Follow the money

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If you’re looking for work right now my number one piece of advice in the current climate is to ‘follow the money’.

What I mean by that is that it’s not good enough to confine yourself to the are where you happen to live. It may sound obvious, but it’s not to everyone, that you have to go where the work is, not wait for it to come to you.

Recently I’ve heard of a lot of British professionals leaving Britain and going where the money is, particularly San Francisco (the internet entrepreneurs and techies), Brazil and other parts of South America, Australia, Switzerland and Qatar. Others are talking about moving to China and other parts of Asia.

None of these moves is permanent, although some may end up being permanent, but they are the result of people realising that the work they want/need is not in these shores, or if it is it’s not being paid well enough. Also, they’re not sure about the future of business here.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing to be forced out of your comfort zone. You get to meet new people, see new places, get a new aspect on life. It can open up whole new vistas.

We just need to be brave enough and willing enough to take the plunge and change our expectations. For example, if you’re a teacher, you could get good, interesting and well-paid work in the Middle East as a governess or a nanny. There are jobs in Russia, Asia and around Europe for British nannies, butlers and chauffeurs.

There is also work for construction engineers, builders and project managers in the Middle East.

There’s very little work for journalists here but there are new magazines, newspapers, websites and TV stations opening up in Asia, South America and the Middle East.

Closer to home of course there seems to be more business activity in the South East than in most of the rest of the country (although big cities like Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool also have opportunities). Admittedly it’s more expensive to live there but for the moment it’s better to cope with the expense in order to get the money in.

This all ignores what’s going on in cyberspace of course. It is always possible to make money on the internet wherever you are, even if it’s just through doing online surveys. Increasingly I think that a really good way for anyone to make money quickly and in a relatively straightforward way is to sell secondhand goods on eBay or eBid, and the various other online stores, and then move on to buying things you know are cheap and selling them on for a profit as well as selling on behalf of friends and neighbours.

I know a couple of people who do this – one in their spare time and the other as a full-time business with staff – and it’s within the grasp of everyone. If you really need the cash right now I suggest you get into this.