I Only Clipped ONE HAND
Ok, so I have no time to do anything, what with client deadlines, my "day job," and firends' calls to return.
But I have to take 20 seconds to blog and say that there is proof to my business: I just discovered that in my haste to clip my fingernails yesterday morning -- at the friggin' speed of light -- I only clipped ONE HAND.
And worse yet. I JUST NOTICED!
I Lied and I Hate Them Now
I was apparently on crack when I wrote my "Get an 800 Number - On The Cheap" item.
Um, because they actually sucked from top to bottom, with only a few positives that I should list but have no time for since they sucked so much of my time up already.
'Nuff said.
Find someone else. Bad recommendation on my part. I should go Yelp.com about this. Please.
Now let me see if I can go strike through what I wrote before....
I Can't Stop Laughing
Browsing the net? From sites that make me laugh, to plain ol' interesting, here are my all-time favorites that I recommend to friends.
OddTodd.com: Unemployed or not, don't call me when you start saying "mon-ay" and "coff-ay." And oh yeah, send him a dollar. And get your resume done by TheResumeStudio.com, natch.Yelp.com: Review your heart away and get others' opinions. I actually found a chiropracter on Yelp! What? How to Serve Cheese: It came up! I was giving a party and this boy from hicksville Redding wanted to make a good impression! (Watch for my turkey roasting tips, coming soon. LOL.)Confessions of a Mormon Boys: It's worth it just to see him unsnap the rug off the top of his beautiful dicorced gay head in the end. Wow. Not a dry eye in the house.Book Crossing.com: Leave a book on a park bench and see what happens. You'll likely never know.Swear Page: Visit at your own risk and without your boss or children nearby. Who comes up with these things? (Don't hate me. You now you can't help laughing. Even though it's irreverant and rude as hell.)How Stuff Works.com: In case you ever wanted to know ... practically anything.
Open Table.com: Make a dinner reservation. Get credit. Fun!
Box.net: OMG. Store files, photos, anything you want on the Web. Don't confuse yourself with computer backups. Just upload it here for $2.99 a month (or something equally, ridiculously cheap).
Volunteer Match.org: Because you should.
BoardNet USA.org: Looking for nonprofit board members? Looking to serve on a board? This is the best matchmaking site to come on-line since Match.com.
Ru Paul's Blog: Can't help myself. At least my guilty pleasure is at the end of the list.
Pink is the New Blog: Again, don't hate me, I can't help myself. This and Go Fug Yourself. Oy.
An Innovative "Woo Ha" of an Idea
I've been an entrepreneur all my life. I had a paper route starting at age 9. I fancied myself a photographer, so I saved my route money, bought camera, lights, and backdrop and marketed myself to my paper route customers. I charged those poor people $100 for a sitting, plus development! I was 10-years-old! At the same time, I tied flies (as in fly fishing, it was north-northern California) and sold them for $4 a dozen. I house-sat, dog-walked, wrote newsletter copy in the ninth grade, and started teaching piano at age 16 (I was a pianist until age 30). I hired myself out as a music director during college and self-produced two CDs and planned and "starred" in two national summer tours. During college I started a performing arts school and then rolled it into a nonprofit and appointed a board of directors.
Since then, I've worked for my share of corporate cogs -- starting out in the arts and ending up, by some miracle (or disaster) as a corporate executive recruiter for one of the nation's most prestigious executive search firms.
What the hell?
After 30, I buttoned myself up -- living the good corporate boys' life and playing by the rules. The trouble was that along the way I found myself more interested in looking at Ferragamos under the table than anything else. I was an actor -- absorbing what I needed to succeed in my play world. I was in my own verison of "How To Success In Business Without Really Trying."
Now, of course, I take that corporate experience and give advice to those who are still in the rat race. I run a resume writing Web site, which offers top notch resumes for folks looking to get ahead, make a career change, or just get the hell out. I teach them that it's all in how they spin their web.
I love my resume writing -- and my other ventures. But I'm always on the lookout for new, entrepreneurial business ideas ... because I'm a geek that way. Home massage? Grocery delivery through the Internet? I recently found what I thought was a brilliant idea -- and if I wasn't already up to my eyeballs in multiple small business ventures myself, I'd consider it.
It's a newly coined term called "Virtual Assistant." I'm even thinking about using one, what with meetings here and there, services and products to deliver on time, and not enough hours in the day.
Entrepreneur.com (yes, I also buy the magazine to read while multi-tasking on the treadmill, like the fanatical partner I used to work for back in the day in New York who called from her treadmill barking orders about this or that) covers a great emerging idea -- virtual assistant! Is it really new? Well, it's new to me and I've to tell everyone about it. Either to use one or become one! The article covers virtual assistant certification and even virtual assistant job placement. Who knew?
For anyone considering an entrepreneurial idea -- if you have half a brain -- skip the dog walking, jump on past "What Color Is Your Parachute" (great book, btw, but you'll probably actually never read it), and consider becoming a virtual assistant. I just might hire you!
Get an 800 Number -- On the Cheap
All right. If you have a small business, you likely need an 800 number. I remember starting a piano studio twenty years ago at the tender at of 16 and thinking an 800 number would help attract students. Besides that being the uber wrong approach, I learned then that getting an 800 number was uber harder than I wanted it to be. I went the whole Yellow Pages listing route, posters, the whole shebang. But what to my wondering eyeballs! I recently did googling (the only "verb" worth using for research) and found TollFreeMax.com. Not only was the site easy to navigate -- and the "people" (probably a fellow smart small business guru) are friendly and respond quickly.
Now I pay $9.95 a month for an 800 number that automatically forwards to my primary phone (which is my cell phone). Of the cadre of extras included with my plan comes virtual faxing. A client can fax me at the 800 number and it is emailed to me as an attachment. I can also fax from my computer through them -- no fax machine required.
Brilliant!
For $9.95 a month I get 100 free minutes. But I don't exceed them because I always ask the client if I can call them right back.
Now my ResumeStudio.com peeps and I get a win-win situation. Check it -- and let me know if you find more competitive prices. I can't imagine that it gets much better.
Wanna Create a Web site? Wanna?
I swear I should get paid for this. But how can I help sharing the good news of cheap opportunities to fellow entrepreneurs -- and anyone else who will listen and benefit from the best out there.Today I have to give props to OneWebHosting.com and EWorldPortal.com -- both are Web development companies who offer domain name purchase, set-up, hosting, email, web templates (nice!) -- the whole entire full-deal enchilada! (The jury is still out about which one is truly best. But for now I like ... love them both.)I pay $9.95 per month and have fun to my heart's content. The learning curve could be accomlished in 30 minutes by any eight-year-old. What was formerly a Craigslist (oh, how much we love Craigslist: thanks Craig, thanks Craig, thanks Craig!) and word-of-mouth resume writing practice is now a raging, almost out of control practice. I'm having so much fun making lots of people job search competitive (86% of my clients get the jobs they want) it should be a sin.
And boy do I know a thing about sin. Just ask my minister father. This apple fell far from the tree, I fear.
But that's another blog. (Bore yourself with the angst at SqueakyStylo, which means "squeaky pen" because that's about how my creative writing goes.)
Free PDFs for ALL!
Holy cow. My damned Word program doesn't convert files to PDF, the piece of bleepity bleep bleep that it is. What's up? It's supposed to be Word XP Pro! In any event -- free PDF converter to the rescue! All you need is a third of a brain ... no, maybe a quarter of a brain to whip convert any ol' document format into PDF. PDF AWAY! I love talking about free and cheap things. Now that I'm living the modest lifestyle and all.
