It sounds like a happy ending, right? Talented young person listens to his father and avoids making a big, risky mistake, right?

Wrong. Joe Green’s roommate was Mark Zuckerberg, and the company that Joe missed out on joining was Facebook. If Joe had taken a bigger risk and ignored his father’s advice, his ownership of Facebook would be worth $3 billion today.

Of course, most of us are not going to miss out on becoming the next founders of Facebook. But how many would-be entrepreneurs are missing out on big opportunities and a better way of life because they’re too afraid to take a risk? Sometimes the “risky” move is less “risky” than it seems. Sometimes the riskiest thing you can do is not take a risk at all.

I’ll give you an example from my own entrepreneurial journey. Back in 1997, my husband Phil and I were struggling with big student loan debts, mounting bills, and only one $10-an-hour income between the two of us. I drove home from work one day, after fighting traffic in an un-air conditioned car, and found Phil sitting on the couch in his boxer shorts. And I said to him, “You need to find a way to contribute financially to this relationship.” And Phil said, “I’ve got an idea – I want to start a business online!

Now, some people might have said, “That’s crazy. That’s too risky. We don’t need a zany online business idea, we need INCOME. You need to get a job, right now!”

But as it turned out, the “risky” decision to start a business and pursue this unique opportunity turned out to be the best move we could have made. It would have been far riskier for my husband to take a job he didn’t enjoy, wouldn’t have done well at, and would have probably gotten laid off from. Instead, by taking the “risky” route, we built a business that we eventually sold to Intuit in 2005 for $20 million.

Most people who decide to start a business aren’t planning to be millionaires. But even if you have more modest goals, even if you never cash out your company for millions or billions of dollars, chances are you can build a better life for yourself by starting your own business.

Many people feel that starting a business is “too risky,” but having a regular job with a steady paycheck poses risks of its own. What if you spend too many years at the same company and your skills start to stagnate? What if you get laid off through no fault of your own, at a time when you need that paycheck the most?

Holding on to a “secure” job might actually turn out to be a riskier move, in the long run, than starting your own business. When you start your own business, you create your own safety net and shape your own destiny. No one can pull the rug out from under you. We’re not all going to be the next founders of Facebook, but we can feel just as free and empowered as Mark Zuckerberg feels when he goes to work every day.

Instead of thinking about it as “risk,” perhaps we should reframe the discussion in terms of “taking a chance,” “reaching for opportunities,” and “daring to dream.” The downsides of starting a business might be lower than you think, and the upsides can be astronomical.

Nellie Akalp is the CEO of CorpNet.com, an online legal document filing service, where she helps  entrepreneurs Incorporate or Form an LLC for their new businesses.

When I was an employee at Intuit, it was a great experience – running a division of a publicly traded company with amazing resources available and highly intelligent experts each working in their area of expertise.  I loved the camaraderie and the expertise that each person had.  However, it soon became obvious to me that it was difficult to make a small division succeed under a large corporation.  Small changes were difficult to execute and remaining nimble in a large corporate environment was very difficult.

It was late 2008 and the economy was faltering and all businesses were seeing a drop-off.  With that, Intuit was making changes.  I saw a few divisions of Intuit close down and there were major layoffs.  We had extensive discussions regarding the next steps for the MyCorporation division.  After long talks with my husband and our bankers, we decided that it would be viable to offer to purchase the division.  I spoke with my boss and proposed the idea, semi-informally.  He said that might be a viable option, but he wanted me to present all options relative to the business.

I put together a presentation trying to be as unbiased as I could be, knowing more and more that I think the business would thrive outside of Intuit – potentially even in partnership with Intuit.  After a couple of months, I heard back and it turned out they were very much considering selling the business to me, knowing that I believed in the business, the customers and the employees.  Intuit is wonderfully pro-customer, pro-employee and the company as a whole is known for doing right.  As such, they wanted me to work hard at demonstrating that the employees would remain in a good position, that I would retain the current benefits, that we would hire the employees who were then employed by Intuit and that we would transition the customers seamlessly.  This was the biggest risk in my life, but I found myself being convinced by it as I put together the documentation to demonstrate to the leaders at Intuit (and my bankers) that I could make this happen.

About one month later, I received the call – they were going to sell it to me and now the legal part was to begin.  We’d have to go through the divestiture very much like when the business was acquired by Intuit from a law school classmate of mine back in 2004.  It was a process with which I was very familiar.  It was smoother this time.  We all knew each other, we had great attitudes about the process and we wanted it to go smoothly.  As with anything involving legal documentation, it took a long time, but in July, 2009, Intuit announced my purchase of the business publicly and off we went.

Then the excitement really began!

We had to separate our systems, find a new location, notify the team and offer them positions (all of them accepted). Then we had to get ready to move and ultimately move while we continued to offer our customers unparalleled customer service.  We couldn’t drop the ball on anything – after all, now it was my business!

The rest is history.  We’ve never been happier.  Intuit was great, but the flexibility and nimble nature of an entrepreneurial venture is truly wonderful.  We come up with ideas, we iterate, we develop and we launch.  If it works, awesome.  If it doesn’t, no biggie.  We have ideas, we test and we learn.  We talk with customers, we get their feedback and then we come up with more ideas.  It’s a great cycle and one that has proven to be very successful for us.

I’m all for taking risks.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  When I went to law school, I would never have seen myself as a business owner, but I’ve always been about ‘going for it.’  My mom taught me to believe in myself, to go for it and to trust.  I do that every day.  The purchase of MyCorporation from Intuit was a big risk, requiring a lot of trust – in my team, in the Intuit team, and especially in myself.  BUT we did it! We believed we would and we made it happen.  I’m grateful every day for my family’s support and engendering a risk-taking confidence in me.

Deborah Sweeney is the CEO of MyCorporation, an online filing services company that specializes in incorporations and LLCs. Find her online at mycorporation.com and on Twitter @deborahsweeney and @mycorporation.

While it is possible to orchestrate a move to another country keeping two careers intact, it is the exception.  In a November 2009 survey of expatriate spouses and partners, the Permits Foundation found that, although 89% of accompanying partners were either employed or self-employed prior to moving overseas, only 35% were employed or self-employed while on assignment.  Of those who find employment in their new location, many find work outside of their preferred field or work at a lower level than prior to their relocation.

What stops accompanying partners from working?  For some there is no choice, work permits are simply not available.  Others find professional equivalency requirements, language and cultural barriers or lack of network prevent them from working.  Some simply choose to take a break from their careers so they are available to facilitate the move, support their children, or take the opportunity to re-evaluate what they want to do.

The stereotypical expat “trailing spouse” (to use the out-dated and patronising term which is still a part of today’s HR lexicon in many organisations) is one who lives a hedonistic life of coffee mornings, lunches, the gym/tennis/golf, shopping and parties with a bit of volunteering thrown in for peace of mind. Like any stereotype, these portrayals have always been a caricature and an exaggeration, but it is particularly so for today’s generation of accompanying partners who are probably used to having their own careers and financial independence.

So what is an accompanying partner to do if work is not an option but growth, development and fulfilment are a priority?  While continued financial independence is not always possible, with forethought and planning, creating a meaningful experience certainly is.

• Understand the implications of your overseas assignment BEFORE you commit to moving.  Making an informed choice does not guarantee your happiness but it will help you to take ownership of the decision and deal with its consequences.  It will also give you the opportunity to ask for the appropriate support from your sponsoring organisation.  Many organisations moving families overseas offer support for accompanying partners, including career counselling and job search support, opportunities for language learning and education allowances.
  Note that Informing yourself means more than understanding whether or not you can legally work; it means talking to people who are already living in your new country and can educate you on the practical realities of what you want to do.

• Evaluate what you would like to get out of the experience of living in another country both personally and professionally.  It could be the chance to work in another country, or an opportunity to further your education or it could be a needed break from the daily grind to focus on your family.   There are, of course, dozens of permutations and possibilities in between but understanding your own desires and values will help you to make better choices.
• Start evaluating what you CAN do even before you go.  Talk to people who already live in your new host country, read online, if you have the opportunity to go on a familiarisation trip (a “look-see” in expat jargon) arm yourself with questions.  You may not get an answer straight away – I’ve encountered more than one local relocation agent who has put me into the stereotypical expat box and assumed that all I’m interested in is shopping – but persist and take the opportunity to ask other accompanying partners you meet along the way.

• If you find opportunities that interest you, evaluate them against your personal values.  You will find that, especially when you arrive, other accompanying partners will be very welcoming and if you let yourself you will get pulled into all kinds of commitments.  If they don’t fit with your values or goals, say no or take time to evaluate the pros and cons.  Its easy to say yes and find yourself with myriad commitments that become a burden 6 months in.

• Re-evaluate frequently to ensure that you are moving in the right direction – are the commitments you have made making you happy?
  – are you achieving what you want to achieve?
  – is there anything you could do differently to make life better?

• Last but not least, make your partner part of the discussion and the decision process, just as you were part of the decision to relocate.  It’s easy for him to get caught up in the excitement and pressure of a new job and take for granted that you will take care of your own happiness and personal development, but by making him part of the process, you are more likely to get support when you need it.

Accompanying your partner on an overseas assignment can be a life-changing experience and with conscious and informed choices can be an amazing opportunity for personal and professional growth.

Evelyn Simpson
Founder of The Smart Expat
www.thesmartexpat.com

After all, it’s been said that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. It’s hard to grow unless you’re willing to make some changes and re-think your assumptions about how you operate your business.

At my company, CorpNet.com, we recently made some big changes in how we operate our business. We originally were trying to compete as a cost-competitive option, with the goal of becoming more profitable over time as we gained sales volume. Unfortunately, the reality was that we were losing money hand over fist on every order we received.

We realized that we can’t compete on price, we don’t want to compete on price, and fortunately, we don’t have to. As you can read in this very honest, heartfelt and (hopefully) entertaining blog article written by my husband Phil, we’re going to do things differently by raising our prices.

Once we pinpointed what we needed to change and tried something new to actually implement change, we saw nothing but success with an increase in sales.

Every business owner needs a push to try something new. Here are a few tips I learned from our experience with change that may help you take the plunge:

• Listen to your heart: Business is about profit, but more fundamentally it’s about passion. If you’re feeling stressed, anxious, worried or bored about your business, then chances are you need to make some immediate changes. What you’re doing now isn’t working right for you – and you can often “feel” this to be true even before you “know” it to be true.

• Don’t try to imitate others: Every business is unique. What works for one business might not work for you. The best part of being an entrepreneur is being able to succeed on your own terms. Don’t measure yourself by other people’s standards. Even if other companies seem to be successful by offering low prices or different standards than you would prefer, just ignore them. Find a way to make your own vision succeed, on your own terms.

• Go back to the core of what your business is about: In trying to do “something new,” you might surprisingly find that you’re going “back to basics.” For example, by raising our prices, we are recognizing that we want our business to be about service and providing a high degree of support to our customers. We don’t want to run a high-volume, low-contact commodity business – instead, we love the relationship building aspects of running a service-oriented business. We discovered that we needed to raise our prices to reflect that, and to make it possible to deliver this level of service.

Being an entrepreneur is the best job in the world because it gives you the constant freedom to choose your path, to control your destiny, and to make changes along the way. What would you change about your business? Are you ready to start doing things differently?

Nellie Akalp is the CEO of CorpNet.com, an online legal document filing service, where she helps  entrepreneurs Incorporate or Form an LLC for their new businesses.

The first question you need to answer is Where? Where in the segment/product line do we want to expand?  There are a couple of ways you may find an answer to this question.

Our good friend Michael Porter teaches us that one of the most scientific methods to answer this question is performing a value chain analysis dividing all the processes from how row materials to manufacture the product are gathered until the customer purchases the product in the stores (and even further, until the after sales service like maintenance and disposal). Performing this analysis will help you visualize where you want to be exactly in the process, whether you want to take over more processes in the chain (vertical integration), or if you would rather outsource a couple of processes you’re currently involved in but where others could do better and cheaper than you.

An additional method companies employ very often as a starting point to make strategic decisions about sustainable growth is the SWOT analysis. The first part of the analysis focuses on your internal features (Strengths and Weaknesses), while the second part focuses on the external environment, Opportunities and Threats of the market place you are operating in. You need to think of these parts as directly interconnected: your strengths should be used to exploit opportunities and defend your business from external threats, while you are aware of your weaknesses and try to do your best to overcome them. According to this theory, there must always be a match between your strengths and market opportunities otherwise growth is a no go.

These methods are of course of great help to plan growth strategically, however there are still a couple of other aspects you want to consider before you decide on whether expansion is a good idea after all.

I have the impression that these methods need to be re-interpreted with the speed and the complexity of current markets. It could happen, for example, that your core competences which have been the pillars of your business strategy so far are just about the same as the core competences of a considerable number of your fierce competitors. Or even worse, your core competences have outdated much faster than what you had expected, and they are no longer that relevant to produce what customers want (see Kodak or IBM for example). I might move against decades of business literature and sound business consulting theories, but I do believe that the most important lesson to be learned here is do not overcapitalize on your core competences (unless you’re the CEO of Coca Cola) when it comes to planning strategic growth.

Whatever you are particularly good at today, it may be no longer relevant tomorrow or may be no longer an exclusivity of few elected. The most important qualities to navigate in today’s market’s storms are flexibility and agility. It seems to me that the capability to adapt and make the most out of any opportunity is the most important quality one should look for in its employees. It is not by chance that employees are among the most important assets which analysts consider when evaluating a company (how much a company spends on employees ‘development and training programs is also a factor which influences the stock price). So whenever you consider expansion, make sure your employees are up to the task. Strategic growth should move in the same direction where the market is going, regardless of what your business has been doing so far. Consistent downwards trends in sales are a sign that time has come to size new opportunities and take action. It is useless to expand in a segment where the market is already shrinking. Plan your growth based on sound market analysis. Consider different scenarios (always make sure you have got a plan B in case operations and distribution shouldn’t roll out according the plan). And once you have found your blue ocean spot make, sure you invest the right amount of resources and manpower to develop the skills needed for the new challenge. Least but not last, make sure you’ve got the right people on the bus and the wrong people out of the bus.

Michela Arno’, MBA, CMA

Your personal brand is what others use to assign you value and relevance. Everyone has a personal brand – it is your reputation. The way others perceive us, the feelings they have about us – right or wrong – affect whether they want to do business with our company and us.

Savvy business professionals understand the importance of differentiation, value and competitive advantage. These professionals are embracing the power of personal branding to intentionally build a reputation for themselves and their companies that maintains this competitive advantage – in person, through experience, and in the online world.

In my book, “Reputation 360: Creating power through personal branding” I offer this definition of branding:

“A brand is not something you can just put on paper, like a logo or a glossy photo; it has to be expressed in your actions.  A brand needs to represent a set of values, promises and expectations and meet those expectations at nearly every step. Branding gives experience to something intangible; it gives names to the qualities I feel when I work or interact with you.  Branding is all about feelings and emotions. Unlike marketing, which is when we direct an audience to action (buy now, act fast, use this coupon, call today…), branding sets the emotional expectations and promises between you and your target audience.”

Many people come to the decision that they need personal branding help for professional reasons. For instance, my clients have felt a need to create:

• A competitive advantage. How to define their value in a crowded marketplace;
• More money. Financial drivers often lead people to see if there’s something they could do to make themselves more marketable and attract more financially desirable situations;
• More visibility and support for their effort/cause/mission/agenda;
• A way to market themselves more intentionally in social media;
• Consistency with their values and beliefs as they market themselves in an industry; and
• An understanding of their ideal target audiences and how to approach them.

Ask yourself
As you begin to define and build your personal brand, it is important to look inside first. Only then can marketing your value and reputation be authentic and effective. Ask yourself:

• Do people around me feel I am someone who can be trusted with confidential information?
• Do my clients feel heard and respected?
• Am I surrounding myself with professionals (and clients) who hold the same values I do?
• Am I living in concert with my beliefs?

Know your current reputation
Your personal brand already exists in the minds of colleagues, peers, clients and friends. As you interacted with them, your behavior and your ability to be consistent with what you claim have earned you a reputation. For instance, if you profess values of customer-first, but treat your customers poorly, then you likely have earned a reputation as being inconsistent with your own marketing. If you share beliefs and values of community service, and have numerous examples of volunteerism and helping others, you likely have earned credibility for that reputation.

Personal branding starts with you
Personal branding does not make you into something you’re not. It begins by understanding what you are passionate about, what you value and how you live an authentic life. What would you fight for? The personal branding process starts with you, your values and your goals.

Understand the needs of your audience
It is vital that you understand to whom you are positioning your personal brand: Your target audience. In personal branding we strive to make ourselves relevant and compelling to a specific target audience. Targeting those clients, customers and stakeholders who will find you relevant is critical and cuts down on your marketing efforts!

Create a powerful reputation
Professionals with strong personal brands show up consistently and authentically. They have achieved genuineness through confidence and experience and through focus and care. They don’t try to please everyone, get every client and satisfy every customer’s needs. They focus on the highest value they have to offer and target a specific audience with the lowest threshold.

Become intentional about the words you chose, the company you keep and the way you represent yourself. Your audience is looking for consistency and relevancy. Consider how you want to be perceived, the reputation you want in the world, then intentionally create a path in that direction.

With every action you take (from posting on LinkedIn, to participating at a networking event, to dressing for a presentation) consider how others could perceive you. How others feel about you will impact whether they assign you value or not.

Your personal brand differentiates you from your competition, attracts opportunities to you and enables you to receive recognition for your accomplishments. Personal branding can uncover your desired goals and bring you benefits over your entire life – personal and professional.

As a reputation management professional, my greatest success has always been in promoting companies, products or people that come from a place of authenticity and genuineness. A big part of the work I do is to help clients bring forward that authenticity and market it to the right audience. How other people see you directly impacts the value they assign you, and your ability to influence that perception directly affects the opportunities that you’re given in your career, your relationships and your life. Owning responsibility for your reputation and managing the way that you’re perceived are critical, for you and for any person at any level of business.

About Lida:
As Principal of LIDA360, LLC, Lida Citroën is an international branding and reputation management strategist who designs and enhances the identities of companies, executives and thought-leaders globally. With 20+ years’ experience, she has been featured in local and national media, including Forbes.com, Fortune Magazine, 9News, and Fox31 News, for her expertise in competitive positioning and social media. Lida’s book, Reputation 360: Creating Power Through Personal Branding, is a best-selling guide to gaining competitive advantage through reputation management. Her blog, UnleashingYourBrand is full of personal branding tips and resources.

Growth is defined as the “process of growing”, or “progressive development”. There are countless strategies that a person can employ to measure their professional development and personal growth.

One growth strategy a person can use is to read and do research.  A huge aspect of college is constantly reading and conducting research.  I find that the skills I’ve acquired while reading and conducting research is one thing that has helped me to grow.  Once I’ve identified an area in my life that I want to improve, I am able to read books and articles on how others have tried to improve that very same aspect in their lives.  After reading, I can then see the options I have available to improve myself and then I can select which options are best for me.

When I am researching, I focus on the industry I want to work in.  You should always know the current trends and latest news within your field of work.  Keeping up with what’s current in your field allows you to be knowledgeable when having a conversation with your peers or when having an interview.  It also shows that you took the initiative to do more than the minimum amount of work.  You’re willing to do more than what is asked of you.  The drive and ambition you use when researching will undoubtedly spread to other areas in your life, which will increase your personal and professional growth even more.

Another growth strategy is to talk to those who know you the best, such as family members and close friends.  All are people who may see a change they think you should make.  Talking to those who know the most about you, maybe even more than you know about yourself, enables you to become more aware of the changes you need to make.  They are able to give you constructive criticism about the changes you can consider making to achieve the growth you want.  And, because these people know you so well, they may even offer methods or techniques they think are best for you to help you achieve that growth.

In addition to talking to your family and close friends, talking with your faculty and co-workers can help with professional growth.  If you use the same process of asking those you work with about ways you can improve, they may be able to help you with the changes you want to make professionally.

Internships and workshops are other good ways to work on professional growth.  Attending workshops can be thought of as another method of research.  Many of the workshops that I’ve attended are based on current trends and advancements in my future field of work.  By attending workshops and participating in internships, you can learn about new ideas and procedures in your selected field that, otherwise, you would only learn by working in the industry.

You can apply the new methods, trends and advancements you learned about during workshops into internships.  Internships are great ways to get actual work experience in your field and related fields.  Education and classroom knowledge about your industry is great, but employing that knowledge in the real world is what will aid you in professional growth.

The most important growth strategy, in my opinion, is self-reflection.  Although there are many people who can help you make the changes that you seek, you are the only person who knows if the changes you’ve made are substantial enough to give you the amount of growth that you want.  I reflect every six months to see if I’ve grown in a positive way.  If I have made changes and grown to a point that I am satisfied with, I am content and continue to do those things that allowed me to grow.  If no positive growth has occurred, I then make conscious changes to my current lifestyle.

Growth is a crucial part of life.  Without it, you remain stagnant and you limit yourself to the same opportunities and experiences that you’ve already been exposed to.  Morihei Ueshiba once said, “Life is growth. If we stop growing, technically and spiritually, we are as good as dead.” So continue to grow; your life depends on it.

I’m not suggesting you ask for free advice from someone from whom you should be paying a consulting fee. Rather, I’m suggesting that you look for someone who’s gone where you want to go, and ask clear, direct, PERSONAL advice that you can put to use for your own career and work life.

We’re talking growth strategies, right? And how better to learn the best way to grow into the position you want than to talk to someone who’s already there!

I am a strong believer in using the informational interview in the most respectful, and efficient, way possible.

First, identify the type of person you’d like to talk to. Pick someone who has a career position similar to the one you would like to have in 5-10 years. Next, if possible, get an email introduction. Use your network, and ask around!

Then, email them and ask for 15-20 minutes of their time. Get on their calendar and then (if you haven’t already) do your homework. Research them, and research the position. Think of all the questions you can that are NOT easily accessible on the internet. Prepare for this informational interview like you are interviewing for a $10 million dollar job.

Come prepared and be on time! Ask the questions, listen to the answers, and follow up with more thoughtful questions. I would even suggest you practice with a friend in advance.

Be respectful of this person’s time, and end the interview when you said you would. Don’t go over. At the end of the interview, ask them for one or two names of people who you think could give you further advice and growth strategies.

Then – follow up! If your resource told you to perfect your public speaking, join Toastmasters. If your resource told you to build your network, figure out where you need to go to do so, and start building. If you were given the advice to learn a specific skill set, take some classes, read a book, or watch a video online.

Thank the person who agreed to give you a bit of their time, and make sure you let them know how you’ve taken their advice. And, of course, contact any potential leads and start the process again.

Finally, figure out how you can give back. Is there an introduction you can offer to them? Perhaps you read a good article that they might enjoy – send them a link. Or maybe they have a son or daughter who would like to shadow YOU for a day. Figure out a worthwhile way to help them out.

And make sure to pay it forward.

Because for each one of us who make it to a certain level, there is someone behind us with whom we can share the lessons that we have gathered, and who will be thankful for the time and insight that we’ve gained and use this kernel of knowledge to take their career to the next level.

When you’re doing informational interviewing, make sure you take it seriously, use the interviewee’s time wisely, and act on the advice.

Each career path is different, but there are some common denominators, so make sure to pay attention, and put into ACTION the growth strategies relevant to getting you where you want to go.

And remember that the interviewee is now a part of your network, so keep in touch, keep an open line of communication, and be the kind of person that others can also ask for sage advice.

Who can you talk to this month?

Our parents would certainly say it is. A generation of baby boomers who staunchly believed in company loyalty and dinner on the table at 5 PM in a 2.5 children household, the goal then was to start off small and work your way up to bigger and better things. For today’s generation of millennials, Gen X members, and yes even the boomers, this is no longer a possible mentality to have. The goal now is simply to get a job. Workplace aside, the new career goal revolves less around reaching the glass ceiling and more about what goes on underneath it. Being happy with what you do and the feeling that you are making a noticeable difference is the new victor over a paycheck and shiny watch for 15 years of service.

It’s a struggle to get to that place, one that could take years and relies on countless factors across the map- everything from being tech savvy to well connected- to get there. And though their story may not be told to the extent that those struggling do, through hard work many people have gotten a job that they love. Maybe the position doesn’t come with a “senior” title but does it need to? If it makes you happy, is it worth moving away from or on up? Why keep climbing up the ladder when the view from your rung is pretty spectacular already?

Here are the five signs that you may be happy where you are at work- not that that’s a bad thing to be either.

1) You Know What You’re Doing

It’s a feeling that goes hand in hand with your overall disposition on the clock. When you know what you’re doing, there’s enough variety to switch up the routine every now and then, and the position matches your skill set, you anticipate coming in because you like what you do. There is no early morning dread before waking up to go to work, no constant need to daydream. Moving on up can mean a change from this familiar pace, going from a more generalized role to a specialized one (and vice versa) which you may either be all for or against.

2) Healthy Environment

And I don’t mean just in what you’re snacking on in the break room. Getting along with your coworkers and feeling a mutual amount of respect in return is necessary in both getting the task done and the overall management of the company as a whole. You share the same company vision and drive to represent where you are to the fullest because you genuinely care about one another and the business as a whole.

3) Needs = Met

The most basic of needs, if you follow Maslow’s Hierarchy, are physiological. Food, air, water, sleep. All of which your job falling more along the next part of the pyramid, Safety, can provide you. Beyond just basic needs, you know you’re happy within the place you work for when they meet other needs you have. Scheduling around conflicts, financial needs, communication, and even the simple act of taking you out for lunch when you’re having an off day all matter and are valued. Should you move up from your position, remember that kindness bestowed to you. Pass the torch to the next generation.

4) Good Leadership

Maybe you’re the leader of your team. Could be someone else. Could be several other someones. There’s never enough that can be said for a strong leader at a business. If you work for someone who keeps everyone on the same page and steers the boat confidently and with enthusiasm, screw the glass ceiling- for the moment, you’re right where you need to be.

5) Trust

Switching career positions can place you in an entirely different department or company where suddenly you have to prove your worth all over again to a new batch of faces that aren’t used to you. Trust is a powerful tool. When it’s broken, the aftermath is usually pretty devastating but when it’s kept and kept consistently then everything I wrote from above falls into place. There’s confidence in your work, your needs have been met, you have the mentorship that can propel you toward becoming a leader, and you gain the respect of your colleagues.

If you love where you work and can’t see yourself moving, don’t. Enjoy what you do and continue to work hard and contribute to the company. Maybe your job position won’t change but the overall success and growth that the business you work for will and for the better.

Deborah Sweeney is the CEO of MyCorporation, an online filing services company that specializes in incorporations and LLCs. Find her online at mycorporation.com and on Twitter @deborahsweeney and @mycorporation.

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