The Business Opportunities Weblog recently shared a great article that compared entrepreneurial ventures to oranges. It’s a great analogy!
It’s important to remember to use every available resource to its fullest before you pull in more resources. Otherwise, you really end up with a weak base of half-used resources. It’s a no-win situation for everybody.
On the other hand, if you use every resource to the fullest, you can create a strong base where nothing feels wasted or incorrectly used.
I feel the need to analyze my “oranges” and see what I can do with them!
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Freelancing, Entrepreneurship at 7:39 AM EDT
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As it is with many topics, there seem to be two different camps on the appropriate use of business card real estate.
Both camps agree that your business card should include your name, your company name, a tagline that helps the recipient understand what you do, and contact information (phone number, fax number, website, email, etc.)
Where they seem to disagree is what to do from there. One camp says that the back of your business card is useful real estate that can be turned into an appointment card, a coupon, or a place to put handy information that might benefit your ideal client base. The other camp argues that you should leave that space blank.
I think it really depends on what your company does and what you’re hoping to gain by handing out your business card. There’s no question it is an important component of a good marketing campaign, but its appearance should truly be governed by the perceived needs of the client base. If you want to share information that you feel your client needs to have at their fingertips, then include that. If you would rather be able to jot information on the card, then leave the back free for that.
Personally, my cards are blank on the back so I can write a note if I want, but I could easily see investing in a set with appointment card forms on the back or with a coupon on the back because those are the two ways I’m most likely to use my business cards when I’m not handing them out for contact purposes.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Freelancing, Entrepreneurship, Networking at 8:21 AM EDT
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I’ve been working for a client over the past several months. Initially, we had some quality issues as I tried to figure out what was being expected of me. After recently informing me that I was doing better at meeting their expectations and heaping a number of projects on me, I was rather blindsided Friday morning when I received an email stating that I was obviously padding my time card because my work was sub-par.
In retrospect, I should have seen it coming. Last month, they lost my time card (which was neatly set in a box that they found everything else in), and asked me to email in my hours. I did, and then received a third of what I should have been paid. This email arrived just a day or two after i inquired about that. I’m honestly expecting not to be paid for the work I did this month.
I know everyone has their horror stories, and I’m grateful mine is fairly small. I had already been considering terminating this particular relationship I no longer have as much time to dedicate fully to their projects, but I honestly never expected this kind of scenario to play out in this particular sector.
Posted by Rebecca as Freelancing at 8:04 AM EDT
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It is becoming increasingly important to have excellent writing skills in the business world. So much of our communication takes place through electronic media that good writing skills have become necessary to survival. Monster recently offered some tips to help navigate business writing effectively.
Highlights include:
- Simpler sentence structure
- Don’t rely on your computer’s spell-checker
- Highlight
- Make your point as concisely as possible
Posted by Rebecca as Work skills at 8:00 AM EDT
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I’ve embarked on a journey to uncover my personal brand. Naturally, I’ve started with my current job, trying to analyze what’s governed my rather rapid advance into various positions and why certain things happen.
After this past weekend, I now understand. It’s because I’m Supergirl as far as work is concerned.
To the students, I’m brilliant. I know a lot about a lot of things, and I’m not afraid to get down on their level to help them understand it. I have fun while I’m teaching, and I build self-reliance and self-confidence in them. They will leave their assigned teacher to seek me out if they need me. I’m generally in high demand every evening.
To the teachers, I’m a godsend. I do everything in my power to get everyone the help they need. I don’t hold grudges against those who are far snippier than they have any right to be (a fault with at least one of my predecessors). I’m not afraid to walk in and take over a situation. They also respect my skills as a teacher, and will often turn to me if they’re having trouble getting a concept across.
To the directors, I’m Supergirl. I was promoted to Lead Instructor at the beginning of November. By the end of December, the directors literally wanted to clone me so I could be in three places at once even more successfully than I already am. They will often create situations in an evening that require me to juggle quite a bit. Until this past weekend, I managed to always do it with flying colors, convincing them that they could hand me more challenging situations.
All in all, the whole picture is flattering, but terrifying. This isn’t the first time it’s happened, either. I have a bad habit of gaining this wonderful reputation anyone would love to earn, but being terrified of not being good enough for it. Being Supergirl, having a reputation for being good at what you do, is really hard to live with when you’re young and a recovering perfectionist.
But I love teaching, and I’m good at it. And I have a natural talent for leadership, and I mostly enjoy doing it. Somehow, though, it occurs to me there’s a way to distill this reputation I keep earning into something that can be a livable, approachable brand for myself.
Posted by Rebecca as Skill building at 8:20 AM EDT
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I’m starting to focus on my application for graduate school, which requires a personal statement. When I applied for grad school last time, it was pretty simple. I was going to study a field that I had intended to be my career for the rest of my lfie.
Strangely enough, for reasons beyond my control, it turned out to be the end of that career.
I’ve floundered for a while, trying to figure out what to do next. Now, I’m starting on the apth to what I think the next best place for me is, and it’s causing a number of questions to come up, not the least of which is Who am I, and how did I end up here?
That’s where I think personal branding comes in for me. I’ve already started working on developing some concept of who I am as a teacher, but now I’m trying to look at who I am as a big picture. Teaching is just one (very important) facet of who I am, but what is the rest of me?
I’m going to be exploring this in each niche blog over the next month, but for now, I think it’s just nice to bring together some recent articles I’ve read on the concept and practice of branding.
Posted by Rebecca as Freelancing, Networking at 8:24 AM EDT
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Over the past month or so, there has been construction just south of the mall I work near. Early last week, they complete construction, and a bright, colorful banner was draped on the facade.
Somehow or other (probably due to the abnormally large amount of stress I’ve been under this week), I managed to ocmpletely miss it until Thursday night. I’m lucky I didn’t hit anybody. I was laughing pretty hard.
This new business, a company that specializes in imported furniture, is called “Far-Fetched Imports”!
We normally think of far-fetched as being something that is just outlandish, but in this case it really works with that alternate meaning. The inventory was fetched from afar. I couldn’t have been more amused!
Posted by Rebecca as Naming at 7:51 AM EDT
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I’m looking over brochures and application information from a few different graduate programs and trying to assess what I need to know going in, and trying to define what they need to know about me to accept me.
One of the bullet points I keep noticing is project management. This is great! I’ve thought I’d make a great project manager for a while. Heck, I have actually been a project manager of sorts in my recreational activities. Seriously, organizing special events is project management at its finest!
I realized this the other morning when I read this primer on project management. I know and have practiced some of this in the past, and it was nice to get the refresher. Maybe it’s just one more strength to include in my applications!
Posted by Rebecca as Leadership and management at 7:33 AM EDT
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