How to Find the Job You Want With Dreadlocks

How to Find the Job You Want With Dreadlocks
If you are wondering if you can find the job you want with
dreadlocks, the answer is yes. Your dreadlocks give you a
unique appearance. Therefore, to find that perfect job you
need a strong desire, dedication, discipline, and
determination.

Never judge yourself negatively because of your dreadlocks.
More than anything else, they should empower you to excel
and succeed in all of your endeavors including finding the
job of your dreams.

Take a moment and think about the job you want. Get a job
description and imagine you with your dreadlocks in that
position. Write down three compelling reasons you want
this job or career. With living expenses, list heartfelt
dreams and goals this job will help you achieve. Read it
morning, noon, and night.

Approach the search for your dream job as a full-time job.
Do something every day such as scanning online job sites,
reading the classifieds in local papers, and working on
your resumes. Create a job searching to-do list every
night or early morning.

Regardless of how long it takes, never give up finding the
job you'll be happy and proud to have. There are many
people with dreadlocks happily employed in jobs they love
having and doing. Talk to them, ask questions, and get
advice on their job success.

Before you embark on the search of your dream job, do a
present reality check. Do you have the needed experience,
skills, certification, or college degree for the job? If
not, figure out a way to get them. Take courses online,
enroll at a local college, or take a job close to the one
you want to gain experience.

Here are 5 proven tips to help you find great jobs with
dreadlocks.

1. Create a Personal Work Profile

- Get a notepad or open the word processor on your computer
and make a list of every job and place of employment. Make
sure the name, addresses, and phone numbers are accurate.
Keep detailed list of employment dates and salaries.

- List your professional skills and learning experiences.
Include degrees, certifications, completed training
courses, seminars, and self- taught skills.

- Next add accomplishments, work experience, and
responsibilities of previous jobs. Make sure to highlight
computer experience such as computer type, tasks performed,
and software you become skillful with.

- Get references from previous employers and co-workers.
Give each one a call to verify use of names, addresses,
phone numbers, and availability.

2. Write a Winning Resume

- Use the information from your Personal Work Profile to
create a professional resume. Get samples from the
Internet, bookstores, and libraries to create effective
resumes, cover letters, references, and salary history.
Ask a friend or relative with the job you want to review or
compare resumes.

- Create electronic copies of your resumes for sending by
e-mail and posting on Internet jobsites. The two most
popular forms are Microsoft Word documents and Adobe PDF.

- Keep copies of resume in a folder, flash drive,
briefcase, car, or discreetly on a computer at work. You
should always be ready to hand-deliver, mail, or e-mail
your resume immediately.

3. Post or Send Resumes Weekly

- Post your resumes to employment websites such as
Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, local newspaper websites,
and company websites.

- Send out five to ten resumes a week every week. Make sure
you follow up to ensure the targeted company received your
resume. If you've haven't heard back from the company,
call or e-mail to verify they did receive your resume.
Also, you can let them know you're still interested in the
job or position.

- Keep a log with the company name, address, date, contact
person, and follow-up dates.

4. Network Online and Offline

- Practice TTP (Talk To People). Broadcast the job you're
seeking to anyone and everyone you know. Strike up
conversations at grocery stores, school, church, parks, or
anywhere people gather. Attend job fairs, business
functions, seminars, and happy hours (try not to get too
happy, your purpose is to network).

- Take part in online chat rooms and discussion forums.
Many are hosted by professional associations in the field
or industry of the job you're seeking. This can also be a
great way to find open positions.

5. Keep a Positive Professional Image

- Set aside one good suit for interviews. Keep starched
shirts and shined shoes in the same place ready for
immediate change. If possible, keep interviewing clothes
in a travel bag in the car.

- Groom your dreadlocks. For men, make sure your beard,
mustaches, sideburns, and edges are neat. Most
importantly, make sure your dreadlocks are clean and fresh.
If you have long dreadlocks, wear them in a ponytail tied
behind the head with a hair band.

Women can be more flexible since most companies consider
long dreadlocks a female hairstyle. In either case, always
try to present a professional image with your dreadlocks.
Before interviews, visit a loctician or image consultant to
get ideas on how to create a business hairstyle with
dreadlocks.

- Record an informative message on the answering machine
and cell phone. Write a script, rehearse it, and record it
several times until it's perfect. Make sure you state your
name slowly and clear. Call potential employers back as
soon as you hear the message.

- Master the art of the interview. Think of potential
questions the employer may ask and rehearse your answers.
Spend time in front of a mirror critiquing how you sit,
your tone of voice, and eye to eye contact.

Send a thank you note immediately after every interview
preferably the next morning by mail or e-mail.

Most important in looking for your dream job with
dreadlocks is preparation. As inventor George Washington
Carver says, "It is better to be prepared and not have an
opportunity than to have an opportunity and not be
prepared."

Last, but not least, be bold, positive, confident, and
daring. Letting your confidence show wins many points with
the interviewer. If you have the right skills, groom your
dreadlocks, and keep a positive professional appearance,
you should be well on the way to your dream job.

----------------------------------------------------
Jeffery Bradley has been growing dreadlocks for twenty
years and has worked at six major corporations. He's
passionate about showing you how to create a prosperous
life with dreadlocks. Get your free ebook "5 Steps to
Great Dreadlocks" at http://www.howtogrowdreadlocks.com

Are your ad dollars working for you or against you?

Are your ad dollars working for you or against you?
Are you spending a ton of money in those darn yellow pages?

Well, in some industries you need to unfortunately - like
businesses that tend to get called in an emergency -
plumbers, electricians, dentists and so on. However, the
majority of us may not need to.

I'm not telling you to go out and cancel all your ads;
however I do recommend that you actually LOOK at the book
(or publication) you want to buy in before you get sold by
the salesperson.

See how many advertisers in your category are in there and
how big they are. If there are 10-15 full page ads and
another 10 half page ads, then this may be a good medium
for you, however you will either need to spend a ton of
money to get in the top 5-10 ads OR you will need to design
your ad so it stands out among the others instead and be
smaller OR just have a listing if you can't compete and use
your money more effectively elsewhere (for yellow pages).

For other newspapers and magazines - make sure to check the
demographics of the publication to make sure first that
they will hit your target market. So many small business
owners DON'T DO THIS.

Then find out the actual number of publications they print
- their circulation, not their readership (that's a fluffed
up number). Then you can compare your options by the cost
per 1000 households in case you have more than one good
option and can only do one.
I can't really tell you which ads to run or where to place
your ad dollars in this email since you all have different
businesses, however instead of looking at all the other ads
to determine what you should put in your ad; you need to
think like your customer and what will attract THEM to your
ad.

Do they care what your name is? NO, so don't put it at the
top of your ad, put it at the bottom with all your contact
info and logo. They will have specific "Hot Buttons" that
they care about and you need to address those in your
heading.

Here are some tips:
- Try reversing your ad if you can't afford color.
- Use big bold headings to grab attention.
- Identifying your customer's Hot Buttons is the key to a
more effective ad. You have 1.5 - 3 seconds to grab
someone's attention in any medium.

Do you know how many different yellow page books there are
that cover your area? There's probably at least 3-4.
Everyone in your area gets them all, which one or more do
you advertise in? The cheapest you say? WRONG.

These rules apply to most print advertising as well as TV
and radio. Of course you need to grab the
reader/viewer/listener's attention, but don't do it with
your name unless you're McDonald's and it's lunchtime.

How are you doing with your advertising?
Always remember, before you make a media buy to think it
through, don't get pressured, and do some research so you
can make sure to reach your target market, not just get a
good deal. If you don't have a Marketing Plan, then get
one. If you don't have time to do it, then hire someone
who knows what they're talking about and spend your
marketing dollars wisely, not haphazardly.

----------------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2008 K.Sawa Marketing
Katrina Sawa is an Award-Winning Relationship Marketing
Coach who's helped hundreds of small business owners take
dramatic steps in their businesses to get them to the next
level in business, revenues and life. She offers one-on-one
coaching, group coaching and do-it-yourself marketing
planning products. Go online now to get started with her
Free Report and Free Audio at
http://www.jumpstartyourmarketing.com !

Business Model Innovation: Look in Better Places to Add More Value

Business Model Innovation: Look in Better Places to Add More Value
Although most can easily understand examples where time and
economic benefits are measurable, you also have to keep in
mind that noneconomic benefits can be important, too. When
Estee Lauder formulated the Clinique line of cosmetics and
toiletries, it provided hypoallergenic relief for those who
wanted a better appearance and less discomfort from using
common beauty products.

These benefits can also extend to aesthetics. Realizing
that many of its most loyal end users were graphic
designers, Apple Computer began to offer more stylish
designs and colors for its Macs. Sales quickly rose for the
company as a result of these more physically attractive
machines.

Notice that some of these benefits, like faster time to
market, would be obvious from talking to almost any
customer. Other benefits, like having a temporary office in
bookstores, would probably not have been identified by
talking to customers. Because of the relative invisibility
of many potential value benefits, traditional market
research and market analysis methods will be insufficient
to find the best value benefits to add.

That's another reason why you should keep an open mind for
now as you develop hypotheses about types of values to add.
Trial and error on a limited, inexpensive scale will
usually turn out to be critical to your identification of
the new value benefits that you should offer. Until you
have the idea, though, you cannot begin any experiments to
test it. You do need to expand your sources of ideas. This
is a numbers game, and all perspectives help.

Several methods are useful to perceiving what is a blank to
current customers. First, begin with direct observation.
Simply watch how customers and potential customers (and on
through to the end user) use your product or services. You
will be amazed at all of the awkward ways that they have to
go about making your offerings useful to them.

Then, go watch what else they do during the work and
personal day. You'll find they have problems with other
products and services that you can solve at little or no
cost.

If you had visited a book store, you would have seen people
camped out on the floor leaning against bookcases reading
books to find the right one while they sipped take-out
coffee they had bought someplace else. When their cramped
bodies couldn't take it any more or they found the right
book, they left.

In many cases, the sore body was the limitation to selling
more books. You don't have to sell many more books in a
year to pay for a chair and the space it rests on. If the
customers could get their take-out coffee from you, you
saved them the time to go to a take-out coffee outlet, and
increased the time they had to shop for and read books.

Second, go out and live these people's lives and walk in
these people's shoes. Try to do what they do in the best
ways you can think of. Then, imagine how you could change
what you are then doing to make life simpler, easier, and
better for them.

Third, do role playing. Pretend for several hours that you
are a specific person who doesn't buy from your company, or
even your customer's customer. Once you have totally
immersed yourself in that mind-set, think about why you
don't want to do business with your real company.

Then imagine what it would take to get your attention and
keep it so that you would try a different offering. While
in this potential customer role-playing mode, also ask
yourself what would keep your business if your current
supplier responded.

Fourth, think about metaphors. You will probably find it
easiest to start with ones that personally inspire you that
will probably inspire others. Questions can help you find
helpful metaphors.

For example, what was the best product or service you ever
bought? Then, you can think about that offering as a
metaphor for what you might offer. Obviously, the
bookstores could have used a five-star European hotel with
lots of service and comfort as a metaphor for their
business.

Fifth, imagine that you can totally customize your
products, services, and the ways that you market and
deliver them to quickly match what any one person wants.
This is very important because the ultimate secret of
achieving competitive advantage is to do just this more
effectively than anyone else.

Having identified a method, how could you employ that
method in ways that do not increase your costs, but do
improve value? This may seem like a pipe dream at first,
but many companies that take this approach also have been
able to put in processes to support custom solutions that
actually lower costs.

Amazon's listing service for new, collectible, and used
books offered for sale by its customers complements its own
stock, draws more potential customers, and provides a very
high profit contribution similar to what eBay enjoys
because so selling and delivery costs are eliminated in the
process.

Sixth, by this point, you will probably have exhausted a
lot of what you as a single person can learn. If you have
encouraged others to follow these same steps, you can now
begin to usefully have brainstorming sessions even more
effectively where your individual ideas will strike
responsive chords in the minds of others to produce ideas
that neither of you could have had alone. If you are not
familiar with this process, you should become familiar with
the well-documented guidelines for such sessions before
using this method.

Seventh, with work document shareware, you can also post
these kinds of questions and observations on a company
intranet and encourage everyone in the company to post
their own ideas and comments. Extend this questioning to
include suppliers, customers, shareholders, and partners
through the Internet, and you will see a geometric increase
in richness of ideas and refinement of promising directions.

Copyright 2008 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved

----------------------------------------------------
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of seven books including Adventures of an
Optimist, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The
Ultimate Competitive Advantage. You can find free tips for
accomplishing 20 times more by registering at:
====> http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

Higher Productivity Brings You More Money

Higher Productivity Brings You More Money
In this tough economy, learn how to power up your job
productivity, to create work/life balance, and to
strengthen your own personal brand in a competitive market
as a top performer. You'll position yourself for a raise or
to win that higher-paying job down the street.

7 Steps to Power Up Your Performance On the Job:

1. Organize your day on paper, before your day begins.
Spend ten minutes each evening or ten minutes each morning
planning your day on paper. Write down your top priorities
for the day, and circle the two most important items on
your list. Instead of feeling overwhelmed at all the work
you must do, focus only on those two items. Even if all you
complete on this day are those two items, they are the two
most important and can be marked off as major
accomplishments. Do this every day, and you'll power up
your performance fast!

2. Learn to delegate. If you do not have a staff or
contractors to delegate work to, delegate your projects to
a different time of day. Delegate your most important
projects to that time of day when you feel the most
energized. This is your power boost to tackle the tough
assignments that will win you a raise or help you win that
next higher-paying job.

3. Use your emotional intelligence. You can't avoid a boss
in a bad mood, but you can use your emotional intelligence
to realize that he or she is usually in a bad mood on
Mondays, for example, and act accordingly. You can use your
emotional intelligence to avoid the office bully by
intentionally placing yourself physically and emotionally
at a distance from the bully at your work. Don't let
workplace obstacles impede you from powering up your own
career!

4. Minimize distractions. If you must attend mind-numbing
meetings, mentally challenge yourself to solve problems
inside your head as the minutes go by. Set aside a specific
time to answer emails and phone calls, rather than
answering every call at all times. If you are having
personal problems, mentally picture yourself putting them
inside a drawer and closing it to refocus on your work.

5. Breathe. You can't control the piles of work that appear
on your desk throughout the day. You can control your
response by breathing deeply, in and out, in and out, every
time you feel the approach of frustration or anger.
Breathing deeply also brings energizing oxygen to your
brain to boost your productivity.

6. Become your biggest fan. Every major survey of workplace
stress lists a lack of appreciation for work performed as
among the major stress factors on the job. At the end of
the day, applaud yourself for your accomplishments.
Mentally pat yourself on the back at the end of every work
day. Confidence fuels power!

7. Be prepared. Update your skills continually. Network
with other professionals in your field. The ultimate power
you have over your job is your decision to stay or seek a
better, less stressful position. In other words, be
prepared.

All ready now for more productivity? You can create a
healthier work/life balance when you employ these seven
tips and make your personal brand even stronger than it is
today. We wish you great success!

----------------------------------------------------
Ruth Klein is an award-winning business owner, best-selling
author and marketing and time management consultant whose
clients range from solo entrepreneurs to the Fortune 500.
Sign up to receive Ruth's 7 Part Mini-Course on Branding
and Productivity. http://tinyurl.com/25tqo5

How to Create and Exchange Digital Documents

How to Create and Exchange Digital Documents
I'm a big believer in "eating my own dog food". In other
words, if I'm going to recommend something to you, it's
usually because I do it myself. This article is all about
digitizing as many of your paper documents as you can.
There are several ways to digitize your documents. Suppose
you need to share a document, perhaps a proposal, with a
client. Traditionally, we would create and print the
document, then mail it or fax it to the client. A far
better alternative is to create the document as an
electronic file, then simply send it via email. You can
creat the document as a Microsoft Word (or other word
processor) document or you can create a PDF document. In
general, I recommend using PDF documents. There are times,
however, when using Microsoft Word is the best choice.

Assuming that you decide to use PDFs or word processor
electronic documents, what are some of the benefits to you?

Security--Electronic forms can be secured with passwords or
certificates, thus preventing unauthorized third parties
from viewing their contents. Sure, there are tools
available on the Internet that can crack some forms of
document security, but remember that paper documents can
also be stolen, photocopied, and read by unauthorized
individuals.

Format consistency--Although this doesn't apply to all
electronic documents, PDF documents maintain the
consistency of their format across all platforms. In other
words, people using a Macintosh will see exactly the same
document as those using a PC. The formatting is consistent
from one platform to another. The formatting of word
processor documents, however, can change as they move from
one computer to another.

Searchability--Electronic documents are easily searchable.
Just use the key combination of Control+F and enter a word
or a phrase and the computer will search for it within the
document. Have you ever been reading a book or magazine
article that mentions a name that was referred to earlier?
You scan the pages looking for that name or phrase, but
can't find it. That problem simply doesn't exist in
electronic documents. (It's especially true in technical
fields with lots of acronyms.)

Portability and conserving space--As a technologist, I used
to have shelves and shelves of technical books and
documents (most of which did a great job of gathering
dust!). Today, most of my technical documentation is stored
in PDF documents on my laptop computer. They're easily
searchable, very portable, and don't gather any dust. I
usually have my laptop with me, so no matter where I am, I
have an entire library of documentation with me. I've even
started reading electronic novels. I carry a Palm Treo
700p. The E-Reader software is free for it and I can
download free books from many sources including the
Gutenberg Project (www.gutenberg.org), which is a source of
classics. (I just finished "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".)
If I want something current, I can buy e-books for very
reasonable prices from many sources on the Internet. Since
I always have my phone with me, I always have a book to
read while I'm waiting for whatever (delayed flights, late
clients, etc.). By the way, the e-reader software makes it
realistic to read books on a small screen. Hard to believe,
I know, but it really does work very well.

Speed and sendability--I just signed a contract with a
client to present some video training. They emailed me the
agreement, we worked out some of the terms, and I signed it
electronically (the subject of electronic signatures is a
whole article in itself) and emailed it. They received it
within seconds of me signing it, even though their offices
are over a thousand miles from mine. I am working on
presenting a seminar for a client's customers on how to go
digital (without going postal). He needed a brochure
describing the seminar and my picture for publicity. He
called me with the request and within seconds, he had what
he needed because I was able to email the files to him.
Before the digital age, I would have had to print the
documents and send them to him via postal mail or an
express service. This is what Bill Gates was talking about
when he referred to "business at the speed of thought"
(another book I have on my Treo, by the way).

Forms--This is a feature I've been using for years. In
Microsoft Word (and presumably other word processors), you
can create a document which is locked except for form
fields. In other words, I create a questionnaire in which
you can't change any of the text that I wrote, but you can
fill in certain fields, save the document, and return it to
me with your responses. We use it in our training business
when preparing for an onsite presentation. We send an
electronic questionnaire to our client asking about things
like the exact seminar location, credentials needed for
entry, goals of the training, names of attendees, etc. Our
clients simply tab between fields on the form and are able
to complete it in a matter of just a few minutes and email
it back to us. To learn how to do this, search on "creating
forms" in Microsoft Word.

How can you create and use digital documents? The easiest
way is with a word processor such as Microsoft Word. Just
save it and send it. There are, however, different formats
for saving documents in Word. For the greatest
compatibility, in Word 2007 choose "Save As" and save it as
a Word 97-2003 document. If you're using Word 2003 or
earlier, you can just save it as usual and send it. What if
you want to create a PDF (Portable Document Format)? You
can buy Adobe Acrobat which is a great program, but pricey.
You can also buy less expensive versions of PDF creator
software from various vendors. For Microsoft Office 2007
users, you can download a free plugin that allows you to
save documents as PDFs. Go to www.microsoft.com/downloads
and search on "PDF plugin". Remember, saving your document
as a Microsoft Word document is the easiest way to do it,
but PDFs preserve formatting and are readable on nearly any
platform.

How do you read PDFs? Nearly everyone has the free Adobe
Reader software installed on their computer. If you don't,
it's a free download from www.acrobat.com. Just look for
the link to download Adobe Reader.

For a list of PDF creation software, you can either Google
on "pdf software" or visit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PDF_software

But, it's not just about digitizing paper documents. The
benefits of going digital apply the music and videos, too.
As I've been writing this post, I've been finishing the
process of ripping my CD collection (that means converting
the CDs to digital files). More on that in a future article.

----------------------------------------------------
President and chief technologist at Seattle,
Washington-based IT training firm soundtraining.net, Don is
a speaker, writer, and veteran IT guy with over 35 years
experience in technology for the workplace. Today, he
delivers keynote speeches, workshops, and seminars to
business people on how to go digital without going postal.
Call him at 206.988.5858. He's online at
http://www.doncrawley.com and blogs at
http://www.digitalnotpostal.com .