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Telecommuting is beginning to emerge as a truly viable way to work nowadays as it’s proven to cut down on costs from an employer’s end and make life easier for the employee working from home.  Employers used to believe that people working from home were more apt to not get the job done but that has been proven to be an error in thinking.  As more mothers are working now than ever there is a lot of competition out there to land a job working from home.  Here are a few tips for job seekers:

1. Network!  Network!  Network!  Let everyone know that you’re looking for a job working out of the house.  Numbers indicate that at least 75 % of jobs are landed through networking.  Go around and talk to people with small businesses that may need some extra help.  The only way a job will ever fall into your lap is if you make the first contact and get the ball rolling.
2. Be proactive, not reactive.  Not every employer is going to make their positions immediately available for work at home.  So go ahead and apply to positions that could potentially be done from home.  Data entry and bookkeeping are a couple examples of positions that could be easily transferred to the home.  After you’ve been at the job for a while go ahead and approach your boss about moving the job to your home.  Just be ready with statistics that prove that working at home is productive.
3. Be prepared to enter the work force.  If you feel like your skills are a little rusty then you want to be sure you’re ready to jump into a job when you’re ready.  Improve your skills and confidence with computer training classes at a local community college.  Also, take a look for online tutorials that are often free and very informative.
4. Recruit yourself.  Don’t be shy.  Go ahead and put your resume in freelancing job banks.  If you can get a part-time job doing freelance on a contract there is a good chance that you can develop the position into a full-time gig.
5. Make your resume spotless.  The number of people that apply to part-time work will often be in the thousands of respondents.  With these figures in mind it’s imperative that your resume can stand out in a crowd.  If you’re worried about your resume take it to a career counselor and be receptive to constructive criticism.

By-line:

Heather Johnson is a freelance business, finance and credit writer, as well as a regular contributor for Business Credit Cards, a site for comparing best business credit cards. She welcomes questions, comments, and freelancing job inquiries at her email address heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com.

Tags: Work From Home // 1 Comment »

Is your webcam on right now? Did you even have to look to answer that one?

I was participating in a Skype meeting the other day with a client and she asked me to switch mine on. I told her I was a mess and really didn’t want to be seen. It wasn’t that bad really but if I’m going to be in a face-to-face meeting I’d rather present as well as possible. When working at home I’m usually in jeans and a jumper or top of some sort, but my hair isn’t that neat, I don’t have makeup on and I look very homely.

I’ve always conducted my business professionally and if I’m going to face clients and others for business purposes I like to present professionally too.

It hadn’t occurred to me to switch off my webcam until a couple of months ago when someone called me unexpectedly on Skype (I usually schedule meetings) and I was suddenly faced with their picture and a smaller version of me and realised that I didn’t want people to see me as I am. I’ve now got the camera turned away from my seating position and it faces inwards to my shelving so if it is accidentally left on, I can adjust or switch it off without feeling embarrassed or unprepared.

Do you have any embarrassing stories of your webcam being forgotten and left on? I’m sure readers here would love to hear about it - if you’re willing to share!

Technorati Tags: webcam,skype meeting,professional

Tags: Business Operations, Networking for Business // 2 Comments »

I was attending a local BNI meeting Tuesday this week and the guy doing the presentation for the day said this line. His whole presentation was good - his passion for what he does showed through and his business is obviously excelling. He is a salesman for windows and has been in the industry a long time.

Peter was careful about the way he dressed, how he presented to the customer both over the phone and visually and gave us simple tips for connecting with customers. Excellent presentation.

But the thing that stood out to me most was this line ‘Referral = Reward for excellent service’. I really liked that. Probably more so because I do get referrals - often, and I’ve worked hard to excel at what I do and be the best I can be.

However, I often see people asking how to get referrals and they struggle for the business. Perhaps they need to look at their delivery? Perhaps it’s something else? Maybe they haven’t been around long enough or been persistent enough?

I do know it was 6 months after my first ‘public presentation’ about my business before work enquiries came in. They wanted to know if I still did what I’d been speaking about? To me that kind of sounded like they’d contacted people before after meeting them some months prior, only to find they’d moved on to do something else. Persistency and consistency are two keys for succeeding. Delivering excellent service is another.

If you admire certain people in business then find out what it is they do that you don’t do. Hang around them, ask questions, read anything they’ve written, soak yourself in what they have to teach you. Something has got to rub off!

And in the meantime, start aiming for that excellent service you’re capable of giving - and give it consistently. Referrals have got to start happening!

consistency, excellence, networking, reward

Tags: Business Operations, Networking for Business // Add Comment »

It was slightly delayed as the Blog Carnival database was down over the weekend but it’s now back up and so is our latest carnival.

http://www.paulagwebdesign.com/blog/2008/05/05/linkedin-bloggers-may-5-2008-carnival-edition/   Please do visit each post, leave comments and make yourself known to each other!

Submit your blog article to the next edition of linkedin bloggers using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

The next edition will be hosted by SOHO-Life.com on June 2nd. If you would like to host a future edition, please do make yourself known at the Blog Carnival!

Tags: Blog Carnival // Add Comment »

A recent discussion via the MyLinkedInPowerForum asked why US members don’t include their country code in their phone numbers. By that we mean, adding the country code, +1. There are a lot of members on this list, from many different countries.

A discussion ensued which indicated it hadn’t occurred to many in the US to do that, some saying they never call outside of their country so they hadn’t thought about those who call in.

This prompted me to add other frustrations I experience with respect to people not indicating their location for determining time differences or using acronyms that mean little outside of their country. By this I mean things like CST, MDT, PST, EDT, and so on if they’re listing an event for people to attend.

Recently I received a phone call at 2am from someone in another country. Unfortunately their accent made it difficult to understand the number they were giving, they didn’t tell me what country they were calling from (or if they did, I didn’t understand it) and I had no idea whether I had the right number because I had no country code to add. The call went unreturned and these people probably think I was rude and disinterested. They haven’t followed up.

I decided to make some changes at my end. My voicemail message now states that my timezone is +10GMT so that callers from outside of my country understand why I haven’t answered their call during their daytime.

I’ve added a date and timestamp to my website so that visitors can see what time it is right now where I am.

I’ve always added +61 to my phone and fax numbers so that international callers know exactly what to dial.

I’ve added Melbourne, Victoria, Australia for those who need to have a good idea of where I am. Listing my own suburb, and an abbreviated form of my state won’t help those who aren’t in the know.

So, here is my check list for service based businesses with websites that are designed to attract international business. This doesn’t necessarily mean all websites should have this but if you are operating internationally and it’s reasonable to expect a phone call from overseas now and then, this would be good to do.

1. On phone and fax numbers include your country code.
2. Include your state in full with postcode/zipcode.
3. If running an event that requires attendees to dial in or login at a particular time, don’t just put a timezone abbreviation such as EST but include your nearest major city and state. If possible add a link to a meeting planner to assist visitors in working out the time differences.
4. Consider adding a timestamp as I have done, if you provide a service based business for international clients.

Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes and wonder just how much ‘local’ knowledge they might have if they live outside your country. And then adjust your website or webpage to accommodate them.

After all, we all know that this is a common sight in Australia, don’t we?

Oh, and by the way, I heard the other day that some outside of Australia think the kookaburra is a myth! I assure you it isn’t.

Tags: Business Operations, Networking for Business // 6 Comments »