Aspiring Social Entrepreneur | Proactive Volunteer
I’d like to think of the 60+ hours a week I volunteer as the work of an aspiring social entrepreneur, having labeled myself as such is rather vain of me when really I’m just a very proactive volunteer.
Volunteer or social entrepreneur ~ either way, it works for me. I get to do what I love in my own way, on my own time, in hopes that the work I do now, will eventually pay off in terms of actually helping other people.
For me, volunteering is as much a part of my life/work landscape as my friends and family. I am immensely grateful to be surrounded by talented, passionate people that encourage and inspire the journey. That said, I would not suggest I have a traditional outlook on volunteer work.
While I do collect for the Red Puppy Appeal, attend charity music events for the likes of Sea Shepherd and volunteer my social media skills for 350Aotearoa ~ volunteering is about the 60 hours+ a week that I invest as work experience in order to create my own future work/life path.
my talent and time | pursuing the dream
It is as true for me as anyone else on this planet that our most valuable personal resources are our own talent and time. Importantly, you get to decide how you value yourself and how you apply your time and talent. What we have to give and gain from this life is up to us to decide.
On that basis, I’m going with a “priceless” valuation on my time and talent:) I work because I hope that what I do is of much greater value to me than a monetary value might prescribe. From Worknow to Augmented Reality to Social Development Banking & Funding models to communities like the Distiller and the Social Innovation Hub as well as work on the board of trustees with KUMA ~ the Southern Maori Business Network and The Malcam Charitable Trust Foundation. It may seem eclectic, but all this unpaid work caters to my aspirations to help people using technology to connect and harness our collective potential
the highs and lows of being “unemployable”
One could point out that I am unemployable ~ which in the traditional sense of a 40hour work week would be an understatement. No “employer” would pay me to do what I do, there is no job description that would comprehensively cover what I set out to achieve or my methods for doing so.
The stigma attached to the label of being “unemployed” is sometimes a challenge. It’s difficult to explain what I do in any quick way except to say that I volunteer, a lot. To quickly summaries my work life often strips from my description all the passion and well being I enjoy. To explain in even basic detail often means a five minute spiel all about me and the amazing talented people I know.
I sometimes struggle to share with the fact that I love my job, that I don’t get paid and actually could achieve nothing without the many many people that I work alongside. Some days I feel like a fake and it’s easy to see why no one pays me. Other days it all just comes together, it makes sense and I absolutely trust that I’m on the right path. If it is about the journey vs the destination, then I’m loving the ride.
Project based work life
Although only one of my current projects Worknow, is all about supporting my project based work life. Perhaps through determined belief and in living the lifestyle we promote I can show that volunteer work experience ~ choosing what you love and applying your talent to achieving your dreams ~ does pay. Perhaps not immediately, perhaps never in terms of cold hard cash but in so many other ways, that money could not buy.
If you aspire to entrepreneurship and work life freedom, if you seek to discover and live your talents and life with passion and joy then potentially, we can help. Your talent profile here will help you connect with the growing number of people that share our work life outlook . Tell us about your talents and skill your interests and values, and we’ll match you with work opportunities. What do you have to gain? that is up to you to define.
“Chose a job you love, and you will never have to Work a day in your life.” Confucius
Ancient wisdom. As true today as it was when Confucius – China’s most famous teacher, philosopher, and political theorist 551-479 BC – wrote it some 2500 years ago.
Here at Worknow we believe you can find a job you love by connecting with work opportunities that match your talents, skills and interests, passion, values and experience.
It’s taken four times longer than first thought and although still under testing and development we now have [ pause for drum roll & trumpeting fanfare to sound in my head ] Version 1.0! of our website live! Basically, this means a couple of new but important features & changes.
New Types of Talent Profiles
People can now register a talent profile as one of different types of entities:-
Individuals: Can post requests and offer services on all work
Business: Can post requests and offer services on all work
Community Group : Can post requests but can not offer services
Charity Organisation: Can post requests but can not offer services
With only a single field now for keywords we hope this change will help people focus keywords around the talents, skills and values relevant to the dream job they want to work toward.
We will work on improving profiles, without adding complexity, in the next round of development.
New Volunteer Marketplace
.
Anyone can now request volunteer help.We are working to populate the marketplace with volunteer work opportunities. Please if you know of anyone that needs volunteer help tell them that they can list with us at $0. If you are interested in volunteering or finding volunteers please include “volunteer” in your keywords, for now.
New Workspace Workflow
We’ve implemented a new work flow to make it more clear – for each party to a trade – where progress stands. We’ve integrated a flow chart to highlight which stage the trade is at and applied colour indicators:
Green represents work requiring your attention
Blue suggests it is pending attention from the other party
Dark Grey finished / closed.
A summary of your activity – Number of Trades; Number of Invites: Work Requiring your Attention vs Pending – is visible at all times in the top right corner of the web page : We hope this makes it just all the more easier to respond to work invites, requests and keep everything progressing
Changes to Time Trade
We removed the time offers section because it doubled up on the information required on people’s talent profiles. Basically all your skills and talents, strengths and passion, values, interests and experience need to be listed as keywords on your talent profile because
the keywords on your profile are how we can match you to work opportunities and the “job you love”.
Previous Development Changes
Invite to Trade: Matching talent & work opportunities: Now each time you post a request Worknow can suggest people for you to invite to view your trade by matching keywords on your post with the keywords listed within their talent profile.
Invite to Trade: You can also invite people you know to view your trade by creating a simple email invite. We’d like to invite you today to start trading & earn time credits simply by signing in and responding to our request for people to help test the trade functionality
Group Marketplace: We’ve established Groups functionality to enable existing communities to self organise and build community specific marketplaces. At this stage groups are created on request by providing a group name and contact email to renee@worknow.co.nz
Trade Status: We’re testing a new format for the Workspace to make it easier to understand trade status and actions pending on open trades. And we’ve updated the my posts page to provide a little more detail on the trades you have posted.
Worknow Start Up Tips & Tools
This is a copy of the email sent to member following the recent development update. I use and would highly recommend Mailchimp At start up stage Mailchimp provides all the email capabilities and performance measures you’ll need free of change when you have < 500 subscribers and send < 3000 emails. Brilliant!
To build a world class business that helps people and effects change.
“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And what you do serves as the proof of what you believe,”
HOW Worknow
On the basis of our shared values; recognising each others talents and working together in a spirit of trust and collaboration.
EXCELLENCE : We aim to be number one in our field and constantly strive to improve.
SERVICE : Helping people is our passion, exceeding expectations our reward.
INTEGRITY : We keep our promises, treat people fairly and value open and honest communication.
COLLABORATION : talented people, working together for the benefit of each other
BALANCE : work / life – future / present
GRATITUDE : We are thankful for our blessings and embrace both rewarding and challenging circumstances with open hearts.
WHAT Worknow
Work Now is a community marketplace to help people find volunteer and paid work opportunities. Join our talent community and create your talent profile to connect with people and work opportunities.
It’s great to see the people sharing their talents
“…Talent is always conscious of its own abundance, and does not object to sharing…”Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Whether you need help around the home, at work, in business or you’re just looking to expand your repertoire of skills there’s a growing range of time and talent on offer.
Creating opportunities for others to help
Now, everyone likes to be able to help other people because it’s a good thing. Yet apparently we are not so willing to give others the opportunity to help us.
True fact though people; every single one of us has something to learn from others. If you aspire at all to helping other people please consider this.
One of the kindest things you could do for another person may simply be to help them feel needed by allowing them the opportunity to help you.
With time trade one’s own motivation to help others comes second. It’s about putting the needs of others before myself by focusing less on the need to be needed – who can I help?, how can I help? – and more on outcomes that can only be secured by enlisting the time and talents of others – how can another persons talents, skills and time help me and others?
It would be great to see every member contribute at least one Time Request in an effort to provide others the opportunity to help.
Thanks to your feedback
And on that note I have to say again a big thanks to everyone that has offered feedback on the beta site. I’ve added all your thoughts to the user voice forum We are working on implementing you’re suggestions so keep them coming. This week thanks to your feedback:-
The loop hole that allowed people to create multiple responses on a single trade has been closed. Now when you view a trade in the Marketplace that you have offered or accepted time on you will have a link to “view open trade”.
We have added a “My Posts” page to your Workspace to make it easy to view and edit all the trades that you have posted. It’s pretty basic right now but it’s the basis for an evolving history of all your trades.
Changes to Work Flow
Where as before you could begin trading simply by hitting the “offer time” or “accept offer” buttons we think it makes sense to begin by starting a conversation, right? So you now create a message before you hit the button.
By default trades remain visible in the marketplace but you can now hide or display listings instead of deleting and creating new ones. There’s now a link in the right hand column visible on your trades and posts.
1. Time Trade is specifically for the exchange of services
This means you trade in time and talent only; not goods or products. Here’s a couple of questions that might help you build your Time Trade profile
What three things do you think you do best?
What are your talents and skills
Are there any talents or skills you’d like to teach?
Are there any skills you’d like to learn?
What are your interests? Could you share your interest with others?
If you could do your dream job what would you do?
What could you volunteer to do or learn that would put you one step closer to that dream job?
We are all gifted with talents that are of value in a Time Trade community because Time Trade recognises that our life experiences, our knowledge, everything we are – from what we know to what we don’t know – creates value with which to help others.
2.One Hour Time = One Hour Time “Credit”
Here is a list of some of the kinds of services that members can exchange. Education
If asked “what did you want to be when you were a kid?”, I know the answer is – to help people. While I’m not alone in aspiring to help others am I just trying to compensate for my failings? or feel better about myself? Am I really just trying to help myself?
With time trade one’s own motivation to help others comes second. It’s about putting the needs of others before yourself by focusing less on the need to be needed – who can I help?, how can I help? – and more on outcomes that can only be secured by enlisting the time and talents of those we are trying to help – how can this persons talents, skills and time help others?
“…If we want to fulfill our own commitments to make a difference in the lives of others, we need to find a way to use our ability to unleash the capacity of the person we are helping…” Edgar Cahn
People are Assets
Every single person is gifted with talents that are of value in a Time Trade community.
“…it recognises the whole person, that your life experiences, your knowledge, is an asset – everything you are, what you know and what you don’t is valuable…”
For organisations with networks of people that they already help there’s the potential to vastly expand the work accomplished by employing the time and talents of the people they help. This in turn empowers the recipients and moves them away from dependence and potential helplessness towards a sense of contributing value to one’s own community.
For example enlisting university alumni to mentor upcoming graduates about work life and career paths and those graduates, in turn, tutoring fellow students who in turn help volunteer in their community, and build valuable work skills.
“…We have to find news ways, or very old ways, of putting people to use doing things for each other…finding ways for people who don’t think they have skills to discover their own strengths…” Edgar Cahn
Time Trade is simply about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community.
In recognition for your contribution you receive one Time Credit which you can then gift or trade, with other members of the community, in exchange for their talent and time. It’s a simple idea, but it has powerful ripple effects in building community connections.
Here at Worknow we are building an online system to automate the transfer of time credits between Community Members. Our Time Trade system comes online August 2009 please register your interest today.
Dr Seyfang of the University of East Anglia has conducted some insightful and inspiring research into the effects of time banking in the UK
Case study research, which provides evidence that time trade can provide tools for promoting community development and overcoming social exclusion. I have recently read and would recommend:
Seyfang, G. (2004) Time banks: rewarding community self-help in the inner city. Community Development Journal 39:1 62 – 71 Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Seyfang, G &Smith, K. (2002) The time of our lives: using time banking for neighbourhood renewal and community capacity building. New Economics Foundations: London Download PDF Here
Time Trade aka Time Banking is simply about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community.
In recognition for your contribution you receive one Time Credit which you can then gift or trade, with other members of the community, in exchange for their talent and time. It’s a simple idea, but it has powerful ripple effects in building community connections.
Here at Worknow we are building an online system to automate the transfer of time credits between Community Members. Our Time Trade system comes online August 2009. For more information check out these links:-
I studied business extramurally because, as far as I could see, the best way to learn business was simply to get involved. I planned to gain real life business experience while building and diversifying my skills in preparation for “one day” when the right opportunity came along for my own venture start-up.
I never exactly knew when that “one day” might be but I’d been pretty generous and given myself until 35 to discover it, on the basis that I would intuitively know the right opportunity when I saw it. And so in early March 2009 my one day arrived and I was ready.
Status Quo, Schmo
Jamie’s idea to develop an online contractors marketplace to help people find work, immediately struck a chord with me.The idea was, in essence, exactly what I needed and wanted for myself.
It was a means to encourage and support business creators, owners and collaborative teams. It was everything I wasn’t, but wanted to be and I immediately recognised his idea as a means to achieving my longest held work aspiration – to build a company that could truly help people.
We are quite happily, not in keeping with the status quo. Indeed as statistics bemoan rising unemployment I tend to see the job losses as inevitable because for social innovation and change to occur one must in some way destroy the old.
For all practical purposes this meant; if I was actually going to help people be their own boss; if I hoped to promote entrepreneurship and new business creation as a viable alternative to employment; if I was going to prove work existed but that the way we connect with it was changing; I simply could no longer work as a full-time employee
Making the Change
Mentally, in a recession leaving my only secure source of income was a pretty tough call to make. But in life we must take calculated risks. I was determined that money would not hinder my pursuit of the dream and in that decision alone I have learnt lessons for life, about the potential to get work done without the need for cash – ergo Time Trade.
Practically however, it is not at all hard to work your way out of a job. I’m not particularly proud of the way I left my last employee role but it was best for both parties. Indeed the hierarchy and their methods of control and authority, even their use of these words – when I aspire to collaboration and leadership – are driving factors in the development of Worknow.
Worknow
We are building this community and marketplace on the belief that 1) networking platforms can help us find connect and work together in new ways and that 2) there are other talented people here, that seek new more collaborative and flexible ways of working.
With this blog I intend to relate my experience as a business creator, owner and contractor, in hopes that my journey may encourage others along this path.
Social innovation refers to new strategies, concepts and organisations that meet social needs which in our case, influenced by economic recession, means the need to support communities and help people find work.
Although there are already volunteer networks, community and business groups that contribute tirelessly to this need, we believe social networking technology can help foster and harness the collective potential of existing communities and distributed groups by providing a way for people to easily find, connect and work with each other.
Time Trading a.k.a Time Banking
Time Trading a.k.a Time Banking is simply about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community. In recognition for your contribution you receive one Time Credit which you can then gift or trade, with other members of the community, in exchange for their talent and time. It’s a simple idea, but it has powerful ripple effects in building community connections.
When times get tough, our most important asset is a resilient and supportive community. More secure than money in the bank, and more long-lasting than storing food and water; creating a more self sufficient community is the smartest investment we can make now… they strengthen the community by creating an incentive and market for people to help each other. Source
Worknow
We are building a user friendly, online solution to help people find, connect and work together, in new ways. One of the first services available incorporates the concept of Time Trading via the provision of an online system to automate the transfer of time credits between Community Members.
