What does it mean to be a personal historian?

In this job, you are a professional storyteller ― or rather, in a less catchy sounding way, you are a professional story-recorder. You are hired by an individual or family (or even business, corporation, or organization) to record their life stories. You immerse yourself in the family’s or business's history by conducting interviews to reveal background, and major events including highlights and lowlights as well as their personal feelings about such events. The final product of your work is a flowing narrative about the individual’s or family’s history. It can come in several formats such as a CD, manuscript, or book.

It is important to know that genealogy is not the same job as personal history. The latter of the two records the memoirs or stories of relatives or businesses. These two fields are however related and personal historians may use some genealogical techniques to enhance a family’s story.

Being a personal historian also means wearing several different hats. In the first part of each project, you will be listening and recording your client’s stories. The second (and much larger) task is to do the transcribing, editing, organizing, and designing for the final project. In general, every hour of recorded interview means 15 to 20 hours of work in order to get it ready to be published. On top of this, you will be acting as an accountant, a marketing manager, and a customer service representative for your business. Being able to multi-task is very important!

What Skills Do You Need to Become a Personal Historian?

You might be surprised at how much of your previous work experience may be applicable for a career as a personal historian. Here is a list of transferable skills that would serve you well in this industry:

• Research skills: You may need to dig up genealogical facts about the individual or family, or fill in the gaps between stories that have been lost.
• Interpersonal skills: You could be interviewing all types of people in all ages. The topics can be quite personal, so you’ll want to ensure that your clients are comfortable around you.
• Interviewing skills: In order to create a high-quality and comprehensive product, you need to know what questions to ask, and how to get clients to open up.
• Organizational skills: You will be organizing all the interviews and other material such as photos, audio and/or video clips together into a final product. Sometimes you may be dealing with old photos that are irreplaceable, so organization of this material is very important.
• Writing and editing skills: Your central task will be recording the stories into the desired format. In some cases, your client may want exact wording, and in others they may want a flowing chronological narrative for their life stories.
• Creative skills: Creating the final product requires imagination. You are not handing the client(s) a transcript, but rather a completed project that embodies the family’s stories. You want it to appeal to the younger generations as this is who will be enjoying it!
• Graphic design skills: Although you may contract out a graphic designer, it will be easier to visually produce your vision if you know a bit about how graphic programs function, and what their capabilities are. Personal historians are most often naturally curious people who enjoy hearing people's stories. In this role, you will have to ask questions, sometimes personal or highly emotional ones, to get those stories recorded. Learning how to cope with these situations is important. You should remain neutral about your opinions of the stories being revealed. You are not a judge, but a recorder of the stories.

What Are the Unique Benefits of Opening a Personal History Business?

Jennifer Campbell, owner of Heritage Memoirs and author of Start & Run a Personal History Business, offers some of the best reasons to open this type of business:

• This is a rapidly expanding industry. The number of memoirs released by public figures is growing each year. This has increased awareness and interest in recording life stories and family histories. As the baby boomers get older, they will likely want to record their lives, so this industry will continue to grow.
• The rise of social media has given us a renewed interest in recording what happens in our lives. Hiring a personal historian to professionally document all of your life-changing moments is a logical progression because many individuals have already begun the work online. You do not need a large start-up fund! The main two items you will need to start this business are a computer and an audio recorder. Both need to be very reliable.
• This is a very mobile business, so all you may need is a home office (depending of course on the available space in your home).
• Being a personal historian can be a very gratifying job for two reasons: You are your own boss and you are helping families in a very special way by preserving their precious memories for future generations to enjoy.

Form 2 and Form 3 have also been changed into two separate forms each for partnerships and proprietorships. Both new forms have a new Contact section for the registry to collect an email address, phone number or fax number. The new forms are called:

• Statement of Registration Sole Proprietorship
• Statement of Registration General Partnership
• Dissolution or Change of Proprietorship Registration
• Dissolution or Change of Partnership Registration

Online Only

Registry Services says that 98% of the registrations of a partnership or proprietorship were being completed online in 2011, so they are not currently providing printed copies of the Statement of Registration forms. People who want a printed copy can download and print the forms via the BC Registry Services website.

However, there is more to a franchise business than standardized products and services. Long-term success of a franchise ultimately lies with the franchisee’s (owner of a franchise location) ability to make a customer's experience memorable.

Deciding to open a franchise business is a very personal decision. You are licensing a successful business model, and for it, you are trading the right to make some of the important decisions about your business. You are not an employee but you are also not the top boss; you must follow the franchisor’s rules. You must decide if having the odds tipped in your favor for success is worth having to give up some of the authority when it comes to decision making.

There is a lot to consider when thinking of opening a franchise business. It is not the same as opening a new business without the support of a franchise. Here are some general pros to opening a franchise business:

• Security: The business model of your chosen franchise has proven to be a successful one (providing you've done your research and chosen a franchise with a good track record). This increases your odds of long-term financial success.
• Training: In order to ensure that new stores run efficiently, most franchisors offer training sessions for new franchisees. The training will help you avoid making the common mistakes new business owners often do.
• Built-in initial customers: People will recognize the brand on your store signs and will come in because they like the product or service. Note that it is up to you and your employees to build customer loyalty at your specific location!
• No marketing required: In most cases, the franchise head office takes care of advertisements and promotions for the company (of course, payments for national advertising campaigns tend to come out of franchise fees or royalty payments charged to all the franchises).

There are also some negative aspects that you should consider before even choosing a franchise to research. Here are some general cons:

• Predetermined operating rules: You have less control over how to run your business, and in some cases, even where the business is located. You may be required to order from certain suppliers, keep specific hours of operation, wear uniforms, and/or do your bookkeeping the way the franchisor requires.
• Initial franchise fee and royalty payments: The initial franchise fee which is used to open your business can range from $10,000 to well over $100,000. Royalty payments are charged for the right to use the franchise’s license, and they continue for as long as your business exists. Even if your business does not have a profitable month, it is likely that you must continue to pay these fees. The cost of the fee greatly varies from less than 1 percent to more than 20 percent of gross sales.
• Advertising fees: These are required to help the franchisor advertise the entire business and they do not always support your particular outlet.
• Risk of termination: A franchisor can terminate your right to operate for several reasons. This is a risk because of the investment you may put into your franchise over years of operation.

Seriously consider these points

If the pros outweigh the cons, then your next step may be choosing a franchise. What kind of business do you want to run? Choose a franchise that offers products or services you genuinely love.

Also important is to choose an ethically-run franchise. The way to do this is to perform franchise validation – meet with other franchisees and discuss their experiences operating their businesses. You should ask questions about the training process, level of continued support, products and services offered by the franchisor, and of course, if the franchisee is satisfied with how they are treated by the franchisor. The answers you receive should help you decide whether or not you want to proceed with approaching your prospective franchisor.

You may also want to check with your national franchise association for information on the company in which you are interested. In Canada, the Canadian Franchise Association and in the United States the International Franchise Association have information for prospective franchisees.

To be listed as a member of a national franchise association, companies must be verified as followers of the association’s code of ethics; this should provide some assurance to you. The association websites also provide checklists of questions to ask the franchisor as well as information about initial franchise fees and where franchises are available to be opened in your area.

In the end, whichever company you choose, seek advice from a lawyer before signing any franchise agreements; they are legally binding agreements that are written with the franchisor’s interests in mind. For example, if you are opening your business in Canada, you should watch for companies that do not create Canadian agreements. Signing a US agreement may require you to follow the laws of a US state rather than the city or province in which you live or operate the business. This may mean trouble for you in the future if Canadian and American laws conflict on a certain topic.

As with any legal agreement, read it carefully and ask questions. If you are unhappy with any non-negotiable elements, consider a different franchise.

About In his book Buying a Franchise in Canada, lawyer Tony Wilson discusses the need for careful scrutiny of franchise agreements (for Canadian franchisees). Now in its second edition, the book has become the must read resource for people interested in franchises as a business.

You can learn more about the book and read the table of contents and initial chapters in our online shop.

It’s true that managers are busy, but when it comes to the overall success of a business, it is the job of the manager to make sure that he or she not only hire the right individuals, but also make the employees feel they belong in the organization. According to Lin Grensing-Pophal in her book Motivating Today’s Employees, arranging a warm, informative welcome will allow new employees to start off on the right foot.

“Those first few days and weeks in a new job — whether the employee is transferring from within the company, or is new to the organization — are key to a long-term positive relationship,” writes Grensing-Pophal. Offering a proper welcome will allow new employees to feel more comfortable and confident in their new workplace, leading to increased productivity as well as strong foundations for better compatibility with existing employees.

Sounds pretty sensible; the better informed one is about expectations and culture in the workplace, the better he or she will perform.

If you are in a management position, here are a few things you can do to make new recruits feel welcome:

• Think about the office culture: Before you even think about planning a warm welcome orientation for a new hire, you need to think about whether you even hired the right person. Granted, you might not know for sure if you hired the perfect superstar for the job until you see how well he or she really performs, but don’t overlook personality and compatibility with the rest of the office. You need the right person for the job, but the person also needs to fit in with the rest of the team. The key is to increase the overall productivity by having a team that gets along well with one another.
• Tour and announcement: Regardless of whether the business is small or large, it can be immensely helpful for new employees to get a tour of the office grounds on the first day. Show them where all the necessities are, including the kitchen, bathrooms, important offices and other equipments. Showing them around the office will make them feel more comfortable with the new environment and new faces. Prior to the official first day of the new employee, make an announcement either through company bulletin or, board, or via email, about the newcomer and his or her job. Making a simple announcement will oftentimes encourage your existing employees to introduce themselves to the new recruit. It saves you the time and awkwardness of inundating the newcomer with too many names and too much information on the first day.
• Personalize by asking questions: Like many other great experiences in life, you want your employees' first weeks on the job to be personalized. Everybody has a different learning style, so figure out with which learning style benefits your employee best; whereas some people prefer to learn from manuals, others prefer hands-on training. Ask questions, and get to know your recruits.
• Consider extra attention for the first day: Now, this isn’t to say you need to baby your new recruits. After all, they are more than likely full-fledged adults. But in many cases where there are multiple employees, new recruits may not necessarily be given important tasks on their first day. Whatever it is, give them something to do; whether it’s just reading through the company manual or policies, or completing small tasks, your new employees will feel grateful and valued at their new job.
• Buddy system: Although it is your job as the manager to take charge in welcoming your new hire, it can be extremely helpful to enlist the help of an existing employee. In other words, buddy up – let your newcomer work with a friendly existing employee. Your existing employee can show the ropes for the first month or so, and provide advice and perspective as a peer and a co-worker – definitely a different angle than the one coming from the boss.
• Check in at the end of the day: It really doesn’t take too much to make newcomers feel welcome, and their comfortableness and confidence on the job can be boosted simply by you checking up on them at the end of the day. Simply seeing how they are doing will let them know they are valued, and that they can ask you for guidance and help when confronted with a problem.

Understandably, the expansive trend of social media usage has caused an explosion of research on social media in educational or professional settings. Numerous studies have reported that in many cases, students without laptops in class tend to get higher grades than students who do use laptops in class, perhaps due to less temptation to scour social media websites (mind you, students without laptops may still have their smartphones). Nevertheless, faculty members these days have the perilous mission of decreasing unwanted Internet usage and increasing classroom productivity.

The same can be said for employers. According to the results of a Pew survey conducted in May, 2011, social media is among the most popular online activities, rivaling search and email.

Smart employers know that in order to run a successful business, they need to incorporate varying levels of social media into the business plan. As a result, it isn’t uncommon for employers to encourage employees to use social media in the workplace. The problem is, however, that many employees are finding room to use social media for their own personal entertainment rather than for work; the same thing that happens in schools.

To employers and business owners, this just means inefficiency.

In March, 2011, a Huffington Post article reported that a Chrysler employee was fired for accidentally using highly inappropriate words on the company’s main Twitter account. Reports popped up suggesting that the employee confused the company account with his or her own Twitter account.

This type of silly workplace blunder isn’t all that is worrying business owners. Many employers and recruiters actively use social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter to check up on employees or potential employees to make sure individuals are responsible and not posting anything that can hurt the business, and to make sure they're telling the truth. For example, a New Brunswick woman was recently fired from her job because the employer found Facebook photos of her ziplining while she was away from work on a disability claim.

According to a CNET News article, another employee from a marketing and logistics firm was fired after she updated her status saying her work was boring. Her experience of being bored at work is surely not uncommon but understandably, such an online proclamation can be bad for business. People have the right to say what they feel as an individual, but they also have their responsibilities as employees, so where should the line be drawn?

The examples and actual cases of social media consequences vary in scale, but it’s clear that employers and employees need to come up with a clear idea of what is and is not acceptable for social media usage at work and when at home, in the case that the employee wants to talk about work, very publicly. What is okay to be said? What will get a person fired?

As a leading Canadian lawyer and the author of Manage Your Online Reputation, Tony Wilson knows a thing or two about preventing problems online. He suggests that employers should come up with few ground rules about employee social media usage, or even general usage of workplace computers. Some suggested topics to cover in these rules:

• Sending, receiving, or viewing inappropriate materials such as pornography or gambling sites and more at the workplace.
• Comments posted on social networking sites can spread like wildfire, and are searchable by search engines. Emphasize caution when posting anything online.
• Expectation of privacy at workplace computer; essentially, computers at workplace are owned by the company, so it is questionable as to whether employees should get full privacy coverage on their workplace computer. Professionals suggest that most employers should reserve the right to monitor and log all employees’ use of email, Internet and social media. If you do decide to monitor employee Internet usage, make a clear statement saying so.
• Social networking discussions should not disclose confidential business information, unless specifically approved by the senior management (which is highly unlikely).

Being overly strict with the rules could decrease employee morale, but employers have the right to establish sensible rules to protect their companies. The rules should clearly state which kind of online behaviors are acceptable and which are not, and detail the consequences should an employee fail to act according to the standards. Establishing these rules early on will allow employees to know and act in ways that is expected of them, and be cautious of actions that can potentially hurt the business and their futures in the company.