sounds perfectly targeted.

2) If you improve your understanding of the company in advance, you can learn how to fit in culturally during the interview. Sometimes applicants are branded as “over qualified” because they are not a fit culturally. For example, if a company culture is relaxed and casual and you show up wearing business attire, no matter how well you interview you’ll be perceived as “above” the position or company.

Let me know if this helps!

Biggest Challenge:
We are busy, but our biggest challenge is growing the business in the right direction. We would like to do larger interactive projects with production teams put together on a project by project basis. Finding the time to plan and pitch for such projects is difficult because we spend most our time producing smaller single online promotional videos to pay the rent.

What do you love about your current job? What do you hate about it?
We love being our own creative team. Being small we are very flexible and can do things quickly. But, it’s a double edged sword. Being a small start-up means it can be difficult to get in the door for the larger projects and we have a limited capacity to take on work.

What motivates you at work every day?
Creating stuff and putting ideas into action. Working together as a team in all aspects of our lives together.

What keeps you awake at night about your work?
If we fail, there isn’t much of a safety net.

What would you like to change about your professional future?
Produce bigger projects with bigger budgets. Expand our creative talents and get paid to apply them. Become more financially secure. Always have great projects to choose from.

I am aware I need to keep learning how to run a business and how to make the most of my creativity….in order to be able to make a living. All courses that help me do any of this are very welcome!

http://www.annecorless.com
http://www.tembographics.com

Anne Corless

However, I am finding it very difficult to land a job in my field. I keep receiving, “you’re over qualified”. I am interviewing for positions at my level. I am unsure why this is happening. I’ve worked my butt off making myself valuable, now apparently I’m too valuable. Suggestions??