Posted by Van on November 17, 2009
As a restaurant owner it is very difficult when one of your chefs decides to leave and start a restaurant of their own. But truth be told, if they are any good, it should be expected at some point, but a loss is still a loss.
So, after our head chef decided to go out on his own, I find myself having to do interviews today to replace him. I am not much of a fan when it comes to job interviews, so thankfully it isn’t something that I do a lot of.
Before any job interview, it is customary to go through the resumes to weed out the bad applicants. I took the better part of Sunday afternoon to go through my stack of fifteen odd resumes. There were about five that definitely had to go which left me ten resumes to go through.
I was particularly interested in the applicant that had attended one of the most prestigious culinary arts institutes in the country. I had high hopes that he would be the final pick, but I wanted to make sure that his personality would be a good fit for our restaurant as well.
Needless to say, this interviewing process should be interesting – hopefully I will have a good idea of who the new head chef will be by the end of the day.
Technorati Tags: cooking schools culinary arts, culinary arts institutes
Posted by KV on October 19, 2009
One of the smartest things that you can do for your business is to figure out a way to market it to kids. Although children don’t necessarily have money of their own to spend, they do have a way of convincing their parents to spend money. If you can get kids to demand your product, you can get parents to buy it. That means your bottom line goes up when you invest in marketing to kids.
Of course, some products are easy to market to children because they’re designed for kids. Children’s clothing stores like Catimini and Deux Par Deux don’t have to go out of their way to get kids’ attention because the items they sell are designed to be marketed to children.
Not all products are so simple to market to kids. Financial software programs are an example of an item that kids probably wouldn’t care about. In this case, you might want to look at creating a new product just for kids. For example, a finance-based kids’ computer game could be marketed to children. Parents who went to buy this for their kids would see the rest of your products and become familiar with your name. If marketing to kids is something that you haven’t tried yet, it’s worth a shot.
Technorati Tags: Catimini, Deux Par Deux
Posted by InJour on September 25, 2009
If you have ever worked in a medium to large sized office, you might have asked yourself this very question: which is better for me to use in order to facilitate printing, a personal printer next to my desk, or tying into the networked printer/copier system?
As you might imagine, there’s no real quick and easy answer to this conundrum. A number of factors have to be taken into account, and depending upon how you answer them, your solution is going to be different from someone else’s.
The first, possibly most important question is just how much printing do you do? If you are spitting out non-stop paper, the answer would lean you towards using the networked printer. Why? Mostly due to the cost of the ink and toners that are used in the bigger machines. They are a magnitude cheaper than the replaceable printer cartridges.
Next, how far is the network print services from where your desk is located? Not that we want you to forgo the exercise needed to be healthy, but it is not unheard of for a company to have one print station per floor. Or even a single station covering multiple floors. If that’s the case for you, and you have clout you may want to attain your own print solutions just for the time it will save you from having to run all over the building to get your print output.
Technorati Tags: ink cartridges, networked printers, personal printer
Posted by KS on August 26, 2009
I used to work as a technical writer for a contracting firm that did documentation for financial companies. The irony was that the big project I worked on was for a company that had actually gone paperless a few years before, and was using networked attached scanners to digitalize hard copies.
While I was working here, I observed some distinct advantages to having a paperless office, such as:
- It was much easier for employees to share documents, as they just had to go to the shared drive and open the required files. Much easier than having to send documents to another cubicle, floor, or even another building!
- The company saved tons of money on paper and printer ink and toner, since there was nothing for employees to print out to send to other departments — it was all done in the system.
- The company was actually helping to reduce waste and pollution, by using fewer paper products (fewer trees cut down) and creating less waste (paper trash).
Now, of course in order to enjoy these benefits you have to make sure you have a system in place that will truly eliminate the need for paper copies. This company sometimes found that paper copies were still needed in order for employees to do certain tasks, so it wasn’t truly as much of a paperless office as they might have liked.
Technorati Tags: networked attached scanners, paperless office
Posted by InJour on August 14, 2009
Wheelchair lifts can sometimes be rather complicated installations. Depending upon a number of factors, the time and expense associated with complying your business with ADA guidelines can be easy and inexpensive are hard and cost you.
The good news is there are a lot of alternatives to choose from that may end up allowing you to meet complete compliance without going bankrupt in the process.
First off, in many situations, ramping can be completely legitimate ways to provide equal access to wheel chair bound visitors and employees. There is usually a bit of carpentry work that needs done, but wood and nails hammered together usually costs much less than elevator style lifting mechanisms. The ongoing maintenance is also much cheaper with a ramp.
Other scenarios which might be more than a ramp or two will solve may be met with stairlifts. These are tracked devices that provide a moving seat to traverse the flight of stairs. The traveler embarks at one end of the stairway, up or down towards the other. Once there, they can easily switch back to a wheel chair or other assistive device.
Stairlifts are usually much less expensive than complete wheelchair lifts, but tend to cost more to install and maintain than the simple ramps discussed earlier.
Technorati Tags: stairlifts, wheelchair lifts
Posted by PA on July 24, 2009
I’ve become involved with a job that earns me a little bit of extra money to get by in this tough economy. It’s a neat little gig, and it helps me to pay for the college loan bill for my son’s college. I won’t go into how his college savings tanked when the market did, or that my ex, his father, isn’t paying a dime to help. I just buckled down and found something I could do from home to earn extra dollars. I also have a two year-old, so another job outside of the house was out of the question. Plus, his daycare costs are expensive, too.
Anyway, I was told about this by someone named Julie London. And the deal is, is that companies need typists to help out with their business-the business of helping other companies with their search engine marketing. London needed people to help with blogging and articles and other ways they use to strategize and implement the ideas for getting company names out to the public over the internet. So it’s really quite cool that I can do this at home, and unlike mystery shopping, for example, I don’t have to visit anywhere and then come home to type on a site that only gives me 30 minutes. If my toddler cries, I just hit save and walk away!
Technorati Tags: College, mystery shopping, search engine marketing London
Posted by KV on July 16, 2009
One of the biggest health problems that Americans face is stress. Stress can cause minor health problems such as headaches. Stress can also cause major health problems such as heart disease. It’s important to do all that you can to alleviate your stress.
A leading cause of stress in America is financial concern. Americans carry a lot of debt. Worrying about how to pay back that debt is stressing out a lot of people. If you learn to reduce your debt, you’ll also learn to reduce your stress. That means that paying off your debt can help to heal a lot of your ailments.
If you’re suffering from problems that could be stress-related, you might want to consult a debt counselor before you consult a doctor. Look into debt consolidation plans and other options for getting your debt under control. You may find that resolving this big problem in your life will heal you.
Of course, you should still take your health concerns seriously. If you are experiencing symptoms that cause problems in your life, you may also see a doctor to cure the immediate concern. Just remember that you should solve the long-term problem too by figuring out a way to stop stressing over your debt.
Technorati Tags: debt consolidation plans
Posted by Van on June 11, 2009
For the last few years, I have been working as a nurse and my husband has as well to support our family. But now, our children are older and are going away to college, so we have some extra space in our house and saw the possibility of making some extra revenue, so we have decided to take this opportunity to do what we have always dreamed of - running our own care home.
But before we can do that, there are a number of things that we have had to change in our home to make it more accessible to seniors. Our first challenge was deciding what do to about the stairs.
We were able to find some stair lifts that fit perfectly in our home which meant that we could also use the second story to house more clients. There were some changes that we made in our living room as well, such as adding lift chair recliners to help those with decreased mobility have the option to sit in a chair and watch television.
Hopefully, we will have everything organized by the end of the month and then we can start accepting patients. I am really excited to not only help people, but finally realize our dream of owning our own business. I just can’t wait!
Technorati Tags: Care home, lift chair recliners, stair lifts
Posted by Van on May 20, 2009
There is just something that I love about summer. It could be the fact that I finally get to go outside and escape being cooped up in our home (which happens because of winter), or it could be that I just love fishing.
Alright, it is because of fishing…
Seriously, I have been fishing since I was a child and it is one of my favorite pastimes. There is just something magical about sitting out in your boat all day and enjoying the peace and quiet that nature has to offer - it definitely beats the stressful lifestyle I have thanks to my job.
Before I take the boat out for the maiden voyage this year, I need to get some boat parts to fix my outboard motor. After a “little accident” last summer, it is not working well at all.
Thankfully there is a dealer here in town that sells Evinrude parts at a reasonable price. Hopefully they will have what I need to get my baby working again. It is my only option as I tried to get my wife to agree that I need a new boat, but that was quickly shot down, so my boat needs to last a few years longer.
Technorati Tags: boat parts, evinrude parts, fishing, summer
Posted by Van on April 26, 2009
I can’t wait to setup my SFTP hosting plan. I’ve actually been away from my home computer, so I’m just taking the time to do some initial research. I love being able to access my files from anywhere. As the Internet becomes more prominent, I’ve found that having a FTP service can greatly affect my ability to do work on the road. I’m a forgetful person, and I’ve caught myself many times realizing that I didn’t have that huge customer file as soon as I hit fifteen thousand feet on my way to the next customer. I make sure to keep all my files on a centralized point just because of this.
Aside from customer files, I’m able to backup my photos on the go. I’ve taken a couple of business and pleasure trips out to Hong Kong, and have made use of the FTP plan to backup over two gigabytes worth of photos. So far, I have a photo directory that has well over ten thousand pictures. Ninety percent of those pictures were taken and uploaded while I was on the road. Without my secure FTP plan, I’m not sure where I’d be. It has been a huge asset for backups, and quick access to business files.
Technorati Tags: FTP service, photos on the go, SFTP hosting