Risks. They are inevitable. It is better to be prepared to deal with them from the start. The wise approach is to reduce them.

1. Know what it takes to succeed. (be prepared to rely only on your own ability to achieve financial security; you will never get any opportunity in life unless you have first created value for someone else)
2. Try to be different.
3. Investigate your market.
4. Get the best resources.
5. Develop and maintain a positive attitude. (loving what you’re doing; learning new things; gaining extra energy)
6. Be daring, but don’t be reckless.
7. Heed your own advice.
8. Act!

Business Success

In ‘Your Own Business’, Wal Reynolds, Warwick Savage and Alan Williams summarize the rules for success in small business as:

•    Create and build the business on a real market opportunity (find a niche).
•    Identify or create some distinctive competence and convert this into a sustainable competitive advantage.
•    Realize that competitive advantage is temporary; the firm will either be extinct or different in five years’ time; therefore planning ahead and the search for new opportunities must go on continually; and change must be welcomed.
•    Create and improve the firm’s image.
•    Strive to be the best rather than the biggest.
•    Remember that success comes from finding and/or creating opportunities.
•    Build on strengths and concentrate effort and resources.
•    Recognise the difference between efficiency and effectiveness.
•    Innovate.
•    Seek and use expert advice.
•    Recognise the various types of risk.
•    Avoid being over-dependent on others.
•    Get rid of unprofitable and/or unsaleable products and services.
•    Manage the firm’s resources efficiently and effectively.
•    Realise that every business/management decision and action will affect the firm’s survival-ability.
•    Use time efficiently and effectively.
•    Keep good records.
•    Regard cash flow as the life-blood of the business.
•    Hire the right people, use them and involve them in the business, reward them wisely and get rid of all ‘dead wood’.
•    Continually update product knowledge and technical skills.
•    Regularly review the suitability of the firm’s location.
•    Learn from errors made and do not repeat them.
•    Watch for signs of mental stress and, if these are found, decide on the cause and deal with it.
•    Be decisive and assertive — decide on the best course of action and follow it.
•    Believe in yourself and your business.

[tag]resume, job site, job opportunity, employment, self-employed, home business, business opportunity, employment[/tag]

Sometimes people are so excited about job opportunities that in a hurry (not to miss their chance) dispatch resumes and cover letters with statements similar to (linguistic errors, etc., are not corrected on purpose):

•    ”I demand a salary commiserate with my extensive experience.”
•    ”I have lurnt Word Perfect 6.0 computor and spreadsheet progroms.”
•    ”Received a plague for Salesperson of the Year.”
•    ”Reason for leaving last job: maturity leave.”
•    ”Wholly responsible for two (2) failed financial instutions.”
•    ”Failed bar exam with relatively high grades.”
•    ”It’s best for employers that I not work with people.”
•    ”Let’s meet, so you can ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over my experience.”
•    ”You will want me to be Head Honcho in no time.”
•    ”Am a perfectionist and rarely if if ever forget details.”
•    ”I was working for my mom until she decided to move.”
•    ”Marital Status: single. Unmarried. Unengaged. Uninvolved. No commitments.”
•    ”I have an excellent track record, although I am not a horse.”
•    ”I am loyal to my employer at all costs….Please feel free to respond to my resume on my office voice mail.”
•    ”I have become completely paranoid, trusting completely no one and absolutely nothing.”
•    ”My goal is be a meteorologist. But since I possess no training in meteorology, I suppose I should try stock brokeridge.”
•    ”I procrastinate, especally when the task is unpleasant.”
•    ”Personal interests: donating blood. Fourteen gallons so far.”
•    ”As indicted, I have over five years of analyzing investments.”
•    ”Instrumental is ruining entire organization for a Midwest Chain store.”
•    ”Note: Please don’t misconstrue my 14 jobs as ‘job-hopping’. I have never quit a job.”
•    ”Marital Status: often. Children: various.”
•    ”Reason for leaving last job: They insisted that all employess get to work by 8:45 am every morning. I couldn’t work under those conditions.”
•    ”The company made me a scapegoat, just like my three previous employers.”
•    ”Finished eighth in my class of ten.”
•    ”References: none. I’ve left a path of descruction behind me.”

[tag]resume, cover letter, job site, job opportunities, employment, self-employed, home business, business opportunity, employment[/tag]

As a rule, a prospect employer asks future employees a lot of questions to answer. But at the end of the interview they get a chance to see the real face of the candidate when the latter is allowed to ask his own queries. One should get into the employer’s shoes to really enjoy (or get shocked by?) a selection of the candidate remarks and questions:

• “What is it that you people do at this company?”
• “What is the company motto?”
• “Why aren’t you in a more interesting business?”
• “What are the zodiac signs of all the board members?”
• “Why do you want references?”
• “Do I have to dress for the next interview?”
• “I know this is off the subject, but will you marry me?”
• “Will the company move my rock collection from California to Maryland?”
• “Will the company pay to relocate my horse?”
• “Does your health insurance cover pets?”
• “Would it be a problem if I’m angry most of the time?”
• “Does your company have a policy regarding concealed weapons?”
• “Do you think the company would be willing to lower my pay?”
• “Why am I here?”

To impress an employer, the candidates often make some unexpected statements during the interview:

• “I have no difficulty in starting or holding my bowel movement.”
• “At times I have the strong urge to do something harmful or shocking.”
• “I feel uneasy indoors.”
• “Sometimes I feel like smashing things.”
• “Women should not be allowed to drink in cocktail bars.”
• “I think that Lincoln was greater than Washington.”
• “I get excited very easily.”
• “Once a week, I usually feel hot all over.”
• “I am fascinated by fire.”
• “I like tall women.”
• “Whenever a man is with a woman, he is usually thinking about sex.”
• “People are always watching me.”
• “If I get too much change in a store, I always give it back.”
• “Almost everyone is guilty of bad sexual conduct.”
• “I must admit that I am a pretty fair talker.”
• “I never get hungry.”
• “I know who is responsible for most of my troubles.”
• “If the pay was right, I’d travel with the carnival.”
• “I would have been more successful if nobody would have snitched on me.”
• “My legs are really hairy.”
• “I think I’m going to throw up.”

I do not think that any author of the above statements was lucky on that day to get a job. But they certainly impressed the interviewers.

[tag]job, job interview, employment, career, humor[/tag]