http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/Small-Business-Startup-blog.html Entrepreneur Blog for Small Business en-us Small Business Startup Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:46:27 GMT Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:46:27 GMT small-business-startup-advisor.com http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-success.html Small Business Success - Tips, Advice, and Help Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:02:36 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-web-site-promotion.html Small business web site promotion | Street smart tips of the entrepreneur Mon, 19 May 2008 03:50:04 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-payroll.html Small Business Payroll Information | Tips and advice for the entrepreneur Mon, 19 May 2008 02:24:47 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-employee-hiring.html Small Business Employee hiring: How to choose the best candidates. Mon, 19 May 2008 02:22:57 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/Incorporating-a-small-business.html Real world tips and advice regarding incorporating a small business Mon, 19 May 2008 02:21:56 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-web-site.html Small Business Web Site "Street Smart" Strategy, Tips, Discussion, and Resources Mon, 19 May 2008 02:19:06 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-website.html Small Business Website tips and strategies for the entrepreneur Mon, 19 May 2008 02:18:09 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-articles.html Small Business Articles of Incorporation or Organization | Street Smart Tips for the Entrepreneur Mon, 19 May 2008 02:08:52 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/help-starting-small-business.html Help starting a small business | Street Smart Entrepreneur Steps to Success Mon, 19 May 2008 02:07:33 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-form.html Selecting a small business form Mon, 19 May 2008 02:06:22 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-c-corporation.html Small Business C Corporation - Street Smart Tips for the Entrepreneur Sun, 18 May 2008 19:58:25 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-llc.html Small Business LLC - Street Smart tips for the entrepreneur Sun, 18 May 2008 19:39:51 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-website-marketing.html Small Business website marketing | Tips for the entrepreneur Sun, 18 May 2008 19:33:43 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-disclaimer.html Small Business Disclaimer Sun, 18 May 2008 19:25:16 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-marketing.html Small Business Marketing tips and strategies Sun, 18 May 2008 19:19:03 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-resources.html Small Business Resources Sun, 18 May 2008 19:15:27 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-hiring.html Small Business Hiring guide | Real advice and tips Sun, 18 May 2008 19:12:56 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-salespeople.html Small Business Salespeople | Hiring Sales People for a Small Business - Strategies & Tips Sun, 18 May 2008 17:34:11 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-hiring-steps.html Small Business Hiring Steps -- The Big 5 Sun, 18 May 2008 17:28:22 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-SEO.html Small Business SEO and other Search Strategies - Tips & Strategies Sun, 18 May 2008 17:22:13 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-agent.html Small Business Agent of Process | Street Smart Tips for the Entrepreneur Sun, 18 May 2008 17:17:47 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-tax-id.html Small Business Tax ID | Street Smart Tips for the Entrepreneur Sun, 18 May 2008 17:13:35 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-s-corporation.html Small Business S Corporation | Street Smart Tips for the Entrepreneur Sun, 18 May 2008 17:10:29 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-contractors.html Small Business Contractors | Street Smart Tips and Advice for the Entrepreneur Sat, 10 May 2008 00:08:35 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/naming-a-small-business.html Naming a Small Business | Street Smart Business Tips Fri, 09 May 2008 23:59:50 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-partnership.html The small business partnership -- What it is and if it makes sense for you. Fri, 09 May 2008 23:50:20 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-payroll-tax.html Small Business payroll tax - Operational details about filing payroll tax Fri, 09 May 2008 23:44:17 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-employment-guide.html Small Business Employment Guide Fri, 09 May 2008 23:41:17 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-operating-agreements.html Small Business Operating Agreements - Street Smart tips for entreprenuers Fri, 09 May 2008 23:38:00 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-name-check.html Small Business Name Check, Availability, and Registry Fri, 09 May 2008 23:25:09 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-nevada-corporation.html Small Business Nevada Corporation - "Street Smart Tips" for the entrepreneur Fri, 09 May 2008 23:19:22 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-entrepreneur.html Small Business Entrepreneur - What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur? Fri, 09 May 2008 23:10:19 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/Small-Business-Group-Health-Insurance.html Small business group health insurance | strategies and analysis for the entrepreneur Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:16:40 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/start-a-small-business.html To start a small business easily, operate as a Sole Proprietorship. Here's what that means. Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:13:16 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-bookkeeping.html Small Business Bookkeeping | Street Smart Tips and Advice for Entrepreneurs Wed, 30 Jan 2008 04:18:29 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/small-business-bank.html Small Business Bank | Street Smart Tips & Advice for Entrepreneurs Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:04:53 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/Small-Business-Startup-blog.html#Entrepreneur-Resume-Advice Because of my experience as an entrepreneur, I am often consulted by friends and family for advice on writing a resume and interviewing. This makes sense since I have been looking at resumes and hiring people for so long. More importantly, when I hire people, of course I had the ultimate responsibility for paying the persons salary, benefits, bonus, and dealing with all their issues. As a result, I became very good at reading resumes and being very scrutinizing in the way I evaluated resumes and candidates. For this reason, I thought I would add some information here for anyone who is interested in getting some practical advice about writing your resume and interviewing. First on resume writing I offer the following advice: 1. Overall my advice is that the resume is less about you and more about the employer reading the resume. So it should always be written to entice them with statements that directly push the buttons of what they are looking. 2. Always include a short and simple cover letter. Send no cover letter if you dont really want a job. 3. With #1 in mind, the more you tailor your resume to specific job opportunities the more likely you will be to succeed. Never waste their valuable reading time and opportunity with something that is not written to meet their needs. This just makes sense given that a message tailored to a specific audience is always preferable to a general, watered down version meant for everyone. Given the work involved for customizing each resume, you could tailor your resume to the most important opportunities and use a more general version for the rest. As an Example, lets supposed that you are applying for a job that will require you to design and develop educational curriculum. If you have been a teacher for a number of years it is obvious that you have experience in this but why not be very specific and say so? Instead of saying, 'Over four years experience teaching high school', instead say, 'Over four years experience designing curriculum as a high school teacher'? Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:30:21 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/Small-Business-Startup-blog.html#Entrepreneur-Resume-Advice-(Cont) 6. I assume you know the basics of writing a resume but in summary, use action verbs that show what you did. Where possible try to give an idea of the magnitude of what you accomplished. For example, 'Grew sales by 20.' Follow a good format for your resume based on the multitude of examples that are available anywhere on the Internet. Arrange your education and experience based upon what is the most important thing to emphasize in the job for which you are applying. 7. Think very critically about the value of your experiences. Often times I read persons resume and they have failed to see the value of what they have done and to effectively communicate that value in their resume. For example, if you held a part-time job in retail while you worked another full time job, its most important to me as an employer because its shows you have tons of energy and are not lazy. I would want that energy at work in my company. So instead of focusing exclusively on some technical aspect of what you sold and the fact that you had to handle money and use a cash register be sure to mention that you worked full time and part time for the extra money and to get ahead. 8. I really like resume with a well written, properly created 'tagline.' A tagline is like your brand and its a sentence below or next to your name. on Monster.com as well as other employment websites there is a field/space for this item. Be sure to also include it in your resume. Example tag line, 'Financial Analyst with MBA, CFA, and 6 years experience in banking' 9. Everyone says stuff like, 'detail oriented', 'High Energy', 'good communicator', etc. I get so tired of reading that stuff that any candidate that doesnt back it up with an example in the resume, I regard as careless and unrealistic about communication and salesmanship. (Salesmanship, by the way, should be a clearly valuable trait regardless of whether you are in sales.) Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:30:21 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/Small-Business-Startup-blog.html#Entrepreneur-Resume-Advice-(Cont) 4. I very much really appreciate a well written, concise, summary section right up front in a resume. This is the place where you should be grabbing the attention of the employer. Also, considering the advice from #1 about customizing the resume to the job and employer, you could use the summary section to customize each resume to each job/employer. Many times people just list too much detail here so keep the summary aspect in mind. Be sure that the summary section addresses what the employer is looking for and sells you. Pick and choose from your experiences that can be well reflected in writing so that they meet the needs of what the job requires. For example, if the job requires attention to detail you could say, 'Experienced analyst with demonstrated attention to detail as evidenced by five year experience working as bank teller for Bank of America.' 5. One caveat about writing statements that specifically address the job needs of the employer is a pet peeve of mine. If you are going to do this, do it right! Dont just copy and paste a statement from the job listing and say, 'You say in your job you are looking for a person who has attention to detail and I have that.' It just looks lazy and too easy to do especially without any backup example. Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:30:21 GMT http://www.small-business-startup-advisor.com/googledb00a6f8c9461fca.html Google Verification Page Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:02:38 GMT