Starting a Small Home Business

Start As A Freenlance And Independent Corporate Trainer

November 27th, 2007 Filed under: Uncategorized — Small Home Business Author

As a training provider, I’ve quite a number of people approaching me to enquire about how to start as a freelance / independent corporate trainer. At first, it was just a case here and there, but lately, it has increased in frequency. One day, while browsing the internet looking for information about retirement management and planning, I came across some mind boggling facts.

If you’re like me, born within 10 years after World War II, we’re belonging to the generation called baby boomers. By 2011, the first group of baby boomers will reach the age of 65. Some will begin claiming early retirement in just three years. By the time they are through, 77 million of them across America will have retired, or about to retire.

In Japan, first generation of baby boomers born between 1947 and 1949 will retire by end 2007. Together they represent more than 8% of the country’s workforce.

This phenomenon is also happening in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Their aging rates — measured in terms of the percentage of the population aged 65 or older– exceeded 7 percent.

The last fifties years have witnessed advancement in technology and increase in knowledge at break-neck speed. If all the baby boomers would simply retire and faded away, the world would have lost a great deal of knowledge and experiences. That is a void not easy to fill up.

Secondly, study has shown that majority of retired or soon-to-be-retired baby boomers are ill-prepared for their retirement. I guess that is why retirement management and planning are such a hot topic now.

Retirement advisors and experts advocate that second career should form an integral part of retirement planning. There are many options available, but I think to be a freelance/independent corporate trainer is a worthwhile option to be considered seriously.

So, what do you need to pay attention if you have the ambition of going into training world?

First of all, you need to know to get yourself started mentally. It is a significant change jumping from the corporate world into being a trainer on solo. Effectively you are an entrepreneur. Congratulations! But entrepreneur journey is full of perils and unexpected events. So, one needs to be fully prepared. Next, understanding the role of trainers in human capital development in the corporations. Companies spend money and engage a trainer have return on investment (ROI) in mind. A trainer needs to deliver that promise. Trainer also needs to differentiate the differences between adult learning and children as learners. This is extremely importance, many trainers made serious mistakes by not understanding this concept and thus failed to deliver effective training program. Lastly but not the least, I guess the biggest challenge a budding trainer faces is how to design the training programs, and go about starting market the programs.

Being a trainer is a rewarding career. The key is to know the process of getting there. Like everything else.

Sie Hui Lau is Director of training provider Adaptive Training & Consulting, based out of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The url is http://www.atc.com.my This article is an based on his eBook “A Training Provider’s Guide To Start As A Freelance/Independent Corporate Trainer”, which can be downloaded from http://www.ebookspace.com