As a result of googling and many hours at the City library,  I’ve come across some interesting ideas and points of view.  This attached Podcast taken from ‘The Bookshow’ on ABC Radio is very interesting. Three traditional paper readers have taken the challenge to read a Literary Classic from 3 different e-readers; a phone, an ipad and a Kindle.  Have a listen and see if you feel they same way about the e-book.

E-Reading My brilliant Career – The Bookshow – ABC Radio

It doesn’t matter how qualified or how good you’d be in the position you are applying for, if you cannot produce a good resume chances are you won’t even get to an interview. Remember, the very same advertised position could have hundreds of applicants so it’s important to make yours stand out.

Here are just a few tips on making your resume stand out from the crowd:

• Make it easy to read. KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid.  You can do this by using dot points and keeping each point to one line max.
• Don’t include everything single thing you do.  A prospective employer doesn’t need to know if you pack the dishwasher every day.  Something like that can be included under a broader heading such as “General Office Maintenance” and you’ll find once you get to the interview your broader range of tasks and skills can be discussed in full.
• Revamp your resume for each job you apply for.  Move the most relevant tasks and achievements to the top of the list so they can immediately see you fulfil their selection criteria and leave out the stuff that’s not relevant to this new job unless of course it’s a really impressive skill you have that you think they may like to utilise at a later date.
• Don’t add fancy fonts and graphics and please… DONT include your photo. Some recruitment agencies like to take a photo just so they can put a face to the resume at a later date, but leave that for them to decide.
• If you’re not great with layout and formatting MS Word has some great resume templates already set up and ready to go.
• Spell check and then spell check again.  Ask a friend to read through your resume and cover letter before you send it off. If possible ask a couple of friends to proof it for you.
• Don’t add anything to your resume that you haven’t honestly achieved. No matter how great you think it makes you sound, just be honest and realistic. If your application gets to the stage of reference checking to confirm your suitability things could get a little awkward when they discover the half truths.
• If you get a chance, follow up on your application with phone call. Unless the ad specifically asked not to call, it’s a good way to make your application stand out from the rest.

Finally… Good luck.

It hadn’t occurred to them that this might make them look a little unprofessional in their clients’ eyes. And actually the MD was very honest and told me he hadn’t thought about it at all till one of his clients made a comment.

It’s certainly not a major business “blooper” especially if your business isn’t paper based, but it does make a good impression when it appears that you’ve invested time and money to make your business look good.

Sometimes, something that may seem meaningless and pointless to you actually sends a powerful message to your clients.  If you are serious about the business you are working in then it pays to invest in a slick corporate ID that reflects your business.

Setting up a series of templates in MS Word is a relatively simple procedure. Taking the time to create the templates and then making them available for every user can be time consuming.

So what do you do???

Call CHOCOLATE COPY.

Now I’m all grown up and being scared just isn’t enough reason to turn my back.

So I hopped on!  The rollercoaster of small business that is and I think…wait for it… I think I like it.

Although, I do have a few thousand crazy thoughts running through my head at random times of the day. Such as:

Will I find clients?

Will they find me?

Will I make enough money to pay the mortgage?  To eat?  To survive?

“I can’t do it!!  Yes I can.  No I can’t.  YES I CAN!”

This is the dialogue that has been running constantly through my head the last few days. I wondered whether it was a rather negative way to start my new business but as it turns out my friends at flying solo tell me it’s perfectly normal to have these insanely negative thoughts. It’s scary heading out on your own. The big bad business world will eat you alive if you’re not careful.

So I’m taking it slow even though what I really want to do is jump up and down at the front door of some of those fantastic businesses’s that I KNOW could do with lots and lots of my creative genius.

Every now and then I need to stop…slow down and think about why I decided to take the ride.  It’s all looking good.

Things are picking up and slowly but surely by the end of 2010 I aim to have a steady stream of interesting clients that I can manage all by my lonesome.

And they are going to just LOVE me!

1. Spelling and grammar check
   This one is a no-brainer really. You should be running the spell check on every single document you write, from quick emails to long and drawn out proposals. Put yourself on spell check auto pilot for everything and anything you write. Make this the absolute must-do number one task before you do anything else.
2. Set up Auto texts and templates for repetitive text
   MS word and lots of other writing programs have facilities to insert automated text and phrases with one click of the mouse (or press of the F3 key).  It’s great for signoffs at the end of letters, typical sales pitches you use regularly or jargon specific to your industry. This way you know it’s written correctly every time you use it.  If you are not sure how to set these up just ask around your office or better yet. Google it!
3. Read it out loud
   This helps clarify what you are writing.  Once you hear it out loud it’s a lot easier to pick up mistakes and determine if your writing flows and makes sense.
4. Walk away for a short time
   Save your work. Go have a coffee. Talk about what you did on the weekend with a work mate.  Then come on back.  This helps to give you a fresh look at your work, a clear head can focus and organise a little better than one that is sick and tired of looking over the same old document.
5. Read the text backwards
   Sounds a little weird. Yes?  But this forces you to look at each word individually. A great way to re-check your spelling skills.  It will help to use a ruler or a piece of paper to guide you through but you’ll be surprised how well this works.

Well, good luck and happy formatting!

NOTHING!!!

Yep, nothing.  Well almost nothing, because if you count watching Oprah and Judge Judy on day time TV then I guess I’ve been doing something.

Some of you stressed-out, overworked, pushed to the limits survivors out there might think it sounds like a holiday and I guess for the first 24 hours it might have been except for the fact that I was in a tiny-winy little bit of pain.  3 weeks ago I hurt my back and have basically been lounge ridden (as opposed to bed ridden as I couldn’t make it up the stairs to the bedroom on my own).  Lying around with lots and lots and lots of time to think is not something I’d like to do again anytime soon.  Although, I did discover something about myself, something that I’d been a little suspicious of all my life.

I’m really not very good at doing NOTHING.

Nothing is not for me!  So I decided today I would sit at my PC and write. Just for a little while.  It feels good.

So here I am doing SOMETHING and I like it and believe it or not, I am looking forward to going back to work. Really, really, really looking forward to it.

Just under 18 months ago I was working as an Office Manager for a great company in Newcastle called Redback Solutions. The Managing Director at the time, Matt Freedman, is this brilliant businessman who always put so much energy into the business and was continuously coming up with new ideas and schemes. (Actually he’s still is spouting lots of great ideas.)  Matt not only imparted a lot of information to me but he taught me how to get out there and find the answers, the clients and even how to stay motivated when the times get tough.   I don’t work with Matt any longer, he’s in Sydney now and I’m in Melbourne but I’ve still managed to stay connected via social networking and he still continues to inspire me and motivate me with his tweets and blogs.  LinkedIn, facebook and twitter.  Don’t know how anyone finds the time…but I’m giving it a go.

But…  Is it readable?  Does it look good? Will your clients cringe when they see the jumbled mass of words?  Different size headings, random fonts, page numbers missing, no table of contents or headers & footers.

It may sound trivial but a well formatted document creates a strong impression on the reader. It’s also a reflection on your business and signals to potential clients and customers just how credible your business is.

Very few businesses today do not have access to word processors. Now whilst word processors can provide you with the tools to improve your documents, we don’t all have the skills or the time to master the software.  There’s a lot to consider when making sure your documents are looking their best. Consider the fact that you’re in the business you’re in because your good at what you do. A document formatter formats document because that is what they do best.

A skilled document formatter knows how to ensure consistency and clarity throughout your documents and ensure your professional reputation is enhanced.  So for those deal clinching proposals and attention-grabbing brochures, have a skilled document formatter go through your documents and ensure they are the best they possibly can be.

The book is full of poetry, quotes and short stories written by Russ or by the people he had spoken to . You see Russ Tyson was a breakfast radio host so he encountered many different kinds of people during his stint on radio. Russ began writing these words in 1949, so assuming he was at least in his twenty’s or thirties then, I guess that would make him at least 80 or 90 today.   Anyway, for an old guy his writings are really cool.  I thought I might just occasionally share a little piece of his wisdom.

The one I chose today is really quite simple as most of his writing are but I like this one as it seems fairly relevant to me today as I’m feeling a little nervous about my business ideas. The simplicity of it all makes you stop and think.

Well I hope you enjoy.

The School Of Life

If we wade in shallow pools
We cannot learn to swim
The brilliant intellect unused
Will stagnate and grow dim.
We cannot reach the mountaintop
Without the gruelling climb
Courage comes from danger faced
Lessons taught in time.

www.rickytheshark.com

Here it is, I’ve found it.  Ricky The Shark. It’s not such a well know series (as yet) but it really beats all the mundane trivial mind numbing junk that’s out there on the market today.  Give your little ones some credit and try Ricky out.  I guarantee they’ll love it.

Ricky is essentially a happy go lucky shark for whom good deeds are simply a way of life as he meanders along with his friends, Harris the helicopter, Rosie the red sports car, Fen the firetruck and others.

The objective with Ricky The Shark is to instil positive thinking in children from an early age. Ricky’s adventures serve as a great teaching tool for kids aged 2 – 6 years, with Ricky quickly being adopted by kids as a friendly and quirky role model. Each story is visually rich yet free of aggression, and violence, even comical violence.

These positive values help equip children with a subconscious resource to draw on when faced with difficulties growing up and even later on in life as an adult.

I hope you and our children enjoy the antics of Ricky and his friends and you enjoy getting to know then as much as I enjoyed creating them.

See a preview of Ricky the Shark’s adventures. Just click on the animations page and choose one of four short previews.

Go to Ricky the Shark’s website to play on the Interactive Colouring pages, Meet Ricky’s friends and see previews of Ricky’s adventures.

If you are interested in purchasing a Ricky The Shark DVD, you can contact John at: john@rickytheshark.com