Just lost your job? Here's what to do!

so you just lost your job what do you do if you're listening to this show or watching this video you're probably interested in online business anyway maybe you just weren't expecting to have to start one this soon well as someone who's lost many jobs in the past two in the same year back in 2009 during the global recession i can empathize with your pain and in today's episode what i want to do is address literally the five things you should be doing the moment you lose your job and how to maybe transition into something better and take this potential curse and turn it into a blessing let's discuss [Music] [Applause] welcome to episode 160 of the graham cochran show where i'm here to help you build your online business work less and live and give more i'm your host graham cochran hey welcome to the show maybe you're working less because you lost your job and that's not the way you envisioned working less because that's that's not fun i've been there so i don't want to make light of it but we'll talk about that in a second i do want to give you a gift though as we're getting started i want to give you an entire guide to start making money in the next 30 days so even if you don't listen this episode let me give you something to help you make money 30 days from now it's my 30 day online income jumpstart guide it's a four week checklist a simple pdf download it right now at grahamcochran.com jumpstart or if you're watching on youtube i'll link to in the description this will give you a road map to go from where you are maybe no followers online no business to making some money in the next 30 days which is critical if you've just lost your job so it's a great resource but there's a lot of beautiful things happening if you follow the steps and follow the checklist to the t you basically be building the framework for a very profitable scalable business in the long run which is awesome so all that is at grahamcochran.com jumpstart and i'm linking to it below here on the video my 30 day online income jumpstart agua all right let's talk about it you lose your job and let me just say i've been there and like i said in the top of this episode in 2009 i lost one job in january because my entire department of a software company was dissolved they brought us into a meeting i was an audio engineer and so i was in the audio department and that we're brought into a meeting with the pres vice president of the company and he said thank you all so much for your hard work the last few years we did this overhaul to our whole product line and your work was phenomenal uh we don't need you anymore now because we refresh the whole product line we don't need audio engineers so they just let us all go with a small severance package and i got the day out rest of the day off so um that was unexpected but at the end of the day wasn't the end of the world because i was planning on moving in three months anyway uh to florida with some friends to help start this church which is what got us down here in florida in the first place so i knew i had to find a new job in three months anyway in florida so i was like whatever i just got an extra three months off so that wasn't as painful because i was like forget it i'm fine i don't need you anyway i thought i'd be fine well it was hard to get another job in the great recession in 2009 but i was able eventually to get another job moved down to florida bought our first house had our first baby and then two or three months later that company the entire company dissolved because they ran out of money they were a financial startup i was employee number one um and it just dissolved and so there was no money left and so then i found myself in october of that year having lost my second job but now i'm stuck uh and now my expenses are a little higher than they were before i moved and now i have another mouth to feed and my wife's no longer working because she's taking care of a baby and that's the beginning of my story of how i got into online business so i know what that feels like that was scary as well um but i hated that job too so it was bittersweet cause i was like i don't like the job i had anyway so maybe there's something better in store for me so i just want you to know that i've i've walked that before when there's something at stake um when i have multiple dependents and real bills and that's really scary i know a lot of a lot of you have lost jobs in the last two years in line with the pandemic in line with changing um legislation depending on where you live and what can be open what can't be open and it's been a roller coaster for a lot of people depending on the industry you're in so if that's you at any point in the last few years i'm sorry i just want to say i'm sorry that's that's scary and as someone who is not entrepreneurial nature in nature or by it in heart at heart i don't know how to say it like i i tend to want security and i tend to like a steady paycheck that's why i never i never even considered starting a business because that seemed like the opposite of what i wanted which was security um so if that's you i understand how scary that is to lose a steady paycheck but i'm here to help so let's talk about the five things you need to do if you've lost your job [Music] to not only navigate the season that you're in but maybe come out the other side in a better situation step one is please whatever you do do not navigate this alone so this is the least practical of the steps but this is super important depending on your personality this will be harder or easier for you to deal with a job loss but it is hard on all it takes a toll even if it's a hidden toll or a phantom cost it is stressful and i do not want you to go through this alone so if you're single you need to find someone to be your support system it could be a family member it could be a friend but find someone that you can confide in you can share in who's going to be your buddy during this transition after a job loss if you're married or dating that it's your significant other right lean on him or her to help you through this season i had shea and she was just as scared as i was to not have an income but she was supportive she believed in me and we would bounce ideas off of each other if you're isolated you might have some bad ideas and you have no one to to rub up against right uh it's better for two people to brainstorm than just one person you know the bible says in the abundance of counselors their safety have at least one other person that you can bounce ideas off of so please don't navigate this alone do it with someone that cares about you that knows you you will feel less depressed less isolated it'll feel less bleak and that's really going to help you you have to have the right mindset which is we're going to get through this and this is a blessing in disguise and there's something better on the other side of this it's either a better job which it could be or it may be a opportunity to take a leap like it was for me 13 years ago into entrepreneurship self-employment so don't navigate it alone is step number one let's get practical now step number two there are three things you need to do financially when you lose a job there's a lot of things you could do but three i was thinking one of the three core things you need to do number one is you need to cut all unnecessary spending so you need to go on a spending freeze and that is it's paramount because your every dollar you spend is a dollar that you need to cover in your budget so either you have some savings or you don't either way the less you bleed the longer you can last so we need to plug all the holes in our boat and stop all the bleeding and so that's going to involve anything that's unnecessary ask yourself do i need this to live no do i need this to live or have a chance to make money no so that means getting rid of disney plus or netflix you don't need any of that to survive that means stop going out to eat that means stop buying coffee at starbucks like all the mean things that nobody wants to be told like you don't need it so help yourself out like this i don't care if you do it or don't it's not gonna affect me financially it could affect you financially so this isn't me picking on you this is me trying to help you as your big brother little brother whatever i am to you i'm trying to help you so look at everything that's not necessary and cut it and just be ruthless like assume everything can be cut related to that number two is sell stuff you don't need the second most important financial thing you could do right now is sell stuff you don't need look around your house or apartment what can i get rid of there's stuff that you were meaning to sell anyway or get rid of at some point like just sell it furniture you don't need old stuff in your garage you don't need like decor if you have like a bike that you don't use anymore just sell it whether it's on facebook marketplace or wherever i don't care and you don't have to make a ton of money off of it just sell it for something reasonable look at what other things are going for on ebay or facebook marketplace and just be the same price or a little bit less just unload it and get cash as fast as you possibly can and then number three make an emergency budget around the four walls right the four walls are food shelter basic utilities and transportation i'll say it again food shelter basic utilities and transportation if you don't eat you die so you need to be able to eat that doesn't mean you have to eat it at a restaurant and pay extra doesn't mean you have to do uber doesn't mean you have to like eat snacks which are expensive for not a lot of like dense caloric intake right so please don't waste your money on that crap buy groceries as cheap as you possibly can you need to survive so you need food you need a food budget and your food budget might go up your grocery budget might go up a smidge from where it was before because you might have been overspending on eating out so don't be afraid of the grocery budget going up necessarily but make sure your total food budget has come down from what it was before you need to eat food obviously need a place to live shelter now you may not need to be able to just to have your own place like if you have friends you can move into a place for free if you can get out of your lease um and move in with family or friends for a season like yeah then make your shelter zero or low cost but even if it just means staying where you are you need to be able to pay your rent or mortgage so that's obviously important basic utilities a house is useless if it doesn't have electricity water and probably internet unless you can get free internet somewhere else then you could get rid of that but as we'll see in a moment i'm a fan of keeping internet as a basic utility um for some of the options we have down the line uh and then probably a phone as well as a basic utility it's not in the house anymore but your cell phone is pretty important these days but if you need to save a few bucks maybe switch carriers find a deal i don't know but you probably need your phone as well but basic utilities you're a big boy big girl figure out what the basic utility is and what is not a basic utility and then transportation if you live in a city you probably still need to get around on the subway or the bus if you have a car you still need to be able to pay for your car or put gas in your car or insure your car if you have a car payment consider selling the car especially in this environment right now where used car prices are a little inflated consider selling the car and taking the money and buying a beat or buying something really cheap for cash um with whatever proceeds you make from the car assuming you're not under water on the car um that way you don't have a car payment and you have lower gas or lower insurance cost maybe lower gas costs depending on what kind of car you were driving if you needed premium fuel but you figure out what's the basic form of transportation you need to be able to still get to places to buy the groceries to get to a job interview or a job or wherever you need to go right so build an emergency budget around those four walls food shelter basic utilities transportation so you're cutting your expenses that aren't necessary you're selling crap you don't need and you're figuring out what is my four category budget like bare bones this is an emergency this is not the way you want to live forever but it's an emergency those are the first two steps step three if you lose your job is related you need to figure out your baseline tmi or target monthly income and this would be based around your emergency budget so the emergency budget is like just like all hands on deck for the next 30 days 60 days 90 days whatever it takes to get some income coming in that's this is bare bones as you'll ever see it right but your baseline tmi is a little bit different it's that plus being able to live a more realistic life so maybe some of the expenses that aren't a luxury but are kind of nice to be able to like breathe a little bit like you you want to have some entertainment like you want to watch netflix again at some point you know so maybe you got 20 bucks a month for that um or if you you really need um a utility that you cut or your whatever it is like it's going to start with your your emergency budget and then add a little bit of a buffer so you can breathe a little bit easier right so if you have kids this is especially true because when you're doing the emergency budget your kids get nothing like you're just cutting everything and they get nothing fun you don't do anything fun your life is miserable but it's like it's survival so it should be miserable it's just about living it's not about enjoying it right but your baseline tmi should have room in the budget for fun affordable fun doing some stuff with your kids travel right like at some point you want you want to or need to see family even that means driving to a family's house that's a few hours away that's gas money travel money like travel is a luxury but it also can become a necessity but it's not going to be in your emergency budget you're not going to go anywhere but your baseline tmi should have a little bit of breathing room to be able to travel if somebody dies you need to go to a funeral can you afford that or you say no i'm not going to go to the funeral like you need to have some travel money to afford things right so it's not going to be your dream tmi target monthly income but it's going to be your baseline tmi like ideally i need to bring in 3 000 a month or 4 000 a month to like to live decently in my life right now i want to know that number that number is going to be critical because everything you do after whether you apply for a job or start a business you need to know that number in order to know if it's going to be a viable option for you and then also to know what's going to breathe life into your budget in terms of like if your baseline tmi is 3 000 a month let's say then you know dude if i can make 5000 a month and i am covered plus there's a 2 000 a month bonus or buffer that can be used for enjoying life saving getting a better car if i i'm driving that beat or whatever it is you now look at five thousand dollars a month as like a bigger deal than if you just were like i don't know how much you need five thousand is that enough i don't know but if you know your baseline tmi then you know if a job offer or a business revenue number is good or not know your numbers okay so you're not navigating it alone you've got someone in your corner your job loss buddy you've done the three important things financially cutting unnecessary spending you are selling stuff like crazy that you don't need and you've got an emergency budget based around your the four walls food shelter basic utilities and transportation you figured out your baseline tmi like all right what am i shooting for what kind of income do i actually need right it's gonna be a little bit more than the emergency budget you've got that number step four start a business today with literally nothing this is the greatest time in the world to be unemployed if you had to lose your job not fun but if you had to lose your job this is a great time period in the whole history of the world to have lost your job because there's so many more options available to you that weren't available 20 years ago maybe not even 10 years ago or 13 years ago when i lost two jobs in a year so one of those opportunities is starting an online business with literally no money and so i cover this in depth uh in my 30-day online income jumpstart guide a couple of weeks ago i did the lazy person's guide to a thousand dollars a month um that's a great episode and great piece of content for you if you want to break that down a little bit further i'm going to give a cliff notes version of that episode right now but here are three steps that you could start an online business with zero dollars step number one is figure out your profitable idea and this is the stuff i talk about in my book how to get paid for what you know chapter three is all about the three-part profitability framework and there's a lot of things you can do but at its core you're trying to find an intersection between what you know stuff about and you're interested in and what you like and what other people find valuable and once you find that intersection you can build an online business around it a million different ways but you probably intuitively know a few things that you're good at that you know something about you've had experience with it's the stuff that your friends bug you for information or advice about like what are they asking are you are there are you the person they're asking for dating advice from or relationship advice from are you the person they're asking like weight loss advice from or how to look good advice from are you the person they're asking about financial advice or what to do with their money are you the person that people are asking about like how do you take beautiful pictures on your iphone like your feed looks amazing what are they asking you about it's probably a good indicator of both things that you're probably already naturally good at and like because you're doing it uh and also it's valuable to people so you got to find that and you probably have two or three most people have two or three they could actually build a business around step two is to begin connecting with real people on social email text wherever your actual networks exist right i'm not saying go build a brand that doesn't exist but you already probably are on some platform facebook instagram tick tock linkedin or you have some email contacts or some friends and a text thread that you could reach out to and starts to tell people that you're you're you're creating some content you want to help some people in this area so for example if you're like i think maybe my profitable idea could be like how to lose weight i lost a lot of weight after having my my first child or you know i used to be overweight and then i got really in shape and people have been noticing and like i think i could build an online business around that you start to post on your social media platforms or share with your friends and family on text and email like hey uh i'm i'm diving into something new right now i'm gonna be helping some people uh with their weight loss goals uh if that's interesting to you let me know and this is the third step related to that is once you begin kind of putting that out there like if you have social media platforms i would update your bio to have like a one line of who you help when you help them do that's the simplest way to virtually raise your hand and say i'm in business which is you could say i help um new moms uh lose weight and look amazing right if that's you could just make up that niche if that's who you feel like you could help and what you could help them do one sentence in your instagram bio done and the third step there is you formally say hey as you're posting or letting people know or texting your family and friends i'm i'm opening up three coaching spots for some one-on-one coaching to help people with their weight loss goals if you're looking to do this this or this and you struggle with this this or this contact me or dm me or email me back or text me and i'll let you know more about it see if you might be a good fit and this is something you're just making up and you're saying three spots because it just sounds like it's a finite amount um and your goal is just to get one just to get one client that you can sign up for a three to six month package where they pay you a few hundred bucks a month a thousand bucks a month to to work with you jump on a call every week and you give them some thoughts you share everything that you know about that subject that's helped you and you formalize it a little bit and you you find out what their goals are and you you help them get a result and some wins like you make it up as you go because it's very personalized and tailored to like hey you get on the phone with somebody or they message you and they're interested they seem like a good fit you tell them what it would cost would it look like what you'd help them do they say that sounds great how do we start then you you find out where are you stuck and what do you need help with and what would you want to get out of this and you could say i custom tailor my coaching to you and it's basically like please tell me what you want i'll make it for you and that's all you do just help them get some results add value get paid to do it you don't need a website you don't need any kind of hosting you don't need to build a landing page you don't need to create any content you just need to connect with people through the free platform of social media email or text and then jump on a call with them you can use zoom which is free if you want to do video calls game over okay that's the fastest way to start an online business right now at no cost um and that's number four so i would start doing that right away because it'll be a stop gap but it could become something more as i'll talk about a second and then number five i want to throw this in there as well because this is very tangible and any one of us could do this it is put yourself out there on a platform like fiverr or upwork or any of these these platforms to try to get a few side gigs as a virtual assistant uh if you have a specific marketable skill like video editing or audio editing or graphic design or web design or whatever then you could put yourself out there on these platforms for that specific marketable skill but let's assume you don't have any marketable skills you are probably intelligent enough to do basic things like check and email manage somebody's calendar upload or download certain things check on certain things buy things online do some research right very basic stuff this is all a virtual assistant is okay so what you can do is create a simple profile on a platform like fiverr and and just have a picture of you and list out all the things say you're a virtual assistant pick a crazy low hourly rate that would be let me look at what other virtual assistants are going for whether it's 15 an hour 20 an hour 30 an hour decide what level you want to play at um and then offer your services as a virtual assistant and just bullet out all the things you can do and if you're unsure go look at what other virtual assistants are offering to get a sense of what people are looking for in a virtual assistant and just put yourself out there on these platforms and offer a deal like you'll work you know you'll do the first week for free or something like that um with a no risk guarantee like i'll work for free for seven days or 14 days and if you like how we work together then here's my hourly rate just whatever to get started this is an easy thing as long as you have internet access you can do this and it becomes very custom based off what they need however many hours they need but again um if you do 20 an hour and somebody hires you for 20 hours a week in the meantime that's 400 bucks a week i mean that's something right that's 1600 a month like that can be really valuable plus getting a coaching client or two you can have a two three thousand dollar month income just off these two things without a single website without spending any money while you get your feet settled and figure out what you're doing next so become a virtual assistant even if you hate it just do it for 90 days do it for as long as you need to to figure out what's next and i'm gonna i'm close with this those are the five things don't navigate it alone [Music] do the first three things you need to do financially right cut unnecessary spending uh sell crap like crazy become a minimalist asap uh and then get on an emergency budget around the four walls then number three figure out your your baseline tmi target monthly income what you need to shoot for to to really move beyond survival to like okay i could live off of this um number four start a business today with virtually with absolutely nothing so become a coach online for free and then number five become a virtual assistant for free on fiverr once you've done those five things you're gonna be able to survive right i'm not even talking about filing for unemployment or any of those other resources that might be available to you depending on where you live these are five things you could do right now to survive and this is assuming you have no savings because not everybody has savings statistics would show that most of us over 67 percent of americans at least don't have 400 bucks set aside they couldn't cover a 400 emergency so i'm going to assume that nobody has savings if you have savings you're already steps ahead of everybody else when i lost my second job in 2009 the silver lining was i had 10 000 in an emergency fund that i had saved from working for three or four years out of college and so that was great but that was gone after three months right so if you have that good for you if you don't this can keep you afloat but let's talk about though why this might be a blessing in disguise i think starting an online business is the solution that will keep this problem forever happening again if you go find another job even if it's a really high paying job you still can't guarantee that you won't lose it again your company might dissolve the department you might we might face another global crisis where it affects your industry blah blah blah one of the first episodes i did of this podcast was why it's riskier basically to not start an online business i think it's actually riskier to have a job the two reasons are one it's completely out of your control if you're no longer if they don't want to employ you anymore or can't they'll get rid of you so it's out of your control and i i i'm a control freak i hate to build my life around things i can't control number two you're building your life around one income stream so you're not very diversified if you start an online business within that online business you can create multiple streams of income i did an episode years ago it's on the youtube channel as well uh i have i think 10 streams of income 10. so if one dries up no big deal if five dry up no big deal i might make less money which is sad but i can still survive because i'm not dependent on one income stream aka my job so i think it's really risky to bank on the job it's less risky to bank on yourself and start an online business maybe not very profitable in the short term more diversified and reliable in the long term even with market forces that are out of your control the hey news flash there are a lot of things that are still out of my control as an online business owner the youtube algorithm the google algorithm changing interests and fads my ability to continue to create compelling content or my desire to create compelling content [Music] people cannibalizing my ideas copycats blah blah blah yeah there's always risks but fewer and it's much more likely that i'll be in business for years to come than it would be for banking on one job to keep me employed for years to come so if you've lost your job and you follow these steps and you start functionally an online business in one way shape or form consider dreaming it up a little bit longer than that and download my 30 day online income jumpstart guide grahamcochran.com jumpstart it's a free guide it's a four-week checklist you'll make money in the for in the next 30 days it's not going to be life-changing money but you make 500 bucks 800 bucks that's very reasonable most of my students are in that range some people have gone on to make 40 000 off of this guide that's free results may vary that's not very typical but it's happened the point is you will make money in the next 30 days but what you would be doing is looking at what would it look like to actually not just do this as a stop gap but what if this was a new way of life where i could actually be in control of my time my schedule and my income potential simply by showing up every week and creating valuable content that's fun for me and valuable and life-changing for others and building a business around it what would that look like that's what i think your future should look like and i'm here to help you so the day online income jumpstart guide it's free get it if you if you want a book in your hand this is my brand new book how to get paid for what you know turning your knowledge passion experience into an online income stream in your spare time it's the playbook for online business building get it at grahamcochran.com book or amazon or barnes noble or wherever books are sold um that's your ticket to a new way of making a living and if you want to go deeper i've got courses i've got a community i've got a mastermind all that's available to you but you can start for free start with my guide don't just look at it as like a temporary thing dream it up what would this look like if this was me five years from now and i'm making six figures doing what i love to do that's super doable a lot of my students are doing that and i would hate for you to miss out on an amazing life-changing experience just because you're afraid that it might not work out consider maybe a job loss as the greatest gift you could ever have and and hear that coming from someone who was scared out of his mind and felt like i couldn't i couldn't make it happen there was nothing no skill i had that would be able to pull me out of this i thought i was doomed to just have to grovel for whatever work i could find this job loss for me was the greatest gift i could ever have gotten god was very gracious for me to me to allow me to lose that job because there was something way better on the other side that i would never have pursued if i had a comfortable steady paycheck and so being forced over the ledge was good for me it's changed my life my wife her life it's changed my kids lives and it's changed millions of other people's lives that i've been able to influence through my two online businesses that i never would have influenced had never gotten in front of a camera or a microphone and i wouldn't have done that if i hadn't lost my job there you go i hope this was helpful and insightful to you if you're watching on youtube let me know what was your biggest takeaway from today's episode in a comment below and have you lost a job and what was your experience and what did you do to get yourself back on your feet and if you're considering starting an online business as a stop gap but potentially more i'm in your corner [Music] i don't i don't need money from you you don't have to buy anything from me take my free guide my 30 day online income jumpstart guide but binge this show binge my youtube channel there is so much material here that i put out for free to help you find a way to make an income in the short term and scale it in the long term so you can change your life i'm here for you i'm your friend i'm your guide if you need anything it's probably here thanks for listening thanks for watching have an amazing rest of your day and i'll see you on another episode real soon [Music] you

Channel: Graham Cochrane

Views: 8,511

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Id: QCWxX6XO2NM

Length: 31min 17sec (1877 seconds)

Published: Tue May 24 2022