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I Google Myself

Aug 25th, 2010 by AM

I have a confession to make. I Google myself. In fact, I’ve been doing it for years. (Well, in the early days of the Internet, it was probably using Lycos.) And in recent years, prospective employers have started doing it too. It didn’t occur to me that someone would do an internet search on a potential employee until I was working a temporary job two years ago and was partially involved in the hiring and training process of the new employee.

I was somewhat astonished.

Even though the Internet is a large, open encyclopedia of information – and misinformation – it struck me as almost sneaky that someone would Google my name to find out any possible dirt on me.

Fortunately, my internet presence is pretty clean (if you’ve read my previous article on Internet Privacy you know why), but I still wonder what a potential employer thinks when they Google me.

The first thing that comes up is this blog. Hi, Hiring Managers! The second thing to come up is my LinkedIn profile. No problems there. The third thing that comes up is some photos taken by Tracy Kolenchuk of me performing music at the Edmonton Fringe in 2007. It was a fun 10-day gig. The next thing of any significance that comes up is a Facebook profile…that isn’t mine.

I discovered a couple of months ago that I wasn’t the only one on this earth with the same combination of first and last names. I’ve known for years that I’m not the only Amity, although it is an unusual first name. However, I’ve now discovered that there are at least two others who also share my last name. (One of them lives in Indiana, and the other has a private profile – smart girl – so I don’t know where she might live.) Then there’s someone who shows up on Bebo, another social networking site that I’ve never used.  Since my last name is listed differently on Facebook, I can preserve some anonymity there.  I also have a private profile.  But now I have an odd situation. With a very unusual first name, will employers mistake the other A.M. for me?

Fortunately, in my case, there’s nothing incriminating on the internet about me. Unless, of course, you consider being a part-time freelance musician incriminating. Perhaps some employers might. Others might consider it “well-rounded”.  I’m never sure.  (I tend to play up my military training and experience on my résumé because I find it has more corporate substance behind it, however, I was told by one potential interviewer that he was less likely to hire me because of it.  He felt I’d be too inflexible.  Apparently following the rules is inflexible.)

Another thing to consider is how are the hiring managers approaching their internet searching of a potential employee? If I have someone’s name as a contact for a company, I go to LinkedIn and search there. If I can’t find anything, I’ll do a search on Google. I’m looking for a couple of things: how long has the contact been with the company, and what’s their experience/role in the company. It helps me research the company and provide a better résumé as a result.

If a Facebook profile shows up, I don’t check it. I really don’t need – or want – to know if they even have a public profile or not. It’s really none of my business. And – I take everything I read on the Internet with a grain or several of salt, especially if it’s something potentially incriminating…or sounds a little too perfect.

So this presents the flip side to the responsibility being on us to keep our internet presence appropriate. There also needs to be some discretion on the part of the searcher. Just because there is a car accident on the other side of the road doesn’t mean you should go out of your way to gawk at it. In fact, unless you can provide first aid where none is being provided, it’s really none of your business what’s going on. This is much the same for the availability of information on the internet. My advice to Google-happy hiring managers – feel free to Google me, but keep your searching professional.

Amity M thinks you should Google yourself, especially if you’ve never done it before. You might like it.

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Posted in Business, Networking, Personal, Websites | 1 Comment »

The Realities of Being Self Employed

Aug 22nd, 2010 by AM

Many people mistake being self-employed for being a business owner. This is not without reason: technically, if you are self-employed, then you do own a business – the business of your services. However, there is a bit of a difference between the two.

Owning a business generally implies that you have staff, full time hours, can take a week off without the business going to pot, and – this being the biggest – you can sell the business and if your systems are set in place properly it will continue to run as well, if not better, than it did when you owned it. Some business owners will also work in the business – for example, a small accounting firm, or a coffee shop (the latter often because they’re short staffed). This post is not for them.

This post is really for the self-employed person who is starting up his or her own business offering products or services of some form. Also known as working for yourself, being self-employed has some definite advantages. If you have enough business to be full-time, then there is a certain appeal in often being able to set your own hours, work as much or as little as you choose, and sometimes show up to work in your pajamas. If you are a part-time self-employed worker, then you get some tax advantages that someone who only has a “9-5” job doesn’t, which is also a nice perk.

But there are some realities that many people don’t consider along the way. “Statistics show” (take that as you will) that most small businesses – which really mean start-up self employed people as best I can tell – fail in the first 2-5 years. This usually isn’t for lack of knowledge about the business, but usually more for lack of funding.

Starting a new business is expensive. Even without business name registrations, NUANS searches and incorporation (which should only be done once you’re SURE of things), you’ll still need to have a bit of a promotional budget. Marketing is what can be done for free or very cheap – things like networking events/meetups/lunches and email newsletters to your friends (don’t rely on them, though – it’s the quickest way to ruin friendships). Promotion is what you pay for: advertising in papers, flyers, radio etc. Even a small ad can run you a hefty cost, but if you’ve done your research on the readership, the potential that you may get customers could payoff. (Make sure you’re actually reaching your target market.)  Plus if you aren’t working on top of this, you’ll need to have enough saved to make sure you can eat and pay bills for at least a year.

I also am a firm believer that you should have business cards and even a one-page website. These two things can be done fairly cheaply.

Once that’s done, though, you’ll actually have to be dedicated enough to get out there and do some marketing. Business generally doesn’t “find” you. If you are working a 9-5 job on top of this, finding the time to market your business can be difficult. If you aren’t working a 9-5 job, set some “office” hours. Make yourself get up in the morning and write out a plan for your day – be it an hour’s worth of tasks, or a full day.

The same goes for actually doing the work if you are in the field of something like bookkeeping, website design, graphic design etc. Set aside specific times for your clients. If you have several projects on the go and you work, you may find it helpful to break up the work a bit instead of trying to plough through one client’s work before starting the next one.

If you are in a service business such as cleaning or giving music lessons, obviously things will be a bit different, as your work times will probably be an agreement between you and the client as to what works the best for you.

A word of caution for all of these: price yourself accordingly. If we have a “9-5” job, we quickly forget that things like coffee breaks, internet & email breaks, and research for something we might be working on are basically “paid”. In my case, I can’t bill for the 10 minutes it took me to make a pot of tea and have a snack. I also can’t bill for the time it took me to look up the best way to implement something on a website for a client.

If you have something like a cleaning business, or are a music teacher who travels to your students’ houses, remember that you will have travel time – likely anywhere from 15 minutes to 60 minutes in between clients, and possibly also parking expenses depending on where you are. Parking and gas or bus expenses are at least a claimable expense, however the time you lose in between isn’t.  Price yourself accordingly. $25 an hour might be an acceptable rate for an employed person who gets paid for 8 hours a day, however, if you have travel time between clients, 8 hours a day could quickly wind up taking 12 hours of your day. This would make your rate suddenly more like $16 or $17 per day.

You also must consider the time of day that you’ll be working. Cleaners often work days, evenings, and weekends and are pretty flexible. Music lessons and tutoring will happening on evenings and weekends 90% of the time. Be prepared.

Another thing to consider is the speed at which you’ll build up clients. It’s pretty rare that you’ll have 100 clients overnight. If you’re marketing and networking on a regular basis, 1 to 2 clients per month is much more realistic. If you are a music teacher, aim to expand your studio by 2 to 3 regular students per year, not including “ad hoc” students. (I’ll do a post another time about the different ways to bill your students if you run a music studio.) I have a clear memory of a fellow student at the end of our senior year in a Bachelor of Music program saying, “If I can just get 15 students, I’ll be all right.” At that point I’d been teaching privately for 3 years and had never had more than 6 students at a time.

I’ve said this before – building a business and running a small business is largely about building relationships. You must develop a relationship with someone before they will bring their business to you or recommend you to anyone. You’ll get lucky every now and then and have someone parachute in who needs your services, and if you’re even luckier, they’ll stick around and you’ll have a repeat client. But it’s rare.

Being self-employed can be really great, and offer much more flexibility, but you must know what you’re doing, and you must understand that it won’t happen overnight.

Amity M usually gets up at 6 a.m. so that by 8 a.m. she’s ready to start the day – whether it be with an employer, or working at home. She also accepts the fact that that may qualify her as being slightly crazy.

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Posted in Business, Goal Setting, Networking, Services, Tasks, Websites | No Comments »

The SAC, File Sharing Levies, and Independent Musicians

Aug 12th, 2010 by AM

The Songwriters Association of Canada’s proposal to monetize music file sharing just doesn’t cash in.

The Songwriters Association of Canada, or SAC, an organization which seeks to develop and recognize Canadian songwriters, recently released the details on a Music File Sharing Proposal which has, apparently, been in the works since 2007. But when I joined the SAC in 2008 there was nothing on their website, or in any issue of their Songwriters Magazine that I received. Until last month. My most recent issue of Songwriter Magazine had a disturbing article about the proposal, called Let Our People Share.

The full details of the proposal is available at http://songwriters.ca (Click on “Advocacy”), however, in short, the SAC is pushing for a levy to be applied to internet access fees to make up for the massive amounts of illegal file-sharing of music – in other words, they’re advocating that the cost of providing internet to you, the user and consumer, should go up, to the tune of $4 or $5 per month. Then “this money would go into a pool and a pro rata distribution made to the artists, songwriters and rights holders whose songs are being shared”. They think this is a great idea, and that it will put money back into the hands of the musicians who work so hard to create this music, and help them to make more music, because they’ll have the money to do it.

Have they so quickly forgotten the current issue with the Private Copying Tariff?

Implemented in 1999, and which increases every year, the Private Copying Tariff currently adds $0.29 to each medium deemed to be used for recording. 29 cents per blank CD regardless of your use of it. This was, in theory, to make up for the illegal copying of music CDs, which caused record labels, artist management companies and the artists themselves to lose money. However, as Joseph Stalin succeeded in demonstrating, what works in theory often does not work in practice. Musicians and songwriters who aren’t represented by an independent label or agent have yet to see a penny from the sale of recordable media. This won’t change with the addition of an internet usage levy.

The SAC seems to forget that as songwriters – composers, really, of lyrics, melodies, and supporting music all in one song – the end result is not only our intellectual property, it is our work – like a job. I’m sure no one in the SAC would neither ask nor advocate for a lawyer to work for free. Yet, by supporting the legal file-sharing of independent music, that’s exactly what they’re doing.

On their website, as well as on the Canadian Private Copying Collective website, there are artist statements in support of these levies. Indeed, artists like Amy Sky, Randy Bachman, Faber Drive and The Trews would definitely support this; they stand a chance of actually seeing some of the money collected through the levy.

However, for the rest of us, the math just doesn’t add up.

The current population of Canada is just over 34 million people.
The current number of people using the internet in Canada is about 25.5 million.

If a $5/month fee per person is levied, then the amount of money that will be divvied up will be just over $1.5 billion. That’s a lot of money. But how many musicians are now vying for this? According to Statistics Canada the number of people who might be sharing in this $1.5 billion pot of gold – songwriters and others who have a partial claim in each recorded song, such as composers and producers – is just under 94,000 people. This works out to about $16,500 per person, per year. But wait…there is a “pro rata distribution” method, which means that number is moot. Who will determine the pecking order in which the musicians line up for their piece of the pie? Is it based on the number of songs each rights holder has available? If I only have 5 songs professionally recorded and publicly available but Band X has 25 songs recorded then do I make only 20% of what Band X makes per year? And do they only make 25% of what Band Z makes because Band Z has 100 songs? How much, if any, of that $1.5 billon can any of us down at the bottom of the pile expect to see?

The SAC’s proposal to implement a levy on internet access fees and purportedly monetize file sharing just isn’t viable. All it will do is rob the true independent musicians of another $60 a year that none of them will even see a percentage of a royalty from.

Therefore my advice to independent musicians is this:

First, if you are a member of the SAC, repeal your membership and put your money towards something else that will actually support you.

Second, spread the word about this to all the independent musicians you know who are working towards someday having a full-time future as a songwriter.

And in closing, my words to the SAC: Get real. Start talking to some true independent musicians and find out what issues they’re really coming up against. Talk to those who aren’t represented by a label, agent or publisher because they can’t afford it. Talk to those who have to run their small business of music on evenings, weekends, and lunch hours. Talk to those who have made recordings with money from their own pockets. Talk to those who work day jobs and hope that they’ll have enough time, energy & creativity left at the end of the day to pick up a guitar and write a song that might stand up to critical reviews. Instead of advocating for us to work for free, go and work with SOCAN and the Copyright Board of Canada and start getting some of the money from the current Private Copying Tariff out of the government’s pockets and into ours.

Sincerely,

Amity Mitchell
aka. Ivy Rich (stage persona)
This article has been cross-posted by the author at http://ivyrich.com

Amity M is a Toastmaster, an army Sergeant, an educated woman, and a livewire. Handle with care.

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Posted in Business, Music, Personal, Tunes | No Comments »

Keep Your Day Job

Aug 11th, 2010 by AM

It’s an old cliché, “don’t quit your day job”, often used tongue-in-cheek when listening to some aspiring artist or musician.  However, the words are good advice.

While there are a number of minimalist, personal development and business blogs out there that will give you a number of reasons why you should quit your day job, I’m going to present a number of reasons why you shouldn’t, in the context of starting a small, part time business.  And they have nothing to do with your talents or abilities as a singer, comedian or artist.  Hopefully you can stand your day job, and you’re starting a small business with the long-term plan of having it be your day job one day, you want to take advantage of some of the tax benefits of being your own boss, or you just plain like doing something else and want to make a little extra cash at it.

Unless you have a money tree in your backyard, a wealthy spouse who can support you, or a good 2 to 5 years worth of savings to sustain you, you are going to have a small and probably inconsistent income from your small business for the first several months.  However, those pesky things like mortgage or rent payments, phone bills, and utility bills are pretty consistent – you want to be able to cover those while you’re building your business. You also might like to eat during that time, too.  Your day job will cover your basic expenses, while you can invest any money earned from your business back into your business, or save it for quitting your day job later on.

Why you should keep your day job until your business can sustain itself:

- It keeps things interesting.  It’s rare that anyone starts a small business in exactly the same line of work that they spend all day in, and if your new part-time start up is a break from the routine of work, you will also find that the routine of work is a nice break from what can be an overwhelming amount of information and “to-do”s when working for yourself.

- Getting a car loan, line of credit, or mortgage is exponentially easier if you have a steady day job.  And while some blogs will poo-poo the notion of owning a house or car as part of your happiness, you still need somewhere to live, and some form of transportation.  Most people would like a car and a house to call their own.  It is possible to get a mortgage if you’re self-employed, but you will have to provide proof for the last several years of your life of income, and possibly proof of your yet-to-be-born first child.  You will also have to have a stellar credit rating and a big down payment.

- Sick benefits, and benefits in general.  Hopefully your day job gives you at least a few sick days – presumably you’re an intelligent individual and you eat relatively healthy food, exercise, drink lots of water and wash your hands, so your chances are getting sick are greatly reduced.  But, it happens to almost everyone now and then.  Knowing that missing a day isn’t going to set you back $200 is comforting and won’t add insult to injury if you’re stuck in bed for a day or two with the flu.

- Most companies offer health benefits that you’d otherwise have to pay for yourself – in Canada, I haven’t found a decent health or dental insurance plan that really covers everything the way an employer will.  And things like dental, physiotherapy or chiropractic care can really add up if you happen to require them.

- Budgeting in general.  Whether you make $1300/mo or $13,000/mo, you still have a budget to work within.  If you happen to be at the lower end of the income scale, this is much, much easier to do if your income is consistent.  Once you’ve built up your savings and have a reserve and some interest to live off of, having a less consistent income is fine.

- Your business tanks.  You realize you don’t have as much training as you’d like to run the business, you realize you actually hate it, or you run out of money.  Whatever the reason, you’re shuttin’ ‘er down, and you still need to eat and pay bills while you’re deciding what to do with the rest of your life.  If you have a job to fall back on, that’s one less thing to fret about.

Once you’ve got your business going, then you can start to plan for the day when you can, in fact, quit your day job.  Until then, though, you’ll do much better at your second job if you’re not stressing about how to pay the bills.  Instead, you can put that energy toward your new business.

Amity M would like to have a full-time day job to go along with her part-time business.

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Posted in Business, Tools & Resources | No Comments »

Starting Up a Start Up

Jul 27th, 2010 by AM

My last post was about Better Business Options, so this post will be about how you actually get there.

What you need to start up:

1. A product or service to offer

Services are generally better – unless you are the kind of person who buys everything every time you turn around, you are probably going to have a hard time selling something that really isn’t necessary to anyone.  I touched on this a bit last time, but if you’re not sure what you can do, think about what you’re a) good at or b) have the tools to do.  Fast typist or spreadsheet whiz?   Think about becoming a Virtual Assistant.  Hate mess?  Cleaners are in high demand and usually get paid well.  Like being outside?  Weed gardens and mow lawns.  Like shopping?  Pimp yourself out at the local seniors’ centre as a grocery delivery service.  You’d be amazed at what people pay for.  Some schools of thought say “Find your niche”, some say “develop a new niche”, and some say “fill a niche”.  I say find a service that people will pay for and provide it for a fee.

2. A business name

You can use your own name if you’re not sure what you want to call your company.  Or use your initials or a short form of your name if you have privacy concerns, a very common name, or a very uncommon/hard to pronounce name.  If you do choose a business name, it must be easy to remember, easy to pronounce, and should give an idea of what your company does.

3. Business cards

Some say that the business card is going the way of the dinosaur; I disagree.  True networking is still done face-to-face, and oftentimes I don’t want to wade through my email or Facebook contacts looking for a phone number.  I still collect business cards, and I still hand them out.  They are relatively inexpensive – if you look in the right place, you can get a one-sided black & white business card done up for about $30 for 500, or maybe 1000 if you’re really lucky.  I don’t recommend printing them yourself.  It’s expensive, time consuming, and the quality is poor.  Also, if you’re using an inkjet, if the card gets wet, the ink will run.

The card must have the following information on it:

a. Your name. If you want to preserve some anonymity for security reasons, use an initial for your last name, or shorten it.  Just make sure you’ll actually respond if someone calls you that.

b. Your telephone number. I recommend a separate telephone line if possible (I use a land line) so that your business phone number isn’t the same as your personal one.  Some telephone companies will provide a second number with a separate ring on the same line for a reasonable fee.  The danger being that the voice mail is the same.  Make sure it’s professional in case someone calls.

c. Your email. If you don’t want to use your primary email, either check with your ISP about providing a second account (most of them do), or set up a strictly business account using Gmail or another online service.  If you *do* use Gmail or similar, make sure the email is appropriate and related to the service you’re offering.

d. Your website. I’ll delve more into this shortly, but personally I think it is essential to have a website.

e. A snail mail address. Don’t use your home address. Post office boxes are cheap (often starting around $60/year depending on location) and many of them are in stores that will also allow you to receive shipped parcels.

4. Website

Some people feel that a website is part of the “back-end” of starting a new business, and therefore not necessary, but I disagree.  With very little knowledge you can set up a website – there are a number of free sites that have templates, or you can bribe a knowledgeable friend to help you out, or you can contact me.  (I can set up a one pager for you for around $175.  Hosting & domain name extra at about $100/year.  And no, I don’t have to live in the same city as you do.  The last website I built was for someone over 1000 kms away.) The website must have the following information:

a. A short paragraph about what your company does, and your experience in it.

b. Your contact information: name, telephone number and email at the very least.

c. Your hours of operation, if applicable

d. Your rates.  I cannot stress this one enough. Even if all you put is “Rates from $xx”, it gives your customers an idea of how much they may be looking at for your services.

There are a number of reasons for having a website.  For starters, it gives your business credibility if there is a real website.  Spend the $15 or so and register your own domain name (e.g. amitym.com).  You can forward it to a free site if necessary.  It looks much better on a business card to have a website that reads: http://janescleaning.com than http://janescleaning.blogspot.com.

Secondly, it’s many people’s first go to/point of contact after they have gotten your information – and your information may have been given to them by a friend or colleague.  They’ll want to check out your business and find out a bit about you before calling.  Or, they may want to use email to book your services.

5. Accounting/Client Tracking Software

Finally, you’ll want something you can keep track of clients & billing in.  I use the free version of QuickBooks (available at http://quickbooks.intuit.ca), which allows you up to 20 clients, and Pay Pal.  Pay Pal has transaction fees, but overall it’s a good tool and integrates nicely with your regular bank account until you’re at the point where getting a Merchant account is a good idea.

I know what you’re going to ask now.  What about graphic design & logos? When I was in business school, we had a representative from a high-end graphic design company come in and try to sell us on the idea of visual branding.  This is a great idea – for a large company with lots of cash to invest in a whole “look” from business cards to stationary to their website.  It’s not practical for a small start up. If you do want an image to make you “stand out”, try looking either for a free stock image (I like http://freedigitalphotos.net – if you Google “free stock photos” several sites will come up with varying levels of “free”), or see if you can find a graphic design student who will do something simple for you for $50-100.  Make sure that you get a digital copy of that image and have their permission to use it in any correspondence (email, letters, business cards, envelopes, etc).  However, keep in mind that it’s not necessary right away.

That should get you started.  In the next few days, I’ll discuss why you shouldn’t quit your day job, the realities of running a small business, and some basic business finances.

Amity M always has a million ideas for what else she could do, and tries to keep her business focused on just a few things.

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Posted in Business, Networking, Tools & Resources, Websites | No Comments »

Better Business Options

Jul 12th, 2010 by AM

A few days ago I sent out an email to my music fans, giving them a quick update on my musical happenings, and mentioning that my “summer tour” to Edmonton was still pending due to permanent employment options.

Within minutes, I received an email from a colleague to “check out her new business opportunity!”.  If you’ve read my previous post on this, you already know my opinions on these types of businesses.  Within the next 24 hours I had received another invite to a different business opportunity.

Let me clarify something.  When I say I am “unemployed”, I mean that I am not on anyone’s payroll, which means my income is not always consistent.  It doesn’t mean I’m not working.  However, if anyone somehow thinks that on top of the many things I already do, that “starting my own business” is what I should be doing, I have news to share.

I’m way ahead of all of you.  I’ve been running my own businesses – legitimate ones – since 1999. These have primarily been music and computer industry businesses.  And I currently have my own business – two, technically, if you consider my folk music persona and Tunes, Tasks & Training to be separate.  (I don’t think my accountant does, but I do.)  I definitely don’t need another one, and the amount of time, energy, effort & money I would spend on participating in a fruitless MLM would be better spent on my music.

Now, don’t think I’m quite so amazing as never to have been swayed by the lofty claims of any MLM or Network Marketing company.  A boyfriend & I several years ago signed up for Quixtar.  Fortunately we only spent about $75 on a starter kit before I left the country to go to grad school (and had more important things, like studying, to focus on).  Upon returning from grad school, though, and finding myself with a blend of employment & self-employment, and some spare time, I joined Melaleuca.  For those unfamiliar, Melaleuca primarily sells overpriced eco-friendly cleaning products and vitamins.  Their products are fine and of relatively decent quality, but not unique.  Most grocery stores carry a much more reasonably priced eco option.

I spent about a year and a half in a good deal of resistance with my upline because I simply didn’t want to do business the way she did.  In other words, I didn’t want to try to sell to all my friends who probably weren’t interested anyway.  There is a good chance that one of my close friends never returned my calls because she was afraid I would try to sell her something.  (I didn’t, but I completely understand her fear.)

Melaleuca has a policy where the only way the Independent Business Owner (or IBO) makes passive income is when she signs up a Preferred Customer – meaning the customer gets “preferred pricing”, but is required to spend a minimum of $75 per month.  Of course, Mela’s thinking behind this is for the IBOs to push the customer to buy the expensive vitamins, which of course, are consumable.  Because, believe me, it’s hard to use $75 worth of cleaning and laundry products each and every month.

In the 20 or so months I was part of this, I spent approximately $2650. At that price, I could have taken weekly voice or guitar lessons for the same duration of time. My start-up costs were $250.  This didn’t include any costs I had to incur for promotion – ads in newsletters, business cards, and a domain name for my website.  I should mention at the time I joined I also had about $2000 in consumer debt racked up. This was not one of my more brilliant moves.  I was also strongly encouraged to attend the weekly training sessions (at $5 apiece) and to purchase extra “business kits” to have on hand.  When I ran screaming from the company, I still had 3 of the 4 I’d bought.  (One of the head honchos once told all of us at a training that she would purchase any unused kits if we found we could not use them or were having trouble with the business.  She didn’t, nor did I receive any other kind of support from her.  I expected more from someone who bragged about making $20,000 a month.)

Over those 20 months I was successful in signing up one person, and probably made back a grand total of about $15 in passive income.  I’ve done better on the stock market with less money and time invested.

So for the Home Business Seeker, beware.  There are better options. Pick something you are good at or enjoy, and farm yourself out. Like playing with dogs?  Start a dog-walking business or doggie daycare.  Musician, artist or dancer?  Teach (if you don’t already).  Handy with a hammer and screwdriver?  A friend of mine just started a Seniors’ Concierge Service. (Which I built the website for.)  Just because it’s not a service you would use doesn’t mean others won’t.  Not sure what to do?  Become a cleaner – professional cleaners make upwards of $25/hr and are ALWAYS busy.  Services are usually easier to sell – sales is harder for “things” and if you’re a poor salesperson (as I am) you’ll have a much harder time trying to convince people to purchase an item that they may see as unnecessary.  There are exceptions if you can find your niche and know your target market.  A friend of mine loves to sew, loves kids, and loves to sew children’s clothes.  And she’s a stay-at-home mom.  You can guess what she does?  (And you can check out her stuff at http://bumbyonline.com).

There are many advantages to starting a business this way.  Your start-up costs will be a lot less. You can legally be a sole proprietor under your own name in Canada without any paperwork.  Business licenses are expensive and can be gotten post-start or when necessary.  Simple business cards can be done starting at about $30 for 500.  A website isn’t totally necessary but helpful.  Facebook Pages are free and at least give you a presence online where you can list a contact email, phone number and details of your business.  Advertising posters can be done up in black & white, printed off and distributed in locations that you think may be where your future customers hang out.  AND, you won’t be trying to convince your friends to buy something they don’t want.  In fact, they’ll more than likely be a little happier to support you because you won’t be hounding them to join your business opportunity every time you see them.

“But wait!”, I hear you say, “I want to earn passive income!”  That’s right…I want to earn money just sitting around and doing nothing while other people come to me.

If you work it right, in a service business, this will happen eventually.  And it will take about the same amount of time as it would with an MLM or NM company.  With very few exceptions, businesses of any kind take 3 to 5 years to really get established.  Especially if you are only doing it part time (which I recommend to start – more on that in a future post).  If your service business really takes off, hopefully you’ve chosen something where you can hire and train employees, and you can step back.  Case in point: a colleague I took some courses with a few years ago decided during a spell of unemployment that she would start a cleaning business.  She did all of it by herself for the first 6 or so months.  Within about 2 years she wasn’t doing the work anymore – she had employees, a busy business, and she and her boyfriend owned some rental properties.

There are a few home based businesses that I don’t feel are quite as wretched as all of them:  Mary Kay & Tupperware come to mind.  In this case, the Business Owner is really just an Independent Distributor of an established name.  The downside of this is that the Independent Distributor often has to purchase a lot of stock up front, and then hope it sells.  This can get expensive.

And finally, because I like to provide documentation to support things, give up that idea of becoming rich with any kind of MLM/Pyramid/NM company.  The math doesn’t add up and the likelihood of you making little more than your up front costs is slim.  (Wired Magazine has a good little one-pager on this.)  You might do better to purchase a lottery ticket.

So instead of selling your soul to the latest Great New Business Idea, check out what you’re already capable of doing.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised, and likely much more successful.

Amity M got so worked up writing this post she forgot to put the end tag in when she first published the post.

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No Buts About It, or, Why I Don’t Like The “Sandwich” Method of Evaluation

Jul 12th, 2010 by AM

I’m a Toastmaster.  This means that on a regular basis, I stand in front of a group of people, talk to them for about 5 minutes, and then they all – ALL – provide a written evaluation for me.  This process and feedback helps me improve my speaking, writing and presentation skills, and I value it very highly.  However, in the Evaluation Manual, it suggests a method that I was also taught in the military: the Sandwich Method.

The Sandwich Method of evaluation is common, popular, and also used by many organizations to evaluate and review performance.  The basic premise is that the evaluator “buffers” the criticism with words of praise on either side. In theory, this is supposed to make the person being evaluated feel better about themselves.

I don’t like, or agree, with this method.  There is a saying: “everything before ‘but’ is bull****” – or sometimes “everything after ‘but’…depending on your source.  Regardless, the implication is the same.  Using “but” immediately devalues whatever praise may have been given.

For example:

“You’re a hard worker, Jane, but you really need to polish up your customer service skills.”

Or

“Your writing skills are weak, Joe, but your PowerPoint presentation was interesting.”

Which part is the evaluatee going to remember most?  If the evaluator uses an example like the first one given then follows it again with praise, Jane is now confused.  Did she do a good job or not?  What’s the most important thing for her to remember?

Evaluation is really nothing more than a comparison of a person’s performance to a pre-existing set of beliefs or standards (which is a fancy name for beliefs approved by some authority figure).  I feel that the Sandwich Method of evaluation sugar coats the criticism, lessens the enjoyment and pride for the praise given, and eliminates responsibility of opinion for the person giving the evaluation. All of these lead to a weaker evaluation which results in a frustrated evaluatee.

There are better and more effective ways to evaluate.  For starters, simply stating criticism/areas to improve first and then giving praise after – WITHOUT USING “BUT” – is often better received.  If presented properly, it will create more authenticity in the evaluation.

If you are evaluating someone here are some suggestions on how to make your result more tolerable, more structured, and more authentic.

1. Make A Chart Prior To The Presentation

What I Liked What I Felt Could Be Improved Upon

Note the first person in the chart headers.  Remember that you are giving your subjective opinion.  Others’ opinions may and likely will vary.

In point form, under each column, list according to what you liked/disliked – and be specific.  Give examples. Was there a gesture that especially bothered you?  A phrase you especially liked?  For performance reviews, think about the person’s specific tasks.  For speeches and public presentations, keep it in chronological order.  (This leads into the next step.)

2. Put it together.

Chronologically is a good way, especially if it is a one-time occurence you are reviewing.  This method isolates examples, flows nicely and doesn’t consolidate criticisms and praise respectively.  At the end, conclude with one or two instances which stuck out in your mind, and a general “overall” of the whole thing.  Remember: no buts!

When delivering your review or evaluation, keep it in the 3rd person if public or written.  If conducting a one-on-one interview, you may choose to read the evaluation to your evaluatee in the 3rd person first.  This is a more direct method and best used if your criticisms outweigh the praise.  If discussing it verbally with the individual, however, keep your language to reflect “I feel, I see, I think” – “I, I, I” language. In both instances the review will be much better received by the person being evaluated as they won’t feel as if they’re being attacked.

Again, remember you are only providing your opinion of how well something was done, based on your beliefs, and it is the full choice of your evaluatee to take what works for him or her.

Amity M is always available to tell you where she thinks something could be improved. This is known, in NLP terms, as a “moving away from” type of person.

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Facebook, Privacy and The Internet

Jul 8th, 2010 by AM

Since Facebook rolled out its latest changes on how privacy options were controlled last month, they’ve received a lot of flak over what information is being shared and what isn’t.

Somehow in all of this, Facebook has wound up largely taking the blame. Certainly there are things their online security department needs to address. At some point, however, we – the end user – must also take some responsibility. Not about what information Facebook shares about us, but about what information we share with Facebook.

As a kid I was taught not to disclose a good deal of personal information to anyone I didn’t know, or even to someone I didn’t know well. This included things like my last name, my phone number, my address, our living situation, and family financial matters. In my adult life, I partially continued that trend by using a post office box and a separate telephone number for business purposes. I also spent time arguing with a certain telephone company to get them to list only my first and middle initials, rather than my first name. While I know now that these habits were impressed into me for safety reasons, it also fell under something that we forget these days: the category of “It’s none of your business.”

The point is that the responsibility is on me to keep my mouth shut.

Enter the internet in the mid-90s, where suddenly you could meet total strangers online. Horror stories emerged about too-trusting teen and pre-teen girls disclosing detailed information in online chats about what they looked like, what they were wearing, and when/where their soccer game was tomorrow – to an online personality they knew only as a name, MSN handle, a picture that might or might not actually be of the person, and whom they thought was a teenage boy or girl…but was really a grown man.

Until Facebook came along, I had a personal website. Overall, it told you a bit about me, linked to some friends who also had websites or websites of interest, and had some pictures. It was one of the ways I shared pictures and infrequent updates about my life with friends and family. I had the URL in my signature file. Early on, I posted some pictures from a belly dancing instructional video shoot I had participated in. While there was nothing inappropriate about the pictures, a co-worker from my part-time job in the army band followed the link from an email one day and saw the pictures. Our working environment was casual and due to the nature of our job (often having to change uniforms in the same room as everyone else), we were all quite close and it was something akin to a large family. Understandably, I took some good natured ribbing in the canteen one day about this, and endured a few weeks of jokes and one tongue-in-cheek inquiry about whether I’d been hired for another co-worker’s bachelor party. In retrospect, I was lucky. I removed the pictures shortly after that incident.

MySpace, when it first appeared, required and posted publicly the birthday you’d entered for your personal MySpace page. There was no way to hide it. MySpace also changes its privacy features regularly and doesn’t inform the user. On my band’s page I suddenly discovered I had “Friends” that I hadn’t authorized – when my previous settings required approval for Friend Requests. MySpace had changed things and failed to inform me. I had to go through my settings and reset them back to the higher privacy option. The point here is that Facebook isn’t the only social networking site to have constantly changing privacy settings.  It’s just the most used, and seems to be getting most of the attention.

As individuals, we must take some responsibility for the information we provide and what we disclose publicly. Facebook does not require you to display your date of birth, and if you are really paranoid, use a fake one…lots of people do. Be selective with pictures posted and set the privacy settings high so that only your friends can see them. Un-tag pictures of you. Don’t provide your home address or anything else you wouldn’t disclose to a total stranger.

In short and in closing, don’t post anything on the Internet you wouldn’t want the world to see or know. Facebook’s privacy and security abilities are only as good as the last hacker – not the next one.

Amity M doesn’t think you need to know what colour her undergarments are.

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Is Online Social Networking Killing Our Ability To Socialize?

Jun 30th, 2010 by AM

Once upon a time, people used to go for coffee with each other to get to know one another. They held parties to get together with several people to socialize & catch up on one another’s lives. Some of them even wrote letters to friends who lived out of the city and included pictures of themselves and their families.

With the advent of email and social networking sites such as MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook – especially Facebook – that’s all changed.

No longer do we call up friends just to chat, or even to make a date for coffee to catch up. Instead, we simply log on to Facebook and check status updates to find out what’s going on in our contacts’ lives.

What about “friend requests” from people we haven’t seen or talked to in years? I’ve often gotten the impression that some people – often people I wasn’t very close to to begin with – have requested me as a “friend” just because they want to know what’s going on in my life, without actually talking to me. It’s like gossip with consent.

But all this online social networking has deeper consequences.

I used to have great parties. My housewarming party after I first purchased my house was packed – and fun. I also used to have no trouble meeting, making & maintaining friends.

So, upon relocating to Vancouver, I did what I thought would put me in contact with like-minded people. I attended a couple of seminars. I met some great people, fun people, and people I wanted to hang out with. Unfortunately, I’ve found that keeping new friends is difficult. Not because I don’t make the effort – but because they don’t. We became “Facebook Friends”, got together with a group from the seminar a couple of times, and now cross paths online, with posts on each other’s walls saying “OMG! I haven’t talked to you in like 4ever! We need 2 have coffee!!!!” (Okay, so if you know me, you know I don’t type like that, but you get the idea.)

Of course, online social networking isn’t solely the cause. I’m older, I don’t drink much, and both I and the people I know are busier and more spread out. I’m also no longer in an environment that provides me with an instant “friend group”, like school or the military. Therefore, in all this, I can’t help but wonder – am I losing my ability to socialize in person?

It may come as a surprise that I am actually a shy person.  Probably rooted in a fear of rejection and judgement, it is not in my nature to ask a gal I’ve just met if she’d like to grab a coffee sometime and hang out and, well, chat. It feels too much like a date, or worse, the desperation of “will you be my friend?”

Yet, so many times I meet someone with new friend potential, and we simply say “oh, I’ll find you on Facebook”…and never get together after that.

What’s the point of so-called Social Networking, then, if we don’t actually socialize with one another?

According to Merriam-Webster, socializing is “to make social”, with social being defined as “marked by or passed in pleasant companionship with one’s friends or associates”.

(Since I personally don’t see that anything online has to do with companionship as a verb, this makes the term “online social networking” something of an oxymoron.)

Now, part of the issue may be that we are quick – perhaps too quick – to share every detail of our lives publicly to our Friends list. Really, if our friends can find out every changing detail of our lives instantaneously, what’s the point in getting together? And, as the end-users of social networking sites, perhaps it’s up to us to use some discretion in what we share. I personally feel that my religious & political views, date of birth, and marital status are not everybody’s business. If someone wants to know that much about me, they can learn through actually getting to know me. And FYI – I don’t accept all friend requests, and when sending friend requests (which I rarely do), I usually include a personal note with it.

To be fair, Facebook *is* useful for a number of things. I certainly like the photo album feature which can be shared with non-Facebook users. I also like the Event application (when it works properly), not so much for the RSVP feature (which may as well not exist given the accuracy of most people’s responses), but because it’s a quick way to spread the word about any given event.

And certainly I enjoy the conversational written banter that often goes on – which of course was the initial point of Facebook and similar tools anyway. Yet, I find myself backing away from Facebook more and more. I’ve found recently that I’m more homesick for the Prairies than normal, due largely in part to a much smaller friends base here in Vancouver. So instead of wasting time “catching up” on Facebook, I’d rather direct my energy into making more personal connections with the friends I do have.

Before I lose my ability to socialize entirely.

Amity M thinks it’s ironic and somewhat hypocritical that she’s posting this on Facebook also, and once it’s posted, she’ll be eagerly awaiting “Likes” and comments.

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Thanks, Dad.

Jun 19th, 2010 by AM

It seems that moms get a lot of attention for being amazing and matronly and teaching us all sorts of neat things about life, and then when Father’s Day comes around all I hear are ads for golf clubs and ties.  My father hates golf and avoids wearing ties like the plague.  He did, however, teach me a few things along the way that not too many fathers will teach their daughters, and that I have found enormously useful over the years.

Thanks, Dad, for teaching me to change a tire when I was 14.

Thanks, Dad, for teaching me how to waltz without stepping on my date’s feet.

Thanks, Dad, for teaching me to take apart computers – both the hardware and the software parts.

Thanks, Dad, for providing me with a computer at an early age.

Thanks, Dad, for listening to The Beatles’ White Album in the truck on our trips out to the cabin.  It remains one of my favourite albums.

Thanks, Dad, for having nerves of steel when teaching me to drive.  (Not too many fathers would have put their daughters on the freeway in a Mercedes when learning to drive.)

Thanks, Dad, for teaching me the basics of a speech long before I joined Toastmasters.

Thanks, Dad, for teaching me to be a businesswoman.

Thanks, Dad, for providing a truck for me to drive for a few years until I had my own car.

Thanks, Dad, for teaching me to use chopsticks.

Thanks, Dad, for being “on call” to fix computer networks and web hosting problems.

Thanks, Dad, for hosting my website.

Thanks, Dad, for teaching me about electronics and ham radio. (See early picture here.)

Thanks, Dad, for not scaring off any of my boyfriends.  (I expect there may have been some where you wanted to.)

Thanks, Dad, for being around and available even though we didn’t live in the same house.

Thanks, Dad, for buying me all those musical instruments so I could go out and make money with them and “keep you in the style in which you would like to become accustomed”.  (Obviously I’m still working on the latter part of that, hi hi.)

and most of all (and as with Mom), thanks for putting up with me.

And as I stated in my post on Mother’s Day, I’m sure I have forgotten many more things, but overall, to my dad and to all the other dads I know out there – THANKS!

Amity M, thinks her dad rocks and, whenever she hears Obladi Oblada or Bungalow Bill, has flashbacks to being 5 years old and riding in her dad’s dark blue suburban in rural Alberta.

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