Out of the Blog, Into the Light

Hourly Rate Calculator

This morning I found a resource that’s an eye opener.  As an ex-accountant I know how difficult it is to calculate a true hourly rate.  Before today I laughed at the automatic calculators I’ve seen on line.  They left out so many critical calculations.

This one is different.  It takes into account many of the factors, the other calculators haven’t.  It still will not give you the best calculation.  I still think your accountant will do this.

Check it out.  No sales blasting happened and I didn’t have to submit any contact information.  I liked that.  You will too. 

Will it be an eye opener, most probably.  Write down the questions and answers you’re giving in that particular calculation.

I began by using the actual numbers I sent last year.  Then I calculated with the amount I need to make.  That was my “awakening.”

What I thought was the best feature . . . the break-even calculation at the end.

FreelanceSwitch Hourly Rate Calculator

P.S.  I’m wondering if this works for an employee.  So, if you are.  Try it and share what happens.

Technorati Tags: hourly rate calculator,business,accounting,figure out hourly rate,accounting calculator

Attracting Summer Interns

As an entrepreneur for a long time now, I’ve learned that trying to handle everything yourself isn’t a smart business practice.

The question to ask is, “How do you bring others onboard when you’re on a tight budget?”

Just recently I went through this process.  Since I hadn’t did this in a long time, I had to start from the beginning.  One part to the answer was to find a few summer interns and maybe ones for the fall as well.  I wanted to focus on this process, not just because of the financial savings, but because I find interns bright, eager, have less fear of voicing their ideas and opinions, and come up with creative solutions.  Plus their energy is catchy if harnessed correctly.  This goal also matched my strength of being an excellent mentor and teacher.  And handles my weakness – not enough time to accomplished all that I want to do. 

Let me share my strategy.

Step 1.  I named my goal.  To attract three interns for the summer.  One for strategic development and  planning.  Another for marketing campaign development.  And a third to support me with editing and info product development.

Step 2:  Next I created task list.  Afterward I place in priority order.

Example of my list.

1. Contact my client who already does this and ask for advice.
2. Search on Google for any helpful advice, read, take notes, and add/modify to do list.
3. Make a list of projects I want them to work on. Answer what type of intern would best fulfill this.
4. Write a job listing piece for each type of intern and project and what my offer.
5. Make a list of schools to contact.
6. Make a list of additional online places I can post the listings.
7. Research the schools on line for the “how-to” information.  Track this in OneNote.
8. Submit information to the schools.
9. Submit listings to places other than schools online.
10. Review resumes received.
11. Interview and offer.
12. Work with new intern and utilize their full potential.
13. Increase productivity and enjoy the results!

Step 3:  After completing the list, I added the estimated time I thought it would take to accomplish the task.  From this I was able to create a start date and end date for the project.  I wasn’t happy with how much time it was requiring so I made adjustments and looked for tasks that could be delegated to my virtual assistant.  I was able to cut my time requirements in half and the completion date move up almost a week.

Step 3:  Next, I shared my goal and list with my VA in an overview email.  Then set up the delegated tasks in OneNote with connections to task assignments in Outlook and forwarded them to my VA.  Then I began my tasks.

Continue the attraction . . .

Maybe you have used interns in the past, please share your experience, or things you’ve learned in the comment section. 

Technorati Tags: summer interns,how to,task list,strategy,process,finding summer interns for your business

(c) Copyright 2009, Catherine Franz.  All rights reserved.

Stop Others From Forwarding Your Emails!

Every day I like to learn something new about a software I’m using. 

In fact, I’ve been doing this for the last 15 years. 

Let’s say I do this 300 days a year (allowing 65 days when I just miss it, which is much higher than actually happens, but it’s a good round figure for this point), this means 300 x 15 years = 4500 things I’ve learned about my computer – hardware and software.  Of course, this type of learning is like an savings account earning interest.  I couldn’t even begin to calculate how much interest it’s earned for me over the years.

Well, anyway…

 

Have you ever had someone forward your email message without
your permission and it came back to haunt you?

Well I have.  It wasn’t a message bad mouthing anyone either.  The good that came out of this was my research into how to stop this from happening again.  Was there a way to set up a message so it couldn’t be forwarded or replied to all?

Upon researching Microsoft’s Outlook 2007 website, I found there was a way. 

There are a few limitations they mention, however, I had a beginning.

What I liked, it also gives me a choice on what emails to use it on.  In other words, I don’t need to use it on all emails (unless I want to).

Interested in learning more?  The direct link to the instruction page on Microsoft’s website is below.  By going there, you’ll not only find written directions but two videos that will walk you through how to set up custom forms (the method you would need to use), and then how to send out an email using this custom form.

And tomorrow, since today’s journey lead me to this topic, I’m going to learn more about setting up custom forms.

Here’s the direct link.

If you use Firefox, I’m sure they have a similar method – probably one that’s even better.

Since there are so many email clients out there, I can’t go into the details for all of them.  Just be curious and see if yours offers a similar know I believe this is a great feature to learn and worth learning.

 

Technorati Tags: how to,Outlook 2007,stop recipients from forwarding messages,stop replying to all

Copies of Clayton Makepeace's free reports

Have been real busy working on my book, cleaning out files, attending workshops on neuromarketing and studying more aggressively in the neurosciences.  I've also started a 31 day blog for building better business systems:  http://abundance.blogs.com/31DBBS. 

And somewhere inbetween meals and bathroom breaks, I've planning another new blog, opening next month on nonfiction writing (one of my passions) which Deepak kicked my assets almost two months ago to do and to stop talking about it as if its a dream.  Thanks Deepak, it's getting done.

In the meantime, for the writers, marketers, subscribers -- and visitors -- here is some reading that will surely keep you busy for the next several weeks.

Free E-Book #1 - Why Your Advertising Never Makes You Money
Download Why_Your_Advertising_Never_Makes_Money

Free E-Book #2 - How to Decide Where to Advertise
Download How_to_decide_where_to_advertise

Free E-Book #3 - How to Write Killer Ads and Compelling Sales Copy
Download How_to_write_killer_ads_and_compelling_sales_copy

Free E-Book #4 - The Eight Components of Irresistible Direct Response Offers
Download The_8_Components_of_Irressisble_Response_Offers

See How Others See Your Website

Eyetrack III has published their latest findings on people’s eye tracking.

Here is a quick list of what I took away from reading:

About Headlines

• Dominant headlines most often draw the eye first upon entering the page
• A headline has less than a second of a site visitor’s attention
• For headlines — especially longer ones — it would appear that the first couple of words need to be real attention-grabbers

Type Size

• Smaller type encourages focused viewing behavior…. larger type promotes lighter scanning

Structure

• Navigation placed at the top of a homepage performed best
• Shorter paragraphs performed better in Eyetrack III research than longer ones

Ads

• We found that ads in the top and left portions of a homepage received the most eye fixations
• Size matters. Bigger ads had a better chance of being seen
• Close proximity to popular editorial content really helped ads get seen

Images

• Use clean, clear faces in images attract more eye fixations on homepages
• The larger the image, the more time people spend looking at it

--------------------------------
Source for this material and where you can find additional details: Direct Creative Blog

Technorati Tags: eye tracking problems,eye tracking studies,eye tracking research,eye tracking technology,Internet navigation,website ads,website,images,website type,Eyetrack III study

Quote of the Week

The very act of doing something for a reward is painful because it goes against your true nature, which is the real reward unto itself.

Poll Results on What Background to Use on Your Blog

Recently Darren Rowse took a poll of what people prefer -- light or dark backgrounds on a blog.
I thought the information needed sharing.

Being Present Determines Success in e-Learning

Hope you're day is going great. 

I wanted to let you know this article...named in the title...is now available on the Mssarma College website.

To read it...

Build a Better E-Mail System

On the 31 Days to Build a Better System Challenge, today's Day 6.  The topic is on using rules to improve your efficiency for incomnig emails.

The article is available on the 31 DBBS blog.

Day 5 is posted on the 31 days to build a better system challenge

On DAY 5, you learned about the various ways to process email – online / your computer – along with some pros and cons to each. Inside this process, there were new terms. The meat of the content was spent on improving how you handle your incoming e-mails. You learned about a three-step process on how to process all your incoming e-mails, three methods on how to code your folders, plus a fourth method without using folders. Your task was to select a method, including creating your own, and set up your inbox with this method.

To read