Ha!!
Granny Squares and eBay
My sister in law sells her knitted granny squares on eBay and aggressively promotes them on her Facebook page where she has thousands of friends thanks to Mafia Wars and other games. I’ve noted recently that she’s shifted from calling them pieces for afghans and started calling them “potholders.”
Apparently she makes some profit from her online business. But it’s not for everyone, according to Steve at bripblap,
It was a good deal at first, and some of the items – surprisingly things like religious icons – sold very well. But it was a HUGE amount of work to deal with the posting, packing, shipping, dealing with “special orders” and so on. We tracked time spent on it for a while and finally realized – after our Turkish connection got greedy after seeing our resale prices and raised his – we were making pennies per hour, especially considering eBay’s never-ending price hikes.
We had thought about starting our own online store, but after some lengthy investigation determined that it just was not worth the effort and more people lost major amounts of money than the few who were successful.
Reason #189 to Work at Home
After watching the movie Super 8 last week and then seeing this video, I am more convinced that working at home is a great thing!
Keeping a Clean Office
At least once every two weeks, I take an hour to go through my office – putting things away, purging, straightening up. My office remains a tad on the messy side, though. Therefore I plan to take Steve’s suggestions to heart. From Brip Blap,
Never keep binders. This one is simple. Someone else has the binder. Unless it’s something you refer to several times a day, recylce the paper and give the binder back. In the unlikely event you refer to it, borrow someone else’s.
On my first week of the job, someone helped me by printing out a how-to manual for the company camera. While I appreciated the kind thought, I was horrified. To this day, that binder is sitting on my bottom shelf gathering dust. I can’t bear to throw away the 300 pages that were printed. But tomorrow I will. To the recycle bin it goes – especially since I now have a new camera!
Wordless Wednesday: Officemate
Must Have Money Saving Apps
From our friends at Brip Blap is a link to 12 money saving cell phone apps that it pays to have. Frugal Dad focuses big time on recipes, coupons, and places to find gas on the cheap,
Mint – No money-saving app list would be complete without Mint.com. Mint is an on-the-go personal finance app that gives users a detailed financial picture across multiple accounts. Categorized budgeting info gives you an up-to-the minute spending picture for the month, so it’s easier to keep your finances on track. Available on Android and iPhone. Price: Free.
A friend of mine introduced a couple more that I don’t use enough:
Shopkick began because we believe shopping could be much more rewarding, simple, and full of great offers. So shopkick is the first app that lets you collect rewards imply for walking into stores and shows you great offers. You can also collect kickbucks by scanning products in grocery stores and pharmacies and even for check-ins at thousands of places!
My friend has earned over $100 so far using Shopkick. She also suggests snappr, code reader, and coupons. All are free because I’m too cheap to buy!
Need to Make More Money?
Being self employed can be extremely satisfying, rewarding, and produce unlimited income. Well the potential is there, anyway. There are several options for making more money – one of which may be unpleasant but it *could* solve some problems… get a second job.
I worked three jobs for the past year and now have a nice little savings account built up. It was not easy. I spend quite a bit of time away from home. My feet swelled. My back ached. But now I’m back down to just two jobs.
Facing reality is sometimes not optional. Here are more ideas on how to make more money from Be Better Now,
One idea for a starting a business is to get money from your hobbies. For example, if you are into crafts, you can sell them on Etsy. You get the fun of creating the craft, the joy of knowing that you made someone’s day, and made a little money in the process.
Need another tip? How about a dog walking or sitting service. Around here in Silicon Valley, overnight dog sitters are $40-50 a night. If some enterprising and trustworthy person offered to take my dog for $200 for a week while we were on vacation, it would be a big savings for us. We just need to find that person. You could be that person, take my money, and have a week with a lovable dog (you should really be paying me money).
There you go… tons of ideas. Now get to work!
Starting Your Own Business
I have seen people start their own businesses and lose almost everything. I have seen people start their own businesses and be wildly successful. There are key factors that have determined whether a business flourishes or fails:
1. There is a measurable need for the business.
2. A marketing in plan is not just in place, but also vigilantly adhered to.
3. The business owner works at least 50-80 hours per week when first starting out.
4. Failure is not an option.
5. Confidence and determination.
6. AT LEAST six months of prior salary saved (a year would be better) as the business starts.
Have you ever started your own business? What are your tips?
How Not to Write a Cover Letter
Sadly *I* must go back to read *my* cover letters. Ouch. By the way, the prominent undergraduate is also comma-happy.
When I do something, I give it everything that I have. When I am given a task, I get it done better than expected. The men at the radio station referred to me as “Chicago” and “sassy”—and never failed to give me stories that required contacting the hard-to-get sources. I always got them to talk, and I always got them to “spill it.” Sassy, they said, is for the ability that I have when it comes to asking the “tough questions.” They always said to me jokingly…“you have the look to get the interview with men and women alike, the charm to keep the interview, the intelligence to ask the right questions, the passion to ask the hard ones, and the innocent smile that gets an honest answer out of anyone.”
These “men” at the radio station were about two ticks away from sexual harassment, girlfriend. A worthy subject for discussion no doubt, but not in a cover letter, please.
Do go read the whole post – cover letter and comments from the fine workers at Ragan.
Scheduling Time Off
I started a new job three weeks ago and will get one week of vacation this year. I’m used to doing what I want when I want, so this will be a huge adjustment for me. However, I plan to make the most of it whether by using flex time, through comp time, or other means. I am finding that I already work about 50 hours per week so expect that it won’t be an issue.
But for the self-employed, folks often wonder HOW you can afford to take a day or two off. Steve from Brip Blap offers advice on how he does it and this one seems the most important to me,
Pick your battles. I have never understood people who won’t take off a beautiful day in summer. Listen, 20 years from now that extra $100 for a day’s work won’t make a difference. A day in the sun making a stab at accomplishing that wee bitty thing called life will be worth it. Maybe it’s better to stay late in the office in February and ditch in summer.
YES! That’s what my plan is for my new regular job – even if it is a regular job.