Job New : Part Time Evening Work

The term “simplicity” gets thrown around a lot these days, much like its sister terms “zen” and “minimal”. While there certainly is a definition to the word, simplicity’s true meaning is derived by only one person.

You.

I may find using an electronic method of productivity management a simple way to keep track of things. You may find using a notebook is what works for you because you’re not all that adept with technology.

I may get up bright and early in the morning because it makes my day simpler; I get my work done first thing and have the rest of the day to do with as I choose. You may be a night owl whose work is done better after 10 pm. It comes easier to you that way. Your work becomes simpler for you when you work in the later hours.

My desk is sparsely covered with only the barest of essentials. Your desktop is equipped with a filing system and every implement that may come into play during your workday. Mine is set up that way because my work flow is simplified with less of what I consider “clutter”. Yours is simplified because everything you need is at your disposal, making your workday flow constantly.

My version of simplicity isn’t your idea of the term, nor is yours representative of the person in the next cubicle over.

Once you figure out what works best for you, you’ll figure out what your version of simplicity is. Once you do that, your version of simplicty will no longer just be subjective.

It will also allow you to better reach your objectives.

(Image courtesy of Pink Sherbet Photography under a Creative Commons 2.0 generic license.)

No Comments yet, be the first!

Add a Comment

Filed Under Job Help
Tags: Job New

The Closer is a television show about a police detective who has an uncanny ability to close cases. The secret to her success is how she leads suspects into confessing in the interrogation room.

You can have the same success. Not at closing police cases but at closing deals. Instead of interrogating murder suspects, you’re going to give killer sales presentations. Luckily you don’t need a gun, just some basic sales presentation techniques.

Preparation

Are you ready for this? The prospects you are meeting want to do business with someone they can count on. You need to be comfortable and confident during your sales presentation. You won’t close the deal if you’re not ready.

Have all of your materials are ready. You should have ample copies of brochures, one-sheets or other handouts.
If you’re going to use a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation from your computer, make sure you know how to start it up without fumbling.
Bring your own projector. This guarantees you have all the equipment you need to show your presentation. Make sure you’re familiar with how it all works.
If you do create a slideshow, rely on images — not words and numbers. Effective sales presentations move and inspire prospects. You can follow up with details.
Research your prospect’s company, industry and market.
Know your product. Your prospects expect you to be an expert on what you’re selling.

Ask questions

More important than having answers is asking the right questions. Even though you’ve done your research, you need to make sure you understand what the prospects want and need. There is nothing wrong with contacting prospects by phone or email before the presentation to understand their needs. They will appreciate that you want to make sure you aren’t wasting their time.

Ask open questions that get them talking about their businesses:

Who are your customers?
Why do they buy from you instead of your competition?

Who are the customers you don’t sell to yet?
What are the challenges you face in this market/industry?

What are your goals?
What do you expect this product to do?
Where do you want help?
Who will use the product?

Practice

This isn’t just about memorizing the words. You also need to respect your prospects’ time and keep your sales presentations on schedule. There are a number of resources out there to help you get more out of your practice time, but here are some quick techniques to try right away:

Record yourself with audio or video. This will give you valuable insight into what needs work.
Rehearse in front of others. Friends or family can give you feedback. Sometimes they will think of questions you haven’t thought of yet.
Prepare sales presentations of different lengths. Be ready to take as much time as the situation calls for.

Refine your material

Some sales presentation techniques that will help you close the deal

Focus on the benefits the prospects will receive by buying your product. An effective sales presentation does not list features that prospects cannot relate to their problems. A closer explains how the product is a solution to those problems.
Use plain English. There’s a good chance that you work in an industry that uses language that your customers don’t recognize. Don’t use that jargon.
Solicit feedback. Ask questions that require simple questions such as “Would this help?” or “Is this a problem in your business?” during the sales presentation. This will engage them and help keep them interested.
Tell a story. Storytelling will keep prospects interested in your sales presentation. Tell them about a client who had similar problems so they can see how your product can help them.

Close the deal

You’re there to make a sale. Don’t expect it to just happen. Ask the prospects if they’re ready to make a purchase. If not, ask when will they be ready to purchase or what it will take to be ready. There’s a good chance that they have sales presentations from other vendors to consider. Find out what is their time frame. Lead them into the next step.

Follow up

The end of your sales presentation isn’t the end of the process. Keep in touch with prospects so they remember what your product will do for them.

And after you close the deal, build a relationship with your customer. Communication will helps smooth over any problems and open up the possibility for more sales.

Now you’re the closer

Thanks to all the attention you pay to your sales presentation skills, you’re converting prospects into clients. This doesn’t mean there will be a television show about your sales. But you will become a star in your company.

(Image courtesy of sleepyneko under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 generic license.)

Filed Under Job Help
Tags: Job New

It’s time for another edition of Awesome Links – where WorkAwesome offers a quick glimpse at some informative and inspiring articles on the web that have caught our attention.

How to Use CheckBoxes to Select Items in Windows 7 Explorer

If you are using Windows 7 then you might want to use the checkbox file selection feature, as mentioned by Guiding Tech. It makes selecting multiple files and folders on your desktop or Windows Explorer a breeze. You don’t have to worry about keeping the control key pressed (and taking your finger off of it by mistake). It will save you a lot of time in the long run.

6 Time Management Tips That Will Get You Promoted

The more productive you are at your job, the better are your chances of delivering — thus increasing your chance of getting a promotion. This article by the Life Optimizer blog gives you some practical tips to make the most out of your time in the office.

How to Winterize Your Body to Stay Fit and Healthy in the Cold Months Ahead

We all live in a part of the world where the temperatures will fall — right now North America would “Fall” into that category – signaling the arrival of the winter season. With the arrival of cold weather also arrives the likelihood of laziness setting in. This guide by Lifehacker offers tips to stay fit, healthy and productive during those colder months.

The Campus Roommate’s Guide to Maintaining Productive Efficiency

A useful guide by our sister site Freelance Switch on how freelancers, who are still in college, can get things done even when they’ve got a roommate and all sorts of other distractions to deal with. I personally found the last suggestion of using noise-canceling headphones a good one.

Focus – a Free Ebook ( and a paid course ) by Leo Babauta

Leo Babauta, popular productivity writer and creator of Zen Habits, has released his new book titled Focus. The free version has all 27 chapters, while the paid version is a digital course that contains how-to videos, audio interviews with experts, bonus chapters and bonus PDF guides. If you’re a fan of Leo’s work and are into the minimalist lifestyle, it’s worth a look.

No Comments yet, be the first!

Add a Comment

Filed Under Job Help
Tags: Job New

This is a tool I’ve been using for a long time and it has helped me tremendously in terms of the time I’ve saved and things I’ve got done.

Called Hyperwords, this is an add-on that adds a bunch of stuff to your right-click menu that helps you do things like check the definition of a word, search Google, check Wikipedia, translate text from one language to another and much more in just a click.

Initially a Firefox extension only, it has since been ported to the Chrome and Safari web browsers as well.

Hyperwords “hypercharges” your browsing speed and power with a variety of options.

If you use any of those browsers, this is a must-have extension. Just imagine the time you’ll save in your everyday browsing once you start using this tool.

Hyperwords (via The Hyperwords Company)

No Comments yet, be the first!

Add a Comment

Filed Under Job Help
Tags: Job New

Some months ago we profiled 28 Creative Powerpoint Presentation Designs here on WorkAwesome and included in the line up were a couple by a very talented young Canadian named Jesse Desjardins. He does some wonderful work and after the post I contacted him to see if we could nab him for some Envato work too!

In the meantime Jesse’s put together a very cool presentation for the World’s Best Presentation contest, titled You Suck at Powerpoint! which in classic Desjardins style is entertaining and informative. View it below and if you enjoy it, give Jesse a vote in the contest on Slideshare.

No Comments yet, be the first!

Add a Comment

Filed Under Job Help
Tags: Job New

Thursday Bram: Hi, this is Thursday Bram from WorkAwesome and I’m here with Glen Stansberry. Glen, can you tell us a little bit about what you do and who you are?

Glen Stansberry: Hey, Thursday. First off, thanks for having me. This is pretty cool. So I am a Web developer/writer – well, that’s good for now, web developer and writer. I live in Lawrence, Kansas and I currently work for a company full time called Media for Media, which develops websites for news organizations and things like that. I’m a designer there.

Thursday Bram: So in addition to that day job, you have a lot of your own projects going, right? Can you tell us a little bit about LifeDev and some of the other projects that you’ve got?

Glen Stansberry: Yeah. So probably my first, the project that’s done the best over the years has probably been LifeDev, LifeDev.net. Basically it’s just a blog where I write about – it’s actually kind of taken a few twists, but it started out as a personal development blog, hence the name. And then over time I kind of got sick of that topic because I felt like it was kind of beating a dead horse. So I kind of shifted a little bit to the whole helping creative people realize, I don’t want to say their dreams, but make their ideas happen, so to speak.

So that site is currently about that now and it’s doing really well. It’s growing like crazy actually, so I’m really happy with that. I currently redesigned it and so that’s helped a lot too. There’s a lot of to be said about design and quality of, perception of quality and all that.

Thursday Bram: With such a change in the direction that you were going on the site, did you have to take any steps to keep readers interested, that they wouldn’t be put off by the shift?

Glen Stansberry: Well, it’s kind of funny you mention that. I probably should have, but I didn’t. So it got to the point where I was just kind of sick of slogging my way through writing. I knew I needed to write on a consistent basis and at the time I was really trying to get on Dig. I was doing a pretty good job of that, I had gotten a few articles up there, but I hated writing for it, it felt like a chore. I stopped writing as much, and then pretty soon it became like a post every month type thing, and I realized that that wasn’t the best use of my time, even at that point.

Unfortunately, I know it sounds selfish, but it really wasn’t a question of what my readership thought, it was more of a question of how do I keep this going? The only way to do that, I thought, was to change topics to something I was really passionate about. Yeah, so I guess it was more of a selfish decision, but – and I understand that people left and stop reading, but they weren’t going to be happy anyway if I stopped writing at all.

Thursday Bram: You manage LifeDev and your other projects in addition to having a full time job. What led you to go looking for a full time job when you were already doing the freelance, the entrepreneurial approach to making a living?

Glen Stansberry: Well, that’s a good question. So when you do – most entrepreneurs have to have multiple streams of income, otherwise, as we know unless you have venture capital or rich grandparents, you can’t just do that full time. So I did a lot of freelance work, freelance writing was good. I did a lot more freelance Web design and freelance development, and the freelance development and design side of things was – I enjoyed doing it, but I hated finding new clients and I hated finding work. It just drained my soul.

So I figured that if I still liked development and design and had passion for it and all my other projects, but I hated the finding the work part, I should probably switch jobs so that I could actually not have to worry about finding work. So today I still do design and development and I’ve improved quite a bit, but I don’t have to look for work. Which, Thursday you’re a freelancer too, so you know that 50 percent of the time is finding work and 50 percent is –

Thursday Bram: Just 50?

Glen Stansberry: Okay yeah, that was conservative. I hated that part of it. So I switched jobs and I love it. It gives me time to – I’m learning a lot, I have smart co-workers, really smart co-workers. I’m the dummy of the group and they help me along, and I’m learning the process. I have time to do side projects as well, so I continue to write and I continue to do work on another Web application. So it kind of fit the needs that I was looking for at this time.

Thursday Bram: How do you balance your time in terms of getting your work done for your job and still doing all of the projects that you’re interested in?

Glen Stansberry: Well, it’s a two-part process. The first part is you ruthlessly cut away any little project or commitment or whatever that you aren’t really excited about to only the bare minimum, and then whatever little time you have leftover, you work on that. So what that means for me is – well, and the other side is that you tend to put in more hours. I know some people don’t like that, but if it’s stuff that you’re really working on and love, I’ll gladly put in a couple hours a day or even a week just to keep stuff going.

So the other thing I do is my wife is a nurse and she has to be at work at 6:45 every morning. I just get up with her and take her to work, and then I work in a coffee shop until my real job starts, and then I go to my real job. Then I’m done at 5:00 or whatever and I can do whatever I want.

So that is how I do that. It’s probably not the best solution. In a perfect world I would just be working on my own Web applications and my own ideas, but for right now it works well for me.

Thursday Bram: Very interesting. But you did say that it means that some of your projects get back burnered a little bit.

Glen Stansberry: Right…or sliced in half.

Thursday Bram: Sure. So that would mean projects probably like Web Warrior Tools?

Glen Stansberry: Yeah. WebWarriorTools.com. My friend Leo Babauta and I started two years ago or three years ago, and we really liked the concept at first. But again it’s one of those projects that was kind of we didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves into, and also a lot of the work was, again, things that I hated. Like finding writers or finding – it was like freelancing for me. I had to find work and I just don’t like that side of things. I like to just do. I don’t like to have to go out and convince people to help me.

So I guess…wow…this has been a great interview. I’m learning so much about myself.

Thursday Bram: Always a good sign.

Glen Stansberry: Yeah. So yeah, the project, I mean it started off really well and we got a lot of good coverage, but it just kind of died over time because neither of us, one, really had a time for it. But two, and probably more importantly, neither of us really had the heart for it. It’s just the way things go sometimes and that’s the thing about life is you’ve got to be ruthless about the things you love and protect those, and everything else kind of just falls away.

Thursday Bram: But you did mention that LifeRemix, one of your other projects, you are still working on and there might be some new stuff coming?

Glen Stansberry: Yeah. I co-founded LifeRemix.net with a friend, Brett Kelly. So it’s done really well over the years. It is essentially a blog network of only – I mean it’s a really small blog network, but it has really incredible writers and we were really lucky to get them on board about three years ago, I think. But yeah, it hasn’t had a design change or functionality, nothing’s been added or taken away from it in about three years, in Web years that’s like three decades.

So it’s time for a new design and we’re working on that and some new functionality. It’s going to be cool.

Thursday Bram: One of the things that really impressed me was the caliber of blogs that you do have in the LifeRemix network. How did you connect with those people? How did you find the right people and convince them to be a part of something that you were building?

Glen Stansberry: Well, honestly I just picked people that – so I went out and emailed, and I think Brett did some too. We just emailed people that we had a lot of respect for and we enjoyed their writing. There was a lot of factors. We really liked what they were writing about and we really respected what they were writing about, but more importantly we could tell the kind of person they were by what they were writing and how they were interacting with people in their comments. We figured that out before we even emailed them, and then once we emailed them, then – I mean we had a really good success rate. It wasn’t because we’re smart guys or we knew what we were doing, we just picked what we thought were good people.

Ultimately, I mean we all started out – a lot of our blogs weren’t that popular. I mean my still isn’t, but definitely the least common denominator of the group. But, for example, Gretchen Rubin, when we got her onboard I don’t think she had that big of a following, and now she’s a number one New York Times bestseller, going crazy. Leo Babauta is another one with Zen Habits. And Chris Guillebeau of Art of Nonconformity; we just got really lucky and we just picked what we thought were good people.

You can kind of see a pattern after a while of who’s going to make it and who’s not, and who’s really passionate about something and who’s not. Yeah, that was the formula.

Thursday Bram: There’s one thing that’s sort of stuck with me about your story. You live in Kansas, which is not necessarily known for being a hot bed of social media.

Glen Stansberry: No. No, not at all.

Thursday Bram: I just was wondering, how has that worked out for you? Are there a lot of benefits to being there? Are there some challenges you’ve had to work around?

Glen Stansberry: To be honest, for what I do, not really. I mean, for example, Leo Babauta, he just moved, but for the past few years he’s been blogging he’s been in Guam, and Guam is probably even less of a hotbed of any type of Internet activity. So I really don’t think location has a lot to do with it. I don’t know, that could just be me. But for me, I haven’t had to struggle with anything.

If I was going to go find another Monday through Friday job, it’s hard because, you’re right, the tech community isn’t as big. But it’s actually not that bad. I mean it’s not like San Francisco or anything, but I haven’t really had any hurdles I guess.

Thursday Bram: Okay. So what do you see in the future? Are you going to stick with your job, do you think? Which projects are you really going to pursue? What’s next?

Glen Stansberry: So yeah, I don’t want to work in a 9:00 to 5:00 job for the rest of my life. Ideally, I would like to just work on my own projects 24/7, all the time. But as of right now, I really like where I’m working and I really enjoy my co-workers, so I’m going to stick with that. But on the side I’m working on a Web application called Howdy and it’s at Howdyapp.com. Essentially what it does is it tailors your Web site for each unique visitor, in theory.

So you could set up rules based on certain factors about that visitor, like where they’re from or where they’re coming from, all these different factors, and tailor your site so that it’s most beneficial to that user, if that makes sense. It’s kind of an abstract concept, but it’s actually working really well and I’m really excited about that. My co-worker and I are working on it in our spare time and it’s coming along really well; I’m really excited about it.

It’s just basically all I’ve learned through blogging and writing and building Web sites. You kind of see patterns of what works and what doesn’t, and how to change your site and things like that. It really, it’s a great little tool so I’m excited to get it out in the public hopefully sometime very soon.

Thursday Bram: Very cool. Okay, so here’s the tough question: if you were talking to somebody or a “group of somebodys” who were thinking about starting their own business or their own venture, what’s the one piece of advice that you absolutely would have to give them?

Glen Stansberry: If you were starting your own venture or company and you didn’t have venture capital and you were self funded, I would say do it as a hobby. Maybe even more than a hobby, do it as something that you – well yeah, a hobby’s good. Do it as something that you would love. Because ultimately that’s what it has to start out as because you’re not going to make any money off of it for a long time, and if you can’t do it as something that you love it’s just not going to work.

Even if it’s just an idea, this is just me, but even if it’s an idea that I know will make money, if I’m not totally in love with the idea then I’m not going to work on it. Because ultimately it’s not going to be a good fit for me. It’s probably not going to make that money because I’m not going to have the passion and the desire to work on it as opposed to an idea that I really feel strongly about and have a lot of fun working on.

So my biggest piece of advice is just start it as a passion. And then after a while, if it really is your passion, then it’ll start to bleed through on how it works, whether you’re writing or whether you’re developing a Web application, and then pretty soon, people like passion, people can sense that. You can’t quantify it, but people know. And then that’s, if you can make money off it and turn it into a career and it’s something that you love, that’s perfect.

(Glen Stansberry can be found at LifeDev.net and on Twitter @GlenStansberry.)

Filed Under Job Help
Tags: Job New

If you are looking to polish your writing skills but don’t want to pay for a professional course then you might want to check out this nice collection of free online writing courses put together by Laura from Freelance Folder. It includes courses from reputed sources like MIT, HP Learning Center and About.com. There are courses on grammar, technical writing, journalism, writing for the web and more.

The article also tells you what to expect from these free courses and how to get the maximum out of them. Certainly an article worth bookmarking.

10 Amazing Free Online Writing Courses

(Image courtesy of dbdbrobot under a Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution generic license.)

No Comments yet, be the first!

Add a Comment

Filed Under Job Help
Tags: Job New

My boyfriend swears by techno when he’s racing to meet a deadline. I crank the show tunes when I need to lose myself in my work. Clearly, everyone has different preferences for listening to music at work.

Fortunately for me, I work from home, so I don’t have to worry about disturbing cubicle mates by singing along to the cast of Glee. Depending on your work environment, you might have to take turns choosing music with several coworkers or discretely plug in headphones when you need a music break.

Here’s a glimpse at my workday playlist:

Devil May Care, Diana Krall – The perfect, carefree song for unwinding after a particularly tough client call or impossible deadline.
Dancing Queen, ABBA – I know it’s cheesy, but when I need a morning or mid-afternoon pick-me-up, these one always does the trick!
Don’t Stop Believin’, cast of Fox’s Glee – Another cheesefest like above, but I love the inspirational energy behind it.
For Now, cast of Avenue Q – A pleasant interlude of comic relief for when I’m checking email or updating spreadsheets.
Fireflies, Owl City – I love the cheerful vibe of this song and find that it’s great for when I need to get into The Zone.
Champion, Queen Latifah – When I need to psych myself up for an important phone call, the kick-butt attitude of this song gives me the confidence boost I need.
Love Song, Sara Bareilles – I know some of you are rolling your eyes at this one, and that’s fine. Sara Bareilles is one of my favorite workday companions, even if it’s via iTunes instead of in person.
The Flesh Failures, cast of Hair – The Actor’s Fund of America Benefit Recording – Singing along to this one always put me in a good mood and helps me refocus for the next task. After all, rocking out at the top of my lungs in the middle of the workday is one of the perks of working from hoe.
There Goes the Fear, Doves – Remember this one from (500) Days of Summer? Awesome soundtrack, and I love the mellow, yet upbeat rhythms of this song in particular.

Do you listen to music at work? What styles or artists work best for you? Does this cause any issues with the people around you or have you found a clever solution to this problem? If you’ve created a workday playlist on Grooveshark, Pandora, Last.fm, or Spotify, then please share it below!

Filed Under Job Help
Tags: Job New

ZURB is one of the workplaces that we recently featured at WorkAwesome, and one of the things that they are known for is their slew of applications designed to help people become more awesome at what they do. Today ZURB has launched a new service named Verify, which allows basically anyone putting together a web product or site – the ability to get user feedback on what they put out on the web.

The web is a platform that allows for quick and easy changes, and what Verify aims to do is offer a toolkit for those who are designing for the web that can gauge resonance and performance. Analytics and SEO are only part of the equation – how a website looks and feels is incredibly important, especially when trying to get visitors to your site in the era of Web 2.0 — and beyond.

Through a series of tests offered to the end-user, Verify compiles the results that the design teams can choose to act upon – whether through immediate changes or just to use as things to keep in mind. The beauty about the service is that it allows for quick and easy testing, with results that can be made actionable right away.

Verify’s pricing structure starts at $9 per month for the basic features of the service to $29 per month for Verify Premium – the latter of which offers reports that take into account demographics and allows for one to link multiple tests together. There is a 30 day trial to whet your appetite – so give Verify a try today and see if it is just the thing that will take your website’s look and feel to the next level.

Watch for an interview with ZURB’s Chief Instigator, Bryan Zmijewski, for more on ZURB and Verify in the coming days.

No Comments yet, be the first!

Add a Comment

Filed Under Job Help
Tags: Job New

I think the most common thing you’ll find in productivity articles is the suggestion that you should time your tasks. Then they go a step further and suggest use a timer.

A timer helps you figure out the exact time you spend on different tasks. Most of the time we are in for a big surprise when we check the results, because we hardly have any idea about the amount of time we spend on doing actual productive work.

Lifehacker offers an article that is essentially a comprehensive guide on making the most out of this simple — yet immensely useful — device. Jason Fitzpatrick digs deep, explaining not only the benefits of using it on a daily basis but how to choose a task timer that works for you.

Use a Timer as a Productivity Booster and Sanity Minder

(Image courtesy of Ellie under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 generic license.)