It is important to study the affiliate program if you are serious about becoming involved in our training programs. You may also want to explore the other courses in this group to learn more about the work involved in becoming an affiliate – it can be a low-key affair or you can try to get many people registered if you have the time and inclination to do so. The affiliate will operate an independent franchise with respect to training services, and possibly a separate company that provides other sources of income. The affiliation contract will spell out the arrangements, which are fairly flexible because the opportunities are different in each geographic area.

One of the driving forces behind establishing our training programs is a first-hand observation of the challenges faced especially by single mothers. With dependent children at home they may not always meet the attendance requirements because they may have a sick child to attend to. Someone who is at home for other medical reasons might want to beef up their skills to make a career change. One of the options we sponsor is for a group of people to get together and then collectively take courses at home with mutual support and thus bypassing the challenges of going to a classroom location. There are in-person coaching options, and there are internet-options like Skype that can be used to deliver the training experience at your chosen meeting place. For someone with an afternoon job that makes it difficult to schedule study time this can also be a great format to accumulate the knowledge and skills for career development in a different field.

Opportunities exist to help people get through rough patches in life as you guide them through the decision making process that helps them to get back on their feet. Many opportunities are in the “Not For Profit” sector, or you can provide these services to groups like “Job Find Clubs” that create mutual support and stimulation to take control of a bad situation and make it better. For people that are interested in a part-time opportunity to supplement retirement income this can be a great opportunity to “give back” and share their experience as well as reassure people that there is always a way to earn money if you calmly assess the opportunities around you. Since in their high-stress cash-strapped state people are not in a position to take scheduled courses they are more likely to turn to a coach with the skills to deliver the information they need just in time.

Working with consumers in a consulting capacity can be a tricky business, because you need to have exceptional inter-personal skills to be able to reach out and help them. Unlike the Career & Employment Strategies focus that is clearly related to “HOW” specific results should be achieved we now consider a much broader focus related to “WHAT” specific results the client wants. This is not a matter of semantics – consumer consulting services can lead individual clients to make life decisions that, if ill-considered, could backfire.

With a short-term focus like getting a job the outcome is not final – you can always decide to change jobs again. Once you decide on buying a house the stakes can be much higher. Developing financial plans, and helping people structure their estate, is quite involved and gets to the core of what is important for the client long-term. Therefore, considering these services involves a high degree of responsibility and caution to be sure that decisions are made by the client – as a consultant you only provide the alternatives the client may want to consider.

Although people may feel intimidated by the idea of offering Business Consulting Services, this is actually an easier business opportunity to get into. Entrepreneurs tend to be busy people with “little time to waste on necessary tasks” that still need to get done, and that therefore are prime hunting ground for business services entrepreneurs. The purpose of this section is to show the self-employment potential that exists by preparing yourself to get into this market with the right suite of tools and services that the entrepreneur may not want to do personally, or that they may need help with because they lack the expertise to perform those services personally. Either way you have the potential of being very busy in your community while you free up time for clients that can use that time to attend to many other urgent business duties.