How to Create a Business Plan for Your Career

Investing in Me, Inc.

Create a business plan for yourself, and make your career your life's work.

O, The Oprah Magazine | From the September 2001 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine

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Photo: Eric McNatt

Author and career consultant Ronna Lichtenberg believes that by taking a day to think about the way you earn your living, you can make a huge difference in making your job more fulfilling. Ronna recently led a career seminar for a group of women looking to get more out of their work. Whether you work for an employer or yourself, in a major corporation or behind the counter in a coffee shop, you're the CEO of your career. The tools any CEO needs are the same ones the rest of us need.

By following the steps outlined in Ronna's seminar, you can create your own business plan and find more fulfillment your career.

Who Are You?

Write a curriculum vitae in 15 lines or less—not a résumé, but a description you might give to someone introducing you as a speaker.
Repeat the exercise, but write your description as if it were 15 to 20 years from now.
Start thinking about what it would take to get from the first introduction to the second. In CEO lingo, this kind of thinking is called gap analysis.

Most people have trouble with this exercise, according to Ronna. While many of us often worry about our careers, we don't take the time to think about them in a focused way. To help the process, Ronna suggests asking yourself these questions:

Do you know what your most valuable skills are?
Could you write an ad for yourself?
Do you sometimes feel there's something stopping you from reaching your potential?

The next step involves thinking about what it means to invest in Me, Inc., and how to be your own CEO.

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