Startups

We are a small business nation. No matter how much you hear about Wall Street or Big Pharma or even Hollywood, millions of Americans work for small businesses. And more and more people want the ultimate small business – a company of one. They want to be a successful solopreneur – permanently, not building an empire, but a happy cottage. But it’s not for everyone.

successful solopreneur

Can you become a successful solopreneur?

It's great to be the boss. When you run your own business, it can feel really fulfilling to be only accountable to yourself. No one playing politics with your career, no dreaded annual reviews, no painful holiday party. But...also...no risk, no excuses, and . . . no days off. If you want to take a vacation when you work for yourself, it gets tricky to find the time and the money. Whether you're a solopreneur, or managing  a hundred employees, it's not as easy as just putting on the out of office.

how to take a vacation when you work for yourself

You can (and should) take a vacation when you work for yourself :

If you have a job in an office (and even if you don’t) you spend some time writing emails. For some, most of the business can be communicated by work email – accountants, lawyers, bankers, secretaries, customer service reps – you never have to see your customer. And even if you do, you’ll find you often email your boss, your team, other departments. And then there are the dozens – or hundreds – of emails you receive. So how do you write a work email that is polite, clear, concise, and effective? write a great work email

Tips to help you write a great work email:

They are 80 million strong, and coming to an office near you. We’re talking about Millennials, of course -- the 18-35 age cohort that is now comprised of real grown-ups out in the workforce. Though Millennials sometimes get a bad rap for being self-absorbed, thin-skinned and disrespectful, they actually have a lot of great traits as employees. The challenge is how to motivate Millennials – they have been raised in the age of texts, emails, and instant messaging, so they need a constant drip of new stimuli. how to motivate millennials

Here’s how to motivate Millennials:

With an overwhelming number of jobs and candidates meeting on social media sites like LinkedIn, it’s more important than ever that you know how to write a great job posting. It’s easier than ever for great future employees to pass right by your job opening with the next click. How to write a great job posting

Here are some key ways to write a great job posting:

If you’re in the middle of a recruiting search, then you hopefully have already a concrete job description, a good idea of a competitive salary, and an ideal start date. But what about the right candidate? It’s more than just academic or professional experience – they need to have the right employee personality traits. If not, you could get more than you bargained for . . . and not in a good way.

employee personality traits

If you are hiring, beware of these difficult employee personality traits:

It’s no secret these days that companies in most industries are finding the value in hiring a temporary employee -- or thousands -- in the cases of brands like UPS and Target during the holidays. But while it’s certainly not new or unusual, hiring a temporary employee is sometimes undervalued. hiring a temporary employee

Here are five great reasons for hiring a temporary employee.

Even in the best of jobs – fulfilling work, great pay, interesting colleagues – it’s often difficult to not occasionally get pulled into the petty underbelly of work, no matter how hard you try to avoid office politics. It’s usually close to impossible to completely stay out of the way – people are people and there are always a handful (or more) who want to manipulate situations to their advantage. avoid office politics

Here are some ways to avoid office politics:

We mentioned previously that one challenge with feeling as if you hate your job is that as Americans, we average fewer vacation days than many countries, in for example, Western Europe. But the truth is, even if you love your job, you must take vacation days. In fact, if you’re unhappy you might actually take advantage of some days away. The danger in being driven and satisfied at work is not knowing when to step back. why you must take vacation (1)

You must take vacation – and here’s why.

Americans work long hours. Longer than a lot of other major economies (pretty much all of Europe, to start with). The average full time worker is at the office 47 hours per week. We also receive, on average 15 days of vacation – and take just 14 of them. (The average European worker gets 28 days. Yes, really.) So, if you hate your job, that’s a lot of time to be unhappy. If leaving immediately isn’t an option – and for most people it isn’t, here are some ways to make the work day more bearable. hate your job

Ways to cope when you hate your job: