Employee Training

Just a brief thought on companies and how they train employees. 

This morning I went to the post office to ship some items for my wife’s baby gift and accessory store, Dimples.  I go in several times a week and I almost always pay for and print my postage at home prior to travelling to the post office.  Today, when the postal clerk weighed my package it was off by several ounces.  At this point two things happened which struck me as odd.  First, the clerk looked to her fellow employee and said, “now what”. Then after the fellow employee told her to just put it through and she took my boxes to the back, he turned to me and said, “I’ve seen packages returned for being off by 2 ounces”.

The woman not knowing how to handle my package being off by an ounce upset me, because clearly she had not been trained on how to handle packages which were processed using the online system.  The gentleman upset me even more, because he knew there may be an issue and still let me ship.

What a day!

The end of the world as we know it…

and I feel fine…Or do I?  After yet another day of dismal news regarding job cuts (I no longer follow the market because I feel it is too erratic, but I do follow job reductions), I could not help but wonder if the world has changed in a way that we have never seen before. 

The short answer in my mind is, yes, it has.  I mean AT&T alone announced 12,000 job cuts yesterday, Citicorp, 50,000 several weeks ago and the auto industry is claiming 200,000 best case and 3million worst case (Although I do not agree, another topic, another time).  While I am not an economist, for g-ds sake my MBA is in management, I do believe that these jobs are lost forever and will not be regained without the emergence of a new sector/technology/market. 

The scary thing is the only sector I (again, only my opinion) see emerging is that of web 2.0 (or are we up to 3.0). Most of the uses of these technologies will be to help businesses market and promote themselves in more inexpensive ways and probably with the help of less people. 

I am wondering if anyone out there has any thoughts of where all these people losing their jobs will go and what they will do?

Thoughts? Anyone?

New and Improved

Clearly it has been a long time since I last wrote.  I guess I can attribute this “radio silence” to several factors.  The first is, I really did not have much to write about and the second is I have been trying to find the true meaning of life (aren’t we all).  The journey to find myself has been a year long journey that began with me leaving my career in healthcare over a year ago.  While I have not completely found myself, I have found my likes and dislikes when it comes to careers as well as writing.

This being said, let me first state that my newfound love is social media and its’ uses in the business setting.  Naturally, a year ago like most 30 year olds (in my opinion anyways) I did not know what or who a twitter was and although I had a facebook account, I did not really use it.  Nowadays, I am using facebook for my wife’s baby gift and accessory store.  We also use twitter.

I am going to sign off for today, but before I go, I want to make it clear, that a) I plan to write more often and b) the topics will cover my findings in the uses of social media in the workplace as well as my other loves, customer service.

Have a great day.

From Healthcare to Food Services

I guess this title sounds more like an autobiography/rags to riches book title, but it’s my story.  I was actually asked this past Sunday, why or rather how, did you go from healthcare to food services?  Good question and quite honestly I wish I knew the answer. 

The truth is that as far back as I can remember I wanted to be involved in food in some ways.  I always liked the idea of being involved in a service industry which makes people happy.  Food definitely makes people happy.  The way I got into food was purely accidental but is making me happy, just by the fact that I am doing what it is I want to do.

So I’ll make this entry brief.  What exactly is the point of what I am trying to say? Do what you want in life! Make the move early, before you can no longer take any chances! And finally, do NOT be afraid to make any drastic career or life changes as long as you feel these changes will truly make you happy.

The Need to Keep on Going

Every once in a while as an entrepreneur we feel down.  Either the cold call or sales call did not go as planned, prospects are not calling you back or a myriad of other issues which can make you feel depressed.  Believe me I know.  I go through these motions on a daily basis.  So how do we get past these feelings.  While I would love to hear from others as to how they get past these issues I will share what I do:

 1) I do NOT work from home.  Although it is much cheaper and convenient to work from home, I have found a friends office in which I squat. Obviously not everyone has this opportunity, but there are definitely cheap options out there.  I know in my area there are office parks which offer full services (copier, Internet, conference space and most importantly and office) for $500.  Even if you cannot afford the fee initially it is worth it to save up.  The home office, just brings too many interferences.

2) Find a friend that you can commiserate with every once in a while.  This friend should ideally be in a similar situation to you.  Someone who has recently gone out on their own and is not sure where their next dollar is coming from.  If you gripe to each other too often it begins a complaint session rather than a support session.

For now these are the two steps that help me the most.

Working For Yourself and Feeling Down

This entry is dedicated to those of us that work for ourselves and at some time or another feel as if for every two steps forward we are taking one step back.

 This morning I woke up and felt that even though I am working hard, trying to build a company from the ground up, I have been getting nowhere.  Seeing me all upset and down, my friend whose office I squat in, made me a copy of a page from Trump’s newest book (a book I gave him and read already).

 The gist of the pages he copied was that you must love what you do and if you love it, you will work harder and eventually succeed beyond your wildest dreams.  Re-reading these words inspired me and I got right back on the phone and back to work.

 I hope these words have inspired you, my readers as well.

 Enjoy the weekend.

Customer Service

In business, no matter the industry or position we hold, most of us will have to deal with customers of some sort.  These customers could possibly be our bosses, fellow workers, clients and the most common, the actual customer purchasing our services. I am dedicating this entry to those of us out there that actually understand the value of treating a customer right, no matter what. You may ask, why write about customer service?  Well it all stems back to my experience yesterday at Home Depot.  One would think that a major company like Home Depot, with so many products, stores and employees would work on ensuring that their customer service is top notch. However, I have NEVER, not once had a good experience in Home Depot.  My most common issue is that with all the employees in a store, not once has someone been able to actually help me.  The most common response I receive when requesting help, is that it is not that employee’s area of responsibility.  This is usually followed by either being misdirected and then finally finding the correct area, to be told by the sales associate there (if you can even fined one) that it is not their area either, even though their apron clearly states that it is.Anyhow, this was my experience yet again yesterday and it made me upset, especially since I was there to purchase a $2.00 item.I really have nothing more to say other than we should all strive not to act like Home Depot Associates.

The Best Ways to Network

In the past, I used to think that the best way to network was face to face meetings with potential contacts.  While I still feel that face to face networking is a great way to meet people, it’s important to remember that the world is getting smaller and smaller due to the internet.  To that end, I highly recommend using internet based social and professional networking sites such as Linked In and Facebook. 

I can honestly say that since going out on my own I have made more contacts which were able to help me build my business, by using Linked In than face to face networking.  At the same time, I still encourage creating lists of all your “real time” contacts and making sure to not ignore to them while building your “virtual” networks.  In fact I spend an hour a day working on building up my Linked In network.

For those of you truly interested in building a professional network using Linked In, I highly recommend reading the following blog: http://siliconv.wordpress.com/the-linkedin-network/ which was written by one of my contacts, Mickael Nadeau.

 For now these are my thoughts on how to network effectively.

Going Out On Your Own

This past January I made most exciting (and at the same time scariest) decision of my life.  I decided to “go out on my own”.  What exactly does that mean?  Well, that means no more health insurance paid for by your company, no more steady paycheck and no more fringe benefits. 

What else does it mean?  It means making your own hours, being responsible for your own wins and losses and ironically (at least in my opinion) SECURITY!!!

Security you ask.  Yes!!! I beleive in today’s day and age there is no such thing as job security.  We are no longer in an age where we are lifers at the IBM’s of the world.  Therefore, while it may be scary to be on my own, I now have control over my future.

 Well, these are my initial thoughts…more to come.

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