Find People With Under-Used Skills

These people may be retired, unemployed, attending school or university, or employed in an occupation which does not use their best skills and aptitudes. They may be available for full-time or part-time work, and their skills can be used to enhance existing business activities or as the basis for new opportunities.

Some Examples

1. A businesswoman started a word processing and computer data entry service, distributing piecework to people who had computers in their homes.

2. Three unemployed tradesmen bought and renovated an older home for resale.

3. An unemployed accountant and teacher designed a computer-based training package to teach accounting to high school students. A retired marketing manager joined them to promote the product across North America.

How To Do It

1. To identify people who have valuable skills, talents or knowledge, but are not working regularly check with job placement agencies; ask training institutions for names of unemployed graduates; and check with student employment centres.

2. If you employ people to work at your existing business, find out whether any of them have specialized training or experience in a field not related to their current job. Consider how their skills can be used to exploit new opportunities.

3. Locate employees with specialized training who are on temporary leave from their jobs for such reasons as maternity leave, academic studies or personal renewal. They may be willing to join special project teams on a short-term or part-time basis.

4. Check lists of industry association members to find people who are not currently working with existing companies in the industry.

5. Attend meetings of unemployed people with specialized skills (i.e. engineering or teaching) to identify skills which could be used in new business opportunities.

6. Analyse the skills of people you know who are currently out of work, seeking new opportunities, permanently or temporarily handicapped or disabled, or limited by circumstances (such as the need to care for children) to part-time participation in the workforce and think of how to take advantage of their individual or group talents.

7. Investigate a project to determine whether it could be handled by the under-used talent that is available to you.

8. Conduct market research to find out if the service or product you are considering is saleable.

Key Questions

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