Author: Lavie Margolin, Career Coach
When stock reports of public companies are scrutinized, one of the things that analysts look for is diversity of revenue streams. Why? If the company has various businesses and ways to make money, they are more likely to survive a downturn in demand from one of their core areas. For example, Disney makes money from their theme park, movies, licensing their characters and so on. If they only made money from their theme parks and less people travel this year, they stand to be in trouble. But if they make movies too, and more people are likely to go to the movies in a bad economy rather than travel, then their business is balanced.
So how does this apply to your career? If your only revenue stream is your full time job and that ended suddenly or unexpectedly, that may lead to more stress for you as opposed to if you had multiple sources of income. When one loses their job, they will begin to think, often for the first time, about starting their own business or determining what they could do. It would be best if one could think about these things while they are working. One can incubate ideas and launch different initiatives to see what works and if it could become a source of revenue, with less pressure on that idea having to be the main source of revenue. Once you start an idea, you never know how big it can grow and if it can eventually become your main source of revenue.
About the Author: Lavie Margolin is a New York-based Career Coach and the author of Lion Cub Job Search: Practical Job Search Assistance for Practical Job Seekers. To learn more, go to Lavie’s website, Lion Cub Job Search:www.Lioncubjobsearch.com