- Why does your blog exist?
There does not seem to be a ‘correct’ way to start up in business; this blog will show what we did attempting to start up and analyse why we succeeded or failed.
- Who are you and why are you uniquely qualified to write this blog?
My name is JCPeden (John Peden). I am 21 years old and have worked in 4 very different jobs. Working for someone else is perhaps the most excruciating thing I have ever experienced. Working for myself is imperative in order for me to become what I want to be and I want to share my experiences with the world as I learn.
- What are the topic areas this blog will discuss?
This blog will document my attempts to startup in business looking at every step I take and analysing it. It is my hope that we can both learn from this process. In addition to my story I will include guides and resources I have found useful or interesting.
- When will you post?
I will post once a week on Thursday evenings; I have no intention of writing when I have nothing to say.
- Where are you?
I am a student at the University of Sheffield. I was born in Ireland and live in Manchester. - How will you deliver your messages?
I will be writing (hopefully Sebastian will be too!) and we will use this freely available theme.
- Will you plan your weekly topics, or just shoot from the hip?
I will document the work I have accomplished on Thursday. Anything I come across mid-week will be posted on that day. - How will you monetise your blog?
Since I have been banned from Google Adsense, I hope to monetise the site by selling advertising space. I do not expect huge financial returns from the blog, but enough to cover hosting costs would be great!
- What is the endgame plan?
I would like to build a community on here and encourage other young people to share their stories. Ideally, I could hand the blog onto someone 1-2 years from now when I have a fully operational business; allowing me to focus on my personal blog.
Are you looking for a new job? Want to give your career a new direction? Do you need help in finding a new job or taking the next step in your career? Many times, people either feel shy or too insecure to take a drastic step in their career. They feel a little lost and nervous about it because when it comes to career, it is hard to know which step is right and which is not.
In order to create a successful career, you should first know your inner thoughts and beliefs. You have find out what you are good at, what you enjoy doing, which are the things that matter to you in life and what motivates you. These are the key questions which must be answered correctly in order to find the right career path. But most of us, feel quite confused while answering them.
Won’t it be easy to have someone to guide you and help you in answering these questions? Getting career advice from a professional can be just the thing you needed to find the right career path for yourself.
Well if you are looking for such a helping hand, then Career Energy is the right place with you. They are pioneers in career advice and outplacement of high rank officials. They can help you in finding a new job, guide you in reaching your career goals faster and more efficiently and will coach you to make your career long and successful.
Their experienced career consultants work with each of their clients on personal level. You can contact them by phone or Skype or visit them in their Birmingham office. The great careers advice will surely help you create a career path that will lead you to your ultimate career objective.
20
Oct
11 Ways to Earn Money Quickly at University
Author: admin // Category: Uncategorized- Get a job
Getting a job will likely yield the greatest returns on your time. Jobs at the union are usually well setup to accommodate your schedule and will give you a decent amount of flexibility. Make sure you can afford the time off; you are here to learn. - Tutor
We already looked at this in an earlier post. Tutoring will encourage you to study and there is nothing like teaching to improve your own understanding of a concept. - Sell your notes
Students (especially first and second years) love to miss lectures. The student population is getting richer each year, at least their parents are. If you are remotely studious, collect up a few copies of the notes at each class you attend and sell them on to these rich, lazy cats. Spread the word by telling people you sit next to or your friends that, for a small fee, you will collect their notes. - Start a blog
Blogging allows you to make yourself known, express yourself and develop your understanding of a particular topic of interest to you. The learning curve is quite steep however, and you will have to put some effort in to yield a worthwhile return on your time. There are loads of articles about starting a blog (and how to make money from it!) all over the web, but for a one-stop resouce, Problogger.net is unrivaled. - Sell on Ebay
Take a look around your room, can you really afford to have so much stuff lying around? Focus on the 20% of your belongings that you use 80% of the time or get 80% of your enjoyment from. Get rid of the rest! That old guitar you never play or an unused xbox can get a lot of extra money. Take this one step further by selling your friends’ and housemate’s gear. Agree a percentage of the sale price beforehand. - Sell your textbooks
Selling your old textbooks (most obviously on Amazon) is a great way to round up a bit of cash from objects you are unlikely to use again. - Wash other people’s stuff
Offer to wash your friends’, roommates’ and neighbours’ laundry for them. Charge them £5 on top of materials and while you are waiting for the washing machine to finish read a book, write a poem, do your homework or talk to your better half. - Eat cheaply
Firstly, stop buying your lunch! Buy in bulk and prepare a packed lunch everday. If you ‘don’t have time’ get up a little earlier or prepare your lunch the night before. A £3 sandwich might not seem like a lot, but a drink, and a snack will push the price closer to £5. If you do this for a whole term you will have spent at least £250. - Drink cheaply
Let’s say you have a few drinks at home, go to a few bars and then on to a club, your drinks will get progressively more expensive. With that in mind, drink less as the night goes on and consider drinking a little more or for a little longer at home. Remember that you are a student; embrace cheap booze and get used to the taste. Stop buying huge rounds; people will assume that is what you do and take advantage of it. Make people feel special when you buy them a drink. - Get all the money you are ‘owed’
Firstly, ensure that you are receiving the maximum loan/grant you are entitled to. Contact your local council and find out if you are entitled to any grants as a full-time student. My housemate received £500 from his council to buy a printer and some other gear! Keep an eye on the notice board at your department as well, there are always competitions running with tasty cash prizes! - Bet on stuff
Betting is the quickest and easiest way to make and lose money. If you bet conservatively on things that you are good at, you should net a tidy profit. You can also take advantage of offers run by bookies that give you £25 when you top up your account with £25. Bookies will have teams of experts to calculate the odds for popular events, but only one for one-offs like the winner of X-Factor or Big Brother. If you follow these shows in great detail, you could well have a better idea of who will win it. If you don’t follow these shows, ask someone who does!
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Source: John
This is a follow up to What Everybody Ought to Know About Personal Outsourcing. This post looks at how to use Elance for outsourcing low-end tasks overseas for a fraction of what you would pay at home.
From the Elance homepage, you are invited to “Post a project”. This short guide will take you through the dos and don’ts of posting your first project.
Title
Just like an auction listing, capture the theme of the project and entice suppliers to click on it e.g. Simple Spanish to English Translation. The more enticing the title, the more offers you will get and the more competitive the offers will be. Do not use vocabulary that might exclude suppliers and avoid abbreviation, lengthy titles and complexities.
Choose your category, and then subcategory and Elance will offer you a link to view a specimen description. By sticking to the example description it is hard to go wrong but you can obtain better results with a few additions.
- Personalize your introduction, explaining the type of person you are looking for and their potential gains from working with you. If you suggest long term involvement with a provider they will often lower their price.
- Emphasize the critical aspects of the project detailing your expectations and what the supplier will provide in terms of file formats.
- Attach an example of the quality of work you are looking for.
- Offer a breakdown of your budget in your project description highlighting what the supplier will be paid for.
Files
Create a PDF (use OpenOffice Writer) of the project description and upload it; making it easy for you and the supplier to refer to the original description.
Work Type
If you are hiring a virtual assistant you might want to offer a per-hour rate, but if the project is a one-off then offer a fixed fee.
Approximate Budget
Be realistic, you will not get a complete Web 2.0 solution built for $100 but at the same time don’t be afraid to offer small projects for under $500
Who Can Bid
Since this is likely to be your first project and you won’t have any relationships with suppliers, choose “All Elance providers”.
(Un)Sealed Bidding
Keeping your bids unsealed will make your offers more competitive and ensure you get the best price. You might have to use sealed bidding on large or high-level company projects.
Work Location
The location of a supplier is unlikely to affect the quality of their work (make sure their English is of a satisfactory level before committing to a project). Select “Anywhere” to take advantage of low-cost suppliers.
Use Escrow
You pay Elance and release the funds to the supplier once work has been completed. Secure and free, why not use it?
Choosing big or small suppliers
The greatest value suppliers (although higher-risk) are the individuals and first-time bidders looking to make money and establish their reputation. Large companies who bid on your project often have huge earnings because they are designed to churn out solutions as rapidly as possible. You might notice that their proposal seems a little generic and don’t expect their communications to change. They are likely to deliver a quality package, but you are unlikely to establish a relationship with them. Typically, you won’t be in direct contact with the actual people working on your project (rather a project manager).
You put yourself in a much better position if you are in direct contact with the supplier. An individual that really wants the business will likely go that extra mile, free-of-charge and allow you to create a truly bespoke solution. Choose the provider who has set themselves apart and demonstrated the level of quality and professionalism you are looking for.
Maximizing your results
Provide the supplier with as much detail as possible before they go to work and with ample feedback when they send you samples for review. Have a clear idea of what you want before your write your project description. Constantly changing your mind or being vague will confuse the supplier and likely end with you not getting what you are looking for.
You are paying the supplier to work for your; take the dominant role. Be polite and understanding, but get to the point in your communications. Ask for a little more than you expect (politely) and you are likely to get it. Don’t settle for anything less than perfect and remember that you are paying the supplier to complete the project to a satisfactory level.
When you are satisfied with the completed project, pay promptly and immediately leave a paragraph of positive feedback for them. Once this is done, highlight your good work and strengthen your relationship with the supplier. The supplier’s personal email address is available on their page; go get it if you don’t already have it. Contacting your supplier every once in a while or inviting them to bid on new projects will keep your relationship healthy building long-term dedication and making the experience a pleasure for everyone.
Further Reading:
5 tips for outsourcing to a personal virtual assistant
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Source: John
For some time, large corporations have been outsourcing to the developing world but there is an increasing trend of ordinary people doing the same thing.
Elance is a freelance marketplace and is like an eBay for work. In the past 3 months I was able to find work writing an self-help ebook netting me $315 for less than a day’s work in total. Not a bad little earner, but with the pound being stronger than the dollar, the exchange rate works much better in the other direction. In the next 2 weeks, I will be launching a new ecommerce site for Masquerade Clothing and a web-application that will literally turn Britain’s housing market on its head. The shop has cost $250 and the web-application $1250 and I will be able to offset my costs by applying for funding from my University.
Why I have not done the work myself.
- Learning html, javascript, php, linux, css etc from scratch is time consuming. Skills acquired now are out-of-date in 6 months and completely obsolete in 2 years.
- I have successfully obtained temporary employment with ITV in Manchester which reduces the amount of free time I have to blog and work.
- ITV pay around £8/hour, developers on Elance are cheap and can get the job done much faster to boot.
Let me turn you over to Tim Ferriss (again) to shed some light on the Elance game:
Its free to post your project and invite people to bid, in my next post I’ll be writing a short guide on using Elance and what to look out for when you do. I think personal outsourcing done right could make things pretty sweet for everyone concerned. Thanks to exchange rates, the service provider can charge a rate that suits them but suits the buyer too satisfying both parties. Check out the following video showing what some progressive parents have been doing (haha)!
Have you ever used Elance or another personal outsourcing service? Do you think that it will change the world? Please leave your comments below!
Its my birthday today!
21 years old.Here is what I can offer:
- If you think you know nothing about life, you know plenty about life.
- If you feel like you know everything about life, then you haven’t scratched the surface.
- Have some stories to tell people; go beyond and further than you think you can.
- Read 2 or 3 self-help books, realise that they all push similar messages and fill in the gaps yourself.
- Stop waiting for all the traffic lights to turn green before you start that journey.
- Avoid being busy, but get many things done.
- Remember faces and names.
- People love talking about themselves, they will find you fascinating if you ask them questions that allow them to tell you stories…counter intuitive I know but try it.
- Express yourself through music, art or (my favourite) writing. Write about anything but get as many thoughts out of your head as possible.
Please feel free to wish me a happy birthday, I imagine if I invested a bit more time in the blog I’d have hundreds of comments but I’ll settle for one or two! My love people, stay easy!
John
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Source: John
Dented metal doors slide shut to the sound of a droning buzzer. The train is lurching forward before I can locate an open stretch of handrail, letting me careen down the aisle for a few seat lengths before swinging Rhesus Monkey-like into a somewhat stationary position. The subway is crowded, but I catch sight of my friends in the piercing fluorescence at the far side of the car.
Impossibly soon, the train is stopping, breaks groaning and its passengers waggling forward and back. My friends are the first ones out the door and I’m left squeezing past shoulders in pursuit. As I stumble over the notorious gap, my eyes dart across a dozen bold-lettered signs in primary colors, their arrows jutting in every direction. I don’t know how many subway lines could possibly connect here, but trains clatter and rumble all around. Tracks line up against tracks, with barely any platform to stand on. I can’t tell if its day or night; everything glares like washed out film of desert sun.
Dammit: My friends are already boarding the connecting train 20 meters down across the crowd. I lunge towards the nearest door, the drone already stunning me. I just make the train, but now it’s stopping again and I’m stepping out. This platform is right at track level, raising the burning lidded taillights of train cars looming overhead. I’m standing on the tracks now, the previous train pulling away with a dull clatter.
A conductor’s bell crashes through my attention– I jerk my head up towards an oncoming train. Panic explodes through me. I move to spring away, but it feels like a track start from underwater blocks, slow and unreactive. The train scrapes my trailing heel as I dodge, just as I see that I’ve sidestepped onto another track. This next train bears down on me even faster, but somehow my molasses-hung arms hook the side and I swing precariously onto some outer ledge of the car. Back pressed desperately to the cold metal, I am yanked forward. A passing train barrels past in front of me – I have to turn my head to save my face. The train to which I cling screeches suddenly to a stop. I lose my grip and fall forward on to one hand. My knees bang the concrete of a platform. Somehow I am in the same labyrinthine station. Train after train plows in, its doors slam open and shut like razor eyelids before it clatters out of the station. My head swivels from sign to train to tracks to sign, my mind grasping for traction. I see the whip of a friend’s jacket cuff, beckoning me onto another train, but too far to reach at underwater pace before buzzer doors slam and roll away. I spin from door to door, trains on both sides of a platform shrinking to barely fit me between the flashing metal walls. The slamming doors come one after the next –gaping, slamming, rolling – their buzzers sound back to back now overlapping ‘til the dull drone becomes a solid constant whine, my head shaking back and forth from to train to train to train to train to train…
My head is rocking from ear to ear across my pillow in the dim light of my single dorm room. The mute blue grey of morning light across cream white walls and blue bedsheets diffuses in my blurred vision. I lurch forward, still dodging trains before I realize that I’m at Olin and it’s impossibly early.
I sink back onto the down pillow with a deep sigh. I heard no alarm; it’s not time to run, yet. One deep breath. I rub my feet between the warm sheets, nuzzle my pillow. Out of curiosity, my eyes wander down the length of my navy comforter to my clock radio. Its hard red digits glare through the greyness like the taillights of a subway. It is 8:55, and I have five minutes before a teleconference with senior management of a potential employer.
The impossibility of hesitation is startlingly clear. I roll forward out of bed. My knees bang the thin carpet of the bedroom floor. It feels like concrete, and I hear the closing doors begin to drone.
Source: Bennett
I’ve now been in Florence for more than two months. Today, of course, was one of the days where I was reminded more of my “Americanness” by the discussions of the election everywhere. Last night we actually went to an election party hosted by the Democrats Abroad, where we saw Italians wearing Obama masks, waving the stars and stripes, and declaring their love for America. It was somewhat strange.
(Photo thanks to Rebecca Olsen.)
While the election was fun, I was thoroughly exhausted for all of today. Staying up until 5AM to hear the final results was possibly a poor decision. Luckily, the most strenuous thing I have going for the next few days is to work in the photo lab. I’ve never done non-digital photo work before, but it’s something I’ve come to really enjoy. I even entered a few of my pieces in a student art show. These still have to be juried in, so I get to wait another two days for another (less historic) vote.
For the curious, the three photos I submitted are:
Hopefully they get picked. Fingers crossed!
-Jessi
Source: Jessi
In my Software Design class, the second half of the semester is devoted to a team project (I briefly mentioned it in my last post). Olin emphasizes incremental development; the idea is to always have a working program, rather than building out separate pieces and planning on tying them together at the end (you can read more about it in Professor Allen Downey’s textbook). With about a month left to finish, my team recently completed our first working prototype (of any usefulness).
So what is Pricecod? Our objective is to have an easily accessible way to quickly tell if an item a user sees in a store would be cheaper to buy online. Mobile applications - both native and web apps - are intriguing (and the hot area to work in) but we’re frustrated that most commercial applications require an expensive smart phone and/or a data plan. As such, we’re aiming to achieve our objective by building an application that, when users send a picture of a barcode from their cell phones, will text message them back with the cheapest prices and locations of that item online. (We know this app already exists - we’re doing it to learn, jeez) If users don’t have a camera on their cell phone, they could also send us the barcode number.
We don’t exactly have all this working yet. We do have a start though: if you email fish@pricecod.com with a barcode number in the subject line, the Pricecod fish will (probably) email you back. No promises on the quality of the e-mail; it’s a work in progress. There’s a lot of pieces to tie together for our ideal app to work - we’ve been busy learning about OCR, SMS & SMTP protocol, and APIs for shopping sites like Amazon and Google Products. In the meantime, I’d really appreciate if you want to be one of Pricecod’s first beta testers. Just email fish@pricecod.com (there’s a barcode somewhere near you, I know it. Check the bottom of your kleenex box) and then let me know what you think. Thanks! -Maia Bittner
Source: Maia Bittner
Note: This post is a fortnight ‘cause its author was lazy getting relevant images. This should dispel any myths about an Olin time travel project, as the author promises that had he the means the travel back in time and post it on Halloween, he would have.
This Halloween, I walked through the dining hall en route to a sandwich and couldn’t help smirking at one of the Jack O’Lanterns sitting along the hallway. Being a new arrival and not brainwashed by Olin culture, I immediately stopped and thought to myself “How strange.” and “Why would anyone at Olin be afraid of this?”
Ohh, scary!
I call it the PI-umpkin (after the control system it models) and find it an excellent segue to a common piece of Olin knowledge and non-obvious qualities of the Olin community. Simulink is responsible for the strange shapes carved on the pumpkin, and my fellow first years and I find ourselves spending a lot of quality time with Simulink. Simulink is a math modeling program from The MathWorks. Simulink can model PI control (the pumpkin); Simulink can model the “detumbling” and sun alignment of the Cloud CubeSat (very nifty Olin-Nasa Research Group Project); Simulink could probably model and control the drying of your laundry.Perhaps the coolest thing Simulink can do is allow you to create differential equations just by piecing together several “blocks” (for example, the sideways triangles above, gain blocks) in a way that represents measurable values of the system and the relationship between these values.So what does the PI-umpkin say about Olin? It says that Oliners take a lot of the same classes (and with 300 students, we have to). It says that Oliners blur lines between work and play, between class and social. And perhaps best of all, the PI-umpkin shows that we are proud of Olin and–in the greatest spirit of satire–like to make fun of ourselves.
I mean, really, how many colleges do you know of with students who regularly wear shirts like this:
or this
?
Colin
Source: computercolin