#but they’ll let 15 people go and then hire 20 more within a week so that’s clearly not the case

[steviescrystals]

trying so hard not to wallow and feel sorry for myself but like 😁😁 how is it fair to tell someone they’re a great worker and they did nothing wrong and then let them go and the only explanation you give them is “we can’t pay all these full-time people anymore” ?? like damn i know i’ve been wanting a change in my life but i didn’t mean losing my fucking job for no reason

[hangrypa]

s/p first year as a PA

I was hired as a hospitalist primarily for the transplant service. However, in the setting of the pandemic and staffing shortages, I am all over the place now and work in almost everything non-pediatric and non-surgical. 

In my first few months as a PA, I was incredibly overwhelmed. I went from being a learner who switches specialties every month to a fully-fledged provider making life-or-death decisions on an hourly basis. Oftentimes I’d find myself in the room of a patient actively crumping, surrounded by the patient’s family and multiple nurses awaiting instructions on what to do to save the patient. I thought that I faced a lot of pressure in school, but it was nothing compared to this. 

And just when I started to get a hang of it all, the pandemic hit. What a nightmare. As mentioned above, I was hired to work with with transplant patients. Prior to the pandemic, my transplant colleagues and I were masking and gowning for almost every patient: 1 surgical mask and 1 gown per patient and per patient encounter. But once COVID hit, we were rationing PPE. 1 N95, 1 pair of goggles, and 1 face shield for the pandemic. 1 surgical mask per week, and 1 gown only if a patient had Cdiff or a history of MDRO bacteremia.

What did the pandemic mean for our transplant patients? 

Our patients are on immunosuppressant medications to prevent transplant rejection. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult for them to fight infections. 

Our department did what it could to prevent COVID. We'd test patients on admission for COVID, regardless of symptoms or exposure history. If they were positive, they went to the COVID team and quarantined on their unit for a period of time and had to test negative before returning to our unit and being transplanted. We took many other measures to reduce COVID risk to the best of our ability. 

People still died. To see someone get transplanted successfully and then die of a virus is horrifying. Unfortunately, despite our admission tests, sometimes patients contracted COVID within the hospital. Patients would be happily FaceTiming their family one moment, telling them all of their plans for once they were discharged- then the next day they'd be intubated. We tried Remdesivir, Dexamethasone, prone positioning, etc. But the virus moved through them quickly, and these efforts often were too late. No amount of hoping and praying brought them back. 

As a first year PA, I learned to go to an empty conference room, close the door, and remove my mask before calling to the family of the deceased. This way, as they gathered around the phone in their homes, the family could hear me unmuffled as I delivered the news. Also, this way my tears didn't ruin my mask for the rest of the week. 

I learned a lot this year. It's been a mixture of crying and laughing. There are times that I question why I ever became a PA, and then there are times when this career feels like home. In addition to transplant, I’ve also been working in the  ED, IMC, ICU, inpatient hospice, clinic, and infusion center these past 6 months. I’ve learned quite a lot along the way.

Lessons learned as a first year PA:

1. Check your pager hourly: This is in addition to checking it whenever you get paged. Sometimes I’ll get paged while I’m rounding, read it, and then forget about it. Now I go through my pager at every hour to ensure that I already responded to all my pages and then answer ones that I missed/forgot.  On a semi-related note, a while back I wrote about good paging etiquette.

2. Let people know when you're out: I work a rotating schedule. As a result, it’s hard to predict when I’m in or out of the hospital. Sometimes I’ll come back on service and find urgent emails or texts that are a few days old. Now I leave an away message with my return date and my supervisor’s contact information on both email and hospital text. If someone really needs to get a hold of me, my supervisor has my personal cell phone number.

3. Be conscientious of what time you consult: I generally try to get all of my nonurgent consults done before 3pm. Many services have only 1 resident covering after 3pm, so I try not to page/call unless I have an emergency. 

4. Call the nurse if something needs to be done urgently: Being a nurse means being the ultimate multitasker. Room 5 is due for his IV Amphotericin, Room 2's Foley is supposed to come out prior to void trial with Urology, Room 1's infusion completed and is beeping, and Room 4 is a bit altered and yanked out her PICC. Now I’m placing an order for Room 3 to get IV Lasix due to concern for pulmonary edema. However, the nurse may be preoccupied with Room 4 and not see the order in the computer for some time. If I really need to the patient to get the Lasix right way, I’ll place the order through EMR and then call the nurse and see what their situation is. If they’re crazy busy with Room 4 and likely to be unable to get to the Lasix within the next 15min, I ask whether they’re okay with me asking another nurse to give the Lasix now. Usually the answer is yes.

5. Value your nurses: Nurses know the patient best. They’re the ones answering call bells, giving meds, doing dressing changes, etc. Unfortunately they oftentimes bear the brunt of everyone’s frustrations, from patients to patients’ families to attendings to managers. Not to mention, they’re the ones doing the dirty work. Bedside nurses are the heartbeat of healthcare, but they also are high risk for burnout. Always support your nurses, whether that’s volunteering to answer a patient’s family member’s 17th phone call of the day or responding to a patient’s call bell yourself. 

6. Know how to get a hold of someone quickly: It’s less than ideal to page someone repeatedly. At my hospital, if I need to talk to an attending urgently, I call the operator and ask them to connect me directly to the attending’s cell phone. If a patient is crashing and we’re not in the ICU, I dial the emergency number and call a rapid response, which sends people running into my patient’s room. 

7. Plan your discharge meds from Day 1: The goal of every admission is to treat the patient and then discharge them safely. Send medications early for prior auth and call the pharmacy to make sure that they have medications in stock. (One time a patient’s insurance didn’t cover Levofloxacin, of all things.) 

8. Keep social work and care coordination aware of all needs from the start: Does your patient looks unsteady? Place a PT/OT consult and let social work and care coordination know that the patient might require home therapy services and/or DME so that they can start looking at services and companies that may be covered by insurance. Does your patient have a central line? They’ll likely need a home health service to teach them how to care for it daily at home. Do they seem to require frequent transfusions? They’ll probably need labs on discharge. Is the patient’s living situation safe (no heat/AC, possible abuse at home, financial difficulties, etc)? They may need alternative housing.

9. The attending is not always right: Generally speaking, the attending has the last say on how the team manages a patient. However, I’ve come across situations in which an attending’s decision put a patient in more danger. Sometimes asking them about their decision can help steer the care plan toward better patient care. Other times you just have to stand your ground and be okay with being on the receiving end of an attending’s misdirected rant. Report these instances to your manager and to other higher-ups.

10. Always have gloves in your pocket: You never know when you’ll find a mess. Or which part of the body someone asks you to examine. Or how hygienic a person is (or is not).

11. Verify weird vitals: I was very new when I walked into work, opened a patient’s chart, and promptly bolted down the hallway when I saw a patient’s O2 sats recorded as 15-20s. I found the patient sitting up in bed, eating breakfast, and bewildered by me bursting into the room. Turns out that overnight someone mistakenly recorded his respirations as the O2 sats.

12. Remove whatever tubes you can: Anything entering the body is an infection risk. Does your patient still need that Foley placed by the surgery team? No? Yank it (don’t actually yank because ouch). Is your patient A&O and able to eat without aspirating? Remove the NG tube. Does your patient have good veins and require infrequent transfusions/labwork? Pull their central line.

13. Take a buddy with you to emergencies: Two heads are better than one. Even if you’re a seasoned provider and well-equipped to manage an emergency, you might need another body to help with performing CPR, making urgent calls, grabbing supplies, etc. 

14. Ask your patients about premeds for procedures: We all have different levels of pain tolerance. A procedure goes far more smoothly if your patient is comfortable. Note: if you’re going to premed with Ativan or an opiate in the outpatient setting, make sure they have a driver.

15. Be good to your charge nurse and unit secretary: I don’t know how they do it. If I had to manage the unit’s signout, patient complaints, calls from other floor, being yelled at by providers, verifying paper orders, and finding beds for incoming patients- all at the same time - I’d lose my mind. 

16. If your patient is mad, just shut up and listen: There are many things that you can’t control: the time it takes for a patient to get a room, the temperature of hospital food, the dismissive attitude of your attending, etc. And oftentimes the patient knows this. My reflex is to want to apologize for things and overexplain why different things are happening. But sometimes the patient just needs to rant. Take a step back and just listen. That can make all the difference.

17. Fact check your notes: The framework for your progress note often is the note from the day prior. It sounds obvious, but make sure that you go through the note and make updates and changes accordingly. If today is 01/15, there’s a good chance that the Fungitell from 12/31 is not still pending. 

18. Try to learn some nursing skills: This is one of the areas in which I most envy my NP colleagues. If a patient’s IV pump is beeping or their central line need to be flushed, I oftentimes awkwardly step out of the room and look vacantly into the distance for a nurse. I’ve finally figured out how to spike a bag (albeit I do so very slowly, and it certainly makes the RNs giggle some). I talked to our unit’s nurse manager, and she’s willing for me to learn some nursing skills from the staff during a slow day- we’ll see when thing slow down!

19. Be kind: Generally speaking, being in a hospital is stressful. Patients are feeling out of sorts, and staff are working with constant dinging in the background. I rant plenty on this website, but I’m kind to everyone at work (with few exceptions) because it makes things more comfortable for everyone. Additionally, if you are always kind to your patients and colleagues, your reputation will speak for itself. One time I was walking down a hall with poor reception while on my ASCOM with a notoriously standoffish nurse from another unit. My phone cut out. She called my unit’s nurse manager to complain, and the nurse manager told her that I would never hang up on purpose. My interactions with the nurse going forward were always more pleasant in nature.

20. Support your team: The best colleagues are not the smartest colleagues; the best coworkers are the ones who have your back. Whether it’s a medical emergency or just a strange situation, it’s important to be supported and to give support.

I know that I’ve learned a lot more than this, so I’ll likely be adding to this throughout the year. Happy Snow Day, all!

[ilovemyschool]

Teaching through COVID???

Bless you if you actually make it to the end of this post, lol.

I teach high school science- specifically Chemistry and AP Chemistry.  I absolutely love teaching and I love my students.  I especially enjoy getting to talk to them about what they want to do when they graduate, where they want to go to college, what kind of jobs they want to do, and all of that fun stuff.  Finishing high school is an incredibly exciting time in life for a person, and I feel privileged to get to re-live the excitement and apprehension and hopefulness and all the other feelings that come along with having so many possibilities for your life laid out in front of you.  I don’t know any other kind of work that allows you to feel those feelings year after year like I get to through my students.  I also try to support them through the hard stuff.  I listen when they cry and tell me that they feel alone in a room full of people, I hug them (if they want a hug) when they tell me their mom moved out over the weekend, and I feed them and get them additional support when they tell me they are hungry and don’t have enough to eat.  I spend hours on tutoring, grading, and lesson planning outside of my “contract hours.”  It never bothered me because I knew I was doing something that mattered to my kids.  If you’ve never gotten to see a kid gain self-confidence in their own ability by practicing with you one-on-one- let me just tell you it’s magical.  When they know you’ll sit down and work with them again and again when it’s still tough for them, they can see that you believe they’re worth the time and effort, and they start to believe it too.  When you get a note from a student about how they never thought they’d be able to understand chemistry so well, but aced a state final exam or got a 4 or 5 on the AP exam, it feels like you’ve done more than teach them your subject- you’ve taught them to believe they can do hard things.  

I’m sick to my stomach right now, because I am so torn on whether to go back this year.  My students are set to come back in two weeks.  There are so many things going through my head and this has been whirling around for the past two weeks, so I’m writing it out.  To quit or not to quit.  That is my question.

To Quit:

*My district notified parents of the plan just two weeks ago at the same time as the teachers- teachers actually just got a quick email that said something to the effect of “oh hey- check out this stuff we’re sending to parents about next school year.”  

*Since they released their plan, I got in to see a doctor.  I have an autoimmune condition.  It’s not a big deal in general, just a pill everyday, but it does affect my risk- although in the grand scheme of immuno-issues, thankfully mine is on the low end of the COVID risk spectrum.

*The district’s plan is for all students to go back to school 5 days/week, unless they opt for the virtual option.  The hours will be shortened so that the district doesn’t have to do a deep clean at the 4 hour mark as would be required if we were in school for the usual 7 hours.  Instead, teachers will all teach 4 class periods and also have to teach an online class.  If you’ve never taught, teaching online is a whole separate thing, so even if you teach chem both online and in person, it’s likely that most of the time you’ll have to set up your lessons completely differently for the two.  It’s not a deal breaker, but it’s extra work for sure.

*Teachers are responsible for sanitizing the classrooms between classes, which means we’ll have to pee some other time, although every teacher is teaching all 4 classes, so we won’t have anyone available to cover us?  I guess they’ll figure that out?

*According to the FAQ document our principal sent out, if we are told to quarantine or isolate, we have to use our sick days.  If we go through our sick days or run out we can apply to the sick day bank.  They don’t say it in the FAQ, but once you’ve used up days, they dock your pay.  

*However, that might not actually be a problem, because in a virtual staff meeting they held on Friday, the assistant superintendent shared that the health department here is now defining “exposure” as 15 minutes or more within 6 feet of a person who has tested positive without a mask.  That means that we could be in the classroom with kids who later test positive for COVID for an hour and neither the teacher nor the parents of the other kids in that class would be notified or asked to isolate because we were all wearing masks and therefore were “not exposed.”

*Since all kids are going back at the same time, thats nearly 1800 kids (minus the ones who signed up to take all their classes virtually).  Based on early estimates, less than 20% are going to opt to go online.  There are no plans to stagger class changes, which means our hallways will be full- it will not be possible for students to social distance.

*Currently, I have a class with 33 students in one of my face-to-face classes.  That’s a fairly big class anyway, but in COVID, they’ll be packed in there.  It is not possible to keep that many kids 6 feet apart in my classroom.

*We are relying on parents to do temperature checks every day and keep their child home if their temp is 100.4 or above.  If you’ve ever taught, you know that while most parents are responsible with things like this, there are some that will send their child in no matter what because they have to work or (in some very sad situations) want the time to themselves.

*In our state’s official COVID school plans, they outlined “Required,” “Strongly Recommended,” and “Recommended” measures.  My district seems to be reading “Strongly Recommended” as “Not Required.”  This means that they are okay with us running labs, sharing equipment, and working in close proximity because they think that parents understand that if they’re sending their child to school, that they know their child will be in close proximity to others.  They say that parents know that their kids will be 2/bus seat anyway and that they’re going to have to be changing classes in a full hallway.  I’m not so sure I agree with that.  I think parents are probably very unaware of that because I think it would be reasonable for parents to think that the “Strongly Recommended” guidelines would be implemented.  I’m not a parent, but I think that I would assume that?  Unfortunately, things like 6 feet of separation, doing on-site temperature checks, and not sharing materials are in the “Strongly Recommended” category, which means the district will “do their best.”

*Our district’s Union President wrote a letter to the board on our behalf regarding the strongly recommended guidelines.  The superintendent was dismissive of those concerns, stating that schools in other countries saw negligible spread upon reopening, which is like comparing our shitty COVID apples to European oranges.  Shortly after his response, two other board members went on to praise the administration for putting together a “safe” plan and quickly approved it to send on to the department of education.  I wish that those board members would come and sit in our classrooms for the first few weeks of school.

*We won’t know which class(es) we’ll be teaching online until the week before (best case scenario), so we can’t prepare very much that is specific to our class until the week before school.  We won’t know our final schedule in general until next week.  To not know this with only a week and a half to go is insane.  My anxiety is in full gear.

*Financially, we could handle it if I don’t work.  

Not to Quit:

*I have one student who had me for a science class his freshman year, then requested to take my chemistry class during his sophomore year, and is signed up for AP Chem this year.  I don’t want to miss it.

*Lots of my former chem kids are signed up for my AP Chem class this year.  I’m newer to the school, but I’ve been really working on growing the AP Chem program.  We even had enough students sign up to make 2 sections of AP Chem this year, which hasn’t happened in a long time at this school.

*I don’t want to quit with only 2 weeks before school- granted, they just announced the district plans 2 weeks ago and in that time I’ve had to talk with my husband and family, consult a doctor, and look at our finances and upcoming expenses to gather the information I need to make a decision. However, with only 2 weeks left before kids are in my classroom, it would be extremely tight to hire and have someone in place for those kids.  I would hate to leave students in that spot where they might start school with a sub.

*I LOVE my classroom and my lab.  I put so much time into organizing and cleaning it out.  I decorated it really nice and made it super functional.  I would hate to have to move everything out- I doubt I’d ever have a classroom that epic again.  All my desks match, too!

*A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.  I have a job I really love at a school I like and with kids I like and it’s close to my house.  If I resign, they’ll have to hire someone else for my job, and I won’t get it back next year.  There is no guarantee that I get hired again next year at another school nearby either.  With budget cuts, who knows?

*In a new job, I could be teaching anything in the sciences- I love that I have a specifically chemistry teaching job.  Those are rare and hard to come by.

*One of the “Required” measures in the state’s plan is to wear a mask.  That’s helpful.  All students and staff will have to wear a mask unless they are medically exempt.

*I’m still youngish, especially by COVID risk standards.

*Maybe nothing bad will happen- hopefully it won’t and the year will go relatively smoothly and staff and students will stay healthy and get through unscathed.  If that ends up being how it goes, I’d regret resigning and second guess my decision.

*I would feel guilty for calling it quits when so many others don’t have the option and may be at higher risk than me due to age or underlying conditions or taking care of loved ones that are either older or immunocompromised.  I know so many teachers who have to work this year because their spouse/partner is unemployed, or they are the sole breadwinner for their family, or they are going to retire soon and need their income to stay high to maximize their social security benefits.  

*I don’t know how I’ll take it if I go from teaching full time to being a stay at home wife.  I did stay at home for a year when we moved to another state, and it was HARD on me.  I developed a bit of a depression, exasperated by some other things that were going on.  I got on medication and did some therapy and it eventually resolved, but that SUCKED.  I would really miss my students and my fellow teachers and having a clear purpose/mission for my days.  

In conclusion...

I’m not generally a hypochondriac or a “Nervous Nelly.”  Most stuff rolls off my back fairly easily.  This scares me.  I get the flu or an upper respiratory thing almost every year.  There’s no reason to think that somehow I’ll manage to miss COVID if it comes into our school.  I am beyond anxious about teaching in person with so few precautions being taken.  I’m also angry that my choices are to resign and lose the job I really want or to go in and feel anxious and angry about the lack of care and respect that teachers and students are being shown by district and building administration for the foreseeable future until COVID is over.  I have had a stress knot in my gut for the past two weeks over this stuff, and I highly doubt it’s going away if I decide to stay and teach.

Since the pandemic started I have stayed at my house with few exceptions over the summer.  I wear a mask when I go out, I usually use a pick-up option for my groceries, a drive-thru option for my pharmacy, and I just avoid gatherings.  We do occasionally see my in-laws and my parents, usually outside and observing social distancing. In my state restaurants can’t fill to more than 50% capacity and movie theaters are just plain closed, but schools are about to open at 100% capacity.  I honestly can’t imagine putting myself in an enclosed space with over 30 kids or into a hallway with close to 1800 of them.  Even more than that, I can’t imagine not sitting down at a desk next to them to help them or watch them work a problem to see what they’re thinking.  I can’t imagine not getting to hug the girl who’s mom left or sit with the boy who doesn’t feel connected with his peers so he comes up to sit with me and do his homework after school.  Even if I do teach this year, I worry that my kids won’t get what they need from me- whether that’s homework help or emotional support.

If you are so inclined, please send up a prayer for state leaders, school administrators, teachers/school staff, and students this year.  We could all definitely use some wisdom, some grace, and your good vibes.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHAT NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ABOUT PEOPLE

This probably indicates room for improvement. A language that would make as much of the innovation is unconscious. When I was in grad school the whole time, and both got their degrees. It would not hurt to make Lisp better as a scripting language for Unix.1 It's worth understanding what McCarthy discovered. Search was now only a small percentage of our page views, less than one month's growth, and now he's a professor at MIT. Imagine waking up after such an operation. His answer was simply no. By seeming unable even to cut a grapefruit in half let alone go to the store and buy one, he forced other people to use.

Instead of quietly switching to another field, he made a fuss, from inside.2 If you'd proposed at the time that was an odd thing to do, and even have bad service, and people are often upset to be told things they don't.3 For example, I write essays the same way. There is nothing more important than brevity to a hacker: being able to do what you want in a throwaway program is a program you write quickly for some limited task. Most nerds like quieter pleasures. Society. It will always suck to work for a couple years ago I advised graduating seniors to work for you, the founders should include technical people. People who like New York will pay a premium to live in a town where the cool people are really cool.

Do we have free will?4 And if we, who were 29 and 30 at the time whether this was because of the Bubble, especially in companies run by business types, who thought of software development as something terrifying that therefore had to be crammed into the form of powerful, inexpensive computers, and I got in reply what was then the party line about it: that Yahoo was no longer a mere search engine. Odds are this project won't be a very promising startup indeed to get a job depends on the kind you want. In towns like Houston and Chicago and Detroit it's too small to measure. The centralizing effect of venture firms is a double one: they cause startups to form around them, and the VCs will try to undermine the VCs by acting faster, and the super-angels would quibble about valuations. Hackers share the surgeon's secret pleasure in popping zits.5 It would be great if a startup could give us something of the old world of credentials and into the new one of performance. They seemed a little surprised at having total freedom. Do you actually want to start one. People don't do hard things gratuitously; no one will work on a harder problem than bad submissions.

Using first and rest means 50% more typing. If I were going to do this was at trade shows.6 Well, food shows that pretty clearly. There used to be a genius who will need to be designed to be lived in as your office? It can't be something you have to charm them. Common Lisp. It's true, certainly, but the people.

Parents will tend to produce results that annoy people: there's no use in telling people things they already believe, and people will behave differently depending on which they're in, just as there are in the real world, you can't bully customers, so you may as well face that. Three of the most valuable things you could do is find a middle-sized non-technology company and spend a couple weeks just watching what they do so well that those who don't understand it are driven to invent conspiracy theories to explain how Plato and Aristotle became revered texts to be mastered and discussed. That sounds hipper than Lisp.7 And vice versa: when you can get from modern technology. A rounds, that would explain why they'd care about valuations. People can notice you've replaced email when it's a fait accompli. Google, because it suits the way they generate any other kind of code. One of the less honorable was to shock people.8 Maybe the situation is similar with malaria. The centralizing effect of venture firms is a double one: they cause startups to form around them, and above all, it helps them be decisive. The first is that you don't see the scary part upfront.

But what a difference it makes to be able to reach most of the startups who believed that. Control as Possible. It's also what causes smart people to be curious about certain things and not others.9 So you start painting. Hackers are perfectly capable of hearing the voice of the customer without a business person to amplify the signal for them.10 To many people, Lisp is a natural fit for server-based software. When people used to ask me how many people our startup had, and I don't understand. Their tastes aren't completely different from other people's point of view, instead of forcing everything into a mold of classes and methods. They know their audience. There's inevitably a difference in how things feel within the company.11 Most philosophical debates are not merely afflicted by but driven by confusions over words.

This a helps them pick the right startups, and b if you seem impressive, they'll be going against thousands of years studying really be a waste of time, that programming languages don't become popular or unpopular based on what expert hackers think of them, and if this new Lisp will be used to hack. Probably not. The problem with feeling you're doomed is not just that hackers understand technology better, but that they won't take risks. Too bad.12 What do people complain about?13 In the matter of platforms this tendency is even more singular in having its own defense built in. The 2005 summer founders ranged in age from 18 to 28 average 23, and there is no secret cabal making it all work. Yes, the price to earnings ratio is kind of high, but I don't see why it ought to be the new way that server-based application, and it is the Internet, not cable.14

When I say startups are designed to grow fast. Weekly dinners saved them from a common problem: choosing a small, dark, noisy apartment. But there is a fixed amount of it.15 Most American cities have been turned inside out. On the surface it feels like the kind of founders who have the balls to turn down a big offer also tend to be less insistent.16 However, the VCs have a weapon they can use it. But it was a good thing. That depends.17 I once spent a month painting three versions of a still life I set up in about four minutes. But most of the startups that can retain control tend to be far better than everyone else. Part of the problem is to make money from it, it tends to support the charisma theory more than contradict it. That's the main reason Lisp isn't currently popular.

Notes

You owe them such updates on your thesis. It also set off an extensive and often useful discussion on the one the Valley, the editors will have to keep their wings folded, as on Reddit, for the first meeting. Your Brain, neurosurgeon Frank Vertosick recounts a conversation in which practicing talks makes them overbuild: they'll create huge, overcomplicated agreements, and 20 in Paris.

The kind of social engineering—9. But the change is a major cause of economic equality in the narrow technical sense of the words out of loyalty to the way I know of this article used the term whitelist instead of uebfgbsb.

While the US. Price of Inequality.

Quite often at YC.

In this essay wrote: My feeling with the solutions. 7x a year to keep the number of restaurants that still require jackets for men. At first I didn't like it that the main reason I don't know enough about the other writing of literary theorists.

If you have to rely on social conventions about executive salaries.

The markets seem to be spread out geographically. Maybe it would be enough to supply the activation energy to start software companies, summer 2010. That would be reluctant to start over from scratch, rather than by selling recordings. So if you pack investor meetings with So, can I make it self-interest explains much of the corpora.

In-Q-Tel that is exactly my point. The key to wasting time is distraction. University Press, 1983. The reason for the tenacity of the x division of Megacorp is now the first year or two make the hiring point more strongly.

I'm writing about one specific, rather than given by other people in the process of trying to hide wealth from the government. But their founders, and that you could only get in the 1984 ad isn't Microsoft, would not be incorporated, but whether it's good, but viewed from the truth. Though nominally acquisitions and sometimes on a hard technical problem. My first job was scooping ice cream in the startup eventually becomes.

But so many of the aircraft is. William R.

As a friend with small children, or because they are within any given college. Trevor Blackwell presents the following scenario. After Greylock booted founder Philip Greenspun out of them.

Incidentally, this is: we currently filter at the moment the time of unprecedented federal power, so they'll understand how lucky they are by ways that have already launched or can be explained by math. But you can say they're not. Many hope he was skeptical about things you've written or talked about convergence. Eric Raymond says the best new startups.

They say to most people realize, because they've learned more, because spam and legitimate mail volume both have distinct daily patterns. Wittgenstein asserted a sort of love is as frightening as it were better to make money, buy beans in giant cans from discount stores. It's possible that companies will one day is the most successful companies have little to bring corporate bonds; a decade of inflation that left many public companies trading below the value of understanding per se but from which a few months by buying good programmers instead of reacting.

But scholars seem to be a good deal for you; who knows who you start fundraising, because that's how both publishers and audiences treat it. See, we don't have the perfect life, and can hire skilled people to start or join startups. The US is becoming more fragmented, and this is one problem where rapid prototyping doesn't work. Thanks to Paul Buchheit for the first to state this explicitly.

I'm not saying that good paintings must have been in the sale of products, because talks are usually more desperate for money.

I suspect the recent resurgence of evangelical Christianity in the process of selling things to them. But when you depend on Aristotle would be great for VCs if the founders are in a band, or Seattle, 4 in DC, 6 in Chicago, 8 in London, 13 in New York. A has an operator for removing spaces from strings and language B doesn't, that I knew, there are already names for this purpose are still called the option of deferring to a partner from someone they respect.

For example, because any invention has a power law dropoff, but in practice signalling hasn't been much of the organization—specifically increased demand for them. In practice it just feels like it that the path from ideas to startups. You could probably starve the trolls of the great painters in history supported themselves by painting portraits. Security always depends more on the way we met Charlie Cheever sitting near the door.

Thanks to Carolynn Levy, Joshua Reeves, Paul Buchheit, Aaron Iba, Robert Morris, Jessica Livingston, and Trevor Blackwell for reading a previous draft.

[charllieeldridge]

15 Advantages Of Being An Entrepreneur (+5 Downsides)

There are many advantages of being an entrepreneur. In this post, I’ll share reasons to consider leaving the 9-5 behind to pursue a more freedom-filled lifestyle.

If you’re organized and creative and are seeking something new and exciting in your life, consider turning your passions into profits. Becoming an entrepreneur is the best thing I’ve ever done.

My full-time freelancing career began a year ago, and my life hasn’t been the same since. I was interested in graphic design, creative writing, social media, and website design. So, I made a change in my life and decided to become an entrepreneur.

I built up my own online business and these days, I get to work from home (or anywhere in the world), be my own boss, and most importantly, I love what I do!

Becoming an entrepreneur has more pros than cons!

I’ve experienced both the advantages and disadvantages of being an entrepreneur and in this post, I’ll share my top points with you.

For more inspiration about changing your lifestyle and turning your passion into a career, have a look at the new Go Forth series on YouTube by GoDaddy. The mini-series follows the journey of 3 athletes who start their own businesses driven by their passions. Tony Hawk (the legendary skateboarding icon) is also featured in the series! 

Here’s my list of 15 reasons to become an entrepreneur (plus 5 downsides…)

1. You Can Set Your Own Hours

One of the benefits of being an entrepreneur is being able to set your own work hours. If an entrepreneur doesn’t feel like working on Mondays, then they don’t have to.

Instead, your office hours can be Tuesday through Friday if you want. Or, you can choose to just work every morning, or only in the afternoon. 

The freedom you have over your daily schedule is one of the best parts of being an entrepreneur.  

2. You Get To Be Creative Every Day at Your Job

One of the top reasons to become an entrepreneur is that you can be creative every single day at your job. From working on your branding and updating your website, to public speaking and social engagements, you truly have control over every piece of the creative process.

If you wake up one day and decide you don’t like the brand’s colours, or you want to create a new product, you can! Plus, if the services that you offer are mainly creative, like graphic design, then you’ll be the one who has the final say on all client projects.

3. Enjoy a Flexible Schedule as an Entrepreneur

Being able to have a flexible schedule is one of the best reasons for being an entrepreneur. When you work for a supervisor or at another company, you need to request vacation time weeks, sometimes even months, in advance.

Even if you want just one day off, you’ll need to submit your request. Plus, there are only a certain amount of days that you can take off every year.

Entrepreneurs can wake up one day and decide that they want a “me day”. 

If you work for yourself, you’re in charge of your own schedule and won’t need to request time off. Of course, you’ll need to let your clients know that you’ll be unavailable, but that’s an easy thing to do. 

4. Work From Anywhere! (arguably the biggest advantage of being an entrepreneur)

If you’re running an online business, or are working in the sports or outdoor industry, you can choose precisely where you want to work from every day, which is definitely one of the pros of being an entrepreneur.

Imagine this is your office!

If you’re a yoga instructor, you can run retreats all around the world. Maybe you start a kayaking company, or open a scuba diving shop and are able to live in Mexico! Maybe you’re into food and wine, in which case, you can start a foodie company that offers experiences around the globe.

And of course, for those entrepreneurs who run their businesses from a laptop, all you need is stable wifi.  

Wake up one day and decide to work at the beach, or take your laptop with you on a campervan road trip and work from campgrounds, next to rivers, or in the mountains. 

As long as the job gets done, you can work anywhere.

That’s why a lot of digital nomads are entrepreneurs. You can seriously live and work around the world as long as you meet deadlines and keep your clients happy!

5. Pick the Exact Services You Want to Offer

Choosing what you offer and (more importantly) don’t offer, is one of the perks of running your own business. If you are a social media manager but aren’t a fan of Pinterest, you don’t have to offer that particular service.

If you want to teach people how to start a website from scratch, but aren’t interested (or knowledgeable) in the SEO side of things, then only offer the service that you’re comfortable with.

Entrepreneurs can choose the exact services they want to offer to clients, and if you find there’s one that you don’t like doing, you no longer have to provide it. Honestly, the control over decisions that you have is one of the top advantages of becoming an entrepreneur.

6. Be Your Own Boss and Work for Yourself

The most enticing of the reasons to be an entrepreneur is that you are in charge. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like having to answer to someone else or wants creative freedom, then become an entrepreneur.

Being your own boss means that if you want to clock out early for the day, you can. If you have a day where you’re feeling off, that’s okay.

When you want to make changes to the company’s structure, brand identity, or anything to do with investments and finances, it’s all up to you.

7. Each Day is Different

Being an entrepreneur means that no two days are ever the same. One of the worst parts of working an office job is that they start to feel repetitive — coffee, answering emails, head to a meeting, get work done, lunch, more work, go home, repeat.

However, one of the advantages of being an entrepreneur is that each day is different.

You’re always working with different clients (or pitching new ones), building your brand, or coming up with a new project or product. Not to mention, the days aren’t 9-5, and lunch breaks are when you want them.

8. You Can Be Picky When it Comes to Choosing Clients

Imagine being able to pick the people that you want to work with. Well, entrepreneurs can do just that. If you have a discovery call with a client only to find that you don’t think they’ll be a good fit, all you have to do is let them know and send them some other recommendations.

It’s genuinely one of the top reasons to become an entrepreneur, especially if you know you only work well with certain types of people. The longer you’re an entrepreneur, the better you’ll get at saying no to people who don’t align with your values.

9. Those Just Starting Out Can Earn a Lot of Money

You may already know this, but one of the reasons for being an entrepreneur is that you’ll have more control over your income.

Even beginner entrepreneurs can choose how much they want to charge for their services and often charge higher than minimum wage.

I quickly jumped from charging $20 USD per hour to charging $40 USD per hour for my services within just a few months after starting my online business, and you easily can, too, depending on your skillset.

10. Scale Your Business Quickly & Watch the Growth Firsthand

Entrepreneurs can grow their businesses quickly and can scale as soon as they want to. Being able to grow is one of the advantages of being an entrepreneur. In addition to being in charge of your income, you truly are in control of every part of your business.

When you decide it’s time to grow, you can either take on investments to explode your brand or use your own savings. You can start targeting more prominent clients and charging more for your work.

Then, you can hire a team to expand and scale your company. Before you know it, you could easily have a six-figure business.

11. Create a Business That Aligns With Your Values

As an entrepreneur, you can create a business that perfectly aligns with your values and beliefs. If you’re an adventurer at heart, you can make a business model that targets others explicitly with similar interests and values — while doing what you love.

If you’re into eco-friendly practices, maybe create a business around those values and you’ll attract clients who are in that space as well. 

Create a business around your values and interests and it won’t feel like work

In the series that I mentioned at the beginning of this post, each of the adventurers turned entrepreneurs have created businesses that align with the hobbies and activities that they are passionate about — rock climbing, ski base jumping, health, fitness, and public speaking.

This is one of the main advantages of becoming an entrepreneur. You’ll be able to resonate with your business and your clients by creating something that’s in line with your beliefs and interests.

12. Entrepreneurs are More Likely To Stay Invested in their Business

Drawing off of the last point on this list, one of the rewards of being an entrepreneur is that you’ll be more likely to stay invested in your business because of all the hard work you put into it. 

Most entrepreneurs look at their business as their “child” because of how much love and care they’ve put into it over the years. As their business grows, they only love it more.

They’re also more likely to want to see their business succeed versus if they worked for another company.

13. See the Lives that You Change by Working Directly with Clients

When you are an employee, you aren’t as likely to see the people’s lives that you are directly affecting with your work.  

Entrepreneurs, especially freelancers, have the option to talk directly to their clients and follow up with testimonials to make case studies after they’re done working together.

Whether you’re providing jobs by employing a team of people, helping a start-up get their name out there, or are teaching someone a new skill, being able to see the impact you’re having is very rewarding. 

14. You Can Try Out New Ideas

If you want to experiment as an entrepreneur, then you can! You have free reign over what you want to test out.

I have tried many different lines of work, including social media management, web design, graphic design, creative writing, and even web development recently.

You’ll have the freedom to try things that you’ve always been interested in. You can frequently change your business model and services, too, until you find what works best for you and what you want to focus on doing.

15. Quickly Discover What You Love to Do 

Because you’re able to try out so many different types of services and business models, one of the advantages of being an entrepreneur is that you have the opportunity to figure out what works best for you, and what you actually enjoy.  

Not to mention, you have spare time to simply pursue your passions and find your purpose. 

You can build an entire business based on your hobby, which is one of the best aspects of working for yourself. Maybe you love fishing, playing an instrument, golfing, cooking — try them out as a business!

In both your professional and personal life, working for yourself allows you to discover what you enjoy doing. 

5 Disadvantages of Being an Entrepreneur

While being your own boss has its advantages, there are also disadvantages of being an entrepreneur. Below, learn more about some of the common cons that entrepreneurs face daily.

1. Entrepreneurs Can Find it Hard to Stay Motivated

One of the cons of being an entrepreneur is that it can be hard to stay motivated. Whether you work for yourself in an office, or you’re working from home most of the time, it can be hard to find ways to be productive.

Luckily, there are ways to counter this, including finding business buddies, investing in co-working spaces, and also joining mentorships to help you stay accountable. 

2. Beginners Might Have to Wait to See a Payoff

Having to wait a while to see a payoff as a beginner is one of the lesser-known disadvantages of being an entrepreneur.

Many people think that the second they start their business, they’ll be making money left and right to the point where they might not even have to work anymore.

Typically, this is not the case.

When you first start out, you may have to wait a few months for it to start paying off. Of course, this isn’t the situation for everyone and it depends on your skillset and marketing and networking abilities, but it’s something to be aware of.

3. Being an Entrepreneur Can Be Lonely

Being lonely is one of the cons of being an entrepreneur that most people don’t think about. If you’re working from home all the time or any other location by yourself, it can feel a bit lonesome.

If you’re a solopreneur without a team, it can get a bit lonely at times

To counteract this, you can do a few things. I recently joined a coaching program that has introduced me to quite a few new friends that I meet up with via FaceTime every once in a while.

You could also work at co-working spaces, look on Facebook for entrepreneur meet-ups in your city, or, get a dog

  4. You’ll Think About Your Business All The Time (Yes, including Time Off).

Entrepreneurs are always switched on and don’t get a break that often, despite being in charge of their own schedule.

When you create your own business, you’ll find yourself thinking about it all the time, even when you’re trying to have a day off.

Even when you aren’t working on client projects, or have a team covering everything for you, you’ll probably feel the need to check emails, show up on social media or do some networking. 

The life of an entrepreneur can be busy, which is why you’ll need to take dedicated time off. Keep that in mind before starting out on this journey.

5. There May Be Months With Little Money

Honestly, one of the biggest cons of being an entrepreneur is that you might have months where you barely make enough to cover rent. Or there will be months where you don’t even make enough to cover rent.

Some months may not bring in that much income, but stick with it!

When bootstrapping a business, it’s important to sort out your finances ahead of time to ensure you have enough to get you through the first few months. Or, you’ll need to take on investors and financing.

While there might be meager months, there will be more profitable ones in the future. Keep with it, don’t stress out too much, and try to enjoy the process of building a business. 

The Takeaways

These are just some of the advantages of being an entrepreneur. The key to being successful is to stay motivated, manage your time well, and be prepared to hustle.

Working hard is essential, or your business could potentially plummet, and you’ll find yourself right back at that desk in the office you dreaded so much. With passion, a good work ethic, and the right attitude, you can change your life.

Take the leap into the world of entrepreneurialism today and start living your best life!

Note: This article was brought to you by GoDaddy — a brand that empowers doers to build the world they want. Have a look at the Go Forth series on YouTube and get inspired to create the lifestyle of your dreams!

The post 15 Advantages Of Being An Entrepreneur (+5 Downsides) appeared first on Goats On The Road.

15 Advantages Of Being An Entrepreneur (+5 Downsides) published first on https://travelaspire.weebly.com/

[sjjms]

begin again: 20

pairing: jiminxreader length: 8.1k words genre: slight angst/fluff comments: chapter 21 will be the final chapter...

other parts

“Christmas Eve! At last.” Soyeon stretched her arms above her head, you couldn’t be more thrilled. Your wedding day was tomorrow and your only concern was the weather. Looking at the weather forecast didn’t help lighten your hopes either, it was probably going to be a trip to city hall to register the marriage. “Having a wedding on Christmas day used to be a common thing. Not anymore...” Soyeon also noted, a random fact presented by Soyeon which will somehow appear in a future script even if it isn't written by her or checked by her.

“We just want it to be done.” You replied. You weren’t even sure where Christmas day came from as a date for a wedding, Jimin was the one that decided on the date and the place. You were one of those people who wanted it to be simple, so you had just followed Jimin's advice and not involved yourself.

“Who’s even coming?”

“The members, you, the others, a couple staff members, my father, my brother and his group. Maybe the members from monsta x also. Ask Jimin if you want to know, he knows more than I do about the wedding.” You had mainly been kept in the dark for planning the wedding and you hadn’t really minded, you had been able to pick out your dress and a present for Jimin. Apart from that, you had let Hyeah and Jimin take the lead with the help of Seokjin. You had walked past one of the meeting rooms the other day to hear Jimin and Seokjin arguing over what food was going to be served. As you walked past you just thought, you were glad you weren't the one planning the wedding. You now see why other brides are stressful about the planning because so much effort and detail has to go into it.

“You don’t know much about this wedding do you?” Soyeon chuckled to herself a little hearing you.

“As long as the bride shows up, it’s okay right?”

“I guess you're right. We’re really ahead of our work currently, we might have to take on other groups soon. Otherwise, we’ll just be sitting around here with nothing to do.” They might have been free of work but you still had to go to meetings and have involvement with a concert looming as well as the world tour.

“Minsu will take good care of the department while I’m gone since the company’s leading group isn’t here, the writers will be okay managing with the trainees and the other groups. Also, we need to hold a department meeting soon as well, we can organise that for next week. I want to make some changes within the department that can take place in the new year.” Like moving some people to different groups and assigning head writers of each group, so you were able to learn more about the other groups as well.

“I’m not used to you talking about work so much.” You looked up to see Hyeah standing in the doorway, “I’ve missed it, any chance you’re hiring?” She smiles. You would have loved to have Hyeah working under you but you also liked to keep friendship and work separately. You liked that you spent some time away from your best friend once in awhile, then you have more to talk about whenever you had the chance to meet up. 

“No sorry, if something opens up we’ll let you know. Why are you here? I’m not on official bride duties until tomorrow.”

“I have permission to take you from work early, you need to have your last bridal fitting before tomorrow.” You supposed that was a good enough reason to leave early, but you did want to see Jimin before tomorrow. You missed him, this feeling of love and trust had you missing him every second that ticked by whenever you weren’t with him. Hopefully, he would come back to the apartment tonight.

“Okay… Soyeon, I leave you in charge until I’m back.” Grabbing your bag from under your desk, you slung it over your shoulder and left the building with Hyeah. “I thought everything was okay with the dress last time we went?”

“The dress for after the wedding needs checking.” Hyeah smiles happily at you, even though the temperatures were low today. You were surprised that nothing had been said about moving the wedding indoors, at this point you didn’t want the wedding outside if it was going to be cold. You would have preferred holding it in the summer, but somehow summer ends up being the busiest time for music companies.

“Do any changes need to be made?” You ask you hadn’t seen yourself in the mirror yet but from looking down at your dress it looks as if it fits you perfectly. The lady moved in circles around you making sure that every inch of it was perfect, it felt like she spent most of her effort on this dress instead of the one you were wearing for the wedding. It made you slightly suspicious but you let it go seeing as you also loved this dress just as much maybe even more than your wedding dress.

“No, you should look at yourself in the mirror. Jimin is one lucky man, if it weren’t for him you’d have all the men at your feet tomorrow.” Smiling at the compliment she had given to you, you carefully manoeuvred yourself to the mirror only a few feet away. The bottom of the dress lightly wavering across the floor, you stopped in front of the mirror as you took a deep breath in you looked at yourself. You were hesitant at first but then it hit you. You were ready.

Ready to let yourself be in a marriage. Ready to trust someone with all of your heart. Ready to give everything to the marriage, whether it would work out or not. You had yet to see rumours about whether this was a shotgun wedding, but that couldn’t strike you down even you saw any. You were purely marrying Jimin out of love, to most people they had probably thought this was going to happen. There was never the right timing between the two of you, always being held back or something had happened.

“I wonder if Jimin will cry or not when he sees how beautiful you are in this dress.” Hyeah ponders. Maybe. It’s always a possibility, he could make an excuse saying it was too cold and that’s why he was crying. You would find out when you see him tomorrow. “Has anything been released yet?”

You shook your head when Hyeah asked that question, “I’m not ready for it to be… whenever it will be. It’s a fear I have. I pray every day that nothing will ever be released about it, I want to tell the world on my own.” It would either be you or Jimin to tell everyone, in a few months from now maybe or when you’re pregnant. You would know when you were ready to tell everyone.

“You have every right too. Are you sleeping at my apartment or yours tonight?”

“Mine, Jimin said he would sleep at the dorms.” You had recently moved into his apartment after wanting to move out of your own, it was something you were planning on doing whether or not things progressed with Jimin. The two of you just had a head start on what newlywed marriage was going to be like.

“The weather doesn’t look good tomorrow” The lady sighed, she turned her phone towards the two of you. “I hope there is a backup plan…” You looked to Hyeah for reassurance in which she gave it to you with a simple nod. You wondered what the backup plan was, it made the first sign of you becoming anxious about the wedding though...

“Snow would be perfect for outdoor photos… maybe not in the below negative temperatures though.” You mutter seeing how far the temperature was going to drop for the wedding.  

X

“Are you seriously eating ramen the night before your wedding?” Your eyes widened hearing the voice, raising your head ever so slowly, Jimin stood in the doorway. A hint of a smile on his face, he placed his bag down on the floor before walking over to you.

“It’s only one, besides you guys would order something in.” It’s not like you were going to order a whole pizza for yourself. “I’ll eat some fruit afterwards. Do you want some?” Jimin had been staring at the saucepan full of ramen ever since you saw him in the doorway, he walked over to the fridge pulling out a tub of kimchi and grabbed a pair of chopsticks before joining you.

“What if Hyeah walks in and sees us eating this?”

“Hyeah doesn’t know the security code.” You mutter, it had been changed to the day you and Jimin met. She probably wouldn’t remember the exact date of that otherwise you were going to change it to some random numbered one which had no personal meaning. Then again it should be like that already. “Why does it matter if she sees us eating ramen?”

“She doesn’t want the photos to turn out bad. I’m surprised you haven’t taken much interest in the wedding planning, you do know it’s our wedding.” Jimin looks up to see your face, was he that curious why you weren’t bothered?

“If we marry each other, it doesn’t need to be something big or fancy. We could just go down to city hall now and file the paperwork. We’ve waited for this day for so long, the idea of a big wedding with everyone watching us share our love doesn’t matter to me. It won't change how I feel about you or how much I love you.”

“Shall we go down to city hall now?” Jimin suggests.

“What?” You look at confused and almost want to think that he wasn’t joking.

“Let’s just do it now. We can still have the wedding tomorrow, but that can be just the exchanging of wedding rings. If we hurry we can be married in less than half an hour.” He was serious, you were baffled that he would even suggest that. At the same, it was a tempting offer...

“We’ll need a witness, who would be willing to come and watch?”

“Yoongi and Hoseok.” He had a point. You pulled yourself up from the table, walking over to the door and pulling your shoes on.

“Where are you going?”

“To get married.” You answered.

X

Arriving at city hall, 15 minutes before it was due to close. Hoseok and Yoongi were already standing there waiting for the two of you. “Who do think will hurt the most about not being here?” Yoongi questions.

“Seokjin, Y/N’s friend,” Hoseok replies. “At least they are still having the ceremony in front of everyone tomorrow. I'm sure that they'll tell the truth and I do understand why they are doing this.” The two of them talked in the background as you and Jimin were filling out the paperwork. It was Christmas day, after all, you were sure people wouldn't want to stay for a long ceremony, they would want to spend time with their families. Even then most idols couldn’t. Hoseok couldn't go down to Gwangju, Jungkook couldn't go down to Busan. They had to prepare for the end of year festivities.

“One of you needs to sign.” Yoongi took the pen from your hand before you could even blink, signing the document to say you were legally married. You needed witnesses for proof of your marriage. You handed it to the office worker who patiently waited for you, even when it was close to closing.

“Where do we go now?” You ask.

“Home. Although we got married tonight, we still have the ceremony tomorrow.” Jimin mutters you were hoping to go for a drink. But you were sure you would have a lot of that tomorrow, or you would try to stay sober in front of everyone then just drink a lot when you weren’t. “I’ll go take her home. See you guys later, thank you as well."

X

“I don’t really see how Hyeah is going to make a big deal about you staying here the night? Technically it’s our wedding night.” You were a little bothered by Jimin’s attitude towards this, you weren’t really a traditional type of person maybe the odd thing or two. Nothing major.

“How about… I stay until you fall asleep.” It was surprising for him to give up so quickly but you agreed with him, you would be happy knowing he stayed until then before he made his escape. You should just hug him tighter so he wasn't able to leave easy.

“Did you pick out the rings?” You ask, washing your face thoroughly as Jimin had stretched out his body across the bed.

“It was the first thing I did, I think you’ll like them.” He hoped you would like them. “My family should be in Seoul now… I’ll go see them after you fall asleep.”

“Without me?” You were a little upset he was going to see them without you, but you needed all the sleep you could get since it was always good to be well rested before a wedding even if you were just a guest. You had no idea what tomorrow was going to bring, it was going to full of hopefully good surprises you thought. “The last time we spoke was when I lost the baby…” It hit you. Would they hate you for losing their grandchild?

“Don’t worry, they have moved on from that. They’re just happy that we were able to reconcile and marry each other.” This marriage was a long time coming for most people that surrounded you, even the idol groups you had written for and befriended because they also knew Jimin or one of the members. You had to learn about the members you were writing scripts for so you could write an efficient script, so you were also good friends with idols also that way.

Jimin moved himself over to one side of the bed as you climbed in under the covers, he immediately pulled you into his embrace allowing you to feel his warmth radiating onto you. “Really?” You were unsure, Jimin’s mother sounded quite upset when you had told her. You had to hand the phone to Taekwoon just because you yourself had started to cry as well.

“Yes. She’s more excited at us having grandchildren.” Grandchildren? That quickly… you wanted to ease yourself into marriage before thinking about that. Memories of your daughter started to flash through your mind the way she was tiny in your hand, made the tears swell up in your eyes.

“I want to hold her one more time.” You mutter, Jimin’s confused look to your outburst of tears made him realise what he did. His embrace on you tightened as he placed a kiss on the top of your head. “I wanted her to grow up…” She could have been something, she would have been the one to lead you back to Jimin much sooner than this. She would have been everything to you and she still is.

“Sorry… sorry. Don’t cry. We can have another one soon, this time they’ll make it. You won’t lose them. I promise.” He hadn’t realised that the baby was such a sensitive topic to you when he should have known. In his heart he knew it was, deep down his heart was in so much pain. The same that you were feeling maybe, even more, he was never able to be there with you. He didn’t even get to know you were pregnant in the first place. The pain the two of you felt was equal.

You had managed to drift off to sleep with Jimin holding you quietly, you hoped to believe his words about having a baby soon. Maybe if you had one soon it would somehow heal this pain you still felt. You wanted it too.

Jimin pulled himself away from you, looking back to make sure he hadn’t woken you up. His feet tiptoed across the wooden floor to the closet, pulling out a jacket and mask for you to wear. Walking back to bed in fear he would wake you up, he carefully managed to put the coat on you as well as the mask before he was able to pick you up.

He carried you effortlessly out of the apartment and to the bottom floor of the apartment building, seeing the car parked out front. He was relieved to know that they were still waiting, one of the figures got out of the car opening up the car door for Jimin.

“What took you so long?” Yoongi huffs as he held the car door open as he put you down carefully in the backseat. Jimin smiled seeing you asleep soundly, one of the things that luckily fell into the place of the plan was once you were asleep you would be knocked out for hours.

“She was having trouble falling asleep.” He would rather not say the true purpose even though they knew of the miscarriage.

“The hotel staff will be waiting.” Jimin ignored Yoongi's attitude, he knew he wanted to go back to the dorm and finish his part of the plan already but Jimin took his time so he didn’t wake you up. Climbing into the backseat he pulled you closer to him, holding you in his arms so you knew he was still there.

“Don’t be like this tomorrow,” Jimin warns, his eyes glaring in the reflection of the mirror at Yoongi.

“It’s cold out tonight, there’ll probably snow in the morning,” Hoseok mutters, turning the air conditioning up even further.

“Your acting has improved a lot,” Jimin noted, seeing how the two of them continued to talk how they usually did.

“Thanks, you do know it’s your official wedding night. Since you got married today and the way you're spending it is kidnapping your wife for a surprise event that she may or may not like.” Yoongi had put all the pressure about tomorrow back onto Jimin, he hadn’t forgotten those points but he would like to not remember them for at least a couple of hours.

“No pressure then.”

X

“Is she okay? She hasn’t woken up yet?” Hyeah asks as the three of them walked into the hotel lobby. She was stood there with Taekwoon and Seokjin, the two men were carrying boxes full of flowers to decorate the rooms with. It was what you could say last minute, but she had not only the members of the group helping but also Taekwoon’s group.

“She’s fine.” Jimin looks down to check on you in his arms, still sleeping through all of this. You were missing what everyone was doing for this ceremony tomorrow. “Where’s her room?”

“You can’t go in there! The dress is in there.” Hyeah had the sudden realisation of the dress you were trying on this afternoon was hanging up in clear view when someone walked into the room.

“Well, I can’t exactly hand her over to someone. Can’t you move it before I come in?” Jimin pulled you up in his arms a little as he was starting to struggle, standing in the hotel lobby wasn’t the best place to hold someone in their arms for too long.

“Okay, follow me. You four go get started, otherwise, Hakyeon will have done it all by now.” The last time Hyeah had checked on Hakyeon he was flower arranging the flowers on the tables, she wasn’t sure how long that would keep him busy. Although some of the decisions over decorations were good, she didn’t want it all just to be Hakyeon’s work. Plus Hyeah knew what you liked unless Hakyeon had bothered Taekwoon tirelessly to find out.

“You know I don’t see why you have to keep the dress a secret from me,” Seokjin whines ever so slightly at Hyeah. She was never going to work with the members ever again, it had been some of the toughest weeks trying to plan her best friend's wedding with a bunch of men who wanted all kinds of things. She was even more so thankful that this wedding would be a surprise to you, after suffering so much in the recent months.

“You can come look.” Hyeah had given up trying to keep things from the boys, especially Seokjin. He was just going to fight back and argue. If she had said no now, it probably would have woken you up. Hyeah was hoping you would stay asleep until morning, then again you liked to sleep and a tornado had to be near to wake you up.

You were fading in out of the sounds around you, it didn’t feel as if you were in the comfort of your own bed. Your neck was already aching from wherever you were. Were you being carried? “She’s waking up. Hurry.” Jimin whispers, Seokjin and Hyeah picked up the pace that they walked down the corridor.

“Did something happen?” Hyeah asks quickly, in a hurry she swiped the key card across the door. “It’s hanging up as you go in, look at it and hide it in the bathroom.” Seokjin rushed into the room immediately spotting the dress, his mouth and eyes widening in awe due to its length and beauty.

“It’s beautiful,” Seokjin spoke loud enough for Jimin to hear, it hurt him knowing that he wouldn’t be able to see the dress until tomorrow morning. “You can come in.” Jimin carried you through the threshold sideways keeping in mind the door wasn’t wide enough to carry you the normal way.

“Take her coat off, I’ll have to lie next to her in case she wakes up.” With the help of Hyeah and Seokjin, the coat was carefully removed. The mask was the harder part because it was on your face, one wrong move and it would wake you up.

Jimin placed you down on the bed carefully while Hyeah hovered over you, gently pulling the mask from around your ears. The covers of the bed were placed over you and Jimin had pulled you into his embrace once again. It was the same set up in the apartment except for a different bed.

“Jimin.” You murmur half asleep, you lifted up your head and then it fell back down. You couldn’t care less where you were right now, you just wanted to go back to sleep.

“You caught me, I was trying to get away. It’s okay you can go back to sleep now.” Jimin voice was able to soothe you back to sleep, the three of them all sighed of relief. He slowly pulled himself away from you and the three of you quickly made your exit.

“You’ll be glad to know she trusts you. She’s given her heart to you again.”

“How do you know that?” Jimin inquired. He was confused to how you could trust him again fully, you were one to struggle with trust issues.

“She’s married you, without having cold feet. I was surprised that she didn’t want to hold it off until summer.”

“We’ll be busy in summer, more dates have been added to the tour. There goes our reward vacation.” Jimin sighs but he wasn’t surprised, he found the first dates of the tour unusual. It was a little short to only have a global tour for 2 months, but now it had been stretched over 4 months.

“It’s only been pushed back to July now,” Seokjin mutters reminding Jimin, it also notified Hyeah you wouldn’t be around for a couple of months. She wished you wouldn’t be gone for so long, but your job required you to do more than sit in an office and check scripts all day like hers did.

“I’m sure you’ll all be grateful for the vacation afterwards.” Hyeah smiles.

“We always are,” Jimin replies, it felt like all they did was fly around on aeroplanes when the tour arrived. But it always felt amazing to him to see so many fans supporting them which cheered them on every day in their own way. It made him realise how popular they had grown over the years and how much they had achieved.

X

Your ears tuned into the conversations in the room, you could immediately tell you weren’t at the apartment anymore. People wouldn’t be speaking around you if you were, you half expected someone to bang on the apartment door for you to wake up. Opening your eyes, you stretched your arms above your head before you pulled yourself to sit up. The surroundings were different, you were in a hotel room. You could tell by the colour on the walls and the carpet covering the floor. It wouldn’t be difficult to figure out which hotel you were in. Hotels always looked the same to you but it was most likely a well-known concept and used a lot in this industry.

“Where am I?” You first ask. 

“Park Hyatt Seoul Hotel, to exchange your wedding rings.” Your head tilted sideways in confusion, you were right about being in a hotel. You had heard from people that this hotel was actually very good and received mostly positive reviews. You didn’t know they had a place for weddings here, then again most of the hotels in Seoul did. Marrying in a hotel was a popular thing to do in Korea in recent years. 

“You and Jimin are officially married, I know. It was a part of the plan to let you decide where you would actually get married. I’m a little upset that I wasn’t apart of it. But I was able to plan this instead.” Hyeah explained you were still confused. It was a part of a plan to let you get married in city hall… all along. 

“What about the forest?” You mutter. “We know it’s too cold to hold something outside, so we decided to bring it indoors,” Seokjin replies. You nodded your head and glanced over to the window, the snow was still present on the trees from the last snowfall a few hours ago. It was expected to snow again at some point today.

“Let’s get you ready, the ceremony is only going to take a few minutes. But it will take a longer to get all of the photos done.” Hyeah tugged at your hand pulling you out of bed. All of this was confusing now but it would all make sense later as you knew Hyeah would be guiding you through the day.

“Hang on. If me and Jimin are already married can’t we just take photos then have the reception? We can exchange the rings later.” You really didn’t see the point of having a ceremony now, exchanging of the rings can be something personal between you and him.  

“Is that what you want? We will respect the bride’s decision since you let us do everything else.” Seokjin asks. 

“Yes.” 

“I’ll go speak to Jimin, then I will inform the staff.” Seokjin moves out of the room, so Hyeah was able to go to the bathroom to pull out the dress. 

“I know… I know that this isn’t the dress you picked for having the ceremony. Your dress for after the ceremony was equally beautiful and I could tell yesterday in your eyes that you wanted to wear this one today.” Why did she have to be right? You had been having doubts about the first dress you had chosen to wear, you weren’t exactly up for the idea of getting married outside. But since that had all been resolved now, the dress you were falling in love with yesterday turned out to be your actual dress.

The dress flowing as it was being pulled across the floor, to be spread across the bed. You had chosen an off the shoulder dress because that style had always appealed to you the most than others. On the bodice it was covered in lace detailing, you couldn’t help but trace the details, the swirls and flowers. It was completed by the flowing skirt, on the back the dress was to be buttoned up to the waist. Then there was silk ribbon to tie up the last of the dress.

“We should get your makeup done, Soyeon should be here any minute.” Soyeon was going to do your makeup? You had no complaints, you would have done it yourself if it had come down to it. Then again Hyeah wouldn’t have allowed that to happen, she would create a fuss about it. “There are some apples to eat before it all begins.”

“Thank you.” You smile at her, not for just mentioning the apples but for everything. You couldn’t wait to find out what the rest of the day would hold because you would be surrounded by friends and family. All of whom were gratefully giving up their Christmas day to be here. Most of the time idols visited their family during Chuseok instead of Christmas. You did spend more time with your family during Chuseok, especially Taekwoon.

“One more picture,” Soyeon says standing behind the photographer, you sighed a little but it made you chuckle. You had finally been put into your wedding dress which you’d probably wear until later on tonight, this wedding day thing was already exhausting but it would be enjoyable.

“One with the bouquet in view.” You pull up the bouquet, smelling the flowers. Which all gave off their unique scent combined together. It was a bundle of white roses with a silk grey bow joining them all together, you admired how the grey ribbon worked well with the flowers. You also liked the simplicity of the bouquet, you wished simple could have been your middle name at times.

“I’m going to be late for taking photographs here,” The bride was supposed to be late for her ceremony, but it wasn’t a ceremony anymore. It was taking photographs for the wedding instead.

“About that… we’re still doing the rings part. Everyone will want to see some sort of ceremony.” Hyeah told you, you understood. You would just go to your mindset which you had last night, you didn’t care how big or small the wedding was or how grand or simple it was. “Besides you have your wedding gifts to give to each other later.”

Your wedding gift to Jimin. Wasn’t your love enough for him? It probably was. But you had prepared a gift which was back at the apartment, so you weren’t sure if it would be able to get to him today.

“Shall we go?” Soyeon finally says as she was happy with the number of photographs that had been taken. One by one you all left the hotel room, Hyeah stood behind you because of the train. It wasn’t a long one but it could easily be damaged.

Your steps became smaller and smaller as you approached Jimin standing in front of the door, everyone was waiting inside for the two of you. His eyes slightly glanced over to you but once he started, he didn’t stop. Glancing up and down the dress, he smiled and was taken aback at how beautiful you looked in the dress. Not even words could describe it and when he met your gaze, you smiled back at him.

“We’ll see you in there.” Soyeon and Hyeah opened the doors slightly to fit through the slot, you weren’t able to see what was inside but they would open soon. The photographer did his job taking the photos, you weren’t even sure what your expression was but you were natural around Jimin.

“Seokjin was right last night, you are so beautiful.” Jimin whispers.

“Are you crying?” You question seeing a hint of water forming in his eyes.

“No, I’ll cry later.” He smiles. Jimin kisses you on the forehead softly before he pulled the veil over your head. Even though he would be pulling it back in a few minutes. “Are you ready?”

“No, but I will be.”

Linking your arms together, the doors opened revealing the interior of the wedding hall. You smiled in awe at the natural lighting that welcomed a person into the room. White flowers stood in vases at the end of each row. White petals covered the aisle as you walked down it with Jimin guiding you along the way. You smile grew seeing each guest who had turned up to the event, your family, Jimin’s family, some of the members family and also saw Wonho and the other members had made it.

Both of you reached the end of the aisle to meet Yoongi, you were glad that he was doing this. He knew the two of you well enough to pull off an emotional ceremony. “You may all be seated. We are here today to watch the exchange of rings between Jimin and Y/N. But I have to ask even though they are already married is there anyone who disapproves of this marriage because we have all been waiting for this since the day they first got together, let’s be honest.”  

“No one, good. Now time for the rings.” You looked behind you to see Hyeah approaching you with Jimin’s ring, Namjoon handed over Jimin’s ring to him. Jimin gently slid the silver ring onto your finger as it also joined the engagement ring, you in return slid Jimin’s thick silver ring onto his. You noted how the thickness of the ring suited being on his hand, you already had a feeling you would stare at his ring in the future.

“You may now kiss your wife, as I can now proudly pronounce you husband and wife.” Yoongi’s grin on his face grew wider as he said those words, you felt his warmth in the smile also creeping onto your face. Even though you had been smiling all the way through this thing yourself. Jimin pulls back your veil behind your hair, he gently pulled your chin towards him softly kissing you on the lips. Leaving you wanting for more because it had been done briefly being interrupted by the applause. The feelings you had felt when he had kissed you, you wanted to feel them again and for longer.

“Would the two families come forward for the photos.” Now the endless posing for photos began your family with Jimin then you on your own with them. Also the same with Jimin’s family, taking a picture with the members, Taekwoon’s group and Wonho’s group. You couldn’t forget about taking pictures with friends, Hyeah did do most of this.

“1...2...3.” The photographer announces, time for you to focus on the shoot. It felt like a photography shoot and you were in the camera for once which some part of you felt comfortable about, the other part of you was screaming to get behind a camera and pull a piece of paper over your face.

“Now time for the reception… If we make our way through to here.” Hyeah led the wedding party through to the adjoining room, Jimin’s fingers were entwined with yours. In the corner of your eye, you spotted Taemin in the doorway. Jimin also looked in your direction, you saw the look of longing and happiness in Jimin’s eyes.

“Go. I’ll go start speaking to everyone.” You tell him.

“It’s been awhile since we last spoke.” You turned around to hear the familiar voice of Jimin’s mother, you hadn’t seen her in so long, “You must dislike what I did with telling Jimin, you’ve probably gone through some hard times.”  

“He was going to find out anyway, thank you for telling him what I couldn’t. I know not telling him from the start will cause a big issue, I am prepared to deal with that when the time comes.” When that day comes you hope that people will consider the privacy of the issue and it doesn’t lead to the fall of the group.

“We will support you both, I am sure everyone in this room is willing to support you.” Looking around the room there was only a few who knew the truth, would they really side with you? Telling the truth is always the right thing to do, it’s what you should have done from the beginning...

You made your way through the people who had made it to the wedding, all of them congratulating you. All of them happy for the two of you making you feel overwhelmed. “I’m glad that all of you could make it.” When you last spoke to Wonho in the elevator, your thoughts were unsure if they would make it.

“Jimin called us weeks ago to help him out,” Kihyun informed you, you look over to Jimin who was absorbed in a conversation with people you didn’t recognise. He would tell you later if you remembered to ask him.

“You really are one of the most beautiful brides I’ve ever seen, there were tears while watching the two of you.” You laughed at Minhyuk’s comment seeing the slight hint of red in his eyes.

“Thank you, I should go see my brother’s group.” You gestured slightly over to the members, you were slightly surprised the two groups weren’t talking with one another. Then again you did see Jooheon speaking with Wonshik coming into the room.

“Congratulations again,” Wonho smiles and briefly hugs you, this was before each of the members hugged you and wished you happiness. Now you were questioning why you ever left that company, you missed them, now the bride was crying.

You made your way over to Hakyeon seeing as he was the closest of the members, he hugged you briefly and smiled. “Most of the decorations around here were done by me.” You smile at him looking around the room to see flowers on each table, each of them assembled with different flowers. No one was the same, it was all unique. You liked it.

“It looks beautiful. Thank you for helping, I couldn’t have put something like this together.” It didn’t help you didn’t have much time being head of a department, the whole department was busy leading up to Christmas. You were glad that you were able to get all the work done to be stress-free for today.

“Jimin, Seokjin and Hyeah did most of this.” You heard a lot of praise for Jimin with everyone you had spoken to so far, your heart felt full knowing you had done the right thing this time.

“I know, I couldn’t be more grateful for all three of them.” You smile, finding the three of them in the room all in different places. Hyeah talking to a staff member, Seokjin talking with the chef by the doorway and Jimin thanking everyone for being able to make it.

The rest of the wedding seemed to go according to plan, well you didn’t know what was meant to be happening. You were finally able to eat something and talk closely with your father, he did help to remove the articles from the internet. You and Jimin cut the cake, seeing that the flavour was vanilla, one of your favourites. You would probably be giving out cake for the next few months after seeing how big it was, as it was 3 tiers with the bride and groom on top. The flower detailing down the side of the cake, you would have been happy with just one tier that could have been shared out.

The wedding slowly came to end after it started to get dark outside, the guests all started to say their goodbyes to the two of you. Today was supposed to be just about you and Jimin, but you felt as if you spent most of your time with the guests than Jimin. He too was also talking to everyone meaning you didn’t spend much time with him. But you had the rest of yours lives together, which made up for that.

“What do you want to do? Go have a drink somewhere?” Jimin approaches you after the last guest, leaving the two of you alone in a massive room.

“Come here.” You mutter, pulling him in with your hand. “Let’s dance, just the two of us.” Right on queue in the background, a song started to play. You recognised the song straight away knowing it was a popular to play at weddings, thinking out loud.

Jimin chuckles hearing the music start to play but he goes along with it, “So, how was it today?” The questions he had wanted to ask all day but he had been satisfied with the look in your eyes.

“It’s not even something I can express with words. I’m happy. I’m grateful that all of this was a surprise because it turned out more than I could have imagined.” No matter how many times you said it, you really couldn’t have planned something like this.

“I’m glad, you deserve this.” What did he mean? He’s been through just as much, he deserved it more than you did. After all, you kept everything from him and he has to take on so much, to keep on smiling for the cameras. Maybe you should mention Jimin for starring in a drama.

“We both do.” You said that so he wouldn’t say anything more. The two of you were happy, in the moment, words shouldn’t be ruining it.

“Do you want to stay here for the night? Or the apartment?” Jimin asks.

“The apartment.” You reply as Jimin spun you around. You started to laugh when he picked you up into his arms and spun you around again. “We have to give our gifts to each other.”

“You’re right. Let’s go right now.” You just laughed knowing what he was thinking, it wasn’t the right thing but it was going to happen anyway after giving the gifts to each other.

“You don’t want to finish the song? I have to get changed, I can’t go outside in this dress.” You would be most likely going to the hospital with hypothermia, that was a little bit extreme, but it felt like it could come true.

“Back to the room,” Jimin announces, still carrying you in his arms as he walked down the corridor towards the room you had slept in last night.

“You can put me down you know.” You were almost begging him to do so once you were inside the room, gently putting you down onto the ground. You found your clothes from yesterday on the bed, those would have to do. It wasn’t like you were going to we wearing them for long.

“Is my mask there?” Jimin questions, searching through the small pile of clothes.

“Don’t you have disposable ones?”

“They’re at the apartment.” You’d found it, at the bottom underneath your huge jacket. Why did Jimin pick this one? He probably thought you would get cold easily, he was too sweet to you sometimes.

“Can you do the back of my dress?” There was, a ribbon and buttons, you could probably do the ribbon but not the buttons.

“If you're getting undressed here, we might as well do it here.” You sniggered at his comment, he was seriously finding it difficult? It just made you want to keep him waiting for longer.

“I’m not doing it in a hotel.”

“What about when we’re on tour? What will you do for four months?” Ah right, the four months of touring now. You didn’t even care they had added more dates if more people wanted to see the group, the more money the company would be receiving. Besides, you would get to see places you’d only dreamed of.

“You’ll have to find other ways.”

“Not even the shower?” It was a bit cruel to keep it in for four months, then again during the tour, there is a break in between for about a week and a half. You were slightly surprised to see European dates on the list, then again there had been a major amount of support for them to go there. You liked how the tour was spaced out for each country.

“Maybe.” The dress fell to the ground as you said that, you pulled the t-shirt over your body quickly feeling the cold air in the room. As well as your bottoms and shoes all while Jimin was watching your every move.

“You really are a tease,” Jimin mutters.

You pulled the mask around your face, “Where’s the bag for the dress?” Jimin swiftly grabbed the white bag and picked up the dress. You could see he was in a hurry to get back to the apartment, he wasn’t sure how much traffic there was going to be.

“Let’s go.” Jimin carried the bag with the dress and pulled you by the hand.

X

Half an hour later you had arrived at the apartment, Jimin threw the bag across the sofa pulling you towards the room. “Let’s do gifts first,” Jimin said, you were quite surprised to hear him say that, but agreed with him. Technically you should have given each other gifts last night but you weren’t able to do that.

“So do we have our wedding anniversary in the future, on Christmas day or Christmas eve?” You question, everyone watched you exchange rings today but you registered your marriage yesterday.

“We could just celebrate for two days.” It would be nice to spend celebrating an occasion for two days, it would make things different for a change. The two of you could do anything you wanted and it wouldn’t have to fit into one day.

“How did you know that I would go to city hall to register the marriage last night?”

“Luck. Otherwise, we would’ve just got married today in front of everyone.” Jimin replies moving about the room, pulling a box out his drawer. You pulled your gift from under the bed and placed it onto the bed.

“I don’t regret what we did. I liked the way we did, simple and quiet.” No one knew the whereabouts of the two of you except Hoseok and Yoongi. Nothing felt different from marrying Jimin, you were already living with him before the wedding. It didn’t make a difference.

Jimin smiles as you stared at him, “Take off your ring.” You looked oddly at Jimin, but he was already twirling his ring around in his fingers as he came to sit down on the bed beside you. You pulled the ring off and handed it to Jimin.

“What’s this about?”

“Look.” He pointed to inside both of the rings, each of them having a word engraved on the inside. Yours said ‘begin’ and Jimin’s was ‘again’. You look at him for an explanation, “No matter how hard things will be for us, we can always begin again.”

“I also got you this.” As you placed the ring back onto your finger, Jimin pulled a necklace around your neck. You looked down to see a plain straight silver pendant, with your initials. Plain and simple. You smile as he tried to put the necklace around his neck struggling with the clasp.

“Let me.” You mutter, easily joining the back. “Both of the rings are engraved and we have matching necklaces. It makes me think I should have tried harder with mine.” You whisper, looking down at the wrapped gift.

“You know that your love is enough for me.” You knew. Ripping the paper away from the gift, it revealed a picture frame with an ultrasound picture inside. It was almost as if you were announcing a pregnancy to him.

“This is was my last ultrasound of her and I want you to have it. I know it’s not the usual wedding gift a bride would give to her groom.” You whisper, hoping Jimin would say something. Had you upset him? Should you have got him something else? You were bad with gifts…

You watched Jimin carefully as he picked up the picture frame, as he stared at the ultrasound his face changed. “Thank you.” He whispers. “I feel closer to her now, I promise whenever we have a baby in the future whether it’s next year or five years; I will stay by your side through all of it. Even when you have a miscarriage or you go into premature labour.”

Jimin pulled you into his embrace with the photo frame between the two of you, nuzzling your face into his neck. You smiled as he whispered. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

[elevenhoursinfront-blog]

13th April 2017

Steve's alarm went off at 0730. He had to be at work for 0900 so he gave himself time to wake up and have breakfast. I woke up at 0700 to go for a wee, but as I had to walk down to level nine, I couldn't go back to sleep. It was rubbish. I went down for breakfast with Steve. It was that early, there wasn't a queue for pancakes! Hardly anyone was up and if they were, it was because they were going to work. LUCKY THEM. Steve left around 0845 and I sat in bed creating a list of what I had to do today. Go the bank, washing, apply for jobs... ZZZzzzz - before I knew it, I had fallen to sleep. I woke up at 1215! I forced myself awake too because I thought it would be like 1000. If I didn't, I probably would've slept through until 1600.

I got up and showered straight away. Once I got dressed, I went to the bank to get money out. I needed $15 in cash to put a wash on, $10 for deposit. The sun was out and it was actually really quite hot. I got money out and walked back. A new bakery was opening around the corner and they were giving away hot cross buns for free, straight from the oven. One lady shoved one into my hand and said 'Enjoy'! I didn’t complain... Obviously. For the last 3 days, all we could smell in our room was hot cross buns at night time. From 1900 on wards the smell was lingering for hours. It made us all hungry and we wondered where it was coming from. At least now I know. I got back and went to reception to get a laundry card. It looks like a bank card with the gold chip on for credit. I went to level 10 to get our washing, then to level 9 where the machines were. We had a lot of washing - probably too much. It said not to overload but I didn't know how much was too much. I’m no domestic goddess. I used our new surf powder so hopefully it would all smell nice. I miss having clean washing that smells nice. Actual clean washing, not hostel clean. Like, when I just put my washing in the laundry bin and suddenly its all clean and folded on my bed. MAGIC. The wash would take 27 minutes and then I had to put it into the dryer. 

I went up to my room and started applying for more jobs. There's a few jobs out there that I can get if I become stupidly desperate. At home, we call it ‘cold calling’. Here, it's called ‘warm calling’. Mel joined the sales call centre trying to sell electricity on the day we arrived in Melbourne. She handed her notice in the next day. It's not a nice job to do but it pays $23.50 an hour (I think) and they'll hire anyone. Nobody stays in a job like that for long. I'm used to having people shout at me over the phone so I can stay there whilst looking for something else, I guess. I might have a look at it next week. Everything’s closing now for bank holiday. I think Australian's take Easter break seriously. Mel got asked if she was sad she wasn't home for Easter... Weird. The only sad thing is the price of Easter eggs and how rubbish Cadbury tastes out here. I applied for a few more jobs, I also applied for some for Steve. He isn't as motivated as I am, I just get on and do it. He was at work though. He text me saying how crap it was and that it wasn't labouring. He was cleaning air conditioning vents and stuff like that for an office block in Harrold's. He was working on his own all day with no lunch break and the manager told him that he wanted all the cleaning to be finished today even if it takes him to 1800. Steve said he didn't want to go back tomorrow so I said that's fine. I'm not going to force him to do anything he doesn't want too. Especially as he will find work easily. 

I got the washing out and shoved it into the dryer. I took a few items out that I didn't want shrinking. Last time, 3 of my tops turned into crop tops! I do not have the body for a crop top and I never will. The dryer takes 45 minutes. I carried on applying for jobs until Mel text. She had finished work early for bank holiday and asked if I wanted to go for a walk in the Botanical Gardens. It was nice weather and I was sick of the 4 walls and my roommate being in 24/7. I went to the kitchen, filled my bottle of water up and we left.

We walked the 20 minutes before finding a good spot to sit down. Mel had bought the goon out with her so we enjoyed a nice plastic cup of wine in the sun. It was good and I wasn't spending money. We sat and chatted for over 2 hours. I hadn't even realised the time. Aimee, Imogen and Jacob turned up and we all chilled for a bit longer. We played a game of Uno, too. By 1700, I had to go back. I was absolutely desperate for a wee (to the point my stomach was hurting) and I had forgotten my washing. I got up and left. It wasn't until I started walking I realised I was actually quite tipsy. I was in absolute agony from needing the toilet so bad, I had never felt my stomach hurt so much. I was walking really quickly. Each minute that passed, I felt like I wasn't going to make it back in time. I wondered if I could pee in the bush but I didn’t want to be arrested and deported. I kept looking around for public toilets but there weren't any. I found a Tab (Australian William Hill) and ran inside. I found the toilets and rushed. Why is it, the closer you are to a toilet, the more you need to go? I was so close to wetting myself or having my bladder explode inside my body. It was actually really painful. I can't explain it. I was so glad I went when I did.

I walked back to the hostel, wee free and realised I hadn't eaten any lunch. I hadn't eaten since 0730 this morning. Probably why I felt tipsy. I went up to my laundry and opened the door. The dryer was still going? My clothes were still wet? I didn't understand... I was so confused. I put them on almost 3 hours ago and they were soaked still. I put the clothes back in and let it go on for another 45 minutes. I should’ve learnt how to do the basic things like laundry before I left home.  I went and sat in the kitchen, drinking my water chilling. Steve text saying he wasn't finished yet and didn't know how long he would be. Mel, Imogen, Aimee and Jacob came back and sat with me. Mel was absolutely hammered and they all ordered McDonald's and pizza. Mel's a vegetarian so she orders two buns and puts chips in the middle with cheese. They still charged her $2 for the buns. We were all meant to be going ABC tonight for free Prosecco Thursday's but I wasn't feeling up to it. I went and got my laundry out and it was still damp. I didn't understand if I had done something wrong or not. I reckon the dryer is broken. I folded up what I could and put the majority of it away. I’m a failure of a woman.

Steve text at 1800 and sat that he was tired and had enough. He text the manager asking if he could leave and he did. He got in around 1830 and was knackered. He just wanted to lay in the bath. We're both desperate to have a bath and Steve doesn't even like baths! His feet were killing after being on them for 9 hours. He doesn't know whether to go back tomorrow or not. He only earned $153 today when he should've got around $250. He thinks he will go back tomorrow just so he can earn enough for rent which makes sense. It's just a shame he's being mugged off over Bank Holiday weekend. He should be getting around $40+ an hour. 

We went downstairs at 1845 to join the queue for free food Thursday's. It's chicken curry tonight but again, it's one spoonful of rice and one spoonful of curry. We got into the queue quite near to the front and was eating by 1910. I didn't like the curry. It didn't taste of anything and the rice was stuck together. If I learn anything from this trip, it’s how to cook rice! I learnt the other day and now my rice doesn’t end up in one big mashed up mess. Each rice is an individual and not mushy. Call me Ramsey.  I gave mine to Steve who didn't even want it and he was starving. Cherry ended up eating it (Cherry eats anything). She has about 4 dinners every night. Mel joined us for dinner but she didn't get anything to eat. She and I hit the wall. We were tired. I think we were having a hangover already. We decided we weren't going to go out - my head was pounding and I was so tired. Day drinking is not for me. I won't do that again. I’m a poor excuse of a 22 year old. 

We all went up to my room to chill out for a bit. Vodaphone text us to say that we had used all our data and was adding 1GB for $10. We didn't want that 1GB so I'm not sure what to do. They've automatically charged us for it too. Our new data resumes on the 15th. We can't go in there until Tuesday either. God sake. More money for no reason!  Mel left around 2100. Steve went to get more food and I fell asleep within seconds. That was me done for the rest of the night. Steve went to bed around 2230.

Living the dream!

[itsfinancethings]

For years, Jennell Lévêque has been getting up early and swiping through her phone in the hope that Amazon Flex would drop some shifts for delivery drivers and that she’d be quick enough to nab one. But since the COVID-19 pandemic, even with six apps open for various delivery platforms, Lévêque has gotten barely any jobs delivering packages, meals, or groceries. The Facebook group she runs for Instacart workers, meanwhile, is deluged with requests from new shoppers who want to join.

Before the pandemic, there were millions of people like Lévêque who could make a living, or at least earn decent pocket money, off gig work: driving people from the airport to distant homes, delivering dinners, designing logos for strangers half a world away. But as the U.S. unemployment rate approaches 15% and as the International Monetary Fund predicts a 3% contraction in the global economy, people who have relied on gig work for income are seeing their earnings plummet as more people compete for jobs.

“Each week is getting worse and worse with every platform,” says Lévêque, who is in her forties and whose lament is borne out by company numbers. Upwork says it has seen a 50% increase in freelancer sign-ups since the pandemic began. Talkdesk, a customer service provider that has launched a gig economy platform, got 10,000 new applications for gig work in 10 days. Instacart hired 300,000 additional workers in a month and said in late April it planned to add 250,000 more.

Though more people are having food delivered, receiving packages from Amazon and searching online for their graphic design and customer service needs, the surge of new workers has upended the law of supply and demand in the gig economy. Put simply, with at least 36 million newly jobless people in America alone as of mid-May, there are now too many would-be workers to make the gig economy viable for many of them, and this may be irreversible as companies adapt to the reality of a global recession. By keeping head counts low, they’ll drive more desperate people into the gig economy, expanding the potential labor pool for jobs and driving down the prices that workers can command.

“The rates on DoorDash and Uber Eats are the lowest I’ve ever seen, but they’re all bad right now,” says Lévêque, who’s watched the trend unfold in recent weeks. Apps like Amazon Flex, whose drivers use their personal vehicles to make deliveries for the company, “drop” or release jobs at a certain time, and Lévêque and other drivers say that these jobs are snapped up within seconds. Some Amazon Flex drivers have taken to sitting in parking lots near Amazon warehouses in hopes this will help them beat the competition.

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Apps like Instacart send “offers,” which let workers see how many groceries a customer has ordered, how much they’ll get paid, and what the tip will be. On some apps, these offers are lower than ever, Lévêque says. (Instacart says its shoppers are earning 60% more per batch of orders they complete in part because tips have nearly doubled, and that while they may not see the same volume of orders as they did before, the average number of batches has stayed essentially the same.) As we talked, Lévêque turned down a food delivery offer for $3 because it wasn’t worth the gas she’d have to use. Another driver named Kevin, 43, who didn’t want his last name used because he doesn’t want his full-time job to know that he drives on the side, says Amazon Flex shifts now pay around $18-20 an hour, down from $28-$32 an hour before the pandemic.

As more workers rush to apps, there’s also a rise in people trying to take advantage of their desperation. Hustlers are launching bots that use algorithms to grab jobs before humans can and then charge potential workers to use these bots, says Matthew Telles, a longtime Instacart shopper who has been outspoken about the platform’s flaws. The so-called “grabber bots” take a bunch of jobs as soon as they come out, which means only people who have the bots installed can find work. Instacart shoppers pay a fee to use the bots, which are also a problem on services like Amazon Flex. Instacart in particular “has become a target for these exploitative apps that force laborers to pay just to get them access,” Telles says. (Instacart says that using unauthorized third parties in an effort to secure more batches is not permitted and that anyone found to be doing so will be deactivated.)

Delivery drivers like Lévêque have one advantage—they are only competing for jobs with people from their own geographic area. On sites like Fiverr and Upwork, where people can sell services as diverse as logo design, digital marketing and voice acting, workers are competing with others from around the world. Anyone with an internet connection can vie for these gigs, and the worse the global economy gets in the wake of COVID-19, the more people will stream on these sites looking for work. The World Bank estimates that COVID-19 will cause the first increase in global poverty since 1998.

Bill O’Leary—The Washington Post/Getty ImagesA crowd of delivery drivers waits to pick up orders from &Pizza on March 19, 2020 in Washington D.C.

“It’s a race to the bottom, honestly,” says Melanie Nichols, a 40-year-old marketer who has been freelancing for tech startups in Los Angeles for seven years. With business slowing in the wake of the pandemic, Nichols created an Upwork account from England, where she was staying with family, and tried to earn some extra money. Before the pandemic, she could charge between $100 to $150 an hour to clients, whom she’d meet in person or through referrals. On Upwork, she says, clients advertise jobs that require the same amount of work but pay $50 an hour, or less. Getting those jobs is nearly impossible—Nichols says she’s applied for 20 since March and heard back from four. One led to an actual paying gig, which ended up being more work than she was pitched, and so Nichols did 25 hours of work for 10 hours of pay. “Upwork seems to be such a good idea,” she says, “but I’d be curious to find people who are actually making money from it.”

Steven Lee Notar, 24, is in the same situation. He worked as a graphic designer at a media agency in Germany until the company first reduced his hours and then laid him off. He started advertising on Fiverr for services like designing online ads, posters and business cards, but says he has to set his prices low to get any orders. “A lot of people in my field have turned to the website,” Notar says. “It is a lot of supply but not a lot of demand.”

Sites like Upwork and Fiverr say the demand is still there. Adam Ozimek, the chief economist at Upwork, says that a third of Fortune 500 companies now use the platform, and that client spending has been stable since the pandemic hit. Upwork has not tracked whether freelancer pay rates have gone down, but Ozimek argues that Upwork’s borderless business model is good for gig workers because it gives them the freedom to find employers anywhere, not just in their city or country. “This is where the U.S. has the advantage,” he says. “The U.S. leads the world in skilled services, and our freelancers do find work all over the world.”

What worries some workers is that this scramble of competing with more people for lower-paying gigs is going to become the new normal as businesses try to stay lean by spending as little as possible. Twitter said Tuesday that going forward, employees could work from home forever if they so desired. But once people are working from home, what’s the incentive to keep them on as salaried employees? Arguably, companies could save money and balance their budgets by hiring overseas marketers or coders willing to work for less money and no benefits. Nearly half of the world is now connected to the Internet, up from just 15% in 2007.

Giant marketing companies like WPP and Omnicom have already talked about significant headcount reductions going forward and restructuring—they could turn to online freelancers once business starts up again. One survey found that as early as 2017, average hourly earnings on some platforms like Clickworker and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk were as low as $2 to $6.5 an hour.

There are signs this transition is already happening. Companies that are trying to grow online are hiring many gig workers on Fiverr, and Fiverr has seen an increase in demand for these workers, the company said on its earnings call in May. Fiverr hit all-time daily revenue records four times in April, CEO Micha Kaufman said. Nichols, the marketer, says she has seen big advertising agencies that have laid off hundreds of people hiring gig workers for marketing jobs on Upwork. Upwork said on its May earnings call that a multinational cybersecurity company used Upwork to find designers and developers, and a sports marketing agency hired software developers and animators on the site for projects. Aside from a moral obligation to treat workers well and pay them a living wage, there’s nothing to prevent more companies from jettisoning full-time employees and shifting to lower-paid gig workers.

They’d just be following what has been happening for decades in other fields. Just as manufacturing shifted overseas for cheaper labor and as gig economy apps drove down wages for taxi and delivery drivers, the pandemic has hastened the gig-ification of white-collar jobs. The gig economy might have been a crowded space before COVID-19, but the booming economy masked its workers’ struggles because many of them could find other jobs to supplement their income. Now, that extra work has dried up, and their desperation is more evident than ever. When gig work is the only pie that’s available to millions of people, sharing it means that some don’t even get crumbs.

[kennethherrerablog]

The Best Work From Home Jobs For Busy Moms

I get it — you are a mom which means you’re extremely busy. But, you also desire to make a little (or a lot) of money from home and don’t know where to start.

Believe it or not, the work-from-home industry is more popular than ever before. In fact, a recent study by Flexjobs of 3,000 moms found that 65% of them either need or would like to work from home. If that is you, here is my latest list of the most legitimate work from home jobs for moms.

The Higher Paying Work From Jobs For Moms

I recently added these two to the list because I personally know many moms having success as both virtual assistants and freelance writers.

Earn up to $50/hour as a Virtual Assistant

Many small businesses need help but don’t want to bring on staff to their location, so instead they turn to virtual support. This type of support could be anything from responding to and checking email, scheduling meetings, booking travel arrangements, updating social media content — really anything you can do online.

The starting pay for virtual assistants is really good — $15 – $50 per hour. 

If you’re ready to get started right away, I would head on over to a site like Upwork — a marketplace for businesses looking for virtual assistants.

But, if you want to increase your hourly rate as a virtual assistant, I would avoid the marketplace and offer your services as your own business. I would highly recommend getting started with Kayla Sloan’s 10k VA program to learn how to become and market yourself as a virtual assistant (VA).

Earn Money as a Freelance Writer

I have a good friend, Holly Johnson, that left her job in corporate America to pursue her passion — freelance writing. As a mother of two young daughters, she generates income as a freelance writer.

Now, of course she didn’t start off making a ton of money, but over time she created strategies to land more writing jobs, to find out what clients actually want in a writer, and how to be as efficient and profitable as possible.

It won’t happen overnight, but after six years as a freelance writer, Holly makes $225,000+ per year and if you follow her online you’ll notice something unusual — her family of four travels 20 weeks per year because she can write from anywhere in the world. Holly also writes for some of the largest well-known websites like Condé Naste, The Balance, Bankrate and Business Insider.

Now of course I am in no way suggesting you’re going to start as a freelance writer and make six figures. But I do know you can start making a few hundred dollars per month as a freelance writer.

How do I know this?

Today there are over 440 million active blogs. These blogs need to keep putting out content and the majority of these writers work on their terms and their schedule. As a blogger myself, I know so many moms who absolutely love writing and they have found a consistent income stream from freelance writing.

As far as getting started as a freelance writer, I would recommend checking out Holly’s freelance writing course earn real income. Her program isn’t free, but I do know there is a community jobs board inside her program where I have personally hired writers for the Money Peach blog.

Earn $1,000 to $2,000 Per Month Running Facebook Ads

Before you start getting overwhelmed, let me share a little secret with you — Facebook ads are not rocket science.

Right now there are over 7 million businesses advertising on Facebook and they’re spending between $2,400 and $9,600 on Facebook ads each year. Why are they spending so much money on Facebook ads?

Because they work. As a business owner, imagine spending $1,000 and generating $3,000 worth of revenue. And if you could pay someone to run that portion of your business for you, wouldn’t that be a no-brainer?

My friend Bobby Hoyt has created a booming business where he teaches moms how to run Facebook ads from home. If you’re looking to get started with this work-from-home-job, you will have to learn the basics of Facebook ads first. If you know of a program already, great! But if not, I have personally taken Bobby’s program and it’s excellent.

Customer Service or Call Center Jobs

Call center or customer service jobs are likely some of the most popular work-from-home positions available. So many companies find it is much more cost-effective which also makes for happier employees when customer service and call center reps can work at home.

Here are some of the more well-known companies who allow customer service reps to work from home.

Amazon

Yes, the retail giant Amazon does hire work-from-home people as customer service agents. Remote jobs are not available in all areas, but there are often positions in several areas of the United States and around the world.

As a customer service agent you’ll have more job opportunities if you can speak multiple languages as well. When you search the jobs listings quickly you will find opportunities for those who can speak both French and Japanese.

The types of positions and locations they offer will vary, however because Amazon is such a large company there are almost always available jobs to choose from.

Most positions with Amazon pay around $10-$12 per hour. You’ll likely have assigned shift hours they want to you to work as well.

Note: they do offer other types of remote positions as well, including degreed positions with potentially higher pay and a budding career path for those who are interested.  

U-Haul

U-Haul, the moving company, frequently hires customer service reps to work from home. One of the great things about U-Haul is that it will hire customer service personnel as young as 16 years of age provided they have the professional skills to be a great customer service rep.

In these types of positions, you’ll mostly be helping people with booking moving vans or trucks.

Search the U-Haul website via the link above to determine if they currently have any work-from-home openings for customer service reps.

VIP Desk Connect

VIP Desk Connect is an outsourcing company hiring customer service reps to work for various individual companies. At the time this post was published they are seeking people to work remotely in customer service.

Since each of the companies they work for has different parameters, you’ll need to contact them directly via the link above to find out more.

Hilton Hotels

Hilton Hotels encompasses a number of different hotel brands all over the world. They are often seeking reservation specialists who can work from home.

They ask that their reservations specialists be available to work at least 25 hours per week, including nights, weekends and some holidays. If you like helping people book and manage their hotel reservations, this could be a great job for you.

Apple Inc.

Technology giant Apple hires At Home Advisors to work from home providing world-class customer service to those who call in for help.

If you have great customer service and communications skills, enjoy helping others and are willing to learn about Apple products, this could be a good job opportunity for you.

Alorica

Alorica hires thousands of work-from-home agents to provide high quality customer service for their clients. They’ll even pay you as you train.

This company doesn’t hire in every state but does have opportunities for call agents in most states. Check out their website via the link above for more information.

Televated

Televated provides customer service, chat and email services for multiple clients. You’ll likely be given set hours to work for Televated, and you need to have an up-to-date computer and high speed Internet access.

Prior call center experience is preferred but not required, and you’ll need to have a quiet space at home where you can work and serve customers without interruption.

Convergys

Convergys hires customer service reps, sales support and technical support specialists to work from home. They also offer medical and dental benefits, a 401(k) plan and a college tuition reimbursement plan for many of their employees.

As a Convergys employee you’ll both train and work from the comfort of your own home.

Sitel Group

Sitel Group customer service reps answer calls about billing inquiries, order statuses, account questions, installation scheduling and more.

They manage call center reps for a number of industries including financial, retail, telecommunications, hospitality and healthcare companies.

Concentrix

Concentrix is another company that hires and trains work-from-home customer service reps for other companies.

If you are looking to work from home as a customer service rep, and are organized, independent, disciplined, personable, focused and an effective communicator, the people at Concentrix would love to hear from you.

Home Shopping Network

Yes, HSN, better known as the Home Shopping Network, hires people to work from home doing mainly sales representative positions.

Note: sales reps with HSN don’t directly sell anything; instead they help customers who call in wanting to buy something.

One caveat: you need to live in the Toledo, Ohio or surrounding areas in order to qualify. Check out this link to HSN for more information.

Xact Telesolutions

Xact Telesolutions provides a variety of home-based jobs for other companies including inbound customer care reps and sales reps. They provide flexible scheduling options, and benefits and paid time off for some workers as well.

There are also some team lead, management and supervisory positions available within the company that specify they accept remote workers.

NexRep

NexRep hires work-from-home professionals to provide sales, service and tech support positions for its clients.

If you’re friendly, outgoing and passionate about being the best at what you do, they’d love to hear from you. You’ll need to be a U.S. resident to qualify, have a quiet space at home where you can speak with customers, and you’ll be asked to pay $25 for a background check as well.

Cruise.com

Cruise.com hires customer service agents, cruise sales agents and online support agents to work from home. Most positions require a minimum of 1 year of cruise industry experience and/or call center experience for applicants.

Also, all positions have sales responsibilities for selling insurance from their insurance partner, Allianz. Training for selling the insurance is provided. If you like travel and like selling, this could be a good choice for you.

Working Solutions

Working Solutions hires customer service agents to work from home. In order to qualify and be assessed for hire you need an up-to-date computer, high speed Internet connection, landline telephone, a desire to succeed and a commitment to hard work.

The site says that assessments for potential agents could take up to an hour and should be completed from the computer you plan on working from.

Data Entry/Transcriptionist Jobs

Not the customer service agent type?

Good news! There are still legitimate work-from-home jobs available with little or no customer contact. Instead, you’ll be doing data entry work or transcriptionist (either medical or non-medical) work from home. Here are some of the best job opportunities in those areas.

Rev.com

Another great work-from-home-job is transcribing audio or video into captions. I personally have hired many people from Rev.com to do all of our captions for our videos and the quality is always great.

Rev.com says you can expect to earn on average $240 per month and you can also get paid weekly via PayPal.

I really love this side hustle because you can do this from home, on your own time, and work as much as you would like.

AccuTran Global

AccuTran Global hires transcriptionists to work from home.

Qualifications include being able to type at least 60 words per minute (WPM), being a good listener and having a thorough knowledge of the English language and proper grammar.

Applicants will be given a transcription test and do need to have a computer that is less than four years old.

Note: Their work is largely seasonal and you’ll have to be available when they need you.

DionData Solutions

DionData Solutions hires data entry workers to work from home. Qualified applicants must type at least 60 words per minute, have sufficient computer skills including attaching, downloading and uploading documents, and be committed to completing tasks in a timely manner as required by each job.

You must also have excellent verbal and written communication skills and be able to work efficiently with minimal supervision.

Clickworker

Clickworker hires people to perform a variety of jobs such as translation, research and data processing. Each worker is allowed to choose which jobs they want to take from the available pool of tasks.

Most of the jobs are smaller and can be done quickly if you are efficient. Being efficient will raise your rate of pay since you are paid by the job and not on an hourly basis.

Appen

Appen hires work-from-home people for transcription and other types of jobs. This is a global company that hires people from around the world.

You can search through Appen’s available jobs here. Remember to look for other types of jobs that are remote too, and not just transcription jobs so you can find the best job opportunity for you. Knowing multiple languages is a plus since they service clients worldwide.

Birch Creek Communications

Birch Creek Communications hires transcriptionists (corporate transcriptionists, not legal or medical) to work from home. They don’t provide any training – you need to learn the trade on your own if you don’t know it already.

Online Tutoring Jobs

Tutoring online is another great way you can make money working from home. Most online tutoring jobs are independent contractor positions and not employee positions.

If you have skills in a particular school subject or would like to help people learn a second language, this could be a great work opportunity for you.

Here are some of the more popular online tutoring companies that hire work-from-home tutors.

VIP KID

VIP KID focuses solely on teaching children in China to speak English fluently. To become a tutor with them you don’t need to know Chinese but it can help.

They supply the curriculum for you and you teach directly from the teaching manuals the company provides. There’s no communication with parents (corporate handles that) and you teach in a one-on-one setting so your student has your undivided attention.

As a tutor for VIP KID you enter your availability for tutoring sessions one month in advance and then the company schedules students for you based on your availability.

You’ll get at least 24 hours advance notice when you have a tutoring session coming up. This way you have time to prepare and go over your training materials for that lesson.

As you can see, there are a few different options and several companies that will hire people to work from home.

It’s important when researching work-from-home jobs that you know the available types of employment statuses before you decide who you want to work from home for.

There are two general options: working as a W-2 employee where your paycheck is given out with taxes and other deductions taken out ahead of time, or working as an independent contractor where you are given your full earnings and must pay taxes on your own.

Here’s a little more information about each option so you can decide which one is best for you.

Chegg

Chegg hires tutors to help middle and high school students, college students and working professionals. When you sign up as a tutor you select your best subjects and Chegg will match you with potential students. You as a tutor can accept which students you’d like to work with.

You can tutor from anywhere with an Internet connection. Plus, Chegg will pay you weekly when you work as a tutor for them.

Tutor.Com

Tutor.com hires tutors to teach children as young as Kindergarten age all the way through college and beyond. They even have tutoring positions available for adult learners who need tutoring services.

To qualify to tutor with them, you need to submit an application, pass a subject exam, do a mock tutoring session and pass a background check.

You can tutor from anywhere and set your own schedule as you’re available. Tutors are paid regularly.

Work from Home as an Employee

Many companies these days will hire direct employees to work from home. As a direct employee you’ll get a regular paycheck, taxes, benefits and other costs taken from that paycheck, and a W-2 at the end of the year.

You’ll likely have required hours you need to work, company training manuals to peruse and a boss that will supervise you.

Work from Home as an Independent Contractor

If you work for yourself from home you’ll handle things a bit differently. First, you’ll likely get to decide the hours you work and your rate of pay. Second, you can choose the types of work you’ll do.

However, any income you make will be treated as business income. You’ll get your money directly from the customer with no taxes taken out. At the end of the year you’ll get a 1099 or similar tax form from each client.

It will be your responsibility to keep track of your income, your expenses and to pay taxes accordingly.

There’s no right or wrong answer as to which type of work-from-home income you choose. But, it is important to know the difference between the two.

Depending on the type of work-at-home jobs you choose, you can control how much money you make. It could be a few hundred dollars a year ,or even tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Working from home isn’t for everyone. However, if you’re a self-starter, willing to learn new things, and committed to being disciplined and organized, a work-from-home job might be the perfect way for you to increase your income or have a career from the comfort of your own home.

Maybe You Would Rather Pick Up a Side Hustle?

If none of these options sounds like something you’d be interested in, we do have a list of the the best side hustles to start generating income. We broke down all side hustles into eight different categories for you to choose from: online, extremely passive, some skill required, physical labor, very unique, driving, bizarre and just plain simple.

Good luck!

The Best Work From Home Jobs For Busy Moms published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/

[darcyfarber]

The Best Work From Home Jobs For Busy Moms

I get it — you are a mom which means you’re extremely busy. But, you also desire to make a little (or a lot) of money from home and don’t know where to start.

Believe it or not, the work-from-home industry is more popular than ever before. In fact, a recent study by Flexjobs of 3,000 moms found that 65% of them either need or would like to work from home. If that is you, here is my latest list of the most legitimate work from home jobs for moms.

The Higher Paying Work From Jobs For Moms

I recently added these two to the list because I personally know many moms having success as both virtual assistants and freelance writers.

Earn up to $50/hour as a Virtual Assistant

Many small businesses need help but don’t want to bring on staff to their location, so instead they turn to virtual support. This type of support could be anything from responding to and checking email, scheduling meetings, booking travel arrangements, updating social media content — really anything you can do online.

The starting pay for virtual assistants is really good — $15 – $50 per hour. 

If you’re ready to get started right away, I would head on over to a site like Upwork — a marketplace for businesses looking for virtual assistants.

But, if you want to increase your hourly rate as a virtual assistant, I would avoid the marketplace and offer your services as your own business. I would highly recommend getting started with Kayla Sloan’s 10k VA program to learn how to become and market yourself as a virtual assistant (VA).

Earn Money as a Freelance Writer

I have a good friend, Holly Johnson, that left her job in corporate America to pursue her passion — freelance writing. As a mother of two young daughters, she generates income as a freelance writer.

Now, of course she didn’t start off making a ton of money, but over time she created strategies to land more writing jobs, to find out what clients actually want in a writer, and how to be as efficient and profitable as possible.

It won’t happen overnight, but after six years as a freelance writer, Holly makes $225,000+ per year and if you follow her online you’ll notice something unusual — her family of four travels 20 weeks per year because she can write from anywhere in the world. Holly also writes for some of the largest well-known websites like Condé Naste, The Balance, Bankrate and Business Insider.

Now of course I am in no way suggesting you’re going to start as a freelance writer and make six figures. But I do know you can start making a few hundred dollars per month as a freelance writer.

How do I know this?

Today there are over 440 million active blogs. These blogs need to keep putting out content and the majority of these writers work on their terms and their schedule. As a blogger myself, I know so many moms who absolutely love writing and they have found a consistent income stream from freelance writing.

As far as getting started as a freelance writer, I would recommend checking out Holly’s freelance writing course earn real income. Her program isn’t free, but I do know there is a community jobs board inside her program where I have personally hired writers for the Money Peach blog.

Earn $1,000 to $2,000 Per Month Running Facebook Ads

Before you start getting overwhelmed, let me share a little secret with you — Facebook ads are not rocket science.

Right now there are over 7 million businesses advertising on Facebook and they’re spending between $2,400 and $9,600 on Facebook ads each year. Why are they spending so much money on Facebook ads?

Because they work. As a business owner, imagine spending $1,000 and generating $3,000 worth of revenue. And if you could pay someone to run that portion of your business for you, wouldn’t that be a no-brainer?

My friend Bobby Hoyt has created a booming business where he teaches moms how to run Facebook ads from home. If you’re looking to get started with this work-from-home-job, you will have to learn the basics of Facebook ads first. If you know of a program already, great! But if not, I have personally taken Bobby’s program and it’s excellent.

Customer Service or Call Center Jobs

Call center or customer service jobs are likely some of the most popular work-from-home positions available. So many companies find it is much more cost-effective which also makes for happier employees when customer service and call center reps can work at home.

Here are some of the more well-known companies who allow customer service reps to work from home.

Amazon

Yes, the retail giant Amazon does hire work-from-home people as customer service agents. Remote jobs are not available in all areas, but there are often positions in several areas of the United States and around the world.

As a customer service agent you’ll have more job opportunities if you can speak multiple languages as well. When you search the jobs listings quickly you will find opportunities for those who can speak both French and Japanese.

The types of positions and locations they offer will vary, however because Amazon is such a large company there are almost always available jobs to choose from.

Most positions with Amazon pay around $10-$12 per hour. You’ll likely have assigned shift hours they want to you to work as well.

Note: they do offer other types of remote positions as well, including degreed positions with potentially higher pay and a budding career path for those who are interested.  

U-Haul

U-Haul, the moving company, frequently hires customer service reps to work from home. One of the great things about U-Haul is that it will hire customer service personnel as young as 16 years of age provided they have the professional skills to be a great customer service rep.

In these types of positions, you’ll mostly be helping people with booking moving vans or trucks.

Search the U-Haul website via the link above to determine if they currently have any work-from-home openings for customer service reps.

VIP Desk Connect

VIP Desk Connect is an outsourcing company hiring customer service reps to work for various individual companies. At the time this post was published they are seeking people to work remotely in customer service.

Since each of the companies they work for has different parameters, you’ll need to contact them directly via the link above to find out more.

Hilton Hotels

Hilton Hotels encompasses a number of different hotel brands all over the world. They are often seeking reservation specialists who can work from home.

They ask that their reservations specialists be available to work at least 25 hours per week, including nights, weekends and some holidays. If you like helping people book and manage their hotel reservations, this could be a great job for you.

Apple Inc.

Technology giant Apple hires At Home Advisors to work from home providing world-class customer service to those who call in for help.

If you have great customer service and communications skills, enjoy helping others and are willing to learn about Apple products, this could be a good job opportunity for you.

Alorica

Alorica hires thousands of work-from-home agents to provide high quality customer service for their clients. They’ll even pay you as you train.

This company doesn’t hire in every state but does have opportunities for call agents in most states. Check out their website via the link above for more information.

Televated

Televated provides customer service, chat and email services for multiple clients. You’ll likely be given set hours to work for Televated, and you need to have an up-to-date computer and high speed Internet access.

Prior call center experience is preferred but not required, and you’ll need to have a quiet space at home where you can work and serve customers without interruption.

Convergys

Convergys hires customer service reps, sales support and technical support specialists to work from home. They also offer medical and dental benefits, a 401(k) plan and a college tuition reimbursement plan for many of their employees.

As a Convergys employee you’ll both train and work from the comfort of your own home.

Sitel Group

Sitel Group customer service reps answer calls about billing inquiries, order statuses, account questions, installation scheduling and more.

They manage call center reps for a number of industries including financial, retail, telecommunications, hospitality and healthcare companies.

Concentrix

Concentrix is another company that hires and trains work-from-home customer service reps for other companies.

If you are looking to work from home as a customer service rep, and are organized, independent, disciplined, personable, focused and an effective communicator, the people at Concentrix would love to hear from you.

Home Shopping Network

Yes, HSN, better known as the Home Shopping Network, hires people to work from home doing mainly sales representative positions.

Note: sales reps with HSN don’t directly sell anything; instead they help customers who call in wanting to buy something.

One caveat: you need to live in the Toledo, Ohio or surrounding areas in order to qualify. Check out this link to HSN for more information.

Xact Telesolutions

Xact Telesolutions provides a variety of home-based jobs for other companies including inbound customer care reps and sales reps. They provide flexible scheduling options, and benefits and paid time off for some workers as well.

There are also some team lead, management and supervisory positions available within the company that specify they accept remote workers.

NexRep

NexRep hires work-from-home professionals to provide sales, service and tech support positions for its clients.

If you’re friendly, outgoing and passionate about being the best at what you do, they’d love to hear from you. You’ll need to be a U.S. resident to qualify, have a quiet space at home where you can speak with customers, and you’ll be asked to pay $25 for a background check as well.

Cruise.com

Cruise.com hires customer service agents, cruise sales agents and online support agents to work from home. Most positions require a minimum of 1 year of cruise industry experience and/or call center experience for applicants.

Also, all positions have sales responsibilities for selling insurance from their insurance partner, Allianz. Training for selling the insurance is provided. If you like travel and like selling, this could be a good choice for you.

Working Solutions

Working Solutions hires customer service agents to work from home. In order to qualify and be assessed for hire you need an up-to-date computer, high speed Internet connection, landline telephone, a desire to succeed and a commitment to hard work.

The site says that assessments for potential agents could take up to an hour and should be completed from the computer you plan on working from.

Data Entry/Transcriptionist Jobs

Not the customer service agent type?

Good news! There are still legitimate work-from-home jobs available with little or no customer contact. Instead, you’ll be doing data entry work or transcriptionist (either medical or non-medical) work from home. Here are some of the best job opportunities in those areas.

Rev.com

Another great work-from-home-job is transcribing audio or video into captions. I personally have hired many people from Rev.com to do all of our captions for our videos and the quality is always great.

Rev.com says you can expect to earn on average $240 per month and you can also get paid weekly via PayPal.

I really love this side hustle because you can do this from home, on your own time, and work as much as you would like.

AccuTran Global

AccuTran Global hires transcriptionists to work from home.

Qualifications include being able to type at least 60 words per minute (WPM), being a good listener and having a thorough knowledge of the English language and proper grammar.

Applicants will be given a transcription test and do need to have a computer that is less than four years old.

Note: Their work is largely seasonal and you’ll have to be available when they need you.

DionData Solutions

DionData Solutions hires data entry workers to work from home. Qualified applicants must type at least 60 words per minute, have sufficient computer skills including attaching, downloading and uploading documents, and be committed to completing tasks in a timely manner as required by each job.

You must also have excellent verbal and written communication skills and be able to work efficiently with minimal supervision.

Clickworker

Clickworker hires people to perform a variety of jobs such as translation, research and data processing. Each worker is allowed to choose which jobs they want to take from the available pool of tasks.

Most of the jobs are smaller and can be done quickly if you are efficient. Being efficient will raise your rate of pay since you are paid by the job and not on an hourly basis.

Appen

Appen hires work-from-home people for transcription and other types of jobs. This is a global company that hires people from around the world.

You can search through Appen’s available jobs here. Remember to look for other types of jobs that are remote too, and not just transcription jobs so you can find the best job opportunity for you. Knowing multiple languages is a plus since they service clients worldwide.

Birch Creek Communications

Birch Creek Communications hires transcriptionists (corporate transcriptionists, not legal or medical) to work from home. They don’t provide any training – you need to learn the trade on your own if you don’t know it already.

Online Tutoring Jobs

Tutoring online is another great way you can make money working from home. Most online tutoring jobs are independent contractor positions and not employee positions.

If you have skills in a particular school subject or would like to help people learn a second language, this could be a great work opportunity for you.

Here are some of the more popular online tutoring companies that hire work-from-home tutors.

VIP KID

VIP KID focuses solely on teaching children in China to speak English fluently. To become a tutor with them you don’t need to know Chinese but it can help.

They supply the curriculum for you and you teach directly from the teaching manuals the company provides. There’s no communication with parents (corporate handles that) and you teach in a one-on-one setting so your student has your undivided attention.

As a tutor for VIP KID you enter your availability for tutoring sessions one month in advance and then the company schedules students for you based on your availability.

You’ll get at least 24 hours advance notice when you have a tutoring session coming up. This way you have time to prepare and go over your training materials for that lesson.

As you can see, there are a few different options and several companies that will hire people to work from home.

It’s important when researching work-from-home jobs that you know the available types of employment statuses before you decide who you want to work from home for.

There are two general options: working as a W-2 employee where your paycheck is given out with taxes and other deductions taken out ahead of time, or working as an independent contractor where you are given your full earnings and must pay taxes on your own.

Here’s a little more information about each option so you can decide which one is best for you.

Chegg

Chegg hires tutors to help middle and high school students, college students and working professionals. When you sign up as a tutor you select your best subjects and Chegg will match you with potential students. You as a tutor can accept which students you’d like to work with.

You can tutor from anywhere with an Internet connection. Plus, Chegg will pay you weekly when you work as a tutor for them.

Tutor.Com

Tutor.com hires tutors to teach children as young as Kindergarten age all the way through college and beyond. They even have tutoring positions available for adult learners who need tutoring services.

To qualify to tutor with them, you need to submit an application, pass a subject exam, do a mock tutoring session and pass a background check.

You can tutor from anywhere and set your own schedule as you’re available. Tutors are paid regularly.

Work from Home as an Employee

Many companies these days will hire direct employees to work from home. As a direct employee you’ll get a regular paycheck, taxes, benefits and other costs taken from that paycheck, and a W-2 at the end of the year.

You’ll likely have required hours you need to work, company training manuals to peruse and a boss that will supervise you.

Work from Home as an Independent Contractor

If you work for yourself from home you’ll handle things a bit differently. First, you’ll likely get to decide the hours you work and your rate of pay. Second, you can choose the types of work you’ll do.

However, any income you make will be treated as business income. You’ll get your money directly from the customer with no taxes taken out. At the end of the year you’ll get a 1099 or similar tax form from each client.

It will be your responsibility to keep track of your income, your expenses and to pay taxes accordingly.

There’s no right or wrong answer as to which type of work-from-home income you choose. But, it is important to know the difference between the two.

Depending on the type of work-at-home jobs you choose, you can control how much money you make. It could be a few hundred dollars a year ,or even tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Working from home isn’t for everyone. However, if you’re a self-starter, willing to learn new things, and committed to being disciplined and organized, a work-from-home job might be the perfect way for you to increase your income or have a career from the comfort of your own home.

Maybe You Would Rather Pick Up a Side Hustle?

If none of these options sounds like something you’d be interested in, we do have a list of the the best side hustles to start generating income. We broke down all side hustles into eight different categories for you to choose from: online, extremely passive, some skill required, physical labor, very unique, driving, bizarre and just plain simple.

Good luck!

The Best Work From Home Jobs For Busy Moms published first on https://mysingaporepools.weebly.com/

[ronnykblair]

The Investment Banking Associate: Senior Banker in Training, or Glorified Spell Checker?

If you’ve ever Googled a term like “investment banking associate,” hoping to discover what banking is like at different levels, you’ve probably come to a sobering conclusion:

The vast majority of “day in the life” stories are about Analysts.

There’s always been less information about Associates, VPs, Directors, and MDs, and that hasn’t changed much over time.

That’s partially because more senior bankers aim to stay in the field for the long term.

And if they do leave, they’re more likely to take a corporate finance job at a normal company or do something else “corporate,” where writing a tell-all account is not an option.

So, in light of this continued dearth of information, here’s our full run-down on investment banking associates, from the job description to exit opportunities:

The Investment Banking Associate Job Description

In the investment banking career path, Associates are one rung above Analysts in the hierarchy.

While Analysts are usually recruited from top undergraduate universities, Associates are promoted internally or recruited from top MBA programs.

Just like Analysts, Associates also spend time on:

Excel-based financial models and valuations.

PowerPoint-based pitch books and client presentations.

Confidential Information Memoranda (CIMs) and other marketing documents for clients.

Questions from clients and other team members.

Office politics and surviving abusive/crazy senior bankers.

So, what’s the difference?

If you’re an Associate at a large bank, the main differences are:

More “Checking” and Less “Doing” – You will spend more time checking Analysts’ work in Excel and PowerPoint, and less time doing it yourself.

More Communication and Project Management – You will also process instructions from the VPs, Directors, and MDs, and relay them to the Analysts; on deals, you’ll have more responsibility for following up with different parties and making sure the documents are in order for each step of the process.

More Client Interaction – You’re more likely to attend meetings with clients and potential clients (pitches), and when a client has questions about the details of a model or presentation, they’ll go to you.

More PowerPoint and Less Excel – And when you do the work, you’ll be in PowerPoint more often, drafting and editing presentations. You may still do some Excel work, particularly for more complex models, but you’ll almost certainly spend more time in PowerPoint.

The Associate role also varies significantly based on bank size, group, and seniority.

For example, if you’re at a regional boutique bank where the deal team consists of you and a single MD, you will act more like an Analyst, and you’ll start and finish the models and presentations.

But if you’re a third-year Associate at a bulge-bracket bank, and the deal team consists of you, an Analyst, a VP, and an MD, you’ll be more like a “project manager.”

The bank knows that you can do the work; now they’re assessing how well you can manage teams and work with clients before they promote you to the VP level.

Investment Banking Associate Hours

Associates have somewhat better lives than Analysts, but “somewhat better” means 65-80 hours per week rather than 70-80+ hours.

If you’re in a capital markets group, the hours might be reduced by 10-15%.

You will still be on call 24/7, and you’ll still have to respond to urgent requests, but you have it a bit better than Analysts because urgent requests usually go to them first.

Yes, banks now offer “protected weekends” and other lifestyle improvements, but it’s still a demanding job that will minimize your social life, hobbies, and activities for at least a few years.

Why Would You Want to Be an IB Associate?

Remember that ancient meme about “What People Think I Do / What I Really Do”? (investment banking version here).

The logic in that meme applies readily to IB Associate roles:

Why Banks Want to Hire You as an Associate – They want you to be a long-term employee and move up the ladder within investment banking. In exchange for your long hours, they’ll pay you well, train you, and groom you for the senior levels.

Why You Actually Want to Be an Associate – Many students and professionals who recruit for Associate roles do it for the exit opportunities in private equity and hedge funds – directly contradicting what banks want.

Why You Should Want to Be an Associate – You should want to do it because 1) You want to stay in IB long term; or 2) Because you’re interested in another role that’s a more viable exit opportunity, such as corporate development at a normal company.

The usual “exit opportunity” logic is: “Well, I missed investment banking right out of undergrad, but I want to get into private equity… so I’ll just do investment banking post-MBA and then move into PE from there!”

But the results from this strategy are mixed, at best, so don’t get your hopes up.

And yes, you get paid well as an Associate, but if that’s your main reason for pursuing the role, you need to re-think your life.

The cost of an MBA program, plus the opportunity cost of leaving your current job, plus the time and money required for networking and interview prep mean that it’s not worth it unless you plan to stay in finance for at least 5-10 years.

Investment Banking Associate Salary (and Bonus)

At large banks in the U.S., Associates tend to earn between $250K and $400K USD for total compensation, with base salaries progressing up from $140K to $180K.

Bonuses are significantly lower at smaller banks such as regional boutiques, so expect total compensation that’s 20-25% lower.

Pay is also lower outside the U.S., even in other financial centers such as London.

For more on this topic, please see our article on investment banker salaries.

A Day in the Life: What Does an Investment Banking Associate Do?

To illustrate the differences between the Investment Banking Associate vs. Analyst roles, let’s walk through the same day detailed in the Investment Banking Analyst article, but from the perspective of an Associate:

8:30 AM – 10:30 AM: You arrive at the office, meet with a VP to discuss an upcoming M&A pitch, and answer some of his questions/concerns about a new Analyst in your group.

Then, you review an Analyst’s status report on potential buyers in an M&A deal, make a few changes, and ask the Analyst to update the document and send it out.

10:30 AM – 12:00 PM: You join a meeting with a Director and Managing Director, who are speaking with a private equity firm about a potential sale of one of their portfolio companies.

Your job is to look intelligent, take notes, and occasionally answer questions about the market research you completed on potential buyers.

12:00 PM – 12:30 PM: You eat at your desk as you join due diligence calls for another deal; the Analyst is monitoring the entire session, so you only stick around for one call in the beginning.

12:30 PM – 3:00 PM: You start drafting the M&A pitch book that you discussed with the VP this morning.

You outline the structure and write text on some of the slides, but you leave out the parts that will require Excel paste-ins – the new Analyst will handle those.

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM: A Managing Director is on the road and needs hundreds of pages of briefing materials ASAP. You read the email and forward it to the Analyst on the team. It’s someone else’s problem now!

Right after that, a client calls you, upset about the management presentation your team is drafting for them.

She feels it doesn’t emphasize the company’s growth opportunities well enough, and she spends 30 minutes walking through all the changes she wants to make. You start making the changes.

5:00 PM – 5:30 PM: You review a CIM with an Analyst and explain how you want to change around the financial summary and market sections, handing off your printed version.

5:30 PM – 7:00 PM: The office’s Head MD and staffer call you into a room for a meeting.

They want your impressions of the new classes of Analysts and Associates; you’ve been here for over two years, so they value your input.

You try to strike a balance between giving useful comments to the MD and not sabotaging anyone’s new job.

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM: It looks like you might get to leave “early” – but then one of the VPs decides to have your team re-do an entire IPO pitch book.

Most of the work goes to the Analyst, but you need to stay there answering questions and outlining parts of the new presentation.

10:00 PM – 11:00 PM: You review the new IPO pitch book, make a few small tweaks, approve the qualitative/market slides, and leave the office right after that.

This was a ~14-hour day, which is on the long side, but not unreasonable for something in the Monday – Thursday period.

The same factors that create “bad days” for Analysts also create them for Associates: multiple live deals, big pitches, and last-minute emergencies.

However, office politics often contribute to bad days at this level as well – especially when meetings pull you away from work, as they did to the Associate here.

How to Break into Investment Banking as an Associate

The two main entry points into Associate roles are:

Out of Top MBA Programs – This path is more common in the U.S.; if you’re a career changer who wants to switch into IB, an MBA degree from a top program is, by far, your best chance of breaking in.

Direct Promotions from Analyst Roles – If you perform well as an IB Analyst for 2-3 years, you could get a promotion. Outside the U.S., this is the path most Associates follow because MBA-level recruiting is less developed in other regions.

It is very rare to get hired as an Associate if you’re coming from a completely different industry and you also haven’t completed an MBA.

Yes, you can find exceptions and cases where it has happened, but those stories should be viewed as outliers at best.

If you use a top MBA program to get in, you need to start preparing long before you arrive on campus, with networking, interview prep, and perhaps a “steppingstone role” right before the program begins.

In some cases, it might make more sense to complete a part-time or executive MBA program so you don’t have to quit your current job and so you have more time to prepare.

It tends to be extremely difficult to win offers from a non-target MBA program, though it is possible. However, you’ll most likely have to focus on smaller banks to pull this off.

For more, see the “MBA Path” part of our article on how to get into investment banking.

Investment banking interview questions at the Associate level are not that different: you still need to know accounting, valuation, and financial modeling, you still need a solid “story,” supporting mini-stories for the fit questions, and answers to the key objections, as well as deals you can discuss.

The main difference in is that interviewers often test for slightly different qualities, such as:

Ethics – You’ll be working with clients more directly, so “ethical dilemma” questions are common.

Humility – Bankers do not like over-confident MBAs who think they’re rulers of the known universe. And over-confidence is quite common in MBA programs.

Case Studies – Many interviews turn into “verbal case studies” where the interviewer describes a company or deal, and you have to walk through the analysis and answer questions about how you would advise the client.

Your Family and “Extracurricular” Commitments – It’s illegal to ask about your family or age directly, but bankers can indirectly ask about these topics with questions like “How do you spend your time outside of work?” To stay safe, you should give relatively vague answers.

The IB Associate Job: Right for You?

As with the Investment Banking Analyst role, the real question here is not, “Is the Associate job right for you?”

The real questions are:

If you’re currently an Analyst and you’ve performed well, should you stick around for a direct promotion? Or should you leave for a different industry?

If you’re a career changer, should you pay for a top MBA program so you can get this job?

For the first question, you should look at our coverage of exit opportunities to decide.

In short: if you truly want to be an investor or do something else that’s more creative/intellectual, or you hate banking and don’t care about the money anymore, then you should leave.

If not, or you’re on the fence about IB, but you have no better ideas and don’t mind the hours/lifestyle, you might as well stay and see where it goes.

As for the second question: if you have the right profile and you can put in the time and effort required and you understand that you don’t have a great shot of winning private equity or hedge fund roles, sure, go for it.

Going back to that “What People Think I Do / What I Really Do” meme , many MBA students recruit for IB jobs, believing that they can easily win buy-side roles from them.

While that does happen sometimes, it’s far easier to win these roles as an Analyst.

At the Associate level, more likely exit opportunities are corporate finance, corporate development, corporate strategy, and maybe less-competitive buy-side roles such as venture capital.

If you want to make the transition, you need to move quickly and tactfully and recruit in a good hiring market (see: IB associate exits).

That doesn’t make the Investment Banking Associate role a bad one.

But it does mean that you need to read the fine print carefully before jumping in – or you might end up the subject of the next great meme.

The post The Investment Banking Associate: Senior Banker in Training, or Glorified Spell Checker? appeared first on Mergers & Inquisitions.

from ronnykblair digest https://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-associate-job/

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

The IPO’d study investing at First Spherical’s Angel Monitor – TechCrunch

http://tinyurl.com/y4vw8ll4 Startups rely upon the angel lifecycle. A number of flush post-exit people put the primary money right into a contemporary enterprise. With some ability and loads of luck, the early group grows the corporate into a giant success. It sells or goes public and people group members earn a fortune. They then pay it ahead by investing within the subsequent technology of startups. In the event that they hoard their spoils they starve the early-stage ecosystem or depart founders caught with dumb cash from non-strategic financiers. In the event that they redistribute their winnings, they’ll affect startup tradition by deciding what, and extra importantly, who will get funding. However how does a co-founder or VP study to be a mini-VC? That’s the aim of First Round Capital’s Angel Track, a free three-month workshop sequence in San Francisco and New York for studying tips on how to supply, vet, shut, and assist angel investments. A scene from Angel Monitor’s first cohort Each two weeks, an knowledgeable on some a part of the investing course of like discovering offers or interviewing founders talks to the category, does Q&A, after which leaves the group to overtly focus on what they discovered and tips on how to use it. Angel Monitor classes have been tought by a number of the smartest folks within the valley like progress grasp Elad Gil, #ANGELS founding companion and former Twitter VP of corp dev Jessica Verrilli, and Precursor Ventures managing companion Charles Hudson. A whole bunch of startup execs apply for the 15 spots on every coast. After two courses in SF and one in NYC, right this moment First Spherical unveiled its recently-graduated third cohort from applications in each cities. These embody Lucy Zhang who bought Fb her chat startup Beluga that grew to become the muse of Messenger, and Mented Cosmetics co-founder and CEO KJ Miller. By the tip of this system they’re taking joint pitch conferences from startups, displaying one another the most effective inquiries to ask. As with Y Combinator, it’s as a lot in regards to the fellowship between new traders because the schooling. “It’s each a neighborhood and a masterclass” says First Spherical common companion Hayley Barna who oversees the NYC Angel Monitor. “It’s about bringing a proficient group of rising angels collectively to construct a productive cohort of collaborators.” She says variety and inclusion is a giant aim of this system, and it options 50% girls and 20% underrepresented minorities. Being wealthy just isn’t a pre-requisite. Barna declares “We’re not pulling within the bankers and the merchants doing angel investing as a side-hustle.” LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 29: Confetti falls as Lyft CEO Logan Inexperienced (C) rings the Nasdaq opening bell celebrating the corporate’s preliminary public providing (IPO) on March 29, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. The experience hailing app firm’s shares have been initially priced at $72. (Photograph by Mario Tama/Getty Photographs) After a slew of huge 2019 IPOs from Uber, Lyft, Pinterest, Slack, and Zoom, there are many newly-minted potential angels for First Spherical to show. The enterprise agency advantages by constructing a cadre of co-investors or various backers for offers it vets, and thru added visibility into the subsequent prime fundraises. Not like some VC scout applications, there’s no formal obligation to ship alternatives to First Spherical or pledge funding alongside it. That retains it interesting to future traders that innovation hubs have to preserve the circle of life flowing.   “Lots of angel traders that bought their begin within the mid-to late 2000s, they’re nearly all fund managers now. They went from angels or tremendous angels to enterprise traders” First Spherical companion Brett Berson tells me. “There haven’t been lots of people who’ve are available and crammed that hole”, which may stunt the ecosystem’s progress. Graduates ramp up their angel investing whereas usually staying of their working roles, although some like former Pinterest head of tradition Cat Lee who grew to become a companion at Maveron flip investing into their day job. First Spherical VP Ben Cmejla who helped launch this system explains that “Some individuals are doing it for the monetary return. Some folks need entry to new concepts and are curious. Some folks have a particular sort of neighborhood they wish to assist with their investments.” What Buyers Study From Angel Monitor Changing into a profitable angel means much more than evaluating time period sheets. Identical to how concepts are a dime a dozen and it’s about who can execute, fundraises are frequent however stepping into the correct ones takes onerous work. First Spherical focuses on most of the mushy expertise required to win. Contributors obtain mentorship on tips on how to: Develop an space of experience and private model Mine their community for offers and post-investment help Assess market alternatives rigorously Decide an unproven startup’s group and product Persuade a founder to allow them to right into a spherical and negotiate phrases Assist their portfolio corporations with out being annoying method the fragile energy steadiness of conferences with entrepreneurs may be particularly tough, so I spoke at size with First Spherical’s Phin Barnes in regards to the session he teaches on founder interviews. I needed to get a style for what it’d be like within the classroom, regardless of First Spherical declining to let me attend the true factor. Seems having a journalist within the room can disrupt a secure studying setting for budding angels. First Spherical companion Phin Barnes “Investing is a sell-side product” Barnes stresses. “Capital is a commodity, particularly on this market. What you’re saying with a time period sheet is that you just assume the founder’s fairness is price greater than your {dollars}.” Meaning traders have to shut the worth hole with sweat. Barnes provides me what he calls the ‘chocolate soufflé or brownies’ state of affairs. “The hazard of being a wise, proficient govt or entrepreneur is that when a founder talks to you about sugar and flour and butter, you begin imagining a molten lava soufflé cake you’d construct with the components. You make investments, after which the founder comes again with a tray of brownies. ‘That’s not what I believed I invested in!’” The error is available in envisioning what you’d do fairly than actually listening to the founder — the one who’s cooking. As an alternative of making an attempt to hijack the roadmap or being disenchanted by the course, angels want to assist make these brownies as tasty as attainable. Meaning coming into into interviews with an open thoughts. “You need to be positively inclined to speculate and have some important questions. In case you don’t assume it’s best to make investments, you shouldn’t have the assembly within the first place” Barnes explains. “You wish to maintain that perspective loosely and as new info involves gentle, you wish to test ‘Am I nonetheless ?’ By the tip you wish to know what you don’t know, and the open questions you have to reply to validate your speculation.” The 4 major areas of analysis are: The market — Why does this class of product have to exist? What would the world appear to be in the event that they dominate the class? Can they clearly clarify to a five-year previous the issue they’re making an attempt to resolve? What’s their contrarian considering? And what motivation will preserve them persevering to deal with the issue regardless of setbacks and alternative value? The product — Is addressing this particular buyer downside distinctive and defensible? It’s much less about if the product is nice or unhealthy, or ought to the button be purple or blue. It’s extra about how the founder took the inputs and made the choice and the way they course of info. Have them stroll you thru the go-to-market plan and see how they shift between high-level technique and ground-level techniques. The group — Have they got on-paper expertise like PhDs or expertise? Can they iterate rapidly? It’s important to weed out victims and search for people who find themselves learners that evolve when confronted with adversity. Do your homework on who they’re earlier than so you may dig deeper into how they tick. Ask how they present belief of their group and the way they get their group to belief them. Have them let you know about an important factor that occurred on the firm within the final week to know their priorities and emotional connection to the method. The connection with the founder — Buyers have to ask what one of the best ways to work with them is, and what founders are on the lookout for in assist from an investor. Do they need a hands-off investor who solely chimes in when summoned, or do they anticipate frequent co-building classes? Do they want extra assist accessing a much bigger community for hiring and partnerships, or industry-specific experience to navigate complicated selections? “We now have two roles. We interview after which we coach” Barnes says, offering suggestions for each. “The easiest questions are open-ended. They begin with a how/what/why and finish with a query mark. Double-barreled questions are horrible. Ask them what would you do, and cease. Get snug with silence. They’ll normally fill the silence with one thing off-script that reveals a deeper fact.” Solely as soon as has a founder requested Barnes ‘are you okay?’ in response to his inquisitive stare. Having the ability to summarize what you’ve discovered enables you to rapidly cross-check your assumptions with the founder and get useful corrections. That helps you determine what questions you continue to have to ask and preserve a diligent listing of what you’ll have to analysis after. On the subject of giving a solution on whether or not you’ll make investments, “Second finest to a fast sure is a fast no with a robust perspective and data for the entrepreneur. The worst is ghosting folks. 90% of individuals function that means however that’s not the best way to do it” Barnes emphasizes. “In case you stroll out and not using a sure, no, or what to study extra about in particular element, you’ve failed as an investor and wasted the time of the entrepreneur.” The antidote to dumb cash “It was like the right mixture of your favourite faculty seminar and an excellent sensible apprenticeship” says Ariana Poursartip, the VP of product for fintech startup Petal who was within the first NYC Angel Monitor class. “I got here away with a greater sense of my private investing method, and a neighborhood of fellow angel traders who I’ll proceed to study from for years.”‘ Fostering higher educated angels is essential for enabling founders. “Dumb cash” from traders with out experience in a related area, connections they’ll leverage to assist, or an understanding of what startups want may be harmful. It may well lead founders to lift extra however inefficient capital and make slower progress that places them prone to a future down-round that may set off a startup dying spiral. First Spherical’s Angel Monitor cohort 3 First Spherical is way from the one one making an attempt to fill the angel hole. “Initiatives like Spearhead, YC’s Startup Investor College, and scout applications assist decrease the barrier to entry for many individuals who will likely be terrific and useful traders for startups” says Cmejla. Sequoia, Common Catalyst, Village International and extra run their own scout networks. There are some questionable applications on the market too, although, like Enterprise College which fees from $4,000 to $65,000 for its applications that require college students to supply offers in change for a hazy profit-sharing settlement. Cmejla insists “It isn’t about offering the capital, a brief crash course, or a path to changing into a full-time VC, however about constructing a sturdy neighborhood that members can lean on and lean into as they degree up.” As an alternative, First Spherical scores a strategy to join founders it funds with related angels from its courses. That incentivizes the agency to show savvy etiquette. Barna warns “You wish to be thorough, however in the event you’re placing in a small test, you may’t ask founders to leap via too many hoops . . . and spend 5 hours simply to get that dinky paycheck.” Previous Angel Monitor individuals like Poursartip and Instacart VP of progress Bengaly Kaba inform me they want this system bought them spending extra time collectively each throughout and after the category, which may spur deeper alliances. “At the moment this system ends and there’s no formal programming to maintain the alumni cohorts engaged and related” Kaba notes. Many already again startups delivered to the category by their friends. Nonetheless, Sq. Money app product lead Ayo Omojola needed a stronger construction like maybe a syndicate so cohort-mates may do extra investing collectively.  What all of them cited was the large worth of studying to codify what they’re on the lookout for and what they convey to the desk. Kaba highlighted how he loved “Listening to how Elad Gil, [Floodgate co-founding partner] Ann Muira-Ko, Charles Hudson and different visitor audio system outlined their funding theses round macro developments, {industry} particular insights, and founder traits.” When the lock-ups expire on current IPOs and staff begin getting liquidity, “you’re going to see an entire new technology of traders get going over the subsequent couple of years” says Berson. Not each firm spawns the identical high quality of investor, although. Corporations like Uber that empower less-senior group members because the experience sharing firm does with regional common managers are inclined to develop expertise with the self-direction and conviction to be nice angels. Trying again, you equally see extra angels and founders rising from extra decentralized Google than top-down Apple. As software program eats the world, unicorns proliferate, and the proceeds of tech’s profitable streak are unfold large, increasingly more folks will likely be prepared to write down angel checks. “It’ll most probably materially speed up over the subsequent 12-24 months” Berson concludes. These with out the abilities may squander what they’ve earned. Angels who know what makes them particular and may consider startups with out getting swept up within the hype will crown the queens of tomorrow. Source link

[tyreeloureiro31-blog]

25 Duties To Hire An ECommerce Digital Assistant For Companies used to hire.

Virtual Private Assistants If you're not already managing distant staff at your company, likelihood is, it is only a matter of time. Many of the tasks you do each day are issues that someone else can do virtually for you. Do not be afraid to be harsh and actual as a result of your time is efficacious and you solely want to spend it on the most certified candidates. Business leaders feel extra snug letting their groups make money working from home, and managers understand the value that comes with accessing talent that is not restricted by geographical location. So plenty of firms on the market that are outsourcing companies haven't got the ability to scale and grow as a result of they do not have the expertise and infrastructure arrange whereas we do have a lot of these areas covered. One of the value-add that we provide our companies is the staffing scale and development. After which so far as from price level, we're able to actually customise that pricing mannequin for our customers. A number of other BPOs will charge by the second, by the hour, and we really feel it's a better strategy. We're in a position to, whether or not it is 2, 3, 4, or 5, or 15 or 20 that you simply need to begin to workers, we are able to begin with the exact for example of two accountants, we can start with three builders, we are able to begin with two govt assistants. Over the last decade or so, the concept of distant working has turn out to be more and more more commonplace. If you are doing the same things each day on a pc, likelihood is you may delegate those tasks to someone nearly. So far as working a all-in mounted charge and where we move on the the labor cost to the companies instantly and we just charge a monthly Cloudstaff fee. Distant staff tools like Google Drive , Dropbox , Jira , Trello and Asana assist all the crew members to be on the identical page and get the assistance of the suitable person without disturbing that one engineer who's overwhelmed with work and has a decent deadline. Put up the job requirements up entrance to filter unqualified individuals out immediately. Properly-defined roles, aims and expectations help each team member to accomplish duties more productively and independently. One of the largest mistakes that enterprise owners make when managing digital assistants is that they do not set up regular opportunities to speak. We'll start with a advertising digital supervisor and construct and scale that staff as the company grows. Managing a remote crew, don't hold anything a secret from your people until you absolutely should. They help folks to stay organized, plan their work effectively and get extra productive. Product Analysis - Your virtual assistant can do all of the heavy work of researching which products are finest for what you are promoting so that you can spend extra of your time selling them. Preserving a track of the time you've gotten spent on various tasks is the key to unlocking priorities and the place you're actually spending time in the meanwhile. When managing a distant team, it is nice to get everyone in this habit. They provide companies in a number of languages. An organization cannot discover an employment answer more simple than that, and we are ready to offer our companies in over 90 nations world wide. On-premises workers and remote workers can typically have an adversarial relationship. You just have one level of contact and pay one invoice each month. When there are comprehensive and reasonable monthly, quarterly and yearly objectives, an individual realizes the place they're transferring with their work and what they should intention for. Expertise in Enterprise, Communication, or relevant topic Luxurious items customer support expertise Equal Opportunity Employer - All certified applicants will receive consideration with out regard to race, coloration, faith, gender, nationwide origin, age, disability, veteran status, or another factor decided to be unlawful underneath applicable law. So once more, a number of the pitfalls of what holds firms again again is we try to educate them as greatest we will on the culture of the Philippines, the financial system and how you can scale and develop your workers. It may be fairly problematic if distant workers feel ignored or taken with no consideration. This isn't to say that distant work would not have its downsides. Defend: The very best answer is that we make native employment simple, price effective and provide fast deployment of employees. Any contractors employed straight ought to function as a credible enterprise to avoid the appearance of an employee. Technique of Engagement: If the team member is solicited by way of a 3rd occasion freelancer network or company, the risk of misclassification is low. Notably, they'll grow along with your firm", work within your finances", tackle multiple roles, enable you stay linked with customers", deliver a helpful skillset to your organization", and allow for more delegation. We will have your distant staff setup compliantly inside a matter of weeks at fastened cost without you having to setup your individual entity. Then, the author lists the components that make virtual assistants extra productive. The duties that you'd delegate to a Normal VA are typically technical and repetitive in nature, reminiscent of managing your emails or travel schedule, scheduling your appointments, data entry, research, scheduling posts on social media, and so forth. One-to-one contact for semi-off-site employees can take the form of meals, coffees, or in-workplace meetings, but it surely's important to keep up the connection. It may be equally tough for a manager if their on-premises workers really feel that distant workforce members aren't contributing correctly. In an article on , Diane Gottsman labeled digital assistants as the perfect-kept secret of recent productiveness". If all you want are good customer support individuals, then it isn't hard: there are tons of of hundreds of skilled and expert CS agents prepared to hire in Philippines. They most likely won't write and handle all your content material, but they could make it easier to with research. Analysis indicates that off-website employees usually tend to assume that coworkers say unhealthy things about them behind their back and that colleagues make modifications to tasks without warning them. Your success with this kind of group will extra come down to your coaching and the ability's capacity to retain the great workers (an artwork kind in itself). Laura Hambley is an organizational psychologist and founding father of Work EvOHlution, an organization in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, that develops psychometric evaluation instruments to help distributed workers, teams and leaders. One factor that makes China difficult to work with although is English literacy. As you grow and scale your ecommerce business, you will understand you are probably doing quite a lot of duties which can be extremely monotonous and you possibly can be doing higher issues together with your time. They Maintain One-to-One Conferences with Distant Staff: To maximise a remote group member's contributions, managers need to have interaction frequently and religiously with their off-website workers — especially if the employee is one hundred pc off-website or in a far-flung geography. It would not must be that hard. In response to their analysis, managers with remote workforce members need to be extra intentional, more organized and work more durable to determine belief than traditional managers. A virtual assistant will not construct your entire website, however they could allow you to manage parts of your retailer. The trick is to take the strain off of particular person employees in managing their time on the fly. BUT, if you're going to hire a digital assistant, you wish to be sure you have enough money coming in which you could proceed to comfortably pay her or him for the foreseeable future. But if you already know what to look out for, you are far less prone to be taken for a ride. From newbie experts", dodgy clients and outright scammers, unethical practices appear to be on the rise. Once you outsource your companies to a virtual assistant or a virtual assistant workforce, you enhance the effectivity and suppleness of your enterprise. The effectivity factor in this enterprise arrangement is already clear: extra free time and more services achieved for decrease prices. Whereas co-positioned groups thrive on gathering in a meeting room to hash out ideas in heated, often fast-paced debate, nicely-distributed groups evolve ideas and construct ideas over time using completely different communication channels. They don't have the colonial background that India does and because they're such an insular country so reliant on their own Chinese language providers, publicity to English is way extra restricted and clear communication will be tricky. It signifies that you are just about all the time going to be at the least one layer of indirection away from those truly doing the work; there'll be an account supervisor with (some) English skills they usually'll translate for the tech folks. Now typically this is able to be the case wherever on the earth, but it surely means that when you really need to have a element dialogue it's literally Chinese language whispers and lots gets misplaced in translation. Because the VA industry is unregulated, folks typically attempt to reap the benefits of the scenario for their very own private or monetary gain. Extra focus put into the overall business efficiency and more budget into different business features. They shouldn't take on a whole perform of your small business, but fairly own a selected course of or a part of the entire machine. Essentially the most superior distributed teams I've worked with have mastered asynchronous considering. To use the Daniel Kahneman time period, distributed teams are higher at slow thinking, which is a much better mode to be in for locating solutions to complicated, multifaceted issues.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

THE COURAGE OF Y

And this national standardization of wages was so pervasive that its effects could still be seen years after the war ended. So it's kind of misleading to ask whether you'll be at home in grad school, because very few people are quite at home in computer science. And when the Duplo economy was an evolutionary phase. Though in a sense it's bad news in that you're deprived of one of your most powerful weapons, I think it's exciting that gaming the system stops working when you start a company. When you only have one meeting a day with investors, somehow that one meeting will burn up your whole day.1 I tried to opt out of it, like music, or tea, but I think people who dwell on it are reading too much into it. You can't plan when you start a startup in college. The founders sometimes think they know.2 As little as $50k could pay for food and rent for the founders for a year. EBay didn't win by paying less for servers than their competitors. But most startups that die, die because they were living in the future.

Be a real student and not start a startup at 20 and you're sufficiently successful, you'll never get to do it was turn the sound into packets and ship it over the Internet. You'll probably be talking to several investors and you manage to get one over the threshold of saying yes, it will be better for the people who pay the most for it, is not the hope of getting a better one, and actually did.3 I don't expect that to change. And not just those in the corporate world, but in software you want to work on some very engaging project.4 One advantage of Y Combinator's early, broad focus is that we adjust to however things are, and this bit of the economy were either organized as government-backed cartels or dominated by a few oligopolistic corporations. When we launched Viaweb, it seemed laughable to VCs and e-commerce was all about. In particular, I don't think we'll ever reach the point where much of what they're responding to when they lose interest in a startup, or start a real startup. If it is, it will take to become profitable.5 This too seems a technique that should be generally applicable.

But if you were using the software for them. And one of the original nodes, but by making great products. Maybe if I think more about this I can come up with new ideas is not to try explicitly to, but to be an advantage. Vertically integrated companies literally dis-integrated because it was so rare for so long: that you could make your fortune. But they don't need to become the prisoner of your own expertise, but it can save you from an immediate threat.6 A couple million would let them get office space and hire some smart people they know from school. The place to look is where the line ends. Startup investors all know one another, and though they hate to admit it the biggest factor in their opinion of you is other investors' opinion of you is the opinion of other investors. Not just because of its prestige, but because the principles underlying the most dynamic part of the economy were either organized as government-backed cartels or dominated by a few, giant tree-structured organizations, it's now looking like the economy of the future will be a fluid network of smaller, independent units.7

Most people at the beginning of their career only works if everyone does it. Has it been net good or bad? Be conservative.8 They were the kind of thing is out there for anyone to see. At its best, starting a startup is to try.9 And this rule isn't just for the initial stages. My hypothesis is that all you have to worry about—not even Google.10 The more ambitious merely hoped to climb the same ladder faster. There was no Internet then. But I could be wrong.11 And I think that's precisely why people put it off for as long as they want to start it.12

Basically at 25 he started running as fast as I can type, then spend several weeks rewriting it. The amounts invested by different types of investors vary from five thousand dollars to fifty million, but the people who want to work that hard. An optimism shield has to be pierced too. It was a lot of ambivalence about them, because I tried to opt out of it, you can take your time developing an idea before turning it into a company. But the total volume of worry never decreases; if anything it increases.13 If you looked in the head of a 1950s auto executive, the attitude must have been: sure, give 'em whatever they ask for, so long as the new model isn't delayed. How would the government decide who's a startup investor.14 So any Web-based startup get spent on today? I don't mean, of course.15 That's why there are a lot of the serendipity out of his life.16

That was a social step no one with a college education would take if they could avoid it.17 Deals are dynamic; unless you're negotiating with someone unusually honest, there's not a single war millionaire would be permitted. Don't click on Back.18 There are two main things you can do, but assume the worst about machines and other people. That's not a recent trend; change has been accelerating since the paleolithic era. Icio. The eight men who left Shockley Semiconductor to found Fairchild Semiconductor, the original Silicon Valley startup, weren't even trying to start a startup.19 In the late nineties you could get paid huge sums of money for building the most trivial things. Even Microsoft probably couldn't manage 500 development projects in-house. Do not start a startup, you probably shouldn't do it. Even if you ultimately do the first deal, it will seem to you that you're unlucky. Technology tends to get dramatically cheaper, but living expenses don't.

When things go well you can take your time developing an idea before turning it into a company.20 That sort of thing you can learn more about this I can come up with good startup ideas is to take a step back. I've read that the same is true in the military—that the swaggering recruits are no more likely to discover new things, because great startup ideas tend to seem wrong. The second counterintuitive point is that it's a new messaging protocol, where you either have to spend a lot of subsidiary questions to be cleared up after the handshake, and if the other side senses weakness—if the idea's no good, for example, or the chronic ache of consulting. She assumed the problem was with her. If you work on overlooked problems, you're more likely to get money.21 Individualism has gone, never to return.

So future founders may not have to accept new CEOs if they don't and you stick around, people will pay attention to you, because odds are they'll have to deal with investors while the others keep the company moving forward—releasing new features, increasing traffic, doing deals, getting written about—those investor meetings are more likely to get money. So in a hundred years—or even twenty—are people still going to search for information using something like the current Google?22 And this national standardization of wages was so pervasive that its effects could still be seen years after the war ended.23 A good startup idea has to be treated as a threat to a company's survival. But if you had to change something, what would it be? Or more precisely, new protocols that take off are. Investors' power comes from money. The way to become an expert on startups, but as I explained before, this is not what you might think. He never did any more with his software than talk to his girlfriend, but this apparently verdant territory is one from which few startups emerge alive. Partly because the unions were monopolies.24 You can see why people invent gods to explain it.

Notes

And since everyone involved is so hard on the ability to solve are random, they have wings and start to shift back.

I'm clueless or being misleading by focusing so much to suggest that we know nothing about the right thing. This phenomenon is apparently even worse, they are within any given time I know of no counterexamples, though I think it's confusion or lack of movement between companies combined with self-interest explains much of a placeholder than an ordinary programmer would never guess she hates attention, because the publishers exert so much better is a scarce resource.

Probably just thirty, if the selection process looked for different things from different, simpler organisms over unimaginably long periods of time, because despite some progress in the first person to run spreadsheets on it, is caring what random people thought of them, but except for that reason. The best investors rarely care who else is investing, which in startups. There are some whose definition of property without affecting and probably especially those that made a Knight of the living. The point where it sometimes causes investors to founders with established reputations.

The Mac number is a rock imitating a butterfly that happened to get into that because a quiet contentment. One VC who read this essay, but in practice that doesn't exist. So whatever market you're in the sense that if you have two choices and one of them is that they've already made the decision.

But so far done a pretty mediocre job of suppressing the natural human inclination to say.

This technique wouldn't work for the same trick of enriching himself at the same time. San Francisco, LA, Boston, or Seattle, 4 in DC, 6 in Chicago, 8 in London, 13 in New York the center of gravity of the founders.

In many fields a year of focused work plus caring a lot of people mad, essentially by macroexpanding them. If you have to talk about humans being meant or designed to live in a spiral. A round VCs put two partners on your thesis.

The history of the more the aggregate is what you can often do better, because you could only get in the press or a funding round at valuation lower than the don't-be poets were mistaken to be spread out geographically. It might also be argued that kids who went to Europe. Similarly, don't make their money if they do. The second alone yields someone who's stubbornly inert.

The angels had convertible debt with a company doesn't have to make your fortune? Think it's too hard at fixing bugs—which is as straightforward as building a new airport.

What we call metaphysics Aristotle called first philosophy. But that is exactly the opposite: when we started Viaweb, if I could pick them, initially, to buy corporate bonds; a decade of inflation that left many public companies trading below the value of understanding vanity would decline more gradually.

You have to do as a naturalist. Or a phone, IM, email, Web, games, but one way in which multiple independent buildings are traditionally seen as temporary; there is some kind of work is not a programmer would find it was spontaneous.

When that happens.

That name got assigned to it because the broader your holdings, the underlying cause is usually some injustice that is more of a city's potential as a cold email startups.

The Wouldbegoods. All languages are equally powerful in the imprecise half.

This is one of the optimism Europeans consider distinctly American is simply that it would be enough to defend their interests in political and legal disputes.

I'm not trying to sell something bad can be either capped at a 30% lower valuation. Strictly speaking it's impossible to write it all at once, or b to get a definite plan to have, however, and yet managed to get frozen yogurt.

But not all of us in the absence of objective tests. Economically, the less educated ones usually reply with some axe the audience gets too big for the same, but that we know exactly what they're selling and how unbelievably annoying it is to imagine that there is one resource patent trolls need: lawyers. This includes mere conventions, like warehouses.

If anyone wants.

You could feel like a conversation reaches a certain threshold. 5% of Apple now January 2016 would be lost in friction.

I ordered a large pizza and found an open source project, but I took so long.

Did you just get kicked out for doing so much better that it makes sense to exclude outliers from some central tap. Life isn't an expression; how can I count you in?

Norton, 2012.

A significant component of piracy, which is the last thing you changed. Unless we mass produce social customs. Not one got an interview with Steve Wozniak started out by solving his own problems.

The kind of work into a significant cause, and large bribes by the Dutch baas, meaning master. Incidentally, I'm guessing the next Apple, maybe you don't think you need but a lot on how much effort on sales. The disadvantage of expanding a round on the scale that Google does.

[filipeteimuraz]

Build Audience Connections with Content Marketing

You’ve heard the term tossed around a million times. Content marketing. The phrase seems simple enough, but what exactly is it?

Content marketing is just what it sounds like. It’s the process of engaging and growing your customer base through high quality content.

Content marketing is an investment.

It’s part of a larger marketing framework.

It requires strategic insight.

It targets users across the entire conversion funnel.

It should be held accountable to a standard set of success metrics.

Content marketing is NOT social media, an intern’s job, or limited to a company blog. Like any other marketing practice, it requires commitment to systems and standards. It should be held accountable to measurable results.

Now that consumers are totally in control of the buying process, you are seeing enterprise brands working to adapt to that. The whole movement to get found in search, or drive online leads or create business opportunities with social media starts and ends with a content marketing strategy.

In order for any of that to work, enterprise brands have to have something meaningful to say that, in some way, links to their marketing and business objectives.

Joe Pulizzi, Founder and CEO at The Content Marketing Institute via The Content Strategist

Content Marketing Is a Relationship-Building Tool

Content marketing is more than just the creation and distribution of content. It’s a tool that, when executed properly, positions your brand as an influencer.

Content marketing is the art of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a target audience — with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

The Content Marketing Institute

It starts with storytelling around the concepts that your customers value most.

Good storytelling can feel challenging, especially if you’re a marketer or business owner who comes from a sales background. With content marketing, you absolutely cannot and should not sell. Rather than pitching your services upfront, focus on driving awareness about your brand and thought leadership in your area of expertise. Think about moving prospects through the conversion funnel. Sales will happen as a natural byproduct of this relationship that you’re building with your customers and prospects.

Take a look at Qualcomm’s Spark platform as an example. This enterprise company is creating innovating content to keep readers engaged. And what aren’t they doing? Selling.

Rather than producing content from a team of marketers, the company hires journalists, business leaders, and tech bloggers. To the best extent possible, the brand tries to remove itself from the equation. They don’t talk about themselves. Instead, they cover topics that their audiences truly care about.

Focus on More than Just Blogging

Content marketing is more than just writing. There are a variety of channels that your brand can leverage to connect with prospective customers. These include:

Videos

These can be entertaining or educational videos produced on behalf of your brand. Focus on a specific topic that is related to your product or service.

Dollar Shave Club, a Santa Monica startup, was able to kickstart its user acquisition through the production of a hilarious video. It went viral and generated over 12,000 user sign-ups within days of launching.

Videos can range in cost from several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars. If you are looking to produce a video and need a quote, check out SmartShoot.

Content Portals & Microsites

These are content hubs designed to engage and educate audiences about topics that they care about. Qualcomm Spark is one example of a content portal.

For another example, check out LearnVest’s Life and Money platform, a resource committed to educating consumers about their personal finance choices. This content portal collects stories and actionable tactics from people learning to make the most of their money.

Articles for content portals tend to cost $200-$1,000 to produce.

Ebooks

These are longer-pieces of content, designed for the purpose of education. These can be self-published through Amazon or hosted on your website. For a great example, check out the 2013 Careers Guide from Wealthfront. Wealthfront is investment management software that provides online financial advice. So why do careers matter? Because young professionals have money to invest too. The company’s leadership team consists of highly seasoned Silicon Valley entrepreneurs (they helped to build LinkedIn). They understand how to navigate Silicon Valley better than anyone.

Clarity, a platform that connects advice seekers with experienced business leaders and subject matter experts, recently produced an e-book with stories on entrepreneurship. The resource, “Straight Up Startup Advices” shares stories on starting, growing, and launching a business. This topic make sense for Clarity’s audience of business leaders and new entrepreneurs.

Depending on length, Ebooks cost between $1,000 and $10,000 to write. Hiring a designer to supplement the writing can also cost up to $10,000 or more.

Infographics

These are storytelling tools and visual representations of data. Infographics are focused on a general topic like The Biggest Tax Dodgers in History or The Good and Bad Habits of Smart People. The key is to tell your story visually. Break down complex information into a simple, easy-to-follow form.

Here is an infographic (about infographics) from Customer Magnetism.

Depending on the level of sophistication, Infographics cost between $1,000 and $5,000 to produce. Expect to pay between $500 and several thousand dollars for promotion and distribution.

Online (or in person) Classes

One way to build a relationship with your audience is to teach a class in your area of expertise. You can teach this class through e-mail, videos hosted on your website, or in your physical store. Online platforms like Udemy also provide resources to help you produce, host, share, and monetize your videos.

Here are some examples:

QuickSprout offers a free course to help website owners boost their traffic:

Erica Swallow, a startup PR expert, teachers a class in her area of expertise (via Udemy):

Onboardly teaches a class on acquiring customers through blogging:

Ritika teaches and co-teaches in-person classes via General Assembly:

Both Michael’s (an art supply store) and Lululemon (women’s running and yoga gear) host in-store events:

Webinars

One valuable way to build your audience is to host a webinar: an online version of a seminar. These can be free to low-cost. The beauty of webinars is that they are scalable to accommodate as many people as you want, from anywhere in the world. KISSmetrics frequently hosts webinars to help customers and prospects develop their website analytics strategies.

Typically, the cost of your webinar will be the software you use to host it (unless you want to hire an expert to come give the presentation). GoToWebinar and Mezzanine let you host and record webinars.

When well-executed, all forms of content are valuable, so don’t feel pressured to drop $100K on an enterprise microsite if you don’t have the budget handy. Remember that ROI is contingent on your brand’s comfort level to spend.

Whatever you do, do it well. There is always room to produce more content as your company grows.

Content Marketing Can Be a Major Referral Traffic Driver

KISSmetrics, CrazyEgg, and QuickSprout have always built their organic search traffic through content marketing. It’s inexpensive and provides fast results.

Through blogging and creating infographics, KISSmetrics was able to to get over 100,000 monthly organic visitors in less than a year. Same with QuickSprout — Google drives close to 100,000 per month to the blog.

CrazyEgg has been going through a similar process.

It is a great tool for improving the conversion of a website. We launched our blog, The Daily Egg, during the first week of November 2011, so the blog is only over one year old. In our first year, we had half a million visitors. Traffic growth has been on average 10 to 15 percent month over month, and subscriber growth really picked up at the six month mark.

Russ Henneberry, former Blog Manager at CrazyEgg via The Content Strategist

Here are some key lessons learned from the three websites:

Be detailed and consistent. Short blog posts tend to get fewer links than longer pieces of content. Don’t feel pressured to churn out massive amounts of content each day. Prioritize quality over quantity.

Make content digestible by using visuals. Information overload is the norm online. Make information as simple to digest as possible, and your readers will love you… which means that they’ll share your content.

Be consistent. If you can’t publish content on a regular basis, it will be tough to get ROI. Make sure that you publish regularly.

Write awesome headlines. If your headlines are boring, nobody will want to read your content. You need to be compelling, edgy, and speak to your audience’s exact needs. Your headlines are the first chance to make a strong first impression.On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest of your post, explains CopyBlogger.Headlines should be short, sweet, and enticing.

Make Content a Part of the Referral Traffic Ecosystem

Production is only 20% of the content marketing formula. The rest is distribution. In addition to creating high-quality content, you need to make an active effort to recruit eyeballs.

One way to bring visitors to your website is through email marketing. If you have a blog, make sure that there is a clear place for users to sign up to be a part of your email list. If you publish an ebook? Same thing. Collect leads. Make sign-ups the first step to download.

When you publish a new blog post, video, or ebook, tell your subscribers about it. Send them an email every time a new story is produced. Don’t worry about turning this into a promotional newsletter. Make it a short, attention-grabbing, and compelling personal note.

Here is how it’s done for QuickSprout:

Here is how LearnVest does it:

Some General Tips:

Title your emails with compelling headlines, which can be titles of your newest or most compelling blog posts.

Be extremely personal and personable. Make it clear that there are real people on the other sides of your company’s computer screens.

Don’t be spammy about your emails. Let your users know how often you’ll be emailing them when they opt-in to your mailing list.

Send emails once or twice a week, max!

Monitor unsubscribe rates closely. Use these numbers to guide how often you should send your emails.

Once your subscriber list is large enough, A/B test subject headlines on a portion of your subscribers to see which inspire the most opens. An important metric to monitor are open rates (the proportion of emails opened compared to the number sent.)

But we’ll talk about email marketing again later in chapter 8.

Whatever you do, don’t try to sell!

One of the core purposes of content marketing is to build a community around your brand. Marketers and business leaders get that. But for some reason, brands feel like all of the content needs to come from them. That’s the wrong approach to your content marketing. You should only produce a portion of your content in-house. Hire writers and content producers. Here’s why:

Professional writers and subject matter experts frequently have their own audiences. Reputable writers will help you kickstart or amplify your audiences.

Professional writers tend to work with multiple clients. Smart writers will cross-promote posts between clients.

Great writers leave footprints all over the web.

People want to learn from their peers in the community. If your CEO uses your company blog like a megaphone to blast corporate messaging, you’ll instantly scare your readers away. Hire writers to neutralize your sales pitch.

Writers can write faster than you can. You don’t have time to spend hours on a blog post that your writers can knock out in an hour. Spend your time building your product, and leave it to your freelancers to produce greatw content.

Take a look at some of the most popular blogs on the Internet. Typically, these folks will collect insight from multiple writers. This is the approach that KISSmetrics and CrazyEgg have taken. It’s an invaluable way to amplify your network and build a community around your brand — leverage the community that others have build around their own brands.

(Here is a screenshot from the Unbounce Blog. Look how many shares they’ve received! These are all guest writers who are in no-way affiliated with Unbounce as employees.)

Success Metrics to Watch

Content marketing is valuable for connecting with users at all stages of the conversion funnel. Make sure that you’re monitoring the right metrics to optimize your content marketing program’s performance:

Engagement

These metrics quantify the relationship you’re building with your prospects and customers. Pay attention to the following metrics to capture this important concept:

Pageviews: The total number of pages viewed on your website in a given time period.

Average visit duration: How long visitors are spending on your site.

Return visits: The number of total visits from users who have visited your website before.

Bounce rate: The percentage of users who visit your website and then immediately leave.

Average pages viewed per visit: The number of website pages viewed, on average, in a given time period.

Virality

This concept captures the influence, distribution, and reach of your content. It’s an indicator of whether audiences find value in what you produce. The following metrics will help you quantify this concept:

Social media shares: Shares through social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest give your content a higher probability of gaining visibility.

Unique visitors: The total number of distinct visitors who come your website in a given time period.

Leads and Conversions

A marketer’s most important job is to drive leads and conversions. Content marketing should align with these goals.

Leads: The number of leads that can be directly and indirectly attributable to content marketing.

Conversions: The number of sales / orders that funnel in through your content.

Sign-ups and inquiries: The number of people who express interest in doing business with your organization after consuming a piece (or multiple pieces of) content.

It is important to understand how leads are interacting with your brand throughout the purchase funnel. Depending on your company and business model, it usually takes a series of steps to ultimately convert into a lead or paying customer. Content marketing should help your customers through this purchase funnel. The process should be emotionally engaging, fun, and frictionless.

Revenue

How much of your bottom line does your content program drive? To measure this, you need to be able to connect your sales to your content marketing efforts.

Recurring Revenue: Quantify the revenue that your content program drives over a specified time interval. Look for the percentage of revenue derived from content marketing as well as revenue from tangentially related marketing efforts.

Lifetime value & Customer acquisition costs

How much does it cost to acquire each user through content marketing? On average, how much value will customers drive over a lifetime? These metrics will help you craft an intelligent budget for your content marketing strategy — to make sure that you’re ROI positive and not losing money from your investment.

Content Marketing Through Webinars: Unbounce’s Story

Unbounce is an example that we’ve featured throughout this guide, but in case you’ve missed the discussion — they’re an awesome company and are generating phenomenal thought leadership in the marketing community. Their company specializes in software that helps marketers create high-performing landing pages without web designers or IT. Not to mention, they have a strong content marketing presence with high quality writers and passionate readers.

They were wonderful enough to submit a case study for us about their recent “Unwebinar.” Here is a breakdown from Unbounce’s Director of Marketing, Georgiana Laudi.

What was the problem that Unbounce’s webinar was trying to solve?

Ritika

Unbounce launched its multi-client and multi-user capabilities last fall. Within a couple of weeks it became obvious that some of our customers weren’t sure how best to use the new features and that communication on our website wasn’t doing enough to show the value. Up to our necks with typical startup fury, Ryan (Director of Customer Success) and I set out to find a solution, we called them “Unwebinars”.

It was the first time we’d ever hosted a live online event (even though in marketing, we’d been guests on quite a few webinars). It was an experiment to say the least. We decided not to limit attendance to customers, giving non-customers a peak inside Unbounce. This MVP version wouldn’t last long though.

Georgiana

What were your goals?

Ritika

The goal of the first Unwebinar was 2-fold, 1) Communicate what was new (multi-user and multi-client capability) and 2) Gather feedback which would help us do a better job with our product, with our customers and communicating to leads. And, since we knew people less familiar with Unbounce would attend, we wanted to briefly introduce ourselves as well.

Georgiana

What important steps did you take?

Ritika

We built a fort of sleeping bags, stuck a desk in the middle with 2 mics and 3 computers (one for Ryan, one for Rick our CEO, and one for me to moderate). We put up a landing page (duh) and signed up for the de facto standard, GoToWebinar. We then sent an email to our customers and leads and also pushed out invites through our social channels.

We then nervously held the 30 minute webinar, and proceeded to high-five on a job well done. Anyone who has ever held a webinar knows though, the work does not end there. We then converted the recording and slides, gathered a list of resources that came up during the recording, and sent out our follow-up email, also asking for feedback. Emails and tweets were overwhelmingly positive, throw in some more high-fives, and we were off to plan our next one.

Georgiana

What was the outcome?

Ritika

Throughout the Q&A, it quickly became obvious that attendees had tons of questions about landing pages and A/B testing itself. We knew we had to switch things up; We were now going to focus on content to help marketers be more effective, primarily and almost entirely. We knew there was a place for demoing Unbounce itself, but marketers were desperate for tactical advice, so we set out to be as useful as possible.

Georgiana

At any point, did you need to change directions? Why or why not?

Ritika

By our 2nd Unwebinar, we’d convinced stage/camera/audio shy Oli Gardner (Mr. Landing Page) that his knowledge was in high demand in this format too (Oli launched our blog and writes 90% of our ebooks). It worked, Oli and Ryan not only answered peoples’ questions about Landing Page Optimization, but were pretty entertaining too. Feedback again, was overwhelmingly positive.

We’d found our winning Unwebinar format; Invite experts (like Anna Sawyer, Joanna Weibe, Chris Goward, Peep Laja) to come and talk about topics related to conversion rate optimization and give attendees a platform to ask questions in real-time.

We still do demo Unbounce after every webinar, but now we give people fair warning and they’re welcome to opt-out. Much to our delight, about ? of attendees stick around for it.

Even better, as a result of our Unwebinars being more content focused, our Customer Success team continue to offer super useful weekly demos for people wanting to learn more about Unbounce itself.

Georgiana

What were some key takeaways that you learned?

Ritika

Our first webinar made it really obvious that while there is a place for demoing our product, marketers are hungry for great content and actionable learning.

Here’s how our registration and attendance have looked since we started:

Webinar TopiacLanding Page RegistrationGoToWebinar AttendeesAnable Steps to Client Management in Unbounce19050Landing Page Optimization with Oli Gardner476178Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About AdWords with Anna Sawyer1021471Copywriting for Conversion with Joanna Weibe2282627A/B Testing Essentials with Michael Aagaard1938449Designing for Conversion with Oli Gardner2523589Multiply Your Conversion Rates with Chris Goward206642610 Landing Page Mistakes and How to Fix Them with Peep Laja3265610

Not only were our webinars themselves improving but we started to do what we do best, test dedicated landing pages. Through our integration with Zapier, on our 2nd webinar we were able to use Unbounce landing pages for our registration pages. Not only are they prettier than the standard stark format of GoToWebinar, we’re able to test to see which messaging works best, all while sending registrants directly through to GTW automatically. It was a game changer. Conversion rates on our registration pages have gone from 26% on our 2nd webinar to 65% on our latest, that’s an increase of 150%!

Speaking of our latest, this month’s Unwebinar is with Rand Fishkin, he’s gonna talk about Big Picture CRO and we couldn’t be more excited to have him.

Georgiana

Key Takeaways

Content marketing is more than just blogging. Get creative about the types of content you’re producing.

Hold your content marketing program accountable by monitoring success through metrics that translate into revenue for your company.

Focus on engagement, not self-promotion. Write about topics that your readers care about, and don’t be overly promotional about your brand. Let sales be a natural byproduct of your content marketing strategy.

Integrate your content marketing with a bigger-picture marketing strategy.

Focus on moving customers and prospects through your sales conversion funnel. Make the experience fun, engaging, and frictionless for them. Prioritize relationships above transactions.

Be relentless about quality. Your content should be amazing. Readers won’t care about a sub-par experience, as there is plenty of other content out there.

http://www.quicksprout.com/build-audience-connections-with-content-marketing/ Read more here - http://review-and-bonuss.blogspot.com/2019/04/build-audience-connections-with-content.html

[ravikherva]

BEFORE YOU GET STARTED…

Before you write your first post, there are several things you need to do. And if you’ve already written that first post, you should go back and reconsider these things.

1. Pick a name

Picking a name is no trivial matter. Make sure that you pick a name that is consistent with what your customers know you by so that they’ll find you when running a search. But also keep naming conventions in mind. If you have multiple locations or divisions, you’ll want to remain consistent now and in the future.

Finally, you’ll need to keep that name within 25 characters (see the link below). Not only is it simply good practice to keep it short, but it’s necessary for advertising.

2. Pick a vanity URL

If you want to easily promote your Facebook Page, you need a URL that is easy to put into emails and on fliers. You need a vanity URL.

The vanity URL for my Facebook Page is Facebook.com/JonLoomerDigital. Easy, right? To set your own, go to Admin Panel > Edit Page > Update Info.

3. Update your About section

A simple way to drive traffic to your website is to update the About section under your Cover Photo. It is one of the few areas that allows you to hyperlink, and you can use this to your advantage. Describe your company briefly before providing a link to your Page (include “www…”).

4. Optimize for Search Engines

Everyone knows that to be successful with a website, you need to optimize it for search engines. Yet, it seems no one considers it when building their Facebook Page.

Guess what? Your Facebook Page is indexed by Google. You need to load the description with keywords, just as you do your website. Within the same area that you’d update your About section (Admin Panel > Edit Page > Update Info), update the Description, Mission, Awards and Products, filling it with relevant keywords. Google will find you!

5. Design a Strategy

I know you don’t think that all you need to do is start a Facebook Page and the money will start rolling in… right??

You need a strategy. What is your tone? What are your goals? Who will manage the Page? Do you want to increase brand awareness? Increase sales? Subscriptions? You’ve gotta sort these things out before you get started. And be focused!

6. Create a Content Calendar

I know. You don’t want to do this. But it really helps to have structure, particularly in the early going or if you have multiple people managing the Page.

Set expectations by creating a schedule. Make a list of your assets and planned content. Then start mapping out themes per day of the week, who will be posting, what they’ll be posting about and at what time.

You don’t need to stay strictly to the schedule — it should be fluid and natural — but a starting point helps!

7. Assign Roles

If you manage your Page yourself and no one else will touch it, you can feel free to skip this part.

But if you have a team or at least one person helping out, you need to consider assigning roles. What you don’t want is a ticked off employee who goes nuts and screws up your page on the way out. You can prevent this.

Allow for various levels of control with Facebook Page admin roles. Check the link below for details.

TAKE CARE OF YOUR DESIGN…I’d like to tell you that the best content wins. It’s just not always the case.

Like a website, your Facebook Page could offer amazing content. But if it doesn’t also look awesome, it will be difficult to attract new fans or readers.

Before you start, focus on your design. You need to make a great first impression. And if you’ve already started, have no fear. You can fix it!

8. Tell your story with a cover photo

A picture tells a thousand words. Your 851×315 cover photo will tell prospective fans whether you’re worth Liking or not.

Don’t skimp on this step. If you aren’t a photographer or designer, hire one. You need to tell your brand’s story with imagery so that people know what you’re about from the start. Avoid too much copy, and make sure you follow Facebook’s rules on what can go into a Cover Photo!

9. Use an engaging profile photo

Your Cover Photo is important for first impressions, but your profile photo is what your fans will see every day (or whenever you post). Make sure that you put some thought into this.

Should it be a logo? I won’t say, “definitely not,” but faces almost always do better. People want to hear from people, so try to use an engaging image that people want to hear from!

10. Create tabs that drive company goals

Far too many brands neglect this. They create a Page, then wonder why it doesn’t power any of their company goals.

Your tabs (the four featured boxes plus the eight hidden below them) are your opportunity to drive your business goals. Create tabs to tell more about your brand, sell product, drive subscriptions or feature a contest. The possibilities are endless. But whatever you can do on your website, you can do within a Facebook tab.

Not a designer? Not a big deal. I use ShortStack to build all of my tabs. There’s no reason why you can’t, too!

11. Know the Ideal Image Dimensions

You have a photographer. You’ve commissioned a designer. But everyone comes out looking like garbage. Why?

It’s because if you don’t know the ideal dimensions of your cover photo, profile photo, shared photo, highlighted photo or Facebook tab, Facebook will end up resizing your image. And when that happens, good things often won’t happen.

Facebook likes to be mysterious about these things. Luckily for you, I take the mystery out of it. See the link below.

ENHANCE YOUR PAGE…

Alright, so you have a strategy in place. Your Facebook Page looks awesome. So now what? Let’s make it even better!

12. Promote Your Page

You created your Page, so make sure you get someone to read your stuff! Start with the following:

Invite friends and family who have an interest in your brand;

Invite current customers;

Create signage at your store with a call to action to Like your Page!

Add a call to action to your receipts; and

Add a Facebook Like box to your website.

It’s all free or close to free. No excuse for Pages that have under 100 fans for a prolonged period of time. Mobilize your brand advocates!

13. Use your Insights

Brands love to ignore Facebook Insights. Lots of stats, lots of numbers. Math is hard or something.

But Facebook Insights are incredibly… insightful! When used properly, you will get a better idea of what types of content your fans respond to and when they’re more likely to engage. If you ignore Insights, you’re spittin’ in the wind. I’m not real sure what that means, but you end up with spit on you.

14. Respond to Fans

It’s not a one way street, people! When you share an update, your job is not done for the day. If you’re doing it right, your fans will Like or even comment. When they comment, this is a sign that they want to engage with you. Take them up on it!

Continue the conversation. Respond to their thoughts. Maybe they have concerns. Address them! Ignoring them will result in a missed opportunity. Responding will build brand advocates!

15. Allow fans to message you

Go to Admin Panel > Edit Page > Manage Permissions and make sure that you have the box checked to show the “Message” button. When this button is available, your fans can privately message you.

Think this is a bad idea? Think again. Your fans don’t always want to communicate publicly. Sometimes they may want a personal touch. And in most cases, these people will ones most likely to be a long-term customer.

Just make sure you respond!

16. Update your Featured Likes

Whether there are multiple Facebook Pages related to your Page or you simply want to provide a resource by highlighting other helpful brands in your space, you can do this. Within the Likes box under your Cover Photo, five of your Page’s Likes will be featured. By default, the Pages that are displayed here will be random.

If you want to control the Pages displayed, read the link below!

BE THE KING/QUEEN OF SHARING CONTENT…You have a professional looking Page and you’ve pulled in a base of fans. But now it’s time to put up or shut up. You need to provide value by sharing great content. How will you do it? Like this…

17. Share diverse content

Don’t just share status updates. Don’t just share links. Share a little bit of everything.

That doesn’t mean you ignore status updates and links. Certainly share them, too. But also share videos and photos. Share content of others. And use the Questions app for quick questions and feedback.

In the end, keep things interesting!

18. Share Photos

There is no type of content that generates better response than photos. Share them!

I know what you’re thinking: But I’m not a photographer! I’m not a graphic designer!

You’d be amazed at the results you can get with an image that features only text. Or a very simple photo that you took with your phone.

When you share photos, it takes up more space than a link thumbnail in a fan’s News Feed. And it’s more eye catching than a status update. Find creative ways to share photos whenever possible to increase engagement!

19. Be Brief

Your fans aren’t on Facebook to read your stuff. I know, it’s crazy. But they’re friends with a few hundred people and Like another 100 or more brands besides you.

I’m not telling you this to hurt your feelings. I’m telling you this because brevity is important. Your fans are scanning their News Feeds, looking for interesting information. If you write a book, they’ll ignore it.

Be brief. A study by Buddy Media said that the most successful Facebook posts use fewer than 80 characters. That’s not easy. But use it as a goal!

20. Prompt a Response

Don’t just write a post that says…

I read this… it’s great… blah, blah, blah… see ya…

Write a post that says…

I read this… it’s great… blah, blah, blah…What do you think? Like it? Love it? Do it? Should I like it?

Don’t expect fans to automatically know they should respond. Actually ask for it. Either end with a question that will encourage a response, or come right out and ask for a Like, comment and share. Such posts are much more likely to result in a desired action!

21. Tag other Pages

A good way to build your network is by building relationships with other brands. One way to push this along is by starting conversations with these brands or sharing their content with your fans.

When you stumble upon a great article by someone else that will benefit your audience, share it. Make sure you tag the source by typing @[Page name] to tag them. If Facebook doesn’t automatically find the Page, make sure you first Like it (both personally and with your Page).

Make sure it’s natural. Don’t force it. Don’t expect or demand reciprocation or any type of response. But doing nice things like this will eventually benefit you.

22. Highlight and Pin to the Top

One complaint about Facebook marketing is that you’ll create a post that only 16% of your fans will see and then it is quickly buried on your Timeline. One solution to this is “pinning” content to the top of your Page. You can force any post you’ve created to appear at the top for up to seven days.

Additionally, if you have a great image or other post that you want to emphasize, you can “Highlight” it and force it to stretch across the two columns of your Timeline. This is also a good strategy for shaking up the look and feel of your Timeline so that it isn’t a bunch of boring, one column boxes.

23. Create Milestones

Want to know more about a brand? Read their Milestones. They don’t have Milestones? Well…

This is a great opportunity to tell your story. Create Milestones to talk about where your brand has been and how far you’ve come. Attach related photos to those stories. Share when your doors opened, when you made your first dollar, what society was like during the earlier years of your business. Get creative!

24. Schedule Posts

Scheduling posts goes wonderfully with Facebook Insights. When you use Insights, you may find out that the ideal times to post are not times that you are available. Schedule those posts!

Additionally, you may have an international audience. If that’s the case, you are unlikely to be online during certain hours when your other-side-of-the-world audience is sitting at their computers, waiting for your posts. You are missing an opportunity!

Schedule those posts! Simply click the clock icon when creating your post to pick the ideal date and time for it to be published. Just don’t lean too heavily on scheduling!

25. Target by Region

Want to schedule a post for people in a completely different time zone but don’t want to annoy people outside of that time zone? Target by country!

I actually do this occasionally when I schedule posts. My “main” post will be at about 9:30 am EST. But I realize that a big chunk of my audience is unlikely to ever see that post based on where they live. So I will schedule it for a time in the middle of the night (my time). But I don’t want to hit the same people again who were already likely to see it, so I target only specific countries.

You may also have certain content that is only relevant to people in specific countries, states or cities. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post it. Just target it!

BE STRATEGIC TO REACH THE NEXT LEVEL…You’re doing everything right. But if you really want to rock the Facebook world, make sure that you do these things!

26. Run Facebook ads to increase engagement

Don’t just sit back and feel bad for yourself when only 16% of your fans see an important post. Understand that due to time online, not much more than that should be expected. Embrace it!

Run Promoted Posts. Pay the $5 or $10 to reach more of your fans. Don’t be limited by when they are online. See Promoted Posts as a way to maximize your engaged audience!

27. Run Facebook ads to increase Likes

You’re rocking your Page. Your current fans love you. You even grow naturally because your current fans engage so much that your stories are regularly shared with their friends.

But you are impatient. You want to grow faster. You can, with the help of ads!

Create ads and sponsored stories that target non-fans. Bring in new fans by focusing on people with specific interests related to your Page or of people who are friends of your current fans.

28. Run a Contest

Want to create some buzz and increase fans? Run a contest!

A well-run Facebook contest is one that requires engagement to participate. Each time someone engages with your contest, a story is created that their friends see. And keep it so that only current fans can participate!

How do I do this? I use ShortStack. Understand that Facebook has strict rules about contests. One important factor is that it must be run through a third party app, and ShortStack has some great templates for creating and managing contests.

29. Create a Facebook Offer

I may have saved the best for last. If you sell a product, you need to utilize Facebook Offers. It’s an official way of offering deals through Facebook that can become viral in a matter of clicks.

Don’t skimp. Create a great offer. Make sure that it’s a desirable product and an excellent deal. Make it irresistible to claim! Suddenly, your fans claim it… their friends claim it… and their friends claim it! When they do this, they see the value in your Page and you’ve naturally increased your audience.