By Kevin M

All the talk in the media and business world these days is about the recovery. The GDP is up, sales are up, profits are up, and executive bonuses are up. While that’s all good for some people somewhere, for many in the rank-and-file middle class it still looks and feels an awful lot like we’re still in a recession. With the unemployment rate hovering just north of 9%, for practical purposes we still are.

Millions are still unemployed—some chronically—while many others are dangling precariously close to that status in what’s become a full blown employment revolving door. If you’re unemployed, or about to be, you need to have a concrete plan of action—preferably a written one—to keep you moving forward either toward a new job or into something completely different.

And even if you do have a job and don’t think you will lose it anytime soon you might still need a plan to deal with a layoff that could come out of nowhere. These days, a missed budget or just the hint that the company’s five year plan might not pan out just six months into it is all it takes for the layoff ax to be sharpened.

An action plan has to be customized to fit your circumstances, but if you’re looking for a starting point—or a few new ideas to jump start what you have—try adding some of these to your agenda.

Set and keep a schedule

One of the unexpected complications of unemployment is the nothingness. When you have a job, you have a schedule that you’re entire life’s routine is wrapped around. But when the job is gone, so is the schedule and the regimentation it creates. There are times we all rebel against regimentation, as if it’s the ogre that’s controlling our lives. But closer to the truth is that it provides the structure that enables us to move forward.

If you’re jobless, you’ll have to find a way to create a new form of regimentation, otherwise you’ll find your days wasting away with little to show for them. A written schedule is best, one that includes daily activities. Some could be focused activities, like the job search. Others could be more generic, like networking and researching opportunities. Just make sure you’re doing something constructive each day.

Get serious about those networks you put off while you were employed

We all know about the importance of networking, but during the normal course of life we tend to talk about them more than participate. If you’re unemployed, networking becomes a high priority and should be part of the scheduling we just talked about. Face to face meetings are much better than online, if you can make it happen. If not, the phone is always a good second choice.

One thought here though, most of us tend to network with others who are looking for similar jobs—that has value, but probably limited at best. What you’re really doing with that is networking with your competitors and it’s hard to see where that’s any kind of advantage. Better to seek out networks of potential employers, or even people in parallel fields who might know of a job opening in your field. Sometimes it’s better to come in through the back door where there’s less traffic.

Reposition yourself as a Problem Solver

You need a job, right? But your need won’t impress an employer. With so many prospects seeking out every job, the only way to get noticed is to position yourself as an answer to the employer’s biggest problems. Few employers are looking for generalists anymore.

What are the biggest problems common to most businesses? What are the biggest problems in your industry? What are the biggest problems for a specific employer? If you can identify what these are, and establish your ability to solve them, you’ll be carving out a niche that can get you a job. It isn’t easy, in fact it might require reinventing yourself. But once you do, a few doors should open up.

Start an exercise plan

If you already have one, you can skip this step. But if you don’t, this is the perfect time to start. When you’re unemployed it’s critical that you keep moving–and that’s both figurative and literal. Physical activity makes you feel better about yourself and everything else. If you’re jobless, you’ll need to be intentional about making that happen on a regular basis.

Being unemployed can make you feel useless and sluggish, and exercise can reverse both feelings. No, it probably won’t help you land a job, but it will get you moving in an entirely different direction and that will make you feel better about being you. And THAT just might help you find a job.

Do something new everyday

Unemployment is a time to experiment, to try things you didn’t have time for when you were working. Think self-discovery. This isn’t a flight of fancy either, but part of the attempt to reinvent yourself for another charge up the mountain of life. It’s often during these “free periods” that we find that we have hidden talents and interests that can take us in entirely different directions.

Investment advisor and best selling author Douglas Casey recommends facing an uncertain future with “courage, confidence and curiosity”. If you’re unemployed, you have nothing to lose by adopting this attitude. Try something new each day, even if it’s something small and see where it leads.

Get a part time job

Yes, this will reduce your unemployment benefits, but it isn’t all about money. Sometimes you need to be actively engaged in an income generating activity for emotional purposes, and a part time job can help. You’ll be doing something that you’re getting paid to do! It’s also another way to keep moving.

You might also be able to find part time work that will help you to learn a new skill or two. Many times you can get hired on a part time basis for a job you wouldn’t be considered qualified for as a full timer.

Start a side business that you’ll keep even if you get a new job

Are there any businesses you’ve contemplated going into? Now might be the time to give it a try. You can use your unemployment benefits to help with living expenses while you’re getting started, and you’ll certainly have the time to do what’s needed. It’s a way of 1) keeping busy, 2) doing something new, 3) reinventing yourself, 4) working part time, and perhaps even 5) building a new future in which a new job will no longer be the objective.

If you’re looking for an idea for a business you can start while unemployed, check out my post, The Freelance Blog Writer Side Hustle. Blog writing is a chance to start a business small and to grow it–risk free. Once you get a new full time job you can keep doing it as a side business. And if you ever lose your job again, it won’t feel nearly as bad because you’ll already have a an income generating business in place.

If you’re unemployed or have been in the past, what have you done to keep yourself active and engaged or to prepare yourself for the next job or business venture?

By John Durfee

One of the last things you worry about when coming home from serving your country in a time of war is post-service employment. Unfortunately, there is still a bit of a struggle when it comes to finding a job with ease outside of our armed forces for our veterans.

Despite incentives to hire our country’s vets, there is still about a 15% unemployment rate among returning vets out of the more than two million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. That’s unacceptable in my book. While combat training may not translate seamlessly to the civilian job market back home, there just might be more similarities than you’d think.

To begin, you will no doubt be highly suited to a career in some facet of law enforcement or security. Both physically and mentally, your training with the military has already prepared you for this and it might be something that interests you; something you can transition to quite easily. But if you’re looking to go in an entirely new direction, here are a few tips and guidelines to keep in mind:

Visit your transition office as soon as possible

Odds are, your transition office will sponsor at least one or two job fairs a year, which will give you a solid lead on real employers out there that are more than willing to hire you with your military/life experience. Transition assistance offices help in all sorts of ways; from resume writing to networking, job hunting and interviewing. Most, if not all, seem to offer 1-3 day classes for service members to hone the skills necessary to find a civilian job.

Create a flexible resume

Whether on your own or done with the help of your local transition office, this is a key component to making yourself marketable in today’s job market. This means creating a resume that you can readily change or edit to be of benefit to the specific company you are applying for employment with.

Market yourself strategically

While you know you’ve learned very valuable lessons from your career with the military, some employers still view you as having little to no actual business skills. Some may even think you’ve even fallen behind and have no relevant job skills at all! Of course, you’ve learned so many invaluable things such as teamwork and leadership in the military.

Marketing yourself in this way, pointing out all of your relevant (and seldom seen in the civilian world) job skills that may not have looked like skills at all, just good character. Dependability, punctuality and as I mentioned before, teamwork and leadership skills. These may seem like things not worth mentioning on a resume or at an interview, but they truly are since they are not qualities that everyone possesses.

Update your wardrobe

Unless you’re applying for something hands-on and physical (contractor, construction, mechanic, etc)—odds are you’ll need to do some clothes shopping. Remember that outside of showing up in a tuxedo, you’ll likely never be too dressed up. So, find something nice!

You can only make a first impression once and unless you have degrees to back up your claims of work related skills, what you wear on that first (and second) interview will reflect heavily on what sort of person you are.

Network, network, network

I can guarantee you aren’t the only one you know coming home and job hunting in the civilian world so it is important to make yourself available. Take advantage of visits to your transition office, since they likely have a message board up (either in house, online or even both) where you can get in touch with others in your same position. Employers may even prefer to hire vets, as they also served our country.

Maybe you’ll find a great website posted or a few veterans getting together somewhere to go over resumes and job opportunities that they’ve found on their own. At any rate, the more people you talk to the better off you’ll be. Networking is a vital part of finding quality employment these days, especially for veterans.

Never, never give up!

Bottom line: use your resources. The whole process of coming home and deciding to go in a different direction and apply for work outside of the military is daunting all on it’s own, not to mention actually finding a new job. The military does provide some decent resources but if it isn’t enough to get the ball rolling or land that new job: network.

As I mentioned above, you aren’t alone in your struggles to find a position. You have served your country with dedication and pushed yourself to be a better, stronger person. Keep your head up, pool your resources , work hard (as you’ve been doing) and stay dedicated – that job will be there faster than you think.

John Durfee is an Operation Freedom War veteran and markets Airsoft Guns at Airsplat, the nation’s largest seller of Airsoft Rifles.

By Kevin M

Using a tool to control the flow on the social media

One of the things that can make the social media seem a bit intimidating is the constant flow of messages. How do you get a handle on a flood tide of information, and channel it into a more limited form that will be of practical use? Or more specifically, how do you separate the relevant from the clutter? Doing it manually is beyond comprehension, but fortunately, we’re not without options.

To streamline Twitter or any other social media, there are applications that will simplify the process by separating and organizing incoming messages, as well as enable you to categorize your own messages. And best of all, you can get them for free.

A social media tool can make networking much easier. Hootsuite and TweetDeck are two of the most popular. I have both and use each at different times.

What I’ll describe here will pertain mostly to Twitter, since I’ve chosen to concentrate my efforts on one social media at a time. Both tools can work with multiple social media, including Facebook.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite neatly categorizes your messages by type. Columns include Home Feed (all messages), Mentions (when someone else mentions you in a message), Direct Messages In, Direct Messages Out, Sent Tweets, Pending Tweets (enabling the scheduling of messages ahead of time) and other columns as needed.

Because each category is assigned to a certain, specific column, there’s no guess work as to where a message might be, all you need to do is scroll down a column to search. You can add or delete any column you like.

The Mentions and Pending Tweets columns are especially important. Mentions enables you to see when anyone on Twitter is referencing you so not only can you monitor the network conversations that mention you, but you can also respond.

Pending Tweets allows you to schedule your messages hours or days in advance. This gives you the ability to space your messages over the course of the day keeping you active on the media even though you’re not sitting at your computer typing. You can schedule tweets freeing you to just check in every few hours to see what’s going on.

The Hootsuite application is completely free, and extremely user friendly.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck performs the same functions as Hootsuite, but does so with a different look and feel. It’s also free and very user friendly.

One of the features that can be most attractive to the user on TweetDeck is the fact that it combines both mentions by others, and sent tweets by the user, into one column. That creates a conversational column in which open exchanges with others display in sequential order. It does the same with direct messages. This arrangement means you can get by with two fewer columns than with Hootsuite.

TweetDeck also highlights select messages with a box that opens in the upper right hand corner of your screen at regular intervals. One or more of your messages could appear in the same way on the screens of other TweetDeck users, giving you added exposure.

One of the reasons I use both tools is that I have noticed that each will pick up messages that the other might miss and one thing you want to be aware of is mentions by others. Responding to those mentions is a critical aspect of the social networking experience and the best way to develop mutually beneficial friendships.

My preference: Hootsuite

Both Hootsuite and TweetDeck are effective social media tools, and which would work better in your particular situation would probably depend mostly on personal preference. But if I have to choose one over the other, Hootsuite is the winner.

I tend to like applications to be on the simpler side of the technology curve, and despite the need for more columns Hootsuite is most definitely the simpler of the two. TweetDeck often seems to have a mind of its own. It’s the more active tool, often seeming as if it wants to do some of the thinking for me.

Because it’s more complicated, TweetDeck takes longer to download. The dashboard itself is a bit on the busy side. The highlighted messages it flashes periodically throughout the day come up even when you’re on screens outside the tool. I have to admit that the flash messages are usually good ones, but it can get a bit…annoying.

But perhaps the feature that swings it most in favor of Hootsuite for me is the separation between Mentions/Sent Tweets and incoming and outgoing Direct Messages. While it might be convenient to have sent and received messages appearing in the same column, they’re listed by time, not by conversation, so the mix tends to complicate more than organize. But that’s just me.

As I said, both tools are effective at organizing your social media life, and it may come down to “favorite flavor” more than anything else. If you’re on the social media choose one or the other or a competing tool and the networks will become much more user friendly and beneficial.

Do you use Hootsuite or TweetDeck, or some other media tool? Which do you think works best and why?

Related posts on this topic:
You Are What You Tweet on Twitter
What Twitter Can Do For You

By Kevin M

Last week in What Twitter Can Do For You we discussed how Twitter can be used to generate activity, connections and traffic, as well as enable you to get your ideas out into the world.

Obviously, the more followers you have, the larger the potential market for your messages, or tweets. But equally important is the quality of your tweets. After all once you have a few followers, or a few thousand, the next critical step is generating a stream of tweets that will engage them enough to take the next step, either by responding to your message on the social media itself, or by clicking through to your site.

Despite the thousands of claims of expert status that populate Twitter, the fact that the network is just a few years old and in a constant state of evolution means that there are far more practitioners than experts. With that in mind, I humbly lay claim to the status of practitioner and disclose that I can’t make any guarantees as to your success.

The type of tweets to send out

There’s considerable debate over what type of tweets work best on Twitter. Some say to keep self promotional tweets (messages with direct links to your site) to a minimum, but if you look on your Twitter home feed on any given day it’s clear that the vast majority of networking participants are mostly self promoting. Too many self promotional tweets, say several per hour, 24 hours a day, and you risk being considered a spammer which will turn off and turn away many followers. Too few, and you may defeat the purpose of being on the site at all.

Purely personal messages are the most basic tweets. They’re the type you might send out if you were texting a friend on your cellphone, and may include what you’re doing right now, such as “I’m waiting in line at the grocery store and I’m bored”, or “Having a great meal at Bahama Breeze” or just “I’m tired, I think I’ll go to bed early”.

Personally I shy away from these. I could be wrong, but unless you’re someone famous with a large cast of groupies in tow on your Follower list, it’s unlikely that the typical user you’re trying to attract is going to have much interest in the kind of messages that are usually aimed at an intimate circle of friends.

Tweets that promote other users are a must. This is where the all important practice of reciprocity comes into play. One of the very best ways to make friends on any social media is to promote others. When you do, most will promote you back, and no form of promotion is quite as impressive as a third party endorsement. Here is where the more you give, the more you get.

Content and quotes is another category to emphasize. Here you can send out snippets of news stories, your personal interests (sports, faith, business) or engage messages by others in a more conversational way as opposed to promoting yourself.

Always remember that what you tweet on Twitter stays on Twitter, at least somewhere, and be careful not to send any messages that might compromise you or someone else in the future.

Of course, what type of tweets you send out will depend on what your purpose in using Twitter actually is. But my personal opinion is that you look to work some sort of balance between self promotion, promotion of others, content and quotes and purely personal messages. Since Twitter is still evolving, the best approach may be one of continuous experimentation.

A tool to help you compose your tweets

To help you create compelling tweets, there is a free tool on a site from Advanced Marketing Institute called the Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer, or EMV. It isn’t a Twitter tool per say, but it’s to help you create headlines, which is really what your self promotional tweets are. It grades a headline of up to 20 words—which is about what you get from the 140 character Twitter limitation—based on a range from zero to 100%. The greater the emotional appeal, the higher the score.

The site describes the importance of using emotional words, or EMV’s as follows:

“…reaching your customers in a deep and emotional way is a key to successful copywriting, and your headline is unquestionably the most important piece of copy you use to reach prospects.”

Think of your tweet as your “headline” in this case; in order to get a reader to click through to your website or blog you first have to create compelling content for that message, which usually means some sort of emotional hook.

As an example, I used the EMV tool to create the headline for this post, and received the following result:

“This score indicates that your headline has a total of 71.43% Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) Words. To put that in perspective, the English language contains approximately 20% EMV words. And for comparison, most professional copywriters’ headlines will have 30%-40% EMV Words in their headlines, while the most gifted copywriters will have 50%-75% EMV words in headlines.”

This tool won’t guarantee that a headline, or in our case a tweet, will bring hundreds of visitors to your website or blog, but it will provide a metric for you to measure the potential reach of your messages which hopefully will make you a more skilled tweet writer and contribute toward getting you where you want to go.

 
You truly are what you tweet on Twitter, and learning how to create messages is a critical skill. Developing that skill is one of the most important aspects of using this social media to it’s fullest. I’d like to help you do that more fully in my short e-book, Do You Need 5,000 REAL Twitter Followers?. Not only will it help you build a list of thousands of followers in just a few months, but it will also provide detailed suggestions on what kind messages to send, and when to send them.

By Kevin M

Twitter can seem daunting at times. It’s the preverbal “fire hose of information” coming at you so fast it’s almost incomprehensible–the information superhighway of the information superhighway. To the outside observer, it can seem as if there’s no logical purpose to it, as if everyone is sending out information that no one else is reading.

To a very large degree, that’s even true—but it doesn’t mean that Twitter doesn’t work, or that it won’t work for you. True, not nearly everyone will even pay attention to most of your messages, but you don’t need everyone—you just need a few at a time. Multiply that small response by several efforts each day and you’re beginning to talk about something significant.

The best way I can describe what Twitter can do for you is to tell you what it’s doing for me.

Generating traffic. Twitter is bringing visitors to this blog who wouldn’t otherwise be here. Not all tweets bring visitors all the time, but many bring in several at a time and when you send several per day it begins to add up. This can be especially important for a small or upstart blog or website. It’s an opportunity to “get things going” in your direction and to do it in real time. From a marketing perspective, you can measure results in a matter of minutes rather than days, weeks or even months.

Tweets normally have a short shelf life, being most effective until your next message is tweeted. A strong one however can draw visitors for as long as it remains on your Twitter home page. Some others can draw long past that. I’m an active tweeter, and yet I’ve noticed traffic coming in on messages I’ve sent out days or weeks earlier. Every tweet you send represents an opportunity to draw people your way.

Generating connections. What ever enterprise you’re in or contemplating entering, one thing that greases the wheels is getting connected with others who are already there and doing it. Twitter has put me in contact with other bloggers, and because of its speed it’s enabled me to connect with a large number of them in the shortest space of time.

This blog is my first effort at a presence on the web, and I can say with total confidence that I’ve learned more from other bloggers than I’ve learned on my own. Most of them I “met” on Twitter! In fact, ongoing communication happens mostly through Twitter. The short, quick nature of the messages enables ongoing communication in a world where we’re all too busy for more formal methods of communicating. Often, all you need to do to connect with people is to go to their home page and respond to one or more of their tweets.

Posting my beliefs. As a Christian, I’ve often felt that I’m not doing enough to “get the Word out”. Twitter offers a chance to do that even for the most timid would-be evangelist. Tweeting Bible verses is a way of bringing the Gospel to people I’ll never meet, people perhaps in parts of the world where it isn’t welcome.

Another thing I like to do is to tweet inspiration quotes from famous (and not so famous) people. A Bible verse or inspirational quote may not change thousands of lives, but it may be a real lift at the right moment to a person who’s in a bit of a ditch at the moment. If we can do anything to lift up others we should, even if there’s no direct return to us. Sometimes however I get responses on these and interesting conversations follow.

Use Twitter to broadcast your faith, beliefs, political views—anything you feel passionate about. Most won’t pay any attention, but a few will and that’s often all you need to do to make a difference or get a ball rolling in a desired direction.

Getting noticed. If you’re trying to build a website or blog, or promoting a business or product, one of the most important things is getting noticed. There are many ways to do that, and Twitter is one of them. Tweeting my blog posts has led to some of them being picked up by other sites. Last week two of my posts were linked by Time.com and The Consumerist, both leading to increases in traffic and exposure. My humble little blog has been linked or quoted by newspapers and other blogs that I never solicited directly. That’s the power of Twitter to broadcast simple messages.

Generating activity. An active stream of tweets generates activity, and activity draws people to you for good or for ill, but always with activity comes opportunity. In order to get noticed, you have to find ways to “stir up the pot”—so to speak. In fact, that’s what advertising is all about. Twitter is a way of generating that activity, and because it’s cost free, you can sustain the effort as long as necessary.

Drawing traffic to other social media. One of the cool attributes of Twitter is how it can be used in conjunction with other social media. Twitter makes use of URL shorteners, enabling you to link your tweets to posts on other social media, such as Digg, Tip’d and Stumbleupon. You’re promoting your posts on those media via Twitter, and once visitors go to those sites, they might digg, tip or thumb the post, helping to drive even more traffic your way.

In my experience, Twitter has been on balance the best and most flexible of the various social media.

As a source of news and information. That Twitter feed that seems to blast an endless stream of messages contains some valuable stuff that can lead to interesting discoveries. All kinds of things are coming through on Twitter, and you can scan your home feed periodically and just sample some of what’s coming through.

There’s news, information, ideas and opportunities. Check them out and see what works for you. Usually, when we need an idea or opportunity we go on the web and start searching. With Twitter, you don’t have to search; all you need to do is scan and wait for it all to come to you. People are doing all kinds of things and broadcasting them on Twitter, so you just might find the inspiration you’re looking for.

Every tweet you send out, every person you connect with on Twitter represents a potential opportunity for you to advance your cause, what ever that cause is. The more people you can connect with, the greater the potential for good things to happen. If you’d like to build a larger list of followers but aren’t sure how, check out my short e-book, Do You Need 5,000 REAL Twitter Followers?. It’ll help you add thousands of followers of your choice in just a few months.

By Kevin M

“Everyone” is one of those absolute words we should generally stay clear of, but I’m violating conventional wisdom, sticking my neck out and saying everyone needs to have a blog!

You can beat me up for violating protocol, but before you do, consider the seven reasons why I’m making such a bold declaration…

 
1. To CONNECT with the rest of the world, 21st Century style

There are nearly seven billion people in the world and most of us connect with a handful who we’ll connect with in any meaningful way. With a blog we can add hundreds or thousands more—do you think there might be some value in that?

A blog is the cornerstone of finding like minded people in a world that seems to be pulling apart socially even as it gets more crowded. Though it often seems that people are the nexus of our troubles, we can’t overlook that they’re usually the source of our solutions as well. After all, who couldn’t use a few more friends, a few more intelligent opinions or a few more business contacts?

Most of the people we’ll meet through blogs will live in another part of the country, or another part of the world, but that’s pretty stinking exciting, wouldn’t you say?

 
2. To have a VOICE and advance your IDEAS in the world

A blog is an opportunity to get your voice and your ideas out on the information superhighway. Express your opinions at work—to the degree you’re even allowed to anymore(!)—and a few people will hear what you have to say. Put it out on a blog and potentially thousands will read it. Some will forward it to others.

We all have good ideas—ideas that could potentially benefit many people. With a blog you have the venue to express those ideas. Unlike the traditional print media, your ideas don’t need to make it past the editing bureau where they may be modified or killed. And you can put your ideas out there in real time, enabling you to weigh in on events as they happen—you become a part of the grass roots media.

 
3. To build a national and global NETWORK for any future purpose

We can’t possibly know what the future holds, but we can prepare for it in a very general way that can payoff big later. By building connections now—with hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people—we’re setting up a built in stage for what ever we decide to launch, whenever we’re ready to launch it.

A blog gives you a foothold on the information superhighway, a springboard for all that you might do. Even if you don’t have message or a business idea right now, with a blog you can begin building the contacts that will have the marketing in place from the get go. And best of all, it doesn’t have to cost a thing!

 
4. To MARKET any product, service or business you can conceive of

Do you know with certainty what you’ll be doing to earn a living in five or ten years? With the job market being so unpredictable, it’s best to be prepared for anything. One of the best ways to do this is with some form of self-employment, even if it’s only as a side business right now.

You can test business ideas with a blog and add new ones or drop old ones as circumstances warrant, but you’ll have that all important flexibility that every entrepreneur needs. Even if you’re not thinking in this direction right now, you can be ready for a change of either heart or circumstances.

 
5. To create an additional INCOME STREAM

Even if you don’t know what product or service you might want to market, there are opportunities to start earning some money almost immediately. Google Adsense as well as various affiliate marketing programs can enable you to generate a small revenue stream even without having any business ideas of your own.

Your site doesn’t need to be a business site for these programs to work either. Any site topic that draws in a steady stream of visitors can make ad programs work for you, though certain topics do work better than others. And sometimes a small income stream is all it takes to motivate you to take things to a higher level.

Ultimately the solution to career, income or debt problems may lie not so much in a new, higher paying career as much as in the development of multiple income streams, which not only increase income but also provide diversified sources for greater stability.

 
6. To draw OPPORTUNITIES to you

As you broadcast your ideas and peddle your wares on your weblog, and people begin visiting your site, it will open the doors for others to contact you about what it is they’re working on that might be a good fit with what you’re offering. Business and marketing ideas, job opportunities and advertising arrangements are all possibilities, and they will come about without any special effort on your part.

Create a compelling blog, and people and opportunities will find their way to your email. Think of your blog as your own personal billboard, take it seriously, and put out the best you have to offer. Work into a niche where you have above average knowledge and skills and have at least some passion about. People who are interested in the same things you are will find you, and good things will happen from there.

 
7. To TAKE PART in the democratic process since that voting thing really isn’t working

Whenever we vote, we’re accepting a given platform, a package of ideas we can either vote up or down on based on our vote for or against a candidate. That system usually leaves us with just two choices, and we can’t remove certain items from a platform and replace them with others we feel are more important. Charles Hugh Smith (link also in left column) refers to this as a “simulacrum of democracy”, and it has much to do with why the political system is often so unresponsive to changes in world or national circumstances or even to public will.

The internet is the new place for the exchange of free ideas, for the average citizen to come forward with small ideas that may have no other way of becoming big ideas except that we put them in a public place for others to see. In the absence of the public square or of an objective media, a blog may be the single best place to present those ideas. You could launch ideas and concepts that will start on your blog then crawl their way into national policy. Can you do that with your vote?

How do you create a blog? Since I’m relatively new at this myself, I’ll defer to the opinions of some more seasoned bloggers, and highly recommend that you check out the following:

How to make money with a blog by Bob Lotich at ChristianPF.

Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog: Advice From Successful Bloggers from Bible Money Matters. Some free advice, but most is in a paid e-book that’s worth every penny of the $29.95 purchase price.

 
Do you have a blog? Do you agree that having one is well worth the time invested? Can you offer any other advantages to having a blog?

By Kevin M

You may be employed at the moment; in fact you may even be well-employed. But look at many others around you and what do you see? With millions unemployed, millions more under-employed, and hundreds of thousands of jobs being outsourced to lower wage countries, what does the future of employment hold? Is it possible that the sun is setting on the traditional one man/one job model of employment and income?

Before dismissing the possibility, consider that only 40 years ago tens of millions of workers were employed in largely high paying, mostly unionized factory jobs. Just over 100 years ago the majority of Americans were employed in agriculture. Where are all of those jobs now? And if one man/one job is going the way of the factory job, what are our options?

Developing multiple income streams may become a necessary reaction to an environment where the unemployed often return to the work force in lower paying jobs.

In Survival+, Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation, Charles Hugh Smith introduces the concept of hybrid work:

“…one finger in the wage economy, one in growing food, another in creative pursuits, another in trading childcare for eldercare, another in hedging/investing to preserve purchasing power, another in helping to develop locally owned distributed energy as either a technical innovator, an investor or provider of labor/supervision and yet another in local schooling.”

While I’m not going to follow this definition to the letter, I am going to use it as model in developing a practical outline on how each of us can broaden our income bases and provide ourselves with a measure of employment and income security that the traditional one man/one job model is increasingly failing to provide.

Start a side business—now!

Multiple income streams are at the heart of hybrid work. Anyone can and probably should have some sort of business, at least as a sideline. At the core of self-employment is learning to trade with others, a basic skill we need to get reacquainted with.

First don’t quit your day job. Second, think about what you actually like to do, what you truly feel passionate about. You work at your day job to pay the bills, now do something you feel good about. Passion will drive you to keep at it when failure seems inevitable. A lack of passion will doom it to failure.

Get started now, and don’t worry about making money—it’s typical that new ventures don’t make money for months, a year or longer. But that’s why you keep your day job. Play at it for a while and learn the ropes.

Even if your day job looks safe, you want to start the venture as soon as possible so the business will be rolling at a future date when your job situation may look less certain, or when you just might feel like pitching the job to become a full time entrepreneur.

Develop a web presence

The internet offers an inexpensive way to market products and services, but equally important, it opens up virtually the entire world as a potential market. Operating without it is the equivalent of looking for a job without a drivers license–there are just so many jobs on the bus route.

Set up a simple website or weblog for any purpose or topic you choose. Then get on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In or as many social media as you can. Take on one at a time and just start chatting and asking questions. Even if you don’t need it now, you want to have a web presence established for the day when you do.

I started seriously working Twitter in mid-November, beginning with just seven followers and zero knowledge. But as of today, just two months later, I have over 700. If I can do this, anybody can.

700 followers is chicken feed; many Twitter veterans have thousands, even tens of thousands. Think of what you could do with 20,000 followers, or 50,000? Develop your contact base now, even if you have nothing to sell. When you do have something, you’ll already have a market in place.

If you’re self-employed, look for part-time, seasonal and contract work

If you already have a profitable business you’re ahead of the curve. But you’re also not immune to the cycles of perpetual change that technology and globalization are imposing economy wide. Also, many businesses are seasonal, having busy peak seasons followed by frightening lulls. Part-time, seasonal and contract work may be a way to even out the income flow and, just as important, broaden revenue sources.

Optimally the wage arrangement should be in a business unrelated to yours, so that if your industry tanks you’ll have a cash flow and a “next career” to go to.

I was on the front lines for the mortgage meltdown, and when the industry started going down there were few opportunities to remain in the business, and the lines to get them were extremely long. Some pre-positioning would have made the descent easier.

Join and participate in networks

This is how you keep you’re ear to the ground. Join network groups related not only to your business, but also to any business you think you might be interested in. It’s an opportunity to find out what’s going on “out there” in the real world that’s happening behind the often oversimplified version the media reports.

Broaden your contacts, find people who are doing what you’re doing (or want to do) and “swap recipes”. It’s amazing what information can be gathered from casual contacts.

Seek soft barter arrangements

Let’s say you can do web design and you have an acquaintance who fixes cars—can you find a way to swap services? Inventory your skills and think about what people in your orbit can do; are there any barter opportunities?

Develop a “hands-on skill”

People who can produce or fix things often have the greatest job security. Ours is a world of machines, and all of them break or need service sooner or later. Being one of the people who can keep them going is a solid start to a side business.

You don’t need to be a jack-of-all-trades; a single skill can open up barter arrangements or a second income opportunity. A guy in my neighborhood started fixing things for neighbors; in a short while he was doing it for money. After he lost his IT job, he went full time as a handyman, and has been at it for several years. Because of the real estate bust people are fixing their homes instead of moving, and his business is booming.

Actively search for new opportunities

While others are lamenting the bad economy, see the world as a cornucopia of fresh ideas and opportunities and be prepared to move on short notice. The world economy is moving very fast; as one income opportunity fades, be ready to replace it with a new one.

Live beneath your means always

Many opportunities are available to those who travel light in life, unburdened by outsized mortgages, late model cars and other trappings of the high cost lifestyle so many aspire to. Seek enjoyment in freedom, simplicity, people and meaningful work.

Save and invest intelligently

A healthy bank balance means more opportunities and better sleep. We all need more of both. If you have two or more income sources, you may be able to allocate one specifically for savings. Savings can even out an erratic income stream and free you up to take chances that debt surfs can only dream of.

Be conservative in your investing; two stock market crashes in the last 10 years should cure us the desire to put 80-100% of our money into risk investments. Take your chances in the business world, not with money you’ve already earned and may need to pay bills with one day.
 

It may not be possible to take on all of these activities simultaneously, but they can be integrated over time. Pick one to implement immediately, then one add each month or two as your circumstances warrant. There is no goal line here, forward motion is the key.

How do you see the economy playing out over the next few years? Do you think the end of one man/one job is a possibility? What are you doing to stay afloat and find new opportunities?

STRATEGY #10 TO SURVIVE A DOWN ECONOMY

By Kevin M

When careers and money become questionable foundations in our lives, what’s left? It’s often only in bad economies that we even entertain the question.

In 10 Ways To Survive a Down Economy (published on Christianpf.com June 1) we listed ten strategies to help us deal with the bad economy. Our topic for today, the final strategy, Strategy #10:

Seek fulfillment beyond your work. In a world where careers are no longer either peaceful or progressive, self actualizing through your work may not be the path it’s been in the past. Fortunately, there are plenty of opportunities to find fulfillment outside of work. Take more active roles in regard to your health, family, faith and community.

When times are good, and jobs, money and credit are plentiful, there’s a tendency for us to become self-contained. We self-actualize through our work, and surround ourselves with the things that prosperity enables us to afford. But when the foundations of that life are shaken or even dismantled, where do we turn to find comfort, platforms from which to rebuild and a sense of self-worth?

Self

The word has an almost negative connotation, but during prosperous times when work is plentiful, it’s easy to define ourselves principally by the work we do. But is that who truly who we are on the inside? And if our work has been downgraded, or is completely gone, then who are we? Now is a good opportunity to spend some alone time, purposely visiting (or revisiting) the question, who am I and what do I stand for?

When we’re on the fast track at work, a certain go-along-to-get-along mindset tends to seep into our lives. Things are going well with work, we’re making money—and all of that is good—so we need to put this or that aspect of our lives on the back burner for later. But maybe now IS later!

Spend some quiet time thinking, or talking with family and friends about the type of person you are, what you may be suited for, and to consider and discuss some plans you may have been nursing but never had the time to act on.

Family

Men are especially guilty of putting excessive time into our careers, and claiming to be doing it for our families. While this is necessary to a very large degree, we sometimes pursue career success in the name of our families without ever stopping to see what it is that our families want.

Recessions are a good time to take this issue up with our families. Hard times inadvertently help us to find more time to be with our families. If you’ve lost your job or your business has failed, one silver lining is that you’ll have more time to spend with your family. Take advantage of this. Find out what it is they want from you, have some fun and build some memories. A period of unemployment may be a financial negative, but it may also be a time to bond with family in a way that will strengthen the family unit and build cherished memories that will last a lifetime.

Community

How many of us have neighbors we don’t even know? That’s a sad statement on our times, but also fairly typical as we increasingly immerse ourselves in electronic media such as wide screen TVs, computer games, cell phones, I-pods and the computer on which you’re reading this post. There’s real utility in expanding our networks of contacts beyond our immediate communities via those media, but we shouldn’t use those networks as a virtual replacement for those of the flesh and blood variety either.

We may not think of it in this way, but the physical communities we live in are our most basic networks. While were searching the World Wide Web for networks around the globe, one already exists right outside the front door. When we’re consumed with work and looking to expand virtual connections, there’s often little time left for involving ourselves with the people and circumstances in our most immediate environments.

People who are physically present are also in the best position to provide direct help. Watching each others kids, running errands for one another or helping with a major repair project on the house or car when we can’t afford to pay an outsider, are examples of things we can’t get from the worldwide web. Never are we more dependent (and interdependent) on the people around us than when we’re experiencing a crisis.

But community is something which must be developed and practiced on an ongoing basis, and in order to have a network of willing helpers, or even just people to be with us to listen during times of trouble, we first need to be willing participants in that community. If you suddenly find yourself with more time on your hands due to job loss or reduction in hours, or even just a fear of what the future may hold, seek greater involvement in your local community. One of the very best ways to find helpers in that community is to become a helper yourself. We can all help one another in so many capacities, and that’s the basis of any successful network.

Faith

It’s become common these days to dismiss faith in a higher power as “old world”—something people believed back when no one knew any better. Against the backdrop of science, technology, all encompassing careers and an admittedly very impressive entertainment establishment, it’s easy for faith to seem irrelevant. But humanity has practiced religion from its very beginnings, well into the last century and still in many quarters all over the world today, so we can’t be quick to discount it’s relevance.

When a job loss or some other disaster befalls us, God can suddenly seem closer to us, in much the same way that we can never realize how many stars there are in the night sky until we find ourselves in a place without civilizations lights. Absent our usual props, we can become more open to the possibility of a higher power and the implications that it carries for our lives.

Being a person of faith, I’m biased here. But one of the most liberating things I’ve come to learn in my own faith journey is that it isn’t all about me, and it isn’t all about here, and it isn’t all about now. The world, the future of civilization and even my very life don’t depend on my plans and endeavors working out the way I expect them to. And you know what? It’s OK. A higher power will reset the pins even if I somehow knock them all down, and life will go on. Even if things look dark right now, at some point they’ll get a lot better.

Seek out faith, or reacquaint yourself with it if you grew up with it and fell away. Few endeavors in life can provide the comfort and sense of self-worth in the face of catastrophe that a solid faith walk can.

Health and fitness

Often when we’re in career high gear, and up to our necks in tasks, agendas and phone calls, a few things slip past us. A big one is health. Let’s face it, taking care of ourselves takes time, time to prepare healthier meals and to exercise. When our schedules are packed, it’s easy to let these efforts slide. With the slowing of the business treadmill, there may be more time to devote to taking care of our bodies.

Ultimately this is a good thing. Though we don’t normally think of health and fitness in financial terms, in fact they carry a huge impact. If we can work to improve our health, many other plusses will come our way. Better health equals more energy, self confidence and a better outlook on life. All of these are assets in what ever we plan to do in life, including getting back on the career and business treadmill. We can prepare our bodies now for the next shift in the economy, which ever way it goes.

Causes

I’m not deep into politics, but we all do our share of complaining about the political system. In truth few of us ever get truly involved. There are issues all around that disturb each of us, and we can get involved in the political process as a way of making things better. I’m not talking about pushing for a change in national political agenda, but there’s plenty that can be done at the local level where our voices can be heard. And sometimes movements get started at the local level then go national. When work is all consuming, there may not be time to get involved, but in the current slowdown, that time may be available.

Consider getting involved in charitable work as well. We may not have money to give to help others, but we all have our time and effort. Just like with faith, working to help with activities that are completely beyond our own lives helps us to realize that everything in our lives doesn’t and shouldn’t revolve solely around us.

Bonus points: involving ourselves in political or charitable activities may not provide us with a job or income, but either could put us in contact with people or circumstances that can.

Hobbies

I saved this one for last not only because it’s the most fun, but also because it may also be the most productive. Most of us have hobbies – activities or interests usually having nothing to do with our career paths. But what ever we may work at as a career, it’s our hobbies which often define our passions. And it’s from those passions that future directions, including careers, can be found.

If you’ve recently lost your job, feel certain you will or have hit a ceiling above which you don’t expect to rise anytime soon, now may be an excellent time to look to the future in the things that you like to do. You spent years of your life working at something you may not like much (or might even hate); if that’s come to an end, maybe it’s time to look closely at doing what you love. Inventory your list of hobbies, interests and passions, and consider if there may be a future career lurking somewhere in there, even if only as a side business. If we can work at something we feel passionately about, our careers may not feel so much like work. Many people begin new careers and businesses doing just that.

If it seems as if career and finances have taken a turn for the worse, maybe it’s time to take a closer look at these “softer sides” of life for answers.

STRATEGY #5 TO SURVIVE A DOWN ECONOMY

By Kevin M

In the dreary job market of the moment, people are having difficulty with two major areas in particular: keeping a steady income flow and increasing that flow. The increasing level of unemployment is not only eliminating jobs, but it’s also putting a lid on raises and promotion opportunities. This is in large part, the driving force behind the credit crisis and the epidemic of foreclosures and bankruptcies. Is there a way to deal with it without taking unnecessary risks?

In 10 Ways To Survive a Down Economy (published on Christianpf.com June 1) we listed ten strategies to help us deal with the bad economy. Our topic for today, Strategy #5:

Be prepared to cultivate and balance multiple income sources. You may have a full time job and a part time business, or vice versa. Think of your work in terms of an investment portfolio, in which diversification adds strength. There are probably several jobs you are potentially good at; always be on the lookout for new opportunities.

Why increasing income or broadening the income base matter

Recessions produce a storm cellar mentality, a time when most people become concerned primarily with keeping what they have. But even if you keep what you have—your job and your current income level—you’re still falling behind. Official consumer price index (CPI) numbers aside, most of us realize that it costs more to live each year. Health care costs, education, utilities, real estate taxes, auto insurance, car repairs and many other expenses that we pay for products and services we can’t live without have been rising much faster than published numbers suggest. Meanwhile, gasoline and food costs bounce in unpredictable patterns. And what about preparing for retirement? If it often seems overwhelming it’s because it is!

If you’re in a job or business in which options to expand income are limited, it may be time to look outside the box for solutions. If you have a job that’s stuck in neutral, a part time job or side business may be the only way to increase your income. If you have a business already, it may be time to consider working in lines that are unrelated to what your business does as a primary function. If you can take on business lines that run in counter cycles to your main business, one for which peak season occurs when your mainline is in slow season, you may have found a solid way to even out your income stream.

Additional income aside, adding multiple sources will help to strengthen your income base, making you less vulnerable to job loss or income declines. Just being involved in different lines of work can often open doors to opportunities that would never surface if you stay exclusively in your regular occupation. Think wide, rather than deep!

I’m not saying that this is going to happen, but I will suggest the possibility…we may be on the edge of a time when job and income security can no longer be trusted to a single job or employer. We’ve known since well before the current recession that we don’t have anything like the job security workers enjoyed a generation or two ago. In fact, it’s now close to impossible to plan as much as a five year stint with one company with any certainty.

It’s worth noting that major changes often take root in society years before they’re even identified and labeled. True, we’ve been operating in an environment of one worker/one job for decades, but there’s more than a remote chance that a change to multiple income streams is in the pipeline already. Recessions often amplify and accelerate trends that were developing before the downturn hits. We can’t know for certain if that’s the case right now, but it may be worth some preparation just in case.

I’m having trouble keeping one income source, how do I get a second, or a third?

While it might be tempting to throw up our hands and resign ourselves to the fact that the economy stinks, and there’s little to do but hold on to the job or business we have and hope to tough it out until the next recovery comes and lifts all boats—including ours—but is that a plan or just a hope? I’ll dare to suggest that we need to be proactive, even now when opportunity seems to be hard to achieve. For the following reasons there may be more opportunity out there right now than there has been in a long while…

1. Many companies can no longer afford full time employees and are hiring part timers and outside contractors
2. With large numbers of people unemployed and underemployed, non-traditional work arrangements are becoming more common and accepted than ever
3. Un-/under-employment is advancing networking as the unemployed and marginally employed band together seeking opportunity
4. The internet has enabled would-be entrepreneurs to market to people across the globe at relatively low cost
5. In nearly every industry, large enterprises are in retreat, opening markets to upstarts and smaller competitors who can offer a better way
6. New trends—like thrift, energy efficiency, and cleaning up the credit mess—are emerging creating opportunities that didn’t exist two years ago
7. Financial hardship is causing both people and organizations to seriously consider new ways of doing business that they wouldn’t have entertained in more prosperous times

Each of these factors represents a single overriding dynamic: change. And each presents an opportunity either to stabilize or increase our incomes.

Worried that you job is in jeopardy? Offer to stay at your current job at reduced hours, making up the income loss with a similar arrangement with another company. Did you try a business idea a few years ago that didn’t make it? Maybe it’s time to dust it off and try again—a lot of the competition has quietly disappeared. Have a product or service that you haven’t had much luck selling locally? Maybe you were thinking too small; start a website, link it to other websites and try peddling to the whole world—you can have a marketing budget of zero, which will give you the staying power to keep at it until it works. Not having any luck finding a new job? Get connected with anyone and everyone you can on the social networks—Facebook, Linked In, etc.—and start looking for an *opportunity* rather than a job.

The point is, part time jobs, job sharing, contract arrangements and side businesses are out there, but require a bit more thinking than in the past. Start looking at situations from outside the box, and the opportunities may be more obvious. The part time side business you start today—yes, right here in the middle of the worst economy since the Great Depression—may be your full time career a couple of years from now.

By Kevin M

Now might not be the best time to make a job or career change, but does that mean you have to sit where you’re at and just tough it out until better times come along and open up the doors of opportunity? Well, don’t go quitting your job, but there’s plenty you can (and should) do right now to get yourself prepared for the day when…

Start preparing yourself now for the place you want to be when the economy starts to creep back—many of the best opportunities will come as the elevator begins to rise, and pre-positioning yourself for that moment is something you don’t have to wait to start.

Preparing for the career

Even though you may not be in a position to enter your chosen career or business right now, there are specific areas you can work on now that will speed entry when the time comes.

Network and make connections that will help you make the move when the time comes. Even if you have no contacts presently, begin reaching into the new field any way you can. The internet offers networking opportunities in nearly any business you can imagine. This will be a way to collect valuable contacts—or even job prospects—before you even leave your present job.

Enroll in any training or certification programs needed. Some careers and businesses require certification or completion of training in order to enter. Often such programs can take months to complete. If time permits, now might be the perfect time to begin. In fact, now may be the best time if you already have a steady paycheck; that may not be the case if you wait until you enter the new field since certain fields bar entry until you have satisfied the requirements.

Add or update skills that will enhance your marketability for a new job or career. Most careers and businesses have certain skills that are specific to the field. Find out what they are and begin learning them. Will the new field require public speaking, different computer software, use of unfamiliar equipment? Find out what they are and begin learning them, it’ll shorten the learning curve when you finally make the jump.

If it’s a new career or business, look for part time work in that field so you can gain experience and make some contacts. If you’re anxious to jump in and get a leg up on your new career or business, one of the very best ways to do it is by taking a part time job in the field. Not only will you get training and contacts, but working and earning a paycheck—even a small one—will make the transition real. If you’re having difficulty landing a part time job, try looking for one during the industry’s busy season when opportunities will be more plentiful.

Find a mentor and learn all you can. Enter a new field and one thing is absolutely certain: you will make mistakes. Many of those mistakes can be avoided if you can become friendly with someone who’s already working in your desired field and who is willing to share the dos and don’ts of the trade. Avoiding mistakes can be a career saver.

Preparing outside the career

Not all preparations are related directly related to the new career itself. Many will be in the area of preparing your personal life for the change ahead.

Motivational techniques—books, cd’s websites, seminars to keep the juices flowing. If you’ve been on your current job long enough you may be in that dreaded state of going through the motions. You know the job well, and you find it boring. That’s not a good state of mind to enter a new career. Start working now to find sources of motivation that will get your fires burning and have you ready to step up when the time comes. Getting and staying motivated is critical in any production related career.

Cutting you’re living expenses to be prepared for a drop in income, should that be the case. More often than not, a career change brings a lower income. Start preparing your finances for this now. Much of the cost of living is habit; adapt your thinking and actions to a lower income and that’ll be one less hurdle you’ll have to deal with when the career change comes. The better you can manage on a reduced cash flow, the greater the likelihood of success in the new venture.

Saving up money and paying off bills to get yourself financially prepared for the move. Much of the risk and anxiety that comes with career change can be reduced by a large bank account. If you normally have $5000 in your savings account, be purposeful about increasing it to $10,000, or even $20,000, if time and income permit. The more savings you have behind you, the more confident you’ll be when you strike out into the unknown.

Start a diet and exercise program. Energy level is an overlooked factor in career success. People who have it are usually more successful than their peers because they have greater capacity to produce. Equally important, in starting a new career or business, you’ll absolutely need greater energy to deal with the stresses of managing a new venture. All of that is better accomplished if you’re in better physical condition.

Build up your social network. If you’re going into a new venture, you’ll need strong social support. Any time we step outside our comfort zones, there will be stresses and unpleasant surprises. Having family and friends nearby can help insulate us from that stress.

Still feel like the bad economy has you stuck in a going nowhere job? Now you’ve got plenty to keep you busy while you’re stuck. Get enough of these action steps line up in the right direction, and the day to make your move might come a lot sooner!