Have you noticed that there are too many social networking sites out there these days? Between MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, Reunion, and any other number of “hey, look at me!” websites, keeping up with everything is beginning to get a bit tedious. In fact, just the other day I deleted my Plaxo account because I couldn’t imagine why I would need it at all. [Read more…]
Trying to Find More Hours in the Day
Just like the rest of you, I find myself wishing that there were more hours in the day. Between the day job, the side business, the budding new business(es), having a social life, the volunteer work, living life, and trying to find some time to exercise each day – there are absolutely no hours left in the day for anything else. Not much fun, pretty much no games, not a lot of free time for relaxing, almost no time to start/think about new projects or pet projects – you get the picture.
I’m going to try to find more hours in my day by waking up earlier each day. On a typical day, I generally get up between 6:30am and 7:00am. I’m going to try to move that back an hour and get my exercising in during the morning hours (I already know that it’s not going to be a long term success because I don’t like working out in the morning, but it might be good for now). So we’ll see how that goes…
The thing that really seems to sap the time from my day is this ridiculous commute to and from Trenton everyday. An hour there and an hour back. Sometimes I make it back from Trenton in 45 minutes because there isn’t so much traffic, but most mornings I wind up sitting in the car for more than an hour, so it all averages out. I like my job and all, but if a similar opportunity came up that cut my commute in half (or less), I’d probably take the offer.
Look, I’m an overachiever and I’m aware of that fact. Yes, I should calm down and not do so much extra with my non-day job hours, but I have to keep myself busy. I hate sitting around too much and I hate wasted time. Hell, when I clear out my DVR on the weekends I do it while I’m going to work on the laptop with the TV playing in the background! When I go to the gym I make it a point to read while I’m on the treadmill so I get two birds down with one stone!
I think part of the problem is the increase in non-day job business that I have going right now. Once some of my side projects are completed I should have some additional hours in the day. Until then, I propose that we extend each day to 30 hours long. Agreed?
Another Ridiculous Piece of Fear-Mongering
Earlier today I heard yet another ridiculous piece of fear-mongering on FOX News’ 2-hour Saturday morning business block. I forget which of the half hour shows it was on, but one of the special guests made a comment that America is losing more than 20,000 jobs each day. Twenty-thousand jobs each day.
Really?
Let’s think about that in real figures for a minute. If America was losing 20,000 jobs each day, that would be 140,000 jobs lost each week. There have absolutely been horrible announcements about new sets of layoffs each week. But if this country was losing 20,000 jobs each day, that would mean that we’re losing 7.3 million jobs each year. Ahem…losing seven million, three hundred thousand jobs each year.
This is clearly not the case. Think about it in terms of real jobs: Wal-Mart employs about 2.1 million people; McDonald’s employs some 400 thousand; Home Depot employs about 330 thousand; Bank of America has around 172 thousand employees; and Macy’s has about 182 thousand people currently employed. Combined, you’re still looking at approximately 3,180,000 workers – less than half of what the woman on the show this morning was fear mongering about.
If you believe what this fear monger believes with respect to America losing jobs, then you might believe that more than double of the equivalent amount of total jobs provided by Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Home Depot, Bank of America, and Macy’s will be gone in a twelve month time period.
The economy is in a rough period right now and it might last for a few more weeks, months, or even years. But when people go around trying to sell fear like this it does nothing to help get the nation’s psyche back where it needs to be.
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Small Business Ownership Aggravations
At this point, I’m sure that most of those people who frequent my blog know that I own a small website design and maintenance firm called Usable Web Solutions, LLC. The company just turned three years old last month and after owning my own small business since January 2006, I’ve realized that there are a few aggravations that come along with the job. Here are a few of them, for your reading pleasure.
- Pay Your Bill On Time. The biggest aggravation that any small business owner runs into is usually related to finances. To be frank, there are a bunch of customers who just don’t pay their bills. Then, as a small business owner, you’re wedged between a rock and a hard place. Do you charge a late fee and risk aggravating the client or do you stick to the terms of your contract? I say for habitual offenders, you have to charge the late fee. But folks, if you’re working with a small business – pay your damn invoices on time.
- Not Showing Up To Meetings. In truth, this particular point is what drove me to write this post today (and I’m writing this on Friday, the day before it’ll be on the blog). I was supposed to have a meeting with a new client at 1:00pm today – he didn’t show. This has happened on a few occasions with other potential clients. If people want to know why some small business owners stay away from random inquiries, this is the reason. No one has time in their day to go to a meeting place, sit around for half an hour, and then leave. It’s insulting and probably crosses you off of that small business’ list of future clients.
- I’m Not Your Tech Guy. My company designs and maintains websites. Nothing gets me aggravated more than when my clients call me and expect me to be able to fix the viruses on their computer. Look – you’re the idiot who either ran over to a porn site or actually clicked a link in the spam e-mail. Besides, my contract is to provide you with website services – not to be your tech guy!
- You’re Not My Website Company. On a related note, I often get bothered by people who want to plug their limited online expertise into the services that my company performs. I’ll train my clients to work with their websites, but I don’t need you telling me how to do my job. At the same time, I absolutely hate it when small clients (nonprofits or small companies like my own) want websites that are as expansive as organizations 100 times their size. Part of my company’s purpose is to provide an online business for small companies and nonprofits – if you have plans on world domination, that’s fine. Using my company as a stepping stone in your plans.
- Your Projects Are Different. Related to the previous point is this one, which comes up more than you would think. I often have clients who do one site with me, love my prices and my services, and then want to come back for another site or two. That’s fine – that’s actually great and it means that I’m doing my job. But when I create a small website for your small company and charge you a small fee, don’t think that when you come back with your website that is going to “rival YouTube” that I’m going to do it for beans. Frankly, I’m not going to do it because this company is my side gig and I’m really only in it to help the small guys out and earn a small profit on the side. I’m not interested in fighting the man or creating a better online profile site than Facebook or MySpace – and if I was, then you’d better damn well be ready to pony up the tens of thousands of dollars it would take to get started on that type of project!
Those are only a few of the aggravations of owning a small business. I post these here mainly for your amusement, but you never know – someone might Google this page one day and get something out of it!
The Language You Want To Use On A Resume
When you are preparing your resume there are many items that you need to be aware of including style, arrangement of information, how far back in time to go on extracurricular activities and awards, etc. This entry, however, only deals with the language that you should be using in your resume to describe your work history. For efficiency’s sake, you may want to have your resume next to you while you’re reading through this quick guide.
Example #1: Spent time reviewing applicants and deciding whether or not they would fit in with the company’s mission statement
In this example, someone is seeking a job in human resources and is describing one of her regular tasks at her previous company. However, remember that your potential employer does not read your resume to read a description of your previous job. Instead, they want to know about how effective you were at your previous job.
Resolution #1: Hired 14 staff members over a 5 year period including 3 executive level positions; managed an average of 4 employee complaints per month; designed and successfully implemented an annual department review program
The resolution tells a little bit more about what you actually did while in that position.
Example #2: Managed a loan portfolio and analyzed potential new borrowers for the company’s various loan products
Blech! All this tells the reviewer is that you went to work each day and did your job. How exciting?! Talk about what you managed at work and describe your analyzing.
Resolution #2: Manage a $60 million loan portfolio including $30 million in residential mortgages, $20 million in federal grants, and $10 million in commercial real estate; analyzed new business opportunities through cash flow statement and audited financial reviews and background credit checks on applicants
This resolution gives specifics and tells the reviewer much more about your daily work load.
Quick, pertinent details are what you’re looking for in your resume. Keep it simple, but make it count!
This post is also scheduled to appear on GradSpot.com – Your destination for life after college with all the content, tools, and services you need to ease your transition from college to the real world.
