BlueCapra

Using Technology To Solve Problems and Create Solutions

4 Strategies for Overcoming the Curse of a New Job

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Unemployment sucks.  Unless it is planned and very short, not having a job can have a tremendous impact on you life in ways you can’t imagine.  So, it stands to reason, that having a job is better, right?  Well, that’s the curse of a new job…

There are tons of people who are building a business on the side.  We devote a large part of our lives to growing a business that we hope will one day provide support for our families and allow us to pursue our passions and calling.  Until it does, we have to make money some how and often, that means a job.  So, what happens when the job evaporates?  If you hated the job, you are ecstatic.  If you loved that job, well, let’s say you are less than ecstatic.  Either way, you now have more time to devote to your side business which is a good (dare I say great) thing. [Read more…]

Portable apps – An office in your pocket

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Imagine yourself getting ready for a day in your small business.  You wake up early, eager to start the day.  You exercise for 30 minutes and feel amazingly energized.  You are ready for anything.  You kiss your spouse, tell you children bye, and head to the office.

You have the most amazing ideas on the drive.  Product concepts, new sources of revenue, a cure for the common cold (well, maybe not that amazing…) all pop in your head with ease.  You carry your laptop into the office, sit down at your desk, ready to make history.  You press the power button and………… nothing.

Portable apps computer problemYou spend the next hour trying to revive your poor laptop.  How could your computer do this to you?  After all the amazing idea on the ride to work, how could this happen to you?  The ideas are fading.  You scramble to write down as much as possible before getting too frustrated about your computer.  Sure, there are other computers that you can use but all your information is on that dead laptop; passwords, documents, work files.  Not gone, but locked away.  You can hear the poor bytes just screaming to be let out.  What can you do?

Anyone that uses a computer for work runs the risk of losing data or productive time due to hardware problems.  Computer hard drives can crash, fans can die, and operating systems can go a little wacky, all for no obvious reason and often at the worst possible time.  You can backup your data but even if you remember that, all you have is backed up files, not a workable computer.  What can you do?

Portable apps to the rescue

Portable apps listUSB drives have come a long way.  One of the first one I purchased was a 512Mb ( 0.5Gb).  The more commons sizes now are 8Gb and higher.  They are faster, smaller, and more reliable than ever before.  They are so fast that you can run programs directly off the USB drive.  These programs are called portable apps.  There are a variety of portable apps that are free and easy to use.  Here are the ones I personally use (for a more comprehensive list, check out PortableApps.com):

These programs turn your USB drive in to an office in your pocket and any computer you use into a productive machine.  For example, let’s say most of what you need access to is web-based in the form of a blog.  With the portable version of Chrome, you now have a browser you are familiar with.

But what good is a browser without your bookmarks?  Xmarks is a plugin for your browser and free service that backs up and synchronizes your bookmarks on their servers.  You can have your bookmarks at your fingertips, even after your main computer dies.  As long as you have the Xmarks plugin enabled, you can have the same bookmarks on multiple computers, updated constantly.  I highly recommend it.

What about web development?  Last year, I decided to learn PHP and MySQL.  To test out the pages, you have to view them through a browser on a web server.  If you are just learning, the result is a lot of extra time transferring the data up to the server.  To remedy that, I installed a web server on my USB drive.  The particular one I used was XAMPP.  It is easy to install, easy to use, and works great.  If you want to learn web development, you can use XAMPP to get more done in the same time.

Portable apps can be a productivity-saver on those days when your regular computer decides not cooperate.  You can have your browser and bookmarks, FTP program and sites, and audio recording software as well as a number of other great programs at your fingertips, no matter what computer you use.

With all these options, how will you setup your portable office?

(photo by: David Castillo Dominici)

Have you lost that lovin’ feeling…

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Lost that lovin' feeling for your businessfor your business? Have the long nights, hard work, and lost hours taken their toll? They have for me.

About 4 months ago, I started my business, Book Worm Laser & Design. I was excited. It was the culmination of over 9 months worth of work, planning, blood, sweat, and tears. I had been posting consistently twice a week (and sometimes, 3+ times per week) on my personal blog, BlueCapra.com, since the end of August 2011. I woke up early, stayed up late, all in the name of business, marketing, content, and consistently. Then… poof.

It didn’t happen all at once, just a day or so here or there. The consistent 5 hours of sleep I was getting was getting to me. I was tired often, did not want to wake up an hour early to create before my day job. My creativity had began to falter.  I had lost that lovin’ feeling toward my business. I had burned out. I wondered to myself, was this the end my business and of all my progress, of all my hard work?

I doubt there has ever been an entrepreneur that did not get burnt out on the work they do. We put our lives into the businesses we build and sometimes, we push too far. We have lost sight of what we love about the business.  A break is needed, a time to step back and reevaluate things. We need to reboot. [Read more…]

The importance of hobbies

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Hobbies are great. I tend to collect them.  I will often have an idea that I want to accomplish or a item I want to make that will steer me toward a new hobby or skill.  I have tried a variety of handcrafts including leatherworking, bladesmithing, woodturning, carving (wood, soap….. laser…..) and the ones I stuck with for more than a few minutes usually resulted in an end result I had been thinking about for months if not years.  So, what’s so important about a hobby?

You can’t work all the time. I know, I know…… everyone understands that they can’t work all the time but how many of you actually work all the time?  Not only that, how many of you do little else besides work, watch TV, and Facebook?  Now, I am not knocking work, TV, or Facebook, but if that is pretty much all you do, you need a life.  We all need a life filled with accomplishment (doing something, anything) rather than idle consumption (watching TV, mindlessly wandering the web, etc).  To me, that sense of accomplishment is found in either a hobby or work.

I want to work all the time. No wait, did I just say that?  What I meant to say is that I want to generate income as much of the time as I can.  I want to help people with my work.  I want to earn so much money I have trouble giving enough of it away.  But….. I want to enjoy my work.  In fact, I want to enjoy my job SO much that you not be able to tell if I am working or having fun.  I wan to wake up in the morning saying to myself “They pay me to do this?”  I want my hobby (or one of my hobbies….) to be at the center of my work.  How do I get started?

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(Name) tag, you’re it!

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Wood Name Tag

Wood Name Tag from Naag Tag

I know who I am.  Not only that, I rarely if ever forget my own name.  The problem is, try as I may, I can’t recall everyone’s name off the top of my head.  Sure, maybe after five minutes of thinking, the name may pop in my head.  What can we do?  Well, you can wear a name tag.

I enjoy watching David Siteman Garland’s interviews at The Rise To The Top.  He talks to some amazing guests and the information you glean from these interviews is great.  One such interview was with Scott Ginsberg.  Years ago, Scott made a choice that would change the direction of his life forever; he decided to wear a name tag everyday for the rest of his life.  He even went so far as to get a name tag tattoo.  What may have started as a quirky thing to do turned into part of a business that now supports him.  So, what is important about a name tag?  Should I be concerned with name tags if I own a business?

A big part of owning a business is having a professional image.  The image you and your employees project to customers, prospective customers, and the general public can have an effect on profits.  Would you hire a plumber in a three-piece suit?  Would you hire a banker in short pants, flip flops, and a Hawaiian shirt?  The image you project will often dictate the clients and customers that are attracted (or not repelled) by you, your employees, and your business.  So, how does a name tag fit in?

First impressions are important.  If you and your employees are dressed appropriately for the clients and customers that are in your target market, you have made a good first impression.  Now, assuming that you introduce yourself to your customer, you are continuing to make a good first impression.  What happens if the customer is bad with names, did not understand what you said, or was just not paying attention to the introduction?  Name tags allow you and your employees to become more personal with the customer or client.  Some clients or customers would feel more comfortable dealing with John rather than Mr Smith.  By having a name tag, you lesson the worry of the client or customer in using he wrong name.  Since name tags vary widely, what style should you choose?

 

Name Tag - Wooden Name Tags.com

Name tag from WoodenNameTags.com

Your first impression should be memorable.  The client or customer should remember you above the competition.  Your product or service may differentiate you from the competition, but how are you, as a sales person, being remarkable and memorable?  Does a small, plastic, generic name tag sound remarkable or memorable?  What if you interfaced with clients with a name tag from Wooden Name Tags?  What if the only thing your customer or client remembers is how unique your name tag was?  Wouldn’t you want to do everything you can to be memorable?

Many businesses try to be relevant and remembered.  They believe they are being memorable by offering their logo on pens and other small trinkets but how often do those trinkets get thrown away because they are low quality or not relevant to the customer or client?  A well designed, unique, creative name tag is memorable, cost effective (able to use it over and over), and is yet another way to make you and your business remarkable.  Remarkable is what gets remembered.  Remarkable is what differentiates the common from the extraordinary.  Being remarkable drives business, drives profits, and drives growth.

How are you being remarkable in your life and business?

What can you do to your personal or professional image to be remarkable?

How can a simple name tag make you remarkable?