Can you ever make a portfolio career a success?

2011 will see a new generation of multi-skilled professionals. Denis Barnard reveals seven ways to ensure your portfolio career is more success than mess. The economic turn down has sparked an upturn in portfolio careers. On the one hand running two or more parallel jobs can allow you to be more flexible and gain more skills, but how do you stop one career propping up the others? Not all careers lend themselves to portfolio working. But, if you can make it work, then the attractions are plenty. The most popular attraction is based on the old adage ‘a change is as good as a rest’. The variety of roles and interactions in a portfolio can be more stimulating than working at the same office with the same set of co-workers and the same politics. This way of working is not for everybody. Some people are comfortable working for one employer, others prefer to work for themselves, but not that many can balance more than one role on an ongoing basis. But if you’re keen to make your portfolio career a sustainable success here are seven key things you need to bear in mind. 1. Finances You will have an idea of how much you need to earn and therefore you’ll need to have sufficient financial reserves while you piece together your new working pattern. It may well take some time to get the various jobs to fit together. But assuming that the first leg of your portfolio career is in place, allow at least six months’ contingency money while you find the next elements. 2. Administration You will need to decide if you whether to be a sole trader or a limited company or an employee at your locations. If you are concerned about pensions and employment then the latter is your best course; freelancers don’t get paid holidays. Being on an employed basis will save you the headache of paying yourself and dealing with invoicing, tax and National Insurance returns, but of course you lose your autonomy in determining the nature and content of your work. 3. Finding Niches You will start with the advantage that you are not asking for full-time work, and therefore your flexibility could be a big advantage. You can enhance that advantage by bringing in a skill that is not commonplace. Look at areas in your specialist knowledge that could be a big selling point. Your portfolio of jobs could include some that only last for a few months, but the more of them you do, the more variety you will be able to demonstrate to other employers. 4. Marketing Yourself Yes, the dreaded word: networking. There’s no doubt that the best way of getting work is by recommendation or word of mouth. If you have business or organisational skills, then make sure you are at least on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com). A great way of creating attention is by writing articles for trade press, and perhaps even offering to do short presentations or workshops at Chamber of Commerce meetings and business conferences. 5. Time Management Once you’ve secured your positions, you will definitely need to be structured about your use of time and priorities. If you don’t have this skill, either go to a workshop, or start using a diary or organiser. Inevitably, there will arise a situation where the demands of one activity will attempt to eat into the other, so you will need to think beforehand how you will approach the problem. 6. Self Development Working in the portfolio manner demands that you start getting proactive about your knowledge and your skills. Make sure that you are up to date on technical and legal issues in your chosen fields, and don’t allow the complacency of being in employment mean that you neglect these areas. Always work on the basis that one of your activities might come to an end at any time. So keep alert! 7. Your New Workplaces Whether you are a permanent employee, or on a contract, it pays to steer clear of politics in the workplace. Because you are lucky enough not to work in one place all the time, it’s rather easier to do. Remember, everyone who gets involved in organisational politics becomes less effective at what they do. One benefit you will find is that, not being in a place full time, you are able to be more objective about issues. The reason that external consultants are so successful in organisations is that they are not so close to the problems and they can see the solutions. Denis Barnard is the CEO of the UK’s first HRIS comparison website, HRcomparison.com. He is an expert speaker on the implementation of HR and payroll systems and worked in the HR industry for more than 30 years.

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