5 Ways to Spruce Up Your Resume Right Now

5 Ways to Spruce Up Your Resume Right Now Are you currently searching for employment, or want a new job? Don’t wait for the new year  to come. You need to start your search now. Begin by sprucing up your resume and giving it a revamp. There are many resume samples and resume templates you can find on the Internet to give yourself some inspiration and a leg up. However, you can also easily do it yourself by following these 5 steps. 1) Delete meaningless and silly words: Problem: Your resume is filled with words like “passionate,” “driven,” “results-oriented,” “team-player,” etc: It’s tempting to fill up your resume with “confidence inspiring” words, but doing so will only hurt your resume. Even if you have a significant amount of relevant experience, populating your resume with words like “passionate, “driven,” or “results-oriented” will only serve to dilute and pollute it. Why? Those words don’t mean anything without context. Generally speaking, people are using these words to put lipstick on a pig. Your resume should be direct and to the point. As with all good writing, it’s important to “show, not tell.” If your resume is simply “telling” the hiring manager that you’re passionate, driven, and results-oriented, that literally means nothing to them. Solution: Delete these words wherever you see them, and replace them with actual job duties and accomplishments: Suggestion 1: Instead of telling the hiring manager that you’re “passionate,” give them an example of a project that you spearheaded to increase company profits that kind of information relays your passion much more clearly. Suggestion 2: Instead of telling the hiring manager that you’re “driven,” give an example of how you went above and beyond the call of duty complete a project or support another teammate. 2) Quantify your resume: Problem: Your resume has no numbers specifying your achievements and the scope of your responsibilities: If you haven’t used numbers to describe your work experiences, you’re still doing too much “telling” and not enough “showing.” Without numbers to help define the scope of your abilities and accomplishments, your resume will be vague, unclear, and boring. Even information like the size of the establishment you worked in can provide the hiring manager with valuable insight into your previous work experience, and give your resume a little more character. Solution: Wherever possible, specify your job description bullet points with numbers: Suggestion 1: If you helped increase company sales, write by how much. Suggestion 2: If you managed employees or trained new employees, write down how many. Suggestion 3: If you saved the company money, write down how you did it, and how much you saved. Suggestion 4: Did you manage a budget? Write down how big it was. 3) Remove unrelated and old experience: Problem(s): It’s nearly 2015 â€" your experience from over a decade ago may not be relevant, even if it’s in the same industry. Meanwhile, if you’re applying for a job that has no relation to your previous work experience, you’ve probably included totally irrelevant information. Hiring managers are looking for relevant resumes â€" period. As a rule of thumb, your resume should only be 1-2 pages long. If you’re including experience that is over a decade old, it’s likely that your resume is either really long, or you’ve been out of work and need some information to pad your resume with. If you’re trying to switch careers, writing a resume can be tricky. Many of the skills and abilities you have won’t be relevant for a different career track, and including unrelated job responsibilities will weaken your resume. You will need to get creative and find places where your knowledge, skills, and abilities overlap in a new career. Solution: Delete experiences older than a decade. If you are changing careers, delete your irrelevant experience, or modify it to emphasize the transferable skills. Suggestion 1: If you’ve been out of work, use a combination style resume to conceal your work experience gaps while relaying your relevant experience. Suggestion 2: Read the hiring manager’s job description carefully, and consider whether you current skill knowledge and skill set overlaps with their requirements. Present the best spin possible on your resume â€" even if you don’t have the skills yet, you may be easily trainable because you have foundational skills (such as software skills, customer service skills, management skills, etc.) 4) Make a new version of your resume for each job: Problem: You wrapped up writing your resume and think you’re finished. Actually, you’ve still got work to do. Your resume needs to be ultra-specific, and ultra-targeted. If the key to buying property is “location, location, location,” then the key to getting an interview is “relevance, relevance, relevance.” Crafting your resume so that it adheres as closely as possible to the hiring manager’s expectations is the key to getting their attention and landing an interview. Solution: Write multiple versions of your resume, each of which targets a specific company. Suggestion 1: Find the hiring manager’s job description, and sprinkle their keywords and phrasing into your resume. NOTE: This does not mean plagiarizing or copying what they’ve written â€" simply strategically employing important keywords to capture their attention. Suggestion 2: Draft your resume so that the skills and abilities they are calling for are towards the top of your resume, where they’ll instantly be seen. 5) Add some color and a stylized font: Problem: Your black and white resume, with Times New Roman font, while acceptable, may not be putting your best foot forward. It’s not a problem per-se, but a black and white resume with standard font doesn’t really have a lot of “oomph.” You could increase your chances of getting noticed by styling up your resume a little bit. But don’t go overboard! Solution: Using a different font and adding a splash of color to your black and white resume can be a good way of making it “pop” out from your competition. Suggestion 1: Use a binary color scheme â€" black and another color is good enough. Use the color on your headings and keep your bullet points black. Suggestion 2: Keep it classy. Red, blue, and orange with comic sans won’t get you a job, unless you’re applying for a position at a clown college. If you follow these suggestions, your resume will be ready for 2015. Dont hesitate to apply now get in before everyone else makes their new years resolutions! Author: Mark Slack is a resume expert and career adviser consulting for the smartest resume template creator, resumegenius.com. He is an avid hiker and biker, and is fluent in Mandarin. You can follow him at @MarkWSlack.

Walmart to Reinvest Tax Savings into Higher Wages and Lower Prices for Consumers

Walmart to Reinvest Tax Savings into Higher Wages and Lower Prices for Consumers Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'PPtYQKSuSJFQu2kTvKDKHw',sig:'rEZvy3RbZyHnhSPyUcRWAuctmPrYJWV4_-rmTtw-KcA=',w:'359px',h:'479px',items:'82663365',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })}); Authors Note:  Right after I scheduled this post, Wal-Mart announced the closing of 63 of its Sams Clubs, which was bad news and bad timing. Some of the locations will be converted to distribution centers, but thousands of workers will lose their jobs or be offered jobs at other Wal-Mart-owned sites.   (Wal-Mart has a long history of making sure workers move into other opportunities.)  Although its perfectly logical to close underperforming stores or change business strategy, it was a puzzling PR decision to have both actions hit the national media on the same day. I decided to leave this post intact because I believe that the raising of the starting wage is a positive trend and hope the investment in retail workers is picked up by other national chains.   Tax Reform legislation in December reduced the effective corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%, a move that was often derided as tax relief only for the wealthiest. Many commentators   ridiculed the return of   Reagan-era trickle-down   and supply-side economic theories, which    advocate reducing taxes on businesses and the wealthy as a means to stimulate business investment in the short term and benefit society at large in the long term. No less than Pope Francis weighed in on the evils of the theory in 2013: Some people continue to defend the trickle-down theory. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power. Ann Lowery, writing for the Atlantic in December, wrote that one of the 7 Myths of the Tax Reform Legislation (number 3, in fact), was that Cutting the corporate tax rate will lead businesses to give raises to regular workers. She writes: Plus, of the money going to workers, much of it would flow to managers and executives, not minimum-wage or average employees. On Thursday, January 11, Wal-Mart, number one on Forbes Fortune 500 with revenues of $485.9 billion, announced that it  would raise starting pay to $11 per hour for all its U.S. employees and hand out one-time bonuses. (The current starting wage is $10 an hour.) The retailer employs 1.5 million workers in the U.S.; the raises take effect in February. Wal-Mart joins a list of over 100 companies that gave bonuses or raises to workers after the legislation was signed on December 20. According to the Washington Examiner, The number of companies offering employee bonuses, pay hikes, and increases in benefits in reaction to President Trump’s December tax reform victory is now over 100, with thousands of workers impacted and charities too.    Less than a day after Americans for Tax Reform put out an  initial list of 40,  it jumped to 52  as more company plans poured in. From The Wall Street Journal: Wal-Mart  Stores Inc. said it would raise starting pay to $11 per hour for all its U.S. employees and hand out one-time bonuses as competition for low-wage workers intensifies and new tax legislation will add billions to the retailer’s profits. The giant retailer is the largest private employer in the world with 2.3 million employees, including around 1.5 million in the U.S. Its current starting salary in the U.S. is $10 an hour after workers take a training course. The new wage increase will take effect in February. This is the third U.S.-wide minimum wage increase at the company since 2015 as it works to improve its 4,700 U.S. stores while investing heavily to compete with Amazon.com Inc. online. The company said the salary change would add $300 million to its annual expenses and it expects to take a $400 million charge in the current quarter for the one-time bonus. The amount of the bonus will vary based on length of service, reaching up to $1,000 for an individual with 20 years of service. The retailer, which had nearly $500 billion in global revenue last year, is expected to get billions in savings from  the tax overhaul, which lowers the U.S. corporate rate to 21% from 35%. Retailers have had one of the highest average effective tax rates because much of their operations are U.S.-based. Also, their industry has done little manufacturing or research and development so they don’t benefit from deductions on those activities. “We are early in the stages of assessing the opportunities tax reform creates for us to invest in our customers and associates and to further strengthen our business,” said Wal-Mart Chief Executive Doug McMillon in a release. With the additional expected profit, Wal-Mart is considering investments in “lower prices for customers, better wages and training for associates and investments in the future of our company, including in technology,” he said. Good news for retail workers, with, I hope, more to come as companies complete their assessments and make financial forecasts based on the new tax rates. Authors Note:  Right after I scheduled this post, Wal-Mart announced the closing of 63 of its Sams Stores, which was bad news and bad timing. Some of the locations will be converted to distribution centers, but thousands of workers will lose their jobs or be offered jobs at other Wal-Mart-owned sites.

Avoid These 3 Killer Blogging Mistakes - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Avoid These 3 Killer Blogging Mistakes - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Mistakes even the smartest people make when they blog or produce email blasts are related to how they think about content. “Every post must be the same or similar length â€" because my audience expects consistency” “Every post must deliver my own original material” “I must post on a regular, predictable schedule” I publish and publicize up-and-coming experts and business authors who produce blog posts and email newsletters. Plus, everyday they show up on social media with a pretty huge number of tweets, status updates and other posts. Plus, most of them work in consulting and coaching or are keeping a “day job” until their writing or speaking revenue streams become too large to manage part-time. I assure them that with some planning and practice, content production can take about 15 minutes each day. I know their pain and fear about producing all that content. I am an author, too. I wrote Speak Up! Succeed: How to get everything you want in meetings, presentations and conversations. Despite my greatest fears about getting my material out in the world, the results shouldn’t have been such a surprise. It’s the best thing I did in my career. In getting out my book â€" and bestsellers I produced for my clients, I pretty much use everything I knew about selling real products. I am a former marketing executive at The Coca-Cola Company and director of marketing in the Fortune 500 technology sector. I sold syrup and micrographic retrieval systems â€" selling content is surprisingly the exact same thing. The path to success begins by attracting an audience and creating a relationship with high value people (people who have a problem you solve and a nice-sized budget to remedy it). Whether you want to write a book, offer consulting services or do group coaching, or get asked to speak at associations meetings and conferences (or all of the above): your success is completely dependent on your delivering useful, entertaining and compelling content to people who can use it. You will totally enjoy being a content machine if you think Willy Wonka, not “Chainsaw” Al Dunlap. How to easily and constantly produce great content This is the right mindset: you are developing a relationship with your audience. Like a friendship, this will take time to grow. And, you can’t make friends if you do all the talking â€" or if every time to talk you harp on the same thing, in the same way! Variety and satisfaction are the keys to your success â€" and not coincidentally, it’s those two factors that are the keys to happiness, according the latest literature on positive psychology. Variety Vary the size of your posts. A few sentences and a photo on your blog will delight people with a highly visual, bite-sized treat. Two posts in a day or a long piece you write on a rainy Sunday will mix things up. Yes: you can choose which days your audience will receive posts (if it’s once a week, then it’s once a week). Yes, you can take a theme like romance on Valentine’s Day and somehow apply to a serious topic like IT services. Do a QA once in a while. Get a guest blogger pick up the phone, sending an email or direct message someone in the business you want to meet! Maybe a potential client, association executive director or another thought leader? Create some categories: like “Leadership Commandments” or “Leadership Quotations” (or whatever your topic lends itself to). Then, stock up on those when you’re browsing the web, so you can simply put a category title and 3-5 bullet points in a post when you want to write something super fast and easy. Satisfaction Focus on what your audience wants â€" or wants to avoid. Seek to serve their needs with your own work and others’. Give examples of how someone is doing exactly what you believe. Tell stories about something you observed. Develop simple formulas they can follow. Then ask them to tell you how those worked out â€" and share their experiences. Bring to light other thought leaders’ work â€" give them credit and ask for permission to re-post some of their material. Put in links to news stories, features, YouTube videos and the like. This is the right mindset: neither you nor any other individual can produce enough content to satisfy one person even on one subject, much less an entire audience’s set of needs. You have some portion of 7 billion people to attract and engage AND leverage for their contributions. As the author Michael Luckman says, when you overpower the fear that you are alone in your quest, you are filled with the capacity to attract what you want. With a collaborative approach to producing a cornucopia of content, you manifest a tribe of followers, contributors and customers who are delighted to buy what you most want to deliver. Author: Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name: nancerosen

How to Deal with a Horrible and Manipulative Co-Worker

How to Deal with a Horrible and Manipulative Co-Worker Don’t worry! We all know what it’s like. Those horrible, sneaky, sleazy, dishonest, backbiting, manipulative, and awfully impossible-to-work-with co-workers are everywhere. It’s just like high school again, where you simply can’t rid of that annoying bully who’s ready to make a rude comment or two about the way you look, talk, eat, dress, or whatever. The horrible co-worker is that same bully â€" who has grown up, but still has a lot of growing up to do. Letting yourself be “victim” to this bully is the wrong move. Just like high-school, you’ve got to deal with this annoying brat of an employee and show her she can’t bring you down. You’re not in school anymore, you’re in a workplace, and you want to stay because your career depends on it! Here are ways you can tackle this bully of a co-worker: 1) Scratch the Cat Back: Instead of letting your emotions peak and looking like the kooky yourself, you’d want to think of ways you can deal with the work bully yourself. A mean co-worker can be “handled with care” by being tactful in the way you respond to her inappropriate behavior. If you want to get even with this bully, and do it their way. Plan up clever vengeful tricks that would throw the cat where she belongs. Some bullies truly deserve to be known and exposed in a way that affects their career. This shouldn’t make you feel bad because you’re actually doing the workplace a favor by exposing this bully. 2) Control the Monster with Kindness: Just like Lilo does with Stitch, you could tackle this monster with kindness (if they deserve it). Their frustrations and hostile nature could be a result of the ignorance and hostility of other people they know in their lives. Maybe this little beast needs a hug to cure his pain. Maybe she just needs a gesture of kindness in response to their cruel remarks to prove to them that people really aren’t that bad. The compassion will give you a sense of calmness and ease even when the beast is not acting up to his best behavior. You know you are better than them and they can’t affect your “peace” one bit. 3) Try to Put Yourself in Their Shoes: Get to know them. Find out why they are the way they are. Maybe they think of the rudeness as a way to “manipulate” people and they don’t know the negative effects of the behavior. In that case, you could let this beast know that this won’t work and suggest different ways this can be achieved that doesn’t involve hurting other people (befriending them, give and take relationship, etc.). 4) Withdraw from Negative Situations: The bully is clearly a person with negative karma. His words hurt you or other people around. Sometimes, the negativity in such people is best dealt with by distancing yourself from them or the situation. Negativity breeds negativity and it is best to keep yourself far away from negative situations and negative thoughts for this reason. The bully’s negative thoughts would transfer to you, and your own negative thinking would impact your life in a, you know negative way. 5) See the Good in them: This is probably the least preferred tip, but it could be the most effective. A co-worker could be mean and manipulative just like a mean boss, but he could also be very good at what he does. This could be why they’re in the game in the first place. Do not criticize the person or deal with them in an unprofessional manner. For example, telling them to “man up” or “go to hell” may give you great feeling, but it’s just the wrong approach. Find the good in them (their work, their ability to multitask, diligence, long list of references, or achievements) and focus on those qualities. Maybe, they could teach you something you didn’t know. In Conclusion: If you feel that the damage this co-worker does is not only affecting you, but also the people around and the entire workplace negatively, then you might need to do more than just amend your own attitude. Remember, you don’t want to stoop to their level get emotional or talk rudely. First, confront this bully yourself. If all else fails, talk to a person with authority or list a formal complaint if the case is severe. If the workplace is dominated by such people, maybe you’d want to fish for another place and position in the job market (another workplace). About the Author: James Thompson is an experienced writer having a diversified expertise in education, career and technology based writing. He provides consulting for the Professional Essay Writing Servicegives students dedicated essay help in a rapid and reliable way.

10 Tips for Freelancers To Earn More In 2020 CareerMetis.com

10 Tips for Freelancers To Earn More In 2020 The millennials and Gen Z population are drooling over freelance jobs while moonlighting is now much more visible than the past.Almost half of them are already freelancingand if you are one of those full-time freelancing professionals, this article will make you fall heads over heels for providing you with ten top-notch, solid and time-tested tips for bagging bigger paychecks to flaunt your bank account.evalOf course, it will also help the newbies in making their side hustles turn into budding enterprises.If you are wondering what a freelance job is anywhere simpler than a typical nine to five work profile in a corporate, just hold on to seer through the article as it discusses the pros and the plight of being one. Its no walk in the park as it involves much more than the skill you are trying to sell in a market flooded with all sorts of bidders.However, we will also learn some dependable tactics to attract genuine clients for your next gig and convert little efforts into big earning s systematically.So buckle up for your golden run in the lavish freelance economy.Quick Market Statseval45% of freelancers admit to being financially more secure and 41% are considering to continue doing it forever â€" Read the requirements thoroughly, note the red flags, and never bypass even the minutest of guidelines since they may hurt your clients due to past experience. Ignoring them will make your money vanish in the thin air.2) Focus on Your Personal Branding and Spend Time in Curating ItFalling prey to hyper-saturated marketplaces is very common since everyone is open to earning a few bucks and disturb the market prices.Interestingly, saving yourself could be easy if you have an insight into the right mindset of working with these platforms and the technicalities involved. Make sure that your profile is completely filled.While this sounds too easy to be done, it is one of the areas where you leave the ‘rookie’ competition behind as they are less likely to enter all the information required. An SEO optimized profile will do wonders along with an ATS friendly resume. Most people don’t know a thing or two about SEO and you’re automatically ahead of them.evalPersonal branding has become evidently more vital than ever before. Most of the people will google the products/services before making their minds whilst the average session lasting no more than one minute.In essence, this situation poses a strong need to have your own decent website where you can showcase your portfolio, demonstrate the clientele, and display the potential niches you want to target apart from your existing work.Creating a persona with dependable traits is an important part of being a gig worker. I have seen tonnes of people uploading profile pictures that scream ‘unprofessional’ or lacking the ‘brand’ element. Creating a personal brand minus these turn downs will ensure you a commanding position beyond the rat race.Pull Marketingis a breath of fresh air and go for it if you want to go big. Be active on platforms like LinkedIn and engage constructively with the audience there. Also, look out for the forums and write free guest posts on reputed websites.Volunteering will also add value to your credibility as a bankable resource. Get people talking about you and hiring managers will come to you and it will save you from negotiation dogfights and cold calling.Devising a brand will negotiate on your behalf and set the records straight for the clients in terms of expecting the quality of your work. Hence, you can narrow down the interactions without missing out the attractive deals.3)Become a Part of an Active Network of the Freelancing CommunityWell, earning more requires to be in touch with the market. Hustling continuously doesn’t equal to slogging on particular clients or type of projects because stagnancy turns lethal in the longer horizon.There will exist projects which you have never done before, clients you have never dealt before, taxation norms you just don’t get straight with. Even small details could surface to be major setbacks on odd days.evalBeing an active member of the community will provide you with the much-required ‘cushioning’ in times of such problems and save your back.For a pro, it is essential to be acknowledged by existing clients. Take constant reviews in all your projects and don’t hesitate to ask for referrals. This goes the extra mile in building trust. Add as many testimonials from within the community as you can for the ready reference of the prospects.One thing that must be a complete no is losing the sense of exclusivity. Be unique in terms of defining yourself as those shoes are crafted only for you. In order to be trusted upon, ensure you create a respectable presence on community engagements including Facebook pages.Giving something back, appreciating the work of your fellow acquaintances, and mentoring each other along with networking helps build a healthy relationship in the freel ancing community and staying active will help sort out problems with lesser complications to soak in your payments.4) Have Smart Pitching TacticsNever forget the primary reason behind hiring managers looking up to you- saving time. From their viewpoint, the work needs to be done quickly and the time spent on each hiring is expected to be shortened to the optimal levels.evalSource â€" Unsplash.comStay on the same page when considering the idea of pitching the services. Write only the relevant and necessary information as the other person is less likely to entertain a bid with lengthy descriptions. Keeping things simple and easily manageable are extremely vital to produce higher conversion ratios.Speed is going to play a game-changer and you will have to rev up to fetch the best jobs out. The marketplaces are booming with a large number of people offering work and their varying degree of willingness to pay will make things clumsy. You should increase the pace at which you filter jobs, make bids, and shuffle through the correspondences quickly.5) Refine Your Logistics Before Accepting WorkFull time freelancing is much more than the specialized niche you are good at. As I said earlier, earning more requires you to approach the situations in a systematic manner that is predictable to both you and your clients.Why I emphasize on these aspects is the widespread problem of crunch timeupon projects. Most ventures in this field do not succumb to starvation in the case of full-time professionals, they die of poorly managed over-expansion. Loosely coupled logistics are responsible for hunting down many folks right in their heyday.Keep an eye on the working patterns and define the amount of time you are going to spend on each stage of the process. Keep a log of each assignment and don’t forget to sign legally backed contracts, which we will discuss separately in the later portions.Being effective is more important than being good because you have limited time for working and mismanaging time will end up in a premature doom of your gig career.A clear vision of what, when, where, why, who, and how will mend stable income streams and envision the sense of sustainability in your earning patterns.6) Make a Pricing Plan to Bring in Gauged ClienteleWell, pricing confuses most of us at times. Imagine that you are working for a long time now and you have old regular clients who still pay you the older, amateur rates. Even if that is a couple of hundred bucks less every week, that will add up to be a large dent of over 10k at the year-end.Moreover, you will have to track your financial liabilities distributed over the course of time, the number of hours you can work on a regular basis, and the efforts required to get things done. Sound market research will help in refining prices from time to time but having a personalized touch is essential.A smart way to insure yourself is to create detailed breakdowns for your work that reflect the technicalities. For ins tance, if you are a content writer, the pricing plan shall include market research, keyword analysis, targeted website analysis, content structure, supporting literature, images, and other non-textual content, along with word count. Also, have separate pricing for different types of word counts. Such bills leverage your field-expertise to create trust.However, I strongly recommend avoiding the hourly billing. Doing so will shift the control towards clients in terms of project management and squeeze your productive time with the same expected results.Project-based pricing is always more fruitful but one of the areas where hourly rates help is post-completion. When you are approached by an old client for minor revisions, this method makes sense to both of you. Also, you can earn some extra money out of it without spending more time.Revise your rates from time to time and make sure that you steadily increase the pricing in small steps. Abrupt changes will catch the unwanted attention o f all clients as people don’t expect a 50% hike suddenly appearing out of nowhere.The pricing plans with both brief and detailed offerings will act as a filter to distinguish genuine parties. Wasting your time in irrelevant negotiations is the last thing you would like to do as they keep you away from ‘paying clients.’7) Keep Your Taxation Game Clear as Well as Financial Goals While InvoicingHave an accounting software and register yourself as an LLC (Limited Liability Company) if you want to keep your money safe. Paypal also provides free invoicing service.Firstly, accounting software will help in managing your finances and streamline the invoicing process. Taxes are often skipped by a majority of people as the payroll softwaretakes care of it in the case of full-time jobs and they end up facing troubles at the year-end.Accounting software will take care of the taxation and ensure that you are left with a clear understanding of your on-hand income. On the contrary, these net figures also help in budgeting and pricing apart from personal finance.LLCs are extremely helpful as you can get eligible for some tax rebates for the office/utilities in your house office and equipment. But, the principal reason is to safeguard your personal assets in case you get sued upon.While I do know that getting sued is super rare, but having an LLC will protect you by limiting your liability from the legal entity of your business.8) Maintain a Professional DemeanorWhat value would the client look forward to if they hire your services? Well, the answer to this question that shapes your rapport.Setting your prioritiesis the key to projecting a professional demeanor.Notably, you are the boss and the front-line sales executive along with the back office! Getting things messed up is more common on a large scale which eventually hurt client sentiments.Start right from the initial phases of pitching in order to attract attention. Being aware of the job is extremely important and e ven if you are not, make sure to clear the fog before concluding a bid.SLAs (Service Level Agreements) are a good way of managing all constraints on a mutually agreeable basis including the overall budget, expected work in breakdowns, and delivery deadlines.Putting things in black and white will require you to mention these things without fail:Name of the stakeholder parties.The location at which the agreement is subject to the jurisdiction.Title of the project.Delivery milestones.Payment clauses including mode, frequency, amount, and nature of the payment.Special cases and kill fees.Authorized signatures of the concerned parties.Being supportive is another dimension of professionalism thatrequires proper communication, availability and a bit of flexibility.Don’t forget to use office tools that can facilitate correspondence such as Google Apps, Skype, Mail Chimp, Team Viewer, and Git Hub. They add much value to your professional credibility.9) Stay Technically Sound in Project Man agementAs a full-time freelancer, you are much likely to experience surges in demand and dry spells over and again. Without proper project management, you could end up on a candlelight dinner date with a forgotten deadline to take care of.Using project management tools and pinning important events will help you manage both the workload and spare personal time.Marketing activities often take a back seat in work flooded situations, so don’t forget to promote your personal brand and networking.10) Keep Old Clients in Touch and Play the ConsultantHaving old clients is no lesser than a boon. Once you have dealt with them, their expectations and working processes are familiar to you. This cuts down your research time and improves your chances to hit on all the right areas without fail. Recurring revenues and referral business are two major perks of being in the good books of people.To stand out from the crowd, take charge of situations. Understand the course of action and profess change s whenever required. People buy solutions, and if you can’t help them, please don’t confuse them either. Focus on maintaining a healthy mix of existing and new clients to diversify your portfolio.Value your time just as theirs and share insights into the subjects in order to testify your work. Maintain a record of generic issues and their solutions for your clients which they can use in the future. These little tricks will surely pay many folds and nurture loyalty.Using Mail Chimp to send the weekly newsletter is very useful for this purpose while having occasional informal meetups will go the extra mile in establishing long term relationships.Summing Up:As more and more professionals will turn towards moonlighting, the number of full-time freelancers will increase. We are in the final month of 2019 and the year 2020 will offer bigger opportunities for all full-time freelancers.All of us have limited resources and time. The only way to beat the competition in the freelancing lan dscape and earn big bucks is to outperform your competition strategically. Don’t fancy your efforts in over executing everything, as even staying one lap ahead is always safer than burning out.If you play your cards well with these ten tips, handsome earnings are on the way! They will build newer dimensions of working independently, opportunities to grow yourself as an established subject matter expert instead of a mere freelancer while working for yourself.

Crave a Life on the Road How to Make Your Dream a Reality - Sterling Career Concepts

Crave a Life on the Road How to Make Your Dream a Reality Crave a Life on the Road? How to Make Your Dream a Reality Youve heard the stories and the long descriptions of bloggers, contract workers and life-long volunteers who are constantly traveling, but what are the logistics and realities of a life of travel and financial independence from The Man? There may be more options than you originally thought. Heres a look at how professional travelers fund their exotic lifestyles and how you can follow in the footsteps of these modern nomads. Find Income Sources Youve probably heard about the travel blogger who funds all of her travel with pictures, videos and blog posts. Unfortunately, this is the exception, not the rule. But that doesnt mean there arent other ways you can make a respectable income while you explore the world. If youre serious about ditching the office for good, make a list of viable sources of income  that can support you no matter where you are. Make sure your list takes into account your work experience and education. Many individuals work as interpreters, freelance writers, web design contractors and English as a second language teachers. Moreover, there are companies that support a nomadic lifestyle. For instance, Amway provides contractual jobs in over 100 countries. You most likely will need multiple streams of income, so take advantage of several sources to make a living. Once you have a solid idea of the jobs available to you while on the road, organize your affairs at home and work for the big leap. If you really want a life of constant travel, you must commit to it and do anything it takes to achieve it. Save Up When you first take the plunge in these uncharted waters, you may need a safety blanket, also known as a healthy sum of money in your bank account in case of an emergency. Chances are you wont make enough money to support yourself without some money saved that first year. This is a common hurdle for new nomads. This lifestyle is a skill and nobody is perfect at it right off the bat, so make sure you have backup income or saved money before you rely completely on your mobile income. Pick Your Region Some regions work better for your nomadic lifestyle because they are cheaper. Costa Rica, for instance, requires a minimal income compared to countries in Europe. Many modern nomads live in less expensive regions like Southeast Asia and South America to be able to maintain their lifestyle. These regions can provide you with the lifestyle and standard of living you want for minimal expenses. Spend Less When you live on the road, you may find that you can spend less and receive more. You most likely will pay far more for an apartment, car insurance and maintenance, taxes and other miscellaneous costs in the United States than you will while traveling. Youll likely forgo a car your nomadic lifestyle doesnt promote ownership of large items, your wardrobe will be slashed at least in half and your rent each month will be a small fraction of what it was. These are all the benefits of being a modern nomad.

3 Ways to Promote Yourself to Achieve Your Professional Goals - Hallie Crawford

3 Ways to Promote Yourself to Achieve Your Professional Goals Whether you are looking for a new job or you are working towards a promotion, it’s important to know how to promote yourself. After all, you have to be able to show why you deserve the position over all the other candidates. Promoting or selling yourself is also important if you want to expand your professional network. However, many hesitate to promote themselves because they confuse it with bragging. If you fall into this category, you need to know that understanding what you do well and expressing it clearly at the right time is different than aimless bragging. It’s a critical part of achieving your career goals, as part of your strategic career plan. Here are three ways to promote yourself, correctly and effectively. Articulate your strengths. It is important to know why you are good at your job. Every professional should be able to quickly list three to five strengths that they use and excel in using at their job regularly. If you are unable to do so, it will be difficult for you to promote yourself. This is especially important in an interview since you have to explain why you deserve the job or the promotion. To prepare for this, take some time to list your strengths. Of these strengths, pick three to talk about, making sure that they are strengths that would be needed for the new position that you want. Limit your explanation of each strength to a sentence or two, keeping it brief and to the point. Don’t take a long time explaining the details of the situation you’re describing, get right to talking about your strengths. Only elaborate on your explanation if asked to do so. If you are at a networking event, prepare a brief elevator pitch to show why you are someone worth knowing. Tell stories. When used at the appropriate times, stories and examples are great ways to promote yourself. Pay careful attention to your tone and language and keep it brief. At a networking event, a well-told story can be a great way to impress a new potential client or connection. To do this, it will require some preparation and practice. Keep an ongoing list of situations at work where you are able to show them how to leverage your strengths with measurable results. It’s also necessary to explain why this makes you a valuable connection or business partner, don’t assume they will be able to put it together. Finally, rehearse. Keep the story short and sweet, this way it will be more memorable. If your story drags on, you and the person you are speaking with will forget the point of the story. Be like a politicianâ€"have your message prepared. Keep it short and sweet and to the point. Actively participate on LinkedIn. This is an important part of promoting yourself, because this is where people will go to learn more about you. If you haven’t updated your profile since LinkedIn was first created, then your business contacts may be leery of your professionalism. Keep your account updated and accept invitations to connect. Try joining a group, writing articles, or creating a blog. Make sure that the information you are going to share is timely and helpful, and don’t be surprised when other people start promoting you.