Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Spain Business Advisors recruiting Client Advisor & Senior Advisors

I am currently recruiting for a Client Advisor and Senior Advisors in the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina region for my Master Office with Personal Business Advisors (PBA). The position description and requirements are outlined on the Spain Business Advisors website.
 
PBA identifies alternatives to traditional employment in our volatile executive job market. We are executive matchmakers, connecting executives to entrepreneurial opportunities across the globe and represent the world's largest supermarket of opportunities for business professionals seeking alternative career strategies. Since 2002, we have developed an extensive portfolio of business opportunities that have been carefully vetted to include career opportunities that meet the following criteria: 
  • Appeal to senior level professionals and executives
  • Provide a six-figure income opportunity
  • Recession-proof and/or recession-resistant
  • Possess a solid business plan
Advisors identify business options that may be of interest to prospective executive candidates. We do not charge a fee for our service. We have thousands of opportunities in our portfolio that span across all major industries.
 
Jack Spain

Monday, January 10, 2011

The Cost of Interruptions: the business case for Telecommuting & Virtual Offices

A brief Fast Company article caught my attention recently titled, “No Interruptions Day”. The author reminds the readers of the frightful reality that “The average office worker is interrupted – by coworkers, emails, or phone calls – every 11 minutes. Even worse is that it takes basically that much time to refocus on the task at hand.” If you do the math, this equates to over 40 interruptions per day, and many hours of unproductive time spent attempting to refocus on the task at hand.

The business case for telecommuting and virtual offices becomes even stronger if you also factor in typical commute times which may vary from minutes to hours in large metropolitan cities. The bottom line is that working in a virtual office often results in more productive and satisfied workers with who have the advantage of dozens if not hundreds of hours more fruitful hours per year.

My experience working as a member of several large teams within a virtual office environment over the past six years had proven to me that this workforce model is considerably more productive and effective for many jobs. Of course, there are many jobs that require working from a designated location or a fully collaborative environment – including retail and customer-facing positions and software engineers – but it is a proven and very beneficial model for many knowledge workers.

Has anyone else experienced higher productivity as the result of working in a virtual office environment?

Jack Spain

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Launch of Spain Business Advisors to Identify Career Opportunities for Executives

After several months of exploring new professional opportunities in the second half of 2010, I made a decision to acquire a license to represent Personal Business Advisors (PBA) in early December 2010. As a Senior Advisor with PBA, I advise and assist executives and senior level professionals to identify and evaluate new non-traditional business and career opportunities.

As a result of the current economic challenges that we all have personally experienced over the past several years, demand for my independent consulting services (Spain Technovative Solutions, launched in early 2005) began declining in the second quarter of 2010. Beginning last summer, I leveraged my professional network extensively and evaluated several dozen potential new business opportunities including:

·         Delivering consulting and business coaching services to previous clients
·         Identifying new prospective consulting clients
·         Applying for numerous full-time “traditional” jobs in the RTP area

The results from my active job search over several months did not result in a single response from any of the prospective employers where I had sent resumes and cover letters. I also received consistent responses from prospective consulting clients that they were not in a financial position to engage outside services at this time. My ultimate business decision to partner with PBA was also influenced by these factors:
  1. I was interested in exploring options that would provide me with greater control over my own professional destiny
  2. I have considerable recruiting experience having reviewed thousands of resumes and interviewed and hired hundreds of professionals at all levels for over 30 years
  3. I have been working independently from a home office for six years and preferred to continue to work in a virtual versus a traditional business office environment
  4. I have been very active in professional networking since I relocated to Research Triangle Park and have connected dozens of professionals with new career opportunities over the past 15 years
  5. I have a strong professional network to help jumpstart my new role as a Senior Advisor supporting successful business professionals
  6. I am energized about initiating a new business venture, especially one where I could potentially receive tremendous satisfaction from making a positive difference in other people’s lives
Of course the current jobs outlook weighed in on my decision as well. In the past few months, dozens of news stories have reinforced this career decision including the following recent posts:


Beginning in early 2011, I will be building a team of Advisors at Spain Business Advisors that are committed to empowering senior-level professionals to identify exciting new career opportunities.

I wish all my former colleagues and professional contacts tremendous success in 2011 and beyond as our great country emerges from a long and challenging economic recession. Please contact me if you have any interest in exploring new business opportunities or know of any unemployed or underemployed associates that may be interested in evaluating new, exciting non-traditional career options.

Jack Spain