Monday Morning Week 4

Started Monday 24th January 2011 GMT
Words 453
S.I. = 90.6 %
Planning to have a quiet non-reactive week


I like it when a plan comes together.  If it doesn't then possibly the ambition was too great for the resources and circumstances at the time.  I often have the nagging doubt sitting on my shoulder whispering in my ear "I told you so!" before I have started to try the plan.  If it's my own nagging doubt I can shut that up by first of all brushing it off my shoulder.  If that is unsuccessful  then  crushing it as I use my shoulder to burst through the next locked door.  The latter tends to be a little painful so I try to use the pain free option if possible.

When you are managed by others and the brushing method is not noticed or heeded and talked about then I am sad to say that I have at times exhibited or had done to me the  crushing strategy.  Owing usually  to the fact the task manager has thought they saw the light at the end of the tunnel but failed to recognise it was the train coming the other way.  Fine, if you can switch tracks at the last minute.

The theme for this week is for me to counter the phrase a 'Lack of communication leads to frustration'.  By communication I don't mean talking at somebody, but having a dialogue.  So I am going to explore and enhance the networking skills that I have acquired over the last few decades.  This is not so that I can sell something to somebody.

 The aim is to build up trust in a working relationship so that both parties feel they have had a fair input into whatever outcome occurs.  If it is a negative outcome the blame is hopefully shared in proportion to the persons' position and more importantly influence in the decision making chain.  If a positive outcome occurs  then we can all take a break to do something we enjoy away from the task list.  The philosophy being to treat others as you would like to be treated yourself, when allowed the opportunity.

High ideals for a Monday morning but good intentions should always accompany a new journey, especially when you know you will enjoy the arrival wherever that may be.  Even if you are not convinced your journey is really necessary there is still a possibility you will enjoy your new vantage point.  If you know it is not and you still have to go, well..........

Tomorrow I will be exploring some Networking opportunities in my blog.  Further posts will start to appear on the two Blogs that can be found by visiting the links in the bar near the title. 

Week 2 A River runs through

Started Monday 10th January 2011 Started 9.20 pm

Words 350

A very large amount of water flowed past the bottom of my street.  Still the artery is now cleansed, still has the odd shopping trolley here and there.

Previous post set the aspirations of what turned out to be a busy weekend putting the finishing touches to the structure of this blog page.

The next steps for this week are to publish details of the courses I am making available on Schoolsforeverything.  The link you will see in the bar below the article title.

The structure of the blog is such that all information on this page is free.  Links away from the page may lead to opportunities to buy services from or via me.  Alternatively they may just be informative or empowering allowing you to also benefit economically  ie the pay free links to the FSB and Teleworking Association.  My aim is to provide links to websites that promote those aspects of social and micro-entrepreneurship.

This is not about who has most desirable shiny objects and charging the Earth for said baubles. As I have tried to explain in some of my previous blogs (the demise of the role of the middle manager being one example) how managing the change that many people are experience in the UK is a challenge but only another a mole hill.  The trick is to step over the molehill.  If you are feeling extremely small and put upon by the systems you have been working under I can empathise in the true sense of the word.

So by the end of the week one brick in the new foundations of my personal wealth and wellbeing (wellbeing being the more important) should have been put in place. I will repeat the mission statement I made in last night's blog.

In 2017 I will take home the same salary as Steve Jobs.

I will earn $1 salary for the work style and incomes I am involved in at this instant.  This will be more than just enough.

Tomorrow's blog as promised last week will be part 2 of Web 2.0 for Educators.

   

Meerkats in Suffolk show entrepreneurial way

Fresh fields, right preparation leads
 to green shoots, hopefully
Allotment society I have been involved with in the past

Started 5th January 2011  2.30 pm
Words 852

The secret is out.  The Meerkats website has been gathering dust in Suffolk all along. Reported in the East Anglian Daily Times today Aleksandr Orlov's latest kinematic extravaganza (advert) was filmed in Suffolk at Kersey.  I noticed this story as I leafed through the paper having a look for  the those events and news on social and  micro-entrepreneurship and the general job market.  If it's good enough for Mr Orlov to do business in Suffolk. then .......... Simples.

Joking apart this blog has started a little later in the day then intended.  This is not due to any technical mishap but a success in the use of social networking in generating business opportunities.   The Strategy I have been employing has started to generate conversations that can lead to income generating activity.  Owing to technical problems with BT, my strategy of generating content in a dynamic blog backed up with  non-identical twinned static sites really only started on 21st December 2010.

Since that day (16 days ago) the blog has generated 500 page views.  Which is not too bad on a free website that I am only starting to optimise for journalistic style so that it is search engine friendly.  It also has to be remembered that people have not been at their desks. The majority of blog surfing that is attributed to company time has not been available. 

From the traffic that has visited the site 4 new opportunities so far have presented themselves since yesterday morning when people returned to work. These have not been solicited by me writing letters, emails or sending CVs.  People have seen something in the Blog that has made them think the skill set on offer may add value to their activities and to make the first step and contact me.

Using traditional methods to generate five hundred opportunities for people to  view the skill set would have taken 2 to 3 hours of company research, adapting CV typing a cover letter etc.  So 1000- 1500 hours ( 25 to 37.5 working weeks of 40 hours duration) would have been required to generate that number of view opportunities.  In the terms of time spent blogging under the revised strategy the 500 view opportunities have taken 8 hours (half an hour targeted time).  The validity of the strategy therefore would appear to be tenuously proven.  Refining of the content and the style of the Blog to optimise the yield of contacts to view opportunities is the next step.

The application of these techniques therefore appear to be a good additional tool in the armoury when considering career change.  The principles also are applicable to marketing of products that have added value that is price independent, ie the cheapest is not necessarily better than somebody elses. 

So as I leafed through the paper I came across an event that if I was not otherwise pre-booked I would have attended,  This is the University College Suffolk (UCS) Event Social Entrepreneur.  A very laudable event being held at Trinity Park a show ground I have been to on a number of occasions.  The only slight problem is that booking is recommended, but there is no contact details to book in the advert. I cannot find anything on the show grounds' events board or at the UCS site.  I hope this is just a slight oversight as it does look as though it may provide a handle on what social entrepreneurship might look like.  

On this blog I am going to include a new to me site I have found called Dipity.   This allows timelines of events to be put in a social network format.  This is useful not only for education in the traditional sense of making timelines but also in running a diary.

So next few hours will be spent brushing up my HTML skills (they have got a bit rusty recently).  I have both a Dummies guide (I'm not proud!)  to just remind in almost bullet points of the key skills.  I do not often watch James May just in case I recognize some of the Last of the Summer Wine type activities in myself that he seems to be slipping into.  However, he did in his programme about his sister's toys show the Ladybird book How computers work that the Ministry of Defence ordered with plain brown covers to instruct people in the basics of the new technology.  The Dummies series is much the same ilk, so I'm quite happy to follow the MOD's lead.

If you would like a more detailed explanation of some of the techniques I am starting to use in social networking follow the link to 2pointfiveageofman.nett or kritirecharge.co.uk.


Open the email page or contact us.  Supply your details and I should be able to send you a PDF file in the net few days.

Tomorrow's Blog is about topics related to Wellbeing.  This is the last topic of the week in the new Strategy plan.  So I will start again on Friday by looking back over the week.

Micro entrepreneurship. What has worked well

Taking the Bull by the Horns,
Minoan Bull

 Started 7:30 am Friday 30th December 2010  
Words 577

Micro-entrepreneurship  is the sub-theme of this blog.  After evaluating the blog yesterday (Blog content) this is the first part of the new cycle.  So what have I discovered and achieved this week?

First is that small can be beautiful.  The danger with a lot of social networking tools is that they can take over and become a means to themselves.  Many businesses are finding that employees are spending a lot of time on Facebook, for example to the detriment of productivity. 

Personally, I do not visit Facebook all that often, owing to the fact that I do not want to know everything that a person is thinking.  Mystery and secrets can be wonderful things.  Also not clever if a recruiter wants an insight into your character.  A small blog article when written well and focusing on a single topic may be  more effective than a display of all your knowledge.  This often leaves a reader a little overwhelmed much as it does in a conversation. The discipline of micro blogging via Twitter removes a lot of the stunned and wonder factor.  However, my experience of Twitter is that there is a lot serial twittering, how do they get the time, whose message sometimes becomes diluted because of the sheer volumes of tweets.  From some sources it is almost like spam email, especially teacher recruitment agencies.  Do they not realise that if you are teaching you only have a small window of opportunity to indulge in tweeting?   

Linking activities and drawing almost Chinese walls between web presences is another conclusion from this week.  Why repeat the same information in a blog (dynamic presence) that could be better served by a static  presence,  a web page?  After all a blog should be like a reflective diary.  It should not be an out and out sales pitch.  Written in a journalistic style it can intrigue and lead people to want to know more.  They  interact and find the information you want to give them.  Then you can do the micro-entrepreneurship from your static presence. It is about time management.  What is the most effective use of your time for producing income streams as a micro-entrepreneur?  

I have spent a bit of time this week looking at a number of areas. Use of Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing and how to make people come to you for your services (which will appear on Tuesday).  Institutions for professional development, which will appear next Wednesday.    On Thursday, those tricky work-life balance issues.  As a Wellbeing Facilitator/champion in a former employment I have over the years acquired some knowledge of this often murky topic.  Which brings us to the free running or free blogging of the weekend, general on Saturday and Lunch on Sunday.   Monday is for that aspirational moment and the intention to ski uphill.

So how long should it take.  About a half-hour per day.  You can always go back to important issues at a later time.  They won't go away, if they do they are not as important as you thought.   This time frame is not difficult, as a teacher I have used reflective practice on occasions.  The trick is to focus on the positive benefits of the experience to best practice.  An Australian technique that was championed by pupil behavior gurus many years ago (do not hear about it too much now) was the ratio of positive to negative comments.  This also applies to any form of communication.  Nobody likes a miserable basket!