When applying to work at a company, take care to write your cover letter carefully. This is not the time to demonstrate your eloquence, it is the time to get them to give you a call. Unless, of course, you are applying for a position as a writer, in which case my statement makes no [...]
As a consultant with several clients, it is of utmost importance that each of my clients feels that he or she is getting the top treatment from me. I rely heavily on recommendations from my clients to fuel my business, and this in turn requires that I treat my clients well. Part of this is [...]
I have, as mentioned in an earlier post, recently attended a networking event. I met with a few dozen people, and a few have tried to follow up with me, but most have not. Personally, however, I have not followed up with very many, and of the few who did try to follow up with [...]
I was called this morning by a university friend whom I have not spoken to in a while. He wanted to know if I could do some work for him, which happened to be outside my area of expertise. Without digging further, I gave him a referral to another friend who might have been able [...]
As an earlier article I wrote mentioned, I waded into the world of networking a week ago for the first time. However, based on how networking has been described by people who spend much of their life networking, I have in fact been networking for many years. Any time I talk to a member of [...]
I was just sent an e-mail advertising a new computer system from Dell: the XPS One 24 Desktop. I’m looking for a new development computer, and I prefer to use Dell, as I have had very good experiences with them in the past. Does anyone have any feedback on this system? One of the downsides [...]
I’ve been hearing a lot about best practices lately, and came to an interesting realization. I’m from an IT background, so I will focus on that area, but what I have to say can be extended to essentially any professional area. In IT, there are two kinds of Best Practices: those that apply to how [...]
A friend of mine posted yesterday on How to Compete With Free. I would like to address the same topic, but from the perspective of a consumer, as opposed to the perspective of a distributor. After all, to understand how to distribute, you need to first understand how the consumer thinks. When I look at [...]
Elie Kochman is the author of Advice for Small Business Owners and the founder of Optimal Upgrade Consulting. Using his experience working in the corporate world along with his exposure to the world of small businesses, he writes these articles to assist others avoiding common pitfalls of growing a business. His experience in the corporate world, building his own business, and working directly with other growing businesses has given him some perspective on the trials and pains of running a business.
