30 Sep 09 Creating Your Own IT Business

Starting your own Information Technology business can be scary if you don’t know what you’re doing. The best starting point for any business is planning. Without having a good business model you’re almost guaranteed to fail in the end. You have to have a strong outline to guide your actions down the road. It’s just like driving in an area that you’re not familiar with, you’d want to have a GPS or at least a road map so you could find your way around. The worst thing you could do is be lost trying to run your business.

So first things first, figure out where you want your IT business to focus. By assessing your career goals and educational background, you can get a good feel for what you can accomplish in the industry. Come up with a unique service that you can provide. Something people would need, or something people didn’t even realize that they need. Either way you can give yourself a good selling point to customers or clients. Having a solid selling point is the basis of every business, as it’s hard to turn a profit if you don’t have any money flowing.

From there you want to make sure you have solid credentials within the field. That means having an iron clad work history and academic accomplishments that would make someone what to look to you for a service. If you find yourself lacking in either category, starting your own IT business probably isn’t for you. When it comes to work history, you cannot be thought of too highly. The more renown you can garner through your professional career, the better it will serve you in your own business venture.

From there you’ll have to apply for a business license. You’ll have to look up the legal requirements in your area, and from there take the appropriate actions. Usually you’ll have to fill out some forms regarding the nature of your business, as well as tax info. In some cases you may even have to pay a fee.

Now you’ll have to set up an office, with your own equipment. This is where you use your experience and education to take as little money as possible and turn it into a well functioning office. Any money you spend is negative profit, so you want to be creative in how your money is spent. Don’t allow quality to suffer to save yourself money, but use good judgment when it comes to spending your business money out of pocket.

Finally, you have to hire employees and determine the fees for your services. This is also where your experience will come in handy. To get the best employees you’ll have to offer salaries that are competitive with other companies in the IT field. To find the best customers and clients, you’ll have to be competitive in those fees as well. Use your experience to make informed decisions. Then make sure you work hard to keep all those customers and clients coming back.

Tags: Academic Accomplishments, Best Starting Point, Business Focus, Business License, Business Model, Business Planning, Business Venture, Career Goals, Credentials, Educational Background, Good Business, Gps, Information Technology Business, Nature, Own Business, Professional Career, Renown, Road Map, Unique Service, Work History

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31 Aug 09 Never Pad Your Resume

When writing your resume, it’s fairly normal to feel disappointed with the way that your work history, or academic accomplishments appear. No matter how many of either you have to add, the anxiety of searching for a new job can make you feel as though your resume just doesn’t measure up. So many people choose to ‘pad’ their resumes, to make a more respectable document, more likely to garner the attention of potential employers. But more often than not, that’s a very bad idea.

In case you didn’t know the term, padding your resume refers to adding accolades that aren’t true about yourself. Whether it be false work history items, or false educational accomplishments, or even dishonest community contributions. All are considered padding, and are wrong in the sense that you are being dishonest to companies that you are trying to attract. Nothing really sets you on the wrong foot with a new company more than them discovering you lied in order to get the job.

Which is why if you are unhappy about how something appears on your resume, you should take advantage of explaining yourself in your cover letter. If you don’t like a particular gap in your employment history, you have ample opportunity to put a positive spin on things through your cover letter. The same with anything else you feel uncomfortable about, whether it be education, etc.

But mainly, padding is bad because it sets a bad precedent for your new job. Even if you get the job, you’re not presenting yourself correctly. That puts you and your company in an awkward position, as tasks you don’t have the skill to accomplish may be expected of you, and your new company is getting an employee that doesn’t have the skill set expected of them. If it’s found out you lied on your resume, most places won’t hesitate to terminate you immediately, so that little bit of padding can really come back to bite you.

Tags: Academic Accomplishments, Ample Opportunity, Anxiety, Awkward Position, Bad Idea, Community Contributions, Cover Letter, Education, Educational Accomplishments, Employment History, Gap, Little Bit, Many People, New Job, Resume Writing, Resumes, Work History, Writing Resume, Writing Your Resume, Wrong Foot

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30 Sep 09 Creating Your Own IT Business

31 Aug 09 Never Pad Your Resume

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