Why Macs Are The Best Choice, Especially for Business April 13, 2009

In college, we were given IBM ThinkPads. Plagued by the “blue screen of death,” various viruses, and countless episodes of screen freezes and document loss, I knew there had to be another option. After lots of research, I invested in a MacBook Pro, and two years later I now use a MacBook. Now that I run a business from home, I realize fully the versatile and business appropriate nature of my computer choice, and wanted to share my knowledge with you.
1)    Built in video camera, perfect for making on the fly You Tube videos and holding video conference calls: with your iSight camera you can use free downloads like Skype and iChat to talk to clients, partners, or friends on video chat. And, making informative marketing videos is easy, you basically just have to press three buttons and you’re recording. Genius. Plus you don’t have to lug around some webcam attachment when you travel.
2)    Fast operating system: I am writing this on my second Mac laptop, and I can attest to its lightening speed. I can have 6 tabs open on Firefox, a full set of Microsoft office documents, and my iTunes downloading a movie and things don’t freeze up for a second… my IBM Thinkpad could never have handled that. Neither could my parent’s Dell desktop.
3)    No viruses: I’m sure that eventually some hackers will figure out a way to infect Macs with viruses, but right now most all of them focus on PCs and Windows based machines, so enjoy the safety of a Mac!
4)    Airport (the Mac’s wireless internet function): detects and connects to best available wireless internet source as soon as you press power
5)    Ease of use: intuitive systems, plug and play with all portable devices, insanely easy to create videos, photo albums, podcasts, playlists, you name it. Whether you choose to download Apple’s suite of applications called iLife or you opt for Microsoft Office for its spreadsheets and word processing software, if you think it, it’s probably there. Plus it’s just so pretty! No one does design like Apple.

Head over to a Mac Store and test-drive a few out. Although they are pricier than the average laptop, the benefits outweigh the initial start up costs, and your peace of mind with its ease of use will pay you back immediately! (At least that’s how I feel.)

My New Love: Squidoo April 13, 2009

Although it’s been around for years, I only recently discovered Squidoo.

I sometimes like to craft, and my favorite crafty project is making art quilts. But I wasn’t sure what exactly qualified as an art quilt, so, clearly, I did a Google search. The best resource I found was on some website called Squidoo. It had pictures, descriptions, all I was looking for. (check it out) I even favorited it. I couldn’t figure out how the page was made, so over a few weeks I kept going back and looking through Squidoo. I finally sucked it up and made myself an account and started making some lenses (thats what Squidoo calls web pages).

In short, Squidoo is a place where anyone (literally) can go and make a lens (web page) for free about anything they like (or don’t like). Squidoo optimizes key words in the pages so often times, if there is a well made Squidoo lens about something, it shows up on the first page of Google. So for all of you marketers out there, you know what a big deal those organic ratings are! To top it all off, Squidoo utilizes affiliate marketing sites within its user generated pages. They donate 5% of that revenue to charity, use 45% to cover operating costs, and then the other 50% goes to the users. (Seriously!) Some people makes lots of money from Squidoo alone. Of course you can opt to have your portion go to a charity of your choice, which I think is pretty cool. I’m not in it for the $$$, but I’m impressed with the idea behind Squidoo.

I’m sort of obsessed now, and I’ve made 5 lenses so far. Here are the links to my Squidoo lenses. I’ll be making a Lensography for myself soon, and a SquidWho page, and I’ll put those links here.

Glue

TOMS Shoes

Trolli Rocks

Corporate Lessons

Pantyhose Are Bad

Another for today… April 12, 2009

In my voyage attempting to master the internet, Web 2.0, internet marketing, and all that good stuff, I started writing some articles and publishing them around the web. Here’s an excerpt from my article “Are You in the Wrong Job?”

I am a proponent of smart work, not hard work. Work should not be hard… instead it should be efficient, productive, and rewarding. If your job is not providing you those benefits, figure out a way to do something that will. You are your greatest commodity, and we need to stop asking ourselves what we can give to a large company. You need to ask yourself what is that company doing to enrich your life and help you grow as a person and citizen of the world.

want more? click here.

Lessons from the Corporate World: Mentors April 12, 2009

Lesson 5: Mentors

Mentors can provide insight, shortcuts, and moral support to anyone in business. While most large companies have mentoring programs, it can be difficult for someone just starting their own business to find one. By attending networking events, participating in forums and other social media conversations, and asking friends and family for advice, you can create your own “mentor system.” And if you’re already in the know, give back and mentor someone and continue the cycle. It never hurts to have a second pair of eyes and ears in any endeavor.

Lessons from the Corporate World: Project Planning April 12, 2009

Lesson 4: Project Planning

Another lock that corporate America has on entrepreneurs is planning. While it is not necessary (unless you really like doing this sort of thing) to map out every single step in excruciating detail, it is often times a good idea to make a one page, rough outline of what you’d like to do.

For example, you want to launch your own website. So write out a charter. Say what you want to do and why, who it will impact, who your stakeholders are, who your investors are, what the budget it, what resources you will use, and then include a timeline you hope to stick to. Then post it by your desk to remind you every day of your goals and your deadlines. If you have employees, share this with them to gain buy in and support. There is power in actually writing something down… something that makes it real and concrete.

Lessons from the Corporate World: Business Writing April 12, 2009

Lesson 3: Business Writing

There is a distinct lack of writing training available to people outside of universities and large corporations. Being able to effectively write an email, website copy, or a newsletter article can be imperative to your business success. You don’t have to be a stellar writing to write an effective email.

I promise it isn’t hard to master and once you do, people will better understand your message and respond more positively to your requests. Check out these resources to improve your technical skills:
http://www.writingcenter.com/  (The owner taught a class I took while working at Vanguard… she is brilliant)

http://managementhelp.org/commskls/cmm_writ.htm (free resource on the web)

http://www.writerswrite.net/bussrch.cfm?search=bizw (this link goes to a page of resources for various business writing needs)

Lessons from the Corporate World: Pilot Testing April 12, 2009

Lesson 2: Pilot Testing

When working with a small start up here in Philadelphia as a consultant, the president of the company pitched an idea of theirs to me- they wanted to have people attend various networking events for entrepreneurs around the city, tweet about them during the event, and then post a write up and video after.

Great idea, right? Well, sort of. They thought they could someone couple this function with a sales pitch they were pushing with some sort of advertising component and “monthly subscription service.” Sounded convoluted to me. Plus they would have to upgrade all of their equipment and servers to do this (aka, spend lots of $$$), pay people to attend, and all on a limited budget.

So I asked them if they would consider piloting this for a month or two before launching it full force. The guy looked at me like I was crazy, but then began to see the logic… it will not hurt you to test a potentially expensive, damaging, or business altering for a period of time, measure the results, and then make changes before you proceed.

Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn from the Corporate World April 12, 2009

When working with startups in college and in Philadelphia, I find that several elements that are an everyday part of corporate decision making are lacking in the mind of the entrepreneur. Call it unfettered optimism, naivety, or just lack of access to this type of information, but sometimes our fast paced entrepreneurial brains skip over certain processes that just might help us. And, surprisingly, certain things ARE done better in the corporate world.

Lesson 1: Risk Mitigation: a very important, and often overlooked element to any successful business is evaluating and planning for risk.

In our zealous drives for entrepreneurial success, sometimes we like to see any potential challenge as a low hurdle that our unique attitude, skill set, or pure will can jump over with ease.

But it is neither prudent nor smart in the long run to approach the business process in that way. Large companies engrain the risk mitigation process into new hires brains. As part of any project-planning endeavor, project leaders will come up with a list of all potential challenges, problems, or roadblocks. Then they will come up with two or three “contingency plans” to address those issues, and how the business will react to them.

Planning in this way will eliminate some of the surprise element that can occur, allowing you to quickly resolve issues you foresaw and allow you more energy to focus on your revenue creating activities. Try it out!

About panty hose… April 10, 2009

Top Five Reasons Women Should Not Be Required to Wear Panty Hose
1)    It’s antiquated
2)    Not required at the White House
3)    Not comfortable… bunchy and awkward and difficult to find in the right color for your skin type
4)    Men don’t have to wear them (sock and panty hose are not equal!)
5)    Ok in winter, but in summer… ridiculous.

In my last job, panty hose were a requirement. Even in summer. Even if you have on pants (you’re supposed to wear knee highs… no skin!!!). I never got over it. During a meeting with 5 senior level managers on professional presence, I asked some of the women what they thought of the panty hose requirement. They laughed, agreed, then said nothing was to be done. I mean really? It’s 2009 (well 2008 then…). If 12 men in a 12,000 strong company control everything, including panty hose…

Let’s just say I’m glad I got out when I did. Only problem is, now I have boatloads of pantyhose and nowhere to take them! Ha.

A New Series April 10, 2009

I’m going to be posting the top 5 lessons entrepreneurs should learn from the corporate world, based on my experience at Vanguard and my myraid forays into entrepreneurship…. so get excited!