Learning about your career options and planning and preparing your career path are proven success strategies, regardless of generation. Top guidance and career counselors are trained to provide this kind of help. Ideally, you get realistic and practical advice along with encouragement to reach for higher goals.

A good example of top notch career guidance is Ilene Frommer, who was recently profiled in the New York Times. She is a guidance counselor at a public high school in Sonoma County California. Once you read about a typical day in the life of Ms. Frommer, you’ll not only appreciate the critical work she does, but also the work of thousands of other excellent school counselors across the country. Visit her high school’s online college and career planning resources to see what top quality advice she provides her students and parents. If you’re a working adult contemplating a career change, much of the advice is timeless.

Even if you do not have access to a counselor like Ms. Frommer, thanks to the internet you can take a page from her playbook (forgive the sports metaphor) and learn from her career planning approach, which is similar to ours. In fact, Naviance – the online course, college and career planning system her school uses, includes The Career Key as part of their product. Whether you are 17 years old or 50, the lessons are the same – research and planning, career information and preparation, are your tickets to success.

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices — career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

Ok, we know that the economy has gone south, credit is practically unavailable, businesses are drawing their spending back and so is the consumer, so what are you going to do as a business owner or sales manager to make sure that your business is not one of those that will be gone tomorrow?

The two places that most business want to cut back are not the wisest choices:

Training - A successful sales team or business owner stays involved with continuous training, keeping their prospecting, and sales skills sharp. This is the one place that the small business owner pinches their pennies, finding no value in quality training. It is important to keep new material in front of both the business owner and the sales teams.  Now is not the time to stop learning more about how to be a more effective sales person, how to implement referral systems that will generate higher referred prospects and how to close more deals.

Memberships -  Business Owners and Sales Managers alike begin to pull back on the networking groups and organizations where their teams have been spending time. A better result would be to diversify the organizations and make sure that you and your team are spending time in the right places with the right people and measure their results. 

After completing our course many of our clients are amazed at how much time they have invested in  networking activities that are not productive or effective.  If you and your people are out there networking then it is impotant that they be trained to do more than create visibility.  They must be able to effectively leverage their networks that become profitable for both parties.

Now is not the time to pull back, now is the time to become more strategic and more effective. 

In the past 48 hours, I’ve consumed roughly 12 hours of NFL. I’ve watched as more yards got run than plays got stopped, seen a team emerge from their imminent 0-2 status to clinch a game in the final 3 minutes, and another team rebound to new heights and a 2-0 lead with their back-up quarterback after their star QB had a season-ending accident last week.

We’re only a week into the NFL’s regular season and we’ve seen our share of daring athletic feats and bone-headed moves. (The Eagles’ receiver, DeSean Jackson, is a prime example of the lethal cocktail of talent and hubris.)

People ask me why I like football. I don’t entirely get the game to be honest. I do know that a team has 4 attempts to make a play and if they can’t, they need to rethink their immediate game plan. I know there’s a ton of strategy that goes into plays, that the quarterback may not be the coach but he has to a lot of quick-thinking and improvising on the field - often singlehandedly calling the play that can make or break a moment and determine a team’s success.

And that in the end, no single person on the team is any greater than any other, star QB or not, cause it takes all of the players working together (and parking their egos aside) to make it the post-season.

As it happens, football also happens to be a ripe metaphor for a freelancer due to many common, shared parallels:

• Be The Underdog: Peyton Manning & The Colts proved to us this week that sometimes smelling repeated defeat is all you need sometimes to catapult your motivational spirit to the next level. In my own experience, my confidence is never higher then when after I’ve failed at something big-time and can find within myself that driving force to start climbing back up the hill again.
• Let The Chips Falls Where They May: This one is hard, especially when you like to plan ahead, need to know how things will play out, and if you’re like me, even Wikipedia a movie while you’re watching it to see how it all unfolds. There’s a lot to be learned through process and results-oriented people need to remind themselves of this. Just like a football game has 4 quarters, life is also cyclical with its share of ups and downs and turning points. Learn to live with them and you’ll be much happier, or so people tell me!
• Embrace The Unknown: One of the reasons I dig football so much is cause there’s a lot of taking chances which sometimes results in zany, WTF-were-you-thinking moves, but I love it all the more when people get away with “the unthinkable,” debunk the system, and make up their own set of rules as they go along. Call it the rebel in me, or simply the idealist freelancer which hopes that risk-taking moves, such as working solo, will pay off one day.
• Make Time For Pep Talks With Yourself: In football, the coach takes “time outs” to amp up his players, get them focused, energized and feeling good.  In life, we need to make time for these moments too and just as often if not more often than just once a day.  On days I feel low I tend to build my confidence back up again talking it out with friends, family, or if all else fails a giant boost of caffeine! My sister swears by lists. Create a long list of things you like about yourself or your life. #1 on my list is the fact that I have the time in my day to write a meaningful post for my blog, make a mean pot of chicken soup on a seasonably Fall day, and feel a strong sense of accomplishment by 5 PM.

Catching a fish is no easy feat.

While certain countries, such as Japan and Peru, show an increase in the # of female entrepreneurs, by in large, men are twice as likely to start their own businesses as women. More than that, there are very few dissimilitudes in the way both genders approach business to account for the disparity.

So what’s stopping us?

Well, for one, GEM’s study finds that women tend to be less optimistic about the risk of starting a new business or making a change. This causes women to be less confident about their ventures and as a result, the fear of failure kicks in and results in a flight response.

While fear of failure has often been attributed to killing a women’s drive, and I, for one, am no less of a chicken, in this regard, how do we go about dispelling that fear and ridding it from our consciousness?

Getting personal for a second, when I had a miscarriage earlier this year (from which I’m still reeling from a bit), my gut reaction was what an absolute failure I was. I had a similar reaction when I lost my job, a month after I had my miscarriage. It wasn’t quite as severe, but I the same feelings of shame surfaced again.

I was angry at myself for feeling like a loser, but came to realize, that falling short is perhaps a woman’s greatest insecurity. Just look at how we’re conditioned from our youth to find, not just any Alpha Male to mate with, but the one with the right genetic combination to satisfy the lofty expectations of our family and friends, and if we’re lucky to meet our own. We have to compete with how many other women? (aside from mom, sister and ex-girlfriends?)

So how do we empower women to feel confident and optimistic about change and risk without tapping into their deep-seated fears about their competencies? In short, how do we level the playing field?

The United Nations is working on an initiative called “gender mainstreaming” that is about identifying gaps and bridging understanding in developing countries. In Lativa, women-owned businesses favor hiring women and it’s proved to be an effective way of ushering a new generation of women into the workforce there. And in Finland, women-owned businesses show the most profitability so they are exploring ways to make executive roles more gender-neutral and merit-based. (as opposed to the ‘ol boys network)

With the word “Change” being tossed around like some cheap dime store whiskey lately in presidential campaigning, I’m hesitant to cheapen a sentiment here. Let’s just say the world won’t get better overnight, but progress can and should be made everyday.

Trust.

A big word when you’re dealing with a small business.

So, how do you trust a small business that provides a service?

Here are some of my tips:

1. Communicate. Whether it’s through email or phone conversations, you need to communicate. Discover through these communications if your styles/personalities mesh.
2. Research. Do your homework and research the background of the business and the owner. Learn if the company and owner are qualified to provide the service(s) you’re requiring.
3. Testimonials. See if the testimonials that the company provides are factual. If you’re on a web site or social network group, follow the link provided. Request phone numbers to contact past clients if testimonials are not provided or get the customer base from the company.
4. Organizations and Affiliations. See if the company is associated with any organizations and affiliations. If they are, check them out.
5. Credentials. Investigate the credentials thoroughly. Is the business certified properly to provide the services they are offering and at what level?
6. Insurance and License. Make sure the business is licensed and insured. This is to make sure that your business is covered.

These are just some tips to help you trust a small business that is service based. You can trust them if they pass the test.

Does that mean you will be happy with the service they provide to you? No, but maybe you will be. There are never any guarantees.

If you follow my tips, you can be sure that you can trust the small business.

This blog post has been graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by Colleen M. Johnson.  She is the owner of CMJ Office, a virtual administrative and genealogical research business.   CMJ Office provides top quality virtual administrative assistance for business owners and individuals.

She offers many services including proofreading, blogging, MS Office applications, admin support, database maintenance, mail services, internet research, and genealogy research.  She holds several memberships including VACOC, IVAA, VANetworking, NEHGS, and DCWW.  If you need assistance, please contact her or view her website information at http://www.cmjoffice.com.

When choosing a career, it’s easy to have a narrow mind about your choices. We’re most comfortable with careers we’ve heard of and know something about, even if our only information comes from TV: think forensic scientist, real estate agent, fashion designer, crabfisher, those crazy Mythbusters guys making hovercrafts in their garage (job title anyone?) and the “usual suspects” doctors and lawyers.

But wouldn’t you hate missing out on a great career just because you didn’t dig deep enough? Don’t be intimidated by massive databases of jobs or giant encyclopedias of career options. The internet makes exploration a little easier. Here are 5 steps to be smart and efficient in your career exploration – without leaving stones unturned.

1. Learn about Holland’s Theory of Career Choice and how identifying your personality type(s) helps you choose a more satisfying career. This theory will help guide your thinking about what careers might be right for you.

2. Narrow your choices to careers that match your top two Holland personality types measured by a valid interest inventory. Don’t cross off a career because of concerns about your finances or abilities. You’ll address those issues later when you have more information to make an informed choice. Ask yourself:

• Are there any careers I think match my personality but are not listed? Write them down and do searches for their key words using our recommended resources below.
• Am I interested in starting a business? If so, what kinds of business opportunities are related to the matching careers I see listed?
• How do I combine personality types in a career? To see an example, read about how Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, the Career Key’s author, combined his top two Holland personality types or “differing gifts” in one job.

3. Start with, then go beyond the Occupational Outlook Handbook job titles for matching careers we provide on our website: doctor, lawyer, engineer, social worker, accountant (not that there is any wrong with them). Remember that any job title you see anywhere (not just on The Career Key website) has many versions. Think about “social worker” and how many different types of jobs do “social work” that would fit a Social personality type. Recommended online resources:

• Department of Labor’s (DOL) Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) “Related Occupations” link at the bottom of a career description. If you find a related career you like, click on it and it will have it’s own “related occupations” link – follow these links as far as you want.
• DOL’s Career Guide to Industries. Explore the industries that most closely relate to your personality. Don’t hesitate to look at an area about which you know little.
• Use your favorite search engine. You might get more ideas from blogs, association websites, Wikipedia and Knol entries. Remember that just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean it’s true - so go to diverse sources, including real people (see next step).

4. Conduct informational interviews with people working in an industry that interests you, but ask them about jobs related to theirs within it because there might be one that’s a better fit for you. For example, a software developer career may be of interest to you, but software developers know a lot about other related occupations they work with like Program Managers and Quality Assurance/testing engineers, and can refer you to other people in those jobs to talk to. Don’t know any software developers? Read my previous post on career specific networking – it’s easy to meet some and interview them.

5. About each alternative, keep asking yourself, how does this job fit with my personality? Are there a lot of supervisory duties that make it more Social than I would like? Is there a way to combine my top two personality types in one career?

For more ideas, you’ll find over 12,000 careers organized by Holland personality types in your local library; go to the Reference section and ask for the Dictionary of Holland Occupational Titles by Dr. Gary Gottfredson and Dr. John Holland. Unfortunately you can only find it in book form, not online. But although it’s a large book, you’ll only be looking at a few sections and just skimming through it will spark some ideas.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the options you have; celebrate them by narrowing your search in a thoughtful way. By doing your online and book research and talking with people working in interesting industries, you will broaden your options. Only then can you say you’ve left no stone unturned – and you can make a decision you won’t regret.

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices — career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

As seen on the TheMomEntrepreneur, a great site for information regarding working mothers, raising kids, and running your own business.

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Sometimes its 30 minutes, sometimes its two hours. It all depends on how ambitious you are in those early morning hours before the children wake. This is usually the only time I get to myself when the space around me is quiet and my kids are not machine gunning questions at me at the same time. So the 30 minutes I take for myself is sacred…that is if I can get my butt out of bed promptly at 6:30am. My night usually ends between 11:00 - 11:30pm so sometimes 6:30am can be difficult.

The tasks I try to accomplish during this time include laundry, making two lunches, checking email and packing backpacks. It amazes me how fast the time passes. If I get too caught up in email then I can not accomplish anything else and I usually end up leaving the house late. I would like to think that I am an organized person, but I am not so sure.

I talked with three other mom entrepreneurs about their precious morning time and here is what they had to say.

Heather Cabot of The Well Mom established a website that offers moms a space to gain encouragement and advice on nurturing themselves as well as everyone else they care for in their lives. Heather is another early riser whose day usually starts between 5:30 - 6:00am.

“My two-year old twins get up between 6:30 and 7:00am. A couple of days a week, I leave the house at 5:45 to go to a 6:00am spinning class. Other days, I get up at 6:00am to finish writing or answer emails. Sometimes I just make the coffee and read the newspaper before everyone gets up.”

The former ABC News anchor and correspondent admits that on days she is able to get a workout in, she feels much more relaxed. “It is amazing the transformation between walking into an exercise class bleary-eyed and emerging 50 minutes later feeling pumped and ready to start the day.”

Heather’s advice to other mom entrepreneurs is to find a way to go to bed a bit earlier (so you can still get in seven or eight hours of sleep) and start your day a little earlier. “This will help you feel more centered,” she explains.

“Obviously, it’s hard to do this every day. Sometimes my husband travels, so I can’t go to the gym in the early morning or there are times the kids are up during the night and I am fried the next morning. I think the early morning is a wonderful and guilt-free answer to carving out some me-time, a necessity for every mom.”

Mary Schulman of Snikkidy Snacks, a line of fun-to-eat organic snacks for kids made from original family recipes, also starts her day around 6:00am, but admits she is in bed no later then 10:00pm unless she has a deadline to meet for work.

The mother of two says she cannot always find the time in the morning before her kids are up so she prepares everything she needs the evening before. “I will have clothes laid out (for me and them), take a shower the night before, make it a quick breakfast or grab something for them ‘to go’,” said Mary.

The additional time Mary takes in the morning when she can, allows her to feel energized and ready to spend a morning of quality time with her children. “We like to sit and eat breakfast together. It’s as enjoyable, if not more so, than dinner time.”

Liza Lowenberg starts her day at 6:45am. She is the founder of Miles of Marketing, a consortium of hundreds of stay-at-home moms across the country who market to other moms.

Before her two young children wake, Liza takes time to exercise. “I like to do it in the morning so that I do not have to think about it for the rest of the day.” When she does not have time to exercise first thing in the morning, she finds that her routine is off. “I would always be thinking about “when can I exercise” and it takes the focus away from my children . If I can do it while they are still sleeping, then I can dedicate the whole day to them.”

Liza’s advice for other mom entrepreneurs is to take the precious quiet time that is needed so that you can dedicate the whole day to taking care of your children. “We need the time in the morning and in the evening to take care of ourselves,” said Liza.

Traci Bisson has been a mom since February 2000 and an entrepreneur since August 2000. Eight weeks after she returned from maternity leave, the company where she had been employed for five years went out of business. She decided to try doing her own thing and failed miserably. After another year of working for two different companies (the first laid off the department she worked in and the other was showing signs of going under), she decided to try entrepreneurship again. Raising her two children and growing her company, Bisson Barcelona, has been both challenging and rewarding. Her story has been told in dozens of publications, including the Associated Press, National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB.com), Plan Ahead Get Ahead (cover story), Union Leader, The Portsmouth Herald, Our Times and Seacoast Ventures.

“For now, the rule is simple: Hug your running mate, kiss your wife.” Today’s NY Times looks at how times have changed in terms of business etiquette between the sexes.  Seems like McCain prefers to hug his new running mate, Governor Sarah Palin, over a warm handshake.  We thought it might be interesting to see how things have changed over the years.

NY Times: “It has been nearly a quarter century since Walter F. Mondale almost never touched Geraldine A. Ferraro in public when they shared the Democratic presidential ticket in 1984, and it is safe to say that times have changed. Back then, Mr. Mondale had a strict “hands off” policy and did not even put his palm on Ms. Ferraro’s back when the two stood side-by-side and waved with uplifted arms.

Anything more, and “people were afraid that it would look like, ‘Oh, my God, they’re dating,’ ” Ms. Ferraro recalled in a brief telephone interview on Monday, of what now seems like a political Victorian age.”

Parental Playground Newsletter: “Be formal. Being formal is classy. In business, you need as much class as you can get. Start with a handshake and if you’re being introduced to someone, stick to using a title (Mr., Ms., etc.) until you get an invite for a first name. Logically, the handshake doesn’t apply to a telephone conversation, but the name rule certainly does.”

The Wall Street Journal: “‘I would be rude if I didn’t kiss my female colleagues from Mexico,’ says Mr. Higgins of his routine single-cheek kisses. He triple-cheek-kisses at the company’s Zurich headquarters. In the mixed company of kissers and shakers, he faces a split-second dilemma: What to do with the cheek of the female head of Nestlé’s Hispanic ad agency. “I’m thinking, are there other people in the room who won’t get this?” he says.”

Etiquette Expert: “There’s some good news for all you “germ-a-phobes” who don’t like to shake hands. It’s called the hand pound or “pound” for short. And it has been endorsed by Barack Obama.

When Obama captured the Democratic nomination last Tuesday night, he did more than just hug and kiss his devoted wife, Michelle. He affectionately gave her the “pound,” which I think is kind of cool. This handshake, also known as the fist bump, is formed when you clinch your fist and tap knuckles with another person. It is generally used when someone does something good. So go ahead and bump away! You can tell others that an etiquette expert told you it was politically correct! “

Mary-Louise Parker looking sexy and smart

I’ve made no secret of my certain affection for a fictitious middle-aged widow who supports her extended family weekly on Showtime at 10 PM.

There’s something about the way Mary-Louise Parker saunters as she effectively multi-tasks - Running her underground business while trying to meet the needs of her brood, inevitably falling from grace episode after episode, only to stay afloat and do a public service (Juggling hats again!) by supplying every inch of the food train with much-needed “happy” relief in the form of marijuana.

I’m not advocating drug use here. I’m quite anti-pleasure derived from most substances. The exceptions being chocolate or ice cream. It’s just Nancy Botwin (or Mary-Louise Parker’s character on Weeds) is such a prime example of a social antipreneur.

She has her principles and stands by them - She won’t deal in elicit drugs like crack or cocaine, traded her SUV for a Prius in a way that even Al Gore might have to slap her on the rear for just out of sheer adulation, and she puts her family first before her work.

But Botwin isn’t just about the labels that go with her personal brand of soma. She’s an unsung feminist in the form of a single mother that’s had to act out of necessity to support her family. Sure, she might have chosen a less glamorous and perhaps more legal professions to dabble in, but having been a housewife for a number of years whose kids were accustomed to a certain middle-to-upper class lifestyle, mostly provided for by her dead husband, Parker’s character had to pick up the pieces.

So she went with a job that could make her a ton of bank, lend itself to the hours she could afford while raising two sons, and allow her to use her feminine wiles to get her out of potentially hairy situations, if needed.

And from what I hear a little flirting in the workplace has never hurt productivity.

But there’s more to being a successful entrepreneur and owning your own company than just being a MILF. Parker’s mentors in the biz have paved the way for her to learn and grow (no pun intended). She spent much of the 1st and 2nd seasons honing her craft and business sense from a family-run pot business that took her in and showed her the ropes.

Through trial and error and some tough love, Parker’s character emerged as a shining heroine and somewhat to root for in all her flawed splendor.

She’s had her share of failures including a bake shop (a front for money laundering) that burned down (strike 1), then taking a front-and-center role in burning down her entire community and house (strike 2), and somewhere in the middle getting her DEA ex killed (not really a strike 3).

Through it all Botwin has reinvented herself and managed to adapt to the changes in her business, meandering in and out of leadership roles ranging from entrepreneur to intrapreneur, all the while seeking independence and authority in a industry plagued by certain dudes at the top of the ladder. She’s also managed to stay super cool and nice, but firm and assertive when the situation warrants it.

In just this week’s episode Parker decided it was high time for her to get a cut of the action and start selling again to her patrons. She didn’t want to be the middleman/woman. When she didn’t get the go-ahead from her direct superior, she went to the top and wasn’t afraid to take a couple of bruises to get what she wanted or temporarily damage her friendship with her boss.

“It’s just business,” Botwin told him.

Spoken like a true lady. And a businesswoman.

As seen on the TheMomEntrepreneur, a great site for information regarding working mothers, raising kids, and running your own business.

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Dana Oliver, a single mom raising a two year old daughter, found herself with the typical dilemma faced by many working parents – how to meet the after 5 p.m. demands of her job, particularly when daycare closed at 6 p.m. In her male-dominated brokerage industry, inflexibility was simply snubbed at.

As she struggled with work/life balance, Dana turned to her sister, a stay-at-home mom raising four kids, for answers. Her sister confirmed that babysitters were her only option because she would never leave her children in a “drop-in” center. Dana, armed with this new concept, turned to the Internet for research and discovered that drop-in centers were closing down because they were dirty, kids weren’t having fun and there was no staff/child interaction. Dana started wondering if the concept could work if she created an environment kids didn’t want to leave and gave parents peace of mind.

So, in 2003, Dana left her six-figure job with a dream to create a more balanced life-style for herself and her daughter. She moved from Houston to Dallas to manage a drop-in center and study the concept more in-depth. Soon after, she knew exactly the type of environment she wanted to create and she called it Adventure Kids Playcare.

The next step involved overcoming the skepticism of family and friends who thought she was taking a big risk by starting a business as a single mom. And, the government didn’t take her single status lightly either. They told her she couldn’t get an SBA loan because she wasn’t married and didn’t have a second income to fall back on. Banks just snubbed at her idea.

Fortunately, as a former financial advisor, Dana wasn’t shy about asking for money, and she tapped friends and family for $175,000 in loans. That, combined with her own personal savings, allowed her to open her first location in Flower Mound, Texas.

With Adventure Kids Playcare, Dana created a fun and safe environment for kids ages 6 weeks to 12 years with supervision as late as midnight on weekends. Parents can drop off their kids, with no advance notice for as many hours as needed, to enjoy up to 4,500 sq. ft. of fun, including Xbox games, a gigantic wooden boat which doubles as a jungle gym, a karaoke stage, a mini movie theatre, high-fashion dress-up clothes and much more. And on the weekends, continuously-changing theme nights like Fiesta (with piñatas, maraca- and fruit salsa-making) and Western Hoedown (with stick horse making, horse shoe playing and s’mores) keep children happy and entertained.

In 2006, Dana turned her concept into a franchise after other parents approached her with their need to find work/life balance. Today, Adventure Kids Playcare has six locations in the North Texas region and a seventh slated to open in June 2008. Adventure Kids Playcare will also be offering franchise opportunities in the Austin and Houston markets soon.