By Paul Cecala, GCDF, July 1, 2025
Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash
In a recent blog and LinkedIn post, I shared some of my career journey. Wow, did you love that college picture of me by an airplane! (Missed it? Check it out here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/copy-taking-control-soaring-new-heights-paul-x1pzc/?trackingId=fxDz19l9xY8%2BYNuSIlaVJw%3D%3D).
Today I want to pull back the curtain a bit more. I’m excited to share the vision for my business and how it’s been evolving, helping it grow into what it is now!
From Solo Coach to Multi-faceted Group: The Big Shift
When I first waved goodbye to my corporate gig and jumped into being a full-time solopreneur, my plan was pretty simple: just be a career coach. My goal was 5-6 hours a day of one-on-one coaching sessions, thinking that 25 hours a week would build a thriving, lucrative practice. Sounds great, right?
But, as many solo business owners quickly find out, the reality of running a business requires a lot more than that! Building a business takes far more marketing and advertising activities than I anticipated. Further, I did not understand the bookkeeping and legal issues I would need to handle. And those activities take a lot of time!
Business Take-away: It is important to set realistic and achievable short-term goals while keeping the larger vision in mind. I now evaluate everything I do for its return on my investment of time and money. It is a balancing act juggling several concurrent activities all designed to meet my business goals and objectives.
Learning the Ropes: My Business Education
All the nitty-gritty aspects of a business hadn’t factored into my master plan until I started working with some fantastic business coaches at https://www.score.org/. Suddenly, I needed to get smart about marketing and sales, technology and software, bookkeeping and accounting, contract writing and legal advice, business planning and goal setting.
I knew I had entry-level skills in these areas, but I quickly realized I needed to at least become intermediately, if not expertly, skilled in them. If I couldn’t become an expert, I needed to hire people who were!
I started small. I leaned on the skills I had and created tools that cost nothing but time to build. For example, my first customer relationship management system was an Excel spreadsheet from my workbook, Take Control of Your Job Search. When that started feeling a bit cramped, I switched to a free online CRM allowing email blasts, sorting contacts for targeted marketing, and a whole lot more!
Later, when other homegrown tools became cumbersome, I invested in QuickBooks, which really streamlined things. I also use AI to help me write, or revise many of my blog posts. Eventually, I even hired a social media and marketing organization to help boost my SEO and get my marketing out there more often. (Full disclosure: it’s at their insistence that I write these articles monthly! And honestly, I’m grateful for the push.)
Business Take-away: Utilize the experts around you for your own education and to maximize your time. I started with the things I knew best and sought out experts who would teach me what I didn’t know. When appropriate, I hired those experts to take it to the next level. After 2 years in business, I could afford an upstart social media expert to improve my content and SEO. As I grew, my relationship with her company has grown too. After 3 years and difficulty in getting the right information to my accountant, I hired a bookkeeper for just 1 hour per month, that’s all I need to balance my bank accounts and fix my ledger entries.
Growing Pains, Growing Gains: New Streams of Income
As my business grew, I realized that 25 hours of one-on-one coaching might not be sustainable, nor the only path to increasing income. My core goal of providing top-notch career guidance remained, but I began to diversify my offerings.
I quickly added public speaking and keynote addresses, which not only bring in revenue but also boost brand awareness and offer a preview of my coaching services. I’m currently doing about four engagements monthly, sharing my expertise with diverse audiences, including well-received presentations at a recent SECON 2025 Conference, the semi-annual PMI-NJ Career Fairs and other events.
Last year, I added corporate training to the mix. Recognizing the need for soft skills among new leaders, I developed practical courses in communications, customer relations, sales, leadership, and management skills to help today’s professionals shine in their emerging leadership roles, all containing practical, pragmatic, and actionable steps attendees can take immediately to improve their effectiveness. Clients have already had me back for additional courses because the first one went so well!
Finally, my second book, Take Control of Your Job Search was an Amazon Best Seller in its category for three weeks last April, and https://bookauthority.org/ named it the second-best new read in its category for 2024. It continues to attract new clients, build my brand, and create additional revenue.
Business Take-away: Don’t be afraid to expand beyond your core competencies and initial vision. While my first love is one-on-one coaching, these new services afford me the opportunity to spread my message farther and wider reaching more people with less effort. And they generate more income. Ultimately, they give me the time and resources to do more coaching.
Cecala Career Consultants Today: A Multi-faceted Approach
Here is what Cecala Career Consultants currently offers:
- One-on-one career and leadership coaching
- Public speaking and keynote presentations
- Corporate training in leadership, communications, sales, and management skills
- My book: Take Control of Your Job Search
- And coming soon (currently in production!): A series of online tutorials to supplement the book
Many of you who follow my business might have noticed an upgrade to my website last month (https://cecalacareer.com/home/). This spring, we launched Version 2.0 to enhance its branding, better showcase my services and products, and pave the way for a future online store and subscription services.
Business Take-away (implied): To remain a leader in my field, I continue watching the competition, learning from other similar industries and am open to new and different ways of doing business while ALWAYS keeping my primary vision and core business at the forefront. I am not afraid to pivot to a new direction if it supports my primary vision. Doing so has made me a respected thought leader among career coaches and helped my business grow.
The “Aha!” Moment: Why I Love What I Do
A huge key to my personal success and enjoyment is that all of these are areas where I truly excel, and more importantly, I LOVE doing them! Seeing that “Aha!” moment on my clients’ faces when they get it is absolutely exhilarating.
Yesterday, a client said, “Paul, you blew my mind with that perspective! This has revolutionized the way I am approaching my career!” And, that makes it all worthwhile. Since embarking on this journey, I truly haven’t felt like I’ve “worked” a day. I’ve just been doing the things I love to do; with people I love to work with!
I’d genuinely love to hear your findings and growing your passion stories. Conversely, if you need a hand figuring this out, let me know. Maybe Cecala Career Consultants, LLC, can help you make it happen!
Paul Cecala
Paul Cecala, a Global Career Developmental Facilitator (GCDF) certified career coach, is a principal at Cecala Career Consultants with decades of experience as a career coach helping individuals with finding career success. He has taught over 500 seminars and workshops on conducting successful job searches. Mr. Cecala can be reached at pcecala@cecalacareer.com . Follow him at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cecala-career-consultants.
Paul Cecala can help you navigate to your success. Learn more about his services here.