A piece of advice to anyone venturing online – protect your name and reputation. Specifically, I am referring to preventing information from being posted under your name, when in fact it is not you. This means that if someone were to search for your name, you can be sure that what turns up is actually [...]
I attended ParnasaFest here in Toronto tonight, and it was, in my opinion, a fabulous success. There were over 80 people in attendance, from a variety of professions. People were friendly, open and willing to talk. The speaker was great, getting people to think about why they were there (it’s facinating how many people can’t [...]
If you don’t have a map, it’s a lot harder to figure out how to get where you want to go.
I do some work on the side for charities and small businesses. Most of this work would be referred to as “contract work” where I am brought in to do a particular task, for a specified amount of money, to be completed by a target date. With some of my clients, I have a formal [...]
I’ve been working pretty hard for the last few days to complete another revision of a program I built, and finally released it to the client last night. I first wrote the program using Java, until I encountered too many obstacles to allow me to complete it in time for a self-imposed deadline. I then [...]
As a technical consultant, I have worked with several contracts over the course of a few years. In all these cases, I was working directly for the client. However, during a discussion with one of my networking groups last night, we talked about the issues of subcontracting, and the problems they solve and create. A [...]
If you hold a full-time job during the day, and moonlight with small projects, then you will likely be familiar with this scenario. Your day job is a source of steady income, and the side projects give you something extra, but are not reliable. When you have a project, you try to complete it as [...]
As per a comment on an ealier post, I missed one section of the application process – your cover letter. This is perhaps the most significant part of your application, and yet, it often recieves the least attention. A well-written cover letter can make the difference between getting a job and not even reaching the [...]
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.
