Hub You - Business

Job Do's and Don't Of Asking For A Raise
Feeling overworked and underpaid? If you’re starting to feel like you deserve a raise, here are eight DO’s and DON’Ts to build your confidence and tact (and what to avoid!) in asking for the salary you feel you deserve.DO1. Devise a “Plan of Action”. First and foremost, get a strategy together. Make a note of the specific projects you’ve undertaken and the results you’ve accomplished. List all of your job skills and the features that make you an asset to this company. Find out what a typical raise is for someone with your experience in your area of occupation. Know the facts and be realistic in your request.2. Ask for an amount that’s slightly higher than one you would be happy with. If you would be happy with a 5% raise, ask for one a couple of points above it. That way, if your boss starts to negotiate, you won’t feel as if your worth has been diluted any by getting less than what you feel you deserve.3. Remember, your boss shouldn’t be the only one negotiating. If your company is going through a slow period or the economy is down, try to be flexible and know how to respond if your boss suggests a lower amount than what you may have been expecting. Consider other ways of getting a rai

trepreneur) and matching them and their projects with them right Angel investors is a often a long, incredibly frustrating and expense process. Hundreds of ideas die on the vine for lack of the life giving flow of cash. And anyone who thinks the process is easy, has had way too common an idea, asked for way too little investment and probably given up way too much equity.

5 Tips to Access the Hidden Job Market
Did you know that as many as 80% of all available jobs are never advertised? That staggering number is one of the biggest obstacles that job seekers face when searching for employment. Understanding how to access this hidden job market can give you an advantage over your competition.Here are 5 tips to get you started:1. Network. Network. Network. The most important first step in accessing the hidden job market is to network. Get out there and talk to anyone and everyone who may be able to give you insight into where there are jobs.Start by making a list of everyone you can talk to. These people do not have to be friends, or even acquaintances, just anyone with whom you have enough of a common thread to initiate a conversation. Great potential networking contacts include friends, acquaintances, neighbors, relatives, church members, classmates, teachers, club members, employers, supervisors, colleagues, subordinates, clients, customers and fellow association members.Help these people to help you by making it easy for them. Instead of asking specifically if they know of any job openings, ask them for tips, leads and suggestions. If they know of a job, they’ll be sure to me

Within days of posting on www.fundingpost.com, one of the many websites created for entrepreneurs to post summaries designed to draw the attention of potential investors, an email inquiry from the AngloAmerican Investment Group and one Anthony Oppenheim. Mr. Oppenheim explained in his email that from his Peachtree St. office in Atlanta, he represented a consortium of private investors and mostly European family trusts that were specifically looking for investments in globally oriented businesses like ours. They don’t charge any up front fees to review business plans. They represent the decision makers and can write checks for the right investments, etc. Please call him to discuss the venture.

Wow! Could we be that lucky? Although the email came from a Comcast.net address, it’s not unheard of for even big investors to use common email addresses. It contained phone numbers and address information that matched the Atlanta area and surely a huge conglomerate like the Anglo American Investment Group would clamp down quickly on any scam artists brazen enough to openly use their brand. We were pretty excited.

A phone call to Mr. Oppenheim gave good reason to believe they were for real. A professional demeanor, the right questions asked and quick answers to any concerns we had. They invest in people as much as projects. We’d be invited down to Atlanta to meet him and his associate Al Dubin (“D-U-B-I-N, yes that’s the correct spelling” the conversation went as I took notes) and review our business plan in detail. FedEx 10 copies of the business plan before coming down. A non-disclosure agreement was not a problem. If they like what they see and hear we’ll quickly see a Term Sheet. He’d send details about the accommodations in Atlanta.

“Awesome” my son said.

Then things took a strange turn. The next email read like a bad mass mail piece. They had reviewed our business plan (funny…we hadn’t sent them yet) and were prepared to invest the full amount. They boasted about investments made in places like Shang Hi (interesting spelling for Shanghai). A request from us for references or contact with legitimate past investments as our real due diligence kicked in resulted in a email that asked us to supply more information than even the government knows about us. And unfortunately Mr. Dubin’s name had suddenly changed to Dublin.

The jig was up.

One look at www.ripoffreport.com would have saved us some time since these characters have been at it for a while and apparently the con is to get entrepreneurs desperate for funding to believe that Anglo American will gladly fund them if the entrepreneur will pay the travel expenses of one of their representatives for site visits and setting up an offshore “escrow” account for safe keeping of the funds until the deal is done. Upwards of $40,000.

Entrepreneurs, like most creative people, are an odd lot (I can say that being what’s called a “serial” entrepreneur) and matching them and their projects with them right Angel investors is a often a long, incredibly frustrating and expense process. Hundreds of ideas die on the vine for lack of the life giving flow of cash. And anyone who thinks the process is easy, has had way too common an idea, asked for way too little investment and probably given up way too much equity.

Are You Eking Out a Living, and Can't Get What You Want from a Job?
Many people are working at jobs they don't want and they hate to go there every day. Are you one of them?Let's start by examining how you got into this kind of "pickle" to begin with. Did you take this job be- cause you thought you couldn't find anything else? Did someone you are close to, tell you to take it even if you didn't want to? Were you in panic be- cause you thought you would be out on the street?When I listen to people who have gotten into this predicament, I usually find that the main cause for this kind of frustration and unhappiness is because there is a lack of self-esteem and no goal setting. These two elements go hand in hand. It's almost as if the job seeker has lost some part of the self and is willing to be molded by others, outside circumstances or fate.The cure, in my opinion, is to always have goals for oneself. Some need to be work related while others can be for fun or for learning.Goals make life sweeter. They can turn a hum- drum job into one you might like. They can also lead ` you to the job of your dreams some day! Make your current job into one or find a new, fun job. It's a matter of attitude, isn't it?

ough the email came from a Comcast.net address, it’s not unheard of for even big investors to use common email addresses. It contained phone numbers and address information that matched the Atlanta area and surely a huge conglomerate like the Anglo American Investment Group would clamp down quickly on any scam artists brazen enough to openly use their brand. We were pretty excited.

“Awesome” my son said.

The jig was up.

Are You With Me?
Clueless in Conversation-ville?Are you really "with" people when you’re with them? Are you really hearing, seeing, feeling, sensing, breathing them in? Or are you often bored, distracted, rushed, or wishing you were somewhere else? Do you jump ahead in the conversation, saying what you know they meant to say or strategize “fixes” for their concerns before they have hardly left their lips? Do you find yourself sizing up their clothing choice, or facial quirks, or figit with your pen or take in the activity in the room while they are speaking? No matter who I am with, I am often dreamily lost in thought: "if only they…speak up, shut up, be quick, be reasonable, or be honest. I spend a lot of time “wishing” who I think the other person ought to be and what I want them to say – or not, and only a small part of my brain or heart is really with them in the now. Sure, we’ve all been accused of not being “with it” as they say; but often it has become a very bad habit. Our lack of presence speaks volumes.Is Your “Half-Heartedness” Showing?When a person is getting only a portion of our attention, it sends a clear message that they don’t matter terribly much. As a res

t as I took notes) and review our business plan in detail. FedEx 10 copies of the business plan before coming down. A non-disclosure agreement was not a problem. If they like what they see and hear we’ll quickly see a Term Sheet. He’d send details about the accommodations in Atlanta.

“Awesome” my son said.

The jig was up.

How To Get A Job Without Experience - Sell Yourself Just As You Would If You Were A Salesperson
It's easier to find a job than you think. You don't need experience, you just think you do; perhaps that is just your excuse because your job search isn’t going quite well – Nobody’s hiring me because I don't have any relevant work experience. Bad excuse!Back when I first finished school I didn't have any experience either. I did what everybody else did – I sent resumes in response to job ads in the classifieds. That didn't work. Then I got creative. I was specifically looking for a sales job because that’s what I thought that I would like. I thought to myself, what is a sales manager looking for when hiring a salesperson? I knew the answer. A sales manager wants somebody that can sell. How can I show that I could sell without actually having a track record? I could show him.Here's what I did. I was targeting a B2B job selling copiers. I picked out a few prospects and called the sales managers in those offices. I didn't call to ask for a job (not at first). I called the sales manager (cold call) pretending to be an office cleaner and tried to sell him my services. I really wasn't an office cleaner. I was playing a role. I was pretending. I just wanted to be able to showcase my sales skills. It work

l that asked us to supply more information than even the government knows about us. And unfortunately Mr. Dubin’s name had suddenly changed to Dublin.

The jig was up.

Building A Brand Without Breaking The Bank
If you traveled to a remote island and had to take some non-alcoholic beverage, would you prefer an unknown brand taken by the natives to Coca-Cola?If you're like me, I'll insist on something I am conversant with.All over the world, Coca-Cola is known. People have come to trust their products. I guess if some folks travel to another planet and see a bottle of Coca-Cola they'll pop it open without asking questions.Why that level of trust?Coca-Cola is a worldwide brand. People have been so bombarded with adverts about Coca-Cola that they just pop up on our minds once we need a drink.Yahoo is a known brand. Google is a respected brand. We can go on and on, but how can you build a brand seeing you don't have even a tiny fraction of the funds available to these giants?The internet gives you an opportunity that was never present in the whole of history. You can reach your world without spending your world if you know how to go about it.Someone calls it building your brand of one. It is the act of preselling or pre-selling.It is building trust and confidence through high value and useful content. I mean content that is so good that they keep coming back for more. An

The costs of raising capital to start any business from scratch are mind-numbing. If you’re doing a securities offering in even the most basic form, a good attorney will be $200 per hour and up. And your accounting firm better be top notch as well. Want a Private Placement Memorandum? Better have a nice house that you’re willing to mortgage to the hilt or sell that brand new Lexus in your driveway that you paid cash for last year. Wait a minute. You don’t have either one of those? You spent every penny of extra cash you had to developing your idea to the business plan stage?

As my cronies from the Great Lakes states say “You’re S.O.L.” The days of investing in just a concept are long gone.

Today it’s all about proven business models in the form of an already operating business generating some form of revenue from somewhere. The friends and family round of funding completed and likely one or two major investors from your own network of wealthy folks is the sweet spot for attracting “early stage” Angel investment. And some sectors are naturally sweeter than others. Being situated near the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina, a virtual incubator for bio-tech, life science and high tech business ventures, trying to sell local Angels on an idea for the formation of a new insurance company, no matter how sexy the plan, rarely even makes it into the evaluation process. The Angels of Silicon Valley look mostly for ideas in a different sector that needs no description.

In fact, most Angel groups will readily identify those business ideas that they’re interested in and those they’re not. Unfortunately for me, my particular venture falls into the categories of both a startup and a highly uncommon business sector for Angel investment. Add to that our need for $3 million in funding and the combination scares most Angels groups away, let alone individual investors. Three million dollars starts to encroach on the institution investment landscape controlled by venture capitalists and investment bankers. Five million dollars is the limit for most Regulation D offerings without getting into investor sophistication requirements. Get into that arena and be prepared to invest in the high five figures just to get started looking for more money, with no guarantee. Who are these entrepreneurs that have that in their back pocket? No one just getting started, that’s for sure.

So what are the alternatives when there are no rich Uncles or neighbors that just won the lottery and don’t know where to put their money? I can only speak from experience in that finding one or two true believers that have a network of accredited investor type clients or friends is your best bet. Six degrees of separation no longer applies thanks to the internet. I’ll guarantee you know someone who knows someone who knows a likely investor. The trick is getting the word out without alerting every would-be competitor, idea stealing piracy gang or scam artist that will nickel and dime you to death. Truth be told, that’s a high wire act of its own.

There are literally hundreds of websites advertising Angel groups or supposedly acting as a clearing house for Angels to search for investments they’re interested in. You can quickly spend tens of thousands of dollars in submission fees or r

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Do you jump out of bed each morning excited about going to work? You can't wait for the conference call or board meeting scheduled first thing and your co-workers are a joy to be around, right?

A savvy career education review may tell you it’s not your job that's slowing you down.

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