Like many fellow Americans, I'm still searching for a new job. The business I worked for closed in January of this year. I've been getting more interviews lately and they've all gone well. So far, haven't gotten a suitable job offer, but things are looking up.
Just saw a repeat of a news story, about a couple of women in Florida who were laid off and came up with the idea for brightly colored bracelets saying:
"Laid-Off Need A Job"
So I decided to give them a try. I think of it as a good way to improve my networking and since I have friends and family members in the same boat, I ordered extra bracelets to share. I'll keep readers posted on how it works out. If you'd like to pick up a bracelet for yourself or someone you know, you can find them at:
http://www.laidoffneedajob.com/buy-wristband.html
Best of luck!
Showing posts with label job. Show all posts
Showing posts with label job. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Make Money Without a Job!
(In reviewing some of my past posts, I came across one from November 2007, thought it was worth re posting.)
A Little Extra Income.
In the spring of this year, business at my workplace slowed and like so many other businesses, my employers cut everyones' hours. I can understand that, from a business point of view, every dollar saved on labor goes directly to the bottom line as profit. However, my bills did not slow down and I didn't want to cut down on my investment program. I also didn't like the idea of getting a second job. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with working. But like Ronald Reagan once said, "I know hard work never killed anybody, but I figure why take chances."
At any rate, I determined that I really only needed to make an extra $20 per week to keep up with my bills and my investments. So instead of getting an extra job, I decided to see if I couldn't drum up some extra work on my own. I got the idea to cut grass on my days off. As it turned out, my next door neighbor needed someone to cut grass for them. They had the mower and weed eater, all I had to do was provide the labor, for which they paid $20 each time I mowed. So I had my $20 extra per week. In the mean time I had put the word out among friends and acquaintances (networking) that I was available for odd jobs in case they were needing any help. Little by little I picked up extra work here and there, doing window cleaning, steam cleaning carpets, painting and most surprising of all some commissioned art work. I say the art work was surprising because I'd never really thought about making any money at it. As it turned out I sold over $250 in sketches I did in my spare time.
What did I learn from all this? I found out how easy it was to make money without a regular job. I just wanted to make an extra $20 in income per week to cover the cuts at work. As it turned out, when I actually started looking for ways to make extra money without an extra job, I ended up making anywhere from $250 to over $500 extra per month. Since I always have three days a week off from my regular job, it was not really a problem to work one of those days. Now I'm looking at ways to turn this experience in to a part time business. I've come up with a lot more ideas for making extra cash and I'm pretty excited about the whole thing. Who would have thought that there were so many different ways to make extra income?
A Little Extra Income.
In the spring of this year, business at my workplace slowed and like so many other businesses, my employers cut everyones' hours. I can understand that, from a business point of view, every dollar saved on labor goes directly to the bottom line as profit. However, my bills did not slow down and I didn't want to cut down on my investment program. I also didn't like the idea of getting a second job. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with working. But like Ronald Reagan once said, "I know hard work never killed anybody, but I figure why take chances."
At any rate, I determined that I really only needed to make an extra $20 per week to keep up with my bills and my investments. So instead of getting an extra job, I decided to see if I couldn't drum up some extra work on my own. I got the idea to cut grass on my days off. As it turned out, my next door neighbor needed someone to cut grass for them. They had the mower and weed eater, all I had to do was provide the labor, for which they paid $20 each time I mowed. So I had my $20 extra per week. In the mean time I had put the word out among friends and acquaintances (networking) that I was available for odd jobs in case they were needing any help. Little by little I picked up extra work here and there, doing window cleaning, steam cleaning carpets, painting and most surprising of all some commissioned art work. I say the art work was surprising because I'd never really thought about making any money at it. As it turned out I sold over $250 in sketches I did in my spare time.
What did I learn from all this? I found out how easy it was to make money without a regular job. I just wanted to make an extra $20 in income per week to cover the cuts at work. As it turned out, when I actually started looking for ways to make extra money without an extra job, I ended up making anywhere from $250 to over $500 extra per month. Since I always have three days a week off from my regular job, it was not really a problem to work one of those days. Now I'm looking at ways to turn this experience in to a part time business. I've come up with a lot more ideas for making extra cash and I'm pretty excited about the whole thing. Who would have thought that there were so many different ways to make extra income?
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Economic Recovery in Missouri
I recently read an article on cnbc about the different states and when they could expect to come out of the recession. Unfortunately, the state of Missouri is in the final 31 states, with recovery expected to begin in the second half of 2010. The central part of Missouri where I live, has been one of the hardest hit during the recession. Like a lot of Missourians, I am currently unemployed and am actively seeking employment. I haven't given up hope of finding a job, quite to the contrary. My place of employment went out of business on January 10th of this year and it was not until the past month that I got my first interview. However, I've had other interviews since and one coming up this week. Although I didn't get any of the jobs I've interviewed for, I was a top runner for the last job, so things are looking up.
With marginal improvements in the banking system and improvement in the stock market, I think it's quite possible that we might actually see recovery from the recession a bit earlier than predicted by cnbc's article. Central Missouri should be one of the first areas of the state to recover, since our local economy hosts a tremendous amount of state workers. While the state's government is suffering from the downturn, state employment has remained relatively stable, when compared to the rest of the job market. While I wouldn't look for too many raises for state employees anytime soon, at least they have jobs and benefits. A great deal of my job search efforts have been directed towards landing a job with one of the state agencies. Fortunately for me, I could take any state job offered, at any pay rate and do fine financially.
With marginal improvements in the banking system and improvement in the stock market, I think it's quite possible that we might actually see recovery from the recession a bit earlier than predicted by cnbc's article. Central Missouri should be one of the first areas of the state to recover, since our local economy hosts a tremendous amount of state workers. While the state's government is suffering from the downturn, state employment has remained relatively stable, when compared to the rest of the job market. While I wouldn't look for too many raises for state employees anytime soon, at least they have jobs and benefits. A great deal of my job search efforts have been directed towards landing a job with one of the state agencies. Fortunately for me, I could take any state job offered, at any pay rate and do fine financially.
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