Seniors Site

When you say branding, you always associate it with a product, most probably commercial wares you are currently marketing or advertising to a specific target market. The word “brand” itself, by definition, is anything that represents a product, designed to make the product recognizable by its patrons. Branding on the other hand is a process or steps you take in order to educate your patrons of your product. Let’s take for example the Coke brand, they apply branding techniques by TV commercials, merchandise and promotional activities. Over the years, they managed to make Coke a household name such that when you say “softdrink”, it’s either a Pepsi or Coke. Now, that’s what you call good branding!
Nowadays, branding is no longer confined to products and services. If you have just entered the job-hunting scene, you must probably be aware by now that everything has changed since the last time you submitted a resume for a job. Even your basic resume took on a different look and adapted a more professional feel.   Today, personal branding IS the trend, and if you want to stand out and be picked, you need to apply good personal branding techniques to go with your attention-grabbing resume!
Seniors, however, have an advantage when it comes to branding. When all these young people run up and down just to find their own place under the sun, you my friend, exactly know what you are good at—and yes, you can write that down in a snap! Every senior has his or her own expertise, and that expertise means a lot in personal branding. Even a lifetime housewife has her own expertise such as baking or perhaps tutoring to kids. If ever she decided to establish her personal brand, it could be as a baker or a tutor which can land her work in, perhaps, baking cakes for weddings or tutoring kids either at her own home or a nearby daycare center. See how easy it is to brand yourself? Just as long as you know your strengths and capabilities!
Seniors should begin personal branding efforts starting today—and no, you don’t need any professional help as you can do it yourself. It helps you stand out from the crowd especially now that the competition is as stiff as ever! Whether you are looking for work or planning to start your own business, knowing where your expertise lies and having enough proof to backup your claim give you a tremendous edge over your competition. And that is exactly what you need!

Gone are the days when you purchase a readymade questionnaire, or form, with little boxes in it and try as you might to maintain a somewhat decipherable writing or what they call as legible handwriting. With the advent of the computer and yes, the internet too, there are now hundreds of resume templates you can use for your job hunting, or even for reference purposes. Even your hideous looking ID picture can now be enhanced for a sexier, more attractive you! It can’t get any better than that!
FYI seniors, resumes today are not made solely to be printed. A senior looking for a job can now apply even within the comfort of their own homes via the internet of course. If you have been reading posts from this blog, you should know by now that working from home has always been a favorite of mine as I see it fits a senior’s life perfectly. Your resume can now be submitted through emails and through online marketplaces using escrow accounts. Some of the biggest companies in the industry today have their own forms you need to fill up upon application however, preparing a good resume is still an essential part of your job-hunting activities. Your resume should cover these points:
·    A basic resume must be two pages long and as much as possible, no longer than that. Keep it clean and avoid cluttering your resume too much. Use simple, easy to read font and font sizes. If you want to go for a creative looking resume, try browsing for resume templates over the internet.
·    Strength and capabilities. While it is good to emphasize your experience, try to highlight your strengths and capabilities as a person and as a worker instead. Your potential employer must have already acknowledged your experience just by seeing your age written on your resume, what they need to know now are the things you can do for the company or the team.
·    Arrange it chronologically but very well targeted. It is important to read the job description well before getting your resume together. Explain in extent the ones you feel are important for the company but list also those occupations you did in the past—only not that detailed as the former. Your most recent comes first down to your first job.
·    Trainings, seminars and educational background. Same as your work history, you should also include these things in your resume as this is very important for the company to know. This serves as their reference if you are fit for the position.
·    Have someone proofread your cover letter. Grammar and sentence construction are very important as it implies your professionalism. Again, just keep it simple and it should directly answer the job description.

As the competition in workforce grow stiffer by the minute, more and more seniors are leaning toward entrepreneurship as their means of income before and during retirement years. It’s quite understandable though, as starting/maintaining your own business gives you more control and if you’re really, really good at it, stability—things that you cannot be certain when employed to a company. However, starting a small business can be complicated, and can even give you a headache, if not given enough attention.
As the business owner, you must familiarize yourself in all areas of your work.  Of course, as your business expands, you will need people to work with you hence you will provide training for them and allow them some room to grow on their own. What’s important though is that you know how to handle these things yourself if worse comes to worst, just so you don’t have to rely your business entirely to somebody else.
It is also important to choose a business that will enable you to grow as a person. Add to this the fact that it should be able to retain your interest for a long, long time. I have known businesses which are doomed from the very beginning just because their owners have chosen these areas based on spur-of-the-moment decisions and half-baked ideas. I would like to think that starting a business, whether small or big must be considered as a commitment, like a life-changing event, something you can live with for years and years to come.
Secondly, your business should be able to make you money. The amount you make should be enough to compensate your hard work. If not, then drop the idea and leave it to somebody else. Guide to save your sanity: it’s business if you make money out of it, it’s passion if it only gives you self satisfaction at the end of the day. The beauty of it is, you can actually combine the two and greatly benefit from it!
Business plans are important, so as business timelines. Don’t include expansion plans yet, just your simple startup plan would do just fine. As much as possible, do without complicated work at this point. Focus on getting your business up and running then see from there what else needs to be done. This way, you avoid cluttering your life with unnecessary mess. While you’re at it, consider your financing options: would you be needing financial assistance or perhaps loans? If so, how are you planning to pay for these services?
Consider the ownership structure of your business. Are you getting a partner or perhaps start a corporation-type of business. These things affect your business tax, by the way, so you really need to sort these things out ahead of time. Also, take some time to check and register your business name as this will protect you from copycats and scammers. Check with your local agencies for filing of licenses, permits and also insurances. Most importantly, get a good accounting/bookkeeping service to help you keep your books straight.

If you’re managing a one-man business then you don’t have a problem with employees. Chances are, you are just starting out and don’t need help yet. But as your business grows, you’ll soon realize how important it is to get help, probably one or two to do the office and admin work while you’re off to expanding your business. Even if you’re employing virtual workers or in-house staff, it is important to keep them on their toes without you being rude or mean to them. Keeping them on their toes will help them focus and be efficient on what they do but it has to be just right. As their senior and their boss, you must give them enough freedom to do their own thing without losing track of what they do.
For me, I can say that it all comes down on how good the boss in managing his staff. I have had many bosses for me to know the attitude of the boss comes first in everything, especially in maintaining his staff. Your staff’s loyalty is something you cannot pay or demand, it must be earned by no one else but you. If you don’t trust yourself to be good enough for your staff to actually like you, get someone you can fully trust and let him run your staff. This way, you only have your staff manager to boss around.
Managing a team involves knowing how to keep your people inspired. Being a senior, you must have had managing experiences before. Apply the things you have learned from that experience and make it work to your advantage. Here are some simple tips to keep your staff as effective as they can be:
·    Give compliments when it’s due. Ever heard of the term “thankless job”? Coming from your employee, it means you are not giving enough compliments even if they already gave it their best. Also, this should be considered as a warning sign as it only means your staff is not happy working with you anymore.
·    Apologize when you’re wrong, instead of demanding your staff to make it right for you. They are also thinking humans, they would know if you’re the one who blundered a job off. Acknowledge your mistake and encourage your staff to think of ways to help the situation—or salvage what’s left of it.
·    Listen to your employees. It won’t hurt if you talk to them once in a while, initiating a talk that is non-business. It will help you know your staff more, gauging where their weaknesses and interests lie and be able to harness it for your business. It also improves interpersonal relationships.
·    Give and respect their own space. It will allow them some room to grow and flourish. Give them enough space to do their own thing and just be there to guide them. Learning things their own way gives them a sense of accomplishment you can never really give if you just force your way into them.
·    Make them feel important. Giving each of them their own time to shine will inspire them to do even better—even exceed your expectations.

Just so we are seniors doesn’t mean we will not be alarmed when our partners suddenly lose interest on us or just fall asleep the minute their backs hit the bed. Or let’s, for a minute, reverse the situation and suddenly find ourselves too tired to cuddle and just guiltily climb into bed without further ado. If there’s something we can do about it then why not, who in his or her right mind would like to always go home tired and depleted anyway? Only sometimes, going home tired and weary cannot be helped even by your most trusted multivitamins as a backup.
Your sex life, at any age, is important. It covers one of human’s basic needs, no matter how dirty that may sound. As we age, sex becomes more than just a physical act. In a way, it creates or rekindles connection between two human beings and can even fill a void in their lives. However, as reality starts to kick in and human obligations and responsibilities come knocking at your door, that’s when the problem starts.
It was said that sex is at its most beautiful when participants are relaxed and free of inhibitions. However, energy spent at work can really put even the strongest man down. It is important to know that the body has only one energy reserve. If your bucket of energy is spent somewhere else besides sex, there will be no more for anything else. This is especially true for seniors since an aging body seldom has the vitality of a younger one. As we grow older, we really need to slow down and redirect our attention to our own needs, particularly that of our bodies. Problem is, work can really interfere with our private lives, whether it’s a personal choice or a matter of obligation. Fast-phased life demands more from us than ever and sadly seniors who are still with the workforce are compelled to always give it their best even if it means sacrificing their sexlife at the end of the day. Furthermore, technology today makes it harder for us to leave work in the office. Now that almost everything is mobile, work can really invade your home and your bedroom!
Let’s not forget the tension, stress and angst that go with working. If you belong to the 9-5 workforce then you must be worrying about losing your job in this very unpredictable market atmosphere as well, while those working at home are always on their toes keeping up with their self-set quota. If you are really concerned about your dwindling sex life, a senior must learn how to limit energy spent working, including those you tend to bring home like your laptop, mobile phone and reports. Actually setting aside a time for it, like one-day honeymoon can help you forget work for a while and enjoy each other’s company as well. Sometimes, sex drive is only a matter of being in the right place at the right time, so really be there when that time comes.

After your final handshake with bosses and coworkers of God-only-knows-how-many years, saying goodbye to your work table that had been your strength, hope and courage for all those trials, late-nights and tears, you are now entering a new phase in your life. It should be an exciting one, something to look forward to—and you are, at the beginning, at the very least!
Months later, when your business clothes are now hanging clean and nicely undisturbed inside your cabinet and every nook and cranny of your house has been feather-dusted, vacuumed and even soaped, and there’s nothing left for you to do but rearrange the furniture for the nth time, reality will sink in:  you need your career back!
Be it boredom, financial reasons or simply the need to stay productive, acquiring a second and even a third career would be the perfect choice for seniors. One good thing about career decisions later in life is that no other factor is to be considered but yourself. In other words, no pressure at all! You can choose whatever you want as long as you can endure it and it can make you happy.
To further encourage you with the idea of second careers, there are many–and I mean lots!—who already made the big switch, even those who are not in their retirement years yet. Some are successful business owners who just happen to be interested in some other things and now that they have already established a money-generating venture for their family to live comfortable by, they realize that it is, indeed, the right time to pursue their happiness—and did exactly.
If you are interested in having a second career later in life, just make sure that it is fulfilling—enough to make you look forward doing every waking hours. Certainly, you don’t want something that is similar to your pre-retirement job, instead choose something that is close to your heart. It can be a new business venture, or an organization intended to bear social impact, or an altogether different area of expertise which will require you to attend school again. Your second career is all up to you!
When pursuing a second career, it is important to not let your imagination run wild with you. Of course, there are things you need to consider before actually making a life-changing decision. For one, you need to be really certain of what you want out of it or is it worth exerting effort for. If not, then drop the idea at once. You also need a good support system. Why? Expect naysayers to mess your way to success especially at the beginning when everything is still shaky and uncertain. Also, keep your finances in check since you are most likely to be spending much while staying jobless for months.

There have been left and right lay-offs and job termination these days. Unfortunately, seniors are no stranger in this situation as survey would show if there’s one group who gets the first blow of axe, it would be the seniors’ group. There are many reasons why companies would rather see their seniors go than take advantage of their expertise, one of them is the higher fees the company has to pay when keeping one.
Add to that the fact that sometimes, no matter how hard a senior would try, it seems impossible to keep up with the times. Offices are now applying high-tech ways to better their services, save money and do without menial jobs—or employees who do these menial jobs, for that matter. Computers are now equipped with bookkeeping capabilities which eliminate the need to hire a whole bookkeeping department. You can even run a virtual office without having to hire people and get them in your office everyday. Due to these factors, more and more seniors are losing jobs every single day. For seniors who rely largely on their jobs as their means to live, it’s a disaster indeed.
Let’s be honest, being a senior with no job is no laughing matter. Everyone needs a job, with or without a nest egg. While the least desperate ones can still make a wise decision on how to make the most out of their current situation, the same cannot be expected especially for those who still have mouths to feed and bills to pay.
Take Ben for an example. He is 60+ in age and recently got terminated. At the age of 40, he started building his nest egg and now, it has grown nicely—adequate enough to provide for him and his wife Laura. Problem is, Laura was diagnosed with breast cancer and is expected to undergo necessary treatments for it. To top it all off, his daughter, decidedly left her two minor children in Ben’s home to sort her life after a marital storm. Now, Ben, somewhat bothered with the unexpected job termination at the age of 60, turns to job hunting, an activity that is not too safe nowadays.
Be it a job found over the internet, classified ads and even those on TV, can be a scam and it can cost you a lot of money if you are not too careful. Remember, con artists prey on the desperate, so no matter how desperate you are in getting a job, you still need to keep your head clear and intact at all times. Think twice when offered a job which requires you to pay upfront fees of some sort. Also, never go for promises which seem to be too good to be true. Always do your research when applying for work or dealing with someone. It saves you time and effort knowing what you are about to plunge into.

As a senior myself, I would like to think that I’m a master of multitasking—or someone that is trained enough to fall for it! During my younger years when my brain could still process 101 tasks at a time, I had no qualms about it as I know I will remember each and everything I must do—and do them fast to make room for a little time for myself. I could easily slip from one task to another without even batting an eye. I even imagined it then as slipping from one uniform to another, or in some circumstances, wear both at the same time. Never had any problem with role reversing, on and off tasks, or even “emergency” tasks until one day I realized I could have done better if not for my habit of multitasking!
Digging deeper, I’ve found out that I actually could do without several “emergency” tasks during the day if I hadn’t multitasked.  But I did, so it’s only understandable to have “unfinished” tasks needing undivided attention now as I should have done them hours or days ago. Unfinished tasks are only half of the story. I also encountered half-baked ideas and jobs that would have been great if done earlier. Now they are just useless piece of information which I even forget what they’re for. I now realize that multitasking and task switching are just one of my many attempts on “super hero”-ness which is just plain impossible!
Trying to turn over a new leaf and hopefully break an old habit, I am now getting everything in my life in order and resist running around like a chicken without a head. One thing I must admit, as a multitasking addict, I experience withdrawal symptoms which include jitters when I try to concentrate on one task and would look eagerly forward for the next. I also get bored when I spend too much time on a task and would find myself dreaming what I would be doing now if I hadn’t given up multitasking. It is indeed a hard road to take but I will persevere.
But is it really possible for a person to do two tasks at a time but not sacrifice the quality of work? At least for me I know that ain’t possible. Whether it’s multitasking or task switching, can a normal, average brain cope with this? Is it really possible to jump from one task requiring attention to another which needs the same level of attention too?..  According to a study, our brains become inefficient when it does either of the two.  Furthermore, it was said that the brain needs some time to process the things you feed it. In fact, multitasking and task switching are considered by the brain as annoying disturbances. However, good news for chronic multitaskers, doing mental and physical tasks at the same time can never hurt you such as watching TV while folding shirts.  See full report here: Multitasking:  Brain Drain or Boost in Efficiency?

At some point in your life, perhaps during your younger, innocent years, you may have fantasized about turning your life’s passion into something worthwhile and hopefully, make a difference or perhaps a name for yourself. As we go along with our lives, we easily found ourselves slowly setting aside our passion and get into mundane, unproductive careers for the sake of normalcy. Well, that’s what life is all about and seldom do we see successful people who just followed their passion and never wavered. Your passion will have to wait until you’re able to support yourself no matter what.
In truth, turning your passion into business is a lot like gambling. You can either win or lose but no one can ever tell what it will be. Some may openly express their doubts about this new venture of yours while others might suggest that you think of it many times before you actually throw everything out the window especially if you are already doing well with your current business. While these people may not help you at all, never bear a grudge for they are only concerned about your welfare, instead, take it as a challenge that old dogs can learn new tricks after all.
That’s the beauty of retirement and golden years. When you retire, it is more or less the same as saying, you are now free to do whatever you want without any kind of obligation or responsibility to the people around you. Retirement gives you the freedom to be yourself and actually own your life. Now is the right time to pursue your passion and hopefully be able to support yourself in doing so. However, seniors should also understand that Rome was not built overnight and it may take some time before you see the fruits of your labor. It’s more like starting all over again and the road to your goal may be a little rocky than usual especially if you’ve grown too far from your passion.
Switching careers later in life involves challenges. Your biggest hindrance must be age discrimination as most of my friends have discovered. Following you passion may require you to take courses and classes in which you will have classmates barely out of their puberty years, worse if you’re much older than your own professor. Also there will be insurmountable test of faith to conquer and a 360 degree lifestyle change that you must deal with. There will be risks and expect internal and external stress from happening. During this phase, it is important to know where your motives are. Are you doing this to really pursue your passion or you’re just escaping your current work environment? Knowing where you really should be will help you get through this very hard stage of your development.

Actually, age discrimination works at two opposite ends of the spectrum. Age discrimination also occurs when a person is considered as “too young” or “underage” by the person in charge. However, seniors are most associated with age discrimination since its effects are most felt within this age group. Aside from that, young people can always seek help from their parents or guardians but a senior having problems with age discrimination can never be assisted by their children. They always have to do it on their own or else they be hitting a dead-end!
Age discrimination is usually the reason why most seniors who are not quite ready for a retirement chose to open up their own businesses instead of ever trying to land a job again. Even if there are laws prohibiting age discrimination, you can never really insist your way into a job especially if you are still applying for it. Indeed, companies know what to do in cases like this and seldom can you find that it is really your age why you did not get the job afterall. Often times, they will only harp on you being “over qualified” for the job or not meeting the qualifications needed for the job at all. But how would you know that it is really not your age affecting your ability to get employed again?
The answer is a simple “none”. Of course, there’s no way you can tell. However, there are things you can do to help you uplift your self-esteem and not get affected by the rejection at all:
·    Do remember that at any point or any age in a person’s life, rejections are bound to happen so never take it personally. What matters most is that you know your abilities, capabilities and skills as well as your limitations as a person. You can always try again as any normal person would do.
·    Never set your mind to rejection just because you are “too old”. Things happen and you know it. It’s only a matter of proper mindset. If you brand your own self as old and incapable, people will start seeing you in the same light.
·    Age is not the only reason why companies fire their employees, most of the time, they fire those who are considered as “costly” employees—older employees included. Basically, it’s not your age, it’s the kind of money you are entitled to receive.
·    Be very conscious of the job requirement. Never apply for a job that is specifically made for younger people just to spite the company and cause trouble. We must admit, seniors have physical limitations which prevent them from doing physically taxing work. A senior applying for a work that calls for lifting and loading heavy objects is downright impossible!
·    Be familiar with your rights as seniors. Groups and associations such as AARP provide assistance to seniors. They will also advise you if your complaints have enough grounds or what to do at this point in time.