Startuply
Current conventional wisdom says that a recession is a good time to start a business. So, maybe it follows that a recession is a good time to go work for a startup? Have a look at Startuply (which is, of course, in beta), a listing of startup companies and job openings at startups.
Startuply lists startup companies and startup job openings.
Making the Most of a Bad Situation
AdFreak shares a great idea for making the most of being laid off: Cards of Change. The gist of it, according to AdFreak:
The idea is to take your old business card and scratch out the contact info, replacing it with a new e-mail address along with a story of positive change.
This pretty much tells the whole story, don't you think?
Makes me wish I had kept my business cards, though I’m not sure I have the patience to take a Sharpie to 500 individual cards. How would you tell your story on your old business card?
(Thanks to Sharif Ewees of 28 MEDIA for the link.)
Keeping your data safe
So, you’ve left your cushy job behind, with its regular paycheck and health benefits (or your job has left you behind). But, there is another, less-discussed advantage you are leaving behind. An IT deptartment. Or at least someone to keep your computer updated, solve software problems and, perhaps most importantly, keep important files backed up.
She probably doesn't back up her data.
I can’t help you keep up with the latest software, and I have a post coming up soon about health insurance, but right now I want to talk about backing up your files.
Compared to how things were in the past, backing up is stupid-easy these days. I remember when backing up involved manually writing files to dozens of floppies. In fact, I think I still have those floppies around somewhere. Now both the latest Windows and Mac operating systems have some form of built-in backup mechanism, and there are dozens of services for backing up off site. If you aren’t backing up your computer, start right now.
I do two kinds of backups. I use a Mac with Leopard (OS X 10.5), so I have Time Machine, Apple’s constant backup tool that keeps every version of every file on your computer, forever (or at least until you fill up your external hard drive). With Time Machine, I backup to a USB hard drive. My second backup, which I do less often, is a bootable copy of my hard drive on an external Firewire drive made with SuperDuper.
This may seem like overkill, but I was using SuperDuper before Time Machine came out, so it was easy to just keep it going. The advantage of the SuperDuper backup is that it is bootable. If my hard drive dies, I can boot up to the SuperDuper backup and keep working. Hypothetically. The advantage of the Time Machine backup is that it is super easy (it automatically backs up on a certain schedule as long as the drive is plugged in), and it even protects against accidental deletions because it keeps each version of each file.
If you don’t use a Mac, these options aren’t available to you, or you are worried about keeping an off-site copy of your files, you may want to look into the plethora of online backup solutions, like Carbonite or Mozy. These services usually charge a monthly fee and give you access to your data whenever you need it. There are also services that will back up your data for free and only charge you to restore files.
Whatever method you choose, start backing up your files today.
Free Planners for Laid-Off Workers
Via Snagablog: this Saturday, anyone who has been laid off recently can get a free planner from their local FranklinCovey store. You just need to provide your last employer and supervisor’s name along with the date you were laid off.
What’s your super power?
Seth Godin, master blogger and business writer, says you need to be able to quickly tell someone what you do when you meet them. He makes the comparison to an unfamiliar superhero being introduced in a comic book.
Tearing your shirt open, however, is not recommended. (Image by Piotr Bizior - www.bizior.com)
The example he uses is The Wasp saying she can shrink, fly like an insect and shoot fire energy blasts. He then explains his theory:
Some fancy marketers might call this a positioning statement or a unique selling proposition. Of course, it’s not that. It’s just her super power.
When you meet someone, you need to have a super power. If you don’t, you’re just another handshake. Don’t say, “Hi, I’m Don, I’m from Cleveland.” Instead, try, “Hi, I’m Don, I tell stories that spread.” It’s not about touting yourself or coming on too strong. It’s about making the introduction meaningful. If I don’t know your superpower, then I don’t know how you can help me (or I can help you).
This isn’t new advice, of course. Usually you hear it described as developing a personal brand (although how you introduce yourself is only a fraction of your brand, but that’s another topic) or having an elevator pitch (borrowed from business networking). But Seth’s brilliance is breaking it down to a level we can all understand.
Unless you are a marketing wonk, your eyes probably glaze over when the branding talk starts. And unless you have sales experience, you probably haven’t ever developed a true elevator pitch. But, even if you have never read a comic, you’ve surely seen a comic book-based movie (or any movie, really), and you’ve seen characters introduced hundreds of times.
When you are networking or applying for jobs, you are playing yourself in your own personal movie. Make the introduction memorable, so the audience can make the connection later in the story.
Up to this point, my introduction has been, “I’m Tony, and I’m a copywriter” (or, “I’m Tony, and I’m a web developer,” depending on who I am talking to). But going forward, I think I need to come up with something more compelling.
So, what’s your super power?
Job Hunting Tip: Spend Less Time Searching
Today’s somewhat counter-intuitive job hunting tip comes courtesy of the Wall Street Journal. In a recent post on their blog The Juggle, they recommend spending less time searching for a job on job sites and at job fairs, and more time doing things you love with other people.
This young man decided to blow off the job fair and have some fun.
The WSJ post references a longer post on the same topic by Peter Bregman on the Harvard Business Review blog. Bregman’s post draws parellels between job hunting and other life pursuits, like finding a relationship or having kids. For all three, trying too hard can be counter-productive.
On an 80-degree day like today, that is really tempting advice. Why not go kayaking or golfing with friends rather than sitting in front of the computer wading through mostly useless job listings applying for jobs you don’t want?
Certainly being happier and more-fulfilled helps you come across better in interviews, and as I’ve mentioned before, desperation is not an attractive trait in a job seeker. I think Bregman has a point.
If you are in a field where you provide a service to companies or individuals, maybe you should take the advice even farther. Stop looking for a job, and start doing good work for good people. Find a non-profit that you can help, and lend your expertise to one of their projects. Look at your portfolio for weak points, and try to find projects to fill in those gaps. That way, you’ll have something interesting to show the next time you get an interview. You’ll also have a great answer to the dreaded question “what have you been up to since you were laid off?”
Billing and Time Tracking for Freelance Work
As much as everyone hates it, accurately tracking your time is crucial when doing client work. And when you work for yourself, you have to be extra vigilant in tracking your time, because there is no traffic manager to come around to remind you to fill out your time sheet. Fortunately, there are dozens of great programs for tracking your time. Of course, once you track your time, you need a good way to bill clients.
If you don’t track your time, you can’t bill the client. And if you don’t bill the client, you won’t get paid. You have to love the simple and logical nature of freelancing.
Fortunately most time tracking programs either include invoicing features or integrate with other applications for invoicing. In this post I’ll discuss programs I’ve used or evaluated, but I would like to hear from others about what they use to track time and handle billing.
Billings
After reading this great write-up by Veerle Pieters, I bought Billings 2 (Mac only, sorry PC users), and have been using it for all of my time tracking, invoicing and estimating ever since. It is a nice program, with an easy-to-learn interface, customizable templates and Apple Address Book integration.
Tracking your time is dead simple, thanks to the handy menu bar timer. You can even start new timers right from the timer window, if necessary, without going through the process of setting up a project or client. Then you can go back later to assign the time to the right client and project. The timer window can also handle multiple active jobs, so bouncing around between projects is very easy. The time also shows the dollar amount associated with a timer, which is helpful when working on a tight budget. At least for me, since I don’t like to do math.
One thing Billings does not do is make it simple to track estimated versus actual expenses, which so far hasn’t been a huge hassle for me. Billings also lacks support for multiple users.
There is a new version of Billings available, which has some interface and feature enhancements. It is definitely worth checking out (see Veerle’s review here). I’m hesitant to mention this, since it hasn’t been released yet, but Marketcircle (makers of Billings) have also announced a companion Billings iPhone application, so if that’s important to you, be on the lookout for it.
On The Job
On The Job 3 is an absolutely gorgeous Mac application with an iTunes-style interface that seems very easy to use. I haven’t used this program yet, because Billings 2 fits my needs just fine for now, but I am strongly considering upgrading to On The Job rather than Billings 3. The heads-up-display style dialogs look particularly nice and easy-to-use. As with Billings, the invoices are fully customizable, which makes the wannabe designer in me very happy. For more on On The Job, have a look at this review on The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Like Billings, On The Job is strictly for single users, not groups or teams of users.
Harvest
If you have more than one person’s time to track, aren’t on a Mac or you don’t want a desktop application there are several web-based time-tracking solutions, the most popular of which seems to be Harvest. If you have to do work on-site or from multiple computers, a web application is the way to go. Harvest was the first time tracking program I used when I started freelancing on the side. Harvest has a nice interface, strong reporting features, integrated invoicing, and a free desktop widget. Harvest also integrates with 37Signals’ Basecamp project management web application, allowing you to automatically import clients and projects.
Harvest has a free 30-day trial, after which you choose either a $12, $40 or $90 per month plan, depending on how many users, projects and other features you need. If you are a solo freelancer, it doesn’t take long to catch up to the cost of desktop apps like Billings and On The Job (both currently around $40). And if you have a lot of small projects, the project limit may be troublesome. But, if you have a team of users, Harvest may be worth it.
Other Time-Tracking Sites
If you don’t like Harvest, or just want to try something else out, there are several other time-tracking sites. One of my agency clients uses Timefox, from Functionfox (which, by extension, means I use it when working for this agency), which might have the worst interface of any time-tracking software or service I’ve ever seen, but works well enough.
When I mentioned on twitter that I was working on this article, I heard from fellow twitterer Bradley Joyce about a new service called TickStart, which looks to have nice features (including multiple users) and a very nice interface. TickStart doesn’t include invoicing, but Bradley tells me it will integrate with FreshBooks for invoicing. TickStart, which is currently in beta testing, hasn’t announced a pricing structure yet.
Shockoe is another new web-based time-tracking and invoicing service based here in Richmond and backed by the owners of Techead, a technology and creative staffing firm I’ve mentioned on this site before. Shockoe seems to have a similar feature-set to the other options, but its per-user pricing model may be better fit for small teams. Shockoe has unlimited projects and invoices for all price-levels. Shockoe is $4.99 per user, or $19.95 for up to five users (additional users are $3.99 each).
Invoicing
However you track your time, eventually you have to bill somebody. When it comes to sending invoices, there are even more choices, from Microsoft Word and Excel templates to full-featured accounting programs like QuickBooks. The first invoice I ever sent for freelance work was sent through Blinksale, a nice-looking and easy to use web service. Like Harvest, Blinksale includes Basecamp integration. With the free Blinksale account, you can send three invoices a month. Beyond that, you have to pay a monthly fee of $12, $24, or $49 for the ability to send 50, 250, and 1500 invoices a month. Though, if you are sending 1500 invoices a month, you can hopefully afford a bookkeeper to send your invoices for you.
Whatever solution you choose, make sure it fits your mental model for tracking and invoicing, because any barrier to tracking your time or sending invoices, however minor, will surely spell doom for your entrepreneurial adventures.
Interviewing Advice from Yahoo
Everyone loves top ten lists. Yahoo Hotjobs is no different, with their article “10 Ways to Ruin a Job Interview” (via @RichmondJobNet). The advice seems sound, if not a little obvious. Of course you won’t come across well if you pick your nose or bitch about the parking. I would love to see something that goes a little deeper into the interview process.
There was a time when I was a very good at interviews. I knew if I got the interview, I could get the job. I haven’t had quite as much luck lately, and I have been trying to figure out why. I think it comes down to this: there is no substitute for being a great fit for a position. With a broad work history like mine, I can often get into interviews, but I usually don’t have the specialized experience that would make me a perfect fit for the job. Of course, I still think I can be great at the it; I just need to get better at convincing the interviewer.
What are your interview tips?
On Unemployment Insurance
At least in Virginia, the unemployment insurance process combines all the worst parts of filing taxes and renewing your driver’s license. The rules are highly technical, the instructions are exceedingly generic (having to apply to an entire range of people, from paupers to CEOs, who interface with the employment commission in several different ways, including in person and online), and overall not a lot of fun. What’s more, the way unemployment insurance is structured isn’t necessarily optimized for those of us who can and do acquire freelance work.
This small amount of cash is still more than I ever got from the Virginia Employment Commission.
Briefly, for those that don’t know the rigmarole involved in the unemployment dance, an involuntarily unemployed individual can go online and apply for unemployment insurance payments. Once you apply, the relevant government agency sends you a notice telling you how much money you are entitled to each week, which in Virginia is a maximum of $378. What’s that? Not enough to pay your mortgage? Well, hopefully you are married and your spouse has some income, because that is the most you can get in Virginia.
Once you are initiated in to the club of the government supported non-worker, you have to satisfy some requirements to get your payments. I’m sure this is much easier these days, where you can just go online to both apply for jobs and submit your weekly updates to the employment commission. I can’t imagine having to spend my day running around to apply for jobs and then waiting in line at some government office to prove that I did so.
The VEC will not tell you specifically how many jobs to apply for each week. The lovely woman I spoke to on the phone back in November said they avoid telling people a concrete minimum because they want non-workers to apply to as many jobs as necessary to get employed as quickly as possible. From what I can tell, the magic number is three. One problem I ran into applying for jobs is that you need to have a mailing address to get credit for applying for the job. Unfortunately, with so many applications online and with more and more virtual companies lacking strong physical presence, it can be difficult to find an address. I applied for one job and politely received an email that they had already filled the position. But, the company didn’t disclose their physical address anywhere I could find, so I wrote them asking for their address in order to fulfill my unemployment requirements. Can you hear the crickets chirping? I received no response whatsoever.
Additionally, any jobs you apply or interview for through staffing agencies do not count. Basically the system is set up to get you to apply to a bunch of jobs you know you won’t get but that are easy to find and apply for and easy to submit to the employment office. If you get the requirements out of the way in a few minutes on Monday, you can spend the rest of the week looking for an actual job, which often involves things that the employment commission doesn’t see as looking for work.
The other bit of information you have to supply to the employment office every week is the amount of money you earned doing freelance or contract work. After the first $50, they deduct the money from your unemployment insurance payment. Now, I don’t want to brag about my community college accounting course (I did get an A!), but hopefully you are familiar with the difference between cash-based and accrual-based accounting. Basically, many businesses, and apparently the VEC, operate on an accrual basis: cash and expenses are booked when the are earned or incurred, not when the money actually changes hands. Of course, life operates on a cash basis: it doesn’t matter what you earned if you don’t have the money to pay your bills.
Basically, unemployment is just not set up to help float you between the end of your regular paycheck and the beginning of your freelance money. And it also isn’t helpful to bridge the gap between freelance checks. The bottom line is, if you can earn $378 a week (in Virginia, anyway), you may not want to spend the time jumping through unemployment hoops, and instead may want to concentrate on earning as much money as you can in any way that you can.
Working with Staffing Firms
I’ve gotten a few jobs and assignments through different staffing firms. In talking with other job seekers I’ve heard some common complaints about working with a staffing company. Interestingly enough, depending on who you talk to, I’ve heard the same complaints applied to each of the creative staffing firms here in Richmond.
Please rate your staffing agency.
The top complaint is “[Staffing firm A] isn’t any good because they didn’t try very hard to get me a job. [Staffing firm B] is better.” Of course, then the next person says the opposite. It seems like many people think working with a staffing firm is like having your own personal assistant out there finding job opportunities for you. In reality, the recruiters and account managers at these companies have dozens (or hundreds) of clients, and there are a few things you can do to keep you at the top of their stack of candidates.
Following up with your contacts at staffing firms is important, of course, in keeping yourself on their minds. But, how you follow up is just as important as remembering to do it in the first place. You will get no where if you call to complain about not hearing from them. Let me repeat that: do not call your staffing firm and complain! Recruiters are people first, and they will try harder for you if they like you.
You need to find ways to remind them you exist without annoying the bejesus out of them. One way to do this is to send an updated resume. Any time I make a tweak or add anything to my resume, I send it along with a note about what I changed and why. Another good tip is to look out for job listings posted by the staffing firm (almost all of them have their own site that lists jobs, and they all use the major job boards), and contact your recruiter to let him or (more often around here anyway) her know you are interested. The worst that can happen is they might tell you they don’t think you’re a good fit for that position.
I also occasionally call just to check in and let the recruiter know what I am up to and what positions I’ve applied for. Often I have to leave a message, and just as often they don’t call back. But that’s OK. I don’t need them to call me back if they have nothing for me, but I do need them to remember I exist and to consider me when a new position comes across their desks.