Business Corner

Finding a good job any time can be tough. But, let’s face it, finding any job in a bad economy can be a very serious challenge. There are lots of questions like:
• Who is hiring?
• Are they a good company to work for?
• How stable are they?
• Have they fired or laid off any employees in the recent past?
• What type of salary do they offer?
• Is the salary and/or benefits package competitive?
• What positions are they looking to fill?
• Am I qualified?
And this could go on and on and on. And unfortunately, for most of us, there might not be very many concrete answers. You might just be taking a shot in the dark, rolling the dice, trying your luck or any number of old, used up cliches. The bottom line is, finding a good job, no matter what the current economic client is, can be a very tricky endeavor indeed.
Fortunately, there are several industries that somehow seem to be almost impervious to the economic client and good, strong candidates with the right experience, credentials and skill sets are always in demand. Take for instance the field of IT (Information Technology). Throughout the ups and down of the latest economic roller coaster, this field constantly shows growth and the right candidate applying for the right position is almost assured a position. Also consider the medical field. No matter what the economy does, people are going to always get sick and many will require medical attention. This fact makes the medical field another almost sure-fire bet.
Another field that doesn’t appear to suffer much ill effect from the state of the economy is the communications field. Granted, it too may have suffered somewhat from the current state of the economy but, the bottom line is, there are quite a few companies out there that are searching for the right candidate to fill that one opening that is open and requires just the right person, with just the right skills in order to keep the company moving forward.
So that brings us right back to where we were before. The plethora of questions that a potential employee has. And, let’s not forget, the potential employer has their own set of questions that they need answered, as well. So, the big questions is… How does the right employee and the right employer go about finding one another?
Fortunately, in the world of executive communication positions, there are executive search firms that make it their business to find the right employee and match them with the right employer and create a bonafide win win situation for all parties involved. If you are an employer looking for that special executive candidate that has all of the right skills, experience, tools, desire and energy or an executive candidate that is looking for the right company that will treat you with honor and respect, give you a challenge, help you to further your career and will definitely compensate a stellar candidate when they see one…. then you both need a quality, tried and true executive search firm and in the DC Metro area, that would most certainly be the Travaille Executive Search Firm.
Travaille has been in business since 1972 and they specialize in bringing together the right candidate and the right employer. Their years of dedication and service to the Communications industry have made them one of the front runners in sizing up the talent and making sure that the employee and employer get exactly what they want and need, even if neither initially knows exactly what that is. Their years of experience, attention to detail and unwavering dedication to optimal customer service, has given them a supremely unique ability to find the exact right square, round or oblong peg to slide seamlessly into the hole presented by the employers’ current needs. And since they serve all of the major metropolitan areas, including Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, Chicago, New York, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, you can be sure that there is position with a great firm that is challenging and rewarding in just the right area to suit your needs.

Many people, especially in this economy, are looking for jobs to work from home to supplement (and in some instances serve as the only source of) their income. More people than ever are at home due to unemployment.
Benefits of jobs to work from home:
* There are no time constraints.
* The flexibility to work as much or as little as needed.
* There is no need to spend money on gas getting to work.
* There is no cost for daycare because the kids can stay home.
* You can spend time with the family instead of using it to commute.
* There is no boss.
* There is no time clock to punch.
* You have a flexible schedule to do errands or simply take the day off.
* There is no limit to earning potential.
There are numerous sources of jobs to work from home online. The most popular of the jobs to work from home are data-entry. With the Internet and the number of outsourcing opportunities rising, data-entry jobs make a lot of sense.
What is data-entry? A typist enters data from various sources like medical transcribing. For instance, one job may come in the form of listening to an interview, or deposition, by means of a digital recording. The typist types what she hears.
There is a cost benefit to the companies doing this type of work as well. Companies, not employing someone full time, cut down drastically on the amount they have to spend on overhead. In addition, they are only paying for the job itself and save literally thousands through this method. It’s a win-win scenario for business companies and for their contractors, the data-entry workers.
The problem today is that for as many legitimate jobs, there are those who seek to scam the system.
Here are some tips on avoiding those companies:
1) Avoid companies aimed at “getting rich quick”. There is no magic formula for passive income. Even for someone to make money with passive income, a lot of groundwork must first be laid.
2) Avoid companies not willing to pay upfront. A job is a form of a contract. For example, “I agree to offer you my services in exchange for your agreement to pay me ‘x’ amount of dollars.” Do not offer services without the promise for compensation.
3) Avoid companies that seem shady. Those are easy to spot as they hide a lot of details from you. A company should make known exactly what the job description entails, their method of payment, request a W-9, and get details of the potential contractor’s credentials. Companies serious about paying will want to know the people they are giving the job to can handle the work and will offer to train if necessary.
Jobs to work from home take a fair amount of dedication and conviction. In some instances, it is harder in terms of self-motivation. Unlike a traditional job, a contractor is literally paid for the amount of work done. Whether this work gets done in two minutes or an hour depends on the contractor doing the work.

I’m sure there has been a time where you launched an advertising campaign and didn’t get the results you wanted. To the extent where you swore off direct mailers or ads completely, unfortunately, just like most endeavors, there is a right and wrong way. Understanding the proven fundamentals of what makes a great campaign will help you boost your advertising successes.

The most critical two steps, preceding the actual copy or design of the ad, the two steps that is often neglected, is establishing the specific goal of the ad and picking the media that fits your message. For instance, there’s a difference in the result of having increases in customer traffic to your retail locations and having people call you to schedule appointments. There’s a difference between asking for an RSVP to a special event and asking people to leave their contact information for further follow up.

Does that make sense? Again, what is the end result of your advertising? Are you selecting that newspaper, magazine, or web ad placement because your competition is doing it? Or did you select that medium because it’s the most likely place for the eyeballs of your most likely customer, target audience, to be? Always remember what it is that you are trying to accomplish and why.

Once you understand your goals and media, best suited, to communicate to your target audience, it’s time to get to work on the third step….

The third step is the headline. A helpful trial when deciding on a headline is whether it answers one or all of these four questions:  Read more... (1291 words, estimated 5:10 mins reading time)

• Who Cares?
• What’s In It For ME?
• Why Are You Bothering ME?
• So What?

Creativity is the skill that transforms an average worker into the one every employer wants to have on his team. It is the process that brings something from nothing, and what business doesn’t need that?

Employing creativity at work can make the difference between keeping and losing your job, being chosen or passed over for a promotion, and whether you enjoy or hate your hours on the clock.

Creativity is the freedom to love life, excel in your work and sustain meaningful relationships that stand the test of time.

In a recent conversation with Professor Guillaume Wolf, author of reDESIGN: reCREATE, he shared the three key rules or principles for living a creative life.

1. All you have is your process.

The key is to build creative thinking into your everyday life by continually asking questions like, “What do I do next?” “Is there a way I could do this better?” “What am I doing that doesn’t need this much energy?” “How can I combine steps to create a better product or less time-consuming process?”

When you were a child, you automatically thought creatively. Life and society has desensitized you to your creative self. As you understand the value of added creativity, you will be surprised how many “great ideas” you start having, seemingly out of nowhere.

2. Commit to creative improvement.

Creative thinking is an ongoing process that requires commitment. Most of us rarely think of it at all, and if we do have a great idea, we rule it out as too weird, too hard or too scary to pursue. Creative geniuses choose to pursue their ideas — at least long enough to mentally play with them and do a bit of research. Like the Nike staff motto, “Be a sponge,” and their company slogan, “Just do it,” culture-changers are committed to maximizing good ideas.  Read more... (478 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

When reviewing various e-books, particularly on the subject of online businesses, my readers often ask me what is the point to buying an e-book when most everything discussed in these e-books can be found online. My one word answer: Time.

Time is money friend and a lot of time can be saved when purchasing the right kind of online business start-up or e-book. If the product is of good quality, not only will it have all the resources and links you need, but it often will already have entire websites, storefronts, and blogs ready to go “right out of the box!”

A good example of the time you can save for a few bucks comes from my own experiences when launching my first blog. I knew nothing about blogging and wasn’t about to buy the e-books when I knew I could find the information on my own. I had a bit of web-page design knowledge from tinkering around a couple years earlier but not much. All and all, It took me almost three months to get my first blog setup.

Rough draft of time spent:

3 weeks just reading and learning. Learning how to start my website, best software and host to use, all the basics of website design.

2 weeks just getting word press (the most common blogging software) installed and configured the way I wanted. I was on forums every day trying to figure out how to get a link to show here, or a picture to align in a certain way. To make good money, you need to host your own blog so setting up the web server and all the applications that go with it also took a lot of research before I could do it right.  Read more... (674 words, estimated 2:42 mins reading time)