The Death of the Corporate Career and What You Can Do to Avoid It
Much has been written about loyalty and corporate tenure (or lack thereof) lately and it can be confusing.
Business coach Jose Manuel Redondo Lopera says executive careers are getting shorter while O.C. Tanner Institute researchers David Sturt and Todd Nordstrom say the evidence actually indicates otherwise.
Regardless of whether you think corporate loyalty is dying or it’s mortal demise is being exaggerated, here is something that should scare you: according to tax, finance and business expert Cameron Keng, staying at the same job for more than two years “on average is going to make you earn less over your lifetime by about 50% or more.”
Can we just pause here to say: That’s crazy.
The reason is because the average raise an employee gets per year is about 3% (4.5% if you’re a top performer). But, when you factor in average inflation, that cuts into the raise, decreasing it. For example, in 2014, the year Keng wrote his Forbes article, the average raise for an employee was the aforementioned 3% while the average inflation that year was 2%, meaning the raises people received were worth only 1%. (These are all US numbers.)
Keng also revealed that the average raise in salary for people who left companies and found jobs elsewhere was between 10 to 20%, meaning it actually seems like it’s in people’s best interest to actually look for work outside of their current jobs every two or three years.
Millennial job coach Daniel Rounds certainly found that to be true when he was only getting a 3.5% annual raise at a job where he says he was a top performer for six years so he left for a whopping 40% jump in salary at another company. Even better for him, just over a year later, he left that company for another one where he received another 40% raise in salary, meaning he got an 80% bump in salary in less than two years by jumping ship twice.
Being the Boss
Clearly, job hopping is one way to beat a stagnant corporate career. If you’re not moving up the ladder at one place, you can try your luck somewhere else. But, there is no guarantee that you will land on your feet or end up making more elsewhere.
But, aside from job hopping, there is another way.
Instead of being stuck in a stagnant corporate career, you could take the ultimate leap and start your own business. Being the boss means you are in control of your own destiny and you get to shape the corporate culture of your business the way you believe it should be. You are the one in charge.
Of course, there is also no guarantee that starting your own business will mean success, either. But, there is a way to increase your chance of success when starting your own business: Franchising.
Franchising means not having to go it alone, not having to start a new brand from scratch, not having to come up with a new business model and not having to create every piece of advertising and marketing on your own.
When you join one of the 1,300 franchise brands operating in Canada, you are joining a $96 billion per year industry that employs about one out of every 10 Canadians and you will be creating even more jobs for Canadians.
Men and women of all ages join franchises across Canada with investments ranging from just a few thousand dollars to a million dollars. At least some of these people are looking to escape stagnant corporate careers that seem to be going nowhere.
If you want to escape from or avoid getting into a dead-end corporate career and you’ve decided franchising is the best way to go, the next step is deciding which franchise to join. And that’s where FranNet comes in. Sign up for a free FranNet franchise search and consultation today and let us help you on your way to business ownership.
