Posted on September 3, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

As promised, here’s a brief summary of what I’ve been working on the last few days.  It’s all about advancing the new business.  Saw my career coach yesterday – she reviewed the three-fold brochure I made for the business; she made some suggestions, and changes to improve the instant visibility of what the service is and does. To create the brochure, I used a great free template provide by HP at this site:  http://www.hp.com/hho/hp_create/home_business-business_kits.html.    This site provides a whole kit and caboodle of stationary for themed business cards, brochures, invoices, etc.  Pretty nice but the stationary items open in a Word document and I’m used to working in Publisher so there were a few frustrating hiccups.  All in all, it worked out well.  

I was able to print ten brochures, front and back before the ink in my HP printer faded.  Not good.  Coach suggested reduce brochure from three-fold type to one sheet front and back, and minimize the color.  You know printer ink is very expensive, so yes, I now agree with her.  Working now to reduce 2 pages of info down to one-third of a page front and back.  A copywriter friend offered to look at it; I accept all free help.  

Decided not to pursue business permit yet as the city does not pro-rate the fee, and it will expire December 31st .  I’d have to turn around and renew Jan 2011.  Visited IRS.gov to get an EIN, which is the business tax identification(kinda like a social security number for a business).  This is the number that my company will be recognized under when filing taxes.  I’m hesitating about incorporating for some reason – my thoughts are jumping around between non-profit, and LLC.  Will probably go ahead and file papers for LLC  which will allow protection of my personal assets and allow income taxes to be charged at a individual rate versus corporate rate.

 Called my cable carrier to get a VOIP phone number as an add on service for a mere $10 a month.  They gave me the number and told me it would be active Friday.  I created brochures and business cards with this number.  I just happened to call the number today to see if it’s working, and yep it is.  Someone who wasn’t me answered.  Called the number again, in disbelief,  to double check.  Yep Comcast gave away number.  They are so so sorry for the mix up, and the loss of $$ from already printing cards/brochures in advance.  I asked for a credit or extra services on the phone; will hear back from them tomorrow on the decision.  Sigh

 Tomorrow will revamp the brochures and make a list of target companies to contact.  Excitement is starting to rise for face to face “customer” contact.

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STEPS TO START A BUSINESS

Posted on August 29, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

Ever had an idea for a business?  I’ve had several throughout the years.  A few I’ve seen come to fruition, though I only found out when I saw them advertised on TV commercials.  I recently had an idea for a service…since I’m on the Entrepreneurial path at the career transition agency, I met with my coach and tossed the idea around with her.  She mentioned that a good business needs to satisfy a pain, or generate pleasure, enough for which people would give up their hard earned dollars.  Pain used here isn’t literal – it’s an analogy that stems from a critical need which is not being met. 

She thought my idea was good, and actually started spoking (is that a word?  I’m making a verb off spoke)  off ideas which could become an extended service from my initial idea.  Through classes taken at the agency, and at Dpt of Labor, I generated a business plan.  But before doing that I took a class which presented a list of questions to determine if you have the right frame of mind to start a business.  Ideas are one thing, but actually getting the idea off the ground is another. 

The four basic types of businesses:                                                                                              Start up a business                                                                                                                          Buy an existing business                                                                                                                   Buy a franchise                                                                                                                            Become a consultant                                                                                                                      

Here are some great questions to ask before you initiate any of your energies:

1.  Why do I want to start my own business?   What are my motives?                                      2.  Do I have all the skills needed to run a business?  Accountant, Legal, Secretarial,  Customer Service, Sales, Operations, Purchasing, General Management, etc.                          3.  Am I in love with the idea?  Do I have a passion for it?  Am I prepared to sacrifice my personal life and activities to devote time to the business?                                                          4.  Will there be an impact to my family, negative or positive?                                                    5.  Is this the right time – financially, emotionally, physically?

After the in-depth evaluation of self, if you still want to move forward, then you need to clarify your idea…I’m talking like I’m an expert right, but it makes sense yes? 

What and who is the market?  What pain are you solving?  What pleasure are you pushing?  What value are you offering?  Is it unique?  Research your competition, what percent of the market would you like to capture?  How will the product or service be marketed?  How will the company be structured?  Non-profit, incorporated, LLC, sole-proprietorship, etc?  Also important – location, location, location. 

Next it’s time for the business plan.  It will further focus and develop your ideas, build an idea of what the company will look like as far as marketing, finances, organization, and operations of the company.   Check out www.sba.gov ; they offer great planning resources for starting and developing a business, including on-line classes, and business plan templates.  Also check out SCORE http://www.score.org/index.html  –   it’s a resource of retired executives who offer their advice and counsel for free.  They are available to meet face to face, or via email questions.  I’ve done all the above, and have finished my business plan.  I’ve requested a 2nd meeting with a SCORE counselor to review my business plan, and discuss next steps.  Will keep you posted!

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HOW NUDE ARE YOUR BONES?

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

                           Shhhh, I’m totally losing track of my theme for VV.  It started out as a commentary toward fiftyish something women who had been laid (layed?) off, and were transitioning to other jobs, careers, life path changes.  It has now become a hit and miss journal of my exploration of other things which I hope will generate income sooner or later.  I’m really drawn toward fashion, trends, political events, but really aren’t there enough blogs and websites touting same? All the while I’m exploring new ways to make money, and make a website attractive and alluring, I’m also learning how to monetize the site.  As I became an affiliate to multiple companies, ads starting appearing in various places– in the header, the sidebar, the footer, and anywhere else I could squeeze them in.  As my edumacation increased, the ad placements became more logical as the ads themselves became more thoughtful.  Traffic has increased and decreased contingent on buying ad space from Google, Facebook, MySpace.  Reciprocal links added validity so the Alexa rankings are on a downward trend (that is a good thing, for instance Google is rated #1 site on Alexa).  My initial ranking was over 16 million, today it’s some over 908,000.  Dabbling in promotions via social media (mainly FB and Twitter). and SEO activities (search engine optimization) is also proving beneficial but takes a lot of time.

So here is the thing…I’ve done a lot of other stuff that I haven’t documented here, due to my aversion to actually laying my bones bare to the public eye. Not that VV gets huge lots of traffic, but I generally live a private life, opening up to a chosen few family members, and friends.  Keeping a written journal that you can close and hide is one thing, keeping a written journal in the web’osphere is quite another. No thing gets lost to the webula’s ether.  To stay true to VV theme, I need to document and share more of what I’m doing.  So let’s say that I prefer a thoughtful presentation of my nude bones versus a vulgar display, and as writers know when you edit, many tender, cultivated bits gets thrown out if it doesn’t contribute to the bottom line.  My goal today is to share more.

What’s your goal today?  Please share with us by hitting the comment button below.

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A.M. SPOUTS

Posted on August 5, 2010 by Teresa Stewart


So here I am at 1:52 a.m. spilling out some words; please forgive if something doesn’t quite make sense. I’ve been feeling a little guilty as it’s been a while since I’ve spouted about anything so let me catch you up on TAS current events. I’ve been debating about going back to school to become more experienced in website design, marketing and eCommerce. But I’ve also had these intrusive thoughts that until one build up loads of traffic (which with hard work can take years), the advertisements and banners placed on the websites are simply billboards instead of commission making vehicles. I’ve made some coffee money from the Google ads (and I ain’t taking Starbucks dollars) but I need to start generating a serious income. Going to school to learn more about websites isn’t going to help me generate any income now so is my mind using that as a delay tactic? Possibly. Probably. Plus I have a repetitive motion hand injury that flares up often and I seriously wonder how many hours a day I can keyboard without doing serious damage. I’ve had rehab on the hand but like sex, I think abstinence is the only method to prevent further injury. Sad. School on the back burner for a minute.

On the other hand, I’ve started making a business plan for an idea that I had a few months ago. This by the way is what has seriously eaten into my post writing time, ergo this now 2:46 a.m. post. I had gotten stuck with researching the competition as it’s not a well published service, so I scheduled a meeting this past Monday with SCORE to get some help. SCORE is a source of free and confidential small business advice for entrepreneurs. The counselors are retired executives and entrepreneurs who share their wisdom and experiences. Check it out at www.score.org. The counselor gave me some very good ideas and tips, and indicated the idea was viable. (He also mentioned a non-disclosure agreement but I didn’t see anything in writing.) He has multiple small LLC’s so I feel pretty confident and excited to steam ahead on this.

Blogging can be a vast lonely desert. I personally know no one else that blogs so tonight, I attended a bloggers meeting. There were all levels in attendance from the very experienced and making bucks to the newbies (c’est moi). I especially liked meeting the blogger who demanded that I remove the “celebrating life path changes” off my tag line because it was the name of her book (shameless plug right? Tell someone who cares). The facilitator suggested that a business plan is a must for any serious blog. After I pound out the business plan for my idea above, I’ll get started on one for the websites. The facilitator didn’t see the point of having a blog if you weren’t looking to make money off of it. As I’m unemployed, I’d love and anticipate making a dime or two, but I think there are a whole lotta folks out there in the nether that just want to have a voice, and an outlet and probably won’t care if they never make a dime off their blogs. Love to hear from you – what say you blogger extraordinaire?

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OLD SPICE

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

Have you seen the newest Old Spice commercial?  An attractive charismatic man with a deep voice, and big muscles performing seemingly effortless scene changes, makes it seem like your man, who is ordinary and average Joe, could become just like him if he simply used Old Spice Body Wash, and smelled like Old Spice instead of smelling like ladies body wash.  Everything you had ever hoped and dreamed of, he could provide, if only he smelled of Old Spice. The original commercial ended with the man riding a white horse; this time he gets splashed down on a motorcycle.  Both times the commercials end with something between the man’s legs.  We all know sex sells—I see these endings as a subliminal representation of his (translate “your man’s”)  sexual prowess (as if he could ride you).

My dad used Old Spice back in the ‘60’s.  I haven’t known one man in my adult life that has ever bought or used Old Spice.  I probably would have made fun of him if he did.  The new commercials show marketing at its most brilliant –there is no doubt of the product being pushed, it sucks you in, it’s engaging and entertaining, persuasive, and straight to the point.  It’s directed at women who will, at minimum, encourage their men to use Old Spice Body Wash or buy it for him during her normal store run.  Men will now second guess why they are using their lady’s body wash.  This commercial makes me curious to remember what Old Spice smells like.  You want to see the commercial again after it ends.  At least I did.

Buy 1 Old Spice Fresh Collection Deodorant or Odor Blocker Bodywash & get an Old Spice Fresh Collection Fiji Deodorant FREE at drugstore.com. Offer ends 07.31.2010.

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LinkedIn, Part II

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

I took an Advanced Linkedin class today – didn’t think I would get much out of it, but yet again I was proven wrong.  I’m more impressed than even after the first class.  Some of the highlights for me:

You have three levels of connections in your network.  Level one connections are the  people that you have invited to join your network or they have invited you.  Your network includes these first level connects, as well as their first level (which become your 2nd level) and their 2nd levels which become your 3rd level connects.  Any groups you join are also considered a part of your network. 

For search, any recruiter making a search will use keywords to find the skills or position for which they seek prospects.  The text of your resume can be searched, but the priority area is the headline, so ensure any critical keywords are listed. If there are particular jobs you are seeking, list those keywords in the headlines, as well as the summary, and resume text. 

I’ve been avoiding uploading a photo due to security reasons.  I learned you can upload a pic and then restrict to whom it can be shown.  You can visit the Settings page to restrict what is shown during a public search, and to restrict the distribution of what you post.  Especially when setting up your profile and resume, you don’t want every little change made blasted to your connections, and network. 

View the Profile section to customize your web address—you can add this to your resume, business card, etc.  On the edit page there is a link to “customize button.”  Linked in gives you the html code for a clickable LinkedIn icon button that you can add to emails, websites, etc.; it will link to your LinkedIn profile.  It looks like this:

 

Visit the More/Events tab to find or set up networking events in your area.  Also in the More tab is the Application Directory.  You can download multiple applications to your site, ones that can access Twitter, connect your blog, make a poll and more.  One app that astounded me was SlideShare.  You can:

  • share presentations & documents with your LinkedIn network
  • upload portfolios, resume, conference talks, PDFs, marketing/sales presentations
  • display them on your LinkedIn profile
  • embed YouTube videos in presentations, add audio to make a webinar

I downloaded a PowerPoint presentation on Virtual Collaboration  from a Hewlett Packard VP.  If you are interested in a company, their presentations may give you an inside peek at the company culture, processes, operations, etc., or just download for self-education.    As I understand it once the document is in SlideShare,  it’s public without proprietary rights.  Wow!

When you check out LinkedIn, hit me back with a comment and share your thoughts.

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SCAM SHAM

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

I’ve been the victim of a work from home scam.  Am I hot and angry?  Nope, not at all and if you bear with me through the story, I’ll you why.  The job ad came from a legitimate source, but the lack of information provided, and lack of information requested for application was questionable (Red Flag 1).  My contact, Armin.Peters@yahoo.com signed all his emails and referenced www.Parship.de as the website of his company.  That site is a legitimate German based dating website, but I questioned why my contact had an @yahoo email versus @Parship.de extension. I wanted to verify Armin’s employment with Parship.de  but I couldn’t find a link to ask a question on the website  (Red Flag 2).  Moving ahead to verify legitimacy, I sent a bunch of questions to Armin which were answered promptly and completely.  The job would pay every 22 days, via PayPal, $8 per kb of corrections.  Texts would be sent everyday to correct the orthography (I had to look that one up.)   

The text work they sent me to edit looked like email texts, approximately four or five on the list, approximately 4 total kb of text.  The list took under an hour to revise.  After I submitted the first revision back to Armin, I weighed the consequences of working texts for 22 days, which would be less than 22 hours of work.  My gut still wasn’t 100% confident that this wasn’t a scam, but being able to afford an hour a day, I decided to take a calculated risk, commit to the job, and anticipate a paycheck in twenty two days.  After four days of text, because I was “doing such a good job,” I got an offer to become a Local Agent.  Uh oh (Red Flag 3), here’s the Bait and Switch.  I completed a fifth round of text corrections while waiting to hear details on the local agent job.  The weekend passed, and a Monday with no new work (Red Flag 4).

The next day Tuesday I initiated an email to Armin querying the lack of work.  Here’s an abbreviated version of the email that he sent me:

“ We are informing you that we should stop a “Text Editor” vacancy for a period of 2 months. The reason is that we need employees to an other vacancy in our company “Local Agent” for summer period.  It’s a good paid job and in 2 month you will stay working on it or you will return to your previous work with texts editing. It will be your choice.  Please see an attached file with description of new position.  Your Pay Date stays the same, even you start a new job, also your balance stays alive.  We hope you will work in the right way as you did it before and we wish you to have a good income in our company.  Remember, your profits won’t be just $1400 salary per month, but profits from commissions too, where you can earn much more.”

 The Local Agent description consists of setting up a bank account, accepting and depositing monies from various customers which are “are intended to be used for presents, flowers, trips, special occasions, simply saying expenditures connected to romance.”   The Agent would be paid $1400 monthly but be able to take 4% commission from each bank deposit.  Okay then!  The red flags have turned to huge neon billboards!  I googled this type of money transaction and it’s basically, yep you got it, money laundering (which we all know is illegal right?)

So you can probably see for yourself why I’m not angry.  After this experience (which fortunately cost me less than five hours of work), my advice to myself is:  check out as much detail as you can, NEVER pay $$ up front, search Google for others experiences/reviews, invest the time if you can afford it, and ultimately Go With Your Gut!

 Clark Howard, a Georgia consumer activist, has a website which provides helpful information and podcasts on some of the latest 2010 scams, and fradulent schemes.  Visit  http://feeds.clarkhoward.com/ClarkHowardsRipOffAlerts .

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NATURAL ODDITY

Posted on July 6, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

It was astoundingly odd to see this sight on the glass of my patio door; it is a close-up of multiple, pin head sized, arranged in a less than perfect circle, eggs on glass.  They fried later and turned cream colored in the blazing Georgia sun.

 I have yet to clean them off, just to remind myself that nature can and does go wrong.  Were the eggs laid by a bug in a hurry, or a bug that was challenged  by some genetic function gone wrong?  Whatever the defect, it won’t be passed down in this particular bug’s line, since the eggs had zero chance to survive.  This oddity is definitely symptomatic of our topsy turvy world, possibly a pre-cursor to or another natural disaster happening before our eyes.  If something has gone wrong there, something must also be going wrong with us since we are also part of nature.  This event was probably the by-product of something man made that the tiny insect could not escape.  Are we humans also  performing what we think are seemingly normal ordinary acts but in the eyes of our higher powers, those acts are seen as nature gone wrong?

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GET LINKEDIN!

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

How do people find jobs today?  I’ve heard that 85% of jobs are obtained through networking, and recruiters source 80% from www.LinkedIn.com .   What?!*&!  I received the first invite to join a few years ago.  Being curious,  I loaded a minimal bio and requested connections from a few of my closest friends.  After stretching to get about five 1st level connections, which linked me to ten or twenty  2nd level connections, I thought it was a kinda cute  program, somewhat like multi-level marketing.  I really didn’t see a need to delve into it since I had a job.  To be fair, I should also add that I didn’t have the time necessary to upkeep another networking site since I was already maintaining MySpace, and Facebook.  Now that I’ve separated from my employer, the need to learn LinkedIn has transitioned from unnecessary to necessary.

My career coach suggested I take their classes on the program –Networking with LinkedIn and Advanced LinkedIn.  After taking the first overview class yesterday, to describe and compare LinkedIn to a multi-level marketing scheme is a major understatement.  I’m totally impressed at the few things that I learned can be done with this powerful database.  At minimum, you can create a bio listing your name, a “professional headline” ( which can be a summary statement of your roles, and competencies), and the industry in which you play, err I mean work.   You can upload a resume and photo, initiate and receive email, filter on all your connections for information on their companies/locations/industries, make announcements to your network, and follow professional and alumni groups.

The most exciting thing that I have learned to date is that you can find a hiring manager of a company, and request an introduction if you have any 1st or 2nd level connections in your network.  Sweeeet!  Bypassing the gatekeeper and HR is the name of the game!  On the far right navigation bar, click on the “advanced” link near the search bar; this brings up the Advanced People Search Screen.  From here you can add appropriate filters, including the title of the person you think may be the hiring manager.  This left us a little stumped in class but we were told to use the title of the person to whom we reported, example “manager.”   The resulting view will bring up a bunch of manager titles.  A name will be listed next to the title if they are in your network, and you’ll have options to request an introduction.  If they aren’t in your network, apparently there is a fee of $10 you can pay to “cold call” email.  I would think this method could possibly be viewed as pestering,  but you can turn off the option to receive these calls in the Settings. 

You can also perform a general job search:  From navigation bar at top, select Jobs, then Advanced Search.  Input appropriate filters and the resulting view lists multiple jobs and companies which meet your specified requirements.  Under the company name is a link to “see who at xyz company can help you get this job.”  Click that link and you view the person or people in your network that have an association with that company.  You then again have options to request an introduction through your connection.  Did I say sweet? That is an example of networking at its best.  Of course there are no guarantees that your request will meet the intended person, but your chances of getting an interview through this method I’m sure are better than submitting a resume through  impersonal  job boards.  LinkedIn.com – what a powerful networking and job search tool! Can’t wait to take the Advanced LinkedIn class.  Will report back…

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